Paperplanes @ the Prospector in Long Beach

Reflections: A dialogue through vinyl cracks

The Paperplanes had finished grooving when the DJ took over. The following conversation with Jim, as I remember it, occurred roughly 3 feet from a big black speaker looming overhead.

Me: So how have you been?!
Jim: What?!
Me: Hello there!
Jim: I'm telling you, we need to ride Kern River!
Me: On one of those big safe rafts?!
Jim: Fuck no. We need inner tubes!
Me: Oh!
Jim: We need to pack boxes of beer in a sort of floating device and drag them from our inner tubes!
Jim: We'll rip a hole in top just big enough so our fists will fit through! That way we can simply reach in and grab one!
Me: That sounds good!
Jim: We have to make sure we're finished drinking before we hit each rapid!
Jim: When you go through the rapids you get knocked around and if you have half of a beer in your hand what's going to happen?!

Me: It will fill with water!
Jim: Are you going to want to drink that shit!
Me: Yes?

Jim: What?!
Me: No!
Jim: That's why we have to finish drinking the beer!
Me: How crazy are the rapids?!
Jim: People die there every year! (laughs)
Me: ...

New Dish Bike

She likes.

Cocktail hour, Dock time

Here's the beginning of many photos. That's Mike Almquist (left), Tricia, Dean and Greg. Upcoming photos include Dean's gondola ride, my newspaper office, Rob's bike pub crawl, Prospector and Paperplanes photos, Tricia's new bike and Rob's new bike photos. Live it, live it.

Students benefit, professor wins

Published in the CSUF Daily Titan newspaper on April 30.

Every summer, Cal State Fullerton and other CSU students participate in the Washington, D.C. Internship Program. The program places interns in political and government-related offices in the nation's capital.

The program is led by the media-savvy Professor Stephen Stambough. He has maintained an interest in politics his entire life that he is passing on to his students.

The 40-year-old CSUF political science teacher was recently awarded the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Award for outstanding service and contribution to student success.

"I'm honored to have won it as a result of my work with the Washington, D.C. [summer] Internship program," Stambough wrote in an e-mail. "The award is a very nice recognition of the work on this program, which has been a lot of fun and rewarding working with students."

Stambough's decision to become a political science teacher stems from his early interest in politics as a child, but earning teaching credentials was one of his two choices.

"It was either campaign work or teaching," Stambough said. "Campaign work is fun and something I still do a little bit, but I haven't for the last few years [and] the hours suck."

Through the years, Stambough has worked on many campaigns. He has even stared into the lens of a CNBC World television camera, while participating periodically as a guest expert discussing California and American political issues.

"From my childhood on, I volunteered on campaigns and then later served as an adviser to some candidates," Stambough said. "I've worked on races from city council to governor in five different states."

Stambough said appearing on television is "just kind of fun." He said the experience is like being in a different world, but it's part of what teachers should do.

"We should be working out in the community instead of [strictly] staying on campus," Stambough said. "That's part of what the [Washington, D.C.] Internship program philosophy is -- getting the students out and applying what they learn here into things that could be careers."

Former President Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Dole and former 1996 Republican vice-president candidate Jack Kemp are just a few big political names Stambough has had the opportunity to meet and briefly speak with.

In its third year, the Cal State D.C. Internship Program is available to all juniors, seniors and graduate students in the CSU system, according to CSUF's division of politics, administration and justice Web page.

"The students stay at the dorms at George Washington University," Stambough said. "I stay out there for half of the summer and another faculty member stays for the other half."

The other faculty member is criminal justice professor Stacy Mallicoat, Stambough said.

Phillip Gianos, the chair of the division of politics, administration and justice, nominated Stambough for the faculty award.

In his nomination memo, Gianos stated that Stambough, with the support of alumna Margaret McCarthy and the dean's office, was essential to the summer program by aiding in establishing, organizing and administering the internship program.

"[Stambough] brought to CSUF his experience with similar programs at North Dakota State University," Gianos wrote in the memo. "[Stambough] did the hard initial work of creating the program from scratch."

One look at Stambough's five-page curriculum vitae proves his work ethic is extraordinary.

