A conversation with Dr. Casey
How did you end up at Mesa State?
My wife is from Grand Junction. When I was finishing my
Ph.D. dissertation we moved here, to her hometown.. After
I finished my dissertation, I started applying for jobs
and fortunately found a position open in the political science
department here at Mesa State College. It's great because
my wife also works here at Mesa State as an instructor of
speech communication.
How did you get an opportunity to go to Japan?
Two years ago, I was fortunate enough to be offered a grant
from the U.S. Japanese Friendship Association. About 25
professors from all around the country went to Japan for
three weeks to study the country and the culture. English
professor, Dr. Barak, Fine Art professor, Dr. Hardy and
myself were the group from Mesa State.
Do you have a story from your trip to Japan?
Dr. Barak and I went to play Pachinko (which is Japanese-style
pinball and it is popular in Japanese modern culture) while
we were waiting for an Irish bar to open. Why an Irish bar?
Because we were tired of drinking Japanese beer by that
time and wanted to drink Guinness or some other kind of
beer. We went to a Pachinko place and exchanged about 1,000
yen (about $12). We started flipping balls and pretty soon,
Dr. Barak was out of her balls. But I guess one of my balls
hit something and tons of balls started coming out all of
a sudden. I ended up with this big tray of balls so I tried
to cash out. But the Japanese cashier guy said “No,
no,” so I kept playing with what I had. I won more
and ended up with three trays of balls. After two hours,
the cashier guy finally let me cash out. I won about 20,000
yen (about $220) but completely lost the way back to the
Irish bar. Dr. Barak was upset and she kept asking me why
I didn’t just quit. But I couldn’t quit because
I kept winning and balls kept coming out!
If you could take a trip to another country where
would you like to go?
I would like to go to almost any other country. Actually,
I think India is where I really want to go to. Africa would
also be a great place to take my daughters when they are
older.
How do you like to spend your days off?
I like to spend time with my family and pets. I have two
daughters, 9-year-old Megan and 6-year-old Abbey. My daughters
love to go hiking and spend time with animals, especially
our three llamas and three fainting goats. The goats don’t
actually faint but, when they get scared, their muscles
freeze up and they fall and look like they are fainting.
One day I was cutting trees with a chainsaw and the noise
scared the goats. They just started fainting in front of
me. It was a funny moment. We also have more traditional
pets like cats, dogs and a bunch of fish.
Written by Shizuka Masuno, Mass Communications student
