10. Rock and Roll Literary Analysis


9. Meeting Time

8. Enjoy Your Pizza

7. Genesis of Twitter

6. Internet Comments

5. Wrong Class

4. English for Engineers

3. Games As Art

2. Class Warfare

1. Men As Crops

Prof or hobo?

Over the last few days we’ve been getting a ton of hits through Google and other search engines from people searching “professor or hobo.” Now, normally we get all kinds of weird searches that lead people to us, but these have been concentrated and at times outnumbering our regular content for bringing hits. So, what’s going on?

Apparently there’s an online quiz that has become the little sensation. The “Prof or Hobo Quiz” asks participants to look at some pictures and evaluate are the men pictured college professors, or hobos. Sound familiar to a certain comic strip? Well, sort of.

Anyway, since people are already looking for the quiz here, we thought we’d go ahead and point the way. If you’re looking for the Prof or Hobo Quiz, you can find it via the links here. Apparently the quiz originates from the University of Toronto. What spurred its popularity? We’re not sure, but this link from Andrew Sullivan over at The Daily Beast probably helped a bit.

Victoria has been a favorite character of ours for a while. Straight-laced, British, and above general silliness, she works as an excellent foil to almost any other character. That’s probably why she pops up often to roll her eyes for the audience.

Now she gets an updated look for the Hobo HD series.

Cramming is not a good strategy, but you already knew that

It’s the time of year when students overdose on Ritalin in a mad dash to cram in everything they didn’t bother to learn in the prior four months. I remember this time well (minus the Ritalin, just say no kids). Now, as a professor, I see it from a different perspective. So here’s some helpful advice that might put your final exams into a better perspective.

Your professors don’t want to grade anymore than you want to take tests
Many students have a strange belief that professors spend all of their free time reveling in the grading process. On the contrary, we hate it. Sure, there’s that occasional fool, but there’s also that occasional student that asks for more homework. They’re the anomalies.

The norm is that most professors hate grading, and they especially hate grading under the gun at the end of the semester. Just like you we’re prepping for the holidays or summer break, or maybe reading classes for the next semester. We don’t have the time for a lot of grading, especially not in four or five classes. We might assign papers due, but it’s not because we’re looking forward to reading them. It has more to do with…

Oh crap, we only have four grades so far
Yes, despite making syllabi out before each semester, we do sometimes forget to take enough grades. This is especially true if you’re the type that does very vague syllabi with percentage, rather than point breakdowns. A lot of times that end of the semester paper is simply to keep your grade from being entirely determined by two tests, since we’re fairly certain you’ll fail the midterm.

We’re fairly certain you’ll fail the midterm
Ever felt like the midterm was actually the hardest test in a class? That’s because it generally is for many. There’s a couple of reasons for this. For one, you don’t know what we really expect you to know for that first test, or how detailed we might get. Grades are generally lower simply because students go in rather blind.

Second, we often manipulate the final to balance out grades. Most professors I talk to feel there is something wrong if the majority of class is either failing or acing a course. Sometimes they’ll make the final killer to lower the class average, but generally it’s much easier to raise grades than bring them down. Because of point one, we often make the final easier to help balance out grades. Failing 18 or 25 students does us no good.

Because student evaluations matter to us, sort of
No, we don’t care nearly as much as we probably should. No, we don’t care nearly as much as our bosses wish we did. Still, we do care…sort of. We care that every student doesn’t give us ones or zeros (depending on the scale). If we have a class average of one out of five, that looks bad for us. We want to avoid that.

On the other hand, one student giving us all ones reflects more on the student than us. It’s a sign that student was probably bitter over something, such as their grade. That student’s evaluation is likely to be ignored by both us, and our bosses. Want to make an actual impact? Grade us down in the one area you think we really failed as teachers. That gets our attention.

Speaking to us the last week of the semester shows how little you care
Every semester just about I have a student who is failing and comes to me the last week of classes asking how they can bring up their grade. You can’t. The semester is over at this point. Why didn’t you come to me when you were getting that string of Fs and Ds earlier in the semester? Right, because you didn’t care. If this is obvious to you, then it is also likely obvious to all of us, as well.

