Last Update About WorldFest Incident

Ladies and Gentlemen, at this point (Friday, April 26th), there have been several articles published online about the WorldFest incident. It has received a surprising amount of attention, and I’m glad of that.

However, it is time to put the matter to rest, at least for me.  As I’ve said, I was not at the film festival, nor was I witness to any of this; my role has merely been as blogger and word-spreader.  I’ve said all that I can say on the matter, and I believe that my brother has said all that he can say on the matter.  People either believe him or they don’t, and there’s nothing more that can be said about that.

At this point, it is up to the Muslim student to decide whether she wants to continue to fight this situation or not, and I am not privy to or a part of that decision.

My university has expressed some concern about the possibilities of this situation escalating.  I don’t know about anyone else involved, but I know that prospect makes me nervous, particularly as my only hopes for the initial blog post were that a few people might read it and be as upset as I was, and perhaps an apology would be issued.  Well, an apology WAS issued, but unfortunately, the situation did not end there, and still threatens to escalate.

And quite frankly, folks, I’m a PhD student and college English teacher in the middle of finals, and my attentions are required elsewhere.  I have enough on my plate just trying to grade my students’ papers and write my own.

So, if something else major happens I will let you all know.  But for the moment, my role in this is done, and I need to get back to the work I’m paid for.

Thank you for all your interest and support in this past week,

Amanda

Update About the WorldFest Incident, Including Recent News Articles

Edit (4/26): The newest, (I think) the most clear and useful, and (I hope) the last article about this incident, from whatculture.com’s contributor Aeryk Pierson, who was a third-party witness to the incident.

Edit (4/25): One last Houston Chronicle article, that was posted online on Wednesday (4/24).

Edit (8pm): Just as I was writing this post, a sort-of apology was posted on the World Fest Facebook page.  Please feel free to read the post on their Facebook page, but I will also quote it at the bottom of this post so it is easier to find.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to give an update on the WorldFest incident and what has been happening in the last two days.  I thought the initial post was becoming too heavy with edits and updates. On the other hand, I’m worried that people will not see this update because the news stories have so far linked to my initial post.

In any case, just to fill everyone in who may (or may not) care:

As of 7:00pm on Tuesday, three separate online news sources have covered the story:

Houston Press, The Houston Chronicle, and Culture Map Houston.

These articles attempt to portray both sides of the story: my brother’s and Hunter Todd’s, and for the most part they have been fair.  The Houston Press article ran mostly based upon my blog and my brother’s facebook post. They attempted to contact Hunter Todd without success, but later added his response when he contact them.  The Houston Chronicle article interviewed Hunter Todd, but only ran with the information  from Mike’s facebook post. Mike later contacted the Chronicle because they had a few facts wrong, which they have now changed, but they did not add any additional comments from Mike. The Culture Map article did interview BOTH Hunter Todd and Mike.  I think Hunter Todd’s responses in each article speak for themselves.  I found it terrifying that Hunter Todd does not deny searching the Muslim student’s bag, and even explains that he did so BECAUSE she was wearing a hijab and demands: “What am I supposed to do?  Allow a terrorist to blow up 200 people?” (quoted in the Houston Chronicle article). THAT, my friends, is the DEFINITION of profiling.

I am concerned about a few things, however. Hunter Todd is resorting to character attacks on my brother, calling him a liar – particularly in regards to Mike’s claim that Hunter Todd tried to take his phone.  AND YET, at least one University of Houston student and one other WorldFest attendant (who commented on my initial blog) have CONFIRMED that Hunter Todd did in fact try to take Mike’s phone.  Unfortunately, neither the Houston Chronicle article nor the Culture Map article have included this information (and the Houston Press article only briefly mentions it), despite the fact that both witnesses said they were willing to go on record to corroborate the story. Thus, the news stories make it LOOK as if it is merely a case of he said/he said, with no proof on other side — when in fact TWO witnesses CAN and are WILLING to confirm at least parts of my brother’s version of events.

