Setting up

So here I am in Houghton. Sure, I could cross the bridge and be in Hancock. But maybe later. Right now I’m in Houghton and that will have to do. I think I’ve rearranged the furniture in this Deluxe Suite a dozen times, and I still can’t get in a comfortable writing position. Really, it’s a lovely room. I just seem to have extreme writing needs. The big problem is that I need to write a book—plus about a half dozen other things while I’m here. I just can’t imagine that happening at the uncomfy desk. It’s a fine desk and all, just not a desk that I think I can write at.

So I think I need to rearrange again. There seems to be a pack of 3-year-olds outside the door. Um. let me check on this unexpected high-pitched loudness.

Okay, children have gone outside now. At least it was happy children noise. I’m a lot more tolerant of happy children noises than I am of the screaming-loud bang-crying of a child with a boo-boo sound that happened upstairs last night. It went on just 3 seconds sort of my going upstairs to make sure the kids were okay. This morning’s happy, chirpy, bouncy noises suggests that they survived.

I guess it’s time for me to rearrange the furniture again. It seems impossible to find a position I can write in—and even more impossible to find a position that doesn’t block the windows. There’s so little circulation in this apartment in the first place. Blocking the windows too seems lieke a bad thing (especially since that makes opening and closing the windows impossible). The best thing would be if I could just toss several pieces of furniture out. I’m guessing that the residential services people wouldn’t appreciate that. They probably don’t appreciate that I ripped the stupid plastic off the window air conditioner. It was blazing in here and I needed to turn on the fan to try to pull some extra air in here.

I guess I have now crossed over into the land of procrastination. Time to post this and get to rearranging the furniture.

Tags: tengrrl’s travelblog

Definite Challenges

There seem to be definite challenges to traveling with a duck, even one who is a presidential candidate. If you’ve seen Shrek 2, recall the little roadtrip to visit Fiona’s parents. Just replace Donkey with a duck, and you have a good idea what my day has been like. He has a slightly different story, so let me show you.

“No. I do not care that that road was named Duck Lake Road. We are not driving down it.”

“No. You may not pose with that Rhinelander green monster thingie.”

“No. You may not ride with your head out of the sunroof.”

“No. I do not think there are semiotic implications to worry about if we do not rest at a rest stop.”

“No. I do not know what waters meet at Watersmeet.”

“No. I do know who Bruce is, and I do not know who he crossed.”

“No. I do not think McDonald’s is interested in your idea for a Snickers Sandwich.”

“No. Not even if you suggest the snappy name McSnickers.”

“No. We are NOT there yet.”

“No. I do not know why.”

“No. I do not know who thought that picture of a weasel in a white disco suit was a good idea.”

“No. That is not what they meant by the name Wilderness Car Wash.”

“No. I do not think it would be fun to open the windows in the car wash.”

“No. You may not fly the rest of the way.”

And people think it’s FUN?!?!?! to go on these road trips?

Let me end with “pub” names—you can try to figure out which ones are real. And if you figure it out first, I’ll send you* a postcard (*People who are now attending MTU, who are teaching at MTU, who have taught at MTU, or who graduated from MTU are ineligible for this offer). Here is the list. Do not believe anything that Duck says. He claims that he’ll offer tips.

• The Running Bear
• The Chain Skimmer
• Stinky Sam’s
• Uncle Weasel’s Exotic Dance Emporium
• Foxes Den
• Existential Fred’s
• Gay Bar & Grill
• The Alley Yooper
• Nutini’s Supper Club & Cocktail Lounge
• Slim’s
• UP Pub
• The Anatomically Correct Deer
• Soft Nellie’s Club Go-Go

No. He did not drive me to drink. I can drive myself, thank you very much.

Tags: tengrrl’s travelblog

Presidential Upgrade

There are newly-found benefits to traveling with a presidential candidate. Duck managed to talk the front desk into the “Presidential Upgrade.” Yes, you’re seeing that correctly. That’s a Jacuzzi over in the corner, beyond the bed. And yes, if you really must know, those are my clothes on the bed. I’m no fool. I stripped and got in. It takes a lot of water to fill a Jacuzzi tub, but I’m working on not feeling guilty about it. Duck has presidential thinking and such to do, but I don’t. I deserve to be in a Jacuzzi. I’m not sure why he thought we needed this room, but I won’t complain. I’m not sure about Duck’s ethics, but that’s his problem—and he’s claiming a different story.

