moocow in the city

one cow. many pastures.

February 2007

open pasture

Marian, I need your address/leucothea262 Scott Paauw asks both of us a favor

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Marian, or someone with Marian’s address please leave it here in the comments, I’ve screened the comments. I’ve found the BEST card to send to Twitchy for valentines day…it’s, truly amazing…a work of art even…it may send him into a twitch attack 😀 Oh, and I have a present for Marian.

leucothea262! I got the following from Scott, he wants you to write one too:
Hi Matt,

I’d appreciate it if you could help me with something. I have been nominated for an “Excellence in Teaching” award, given by the Graduate School for Graduate Teaching Assistants. I’m the only one nominated this year from the linguistics teachers (not including the language teachers), and just to be nominated is quite an honor for me. One of the components of the nomination is “testimonial” letters from students. I would appreciate it very much if you could write a testimonial letter for me about your experience in the 315 class (I need to get letters from all the classes I’ve taught, and 106 is (hopefully) covered. Plus, you really impressed me with your research and performance in 315, so it’s probably more representative). If you are willing to write such a letter, it should refer especially to three aspects of my teaching: 1) teaching competence, 2) mentorship (facilitating the intellectual growth of students and accessibility outside the classroom), and 3) academic standards and requirements (setting high standards and helping students achieve excellence). Any other information can be included as well.

Also, you said that Ann had gotten a lot out of the class as well. I don’t have her email address handy. Would you be willing to check with her and see if she would be willing to write a letter for me based on her experience in 315?

If you can write such a letter, it would need to be submitted to JP Koenig by Monday. I would really appreciate your support in this nomination.

Thanks for your help,

Scott
Holy Shit! I’m so excited for him, this is a really, really big deal. He’s one of the best teachers I’ve had (there’s even a face book fan club for him). Anne, please Let me know that a) you’ve read this and b) want to write a letter for him, and better yet if you do, can you email Scott? [email protected]

open pasture

Birthdays, Classes, A Post Card From Long Ago, Israel

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY tartanboxers!!

Happy Birthday Anne!! (and congrats on the book as well!); I can’t express to you in words how lucky I count myself that I met you. My regards to Dom (who’s still my favorite dirty old man) and the Kids. Have a drink on me.

Classes

Classes are going well, serious study time is being put in this weekend, and Friday I’m sequestering myself so I can take more notes and do the homework that I’m getting Today.

In other news, I’m working on a paper that’s taking Eminem’s music, translating it from AAVE into SE and then proving why he’s actually pro-gay and a feminist…I have the data to prove it too, can’t wait…it should be a fun paper to write (and requires no fieldwork which means it’s a cheap paper to write)…I may get to write it for Wolfe Wölk’s Class (LIN493/595) which would mean that I could get credit for it, which would be cool too.

A Post Card From Long Ago

So when I cleaned out my Grandfather’s things from his apartment after he died a few years ago, I took with me his prayer books, one was issued by the military which he carried with him, apparently, after he went back to fight and earn his citizenship, it was published in 1908 and has the imprint of a now missing Chamsa (it was missing when I took it with me) on the cover. That has a special place on my desk and I turn to it from time to time. He also had a large collection of prayer books that were given out at events (before Bar and Bat-Mitvah’s were turned into shows, apparently these were given out as ‘favors’ so to speak) and today, while I was moving my books I found in one, a post card…

The Post Card has the name and address of a Rabbi in Tel Aviv mentioned in it, but the Hebrew is way too advanced for me (like, really really out of my league), so I need to hunt down one of the local Rabbi’s because if this is a part of my families past I want to know everything about it…and even if it’s some kind of “please donate here” form, how cool is it to find something like that!? I’ve stumbled upon a part of history. I’m incredibly excited, the post card, however, was not addressed to my grandfather, but rather had the name of a woman on it. I’ve never heard of her, but given how large my family was, that’s not surprising at all. The address was to Passaic, NJ (my family emigrated from Austria to Caracas, Venezuela – where many of them stayed and still are, the rest moved to Passaic and then to New York).

