Toddo :propride:

Aging GenX gay/queer. Grew up rural; have lived in SF since '00. Love books & reading, all music, natural world. Preference for left policies/values, but suspicious of performative politics & politics-as-identity. Believer in democracy. Post-denominational, non-theist Jew. American Studies professor at a state undergrad-focused uni. Teach broadly in critical humanities. Research using Pragmatist social scientific & critical humanist methods: sexuality, religion, theory.

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toddo_at_sfba.social@mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqswz0hqz05ndww09e2a0l97ew2e6cgg0zhr3rmv4tf6dn506yu3m2cpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qzt5etd

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npub1uylwqylfx6uu7tj46l7taju4n4sss79w8z8ke2kn5m8gl5ferk4s7u3ltq

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Last Notes

2024-05-30 21:51:34

One thing: I really wish the MSM would *stop* saying "hush money to a porn star" and "cover up an affair". He was convicted of ELECTIONS FRAUD. This *matters*. Having sex (barely consensual if it all) with a porn actor is NOT illegal, nor is lying about it to your wife. Spending campaign money to influence an election by manipulation of information and the media: Illegal. This is about elections and core democratic principles.

2024-05-10 04:12:24

Also: Bay Area denizens, are you having massive allergies today? I've been having itchy and runny eyes, throat, and nose and constant sneezing. 🤧

2024-01-20 23:24:49

I'm teaching a first-year/sophomore level intro to pop culture class this semester. I've never taught the topic as a survey and below a senior level, so I'm kind of floundering for readings and structure of the class. I'm hoping someone out there maybe teaches a similar class and has an idea for a long, scaffolded assignment that might build up over the semester? I'm already going to have them do weekly "Commonplace Books" which I'll guide with prompts; that will be an "additive" grade for a big chunk. I'm considering some way to do something exam-like, but I'd also like to have a cool semester-project (I do something like this in my American Stories class, which is why I'm thinking about it this way). Any ideas? I'm also super into sharing, so if there's something I do that I can share/help I'd be more than happy to reciprocate :)

2024-01-09 23:19:19

I started adjuncting in the CSU in 2001. I have NEVER seen the university act like this in labor negotiations. It's not just that we're striking in 10 days, but holy shit the bad faith behavior is shocking. The university is also acting in shady, borderline illegal ways: Earlier today, the CSU announced through campus-HR departments, the end of negotiations (which they blamed on CFA) before official press releases were made (this is the shady part), and said the union is evil (my gloss of the email). They then announced they're giving everyone a raise at the end of January (a union busting technique) which, somehow, the union is preventing people from getting? Bad faith, and union busting bullshit. So far I've not talked to any faculty in my department who busy what the CSU is selling. This all looks great to C-level executives, but workers know these games. But seriously, WTF is going on? The CSU has never done this after a factfinder report. Ever. Fuck the CSU at this point.
https://editor.des05.com/vo/?FileID=bf1e828e-d982-4d76-99d0-ba651e19b7ef&m=6243a16e-3f3e-485c-b0ff-5c809df112ea&MailID=45678258&listid=47801&RecipientID=23703821494

2023-12-25 03:53:57

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@npub1typ…c8hh @npub1u55…6c8n ‘Heartbreaker’ was pretty close to what an actual NIN or maybe TooL cover of Pat Benatar would be.

2023-08-15 23:04:01

Does anyone remember that old PC game from late 80s where you’re an ostrich (or maybe riding an ostrich) chasing eggs around and avoiding dodgy mean ostriches and various predators?

