changelog @ tengrrl.com: Exceptionally Productive
Thursday, June 30, 2005
I've been quite busy getting work finished for our first ReadWriteThink content report of FY06. We added several Web sites to the
Web Resources Gallery:
I composed a lesson plan, which actually includes a List of Ten. The 9–12 lesson
Star-Crossed Lovers Online: Romeo and Juliet for a Digital Age includes a list of
Modern-Day Interpretation Projects (It's a PDF). I plan to add it specifically to the Lists page, but I'm just listing it here for now. I have some additional ideas to add to the list of interpretation (e.g., create the cell phone address book of one of the characters, complete with icons and custom ringtones). There may be a second list of interpretations eventually. While the lesson plan uses
Romeo and Juliet for the examples, I've written the Projects so that they use the word "text" rather than name the work that is involved—that way anyone can use them with any "older" text.
Tags:
English language arts |
K12 instruction |
lesson plan |
Lists of Ten |
ReadWriteThink |
Romeo and Juliet |
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Stories behind Historical Documents
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Stories behind Historical Documents
This week's Ideas section in
NCTE's Inbox takes advantage of Independence Day (because that was the easiest thing to do). It focuses on "Looking for the Stories behind Historical Documents."
I'm still not sure what is causing the blogger template to do such odd things, but I went in for the quick fix and just put everything into a more cooperative, large table. I'd rather have it work properly, but this will do for now.
I'm sure it's a perverse statement on my morals, but I love this
Wonkette blogging of the president's speech tonight. Okay, what I really like is 8:05. It's so deliciously evil.
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
NCTE Inbox
Labels: Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Odd layout problems
There's something odd going on with this layout on Firefox/Win. I first saw it last night, but won't have a chance to try to figure out what's going on for a little while. Bear with me please. Thanks.
changelog @ tengrrl.com: It's not a toilet seat
The
Washington Post has a story today on computers as nostalgic collectibles: "
Geek Chic: Old Computers As Collectibles" (bugmenot login: youareidiots@mailintor.com / password).
And okay, I readily admit that I have some old technologies lying about because I just like old technologies. But the article libels my cute Mac iBook: "He keeps his circa-1999 iBook -- the one that looks like a toilet seat -- in the basement, next to one of those tiki lamps that repel mosquitoes." It's
not a toilet seat, Jose Antonio Vargas, and I hope you get boils on your butt for your evil lies.
Tags: computer collectibles | iBook | technology news
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Writing like a writing teacher
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Writing like a writing teacher
Perhaps this will interest no one other than me, but I think it's a reminder of how we sometimes forget who we are and what we know. I struggled for weeks with the text I'm trying to write. I'm still trying to write it, and in many places it is crappy extraordinaire. I've just been unable to write anything useful and equally unable to figure out why I can't write anything. I mean. Look, I'm a writer. It's what I do. While I was stuck, I was writing lesson plans and Inbox entries and even a conference presentation—but I couldn't write my manuscript.
I was sitting on the Selfes' porch last Thursday, writing and rewriting the same damned pages. Gracie was lying nearby, but she wasn't any help at all.
Cindy was even sitting across from me for a while, writing like the writing fiend that she is. There's something really odd about trying to write when your role model/idol is sitting across from you. But that's a different entry.
The point was that I couldn't write, and I had over the course of the weeks blamed a million things. The desk wasn't comfortable in the apartment, so I rearranged things and even got a lightweight TV-type table to solve that problem. The chair wasn't comfy, so I bought a folding chair that was better. Still stuck. I rearranged my writing and set up so that I was writing in the comfy stuffed "living room" chair. Still blocked. I tried writing in the CCLI. I tried writing at multiple machines, Mac and Windows, different locations. I still wrote crap or couldn't write at all.
So here I was on the Selfes' porch. I had a good chair and a large table. I had writing stuff all around me. I had doggies to pet. I had a great view of woods and wildlife. I was hoping for a moose, but one never showed up. Still, I was stuck writing crap. Okay, it was thickly humid and 90+ degrees and I was dripping like a popsicle in hell; but I
knew that the heat wasn't the problem. I hadn't been able to write anywhere, after all.
Something about having Cindy sitting across from me made me think about the problem differently. I started quizzing myself. In my make-believe world, I imagined what it would be like if Cindy were to ask me how my writing was going and what I was accomplishing. I knew how to answer that question. My chapters just didn't
feel right. One section was all choppy lists. They read like things that I had written, since parts of them had grown out of
Lists of Ten; but they didn't fit together and try as I might, I couldn't make them sound
not like lists. The Intro sounded something like I would write for an Inbox message. The research section sounded something like a very extended Theory to Practice section from a lesson plan. That or like a self-contained article of its own. Nothing fit together, and none of it felt right.
