I would just like to take a moment here and say the for those of you who looked at my comment on Michael Moore, I would like to make it clear that I am not saying that I support everything he has done or stands for. I have read things about him, for example at http://www.spinsanity.com, that casts a great deal of doubt on some of his "research" and information. There have also been many documented complaints about him tinkering with chronology of events so as to build in a "dramatic arc" (specifically in the film Roger and Me ). I personally have not done enough research on the subject to say whether or not his information is off, I'm simply saying that I have reservations about his work. (Many other professors wanted to hang me for saying that after the film Bowling for Columbine.How could I possibly question the integrity of an "entertaining yet informative documentary"? Well, let me see, some of the information seemed downright suspect.) However I do applaud what he did at the Academy Awards, despite everything else he was the only thing worth watching. There were those who thought that his "performance" was disgraceful or inappropriate, but even these people spent a great deal of time talking about his speech. So to those people I say, sometimes you have to be disgraceful to get people to talk about important issues. I don't think that Moore just wanted to go up there and rant, I believe he was trying to create an opportunity for us to talk about what is going on. Now there are those who are saying who isn't talking about the war? And I can answer that question right now, all of my students. Until the speech at the Academy Awards they would talk about episodes of the Real World or about the latest Eminem video, but I didn't hear a peep about the war. Occassionally one of my students calls Bush an idiot and everyone agrees and moves onto the next topic of conversation like will J. Lo and Ben Affleck last? To combat this ignorance about current events last semester I had the last class of every week be current events day. Each student had to present an article to the class. They had to explain the important points of the article, and why it was important for the class to know about the issue. They loved doing it. And all of us learned a lot. The odds of getting them to read a whole newspaper were slim to none, but having the whole class teach an article (like 2 to 5 min an article) basically was the same as having them read the Sunday New York Times. Of course the presentation aspect made it more entertaining. But how sad is it that in order to get my students to even be aware of improtant news (internation, national, and local) I had to resort to a tactic that my teachers used on my classmates and me (and yes the proper pronoun there is me and NOT I-trust me) when I was in the seventh grade. That's right i had to resort to something that my middle school used to do. If I thought I could handle grading a currents events quiz every week I would do that too. And, hell, I'd give them one of those identify the country quizzes that so many of our high school students failed according to National Geographic. But I teach at the college level. What the hell is happening that my kids can make it to college and not know that you do not spell the word through thru. On the last exam I had some classic spelling blunders including dissension spelled disanchon-mandate turned into madate (as in the classic "Well madate is so hot that I fry eggs on his ass") another teacher got the word confusement (as in "much to the confusement of the teacher"). I have a student who on her exam kept writing impacting/impactful. Like I could choose between the two.

Can you tell that I'm in a bad mood? I'm in one of those anxious angry moods. I'm waiting for it give way to depression. AT this point, I'm not sure which is worse. Is better to be angry? Actually, I'm filled with anxiety. I can't eat, I can't sleep. I just want to like leave all my stuff here and just change my name and move to Bora Bora. Or San Pedro, where they don't even have cars, just little go carts. I think that would be the best place for me.