Intent/Effect

The blog has moved!

2010-12-14T21:13:00.002-05:00

Existing posts will remain here, but new posts will appear here:

http://www.meaganrodgers.com/intenteffect.html

Teaching Carnival 4.3

2010-11-01T10:33:00.002-05:00

I compiled this month's Carnival. Have a look:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teaching-carnival-4-3/28298

Another example of default whiteness

2010-09-21T08:35:00.002-05:00

I subscribe to It Made My Day (IMMD), which offers a few short user-submitted cheery stories every day. Here's the one I just read:

As I prepared to take my first grade class out for recess, the students, all black, watched me dab SPF 15 all over my face. One little girl studied me and asked, “Miz B, do you got to put your white on every day ? IMMD

(Teach's little moment of win)

Skin color is clearly relevant to this story. The submitter identifies her students as black, but does not explicitly identify herself as white. We learn it indirectly from the student she quotes. This is another example of the ways in which whiteness is the presumed default race.

Just thought it merited notice.

The Teaching Carnival is back!

2010-09-01T10:57:00.004-05:00

Kudos to ProfHacker and The Chronicle for reviving the Teaching Carnival-- a monthly host of links to current teaching discussions online. Here's the latest: issue 4.1.

(And thanks to them for linking my recent post on making a DIY planner. I love links!)

Back to School: DIY planner tutorial

2010-08-17T10:12:00.004-05:00

I'm a planner. I find some comfort in carrying a planner/calendar where I can capture my fixed commitments. I was never very happy with the planner options in stores. Every year, I'd check Staples, Target, Walmart, Office Max, etc., in the hope of finding the exact planner for my needs.

I wanted a monthly view and a weekly view.
Within the weekly view, I needed the hours of the day listed. (Many business planners did have this, but the hours included were 8-6. I need evening hours too.)
I did not want something heavy or bulky.
I did not want pages with excess pages like time zones, international calling codes, or places to list the shirt and shoe sizes of my nearest relations.
I did not want to pay a lot of money.

A few years ago, it occurred to me that I could create my own. I've used this for 3 years and I'm very happy with it. It's cheap, it's lightweight, it's flexible to my exact needs.

Want one?

Here's how to make your own:

Gather materials:

Clear-front report covers (I get mine from Staples- 5 for $6.49)
Hole punch (a 3-hole punch is easiest, but you can make do with a single hole punch)
Weekly calendar template (I've posted a basic version in Google Docs--I'm working on uploading the Excel file so it can be downloaded)
Monthly calendar template (2010, 2011- I had to tweak settings to print 2 months per page)
Paper
Optional: small sticky notes (I like the 1 3/8" x 1 7/8" notes and the 1/2" flags).

1. Print off the monthly calendar
2. Customize the weekly template to fill in all of the fixed time commitments (i.e. class, weekly meetings) for the term. Print off enough sheets for the number of weeks in the term (10, 15)

Here's an old page that shows my fixed commitments in shaded gray boxes. I use sticky notes for flexible demands.

Note that I write in the each day's date at the top of each column.

And another old page-- note how flexible this can be!

3. Punch holes in all of the calendar pages
4. Insert weekly pages first (will be at the back of the planner)
5. Insert monthly pages on top of the weeklies
6. Fold down the closures

7. Viola! Customized planner!

Another benefit of this system is that it's very easy to keep old calendars just in case I need to look up something. I keep them in a file folder, but they could also be kept in a binder.

If you like this kind of organizational info, my posts on organizing a course binder and creating a lesson plan template might also help you.

Invoking King

2010-08-04T11:15:00.007-05:00

Over the next few weeks, we'll probably hear more and more about Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally, scheduled for August 28, 2010 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This happens to be the same date and same location of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 "I have a dream" speech.

According to the Restoring Honor general information kit, this is a "non-political event" intended to honor American service men and women and "other upstanding citizens who embody our nation’s founding principles of integrity, truth and honor." The focus of the event, according to these materials, is to honor military service.

The event materials do not cite any direct connection to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Beck's comments during his radio show, however, indicate that King is very much a focus of the event:

"as we [the event attendees] create history together, your children will be able to say 'I remember. I was there.' As we, as we pick up Martin Luther King's dream that has been distorted and lost-- it's time to restore it and to finish it." (Beck's radio program, 6/18/10)

"King's dream" as interpreted by Beck would focus solely on one statement that conservatives use to attempt to undermine affirmative action policies:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (Via.)

This argument goes something like this:

King-- who we all agree was a Very Great Man-- said skin color shouldn't matter. We should be colorblind. Ergo, King would say we shouldn't give special treatment to anyone based on skin color.

While King's ultimate goal was to see an America in which skin color did not determine or influence one's opportunities, he did not think that the way to achieve racial equality was to stop paying attention to the very real differences that correlated to race. But that is how contemporary conservatives often interpret and use King's words.

In order to claim that the immediate implementation of race-blind policies was King's dream, one must ignore all of King's statements that directly call for affirmative action measures:

"A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, in order to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis."

"The majority of White Americans consider themselves sincerely committed to justice for the Negro. They believe that American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to steady growth toward a middle-class utopia embodying racial harmony. but unfortunately this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable vanity."

"Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans."

From Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? published in 1967, four years after the "I have a dream" speech.

King clearly calls for affirmative action measures. He calls for white Americans to educate themselves and to implement measures that would bring African Americans to an equal footing with white Americans.

Only then would affirmative action measures be unnecessary.

Related links:

"I have a dream" (and if you haven't watched it lately, you should-- it gives me chills every time)

"Finally, someone is bringing Martin Luther King's movement back to its conservative white roots." Stephen Colbert, 6/24/10)

A little bragging

2010-07-20T21:34:00.003-05:00

I just found out the other day that one of my flickr photos from San Antonio was selected for inclusion by Schmap for inclusion in their San Antonio City Guide!

I love taking photos, so I'm pretty excited that someone thought one of my pics was nifty enough to include in a their work. All my photos are posted under Creative Commons licenses just so something like this could happen.

Cool.

I have been chosen to represent Republican voters!

2010-05-14T13:30:00.005-05:00

Last month, I received an envelope in the mail from Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee.

The envelope contained a letter and a 4-page "2010 Congressional District Census."

(I'm not sure how I ended up on the RNC's mailing list. My only guess is that it happened because I've written a few letters to Republican congresspeople in Oklahoma. I'm registered as Independent; I'd describe myself as a left-leaning moderate.)

Letter, page 1:

I've never gotten anything like this from the Democratic National Committee, but I do receive mailings from some humanitarian and liberal organizations. For example, a couple of years ago, I wrote a post about a mailing I received from the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project and its generous use of pathos to solicit more donations. This document is similarly interesting because of it's rhetorical appeals.

Letter, page 2:

While the first page of the letter was rather calm in tone, this page calls up some of the most common conservative rallying points. What I find most interesting is the third full paragraph:

Barack Obama was barely in the White House a month when he dropped all pretense of "hope" and "change" and laid bare his real agenda of massive tax increases, government-run health care, amnesty for illegal aliens, and bigger, more intrusive government. Today the Democrats' disastrous agenda is becoming a reality for all Americans and we must stop them.

I could dissect and rebut this in a number of ways, but what I'm most interested in is the tactic of maintaining that Obama and the Dems were, are, and presumably always will be, up to something other than what they're claiming. This suggestion plants a seed, or nourishes one already sprouted, that the reader of this letter should (continue to) mistrust the Obama Administration. It's part of a long-term strategy to keep conservative readers/voters in a state of mistrust. Whatever Obama or the Democrats say they want, you can bet they're actually planning something much more insidious. It's implication without proof.

Letter, page 3:

I like the question that starts on p2 and ends on p3:

Should Republicans continue to stand firm and united to block the creation and expansion of government programs that will crush future economic growth?

This wording is really clever-- the question is not whether or not the expansion of programs will stymie growth-- that is presumed as true. The question is whether or not Republicans should fight against this crushing force.

But wait! There's more!

I've also scanned in all 4 pages of the census-ish document.

I like this document so much because it's attempting to balance formality and objectivity (through it's census-like format and psuedo-official format) with typical talking points and scare tactics. Take a look:

Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3:

Question 5 is one of my favorites:

Do you think the record trillion dollar federal deficit the Democrats are creating with their out-of-control spending is going to have disastrous consequences for our nation?

Who would answer "No" to that question, worded that way?

Page 4:

Intent and effect at the Olympics

2010-03-01T10:18:00.004-05:00

During the ice dancing short program, Russian dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin performed a routine based on/inspired by Aboriginal Australian dance. In the following commentary, the author acknowledges the intent/effect split, while still condemning the dancers' choice of routine:

From an Aboriginal perspective, this performance is offensive. It was clearly not meant [intended] to mock Aboriginal culture, but that does not make it [the effect] acceptable to Aboriginal people. There are a number of problems with the performance, not least of all the fact both skaters are wearing brown body suits to make their skin appear darker. That alone puts them on a very slippery slope.