I’ll make some headway on it this weekend…I’m incredibly excited…I can’t imagine it not having some significance to him, or why would he have kept it so long? My grandma can’t read Hebrew, so I know it’s not hers.

Israel & Harry Potter

So excited. I book my tickets on the 16th! There is one slight change, and that is that I may end the trip slightly early so I can be at the final summit for the last installment of Harry Potter in Montreal, Quebec…so I’ll have to see the best way to book my trip…however, I think the easiest is:

Fly from Buffalo, New York to NYC, stay with my parents for a day or two, then Fly out of JFK on ELAL, land in Tel Aviv, adventure for a month and two or three weeks, then Fly out of Tel Aviv directly to Montreal?, then take the train from Montreal to NYC, so my parent’s can see that I’m alive and well in the flesh, then fly back to Buffalo.

We’ll see….

I CAN’T WAIT BOOK 7 IS COMING OUT! I also have to take pictures of my bag, I finally got around to sewing the Hogwarts patch on it, right above my vampire patch.

Shabbat Soon

Oh…itai please email me your address, I have a gift for you. Carrie (carrie01) I’m mailing out your flag soon, I know, I know…I’m horrible at using the postal system…I’m getting better though, really I am…I just have this bizarre aversion to going to post offices and I’m not sure why, because I love getting mail.

Peace all.

open pasture

Birthdays, Classes, A Post Card From Long Ago, Israel

moocowinthecity No Comments

HAPPY BIRTHDAY tartanboxers!!

Happy Birthday Anne!! (and congrats on the book as well!); I can’t express to you in words how lucky I count myself that I met you. My regards to Dom (who’s still my favorite dirty old man) and the Kids. Have a drink on me.

Classes

Classes are going well, serious study time is being put in this weekend, and Friday I’m sequestering myself so I can take more notes and do the homework that I’m getting Today.

In other news, I’m working on a paper that’s taking Eminem’s music, translating it from AAVE into SE and then proving why he’s actually pro-gay and a feminist…I have the data to prove it too, can’t wait…it should be a fun paper to write (and requires no fieldwork which means it’s a cheap paper to write)…I may get to write it for Wolfe Wölk’s Class (LIN493/595) which would mean that I could get credit for it, which would be cool too.

A Post Card From Long Ago

So when I cleaned out my Grandfather’s things from his apartment after he died a few years ago, I took with me his prayer books, one was issued by the military which he carried with him, apparently, after he went back to fight and earn his citizenship, it was published in 1908 and has the imprint of a now missing Chamsa (it was missing when I took it with me) on the cover. That has a special place on my desk and I turn to it from time to time. He also had a large collection of prayer books that were given out at events (before Bar and Bat-Mitvah’s were turned into shows, apparently these were given out as ‘favors’ so to speak) and today, while I was moving my books I found in one, a post card…

The Post Card has the name and address of a Rabbi in Tel Aviv mentioned in it, but the Hebrew is way too advanced for me (like, really really out of my league), so I need to hunt down one of the local Rabbi’s because if this is a part of my families past I want to know everything about it…and even if it’s some kind of “please donate here” form, how cool is it to find something like that!? I’ve stumbled upon a part of history. I’m incredibly excited, the post card, however, was not addressed to my grandfather, but rather had the name of a woman on it. I’ve never heard of her, but given how large my family was, that’s not surprising at all. The address was to Passaic, NJ (my family emigrated from Austria to Caracas, Venezuela – where many of them stayed and still are, the rest moved to Passaic and then to New York).

I’ll make some headway on it this weekend…I’m incredibly excited…I can’t imagine it not having some significance to him, or why would he have kept it so long? My grandma can’t read Hebrew, so I know it’s not hers.

