Nina's entries

So this is Christmas...

Those words begin John Lennon's reverse Christmas carol. Its not the average happy song about Santa and buying stuff. Instead its about thinking about the things you can do for others before you think about yourself.

The worst part about Christmas is buying too much stuff. Mostly, useless knick knacks that end up in the garbage almost as soon as they are opened. Here's a short list of useless stuff.

3-Remote Control Beer Pager
Be able to instantly locate your missing beverage in a sea of open containers. With a press of the remote button, this coozie with removable coaster lights up and lets loose a satisfying belch. Mini remote clips to your belt and will activate up to 60 ft, even through walls. Laugh at the reactions you'll get when you set it off from another room! Uses 4 AAA batteries, not included.
2-pet's eye view camera

What HAVE Fluffy and Spot been up to all day, anyways? Find out with this amazing digital camera that clips onto a pet collar! You can set the timer to take a shot every 1, 5 or 15 minutes while you are at work and then come home and view the world from their perspective. Internal memory holds over 40 snaps. Kit w/ USB charger, cable, battery. Camera is water resistant and so lightweight.
This is aweful. Who thought of this?

1-NEW Pole Dancer Alarm Clock
Rise and shine to a buxom bikini-clad blonde. She spins and twirls seductively around her pole as racy music plays and colored lights flash on and off! Digital LED display features hour/minute, alarm set on/off, a demo button, snooze, and light to illuminate display in the dark. Guaranteed to start your day with a smile! Includes 3 replaceable button batteries. Also requires 3 AA batteries (Not Included).

0-The height of useless is this crystal encrusted toilet. Designer Jamal Wright was kind enough to make a matching sink and bath-tub.

This is the world we live in

Why not buy a carcinogen-producing, hormone-disrupting, chemically-laden product for your girl-child this X-mas?

Hannah Montana Backstage Glam Kit (read the comment from the grandma at the bottom):
http://www.amazon.com/Hannah-Montana-Backstage-Glam-Kit/dp/B000WLCH1W

Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff

To answer Annie’s last question: I usually spend about two hours a day during weekdays watching miscellaneous programs on TV, including silliness such as America's Next Top Model (!). On my defense, (1) I’m also a fan of PBS programming and some semesters turn on Sesame Street during breakfast, and (2) I spend this much time watching the idiot box because I want to snuggle with my husband on the couch.

I am also subscribed to Netflix, from which I get DVDs I want to watch but don’t want to necessarily buy. So when I’m not watching the next top model being tortured in some novel way, I’m submerged in season four of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (I’m writing an article of the representation of black actors in science fiction and so this is a show I need to know very well).

Then there’s working on the computer and using the internet. On week-ends that’s at least 10 hours per day, but usually more. So, during weekends I easily spend 13+ hours each day watching/interacting with a machine, be it a TV or a computer.

What saves me is, of course, my job. At school, I have to interact with actual human beings all the time--even when we are blogging in the computer lab. Sometimes we get to do silly things, such as collecting the non-perishable trash we would normally throw out to see how big the pile would get :-)

As to leisure activities… I do not spend enough time reading fun books mostly because I have to read scholarly articles to write my articles. I used to knit, sew, weave baskets, etc, when I lived in West Virginia. Now I spend most of my “extra” time shopping for food, cooking, and then cleaning the kitchen. I do go to the gym about three times a week, depending on work. Let’s just say that from September to June my life is mostly work while during summer I work but also spend time going to the park and generally enjoying life.

Water for Life

The Ganghes River

I believe the water crisis is one of the worst problems exacerbated by global warming. And it's not only Al Gore who is saying this; take a look at this report.

We have a finite supply of freshwater, and its quantity is diminishing very rapidly. Here are some numbers from an environmental organization called People and Planet and some from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

I say exacerbated because water shortages have been a historical problem and wars have been fought everywhere over freshwater. But now that there are more of us and that in many countries we use fresh water in harebrained ways (to wash cars, for example), and that a fair amount of the fresh water is being polluted, I believe that soon the problem will not be confined to a few unlucky nations. In fact, it is a big problem right now in the American southwest, as you can see from this report from the Public Broadcasting System(PBS) and Wired.

So, what are some solutions?