Via Racialicious.

The iPad, user experience, and brand loyalty

2010-01-31T17:48:00.000-05:00

Ever since the introduction of the iPad last week, I've been paying attention to a lot of the commentary on it by the new media/digital humanities folks I follow on Twitter. A lot of them decry the closed-ness of the iPad. It seems to encourage a data consumption (ie passive) experience as opposed to a data interpretation and manipulation (ie active) one.

I don't have any strong feelings avout the device on way or the other-- my interest is more in speculating about the reasons why Apple keeps the iPad (and its other formats) closed.

The most important reason I can think of is so that Apple can control (the quality of) the user experience. If you don't let folks add, tweak, and otherwise customize how their devices run, then you are also keeping them from royally screwing things up. The user experience is the same for everyone, and it is a reliable, fun experience.

The reason that this common experience is so important to Apple seems intimately related to the brand experience of owning an Apple anything. I'm sure you've noticed, whether you're a Mac or a PC, that Mac people LOVE their Macs. Beyond logic, well into emotion. It's the brand experience that they love, just as much, if not more than, the strengths of the OS. No PC owner loves her PC the way that any Mac owner loves her Mac.

I don't mean to belittle the value of that brand experience, though I am suspicious of it. I resist Macs for that reason (though if Macs were comparable in price to PCs for the functionality I seek, I would be far more likely to buy one). I do have an iPod Touch, which I think is a really nifty device.

I also wonder about the long-term implications of Apple's closed-ness. Wasn't it just that quality that sunk Apple back in the day when the PC market was open to anyone? Apple has certainly made a comeback, but how will the iPhone fare against the Google Android experience, which is much more open to user development?

If I've misstated anything here, please correct me--
as I said, I'm not any sort of digital information activist or expert, so I might be missing some nuances.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Course organizing using a 3-ring binder

2010-01-10T15:30:00.003-05:00

As I previously mentioned, I've put together a description of how I organize my plans, notes, and records for each course. I snapped these photos just before I took apart my course binders from last term.

I create one binder for each course:

The binder includes the following tabbed inserts:

SYLLABUS
I separate the policies from the Assignment Schedule to create two separate documents. My "Syllabus" contains all the policies. I break out the Assignment Schedule because I find myself revising it a time or two during the semester.

I insert the Assignment Schedule first because I refer to it every day. I use a plastic sleeve for this so I can keep all the versions of the Assignment Schedule together, but still make it completely obvious which version is the current one (because it's the one visible on top). Here it is:

If you look closely, you'll see a date in the lower right corner. When I hand out a new version of the Assignment Schedule, I change the date. This is an extra measure to help students know that they're looking at the most updated version.

The syllabus is inserted next:

DAILY PLANS

I discussed the daily lesson plan here. I still use the same method. Here's a daily plan from last semester:

I like the binder method because it allows me to 3-hole-punch any handouts for the day and include them in the binder. This lets me keep track of exactly when I shared certain documents with the class.

STUDENTS
I keep individual student information behind this tab. Name, email addresses, and the "introduce yourself to me" in-class writing I have students do on the first cay of the term.

ATTENDANCE
I use a simple Excel table to create an attendance record:

GRADES
I use the same Excel spreadsheet to record grades. I handwrite them here and occasionally insert them into Excel to make calculations.

Shameless self-promotion

2010-01-08T15:04:00.003-05:00

I'm excited that Billie Hara at Profhacker chose to cite my March 2008 post on lesson planning in a recent post entitled "Lesson Planning for the University Classroom."

All this has me feeling a bit of renewed energy about this blog. I want to refresh the appearance and post more often. Since some folks found my lesson plan ideas useful, I'm planning one on how I construct my course binders. Forthcoming.

HP's problem with face-tracking software

2010-01-05T12:11:00.002-05:00

HP now offers a laptop with a built-in camera that features face tracking software. If you're using the camera, it will maintain a center and focus on you, even if you move as you talk. The problem with this innovation is that it seems to not recognize and follow folks with dark skin. Watch this 2-minute demonstration:

This incident is yet another illustration of my intent/effect concept. I am certain that HP did not intend to build software that discriminates on the basis of skin color. But the effect of the software is just that.

Just because HP doesn't intend to discriminate on the basis of skin color does not mean that they are not responsible making changes to eliminate the disparate effect.

Related: The abc comedy Better off Ted aired an episode last season with a very similar problem (Ep 1.4 "Racial Sensitivity"). The corporation installed sensors automatically turn on and off lights and equipment. The sensors didn't recognize dark-skinned people, though. The problem:

The solution: the corporation hires white people to follow around the dark-skinned people (so the lights will come on when they enter rooms). Then the company is forced to hire more dark skinned people to follow around the white followers (because discrimination based on skin color is illegal).

It's a funny treatment of the issue. I wish I could find the full episode online.

Originally posted at intent/effect

Oooooooooooklahoma!

2009-11-18T09:49:00.002-05:00

I've always loved learning the little regional differences in language. Of course, Ohio was "normal," because that's where I grew up. My grandparents in western PA had some language quirks-- "you-uns," "warsh" (for wash) are just a few.

New Hampshire taught me the many, sometimes contradictory, uses of "all set." This can mean "are you ready to start?" "are you finished?" "can I help you?" "do you need anything else?" and more. I also learned that "wicked" can be synonym for "very." As in "it is wicked cold outside."

I'm learning a few Oklahoma-isms.

1. "He just stood there, looking like he was being milked."

Just picture a wide-eyed cow standing there doing nothing-- if a person is doing that, you'd describe them this way.

2. "Getting down to nut-cuttin'."

This was in an informal memo I received yesterday at school. I was trying to figure out how this related to peanuts, but it turns out that this refers to castration, which is apparently something one must do if one owns male livestock. This means "getting down to business."

It's fun here.

Originally posted at intenteffect.blogspot.com

The weight of facts

2009-09-13T10:46:00.001-05:00

In public discourse and in personal stances, it seems to me that we (myself included) misrepresent (or misunderstand) the weight of empirical, factual evidence in the equation that leads us to take up particular stances. We (the West, let's say) tend to think that opinions are only legit if they can be proven clearly and objectively.

We think that, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure we all have some opinions that exist before we know whether the facts objectively, clearly (ignoring the question of the possibility of objectivity for now), support those opinions.

But the currency we value most is exactly that objectivity, so we attribute to ourselves a certainty that is impossible. (This is not a calculated maneuver; it happens almost automatically.)

My reason for making this observation is to make the arguement that we need to take emotion and conviction seriously, because we're all already relying on them to a large extent. The ancient rhetoricians made room for this in their analyses of persuasion, and so should we.

Illustrative Example:
Congressman Joe Wilson famously accused President Obama of lying during Wednesday's address to Congress. Obama said his plan won't give free care to illegal aliens, Wilson shouted "that's a lie!" It wasn't a lie. (See Olberman-- among others-- for an explanation of how clearly the President was not lying.) The facts bear this out.

I want to suggest that even though the objective facts prove that Wilson was wrong, we still need to take into account his stance.

I'm not saying we need to cozy up to him and volunteer to be his buddy on the next congressional field trip. What I am saying is that even though Wilson's action on Wednesday was based in emotion, not fact, that does not mean that we should dismiss it. Emotion is *real* to the person experiencing it. And if we are to hold out any hope of persuading those with whom we disagree, it behooves us to listen to facts and emotions.

If we don't acknowledge the weight of emotion in such cases, I think we just end up preaching to the choir.

Even if it is Sunday.

First day of school

2009-08-24T18:19:00.002-05:00

I am happy to report that I made it through the first day of classes without incident. In fact, it was a really productive day. I only have one class on MWF, but I was on campus for a full day of work.

Even though I'm only one day into my career as a tenure-track faculty member, I can already tell that I'm going to need some new strategies for managing my time. I found it pretty straightforward to manage my time while I was dissertating-- if not prepping for teaching, I was (or should have been) working on the diss. Teaching required day-to-day planning; dissertating required longer-term planning and reassessing. I became adept at balancing the short-term with the one long-term project.

Now, though, I have a host of different time frames. The teaching frame is still familiar, though I am teaching one entirely new course (designed by me!). I have to get the writing center up and running (which requires recruiting new tutors, designing training, thinking about work study vs part time budgeting). I need to revise dissertation chapters and send out for publication. I have service commitments (which are mercifully low right now as I get used to things). And more that aren't even occurring to me right now. Some things need to be done today, some next week, some require frequent attention in order to be done by the end of the year. I'm not going to try to keep track of all of this in my head.

