As for movies, I really have no idea how many I see in a year. I don’t see all that many in the theater these days (especially living in the suburbs as opposed to a city with indie theaters), so this is more of a tracking method. Also, luckily for me, since getting wifi through the cable company, I have free movie channels for a bit (HBO, Cinemax, Starz, IFC, Sundance, TMC). So, I’m counting movies I watch at home on Netflix or movie channels. I’m genuinely curious how many movies I watch. I may have already forgotten some I’ve seen in January.

My movie rules:

Movies of any genre can count.

I’m going to count movies I’m re-watching only if it’s been ten years or more since I’ve seen it.

I will not count movies that I only see parts of or that are on in the background while I work. (For example, Scorsese’s Cape Fear is on right now but I’m not counting it because I’m not really watching it.)

The 50/50 guidelines allow for counting long books as two; I won’t be doing that, but along the same lines, I’ll reserve the right to count action movies or movies with a lot of violence as two because they are hard for me. They’re taxing and draining in a way that even the most emotionally manipulative dramas are not.

January so far

Books:

• Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert

A truly lovely book, but it’s more of an autobiography. (I believe a memoir discusses a specific event or topic in a person’s life; this book is several memoirs and even a few standalone essays in one large, beautiful book). Ebert talks about his childhood, alcoholism, cancer and surgeries, travels, career, and the people he’s known and loved with heart but not over-sentimentally.

• This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson

Some sections, like the bit about the author’s experiences on Second Life, seemed to be padding, but overall it’s an interesting book with good points about how libraries have changed to keep their relevance along with the transition universities have made from offering library science degrees to information science. There’s also a nice section on the ballsy Connecticut librarians who challenged the Patriot Act when they wouldn’t hand over patrons library records (never mind that they didn’t even have said records).

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I can’t even begin to describe how amazing this book is. From Skloot’s site:

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

The book combines the science behind the HeLa cells, the story of how they were collected and multiply and the author’s experience in attempting to track down her family (and then the challenges in getting them to talk to her). It’s beautifully written and painstakingly researched (and one of the best books I can remember reading).

Now reading: Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox

Movies (those with an asterisk I saw in the theater):

• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• Midnight in Paris
• Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol*
• Moneyball
  (Note: I saw Young Adult on New Year’s Eve so it can’t count toward this challenge, but I reviewed it (with spoilers) recently.

Are you doing the challenge, too? Tell me in the comments, and link to your blog, too. We can cheer each other on!

Those of us who have taught composition and intro level literature courses can easily teach them backwards in heels. We know our subject matter and can whip up lectures, writing assignments, and class activities on the spot. That’s not to say there isn’t prep work– we have plenty, especially when using new textbooks or when we have to follow a school’s lesson plan. We tend to switch things up to keep things fresh, but reading assignments we’ve read many times before still must be reviewed before class so we can lead a discussion on them. But the most work comes from grading essays and commenting on drafts. A short stack of essays, especially ones that need a lot of work, can easily eat up a weekend.

I don’t slack on my teaching duties. It’s not like the students get a discount because my salary is low.

Our work doesn’t end at the end of a semester. Students ask adjuncts to write letters of recommendation, which we generally do happily. Adjuncts catch students cheating and have  to follow the college or university’s policy for dealing with it, often taking several hours of the adjunct’s personal time to resolve or enforce (which we do, but not generally happily. I’m dealing with a situation from fall semester now and it’s less than fun). Adjuncts have to attend meetings and participate in department projects alongside full-time faculty. Adjuncts get emails all weekend and evenings, some that can be answered quickly, some that require reading and commenting on a draft or some other unexpected time-consuming thing. After our students are no longer our students, we get emails asking for help on papers for other classes, speech topics, and even master’s theses. We help gladly, mainly because being someone’s teacher (especially of English, I dare say) is forever. It’s every day, like being a police officer or nurse. Does a physician see someone choking in a restaurant and think “Eh, I won’t help. It’s my day off”?

So why do we do it? Why do we take on the responsibility? Why do we allow ourselves to exploited, underpaid, and under-appreciated by our institutions?

I cannot speak for all adjuncts, but having done it for 9 years and knowing many other adjuncts, I have a couple educated ideas.

Firstly, I think that we simply love to teach. We love teaching so much that we would rather teach and be broke than do something else that might earn us more money but might leave us unfulfilled. Many of us (including myself in the past) have full time jobs but teach a class or two to stay at least partially in the classroom or we might volunteer our time mentoring underserved youth or tutoring.

