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The 30-foot fishing boat motored upon an Alaskan island so remote, Kepa Acero doubted whether anybody had ever set foot on its wild shore. To the right and to the left, woodless green hills rose into the matte gray sky. The Alpen Glow came to anchor in the narrows of an odd, hourglass-shaped bay. At eye level, the well of the bay before them opened into a round bowl that terminated in a thin isthmus. This bridge of land connected hills at either side. Behind the Alpen Glow, the other half of the hourglass widened and spread into the North Pacific. It was September, and at that longitude the minutes of sunlight only grew fewer and the air cooler.
Two members of the four-man crew, Mike and Ben, set off to go hunting in the Alpen Glow's only skiff. For Kepa, the dropping tide inspired a search for waves beyond the isthmus. The tide slipped out so quick and so far, however, that the Alpen Glow was soon left resting on its side in the muck. With the skiff gone and the vessel grounded, Kepa and the fourth boat mate, 23-year-old Chilean Nico Sutil, decided to dismount the deck and walk across the bay floor onto the island. They packed wetsuits and boards and cameras and Nico's mammoth nickel-plated handgun to ward off bears. Instead of taking the shorter distance to the solid ground on either side of the narrows, Kepa and Nico opted to walk into the widest part of the bay because, as the crow flew, it seemed the shortest distance to the surf on the island's far side. Thirty minutes later, as they neared the midpoint of the bay, they stepped into mud reluctant to hold their weight. Further on, it got worse. Nico and Kepa quickly found themselves knee- and then thigh-deep.
"When we realized what was happening, we were very, very far from the ship," Kepa recalls. "I had the feeling that there was no bottom to my steps, as if pockets of air were opening up below and sucking me in. I knew that if I stopped, I would go down."
The short hike lengthened into a battle to simply keep moving. Turning back was futile; the only way out was forward. And if they stopped, Kepa and Nico understood that they would sink—they would sink, and then the frigid Alaskan tide would rush back in—obscuring their presence from the Alpen Glow, their boat mates, and the world.
The smaller of the two, Kepa suspected he held a weight advantage. If he moved quickly and lightly—rather, if he thought his movements were quick and light—he could scuttle over the mire. Meanwhile, Nico continued to labor in hip-deep plunges. He paused frequently. The distance between the two friends incrementally grew.
Only a week or so before, Kepa had been milling about on Kodiak Island in an attempt to discover unknown waves and document them for his self-made series of Internet videos. This visit to Alaska was a first. The Basque countryman knew where he stood geographically, but his concept of Alaska as a place of consequence was still forming. He fished for his food, stored his gear in a tent, and slept in the rented 4×4. At camp on the beach one day, Kepa spotted a van approaching. And as loneliness had compelled him to do on his many travels around the globe, he says, "I just went straight to meet them."
The van carried two American fishermen and the Chilean hunter, Nico. This unlikely trio met the day before at the wedding of Nico's uncle. In the midst of the celebration they'd formed a plan to go surfing. But in the van a broader adventure was being hatched—an idea to cruise Alaska's outer islands, to hunt and surf and fish and explore the coast. "They had wetsuits and surfboards, but were just learning to surf. I told them I knew about waves. They said, 'Let's go.' In one hour, we had it set."
The crew motored 15 hours from any scrap of civilization. Somewhere, they crossed a threshold into wilderness, and discovered island streams so thick with salmon, the fish could be snatched by hand. They contemplated pointbreaks below unapproachable cliffs. They waited out days of rain in the cramped cabin. They shared meals and stories and drove each other nuts. The strangers came to be friends. "You experience so much in such a short time, it's impossible not to become close."
So it was, that when Kepa reached hard ground after the slow motion terror of plodding through the mud, he looked back at a new horror. His young friend of a few weeks had barely advanced. "I thought he wasn't going to make it," Kepa says. "I could see it in his face. He was desperate, but Nico wasn't going to ask for help. He knew there was nothing I could do."
The Chilean did not utter a word. He sweated, his face went pale.
Kepa paced. It wasn't survival of the fittest, but something close. The instinct for saving his own life versus the abandonment of Nico, and the logic of it all, swirled inside him. Whatever happened, Kepa would be there to see it. Yet inch upon inch—two and a half hours later Nico beat the rising tide and crawled out of the mud.
"I would have understood it if he was angry with me," Kepa admits. "This was a very intense moment, a situation in which you either split apart forever, or you remain as friends forever. There was no longer a middle ground."
On a December evening in 2011, Kepa Acero parked his cheap rental outside a home in Southern Chile so he could poach from its unlocked wireless connection. Using a laptop computer, he pulled together scraps of video footage he'd captured of himself traveling by bus and by ferry on the way to isolated surf. He'd honed this part of the act, the storytelling element, over two years of travel, so that when a soundtrack and subtitles were added, Kepa felt comfortable with quickly posting the video to the Internet. He then leaned back to sleep in the rental's driver seat. It wasn't a big deal really. His clips had earned a following among friends. They knew he wasn't polished, and neither were his films. When Kepa woke the next morning, however, he linked in to the stolen Wi-Fi to find that the video, "2 solitary lefts in Chile," had been watched by 20,000 people overnight. "I was checking the hits, it was ticking in the thousands. Right next to me, there was the computer. I was in the same car, same place. Nothing had changed."
It's hard to know when a life's work has arrived.
Still, it came as a surprise when a clip of his next adventure—the discovery of a perfect, barreling reef wave in Patagonia—went viral. Kepa crafted the five-minute episode, "Surfing in The End of the World," on the ride back to Chile's capital, Santiago, where he'd catch a flight for Spain. Once on the ground in Madrid, Kepa took advantage of the airport Wi-Fi to post the clip. Before completing the four-hour drive to Bilbao, that video was on its way to 200,000 views.
What exactly, were all of those people watching? YouTube is filthy with crude surf clips and astonishing feats. Recent years have seen the entire genre of surf filmmaking skip right over DVDs and onto the World Wide Web. Few, however, find an audience of any size.
Yet here was this lone traveler armed with a clutch of inexpensive cameras, some homemade music, and a knack for discovery. He wore pink rubber boots with hearts printed on them. He air surfed at bus stops. He hooted and groaned in anticipation of a score. He went fishing on Peruvian skiffs, rode a tidal bore, lived from bush huts, surfed with a colony of seals, and danced like a dervish in the African desert. In the videos, Kepa exclaims his loneliness and madness and longing for his mother. His arm is always in view, supporting the camera, a look defined by millions of teen Facebook stills. "Putting your eyes and mind in the camera, it's the way you are, no?" he says. "Other people, they do it their own ways."
A commenter online wrote, "This is amazing. I have always wanted to do this. It's a dream of mine and to see someone get there and find such a perfect wave. HERO."
Australian Surfing Life magazine compared Kepa Acero to the subject of another viral video: American Paul Vasquez, the man who went mush-ball crazy over a double rainbow arcing across the sky in "Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow." That clip has logged over three million hits. In it Vasquez sobs, his joy uncontained. The force of the rainbow's rays, he claims, knocked him down.
At a glance, the comparison between Vasquez and Acero is understood. The power of quirkiness, everyday truth, and the cult-of-personality to establish celebrity in five minutes or less has become a 21st century phenomenon. Think of Antoine Dodson in "Bed Intruder" or "Star Wars Kid." Both garnered millions of views, and in Dodson's case, a practical cottage industry.
And it is true that Kepa's videos contain unmitigated emotion, an honesty that's been bred out of popular surf culture. One short called "Barrel Stocked [sic] at Mundaka" features Kepa driving through the Basque countryside, the greenery of the forest blurring in the side windows. He's ranting and philosophizing and proclaiming a single wave he'd just ridden at the legendary river mouth. The misspelled subtitles say he's, "stocked, so stocked." The piece is just over two minutes long. It includes just 10 seconds of surf action. "And I have to live with this madness…" he raves. The fade to black leaves the viewer with a feeling that he too has just exited a Mundaka barrel—an intimacy that makes it impossible for a surfer to watch the episode and not connect—one good wave equating to temporary mania equating to the universal experience. This is the feeling Kepa has for his local break.
In Peru, he pontificates, "Sometimes in life you have to decide…sometimes it's not easy…barrel or turn? Barrel or turn?"
In Chile, he bemoans, "All of this…just for some waves?"
Which is a point that makes these scraps of digitalia difficult to dismiss: they are hard won—more Naughton and Peterson than Momentum generation. Kepa endures five-month trips on shoestring budgets, sleeping on benches and buses or in a hatchback with a knife by his side. At each location, he learns to fish in the native manner. His openness invites adventure. "Yes" is the only answer. A bush pilot offered a flight to nowhere. He took it. Fishermen offered him all he could eat for a day's work. Kepa worked it. And because he is exposed, the discoveries come to him in all of the ways that good things do.
For example, in 2010 he'd been traveling overland through Indonesia when he met a lone Australian passing time in a tiny village. The two became quick friends. They spoke English, which was rare in those parts. They surfed and filled long hours. One night, they drank a lot of beer and the Aussie just couldn't take it anymore. He spilled his guts about the most perfect wave he'd found nearby, and he showed pictures and then bragged some more. More beers and vague directions followed. The next morning, while the bloke slept in, Kepa left a kind note, and hurried off to the coveted wave. You can watch the theft online.
Kepa somehow coached a fisherman – who'd never seen a video camera – into filming the session. "Aim it at me like a gun," Kepa said. And as he surfs, audio picks up the fisherman laughing. "Bagus," he says, "Super Bagus."
Primary experience has but one language.
"As you can see," Kepa later admits, "I'm not that worried about aesthetic. The less I know, the more real it will be."
He researches and ferrets and steals directions to secretive waves like a flea-bitten pirate, risking all of his time and most of his money to do what, exactly? Document? Make art? Is this a new way to be a professional surfer? Is it biography? Performance? The 21st century equivalent of wearing one's heart on the one's sleeve?
He tells the story of a time when he spent weeks waiting for a pointbreak to come alive on the coast of Southern Africa. Both the water and air were cool and the only creatures moving about were the birds, the seals, and the sharks. He lived on the barest provisions and never showered. He found a recess in the otherwise desert plain where parking his car and sleeping out of view felt safer than not. This recess he called his "castle of nothing." One day, Kepa was poking around the point, watching the chaotic colony of seals bark and dip and swim when he heard the drone of a large vehicle approaching. On the horizon came the intimidating silhouette of an African overland truck. Soon, Kepa could see that it was one of those giant, all-wheel-drive buses that ferry tourists across the continent. The vehicle came to a halt in front of the seal rookery. But the heads and cameras of the Europeans inside didn't observe the seals, they observed Kepa. Some clicked photographs. The wind blew. And without a wave or a nod from the group, the tour moved on.
To view, and to be viewed.
In the little beach town of Sopelana, you won't find the Kepa Acero of the desert or the jungle. There, he is urbane. He co-owns an art gallery in Bilbao. He seems to live from a number of places. Everybody knows him, and not because of his videos. It is because Sopelana is a compact place where families live vertically in apartment buildings and the Basque culture unites them in spirit. People move into the streets at the same hours of the day. They retire to siesta together.
"Our culture is to strongly hold to the land," Kepa says. An example might be the case of a nuclear plant the Spanish government wanted to build nearby. A politically fractious people in normal times, the Basques united as never before to defeat the plant. The country is so small, they believed, that one hiccup at a nuclear facility could easily evacuate the whole country. Without the land, there would be no Basque future. "It's a miracle that the oldest culture in Europe has survived in this place," Kepa says, "and I'm humbly proud of that miracle."
He likes to take visitors to the oldest corner of the port, a huddle of Basque homes painted white with green trim from which fishermen have set out to sea for hundreds of years. There are a handful of pintxos bars and an expansive view of the city. There, in a slender alleyway, lives an old artist named Karolo. He wears long white hair and a beard. When he forgets his teeth, he talks in a philosophical sing-song. This wisdom is at the center of a number of Kepa's films. "You are an artist until you die…" Karolo says. "I believe in nothing but God and art…" You might call him an inspiration to Kepa.
Karolo says he himself was born with a sensitivity, and fled this tiny village in the years before World War II. He sang for his meals in the streets of Paris and on ships in the North Sea. He acted in Italian spaghetti westerns. He painted and wandered and thought. In the end, Karolo returned to his village to grow old.
"Imagine this place," Kepa says looking around, "it was so traditional and closed back then, as an artist, he had to leave to survive."
In their early teens, Kepa's older brothers Iker and Eneko began skateboarding first and then surfing. They would end up leading the first wave of Europeans to make a go for the highest rungs of competition. In the early 2000s Eneko nearly cracked the Top 44. Both Aceros defined a new generation of Mundaka stalwarts. So it was natural that Kepa would come up in his brothers' mold. He plugged away at the World Qualifying Series around the world. At the events, however, Kepa says, "You're a zombie a little bit. You do it because someone is paying you to do it. I wasn't focused on the beach. I still had that feeling: You catch the wave, but you don't know the place."
He tossed the jersey aside at 28 years old. About a year later he made his first film, "Little Talk Between Dersu and Me." This clip earned just 968 views. But it is special in a number of ways. It documents a goodbye walk with the family dog as Kepa prepares to depart, not just to another place, but to another person.
He'd never see Dersu again.
A second look at Kepa's hundred or so videos reveals that dynamism resides not in the surfing or the exotic locales—the dreamiest action, in fact, attracts the fewest views—but instead it's the character portraits and interviews with the people he meets along the way that convey the most. "My focus is the waves, but I really wanted to just go walking and see how the people live." And he does. Kepa meets a 116-year-old bachelor in Galicia, for example, and a crazed mystic of Pichilemu. On the Camino Santiago del Norte Kepa encountered an Italian millionaire who donated his entire fortune to orphans because he's an orphan himself. Now he walks the Earth. In Alaska, Kepa picked up a hitchhiker, a 19-year-old Mongolian man who, it turned out, was on a 3,000-mile migration to look for work. "That made me think a lot," Kepa says. "You realize there are people doing real adventures for a living, to eat. It puts you in your place. You realize you are a tourist."
But the most central character in the body of work is the one Kepa becomes in isolation. Like Kafka's hunger artist, who starves himself into altered states, Kepa denies himself the intimate contact of his country and culture and transforms into a person unafraid to confess the miseries and joys of a box of crackers. "It's personal. I'm gonna tell the camera everything I'm thinking. Those moments are important." It is necessary to know the person he is at home to understand the contortions made to become the one he is in the desert. This is the man we meet in Patagonia. This is the desperado we meet in Alaska. A creature so lonely that, when he finally spots a house, he decides to construct a lie; he decides to knock on the door and tell whoever answers that he is lost, just so that he can gorge himself on whatever crumb of conversation follows. "I really wanted to talk to someone," he says. "I really needed to talk to someone."
It is that willful separation from and reunification with people that creates the tension and through-line in both Kepa's art and his life. To an extent that, as he waited on the shore of that Alaskan island wondering if his friend Nico was going to make it out of the mud—art, self, reality—everything was on the line. A man bent on documentation would have drawn a camera. But Kepa's art depends on the union, and disunion of minds.
"The waves are important, but on every trip I have to say goodbye to a good friend I may never see again in my life."


