Month: June 2007

iPhone envy

I am supposed to be working but I was just scanning through Boing Boing’s entry on the Jesusphone— oops, I mean the iPhone. People are obviously collectively drugged stupid on Apple’s excellent marketing, but the reviews generally seem enthusiastic to say the least.

While I do want one of these things, that’s not going to happen for a while. I bought a new cell phone a couple weeks ago, a purchase in which I was COMPLETELY ripped off and an example of being an idiot for not doing a little more shopping. In any event, I’m locked into a two year contract, and that’s okay because I don’t have any problems with Verizon. Plus I for one am interested in seeing the second or third generation of the iPhone that will inevitably come out within the next eight to 12 months, one that will probably include more memory. Plus I’m pretty sure my wife would respond to the suggestion that I buy one of these $600 phones with the $100 a month service plan would be “over my dead body.”

Still, I am pretty sure that my next phone/iPod will be one of these things.

As a sidenote: I wonder if Apple will market something like the iPhone that isn’t, well, a phone? I mean, as it is, the iPhone can connect to a wifi network for doing various internet things. Hypothetically, I don’t see why one would have to have a phone and/or a service plan in that device, as long as a user would be happy with getting online only via wifi. I’d almost rather have just that device than one that is also bogged down with a phone.

iPhone envy

I am supposed to be working but I was just scanning through Boing Boing’s entry on the Jesusphone— oops, I mean the iPhone. People are obviously collectively drugged stupid on Apple’s excellent marketing, but the reviews generally seem enthusiastic to say the least.

While I do want one of these things, that’s not going to happen for a while. I bought a new cell phone a couple weeks ago, a purchase in which I was COMPLETELY ripped off and an example of being an idiot for not doing a little more shopping. In any event, I’m locked into a two year contract, and that’s okay because I don’t have any problems with Verizon. Plus I for one am interested in seeing the second or third generation of the iPhone that will inevitably come out within the next eight to 12 months, one that will probably include more memory. Plus I’m pretty sure my wife would respond to the suggestion that I buy one of these $600 phones with the $100 a month service plan would be “over my dead body.”

Still, I am pretty sure that my next phone/iPod will be one of these things.

As a sidenote: I wonder if Apple will market something like the iPhone that isn’t, well, a phone? I mean, as it is, the iPhone can connect to a wifi network for doing various internet things. Hypothetically, I don’t see why one would have to have a phone and/or a service plan in that device, as long as a user would be happy with getting online only via wifi. I’d almost rather have just that device than one that is also bogged down with a phone.

Just when you thought it was safe to watch TV again…

Paris Hilton’s prison tales are going to be showing up in People magazine. Goody.

I can’t deny that I too (like most Americans) have had an odd fascination with Paris. She’s sort of the new Anna Nicole, isn’t she? As part of the junk TV watching in our household, we often watch Entertainment Tonight, which Will has come to call “The Anna Nicole” show. As Paris went to jail, the ET folks were in a quandary: talk about a now well-dead blonde woman who was famous for almost nothing, or talk about a not-dead-yet and younger/skinnier blonde woman who was famous for almost nothing. Tough call.

Jeesh.

Anyway, I’m glad that Paris was punished and was forced to serve her time like a “real” person and everything, but now I’m sort of thinking that it has become a sort of publicity stunt in reverse. I wonder if preteen/teen girls all over America are now going to be pleading to spend a month in jail?

Funny addendum from the MSNBC morning show. Makes me want to watch, actually.

"Podcasts replace textbooks for GATE students"

This is an especially misleading headline, but it is what it is: Podcasts replace textbook for GATE students, from the Mohave Daily News. Happily, looking at the first couple of paragraphs proves that they aren’t throwing away the textbooks exactly:

Instead of pouring over textbooks and completing worksheets, students at Diamondback Elementary School are making podcasts, creating virtual tours of fictional museums and putting together their autobiographies with digital cameras.

The Gifted And Talented Enrichment (GATE) program – offered year-round for kindergarten through eighth grade in the Bullhead City School District – launched a four-week summer program this year that has students working on MacBooks.

The MacBook runs both Apple and Windows systems, compared to the Windows-only computers the district currently uses, and has a built-in system that can take still photos and record audio and video.