Now, I realize that I was giving myself a writing conference. Or more accurately, I was making believe that Cindy was giving me one. But it wasn't solving anything. All I was doing was thinking through the reasons that my text sucks big. Defeated, I started my inner voice of self-hatred and despair. I remember thinking, "You idiot. You're a writing teacher and you can't write. What the hell is wrong with you? This is totally wrong and you should be able to fix it. You are writing about writing, damn it. You're supposed to know how to do this."
In the middle of this tirade of self-hatred, I suddenly told myself to fucking stop it. The self-hatred wasn't getting anywhere—but the writing teacher was. Again, I remember thinking, "Okay, you're a writing teacher. If a student came to you and was this stuck, what would you ask the student to do? You'd tell the student to freewrite. To just journal away about the crap and the problem and whatnot."
Naturally the evil voice of self-hatred perked back up. "That will accomplish nothing. You'll waste writing time, and have useless text." But somehow, I made all the voices just shut up. I shut them down, and I just wrote this:
I want this chapter to explain the basic parts of writing a good assignment. The point is to outline the basic things that a writer needs to do in order to get a good assignment. The tips that are included are all good by themselves, but they aren’t unified and there is no flow to the section. I could try to focus on a single lesson idea as it evolves, essentially writing down the process that I would follow to create the writing assignment itself. Perhaps the best thing is indeed to write a lesson plan and take notes on the process that I follow so that I can show that lesson as a case study of sorts—how it fits together, how the parts flow into one another and into the other parts of the curriculum, and how the piece is assessed.
I think that the problem so far in the text is that it’s all this distant, non-person voice. I mean it’s the voice of the Inbox and whatnot, but that voice isn’t allowed to have an “I” so the text is in some ways w/o its author.
I had to stop prematurely because the ECAC folks were arriving as I was writing the last bit. I didn't have time to even reread or rethink it. I just hurriedly got the idea down. But the more I did think about it during the ECAC gathering, the more I realized that last idea was it. That was why I was blocked. Those last two sentences finally told me why I was stuck. I had hidden myself and tried to write a text where I didn't exist. I've gotten so used to hiding myself in my Inbox writing, that I was trying to cut myself out of the book—and that's why I've been stuck for 3 weeks. I was trying to silence my voice, and as a result, I couldn't say anything.
Today, I've finally had a chance to go back to the bits that I've written over the last weeks, and it's all so obvious. Every place the text is awkward or convulted, I was trying to write without letting myself into the text. Once I rewrote a bit, allowing myself first-person pronouns and giving myself permission to write about MY experience in addition to the general info and the research. It all works so much better.
I'd like to believe that the breakthrough was being on the Selfes' porch, sitting across from Cindy. But really, I know that's not it. The breakthrough came when I started thinking like a writing teacher and applying what I knew to where I was stuck. It wasn't the desk, the chair, the heat, the books and articles that I did or didn't have. It wasn't any of those things. It was that I was trying to write with a voice that wasn't mine.
Tags: ECAC | writing process
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Like the Schwan's man, I always deliver
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Like the Schwan's man, I always deliver
Like the Schwan's man, I always deliver. Sure, it may not be when you wanted it. You may have been perfectly happy already. But eventually, the Schwan's man delivers. And who could turn down the tasty goodness of a juicy bagel dog with cheese when it's there at the door, ready to come in and be served?
Yes, like the Schwan's man, I deliver, and forwith, we have one giant, catching-up-on-all-the-details, majorly huge, and enormogimongous travelogue. So poo ot all you whinypants who are running around behind my back being all, "Why don't you stop eating and write something?" Just hush up, and read whiner.
Now in the days of CIWIC, long ago in the land of Win, there was a boy named Bargeplay. His mother, while a sweet and gentle woman, had been a Girl Scout and she was all too pleased with that Barges song. Every night of her pregnancy, she sang to the little amphibian in her tummy.
Barges, I would like to go with you. I would like to sail the oceans blue. Barges, have you treasurers in your hold? Do you fight with pirates brave and bold?
And when the baby was born, she named him Bargeplay, because she hoped that he would grow up to play with barges and other large things. He didn't mind so much. Sure, it was an unusual name, but so is Jori Hepart. And besides, there were sailor benefits.