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Good to hear that you're thinking about more reliable methods of birth control! You can buy multiple methods over-the-counter such as condoms, internal condoms, the sponge, and spermicide. However, the most effective methods are only available after a visit with the doctor, so we hope you'll think about making an appointment. At the very least it's good to be getting annual exams when you're sexually active.
Try searching for low costs clinics, if you don't have insurance coverage. And while you're there for the appointment, you might as well talk with your provider about your birth control options, right?

subset: commoncrawl


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TV of 2011, thanks for the CUCKOO memories. Among my favorites:
Nuttiest talk show entrance and exit: Zach Galifianakis busted his way out from WITHIN CONAN O'BRIEN'S DESK because he doesn't like walking through the curtains. At the end of the interview, he asked "Do you have a bathroom?" and then headed off. (The interview starts at the 3-minute mark in the clip above.)
Angriest outburst: On "Celebrity Apprentice," Atlanta's UnReal Housewife Nene Leakes informed Star Jones: "I WILL TAKE YOU DOWN. You pressed the last button in me, Miss Star Jones."
Cheapest commercials: Will Ferrell wrote and performed for free in regional ads for Old Milwaukee Beer. In one, he goes handfishing in the Mississippi River, fails to nab any catfish but fortunately finds an unopened can of Old Milwaukee.
Funniest SNL skit: In "Kim's Fairytale Divorce," Kim nasally whined, "Whoopsies, I got divorced," and she and her sisters shared post-breakup pain: "All week we've just been crying and crying and posing and getting our anuses bleached."
Best new TV series: The REPUBLICAN PRIMARY DEBATES. Who can forget Rick Perry and the third thing he can't remember?


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Nickname? Razzle, Nat, Flash, Gords, Natty, Possum
Born? South Africa
Nationality? Danish
Have I been in the UK long? Yup, about 20years now.
Normal? Ish.
Live? London Fields but I'm about as edgy as a plate.
Work? I'm Freelance so, anywhere.
Party Trick? Portraits.
Party animal? Not as much as I used to be, well unless someone gives me some tequila!
5 people to dinner dead or alive? Freud, Edie Sedgwick, Alexander Skarsgard, Malcolm Gladwell and Sarah Lund.
If I could have a superpower? I'd control all 4 elements. Ha. Beat that.
(*advice* It's not sexy to send me messages telling me about your theories on The Fifth Element or the paradoxes of time travel)
Three words to describe me? Rottweiler. Creative. Observant.
What do I want? To be happy. To have a calm life, the less drama the better. I live in a constant flux of chaos- I'd like someone to be in my life who keeps my feet on the ground.
Favorite movies- Goodfellas, House of Flying Daggers, Dumb and Dumber, Rules of Attraction, Snowtown, City of God, What Dreams May Come, Cool Hand Luke, Thelma & Louise, Meet Joe Black, Legends of the Fall, Boogie Nights, When Harry Met Sally, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Warrior- I'm a real film-lover.
Music- WOW. Ok. Bill Withers, Ed Solo, Alt J, Alex Clare, Keaton Heston, Pete Lawrie, Major Lazor, London Grammar, Prince, Rhye, Bipolar Sunshine, Macklemore, Phosphorescent, Bon Iver, Justin Timberlake, Johnny Cash, Ben Pearce, Muse, Ryan Adams, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Matt Corby, Sly and The Family Stone but that's just the start...
All the food- give me all the food.
Can't live with? Boredom, wooden chairs, ignorance and men who say 'I'm busy'.
Any questions? Drop me a message. To be honest, I'd rather know more about you anyway.


