The garden is coming along. Every day I visit my seedlings, and imagine the bounty of green beans, beets, zucchini and tomatoes that will be produced in the future. I'm thinking a lot about food today. My niece is graduating from high school, and her party is Sunday. Hard to imagine 18 years have gone zipping by! I got an email message from her brother yesterday, with the subject line "amazing cooking skills requested," asking me to make a big pan of eggplant parmesan for the occasion. Now, with that kind of pitch, how could I say anything but yes? But I guess you know she must be pretty special for me to turn on my oven during a miserably hot day like today.
So I ventured out last evening and got all the needed ingredients - I don't usually have four large eggplants just laying around in the fridge, but I have yet to get the pot of sauce going. I'm also still deciding: fry or bake the cutlets? Fried is more delicious, much less healthy, and very messy. Baked is still pretty tasty, healthier, and will make the house temperature unbearable. Hmmm...
Thinking about either outcome, even in this heat, is making my mouth water. Eggplant parmesan is just about my favorite food. In my former life, I used to eat my lunch out every day, and I loved doing that. But when I have a full pantry from a recent trip to the market, I can whip up some pretty fine lunches right here. So today I made Barilla tortelloni, and greens & beans. Those tortelloni are so delicious - a recent discovery. I could do an advertisement for them, no problem. They come in several varieties, but my favorite is asparagus and ricotta. They are yummy, or my name isn't Giuliano!
I didn't have any white beans before I went to the market (I confess, I made the greens & beans yesterday, and just heated up a bowl today) so I used chick peas instead and it came out heavenly! For sauce, since the pot is still in the planning stages, I had to "make do." In the past I always refused anything but from scratch. My thinking is, if it comes from a jar, it must be crap! But another recent discovery, not for real cooking like the eggplant parm I promised Genny, but for quick meals like lunch while working, is sauce made by a nearby favorite restaurant, Villa Valenti. I felt good about trying it because I love eating there; you can almost imagine grandma cooking away in the kitchen. The supermarket just started to carry two varieties, primavera and traditional, and Rudy and Sophie give it two paws up.
Now, you'd think by all I just wrote that I live to eat, rather than eat to live...which isn't true. But treadmilling does make me very hungry!
Friday, June 21, 2002
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
I like lists. I've been blessed with a sharp memory, but I still jot things down so that I won't forget to buy trash bags, cat food, or soap for S'ville. I always made "to do" lists for work, but lately, working at home, I become so focused in a project - contract work or curriculum updates that I haven't been good about keeping a prioritized work list. It hit me last night that some things are slipping through the cracks; I may forget to pay a bill, or send a card for someone's special day. In the past, working elsewhere, the bi-weekly payday was the trigger to pay bills, and the lunch time stroll took place near a Hallmark shop.
So, I resolved to make a to do list today, and in the process realized I needed to complete my faculty activity report for 2001-02. It is optional for adjuncts, but encouraged, and with the dismal state of the budget in post-9/11 New York, it is a good idea to trumpet one's activities. Computer forms still leave a lot to be desired. I first downloaded the form and intended to complete it in a word processor. Any time I share a document with others, I use a Microsoft product, since it is the "standard." And so - of course! about halfway through, Word crashed. I had saved the document, but when I went to reopen it - I got that lovely message about it being already in use and available solely as read only. After cursing Bill Gates, the heat (I had neglected to put the A/C on because it makes special needs dog Sophie uncomfortable), and Bill Gates again, I thought, I'll try the PDF version, and use USPS to send it. When I opened it, I discovered that the Word version had some differences in format; in other words, in the word processor, there were tabs etc. that were getting in the way. At this point, I figured, I'll get out my old Smith Corona typewriter for the top of the form, and I'll cut and paste the remainder from Word Perfect.
I can't remember the last time I used the typewriter, but I had been thinking about it fondly, as I reviewed my old writing recently. It was coated with dust, as well as Rudy's and Edna's hair (and probably Howie's and Penny's too - my beloved late dogs) [Sophie is hairless]. It still worked, but the ribbon and correction tape didn't, and I couldn't find a spare. In those cash poor days, I doubt I stocked up they way I do now, with printer cartridges and other office supplies. So I snapped the case shut. Oh well.
I proceeded to cut and paste the entire report, listening to Five for Fighting compete with my box fan. Glue stick in hand, I remembered how many times, pre-computer, I used my exacto knife and cutting mat to make magical layouts, how crude was the procedure, but how much tangible pleasure those simple tasks generated. Mind wandering, I mentally skipped to the next item on my list, which was locating Anne's address in time to get a card in the mail so she can receive it on her birthday on Monday.
I met Anne on the first day of kindergarten. I am the baby of the family, and at the time my oldest brother was 17. He drove me to school that day; I ran up the steps and into the school without looking back; I couldn't wait to go to school, like the big kids. Anne is also the baby of her family, but she spent that first day, and much of the next few weeks, sitting on the teacher's lap, crying.
We became fast friends, Anne and I, despite our differences. For the remainder of our young years, we were best friends. I remember riding our bicycles to Skin's, the general store, and sitting there on the porch, eating ice cream and candy and pepperoni. I remember long, carefree summers spent swimming and playing with our dogs, swinging on the swingsets at the town park, and setting up tables at the end of the driveway, where we sold our mothers' old costume jewelry and made $7 each. We talked on the phone and wrote many letters to each other, even though we spent nearly every day together.
At the end of 8th grade, Anne and her family moved about 300 miles away. We stayed in touch, writing letters, with occasional phone calls and more infrequently, visiting. The differences between us remain; I pursued higher education, she chose not to. I married young; she waited. I have no children; she has two girls. But our views and values remain similar, and our friendship continues, strong and unwavering through 36 years. The shared experience of trips to Skin's, our beloved and beautiful small hometown, reverence for our families, and hating gym class in school will bind us forever. Interestingly, we both are involved in education; she works at the school that her daughters attend, and I teach and write on the subject. Perhaps, even for someone like me who intended to pursue a field that was not female-dominated, the societal pull of so-called "women's work" cannot be denied. Or perhaps school is just so comfortable.
Due to my interest in history and genealogy, I have copies of old letters, between my grandmother and her sister; between a distant relative whom I did not know and some of her friends and relatives; and between another distant relative and her future husband. People with little formal education wrote beautifully, regularly, poetically. Several years ago, when email was fairly new, I remember reading somewhere that it was resurrecting the lost art of letter writing. That's so wonderful.
Sadly, Anne does not have a home computer, or use email. So our correspondence follows the predictable pattern I have observed in my grandmother's and great aunt's letters: Christmas, birthdays, other occasions, and thank you notes. A yearly chronicle of milestones. Last year, when she turned 40, I was all set to attend her surprise party, but my body refused to cooperate. My schedule was hectic, and I came down with bronchitis, nearly pneumonia, and was lectured to stay home, or else, by the doctor. I had a low-key celebration for my 40th, which turned out to be a wise plan, since it arrived exactly one week after 9/11, and no one, including me, felt like celebrating anything. In her letter at that time, she told me about her new house, and sent me her soon-to-be address.
I didn't hear from her at Christmas...this never happens, and so I have been a bit worried ever since. I neglected to enter her new address in my database. I calm my worries by thinking that in her move, she probably misplaced my address, also. An internet search turns up only her old address and phone number. So sending a card meant searching through a box of old papers for last year's birthday card, a task I detest. I'm happy to report that I just checked that item off my new to do list...good thing I am a pack rat! Happy 41st Birthday, Annie!
So, I resolved to make a to do list today, and in the process realized I needed to complete my faculty activity report for 2001-02. It is optional for adjuncts, but encouraged, and with the dismal state of the budget in post-9/11 New York, it is a good idea to trumpet one's activities. Computer forms still leave a lot to be desired. I first downloaded the form and intended to complete it in a word processor. Any time I share a document with others, I use a Microsoft product, since it is the "standard." And so - of course! about halfway through, Word crashed. I had saved the document, but when I went to reopen it - I got that lovely message about it being already in use and available solely as read only. After cursing Bill Gates, the heat (I had neglected to put the A/C on because it makes special needs dog Sophie uncomfortable), and Bill Gates again, I thought, I'll try the PDF version, and use USPS to send it. When I opened it, I discovered that the Word version had some differences in format; in other words, in the word processor, there were tabs etc. that were getting in the way. At this point, I figured, I'll get out my old Smith Corona typewriter for the top of the form, and I'll cut and paste the remainder from Word Perfect.
I can't remember the last time I used the typewriter, but I had been thinking about it fondly, as I reviewed my old writing recently. It was coated with dust, as well as Rudy's and Edna's hair (and probably Howie's and Penny's too - my beloved late dogs) [Sophie is hairless]. It still worked, but the ribbon and correction tape didn't, and I couldn't find a spare. In those cash poor days, I doubt I stocked up they way I do now, with printer cartridges and other office supplies. So I snapped the case shut. Oh well.
I proceeded to cut and paste the entire report, listening to Five for Fighting compete with my box fan. Glue stick in hand, I remembered how many times, pre-computer, I used my exacto knife and cutting mat to make magical layouts, how crude was the procedure, but how much tangible pleasure those simple tasks generated. Mind wandering, I mentally skipped to the next item on my list, which was locating Anne's address in time to get a card in the mail so she can receive it on her birthday on Monday.