Little Bargeplay grew up quickly over the next 30-some years, and he found himself at CIWIC. The important thing to note, however, is that as he emphasized, most emphatically, he just wanted to play his tunes.
How could he be in a lab with proximity to a computer and not be able to play his tunes. "I'm not a prima donna," he toned like
Badger in HBO TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm (see image). "I just want my music."
Little Bargeplay's friends flew into action. On their knees, they attacked the three different machines that he huffily sat down at. "Stay down there," he said, not for the first time according to sources, "I can use you like that." When his tunes finally filled the CCLI, he sang out, "I'm in heaven!" and went back to the larger issue "at hand."
See, I had shared, perhaps unwisely, that I was reading a young-adult novel called
p:¬) ChaseR (Candlewick, 2002). The protagonist in
p:¬) ChaseR is a bit over-zealous about ASCII art. In addition to the many emoticons and ASCII art of locusts (the bugs), I was given the opportunity to see in one of young Chase's e-mails Nakedman:
{:¬) : ·| 8=>
I shared Nakedman with Bargeplay and others in the CCLI. I even made Nakedman a friend, Nakedgrrl:
__/
{:¬) 8 ·| --
--\
My sharing was meant to be so innocent. Nothing at all like the ASCII art that young Chase shares in the novel to portray himself at night, in bed, thinking of Maryanne:
p:¬) \ |
---------------------------|
And yet, my CCLImates turned quickly from my innocence to their own pervy wonderings. Their question: What would Dickie's new ASCII art signature be? Conjecture, there was plenty; but no my friends, I am NOT going to ask him. If you are truly curious, you must ask him yourself. If I had to guess, I'd say his sig will be something like this:
| | | o
,---.,---.|--- ,---.|---.,---.. ,,---.| .,---.,---.
| || || `---.| || | \ / |---'| || || |
` '`---'`---' `---'` '`---' `' `---'`---'`` '`---|
`---'
| o| | o
,---.,---.,---.. . . | .|__/ ,---. ,---.,---.| .,---.
`---.| || || | | | || \ |---' | || || || |
`---'` '`---'`-'-' `---'`` ``---' |---'|---'`---' `` '
| |
| | . .,---.
|--- |---.,---. | ||---'
| | ||---' | ||
`---'` '`---' `---'`
I had to leave the CCLI at this point. Nick was making me some wonderful paper airplanes, but the ASCII guesses were just too irreverant.
As always, there was a lovely dessert night, at which the Selfe's served an unusual UP dessert: Brats and burgers. Cigars all around to burn away the itchy bugs. Marilyn Cooper arrived on her motorcycle—a big ol' Harley with a sidecar for Pegeen. They roared into the Selfes' yard, and not even the two giant poodles could convince her to park with the cars as she was supposed to. She drove right up into the house and parked in front of the fireplace. Pegeen, the singing prodigy, stood up on hind legs and belted out show tunes from
Grease and
Cats for 45 minutes, the beauteous melody broken only by the swatting of bugs and spraying of Deep Woods Off.
There was tequila, so it's not clear in my notes what happened and what was simply pantomime of possible events. Several things were clear. The Super 8 is a happening place. Someone should invent Deep Woods On, then Dickie could wander into the woods and spray a tree or a rock or that pile of snow that he claims is in the woods with the ON and the bugs would go there instead of annoying everyone. And most importantly, pasty rhymes with nasty for the second year in a row. The evening ended, and I drove a friend to the Super 8 where he may or may not have met someone else.
Things Overheard at the Super 8 Lobby
- A brown bandana!!! There'll be fun tonight!
- Random or shuffle?
- Does it dock? Dock and load, baby.
- That's the way to get a head.
- That sucks
- FONDO!
- Check out his bratwurst.
- How do you feel about water sports?
- Smuggler, stiff upper lip, or spy machine? Tell me your pleasure.
Herbert Wainwright, well-known compositionist from the University of Vlad, stared amusedly at the drink in Gracie's hand. He might not be one of the fifteen compositionists at Purdue in the old days, but he knew a good drink when he saw one.
Another night, another meal at Cindy and Dickie's—and this time, I am initiated into the Secret Society of Important Rhetoricians. We play the party game that's sweeping the nations: Name the Rhetoricians. One person at the party names a school and a time period. Others attempt to name all the rhetoricians at the school at that moment in time. It's the kind of game that the kids will be playing for decades to come.