And it won’t help to have your parents call
Seriously, don’t have mom or dad call. Beyond the fact that talking to them might be a violation of the federal FERPA law, there’s also the fact that it makes you look childish. This is probably a good explanation for why you struggled in class in the first place.

If you didn’t, now would be a good time to ask for a letter of recommendation
Looking for a general letter of recommendation? The end of the semester is probably your best bet. I still remember you vividly from class. I can recall your personality and strengths clearly. As time passes, I hate to break it to you, but you start to fade from my memory. In as little as a year I might have forgotten you entirely except for your name sounding familiar. This is obviously a terrible time to ask for a letter. Strike while the grading pen is hot.

And the last one? Finals are a pain to write
Give all the tips above, one thing to understand is that finals are for most of us our least favorite assignment of the semester. That’s because they’re often the hardest to write and grade. Beyond the issue of trying to balance out the class, we also have to deal with the facts vs. theory vs. practical triangle of terror.

Most classes (especially general education courses) begin heavy in factual detail. Names, places, dates, definitions, etc. figure heavily into the pre-midterm curriculum. Past that, however, most classes move more heavily into theory and practical application. For example, in a composition class the early weeks are likely spent reviewing styles and grammar. That’s easy to write a test over.

Later weeks of the semester, however, are likely spent focused on practical application of that knowledge. Since little new material is being added to the course, it becomes difficult to write a test that will measure those abilities. This is why you often end up with that end of term paper. It’s also why many finals tend to be comprehensive. We need that extra material to make a well-rounded exam.

I don’t know much about ganders
Look, not every rule or tip above applies evenly across every course. Obviously some classes are more technical or practical than others. Some professors have completely different teaching and grading styles. Still, in interacting with other professors I’ve found these to hold relatively true for most. So while they might not all apply to all ganders, they’ll apply to at least most geese.

Harper's Island - excellent bad television

About a year ago my wife and I cancelled our cable television. I won’t go into details, but the cable company had been no end of problems for us, so we left. It was a decision we made nervously.

We were part of the first generation raised on cable television. We could both remember a time when our parents only had over the air broadcast television, but it had been years. Through college and the early years of work we’d always had some form of basic cable. Suddenly, we were going to have nothing.

But that wasn’t entirely true. We had Netflix, and along with it their instant streaming. For us that meant firing up the Xbox 360 connected to our television and browsing through movies and a sparse collection of television programs. It wasn’t exactly a hundred channels of varied programming, but we were busy with work and figured between reading and video games, we probably didn’t need that much television.

We were wrong, or at least at first. The lack of ESPN hurt badly. We’re both big sports fans, and doing without was brutal for a while. My wife had developed an unhealthy love of HGTV’s House Hunters and brought me along for the ride. We missed laughing at the snooty first-time home buyers crying about the lack of double sinks. How shall they live without? I had several shows I watched on a regular basis including Lost, and it was going to be hard waiting an extra day to see them on Hulu (especially with Facebook filled with spoiler comments). But we persevered.

Now, a year later we have both Netflix and Hulu Plus on our PS3 streaming. Both services have vastly expanded their offerings, and we literally have too much content to watch. And it’s good content–not simply direct to video offerings like Netflix streaming was in the early days. Still, this has presented a new problem–what to watch?

In an age of video-on-demand, how does one pick? The television I grew up with handled that part for me. I flipped on the television and clicked through the channels until something interested me. At two in the morning that was sometimes difficult, but it usually meant I got sucked into some obscure film on HBO or reruns on Nick at Nite. I was being forced into having at least somewhat of an open mind.

Nowadays I boot up Netflix and I simply can’t decide. Do I watch The X-Files for the billionth time? That’s guaranteed entertainment. Or am I more adventurous? Do I take a gamble on CBS’ short-lived Harper’s Island? We did and we loved it, but the truth is I never would have taken a chance on it without the recommendation from Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly. In a sea of options, I needed someone to direct me.