I met Anne on the first day of kindergarten. I am the baby of the family, and at the time my oldest brother was 17. He drove me to school that day; I ran up the steps and into the school without looking back; I couldn't wait to go to school, like the big kids. Anne is also the baby of her family, but she spent that first day, and much of the next few weeks, sitting on the teacher's lap, crying.
We became fast friends, Anne and I, despite our differences. For the remainder of our young years, we were best friends. I remember riding our bicycles to Skin's, the general store, and sitting there on the porch, eating ice cream and candy and pepperoni. I remember long, carefree summers spent swimming and playing with our dogs, swinging on the swingsets at the town park, and setting up tables at the end of the driveway, where we sold our mothers' old costume jewelry and made $7 each. We talked on the phone and wrote many letters to each other, even though we spent nearly every day together.
At the end of 8th grade, Anne and her family moved about 300 miles away. We stayed in touch, writing letters, with occasional phone calls and more infrequently, visiting. The differences between us remain; I pursued higher education, she chose not to. I married young; she waited. I have no children; she has two girls. But our views and values remain similar, and our friendship continues, strong and unwavering through 36 years. The shared experience of trips to Skin's, our beloved and beautiful small hometown, reverence for our families, and hating gym class in school will bind us forever. Interestingly, we both are involved in education; she works at the school that her daughters attend, and I teach and write on the subject. Perhaps, even for someone like me who intended to pursue a field that was not female-dominated, the societal pull of so-called "women's work" cannot be denied. Or perhaps school is just so comfortable.
Due to my interest in history and genealogy, I have copies of old letters, between my grandmother and her sister; between a distant relative whom I did not know and some of her friends and relatives; and between another distant relative and her future husband. People with little formal education wrote beautifully, regularly, poetically. Several years ago, when email was fairly new, I remember reading somewhere that it was resurrecting the lost art of letter writing. That's so wonderful.
Sadly, Anne does not have a home computer, or use email. So our correspondence follows the predictable pattern I have observed in my grandmother's and great aunt's letters: Christmas, birthdays, other occasions, and thank you notes. A yearly chronicle of milestones. Last year, when she turned 40, I was all set to attend her surprise party, but my body refused to cooperate. My schedule was hectic, and I came down with bronchitis, nearly pneumonia, and was lectured to stay home, or else, by the doctor. I had a low-key celebration for my 40th, which turned out to be a wise plan, since it arrived exactly one week after 9/11, and no one, including me, felt like celebrating anything. In her letter at that time, she told me about her new house, and sent me her soon-to-be address.
I didn't hear from her at Christmas...this never happens, and so I have been a bit worried ever since. I neglected to enter her new address in my database. I calm my worries by thinking that in her move, she probably misplaced my address, also. An internet search turns up only her old address and phone number. So sending a card meant searching through a box of old papers for last year's birthday card, a task I detest. I'm happy to report that I just checked that item off my new to do list...good thing I am a pack rat! Happy 41st Birthday, Annie!
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Tuesday Too # 17
1.) What's your favorite browser? Why do you hate "the other one"?
Well - I use AOL, and have for years. It costs a fortune to keep it and a cable ISP, but I need a dial-in for the weekend house, plus I don't feel like changing my email address. I also have copies of both Internet Explorer and Netscape, and sometimes I use one or the other. I always preferred Netscape, not for any technical reason but on principle: because I detest all things Microsoft. But what can you do? For teaching, I have Lotus Notes.
2.) Are you fascinated by technology and the internet, or is it just a handy tool for you? How did you get involved in blogging?
I guess I'd have to say "both." It is fascinating, and it is a handy tool. I had no clue about blogging until I read an article in a newspaper, the Times Union, several months ago. It wasn't about weblogs per se, it focused on websites that used PayPal donations as a way of generating support. I saved the article for reference. At that time, I had left my job to write a book (Education: Reflecting Our Society?, Gale Group, MI, 2002) and had zero time for other pursuits, but when I finished the manuscript, I planned to create a website. The Gale Group project was complete at the end of 2001, I spent January revising a nonfiction book proposal (A Visit with Mimmie: Catskill Mountain Recipes) that had been requested by Black Dome Press, and in February, I started to work on the webpage logistics. I returned to the article I had tucked away. I surfed around to the sites listed, and discovered Blogger. I was intrigued, and I thought, this is a clever idea for journaling.
3.) What do you think about the alliance of conservative U.S. Christian organizations with Islamic governments (Iran, Libya, Iraq) "to halt the expansion of sexual political protections and rights of gays, women and children at United Nations conferences" (Washington Post article by Colum Lynch, June 17, 2002)?
I'm not big on posting my political views on the web, because (1) political is personal to me (in other words, I care about [for example] being a custodian of our land and the environment, so I am a recycling and organic gardening fanatic - but I don't give a d-mn about going to a rally and shouting slogans); (2) I believe most issues to be too complex for simplistic black and white analysis; and (3) my political ideologies have never been remotely "mainstream." My philosophies are a mixed bag: moderate, radical, outrageous, bland. I believe in campaign finance reform, animal rights, and stiff penalties for disobeying traffic laws. I share some views with liberals, and others with conservatives, but I find there are too many members of both groups that are far too closed minded toward, intolerant of and desiring to stifle others' perspectives, and I don't care for the polarization of those labels.
For me, that isn't what this journal exercise is about. But, to respond to this question, I will violate my usual policy a bit. On this specific article, I am very upset by the policies of the countries listed, and I don't agree with many of the ideologies of the groups listed (although I believe they have every right to hold those views), so naturally this issue bears careful watching, but I have a major problem with equating "sexual political protections" with the single issue of "reproductive rights" (which is often simply a euphemism for abortion). Why shouldn't groups that hold certain views fight for them? Do they have less right to do so because they are on the left, or the right, or (gasp) unpopular to some in another camp? Finally, about the tone: I have done some writing on this subject before (it was the subject of my first published story, Scapegoating), I have always thought the media, and many people, are strongly, overtly, and proudly anti-Catholic, poignantly demonstrated by the absolute glee the recent controversies have generated.
1.) What's your favorite browser? Why do you hate "the other one"?
Well - I use AOL, and have for years. It costs a fortune to keep it and a cable ISP, but I need a dial-in for the weekend house, plus I don't feel like changing my email address. I also have copies of both Internet Explorer and Netscape, and sometimes I use one or the other. I always preferred Netscape, not for any technical reason but on principle: because I detest all things Microsoft. But what can you do? For teaching, I have Lotus Notes.
2.) Are you fascinated by technology and the internet, or is it just a handy tool for you? How did you get involved in blogging?
I guess I'd have to say "both." It is fascinating, and it is a handy tool. I had no clue about blogging until I read an article in a newspaper, the Times Union, several months ago. It wasn't about weblogs per se, it focused on websites that used PayPal donations as a way of generating support. I saved the article for reference. At that time, I had left my job to write a book (Education: Reflecting Our Society?, Gale Group, MI, 2002) and had zero time for other pursuits, but when I finished the manuscript, I planned to create a website. The Gale Group project was complete at the end of 2001, I spent January revising a nonfiction book proposal (A Visit with Mimmie: Catskill Mountain Recipes) that had been requested by Black Dome Press, and in February, I started to work on the webpage logistics. I returned to the article I had tucked away. I surfed around to the sites listed, and discovered Blogger. I was intrigued, and I thought, this is a clever idea for journaling.
3.) What do you think about the alliance of conservative U.S. Christian organizations with Islamic governments (Iran, Libya, Iraq) "to halt the expansion of sexual political protections and rights of gays, women and children at United Nations conferences" (Washington Post article by Colum Lynch, June 17, 2002)?
I'm not big on posting my political views on the web, because (1) political is personal to me (in other words, I care about [for example] being a custodian of our land and the environment, so I am a recycling and organic gardening fanatic - but I don't give a d-mn about going to a rally and shouting slogans); (2) I believe most issues to be too complex for simplistic black and white analysis; and (3) my political ideologies have never been remotely "mainstream." My philosophies are a mixed bag: moderate, radical, outrageous, bland. I believe in campaign finance reform, animal rights, and stiff penalties for disobeying traffic laws. I share some views with liberals, and others with conservatives, but I find there are too many members of both groups that are far too closed minded toward, intolerant of and desiring to stifle others' perspectives, and I don't care for the polarization of those labels.
For me, that isn't what this journal exercise is about. But, to respond to this question, I will violate my usual policy a bit. On this specific article, I am very upset by the policies of the countries listed, and I don't agree with many of the ideologies of the groups listed (although I believe they have every right to hold those views), so naturally this issue bears careful watching, but I have a major problem with equating "sexual political protections" with the single issue of "reproductive rights" (which is often simply a euphemism for abortion). Why shouldn't groups that hold certain views fight for them? Do they have less right to do so because they are on the left, or the right, or (gasp) unpopular to some in another camp? Finally, about the tone: I have done some writing on this subject before (it was the subject of my first published story, Scapegoating), I have always thought the media, and many people, are strongly, overtly, and proudly anti-Catholic, poignantly demonstrated by the absolute glee the recent controversies have generated.
