birthdays

Well, yesterday was mine. And now I'm 27. My students guessed I was only 22/3, my dad thinks I'm still 12, and my brother thinks he's in his late 20s (he's 24). So funness all around.

But what is most fun is that I'll be finally able to cross off one of my resolutions. My great new glasses have come in the mail! Pictures to follow later : )

epic 2014

This is amazing. I'm definitely going to have to show it to my students.

mlk day

Well, I'm all for celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and freedom from oppression with non-violence, but does the holiday have to come right before school starts? I feel like I can't enjoy it, because I'm too busy dreading tomorrow and having to get ready to go back to the grind which my foremothers fought so hard for me to participate in. On a better note, WMNF is playing great freedom fighting gospel music this morning. Someone needs to play Donna the Buffalo's "Mr. King." It's one of my favorite songs.

stuff

I finished Galatea 2.2 by Rick Powers, and it was such a beautiful book. It's strange reading books by people I know because I'm curious about how much of the book is autobiographical. This book is written as if it could be an autobiographical story, based on the very little I know about the author. It's an interesting take on science and Artificial Intelligence and literature and academia.

But besides that, this book is beautiful. The language inspires me to become a better writer. I want to jam pack every sentence with powerful descriptions. But who has time? I guess actual novelists have time for things like that! Anyway, I'll quote him:

Because you embodied the world's vulnerable, variable noun-ness. All things ephemeral, articulate, remembering, on their way back to inert. Because you believe and have not yet given up. Because I cannot turn around without telling you what I want to see. Because I could deal even with politics, could live even this desperate disparity, if I could just talk to you each night before sleep. ecause of the way you use two fingers to hold back the hair from your eyes. Those were the words I wanted. Instead I said "Everyone in the world and his bastard half brother loves you."

A few other things to note: I'm broke. The library has movies and music for free. I plan to spend a lot of time there. Yesterday I got The People vs. Larry Flynt and Broadcast News, both of which were very good. The library offers the opportunity to watch all those old movies you always wanted to see but haven't gotten around to. Very cool.

shout out

to oday:

the new picture of me with my hair straightened is for you. too bad you're in france and can't see it in live person! but soon enough you'll be home, and i'll let you stare at my hair for hours if you want.

computers and the teaching of writing

Well, I finally finished Computers and the Teaching of Writing in American Higher Education, 1979-1994 A History: Gail E. Hawisher, Paul LeBlanc, Charles Moran, Cynthia L. Selfe. I started this book as a recommendation from a professor to learn if computers and composition might be the right focus for me. I'm not sure if this book has helped me figure that out. I do know I plan to keep teaching with computers as long as they'll let me, so in that sense, I'm already finding my work informed by computers and composition.

I found this book confusing in a lot of places, fairly disconnected and difficult to follow all the simultaneous narratives (there's the text of the book, plus a zillion quotes in the margins of the book, plus personal narratives by scholars at the end of the chapter, plus a MOO with many streams at the end of the book). I don't think this was a bad thing, and perhaps it was appropriate to structure a book about computers in such a way since they do reference hypertext quite a bit. But in a way, perhaps it does a disservice to computers & writing to structure a book this way. I only say that because all research and scholarly work can be like hypertext; this is not exclusively for scholars of computers & writing, however, most other scholars don't do this. That might be because they're difficult to read. Why think of the work of people who study computers as being the most difficult to read? Perhaps they need to make even more of an effort to make their work accessible.

Anyway, the thing I am thinking about most in relationship to this book is the way that technology is always thought to bring some kind of redemption along with the changes it brings. The authors of this book quite persuasively make the point that this is not true in their history. Computers in composition classrooms do not necessarily imply more equality for difference in race, gender, sexual identity, etc. Technologies are reflections of social situations, not miracle cures to those situations. It's interesting how people tend to either praise technology as a force for positive change or shun it as a force for destroying our world. But as long as we've been people, we've had technology, and we make it, so it's neither good or bad. It's just something we invent to allow us to do whatever we do as humans in a more extreme way. This point is something I hope to bring out with my composition students this coming semester: what things does technology truly bring? Why do people tend to look at it as all good or all bad? Interesting stuff.

nothing to say

Well, I did say I wanted to blog more often in 2005. It's not working so far. I have nothing to say. I don't have a lot to do either, which is a wonderful thing, because I'll be back at school in 9 days and then I'll have WAY too much to do. So I am working on some non-academic projects as well as a few academic ones.

I finished my coursepack for next semester. This time around, I plan to focus on more technology readings, have a much more well defined web project (that will not be a research paper), and try some new response and assignment ideas. I'm back to portfolio grading, which I feel is truly the only way for me to grade my students' work as a whole rather than on an individual basis, thus taking into account the entirety of their work for the semester. I feel pretty good about my course, especially since I can teach just with the readings I feel are relevant this semester. I'm looking forward to it.

As for non-academic projects:

1) I am working on a mini cross-stich that Sarah gave me for Christmas. It's a few adorable cats at night. I really like it. As I cross-stitch I generally like to movies on in the background. I've made my way through Return of the King, the Extended Edition, which is literally like 5 hours long. It was really great. I've also watched the Godfather & the Godfather Part II, as I got the box set for the holidays. I love the Godfather movies!

2) I bought some posterboard yesterday to work on a series of collages for my meditation room (forthcoming when Sarah moves out). I have all these old goddess calendars, which I'd like to repurpose into really interesting interpretations of the nature of God. I'm thinking a trinity series (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit) which would be all images of women. We'll see what comes of it (I'll post pictures to my blog).

Ok, well, for nothing going on, that was a rather long post. So far, 2005 rocks!

blog changes

Well, with a new year, I thought I might go with a new color scheme. It is gold, rose and purple (Oday, do you love it?) I'd like to do more blogging in 2005, but I can't do it successfully without a good color scheme.

new years resolutions

Well, I'm not much for making resolutions, but I think I'll post a few here and on my sidebar, and see if I manage to get any of this stuff done over the course of the year. This is pretty much a shortened list of 27 things I wanted to do when I'm 27.

Travel in Europe
Finish the Lord of the Rings books
Eat really healthy food and maintain weight loss
Rearrange all the furniture in my house
Get new glasses
Get my own radio show on WEFT
Continue singing with Amasong
Watch all of the remaining seasons of Star Trek that I haven't seen yet
Visit Memphis, St. Louis, Madison, San Francisco, and Chicago
Do the Serenity Prayer cross-stitch I've been wanting to work on forever!
Plant a garden
Fall recklessly in love
Read 4 academic books outside of classes
Finish a novel