Clancy's blog

I'm planning on taking my prelims in July. Shouldn't I already have submitted my customized reading lists in rhetorical theory, tech comm research and theory, and feminism and technology to my committee and gotten them approved?! Yeah. I thought so. It will be done no later than Friday, I'll tell ya that right now!

I also feel a need to brag on my students. We had the first round of persuasive presentations yesterday, and they all just hit it out of the park. I have seen a steady, significant improvement in all aspects of their public speaking skills, including but not limited to: introductions, transitions, emphasis statements, addressing and refuting opposing arguments, conclusions, vocal pace and inflection, eye contact, gestures, everything. I'm extremely lucky to have each of them in my class.

A big bad link roundup on CCCC complete with notes and incisive critique is coming up, I promise, but for now I simply must blog about Farscape. Charlie has declared before that I would definitely love the show, and to that end, loaned me the best of season one and season two DVDs. I have seen only five episodes, but already I love it, love it, love it, and I want to see every single episode. For some reason, they chose to put the best (most visually stunning, "emotionally satisfying") episodes on the DVDs, and as a result it lacks continuity. I MUST see all of them. Everything about the show is awesome--the premise is, Commander John Crichton, a NASA astronaut and a character with whom I'm smitten, gets shot through a wormhole and ends up on a ship which is actually a living leviathan named Moya with a group of prisoners who are trying to escape and go back home. I'll say more about it later, of course, especially since there seems to be a need for feminist analyses of Farscape, as evidenced by my referrer logs. But for now, a couple of random cool things about the show:

• Intertextuality: I'm sure I haven't picked up on most of it, but one thing that was campily cool was that when Crichton woke up on Moya and was promptly smacked around by the crew of the ship since they didn't know him or his motives, after the beating, he was about to pass out and said, "Danger, Will Robinson!" The Lost in Space theme is picked up again in the character Rygel, who is a lot like Dr. Smith.
• Feminism: There is no hierarchy on the ship as far as I can tell--it's an anarchic anti-structure in which most, if not all decisions are made by consensus. The female characters are very physically strong, morally complex, smart, and edgy.

More soon. :-)

Kewl! I have gone from "Slithering Reptile" up to "Flappy Bird" in the Ecosystem. God, I'm a dork.

Noam Chomsky has a blog.

Via Grrrl Meets World.

Invisible Adjunct is closing up shop. I'll repost here what I posted on her site (as the 166th comment!):

I'm sorry about the lack of luck on the market, IA, and saddened that this blog will be ending. I agree with what Timothy Burke said; I really think you have started a movement here. Yours is the strongest, most thoughtful voice for radical institutional reform. So many fine and feasible ideas have been circulated here--how to change graduate programs so that the number of students accepted into the programs is more proportional to the number of job openings and suggestions on how to go about professional development in alternative careers for graduate students in the humanities, making academia more friendly to mothers, etc. I will miss this community terribly. Good luck, IA, and I really hope you'll stay in touch with us.



***Slinks away to brood and listen to "Circle" by Edie Brickell***

My presentation is finally up.

I'll be at CCCC until Saturday, so I might not post again until then, unless there's any way possible that I can get internet access.