I'm planning to revisit David Allen's Getting Things Done. I read the book two years ago, when I was in the middle of dissertating. I wrote about it here. I found bits and pieces useful at the time, but a full-scale implementation wasn't feasible or necessary then. It might be just what I need now, though.

Done and done.

2009-07-13T23:08:00.003-05:00

As I've mentioned on my facebook and Twitter, my dissertation director signed off on my revisions today. I'll drop a copy off at the grad school tomorrow to review for formatting. Once that is checked, I'll print it on fancy paper and turn it in.

It's a little unreal-- I wrote a dissertation. The whole thing. And it's interesting.

As I've been revising, I've also been preparing for my move to Oklahoma. (Go ahead, sing the song. I know you want to.) I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I have a tenure-track job as as assistant professor of English at the University of Science and Arts at Oklahoma. It's a small liberal arts college about 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. I'm really excited about it-- it seems like the kind of environment where I will thrive. It will be very different from the other colleges where I've been, though.

Undergrad: Ohio State 60,000 students
Masters: U of Akron 20,000 students
PhD: U of New Hampshire 14,000 students

Faculty: USAO 900 students.

I've also been spending time finding a place to live. I had initially planned to take a trip out there to look at places in person, but I had a hard time justifying that expense. I did lots of research online (one of the faculty at USAO pointed me toward hotpads.com, which I highly recommend for anyone looking for apartments) and made liberal use of Google Maps Street View to get a look at the neighborhoods of apartments I was considering. I found a place that looks pretty nice. Out in OK, 6-month leases are pretty common, so I've signed up for one of those, which will give me flexibility if I want to relocate.

Post-defense

2009-06-22T23:06:00.001-05:00

I had the great fortune to sit down with six brilliant and generous professors for 2 hours today. I have loved my committee; their various strenghts have really helped me craft the dissertation I defended today.

I have a few revisions that I need to address before I can submit the diss to the grad school. All of the committee members signed off on the diss except my director, with whom I will follow through on the changes. I'm excited for the revisions-- the discussion today helped me see that I was not making the most use of my data. I need to incorporate those expansions an revise the conclusion accordingly.

It's midnight now. I have a cat on my lap and a vodka tonic on the table. I have time, now, to think about the future. It is a luxury.

Consumer capitalism vs. feminism

2009-05-25T23:21:00.003-05:00

I was in Walmart earlier today, in the express line behind a thin, tall, high-school aged guy. The cashier scanned his bottle of vitamins, then asked for some ID. He said he didn't have any, so the cashier voided the item. I don't know exactly what was in the bottle, but the packaging was shiny gray, black and red. I'm guessing it was some kind of muscle-building supplement.

The cashier rang up the other two items: Men's Health magazine and Hawiian Tropic tanning oil.

Based on these three items, I created this guy's story-- young, thin, insecure about his body given the muscled messages he sees in the media. Wants to be bigger, stronger, and tanner.

It reminded me of myself at 16-- buying Seventeen magazine, Cover Girl eyeshadows, and cans of Slim-Fast.

Somehow, this isn't the equality we should want.

Segregated prom-- 2009

2009-05-23T12:34:00.002-05:00

Via Jezebel, a NYT piece on this year's segregated prom.

The senior proms held by Montgomery County High School students — referred to by many students as “the black-folks prom” and “the white-folks prom” — are organized outside school through student committees with the help of parents. All students are welcome at the black prom, though generally few if any white students show up. The white prom, students say, remains governed by a largely unspoken set of rules about who may come. Black members of the student council say they have asked school administrators about holding a single school-sponsored prom, but that, along with efforts to collaborate with white prom planners, has failed.

As I've been revising my dissertation, I've revisited a number of articles that fall under the broad category of Critical Race Theory. The pieces I've been looking at seem to put forth one of the following two arguments (some directly, some implicitly):

- most whites are well-meaning and non-racist in intent, and believe that racism is gradually receding over time, but are generally unaware of systemic racism that continues to privilege whites over nonwhites.

or

- racism (overt and hidden) is just as alive and thriving as ever. The notion that things "aren't as bad as they used to be" is incorrect and distracting from the problems that exist.

Though I come across more examples of the first argument, the examples of the second argument leave me almost speechless. The segregated prom is one of those.

Job market advice

2009-04-28T21:22:00.002-05:00

Collin has posted the job market advice handout he shares with his grad students. It's a great resource.

Go here for the pdf.

Intent/effect

2009-04-22T18:27:00.004-05:00

Just came across another example of intent/effect in action. This blog entry is a couple of years old; I came across it when researching the controversy over the Clevleand Indians and Chief Wahoo.

From the entry:

So many folks still not getting it, eh? Sports fans’ claims to honorable intentions of the use of “Indian” imagery, intentions of being pro-”Indian,” do not dismiss nor outweigh the disrespectful effects that many native peoples experience. An example of one of those effects? Ironically, many pro-”Indian” mascot/logo/image critics verbally attack the real Native peoples who call for the eradication of such “Indian” representations. so, those critics honor their “Indian” images and “Indian” objects, their “Indians,” but they disrespect and dislike the real natives?

I'm excited to see other people interested in this distinction between intent and effect.

Do you watch Psych?

2009-04-21T21:37:00.002-05:00

If you were born in the mid- to late- 70s, and you have a soul, you will probably find it as hilarious as my friend Leah and I do.

The two main characters are private investigators (of a sort) and in this clip, they're undercover in an American Idol-esque show. They end up reprising the duet they did in their elementary school talent show.

Enjoy!

Rhet/Comp Feminism listserv

2009-04-09T13:11:00.003-05:00

I pulled this off the WPA:

From: Barbara L'Eplattenier

(Please feel free to crosspost/forward/distribute widely)


This year at C's, a number of scholars interested in feminism/gender
issues/rhetcomp issues realized there's no dedicated listserv to offer
people a place to connect.


As a result, The Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and
Composition and the CCCC Feminist Workshop have created
Rhetcompfem@cwshrc.org, a new listserv.  We hope this listserv will connect
feminist scholars in Rhetoric and Composition, as well as other scholars in
other disciplines. (We're going for inclusion, here, and the more the
merrier.)


It is an unmoderated listserv and we'd like to keep it that way, so please,
remember your manners!


General information about the mailing list is at:


  http://mail.cwshrc.org/mailman/listinfo/rhetcompfem_cwshrc.org



To subscribe, send a message


  Rhetcompfem-request@cwshrc.org

The weekend the dissertation crumbled

2009-04-07T09:38:00.001-05:00

The last several days have been tough. Brief timeline:

Thursday: realize that bc of limitations on the data I collected, original plan for chapter won't quite work. Come up with revised plan pretty quickly.

Friday: lots of writing toward revised plan. Realize that's not going to work either. Do some freewriting. Reread some raw data (transcripts). Stop working Friday, unclear about go to proceed.

Saturday: rereading rest of transcripts. Identify highlights, write up a description of each. (at this point, I've just submerged myself back in the data, waiting for a new plan to form.)

Sunday: no new plan. Panicky. Start casting about through some related literature that I hadn't visited in a while. Looking for a lifeline. Nothing. Decide that maybe what I need to do is follow a path that I've been considering for future work (not for diss bc it would require a lit of reading in an area in which I am not well-versed). Spend the day reading, skimming, searching databases, freewriting. Still nothing. Go home exhausted and hopeless.

Monday: barely slept bc of fear, worry, preoccupation with diss problem. Go to campus, start freewriting by focusing on positives: What is unique about what I did and the results I got? What stands out as most interesting? Why?

This, dear reader, got me to a new plan. It is remarkably similar to where I was when I started, but with a few critical adjustments.

In hindsight, this process has been very beneficial. I forced myself through an aggressive review of literature that had become stale in my mind. I'm using this as I write- it's solid stuff.

But it wasn't any fun.

I'm a joiner

2009-04-02T18:59:00.001-05:00

I'm twittering. For better or worse. Right now, I'm soliciting dissertation cheerleaders. I'm meaganrodgers on Twitter. Follow me!

(Sorry no link- my mobile blog app doesn't have many features.)

A double standard in the campus newspaper

2009-03-30T15:28:00.001-05:00

This blurb appears on of A2 of Friday's The New Hampshire:

"Page 9: Male beauty pagent (sic)
A handful of brave frat brothers took to the stage to entertain the judges and audience Wednesday night. The hotly contested event featured live performances, clowns, and speedos. I'm fairly sure there is an unwritten rule, at each contest there must be at least one speedo. Brave, brave souls."

Why is it that men in a beauty pageant are BRAVE, while women in pageants are SHALLOW?

Nothing new here, I know, but this example stands out so clearly that I wanted to note it.

(Personally, I think it's both brave and shallow for anyone to be in a beauty contest. Fwiw.)

