I know this video is supposed to be funny, but then I watched it and didn’t laugh. And I could just forget about it, but I teach public speaking, and it’s an instructional video about public speaking with high production value: I think I’m contractually bound to show this in class so my students say “he’s such a good teacher he shows videos in class one time we watched this one about freedom of speech and it had a panda in it Jim and Pam Reese Witherspoon Ke$ha” (I am old).
The real problem here is that I already do enough things in class that are meant to be funny but aren’t*. And by “class” I mean “life.” So, am I missing something? Is this funny? Would you show this in class?
Addendum for potential future employers: I am downplaying my ability to engage my classes. My students think I am incredible and I once showed a video that inspired everyone in the room to donate $10,000 to whatever cause you support.
I need your help making contacts with people who work in emergency response. If that’s all you need to know, would you be willing to connect me with your friends, relatives, and colleagues that work in emergency response? If so, you can connect us by email (ishak@utexas[dot]edu) and send your contact a link to this page. Thank you!
I need your help.
As you may know, I am currently working on my dissertation in Communication Studies at UT Austin. I am conducting short interviews with people who have worked in emergency response teams, such as fire crews, military units, emergency medical departments, first response units, S.W.A.T. teams, and bomb squads. I have collected a sizable amount of interviews and hours of observations in the field, and many of them have been wonderfully insightful, but I need more. Apparently, a dissertation is supposed to be rigorous. Who knew?
This is where I need your assistance. I’m asking you to help connect me to your friend, relative, or colleague who works (or has worked):
- As a firefighter/wildfire crew member
A map of wildfires in Texas from September 2011. Interviews with members of wildfire crews have been especially useful for this project.
- As a first responder
- In the military
- As an emergency department medical professional
- As part of a bomb squad or S.W.A.T. team (or any other tactical team–search and rescue, exploration, etcetera)
Again, these are very short interviews about their experiences by phone or in person–they can be as short as 5 minutes if that’s what works for the interviewee. While I can’t promise large sums of money, I will also happily treat any in-person interviewees to coffee or lunch at their convenience. And the hope is that this project will help make emergency response training more effective and “live-saving”–that’s an indirect benefit to the interviewee, but one that makes this work worthwhile for me.
If you know someone who I can interview for this project, can you do one of the following for me?
Can you introduce me by email? If so, send your friend, relative, or colleague a link to this page, and copy me on the email (ishak@utexas[dot]edu). Maybe you could assure them I am not a crazy person, and hopefully things will go well from there. You could even copy and paste this email:
Subject: Interview Request
Hi ______,
My friend Andrew is working on a dissertation about emergency response teams at the University of Texas (bit.ly/UTemergencyproject). He needs to interview some ________(s), and I think you would be a great person to talk to. The interview can be as short as you want. I cc’d him on this email and his contact info is below. Can you help him out?
Thanks!
________
Thanks!
________
Contact info for Andrew Ishak:
ishak@utexas(dot)edu
408-857-4238
Can you ask your contact if you can send me their contact info? If you like this alternative to #1, that’s fine with me. Whatever works for you!
Can you post a link to this page on Facebook or Twitter? You can use this shortened link (bit.ly/UTemergencyproject). This is less annoying than you might think for your followers; most people love to help out.
Ideally, I would like to finish my interviews this month. If you have a contact, connecting us will only take 30 seconds of your time, I promise. You can do it right now. (I’ll wait! Thank you!)
…
At the interviewee’s request, I can promise anyone that their stories and names will remain confidential and anonymous (on top of the fact that no one reads academic articles). If it lends any additional comfort, below are links to a consent form that I use as well as an approved review from UT Austin’s institutional research board.
Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it.
-Andrew Ishak
“Those other girls must be crazy if they think they’re gonna beat me Honey Boo-Boo Child.”
-Alana, 6, Quote of the Year
Ugh, I just wish I had the kind of confidence that Alana demonstrates at the 0:30 mark of this clip. Could you imagine? I show up for a meeting with my dissertation committee and I’m like: “Hey Larry, you must be crazy if you think I’m not passing this defense honey boo-boo child.” That would be fun. But seriously, this show is weird and you shouldn’t watch the whole clip in one sitting.
Toddlers & Tiaras producing quote of the year and we’re not even 6 days in. And it’s never a good thing when English is your native language but the show still needs subtitles for you. Poor girl. The creepiest show on television gets creepier.
*The fact that I could maybe say this in a meeting and not get sent straight back to coursework is a testament to how awesome my committee is.
P.S. Larry, Dawna, Madeline, Keri, Jennifer: if you are reading this, I spent the rest of the afternoon writing up data and analyzing it.
“Pepper is overrated,” says fancy person. “We know,” says everyone else.
Sara Dickerman from Slate.com, I’ll answer your question with another question: have you been inside a restaurant besides Spago Beverly Hills, ever?
The answer is everyone else uses hot sauce. Sriracha (Vietnamese), Tapatio/Cholulua (Mexican), Trappey’s (Southern), Tabasco (everywhere else) some proprietary blend (Middle Eastern, TexMex, Southwestern, African)…most other restaurants serve hot sauce at the table. Does anyone even use the black pepper shaker anymore?
But I’m really worried about Sara Dickerman here. She comes around to hot sauce at the end of the article, but claims that not any hot sauce will do. No no. It has to be Marash red pepper sauce.
Sara, did you check the link!? Because the product you chose is not available. On Amazon. Dot com. The website that has everything. You are recommending that we put something more rare than unobtainium on every restaurant table in America. Either Sara Dickerman owns a Marash red pepper farm or black pepper killed her parents.
HOT SAUCE