Tuesday, September 18
For some odd reason, I've become hooked on downloading and listening to a capella songs lately. Dang, I wish I could sing. That stuff is cool.
posted by Jason Bauer at 1:42 AM Speak!
"Why I Am Bitter" by Jason Bauer I am bitter because bad things happen to good people. I am bitter because certain closeminded people and political entities don't have the common decency to distinguish between the people they're allowed to shoot at and the people they're not allowed to shoot at. I am bitter because now, forever more, whether you (yeah, you) mean what you say or not, I have to expect you to change your mind without warning. I am bitter because I can't tell the truth without being a bad person. I am bitter because people assume they know what I'm thinking. I am bitter because there is a hole in my sock. I am bitter because two people can speak English and still be talking in entirely different languages. I am bitter because in 20 years, none of it will matter and no one will remember anything. I am bitter because people will think I'm just being bitter to get attention. I am bitter because people do stupid things just to get attention. I am bitter because I got a B in Western Political Theory sophomore year because Dr. Hammond didn't use the plus/minus system. I am bitter because bitter is the way to be, baby. Would you like to be bitter too? I can show you how. It's remarkably easy, if you'll just listen to my simple plan and send me your credit card number. And the good news is, once you have been bitter long enough, you won't be bitter anymore. You won't be anything anymore. Not happy, not sad, not angry, not sympathetic. You will be entirely unmoved by all the petty little trivial problems of your life. Finally, finally, you will be cool. You will be The Man. You will be able to deal with anything, absolutely anything, because dealing is easy when you don't care. But then, to your shock and horror, you will discover that not caring suddenly isn't cool anymore. You will discover that caring is something essential, something 100% bona fide inimical to the human spirit, and without it, you will be missing out on the sweetest parts of life. You will cry out in anger and come rushing back to me, demanding a refund, demanding me to undo what I did and make you no longer an unmovable soul. You will rail against me and curse my name and hate everything I stand for. And I will shrug and say, "If you can raise up that much passion against me... I guess I didn't teach you very well to begin with." And the silence that follows will be deafening.
Or not.
posted by Jason Bauer at 1:31 AM Speak!
Monday, September 17
Maybe getting up early is good for the soul. In that case, I've done my part today to improve my soul. I am, therefore, taking my new improved self back to bed.
posted by Jason Bauer at 9:09 AM Speak!
Sunday, September 16
A good weekend, all things considered. Some work, some fun, some poker. I went to two memorial services here at JMU this weekend. One on Friday as part of President Bush's national day of prayer and remembrance was held on the Quad and inside Wilson Hall. The bells were rung at noon and afterwards, hundreds of students filed into the auditorium to silently reflect on recent events and their significance. Today in the Convocation Center, Dr. Rose, Dave Mills and Father John shared reflections from their various points of view: University President, SGA President, campus minister. Coupled with the sounds of the JMU Wind Symphony and the Madison Singers, it was a most moving presentation. Next week starts off with a bang tomorrow morning at (ugh) 8 (ugh) a.m. (ugh) with a classroom visit for FYI. The week was to have been almost totally occupied with Madison Symposium, but that's been postponed, so now I've got a lot of time to catch up on reading and such. Actually what I ought to do is study for the GREs. Ack. Two weeks. Ack.
posted by Jason Bauer at 11:08 PM Speak!
Friday, September 14
posted by Jason Bauer at 3:30 PM Speak!
posted by Jason Bauer at 3:03 PM Speak!
Wednesday, September 12
posted by Jason Bauer at 5:31 PM Speak!
I think after September 11, 2001, nothing will ever be quite the same again. I've been incredibly lucky to have been, so far as I know, personally untouched by this unprecedented tragedy. My family, my friends, and my colleagues all seem to be safe. Even as that thought brings me comfort, I'm simply horrified. Horrified beyond belief that this could happen here, to us, in my lifetime. Four planes with innocent passengers and crew. Over a hundred people at the Pentagon. Countless, countless others in New York City. I have been stunned, outraged, numb. I hope anyone and everyone who reads this will join me in extending best thoughts, wishes, and prayers to the innocent victims of this act of evil. We live in a blind, sick world. But we will prevail.
posted by Jason Bauer at 12:39 AM Speak!
Tuesday, September 11
Oh my god.
posted by Jason Bauer at 11:20 AM Speak!