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Common Core Descriptions Spring 2013
All courses are 3 credit hours unless otherwise noted.
Additional courses will be posted as they become available.
Click the course number to access the class meeting times.
ART, AESTHETICS, AND CREATIVITY (A190 Offerings)
VT: Creative Writing: After Words
In this class students will try different approaches to creative writing, using a variety of imitation exercises to create poems, prose poems, flash fiction, essays, and graphic narratives.One of the first practices artists learn is imitation, creating pieces "after" an established artist. Imitations are then labeled according to the work they take after: "After Picasso." We'll read work in a variety of forms and styles to guide us in shaping our own content and subject matter. Students will submit a portfolio of writing and keep an ongoing journal of their progress.
VT: Exploring Stories and Poems Through Imitation
One of the first practices artists learn in imitation, or the creation of an artistic work "after" that of an established artist. Imitations are then labeled according to the work they take after: "After Picasso". In this class students will try different approaches to creative writing, using a variety of imitation exercises to create poems, prose poems, flash fiction, essays, and graphic narratives. We'll read work in a variety of forms and styles to guide us in shaping our own content and subject matter.
VT: My Daily Life Extraordinaire!
Description: This course explores artistic interventions within the fabric of everyday life. We will first start by rediscovering and reclaiming objects of our daily lives to give them a renewed sense of purpose and meaning. Literary texts, the study of graphic design, and art works will help spark our artistic launch. The second half of the semester is dedicated to the study and production of slide shows. Originally, slide shows – the old-fashioned kind using a carousel – were both a high-tech form of family entertainment and an artistic medium used by experimental artists from the 1960s onward. You may be asked to produce your own slide show using Power Point and to screen it for public viewing at IUSB.
VT: Poetry & Autobiography: The Authenticity of Self in the Lyric Poem
Students will examine their own lives through the prism of "autobiographical" poetry texts (as well as other art forms, including movies, the visual arts, music, etc.). We will examine the idea of poetic "persona" in contemporary poetry by reading various authors, as well as exploring film and visual art, and you will learn through various writing projects, and possibly a visual art project or two, how to determine, in your own autobiographical poems, what you need to do to get the most "truth" out of language through means of concision, music in language, exaggeration, and by eliminating cliché. The influence of class, gender, and race will all be germane to a deep understanding of how we authentically express and/or build into a complex language construct a representation of the self. You will write imitation poems as well as poems wholly your own. Additionally you will keep a journal of reader responses to the various readings and films, and write two short analytical response papers.
VT: Point and Shoot: An Introduction to Digital Photography
This introductory level course will explore digital technology for capturing, enhancing, and producing still lens-based images. The course will address the visual language of camera-generated images, computer output techniques, the connoisseurship of digital image output as well as basic digital camera operations. The course assumes no prior knowledge or experience with digital imaging technologies or materials. Students must provide a digital camera.
VT: Visual Culture
Study of our visual culture including photography, advertising, avatars, and video.
VT: Exploring Musical CompositionThis course will introduce students to the materials of music – pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony – and to the notational tools used by musicians to represent these materials. Throughout the semester each student will use the tools and skills learned to compose simple musical pieces. No previous music education is required.
(Some sections offered for music majors only, permission required)
VT: Introduction to Theatre
This introductory course examines the theatre, plays and playwriting, the actor, designers and technicians, the director, traditions of the theatre, the modern theatre, musical theatre, the future of theatre, and the critic. This is a participatory class.
VT: I, Me, Mine: Representation of the Self in Poetry and Collage
The lyric "I" is alive and well in contemporary American poetry, with some poets embracing the confessional mode and others engaging in lyric forms that reflect a new selfhood, one that concerns itself less with sincerity and attempts to convey personal story in a more fragmented way, driven by the artifice of language. Ever since Whitman announced "I celebrate myself," poets have been negotiating the deeper concerns of autobiographical poetry, of truth-telling and authorial responsibility. We'll look at six contemporary poets who represent various degrees of confession, and students will write their own portfolio of "autobiographical" poems. Visual artists' work, too, by the turn of the 20th century, began moving away from traditional, representational art to more abstract forms, notably collage. We'll look at many collage artists and collage techniques and make collages for the purpose of personal expression. Although collage is by definition a fragmented form, like poetry, there are various degrees of accessibility and you will explore the possibilities of putting images together with a sense of adventure while paying attention to various elements of form.
VT: Artist and the New Media
(P: One of the following: Tel-T 283, Fina-P 273, Jour-J 210, Info-I 101, Fina-S 291, or Mus-T 120)
This course is primarily intended for students who wish to pursue new media as a means of artistic expression. The course considers new media from both an historical/cultural/critical base (readings, lectures, viewing), and from an experiential base (production/exhibition projects in selected new media genres). At the end of the course, the successful student should have acquired a foundational vocabulary in the history and criticism of new media, an understanding of how artists have used and are using new media as a means of artistic expression, and a basic technical fluency with new media production tools.
VT: The Modern City (P: Eng W131)
Drawing from texts and visual material related to several humanities disciplines, this course focuses on the forces that shaped modern cities. After a brief survey of each city's history, we will examine the geographical, political, economic and social factors which molded major European, American and two Asian cities from the 18th century to the First World War. We will discover how historical changes affected the general configuration of cities. We'll connect the city, its monuments and vernacular fabric with the intellectual life of its inhabitants. We'll relate the role of communications such as roads, canals, railways, and underground, as well as major infrastructure components such as sewers and water supply, to the development of a modern city. We will study the ideologies which mediated between utopian visions of the city and the actual physical plant of urban configurations as they grew, evolved and became the cities we know today.
VT: Introduction to Business Administration
Business organizations play an important role in our lives. We interact with businesses in a variety of ways, including as employees, consumers, and investors. One form of business organization—corporations—wield enormous power. Given the pervasiveness of business in our lives, one intention of this class is to help you make greater sense of the world in which you live and enable you to make better informed decisions. In particular, W100 introduces you to a wide range of management issues. This will help to prepare you for other business classes that you may take and for your career. Or, for nonbusiness students, it will give you a useful overview of key business issues and the context within which businesses operate. Also this class may help you choose your career by making you aware of key features of: business trends, business ownership, business management, management of human resources, marketing, and managing financial resources.
VT: How the Mind Works
What exactly is the human mind? How does it relate to the human brain? How does it make possible human behaviors, such as perception, learning, remembering, physical movement, social cooperation, and even loving? In this course, we will investigate such questions through the lens of cognitive science. We will also consider implications of mind-related inquiry. For example: Can the right program running on a sufficiently powerful computer be considered a mind? Should 'smart drugs' and brain implants be used by those with 'healthy minds' in order to augment mental performance? What happens when an intelligent lethal weapon is deployed for warfare, while humans are completely 'removed from the loop' which determines its actions?
VT: (Ab)use of Numbers in Politics
Mark Twain is often credited with having claimed "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." This course will examine how social scientists, politicians, advocacy groups and political commentators use statistics to support arguments; the course does not presume that all statistics are lies, but will work to develop the critical tools to evaluate when statistics are well researched and fairly presented--and when not. This is not a course in statistics and does not require special math skills, but will examine how numbers are used in the social sciences and politics.
VT: Cross-Cultural Development (formerly Multcultural Lifespan Development)
This course provides an introduction to the complex nature of human development from a multicultural perspective. This course will focus on three domains of development: physical, cognitive, and social as an ongoing set of interrelated processes across the lifespan. By critically examining developmental similarities and differences between cultures, you will develop the capacity to evaluate and appreciate the relative contributions of both nature (as indicated by similarities) and nurture (as indicated by differences). This will lead to an increased awareness of the impact of individuals' real-world settings as well as biological constraints on human development. From this understanding, you will gain the capacity to think more critically about your own development as well as the development of those relying on you as nurtures. In addition, you will be better able to relate and apply concepts to what you observe and experience in an expanding multicultural society.
VT: Death and Life Lessons
This course focuses on death and end-of-life issues within a variety of perspectives, including historical, biomedical, multicultural, and religious theories. Existential issues related to the human significance of death for individuals and community will be addressed. Students will be introduced to a basic overview of laws and ethics regarding end-of-life issues, and participate in group discussions using critical thinking skills acquired in class. Guest speakers will include professionals working in funeral preparation, hospice, and grief and bereavement programs.
VT: Poker: Behavioral, Clinical, Cognitive and Social Concepts
This course will utilize poker as a means of illustrating numerous concepts related to various fields of psychology (clinical, social), general sciences (behavioral and cognitive), as well as law and statistics. At the conclusion of the course, the student will understand the relative value of how various disciplines can be used to understand how poker playing affects the individual and how social institutions affect poker players and social groups.
VT: Youth in Today's Society
This is a course about youth in the contemporary United States. We will spend time examining the lives of older youth (middle schoolers, teenagers, and young adults) rather than younger children, although the questions we raise throughout the semester can apply to children of all ages. Our approach to studying youth focuses on historical and cultural interpretations of youth cultures in the United States, as well as the social institutions that inform individual and group experiences of youth.
VT: Business and Society
This course examines business in terms of its stakeholders throughout society. By the end of this course, you should know the major stakeholders of a business and key concepts of business ethics. You should be able to think critically about issues of business and society, appreciate and be able to synthesize opposing points of view, and work successfully in a team.
VT: Urban Society and Policy (P: Any 100 or 200-level Pols course)
This course considers the politics of cities, suburbs, and regions in the United States from numerous perspectives. Cities are at the heart of American democracy; they are the units of government closest to the people, making citizens more likely to interact with their local governments than the national or a state government on a daily basis. However, cities also serve as hubs of commerce, and many argue their governments cater decisions to the interests of the private sector. Finding ways to serve residents while crafting development plans to suit businesses is one of the central challenges of governing cities. Because of cities' dynamic and ever-changing nature, we will take a historical approach to urban politics while considering a wide range of theories of city development. Discussions of political power will be at the center of units considering the initial development of U.S. cities, political institutions, federalism, race, metropolitan expansion, globalization, and residential displacement. Though this is a course on politics, understanding the structure of power in cities requires inquiries going beyond the basic institutions of local government. Readings and discussions also borrow from sociology, urban planning, economics, geography, and a range of other disciplines.
PSY B399 HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS (P: Psy P103, Eng W131)
VT: Spirituality and Social Justice (formerly "Spirit Meets Social Justice")
This class will explore how spirituality intersects with social justice issues, asking what role psychological theory, research, and practice have played. Primarily the course will examine the social institutions related to religion and politics. In particular, we will examine the infrastructures of six widely known belief traditions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism). Because these traditions exist within a canvas of beliefs less widely known, we will also examine Indigenous traditions (selecting a small subset from each continent), Wicca, and Atheism/Agnosticism. We will ask how each of these traditions' principles inform a person or group's involvement in social justice activities. Specifically, definitions of "social justice," requirements of personal spiritual development, rewards of social justice work, authenticity and identity, interaction between humanity and the divine, and consequences of inaction.
VT: Marriage and Family Relations
This class will help students to better understand the family systems approach. The focus will be on relationships within families in order to understand how individuals form a network. Students will be required to master four general skills: Memory, Application, Comparison, and Defense of one's own opinion.
SOC B399 HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS (P: Eng W131)
VT: Animals and Society
This course will explore peoples' relationships with animals and the various roles that animals play in human societies. We will consider people's interactions with a wide range of species, but our primary focus will be on the role of domestic animals in human lives and societies. A significant portion of the course addresses people's relationships with pets, and treatment and interactions with animals used for food. Additional topics will include differences and similarities between human and nonhuman animals, historical and cultural variations in human-animal relations, debates over animal rights and treatment, and the impact of human-animal relations on the welfare of animals, humans, and society. This is an interdisciplinary course that will include perspectives from a range of fields, including sociology, psychology, history, anthropology, and zoology. The course is taught as a seminar, so students will be expected to take an active role, reading, discussing, and writing about course topics.
VT: Costa Rica: Building Sustainable Communities in Central America
Course goals:
1. To use the vivid contrasts of another culture and society to deepen students' understanding of key social science concepts, including the evolution and intermingling of cultural patterns and forms; social divisions along lines of class, gender and ethnicity; the development, interaction and importance of major social institutions such as family, political economy and religion; and the dynamics of social change involved in urbanization, globalization and incorporation into the world economy.
2. To provide students with an overview of the culture and history of Costa Rican society from its indigenous origins, through its colonial period and its democratic transformation to the present, as well as to examine future possibilities.
3. To explore the human ecology of development, the interaction between people and their environment, and to explore and assess Costa Rican efforts toward sustainable development in urban and rural economies, agriculture and agribusiness, and tourism and ecotravel.
VT: Race and Reproductive RightsThis course examines how race and class have shaped women's access to birth control, their ability to make reproductive choices and to have control over their own bodies. We will discuss a number of themes – both current and historical. This course will start with a look at childbearing and –raising in slave communities and on Native American reservations. We will then continue with a discussion of a variety of case studies that exemplify how the U.S. government has limited the reproductive rights and choices of certain communities over the last century. Topics include forced sterilization, the eugenics movements, the mistreatment of single mothers in the early 20th century, and medical experiments on communities of color. In the second half of the semester, we will turn our attention to current controversies, incl. teenagers' access to sex education and birth control, the debate about emergency contraception and abortion, gay and lesbian parents, as well as new reproductive technologies and their ethical implications. We will also discuss how women have acted, individually and collectively, to fight oppression and create community.
THE NATURAL WORLD (N190 Offerings)
VT: Becoming Human
An introduction to the evolutionary development of humans, viewed in both a biological and cultural context. Major topics include the concept of evolution, biological relationships between humans and other primates, the fossil record of hominid evolution, and the basic methods employed by archaeologists in the study of human biological and social development.
AST N190 THE NATURAL WORLD (P: Math placement Level 3)
VT: Life in the Universe
The purpose of this class is to expose you to a relatively new area of science, Astrobiology. This discipline encompasses a variety of areas, all of which we will touch upon during the course. These include chemistry, physics, biology, geology and of course astronomy. You do not need to be an expert in these, you will learn the essentials in order to appreciate how all of these disciplines come together and work together in our search to understand what life is and how we may go about trying to find it outside the earth, the only example we have of Life in the Universe.
VT: Stars and Galaxies
Our universe is a vast place that contains a variety of objects that almost defy the imagination. This course is a journey that starts from our extended local neighborhood of nearby stars, continues to explore our galaxy and its inhabitants, and ends at the far reaches of known space. Along the way we will discover strange objects such as pulsars, black holes, and exploding galaxies, and we will face some of the remaining deep mysteries about the structure of the universe that occupy today's cosmologists.
VT: Worlds Beyond Our Own
In this course we will look at planetary bodies, including Earth. Although we will note systematic similarities, we will focus on the unusual features that make them "worlds" in their own right. Major topics will include the following: historical background and observing the night sky; a quantitative description of planetary motion; light and radiation; and planetary bodies (planets, their moons, asteroids and comets). We will also discuss social and political issues, such as the priority we should place on exploring the Solar System considering competing demands for our limited resources.
VT: Plants and People
Human societies are completely dependent upon plants, which supply us with food, clothing, shelter, fuel, and even the oxygen we breathe. This course will introduce students to the world of plants through the lens of human uses and needs. The course will begin with some basic information about plant structure, physiology, reproduction, ecology, and evolution. It will then turn to topics that show how plants have played an important role in the development of human culture and society. The course will include some lab work and possibly some field trips. Some course topics and readings will be linked to the campus theme of sustainability.
VT: Chemistry and Our Environment
The course focuses on topical, interdisciplinary issues such as the environment, energy, and nutrition. The science is introduced on a need-to-know basis as issues are discussed and developed. There are no pre-requisites for this course. Instruction will focus on only those aspects of the fundamentals of chemistry that have a direct bearing on the applications of chemistry to society.
GEOL N190 THE NATURAL WORLD (P: Math Placement Level 3)
