Posted 7:29 PM by Andrew Faehnle
http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/GetContents.asp?strMixID=50895

Posted 1:02 AM by Andrew Faehnle
Last Night


Ah, so my fair brother Nicholas googled me: "Andrew Faehnle".

And he found this.

Then I came over to his apartment.

NF: Hey, dick, why didn't you tell us about Teacher of the Month?
AF: ...
AF: ...

[beat]

AF: ?
AF: (o_O)

[beat]

NF: I googled your name. Check it out.
AF: wtf?
NF: Congratulations.
AF: wtf?

[fade]

It is weird for someone to know something about my history that I don't know.
Or is it common, and something we just never run into?

I decided how to remedy the situation: throw a "February 2003" party. Play the videos and songs that were hot 3 months ago.
Dress like we did 3 months ago.
It's a meta-party.
Full of meta-sin.
Mmm. Meta-sin.

Posted 12:55 AM by Andrew Faehnle
Hit of the Week #3

Examining the odd things that bring people to Viva:

1). catfight black female dominate vs white male
leave it to someone in Germany to look for this...

2). pictures of monica lewisky [sic]
eww.

Viva la Evolucion!: disappointin' sex fiends since October, 2002.

last week's Hit of the Week

Posted 11:45 AM by Andrew Faehnle
Have you ever drowned in honey?
An end so sweet you don't even care
Because, really,
It's a better way to go than the alternatives.

Posted 12:51 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Sex and Nalgene

So, my project of the moment is meeting a girl who is cute and smart and cool, because, well, I'm ready for some kind of more serious dating or maybe even a relationship, instead of all of this freewheeling dating I've been doing up until recently. I've very recently met this girl who is cool and who I like, but I get lots of mixed signals from her, so I don't know what's up. It's very frustrating, because I like her, and would be willing to invest some time to see where things go, but I don't know.

I suppose, considering what I know about positive attractors and network theory, that I ought to explore it for all it's worth, because doing so will indicate more interest, which would (presumably) reinforce the interest she has (at times) shown, which would make me show more interest, etc. But people aren't predictable the way that quantum particles are. And she has read Viva from time to time, so how will that affect the feedback loop? I don't know.

At the same time, I don't want to show overinterest. Nothing implies desperation like overbearingness. And no one likes desperation.

So, back to my project: I have started carrying my nalgene bottle most times when I go out. What does that say about a person? They they're "crunchy?" That they want to exude preparedness? That they don't like paying for water? Clearly, the nalgene bottle isn't the core of the issue. Anyone can see that it's all about what's inside. More directly, since people will unquestionably size you up based on your appearance, which in my case approximately = clothes + small-ish courier bag + headphones/iPod + nalgene bottle, will people judge based on whats in the bottle?

If I have no water in my bottle, what conclusions can be drawn? That I'm heading home? That my adventures are over? That it's a done deal?

What about full: I'm heading out into the world. Does it connote a sense of naivete?

What is the optimal water level for meeting someone? Leave the bottle at the halfway mark and let the other person decide if it's half-full or half-empty? Use the nalgene as a psychological metric for the people you meet? Or do you go for adventure, and go maybe 25% full, like you're right at the point of the climax in the movie, and that, asuuredly, anyone who joins you on your adventures will have an exciting, if not explosive, time? Or do you play it cautious, go somewhere between the full anf half-full mark? You're already warmed up, in the thick of your adventures, but you have enough water to share, and you can last for a while?

Maybe, in an attempt to convey resourcefulness, covering the bottle in duct tape is the best answer. You can always say it's easier to get a good grip. Or would that be, "ribbed, for her pleasure?"

Posted 10:30 PM by Andrew Faehnle
my head hurts,
my throat hurts,
but my heart feels fine.

Posted 8:47 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Whenever I feel lonely, I ride the subway.

Posted 5:21 PM by Andrew Faehnle
I have just completed my semester of grad school, and all of my requirements for my M.A. in Engish Education.

The last project.

Posted 11:07 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Oh my lord, a contest!

Howard Han is the coolest fucker ever invented; check it on Pirate Radio.

I wanted to download the video, so I searched google: electric six gay bar.

I found something odd.

So, I am starting a contest.

1). Make a video for the song "Gay Bar" by Electric Six.
2). Post a link in this discussion.
3). I will judge the entries on May 20. I will buy the winner a copy of Electric Six's new album, which is released on that day. Make sure that your website has some contact information so that I can get ahold of you if I decide you win. My decision is final. There are no particular criteria by which I will judge the winner. Read my blog to get an idea of how my brain works, and you might have a leg up on the competition.

