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Honestly, I’m not trying to make folks mad just for the sake of making them mad. I wasn’t going to post anything else about this, but then I rethought it. After all, I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole pseudonym business lately, and I’ve been talking to friends and colleagues about it lately too. And writing down stuff I’m thinking about is one of the points of this blog. So I thought I’d write three thoughts:

Thought #1 I’m not entirely sure if this is “ironic” or not, but the thing that really stops me from speaking too harshly about the problems of pseudonyms and how they relate to identity is I make use of my “real” identity on the web. What I’m getting at is this is a situation where, rhetorically, I cannot possibly be considered credible– well, at least with the folks who embrace a pseudonym– not for what I say but for who I am.

Don’t get me wrong– I’m not lamenting the idea that I can’t be the “judge” or establish the “rules” about how to go about blogging (these are both things I was accused of before). That’s not my concern. I mean something different. Let me put it this way: in order to write an “academic” article about the problems of pseudo-identity on blogs, I would have to acknowledge and account for the fact that I myself actually have a “non-pseudo-identity” (!!) on the web. Like I said, I don’t know if it’s ironic, but it strikes me as kinda weird.

Thought #2 Ultimately, I think the “problem” with pseudo-identity on the web is a lack of accountability in relationship to the real world, especially when a writer’s misrepresentation of identity causes trouble. (And again, let me be clear: I’m not trying to suggest that people who use pseudo-identity are automatically causing trouble.) This one was pointed out to me by a colleague, so let me see if I get this straight: In the story of “Julie,” the man who posed as a “totally disabled” woman who typed with a stick on her forehead (this is recounted in the Stone essay I cite earlier here) claimed that no “real harm” was done because he didn’t do anything in “real life” and his pseudo-identity may have helped people online. On the other hand, in the infamous story of “Mr. Bungle” (as is recounted in the well-known essay by Julian Dibbell essay “A Rape in Cyberspace”), Bungle says that no one was hurt in “real life,” so it doesn’t really matter what harm may have been caused to the people online.

That’s the ol’ “having your cake and eating it too,” a cliché that is synonymous with “unfair.”

Thought #3 A friend of mine reminded me of an episode of the PRI show “This American Life” a few years ago that focused on having powers like a super-hero. One of the segments was about a guy who went around asking people “Which super power would you like to have: invisibility or flight?” According to the blurb on the web site, “how you answer tells a lot about what kind of person you are. And also, no matter which power people choose, they never use it to fight crime.” I think you can see where I’m going with this…

I chose flight.

The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell – The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 – The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 – Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante’s Inferno Hell Test

See this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education Online,“Professors Seek Compensation for Online Courses” by Dan Carnevale. The title is a little misleading because it is as much about a policy at Los Rios Community College where faculty are expected to develop online courses while on sabbatical, which seems like a pretty odd way to do it to me. One perhaps relevant passage though:

“A growing number of faculty unions are fighting for language in their contracts that guarantees such compensation when professors get involved in online education.

“At the same time, many colleges take the position that online courses have become so mainstream that producing them should be just another part of a faculty member’s workload, especially since budgets are tight. A recently published study found that the extra pay that professors receive for online development fell 14 percent between 1999 and 2002.”

Two thoughts:

* EMU is a slightly unusual place (what else is new?) when it comes to online classes because they have mostly been offered through continuing education, and that has some complicated implications on the faculty contract such that it’s pretty tough for faculty to teach online classes as part of their regular load– even if they want to teach online classes. Some of that is starting to change. However, continuing ed. has offered quite a bit of support to faculty interested in developing these classes, both in the form of help producing course materials and also compensation for developing materials.

* If university administrators want more faculty to teach online courses– and to teach them well– they should be willing to pay individual faculty members for the work they put into developing these courses. As everyone even remotely familiar with online teaching already knows, it takes a hell of a lot more work to put the materials for online courses together, and not simply because (as the CHE article asserts) because faculty can just “wing it” in a face-to-face classroom. Everything in online courses has to be spelled out in a way that isn’t necessary in face-to-face courses, and making a web site– even with the help of courseware applications– is time-consuming. When you put documents of any sort online, you become a “publisher” of sorts, and the job of publishing brings with it all sorts of responsibilities and duties not typically in the “job description” of most faculty members.