VT: Geology of the National Parks
Our national and state parks contain some of the most beautiful scenery found on the planet, and accordingly draw visitors from around the world. Their spectacular landscapes are the result of a wide range of geologic processes that we will discuss in this course. After introducing the basic framework of plate tectonics we will use individual parks as geologic case studies and introduce geological principles as necessary to scientifically understand what gives the parks their unique character. We will also discuss the political and historical framework in which the park system exists: the establishment and management of national and state parks is a massive undertaking including extensive political, philosophical and economic considerations.
VT: Rocks, Gems, and Fossils
Rocks, gems, and fossils have intrigued people from the beginning. Through basic identification of rocks and minerals, students will learn how the history of our planet has been interpreted. Emphasis on the uses of these materials will show students how many natural resources we extract from our planet and how this process has affected the development of countries and civilizations around the world. By learning about the identification, classification, and formation of fossils, students will learn about our past here in Indiana, North America, and planet Earth.
VT: Earth and Space (P: Math 014 or Math Placement Level 3)
This course will teach the basic concepts of Physical Geology, with an emphasis on rocks, minerals, earthquakes, volcanoes, and Plate Tectonics. The Historical Geology portion looks at interpreting Earth's history with Relative Dating, and the identification of many fossils and how they form. Also, an introduction into the basics of Astronomy and Meteorology.
PHYS N190 THE NATURAL WORLD (P: Math Placement Level 3)
VT: Discovered Physics (5 cr.)
The universe is full of wondrous and diverse phenomena such as exploding stars and gently falling snowflakes. Persons of great conceit think that this can all be understood in terms of a small set of rules and elementary objects. This course is designed to help the student learn how (we think) the universe works and how these ideas are generated, tested, and communicated. Models of nature and the methods of elementary quantitative problem solving are studied in the lecture and recitation portions of the course. The laboratory component of the course helps the student learn the practice of experiment and guides the student in developing, executing and reporting on experiments of their own design.
THE NATURAL WORLD (N390 Offerings)
BIOL N390 THE NATURAL WORLD (P: one semester of college level biology)
VT: Environmental Science (crosslisted as Honors H300)
Some of the most perennial challenges humans face are environmental issues - how should we use resources, how do our actions affect other species, and how do our actions affect the long-term availability of resources. Not surprisingly, environmental issues cross many disciplines including all fields of science, humanities, arts, business, and politics. In this course we will study environmental issues from primarily a biological perspective with an emphasis on ecology, but we will use readings from a variety of sources including book chapters, science journals, government reports, and newspaper articles to consider connections between biology and other disciplines.
LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (T190 Offerings)
ENG T190 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (Reading placement, 90 or above)
VT: Literary Hauntings
In this course, we will read literary works from the seventeenth century to the present, focusing on the theme of "Literary Hauntings." For the first half of the semester, we will read various ghost stories from around the globe and discuss the cultural characteristics of different ghosts, their attachment to specific locales, and what they mean to their respective cultural communities. For the second half of the semester, we will turn our attention to one of the most famous ghosts in the history of English literature – in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. We will not only discuss the significance of Hamlet's ghost, but also look at some literary and film adaptations to explore how Shakespeare's work "haunts" literary representations at different historical moments.
VT: Beyond Cowboys and Indians: The Myths of the U.S. West
The story of the U.S. West has been told in countless ways: as conflict between advancing civilization and disappearing "savage," as site of individual self-discovery or transformation, or more recently, as site of struggle over issues such as immigration and race. In this course we will ask how the West has been portrayed at different times and what functions such portrayals might serve. In examining these questions, we will read literary and historical accounts and view selected films and ask how and why the West has proven so important to understandings of U.S. history and culture.
VT: Labor and Literature
"Labor and Literature" is designed to explore the representation, cultural reproduction, and meaning of work in the United States. While work is central to conceptions of U.S. national identity, its representation is frequently contested both in cultural and in political discourse, and indeed, is often entirely unrepresented depending how "work" is conceived. This course will focus on artists, writers, and filmmakers for whom labor, the workplace, and class are the central foci of their texts. Themes the course will explore include what it means to construct a subjective identity through the lens of labor, how intersections of race, gender, and national origin contribute to concepts of a laboring subject, as well as how definitions of labor have been used to construct and contest a homogenous national identity. In addition, we'll look at the ways individual artists and writers sought to represent work and the ways they have engaged in political and cultural movements to change how Americans experience working and viewing/being/ becoming working-class.
VT: Stories of the Dysfunctional Family
The course focuses on the repetitive pattern of dysfunction in family groups from the ancient Greeks to modern writers. The class will analyze the causes of socially dysfunctional actions and the effects on family members and the surrounding society. We'll study dysfunctional characters in literary works and film with the help of some psychological texts. We will examine the difficulty of breaking out of dysfunction and investigate ethical consequences of characters' actions. How are the destructive consequences of dysfunctional acts treated by the authors in this course? How does modern society view such acts? Can dysfunctional acts be explained away by fate or birth? Where does responsibility reside?
VT: The Outcast
The image of the outcast has captured many writers' imagination, for it raises interesting questions about the relationship between individual and society. In what ways are the outcasts different from other people? Why are they excluded/rejected by the society? Do they pose problem, harm, or danger to the society? Do they challenge/critique social conventions and traditions? How do they view their own marginalized condition? Are they seeking for social acceptance or insisting on their own isolation? By reading writers from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, we will explore the issues of social boundaries, cultural definition, individual freedom and independence, and the price paid to be assimilated or excluded in a society.
VT: Signed, The Land of the Long White Cloud
New Zealand is increasingly called by its indigenous Māori name, Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud, referring back to Māori mythology according to which the explorer Kupe and his crew discovered the North Island thanks to the long cloud that permanently hung over it. The existence of a bilingual name for a single country betrays some of the tensions at play in the emergence and establishment of New Zealand's national identity along a binary divide between the indigenous Maori population and the Pākehā (European) settler. This course foregrounds the rise and establishment of New Zealand's political, cultural, and literary, independence from Great Britain through the study of the distinctive stylistic traits of signature Kiwi authors and film directors of both Māori and Pākehā descent.
ENG T191 WORLD LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS I (Reading placement, 90 or above)
VT: Heroes in Ancient and Medieval World Literature
RESTRICTION: PRIORITY FOR THIS SECTION IS GIVEN TO EDUCATION STUDENTS (unless otherwise noted in the online schedule of classes. The restriction may be removed in order to fill the class.)
Three boys without a father: one finds a sword in a stone, one is given a light saber, and one is chosen by a wand. All become heroes. The significance of these and many other similarities among such tales of heroes—as well as of their important differences—is the topic of this course. The focus, in particular, will be on heroic legends from the ancient and medieval eras, ranging across time and space from 4000 years ago in Mesopotamia (Gilgamesh), to 2500 years ago in India (the life of the Buddha), to 500 years ago in England (Sir Thomas Malory's account of King Arthur). Throughout, we will reflect on apparent continuities among these stories as well as the vast differences in culture that they carry, and we will think about the cultural functions of heroic legends in general. And, yes, we will also talk about how the Star Wars and Harry Potter sagas fit into the long tradition of heroic literature.
ENG T192 WORLD LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS II (Reading placement, 90 or above)
VT: Literature and the Invisible World
This course will consider the presentation of visual experience in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. We'll attend to a few critical points at which visual experience, of people and places, is central to the writer and the form in which he or she is writing. We'll think about two streams of influence—science, which not only observes but tries to explain— and aesthetics—that is, the study of the creative, beautiful, and pleasing—and what each dimension adds to the other. We'll read works that rely on observation of the natural world, but we'll also have a glimpse of the humanly invented spaces of cities. Readings will probably include works by Tracy Chevalier, Charles Darwin, Thomas Hardy, Franz Kafka, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, haiku poets, Yoko Ogawa, and Italo Calvino. The format for the class will be discussion with occasional short lectures on historical periods. There will be two medium-length analytical essays and numerous reading response papers.
For part of the general education requirement that this course provide instruction in a literacy, we will pay particular and sustained attention to metaphor, simile, analogy, model, and paradigm as they inform both creative and scientific thinking because they are a foundation for constructing knowledge, especially the logical relationships based on resemblance. We will also investigate the limits of these linguistic figures and models.
HIST T190 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (Reading placement, 90 or above)
VT: Philadelphia: Revolution to Republic
This course will examine Philadelphia's place in the American Revolution and the formation of the American republic. Many historians believe Philadelphia should be considered as the primary example of a revolutionary city in early America. Through the use of primary and secondary sources, students will examine the role of Philadelphia from 1600-1860. These works will focus on the areas of race, religion, government and politics and maritime economy as these were major issues facing the United States as it moved from Revolution to Republic.
MUS T190 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (Reading placement, 90 or above)
VT: Exploring Musical Genres: Classical Music and Beyond
This course explores the elements and performing media of music using live music, recorded music, and video. The role of music in society at different times in history in both Western and non-Western culture will be examined. Students will be expected to attend classical music concerts, and to develop the listening skills needed to write critically about their concert experience and other music experienced in the course.
LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (T390 Offerings)
ENG T390 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (P: Eng W131)
VT: Music and Literature
This course is designed around the different ways in which Music and Literature have interacted in different eras. To better express these relations, students will focus on threedifferent modules: Poetry and Music, Prose and Music, and Drama and Music. Each module has been designed with the perspective on focusing on different works, all presented from a historical point of view. The poetry unit will begin by discussing an excerpt from Aristotle's Poetics in order to establish mimesis as a common characteristic of both arts. It will proceed to a broader discussion of the powers ascribed to music by various poets and writers throughout history, focusing on particular excerpts spanning from Ovid's Metamorphoses through Walt Whitman; finally, it will include discussion of the "musical" aspects of the written word, including meter (rhythm), alliteration, onomatopoeia, and text painting. The poetry unit will focus primarily on musical works inspired by literary creations and the ways in which composers interpret literary texts to depict literary characters or events. The primary foci will include 1001 Arabian Nights and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade, Don Quixote and Strauss in Prose (program music). Finally, our drama unit will study discuss Oedipus Rex (Sophocles and Stravinsky), Shakespeare in Music (excerpts from A Midsummer Night's Dream, TheTempest, and Romeo and Juliet) and will end with a more in-depth analysis relating to Shakespeare's Othello to Verdi's Otello.
VT: Conquest, Progress, and the U.S. West
The story of westward movement has been told in countless ways: as conflict between advancing civilization and disappearing "savage," as site of individual self-discovery or transformation, as a locus of unfolding national or universal Progress, or more recently, as site of struggle over issues such as immigration, race, and gender. In this course we will ask how the West has been portrayed at different times and what functions such portrayals might serve. In examining these questions, we will read and analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources, from poetry and fiction to film and visual art, always keeping in mind the central question: how and why has the West has proven so important to ideas of human Progress and specifically of U.S. historical, political, and cultural identity?
VT: The Commercial Revolution and the Rise of the Novel
In this class, we will examine how England responded to the crisis of identity wrought by the commercial revolution of the eighteenth century and how the literature of the time attempted to offer solutions to this crisis. In the early eighteenth century, money was quickly replacing social rank as the basis for power and prestige. As one shopkeeper of the time put it, "I can buy a gentleman, therefore I am a gentleman." While this transformation produced a new sense of social equality, it also suggested the disturbing notion that one's identity was based on what one owned rather than on any inherent attributes. A new luxury market promoted this consumer mentality by offering a wider array of goods than ever before and invented new techniques, such as advertisements and window displays, to make these goods appealing. One of the new luxury items that consumers purchased and used to define themselves was the novel—a form of literature that focused on workaday life and made everyday people the heroes of its plots. In doing so, the novel served as a device for analyzing the new commercial world and its effects on society. It also helped to shape, and was shaped by, attitudes towards this world. Novels will include: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Samuel Richardson, Pamela; Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker; Henry McKenzie, The Man of Feeling; and Frances Burney, Evelina. We will frame our discussions of the novels through selections from the sociologists Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu, as well as period sources by the philosophers John Locke, David Hume, and Adam Smith.
VT: Monsters of Modernity
In this course, we will read some classic "monster" literature to investigate how monsters function in the literary imagination as touchstones for exploring the essence and the boundaries of humanity. What if monsters are scary, not because they are different from us but because they are strangely similar to us? Which is more terrifying, to be attacked by a monster or to turn into one? Does modern science risk producing monsters in the attempt to enhance the human experience, or can technology help us fight monsters that threaten us? By the end of the semester, I hope you will begin to see that horror films and novels are part of our culture's responses to historically specific developments in science and technology – developments that make us reconsider what it means to be human.
FINA T390 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (P: Eng W131)
VT: Needle and Thread: A Cultural Analysis of World Textiles
This course will analyze world textiles from the prehistoric period to the modern age. The varied needle arts will be situated within their historical, cultural, and artistic context in order to understand the role these art objects played in their societies. This course will analyze how textiles and textile production both reflected and affected their various cultures not just in terms of aesthetics but also with politics, economics, and gender construction.
HIST T390 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (P: Eng W131)
VT: The Great War, 1914 - 1918
The Great War of 1914-1918 remade the world. Monarchs were deposed. Empires dissolved. New nations emerged. Millions perished in "hurricanes of steel." World War I stands as the portal to a century of mass ideologies, and paved the way for the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the rise of fascism, and the transformation of European societies. This class will investigate the experiences of those who lived and died in the first total war.
HPSC T390 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (P: Eng W131)
VT: Religion and Science
This course examines how science and religion have influenced and interacted with each other from ancient times to the present day. Topics will include ancient Greek and early Christian attitudes toward nature, science and the Church in the Middle Ages, the Copernican Revolution, Galileo and the Church, Christianity and the mechanical/Newtonian worldview, the rise of modern geology and paleontology, the Darwinian revolution and creationism, and the impact of contemporary physics on theology.
PHIL T390 LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS (P: Eng W131)
VT: God, Space, and Time
This course offers an interdisciplinary investigation into metaphysical questions that arise around the concepts of God, space, and time. We will be investigating these topics through readings from philosophers, scientists, theologians, and writers of literature. The course will involve getting clear on the concepts of God, space, and time (how they are different and how they are interrelated). Then we will review arguments for and against the existence of each. We may also look into some specific questions about the nature of each, such as the following: Does God exist in time? Are space and time separate, or do they exist as one unified entity? Might there be more than three dimensions of space? Do the past and future exist? Is time travel possible?
VT: Media Law, Ethics, and the Public Interest
The purpose of this course is four-hold: [1] to explore the idea of freedom of speech through historical and theoretical examinations of U.S. case laws, media regulations and landmark Supreme Court decisions, [2] to explore the idea of media ethics through historical and theoretical examinations of controversial representations and media genres in the U.S. media history, and [3] to intersect these examinations of media law and ethics in order to develop the theoretical debate that defines meanings and the role of public interest in society, and [4] to explore how the contemporary media industry can best serve the welfare of the public. The course develops an understanding of free speech rights, while ethical considerations of the responsibility of the mass media industry are argued as public interest and welfare. The overall task of this course is to discuss new and/or justifiable approaches to challenge and negotiate the theoretical question that speech laws create an ethical dilemma in society when certain types of speech, such as hate speech and sexual speech, could be found disruptive to welfare of the public.
VT: Television and Cultural Criticism
This course focuses on prime time television shows to discuss the cultural and social impact of the medium as a whole and its relationship with culture. Specific programs serve as examples of the historical rise of broadcast television, the development of television narration, the evolution of television genres, the changing nature of the entertainment industry, and controversies of television's effects on audiences. The objective of this course is to introduce the student to television critical studies, or what is commonly called, within academics, "television criticism" (a parallel with literary criticism). By the end of the semester students will have a clear understanding of television as a unique meaning-producing medium. Throughout the semester we will dissect television's narrative and non-narrative structures and its uses of mise-en-scene, cinematography/videography, editing, and sound. Additionally, we will confront the critical methods that have been applied to the medium over the past 20 years: semiotics, genre study, ideological criticism, cultural studies, and so on.