On TOP of this: from what I understand, The School of Communications at University of Houston have written a formal letter in defense of both the Muslim student and my brother.  Apparently, Hunter Todd has given a response.  I do not know what either letter contained, however, because the School of Communications has so far made neither their letter nor the response public.  This is unfortunate, as the fact that no one is aware that the University has become involved makes it even easier for Hunter Todd to attack Mike’s character with impunity, because the news articles present Mike as if he is a lone unsupported voice.  I fervently hope that the School of Communications, and preferably the whole University, will publicly support both the Muslim student and my brother and help to defend them both from accusations of lying.

And let me add this: Obviously, I was not at the event and I did not witness this incident. I am only involved so far as spreading the word is concerned. But I believe and trust my brother.  Besides which, what POSSIBLE motive could he have for lying about ANY of this?  I hope you all who have showed an interest and concern about this will continue to support us, and particularly my brother, as this situation moves forward, because I fear it is going to get worse before it gets better, and I do not want my brother to run under the bus because he was trying to do the right thing.

Thank You.

PS: on a side note, some of the comments on the Houston Chronicle article are absolutely HORRIFYING, and just go to show how far and how deep these ignorant, racist, Islamaphobic attitudes run. It makes me horribly sad.

The “apology” post from the World Fest Houston Facebook page:

WorldFest sincerely regrets any actions that were misconstrued or deemed offensive due to the recent situation during the organization’s master class at the Westchase Marriott this past weekend. WorldFest organizers acted on instinct for the safety of all based on the recent events in Boston. The emergency alarm and evacuation of the hotel resulted in great concern for the organization which felt its actions were justified to protect the well-being of all participants. WorldFest apologizes for responding in a way that may have seemed insulting but ultimately, everyone’s safety was the primary concern.

WorldFest plans to increase security in 2014 so festival staff can focus solely on enriching Houston’s film culture. WorldFest strives to provide a safe environment for persons of every background to collaborate with and learn from international film and filmmakers through cultural exchange, dialogue and master classes. As always, the festival and all of its events are open to the general public. We hope every culture, religion and nationality will be represented in the 47th annual WorldFest-Houston, April 2014.

Hunter Todd
WorldFest Founder and Chief Executive Officer

I hope you’ll forgive me for giving my own opinion of this post (I suppose I should just let you come to your own conclusions, but it is my blog, so I guess I’m entitled to share my opinion). This is the worst kind of false apology, one I’ve seen many times under a variety of circumstances, in which the person apologizes but insisted it was all a big misunderstanding, and thus not REALLY his/her fault, and implying that it is really the victim’s fault for “misconstruing” and therefore over-reacting. Furthermore, this “apology” such as it is only apologizes for what he claims was a legitimate security concern (which is ludicrous), and does not even admit to the secondary problem: that Hunter Todd did, in fact, have physical contact with my brother and tried to take his phone.  I hope the public will see this frantic face-saving move for the B.S. it is.

SIGNAL BOOST: Racial Profiling and Harassment at WorldFest Film Festival in Houston

UPDATE (4/23): For more updates, please see this post. Thank you.

UPDATE (4/22): Houston Press wrote an online article covering this incident, including speaking with another student (who remained anonymous) who corroborated the story. They also attempted to contact WorldFest for a statement, which was initially ignored. However, after the story broke, Hunter Todd wrote in response to the Houston Press article, which has now been added to that article. Here is a link to the full article: “W[t]F? WorldFest Founder/CEO Hunter Todd Searches Fest Attendee’s Bag ‘Because She Is a Muslim’.”

EDIT (4/21): I have been informed (and by that I mean berated) that my use of the words “racism” and “racial profiling” in connection with this is “fraudulent” because Islam is not, in fact, a race. I am actually aware of this, however I wasn’t sure what other terms would work, and assumed that “racial profiling” at least got the main issue across. Furthermore, I do not know the Muslim student personally, but I believe that the harassment was motivated entirely on her physical appearance as Middle Eastern (I don’t know if she wore a hijab or any other visual markers as Muslim or not), which WOULD in fact place it in the realm of racial profiling. However, if anyone has a preferred term, and would like to inform me, I am all ears.

