Jesus Camp

Yesterday Eddie and I watched the documentary Jesus Camp, which examines the work of Becky Fischer and her evangelical Christian camp for kids in North Dakota called "Kids on Fire." It some ways the content of the movie was what I expected, another "scary" presentation of evangelical Christians (see Bradley Wright's post on this topic). However, Corey pointed out a review by John Trott that I think more accurately reflects my take on the movie. In particular, Trott very articulately explained how the movie makes one feel ambiguous about beliefs, socialization, and the separation of church and state. "Where is the border between belief and action, faith and politics, the Bible and culture? And where is the border between Christianity and America?"

I strive to be very tolerant of religious diversity and generally respect people who are spiritual, regardless of their particular religious practices. I must admit, though, that parts of the movie were "scary" for me. In particular, I really do not understand speaking in tongues and witnessing makes me rather uncomfortable, particularly when it's done by children. However, there were other parts of the movie that were admirable, even though they weren't presented that way, such as the desire of children to be close to God or teaching children basic good behaviors.

There were two things about this subculture of Christianity shown in the movie that I found particularly troublesome. The first was the blatant rejection of science. While I'm familiar with the debate over creationism, I didn't really appreciate the complete rejection of scientific findings and the mockery of science that was illustrated in this film. The casual dismissal of scientific evidenced regarding global warming was especially disturbing. The other thing that bothered me was the attack on Harry Potter. Now, aside from my personal affinity for Harry, it seemed strange to me that fiction or creativity had no place in the subculture portrayed in the movie. It was also troubling that the adults so easily dismissed the one book series that has gotten so many kids in America to enjoy reading again.

Overall this was a fascinating movie and I highly recommend it, especially for social scientists. Our next movie night is dedicated to Happy Feet, which I doubt will generate such a lengthy post.

Pac-Man Has Been Slighted

Pac-Man is my favorite video game ever. One reason is that it was the first video game I ever played, probably starting when I was about 10 or so. We didn't have an arcade in our neighborhood, so we would walk over to the local party store and play for a quarter a game. Aside from the nostalgia, the other reason why it's my favorite is that I simply don't play many others. We have not easily resisted the temptation to buy any home gaming consoles, although I came very close to buying a PS as a graduation present for myself. I am too easily addicted to video games and figured that I would never have finished my dissertation or now I would never be productive enough to get tenure if we had lots of gaming options at home. The exception to this rule is my one-and-only computer game, Civilization, and even there I struggle with limiting my playing time.

So imagine my outrage when I read that Pac-Man did not make the list of the 10 video games that belong in a museum!!! Unbelievable! I realize that it's not terribly sophisticated or challenging, but it's a classic. So here are the ones that made the list. I don't even know what half of them are:

"Civilization" (series)
"Doom""
"Sensible World of Soccer"
"SimCity" (series)
"Spacewar!"
"Star Raiders"
"Super Mario Bros. 3"
"Tetris"
"Warcraft" (series)
"Zork"

For my ICPSR friends, the article also discussed the Library of Congress effort to preserve digital entertainment.

Pop!

That is the sound of my bubble bursting 20 minutes after my last post when I realized that a fairly major project was due in 2 weeks, as opposed to the 5 weeks that I thought I had left to finish it. And one of those weeks is spring break. (Sigh ...)

Sense of Accomplishment

This has been another hectic week where I've felt like I've been playing "catch up" on everything. After 10 hours in the office today I finally feel like I'm making progress. I use my email inbox as my 'to do' list and it's a good indicator of how well I have my work under control. I try to keep the inbox limited to 25 emails of outstanding things to respond to or to do, but this month it has been hovering around a very stressful 60. Today I have managed to get it down to 40, so I feel like I've accomplished something. This, of course, does not count the normal work activities that I have to deal with that don't show up in email, such as teaching, writing, and research. Oh yeah, and I have to put together a packet of information about my accomplishments to date as an assitant professor for my contract renewal. I guess that's what I'll be doing this weekend. One more week until spring break.