Another year, another CCCC

2009-03-14T18:03:00.002-05:00

Just got back to the hotel after my 2pm panel. It was a good grouping even though we were an assembled panel. I was also pleased that we had an audience of 20 or so- that's a coup for Sat afternoon. I'm glad Cs added the afternoon a few years back. I think it will grow in attendance as folks get used to it.

This has been a different Cs for me- it's the first time networking took more time than attending panels. I needed to meet with a couple people; I happily ran into a few more. When I first started coming to Cs, I had no notion of the extracurricular business that went on. It makes the conference event even more meaningful to me.

Now, sightseeing.

Link to a CFP

2009-03-11T00:38:00.002-05:00

WritingSpaces: Readings on Writing is an open access, Creative Commons textbook being developed by Kairosnews. Can't wait to see it.

Test

2009-03-09T21:43:00.001-05:00

Posting from the new toy.

Intent/effect in action

2009-03-09T20:41:00.003-05:00

There's a controversy over a Dartmouth student's attempt to satirize the recent naming of an Asian American as the next president.

A snip from the message in question:

On July 1, yet another hard-working American’s job will be taken by an immigrant willing to work in substandard conditions at near-subsistent wage, saving half his money and sending the rest home to his village in the form of traveler’s checks. Unless “Jim Yong Kim” means “I love Freedom” in Chinese, I don’t want anything to do with him. Dartmouth is America, not Panda Garden Rice Village Restaurant.

More detail at Racialicious. And Resist Racism.

A snip from the student's apology:

I now know that I can't hide behind my "intent." Intent and execution are two entirely different things. I know I hurt many people personally, and damaged the reputation of the College publicly. I deeply regret my actions and the harm I have caused. I had no right to spread a message that alienated and belittled one ethic group, particularly one to which I do not belong.

Source.

A number of comments on the posts I've linked question the sincerity of the apology. I'm not sure this is a worthwhile critique because I'm not convinced we can assess the student's sincerity.

What I do appreciate about this apology is that the student has taken the time to acknowledge that others saw his actions differently than he intended. He doesn't belittle or dismiss them as being wrong. Overall, I see this as a positive step.

Link

2009-03-01T19:30:00.002-05:00

Jeff Ringer, a friend and colleague at UNH, is teaching persuasive writing this semester. He's trying to amplify the public dimension of the persuasive writing he's asking students to do. If you get a chance, head over to his class blog which is formally titled "The Open Letter Project," and is amusingly addressed rhetoricalbarnyard.blogspot.com.

Some updates

2009-02-27T23:35:00.002-05:00

I just went through the blogroll and cleaned out the links that either changed or are no longer active.

I haven't been an active blogger for a number of months, partly because of my choice to focus writing efforts on dissertation work, and partly because facebook is so smooth, easy, and fun. I've found myself doing the silly memes and posting videos over there. This blog will become more focused on academic and professional topics.

That's the plan.

Comedian Louis CK on "Being White"

2009-02-27T22:56:00.002-05:00

This is one of the least threatening explanations of white privilege I've seen:

I don't know much about Louis CK, but I'm off to youtube to see some more.

Self-promotion

2009-02-25T11:47:00.005-05:00

If you're so inclined, take a look at my recently published review of Jennifer Seibel Trainor's Rethinking Racism: Emotion, Persuasion, and Literacy Education in an All-White High School.
It's a great book for anyone who's interested in engaging white students in complex discussions about race and whiteness.

Snip from the review:

“[S]tudents’ racism doesn’t reduce to racism” (4). Jennifer Seibel Trainor identifies this statement as the focus of her new book Rethinking Racism: Emotion, Persuasion, and Literacy Education in an All-White High School. After a year-long study of two English classes at a predominantly white mid-Eastern high school, Trainor asks us to rethink the idea that racism stems from a need to protect white privilege or from ignorance or lack of exposure to difference. Instead, she suggests that we understand racism as “a series of ‘emotioned’ beliefs that are not necessarily about race per se” (3). Trainor draws on recent scholarship on the role of emotion in ideological processes to argue that common school practices sometimes inadvertently provide the emotional scaffolding that make racist discourses persuasive. In her focus on emotion and persuasion as the sources of racism, Trainor calls into question one of the key metaphors used to discuss race: whiteness as property.

Appearing in Composition Forum 19, Spring 2009.

The harsh truth about how students spend their essay-writing time

2009-01-25T14:04:00.001-05:00

more music charts

From GraphJam.

Cool tool for analzying debates

2009-01-13T23:17:00.003-05:00

I heard about this earlier tonight on BBC's Digital Planet show on NHPR. Debategraph is an online wiki tool that allows users to explore the multiple perspectives on an issue. The BBC show featured the Debategraph for The Crisis in Gaza. Here's one page from the graph:

Hover the mouse over any question and you'll see a short expansion of the question. Click on any question and you explode that question into the subquestions that must be considered there.

This seems like a very cool tool for getting students to see an argument in nuanced, complicated ways.

Teaching idea

2009-01-12T11:30:00.003-05:00

Though I'm not teaching this semester (I'll be dissertating full-time), my mind is still churning with teaching ideas. I'm probably inspired by all of the "back-to-school" status messages on Facebook.

This idea came to my as I was drying my hair this morning:

Cliches in writing

(Goal: Increase student awareness of cliches in writing so that they can employ cliches in thought-out ways. Discuss the terms cliche and idiom.)

Homework:

Step 1: Go online and print off at least 3 definitions of the term cliche. Use these, along with your own understanding of the term, to write a definition in your own words (as though you were explaining it to a roommate or sibling).

Step 2: Reread the writing you've already done for this class. Find an instance when you used a cliche. Write a paragraph or two in which you explain what the cliche is and whether or not you feel you used it effectively. If you would make changes, explain what and why.

Bring to class. Be prepared to discuss.

(In class: Students share their work in small groups. Transition to large group discussion. Facilitate discussion so that students are responding to one another's ideas.)

MLA interview questions

2009-01-05T10:57:00.003-05:00

(I'm getting back into a regular posting mode.)

I figure I'll start the new year with a list of some of the questions I was asked in interviews at MLA.

Background info: I was interviewing primarily for general comp/rhet jobs with a teaching emphasis (teaching load of 3-3 to 4-4). A few of the schools had composition MA options.

Talk about how your teaching and research are related.
Tell us more about your dissertation project.
Give an example of a time with a difficult student.
Talk about a class you taught where you encountered some problems.
What was interesting to you about our job ad?
Why are you interested in our school?
What is your next project?
What is your philosophy of writing program administration?
Talk about your experience in the writing center.
How do you plan to balance teaching, research, and service?
If you were teaching a graduate course in composition theory, which texts would you include?
If you were teaching a graduate course in rhetorical theory, which texts would you include?
What does an average day in your class look like?
Do you have a dissertation defense date scheduled?
Of our existing courses, which ones are you most prepared to teach?
Given our existing course offerings, what courses would you like to add?
In what ways do you plan to disseminate your research findings?
How do you structure your first-year writing class?
How would you teach a developmental writing class?

Those were the most common questions. I'll update the list if I remember other ones.

So cool you can't stand it

2008-10-12T18:30:00.008-05:00

For 37 years, a small but persistent group of paraders have assembled at 6am on the Sunday nearest Columbus Day to commemorate the lesser-celebrated Leif Eriksson. My friend Leah talked me into getting up at 545am on a Sunday to witness this oddity. The parade route is 25 feet long. Why 25 feet? Because that's the distance between the laundromat (where the idea was first conceived) and Young's Restaurant. Take a look:

(The laundromat entrance is just below and behind the lighted red sign and awning.)

The widow of one of the three parade founders leads the march. She's using a walker adorned with a viking bird. Notice the various Scandanavian flags-- all are welcome.

(Sorry for the poor quality. The lighting was low, so I wasn't using a flash. I really should get a little tripod.)

The parade chanted over and over again:
"For noble deeds and derring done,
we all salute Leif Eriksson!"

Filing into Young's for free coffee and viking cake:

(It turns out viking cake is just regular cake with viking symbols on it. In case you were wondering.)

Once everyone was inside, they set up a microphone to do various readings and tributes. The national anthems for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the US were played. People brought flags to wave:

There's a witty little description of the event here.

-blip-

2008-09-05T13:03:00.002-05:00

Nothing new here-- just wanted to acknowledge that I'm in the midst of a blogging dry spell. I haven't felt motivated to post and I don't imagine I will for a while. Instead, I'll be focusing my energy on my dissertation and on job applications.

Until next time...

Taking notes on books: tips

2008-07-27T13:15:00.001-05:00

Metafilter has this thread full of great tips on reading and note-taking in order to enhance memory retention.

"white folks" = "regular folks"

2008-07-27T12:59:00.003-05:00

Effect of systemic white supremacy #1:

Via Alas, a blog.