Unfortunately, there is no concerted plan yet. We’re waiting for when it gets really bad. One suggestion is that we go from what Wikipedia terms “need-based” allocations, as opposed to “right –based” allocations (as in “too bad for you—you don’t own the river"). The World Water Council has some other important recommendations at the bottom of this page.

For those that do not have much faith in political action, the solution lies with technology, a.k.a desalination. Many believe that we should invest in making salt water fresh, but that’s easier said than done, and it’s EX-PEN-SI-VE!

In the meantime, there are many communities and regular people around the world that are doing their part to find and conserve water. These are my favorite people ever! Here are some of their solutions as showcased at the Museum of Natural History site on water. Check, specially, "Water from Air," "Working for Water," "Playing for Water," and "Epilogue-Watering New York." And, of course, there is always the dry toilet!

Cartoon from Seppo.com

My Journey as a Geek

Okay, I confess: I am actually following my passion by teaching at LaGuardia.

This was not always the case. Like many of you, when I graduated from school, I was not too sure where my chosen profession would take me. For a while, I just worked and got paid. Soon enough, though, I became dissatisfied with the textbooks I was required to use because I was not convinced their generic assignments were helping my students learn in the most effective way. I began sneaking in exercises and assignments of my own that responded to the needs I saw in specific sets of students.

This was the first trait I built as a teacher: devising strategies and activities that would force my students to become thinkers rather parrots (many of the activities in the textbooks I did not like just required memorization of facts). This approach, of course, requires a lot more work from me and can be frustrating for students that want "neat" answers for everything, but I console myself by thinking that later in life they might understand why I was driving them nuts with all this critical-thinking, problem-solving stuff.

At first my passion was teaching canonical writers (and I mean CA-NO-NI-CAL: Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, and etc.), but soon my own experience as an immigrant and a female began pulling me towards other subjects: feminism, gender, Otherness, post-colonialism, all of which led to co-write a book on the Alien film series...

But back to my passion. Sure, teaching at LaGuardia has allowed me to "air" the activist side of my self (as a child, my absolute hero was Mafalda) that got a bit moldy when I moved to the land of the free in the 90s. Most importantly, it also has allowed me to interact with some of the smartest, most caring, and coolest people I have ever met. And I don't mean just my colleagues, who are magnificent in almost every possible way. I also mean each and every one of my students. (Yes, even the annoying ones).

Think about it: for the most part, all our conversations with people other than our immediate family and friends is restricted to the weather, sports, fashion, food, and health. Okay, maybe politics. On the other hand, my chosen profession allows me to engage in serious debate with an amazing variety of people. We argue, we think, we write, we are perplexed, we are even bored together... and who knows? We might even learn a thing or two. Life could not get better than this.

The Environment and Me

Veggie baggies I made so I would stop having to use the plastic bags at the groceries stores. I give them a good wash every two weeks and they dry in minutes!

Okay, so today I finished rearranging rooms in my house to have more/better working spaces (so that me and my partner would not bother each other). It took the best part of the week-end and required that we buy some shelves at IKEA.

So I'd say I have affected the environment quite some. For instance, I have bought goods manufactured God knows where. I have no idea if the wood was harvested properly, etc. though IKEA swears that "taking responsibility for people and the environment is [their] prerequisite for doing good business" (read more here). Also, because we were working all day, we had Chinese food delivered, and so we added several plastic containers to our recycling (sigh).

What do I do for the "environment" already? Beyond the usual recycling, we have changed all of our bulbs from regular incandescent to compact fluorescent, we shop as much as we can using our own bags (see above), we try to buy local foods, we print on both sides of the paper, we have banned plastic and paper products from our kitchen (really; it took all summer to get rid of the plastic; it was hard but now we don't miss any of those containers), and etc.

Concerns:

Water shortages. We have a very small amount of freshwater yet we insist on using it to water lawns, wash cars, and flush the toilet. That shows how smart we are. More on this later, but inthe meantime check this map and this report.

Health issues. Cancer, allergies, and many other problems stemming from living in a toxic environment.

Population displacement (you know, when global warming ends up really affecting rainfall, crops, etc.), the rising level of the oceans, etc. and the territorial wars all of this will cause.