As the evening dwindled on, Gail the aggressive sitter regaled us with stories of feral ferrets in Japan, attacking those who innocently try to take out the trash. There were tales also of big chairs, and a short game of Do you think we can fit Gail in the woodbox? The hilarity was ended though as we all thought on Michael and the Summer of the Dead Cats.
(please observe a moment of silence)
Gracie is not a cat. She is the smartest dog. She is the one who quit doing tricks for the dog intelligence test when the snacks run out. Gracie is amazingly optimistic. When there is food, she believes it will be hers. When there is not food, she has other things to do and you're just in her way. The only time you're useful, assuming you're not giving her food, is if you're preparing food to give to her.
Bosco is less focused, but deathly afraid of running into tubes with parachute thingies on the end. So much better to leap up on top like a lumberjack. Dickie buys Bosco a cute little plaid shirt and an axe. Bosco is a lumberjack, and he's okay! He barks all night and he barks all day!
Days sweep by. Never enough time. Never enough. Cheryl is polishing the brass with a guy. There are no speed interviews however. Many pink notebooks, but no more interviews. Houghton is a town where not even K-mart can survive as an anchor store. Diplomatically, Anne gestures and warns, "Do not park between stores at the outlet mall for it will rain."
Aboard the
Keweenaw Star we sail out into Lake Superior, passing by all the little children playing in the water. Nick and I do our duty, shouting tips and commands: Do your homework! Read a book! Write a journal entry! The children continue to pump hands in the air, hoping the
Keweenaw Star's chatty admiral will blow the horn. Reading a book would be so much more useful than blowing something, but they are children and do not listen.
The three-hour tour is relatively without marine incident, despite having to dodge the landing sea plane, which was clearly no where near a sea. I use the men's room, just for the impish joy of it. What are they going to do to me? There are no potty police on the
Keweenaw Star, and the 7 layers of the Quincy Mine, mimicking the layers of hell, are very far away. I cannot be sent to live, pasty-less with Satan. We are too far out and yet still not close enough to the Bambi gates.
The captain did lament these trips. Always. Always. People did their Titanic impersonations at the front of the boat. Leaning out over the water. Just once, he wished he could throttle the engine and knock those losers in the water. But just as this notion passes through his mind, the water-skiing Huskie zips by the ship. Who can think thoughts of evil to humanity when there is a water-skiing college mascot nearby?
"That's the best thing I've seen all week," says Cheryl, "And I was over at the Super 8 the other night, so I've seen a lot of things."
As we deboat, the captain warns us: Beware the big headed carp. He may leap out of the water as you try to step to shore. Beware, or you may be eaten alive. There is no need to call in the sniper from Marquette. The six town police cars are able to corral the captain and take him in for questioning.
Another fine adventure at CIWIC completed, we all went our separate ways. Do not lament my friends if you find you didn't make the travelogue. I hate to have to say it, but bluntness is sometimes best: "If you do not see your name, sorry. You are useless to me textually."
Tags: tengrrl's travelblog
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Writing, Lab Work, Packing, & New Love
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Writing, Lab Work, Packing, & New Love
Today's Inbox Ideas section is on rap and hip-hop, which tied to an
LA Times article.
I turned my draft in just before
The Daily Show last night (which is ahead of time for me); so I managed to get some other reading done and get some sleep before going down to the
CCLI to help a little with ECAC. Mostly I just pointed to things in FrontPage and tried to stay out of the way. I've found that if you stand in the passageway between the Mac and Windows portions of the lab, you (1) get the excellent breeze from the super fans, and (2) manage to avoid questions from either room. Course, I only used this tactic when they were working with software I couldn't help with on both sides. Really. I promise.
I convinced myself that I really do have to leave Michigan this evening, and I began the packing process. I packed up the clothes that I won't need and started piling the various hard drives and other such technology into the proper bags. The biggest accomplishment is probably that I packed the suitcase of books and wrestled it into the back seat. I'm not even sure that I used 1/2 of the pile of books that I brought with me, but that's probably because I didn't get much writing done on those 125 pages I was supposed to accomplish. Somehow I just can't manage to write, and I'm about out of time. When time runs out, I'm into some major big trouble. Like MAJOR.