text: Benefits At Drexel University, we're pleased to offer comprehensive, competitive benefits to eligible* employees and their eligible dependents**. From healthcare to holidays, our aim is to help Drexel employees enjoy happy and healthy lifestyles, while maintaining a good work-life balance. Core Benefits Benefits that are paid entirely by Drexel University. Subsidized Benefits Employees and Drexel share the cost of these benefits. Voluntary Benefits Employees pay entirely for these programs, but benefit from deals negotiated by Drexel. Retirement Benefits Employees will find information specific to the 403(b) plans that are offered by Drexel University. Other Employee Benefits There are also other benefit programs and services available to eligible* Drexel employees, including Holidays, Vacation, and Sick Time; Leave of Absence; Employee Discounts Employees can enroll themselves and their dependents in benefits upon hire, during the open enrollment period, or if they meet a qualified life event. If you have questions about your benefits, consider attending a Benefits Buzz session, read our Benefits FAQs, contact your benefit provider directly, or contact the Benefits Service Center: 1-888-971-0101 (press 1 for Flexible Spending Accounts, press 2 for Commuter Reimbursements, or press 3 for all other questions). *All full-time professional staff working a minimum of 40 hours a week and faculty working 12 or more credit hours in three or more quarters are eligible to participate in all benefit programs. Part-time professional staff working at least 20 hours a week and faculty with at least a 50% appointment are eligible to participate in all subsidized and voluntary plans. ** Eligible dependents for healthcare coverage include your legally married spouse (same or opposite-sex) and your naturally born or adopted children or stepchildren up to age 26. Ineligible dependents include divorced spouses, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and any other children you do not have legal custody of. Drexel has contracted with an outside firm to conduct dependent eligibility audits . Drexel reserves the right to request proper documentation showing dependent status at any time and will conduct a dependent eligibility audit.