The problem is that it's not ok for white to be defined as normal (good, right, correct, &c) and nonwhites as not normal (bad, wrong, evil, &c).

Maine: where people are so nice you don't trust them

2008-07-04T23:56:00.003-05:00

A friend and I ventured up to Portland, ME for the day-- it was a perfect New England summer day, and Portland is only an hour away. Some highlights:

We split a lobster roll here:

The view as we ate:

Portland Head Lighthouse (at Fort Williams):

A run-down mansion once owned by a lumber tycoon:

An artillery battery (part of Fort Williams). We walked around on this-- it's odd to be able to get so close to pieces of American history. Shouldn't there be velvet ropes around it or something?

I thought this was sweet:

All Portland photos here.

A sign you're an academic

2008-07-02T16:00:00.002-05:00

If you've ever crossed this phrase out of an article: have a clue

and replaced it with: understand the extent to which

then you're probably an academic.

Transcription service-- update

2008-06-24T22:51:00.001-05:00

About a month ago, I mentioned that I decided to bust out the credit card and pay to have 4.5 hours of audio transcribed by a service. Now that I've gotten all the files back (the audio was from three separate 1.5 hour group discussions) and have had time to check the accuracy of the transcriptions, I'm really happy that I opted for this.

Details:

I used escriptionist.com. Their rates seemed competitive. I had to pay $3.00/min (the highest per minute rate) because the discussion sessions each had more than three participants. (Lower rates available for smaller sessions.) My total bill ended up being about $700 (if you're doing the math at home, note that I didn't have to pay for the minutes during which I played a video for the group). That sum hurts to look at all at once, but I was seriously avoiding doing that work myself. Now it's done, and I'm moving forward. Worth it.

Service was quick and friendly. The initial contact is by phone (I left my phone number at the website) to make sure that both parties are clear on the transaction. Then, I received an email with instructions on how to upload the mp3s via FTP (if you don't understand FTP-- like me-- then let me assure you it was really easy).

Transcribing took 3-5 business days. I opted to have the speakers identified separately (Female 1, Male 2, Male 3, etc). This identification wasn't always perfect, but it was right about 85% of the time.

The transcripts were very accurate. I had to adjust a couple of words per page. The transcripts were weakest when several people were speaking at once, but this is hardly a surprise.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone who is sitting on some audio and finding every reason possible to not transcribe it herself.

Cross posted at Dissertation Bootcamp.

Google Docs to post to Blogger?

2008-06-24T22:21:00.002-05:00

Today, I learned here about Google Docs' alleged "post to blog" feature.

The instructions seemed simple, so I tried it several times, in several different ways. I triple-checked all my settings, but when it came to pushing the "post to blog" button, nothing happened. The message "This has not been posted to your blog" appeared every time.

Anyone have experience using this feature with Blogger?

June- Carnival of GRADual Progress

2008-06-16T21:05:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 19th Carnival of GRADual Progress. Many thanks to thefrogprincess for continuing to maintain the carnival and coordinate monthly hosts.

This month's carnival finds grad students in transition. The academic year is over. Some are off to field work, some to summer jobs, and others to the archive or library for ever-more research and writing.

Travel:
Thefrogprincess talks about the nature of advanced research in history--for her, travel is a perk. Dancingfish has also traveled-- from a lonely lab to a hot field site. K8 is settling into a summer retreat at the family lake house. Few distractions, fresh herbs, and some dissertating.

Summer job (somebody's got to pay the bills):
Monsoon details an eventful week-- including starting a new job as a seamstress. Parts-n-pieces also has a new(ish) job-- she's in Florida this week as an AP grader. The History Enthusiast is busy teaching during summer session. Michael takes a minute to reflect on spring semester and to think ahead to summer teaching.

Summer academic life is still academic life:
At The Economical Academic, EcoGeoFemme explains the departmental trauma that arises when the number of TA-ships is less than the number of students wanting/needing/expecting/offered TA-ships.

You can find advice and tales from the crypt (a.k.a. the archive) from supergradstudent.

Health & Phys-ed:
At the Active Academic, Kai shares some of her favorite healthy tips and asks readers for some of their own. ScienceGirl reveals just how much your dentist knows about you based on your ailments.

Good karma:
Let's congratulate Anomie on the dissertation research grant. Also, congrats to Rebecca, who is planning to break some ground in her field.

Send some good wishes to Jennie, who defends her diss on June 27th.

Mercury rising

2008-06-07T11:25:00.003-05:00

From the looks of my web browser, it's going to be noxiously hot here on Monday.

(See lower right of screencap.)

2008-05-27T16:13:00.003-05:00

Finally getting around to the LibraryThing Most Read Books meme. Seen most recently at Absurdist Paradise.

Instructions:
The top 100 or so books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users.
Bold the books you have read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion is this (?)
There is Confusion (?)
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield

Religion, Metaphors, and Race

2008-05-26T21:37:00.003-05:00

I just picked up a new podcast-- the audio version of Bill Moyers' show on PBS.

Today I listened to Moyers talk with Dr. James Cone, an African American professor of theology. Cone lectures on a provocative point: he says that in order for Christians to understand the metaphor of the cross, they must also understand the metaphor of the lynching tree.

BILL MOYERS: And you say, "The cross and the lynching tree interpret each other. Both were public spectacles usually reserved for hardened criminals, rebellious slaves, rebels against the Roman state and falsely accused militant blacks who were often called black beasts and monsters in human form." So, how do the cross and the lynching tree interpret each other?
JAMES CONE: It keeps the lynchers from having the last word. The lynching tree interprets the cross. It keeps the cross out of the hands of those who are dominant. Nobody who is lynching anybody can understand the cross. That's why it's so important to place the cross and the lynching tree together. Because the cross, or the crucifixion was analogous to a first century lynching. In fact, biblical scholars-- when they want to describe what was happening to Jesus, many of them said, "It was a lynching."
And all I want to suggest is if American Christians say -- they want to identify with that cross, they have to see the cross as a lynching. Any time your empathy, your solidarity is with the little people, you're with the cross. If you identify with the lynchers, then, no, you can't understand what's happening. That in the sense of resistance-- what resistance means by helpless people. Power in the powerless is not something that we are accustomed to listening to and understanding. It's not a part of our historical experi-- America always wants to think it's gonna win everything. Well, black people have a history in which we didn't win. We did not win. See, our resistance is a resistance against the odds. That's why we can understand the cross.

(Transcript here. Watch video here.)

I think this is such an important point for Christianity-- and white Christians in particular. If the cross is a way to imagine an end to the suffering in the present moment, then the lynching tree is a way to empathize with those who do not have political/economic power today. In other words, I can think of the cross as a symbol of hope-- the story of Jesus teaches us that we must not lose faith (hope) in the goodness of the Creator. When I think of the lynching tree-- I am reminded of the horrible crimes committed against blacks by whites-- people with whom I share a skin color and European ancestry. My people are not innocent. This is another point made by Cone as he summarizes a book by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr*.

JAMES CONE: The core of it is, is helping America get over its innocence. Helping America to see itself through the eyes of people from the bottom. And you see, America likes to think of itself as innocent. And we are not. No human being is innocent. And so, I-- that would be the book I would recommend [President Bush] to read. But since he's a Christian, I would especially recommend that he reads Beyond Tragedy. Niebuhr tells us that Christianity takes us through tragedy to beyond tragedy by way of the cross to victory in the cross.
BILL MOYERS: Meaning?
JAMES CONE: Meaning that the cross is victory out of defeat.
BILL MOYERS: And the lynching tree?
JAMES CONE: And the lynching tree is transcendent of defeat. And that's why the cross and the lynching tree belong together. That's why I have to talk about the lynching tree. Because Christians can't understand what's going on at the cross until they see it through the image of a lynching tree with black bodies hanging there.

It's a fascinating discussion. Highly recommended.

Also related to race, Moyers recently interviewed Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Another enlightening conversation.

* I'm not familiar with Niebuhr beyond this interview.

"Not buying it"

2008-05-25T11:10:00.001-05:00

Via Faux Real.

Coffee flavored coffee

2008-05-20T23:41:00.003-05:00

For your viewing pleasure, not much tops Dennis Leary:

Oh, how I love a good rant.

(Gratuitous Lewis Black.)

May Carnival of GRADual Progress is up

2008-05-19T23:17:00.002-05:00

At A Lady Scientist.

(I'll be hosting next month, so, my fellow grad students, post early, post often. And please mention any links to posts you think I should read. Danke.)

A wish

2008-05-11T01:09:00.002-05:00

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

More! Music! Meme!

2008-05-10T01:11:00.006-05:00

Lots of folks are repeating this one-- it is fun, so I'm doing it too.