Posted 4:34 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Hit of the Week

It's been an odd week, so I have three offerings of how people got here:

scary optical allusion
erm? even ignoring the typo, i can't figure out what they were looking for.

homemade PE equipment
that sounds dangerous and scary...

cracked free medical textbooks
huh? where do all these kooks come from?

total number of people who got here by keyword searching viva la evolucion: 1

previous Hit of the Week

Posted 11:59 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Grrr

The thing that gets me madder than anything else in the world: stupidity.

Today I got an email. It was from Teach for America. I am supposed to meet with April, who is supposed to be something of a mentor or supervisor to me. The e-mail was not written by April (who was previously a teacher), but by someone else, who was also a teacher. The email:

Dear Andrew,
I have scheduled your one on one meeting with April for May 22nd at 2:30. Unless you absolutely cannot reschedule a previous engagement you have at this time, please consider this your appointment. Thank you.

?

?!? 2:30? April knows, and the person who wrote this should know that my school day ends at 3:00pm. Granted, maybe they are punishing me because I never bothered to schedule this appointment my self, and they're giving me a crap time to slap me on the wrists. My reply to the e-mail:

I teach until 3pm on weekdays.
I'll see if I can reschedule this previous engagement with District 7, but it seems unlikely.
Generally, the earliest I can make it into the office is 4.

Thanks,
Andrew

Grr. TFA is really out of touch with its corps members...

Posted 11:29 AM by Andrew Faehnle
Less

There is nothing wrong
with economy of words;
it may be better.

Posted 8:34 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Notes on a Movie No One Has Seen by Christian and me

Posted 12:31 AM by Andrew Faehnle
Wholesome, pt. 3
(or, can you tell I'm really bothered about this?)

A long-ago girlfriend of mine once compared herself to me with the following: she'd just rather fuck up the system, whereas I'd rather subvert it from within.

She was right. I have always valued subversion over open rebellion. Probably has something to do with my lifelong fascination with spies and the touch of paranoia I've been blessed with (concomitant in my mostly useful, sometimes schizophrenic ability to see connections where most people don't).

So, I offer this last comment on my wholesomeness: it give me access to the culture of power that I work so hard to subvert every day.

That's why I am a teacher.

Posted 12:08 AM by Andrew Faehnle
Tonight, I saw Peter Jennings cry.
News at 11.

Posted 5:20 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Yayayayayay!

My Master's Project, dear readers and friends, is in the hands of my advisor.
I am officially done with the requirements of my M.A.
I'll graduate in October, because I want to squeeze in one last class.

My graduation present to self: a brand-new skateboard. Yay!
Now that I've got all that expensive education and stuff (Yale, B.A.; Columbia M.A.),
it's time to skull myself or break my neck.

My thesis advisor liked the skateboard idea: she said learning to ride it
would feel similar to how it might be for my students who struggle with writing.
She thought it was tres cool for me, as a teacher, to be learning something so totally new.

She also thinks I have a good article in me about the value of TFA.
I agree with her, and it is nice to hear people vocally support
and encourage me. There isn't enough of it in the world:
interpersonal feedback. Let me know when I'm doing a good job:
it'll only make me work harder to do better.

Posted 10:40 AM by Andrew Faehnle
i love the endorphin-high feeling i get after a particularly exhilarating run.
it makes the world seem okay.

Posted 10:54 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Do vegans swallow?
Discuss

Seriously. Do they?


(crossposted on Sex Gods of the Internet)

Posted 5:22 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Focus, pt. 2

Ok, I am really on a quest for focus now. I wan't it; haven't got enough.
I want a skateboard and Yoga classes too.
I think they'll help with my balance.
I've been using Christian's
balance board a lot lately, and it has given me a marked
increase in my balancing skills. I know it sounds lame to practice balancing, but it's what I've been doing whenever I get the chance.
(And it's even more embarassing not to be able to stand on one foot for 5 seconds without
waving your arms around like an asshole.)

Posted 4:23 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Foreboding

Baghdad was once the capital of a large Islamic empire.
And now we fuck with them.
I fear the future.

Posted 10:26 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Over the course of this week, thoughts of past girlfriends have been popping into my head. Why? Because it's spring and I'm single?

Posted 10:24 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Wholesome, Pt. 2

Speaking of wholesome, yesterday I attended a meeting the purpose of which was to organize a northern Manhattan chapter of Food Not Bombs. I've never been involved in any kind of activism at all. (With the exception of attending the 2/15 anti-war rally.) It felt good. It made me happy. Then I walked home 20-ish blocks, visited a cool clothing store and bought a linen shirt from a gorgeous salesgirl. I love linen.

Too good for my own good.

Posted 9:41 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Hit of the week:

"christian music filesharing program"
yup. someone typed that into google and eventually ventured onto this site.
i like to try and imagine their reaction.