Monday, June 17, 2002
Class can be accessed today, but the actual start date is Monday, June 24. Last summer I noticed that many students started doing the work during this week when the material was available, but before class began. This never happens during the regular semesters. Another interesting thing about summer session (aside from the intensity of a six-week schedule) is that many students are from other colleges. This creates a nice diversity.
The father's day gift for my father was a bucket of goodies: eggplant caponata, artichoke hearts, clams (for jazzing up alla olio), dried fruit, trail mix, and 2 lbs. of scallops, which my mother cooked on Sunday and I helped them eat. They were mowing, using a 1942 tractor that belonged to my grandfather, some of the horse pasture in an effort to battle the weeds. A while ago I posted something here, with limited comment because it upset me so, from New Scientist, about genetic manipulation to control an invasive species. Recently I posted the same item to Blogsisters. Funny, not in the ha-ha way but in the "strange" or maybe "ironic" sense, I think not everyone finds altering things (perhaps even us) genetically, or the idea of single sex selection, scary. As a control for invasive species - it is maybe even OK? Or to increase the food supply?
I could puke (literally), the idea is so revolting, and so personally offensive - for so many reasons...because of the slippery slope that can be science, because of choosing based on a characteristic like gender, because the outcome and impacts may be unpredictable, and because of the superiority of organic methods. Bamboo is invasive here in the Castleton yard - we pull some, and tolerate some. That's the organic way. A good pair of gloves and a little elbow grease.
I write this because of the S'ville weeds. They creep deep into the field of timothy, and the horses pick them out of the hay. The idea is to get them before they go to seed, not spray the ground with weedkiller or tinker with their biological make up.
Bob spent most of the weekend glued to the computer, getting ready for a major presentation that he had this morning. Good thing we have a computer at the S'ville house or we couldn't have gone this weekend.
Watching them mow, it was pretty obvious that the big neighboring field - the hay field - is going to need to be cut and baled a little earlier than usual this year. Weather permitting, that is. It is so thick, I'm afraid it will never make it to July 4th. I love getting in the hay, so I am hoping that at least one of the days will be a weekend, so I can be there.
After only 5 days, I conclude that my Dexter Supreme Softspot TCF3 shoes are a marvel - highly recommended. Good thing, because besides the haying, for the first time in my life I have applied for a Reservoir permit, and I am getting a fishing license. Now the extraordinary benefits of essential fatty acids like Omega 3 and 6 can take up an entire post, and that is not the reason for the fishing license anyway. I have no intention of taking fish from the Reservoir. Plus I am taking flaxseed oil to get those wonderful omegas. The Reservoir is the Ashokan, and to go on the NYC DEP controlled grounds you must have both a permit and a fishing license. I've never trespassed on the grounds during all the years when I was growing up nearby, or in any of the years since.
But this year, drinking in the majestic view from the road which crosses the dike is not enough (although I believe that activity in itself to be closely linked to the seeds of creativity). I want to hike around the land and get closer to the communities that have slumbered for 90 years in the valley under the water. I want to discover the ghosts of the past. My feet will just have to cooperate!
The father's day gift for my father was a bucket of goodies: eggplant caponata, artichoke hearts, clams (for jazzing up alla olio), dried fruit, trail mix, and 2 lbs. of scallops, which my mother cooked on Sunday and I helped them eat. They were mowing, using a 1942 tractor that belonged to my grandfather, some of the horse pasture in an effort to battle the weeds. A while ago I posted something here, with limited comment because it upset me so, from New Scientist, about genetic manipulation to control an invasive species. Recently I posted the same item to Blogsisters. Funny, not in the ha-ha way but in the "strange" or maybe "ironic" sense, I think not everyone finds altering things (perhaps even us) genetically, or the idea of single sex selection, scary. As a control for invasive species - it is maybe even OK? Or to increase the food supply?
I could puke (literally), the idea is so revolting, and so personally offensive - for so many reasons...because of the slippery slope that can be science, because of choosing based on a characteristic like gender, because the outcome and impacts may be unpredictable, and because of the superiority of organic methods. Bamboo is invasive here in the Castleton yard - we pull some, and tolerate some. That's the organic way. A good pair of gloves and a little elbow grease.
I write this because of the S'ville weeds. They creep deep into the field of timothy, and the horses pick them out of the hay. The idea is to get them before they go to seed, not spray the ground with weedkiller or tinker with their biological make up.
Bob spent most of the weekend glued to the computer, getting ready for a major presentation that he had this morning. Good thing we have a computer at the S'ville house or we couldn't have gone this weekend.
Watching them mow, it was pretty obvious that the big neighboring field - the hay field - is going to need to be cut and baled a little earlier than usual this year. Weather permitting, that is. It is so thick, I'm afraid it will never make it to July 4th. I love getting in the hay, so I am hoping that at least one of the days will be a weekend, so I can be there.
After only 5 days, I conclude that my Dexter Supreme Softspot TCF3 shoes are a marvel - highly recommended. Good thing, because besides the haying, for the first time in my life I have applied for a Reservoir permit, and I am getting a fishing license. Now the extraordinary benefits of essential fatty acids like Omega 3 and 6 can take up an entire post, and that is not the reason for the fishing license anyway. I have no intention of taking fish from the Reservoir. Plus I am taking flaxseed oil to get those wonderful omegas. The Reservoir is the Ashokan, and to go on the NYC DEP controlled grounds you must have both a permit and a fishing license. I've never trespassed on the grounds during all the years when I was growing up nearby, or in any of the years since.
But this year, drinking in the majestic view from the road which crosses the dike is not enough (although I believe that activity in itself to be closely linked to the seeds of creativity). I want to hike around the land and get closer to the communities that have slumbered for 90 years in the valley under the water. I want to discover the ghosts of the past. My feet will just have to cooperate!
Friday, June 14, 2002
Thursday, June 13, 2002
Got my shoes. They look kind of like black sneakers, but they feel very orthopedic. I'm not used to wearing such clumsy shoes, so I hope I don't trip over my feet.
I started to revise the schedule and curriculum for my summer course. Access to it opens on Monday, and the course itself begins the following Monday. As I work on it, I have this anxious feeling in my stomach. My experience is that summer session students usually are no problem - they are motivated and serious. But just thinking about teaching brings up all that cheating unpleasantness. I'm going to have to come to terms with it...via writing, petting the dogs, gardening, exercise and skilled relaxation.
Time for treadmilling.
I started to revise the schedule and curriculum for my summer course. Access to it opens on Monday, and the course itself begins the following Monday. As I work on it, I have this anxious feeling in my stomach. My experience is that summer session students usually are no problem - they are motivated and serious. But just thinking about teaching brings up all that cheating unpleasantness. I'm going to have to come to terms with it...via writing, petting the dogs, gardening, exercise and skilled relaxation.
Time for treadmilling.
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
I've had really bad problems with my feet since I was a teenager. It has to do with the metatarsals. I've had episodes of flare, and then periods of being pretty OK over the years. A podiatrist I went to made me orthotics that didn't work. An orthopedic surgeon said I'd need surgery someday, and to put it off as long as possible. I'm not big on the idea of surgery, NSAIDs and cortisone shots, anyway, and I've managed to remain active without those things. But, since that time I have been very careful about the shoes I wear. Always wide, always flat. For years I wore Chinese shoes, but my toes froze in the winter. Then flats became "in" and much easier to find, so I switched to Rockports and Easy Spirits. No $20/pair shoes for me. For the past several months it has been in flare again, especially in my left foot. My latest shoes, Easy Spirits, now hurt. I hate shopping, and shoe shopping is no different - even worse, because obnoxious sales clerks get all know-it-all-ish and act like I'm a moron when I tell them that a certain shoe won't be any good for me. I just can't break in a shoe like other people. If it hurts in the store, it will never be worn at home. And shoes cannot have any heel at all - they must be soft, even in the sole area - with no seams in bad places. Wide is mandatory. So I put off getting a new pair and now I am paying the price.
About a week ago, it worsened and now there are symptoms of neuropathy. Morton's Neuroma is what it's called, except that my heels bother me a bit, also. Even my wonderful slippers are no good.The ball of my foot feels strange, practically numb. That's not a really adequate description, though. When I explained it to Bob, he said, is it sort of like the feeling of having a blood pressure cuff on your arm? And that's it exactly. He has experience with thinking these sorts of things up because of his rheumatoid arthritis. I never had so much empathy, and before he got RA, I think he probably did not have as much for my condition.
Since 1998, when I started the residency for my doctoral degree, I have not been walking as much. I think my leg muscles weakened as a result, causing more stress on my feet. I have two pairs of sneakers - 15 year old Cherokees that I use to do yardwork, and new Nikes that I got for the treadmill. Neither were shoes I could wear long term, but I had to have something for those activities. Anyway, at the moment those are the only shoes I can wear at all. I've been forcing myself to do what needs doing - the alternative, laying around feeling sorry for myself, is not acceptable. I notice that when I get busy, the problem lessens. So, I did my gardening over the weekend, and today I got off my a-s, cleared off the porch, used the treadmill and did stretching exercises. I also did some reading on the subject, and I am going to start taking vitamins, and make some dietary adjustments. I am also learning a skilled relaxation technique, because stress is always a player in these things. Finally, I may give custom orthotics another try, and tonight - off to go shoe shopping....
