craziness

Now that I have another blog to post about what I'm reading and listening to, alas, this one is getting no play. I thought since I need to write a demand letter this morning I'd procrastinate and do some posting instead.

Last night Sarah & I discussed the "one," this one being the perfect research idea. Since stumbling onto my fascination with all things medical, I can't get enough. I can ask people about it constantly, read about it constantly, think about it constantly. I'm such a freak! It's a good and scary thing all at once. When I'm not engaged in my work, I don't care what people think of it. But I care a lot now. I'm into it, but what if too many people are doing it and I can't get a job, or what if I can't find a committee, or they just tear me to pieces. Blah to academia. But yay to exciting research.

I also thought you might like to know that an inordinate amount of leaves have been falling the last few days on my front lawn. You can find where my lawn ends and the driveway begins. That'd be fine if it'd stop raining long enough for Dan to come rake my lawn. Oh well. They are beautiful. Here's a pic of my car this morning:

life goes on

I finished a book yesterday. Can you believe it? I haven't finished a book since I don't even know when cause I didn't post on the Book Club Site. Oh well.

I will post about this book on the new site. I may also review a few CDs here. It's gonna be great!

academic productivity

A lot of the time I feel like I have no good ideas and nothing of value to offer the world of academia. But Thursday & Friday were not those days. I taught an awesome class (actually my students taught an awesome class) where my only instructions were "Take this article and turn it into a performance where all class members participate in some way. You have one hour." They did a rockin' job. And they were able to look at rhetoric in a new way.

I met with a prof about possible seminar papers, and I got a lot of good feedback and direction. I'm excited about what I'm writing about as it encompasses all my interests in technology, professional writing, and feminist studies. Good stuff.

I presented a response on Thursday in class that incorporated performance and yet was an object my prof could take home. All of the class did really interesting things. It was a very engaging experience. I both wish and don't wish class could be like that more often.

Then on Friday I wrote what I consider a decent session proposal for the ATTW conference. Granted, my stuff keeps not being accepted to conferences, but I think this one is good and I hope it gets accepted, and I hope I get to go to San Francisco. It'd make me sooooo happy.

I'm sure the doubts will creep in, but for now I'm feeling on. I think I'll go with that for now.

challenges

Well, I suppose I should post something because I haven't posted in forever. I'm too busy to have anything of interest to say these days. I literally wake up and run from thing to thing all day long. Example, schedule for today:

11:00 meet student on campus
12:00 eat something
1:00 class
3:00 GEO mtg
4:00 advising group
5:00 GEO general membership meeting
6:30 go home
7:30 eat dinner
8:00 catch up on all that work I haven't done all day long

The worst thing about running from meeting to meeting today is that I have so many I won't be able to go to yoga, and frankly, that just bites.

I've been thinking about teaching a lot and how to restructure my class so my students "get it" better. I haven't figured any of it out yet. But I do think it needs a bit of tweaking. I got my second set of student assignments back, and despite all we did in class, they still don't seem to have gotten it. Assignment 3 has even more specific criteria, and between now and then I will be conferencing with each of my students, but still they might not get it. Well, let's hope for the best.