He said learning the value of working hard is attributed to family influence. Born in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Stambough moved frequently during his childhood because of his father's involvement in the military.

"After the military, my dad went into social work," Stambough said. "My first jobs were helping him out at the place he ran, which was a [United Service Organization]."

Stambough may dedicate much of his time to work and he may accomplish certain tasks like publishing books, journal articles and book reviews, but he said personal time is extremely important too. He has been married for 10 years and his hobbies include everything from baseball and movies to wine tasting.

At one point during his life of constant moving, his father was stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego. The family stayed long enough for Stambough to grow into a San Diego Chargers and San Diego Padres fan.

The faculty award Stambough will receive is one of six campus-wide awards distributed by the college of humanities and social sciences.

Each recipient will receive their award at a humanities and social sciences convocation in September. The first awards were dispersed in 2001, said Thomas Klammer, the dean of the college of humanities and social sciences.

"[The] winners of all but the distinguished faculty member award receive $1,000 and personalized plaques," Klammer wrote in an e-mail. "They [also] have their names inscribed on a permanent plaque in the dean's office."

Klammer said Stambough's award is important because it recognizes the tremendous contribution faculty make through services of all kinds, but especially through services that directly benefit students and enhances their education.

"[Stambough] is especially deserving of this award because of his leadership of the Washington, D.C. Internship program, which offers one of the most powerful educational experiences our students can have," Klammer wrote in an e-mail. "[The internship] opens up rewarding career options to those who are interested in pursuing work in government service, advocacy (lobbying) firms, non-profits, congressional and executive offices and federal agencies."

Stambough received his master's degree in political science from Iowa State University in 1991 and then received his doctorate in the same discipline from the University of California, Riverside in 1997. He arrived and began teaching at CSUF in 2003.

"[My] motivation comes from an interest in seeing people develop intellectually and develop careers in things they might have never thought possible," Stambough said. "That is why the [Washington, D.C.] Internship program is incredibly rewarding to do."

Stambough is the first person in his immediate family to attend college and his biggest challenge in life happened to be attending graduate school.

"I am [a] first-generation college [student] and anyone who has been in that situation knows that there is a learning curve about applications, financing and college life that is new to those without siblings or parents who have been to college," Stambough said. "My parents were really supportive."

Working through challenges helped Stambough develop a life philosophy.

"Keep your eye on the big picture and the details will work themselves out," he said.

As far as advice for political science students looking to transition into the teaching world, he said students should gain some experience in the political world through campaign work or internships and then bring those experiences into the classroom.

Students may find more information regarding the Washington, D.C. Internship program by visiting http://hss.fullerton.edu/polisci/wip/index.asp.

Anthropology exhibit

Published in the CSUF Daily Titan newspaper on April 21.

New exhibit opens in the CSUF Anthropology museum

Here are some photos from a slide show I pieced together for the Daily Titan Web site. The project was posted on April 16.

I had been avoiding the Daily Titan newsroom for a few weeks in order to catch up in my other classes. Finally, I decided to cover this event. Originally I had planned to attend the grand opening of the exhibit, which the title is in the photograph above, and take a few photos then write an article.

A few hours before the opening, I was peeking through a window to get a glimpse of the lighting and spacing situation in the gallery. Another reporter walked by and recognized me then asked if I was the photographer for the event. I informed him of my plans and then he informed me of his. Apparently he expected to write the story because he had pitched the idea a while ago to the same news editor I had pitched the same idea to a couple days before.

That's when I decided to turn the project into a multimedia article. I stayed for a few hours, took a lot of photos and interviewed a few people on a voice recorder. The next day I created the slide show and used the audio from the interviews as sound. You can find the project at www.dailytitan.com. Click on the multimedia link in the column on the left.

Since I originally planned to write the story, I had gathered some information about the event and the pieces showcased in the gallery.

The entire exhibit, from the painting of the walls to the research of the bowls, was created by the students of the museum practicum class (Anthro. 498) and their teacher Julie Lee. The class obtained the pieces from the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana free of charge, according to Lee.