About a week ago, it worsened and now there are symptoms of neuropathy. Morton's Neuroma is what it's called, except that my heels bother me a bit, also. Even my wonderful slippers are no good.The ball of my foot feels strange, practically numb. That's not a really adequate description, though. When I explained it to Bob, he said, is it sort of like the feeling of having a blood pressure cuff on your arm? And that's it exactly. He has experience with thinking these sorts of things up because of his rheumatoid arthritis. I never had so much empathy, and before he got RA, I think he probably did not have as much for my condition.
Since 1998, when I started the residency for my doctoral degree, I have not been walking as much. I think my leg muscles weakened as a result, causing more stress on my feet. I have two pairs of sneakers - 15 year old Cherokees that I use to do yardwork, and new Nikes that I got for the treadmill. Neither were shoes I could wear long term, but I had to have something for those activities. Anyway, at the moment those are the only shoes I can wear at all. I've been forcing myself to do what needs doing - the alternative, laying around feeling sorry for myself, is not acceptable. I notice that when I get busy, the problem lessens. So, I did my gardening over the weekend, and today I got off my a-s, cleared off the porch, used the treadmill and did stretching exercises. I also did some reading on the subject, and I am going to start taking vitamins, and make some dietary adjustments. I am also learning a skilled relaxation technique, because stress is always a player in these things. Finally, I may give custom orthotics another try, and tonight - off to go shoe shopping....
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
Garden is in - webpage updates are done - treadmill space is still in progress. Class must be ready June 17, and actually begins on June 24. And, it is hot...
Tuesday Too # 16
1.) The New York Times recently had an article by David Gallagher on the war bloggers (after 9/11 and mostly right-wingers) vs. techie bloggers or so called veteran bloggers. Do you think the very nature of blogging is revolutionary? NOTE: you need to create a user name and password to access the NYTs.
Hmmmm....revolutionary is a strong word, maybe too strong as a description. From the (admittedly short and small) length of time and amount I've surfed around reading others' journals, many words jump to mind, among them self-important and self-absorbed! But the weblog phenomenon definitely is something. Much simpler to access than a webpage. And although it is as easy (to publish) as participating in a chat room or discussion board, it is different. More permanent.
I think this is only scratching the surface.
2.) Are labels (i.e. feminist, left or right) really important? What if the meanings change over time? Is there some particular label you're proud to wear and why?
I don't care for labels, and I think the meanings (including feminist, left, and right) do change a lot over time. I find it is difficult to categorize people this way - interesting people are more complex than a label. But if I had to wear a label, "writer" would be OK.
3.) Would you be willing to give up, or reassess something you strongly believe in because hard evidence suggests that you are totally wrong?
Yes. I believe in assessment - and reassessment. You know, that value of an unexamined life stuff. But labels aside, I also think that there are some absolutes.
Tuesday Too # 16
1.) The New York Times recently had an article by David Gallagher on the war bloggers (after 9/11 and mostly right-wingers) vs. techie bloggers or so called veteran bloggers. Do you think the very nature of blogging is revolutionary? NOTE: you need to create a user name and password to access the NYTs.
Hmmmm....revolutionary is a strong word, maybe too strong as a description. From the (admittedly short and small) length of time and amount I've surfed around reading others' journals, many words jump to mind, among them self-important and self-absorbed! But the weblog phenomenon definitely is something. Much simpler to access than a webpage. And although it is as easy (to publish) as participating in a chat room or discussion board, it is different. More permanent.
I think this is only scratching the surface.
2.) Are labels (i.e. feminist, left or right) really important? What if the meanings change over time? Is there some particular label you're proud to wear and why?
I don't care for labels, and I think the meanings (including feminist, left, and right) do change a lot over time. I find it is difficult to categorize people this way - interesting people are more complex than a label. But if I had to wear a label, "writer" would be OK.
3.) Would you be willing to give up, or reassess something you strongly believe in because hard evidence suggests that you are totally wrong?
Yes. I believe in assessment - and reassessment. You know, that value of an unexamined life stuff. But labels aside, I also think that there are some absolutes.
Sunday, June 09, 2002
I love planting stuff, and that's an understatement. This month's virtual museum on my Gully Brook Press website focuses on gardening. Both gardening and website updates are about half done. I will finish getting the plants in tomorrow, and the web stuff on Monday. With any luck, I'll get the treadmill space finished on Monday, also. I am tired from all the yardwork -- too tired, which really highlights why the treadmill and other exercise are so important. I don't care to be a health nut, but I don't want to be feeble, either. It's too bad that a life spent watching a screen, under a lightbulb is so conducive to physical weakness.
Jill Carroll, who is something of a super adjunct, regularly writes interesting stuff for The Chronicle of Higher Education. It's great to have someone addressing things from the part-time, non-tenure track faculty member's perspective. Her latest article, Avoiding Adjunct Burnout, contains much good common sense - for example, really use the breaks between semesters for yourself, since as a part-timer, you are not on the university's nickel when there are no classes, and adjuncts often don't have a leisurely summer off since they frequently teach during summer session. I do my best to not spend my weekends here, in my office, and I try to pursue personal writing, reading, etc. during breaks - but I am not teaching the number of classes that she does, so for me there is always the scramble for writing and consulting jobs. I think, though, that I am not at all good at really drawing that line when it comes to students and academic paperwork - I speak to several students per day who want to get into my classes, and I find that many former students contact me for recommendations and assorted favors (most recently to request additional work, in the hope of a grade change). Also, a couple things she mentions apply to any job, I think. (Like the restorative power of taking a bath.)
Jill Carroll, who is something of a super adjunct, regularly writes interesting stuff for The Chronicle of Higher Education. It's great to have someone addressing things from the part-time, non-tenure track faculty member's perspective. Her latest article, Avoiding Adjunct Burnout, contains much good common sense - for example, really use the breaks between semesters for yourself, since as a part-timer, you are not on the university's nickel when there are no classes, and adjuncts often don't have a leisurely summer off since they frequently teach during summer session. I do my best to not spend my weekends here, in my office, and I try to pursue personal writing, reading, etc. during breaks - but I am not teaching the number of classes that she does, so for me there is always the scramble for writing and consulting jobs. I think, though, that I am not at all good at really drawing that line when it comes to students and academic paperwork - I speak to several students per day who want to get into my classes, and I find that many former students contact me for recommendations and assorted favors (most recently to request additional work, in the hope of a grade change). Also, a couple things she mentions apply to any job, I think. (Like the restorative power of taking a bath.)
Thursday, June 06, 2002
The booklet is in, the treadmill space is getting there, webpage updates are steeping, the garden awaits.
The courage to declare myself a writer
I have always wanted to be a writer. In my dreams, not asleep ones but awake fantasies, I always write a lot, what and when I want, and my work is published, adored, it pays my bills, and then some. I remember as a teenager, family members teasing me, calling me John-boy, since to be a writer was his dream also, on that 1970s TV show The Waltons.
But then I guess I have always been a writer. I have several old youthful stories that my mother saved, also file folders filled with later copy, then storage boxes of floppy diskettes (not to mention this machine's hard drive). Stories written at home and for school. Stories for classes, school newsletters and newspapers, for the entertainment of family members, for slumbering unread as incomplete fragments in a file box, and after the advent of email, for a select group of test readers. Stories about cats and boat trips to Lake George. Stories about Thanksgiving turkeys and Halloween pumpkins. Stories about the hassle of having a name that no one can spell. (This problem was remedied somewhat, not completely, by the mayor's visibility.) Book reviews, cartoons and satire. A series of newspapers from the fictional town of Nileston (I also created the physical location using boxes, glue, tape and paint).
First in crayon, followed by pencil, printed and in script, for a while I flirted with fountain pens, and later I banged out stories on my father's manual typewriter with the "S" key that barely struck, cranking them out on a template for making dittos. A series of electric typewriters came next, and then a 286 PC, 486 laptop, the Pentiums and finally, the Internet. Stories scribbled on the back of envelopes. Snippets captured during a frenzy at 3 AM, and feverishly written in a journal designed for the purpose, or sometimes in a spiral bound school notebook, that was not. Written on the train, and while waiting for the bus. Written in the middle of the night, because an idea took over and refused to let me sleep. Written during my annual one-week summer vacation that was planned for that purpose. No exotic locales here, just me and big blue.