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Parsing the Beige Book
Originally published on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 2:29 p.m. EDT. In the Fed's Beige Book, the economy was described as expanding "at a modest to moderate pace," which covered the period of September through early October, thus capturing a few weeks of the partial government shutdown. Here are some relevant comments from the release:
- Consumer spending continued to increase and activity in the travel and tourism sector expanded in most Districts.
- Business spending grew modestly in most districts.
- Employment growth remained modest in September. Several Districts reported that contacts were cautious to expand payrolls, citing uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obama care) and fiscal policy more generally.
- Demand for nonfinancial services rose and manufacturing activity also expanded modestly.
- Residential construction continued to increase at a moderate pace. By comparison, non-residential construction again expanded at a slower rate.
- Residential and CRE activity varied across districts, but largely continued to improve.
- Financial conditions were little changed on balance, with lending activity remaining modest in most Districts.
- Price and wage pressures were again limited.


text: 1) Has anyone tried to find out systematically the numbers of readers for weblogs across the whole popularity spectrum? Ie how many readers does the typical personal weblogger have? How many readers do the top bloggers get? The only guesstimate I have seen is from this: Pollard, D. (2005) The Long Tail: A-Listers Maybe Not So Powerful after All How to Save the World Last accessed: 22 Mar 2005 Last updated: 4 Mar 2005 Address: http://blogs.salon.com/ 0002007/2005/03/04.html. It estimates number of page views, in-links and "reader attention/ day" for five popularity categories of blog but the methodology is a little wobbly. 2) What is the typical ratio of commenters to readers across different blog genres? (Since I imagine this varies wildly depending on the type of blog) Would be useful for guessing traffic for people who don't measure their traffic. 3) Any idea how much money leading and mid-ranked bloggers and/or podcasters get from their advertising? 4) Any idea what proportion of weblog readers read the personal blogs of people they know without those people knowing they are reading them? I have lots of other statistical questions about blogging but that's a good off-the-top-of-the-head shortlist... If anyone is working towards answers to any of these questions even if you haven't got the answers yet, please do let me know. And a Happy New Year to all and sundry! --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)


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San Diego Air & Space Museum Presents 'The Science Of Aliens'
- WHEN Ongoing from now until February 28, 2010[days & times]
San Diego Air & Space Museum, 2001 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego
Map | Website
- AGES Not available
The San Diego Air & Space Museum invites you to explore the facts and challenge the fiction at the "Science of Aliens" exhibition!
Follow us on a journey through the real science of possible alien life and into the furthest reaches of your imagination. Get up-close and personal with some classic science fiction films and props, then come face-to-face with the weird creatures that inhabit Earth, before exploring far-flung planets and stars.
Enter the 'Alien Worlds' of leading scientists and meet the aliens they have imagined in a unique hands-on environment. And before you leave, compose your own personal message to an alien.
Location: San Diego Air & Space Museum, 2001 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101. Get Directions (Google Maps)
Video highlighting the exciting exhibition "The Science of... Aliens" at the San Diego Air & Space Museum:
Dates and times of events are subject to change without notice. Always check the event organizer's website for the most updated schedule before attending.
Above: The Science of Aliens, now on display at San Diego Air and Space Museum
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Product Information
East Side Collection® Heart Charm Dog Leads are cute and charming. Leads are made of durable nylon with a faux leather backing and are embedded with attractive heart-shaped charms. Matching dog collar sold separately.
Important Sizing Note: The following measurements are the dimensions of the actual product, not of the pet they fit. After measuring your pet, make sure all measurements fit within the following dimensions (with a little room to spare in the chest and neck).4 Ft