2023-08-15 18:38:12

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@npub1evl…yenf @npub1jw2…rg6f “proto-twee” is now my Word of the Day™

2023-08-03 19:55:20

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@npub1ev6…nh08 Omigod. There is a nationwide university enrollment collapse. The media would have you believe this is because regular people are doing the efficiency calculus and no longer believe a college education is worth it. There is some of that, but the larger reason is demographic: Gen Z (Gen C’s kids) is a tiny generation in comparison to the millennials (the largest generation in American history). We’ve known this demographic collapse in enrollment was coming for ten years and administrators who think like capitalists have gone all in on monetizing education and maintaining enrollments, instead of thinking like educators and focusing on the actual students in front of us. Because tuition is treated like income, the enrollment Collapse is seen as a business collapse. All this to say that the proposal for a new UC campus makes ZERO sense. (I haven’t seen numbers in about ten years, but Redding is probably the logical place for next campus (Merced likely should’ve been built there).)

2023-08-03 15:42:22

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@npub1cpp…2uya 🙏🏼

2023-08-03 02:46:00

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@npub1cpp…2uya My German is definitely not good enough for Rilke poetry. When I read it in translation I always feel like it’s missing something. I’ll look for more letters.

2023-08-03 02:37:54

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@npub1cpp…2uya one of my favorite books of all time.

2023-08-02 23:52:08

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@npub1ev6…nh08 do you know, is anyone talking about or are there programs to get landlords to update older SF buildings? The gas and electric in my building are archaic (and likely a fire hazard). I’d love to have modern induction appliances (even though I nostalgically love my 1930s gas stove).

2023-07-29 00:47:59

All this right wing discourse about Barbie’s “hidden message” is so weird to me. There is exactly nothing, zero, about that movie that is subtle or subtextual or sotto voce. That movie is brazenly hitting you over the head, unapologetically, and joyfully with its feminist and queer anti-capitalist “message”. If anything, what’s “hidden” is how it’s still a giant ad for a global corporation trying to sell shit through a Hollywood tie-in while trying to manage and take back control of its brand — given how it’s been received, critiqued, and used by feminist and queer consumers since the early 90s.

2023-07-18 23:15:44

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@npub1ev6…nh08 (rambling/thinking out loud) I think the meaning of “extension” has changed over the years. It used to be public outreach and community education and classes. When the legislature changed the rules about classes, I didn’t think UC still had any extensions at all. I wonder if that law was rescinded or changed at some point? Because I work in the CSU I stopped paying attention. But the SFSU extension in the mall (where I’ve been to several meetings over the years) has actual department offices, grants degrees, and has a floor of classrooms. Mostly business classes/programs. I think the idea was for working people to be close to class so they could have access. Income/revenue for the campus (csu structure is very weird — tightly controlled by law and subject to centralized rules but responsible campus by campus for its own fiscal survival). My campus is currently trying to set up a virtual online extension to serve statewide people who never finished their degrees.

2023-07-18 23:05:06

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@npub1ev6…nh08 I don’t think it was UCSF because I took art classes there. And UCSF doesn’t do art. 😂 I was also scheduled to teach a SF queer history course there in I think 2004 but the class got cancelled because they sold it/abandoned it and also discontinued their extension program completely. I believe the state forced the UC system to close its extensions because they said they were competing with the CCs. But then a few years later they forced the CCs to stop allowing non matriculated students to just take classes without getting a degree. Because that’s how legislators do: they fuck up education at every turn.

2023-07-18 22:56:59

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@npub1ev6…nh08 Didn’t UCB used to have an extension campus in the city at Hermann and Laguna? Two small blocks of groovy arts and crafts buildings as I recall. Took a drawing class there in the early aughts. I can’t see how the conditions that closed the campus 15+ years ago are different now…

2023-07-15 20:16:26

My tines are sharpened and ready to go!
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/jun/30/uk-super-rich-beware-pitchforks-torches-unless-they-do-more

2023-07-07 02:52:12

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@npub153s…cvd9 @npub1lnm…624t we just hired an amazing person from a Texas uni, who starts in a Month with us. They were very clear that even though our uni is a step down for them, it’s worth it to get out of Texas.

