California State University, Fresno |

I ALREADY KNOW I WANT TO STICK AROUND Fresno State; great things are afoot here. Once I realized how much Fresno State had grown on me over the last few years, I realized also that I don’t want to leave. Graduate school has never seemed so far away, or so certain. (more...)

The Table is the place to be if you’re in band, choir or orchestra. Veneer and a solid finish have kept this music department hangout spot looking good through the years, and, owing to the erratic scheduling of music classes, there’s almost always good company to be found here. (more...)

Imagine that's the weekend. I'm writing this post during the weekend, so it's probably a lot easier for me to imagine this than for you. This particular Saturday evening comes after three enjoyable, one passable and what might as well have been nine horrid weekdays worth of unshaven, unwashed and sometimes disinterested high school sophomores. (more...)

I read dystopias and apocalyptic fiction. Those are by far my favorite genres. The other day, I found a real gem in some fictional footnotes in one of them. (more...)

JOB FAIRS ARE A GREAT WAY TO GET a lot of interviews in with prospective employers, though the savvy graduate should already have a job lined up. This is not for those graduates. (more...)

YOU WOULDN’T KNOW IT BY LOOKING AT MY overgrown, pudgy exterior, but I’m an adventurer. I’m an explorer, and one in the very best tradition of elephant rifles and safari caps. Just one of the many things I learned at the local library. It’s too late for the exiting seniors, but Fresno State students will reap similar benefits from the construction of our future Henry Madden Library. Once again, our library will have its wild, untamed stacks, fresh for conquest. My first conquest at Fresno State, I picked up the odd Philip Dick short story collection, a Vonnegut or two. (more...)

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER BATCH OF seniors looking for jobs, another batch of job fairs. Another chance for another first impression. Another mind-numbing column in The Collegian that tries to remind you of the importance of first impressions. Though USA Today reported that the job market for new college grads was about to heat up despite a poorly performing economy, assume they’re just as wrong on that as they are on their editorial pages. (more...)

FOR EXACTLY ONE HOUR SATURDAY evening, lights went out in San Francisco, Chicago and the larger part of Australia. It was all planned that way. (more...)

It’s the season for painful PowerPoint presentations. You owe me, by the way, for avoiding the awful ’tis construction.) I doing four of these slideshows in the last two weeks of this semester, and I’ve seen a whole bunch already. One of my professors even spent a class session with a presentation on presentations. She called it “PowerPoint Not as a Form of Torture.” Six weeks later, nobody in our class has much heeded any of her advice. Only pay attention if you don’t want to fail. (more...)

YOU DIDN’T HEAR IT FROM ME. Now, I heard — and believe me I only just heard it — that Barack Obama isn’t prepared to serve as president on day one. Where did I hear it? I dunno. I don’t think Clinton said it. Did she? I don’t think so. I’m just pretty sure I just heard it somewhere. (more...)

KIDS THESE DAYS JUST DON’T APPRECIATE a good book. Whether it’s from being burnt out on expensive upper division texts or longwinded seminars with obscure readings, about 42 percent of college graduates plan on never reading a book again, according to a Jenkins Group, Inc. study. (more...)

Don’t speak Internet-ese. It’s just easier that way. I write this as a high school teacher, albeit a student teacher, who teaches writing to seniors in a government class. You’d be surprised how illiterate the vast bulk of them are – even those who aim to be freshmen again next year. You might benefit from (more...)

Buzzwords come and go. One of education’s latest is “culturally responsive.” Sigh. What’s usually omitted is how cultural responsiveness benefits us or our understanding of the world. (more...)

RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A NEO-CON, partisan idiot. That doesn’t stop him from being right once in a while. (more...)

SPEECHES ARE MORE THAN JUST WORDS. (more...)