Thor was trying to generate ideas about songs that he could use for a micro-economics paper (awesome assignment idea, by the way). He has to analyze the mico-economic principles of a (presumably pop culture) song. So first, I had some very boring suggestions: Money by Pink Floyd; Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. That was before I understood that he was analyzing, not just looking for background music.
So then we got more creative. Temple of the Dog - Hungerstrike; Cake- How do you Afford that Rock and Roll Lifestyle (CPW’s ideas). Then Thor said he might just have to do a rap song, where I suggested Hell Yeah by the Dead Prez and Thor indicated that might be too racy for his prof, who he mentioned was Canadian. Which brings me to the video I am linking here. I thought I had already linked to this, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe I just need to be more centralized. Two blogs is too many? Maybe I twittered it? Maybe I just favorited it in YouTube? I am experiencing a bit of information and cognitive overload. But I loved this song when I saw it a few months ago, and wanted to make sure I really annotate it this time.
Ok, anyone who knows me knows that is unlikely to be true. This attempt at satire overtly racist piece from the University of Colorado Boulder has brought me out of a blogging hiatus. The editors have published an apology, but the piece wasn’t taken down. I have tried to ponder what the satire part is—perhaps the student writing it wasn’t aware that satire has to be something so preposterous that someone reading it can’t believe the measures being suggested are for real. Perhaps our naive writer thought it was funny because xenophobia is such a foreign concept. (sarcasm intended). Perhaps he is so naive as to be unaware of our national historical context of discriminating against Asian immigration or interning Japanese during World War II. It wasn’t even clear as I read the piece whether the author was referring to Asians or Asian Americans? I’m not really surprised that an undergraduate (I hope??!?!?) would find this to be logical satire. (Saddened, frightened for the future of our country, depressed, yes. Surprised, no.) What I am shocked at is that it was vetted and passed through an editorial process.
I laughed out loud when I read the recap of the debate in NH last week and Charlie Gibson comment about a married pair of professors and the impact of tax reform on their 200k combined salary. BWAHAHAHAHAH. Hilarious. Of course it immediately was picked up for the inanity of such elevated salaries for most professors.
I want to know: who is this fictional academic married couple where both have landed tenure track positions at the same liberal arts college?
That Inside Higher Ed piece linked above contains hilarious language from U.S. News and World Report about the appeal of administrative and professorial positions. For example, college administrator is a top job to have, but:
U.S. News does warn about political correctness and notes that many colleges expect administrators to have graduate degrees. “Universities sell degrees, after all. They need to practice what they preach,” the magazine says.
Yeah, it’s because universities “sell” degrees. I’m trying to imagine working with a dean or provost without a graduate degree of any kind. That would be HILARIOUS.
I have to say that I am truly, truly impressed with my brother’s work on the Netflix prize contest. He found the contest in October, just as the first year’s progress prize was being doled out. The team winning that award was from AT&T Bell Lab. In two months, he went from nowhere, to tenth place a few weeks ago, to eighth place today. Very cool.
Since we have been in New England, Bodie has developed a slight issue with involuntarily head movements. When it happens, it looks like he is having a seizure, except he’s totally “with it,” so to speak. The first thought would be nerves, since we have certainly put him in a stressful situation what with all the crazy people he is forced to at least tolerate.
The first incident was at CPW’s sister’s. Let’s say that was around 12/21. He was just with us, not dealing with any strangers. The second time was in NH, like around 12/29 and it was in the midst of a number of people. The next incident was maybe the night of 12/30…when he was already in bed. Finally today, 1/4, while visiting a friend’s house, which he found particularly stressful, I’m sure, what with the 2-year-old trying to play with him.
It doesn’t seem likely that it’s an ear infection, but some other possibilities addressed on an online forum suggest the most likely culprit, at least from our viewpoint: Frontline. Right before we left, right about on the 19th or so, we administered the dogs’ Frontline. However, Mr. Bodie, as has been noted previously, is a little bit on the chubster side. Thus, he is not quite in the lowest Frontline range, which is something like 18-22 pounds. The next range, however, is the same that we use for 50 pound dog. To be honest, the 18-22 pound formula was not enough, and this summer he would get ticks, so I started splitting the dogs doses. And now, looking at their product line, I’m wondering if somebody (not me!) didn’t just buy two of the 45-88 pound doses. I don’t remember having two different sizes, I thought we just had the next-largest size. That doesn’t sound right, but I’ll check when we get home. I don’t think I gave him the full dose of whatever we got either because it was a lot more than usual.
This is a long way of saying that three major things have changed for him in the past 2-3 weeks: the amount of Frontline he received, his eating schedule and sometimes food, and his environment. No biggies there! But he is used to moving around a lot and tolerating strangers, since we are constantly on the move and he stayed friends on three different occasions without us, as well as visited grandparents at Thanksgiving, and in all of these cases, the latter two issues would have been pertinent. The only other issue of interest raised on that forum is low blood sugar. Even while having the head seizure, he could compose himself enough to eat, which helped subside the shakes. I don’t know if that is blood sugar or just redirecting his brain.
Of course, he could have also developed a meth habit in ruralvania and without having a dealer close by, he has gone into withdrawal, just look at that crazed look in his eye:
But my money’s on the Frontline. I wrote this post basically to document the exact times of the incidents to make sure I am noting it somewhere. I can’t recall how long any of these head shaking incidents were, but the last one was the longest, maybe even five minutes long and only seemed to subside when he was given food. Then again, this was probably the most stressful environment for him that it had happened in. We have a good two weeks until the next dosage, which I will make sure is both weight appropriate, and if it is a little bit too much, will underdose. If anything happens after that, to the vet with him.