Another reason we continue to adjunct teach is that we can’t find other work. It could be the economy, it could be that we’ve been typecast as educators, it could be that employers fear that we are overeducated (which, ironically, might price us out of the job or might make an employer believe we’ll quit the moment anything better comes along, which makes them not want to spend the time and money hiring and training us), it could be that we appear incapable of holding down a full time job (if there aren’t any on our resumes) or it could be any combination of these factors, but job-searching is certainly a bitch out there.

For the time being, I’ll be working three jobs, but I’ll do my best to remain sane and to write.

Over the weekend, I also wrote an article about everyday feminism and how we can do small things each day to keep the movement going.

Happy new year!

You will stop going on about shows I “have to see.” Unless a sniper will kill a puppy a day until I catch up on critically acclaimed cable dramas, I think I can continue not watching Dexter.

I approve of his list (although he should really be watching Breaking Bad and I have told him as such), but I’ve got some more of my own.

1. Stop saying “It is what it is.” That phrase is circular, annoying, and completely meaningless. It’s annoying as an invisible eyelash in the eye or a gumsmacker behind you during a test.

2. Learn the difference between “less” and “fewer.” The word “less” is not always the opposite of the word “more.” It’s not completely your fault that you don’t know the damn difference because ad copywriters, for everything  from Gardasil to Mercedes, keep insisting on using “less” for count nouns, but that’s wrong. They’re doing us all a disservice by using improper grammar.

3. Be nicer on comment threads. Your rudeness under the cloak of anonymity is often upsetting to people on the other end, and it’s also carrying over into other parts of life. Reel it in and use some respect. (This is one of my own resolutions, too, by the way).

4. Stop saying The Simpsons should be canceled, that it used to be better, or whatever mean thing you say about it. This one is going to be contentious, but hear me out.

First off, I don’t go around saying that I think your favorite show should be canceled. It’s mean-spirited and moot. If I don’t like something, I mostly just turn the channel or leave the room. Its existence doesn’t bother me because no one is making me watch said shows just like no one is making you watch The Simpsons.

Also, some of my friends work on The Simpsons, so when you say that, it’s actually hurtful to me because you’re saying that people I care about should lose their jobs.

Next, TV, like all art, is subjective. I have no interest in Harry Potter, but I totally get that the books and movies are terrific. I have a hard time with the violence in Tarantino films so I avoid them (except Pulp Fiction, of course), but I know he is phenomenal. Archer does nothing for me. Nothing. I thought Inception completely sucked. Now, I am positive that these are all my issue, my shortcoming. Thus, I don’t insult others who like these things.

Are many of my favorite Simpsons episodes from the ’90s? Why, sure. But many of them are more recent, too. And how do I know that my affection for certain episodes isn’t because of the emotions, memories, and events surrounding them? I won’t know until I’m gray and post-menopausal.

Finally, when you say mean things about The Simpsons, I know you’re full of crap. How do I know? Well, because if you’re not watching the show, then you don’t know how good it is and therefore, you’re full of crap and should be quiet. If you are watching it, you’re enjoying it (why else would you watch it?) and therefore, you are simply saying you don’t like it to sound cool, which also makes you full of crap.

It became cool for people to say they didn’t like The Simpsons sometime around 1994 because when something becomes widely popular, some early fans reject it. Happens all the time. It happened with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Swatches, tapas, Juno, and it might even happen to you.

5. Get off your phone when you’re doing something else. No matter how good you think you are, you actually suck as a driver when you’re on the phone. Also, you’re being disrespectful to your teachers, classmates, the people in line with you at the post office, your dinner companions, and the cashiers at Target when you’re on the phone. Being on the phone constantly doesn’t make you seem important; it just makes you seem douchey.

6. Stop forwarding that crap to me. I don’t want it. I’m gonna ask you now to stop forwarding me that crap.

Alrighty then, friends! That’s my list! What resolutions would you like others to follow in 2012?

Deputy Assistant FBI Director Jerry Pender said the checks, required by federal law, surged to 129,166 during the day, far surpassing the previous high of 97,848 on Black Friday of 2008.

The actual number of guns sold that day is probably markedly higher than the background checks; that number doesn’t allow for multiple guns purchased by a single buyer, for example. Some gun industry folk said the surge was due to first-time gun buyers wanting guns for protection and a growing number of women who are being drawn to sport shooting and hunting (perhaps it’s because Sarah Palin makes it look so damn sexy).

from palingates.com

Some economic analysts think that not too much should be made out of the statistics because outdoorsy sporting goods stores that sell guns, like Cabelas, simply had really good deals on Black Friday that drew people in.

