Category: Uncategorized

David Blakesley and Karl Stolley have sent around an email to the usual comp/rhet mailing lists about a special issue of Computers and Composition they are editing titled “Multimedia Composition: Pedagogies, Production, Possibilities.” It sounds cool to me, but while I generally have a favorable opinion about multimedia activities in writing classes, I did write a brief “cautionary tale” that was published in the online journal Inventio called “Yes, But is it Writing?” Essentially, this commentary piece raises questions of access and of expertise. I couldn’t do sophisticated multimedia (e.g., video, flash, animations, etc.) in first year composition classes if I wanted to because I don’t have access to the basic hardware to do it. But beyond that, I’m trained as a writer and a reader and not a film maker or a graphic designer, skills that seems to be a part of most multimedia productions. And these skills are key: anybody who has sat through a family slide show or video screening recognizes that just because you have a video camera doesn’t mean you can shoot compelling video.

Anyway, I was just going to send an email to David and Karl to ask them if they could see fitting a longer, researched, and more developed version of this essay into this issue, but then I started counting up the projects I have in progress right now. And I stopped myself. No more projects until I finish the ones on my list, no matter how compelling these new projects might seem.

Sigh. Okay, I feel better now.

So someone else, if you want to write the essay I was thinking about writing, go right ahead.

Will has been in this kids drama class sponsored by The Wild Swan Theater, which is a great children’s theater program sponsored in town. I haven’t heard much about how this has been going from him because I’m usually teaching when this class is going on. Well, tonight was the final performance of the class, which was a re-telling of the Pandora story. You know, Pandora and Pandora’s Box, which was re-enacted here as Pandora’s Jar, which, as that wikipedia article suggests, is a reasonable translation. Anyway, the director of the program said that the kids read a story about Greek mythology, they were fascinated by the Pandora story, and they decided to make that the subject of the “finale” play.

Now, I will spare the details, but I will note two things. First, it was actually a heck of a lot better than I thought it was going to be. “Charming” would be the correct adjective. “Cute” would be another one. “Not boring” a third.

Second, Will played two roles: Pandora’s aged advisor, Zerkes, or something like that. I so wish one of us had a camera because the outfit involved a wig, a graduation robe of some sort, and a cane that Will toyed with a bit as if it would potentially become a play sword. His other character was “death,” which was one of the things that was released by Pandora. Now I ask you: when was the last time you saw a children’s play where one of the characters is death?

Will had fun, we had fun, it was a nice break from school, a good alternative to worrying about the stolen minivan.

Mine? Okay, until Sunday morning. I normally don’t let too much of my “real life” leak over to here, but having our minivan stolen is a bit distracting. Sigh….

I shit you not. Here’s the story:

We have (or perhaps “had”– more on that below…) a 98 Plymouth Voyager minivan. It’s purple– I think the official color name is “lavender” or “lilac;” anyway, it’s a light purplish color. For two or three years, it was our only vehicle; actually, we bought it to replace a Honda Civic hatchback we had that was totaled in a parking lot flood. That’s another long story.

Anyway, I got up this morning, and, still in my half-asleep/pre-coffee haze, I looked out the window onto the street in front of our house, and it took me a moment to register the fact that the van was gone. At first, I thought to myself “well, maybe Annette went out to get some coffee or doughnuts or something,” but then I as quickly realized that she wouldn’t have just left without telling me. So I called out “Annette?” and I heard her from the back room “What?” “Where’s the van?” I asked. And we realized that it was really gone.

So we called the cops, they asked us routine questions over the phone about it possibly being towed, etc., and then they sent someone out. When the cop came out, I met her on the curb and she pointed out to me that there were still wet tire tracks on the pavement, leading from muddy water on the curb and then turning left at the corner. That means somebody took this thing just a few hours before. The cop took down all the relevant info and she said that the thieves were probably just looking for a ride and something to party in.

What blows me away about all this is that a) the van isn’t exactly a “desirable” vehicle; b) it was locked up (I always lock the car) and they must have gotten into the thing without breaking a window because there was no glass on the street; and c) my neighbor has a real nice Ford Mustang convertible parked out on the street. And these knuckleheads take a crappy minivan!?

What happens next? Well, the cop more or less suggested three different scenarios: a) they might find it pretty quickly, just someplace on the other side of Ypsi or something, with no real damage; b) they find it in the next few days, anywhere between here and Detroit, and it’s pretty much trashed;) or c) they never find it. “B” is the most likely choice. Fortunately, we never got around to changing the insurance status so we still have “full coverage” on it, which means that we’ll get money for either “B” or “C.” Well, we assume… that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it.

I’m not happy about this of course because even though I’ve always had a “hate/well, it’s okay I guess” relationship with this thing, it’s gonna be a pain in the ass to deal with this and it’s going to cost us a chunk of money.

And besides that, I had kind of settled into my “it’s okay I guess” feelings about the van. For the first couple years, when it was our only vehicle and we were putting lots and lots of miles on it, it ran like crap. We ended up dumping a lot of money into it for dumb things. We had to replace the air conditioning system, we had a lot of other minor and miscellaneous things that had to be repaired, typical used car stuff. Actually, I think a lot of the problem had to do with the Dodge dealerships where we were taking it. But since we got our other car (a Honda Civic, which we like a whole bunch), we don’t drive the van near as much. Last year, I think we put a total of 5,000 miles on it. And the van also started running a whole lot better once we started taking it to a local mechanic, which is a lesson to learn regarding at least some dealerships mechanics.

Anyway, while this sucks, it could be a lot worse. Annette and I will frequently leave piles of books and student papers and such in the car for one reason or another, but neither of us had anything too significant in the van. They didn’t take the Honda– probably because it would have been harder to steal. Nobody here was hurt, though it is a bit unnerving that someone stole a car from the street right in front of my house.