"The objects have never been studied by anyone at the [Bowers] museum and so the research conducted will be new information to add to the [Bowers] museum's object files," Lee wrote in an e-mail. "The students visited the museum to look at the bowls themselves, they conducted hours of research by looking at any information regarding New Guinea ceramics and other art objects, styles and motifs from the Sawos group and surrounding areas of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea."

Lee said to the best of their knowledge, this exhibit is the first to focus solely on a collection of bowls from the Sawos people. The exhibit divides the pieces into topics like iconography, trade, tools, techniques, gender roles and food. There are thirty-two bowls on display along with a video presentation regarding the creation and coiling of the bowls by Nobuhito Nishigawara, an assistant professor of art at CSUF.

While researching the Sawos people, I stumbled across the Web site journal of Dr. John Tyman (www.brandonu.ca/tyman/sawos/journal/) who happened to live with the Sawos people of the Torembi village in 1980-82 and then again in 1994.

"The Sawos are a generous and, till recently, independent people who have survived as hunter-gatherers for centuries but are faced now with the change-induced traumas that are common to indigenous peoples worldwide," Tyman wrote in an e-mail. "The nearest thing to a 'bowl' I can remember seeing was the broad wock-like platter used to make sago pancakes, but I never saw these being made,nor do I know if they make them or trade/buy them.

"All the other containers, as I remember, were derived from forest products: but my experience of daily life in their villages is limited to the period from 1980-82 and so they may have produced a range of clay bowls in the years before cooking pots and the like could be bought from the store."

The exhibit runs through June and is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry is free, but the teaching museum (McCarthy Hall RM 426) excepts donations.

Check It

Seventy-Two Words

I wrote seventy-two words.

I'm chapter 54.

CSUF Arboretum

Student receives $1,000

Published in the CSUF Daily Titan newspaper on March 20.

A new reality came barreling down on CSUF student Julia Patricia Torre, 37, when she transitioned from housewife to struggling single mother.

"I got divorced in this country," said Torre, who is originally from Mexico City. "I was a housewife and all of a sudden, I had to provide for my family. It's hard to rebuild your life. I'm trying to teach my children that education has rewards and you don't have to wait for a prince to solve your problems."

Torre, a senior, won the $1,000 Soroptimist Women's Opportunity Award. On March 17, a luncheon at the Wyndham Hotel in Fullerton allowed her to receive the award along with a certificate of commendation from the city of Fullerton and a Certificate of Congressional Recognition from Congressman Ed Royce.

"I was very excited [to win]," said Torre, an international business major. "[To me,] the award means recognition for efforts a single mom puts into school while raising kids."

The word soroptimist is a combination of sorority and optimist and can be defined as "best for women," according to the Soroptimist Web site.

The organization, Soroptimist International of the Americas, was founded in 1921 with the mission to better the lives of women and girls.

An overwhelming vote by Soroptimist members helped create the Soroptimist Women's Opportunity Award in 1972.

Born in Mexico City, Torre moved to Huntington Beach in 1993 after she met her ex-husband while working and attending college. Although she began studying for a business degree in Mexico, she started school all over again when the family moved to Miami in 1994.

She received her associate degree in business from Miami Dade Community College. At Miami Dade she graduated with honors and made the dean's list.

In 2003 Torre left her husband, worked for a year and half and then began studying again in 2005 at Golden West College in Huntington Beach. From there she transfered to CSUF.

While registering at CSUF, another low blow hit Torre. She learned the college would only accept 37 out of the 92 units she had accumulated.

"I was almost ready to go and work," Torre said.

Torre, a Huntington Beach resident, is now ready to graduate and begin the master's program in the fall.

"I want to save the [award] money for tuition for the master's program," Torre said. "I'll put it in a safe until I can pay for the first semester."

Torre's school involvement does not end simply with homework. She is also the co-vice president for the international honor society Phi Beta Delta and she recently finished an internship for the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce, which included a trip to China where she toured jade, silk and carpet factories and interviewed government officials.

"I would like to run my own business importing art from Latin American countries," Torre said. "There's a lot of art that people in this country don't know about and through art we can learn about other cultures and respect them. That's my dream."

