You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘YouTube’ category.
You know, I think this is the best light saber duel I have seen outside of the Star Wars franchise. I get the distinct impression that the people involved have had some training with the gear they are working with.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: The First Day
When I first started back in Fall 2007, I was all about the soft, easy going start. I was trying to emulate a Western Civ instructor I knew who could enforce his will and yet still be a very likeable person. I was fortunate in that my first two classes were fairly responsible and it seemed to work. With a few exceptions but I figured that was just part of the mix.
Then I got what I call hard case classes, students out of high school or somewhere else who didn’t want to be there. They were going to disrupt and derail the process at will. After a very rough class during my second semester, I changed my classroom management style.
I execute a hard start now, much akin to basic training (light). I enter the classroom, lay down the law in no uncertain terms in much the same manner I used to deal with clowns on 10th and Main. The rules are strict and for the first few weeks there is very little room for deviation. It is during those first few weeks that many of the students feel that I’m being a bad nasty man who has nothing better to do but torture them.
It goes against a lot of the educational nonsense I’ve been hearing for twenty years now. Coddle their self esteem, be nice to them, try to be their friend, etc. I’ve given up on all of that. I’m there to run a class, to teach history and to make the best use of the time. Their job, whether anyone realizes it or not, is to learn the material. If they can’t do the job, then they need to go find someone else.
Here is the odd thing. I do not pander to my students. I do not make any effort to be popular or easy. In fact, I am trying very hard to earn a reputation as an instructor not to be crossed or triffled with.
What feedback do I get? Well, from those that stick it out, the feedback has mostly been positive. I get excellent evals from my full time peers and from the students I teach. I’m one of the go to instructors, which makes me a little nervous as I do not like the idea that students are picking me over someone else. That can lead to trouble.
In other words, I’m popular.
How the fuck that happened, I’ll never know.
Knowing all of this, yesterday when I entered the classroom I had one thought on my mind. Not how I was going to whip the students into shape or what new trick I was going to try. No, this thought was for me.
Pride goes before a fall.
I’ve got to remember not to get too big for my own britches.
Classes went well over all (except for a few very late students who provided the examples I needed for classroom policy enforcement). We got through the How to Study History lecture aka: Lecture Zero and are well on track towards Lecture One in both courses. The plan is to drop the first exams by mid-September.
It was a good day and it was great to be back in the saddle again. I’ve got to get a tenure position no matter what because I think this stuff is in my blood now.
Other Fronts
Nothing major to report. Student front work started yesterday in Terri’s class. I’ll be popping over to the virtual classroom to check on that here in a bit. Trinity is off at physical therapy, leaving me with time to write this entry, do the homework and perhaps review some material for tomorrow’s lecture.
Otherwise, that is pretty much it.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Via my SF writing peer’s blog.
I did not know that one could serve as an escort.
Other Fronts
I’ve got work to do and blogging about what I am going to do will take time from actually DOING the work. So I’m hopping to it.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
I think these songs sum up my state of mind of late.
Some actual content tomorrow.
Honest.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
The Teaching Front
Today we covered the Philippine Insurrection and two pieces of literature from the time period. Most students have never heard of the Philippine Insurrection (our Nam before the Nam as I call it) nor do they know about the Anti-Imperialist argument against our involvement there. I spent time on that, telling them that the Philippines were not protected by the Teller Amendment (which prevented us from doing the same thing to Cuba) and we discussed the argument that the Philippines were not ready for self government.
Which, to my ears, sounds very much like the debate about whether or not you could get a Federal Republic established in Iraq. “They simply do not have the cultural experience,” and blah, blah, blah.
According to the research I did for my notes nearly two years ago, over 200,000 civilians were killed between 1898 and 1913. We lost 5,000 troops killed in action (that is more, at present, than we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan) and far more than the 379 lost in combat during the Spanish American War. Granted, we lost 5,400 during the war but most of those were disease and medical mistreatment.
Finally, we discussed two pieces of literature. The first was Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden, which is basically an open letter to the United States saying, “Welcome to the Imperialist Club.” Kipling is not often discussed these days because he is politically incorrect, fairly racist in his attitudes (racist insofar as we in the 21st Century judge him, no doubt in the 22nd Century we will be seen as just as racist in our own way) but I wanted to illustrate the Imperialist argument as it manifested itself in literature.
The second was a YouTube presentation of Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) The War Prayer, which presents the Anti Imperialist side. Now personally, I have very little use for Twain, as a writer or as a political commentator. I also find him to be a chicken shit of the first order. Two reasons for this, the first being that he ducked out of military service before the Civil War truly got started. The second pertains to this very story.
The War Prayer was not published until long after Twain’s death. He was told by his publishers that he was committing career suicide by trying to get this story published. Twain, preferring the comfort of his pocket book, trunked the story.
That I disagree with some of what Twain says in the story is not the main reason I have a problem with the man. The main reason is that he took the easy way, the comfortable way, he slipped away from the Fight just as surely as he did in Missouri back in 1861. If he had the depth of his convictions, he would have said, “Damn the Torpedoes.”
That said, I thought I’d share The War Prayer to you, the Readers of the Pondering Tree. It comes in two parts.
It was animated in 2007 if memory serves correctly, mainly for use as an Anti-Iraq War protest tool. In any event, it allows me to convey the Anti-Imperialist message with far more conviction than I could personally do on my own. I let Twain have his soapbox, even if I find his own conduct as a writer to be rather pathetic.
Photography
Some random shots, some of which will serve as new entry icons.
Yours truly playing a Fencer.
Some personal research shots in New York City.
For those looking for more after action briefs, I’ll try to get to those soon. I’ve been a bit busy with teaching, lecture prep and trying to work the tire off of my body.
Later.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
From NYC Comicon, in all four parts.
Four parts, sometimes the background sound overwhelms the portable system they are using. Still, it makes for interesting viewing.
And for shits and giggles, The Soggy Bottoms Boys.
Enjoy.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
This is a spoof interview from 1966 between two pilots during the Vietnam War. It is pretty funny.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
On the Outer Marches
Those that done said stuff