I see this happening with music. Growing up MTV and the radio turned me on to new bands. Now? MTV doesn’t play music and radio stations are mostly programmed by a handful of large corporations playing the same ten artists over and over. There’s YouTube, of course, but that requires sifting through hours of garbage to maybe find one decent new song. Of course, the Internet has offered up solutions such as Pandora and last.fm. Both work well in my experience, but both cater too much to me. I’d go as far as to say they pander to me a bit.

You like Tom Petty? Fine, Pandora thinks you might like Bob Dylan, Tom Waitts, and U2. Not really going out on a limb there, are we guys? Of course, I don’t really blame Pandora for this. There are of course limitations to what any software can accomplish. Netflix recommends movies and TV shows I might like based on my viewing habits, but Harper’s Island never once turned up.

While Hulu and Netflix have done well at replacing cable for us, I can’t help but feel we’re missing something in the process. When we visit our parents we both find ourselves lost in general exploration of the television dial. What strange show might we stumble upon when tied to someone else’s scheduling? What lost relic might surprise us at two in the morning?

For all the promise of the digital revolution of content such as music, movies, and books, I worry the loss of the human element means we’ll simply withdraw more and more into our custom cocoons feeding us only the media we’re absolutely sure we’ll already like. In other words, what am I missing by getting exactly what I want? The narcissist in me loves the idea, but not the humanist.

Episode 9 Promo Image - Click to see larger

One thing we like to do with Professor Hobo is involve the community as much as possible. With that in mind, we’re presenting this behind the scenes shot from the next episode of Professor Hobo.

Now, you might think a behind the scenes shot from a cartoon would be boring, and you’d be right. That’s why we made up something instead. We don’t want our fans being bored by something like reality. See how much we care? Enjoy.

A look at the online store

We recently launched our online store where you can buy t-shirts, posters, and more featuring Professor Hobo. We did this for one main reason–to allow fans to purchase items. Honestly, we make so little off each item sold that the store will likely not even pay for itself. So no, unless someone starts ordering a thousand shirt s a month we’re not getting rich.

Armanda Miller, t-shirt contest winner

But we do like our fans and we do want them to be able to show their support. We also want to hear from you what kind of items would you like to see on the store? Different t-shirt designs? Our heads on a platter? We might be able to arrange one of those for you, but new shirt designs are hard to come by. Anyway, if you have ideas send us an email or post in the comments section below.

We kicked off the launch of the store with a contest for our Facebook fans. We gave away a t-shirt to one fan, and the picture is posted below. Obviously it’d be cool to do more contests in the future, but we’ll see what we can do. Let us know about that, too. What would you like to see?

Thanks everyone.

Mickey gets tricky with your kids

After a work-related meeting yesterday my wife and I drove to a neighboring town for dinner. The town itself is heavily Amish and the restaurant features home-style food. These details are not unrelated, but not related in the way you might assume.

You might assume that a home-style restaurant in an Amish town would be run by the Amish, but then the electricity powering the glow of everything around you would seem to tip the scales against that. But the proprietors of this business are cunning, and rather than give into the almighty power of observable logic, they choose to dress their waitresses in dresses and bonnets. Well, now they must be Amish.

I don’t personally know any Amish people, but growing up I did see my fair share of Amish, Mennonites, and other religious groups. The one thing I do recall that separated them from our very capable waitress this night was her earrings and makeup. Perhaps she was a covert Amish woman learning the table serving ways of the outside world, but barring that I’m going to assume she was a local college student earning some summer cash. Good for her, but bad for the restaurant.

I don’t particularly care for places that try to trick me with what their employees wear. While I can certainly understand dislike on the part of the employees, I happen to appreciate being able to clearly identify who is working at a restaurant or retail store. This is usually achievable with same-colored shirts and name tags. That’s really all I need and want. Anything less and I’m awkwardly asking people if they work there. Anything more and I’m too embarrassed to admit their costume made it clear they work there.

