3.9.04

So I guess it's time to get back on the air, so to speak.

I've got a $*@&ing plagiarizing student right now -- really hard to deal with that kind of stuff. Would you believe he plagiarized FIVE items already for my class, and we're not even at the middle of the semester yet? Today I caught him rolling his eyes at me in class. Granted, I was definitely having an enthusiastic geek moment, but there went his shot at getting out of an automatic F for the semester. Just kidding though. He never had a shot in the first place.

So many things I keep meaning to write about but then lose track of. I saw The Passion on opening weekend, and boy did it suck. Sorry to offend anyone by that -- it's not that I have any problem at all with representations of J.C. -- I'm actually quite intrigued by religion, and I enjoy my own spiritual experiences greatly. But mon dieux! What a shitty movie! What really bugged me was that the villains were so easy to hate. I mean, come on. Do people really buy into "bad guys" stereotypes that easily? "Satan" (who was interestingly adrogynous) had a worm crawl out of his nose (CHEESY!), the Roman torturers were simply giddy with their own brutality (talk about job satisfaction, sheesh!), and the Jewish priests were nothing but single-minded morons, as was the crowd. I'm not saying that people aren't capable of stupidity (you should see how my plagiarizer got himself caught), but it's just that most situations are more... COMPLEX. Read the word aloud. COMPLEX. A good story needs tension, just like a well-written villain needs complexity (Psst... that goes for understanding real folks too). And The Passion had neither. Very clear margins of good and evil -- and I think that's just spoon-feeding the audience an oversimplified morality tale. Why not challenge folks to really THINK about Jesus, Mel? All the film asks of Christians is to zealously identify with Jesus and to furiously hate his persecutors. Now where's the STORY in that? The Biblical Jesus seems WAY more interesting to me. And one other thing -- why did Judas even need to betray Jesus in the first place? He'd been in town for 5 days already, and EVERYBODY cheered him in. I'm sure folks knew him by appearance by that time -- especially if you consider that Jerusalem must have been an ittle bitty town, by our current standards of population and square footage. It wouldn't have been too hard for anyone to round up J.C. So what's the Judas part all about? Seems like something is missing there -- I don't think we've been getting the full story...

Otherwise, the slow boat to 30 seems to be filling up regularly. First me, then Drew, then Suz, then Melissa. Even Mike G. is turning 30 today. At least it's not a lonely journey. Aquarians and Piesces first! (Since I don't know any 30-year-old Capricorns)

And speaking of folks my own age, it's so funny. I periodically look up old friends online, just to see what I can catch up on. Most of them are hard to find -- why don't any of them keep BLOGS, for instance? It would be so helpful. Anyway, today I was looking up Theresa, one of those very key people in the development of me-as-a-human, and I happened to find a set of course evaluations about her. I wasn't sure if they referred to her -- I mean, I know she teaches, but she's got a pretty common name, like myself. But then I got on to the comments about taking a smoke break with her to get in on her good side, and I began to suspect it just might be her. Then when I found a comment saying she looked like Olive Oil, I just cracked up. Sheesh -- I can't believe that whole identity is still following her around like a worn out shoe. Won't it just fall off her already? Then that started a whole debate about whether she really looked like Olive Oil or was actually quite a foxy bitch. The class seemed divided. Just as a side note -- isn't it funny how students don't really pay attention to what they're actually supposed to be learning, and end up making evaluations based on looks? Huh. Maybe I better start dressing better for class. But at least Theresa is findable. Though she still needs a blog.

I wonder how many other people google each other. Maybe I'll just start listing names of people I know so that when their friends google them, they'll come to my site. Of course, I could always just make up people's names too, to see if I piss anybody off by randomly listing them. Well here goes. If you've googled Lei Lani Michel, Jesse Hoppes, Shannon Hargrave, Bradley Watts, Polly Burns, Heidi Zansler, Frances Hwang, Duncan the Cat, or Wendy Erman, maybe you'll end up here. Ha!! I crack myself up!!
God, I'm nutty.

Guess I'll take my sailor speech and wackiness and bid adieu.

Comments

[monica]

that is hilarious, tracey - i google people all the time. and whenever i post an embarassing picture of one of my friends, I almost *always* include their full name in the caption.

most recently, my friend Dave Kammeyer was telling me that a girl he was seeing googled him and found a drunken photo of him on my website. according to him, she said, "you're a freak".

[Heidi]

Hi girl, I googled myself while looking for a website!!! he, he, I have not read all that you wrote above, as am pretty busy in the first place and should not be googling myself. (thank you for making me feel important ;-) miss you frind