I’ve read their articles; I’ve heard their news reports. They’re missing the obvious. It’s all about the Second Amendment, one of our few Constitutional rights not currently threatened. Larry Keane, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said, “I think there also is a burgeoning awakening of the American public that they do have a constitutional right to own guns.”

Hmm, not quite.

A “burgeoning awakening that we have the right to own guns,” no, that is just silly. We know all about our right to bear arms. Few of us go a day or two without hearing someone yammering on about the Second Amendment, whether it’s our redneck cousin, a friend on Facebook talking about how it’s easier now to legally carry a concealed weapon in Wisconsin than it is to vote, or Homer Simpson lamenting the waiting period (“but I’m angry now!”)  It’s not a “burgeoning awakening that we have the right to own guns,” it a burgeoning realization that those who want to exercise our Constitutional rights best do it now. Since many other Amendments are no longer respected, people fear that the Second Amendment might also be bludgeoned to death, too. (No, they needn’t fear. There’s plenty of money and power protecting the Second Amendment. It ain’t going anywhere).

Still, it’s no wonder why the gun nuts and logical, sane people alike are getting nervous. We’re watching the Constitution be destroyed before our eyes. Bush used fear of terrorism to destroy our Fourth Amendment rights. Next, could the military soon be legally authorized to detain Americans with no trial?

. . . the bill the Senate is working on this week contains a provision that would authorize the U.S. military to indefinitely detain, without charge or trial, anyone they consider to be engaged in hostilities against the United States.

I have faith that the President would veto anything as egregious as this, but who knows, the Republicans could tack it on to the middle class tax cut extension. And then what?

We’ve been watching the Sixth Amendment fall apart since, oh, about 2001. Most of us are hoping (and praying, if we’re so inclined) that we don’t get accidentally mixed up in something that makes us look suspicious.

Many states are requiring unprecedented documentation for voting, marginalizing the elderly and minorities (adios, 19th and 15th Amendments!) Eight states have strict ID laws (Not surprisingly, Walker recently passed one in Wisconsin. Texas, we expect nothing less from you. But Kansas and Indiana, seriously, get over yourselves.) The Constitution does prohibit such actions; it even states in multiple places: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State.” But yet, states continue to pass crazy voter ID laws, obviously not to prevent voter fraud but to suppress the vote. (I want to go to law school just to learn how this could possibly happen).

And now, where on Earth is the First Amendment? People across the country are exercising their right to peaceably assemble, except that unless we’re with the Tea Party, it’s clear that Americans are simply not allowed to do that stuff anymore. Protestors are beaten with batons, their hair is yanked, students are pepper-sprayed, and anyone assembling might be abused and arrested. Police are tearing down Occupy camps across the country. People’s property is destroyed and referred to as “trash left behind by protestors.” Human beings are suffering painful chemical burns and nerve damage in their hands from too-tight zip cuffs. A must-read article about the LA Occupy arrests by the LAPD is by Patrick Meighan, a writer for Family Guy; in it, he writes about the 25 hours he spent in police custody for a misdemeanor charge for sitting in a park after the police said not to.

I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.

Frankly, I have never had any desire to own a gun. I don’t want one in my house. I grew up in a house with lots of guns and I never much cared for it. I’ve shot guns: I’ve done some damage to clay pigeons and clumps of dirt in the field. I grew up in the country and have family members in the NRA. I used to fill shotgun shells in our basement. I know what you’re wondering: Yes, I have been shot. (I still have a dent on my ass from my sole gun-related injury, my brother’s bebe gun). But I personally think the Second Amendment was written for a different time with different fears, firearms, and social issues, and thus is irrelevant in this day and age. I’ve had the impression that gun nuts cling to the Second Amendment because they’re unsatisfied with other aspects of their lives. What better way to feel better about getting screwed over by your boss than to take it out on the federal government?  Instead of channeling your rage appropriately, you get to imagine that the government is trying to take your guns away, then you get an excuse to buy more guns, the economy improves. Win, win, win!

I think voting, free speech, assembly, and privacy are exponentially more important than the right to keep a gun in my house (instead of just locking it in an armory when I’m done hunting). I can see why England puts up with such strict gun laws (a population of 51 million touts 39 deaths from gun-related crimes in 2008? Sign me up!)

But shoot, even though I like gun laws, I’m considering getting a gun myself. It might soon be one of few Constitutional rights; I may as well make the best of it.

Nine or ten years later, I am astonished (impressed by the students, horrified by the police action) at what went down on Friday at the protest at UC Davis.

News outlets, such as BoingBoing are calling the UC Davis protest Friday part of the Occupy movement. Yes, it is, but that’s not the whole story.

