Am I wrong to be intrigued by this:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/12/04/academic_warcraft_gu.html ?

Looking closer makes me think it might be a hoax.

Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, is coming

or so says this blog:

http://www.yourmomsbasement.com/archives/2006/11/galactus_is_com.html

It's always refreshing to find a site that revolves around references to old comic books that strike me as obscure.

Your moms basement is now right up there with Fafblog (http://fafblog.blogspot.com/) as my source for reliable news.

In breaking news, blogger now supports labels, so this blog may well live a little longer.

God is One

God is One
Originally uploaded by nycgeoff.

Have I ever mentioned that my friend Geoff is a genius? Take a look at his walking around NYC photoset. This shot is just one example.

this blog gets even slower

I am going to be pretty much abandoning this blog in favor of a new one on wordpress.com. There are two reason for this; first I want to try wordpress, second, because I'd like to further seperate out the parts of this blog. While the new blog will be more traditional and more professional, though not necessarily academic and not related to any classes that I'm teaching, this one will continue to be the home for my more whimsical, nonsensical musings, such as those times when I have a nap dream about a decades old comic book story, or reflections on yesterday when I listened to Sun Ra "Space is the Place" and Parliament's Mothership connection in preparation for the season's premier of Battlestar Gallactica.

Yeah, if I ever get those reflections out, I'll be sure to put them here where they are almost guaranteed to go unread.

How sluggish newbies ruined the marathon. By Gabriel Sherman - Slate Magazine

The thing I really love about
How sluggish newbies ruined the marathon. By Gabriel Sherman - Slate Magazine
, recently published on Slate, is the way that it allows people who haven't run any marathons, such as myself, feel superior to those who have. After 8 years of interscholastic cross country (high school and country) and intermittent training since then, I feel that I've got enough cred not to be considered a newbie at distance running. On the otherhand, I've never run a marathon. But see, I've always meant to run it the right way with appropriate speed and seriousness. (Note, a 4:00 marathon requires about a 10-minute mile, which is roughly my mile split when I run more than five miles.) Hence, it's not lack of dedication that's kept me from running the long race, it's love of the sport.

Convenient how that works.

I thought I had finally found an appropriate hip hop style moniker, you know something to use in the online communities that trend young. Calchas seems esoteric and stuffy. "Mo' Fine" Yep, that seemed to have everything going for it, then I remembered that Moe was a Howard, Larry was the Fine.

Oh well, I suppose that anyone who's going to go looking for a 'hip hop style moniker' should probably stick with the stuffy and esoteric.

the big show

This past December, I took a break from job searching at the APA to have dinner with an old friend, his girlfriend and his sister. After hearing my story about my mad networking at the conference, his sister, a comedian and radio personality, observed that "Academia sounds an awful lot like show business". The call backs and the rejections, the constant search for a steady gig, and the sneaking suspicion that none of this may be quite as important as we have to lead ourselves to believe.The recent Salon article, Confessions of a utility actor really does reveal some broad similarities between these professions. I had meant to write a paragraph or so about the differences, but this is my irresponsible blog.

The similarity comes from the extent to which professional aspiration is built into the very structures of each of these professions. Bull Durham has lead me to believe that minor league ball players refer to the 'big show', the glorious promise of major league ball that makes the grind worthwhile. The group of guys with radar guns that I see behind the net at every Akron Aeros game I've been to also give the impression that the minors are seen as not just another way to play baseball, like Little League is, but a set of activities which would become meaningless without the major leagues. There's an interesting parallel between steroptypical kids and the thoughtless images of people in the aspirational professions. Kids play ball to have fun, minor leaguers play to get into the big show. Kids play make-believe to have fun, actors act because they still believe that their big break is around the corner. Kids indulge their curiousity because it's fun, academics teach and write because ...

Now this was surprising

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You're totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?