Israel & Harry Potter

So excited. I book my tickets on the 16th! There is one slight change, and that is that I may end the trip slightly early so I can be at the final summit for the last installment of Harry Potter in Montreal, Quebec…so I’ll have to see the best way to book my trip…however, I think the easiest is:

Fly from Buffalo, New York to NYC, stay with my parents for a day or two, then Fly out of JFK on ELAL, land in Tel Aviv, adventure for a month and two or three weeks, then Fly out of Tel Aviv directly to Montreal?, then take the train from Montreal to NYC, so my parent’s can see that I’m alive and well in the flesh, then fly back to Buffalo.

We’ll see….

I CAN’T WAIT BOOK 7 IS COMING OUT! I also have to take pictures of my bag, I finally got around to sewing the Hogwarts patch on it, right above my vampire patch.

Shabbat Soon

Oh…itai please email me your address, I have a gift for you. Carrie (carrie01) I’m mailing out your flag soon, I know, I know…I’m horrible at using the postal system…I’m getting better though, really I am…I just have this bizarre aversion to going to post offices and I’m not sure why, because I love getting mail.

Peace all.

open pasture

“I’m European, I’m used to combative academics!”

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On my way into the department (I come in through the back entrance because of where the inter-campus shuttle lets off) I pass by the office of my afternoon Linguistic Anthropology professor daily. The course he teaches is listed for both graduate students as well as undergraduate students. The other day we were discussing a different professors research and it had mass generalizations and bigger holes in her arguments than the Titanic did after it made nice to the iceberg…this was something that everyone should have been chomping at the bit to say something about. However, most people were willing to let it slide and my eyes lit up like a lion when he sees a gazelle and my I licked my lips, pounced and went for the jugular. At the end of class, I was told by a peer that I might have been…slightly, what was the word she used…”combative.”

So as I passed by his office this morning I noticed that he was sitting in his desk chair with a look that says “I’m thinking, but really, I want to be interrupted so I can have an excuse to do something else” so I obliged, wanting to make sure that I didn’t overstep my bounds.

Me: I was told by a peer that I might have been slightly combative the other day, so I just wanted to let you know that I wasn’t attacking you, but the paper that was presented
Prof: I’m European, I’m used to combative academics! It’s wonderful.

open pasture

“I’m European, I’m used to combative academics!”

moocowinthecity No Comments

On my way into the department (I come in through the back entrance because of where the inter-campus shuttle lets off) I pass by the office of my afternoon Linguistic Anthropology professor daily. The course he teaches is listed for both graduate students as well as undergraduate students. The other day we were discussing a different professors research and it had mass generalizations and bigger holes in her arguments than the Titanic did after it made nice to the iceberg…this was something that everyone should have been chomping at the bit to say something about. However, most people were willing to let it slide and my eyes lit up like a lion when he sees a gazelle and my I licked my lips, pounced and went for the jugular. At the end of class, I was told by a peer that I might have been…slightly, what was the word she used…”combative.”

So as I passed by his office this morning I noticed that he was sitting in his desk chair with a look that says “I’m thinking, but really, I want to be interrupted so I can have an excuse to do something else” so I obliged, wanting to make sure that I didn’t overstep my bounds.

Me: I was told by a peer that I might have been slightly combative the other day, so I just wanted to let you know that I wasn’t attacking you, but the paper that was presented
Prof: I’m European, I’m used to combative academics! It’s wonderful.

open pasture

Storm Update

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The lights in my apartment keep flickering due to the high winds…it’s freezing cold outside (with wind chill it’s negative something), I don’t have any classes today, so I’m staying in and staying warm. I’ll do the readings for my classes in my apartment today instead of in the library. If the power goes out, I can still read by the daylight and eventually, by candlelight and I have soups and hookah and blankets to keep me warm in case the heat goes out again and plenty of stuff to read for class and for pleasure so I’m good.

Winters in Buffalo are fun.

If your apartment’s cold, at the moment, mine is nice and toasty so feel free to drop by, there’s more than enough blankets and floor pillows, for everyone.

Stay warm everyone!

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