Writer, Professor, and Everything Else
I was in Costco today, which is a store I enjoy because they have good products, good prices (if you know what to look for, at least), and they are not Wal-Mart. I also like Costco for the samples. But today, I saw a, um “display” but not exactly a sample I was that interested in.
Dog food.
I kid you not.
This sample hawker was standing behind her table/podium thing, and on it was a single can of dog food, opened, with a plastic spoon sticking up in the middle of it.
I didn’t try any.
Okay, okay, after this I’m going to get down to bizniz, I really am, but I found via Stephen Down’s site this very cool online image editing tool called picnik. This is the sort of thing that is going to solve some very common problems I have in classes where I have students make simple (and even kind of complicated) web sites. Teaching basics of Photoshop (which is all I know, btw) isn’t that big of a deal, but it is another layer of computer geek stuff, not to mention that most students don’t have easy access to this pricey software.
Picnik solves this problem– or at least it will probably solve about 85% of the problems my students have with images. Basically, it allows you to do a boatload of editing of images, it will allow you to edit images from services like Flickr or Facebook of Picasa or the desktop of your computer, it is cross-platform, and it is stupid-easy to use. There’s a premium version, but I created this image (out of this original Flickr pict) with the free one in about 2 minutes. Try it out.
Okay, now I gotta work and exercise and shop.
… but I know a lot of people in the computers and writing community do. So I thought I’d pass along this link to the Drupal Cook Book | Nancy’s Information Site. I have no idea if it is any good or not, but I do know it exists, and I might be looking at it more closely when (or if) I get time. I’ve been thinking lately that some of the options that drupal offers might make it worth it for me to abandon emuonline (the local tool for online teaching) in favor of something I run myself, either something like drupal or something like moodle. We shall see….
A lot, apparently.
I think the video is pretty self-explanatory; via boing-boing.
There was a little piece in Inside Higher Ed today, “Evolution of a Writing Program,” which is about changes coming to Dartmouth’s first year writing program. The opening paragraph:
Many a college has de- and then re-constructed its approach to teaching writing — in composition courses, in classes across the curriculum, or both. In announcing the creation of a new Institute for Writing and Rhetoric last week, Dartmouth College presented its particular take, including a new focus on tying together public speaking and writing instruction, expanding support services for students writing in foreign languages, and eliminating exemptions from an introductory writing course sequence required of all Dartmouth students.
The exemption thing is significant because (apparently) about 200 of the 1,000 first year students get out of the writing requirement now– that’s several more sections of fycomp that they’re going to have to staff. The article also quotes the dean of faculty wondering how the heck they are going to access writing success among their students? Where will they turn for resources and advice? Where indeed….
Actually, it also strikes me as a move that could benefit schools like EMU. Speaking only for myself, I would just as soon make it impossible for students to be able to exempt our required first year writing course; maybe with the move Dartmouth is making here we can argue “well, if they’re requiring for all their students, why the heck shouldn’t we do the same?”
Anyway, this all makes me think of the past in two different ways. First, depending on the version history that one subscribes to, it is from old and ivied schools like Harvard and Dartmouth and such where the split between writing and speaking first became evident back in the 19th century. I did some research on this that I (regrettably) have yet to publish on this stuff as it ties in with elocution, and I think this is an argument that David Russell makes in Writing In the Academic Disciplines, 1870-1990, but basically, this split in the US happened after the Civil War. Some places never did quite give up the whole connection between FYComp and speech– this was the case at the University of Iowa when I was an undergraduate.
Just a guess, but I suspect that as writing and composition studies becomes more about “media studies” (with pedagogy that embraces multimedia/new media as standard fare in all sorts of courses, including fy comp) and as the field drifts even further away from literature and traditional English department studies, I suspect we’ll see more programs like this.
Second, this is a “back to the future” moment for me personally. For reasons I won’t go into right now, I actually tested out of first year composition entirely at the U of Iowa. As a first year student, I of course thought this was great thing, but as a college professor, I think I missed out. As Lindsay Whaley, associate dean for international and interdisciplinary programs, says in this piece: “In a sense, I think it was [perceived as] an honor to be exempted. There was a sense that ‘Wow, this is great.’ From a faculty standpoint, there was a sense that they’re missing out.” I think that’s right.
I haven’t read it yet, but I’m posting a link to “Clancy Ratliff: Blogger Scholar … Blogger-Scholar” in Computers and Composition Online for three reasons:
It’s not just “super Tuesday,” you know; it’s also Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, etc., etc., and around here, that means it’s time for one of the few foods I think of as being at least kind of unique and/or a “specialty” of the greater Detroit area, the jelly doughnut confection known as the Paczki. (BTW, the other food I associate with metro Detroit is the coney island hot dog and the restaurants that serve them, the diners known as “Coney Islands.” With foods like these, it’s shocking that Detroit has long been considered one of the fattest cities in America, isn’t it?)