The irony of the UC Davis protest Friday that HuffPo, CNN, and others are ignoring is that the students were gathered in solidarity with UC Berkeley students who had been beaten with batons last week. The UC Berkeley students were protesting tuition hikes.

UC Davis students were protesting violent police action. And they got pepper sprayed. There are reports that some protestors’ mouths were pried open and sprayed down their throats. One woman was taken via ambulance to the hospital for chemical burns. Some students reported coughing up blood for hours afterward.

UC Davis defends breaking up the protest because they do not allow camping on campus.

Since when is anything in Florida more progressive than anything in California? This weekend, I’m a little more proud of my alma mater and proud of UC Davis students, especially considering their self-control:

I am more than delighted to write and seldom give up an opportunity to sound smart, but without sources? I thought it would be doable, but as I get further into the project, it’s feeling hallow. I like being able to draw upon what other scholars have done to illuminate my own thoughts and build upon them. Now I’m only working in ideas that are common knowledge with my own specific arguments and it’s tough. My students who complain that I make them use sources are bonkers!

Wish me luck!

One thing that hadn’t concerned me is her French manicure. In an article in the Washington Post, entitled “Michele Bachmann’s manicure: Tasteful? Tacky? Totally off-limits” author Maura Judkis discusses the media’s and blogosphere’s interest in her nails and if a French manicure is “timeless” or “tacky” and if she should have them filed round instead of square. I thank a page I belong to on Facebook, Female Equality Matters, for bringing this to my attention.

Yes, Bachmann’s fingernails are a big issue on the campaign trail.

I do not want to see Bachmann elected President, but this type of sexist idiocy against her is appalling. Doing a quick Google search pulls up as many articles remarking on her looks as on her ideas.

Pushing the issues aside and focusing on her appearance, nails, and “hotness” is a means of marginalizing her as a candidate by focusing on her sex and gender instead of her qualifications and her plans (or lack thereof). I don’t want her to win, but I want it to be because the American public realizes that she’s not a good candidate, not because her French manicure is too tacky for a President to sport.

I was never bothered until recently when the “men’s rights” Reddit discovered my blog. The comments I receive daily are filled with name-calling and some disturbing points of view, but the emails saying things like  ”you need some good fucking from a real man to understand your place” are, well, upsetting. Emails telling me to shut up. Emails calling me names, from “cunt” to “bitch” to “femtard.” (Yes, there are people who use “femtard” without irony, as stupid as that word is. I suppose I should be upset and offended by it, but it’s just too hard to be, seeing as how it sounds like it was invented by a fourth grader). My photo was used (without my consent, obviously) in a post that implied that feminists think all men are rapists, which led commenters to discuss if they’d rape me or not. (Luckily, my name was not attached to the photo and it seemed the photo was found and used randomly, but trust me when I say that being a fly on the wall while men discuss your rapeability is not pleasant.)

My situation is small potatoes compared to what other women face. I just read this post from a feminist blogger who has had threats made on her (murder and/or rape), threats on her pets, and even threats on her family.

Let me just say this: the misogynists, the “men’s rights” crowd, and the garden variety sexists want me, and all women, to shut up.  They use belittling language and threats of violence in attempts to shut us up. We won’t. We won’t shut up until the orders to shut up end.

What I find incredibly silly about this is that the “men’s rights” mouthpieces argue that there is no need for feminism because women have equality. That sexism is a myth. If that were true, there would be no fear of the work that feminist bloggers, politicians, and activists are trying to achieve because it would be a non-issue. Remember the episode of The Office when Michael Scott had the fun run for rabies? Feminism would be like that: a silly waste of time. The fact that these groups don’t see what we’re doing as a waste of time but get angry with us, spend hours arguing with us on our blogs, showing that our messages are a true threat to their ideology. What we are doing is necessary and worthwhile. The fact that the dittoheads call us “feminazis” and others call us “lesbos” shows that we are feared. We’re feared for what–for our potential power, for the worry that we don’t need men, worry that we might upset the balance of the status quo? It doesn’t matter why, really; what matters is that it’s there.

I will be happy when women and girls are welcome to speak and not bullied into silence, whether it be in the classroom, the workplace, the dinner table, or even right here on our own blogs. I will feel that feminism has “happened” and has done its work when women and girls are no longer told to be quiet.

For every sexist who comments on my blog or emails me, I get just as many comments from friends and people I don’t even know, telling me I’m great, thanking me for my posts, and encouraging me to keep going. So I keep going.

We won’t shut up until the demands for us to shut up end.

Fox vs. The Simpsons: Will they reach an agreement? Read my take here.