So did I write this evening while I watched the second running of
The Daily Show? No. I couldn't help it. I was too ashamed of my toenails, and I justified that if I just redid them, I would be able to pack the nail polish. See? Perfectly logical.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm in love. I saw someone with a baby 12-inch iBook. So cute. So lightweight. I want one. I have been searching around and daydreaming about replacing my cute clamshell iBook for months now. It has two annoying problems: the modem doesn't work anymore, and its 6 GB hard drive is ridiculous by modern standards. Here, I've been thinking that I need a mega-huge, 17" powerbook. You know. Big screen. Bigger is better, so they say. (I wouldn't really know, being a pure young lady and all.)
When I saw the 12-inch ibook in the lab this afternoon, suddenly I rethought everything. Here I've been lamenting that my lovely, cool Win laptop is just too heavy to carry around and use. It's an excellent machine, and it takes care of my needs for a work-engine computer. I was reluctant to go for a 17-inch Powerbook precisely because the Win laptop is a good machine. I couldn't really justify two great machines. What I need is a more portable machine that I can carry around with me.
And that's why the cute little 12-inch iBook suddenly seemed perfect for me today when I saw it. Oh, and I left out that it's the least expensive of the laptops. How often does that happen?
Tomorrow, if that laptop's owner is around again, I'm going to ask if I can put my hands on the keyboard. I always know about a laptop when I orient myself to the keyboard. That's how I
knew that the clamshell was the right one. The keyboard fit. If he's not around, there may be a trip to Indy or St. Louis in my near future. Get me to an Apple Store :)
Tags: English language arts | iBook |
K12 instruction | music | NCTE Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com: someone heard me
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
A few months ago I wrote that I wanted an iPod for my television, so that I could load up everything and carry it around—and even more importantly if you're as lazy as I am, change and load things up without monkeying around with the DVD player and the cases and whatnot.
Apparently such a thing exists:
iPodlounge | First Looks Special: Nyko Movie Player. Still smallish, but I'm guessing that eventually you'll be able to hook things up to your TV directly.
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Stolen Words
Apparently my Ideas section from
last week's Inbox was so exciting, someone borrowed it:
Digital Literacy Resources from NCTE
Now I know that on the Internet, it's hard to hold onto your text; but couldn't they have at least cited the source?
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Backdating
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Cheryl is still giving me grief. She doesn't care that it's Father's Day, and I have enough grief of my own to keep me hidden in the darkest corner of the room.
The problem with any event that I enjoy enough to write about is that I'm so busy at the event, that I don't have time to write the travelogues until very, very late at night—when I'm usually far too tired. I always think that I'll eventually get it done, but as the night creeps up on me (and it's one damned slow creep in the UP), I run out of energy.
Cheryl says that my public demands me to produce. I may need Cheryl some day. That's what she told me anyway. So that means that I better write or she's gonna smack me up.
Those of you who know her, realize that she's not even in the UP right now. She left almost a week ago. Her body left, that is. Her voice is well implanted in my head, and she has programmed it to switch on and narrate what will happen to me if I don't write travelogues. I'd share what she says to me, but it's too ouchy scary.
All this has led me to thinking about how I write these things in the first place. I have a black notebook that I carry from conference to conference. The masses are either frightened that I'll divulge what I've written down about them or horribly entertained by my completely factual construction of our encounters in the past. Try as she might, for instance, Cheryl will never leave that bagel with cheese behind.
In the past, after the events are over each day, I sit up even later with my notebook, transcribing the day's events. And that's the problem. Days only have 24 hours, and in the UP, you are tricked into thinking that the night is younger than it really is.
So this trip, I'm trying something different. Not so much by plan, as by the fact that this is just how things have fallen out. CIWIC is over. Everyone has gone home. Really they left days ago—Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm alone with my notebook, reconstructing the past by backdating and posting all my notes as if I wrote when things really happened. Actually, I did write my notes when things happened. It's the entries that I didn't get to write immediately.
I imagine many ifs: if I had a lighter laptop and lots of wireless, I would write these things as they happened online, rather than saving them all in my little black notebook. But we can't all be
Sordid Boi at C&W.
In many ways, this world I've set up is very sad. Everyone else has moved off, moved on, and I'm sitting in a studio apartment up on the hill reliving the past. I thought that I would get called to help with ECAC, but not a word has filtered up to me. I'm not sure when or where I'm needed. Maybe I'm not needed anymore? I dunno. I'm sort of rethinking this whole thing. Maybe it was a mistake to stay on. It's so much quieter when everyone is gone and you're all alone.
I should take advantage of the quietness and get some writing done. I still have over 100 pages to write, and the number of available writing days is quickly dwindling. But it's so quiet, the lonely kind of quiet. And it's Father's Day, and I feel terribly sad.
