So, I spent the weekend in Detroit. It was a conference that I have to attend as part of a grant I receive. It was pretty fun. The best part was when they took us to visit Hitsville U.S.A. - the Motown Museum! I grew up listening to the "oldies" station with my parents, and you cannot go wrong with The Miracles, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Jackson 5, Little Stevie Wonder, and on and on and on. It was, as they say, bitching.
So, anyway, diello tagged me, so here we go. 20 things about me.
1. When I was in high school, I donated blood - even though I hate the sight of my own blood. As part of that process, they found out I had hepatitis C. Which was crazy, since I was having no sex and doing no drugs. Just this year, I learned, as part of regular blood work to keep an eye on my hep C, that I *do not* have hepatitis C. Figure that one out.
2. I cried when Walter Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan. I was little. I was worried that Fritz wouldn't be able to run again. I guess I thought there was only one Democrat in the whole world.
3. When I was a little kid, apparently, I was cursed with the "evil eye."
4. Part of me wishes that I was a better Catholic.
5. My grandmother's lost three of her brothers in World War II. She grew up on 2nd Street in Silvis, IL, which is now renamed "Hero Street USA." It's a Mexican neighborhood that, proportionately, has lost more men and women in military service than any other 2 blocks in the country.
6. In all honestly, I think all I've ever wanted to be was an academic. Origianlly, I wanted to be a psychologist. I'm much happier as a political scientist.
7. My wife is, really, the only woman I've ever dated. Indeed.
8. When I went to college, one of the things that was hardest for me was not seeing my dad all the time. He's a really great guy, and we saw a lot of movies together and hung out. He's aging well, but it still surprised me how old he looks when I see him. He's always about 40 in my mind.
9. I stll miss my grandfather. He died almost four years ago. He was an amazing human being - always helping folks out. He was also tough, and the most confident person I've ever seen. I wish I could be more like him.
10. I constantly worry that my advisor is indifferent to me and my project.
11. When I was a kid, I used to ride my rocking horse CONSTANTLY. I also wore a Superman cape. Fuckin' A.
12. I did speech in high school and college. This basically involves going to other campuses, and speaking pretty in rooms. You compete individually against other folks, as well as competing as a team against the other schools as well. My events were extemp, impromtu, persuasion, and informative. For a while, I was under the delusion I could do poetry. I quit speech in college. The team I was on was *very* competitive. I just didn't have the chops for it, and I wasn't interested in sinking the time to get those kind of mad skills. Also, it was a bit like a cult.
13. When I first decided to become an academic, I thought it was my job to advance the "leftist cause" through my research. I also thought it was my job to convert my students. I was kind of brainwashed. Now I just want to learn about the world and teach my kids how to think. I still have my political commitments, but I'm not such a zealot.
14. I'll be the first person in my family to get a PhD. My family is very blue collar. My dad is a machine operator, my mom works in housekeeping. My grandfather was a union steward. [I get a lot of my political commitments from a very strong pro-union background.]
15. My dad is mostly Irish, and my mom is Mexican. I look more Mexican than I do white, but I'm culturally more of a white guy. I don't speak Spanish, and while I dig Mexican food, Los Lobos and some mariachi music, I'm just not that "ethnic." This is neither good nor bad in my estimation, it just is.
16. I'm a worrier. I am constantly worried about my health, about what kind of tragedies will befall my family, about my wife getting into pharmacy school, about finishing my dissertaion, and so on.
17. Secretly, I can be a real elitist sometime. I can also be a bit judgmental.
18. I'm not really sure if I would like to have kids. I sort of would, but I worry (see above!) about messing them up.
19. I used to have a pet dog when I was a kid. His name was Mac, and he was a West Highland White Terrier. He was great. I'd love to have another dog, or even a cat, but I'm allergic to everything.
20. While I love cities, I think I'm more of a "college town" person at the end of the day.
So, anyway, diello tagged me, so here we go. 20 things about me.
1. When I was in high school, I donated blood - even though I hate the sight of my own blood. As part of that process, they found out I had hepatitis C. Which was crazy, since I was having no sex and doing no drugs. Just this year, I learned, as part of regular blood work to keep an eye on my hep C, that I *do not* have hepatitis C. Figure that one out.
2. I cried when Walter Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan. I was little. I was worried that Fritz wouldn't be able to run again. I guess I thought there was only one Democrat in the whole world.
3. When I was a little kid, apparently, I was cursed with the "evil eye."
4. Part of me wishes that I was a better Catholic.
5. My grandmother's lost three of her brothers in World War II. She grew up on 2nd Street in Silvis, IL, which is now renamed "Hero Street USA." It's a Mexican neighborhood that, proportionately, has lost more men and women in military service than any other 2 blocks in the country.