Rules, again:

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

1. ~~I spent last night in the arms of a girl in Louisiana~~

2. I could live without so much, I could die without a clue(?)

3. ~~There is a young cowboy, who lives on the range~~

4. ~~Hot summer streets and the pavements are burning, I sit around~~

5. Your star will shine again someday through deep blue velvet skies

6. Every time I think of you I get the same old sinking feeling

7. So everyday I see you with some other face, they crack a smile, talk a while, try to take your place.

8. You and I must make a pact

9. Every night I say a prayer in the hopes that there's a heaven

10. Sorry sir I stole your money

11. For years I avoided caffeine

12. ~~Don't go breaking my heart~~

13. ~~So you thought you might like to go to the show~~

14. ~~Ooh you make me live~~

15. I hear more than I like to

16. If you see her say hello

17. Somewhere out there in the world tonight, just out of my reach, I hear your heart beat

18. Destroy the heart she said, it'll make you want to smash your head

19. This satellite's lost, where has the fire gone?

20. When the calls and conversation, accidence and accusation

21. ~~From baby to best with no second test~~

22. ~~Goddess on a mountaintop burning like a silver flame~~

23. ~~Forgive, sounds good, forget, I'm not sure I could~~

24. I'm a broken biscuit

25. Take away your paper & pen

Awwww....

2008-05-06T21:38:00.004-05:00

Yesterday morning, I sent my dad this text message:

"I'm sick again. I think I need the yellow Triaminic."

When I was little, the yellow Triaminic was the worst medicine to endure. The orange Triaminic (for a stuffy head, I think) was delicious. The yellow (for chest congestion) was bitter and awful.

He wrote back quickly with a "feel better" message. When I got home last night, I found flowers waiting for me.

They were from Dad, and the card explained that they were yellow to substitute for the yellow Triaminic.

Yeah, my dad's a pretty sweet guy.

A close up:

And one gratuitous cat sprawl:

Awwwww....so cute.

A mystery

2008-04-27T22:35:00.001-05:00

Can someone explain how this recommendation happens:

Thanks.

A music meme.

2008-04-22T17:39:00.005-05:00

A fun one from Billie.

Below are first lines from 25 songs-- obtained by putting the iPod on "shuffle." If you know the song, leave a comment and I'll strikethrough it on the post. If you care to play along on your blog, see instructions at the bottom of the post.

1. Indian legislation is on the desk of a dirty congressman

2. You think your days are uneventful and no one ever thinks about you

3. ~~I'm sick of working for a living; I'm just taking off the days til I die~~ Elbow, Leaders of the Free World

4. ~~If you leave, don't leave now. Please don't take my heart away~~ Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, If You Leave

5. ~~Producing...From listening to records I just knew what to do. I mainly taught myself~~ DJ Shadow, Building Steam with a Grain of Salt

6. Maybe we'll make Texas by the morning, light the bayou with our tail lights in the night

7. And they'll lay you down low in the easy

8. I loved you once, but look at you now

9. Make me tonight, tonight make it right

10. You know, I never, I never seen you look so good

11. Morning smiles like the face of a newborn child

12. To think of my task is chilling, to know I was carefully building the mask

13. ~~Under my thumb, the girl who once had me down~~ Rolling Stones, Under My Thumb

14. Guess there are times when we all need to share the little things

15. ~~She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah~~ The Beatles, She Loves You

16. I hate the TV, I hate the TV

17. ~~You're so pretty the way you are~~ Cranberries, Pretty

18. Well it's a lonely road that you have chosen

19. My sister's got lucky, married a yuppie

20. ~~Here come the good times, I have some good times you know~~ Catherine Wheel, For Dreaming

21. I think it's funny, how I look around for you

22. Do you mean this horny creep, set upon wary feet

23. ~~Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming, we're finally on our own~~ CSN&Y, Ohio

24. Well the rain keeps on coming down, feels like a flood in my head

25. Color me any color, speak to me in tongues and share

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.

Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.

Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.

Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right

Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

Spring

2008-04-18T01:30:00.001-05:00

I want to go here:

On white privilege: race as a divider of class allegiances

2008-04-11T00:50:00.002-05:00

Tim Wise is a white antiracist lecturer and activist. A ten minute video on how elite whites have used race to divide lower economic classes:

Via Alas, a blog.

Ah, the Midwest

2008-04-10T10:06:00.004-05:00

I recently finished Crooked River Burning by Mark Winegardner. It's a great piece of historical fiction set in Cleveland. The crooked river is the Cuyahoga River, which runs through Northeast Ohio and dumps into Lake Erie in the heart of Cleveland.

It's a great novel about Cleveland-- and it has some *perfect* descriptions of Midwestern-ness.

Even Clevelanders respect a thing that happens in New York more than they do a thing that happens here. The Midwest's boosterism is just a cloak for its self-loathing. A midwesterner who accomplishes much will soon feel the suspicious glare of the neighbors: If you're so good, the glare says, why are you still here?

The attitude in the Midwest seems to be that sure, we like it here, but that's understandable, because we grew up here. We're not sure why anyone would come here from someplace else, much less stay if it's clear that they could succeed in the big city.

A potluck:

Casseroles, casseroles, casseroles: topped with melted American cheese, cornflakes, Bisquick/oleo crumbs, Durkee dried onions, or a combination thereof. Mayonnaised salads. Breadbaskets full of Parker House rolls from Hough Bakery. Four different Jell-O molds (three red and one racy green). Apple and rhubarb pies.

My absolute favorite casserole: cheesy cornflake potatoes.

Through the years of the novel (1948-1969), the Cleveland Indians and a few this close seasons figure prominently:

Wertz is batting .500 for the Series. No other Indian is hitting his weight. "So nobody's won the Series after losing the first three," Wertz says. "So what? Nobody in our league ever one 111 games either. Maybe we're due for another first."

(For most of the rest of the American century, Cleveland will be tormented by the gulf between what it is due for and what it's going to get.)

One more example of the city's ethos as built by baseball:

When training camp started, Ernie Davis showed up with a toothache. The tooth was pulled but the gums bled and would not heal. The team doctor gave Davis a new physical. Acute leukemia. Ernie Davis had yet to play a game in cleveland and was already a goner.
[...]
Like September fog on the Cuyahoga, up rose Cleveland's lament: If a thing like this is going to happen, it just figures it'd happen here.

It's a great book about Cleveland--Wingardner captures the nuances of the city perfectly. The city becomes a character much in the same way that Manhattan is a character in Sex in the City.

Lastly, some famous Clevelanders:
Halle Berry, Drew Carey, Dennis Kucinich, LeBron James, Wes Craven, Anne Heche, Bob Hope, Langston Hughes, Joe Walsh, George Stephanopolous, Eliot Ness, Toni Morrison, and more.

New and improved!

2008-04-05T22:44:00.001-05:00

If you read this on a feed reader, click through to see my shiny new header.

I've also made a few changes to the sidebar.

CCCC wrap-up & pictures

2008-04-05T12:03:00.003-05:00

Now that I'm back in NH, I've been thinking more about how this year's CCCC was different for me. I saw fewer panels than I ever have before--there wasn't much that interested me. I was disappointed by that until I realized that I was spending much more time networking than I have before. (I don't enjoy networking-for-the-sake-of-networking, but I do love connecting with people who I admire.) I met a lot of new people, with whom I'm sure I'll have a long-term professional relationship.

And I took pictures. There's a unique aesthetic to New Orleans that I appreciate. I can best describe it with a few adjectives: quality, beautiful, worn-out. For example, ceramic tiles are affixed to buildings and embedded in concrete indicating street names.

These little ornate gutter spouts also caught my eye.

Many more pictures here.

CCCC: day 1

2008-04-02T22:27:00.002-05:00

It's nice having a computer with me for this trip. The included wireless helps, too.

I've taken a ton of photos-- New Orleans is *such* a visually interesting place. I'm bummed that I didn't bring the cord to connect my camera to my computer. No photos til I get home.

I met several new (to me) people today, which was a treat. I met up with grad-student friends after the RNF was done. We had cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde, walked around the French Quarter (pointedly avoiding Bourbon St.), ran into an old friend, watched a movie scene being filmed, listened to a 7-man brass band play brassy New Orleans jazz on the corner of Poydras and Bourbon St., walked far enough down Bourbon to buy a Hurricane (or, as Jeff called it, Kool-Aid and rum), then had some lovely pecan-crusted chicken for dinner.

A lovely day.

Bored?

2008-03-30T15:14:00.000-05:00

Looking for something new to read? I just updated the Blogroll.

What I did on my spring vacation

2008-03-26T22:39:00.002-05:00

About once a year, I go through a super-crafty phase during which I become obsessed with creating. I don't invent my creations, but I'll seek out instructions or patterns and run with something that fits my budget (small) and my skill level (knowledgeable but imprecise with all measurements).

