Rand Blimes is an assistant professor of Political Science, world traveler, and resident funny-man at BYU-Hawaii. Blimes received his doctorate in Political Science from Colorado State University and studied History and Classical Language and Literature at Michigan State. Blimes has been teaching at BYU-Hawaii for five years but taught previously at BYU Provo where he was known as one weird dude.
Blimes shared a book of his most memorable quotes from teaching and other objects in his office to help BYUH get to know him. Quote book from BYU-Provo students“If you want to be a good teacher the first thing is that you have to get people to pay attention to you.” That has been a strategy for Blimes all through his teaching career. He said, I try to be as colorful in my classes.
A couple students at Provo realized that early on and started to keep a log of funny quotes. Blimes laughed, sometimes when you keep it interesting you get weird. Thai Coke Can“I like to collect Coca-Cola cans with foreign scripts on them. “ This is one from Thailand, it is one of my favorite countries to visit. Blimes has done some work in Thailand and is preparing to take a group of students this coming Fall Semester to participate in internships and work with local universities and organizations.
Books; Arms and Influence by Thomas Schelling and Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson“Thomas Schelling has been an influence on the way that I teach. He wrote about the Cold War but his theory on conflict strategy is still relevant today. Schelling uses crazy stories to illustrate his ideas and theories. He tricks people into paying attention and then they learn something.” Blimes adopted this strategy in his classes and this is how the quote book came to be. Why Nations Fail explain what makes some nations rich and some poor. It takes a broad eclectic look at this question. That question is what Blimes spends most of his academic time working on, he said. “It is a good question to ponder. Especially after this General Conference’s talk by Jeffery R. Holland.” Holland said that there is much to do around the world and that we need to do what we can, said Blimes.Vietnam PosterPropaganda poster from the War. “Don’t forget the lesson of Vietnam.
”Blimes explained that the significance of his poster comes from the three weeks he spent one summer in Vietman with his family. Blimes read many books on the Vietnam war and believed the people would be standoffish, cold, angry and hard. When he stepped foot in Vietnam, his ideas completely changed.
“As soon as we got there I realized how funny, interactive and patient these people were. [My family] did not speak very much Vietnamese but we would spend hours with people laughing and joking. Those people were happier and friendlier than they had the right to be.” Blimes believe the Vietnam War taught both sides lesson on redemption, forgiveness, and moving on from tragedy.
“For me that is the lesson of Vietnam,” said Blimes. Photography, won a photo contest that paid for much of his trip to China this summer photography has been a hobby for Blimes for 20 years now. He typically takes photos of nature and he does travel photography. He has just recently converted to digital photography but he still enjoys the satisfaction, challenge and beauty of film photography.
Blimes said, anyone can get a good shot digitally but it takes skill and patience to get a really good film shot.