Curious Minds Want to Know

about the aforementioned haircut, so here it is. I must be used to it now because this picture doesn't seem so dramatically different to me, but I did cut off about 6 inches. I should have taken a picture of the piles of hair on the floor of the salon which would have better reflected my initial shock. Anyhow, I like it, which is all that really matters. (Oh, and Eddie approves as well.)

City of Brotherly Love

I've returned from my brief trip to Philadelphia for the Eastern Sociological Society meetings. I really like Philly a lot. It has a cool urban vibe to it. It definitely has its share of urban problems as well, but it has great downtown and historic districts that make it a more vibrant and less hopeless city than Detroit. Although I've been there several times, it's been a while since my last trip so I had plans to do some exploring. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and a nasty little snow/sleet storm kept me indoors for most of the weekend. Luckily I was still able to venture out to the suburbs Saturday afternoon to visit one of my college roommate, who I haven't seen in years.

Despite the weather, the conference was pretty good. In fact, this is becoming one of my favorite conferences. It's more intimate, and less intimidating, than the American Sociological Association meetings. I had the opportunity to hear some great sociologists speak and I met up with some of my favorite sociology friends. I also like the sociology meetings because they give me a chance to think about social issues other than crime. While criminology is my main research area by choice, there are other things that I find equally interesting. I made a point this year of not going to any sessions about crime so that I could think about these other things. I listened to Michele Lamont talk about her new book on how academics define "excellence," I heard an interesting panel on sociologists' views of Freakonomics, and I was engaged by Arlie Hochschild's discussion of her career and tips for professional success.

I also look forward to conferences to recharge. They are a break from the normal routine of the semester and I often get inspired by the work of my colleagues. While this trip was a good break for me intellectually, I'm not sure it recharged my energy levels. I'm still swamped with work and this week is packed full of meetings. Only two more weeks until Spring Break!

A Holiday for Geeks

Not only is today Pi Day (March 14 = 3.14), but it's also Einstein's birthday. NPR ran an interesting story about Einstein's life. The tidbit that I found most interesting was how Einstein wrote his best stuff outside of academia while working at a patent office. His mind was free from the constraints of academic expectations and the judgments of his peers so he could be completely creative with his ideas. I think my experiences at my last job have shown that this scenario wouldn't work for me (aside from the fact that I'm not nearly as smart as Einstein), but once in a while I have to remind myself to let my mind work in its own way and not force it to be so structured by the "little things," like tenure.

Oy!

Grading sucks.

And I'm too tired to even try to be more profound than that. I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. A few more busy days of grading, preparing students for a midterm, getting some neglected projects up to date, and then things should slow down a bit. I'm going to Philly on Thursday for the Eastern Sociology meetings. I'm not presenting there so it should be an enjoyable trip. Hopefully I'll be able to recharge a bit.

Off the Radar

I have neglected the blog for a while because I'm swamped with work. Now our phone isn't working, so I've been out of touch with people for a few days. Rest assured, things are fine and I am not intentionally ignoring anyone. I still have a bunch of work to do tonight, so let me give you a quick synopsis of what's going on here:

• Work is hectic. It's a busy time in the semester and I'm slightly overwhelmed.
• I had a great teaching moment today. There are times when you really connect with students and it reminds you that teaching is a calling and not merely a job.
• Eddie is still in Michigan, awaiting the birth of his great-niece (like that doesn't make us sound old).
• I cut off most of my hair today. It's not radically short, but much shorter than it has been in ages ... and I think I like it.

Scary Pep Talk

Another quotable moment from the Gilmore Girls. Paris, a student at Yale and a scary, Type-A personality, has become editor of the student newspaper and delivers the following speech to her new staff:

The work will be hard.
It has to be hard.
Nothing less than perfect will be tolerated.
Please remember that I am your editor.
I am not your mother, or your hugger.
If you need some love, get a hooker.
If you're having a bad day, find a ledge.
My door is not open to you ... ever.
Welcome to the Yale Daily News.

A little harsh, even by my standards, but I can relate to the "hugger" warning. I realize I've been blogging about t.v. a lot lately. Eddie's out of town for the week leaving me with more free time and complete control of the t.v.