So at schools like EMU, where faculty don’t have to teach online if they don’t want to, the administration has wisely recognized that they have to provide some incentive for faculty to develop these courses. But it seems to me that schools that are requiring faculty to develop online courses ought to provide some similar incentive as well. If they don’t a lot of these schools are liable to have some uninspired and disgruntled faculty teaching some pretty poorly designed online courses. That’s bad from an educational point of view, but even if you take an administrative “University, Inc.” approach, it seems to me that bad teaching will ultimately hurt enrollments and thus hurt the institution’s “bottom line.”

Just a few picts and comments about today’s trip to the zoo with the in-laws:

The coolest part of the day, one where I didn’t have a chance to take any pictures, was the shark feeding time. Will and I enjoyed watching the black tip sharks scarffing down helpless squid a great deal.

Here’s a picture of a piece of signage at the zoo about the Internet. It doesn’t show up well because of my crappy digital computer, but basically, the text here is about the lack of credibility of Internet sources as it pertains to giant crabs, something perhaps worth remembering in other situations as well.

Here are my in-laws reacting to something at the zoo with a few Mennonite women. For some reason, today was “Mennonite day” at the zoo as a large group from some community or other around here decided to come into town for some G-rated fun. Well, as long as no animals started doin’ what comes natural, it’s G-rated (wink-wink, nudge-nudge).

Will with me on the merry-go-round. As is typical, I took many pictures of the charming son today; somehow, this one rises to the top of the heap as my favorite. BTW, on the merry-go-round, Will rode a seal and I rode a lionness.

Ah yes, a night to remember…

I’ll spare all the details, but will of course dwell on a number of the meaningless ones:

* DTE Energy Center Music Theatre is a good place to see a concert. We saw kd lang there a couple of years ago (oh, and fwiw, she was absolutely amazing. I’d go see her again in a heart-beat) when it was still called “Pine Knob.” The next time I go to a show out there though, I think I’ll remember to plan some minor version of tail-gating. The Mrs. and I ended up splitting a highly over-priced Domino’s pizza when we could have had something better and as simple as sandwiches in the car.

* We ordered our tickets Wednesday on the Internet and they were “e-tickets” that we printed out and took with us to the concert. To get into the venue, we gave our tickets to the woman at the gate, who scanned them with something that looked a lot like a PDA. I realize this is geeky detail, but I found that interesting nonetheless.

* This was about the “whitest” event I’ve been to in the Detroit area in I don’t know how long. There were 10 or 15 thousand people at this show (I’m guessing) and I swear to you, there wasn’t any person of any ethnicity other than “white” in the whole crowd. Maybe that’s expected given the acts, but still… Oh, and I would also describe the crowd as predominantly a “VH-1” listening demographic. There were some college and high school kids (including two high school girls right in front of us who just LOVED Alanis, that was clear), but most of the folks were thirty-somethings or older.

* Alanis Morissette was the “opening act,” as it were, which seems to be a decision based on different venues. BNL has a big following in Detroit-City, but she was the “headliner” in Milwaukee, according to this review of that show. I don’t have anything against Alanis, but I don’t know her songs that well, either. She’s got a good voice and a good band, but I didn’t feel that much of a connection, really. Interestingly, the most lively part was when the BNL boys came out on stage and sang one of those songs from her Jagged Little Pill album. See, tells you what I know.

* While in the men’s room during the Morissette part of the show, I heard a guy talking very loudly into his cell phone. This is what he said, more or less:

“Hey. WHAT?! I CAN’T HEAR YOU. WHAT?! THE MEN’S ROOM. THE BATHROOM! I JUST TOOK A PISS! WHERE ARE YOU SITTING? IS THAT ON THE RIGHT, OR THE LEFT?” And so forth.

* The people sitting right behind us were about as annoying as my friend in the bathroom. One of them dumped a beer that ended up splashing us; they all ended up talking very loudly until BNL really got going.

* The BNL were awesome, putting on a great show. Lotsa energy, lotsa fun. No sitting for this one, and it was pretty clear that these guys got to where they were by playing their asses off for years and years.

* Steve Page looks like me; or I look like him, depending on your take. He’s probably hovering more around my “target weight,” but otherwise, a lot of similarities. Don’t believe me? Compare the picture of me in the corner here or this picture here with the picture of Steve Page on this site.

* I decided to not bring the digital camera, which was a mistake, though I don’t know if would have gotten any decent pictures.