2023-05-25 16:39:20

Up and at ‘em this morning. I have 3-4 hours of “clean up” work to do. But all the real grading is done. Goal is to be done by end of day. I have a handful of students with permission for late work and/or revisions tomorrow so won’t submit until the weekend. That’s fine.

2023-05-25 00:04:47

Every British cop show or noir I watch, there’s a river with long low house boats on it that play a role in the mystery. No matter where in Great Britain the show is set. So I wonder: are those house boat things REALLY everywhere? Or is this just British tv writers adding flavor and local color?

2023-05-24 21:34:49

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@npub1qct…rs5r yep. 💯 it’s all short sighted neoliberal clusterfuckery.

2023-05-24 21:18:26

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@npub1qct…rs5r I’ll likely take you up on that after the semester is over. Also I’m sad that East Asian premodern history, a perfectly legit and necessary field of study, is collapsing along with the rest of the humanities in neoliberal education.

2023-05-24 20:35:30

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@npub1qct…rs5r If by this country you mean the U.S., I completely support your need to flee. I also feel this strongly. It's hard when it's your own home on fire to know what to do. Also it turns out that middle aged white academics are not in high demand outside the U.S. (I've looked many times over the years...did manage to teach for a semester in Germany.)

2023-05-24 20:18:40

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@npub1qct…rs5r Flemish, français, les deux? I've never lived in Belgium, and have only visited the frenchie side. SO glad that you get to go home. And also AMAZING that you will be working in something so important. I wish I could think of something amazing I could do outside academia and still pay my bills... I feel kinda trapped by my retirement benefits.

2023-05-24 20:10:19

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@npub1qct…rs5r I have been trying to resist that for years. The skills loss started being really noticeable around 2014 or so and has gotten progressively worse. No coincidence that here in the U.S. that corresponds to students who did all 13 years of K-12 under No Child Left Behind policies.
I hope your new path away from the unhallowed halls of academia leads you to much happiness!

2023-05-24 19:57:31

For #Tina, from the Buddhist "Heart Sutra" commonly recited as a mantra as part of mourning:
Form is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than form.
Form is only emptiness,
Emptiness only form.
Feeling, thought, and choice,
Consciousness itself,
Are the same as this.
All things are by nature void
They are not born or destroyed
Nor are they stained or pure
Nor do they wax or wane
So, in emptiness, no form,
No feeling, thought, or choice,
Nor is there consciousness.
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
No colour, sound, smell, taste,
touch,
Or what the mind takes hold of,
Nor even act of sensing.
No ignorance or end of it,
Nor all that comes of
ignorance;
No withering, no death,
No end of them.
Nor is there pain, or cause of pain,
Or cease in pain, or noble path
To lead from pain;
Not even wisdom to attain! Attainment too is emptiness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0wPrN_Y_4

2023-05-24 19:38:56

Something that is very clear. This assignment that I've been giving for about 10 years (I change the novel every couple years to keep it fresh)...my current students no longer have the skills to do it. I used to be able to tell Juniors to write a critical interpretive essay and then give them the prompt, and they could generally do it. Now...nope. Most of these essays took the prompt, and wrote a paragraph for each part; few of them actually seek to give a coherent critical interpretation of the novel as a whole; most of them are just writing paragraphs that say "here's the concept we learned in class and here's an example of that in the novel."
So if I'm going to cointue with this (kind of) assignment, I'm going to have to build in 1-2 weeks of skills training, which then cuts into the content of the course.

2023-05-24 19:20:03

Okay. I cannot think about Tina Turner. About my little gay boy self in the 70s lip synching with her; about dancing to her music at my very first gay pride; about being inspired by her buddhism and her bravery in the face of spousal abuse; etc. Until I'm done grading...

2023-05-12 18:59:19

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@npub15c8…fal0 Maybe yoga? like hot, sad yoga?

2023-05-12 17:03:55

Nota bene: The Nationals’ new album is lovely, but not workout-appropriate.