Original Post (4/20): I apologize for my long absence, but I am breaking radio silence in order to spread the word about a serious matter, and ask you all a favor.

I would like to ask you all to spread the word on an incident of racial profiling and harassment here in Houston.  My brother is a film student at the University of Houston, and was attending the WorldFest International Film Festival in Houston today – a Film Festival, I might add, that is supposed to be inclusive, and aimed toward fostering discussion between students and professionals in the film industry – when he witnessed the founder/director of the Festival demand to search the bag of the only Muslim student in attendance (and ONLY her bag).

As he does not have a blog, he has asked me to share the explanation he wrote on his facebook page.  Please read this and spread the word:

From Mike Rudd’s Facebook Page:

“I had a very revealing time at WorldFest Houston today with the founder and director Hunter Todd proving what an ignorant and aggressive person he really is.

Before the morning seminar at WorldFest this morning, everyone was gathered in the seminar room for the lectures start when the hotel’s fire alarm went off. The founder and director of WorldFest, Hunter Todd, told everyone to stay in the room before he went to a girl, a Muslim UH student and classmate of mine, and demanded to search her bag. She tried to show him her pass to prove she was supposed to be there, but he demanded to search every single pocket of her bag anyway. I’d like to add he did so with a great deal of rudeness and attitude. She complied and showed him the her bag, after this he walked off and didn’t ask to search any of the dozens of other bags in the room.

At this point I called a professor of mine and told him about the incident and asked if it would be appropriate for me to say something in her defense. I then went to Hunter Todd and asked him if he did in fact demand to search her bag and if so why. He told me, “because she is a Muslim and a suspicious character, now sit down.” I told him I would not sit down and that this was unacceptable and racial profiling. I offered to take it outside to discuss with him and he then said, “no you’re one of the people I despise the most and you’re an obnoxious little bastard, now sit down or I’ll have you thrown out. In response I said he should feel free to throw me out, at which point I pulled out my cell phone to call someone about the situation. At this point he lunged towards me grabbed me with both hands and tried to take my phone from me. I separated myself from him told him not to touch me and left the room to avoid further escalation.

Later, I called WorldFest to file an official complaint about a racial incident involving there founder and director. I was placed on hold for several minutes when a woman named Kathleen picked up. I told her I was calling to file a complaint about a racial incident involving their founder and director and asked her what her position was at WorldFest. Ignoring this, she asked my name. I told her I would not give my name until she told me what position she held. More rudely she said “you called us now tell me your name”. I told her that in this situation I would not give her my name or any info when I did not know who I was talking with. This is when she yells loudly in the the phone “TELL ME YOUR NAME RIGHT NOW!” Not willing to give into to this I told her that if that was going to be how it was I would go straight to the press and that I was hanging up. She began to yell something else at me as I hung up the phone.

All of this because at an INTERNATIONAL film festival, an ignorant and aggressive man, Hunter Todd, decided it was okay to target a student for being Muslim.  The saddest part of all is that the girl felt it was wrong, but that it was just the way it goes. Worse still, was that to her point not a single other person in the room of the dozens in attendance said or did anything in her defense.”

My brother has currently contacted several news stations who said they would look into it, though we do not know for certain that they will take any serious interest in the story.  His professor, who is known among local Houston television people, is also contacting people. My brother has TRIED to file a complaint with the police on account of Hunter Todd’s physical contact and attempt to literally take the phone from his hand, but the officer Mike spoke to said there was nothing to be done. My brother is planning to contact a different officer who may be more willing to take this seriously.

We are also considering the option of contacting the ACLU, though that would probably have to come more directly from the Muslim student, rather than from my brother who only witnessed the initial harassment.