Oh yeah– it’s kind of an ad for Apple, too.

This is an article that I hope is around in terms of a link next year when I teach English 516 again because it’s another one of those examples to me of the difference between just dumping laptops in the schools (and then being shocked– SHOCKED, I tell you!– when that doesn’t work) and actually integrating technology into pedagogy in a way that makes sense.

12 important U.S. Laws every blogger needs to know

One of my students in Writing for the World Wide Web sent me this: “12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know,” which is from something called the Aviva Directory. It seems like an authoritative article, though the source makes me a little suspicious. In any event, it would be a good reading for the next time I teach Writing for the Web, which will probably be next spring, It might be useful for my research project, too.

Sabbatical lite coming soon…

I can see the finish line of the spring term– just a pile of end of term grading, one short class meeting on Tuesday, final revisions on Wednesday, and grade posting to go. And at the end of this term, I begin my year of sabbatical lite (and thus a new category at the official blog). I mean “lite” since I don’t mean light as in “bright” or even light as in “not heavy,” but I mean it as it is with beer, “watered down.” Though I still think it will be tasty.

Here’s the deal:

I was fortunate enough to be awarded a sabbatical for next year to work on my book/research project on blogs as writerly spaces. Now, at EMU (and at most universities nowadays), sabbaticals come in two different varieties: a full year (for 50% of the usual salary) and a semester (for no cut in salary). I flat-out cannot afford the pay-cut at this point in my life, so the one semester option was really the only one available to me.

Now, I also currently get a course release per term so that I can do the work of being the writing program coordinator– not to be confused with the first year writing program. As writing program coordinator, I advise/recruit grad students, advise undergrads, and do a bunch of other administrative work of the program, etc. I have a year and a half left in my term doing that and I don’t want to just quit and dump that work on someone else. As I see it, that means I really couldn’t take a semester completely off even if I wanted to. If, for example, I decided to take a break as the program coordinator for Fall term, I would inevitably have my short-term replacement calling me up/emailing/whatever with various questions anyway. And besides, a semester isn’t really enough.

So, here’s my plan:

For fall term, I’m going to use 2/3rds of my sabbatical time. That means all I’ll do for the fall is be the writing program coordinator. For winter term (2008), I’ll use the remaining third of my sabbatical time, continue to be the writing program coordinator, and teach one course. Thus “sabbatical lite.”

We will see how this works out.

The conventional wisdom I have received has been that a sabbatical is a “all or nothing” kind of thing, and the danger of administrative work based on course release is that it has a way of expanding to occupy the amount of space you allow it to occupy. In other words, I run the risk of spending my sabbatical– which, after all, is supposed to help me with my scholarship– on service.

But I am cautiously optimistic for two reasons. First, I am planning on setting up what I hope will be fairly rigid rules for when I will and won’t do this kind of work: right now, I am thinking that Mondays and Wednesday will be designated “school days,” and that will be it. Second, I’m a little worried about what might happen if I really did take a complete and entire sabbatical. As the saying goes, if you want a task to get done, assign it to someone who is always busy. If I had a semester where all I had to do was work on my scholarship, I am afraid I would spend far too much time watching TV, organizing my sock drawer, etc.

Anyway, we’ll see. Three more days. And a little summer vacation after that. And then it begins….

Strange Fruit in Ann Arbor

Somewhat on a whim, we all went to the Ann Arbor “Top of the Park” festival tonight, mostly to see the top-bill of the night, a performance group called “Strange Fruit.” Not to be even remotely confused with the Billie Holiday song.

Anyway, here’s my little video:

If you’re seeking other movies and info, be sure to check out this nice and recent YouTube video of the group. The next time we go to the Top of the Park though, we’ll pack a picnic and chairs and such.

Britannica Blog debate on the Internet

I don’t have time to read this now (approaching the “end of time” for the spring 2007 term), but via boing-boing, I came across what looks like an interesting series of articles/debates on web 2.0 and the internet for furthering knowledge in general. Both the “for” and “against” arguments are available here via Clay Shirky’s entries on Britannica Blog. I can see these as potentially being useful readings for English 516 in the future.

I’m “for” the Internets, btw.