Prof. Jones celebrates love of family, teaching
BY RABYIA ARMED
STAFF WRITER
RZAIO9@PSU.EDU
Jason Jones loves his job. When
life is this good, there is no need
for change. Well, OK, maybe a
little.
This new instructor of American
Studies recently graduated with
his master's from Penn State
Harrisburg about two years ago in
the same major. He said that never
even considered teaching until he
pursued his master's degree.
"My professors interested me
in teaching because it was all
just so fun," he said. "And now
that I'm an instructor, I love it,"
added Jones. "I'm able to work
in American Studies and find
meaning in things that other
people find meaningless."
Research is something that Jones
is glad he does not have to do as
part of being an adjunct.
"Not to downplay the research,"
Jones said, "but it's nice to be able
to have family time after work."
He said that he likes being able
His kitty site became a kaboodle
BY JESSICA GUYNN
(c) 2008, Los Angeles Times
SAN FRANCISCO -- When you
LOL at silly pictures of cats with
even sillier captions, Ben Huh
laughs all the way to the bank.
For the uninitiated, that's Web
shorthand for "laugh out loud,"
an abbreviation that is common
in e-mails, instant messages
and online chat rooms. Huh, a
Seattle entrepreneur, has built
a mini-empire on the unique
brand of humor illustrated by
the "LOLcats" craze: photos
with captions punctuated by
deliberately misspelled words
and mangled phrases.
His network of eight Web
sites, which includes I Can Has
Cheezburger and I Can Has a Hot
Dog, attracts 5 million users and
100 million page views a month.
The newest, which launched last
week, makes fun of celebrities.
It's called ROFLrazzi, as in
"rolling on the floor, laughing,"
to spend time with his 20 month
old daughter, Athena. He is able
to be home for her in the afternoon
after he is done teaching for the
day. Sometimes, they even have
"surprise mommy days" when
he and Athena surprise his wife,
Megan, while she is at work.
Jones has also taught at other
places like Kaplan, but nowhere
has he found the types ofinteractive
students like on this campus, he
said, which is part of the reason
he enjoys teaching here. Besides
being conscience and engaging,
he stated that his students are also
very opinionated.
"It's like a comedian act," Jones
said. If you tell a joke and people
laugh, it keeps things going, just
as if I ask an opinion question that
the students are active in. And
similar to an audience who just
sits there when they hear a joke,
we'd have a hard time getting to
the end of class if no one ever said
anything," Jones explained.
Surprisingly enough, just a few
years ago, Jones never imagined
himself in higher education, he
and razzi, as in "paparazzi."
Huh, 30, is trying to expand
his company, Pet Holdings Inc.,
in the face of a slowdown in
online advertising. The Korean
born former journalist now has
12 employees who, along with
his wife, Emily, help him run the
sites.
"Twelve months ago we were
Jones was
never the
academic
type. He got
through high
school and
tried college
but quickly
failed and
left it. Then,
in hopes of
givmg it
another try
while in his
mid twenties,
he enrolled at
PSH and got
to explore
the academic
world. He got
to know his
professors
well and
realized that this was his calling to
teach. A bachelor's and master's
degree later, he is still here. He
loves his job so much, he said,
that he does not consider it work.
It is all fun for him, he said.
this odd cat blog," Huh said. "I
am not sure if we are on the cusp
of a new type of entertainment or
we are just a flash in the pan."
The LOLcats phenomenon
began on a popular online
bulletin board, 4chan. People
started posting pictures of cats
and slapping on captions from the
feline point of view. The result
Photo by MIMA AHMED/ The Capital Times
Professionally, Jones said that
he would like to find an employer
who would pay for his doctorate
degree so that he could continue
his career in higher education.
Jones also teaches at Central
Pennsylvania College as an
was LOLspeak -- or "kitty
pidgin," as blogger Anil Dash
dubbed it -- a typo-twisted
tongue that quickly jumped to
other species and subjects.
Huh seized on the
commercial potential. He
paid an undisclosed sum to
buy a popular LOLcats site
named after a picture of a
chubby gay cat gazing into
the camera, with the caption
"I can has cheezburger?"
The site's founders, Hawaii
based Eric Nakagawa and
Kari Unebasami, had started
the site as a hobby and were
overwhelmed by the response.
(They are publishing a LOLcats
book next month.)
Since buying I Can Has
Cheezburger, Huh has added
companion sites devoted to
dogs, politics and really bad
translations of English, among
others. A fan favorite is Fail
Blog, in which people take joy in
others' mishaps.
adjunct. He stated that he is
constantly looking for other
places he can teach to always
have a position in line for the
future. Teaching is his passion, as
one can sense by the excitement
in his voice while discussing it.
Jones said that he wants his
students to know that he has an
open door policy. Regardless of
how silly a problem or question
seems, they are always welcome
in his office to talk. He wants
students to feel comfortable
talking to him both inside and
outside of class.
His hobbies include drumming,
video gaming, digital culture
like e-mails and Web searching,
and playing backgammon that
he now plays with his wife after
teaching her the rules and hopes
to someday also play with his
daughter.
Even though Jones does not like
flying, he has been to Canada,
Britain, Holland, Germany,
Bermuda, every state on the east
coast and would like to go to
Asia.
The Pet Holdings sites have
achieved cult status with a
populist formula: Users with
quick wits upload images
bearing idiomatic expressions
and idiosyncratic grammar, vote
for favorites and post comments.
The best of the thousands of
submissions the sites receive
each day hit the front pages.
When the company posts job
openings, it receives a flood of
resumes. The subject line of
one cover letter read: "I can haz
dream Job? My rezumez! Let me
showz u thm."
Huh hopes that celebrity
coverage, which already
generates huge online interest,
will be another hit for him. For
ROFLrazzi, users create funny
captions for celebrity photos: Mr.
T in a suit standing before a U.S.
flag, saying, "I pity the foo that
Please see LOLCATS
on page 10