In the meantime, we would appreciate it if you could spread the word about this atrocious behavior. Reblog this post. Link to it in other places. EMBARRASS THIS ORGANIZATION AND THIS MAN.  Remind people that there is NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER for racial profiling, racism, or harassment.

Here is WorldFest’s Facebook Page and Twitter Profile. Tell them what you think about this unacceptable behavior.

Thank you.

Song In My Eyes

Hello folks! Just a quick post here for some self-promoting. I’ve made a music-focused Tumblr blog that I would like to share with you all, just in case you were interested.

It can be found at www.songinmyeyes.tumblr.com

I started it about a week ago, so I’m still building up a back log of posts, but I’ve been pretty dedicated to it, and I’m really enjoying a place to store all my crazy music tastes. You can expect posts with actual music (usually from Spotify), as well as some music videos, a variety of music-related/band-related photos (lately I’ve been obsessing over The Killers and Jukebox the Ghost), text posts with various music rants and recommendations, and my slightly-insane obsession with headphones.

Today and tomorrow I’m posting songs and videos from four local Houston bands: Grandfather Child, Linus Pauling Quartet, Sideshow Tramps, and Buxton.

Please feel free to stop on by and follow the blog if you are so inclined.

Thanks,

Amanda

Quick Update

Hello, folks!

So. I’ve had a busy couple weeks! Flew to Kansas City for a wedding. My oldest friend – we’ve been  friends since two weeks before freshman year of high school, when we met in band camp! – was getting married and I was a bridesmaid. The wedding was on Valentine’s day, everything went smoothly, and the ceremony was short and sweet (my favorite kind! especially after all the long Catholic weddings I’ve been to). Then, while my newly married friend left for a weekend with her husband, I got to hang out with another old high school friend, who went above and beyond the call of duty to keep me entertained, take me to a party, and give me more encouragement and pep-talks than I’ve had in quite awhile. It was so kind of her and I had an absolute BLAST.

Of course, then I had to come home and get back to work. And since I got back I’ve collected papers from students, and written THREE papers of my own. (And I have one presentation and one more paper to do in the next week and a half).

I’ve been crazy-busy and horribly stressed out.

BUT I also went to a concert this past friday (yes, another one). I went to see Jukebox the Ghost at House of Blues, and it was FANTASTIC. I plan to write more about it tomorrow, after I’ve had a chance to upload my photos off my mother’s phone (I borrowed it because mine can’t take pictures), and on to my computer.

So you can expect more about that later.

In the meantime, I better get back to work! Bye!

Biggest Plot Twist of 2013: I am somehow still alive

*peeks around the corner cautiously waiting for people to start throwing tomatoes, or stones*

*takes a deep breath*

Hello, Everyone. Yes, I’m still alive. You’re shocked, I know! Long time no see. A very long time in fact. Wow.

First, I would like to apologize for my long absence from this blog. I hadn’t intended to so completely abandon it. I imagine I must have lost a lot of followers during my absence, which is completely understandable. It was so frustrating and a little heart breaking to think about my poor neglected dying blog sitting here all alone during the Fall semester. But honestly, it was simply necessary.

I’m not going to go into any longwinded explanations of why the last few months have sucked so bad. Suffice it to say that the Fall semester was so stressful and frustrating and painful that I have been seriously considering dropping out of my PhD program. For the first time in my life, I had to take an incomplete on a course! I get hives just thinking about it! For those who don’t know what that is: it means I could not complete the work for the course and petitioned my professor for more time; I did not receive a grade for the course and I have a year to complete the required work so that a grade can be given; if I have not completed the work in a year the incomplete changes to an F (professors don’t like to give incompletes because a LARGE percentage of people never finish them). I have never EVER had to take an incomplete before, I HATE that I had to this semester. But that should give you some clue as to how bad this semester has been.

I have not felt quite so exhausted and despondent since the 2005-2006 school year. I won’t tell you about that year either. I’ll just say it was bad – not for any particular thing that happened but because of my mental state that year. I was not in a good place that year. And I have not been a good place this past semester.

