Month: January 2006

Dining and Coffee Reviews: A New Unofficial Feature

As part of the new 2006 season here at my unofficial blog, I’d like to introduce a new category, “Dining and Coffee Reviews,” wherein I provide brief reviews of eating establishments and area coffee shops.

Why, you ask? First off, because Annette and Will and I end up at a lot of different area restaurants and coffee shops on a regular basis. Just this week, I’ve been to Bombadills, Delat, Zanzabar, Beaner’s, The Sidetrack, and the New York Pizza Depot, and I’m going to the Commond Grill tomorrow. I will admit that’s a bit more than usual, but you get the idea.

Second, I would say that two of my more significant hobbies/activities are eating food and drinking coffee. Certainly more than going to the gym, which is one of the reasons for my new mantra for the year is “smaller portions.”

I’ll rate things on a simple 1 to 5 scale, where 1 means “terrible” and 5 means “mind-blowingly great.” For dining, here are the categories I have in mind (and if anyone has any suggestions on how I should do it differently, let me know):

  • Tastiness
  • Service
  • Price (here, 1 means “dirt cheap,” while 5 means mind-blowingly expensive)
  • Value, by which I mean whether or not the dining experience is “worth it” money-wise. This is different than price in that, in my experience, it’s possible to spend way too much money on a meal but still have it be “worth it;” on the other hand, I’ve had $1 hot dogs that were a “poor value.”
  • General vibe, which includes things like decor, music they play, people hanging out there, etc.

The coffee shop rating system is a bit different, though also on a 1-5 rating system:

  • Coffee quality (and I should point out that I am only kind of a coffee snob and that when I go to a coffee shop, I almost always drink coffee and not Lattes or Cappuccino or whatever)
  • Service
  • General vibe (with a big emphasis on music and people-watching)
  • WiFi, which is key for me since I am often in coffee shops to do work of one sort or another
  • Baked goods
  • Other food options

    • My goal is to do these reviews in a sort of short/bullet-point kind of pattern. I’ll start writing one or two now and we’ll see how it goes.

Friday Lunch (or Linda, when are you going to start a blog?)

I had lunch on Friday with Jeff “Yellow Dog” Rice and my EMU colleague, Linda Adler-Kassner. Really, it was just one of those opportunities to get together and eat and drink and talk– gossip about the comp/rhet world, talk about different institutional politics, a bit about C&W 2007 (which is going to be at Wayne State U), quite a bit about technology things, etc.

Jeff and I also tried a bit to convince Linda that she ought to blog. She kept saying that she didn’t think she really had a reason to blog/anything to say, and we kept trying to tell her that wasn’t true. I don’t think it worked that well, but it was fun trying.

But one thing that we did talk about as a reason for blogging was what I guess I would describe as the unexpected benefits. Jeff and I both talked about various versions of this, but just speaking for me: my silly little blog here, which really doesn’t get that much traffic and that isn’t that significant in the big scheme (or even small scheme) of things, has indirectly lead to a number of publications (some of which have even paid), speaking engagements, and other kudos. I suppose it is kind of a “build it and they will come” sort of thing.

Anyway, like I said, good food and fun was had by one and all. We didn’t talk about football, which, given the way that the Outback bowl turned out, was probably a good thing.

Will 2007 be the year of Ong?

It will be if John has his way. As he explains in this post, he’s planning on putting together several panels, starting at MLA 2006 and then continuing into 2007, to 25th anniversary of the publication of Orality and Literacy, Walter Ong’s extremely important and influencial book.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to propose a panel for one of these conferences or not– certainly not MLA, if I can help it– but it is certainly a worthy project. And it might be an interesting time to teach a seminar in Ong, too.

Pastabilities (or note to self: how to make better ravioli next year or next time)

We’ve had a kind of unofficial family tradition of making ravioli on New Year’s Day for the last four or so years. It’s the sort of thing you can do while hung-over, it gets guests involved (we didn’t have any visitors this year, but Mary has been at the ravioli table in the past), and it makes for a nice meal New Year’s evening.