I read a nice entry on the local food blog Kitchen Chick, one that even includes audio for the proper pronunciation of the Polish word “Paczki.” Her first recommendation for the best in local/ Ypsi-Arbor Paczki was the restaurant Amadeus, but considering that this was a bit out of the way and it sounded like special ordering was involved, I took the next best option and went to the Copernicus European Deli in downtown Ann Arbor. They get their Paczki in from some bakery in Hamtramck, which is a town completely within the boundaries of Detroit and known for its Polish population.
I went on my Paczki run before going to the gym (no kidding). If nothing else, it was nice to visit the Copernicus Deli, which was connected to a bulk food place and a Brazilian food place on Main street in Ann Arbor, and it was clearly a very local and very Polish-immigrant-run business. At least I think they were speaking Polish. Nice little shops.
The flavors available were plum (aka prune), strawberry, raspberry, cream, and rose. I asked about the rose one first, and the woman explained to me it was a kind of jelly that had a sort of floral taste. So I ordered a couple plum/prune and a couple rose, and I ate one of each on my way to ride the stationary bike and lift weights. So I figure I didn’t gain any weight today, but I sure as heck didn’t lose any either.
The details here are all in the filling. The plum/prune one reminded me of these things my Grandma Krause made once in a while called Kolaches, which is another one of these East European pastries, so I guess that makes sense. The rose one was interesting, kind of like a strawberry or some other smooth and red berry jam with a flowery smell and aftertaste. And I mean that in a good way.
But I have to say, with apologies to Detroit-city purists/loyalists, you can call ’em what you want, but they are still jelly doughnuts, ones with really good filling, but jelly doughnuts nonetheless. They were sugary and doughy and heavy and– dare I say it?– nothing that special.
Don’t get me wrong– I’ll probably have one next year, and I may very well get mine from the Copernicus Deli again. But it’s not like I’m going to start a calendar count-down to next year’s Paczkis.
Oh PS: Will likes ’em too.
Via Stephen’s Web, I came across the site “Software Essentials for the Modern Educator.” I think “essential” is a bit of a stretch (I have never found it “essential” to have a software that can edit perl scripts or python) and it is very windoze-centric, but a useful list nonetheless.
I’m not sure if this is the sort of thing I should be posting on my blog now or not, especially with the project I’m working on, but I think it is awfully spot on: it’s an entry from Design Observer, “What’s in a name?” I mean, part of my research has to do with the ways in which bloggers and commentators portray identity online, and I guess I should appear to be neutral on that. But as this and other posts from the past suggest, I’m not neutral on this, and my experiences as the sitedad over at EMUTalk.org have made me even less neutral. Anyway, a long passage that sort of sums up the problems here:
A rose is a rose, and a real name at the end of a blog post is an indication that the person who authored the statement is taking responsibility, indeed ownership of the words — it is a simple act of honesty. For too long bloggers have been given license that is not tolerated in letters-to-the-editor columns of newspapers and magazines (except in extraordinary circumstances). If one is willing to expound, exclaim, or critique it should be done under a real name and with links to a valid email or website address. If transparency on the web is the new black, then there should be no secrets.
Pseudonyms like “miss representation” or “Xman” or “Pesky Illustrator” or “Inaudible Nonsense,” or even the passionate, erudite “DesignMaven,” are not cute, they are cowardly. This indictment holds true for those who only use their first names as well (the many known only as Nancy or Chris, Dan or Steve). If a blogger or responder does not have the courage to own up to his or her ideas then why should readers accept or respond to them? Having a pseudonym is not about, as some argue, building a brand story or mystique; it is about masking identity, which is inherently deceitful. Unless one has a good reason — like being on a black list or having a life in peril by a repressive government — the practice of anonymity should be considered unacceptable.
Maybe this will show up in a book chapter on identity eventually– maybe with some counter-arguments from the “pro-pseudonym” camp.
I did watch the Superbowl last night, which brings the number of pro football games I watched this year to an all-time high of (about) six. A pretty exciting game.
But I thought I’d post briefly on what it is really all about, selling products/advertisements. Here’s one I didn’t see:
I’ve been an Obama supporter from the beginning, and I continue to keep my fingers crossed that he can still pull it out. If he can get California and/or come out about even with Clinton after Super Tuesday, then I think he has a chance to ultimately pull it out. The longer this thing goes on, the less inevitable the Clinton Dynasty is.
Though I’d vote for Hillary over any Republican out there, of course.
Then there were the eTrade baby ads, which I did see. Here’s a link (which I couldn’t figure out how to embed here). Baby makes a trade, farts, and pukes. Baby makes a bunch of money and rents a creepy clown. Hilarity ensues.