The drive to this hotel resting place was fairly reasonable. Duck seems to be a much better traveling companion than the various bears and cows. Maybe he’s just so busy planning his campaign that he didn’t have time to interrupt constantly. Besides, I think he was enjoying The Wee Free Men—except for those few moments when he was confused by the massive Hormel Chili can. Still, we may need to spend a little less time with the book. It’s influencing me without my permission. As I got out of the car here at the motel, I felt all achey from the drive. There are many exclamations of unhappiness that would be appropriate in such a situation. What word slipped from my mouth, unbidden, without any thought on my part? Shit? Damn? Hell? Poop? No….Crivens. I’ve only been listening to the book for 5 hours, and I’ve adopted its language?

Time for me to go do something appropriate for a spa-like room. I’m not sure whether I’ll lounge or give myself a pedicure. Tomorrow’s drive is a little longer. I hope Duck’s good behavior holds. Hell. Who am I kidding? I’m not even worried about tomorrow yet. I’m just hoping he doesn’t steal the blankets tonight.

Tags: tengrrl’s travelblog

Getting underway

The time has come. Nearly everything is in the car. The supply of diet brown soda is always the last thing to load. Stanley is watching the office and will take anyone down who dares even to consider messing about with my cubicle. KR will be at the house, tending the needy houseplants and generally doing whatever strikes her fancy. LH will be watching the grounds to ensure that there are no incursions of unfriendly flora or fauna.

Duck, of course, is still out in the car—and he better not be touching the three loaves of bread from Great Harvest (else I foresee some Peking Duck in his future). Terry Pratchett is out there too. So I suspect that there are other creatures hiding in the car as well. It’s okay. I’m taking an iron skillet. Off to the wilds of Wisconsin, on the way to the CIWIC shores of Michigan.

Tags: tengrrl’s travelblog

Duck Waits

Silly duck. He’s afraid that I’m going to leave him in Champaign, so he’s spending the night in the car, in the dark. I tried to convince him to come along inside, but he was having none of it. He said he saw how I was leaving Stanley behind and he was not about to be next—though he’s claiming that he has political intentions for his car-sitting. Oh well. At least it lessens the distractions in the house as I’m trying to pack.

Another lesson plan

Finished a lesson plan that I began Friday night. Cooking Up Descriptive Language: Designing Restaurant Menus is now published on ReadWriteThink. I have several other lesson ideas, but can’t seem to focus on any of them. Tomorrow will be a full day—content report is due and an Ideas section for Inbox.

Finished a book review for Feed, a young adult science-fiction novel that explores the feed, a technology that is implanted in children’s heads, affects the various characters and the greater society.

Tags: English language arts | K12 instruction | lesson plan | ReadWriteThink

Blogopoly & Other Bad Technology Metaphors

Friends from #blogshares shared the link for blogpoly. We’re all a little confused about the groupings there, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Blog research folks might want to look at what’s represented and what’s not, and etc.

I took the cute little Saturn to the garage today and had its oil changed. It’s all happy now. Also changed Stanley’s water and then watered the pouty purple plant.

While I was waiting for the oil change, I finished reading Click Here, but haven’t had a chance to write up a review yet. I did type up a list of the world’s worst technology metaphors. I can’t believe that no one cut those from that book!

Comparatively speaking though, the book’s stock rose when I picked up my next technology read: The E-Mail Mystery: Nancy Drew Digest #144.
Oh. my. goodness. I had such pleasant memories of Nancy Drew from childhood. I read every Nancy Drew mystery I could get my hands on. I sat down to begin this Nancy Drew-meets-technology novel, and was ready to put it down on page one. I’ve never seen so much tedious exposition. The technology in the book is fairly predictable. We hear of floppy disks, dialup modems, and booting up. And of course, there is e-mail, given the books title. I may give up on this one. I’ll give it a bit more time to grow on me, and then I may put Nancy Drew back on the nostalgic shelves.

Tags: blogshares |
young adult literature

Wily cheaters exploit popular gadgets

xposted to Kairosnews

From ASCD SmartBrief:
Wily cheaters exploit popular gadgets

“As cheaper cell phones, cameras and other gadgets become more widespread with students, some fear that “technocheating” could grow. Districts are taking steps to thwart clever students, who ingeniously replace the ingredient labels of candy wrappers with tiny scanned crib sheets or load low-cost USB flash drives with hundreds of megabytes of notes.” The Kansas City Star (Mo.) (free registration)

Tags: cheating |
plagiarism |
technology

photoblogging :)

The last couple of days have been littered with whatnot that needed done. Fixing little booboos and such. I had my meeting with the Senior Editor about my proposal. Now I guess I’m supposed to be writing a manuscript or something.

Last night I realized that I could use go@blogger.com to post with my cell phone while I’m up at Michigan Tech next month. I’m not going to write entries obviously, but I am imagining a bit of photo publishing.

A few more books arrived, but I’m still reading Click Here. Can’t wait to write up the review, or more accurately the list of quotations, from that book. :)

Tags: photoblogging |
young adult literature

Where I’ll be in 17 days