changelog @ tengrrl.com:
Friday, November 09, 2007
Fiddling around with paper titles for the
English Journal call. Wondering about "Plagiarism or Censorship? The Battles over Using Wikipedia in the Classroom." Not really sure I like it, but oh well. I've written 11 words.
Published a lesson plan revision, a new 6-8 lesson on using books and their movie adaptations:
Cover to Cover: Comparing Books to Movies.
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Lesson Revisions
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Finished my work on the markup and tidying of our revision of the 3-5 lesson
Get the Reel Scoop: Comparing Books to Movies today. The whole process took close to 7 hours. I hope the next one goes a bit faster. Only 8 to 13 more revisions to go. Now to begin work on the 6-8 revision of the lesson.
Labels: journal
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Figuring out the Inbox blog entry
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Figuring out the Inbox blog entry
So today I flailed about trying to figure out what to write for the blog entry. It needed to tie to 21st-century literacies, but I was feeling really lost on what to say. Going through the copyeditor's comments seemed a lot easier than trying to come up with something new to say. As I was sitting there trying to figure out what to do, I thought, "I wish this were as easy as writing teaching stories for the manuscript. That's what I do best. Oh, wait, why can't it be that easy? Just write a story on one of the 21-century literacy issues." Thank goodness the voices in my head talk about these things a lot. Otherwise I'd still be trying to figure out today's entry, which ended up being
I Was a Mac. They Were PCs. :)
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Back to the Copyeditor
Monday, November 05, 2007

Got a handful of things done today: Inbox Ideas done, Inbox Announcements done, Work on Feb 08 calendar done, South Park character made (don't I look cool?), Hallmark ornaments mom needed purchased, trip to the bookstore completed.
But the important thing was finishing the notes on the manuscript and leaving it on the copy editor's desk before I left the office this evening. One more step completed. :) Supposed to have page proofs back after Thanksgiving. This part seems to be flying compared to actually writing the draft.
Still things to do, like get an author photo, do all the related lesson plans, get the companion website set up. Looks like it's going to be a busy time for a while. And that's without thinking about the ReadWriteThink and Inbox work I need to do.
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Sam's
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Took a trip to Sam's this afternoon. I hate going to Sam's. It's such a struggle not to come home with super-sized packages of things that I don't have any place to store and get deathly tired of before they run out (or they spoil).
I managed reasonably well against the challenge. Got bags of candy for the office, which was the goal, peanut butter for the squirrels, and only 3 food items for me. I've decided to try the all protein diet, no carbs again. I simply have to do something before the season of eating descends and things get even worse. So I got prosciutto (which turned out to be very, um, questionable when I tried it tonight), smoked pork chops (mmm), and some sausage.
Unfortunately this evening the Carbonara that I tried to make with the proscuitto (diet starts tomorrow) is really sitting poorly. It's burning. I added some Emeril Parmesan Italian thing from the frig and the garlic and spices set the acid reflux aflame. I've gulped down extra Prilosec and a double dose of Pepcid AC. I ate some chicken soup, bread, and milk. They settled things down for a few minutes, but it catches fire again not long after.
Heaven help me if this is like that sickness after the Gaming Forum at Purdue last month. I can't afford to be down tomorrow. I have to finish editing the book and write all the text for the Ideas, Announcements, and Blog for INBOX. Besides the Honey Nut Cheerios and chicken soup diet I end up on when acid reflux is bad is wholly incompatible with the all protein, no carbs diet. Hoping for an overnight miracle.
Labels: journal
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Christmas Ornaments.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Took my trip to the Hallmark Holiday Open House this morning, and got 4 additional ornaments:
Plus I had a gift certificate that if I spent enough (which I did) I got a free gift bag of goodies:
Left to right, that's a penguin treat bowl with a little ladle. I'm thinking I'll fill it with M&M's and put it on my desk at work. There's a 2007 porcelain bell (not sure what I'll do with that), a snowman snowflake ornament (very cute), and a reindeer ornament. Yes, I know it's too early for Christmas, but these are all limited edition things. Gotta go when they come out or you can't get them.
Beyond that I ran some very mundane errandssocks, toothpaste, and shampoo & conditioner. Got a really interesting blogging book at Borders too, but I'll leave that review for later when I've read a bit more of it.
Labels: Christmas, journal
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Copyediting Day
Friday, November 02, 2007
Today has been completely about going through the copyeditor's markup of my manuscript. I managed to read through the manuscript twice, adding and deleting and responding to the different notes that the copyeditor made. It wasn't too bad. She cut and rearranged some things for clarity, but she also made some mistakes (e.g., changing a "further" to "farther" incorrectly).
What's left is checking two details on writing assignments described as examples and going through the bibliography. I used a lot of Web sites, and the copyeditor didn't understand how I got some of the information. I do have a bibliographic query I need to get advice on as well. Will post to techrhet tomorrow to figure out that issue.
It all felt "real" today. I'm not sure that I will believe I have written a book till I have it in my hands. Still, I have an NCTE stock number (10850) and everything. I even have the books team getting a testimonial for the back of the book for me. Only problem now is that I really yearn to be at CCCC for when it comes out. Vain I guess to want to be there, but I wish I could get there. Oh well. Need to get back to figuring out tomorrow's Hallmark trip (November ornament open house).
Labels: journal, My Writing
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Halloween 2007
Thursday, November 01, 2007
I'm not sure that I should put this online, but I'm trying to be brave. Here's the Marketing/Professional Development Ensemble costume. We won the office competition :)
Duck has been a running gag for years now. Halloween 2004 the Professional Development team actually dressed up as
Duck's presidential campaign team (I was having severe back problems and had to be wheeled in on a cart). I had
secret service and a protester in the crowd. I had spent that fall campaigning for duck on our office window, posting
Duck's cabinet choices and other entertaining political messages (
Duck's stale campaign blog). It's about time for Duck to get on with his '08 campaign.
Labels: duck, Halloween, journal
changelog @ tengrrl.com: Restarting Life . . .
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Returned to work today after taking sick leave every day but Tuesday last week. I think that I'm about 75% adjusted to the new drugs that I'm on, and I've had a good chance to rest and get stress-free.
Today at work went well. Got the ideas for the Comic Creator revision written up and sent out to the designer. Spent time trying to figure out my FY08 goals, but they have to wait till tomorrow. Did some busy work this evening and dug through some more news for this week's inbox (which is going out Wednesday because some folks who need to work on it are out of the office).
Then there's what I didn't get done. Spent some good time last night before I fell asleep trying to think through the plan for the repartitioning and reformatting of my world. Came up with some nice ideas, but haven't had time to type them up tonight. Got sidetracked with something else, and it's late now. I'd probably be up another 2 hours trying to think through the ideas for the new things I want to focus on. Disappointing not to get to it. Need to make sure that I get it done tomorrow.
Labels: journal
Posted Friday, 09-Nov-2007 21:51:53 PST
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