I think we had some problems this year, and in the interest of reflection in preparation for either next year or just the next time I get in a pasta making mood, here are some things I need to remember:

  • There’s no point in using a food processor to try to make pasta dough; the classic “well method” of flour and eggs mixed together on the board works about as well, it really doesn’t take that long, you have to knead quite a bit by hand even if you do process it first, and it ends up being less mess to clean the board than to clean the processor.
  • About a pound of flour and about four eggs, a little olive oil and a little salt. That’s it.
  • Take your time mixing the dough because it’s going to come together eventually even if it looks like it’s not going to happen. Patience, grasshopper, patience.
  • You can rest the dough while it’s still kind of shaggy-looking because it will come together after it sits in plastic bag for a while. and then you knead it a bit before rolling it out.
  • It’s probably better for the dough to be a bit on the dry-side rather than the wet.
  • It would be worthwhile to price the pasta rolling attachment for the standing mixer.
  • One or two batches of pasta– NOT three.
  • One or two fillings– NOT three.
  • Make sure your fillings are on they dry-side of things.
  • DO NOT over fill the ravioli. I know, it’s annoying to get ravioli that have just a teensy-weensy bit of filling, but burst ravioli are just evil.
  • When preparing pasta for the freezer:
    • Separate layers by wax paper– NOT plastic wrap (plastic sticks)
    • Do NOT use normal paper to label the different kinds of ravioli (regular paper sticks)
    • Do NOT use paper that has any writing on it (paper with writing on it leaves marks on the pasta, kind of like silly putty on newspaper)
  • Enjoy in small servings– they’re rich little suckers.

It's 2006– now get back to work

Last year at about this time, I was resolving to get back to work on my textbook project. Well, that didn’t turn out so great.

My textbook project probably isn’t completely behind me because I think I still have some post-mortem work to do on that project, and also because it might yet have a life as a web site (that’s still being sorted out). Beyond that, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an article in this experience. Who knows.

But the textbook is mostly behind me. So, what’s next?

Well, 2006 promises to be a pretty busy year for me. Starting this term, I am the writing program coordinator at EMU. Basically, I’m the “lead person” for the undergraduate majors and the graduate programs, which means that I advise students, promote the programs, etc., etc. I’m teaching an over-load this coming winter term, mostly because I need to teach another online section of English 328 to further some scholarly projects. And because I like the class and I like the extra money.

I have a CCCCs presentation to get together and potentially an article sort of about my CCCCs presentation (again, another reason why I need to teach that online class), I have a speaking gig in early April, and I have to get together a proposal for Computer and Writing (which is also probably going to be about online teaching). And I think I am going to start reading and thinking again about my writing technologies before the computer project.

Oh yeah– I think I’m going to try to write a novel, too. But that’s not until May.

I read a great book while at the gym last month (my workout routine, to the extent that I have one, includes 30 or so minutes on either the bike or the elliptical machine while I read something kind of light) called No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty. Basically, the book is a “field guide” to how to participate in the contest/dare that Baty started called “National Novel Writing Month.” The goal is to write the first draft of a novel (defined here as 50,000 words, which is really a pretty short novel– think The Great Gatsby) in 30 days. November is the designated month by the organization, but that’s never a good one for me. So I’m thinking I’m going to give this a try in May. I’ll have just enough schoolwork on my plate to keep me busy, and I’ll have just enough freetime to justify a folly like this.

ObviouslyHopefully, writing something that is largely made up is different than writing something based on research. But beyond novel writing, I think Baty’s book is one I’d recommend to anyone who is “stuck” on a large writing project– a thesis or a dissertation, for example. Baty’s emphasis is on turning off the “internal editor” that all too often stops people from writing anything in the first place. He has great advice on where to find time in a busy schedule to write, and he goes into useful detail in describing strategies for finding the right kind of place to write. Some of his tips come across as a bit goofy (having a “writing totem,” for example), but in a weird way, they have a ring of truth to them, too.

And like I said, his book is ultimately about revision because the point of writing a draft of a novel at break-neck speed is so you can take your time fixing it and polishing it later.