University Police Cpl. Iris Cortes-Valle made the call to inform Torre of her accomplishment.

"Julia had us in tears at the reception," said Cortes-Valle, who is also a member of the Soroptimist International of Fullerton. "She spoke from the heart."

Cortes-Valle said that since Torre won the award for the Fullerton club, her application will be reviewed along with all of the other winners for the region. The regional winner will be awarded $3,000.

"[The organization] is about helping people, such as Julia -- somebody that's had such hardships -- and giving them an opportunity to be recognized and enable them to feel a little more confident about what they're doing," Cortes-Valle said. "I think for Julia [this] is a wonderful opportunity to be an example for other people and to say you can break that cycle."

Assistant Dean of Student Affairs in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics Emeline Yong encouraged Torre to apply for the award.

"Julia had shared her story with me a year ago," Yong wrote in an e-mail. "Once I heard the criteria for the scholarship, I thought of Julia. I'm so happy she was chosen. She has gone through a lot in life and she deserves this type of recognition."

Animal Weekend

Anthropology department prepares for new exhibit

Published on the CSUF Daily Titan newspaper Web site on March 13.

The Anthropology department is gearing up for the arrival of a new exhibit next month and the Carl's Jr. on campus is hosting a fundraiser to help.

Students who present a flier advertising the event, which can be obtained in MH-426, will help the museum receive 25 percent of the profit from the purchase, which Carl's Jr. will donate to the new exhibit, "Ceramics of Sustenance: Elaborate Vessels of the Sawos, Papua New Guinea."

"Any cost of the food is being subtracted," anthropology major Vivian Cawthon, 23, said. "You have to hit a minimum of $500 in sales in order to qualify for the grant afterward."

Money raised will help with the cost of supplies and production of a catalog for the exhibit.

"We're not sure if we'll have the funds in order to publish the catalog," Cawthon said. "That's the big thing we need to gather money for because it's expensive to publish. I think the original price we got was $99 for the first one, then $20 for each catalog afterward."

The fundraiser, which ends Saturday, has produced about $100 so far and has provided Carl's Jr. with free advertising, according to Cawthon.

"We have quite a ways to go, but we still have some days left," Cawthon said. "Hopefully a lot of people want [to eat at] Carl's Jr."

The upcoming exhibit is fully developed, designed and promoted by Anthropology 498, the museum practicum class. It will have its grand opening on April 22 at 5 p.m. and run until June.

"It's super cool to have support from an on-campus restaurant," anthropology graduate student Jaclyn Ross, 23, said. "I've never seen that before."

Ross said the museum is an important part of CSUF because students prepare the entire exhibit.

"It's really good to have the hands-on experience," Ross said. "Plus, any student can walk by and enjoy it."

Art Brilliance Challenge Education Creativity Complexity

Published in the CSUF Daily Titan newspaper on March 12.

A metaphor comparing fish in water to humans and the collective blindness of our reality perfectly explains why Karyl Ketchum creates.

"We're the fish and ideology is the water," Ketchum, a part-time lecturer in the Women's Studies Department said. "It's impossible for the fish to analyze or even imagine water, because it's wholly immersed. The thing that being creative does may be our only way out of the fishpond, maybe it's our only way to get a critical distance and actually see the water, or see the ideology and begin to subvert it, poke at it, turn it upside down or even give it a name."

When Ketchum talks about academics and art, wisdom radiates from her hazel eyes, but when she's forced to recall memories from a childhood riddled with change, the brilliance in her eyes is replaced with an innocent stare of a little girl once lost.

Ketchum, 44, will become a full-time teacher in the fall and will head classes like Gender and Technoculure, Intercultural Women's Studies and Gender and Globalization.

She attributes her success to a series of events that led her into the arms of her adopted grandmother Francis.

"My family background is fairly complicated," Ketchum said. "I was born in Cleveland, Ohio to my birth mom who, at the time, was 16 years old and then I was put up for adoption."

Ketchum lived in foster care for six months before her adopted family arrived to take her to a new home in Elyria, Ohio.