Writing alternating with reading; books shared between me, Aunt Jean, my grandmother Mimmie, and my sister. At first, books like Dr. Suess, Peanuts collections, and Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions. In a more serious vein, Nancy Drew mysteries and Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi. Then came teen fiction like That Was Then, This is Now, A Separate Peace, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Then funny romantic novels, mostly old and out of print, like those written by Georgiette Heyer. Humor by Erma Bombeck and furniture refinishing by George Groltz. Next, historical sagas by John Jakes and Gore Vidal, followed by a smattering of the classics, in no particular order: John Steinbeck, Flannery O'Connor, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. Fenimore Cooper, Maya Angelou, and many others. Books that were once considered racy, like those by Erskine Caldwell. Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Poetry by Robert Frost. So many others, from the U.S. and all over, some well-known, and some not. Nonfiction works on New York State regional history, biographies of famous, mostly dead, mostly white, men, and accounts of war and disasters. Journals of revolutionary soldiers, and long-dead British ministers. Popular fiction like Patricia Cornwall, Robert James Waller, John Grisham, and Terry McMillan. Lately, I like the work of Sandra Dallas, and many magazines: Organic Gardening, Preservation, American Heritage, Yankee, Dog Fancy, Smithsonian, and of course, Kaatskill Life. And most enduringly, important and dear of all, the complete works of Mark Twain.
On my office bookshelf, there are inspirational works: Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones and Room to Write, Viginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, National Book Award Authors' The Writing Life, Stephen King's On Writing, and Women on Writing from the NAWW; technical works like Barrington's Writing the Memoir, Kaplan's Revision, Whitman and Simon's Recipes into Type, Dietrich and Sundell's The Art of Fiction, and Buchman and Groves' The Writer's Guide to Manuscript Formats. Reference works include annual editions of Writer's Market and Writer's Handbook, Webster's II New College Dictionary, that old standby Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, and various style guides (APA, Turabian, MLA, Chicago, New York Times). Years of The Writer magazine (I still can't forgive them for the ghastly redesign) and Writer's Digest are stacked behind the door.
In high school I liked English class. My favorite teacher's note in my yearbook: "Keep Writing!" and although I am not even sure where that yearbook is at present, I still cherish that inscription. I don't think, in spite of the awake dreams, that I ever seriously considered being a writer as my main profession; I'm not completely sure why, but I always knew the odds were not great for success, and I didn't plan on the academic path, an English degree followed by a creative writing MFA, that might have been an option. I had vague notions of being a lawyer, mostly because I was a good student, liked to debate and was sort of interested in politics. My first semester at college quickly erased that possibility, and instead I found I preferred studying U.S. history, just for the love of learning it. I think my first thoughts of a career in college administration may have come during those undergraduate days. I met some nice, understanding and helpful folks among the administrators, and it seemed like a pleasant profession. But those ideas were only a flicker, and they didn't stick at that time either.
I didn't care for college-level composition courses, but I did find the services of the writing center on campus to be helpful, and there I found a mentor. He was a retired editor and writer of radio plays. I remember the marvelous experience of those sessions. During that time I did a lot of writing, and this was also when I first began to research the market, and tentatively send out a few pieces of fiction and poetry to literary journals.
Needless to say, I received two responses to those juvenile submissions: silence, or rejection letter. Does the ability to revise so easily now actually improve the writing? Or does it instead stifle the passion? Do we produce draft after draft for a reason? Oh, I do know revision is a necessary process, and wordprocessing really is a wonder, but at times I ponder the utility of all this on-screen, on-the-fly editing.
Skip ahead - there were always breaks in the writing flow as I focused on moving, gainful employment, completing some degree or other, renovating a house, and partying. Another flurry of writing, and journal entries, pre-graduate school. A few more short stories circulated, and rejected. As I struggled with what to do with my life, I experimented with a temporary job in public service, and found a good fit. This led to a master's degree, and an eventual job in education, and these activities occupied about 150% of my time. Fast forward to mid-doctoral degree. Frustration. I want to write. I have always wanted to write. I need to set writing goals, and find the time to pursue my beloved, and temporarily abandoned, hobby. In 1996, I decide to compile my grandmother's recipes into a cookbook and folklore story. I work on this for the better part of a year in my spare time, stealing time from wherever I can find it, all the while contemplating a leave of absence from the doctoral program as the solution. But I don't do that; instead I make a decision to not study for the looming comprehensive exams, and just get them out of the way. I sign up and take them with the barest minimum preparation.
Writing sparks more writing, and I produce many short essays and fiction stories. I decide it is time to test the waters, and the first short essay I send out, Scapegoating, is accepted. If only it could always be that easy! It occurs to me now that I wrote that essay in the middle of the night, awakened by an urge to write that could not be ignored. Interestingly, its subject is anti-Catholicism, something that is even more commonplace, accepted (and essentially politically correct) in our culture, five years later. Sad! I was paid $10 for the one-time rights, and before depositing the check I took it to Kinko's, to have them make a color copy. That was before I had my own personal all-in-one color printer; in fact, it was before almost anyone, besides copy places, had such equipment. The kid behind the counter refused my business, saying they were not allowed to photocopy such documents. I argued weakly, and left. Down the street was a small, private office supply store - and there the owner was happy to share my proud moment. My diplomas are in a bookcase, not in frames on the wall, but that color copy of a check for $10 hangs beneath the clock in my little office.
I continued to make progress on my book proposal, and also to turn my attention to trying my hand at query letters for non-fiction articles. I had never been interested in writing non-fiction, but I learned it was easier than selling fiction. And it is writing. I send the newly completed book proposal out to three separate batches of publishers in the next couple of years, making extensive revisions after each try when I get several "thanks, this is lovely, but not right for us" letters, alternating with silence from others.
After I finished my doctorate, I immediately found an administrative job, although I had promised myself while I was working on my dissertation that I would really take my time and contemplate my options. Instead, for some reason I felt the need to see how fast I could find a decent position that met my criteria. The answer was, pretty fast. So? I worked for a while, and then realized again what I already knew: being an administrator wasn't really what I wanted to do any longer, at least not full-time, and not right now. I looked down my list of goals and I found that I had a lot of things checked off. What would be my next goals? A new living room sofa or car just weren't what I had in mind as bullets. I figured I might finally have the skills needed to support myself through freelancing. In other words, I could now teach part time, and maybe land educational consulting projects and education-related writing assignments. This would be my income source, and it would free up some additional time to pursue creative writing, the ultimate goal.
The writing contract work, while not as personally rewarding as writing fiction or even nonfiction of my own design, is still writing. Over the years, during my days as a staff member in academic affairs and later when working for an educational grant program, I wrote memos, letters, brochures, and reports. On mathematics readiness in college, on transition to college, on the economic returns of a college education, on gender and vocational education, on rising junior testing. I've said, I'll write after I finish designing these databases or entering data in this spreadsheet. I've read research studies and journal articles and promised myself that I could write when I was done reading. Next week. Next year. Tomorrow. Later. After graduation. After I get through this chapter. After I grade 35 exams. After the slide show is designed. After I balance my checkbook. After I fold the laundry. When I get back from the party. When Seinfeld is over (not really). After the garden is planted and the plants are watered. I didn't give myself the freedom to be a writer, or to think of myself as one anyway, until I had completed my educational goals. As if being Dr. somehow validated the creative process, made it OK to spend time doing it, no apologies. I guess I was afraid of not making a living, of the failure. I needed some significant accomplishment as a back-up.
All creative endeavors are ultra competitive, and not always very lucrative. The back-up became the lead. If I'd made a more serious, continued effort as a writer would I already be successful (whatever that means) and over the risky part? Don't "they" say you can only write to please yourself, and because you are driven to do it, and not for the income generated? Don't "they" say if you really wanted to write, you could find the time somehow? Don't "they" say, don't leave your day job until you have at least 10 major sales and a guarantee of some stable income from regular assignments? Well, I may not have held to that last guideline exactly, but luckily I was close enough.
So now I am more than seven months into this new journey of goal-seeking. I was already a fairly prolific writer, when not in one of those long silent spells, but since being free I have written an educational book and booklet, I'm teaching part-time and mentoring a graduate student, I've created a website, Gully Brook Press, and online journal, I produce occasional essays and short stories, I've sorted through a lot of old material, I've joined the National Association of Women Writers, Blog Sisters, and several webrings, and I regularly read Inscriptions (the best thing since Inklings and Inkspot bit the dust) and other online writing newsletters, and I sporadically write in a paper journal (this is how most of this was originally captured, actually; it is 1 AM, this wouldn't keep, and so I write in my little bound book with pages that are too small. Warren Kimble's America the Beautiful is on the cover, and my pen is wonderful, a Pilot rollerball fine point, black). My book proposal is being considered by a publisher - seriously considered - a victory in itself as that's the farthest I've gotten so far. I continue to circulate a few stories and essays here and there, I'd like to do more of that. I still don't have as much time for purely creative writing as I'd like - I want to produce more fiction and I have a few non-fiction, non-education queries brewing, trying to get to paper, threatening future 1 AM sessions.
I'm still undecided about whether online journaling makes up for what it voraciously consumes in time by its undisputed benefits of oiling the wheels of creativity and building a sense of community. I remain amazed by the phenomenon of weblogs; where have I been? What is this all about? What will the future bring? An area for much future reflection. I want to perform the analysis: count up journal entries, frequency of certain words, age, gender, subject, color, enter the digits in a spreadsheet, arrive at totals, find theories from communication, technology, methods, policy, make generalizations, bar graphs, pie charts, figure it all out.