Monday, September 10
I made really good burritos tonight. Really. Good. Burritos. With beef and everything. Mmmm. I feel sorry for you if you didn't get to eat one of these burritos, I really do. But if you're very nice, maybe I'll make you one sometime. I have all the materials and everything. And one of these days maybe I'll quit using my blog as a forum for absurd boasting. Maybe. I could complain instead. Graduate program essays suck, my TV tuner card still doesn't work, my Sociology books still haven't arrived...
posted by Jason Bauer at 11:20 PM Speak!
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of Undergraduate Scholarship will be held this year on Saturday, October 27, at Sweet Briar College. Sponsored by the JMU History Department, I will be presenting "First Strike to Fallout: American Culture, Nuclear War, and the Movies, 1949-1999." This piece was originally prepared for HIST 439: 20th Century American Society and Culture, and in May 2001 was awarded First Place in the Junior/Senior category of the JMU Academic Writing Contest. Um, wow. Cool. (Moment of shameless self-promotion concluded.)
posted by Jason Bauer at 5:00 PM Speak!
Sunday, September 9
Dear God, the Redskins suck.
posted by Jason Bauer at 8:43 PM Speak!
Reblogger seems to be down, not that it got a lot of use anyway. I guess if you had a comment you were absolutely burning to make about a post, e-mail to bauerjs@jmu.edu. Just back from a visit to Virginia Tech, home of the Fighting Gobblers (who are enthusiastically slaughtering team after team foolish enough to go head to head with them on the football field). Besides bowling alley food, the voyage was a success and as fun as usual. Happy 22nd birthday to Andrew. The roadtrip adventures will continue later this month with a jaunt to King's Dominion in two weeks, and a trip back to Fairfax County on the 28th for the GREs (woo) and a concert at the Patriot Center (woo). It seems like I never spend any September weekends at JMU.
Have $478,967 to blow and searching for a new northern Virginia domicile? Do we have a deal for you.
posted by Jason Bauer at 7:38 PM Speak!
Friday, September 7
"Scooby is God. Shaggy is His Prophet. Scrappy is the Antichrist. Hail the Mystery Machine, van of the lord. Choose a number. Well, choose! Scooby smiteth thee! You would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those damned kids!" A program I found on my graphing calculator, designed by... guess who. (It wasn't me.)
posted by Jason Bauer at 10:32 PM Speak!
Thursday, September 6
Right this second, the atmosphere in this apartment is so nervous I expect the air to spontaneously burst into flames momentarily. This is the last time we have clergy over for dinner if this is how it's gonna be, I'll tell you that.
posted by Jason Bauer at 7:10 PM Speak!
Good grief, this just became the Semester o' Writing Conferences. Dr. Reich just recommended I present my award-winning paper on nuclear war movies at an Undergraduate Writing Conference at Sweet Briar College. Hopefully they'll let me read an abstract, considering how obscenely long and involved the actual paper is. Proof if any be needed that I'm nuts, who writes 8.4 billion pages about nuclear war movies? Who sits through 33 films chronicling the extermination of mankind over and over? Well, I'd apologize, but I just had too damn much fun writing it. Plus, it's really good. See, this is my new policy. I've decided to start acknowledging the things I'm good at, because everyone I know is way too blase about their accomplishments. Way too blase about everything, come to that. But anyway, since writing (about nuclear war movies) is about all I'm good at, you won't have to put up with me being quite this immodest ever again. Arrogant, yes, but not immodest.
posted by Jason Bauer at 2:22 AM Speak!
Wednesday, September 5
The scanner works. All is forgiven. You may now all release that huge breath I know you were holding in nervousness over not knowing that all my electronics were in fully operational mode. Now if only my portable MD player would arrive...
posted by Jason Bauer at 4:50 PM Speak!
Tuesday, September 4
Kate is awesome for wanting to take Elizabeth and I to an academic writing conference in Savannah, Georgia! I hope we get the money to do it, that would be awesome. And congrats to Elizabeth for getting her paper about the Writing Center published! All in all it's a big day of joyous commentary about the Writing Center.
posted by Jason Bauer at 10:49 PM Speak!
I have a new cable for my scanner. All should be well. The scanner stubbornly refuses to function properly. I wash my hands of it. Next time I'll leave it in Fairfax, where it can get boxed up and shipped off to Virginia Beach and left in a closet for months. See how you like that, scanner. Then we'll see how fast you want to start working.
posted by Jason Bauer at 6:46 PM Speak!
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