6. In all honestly, I think all I've ever wanted to be was an academic. Origianlly, I wanted to be a psychologist. I'm much happier as a political scientist.
7. My wife is, really, the only woman I've ever dated. Indeed.
8. When I went to college, one of the things that was hardest for me was not seeing my dad all the time. He's a really great guy, and we saw a lot of movies together and hung out. He's aging well, but it still surprised me how old he looks when I see him. He's always about 40 in my mind.
9. I stll miss my grandfather. He died almost four years ago. He was an amazing human being - always helping folks out. He was also tough, and the most confident person I've ever seen. I wish I could be more like him.
10. I constantly worry that my advisor is indifferent to me and my project.
11. When I was a kid, I used to ride my rocking horse CONSTANTLY. I also wore a Superman cape. Fuckin' A.
12. I did speech in high school and college. This basically involves going to other campuses, and speaking pretty in rooms. You compete individually against other folks, as well as competing as a team against the other schools as well. My events were extemp, impromtu, persuasion, and informative. For a while, I was under the delusion I could do poetry. I quit speech in college. The team I was on was *very* competitive. I just didn't have the chops for it, and I wasn't interested in sinking the time to get those kind of mad skills. Also, it was a bit like a cult.
13. When I first decided to become an academic, I thought it was my job to advance the "leftist cause" through my research. I also thought it was my job to convert my students. I was kind of brainwashed. Now I just want to learn about the world and teach my kids how to think. I still have my political commitments, but I'm not such a zealot.
14. I'll be the first person in my family to get a PhD. My family is very blue collar. My dad is a machine operator, my mom works in housekeeping. My grandfather was a union steward. [I get a lot of my political commitments from a very strong pro-union background.]
15. My dad is mostly Irish, and my mom is Mexican. I look more Mexican than I do white, but I'm culturally more of a white guy. I don't speak Spanish, and while I dig Mexican food, Los Lobos and some mariachi music, I'm just not that "ethnic." This is neither good nor bad in my estimation, it just is.
16. I'm a worrier. I am constantly worried about my health, about what kind of tragedies will befall my family, about my wife getting into pharmacy school, about finishing my dissertaion, and so on.
17. Secretly, I can be a real elitist sometime. I can also be a bit judgmental.
18. I'm not really sure if I would like to have kids. I sort of would, but I worry (see above!) about messing them up.
19. I used to have a pet dog when I was a kid. His name was Mac, and he was a West Highland White Terrier. He was great. I'd love to have another dog, or even a cat, but I'm allergic to everything.
20. While I love cities, I think I'm more of a "college town" person at the end of the day.
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
Walter Mondale got his ass whupped! I was rooting for him, though.
The buddhists say "If you can do something about a problem, there's no point in worrying. If you can't do something about a problem, worrying will do no good." Fear & anxiety are usually irrational and/or based out of self cherishing. Compassion is your greatest protection.
Catholicism & poli sci don't mix, man....
I'm a faculty brat, I grew up in college towns.
I'm writing this on my new iBook! I forgot to register for classes today!
[Edited on Nov 01, 2005 12:12AM]
I was thinking about all of this stuff tonight.
I really think Foucault's chief concern is the partitioning off of groups and their subsequent marginalization, oppression, etc. This really is the trajectory of Madness and Civilization. It's so less about madness, so much more about power, division, and the production of the (mad) subject. There is a remark from the Foucault-Chomsky debate that should be noted. He says:
The definition of disease and of the insane, and the classification of the insane has been made in such a way as to exclude from our society a certain number of people. If our society characterised itself as insane, it would exclude itself. It pretends to do so for reasons of internal reform. Nobody is more conservative than those people who tell you that the modern world is afflicted by nervous anxiety or schizophrenia. It is in fact a cunning way of excluding certain people or certain patterns of behaviour.
So I don't think that one can, except as a metaphor or a game, validly say that our society is schizophrenic or paranoid, unless one gives these words a non-psychiatric meaning. But if you were to push me to an extreme, I would say that our society has been afflicted by a disease, a very curious, a very paradoxical disease, for which we haven't yet found a name; and this mental disease has a very curious symptom, which is that the symptom itself brought the mental disease into being. There you have it.
So, if you would include ossification as part of all this, I am with you. Or maybe ossification is just a question of temporal degree (in other words, it's long enough to care about), in which case I think we also agree.
But the whole point of genealogy being break, discontinuity, and shift, it seems to me that the everything is continually up for grabs and changing. But there always is the unbalance, and hence the marginalized.