Thursday, February 19, 2009

None too surprising

Ann Coulter insults TCNJ students, calls liberals (expletive)

Yeah, that's what we all expected. No riots, either. The protests went off as expected, without violence.
Many of the dissidents wanted to draw attention to the nearly $24,000 price tag her attendance garnished from TCNJ’s student finance board, which is funded in large part by fees included in the semester’s tuition, according to the TCNJ chapter of the College Republicans.
“Coulter has said things in the past that are extremely offensive and racist, and I don’t think that my tuition should go towards hateful speech,” said a soggy Marlowe Boettcher, a political science major, as he clutched his protest sign.
The hype behind Coulter’s appearance has been months in the making. She was supposed to present in January but was forced to postpone because of a broken jaw, according to her Web site.
Sophmore Dena Lago said that the injury was “poetic justice.”


You said it, Dena.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Skinny bleach blonde evil at TCNJ

Professional hatemonger Ann Coulter was expected to finally make an appearance at TCNJ tonight. From the Times of Trenton:

Coulter, whose latest book, "Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America," was released Jan. 6, has been booed, jeered and even hit by pies during past speaking dates, but members of the TCNJ community insist they expect no such antics.
"I'll put nothing past liberals, but I think generally speaking, with the way the event has been planned and the security we have in place, we have planned an informative, entertaining lecture and we don't expect there to be any problems," (president of the College Republicans Brian) Hackett said.


He'd put nothing past liberals? What does he expect? The riots predicted by comedian Rush Limbaugh to finally happen? Luckily for our wingnut "patriots," there's extra security against those horrible left-wingers!

Ah, but what protest do our crafty liberals have in store?

Protesters clad in black with white armbands plan to quietly walk out of the auditorium at a certain juncture during the lecture, at which point they will gather at the student center to hold a discussion on topics such as halting prejudice, ending the Iraq War and the impact of the recent presidential election. (junior Matt) Hoke says protesters will also be handing out pamphlets before Coulter's talk that will attempt to persuade audience members to join the walkout.


A peaceful walkout during a biased, hate-filled speech.

I have hope for this world yet.

(I was unable to find an updated news report or a fresh blog post about the event. I'll post something tomorrow if I can.)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The iPod Project, or, Too much of a good thing?

At the library where I work, a patron who came in regularly would chat with me about my iPod. At the time, I had a small iPod (that they don't even make anymore) and my husband had the larger one that held up to 20,000 songs. My patron couldn't wrap his head around this.

"How will he ever listen to 20,000 songs?" he'd ask.

Now, neither my nor my husband's iPod was full (even though he had a lot more than I did on his), but it was an interesting question- how will I ever listen to all the music I have on my iPod? So I decided to find out. I will listen to every song I have - just songs, mind you, not podcasts or tracks of audiobooks - in alphabetical order. I guessed it would take maybe a few months.

It's been 8, so far, and I'm only on the Ss.

I only listen to my iPod while walking by myself or doing yardwork. I walk 2-3 hours a week and yardwork is seasonal, but that gives an idea of how long this is taking me. Folks who listen in their cars on long commutes or other places would take much less time to pull this off. But it's been an enlightening exercise for me.

I have songs I forgot I had. Stuff I got free from iTunes and never deleted. Things I can't imagine why I put on there. Old albums I didn't even remember having on CD. Audiobooks I forgot to delete when I finished listening to them that come up in rotation.

Mind you, my new iPod is nowhere near full- and I have pictures eating up memory, too.

This project has been a lot of fun- it makes for some great segues. I have a CD of Yo-Y0 Ma's cello performances that are titled with the composer's name- Bach. After listening to a whole CD's worth of lyrical music, the next song alphabetically was AC-DC's Back in Black. Sometimes Gorillaz finishes and a Sandra Boynton song comes on. Gotta love it.

So my patron is right about one thing- it's difficult to remember what's there. But I can't say it's too much of a good thing to have that much memory; after all, I can still add more pictures, and I've been building up podcasts I haven't listened to yet. In theory I could add movies, if I wanted to watch on a tiny little screen. The capacity of the device may not be used up, but I'm having a lot of fun with it anyway.

It's warm out today. Maybe I'll take the dogs for a walk, and see if I can get to the letter T.

(Originally posted on my Info Tech class blog)