So, just take my word for it. There was simply no way I could fit the blog in to my life – not in terms of time management or in terms of mental/emotional ability.

I’m going to say right now, also, that I cannot guarantee that I won’t disappear during the Spring semester either. I fully expect it to be just as bad (if not worse) that the Fall semester. However, I’m going to TRY to find some kind of balance. I will probably not be posting on any regular schedule, and definitely not three times a week like I used to last summer. I going to TRY to post every Friday. I don’t have classes on Fridays, and hopefully I’ll be able to carve out perhaps an hour (or even just a half hour) before or after my school work to do something here. Again, though, I can make no promises.

I feel like I can make very few promises of any kind right now. Not to myself, and not to anyone else. That being said, I have made a short list of a few goals for myself for 2013. Not resolutions so much – they are not about CHANGING something. Rather, they are GOALS, AIMS, things I intend to DO.

1)     Revive this poor dead abandoned WordPress blog

2)     somehow survive my last full semester of coursework

3)     do not under any circumstances let my incomplete go past July (and if possible, finish it before the Spring semester is over)

4)     write a full second draft of Midnight’s Knife

5)     practice the piano consistently during the summer (I have resigned myself to the fact that it just isn’t going to happen during the semester)

6)     find some kind of low-impact exercise that I can do on at least a weekly basis so I don’t die of a heart attack before I’m 30, preferably something that will help with my bad knees and my stress levels (I’m thinking about yoga)

That’s my list of goals. We’ll see how it goes.

I have a week before the Spring semester starts. I have a lot to do to prepare for that. But I will definitely have at least one (perhaps two?) more posts before then. I’m working on my second annual Top 20 Best Albums of the Year list right now. So I’ll definitely post that, if nothing else.

Anyway, for anyone who is still around: Thank you for your patience and understanding! I hope I don’t annoy you all to death, and I hope I hear from you! Please feel free to drop a note and tell me how you’ve been since I’ve been gone! I’d love to hear from you all!

Love, Amanda

In the Category of Best Nights Ever, This Comes Close to #1

Hello everyone!  As promised, here is my post about the SERIOUSLY EPIC Tuesday I had last week.  I’ll begin with a few words to summarize:

Linkin Park Concert

Backstage Passes

Front Row Seats

FREE

Me, waiting outside the venue before the backstage tour started.

Now, even if you aren’t a Linkin Park fan, I think most people can agree that these words indicate a pretty awesome evening, yes?  And let me tell you: It was MIND-BLOWING (and ear-drum blowing).  One of the best things I ever done EVER.  SERIOUSLY.

So here’s the full story: I’ve mentioned before that I am a member of Grammy U, and that my brother is the Houston representative of Grammy U, which is how I had that other awesome experience of having dinner with some pretty big people in the music business.  Well, my membership to Grammy U has come to the rescue again!  SOMEONE in the higher-ups (and my brother and I are still trying to figure out who so we can thank them properly) ((UPDATE: We have confirmed it was Theresa Jenkins, Senior Executive Director of the Texas Chapter who arranged for the tickets)) arranged for a few backstages passes to be made available for the Linkin Park concert in Houston.  My brother, as the Houston rep, was sent the info and asked to find some other Grammy U members in the area who would like to go (of course, I was first on the list).

My brother, listening to the awesome conversations.

We ended up with seven people: my brother and myself, Sofia (who works my brother and is a manager at Sugarhill Studios), fellow UH student Danny (I’m not giving last names), two guys from Austin – Alex and Mark, and Eric Jarvis – the President of the Texas Chapter of The Recording Academy.

Behind/beneath the main stage. LOOK AT ALL THOSE GUITARS.

So, we’re thinking: backstage passes, that’s pretty awesome.  We’ll get a tour, maybe get to meet some of the road crew, etc.  And then we’ll see the concert.  And we assumed we’d get pretty good seats too, but nothing too extravagant.  WE HAD NO IDEA.  IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER.