* Judging from this review of the Thursday night show, the Friday one might have been just a tad more calm. Oh, and here’s a review that includes a set-list

* The drive home was an adventure for a lot of different reasons; I’ll just leave it at that.

I covet thee, iPod; I covet thee not. My latest irrational desire has been to get an iPod. Besides the whole obvious music thing, there are some interesting “hacked” software out there that allow you to do stuff like use the iPod as a sort of mini PDA, play games, etc., etc. And hey, they’re just so freakin’ cool! But $300 seems a little steep to me, I don’t think anyone is going to just give me one of these things, and it is out of the question as a self-purchase, according to my wife/financial manager. Just as well. I’m sitting here typing away on my laptop and listening to iTunes on my computer right now; so, what do I really need an iPod for?

Where did summer go, anyway? the end of my summer teaching is very near– by Tuesday evening, I’ll be completely done– and then we have about two weeks before fall classes start. It’s downright cold and rainy around here as of late, and I kind of feel like we had Hawaii (which was great, of course) and then whammo, back to work. Bummer. But next summer, no matter what happens, I’m not going to work, so I’ve got that to look forward to.

Concerned in-laws and the weather channel. My in-laws, who are visiting right now, currently live in Naples, Florida, which is turning into “hurricane central” right now. Annette just emailed me and told me that they’re pretty much glued to the TV to find out what is going on with all of this, and with good reason. The good news is they just this summer moved from Marco Island (which is right on the water and certainly right in the path of the storm) to Naples, and an area 7 miles inland and 17 feet above sea level. They’ll probably be fine, but the area around them might be pretty messed up.

Update:
While the inlaws are still worried about their house (after all, they’re here, and it’s there), chances are they’ll be okay since the storm hit about 40 or so miles north of them. And I just learned with Google news search that their former home of Marco Island was spared any major damage, too.

But I’m glad the in-laws are here because…

Me and the Mrs. get to play tonight With the in-laws here (and really, they are more interested in hanging around with our son than with us), Annette and I are going out tonight in a big way. We got tickets to see The Barenaked Ladies and Allanis Morrisette at the DTE Energy Center. I’m planning on taking a camera to see if I can take any pictures or not (maybe yes, maybe no…) A more full report tomorrow.

As the summer session closes and the fall semester gears up, I have a minor dilemma to solve. For the grad course I’m teaching, I’m trying to decide between a coursepack and the electronic reserve system through the EMU library.

A bit about each (at least how it works at EMU), with advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages of the coursepack:

* I drop off what I want included in the coursepack with one of the various companies in town that do this, and boom!, I’m done. In other words, I have virtually no leg-work on my part.

* Students show up to class with a “hard copy” of the reading.

Disadvantages of the coursepack:

* They cost too much money for students who are already (in general) paying too much money for things across the board.

* I have to have my “act” together in order to put together the coursepack– in other words, if I don’t have something ready well before the semester starts, it can’t be included.

Advantages of Electronic Reserve:

* It’s free to students– all they have to do is access the web site.

* I can do it on the “fly,” meaning that I don’t have to have all of the readings decided in advance (and this could be the “make or break” deal for the class I’m teaching this fall, I might add…).

Disadvantage of Electronic Reserve:

* I have to do more work by converting files into PDFs to be accessed by students (kind of a time-consuming pain).

* Students won’t automatically print the documents off, which lowers the chance that they will actually read the articles.

I don’t know which I’m going to pick. Any thoughts, especially from students (past or present) at EMU?

Just monkeying around the site a bit, looking over the stats and stuff like that again, especially in light of the hits I’ve been getting on the official blog site. Oy vey about that. It’s funny how little comments tossed out there in a semi-thoughtless way become this die-in-a-ditch issue. I could go on about it more, but I won’t because I suspect that if I did, I’d get a lot the same kinds of comments on this site about it and I’m not in the mood for it tonight.

Anyway.

In the course of checking the stats, I noticed that some of the hits to my site involved the search string “sims snorkeling tank object.” And I had to laugh because I knew EXACTLY what these folks were talking about since I am indeed a fan of “The Sims,” and I have taken characters to the “snorkeling tank object” that comes with “Sims Superstar” before. I was looking for a picture, but had no luck.