The contract work is writing - and I admit to being at least somewhat interested in educational subjects; after all, I spent many years pursuing degrees in the discipline and working in the field, it is a kind of cozy home to me. Teaching is a joy (at least most of the time; the plagiarism plague is water under the bridge), and as my father would say, it's not a bad way to make a living. But both are very time consuming, when compared to the financial returns. It seems I work harder now, for less. There's the constant "sales" element, to network and get assignments, but I have to say, overall it's more on my own terms. And, I definitely am writing, really doing it, I think more than in the past, with the possible exception of a select few occasions that were planned, intensive, and short-term. So the end result is a good one. I have to get a bit better at not procrastinating, and although I do keep to a fuzzy schedule, I'd like to be even more organized.
I've done some thinking now and then about how much time I can give to this endeavor. I don't mean per day - the list of priorities constantly shifts as I juggle projects and budget time. I mean, at what point do I maybe return to the 9-5 world of academic administration and work at a college campus? It does have its immediate benefits, in terms of income and a predictable cash and workflow, seeing interesting and wonderful colleagues, eating delicious lunches out, the occasional happy hour, having the opportunity to wear something besides tee-shirts, shorts and my wicked good LL Bean slippers, and who could forget those stimulating conferences on assessment, or applied learning, or fixing mathematics aversion, or technology integration in classrooms - filled with workshops, keynote speeches, vendor areas, and dinners of chicken a la Marriot with a side salad topped with mandarin oranges and viniagrette dressing.
I do know the answer, at least sort of: Maybe never, but definitely not yet. I'm at least a galaxy away from that option. (With thanks to my mother for relating a story about my father's clever use of that great word.) Which is good. Although being grounded and realistic have their charms, the fact that I still am asking the 9-5 question means I have to do some additional work on the courage part.
The courage to declare myself a writer
I have always wanted to be a writer. In my dreams, not asleep ones but awake fantasies, I always write a lot, what and when I want, and my work is published, adored, it pays my bills, and then some. I remember as a teenager, family members teasing me, calling me John-boy, since to be a writer was his dream also, on that 1970s TV show The Waltons.
But then I guess I have always been a writer. I have several old youthful stories that my mother saved, also file folders filled with later copy, then storage boxes of floppy diskettes (not to mention this machine's hard drive). Stories written at home and for school. Stories for classes, school newsletters and newspapers, for the entertainment of family members, for slumbering unread as incomplete fragments in a file box, and after the advent of email, for a select group of test readers. Stories about cats and boat trips to Lake George. Stories about Thanksgiving turkeys and Halloween pumpkins. Stories about the hassle of having a name that no one can spell. (This problem was remedied somewhat, not completely, by the mayor's visibility.) Book reviews, cartoons and satire. A series of newspapers from the fictional town of Nileston (I also created the physical location using boxes, glue, tape and paint).
First in crayon, followed by pencil, printed and in script, for a while I flirted with fountain pens, and later I banged out stories on my father's manual typewriter with the "S" key that barely struck, cranking them out on a template for making dittos. A series of electric typewriters came next, and then a 286 PC, 486 laptop, the Pentiums and finally, the Internet. Stories scribbled on the back of envelopes. Snippets captured during a frenzy at 3 AM, and feverishly written in a journal designed for the purpose, or sometimes in a spiral bound school notebook, that was not. Written on the train, and while waiting for the bus. Written in the middle of the night, because an idea took over and refused to let me sleep. Written during my annual one-week summer vacation that was planned for that purpose. No exotic locales here, just me and big blue.
Writing alternating with reading; books shared between me, Aunt Jean, my grandmother Mimmie, and my sister. At first, books like Dr. Suess, Peanuts collections, and Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions. In a more serious vein, Nancy Drew mysteries and Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi. Then came teen fiction like That Was Then, This is Now, A Separate Peace, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Then funny romantic novels, mostly old and out of print, like those written by Georgiette Heyer. Humor by Erma Bombeck and furniture refinishing by George Groltz. Next, historical sagas by John Jakes and Gore Vidal, followed by a smattering of the classics, in no particular order: John Steinbeck, Flannery O'Connor, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. Fenimore Cooper, Maya Angelou, and many others. Books that were once considered racy, like those by Erskine Caldwell. Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Poetry by Robert Frost. So many others, from the U.S. and all over, some well-known, and some not. Nonfiction works on New York State regional history, biographies of famous, mostly dead, mostly white, men, and accounts of war and disasters. Journals of revolutionary soldiers, and long-dead British ministers. Popular fiction like Patricia Cornwall, Robert James Waller, John Grisham, and Terry McMillan. Lately, I like the work of Sandra Dallas, and many magazines: Organic Gardening, Preservation, American Heritage, Yankee, Dog Fancy, Smithsonian, and of course, Kaatskill Life. And most enduringly, important and dear of all, the complete works of Mark Twain.
On my office bookshelf, there are inspirational works: Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones and Room to Write, Viginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, National Book Award Authors' The Writing Life, Stephen King's On Writing, and Women on Writing from the NAWW; technical works like Barrington's Writing the Memoir, Kaplan's Revision, Whitman and Simon's Recipes into Type, Dietrich and Sundell's The Art of Fiction, and Buchman and Groves' The Writer's Guide to Manuscript Formats. Reference works include annual editions of Writer's Market and Writer's Handbook, Webster's II New College Dictionary, that old standby Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, and various style guides (APA, Turabian, MLA, Chicago, New York Times). Years of The Writer magazine (I still can't forgive them for the ghastly redesign) and Writer's Digest are stacked behind the door.
In high school I liked English class. My favorite teacher's note in my yearbook: "Keep Writing!" and although I am not even sure where that yearbook is at present, I still cherish that inscription. I don't think, in spite of the awake dreams, that I ever seriously considered being a writer as my main profession; I'm not completely sure why, but I always knew the odds were not great for success, and I didn't plan on the academic path, an English degree followed by a creative writing MFA, that might have been an option. I had vague notions of being a lawyer, mostly because I was a good student, liked to debate and was sort of interested in politics. My first semester at college quickly erased that possibility, and instead I found I preferred studying U.S. history, just for the love of learning it. I think my first thoughts of a career in college administration may have come during those undergraduate days. I met some nice, understanding and helpful folks among the administrators, and it seemed like a pleasant profession. But those ideas were only a flicker, and they didn't stick at that time either.
I didn't care for college-level composition courses, but I did find the services of the writing center on campus to be helpful, and there I found a mentor. He was a retired editor and writer of radio plays. I remember the marvelous experience of those sessions. During that time I did a lot of writing, and this was also when I first began to research the market, and tentatively send out a few pieces of fiction and poetry to literary journals.
Needless to say, I received two responses to those juvenile submissions: silence, or rejection letter. Does the ability to revise so easily now actually improve the writing? Or does it instead stifle the passion? Do we produce draft after draft for a reason? Oh, I do know revision is a necessary process, and wordprocessing really is a wonder, but at times I ponder the utility of all this on-screen, on-the-fly editing.
Skip ahead - there were always breaks in the writing flow as I focused on moving, gainful employment, completing some degree or other, renovating a house, and partying. Another flurry of writing, and journal entries, pre-graduate school. A few more short stories circulated, and rejected. As I struggled with what to do with my life, I experimented with a temporary job in public service, and found a good fit. This led to a master's degree, and an eventual job in education, and these activities occupied about 150% of my time. Fast forward to mid-doctoral degree. Frustration. I want to write. I have always wanted to write. I need to set writing goals, and find the time to pursue my beloved, and temporarily abandoned, hobby. In 1996, I decide to compile my grandmother's recipes into a cookbook and folklore story. I work on this for the better part of a year in my spare time, stealing time from wherever I can find it, all the while contemplating a leave of absence from the doctoral program as the solution. But I don't do that; instead I make a decision to not study for the looming comprehensive exams, and just get them out of the way. I sign up and take them with the barest minimum preparation.
Writing sparks more writing, and I produce many short essays and fiction stories. I decide it is time to test the waters, and the first short essay I send out, Scapegoating, is accepted. If only it could always be that easy! It occurs to me now that I wrote that essay in the middle of the night, awakened by an urge to write that could not be ignored. Interestingly, its subject is anti-Catholicism, something that is even more commonplace, accepted (and essentially politically correct) in our culture, five years later. Sad! I was paid $10 for the one-time rights, and before depositing the check I took it to Kinko's, to have them make a color copy. That was before I had my own personal all-in-one color printer; in fact, it was before almost anyone, besides copy places, had such equipment. The kid behind the counter refused my business, saying they were not allowed to photocopy such documents. I argued weakly, and left. Down the street was a small, private office supply store - and there the owner was happy to share my proud moment. My diplomas are in a bookcase, not in frames on the wall, but that color copy of a check for $10 hangs beneath the clock in my little office.
I continued to make progress on my book proposal, and also to turn my attention to trying my hand at query letters for non-fiction articles. I had never been interested in writing non-fiction, but I learned it was easier than selling fiction. And it is writing. I send the newly completed book proposal out to three separate batches of publishers in the next couple of years, making extensive revisions after each try when I get several "thanks, this is lovely, but not right for us" letters, alternating with silence from others.