Tags: tengrrl's travelblog
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Scholastic Reading Counts! e-NEWS Newsletter
Scholastic Reading Counts! e-NEWS Newsletter
Just found that one of my lists is referred to in this
Scholastic Newsletter!
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Unusual Sleep Patterns
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Edited and posted a 9–12 lesson plan,
Copyright Infringement or Not? The Debate Over Downloading Music.
Sadly, my other major accomplishment for today is that I didn't lie back down and take a nap. I'm not the most motivated person, and between that and the fact that I don't have office hours or anything, I've fallen into bizarre sleep patterns.
My inner clock is totally mixed up. I mean, it's set normally for my body; but the problem is that my body doesn't like anything like a normal time system. I've been up till 4 am the last few nights. Wake back up between 12 and 1 pm. I'm quite rested and all, but the problem is that between my odd schedule and the fact that it's summer in the UP, I really have no sense what time it actually is. Could be 8 pm. Could be 2 am. No clue.
There's no real problem with that I guess, since no one cares when I'm awake or what I'm doing. Hell, I'm not sure that anyone would notice one way or the other. I had been spending a lot of time chatting in IRC in the
Blogshares channel, but apparently my point of view isn't meshing with the people in power, so I've stopped going there and I'm selling off all my "assets" in the game. The whole series of events has reminded me how territorial the female gender can be. I'm only keeping a handful of things that have sentimental sorts of value—my own blogs and my ideas in the
Lord of the Rings industry. Everything else I've sold off. I can't get rid of artefacts, so I'm stuck with those. I wouldn't sell off the LOTR artefact anyway. Who would sell "The One Ring"?
It was an interesting experiment while it all lasted. I enjoyed chatting with smart people who understood the nerdy things about technology. I guess I missed MOOs more than I thought. But it's all over now, Baby Blue.
Tags: blogshares | English language arts | K12 instruction | lesson plan | ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Another Lesson, Another Web Site
Friday, June 17, 2005
Another Lesson, Another Web Site
Edited and posted a 6–8 lesson plan:
You Know the Movie is Coming—Now What?
And due to a momentary lapse of sanity, I bought
listsoften.com (that's Lists of Ten, not List Soften because I don't think they're soft at all, and not Lists Often because I haven't written anything in like a decade or something). It just redirects. We are not sure what I have learned from this experience. Maybe that I need a life.
Tags: English language arts | K12 instruction | lesson plan | ReadWriteThink
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Two more lessons online
Thursday, June 16, 2005
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Exploring Computer Literacy
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Exploring Computer Literacy
changelog @ tengrrl.com: WordPress
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Apparently my new hobby is to install a piece of software each weekend. Last weekend,
Gallery; this weekend,
WordPress. Folks in the
blogshares online discussion were comparing MT and WordPress, and I was inspired to try WordPress.
It was another easy setup, once the fantastic and fabulous
Eric Crump gave me a mysql login. He didn't even make me explain why I'm fiddling with WordPress when he already has
Drupal installed. (It's cuz I wanted to play, Eric.)
Installation was only a few minutes, but making it do what I want is another issue. I managed to get it to list
my bloglines subscriptions as a blogroll, and I added a customized calendar. And I've fiddled a great bit over the weekend with the layout. I'm trying to figure out whether I can get it to do what I'm already doing with flat pages AND whether it will go beyond what I'm already doing in ways that would make the trouble of converting everything worth the bother. I'm told that I can easily import the Blogger entries that I already have. The biggest concern is managing the
Lists of Ten and other resources that are outside of blogger but that would benefit from the RSS feed.
You can peek at my
current status, but realize it is a very rough work in progress. I'm not sure yet, but after two days of playing, I do feel like I accomplished something. Even if I decide not to use it, I've learned a good bit about PHP and RSS in the process. Not bad for a weekend procrastination project (e.g., a project that's real purpose seems to be to provide an excuse not to work on those 125 pages I'm supposed to be writing).
Tags: WordPress
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Travelogue Slacker
Friday, June 10, 2005
Yes, okay, so I am a slacker. I am trying to catch up. See, here's the
problem. I truly believe in a process-based approach to writing, for
everyone except me. My writing is supposed to be complete and perfect
before anyone reads it. So, in tengrrl world, all the travelogues need to
be perfect and up to date before I share them.
Dr. Cheryl Ball, gizmologist from Utah State Universe, says the following
in response, reformatted as a list of ten:
- Just post the damned thing.