This spring break, I made three things.

A wallet:

A wallhanging:

A matching patchwork bathmat:

I enjoy these little projects, and they keep me off the streets.

More photos and links to tutorials at flickr. Click any photo.

I can has internet fame?

2008-03-26T01:25:00.002-05:00

The Carnival of GRADual Progress is up, and somehow they found me and my cutting-edge lesson planning with paper and post-its. I'm ridiculously happy to be linked. Check it out.

Coming soon to a theater near you

2008-03-22T20:14:00.002-05:00

I am ridiculously excited for this one:

Only 2 more months.

It's hard to be a woman

2008-03-22T03:21:00.002-05:00

New from Sephora:

That's right. SLENDERIZE lip balm.

From the product description:

What it is:
A super shiny lip gloss inspired by Fuze energy drinks that energizes and slenderizes.

What it does:
Quench your thirst for a beauty buzz with FUZE Slenderize Guilt Free Gloss. Infused with the healthy, delicious fruit flavors and appetite curbing energy boasting ingredients found in FUZE Slenderize beverages. One Delicious dab on the lips will give you a taste of what all the Hollywood starlets are losing it over! Always on the lips, never on the hips!

It's a body image double whammy. Not only do you need the lip gloss to improve your looks, but you also need to lose some weight. Why not take care of as many problems as you can at once?

Also- come on. Can this possibly actually work? I doubt it.

Apropos of nothing

2008-03-20T12:31:00.003-05:00

I once said that I wasn't the kind of person who takes a camera into the bathroom. Apparently I am. Some recent bathroom graffiti was too good to leave undocumented. This graffiti comes from the basement women's room in Hamilton Smith Hall, home of the English Department.

The black ink came first, then the blue ink response.

Enjoy:

(click image to go to flickr page)

Important reading

2008-03-20T01:15:00.003-05:00

Following Obama's speech on Rev. Wright, Tim Wise, a white anti-racist activist and academic, offers an important extension of the discussion on the very real anger that Obama identified:

Indeed, what seems to bother white people more than anything, whether in the recent episode, or at any other time, is being confronted with the recognition that black people do not, by and large, see the world like we do; that black people, by and large, do not view America as white people view it. We are, in fact, shocked that this should be so, having come to believe, apparently, that the falsehoods to which we cling like a kidney patient clings to a dialysis machine, are equally shared by our darker-skinned compatriots.

Whites are easily shocked by what we see and hear from Pastor Wright and Trinity Church, because what we see and hear so thoroughly challenges our understanding of who we are as a nation. But black people have never, for the most part, believed in the imagery of the "shining city on a hill," for they have never had the option of looking at their nation and ignoring the mountain-sized warts still dotting its face when it comes to race. Black people do not, in the main, get misty eyed at the sight of the flag the way white people do--and this is true even for millions of black veterans--for they understand that the nation for whom that flag waves is still not fully committed to their own equality. They have a harder time singing those tunes that white people seem so eager to belt out, like "God Bless America," for they know that whites sang those words loudly and proudly even as they were enforcing Jim Crow segregation, rioting against blacks who dared move into previously white neighborhoods, throwing rocks at Dr. King and then cheering, as so many did, when they heard the news that he had been assassinated.

Go here to read the whole thing.

Happy St. Patty's Day

2008-03-17T10:57:00.002-05:00

I don't care much one way or the other about this holiday, but I love love love this celebration:

Via boingboing.

Lesson planning

2008-03-16T23:50:00.003-05:00

I've finally arrived at a daily lesson plan system that works really well for me. I thought it would be worth sharing.

(click through to flickr to see notes on image)

This sheet is 3-hole-punched at the top and kept in a binder.

By putting the Week/Day/Date and Goals in the upper left, I can refer back to this in future weeks (or future semesters) and find pretty quickly what was going on during that day.

The Announcements and Assignments sections are also set off to the side so that I take care of those right away at the beginning of class.

What I like best about my little lesson plan are the sticky notes. When I'm planning the the class for the day (I teach two 80-minute classes per week), I'll write down each activity on a sticky note. I'll start laying them out in l-to-r order. I find myself often making changes as I decide how long I want to spend on activity A and how well activity B will segue into activity C. I usually end up moving the sticky notes around as I plan.

I also indicate on each note how many minutes I think each activity will take. Once I've put the notes in a finalized order, I sometimes go the extra step and write down when each activity should be done (e.g. the second note might say 4:35, meaning that the class will be done with this by that time). (I didn't do this on the day I took this picture-- but I do most of the time.) This gives me an easy reference point to use during class-- I can quickly look and see whether I'm ahead, on schedule, or behind.

I'll pull the sheet out of the binder during class. On the back, I make notes about what is working, what isn't, participation, etc. I find this method gives me the balance of structure and flexibility that I need to run class smoothly.

Anyone else feel like showing their methods? I love seeing teaching minutiae like this.

Ta-da!

2008-03-03T23:28:00.002-05:00

On Thursday, I got to play the part of a professional academic as I gave the keynote address at the University of Akron's English Department Graduate Student Symposium. I got my MA at U of Akron, and I've kept in touch with my professors there over the years. I was absolutely delighted to accept when they offered to fly me to Akron, let me talk for 30 minutes about my research, and spend time talking with the professors and grad students there.

It went really well-- I put on a good show. There were lots of questions afterwards. I love it that people seem interested in my work-- it's important to me that my work helps people in their teaching.

In the process of organizing this talk, I was forced into some analysis and synthesis in order to report on my findings. This jump started my analytical process. I was also able to retool my month-by-month dissertation plan-- I've set up a manageable schedule that ends with a defense in December.

I'll be a professor soon...

Understand me

2008-02-07T23:01:00.000-05:00

Picked up at The History Enthusiast.

The books, music, movies, and shows that would tell you something about who I am:

Reading

The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon- Now 6 books (with two more to come), this series follows the two main characters through a life-long marriage. That barely describes the series, though-- there's mystery, history, war, time-travel, and a little supernatural. The plots spool wildly sometimes, but the characters are the most real ones I've ever read. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Two poets: Billy Collins, Robert Frost- Accessible. Minimal rhyming.

Music

Sit in front of a good sound system, crank the volume, close your eyes, and listen to either one of these:
Mozart's 21st, with pianist Geza Anda (it matters, trust me)
or
Dark Side of the Moon, by Pink Floyd

Movies

The Wizard of Oz- my all time favorite. I'm a romantic disguised as a cynic.
Love Actually- it's messy and lovely.
Elizabethtown- I don't think we're shown often enough how human it is to laugh while you're crying.

TV

The Looney Toons- All of them, but especially "What's Opera Doc?" ("spear and magic helmet!")

Wonder Woman- It's a crappy show, but she was my hero when I was little. I still think Lynda Carter is beeeeeyouuuuuteeeeful. Look how she spins:

Firefly- just because it is awesome.

"If you can sit, you can get fit"

2008-01-30T01:29:00.000-05:00

At last!

Via Feministe.

Video link: ten MLK quotes

2008-01-21T13:17:00.000-05:00

By IllDoctrine.

Also linked at Feministing.

I think it ! I write it! You read it!

2008-01-14T22:46:00.000-05:00

Since the end of NaBloPoMo in November, I haven't posted much. Not much beyond links and memes, anyway. I just haven't felt like talking.

1. Not much to say about the diss. I'm working on it-- slowly but steadily (save a break for travel during the holidays)-- but the work has been transcribing and freewriting. I'm sure I'll have stuff to share as I finish data collection and move into deeper analysis, though. I'm looking forward to it.

2. I've felt a little more introspective over the last few months. I'm a pretty self-aware person to begin with (or I am expert at deluding myself), but I've spent a lot of time evaluating and reevaluating my actions, my work, my relationships-- thinking about what I think and do, why, what results I'm getting, what changes I should make. This is a process I go through every few years, and I always emerge from it with a clearer sense of purpose and direction. While I'm in it, though, I keep the heavier things I'm thinking about to myself.

Things have been quiet, but as school starts and the diss work gets back in full gear, you'll hear from me more often.

The Privelege meme (Updated to add attribution)

2008-01-12T22:43:00.000-05:00

Privilege meme: Bold the items that apply to you.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers (I'm guessing this means socio-economic class, in which case I would guess I was in the same class as teachers.)
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children’s books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 (clarinet)
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp (one week of church camp for three summers)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

Picked up at Proto-Scholar.

Updated to add attribution:
Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka , "From What Privileges Do You Have?" Illinois State University

Kucinich wants a recount of NH

2008-01-12T11:26:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what to make of this:

CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP) — Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who won less than 2 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, said Thursday he wants a recount to ensure that all ballots in his party's contest were counted.

...

