And will only keep raining, on and off, all weekend.

I've heard it's pretty much just today, because Hanna is not only freakin' big, she's moving like a bat out o' hell too. Tomorrow is supposed to end up nice after some morning hangover (which may be my condition as well).

If anyone else can think of a particularly good article about recent immigration, biased perception of US history, or the current economic situation most Americans are struggling with right now, PLEASE post them or send me links. I would be eternally grateful.

I have no articles. When I was at JPL, a goodly portion of my job was dealing with immigration issues. Visas, greencards, citizenship.

Science has a special need for immigrants, and because the US funds the shit out of science (comparatively) I have a lot of folks from Russia and China who lived in hellish circumstances embracing the American Dream.

We throw parties for new citizens and new greencard holders. It's pretty amazing to watch someone work so hard to become a citizen, I mean, I was just born here.

The Director of JPL was an immigrant, my current boss was an immigrant, one third of my coworkers are immigrants. So I currently have Iran, China, Russia, and Israel represented. At JPL I had Iran, Russia, China, Turkey, South Africa, Italy, France, Mexico, and Holland represented in my group, in various stages of visas and greencards.

Kristin - USAToday had an article about HIV positive babies from Ethiopia being adopted by US families - the comments are full of hateful comments about infecting the US with these children which will undoubtablly just spread AIDS everywhere. I will see if I can find the link - it is not straight immigration in the same sense, but some of the same issues.

Dear psychos,

Just to be safe, don't have sex with ANY Ethopian babies.

No love,

Me

Kristin, I highly recommend checking out The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It's a graphic novel--no words at all!--about the immigrant experience. It's also a fantasy, and it's just beautifully illustrated. So gorgeous. It was nominated for a Hugo award this year; I forget if it actually won, but it absolutely deserved to.

Kristin, your class sounds fascinating and I'm sure you will do a wonderful job teaching your students. My mind immediately went to Albee's one act "American Dream". Probably more of a title connection and that I read it in English my Senior year in high school. If I can help in any way, please let me know. (I'll see if I any of the material from my 'Race and Gender in Performance' class would be of help. I know I have several articles on ethnicity.)

We are watching Ike closely here. The school already had us doing preparations yesterday. There is concern the storm is going to roll up the west side of this state and that would put us in prime area for a hit. It seems like they are expecting us to be impacted.

~ma to all of you dealing with hurricanes, earth quakes, tornado's and other such disasters.

Here's a link with the comments below - the comments start most recent, so you have to click back to read them in order. [link]

For Kristin:

American Born Chinese (graphic novel)

Yezierska's short stories are readibly available in a collection called How I Found America.

More short stories: The Interpreter of Maladies deals a lot with immigrant experiences

Or you could show them the Mexican-American border episode of Tony Bourdain's show.

In Hanna news, the fencing club flooded (it's in a basement). The stupidly expensive electronic equipment is all mounted on the walls/ceilings, but the floor is going to be a big mess -- nobody really knows how much mess until it dries out a bit more. They've only been in this location for a little less than a year.

We are watching Ike closely here. The school already had us doing preparations yesterday. There is concern the storm is going to roll up the west side of this state and that would put us in prime area for a hit. It seems like they are expecting us to be impacted.

I just looked at the 11AM update and Ike keeps pushing further south with each update. Right now, if it keeps on its current trajectory, it looks like it's headed right towards Louisiana. Again. If it pushes further south, looks like Texas might get the brunt of it instead.

Freakin' hurricanes.