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LORD mayor Robert Doyle finds out on October 27 if voters want him to occupy the Town Hall for another term, but in the meantime he's out and about spruiking Team Doyle. One of the benefits of incumbency is dressing in black tie with wife Emma Page Campbell to be centre stage at the Heart of Melbourne ball on Saturday to aid the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation and reduce homelessness. Doyle has refused to tell The Age who is bankrolling his election campaign, opting to disclose donations of more than $500 within 40 days after the ballot, and will welcome a change of pace from hitting the hustings, especially if he hits the dance floor and gets his groove on with the Peter Sullivan band. Organised by the Lady Mayoress' Committee, the event attracts charitable types who'll pay at least $220 for a ticket and very generous souls can opt for the more expensive VIP package for more ''razzle-dazzle'' during the ''Showtime'' theme that celebrates the city's musical theatre heritage. Given Doyle's favourite overseas destination is New York, he will be thrilled that leggy lady of the theatre Rhonda Burchmore will sing New York, New York. Comedian Mark Mitchell and other cast members from the musical More Sex Please … We're Seniors! will hit the stage to entice guests to buy a ticket. The ''more sex'' message isn't aimed at any particular older guests, but it may resonate with some.
Funny about that
A FUNNY thing happened before composer Stephen Sondheim was on the way to Melbourne to see the premiere of his musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum on October 27. Well, not exactly funny, but unfortunate because the American fractured his right wrist and was ordered by his doctor to stay home and recover, meaning he will miss the opening night and his highly anticipated appearance to talk about the Tony Award-winning production with paying guests on October 22. The show will go on and November 5 is the new date for Sondheim to chat with Ray Martin at Her Majesty's Theatre.
Pub with lots of beer
DURING the Melbourne Cup carnival, there are horses for courses and chefs preparing courses, especially in the James Boag marquee with its Tasmanian theme and army in the kitchen. In a salute to the city's gastro pubs, the three guest chefs are Paul Wilson from Circa and the Melbourne Pub Group, The Smith's Michael Lambie, the Botanical's Luke Brabin and the guest pastry chef is Darren Purchese from the Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio. Too many chefs won't spoil the brew because they are all preparing signature dishes and Purchese will combine flavours like never before with a dessert called the ''James Boag beer chocolate cream tartlet with fresh waters of Tasmania jelly''. Former footballer Matthew Richardson is the Boag's Draught ambassador, an arduous role requiring elbow action to sample the product, and the decibels on cup day will be raised when singer Jon Stevens performs after the main race. No one will go thirsty or hungry.
Craving for mussels
EVER since Canberra's dethroned speaker Peter Slipper had a distasteful fixation with mussels, the mollusc has commanded attention whenever it is mentioned. Mark this in your diary because the Australian Mussel Industry Association is holding a mussel awareness day on October 28 during the Great Australian Mussel Eating Challenge at the Belgian Beer Cafe, the St Kilda Road venue that's being relaunched as the Village Brasserie. Owner George Christopoulos, brother of hospitality veteran Con Christopoulos, has had mussel pots on the menu for a decade and wants to raise the profile of the shelled gift of the sea by promoting its nutritional value and serving variations. Saying ''G'day'' at the festival will be Peter Russell-Clarke, the chipper chef and artist who created a comic strip called The puzzling case of the reluctantly opening mussel. Foodies wanting to be more aware about the mussel will receive the comic strip, a mussel newsletter and recipes.


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As the newest Director of Debate at William Jewell College, I want to thank you for taking an interest in our program. Since 1873, Jewell debate has remained one of the longest running and most successful programs on campus. Jewell has won multiple intercollegiate debate national championships and is consistently ranked as one of the best debate teams in the nation. We compete in parliamentary debate, regularly attending the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE) and National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) national tournaments. The team travels regionally and nationally—including trips to California, Colorado, Oregon and Texas—in addition to attending both major parliamentary debate national championships.
Every year, Jewell hosts the national opener for parliamentary debate (Georgia B. Bowman Invitational), drawing top schools from across the country. Our program enjoys the continued support of the Board of Trustees, administration, faculty and staff of William Jewell College. The College consistently acknowledges the benefit of competitive debating to a liberal arts education—our team produces students with extraordinary speaking, research, critical thinking and advocacy skills.
During the competitive season, our squad members often volunteer their time to judge at local National Forensic League tournaments and with the Urban Debate League/DEBATE-KC. After graduation, Jewell debaters regularly achieve success in the private sector, academia and in public service. We also regularly produce students that find themselves accepted to Top 20 law school and graduate school programs. Our coaching staff acknowledges that competition is a means to achieve a specific end, not the end itself. While we are concerned with your success in debate, we are primarily concerned with setting you up for success after you leave William Jewell College.
If you are interested in becoming part of a successful tradition of Jewell debate, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please like our Facebook page to receive updates from the team and full results from all tournaments.
Kyle Dennis
Interim Director of Debate
Instructor of Communication


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The Eastern Division of the TCA (Train Collectors of America) holds it's Meet twice a year in April and October.
The Meet, better know as 'York' is held in York, Pennsylvania, which is located approximately 20 miles South of Harrisburg.
This is the largest Train Meet in the world. If you ever attend, you will not believe it. Last time that I counted there were eight gigantic halls, some designated for dealers, some for collectors. Each hall is named after a color such as red, purple, yellow, etc. All halls sell out to train vendors well in advance of each show.
You must be a member of the TCA to attend, or if you know a member, you can go as a guest one time.
If you have an interest in becoming a TCA member and attending the show, you may E-Mail the TCA directly and ask for more information. We would be happy to sponsour you.
If you are driving through NW Pa to get to York, please consider stopping buy our store. For more information on directions to our store and store hours, please follow this link.
For questions or comments, please email or call us at
(814) 833-8313. Fax: (814) 838-3237
Train City, 3133 Zuck Road, Erie, Pa. 16506
All Rights Reserved