After I finished my doctorate, I immediately found an administrative job, although I had promised myself while I was working on my dissertation that I would really take my time and contemplate my options. Instead, for some reason I felt the need to see how fast I could find a decent position that met my criteria. The answer was, pretty fast. So? I worked for a while, and then realized again what I already knew: being an administrator wasn't really what I wanted to do any longer, at least not full-time, and not right now. I looked down my list of goals and I found that I had a lot of things checked off. What would be my next goals? A new living room sofa or car just weren't what I had in mind as bullets. I figured I might finally have the skills needed to support myself through freelancing. In other words, I could now teach part time, and maybe land educational consulting projects and education-related writing assignments. This would be my income source, and it would free up some additional time to pursue creative writing, the ultimate goal.
The writing contract work, while not as personally rewarding as writing fiction or even nonfiction of my own design, is still writing. Over the years, during my days as a staff member in academic affairs and later when working for an educational grant program, I wrote memos, letters, brochures, and reports. On mathematics readiness in college, on transition to college, on the economic returns of a college education, on gender and vocational education, on rising junior testing. I've said, I'll write after I finish designing these databases or entering data in this spreadsheet. I've read research studies and journal articles and promised myself that I could write when I was done reading. Next week. Next year. Tomorrow. Later. After graduation. After I get through this chapter. After I grade 35 exams. After the slide show is designed. After I balance my checkbook. After I fold the laundry. When I get back from the party. When Seinfeld is over (not really). After the garden is planted and the plants are watered. I didn't give myself the freedom to be a writer, or to think of myself as one anyway, until I had completed my educational goals. As if being Dr. somehow validated the creative process, made it OK to spend time doing it, no apologies. I guess I was afraid of not making a living, of the failure. I needed some significant accomplishment as a back-up.
All creative endeavors are ultra competitive, and not always very lucrative. The back-up became the lead. If I'd made a more serious, continued effort as a writer would I already be successful (whatever that means) and over the risky part? Don't "they" say you can only write to please yourself, and because you are driven to do it, and not for the income generated? Don't "they" say if you really wanted to write, you could find the time somehow? Don't "they" say, don't leave your day job until you have at least 10 major sales and a guarantee of some stable income from regular assignments? Well, I may not have held to that last guideline exactly, but luckily I was close enough.
So now I am more than seven months into this new journey of goal-seeking. I was already a fairly prolific writer, when not in one of those long silent spells, but since being free I have written an educational book and booklet, I'm teaching part-time and mentoring a graduate student, I've created a website, Gully Brook Press, and online journal, I produce occasional essays and short stories, I've sorted through a lot of old material, I've joined the National Association of Women Writers, Blog Sisters, and several webrings, and I regularly read Inscriptions (the best thing since Inklings and Inkspot bit the dust) and other online writing newsletters, and I sporadically write in a paper journal (this is how most of this was originally captured, actually; it is 1 AM, this wouldn't keep, and so I write in my little bound book with pages that are too small. Warren Kimble's America the Beautiful is on the cover, and my pen is wonderful, a Pilot rollerball fine point, black). My book proposal is being considered by a publisher - seriously considered - a victory in itself as that's the farthest I've gotten so far. I continue to circulate a few stories and essays here and there, I'd like to do more of that. I still don't have as much time for purely creative writing as I'd like - I want to produce more fiction and I have a few non-fiction, non-education queries brewing, trying to get to paper, threatening future 1 AM sessions.
I'm still undecided about whether online journaling makes up for what it voraciously consumes in time by its undisputed benefits of oiling the wheels of creativity and building a sense of community. I remain amazed by the phenomenon of weblogs; where have I been? What is this all about? What will the future bring? An area for much future reflection. I want to perform the analysis: count up journal entries, frequency of certain words, age, gender, subject, color, enter the digits in a spreadsheet, arrive at totals, find theories from communication, technology, methods, policy, make generalizations, bar graphs, pie charts, figure it all out.
The contract work is writing - and I admit to being at least somewhat interested in educational subjects; after all, I spent many years pursuing degrees in the discipline and working in the field, it is a kind of cozy home to me. Teaching is a joy (at least most of the time; the plagiarism plague is water under the bridge), and as my father would say, it's not a bad way to make a living. But both are very time consuming, when compared to the financial returns. It seems I work harder now, for less. There's the constant "sales" element, to network and get assignments, but I have to say, overall it's more on my own terms. And, I definitely am writing, really doing it, I think more than in the past, with the possible exception of a select few occasions that were planned, intensive, and short-term. So the end result is a good one. I have to get a bit better at not procrastinating, and although I do keep to a fuzzy schedule, I'd like to be even more organized.
I've done some thinking now and then about how much time I can give to this endeavor. I don't mean per day - the list of priorities constantly shifts as I juggle projects and budget time. I mean, at what point do I maybe return to the 9-5 world of academic administration and work at a college campus? It does have its immediate benefits, in terms of income and a predictable cash and workflow, seeing interesting and wonderful colleagues, eating delicious lunches out, the occasional happy hour, having the opportunity to wear something besides tee-shirts, shorts and my wicked good LL Bean slippers, and who could forget those stimulating conferences on assessment, or applied learning, or fixing mathematics aversion, or technology integration in classrooms - filled with workshops, keynote speeches, vendor areas, and dinners of chicken a la Marriot with a side salad topped with mandarin oranges and viniagrette dressing.
I do know the answer, at least sort of: Maybe never, but definitely not yet. I'm at least a galaxy away from that option. (With thanks to my mother for relating a story about my father's clever use of that great word.) Which is good. Although being grounded and realistic have their charms, the fact that I still am asking the 9-5 question means I have to do some additional work on the courage part.
Tuesday, June 04, 2002
Tuesday Too # 15
1.) Is there a goal, or something you value highly that a simple time commitment would put within your reach? What is it? Why is it important to you? If it's a high school, or college degree that is of the utmost importance to you, why is it significant beyond the obvious reason (i.e. job)?
As I think about this question, I realize that I've had good luck with setting goals and working toward their achievement, although at some points in my life the process was more haphazard than that. When I was a teenager, I had various ideas about what I was going to do with my life, in terms of what job I would do, how much education I would pursue, where I would live, etc.
Anyway, I changed my mind about the career part during my undergraduate days, and then I spent my twenties trying this and that, mostly entry-level, deadend paraprofessional jobs, some enjoyable, some not. In K-12, I was a good student in the academic (not social!) sense, and as a teen I did figure I'd get a graduate degree, but as the years passed, that possibility seemed remote. One day, when I was in my late twenties, I approached my boss at a small, non-profit arts organization for a raise and the sum she coughed up bordered on an insult. I impulsively let my temper get the best of me (something that happened more frequently when I was younger, but still flares with the right inducement), and the next day I resigned, deciding to go back to school for a master's degree.
At that time, I had developed an interest in public service, and so I decided to study public administration. Two years later I had the MPA in hand. In the course of my studies for the master's degree, I found an internship in academic administration and discovered that a worklife in the university was a good fit for me. A career in higher education practically demands a doctorate for advancement, I was feeling kind of ambitious at that point, and so about eleven years after that showdown with my boss, I reached that goal. Once I was near to getting a PhD, teaching, research, and writing became appealing. I also started wondering about the need for new goals, and replacing the formal educational process with things in the consumer sense isn't adequate. (Don't get me wrong, as I have no illusions about this. Although not necessary or sufficient, a certain level of material comfort is really nice.) So what's next?
I plan to write some about this quest soon. Actually I was thinking about writing on this subject today, but had forgotten about "Tuesday Too." If I wrap up the higher ed booklet [it's getting close] I might still do it. If not, it will keep a day or so.
2.) Why haven't you done this already? If you're already working towards it, tell us about a particularly difficult hurtle.
#1 pretty much covers the goal achievement process. Sometimes I was very aware of the prize, and really had my nose to the grindstone. The master's degree was kind of like that. Sometimes life's circumstances, for example financial pressure, time commitments, being unhappy about something and having to focus a lot of energy finding a remedy, a thousand other things, knocked me off track for a while. There was a long spell while I was taking classes for my doctorate where I hated everything about the program and I didn't care at all if I finished. Sometimes class would end at 10 PM and I was exhausted (or sick) and I had to work the next day on some big important project. I remember the comprehensive exams were a big obstacle that filled me with dread for years. I couldn't possibly do all the work the department faculty and students whisper is needed to pass those exams. And I had no idea how I would find the time, energy or focus to write a dissertation. I knew something would have to give for me to get through it.
Something did. See answer #3.
So what's the roadblock to "what's next?" More on that in my planned post about deciding to be a writer.
3.) Be realistic. How much time can you comit towards making it happen?
Juggling time has always been a big player in decision-making in the past. For the comprehensives, I abandoned my usual standard (which is rather last-minute, but intense) and didn't study much. I just signed up, and took them. I am a competent note-taker, and I did read through about five of my notebooks once (this required me to hunt for the most important notebook the night before the test in boxes we had stored at a rented storage unit). I passed. For the dissertation, I had to (once again) make sacrifices in standard of living, and leave my full-time job.
Coming soon: commiting to writing time.
1.) Is there a goal, or something you value highly that a simple time commitment would put within your reach? What is it? Why is it important to you? If it's a high school, or college degree that is of the utmost importance to you, why is it significant beyond the obvious reason (i.e. job)?