- You are denying your public. We are hungry for your words.
- No one really cares that it's a week late.
- You're pissing me off. Now go away so I can get work done.
- Really.
- Quit your needy shit and get out of here.
- Look, bitch, I'm busy. Publish the damned thing.
- If you don't move along soon, I'm calling the cops.
- Woman, you have about three more seconds before I call Alex.
- Gizmo! Attack!
Based on this interaction, I was compelled to publish my travelogue
from the
first day of CIWIC today. It's okay. They tell me that they can get the blood off the keyboard, and I'll only need a small transfusion. As if the pain of backdating things isn't enough. Damn that vole killer.
Tags: tengrrl's travelblog
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Job Search List of Ten
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Today at CIWIC, I participated with
Cheryl Ball and
Barclay Barrios in a roundtable on the job search. As I am known to do, I panicked that I wouldn't have anything to say, so I created a
List of Ten Job Search Tips. It's not your usual list, but it's well illustrated. I need to integrate it with the larger
lists page, but for now the PDF is available. Cheryl is planning to share it at C&W 2005 in Stanford, so my baby pictures will be widely published before the month is out.
Tags: job search | tengrrl's lists of ten
changelog @ tengrrl.com: C&W Online Presentation
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Finally finished posting (e.g., gave up on) my Computers and Writing Online 2005 presentation, "
From Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine to The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez." It turns out that I made some major mistakes in preparing for the presentation—like not bringing any of the picture books with me. They are really important to establish some of the points, and I didn't have them on hand as I was writing.
Another problem is that I just didn't have time to do what I wanted to with social communication in these books. So many are now including e-mails, IMs, blogs. It's a topic that I really want to explore in depth, but I ended up just giving up. There wasn't time to go into the detail that I wanted to, so I decided it would wait for the future. I need to get the reviews on all of the books up to begin with I think. After that, I can go back and rewrite that section of the presentation. For now, this has to be good enough.
Tags: children's literature |
computers in fiction |
juvenile fiction |
technological literacy |
technology
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Composing with Words and Images
Composing with Words and Images
This week's Ideas section from
NCTE's Inbox focuses on "Composing with Words and Images" and connects to a couple of news articles on electronic texts.
The section includes two ReadWriteThink, Diane George's
CCC article on visual communication, and Mary Hock's
CCC article on visual rhetoric in online environments.
Tags: English language arts |
K12 instruction |
NCTE Inbox |
technological literacy
Labels: Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Pod People
Sunday, June 05, 2005
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Gallery
Saturday, June 04, 2005
A friend mentioned
Gallery, a PHP-driven image album. Only took a few minutes to get it downloaded and installed. I've probably spent more time fiddling with settings and how I want my
albums arranged.
I'm guessing it may come in handy for arranging and sharing images. In fact, I already sent my family the URL for the
Daisi photos. Daisi gets around almost as much as
Duck.
To be honest, the shared albums are a by-product. For me, the real benefit of this program is that I can find images more quickly. When I need a picture, it should be much easier to find this way—especially when compared to my old way of quitting pine, changing to the right directory, searching for what I think the file is named, testing it in the browser, and then repeating the search about 6 times before I find what I'm looking for. Online albums should be MUCH easier. And since you can hide albums and images, I can post various things that I use internally (e.g., wallpaper jpgs) so that they're much easier for me to find later.
Overall, it seems like a very nice piece of Open Source software. I'm glad I happened upon it.
Tags: Gallery |
photo album
changelog @ tengrrl.com: First Week's First
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Truth Goggles.
CIWIC now distributes truth goggles to all participants. Cindy has arranged for a display in the lovely glass case in the West entry way to Walker Hall that explains all.
"Step into the hermeneutic circle, my friends," says Cindy.
They step. Oh my, do they ever step. In their Keen footware, they step forward, resisting the evil font of Mister Frisky and Uncle Stinky.
Members of the secret circle, they create threads. Their sense of embodiment glows in tides of rhythmic light. The intentionality of their commentary—typo crossing emote to say what is not that is.
They chant.... chant..... chant.....
"I respect everyone in this room. There is no lockstep technology, no pass-the-buck pedagogy."
Memories mixing with desire.
Will got fresh with Jane over strawberry cookies, and Catherine didn't even mind. Cheryl still likes those terrorists though. The coast guard better leave them alone or she will stop up someone else's drain. Cheryl is a clogger. Watch those feet move. If you do not, Chopping. Cannot. Stop. The. Chopping. There. Must. Be. Chopping.