"All of a sudden I have a grandmother who is one of the first women to get a Master's degree in literature," she said. "[She] ended up quoting Emily Dickinson to me and all the great women poets, along with many of the great male poets. [She] really instilled in me a love of art in all its forms."

These are aspects of life she said would have never crossed her path had she stayed with her birth family.

"I was born into a family that was incredibly poor that lived in southern Ohio, really an area that we would call Appalachia," Ketchum said. " [It had] the kind of poverty that most people can't even imagine. Most people associate this kind of poverty with third world spaces."

Her adopted father James, a retired journalist, also instilled factors within Ketchum's life, that helped shape her professionally.

She developed a love for language and learned through the power of creative thought she could create change.

"He had a really profound influence on my life," Ketchum said. "Both of them [her father and grandmother] are humanists. Both of them believe, believed in the case of my grandmother, in social justice, art and in language. I trace a lot of what I'm doing back to both of them."

The family moved to San Diego when Ketchum was 15 when her father became the managing editor of the San Diego Evening Tribune.

Ketchum graduated from Poway High School in 1982.

Although she considers her high school years to be quite boring, she did frequent the beach and develop a serious painting habit.

In the years following graduation she married her high school sweetheart, gave birth to her two daughters Britt and Hail, divorced her high school sweetheart and then re-married.

In 1994, after her grandmother passed away, they moved to Northern California.

"I was accepted to U.C. Davis," she said.

Ketchum received her Bachelors degree in art studio and women and gender studies in 1999.

She earned her Master's Degree in cultural studies in 2001 and soon after, she received her doctorate in the same discipline.

She began teaching at U.C. Davis when she entered graduate school.

"She's a terrific addition to our faculty," Renae Bredin, the program director for women's studies said. "[Ketchum] is an amazing artist and has an amazing theoretical background in terms of cultural studies theory, feminist theory, post modernist theory, and that's a rare combination."

Student feedback like "amazing" and "extremely compelling" funnel back to Bredin regarding Ketchum's teaching.

"[Students] feel like they come out of classes having learned more than they imagined they would have learned," Bredin said. "She has a depth of understanding that transcends boundaries. She's not only an artist and she's not only a theorist, she's both at the same time, which in terms of the kind of work she does, the research she does and the combination between that and her art, is very rare - very unusual."

This is Ketchum's third semester at Cal State Fullerton.

"The Women's Studies Department at Cal State Fullerton actually decided they wanted to include a cultural studies emphasis in their program," Ketchum said. "So what that means for me, is that my background in cultural studies and my passion for art making, in all its different forms, is really valued here. That's why this is a really perfect place for me to be."

Now that Ketchum has obtained full-time status, she will move from her cubicle into an office, but more importantly, she will continue to participate in an ongoing conversation within cultural studies and its relationship to feminist theory.

She also wants to see more men in the classroom.

Radio-TV-Film major Robert Regalado can't imagine taking a women's studies class only because his major restricts extra time from his schedule.

"If I had extra time I would consider it," Regalado said in a recent interview.

"I think there's a real problem with thinking that women's studies is all about male bashing," Ketchum said. "I think that still lingers, that idea and it's so outdated. It's not at all what it's about. It's like the fish thing. It's all of us getting that critical distance."

Ketchum said she wants her students to grasp the notion that they can make sense of the world by critically deconstructing and reassembling it in a way that makes sense so they can navigate it mindfully and not blindly.

Also, she said she wants students to get a sense of who they are in the world and understand the responsibilities of being educated.

"To be at the university is a tremendous privilege," Ketchum said. "That privilege, as all privilege does, confers a great deal of responsibility. Not just the responsibility to go out and get a job and make money, but a responsibility to share that knowledge and a responsibility to live mindfully."

'Evil, Evil Woman' speaks at CSUF

Published in the CSUF Daily Titan newspaper on March 10.

The Women's Studies Department kicked off Women's History Month with a lecture by evolution proponent Barbara Forrest in the Titan Student Union, Pavilion C.