Kucinich alluded to online reports alleging disparities around the state between hand-counted ballots, which tended to favor Sen. Barack Obama, and machine-counted ones that tended to favor Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also noted the difference between pre-election polls, which indicated Obama would win, and Clinton's triumph by a 39 percent to 37 percent margin.

Link.

Via Reappropriate.

The Racism Fairy

2007-12-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

At last! An explanation as to why white people can say racist things but not be racist:

The Racism Fairy cannot be seen by the naked eye, but evidence of her handiwork is at once obvious. She causes a wave of racism to overtake her victim, making them spout racist slurs very much against their will. To cover her tracks, she will cause the victim of her Racism Pixie Dust to emerge from her influence claiming any one or a combination of the following defenses to remove the blame for the racism from themselves, including:

1. I had no idea what was coming out of my mouth!
2. I didn’t know what I was saying was considered racist!
3. I’m not racist — I’m a person of colour!
4. I’m not racist — I have minority friends!
5. Other minorities say it too!

From Reappropriate.

Via Alas, a blog.

More better Christmas music

2007-12-14T13:08:00.000-05:00

If you like Christmas music but are complete sick of "Feliz Navidad" and that "Feed the World" song (which nowadays strikes me as pretty darn condescending towards Africa), then you might like the latest podcast from NPR's All Songs Considered.

A Holiday Mix (link to holiday show page, which includes the link to download)

Includes: New Pornographers, Sally Shapiro, Amiina, Magnetic Fields and many more. The show page includes links for all the songs as well.

This is cool

2007-12-13T11:00:00.000-05:00

From National Geographic.

Most "Gah!" headline ever

2007-12-07T22:20:00.000-05:00

11 slaughterhouse workers ill, inhaled pig-brain matter suspected

Advancements in photo editing

2007-12-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

This short video on new photo editing technology-- "content aware image resizing" is fascinating.

Via Feministe.

The candidates on health care

2007-12-06T01:56:00.000-05:00

The NY Times has a summary of the candidates' positions and proposals.

Via Alas, a blog.

Something to watch

2007-12-03T18:28:00.000-05:00

I looked up quarterlife after hearing David Bianculli (TV critic for Fresh Air) give a strong recommendation.

The show follows a handful of people in their mid-twenties who are predictably mid-twenties-ish. There's more than a little angst (it's from the creators of My So-Called Life), but the characters are compelling nonetheless. The episodes are short-- 5 minutes or so-- and are published twice per week.

Episode one:

unofficial CCCC New Orleans wiki

2007-11-30T00:53:00.000-05:00

My friend Steve forwarded this link to a wiki for helpful info on where to stay, eat, etc. in New Orleans during the convention.

http://accccess.wetpaint.com/

Following up

2007-11-28T11:12:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who offered their thoughts in response to my question yesterday. As promised, I'll now offer some fascinating context information.

In my individual follow up interviews with the four focus group participants, there were a few questions that I asked of each participant.

What stood out to you as particularly interesting or significant about the original conversation?
Could you talk about how the topics and opinions in this discussion compare to yours and those of your friends?
Are there any ideas or concepts related to race that you wish you understood more fully?
Are there any other pop culture references that you can think of that bring up race in interesting ways?
Any other comments?
Any questions for me about my project or my opinions?

Question 3-- the "ideas or concepts" question was the only one which troubled everyone. Each person's response was a confused expression and a "huh?" In response, I'd add something a little more concrete: "Have you ever seen someone acting a certain way or talking about something about race and been confused by why the thought or acted that way?"

Each person was able to quickly respond after that clarification.

This sequence of events has me wondering what to make of the question in the first place. I see two ways to interpret this-- one related to form, one related to content:

Form: It may be a bad question. Poorly worded and/or delivered.
Content: Clearly, the respondents had a hard time grasping this question. Perhaps, though, the problem doesn't lie in the form of the question, but in the possibility that it doesn't even occur to white, middle-class college students from NH that there are racial issues that they don't understand. In other words, I'm thinking that for them, racism is a simple thing that is largely gone from our society, save a few isolated white supremacists in the South.

I haven't come to a verdict on the question, but this is something I keep thinking about.

Thanks again to everyone who wrote a response. I really appreciate it.

A question about a question

2007-11-27T01:28:00.000-05:00

I've been using one particular question in my conversations with my study participants that I'm now revisiting. I don't want to give you any more background than that right now, because I'm hoping that you (dear reader) would take a minute and give me your thoughts on my question.

Specifically, I'm interested in your first response to the following question:

Are there any ideas or concepts related to race that you wish you understood better?

If your first response is a direct answer, great. Lay it on me. If your first response is some cogitating to figure out what the question is asking, I'd love to hear that too.

I'll post again tomorrow to explain my thoughts, but if you have a few minutes to post a comment, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you,
The Management

"I don't care who started it. I want it to stop."

2007-11-26T11:06:00.000-05:00

I get a daily email digest from US News & World Report that summarizes the day's political news as reported in major national media outlets.

The Chicago Tribune reporting on the escalating tensions between Giuliani and Romney:

Asked why he was breaking with his declared plan to keep things positive, Giuliani said that Romney and others started it. 'It's because they criticized me,' Giuliani said. 'Notice I haven't criticized anyone who hasn't criticized me. Gov. Romney has been criticizing me for weeks and weeks and weeks.'

My brother and I would bicker tirelessly when we were young. Mom would intercede.

"He started it!"
"Nuh-uh. She did."

"I don't care who started it. I want it to stop."

(Let the record show that he, in fact, did usually start it. Nevermind that I'm biased.)

I'm not highlighting this to point out anything particular about Republicans-- childish behavior spans party lines. I just thought it was funny.

Plug

2007-11-25T23:17:00.000-05:00

My friend Lisa has just rolled out a blog: The First Year Teacher. Go over and say hello.

(Mention my name and you'll save 20% off everything if it snows on Christmas Eve.)

I'll try not to abuse my new scanner...

2007-11-24T23:31:00.000-05:00

...but I really can't help posting one more scanned photo.

My brother and I, early 1980s:

I'll try for something more text-based tomorrow, I promise.

Memory lane

2007-11-24T00:17:00.000-05:00

I picked up an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier today (an HP for $34!), so I'm scanning in some old photos.

My mom and I, at a wedding, 1976:

Grandpa reading to me from The Tall Book of Make Believe (note my intense focus), 1978:

Tips on hiring women- ca. 1943

2007-11-22T11:12:00.000-05:00

From Transportation Magazine, a list of suggestions on how to hire women and keep them happy.

1. Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It's always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

Link to the complete list.

(Since it's Thanksgiving, I'll note that I'm thankful that this isn't de rigueur anymore.)

The Internet: What it's for

2007-11-21T23:02:00.000-05:00

A remake of the shower scene from Psycho. With potatoes.

Via BoingBoing.

The Imp of the Perverse

2007-11-20T01:41:00.000-05:00

While driving over a bridge with a shabby guardrail, has it ever occurred to you to turn the wheel and see what happens when you crash through?

Edgar Allan Poe described this impulse in one of his lesser-known short stories, "The Imp of the Perverse."

We stand upon the brink of a precipice. We peer into the abyss—we grow sick and dizzy. Our first impulse is to shrink from the danger. Unaccountably we remain. By slow degrees our sickness and dizziness and horror become merged in a cloud of unnamable feeling. By gradations, still more imperceptible, this cloud assumes shape, as did the vapor from the bottle out of which arose the genius in the Arabian Nights. But out of this our cloud upon the precipice's edge, there grows into palpability, a shape, far more terrible than any genius or any demon of a tale, and yet it is but a thought, although a fearful one, and one which chills the very marrow of our bones with the fierceness of the delight of its horror. It is merely the idea of what would be our sensations during the sweeping precipitancy of a fall from such a height. And this fall—this rushing annihilation—for the very reason that it involves that one most ghastly and loathsome of all the most ghastly and loathsome images of death and suffering which have ever presented themselves to our imagination—for this very cause do we now the most vividly desire it. And because our reason violently deters us from the brink, therefore do we the most impetuously approach it. There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a Plunge. To indulge, for a moment, in any attempt at thought, is to be inevitably lost; for reflection but urges us to forbear, and therefore it is, I say, that we cannot. If there be no friendly arm to check us, or if we fail in a sudden effort to prostrate ourselves backward from the abyss, we plunge, and are destroyed.

When I find a piece of literature that exactly describes an experience that I've never put into words, I fall in love.

Looking at campaign signs

2007-11-18T13:54:00.001-05:00

A New York Times slide show analyzes the design of campaign logos.

More visualizations of data

2007-11-18T00:42:00.000-05:00

I've included tag clouds for two of the follow-up interviews. The other two are forthcoming.

Follow up interview with Elizabeth

created at TagCrowd.com

Follow up interview with Seth

created at TagCrowd.com