The voice of morality enters, interrupting memory. "Remember," it says, "recycle your aluminum."
It's like walking through Jell-O, hearing words, knowing they are words, but having no idea what is being said.
"Don't worry," says Cindy. "You will understand. Just listen now. Later. Understand."
Tags: tengrrl's travelblog
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Audiobooks Are Reading
This week, I took my inspiration for
this week's Ideas section of the Inbox from a
NY Times article on audiobooks. I managed to work in some links to articles on using video, audio, and other media with students toward the end.
Tags: audiobooks | English language arts |
K12 instruction |
NCTE Inbox |
read aloud
Labels: Inbox
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Breaking the Fast at CIWIC
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Breaking the Fast at CIWIC
The first day of CIWIC is always a challenge. I am normally asleep at 7:30 in the morning, the time when the Welcome Breakfast begins. It is a frightening hour to be searching campus for the Alumni Room. Frequently there are bikers with rat-tails who hover about as you trek across the campus, dodging squirrels and boll weevils.
I'm late, of course. I'm always late. Really for me, being on time isn't possible, so I guess I'm not
really late, given that being on time would be early for me and late is normal. So really, everyone else was early, which we all know is in very poor taste. Alex was still having all of the machines in the lab ghosted. The CIWIC breakfast always coincides with the crash/ghosting/rebuilding of computers in the lab.
Even though the breakfast occurs at a completely unacceptable hour in the morning, it is vitally important to attend. It is at this breakfast that you learn the important details that will shape your entire CIWIC experience. The process is to grab loads of food and table up. Unfortunately, the food available is normally of the bacon and eggs and danish variety. There are none of the real breakfast foods like pizza, leftover spaghetti, or ice cream. Still, people are polite and they eat—though their eyes betray their longing for spumoni and onion rings. Oh, and cheese curds.
Once it is certain that everyone has a full mouth, the introductions begin. The breakfast room is designed so that it is impossible for a speaker to see everyone. Large support beams cut through the space. Michigan Tech is an engineering school, and that means that it's important to show engineering feats everywhere. Who would realize that a building has a support structure? Thank goodness for these designs that show the great work that went into their building. But I digress. Cindy, our hostess extraordinaire, begins the introductions, asking various people in the room to say a little about who they are, what they do, and, most importantly, their specialities.
This is the time when we learn the real and important information about CIWIC. These important observations were all shared during this first meeting. As you can see, they are all drastically important to the success of anyone in the field:
- Michigan's motto is "Something something, look around you."
- Beware of morning trips to the dumpster, for there are bears inside. Big bears. Fortunately, they are scared of trash. This might lead one to ask, "why are bears who are scared of trash in a dumpster, which is typically filled with trash?" If one thinks this, one needs more coffee. One is clearly not of the Yooper mindmeld yet.
- If you rob a bank in Houghton, the best escape route is not to head north across the bridge into Hancock.
- Nascar is a French scientist who is well-known for pottery-based car forms.
- In the morning, there is rarely enough ketchup.
- People who come to CIWIC buy lots of things: warm fuzzy jackets, walking shoes, bug spray, sunscreen, more bug spray, new bikes, and houses.
- Dickie announces that it would be great for someone to buy a house this year.
- Cindy frequently sentences participants to "death by additional readings."
- The only way to avoid "death by additional readings" is to keep Cindy far away from any and all texts. If she reads it during the two weeks that you're at CIWIC, it will show up on your reading list the next day.
- Alex passes out copies of a vodka label, three billboards, and a newspaper article on the best time to plant coconut trees. Cindy has been reading for hours already.
- Italy is in a different time zone from Houghton.
- Everyone likes semi odd ticks. The semi odd ticks of the great UP are not so bad this year however. In a truly symbolic gesture, the semi odd ticks have been assigned to another portion of the northwoods.
After these important life lessons, everyone goes to Walker Hall for the start of the sessions. Wisely, I go back to my room and take a nap. After all, I am tengrrl. And more importantly, I am a helper this year, and I don't need to be in the lab till 3 pm, a far more reasonable time.
Tags: tengrrl's travelblog
changelog @ tengrrl.com: The contest
Every year at CIWIC there is a contest to see who will do it. It's a secret kind of thing, discussed only by the inner circle of the inner circle. It will happen. It always does. The question is when.......and who. In the meantime, they wait.
Tags: tengrrl's travelblog
Posted Thursday, 20-Sep-2007 18:28:26 PDT
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