The tour manager for Linkin Park, Cory, was the one who gave us the tour.  We got to see the set-up inside the Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion, where the concert was held.  We not only got to meet, but actually had a lengthy discussion/question-and-answer session with Linkin Park’s sound guy, the head carpenter (which is a bit of misnomer, because he’s not JUST a carpenter, he’s in charge of all the set up for the entire freakin’ stage), and the director who does most of Linkin Park’s music videos (who has, by the way, also worked with Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera, just to do some name dropping). (And they were all so NICE!)

Looking out into the audience from backstage, in between openers.

We were taken on/behind/beneath the actual stage while the crew was taking down stuff from the first opener (Mutemath) and setting stuff up for the second opener (Incubus).

Then we were taken to catering, where they had an awesome buffet spread, and had dinner with the road crew.

And THEN we were taken out to wait for Linkin Park to show up.  There was a big group from the Linkin Park fan club (LP Underground) who had obviously paid a ton of extra money for a group photo/autograph session with the band.  Cory kept us to the side, and then the six of us were allowed OUR OWN group photo with Linkin Park.  We managed to get autographs from four of the six members (there was a small mix-up and we missed getting autographs from Joe Hahn and one other).  More importantly, however, is that when Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda (the two I REALLY REALLY wanted) came to the end of the line to give us autographs, they actually STAYED and TALKED to us.

I just really like this shot of the light coming through the slats beneath the stage. ^_^

Mark, with Chester and his crazy sprite-tea-pedialyte drink.

Chester stayed for about five minutes, and told us about his drink.  It looked like beer, but he assured us that it was in fact Sprite, Pedialyte, and Lipton tea (I think there was tea too…).  And seriously, even though I’ve seen interviews with Chester before, it still shocks me how quiet and unassuming he is in person, compared to the screaming BEAST he becomes on stage.  And then Mike Shinoda actually stood and talked to us for about FIFTEEN MINUTES.  Asked us about Grammy U and our interests and made cheesy jokes and was just generally really nice and really awesome.  My brother and I kinda sorta idolize him (as much for Fort Minor as for Linkin Park, and because we really identify with his songs about being Japanese-American, as my brother and I are as well), and we were a bit tongue-tied around him.  But, folks, it was SO AWESOME.  SO AWESOME.

Me, my brother, and Mike Shinoda

Mike Shinoda in the checkered shirt. Then, from left to right: Alex, Mark, Eric Jarvis, Sofia, Danny, and my brother.

Danny, my brother, and me, with Mike Shinoda

Finally, when the band had to go inside to get ready to perform, we said goodbye to Cory and went to find our seats.  Only to discover that our seats were, in fact, FRONT ROW SEATS.  There was a small pit area, an empty space, with room for handicapped seating, and then US.  We were also off to the right slightly, so were practically RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE SPEAKERS.  IT WAS MIND-BLOWING.  (And ear-drum bursting).

Danny, Sofia, Mark, my brother, and me in our front row seats.

Chester, on stage.

And to say the performance itself was fantastic would be a seriously criminal understatement.  My brother and I have seen Linkin Park in concert before, when they came to Houston in 2011, and (while I cannot speak for my brother) I think they were even better this time around.  For one thing, last time Chester seemed to be having a bit of trouble, and was often flat.  Now this happens in live performances, and I didn’t much care, but it was still nice that he didn’t seem to have any problems at all this time.  His pitch was pretty damn spot-on, especially considering it was an outdoor stage, live performances are RARELY perfectly on-pitch, and his screaming was even more INSANE than usual.

Mike Shinoda

The next day, my ears were still ringing, and I could barely speak because I had done so much screaming and cheering.  And then I had to go to my first grad class of the week that afternoon, and my professor is on my facebook so she’d seen that I’d been at a concert until like midnight, and she laughed when I croaked a lot when we had to go around the room and introduce ourselves.

My autographs from Mike Shinoda, Chester Bennington, Dave Farrell, and (I think) Rob Bourdon. And not on just ANYTHING, but a SET LIST from that night’s performance!