It’s sad for me to admit my enjoyment of “The Sims,” because (basically) it’s a computerized version of playing house. You know, you have pretend characters, you build pretend (doll) houses, you have pretend lives, etc. Not unlike some, er, “other” things I’ve been talking about lately on my “official” blog. But I digress.

Nonetheless, I think “The Sims” is good and relatively clean fun, and I intend to get “The Sims 2” when it comes out. Assuming it will run on the PC we have around here– I think it will, but I’m not completely sure.

This isn’t the kind of post that’s going to get folks writing under a pseudonym to keep coming back to this blog, but it is the kind of thing I’m actually academically interested in….

I found this article published in The Chronicle of Higher Ed, “Style: a Pleasure for the Reader, or the Writer?” by Ben Yagoda. To give due credit, I should point out I found it after reading this entry on Jeff’s site. Given that I teach a class called “Writing, Style, and Technology,” and one of the books we read in that class is indeed Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, I have A LOT I could say about this Yagoda article. But, relatively speaking, I’ll limit myself:

* Overall, I think the article is pretty good and I might even try to work it in as assigned reading next semester. I do think though that Jeff is right that Yagoda seems to be rude or at least at odds with his own point of making style less about rules and simplicity when, toward the end of the piece, he writes:

“Of course, anyone who’s ever been hired to turn a couple of dozen undergraduates into competent writers will discern at least two problems with the notion of putting individual style on the syllabus. To put it bluntly, not just students but a vast number of our citizens are poor writers. A sort of triage is clearly called for: Sloppiness, mistakes, clichés, jargon, and obfuscations need to be addressed before one moves on to finer points of style and voice.”

But as Jeff points out in his post, “…you can’t critique Strunk and White for over-emphasizing petty grammar points then turn to “the finer points” as ultimate goal.” Which gets us back to the basic question what is (or isn’t) style.

* In terms of the way I teach about “Style,” I think there’s a difference between “style” and “voice.” I would agree with Yagoda that this wasn’t always so– certainly it wasn’t always so with the ancient Greeks and Romans– but for better or worse, and possibly because of Strunk and White, this is the world we live in. Style tends to be more concerned with “the right way” of writing or speaking, given the purpose and audience. Voice tends to be more about individuals.

* I don’t think Strunk and White’s book is very concerned about readers at all, frankly. I think the first part, this oddly ordered list of grammar rules, speaks to Strunk’s need to make sure his students didn’t waste his time with a bunch of mistakes. In other words, the “reader” Strunk has in mind is Strunk, and the texts that he has in mind are his students early 20th century “college themes,” as they were probably called. And in the last chapter, generally attributed to White, he says something along the lines of writers should write for themselves alone and not worry so much what other might thing. Or something like that.

* I don’t think that Joseph Williams is all that interested in “simplicity,” at least not in the same way that Strunk and White are interested in simplicity, and at least not in the book that I assign in “Writing, Style, and Technology,” Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. This is slightly different than the book Yagoda cites, which is the textbook Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. I use the one that isn’t the textbook because it’s basically the same thing as the textbook but about $30 cheaper.

Anyway, Williams might be saying that “less is more” and “the more simple, the better” in some sense. But he also spends a great deal of time writing about how sometimes, the most “direct” word or approach is not necessarily an “easy” or “simple” one. Further, he has a chapter on “Length” that talks about the differences between long and well-managed sentences versus those that “sprawl” out of control.

* I’m sure there’s LOTS of stuff that Strunk and White are spinning in their cliched graves about, and most of them probably have to do with their own book. Strunk died in the 40s, White died in 1985, and the version of Elements my students buy came out in 2000 or 2002. Some of the changes that were made with that edition are striking and speak volumes about the different era that Strunk and White lived in, one that was genteel, white, upper-middleclass, and very male. I do an exercise in class where we compare the 1978 (I think) edition with the current one, and some of the differences in examples and even rules are dramatically different. Look up the use of the word “they” as a pronoun instead of “he” or “she” in the most recent version and then look it up an older verson to see what I mean. Or look at the sentence examples in the older versions of the book and note the roles of women and men. Or look at the literary examples in the older book and note all the “dead white guys,” versus the more “culturally aware and diverse” examples in the newer edition.

Little differences? Sure, probably. But they do make a difference, I think.

The cynic in me says “this ain’t gonna make no difference at all.” The optomist/believer in community change wants to give it a chance. Visit supportemu.org, which has a petition for folks to sign about removing the board of regents. Check it out.