So we’ll see what happens. In the mean-time, if you see a light-purplish van with a bunch of left-wing bumper-stickers on the back, drop me an email….

My ticket– er, appearance on the program– to the CCCCs in 2005 is participation on the Creative Writing Special Interest Group (SIG) where I’m going to talk about blogging as a tool for creative writing. This isn’t as odd as it might seem because, before I became a “comp rhet guy,” I was a “fiction writer guy.” I have an MFA in creative writing, I’ve published a few stories in very little magazines and such, and I still write some “creative” things once in a while.

Anyway, I decided to do a little light Google research this morning, and one of the sites I came across was The National Novel Writing Month web site. What is “National Novel Writing Month,” you ask?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Why November is considered a good month for NNWM is beyond me.

Anyway, Blogger has already published articles about blogging and novel writing here and here, and a simple search of “creative writing blog” yielded plenty of results. I’ll have something to talk about in March, probably….

… but I knew that already.

You are 27% Aries

Annette (well, and others) have commented against the previous redness. So how’s this?

I like this site which provides some alternative blogger layouts, and I like the look of this blog (and I want to point out that this is awfully red). I really like the look of the Feministe site, which is always changing, and I like the looks of Martini Republic, too. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

I believe there are three morals to this. First, I am a writer and not much a designer. Second, my skills with CSS in particular and higher-end computer junk in general are pretty limited. Which leads to number three: I have to either accept that I’m gonna have a kind of generic and/or crappy-looking blog, or I am going to have to school myself on design and higher end computer stuff. I’ve been thinking about this on my official blog, too, but that’s a different space.

Anyway, is the purple at least a little better?

Annette and Will and I (and a friend of Will’s, along with his mom) all went to see the new Spongebob Squarepants Movie late this afternoon, and all I can say was that it was indeed excellent. Of course, I’ve been a fan for a long time. Spongebob is a cartoon in the tradition of Ren and Stimpy, and I suppose of Rocky and Bullwinkle, too: cartoons made for kids that are subversive enough to be interesting to adults. NPR has been all over this thing this week, with an interview of the guy who is the voice of Spongebob on the Terri Gross show Fresh Air, and a positive review of the movie this morning on Morning Edition. Of course, there is actually a NPR joke in the movie….

I don’t want to give any spoilers, but it was pretty darn funny in a lot of different places. It was interesting (especially given Annette’s research as of late) that a lot of the plot involves Spongebob and Patrick being interested in not being “kids” but being “men” and there is a lot of play with the concept of masculinity here. There is a whole lot about the mysterious appeal of the Krabby Patty, and David Hasslehoff makes a key appearance toward the end of the movie. Funny funny stuff.

If you’re not a fan, you could probably wait to see it until it comes out on DVD. But if you are even an occasional watcher of the Nickelodeon show, it is well worth seeing on the big screen. I would recommend going to a show that is less likely to be populated with the target audience of little kids. Right behind us in this screening there was some little kid compulsively rattling around a candy wrapper or potato chip bag. Sounded a bit like a forest fire throughout the movie.

See Innovate, a new peer-reviewed online journal about online education. It looks pretty interesting, though I am worried that it might really be just a sort of “cheerleader” publication for the online biz. It’s published/sponsored by Nova Southeastern University, which is a school I haven’t heard of and it appears to offer lots and LOTS of online degrees.

Don’t get me wrong– this doesn’t automatically make it bad. NSU might be the best school in all of Florida, I have no idea. And the articles in this inaugural issue of the journal look interesting, the sort of information on how to approach distant ed teaching that I think could help faculty who are on the verge of teaching online for the first time. We’ll see.

Yesterday was the grand opening of the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, and it got me to thinking about the whole Clinton thing. Not Hillary, really– more about Bill. As an aside: my initial reaction after Kerry lost was “Hillary 08,” but I heard some commentator/talking head on some news show, and this person pointed out that the people who seem to be talking the most about Hillary as the Dem candidate in 08 are Republicans. Hmmm… maybe the Dems should try taking cues from someone other than the conservative majority.

No, I was thinking about Bill. And I was thinking about how we need another Bill because when Clinton stands up and talks– or really, just stands up and looks out at the crowd– he seems like a… like a… human. I wrote about this a couple weeks ago, but why we need someone like Bill is because he passes the “who do you want to drink a beer with” test, and he passes it in flying colors. Sure he’s a Southerner, but only by birth, really. Don’t forget Clinton has degrees from Georgetown, Yale, and Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, not the typical pedigree of a NASCAR dad. I don’t think it matters where he’s from, really. I think his real talent is he could talk and relate to people that really did bridge differences.

Just a simple example: I was talking with my mom after the election in November, and we were talking about the whole “moral values” thing, which she says was one of the reasons why she voted for W. She was concerned about Kerry and his “pro-choice” stance, which she somehow interpreted as a sort of “pro-abortion” stance. I said to her, “well, I subscribe to the Clinton line on abortion: it ought to be safe, legal, and rare,” and she said to me “oh, I agree with that.” See what I’m getting at? Kerry and Clinton have the same position on abortion; Clinton figured out how to present a pro-choice position in a way that appeals to at least some moderate pro-life voters, like my mom.

At the same time, we don’t need another Bill Clinton. Besides all the sex scandal/impeachment thing, Clinton also presided over a Democratic party that became a lot more conservative in its “moderation” over eight years, and a Democratic party that held majorities in both the Senate and House in 1992 and (of course) that is in the minority in both now. If we get a Dem in the White House in 08 but we do it by caving in to the red state moralistic nutjobs, then we ain’t gonna be any better off than we are with W.