So there you have it, folks.  ONE OF THE BEST NIGHTS EVER.  Once again thanks to my membership with Grammy U.  Best $50 I’ve ever spent.

Update #2: And somehow in the middle of all that photobombing, I managed to forget to include the official group photo we got with the whole band. So here’s that one:

GROUP PHOTO!

And We’re Back!

Hello, Everyone!

Okay, so I lied.  I said I’d be back up and running on Friday, and now it’s midnight on Monday. I know, I know… No excuse, really, except that Friday was kinda crazy and then the weekend was just… the weekend.  *shrug*

So, here’s the deal:  The Fall semester started last week, which means my life is about to get infinitely more insane again.  This semester I’m teaching two Freshman composition courses, as usual; and as for my PhD courses, I’m taking: Critical Pedagogy (sometimes also called “Radical Pedagogy” which focuses on radical democracy, feminism, materialism, and the critical examination of power structures, etc), Modern Literary Theory (most post-structuralism and post-structural feminism, with some postmodernism mixed in); and an independent study on Postmodern Speculative Fiction.

I am also still working as the Head of Publicity for UH English academic journal, Plaza: Dialogues in Language and Literature, and the semi-associated Graduate Student Conference, which is sure to keep my extra-busy.

I’m still in a bit of a mess, but the amount of work I’ve already got after just one week of classes is helping to mitigate that.  Seriously, I’m kind of like Sherlock Holmes like that: give me work, give me problems.  I may not always exactly enjoy all the work, but as long as I have something to keep me moving, I’m usually much better.  It’s when everything STOPS that I have real problems.

In other news, I have become completely addicted to Tumblr.  It’s definitely NOT healthy.  But oh well…

Here’s the plan for the next few blog posts:

1)     I had an absolutely ASTOUNDING experience this past Tuesday, which I will be sharing with you all in my next post, which I’ll probably have up by Monday night… Tuesday afternoon at the absolute latest.

2)     I finished reading Open Heart last Monday, so I’ll have a review to share on that sometime this week.

3)     For my independent study, I am essentially on my own to keep myself reading and on track, with just monthly check-ins with my advisor to discuss my progress and the final paper.  So my plan (for the moment) is to blog about each book I read on my reading list as I go, in order to make myself accountable and hopefully keep myself on track a bit more.  All the books on the list are science fiction or fantasy that also fits (or may fit) into the category of postmodern fiction.  I’ll be sharing the full list with you all, and hopefully, my first book review/discussion, some time early next week.

4)     I’m on the fence about how much about my teaching and my other classes I should discuss on here.  I mean, talking about my independent study make sense because it still fits the general focus of this blog, but how much do you guys really care about my teaching or classes?  REALLY?  *shrug*  I guess we’ll see how that goes…

5)     I cannot guarantee regular updates, folks.  I’m sorry.  But I’m anticipating a rough semester, and keeping myself chained to a schedule is just not going to be conducive to my sanity.  But I’ll try my best to keep in touch at least once a week.  *crosses fingers*

6)     Unfortunately, requests for Book Reviews are definitely CLOSED for the semester.  There is simply no way I could keep up with that right now.  Even if I said I’d do it, and thought I would, chances are I would never get around to it.  So, might as well just nip that in the bud now.

Okay, I think that’s everything for now.  Be looking for another post from me in the next day or two.  It’s going to be EPIC.  I promise.

Quick Update

The Fall semester started this week, and I’m having an INTERESTING time of it.  I hope to have the blog back up and running again on Friday.  *crosses fingers*

I’m a mess.

Hi, Guys.  Sorry I’ve been absent.  No, I’m not back yet.  I’m a mess, Guys.  Long boring story… about my personal cocktail of disorders and neuroses… that I’ll spare you from…  Just take my word for it.  I’m a mess.

In short: I have no clue when I’ll be back, but I love you all, and if you miss me, I’m still screwing around on Tumblr in the mean time, if you care to join me on the Dark Side.

Until then, thanks for your patience.  *hugs*