The lecture, "Evil, Evil Woman: What it was like to be the only female witness in the Dover Intelligent Design trial," focused on Forrest's experiences during the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, in which Dover High School board members in Pennsylvania attempted to integrate intelligent design into ninth-grade biology classes.

"People are fascinated by the trial and they want to hear about it," Forrest wrote in an e-mail. "So I get invitations [to speak]."

The Liberal Studies Student Association originally picked Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, to speak during its annual Liberal Studies Week.

"During these events, we try to highlight speakers or films that exemplify the interdisciplinary nature of liberal studies," said Jim Hofmann, the chairman of the liberal studies department at Cal State Fullerton. "[Forrest's] research on the sources and activities of the intelligent design movement requires knowledge of constitutional law, comparative religion and philosophy as well as various aspects of evolutionary science."

One particular aspect Hofmann wanted students to learn from Forrest's lecture was the understanding of where the intelligent design movement fits in with promoting anti-evolutionary agendas in the public school system.

"[Forrest] will be able to give them a detailed account of how this movement is funded by a Seattle-based think tank called the Discovery Institute," Hofmann wrote in an e-mail. "Students will also learn about some of the legal tactics used by advocates of intelligent design and why these tactics failed in the Dover trial."

Starla Gonzales, 26, a Liberal Studies Student Association representative for the Associated Students Inc., presented a proposal to ASI and succeeded in obtaining a $1,700 honorarium to have Forrest visit the campus.

"I'm going into the teaching profession and I think she's a really important figure in the issue of separation of church and state," Gonzales said. "I think intelligent design, or creationism, shouldn't be taught in schools. I grew up going to a private school and learned about creationism. I feel private schools is where that should be taught."

Forrest began her lecture with an explanation for why she was chosen as a witness for the trial. She co-authored a book with Paul Gross titled "Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design" They describe the intelligent design movement as a religious movement, or in other words, creationism, and they document the execution of the movement's strategy.

"When Paul and I published our book in January 2004, we knew eventually somewhere there would be a lawsuit," Forrest said. "So we were very careful in our documentation and in our arguments because we figured that book would be very useful and, as it turned out, it was."

Forrest's role in the Dover trial almost came to an abrupt end when the attorneys for the school board attempted to have her eliminated from the case because she didn't have scientific credentials.

"I wasn't called as a scientist, so that didn't work," Forrest said.

Forrest said the most disturbing aspect of intelligent design comes in the form of religious exclusionism and the attempt to remove the idea of separation of church and state from U.S. government. According to Forrest, the intelligent design movement is trying to use the government to implement a system guided by the religious right.

"Intelligent design isn't really about science," Forrest said. "It's about using politics to advance a religious movement that they intend to make the foundation of public policy, especially with respect to public education."

The "they" Forrest refers to is the people representing the Center for Science and Culture within the Discovery Institute. Forrest said the Center is promoting a sectarian religious agenda as a scientific program.

"They themselves have described what they are doing as a religious program," Forrest said.

Casey Luskin, an attorney and staff member for the Discovery Institute, said the Institute is a secular think tank, or a think tank not connected with religion.

"Dr. Forrest has a long history of misrepresenting the Discovery Institute and promoting blatantly false conspiracy theories about intelligent design and 'theocracy,'" Luskin wrote in an e-mail. "I do not consider her to be an accurate or reliable source when it comes to Discovery Institute or intelligent design."

Judge John Jones ruled in favor of the plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller, the mother of two daughters attending Dover High School during the trial, on Dec. 20, 2005. Eight of the nine creationist school board members were voted out of office and had to pay $1 million in court fees, according to Forrest.

"The first and most important thing I hope people learn is that intelligent design is merely another variant of creationism, and there is virtually nothing there in any scientific sense," Forrest said. "Intelligent design has been shown over and over again by competent scientists and other scholars to be scientifically empty."

Forrest said her religious beliefs shouldn't be an issue, but she no longer hesitates saying she is not a religious person in any sense.

"I was devout for a good deal of my early life, so I certainly understand how important religion is to people," Forrest said. "However, I think Americans are coming to realize that one can live a good life morally and can function in every way without endorsing any theological doctrines."