For example, while I can appreciate Disney’s commitment to fantasy in all things they do at Disney World, I’ve heard it before that they only allow one of each costumed character in the park at a time. The logic is that they don’t want a child bumping into multiple Mickey Mice as they explore the park. Sounds reasonable, right? Except, is any child really confused that this is the one and only Mickey Mouse? I understand toddlers, but beyond that are any thinking this poor schlep is going home to his hole in the wall tonight to feed a family of twenty? Kids’ minds don’t work that way.

Nor are children confusing any of the Mickey Mice for the one of television and film fame. Again, toddlers might be confused, but they’re also confused about the inherent problems of keeping their big toe firmly placed in their nose for the afternoon. All other children learn early on the difference between real beings and cartoon characters. That might be Buzz Lightyear standing there, but he’s real and not the cartoon Buzz Lightyear. The one exception to this, of course, is Santa Claus. But the flesh and blood Mr. Kringle has always been the real one, since no cartoon character could bring toys. Duh.

So if you ever visit Disney World and while dining find your waitress costumed in a dress and bonnet, tell them you’re no idiot, and neither is your child. Now, if you’ll bring us our check, we have to head over to the World Showcase in Epcot to see what Canada is really like!

John Wayne in The Searchers

For the last few weeks I’ve been working on prepping the Introduction to Film course I’ll teach in the fall. The class has a lab during which we have enough time to screen full length films. That means I have to pick which films to show, and that can be harder than it sounds.

When dealing with a young audience, anything made before they were born often comes off as odd and unapproachable. The dialogue seems funny, the special effects dated, etc. For this fall’s class, that means anything prior to 1990. Obviously I can’t limit myself to just films made in the last 20 years, but going beyond those years means not only addressing the previously listed concerns, but also one of morality. You see, many people can’t quite wrap their heads around the idea that the world was a place of questionable morality before they were born. It’s as if we all think original sin began with us.

This has long been the case with teaching literature. When The Canterbury Tales or Shakespeare mock religion, discuss sex, or even stoop to fart jokes students are bewildered. The references either go over their heads, or they attempt to rationalize them away. “Oh, that’s just the teacher thinking of it dirty. That’s not how they mean it.”

With films students are even more conflicted. How could a film from the 1950s be about affairs, rape, and racism (like John Ford’s The Searchers) when the television shows of the time were so immaculately scrubbed clean? Married couples slept in separate beds for crying out loud!

I’ve often felt a contradicting challenge when trying to lecture on the positive message of some films. John Landis’ The Blues Brothers has always clearly had a positive message about religion, even if it took the Vatican until just this year to acknowledge it. The television show The X-Files is even more heavy-handed in its positive religious message, especially with the Catholic undertones. I wonder how long until the church acknowledges it?

As a media creator, I know often my films, comics, cartoons, etc. have been misinterpreted. People take something too much at face-value, or perhaps not enough. It’s frustrating, and at times leads to discussions of, “Well, maybe we should spell it out more clearly!” However, in approaching the history of literature and film from an academic perspective, I see the futility in doing so. Even when it’s crystal clear, it can still be cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

Note the two bottom right stories

While piddling about online looking for something interesting to read, I made the mistake of visiting CNN’s website. What’s so bad about CNN’s site, you ask?

First, why does CNN act confused about where I am? Just about every other website in the world can recognize and greet me knowing I’m from the United States. For some reason, CNN always asks me if I’m sure I want the US edition of its website. CNN is like a teenage waiter his first night on the job. “Are you sure you wanted a baked potato?” Apparently even if it did turn out to be wrong, all I have to do is click a link at the top labeled “US edition.”

Second, one of the front page stories on CNN is an image of a lake with the headline “8-year-old killed by boat propeller.” That’s tragic news and a disturbing thought to even consider, but what’s truly upsetting is the fact that if I hover over the picture with my mouse there appears a video play button. That’s right, there’s apparently video related to this death. Really CNN?

At this point I’m not even sure how to respond. What was someone thinking making this not only a front page story, but one with video? Below it lies a video link to a story titled “Dog thought dead returns to family.” How is this even news?

I have a headline for you CNN, “Cat eats strange object on kitchen floor and is thought sick for next three hours, but not.” That’s just about every night at my house–center of the news world.