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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WqbxT-yI28&w=560&h=315]
A couple of days ago, in midst of day two of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, I struck upon an Archimedean Point.
Oilers draft theory: They want college kids so they can draft and follow without effecting the 50-man for years? — Romulus' Apotheosis (@RomulusNotNuma) June 28, 2014
When I wrote this, the Oilers had just drafted their 3rd US College bound over-ager, Tyler Vesel (Round 6, 153rd OV). He followed Zach NagelVoort (Round 4, 111th OV) and Liam Coughlin (Round 5, 130th OV). All three are 1994 birthdays. All three are Americans. All three are committed to US Colleges next year (Nagelvoort has already played a year of College hockey).
[An interesting sidebar: The Oilers 2nd pick of the draft, William Lagesson (Round 4, 91st OV) looks like he may end up in the USHL next year].
The run of 3 in a row struck me as odd. The Oilers passed on a variety of interesting CHL talent. I, for one, was hoping to see them grab one of the following: Brayden Point, Spencer Watson, Chase de Leo, Vladimir Tkachev or one of the over-agers Edgars Kulda and Jaedon Descheneau. All suffer from one worry or another (mostly size related). But, given the level of competition they play in (the CHL is a very good set of development leagues) and their age (excepting the over-agers I listed), all appear much safer bets to become "impact players" in the NHL than the assortment the Oilers chose.
At any rate, the pattern suggested the Oilers had something in mind here. I clearly wasn't the only one picking up on it. In this media scrum, Stu MacGregor is asked a couple of questions that follow the same logic as mine.
Q: Can you talk about the strategy to draft the kids that are a little bit older, 19 year old out of the BCHL [Note: this is Coughlin, he'll be 20 this Sept.] and then the kid that put up huge numbers, was a little older, in the USHL [Note: this is Vesel], was there a mindset behind that, or are you just taking a good player?
This was my question as well. MacGregor's answer is interesting. First, he demurs.
MacGregor: There's no strategy at all (laughter) [Note: taken out of context this might be a good slogan for the Oilers in general]. They were just kinda the next players on our list.
But… instead of sticking to that line of argument, MacGregor pivots immediately to tout the benefits of the situation, strategy or no.
MacGregor: I think… they are players that are just entering college, which I think is a good thing. They'll play against older players a little bit earlier. And, it will give us an opportunity to watch them for maybe two to four years. So, you might have a little bit more time before you have to get to that signing stage.
2010: The Year We Make Contact
I think part of what is going on here is the curse of 2010. After Taylor Hall, the 2010 draft still managed to show a lot of promise. It got largely positive reviews at the time (it was no doubt inflated by the relative horror that was the 2009 draft). Here's Terry Jones, at the time, giving the year a lot of pressure to live up to. And, here's the boys at Coppernblue giving a well-balanced contemporaneous appraisal. The Oilers' own puff piece on the draft is here.
Since then, the draft (after Hall) hasn't found much to cheer for. The emergence of Martin Marincin and the tiny glimmer of NHL hope that is Tyler Pitlick have improved the look of the draft class over the past year. However, it remains clouded in controversy all the same. Bruce McCurdy recently took a look at the late birthdays of the bunch (those born closer to the Sept. 15th start date of the draft year) to see if there was a counterfactual way to improve the development paths of the group. He found that, by and large, the paths chosen (to elevate the players to pro work, rather than send them back for over-age junior seasons) was based on sound logic. Only in the case of Tyler Pitlick did he feel serious questions were legitimate.
Regardless, a series of questions float in the ether around the 2010 draft and the development of the players chosen, especially regarding the 3 forwards chosen in the early going (Pitlick, 31; Hamilton, 48; Marindale, 61). While Martindale has since left the organization, this Summer the Oilers are faced with having to decide whether to qualify expiring RFAs Pitlick and Hamilton.
I think it is a fair assumption that the Oilers are none to thrilled about having to decide on players at once underwhelming, yet previously highly regarded and probably still seen as having a shot at NHL employment (albeit a long and getting longer shot). No doubt they would prefer to defer the question on these players at least a year. They clearly still see potential in them (Pitlick got a long look in training camp this year and his first NHL cup of coffee; and, Hamilton got a lot of attention by the Oilers PR department mid-way through the year, see here, here, here and here), but at the same time they appear leery of granting another contract to players who've had 3 ELC years to prove themselves and come up short.
What if the Oilers convinced themselves, based on the experience of the 2010 draft, that they would prefer players that come with a longer CBA timeline? (Here's a good write-up on how the current CBA relates to NCAA players, depending on the age they are drafted and when they decide to turn pro). Without getting into the arcana of the CBA and how it relates to these individual players, the basic idea here is the following:
1) You draft an older player (19 or 20), who at that point is a little closer to what they are going to develop into. So, their highs and lows are more clearly defined as a projectable professional hockey player.
2) You see them off to a four year college program, during which time they do not clog up your development system (i.e., they don't take up a roster spot in the AHL) and they don't take up a spot on the 50-man reserve list.
3) With any luck, somewhere between their freshman and senior year of college they turn into bona fide prospects, in which case you sign an already mature player (say 21-24 years old) to an ELC and bring them into the system to compete for NHL work.
Regardless of the whether this scheme pays off, you've avoided two things in this situation: 1) having to fill your development system with marginal prospects (and, that is what we are talking about here when faced with players taken in the 4th round and later); and, 2) having to make a contractual decision on a player before you are ready to.
Success Avoidance
While I can see a team like the Oilers talking themselves into a scheme like this on the apparent merit of its prudence, it remains flawed in a lot of ways. It doesn't read to me like a cautious, prudent approach. It reads like an overly cautious fear of success.
Part of the subtext goes like this: what if we get too many good hockey players? where are we going to put them all? we're only allowed 50 on the reserve list and I don't like having to rush my decision making!
At the end of the day, we're talking about fairly marginal prospects (even if the Oilers had chosen from my preferred list above). If they turn out, you find room, or trade them for something else on your wish list (just this year a pair of NHL-ready prospects taken past the first round of the 2009 draft, were traded by very good NHL teams––Brandon Pirri and Linden Vey). If they don't, or if they remain a distant bell, you cut bait.
The goal, however, is to stock the shelves with good prospects that force you into hard decisions. The goal, however, is not to seek the cover of long-shots you don't have to worry over for several years. Which brings us to the question of drafting impact players.
Reviewing the 2014 Draft Under the Prism of 'Impact Players'
The other day, I reviewed Craig MacTavish's stated draft philosophy of seeking only players in the later rounds that project out as 'impact players.' Here's a reminder of what he said:
For every player that we draft in those mid to later rounds, we want to be able to make a case of why this guy has the potential to be really a top 7 forward, anyone of the 3 top center positions and the four top wing positions, or a top 4 defenseman. If that player doesn't look like he has the potential to develop into that, then we're gonna pass and try to find somebody that fits that need.
Well, I've got news for you: A 19 year old (turning 20 this Sept.) who can't crack a point per game in the BCHL is not going to become an impact player.
The players that get a sniff of NHL work out of that league (say, this trio from 2007: Kyle Turris, Riley Nash and Jamie Benn as the big success stories) reliably cover off two bases: they are drafted in their first year of eligibility and/or they score at or well above a point per game basis.
If we look at marginal-to-still-possible NHLers from this league from 2004 through 2010, we can identify one or two areas of concern, which probably relates to their struggles to hit the NHL running. Tyler Eckford (2004; 7 NHL games) was drafted in his 19 year old season and failed to a point per game. But, he had 101 PIMs in 58 games. So, there's a good chance he was drafted as a face-puncher. He spent last season struggling to score in the AHL. Raymond Sawada (2004; 11 NHL games), also drafted in his 19 year old season, fell just short of a point per game pace (0.96). He spent last season in the SM-Liiga. Zac Dalpe (2008; 96 NHL games), another player drafted in his 19 year old season, scored well above a point per game pace and spent most of the season last year with the Canucks. He's a tweener at this point and a long-shot to hit 200 NHL games. Derek Grant (2008; 25 NHL games) was drafted in his first year of eligibility and scored above a point per game pace. He is currently a tweener and has a slim chance to hit 200 NHL games. Beau Bennett (2010; 47 NHL games), drafted in his 19 year old season, blew the doors off the point per game pace (2.14) and is, barring more injuries, going to hit 200 NHL games with no problem.
Even in this motley group (excepting Bennett), we can see that they bought NHL games by either being drafted earlier and/or scoring more than a player like Liam Coughlin.
Bob Brown, Every Little Step
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0FKzPfsxA4&w=420&h=315]
BC Hockey Hall of Famer, Bob Brown, serves as a long-time amateur scout for the Oilers (he's been with the team since 2002) covering off junior hockey out West.
In 2009, Bob Brown "had an extreme passion for [Cam Abney.]" Abney, after struggling to find a role for himself shuffling between the ECHL and the AHL, is no longer part of the Oilers' organization (he was sent to the Maple Leafs in a 50-man reserve list dump alongside the rights to Teemu Hartikainen in exchange for Mark Fraser). Abney had 4 points and 103 PIMs in his draft year in the WHL. He was picked 82nd OV in the 3rd round. It was a horrible pick.
As I speculated the other day, I believe the Oilers suffered a draft philosophy crisis as a result of the 2009 draft. They've upped their standards and are talking about finding "impact players" in later rounds. In the 2013 draft, we saw what that might look like with the Greg Chase pick.
But, in 2013, we also saw the Oilers take Evan Campbell before Chase. Campbell, a 20 year old over-ager from the BCHL, is what I imagine Bob Brown thinks a late round impact player looks like. This year, we see the template print off another from the mold, Liam Coughlin, an over-ager from the BCHL.
MacGregor cites G scout Dave Heitz on the Zachary Nagelvoort pick https://t.co/ChRQqSL898 Bob Brown (and others) on Liam Coughlin
— Romulus' Apotheosis (@RomulusNotNuma) June 28, 2014
Left Behind
The good news, such as it is, is that Bob Brown and the Oilers have upgraded their standards since Cam Abney. The bad news is… they still aren't nearly high enough. And, they are no where near "impact players."


text: When Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol, lots of contestants sand her songs. Sure, it was probably an attempt to ingratiate themselves with her and to get a yes vote, but Paula never said to anyone to not sing her songs. Jennifer Lopez on the other hand does not want Idol contestants to sing her songs. "It was cute, super entertaining and flattering, but no." I think it has less to do with people singing her songs, and more to do with the fact that there will probably be lots of singers who sing them way better than she ever has. Who cares if people sing her songs. Steven Tyler has not come out and said for contestants to not sing Aerosmith songs. Of course has done so many drugs he might not actually remember they are his songs.


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Today I dedicate this blog to my Wonderful Husband Roger Gundy. Today is our 21st Wedding Anniversary. Today was the day 21 years ago we announced to everyone our great love. But that love would have been nothing without the Lord. The following scripture was read at our wedding and we still abide by it.
The Excellence of Love
13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body [a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 [b]bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of [c]prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I [d]became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror [e]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the [f]greatest of these is love.
Today is a Bittersweet day for me. It is also the day that my dear Mother was called home to be with the Lord. Upon much prayer Rog and I both knew that Mon would want me to be married. So we continued on and the Lord did Bless us in so many ways that day.
It seems like yesterday. My wonderful son was there as well as Rogers children. I also had my family and Rogers's family. We even flew our own Pastor in for our wedding. Art Bourgeois who had mentored me through the hard times of my life and who now was helping me into the new chapter of my life. What a wonderful day, but just like our life, not without trials. One great thing was that both of us were entering this chapter knowing the Lord and loving Him with all our heart.
As I look back over the years I see years of Love and Forgiveness. Most of all just as the scripture says Love. Without Love for each other and one another we have nothing. Rog I write this to Thank You for your Love and Support through everything we have been through. Throughout the 21 years we have met some wonderful Christian friends and have learned so much through our trials. Like the old saying The Best Is Yet To Come. As we walk this final leg of our life together may it be ALL that GOD wants for us. If everyone could Be Blessed with what we have. It is very Special and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.