2023-05-12 13:58:34

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@npub1qct…rs5r Yes I know. English ‘deer’ is from the Old English ‘deor’ for animal—there was a semantic shift sometime after the frenchies invaded 1066 and before Middle English. Hart in English is also still a 🦌 (from Old English ‘heorot’) but now we usually just use it poetically, for a big old buck with a giant rack but not all 🦌.

2023-05-11 20:02:54

Today mastodon taught me the German word for armadillo: Gürteltier. I’m in favor of immediately changing the English word to girdledeer.

2023-05-10 04:43:15

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@npub1ev6…nh08 Yeah, that épisode, which I liked, is what prompted my comment.

2023-05-10 02:56:58

It bugs me that after all these years coming out stories still make me incredibly tense and anxious. The oppressive power of heteronormativity and its tool the closet. Even in pop culture bubblegum form just stirs up all the shit.

2023-05-10 00:53:33

I promise I really am trying to just accept that vocal fry is now just how some people talk, and there’s nothing I can do about it. But it’s a daily struggle. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and my whole body quakes as if I were chewing on aluminum foil. It seems especially endemic to podcasters.

2023-05-09 02:07:19

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@npub1qct…rs5r it’s a lull.m for the moment. I fully expect the dept chair to start doing her thing again soon.

2023-05-08 21:12:33

The dean sent out an email to the entire department (about 45 faculty and 2 staff) to clarify the situation, the timing of the election, and to explain why it's happening. The dean's account completely contradicts the Dept. Chair's lies from last week, so that is a fucking relief. I think I need to let that lie now. My only worry is that because of how the dean's message went out, there will be a lot of faculty who trash the email without reading it.

2023-05-06 02:27:53

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@npub1ev6…nh08 @npub1ple…a2ev Run Tippi, run!

2023-05-06 02:05:15

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@npub1qyg…uf04 @npub140g…0fhs I love my old safety razor.

2023-05-03 19:12:40

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@npub1ev6…nh08 okay. At least I know I’m not crazy. And people wonder why street deaths are increasing now…

2023-05-03 19:05:30

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@npub1ev6…nh08 there is so much lane crossing and illegal turning in the city right now. Has it always been this bad and I’m just imagining things?

2023-04-28 22:01:24

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@npub1ev6…nh08 another propane issue: I drive up ne down division a couple days a week, and there are open flames and propane cookstoves fired up all along the encampments. I don’t begrudge folks wanting a hot meal, but I’m scared to death that one of these mornings I’m going to drive by a conflagration and deaths.

2023-04-27 19:21:55

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#[0] Any of us who’ve lived here over the least ten years could tell you that without a study but glad to have the imprimatur of legitimacy to the obvious conclusion. The street I live on used to be relatively quiet, but the combo of google maps directing people down my street as an easy way to cross market with Uber means that it’s a traffic jam from about 730-9 and 430 to 6 every day. So bizarre to have a residential street with a traffic jam.

2023-04-25 18:45:55

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#[0] Fitness SF is a local company that dropped its Gold's franchise when Gold's donated to support Prop 8 in 2008. The owners have a strong history of supporting the local LGBT community in SF and Oakland and their gyms in the city have long been safe spaces for queers, particularly the older ones in the Castro [which is more or less no longer a queer space] and the SOMA location in the design district. FtR, I don't give a fuck about attracting Walnut Creek workers.

2023-04-25 18:35:13

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#[0] Damn, I wish I didn't have to be in San Jose on Wednesday. I'd totally do this. Sounds amazing.

2023-04-20 21:33:01

Siri’s autocorrecting «its» to «it’s» will be the death of my Wernicke’s Area.

2023-04-06 17:38:54

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#[0] #[1] apropos of nothing, now I’m crazy a Little Star pizza.

2023-04-04 01:12:52

Fuck.
“Heklina, San Francisco drag legend, has died in London”
- KQED
https://apple.news/A-f87C17mT5m6J9IdSVyMiQ