Posted 3:54 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Wholesome

I got lost in Brooklyn today, right around the "X" formed by the G and L subway lines. New York City zoning regulations require that you must either be Polish or a Hipster (or can pass for one or the other) if you want to live in the area. It's really bizarre. I slept over at Jane's place. There were four of us in the relatively tiny bed: me, jane, her brother, and a guy whose name sounds like "Brent" but isn't because when I called him that I was told that his name actually has no vowels in it. I guess he's Polish, too.

The cramped sleeping conditions resulted in little "good sleep" for me, though everyone else seemed to be doing fine. I have always been bad at sleeping anywhere but my bed. So, when I decided at 2-ish this afternoon that it was about time to head home, I was disoriented a bit. I wandered around Brooklyn in big circles, maybe with an 8-block radius. I wanted to find the L subway because the G doesn't touch manhattan, the at-that-time-distant island I call home. I ended up under the BQE, saw lots of men dressed like old-school European sailors. It was a thoroughly bizarre experience. Not my NYC at all. Instead of Spanish all over them place (which I can fairly comprehend, especially if it's written), there was Polish. That was weird: not having access to a large amount of the culture where you live. Up here in the Hts, it's all good, especially because a lot of the kids I teach are latinos and latinas.

Because I am really stupid about Brooklyn, I decided to come up with an algorithm for finding subway stations there. All of the streets looked, physically, more or less plausible for having a subway station. I could see the Empire State Building, so I could navigate radially. I'd forgotten this cool trick:

1. hold your wristwatch so the face is parallel to the ground
2. rotate the entire watch so that hour hand points towards the direction of the sun
3. halfway between the hour hand and 12 is due south

cool, eh? it's like a compass all the time, if you can just remember how to do it. but i'd forgotten it, so navigating radially was only of limited use. So, here's the method i came up with:

1. walk in the general direction you want to head. for example, towards the Empire State Building.
2. wander. if you see something interesting on a side street, go. if you don't see anything interesting, go. this step is important because it increases the breadth of your search. it adds an element of randomness, which is important to keeping the algorithm robust
3. maintain your general direction
4. if you come upon a street with a high amount of pedestrian traffic (relative to the other streets in your path), go on it. head in the general direction of your fixed point.

in doing this, i quickly found the G train. Yay. If I hadn't been so silly, I'd've just walked down Nassau (the cross street right by Jane) to the station I took an hour to find. Blah. I really didn't mind the walk though. I've been walking quite a bit lately. Local knowledge, as espoused by Jane Jacobs and Emergence. It also give me time to think and to work on my focus. I need focus. If anyone has some to sell, I could use it.

So, pondering #1: what's with hipsterism?
Have hipsters always existed? If so, where have they all been hidden away and why are they so en vogue now? If not, what was everyone before they were a hipster?
Why do they all have 27 different tattoos and one-of-a-kind, 100% irreplacable thifty/vintage clothing. And very expensive/mass produced courier bags and electronic gadgets?
Why do they hate affectation? It's like if you care about something, you lose your aloofness and can no longer be cool.
(I can't be a hipster. I have too much commitment to--among other things--my students. Otherwise, culturally, I'm pretty down.)
I get infuriated by their lack of caring. They tend to be politically down, but their apathy is so deadening.
Maybe it's all the drugs? And why don't they like hip-hop? Or neo-soul?
I was told last night by Jane that I'm too wholesome.
She asked me if I thought she was a hipster.
I said "no." All her friends say she is, Jane said. But, Jane said, they don't really listen.
No one really listens.

#2 : fortifiedfullness (a socratic dialogue)
Am I wholesome? Of course you are.
Is that bad? By no means.
But all of the people I am attracted to are by various measures unwholseome. And that is bad because...?
Unwholesome types don't generally like wholesome typies. True.
Maybe I should go do something dangerous and then blog it so everyone will know what a badass I really am. Now you're being silly
But I'm not that wholesome. Really I'm not. Remember the golf cart? The abandoned subway station? How about the Hudson? My cornrows? And the revolution? C'mon. Drew...
But. But. Drew, you can best serve your higher goals by being wholesome. Fight fire with water, remember?
You're right. I'm a goodguy. You can change the world if you really work on it... Ok, gotta go. It's time to cook dinner
You cook? Of course. It's practical and yummy and doesn't support yucky corporations like McDonalds.
I should have guessed...

Posted 2:04 AM by Andrew Faehnle
Jane's story

Posted 11:58 PM by Andrew Faehnle
"Extreme Adventures:" A New Company

Posted 11:37 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Phucking with TiVo

Posted 1:01 PM by Andrew Faehnle
Panopticon

How can one argue that our government is not rapidly turning into a panopticon, the surveillance architecture in which the central authority is hidden but can see all of its subjects. The gurrent government is making a bid to give the CIA powers to spy on American citizens We already know that the NSA and FBI do so, but now the CIA?

wtf?