As I think about this question, I realize that I've had good luck with setting goals and working toward their achievement, although at some points in my life the process was more haphazard than that. When I was a teenager, I had various ideas about what I was going to do with my life, in terms of what job I would do, how much education I would pursue, where I would live, etc.
Anyway, I changed my mind about the career part during my undergraduate days, and then I spent my twenties trying this and that, mostly entry-level, deadend paraprofessional jobs, some enjoyable, some not. In K-12, I was a good student in the academic (not social!) sense, and as a teen I did figure I'd get a graduate degree, but as the years passed, that possibility seemed remote. One day, when I was in my late twenties, I approached my boss at a small, non-profit arts organization for a raise and the sum she coughed up bordered on an insult. I impulsively let my temper get the best of me (something that happened more frequently when I was younger, but still flares with the right inducement), and the next day I resigned, deciding to go back to school for a master's degree.
At that time, I had developed an interest in public service, and so I decided to study public administration. Two years later I had the MPA in hand. In the course of my studies for the master's degree, I found an internship in academic administration and discovered that a worklife in the university was a good fit for me. A career in higher education practically demands a doctorate for advancement, I was feeling kind of ambitious at that point, and so about eleven years after that showdown with my boss, I reached that goal. Once I was near to getting a PhD, teaching, research, and writing became appealing. I also started wondering about the need for new goals, and replacing the formal educational process with things in the consumer sense isn't adequate. (Don't get me wrong, as I have no illusions about this. Although not necessary or sufficient, a certain level of material comfort is really nice.) So what's next?
I plan to write some about this quest soon. Actually I was thinking about writing on this subject today, but had forgotten about "Tuesday Too." If I wrap up the higher ed booklet [it's getting close] I might still do it. If not, it will keep a day or so.
2.) Why haven't you done this already? If you're already working towards it, tell us about a particularly difficult hurtle.
#1 pretty much covers the goal achievement process. Sometimes I was very aware of the prize, and really had my nose to the grindstone. The master's degree was kind of like that. Sometimes life's circumstances, for example financial pressure, time commitments, being unhappy about something and having to focus a lot of energy finding a remedy, a thousand other things, knocked me off track for a while. There was a long spell while I was taking classes for my doctorate where I hated everything about the program and I didn't care at all if I finished. Sometimes class would end at 10 PM and I was exhausted (or sick) and I had to work the next day on some big important project. I remember the comprehensive exams were a big obstacle that filled me with dread for years. I couldn't possibly do all the work the department faculty and students whisper is needed to pass those exams. And I had no idea how I would find the time, energy or focus to write a dissertation. I knew something would have to give for me to get through it.
Something did. See answer #3.
So what's the roadblock to "what's next?" More on that in my planned post about deciding to be a writer.
3.) Be realistic. How much time can you comit towards making it happen?
Juggling time has always been a big player in decision-making in the past. For the comprehensives, I abandoned my usual standard (which is rather last-minute, but intense) and didn't study much. I just signed up, and took them. I am a competent note-taker, and I did read through about five of my notebooks once (this required me to hunt for the most important notebook the night before the test in boxes we had stored at a rented storage unit). I passed. For the dissertation, I had to (once again) make sacrifices in standard of living, and leave my full-time job.
Coming soon: commiting to writing time.
Monday, June 03, 2002
Back at my "main" machine, and trying to get enthused about finishing the booklet. I am tired, and so are the dogs. Rudy took one look at the lawn (which needs mowing), turned around, and went back to his basket. Pretty incredible, because he loves the outdoors, although he is very particular about not getting dirty, and he likes the yard groomed and immaculate! The length of the grass didn't matter to Sophie, who didn't bother to leave the bedroom at all. She is my "special needs" hound. She is temperamental, I guess from being abandoned by her former owners, or maybe they were mean to her. She also has severe allergies to pollen and grass. We are presently trying to remedy this with Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, and B vitamins, with a Benedryl on occasion for immediate relief. It will take 8 weeks or more to see any results, and she has been on this program for about 3. Edna, the cat, did decide to venture out, probably because at the other house she is more restricted, there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow, and so she wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day.
Speaking of lawn mowing - I put in the garden at the other house, which is why I am tired. This reminds me of why I need to exercise more - I don't like being so sore from digging. But I do love planting things. It was wonderful. Better, even, than writing for pleasure. On my agenda at the moment is putting in my garden here, so I am hoping the weather is good this weekend, although I will do it in the rain, if necessary. Visions of fresh organic vegetables dance in my head...
Sunday afternoon was the cemetery trustees' meeting. We had a complaint from a plot owner, about a neighboring grave. Last September, a 35-year-old woman committed suicide, leaving her husband and 12-year-old daughter. I have a lot of thoughts about suicide that I won't go into at the moment, but the people were complaining because the family members of the woman who killed herself have adorned the grave as a sort of shrine, in the way that you see along the highway near where traffic fatalities have happened in recent years. It is a small, rural cemetery, and we have no rules about such things. The only restrictions have to do with planting trees, so we are within our rights to tell the complaining people to take a hike, which is what we decided. (In a nice way, of course, with language about compassionate consideration.) Anyway, after the meeting was over, I walked over to the grave in question, and it is pretty clear that the daughter has had a big role in creating the memorial. There was everything you can imagine set up there, sand with sea shells, a little plastic fence, wind chimes, dog statues, angels and cherubs, various garden decorations, a big crucifix and cross and other religious mementos, and a piece of slate with things like "I miss you every second of every day" written in chalk in a kid's handwriting. I guess it could be described as tacky, and perhaps inappropriate, although those weren't the first descriptive words to jump into my mind as I stood there. I tried to imagine what would drive the people who complained to leave that place feeling anything but touched, choked up, thoughtful, and sad. Why would they decide to contact the cemetery trustees? Why would people with such set ideas about what looks nice in a cemetery not have selected a more formal, strict one for their loved ones anyway? Why would they believe it would be right for us to tell that little girl and her father to remove those objects and add to their grief? What ugly people.
Also on the agenda, June updates to my website. (But they are not priority items on my list.) I have taken out my paper journal again, as it serves a different purpose (and at times it is more handy than a PC).
Speaking of lawn mowing - I put in the garden at the other house, which is why I am tired. This reminds me of why I need to exercise more - I don't like being so sore from digging. But I do love planting things. It was wonderful. Better, even, than writing for pleasure. On my agenda at the moment is putting in my garden here, so I am hoping the weather is good this weekend, although I will do it in the rain, if necessary. Visions of fresh organic vegetables dance in my head...
Sunday afternoon was the cemetery trustees' meeting. We had a complaint from a plot owner, about a neighboring grave. Last September, a 35-year-old woman committed suicide, leaving her husband and 12-year-old daughter. I have a lot of thoughts about suicide that I won't go into at the moment, but the people were complaining because the family members of the woman who killed herself have adorned the grave as a sort of shrine, in the way that you see along the highway near where traffic fatalities have happened in recent years. It is a small, rural cemetery, and we have no rules about such things. The only restrictions have to do with planting trees, so we are within our rights to tell the complaining people to take a hike, which is what we decided. (In a nice way, of course, with language about compassionate consideration.) Anyway, after the meeting was over, I walked over to the grave in question, and it is pretty clear that the daughter has had a big role in creating the memorial. There was everything you can imagine set up there, sand with sea shells, a little plastic fence, wind chimes, dog statues, angels and cherubs, various garden decorations, a big crucifix and cross and other religious mementos, and a piece of slate with things like "I miss you every second of every day" written in chalk in a kid's handwriting. I guess it could be described as tacky, and perhaps inappropriate, although those weren't the first descriptive words to jump into my mind as I stood there. I tried to imagine what would drive the people who complained to leave that place feeling anything but touched, choked up, thoughtful, and sad. Why would they decide to contact the cemetery trustees? Why would people with such set ideas about what looks nice in a cemetery not have selected a more formal, strict one for their loved ones anyway? Why would they believe it would be right for us to tell that little girl and her father to remove those objects and add to their grief? What ugly people.
Also on the agenda, June updates to my website. (But they are not priority items on my list.) I have taken out my paper journal again, as it serves a different purpose (and at times it is more handy than a PC).
Friday, May 31, 2002
Turns out I have several more days to finish my booklet, as the editor is on vacation right now. As I gain more freelance experience, I am finding that deadlines are frequently fuzzy, maybe because writers are infamous procrastinators? So give them a phony early deadline for motivation, and that way they will get busy about when it is due? Since I am a (still seems recent) parolee from the administrative world, and also spent so much of my life in graduate school - I will work myself around the clock to make a deadline. Anyway - it is nice to have a little extra time. Now, if I don't take advantage of that too much - I'll actually have the chance to plant some veggies and flowers, organize the treadmill space (again!) and fit in some creative writing, once the piece is submitted, and before my summer session class begins.
Off to the weekend house again. We are having a thunderstorm - it has been so hot and muggy - so the trip probably won't be really pleasant. I have a cemetery trustees meeting on Sunday. Next weekend, we are staying put. Laundry and yardwork build up on all those weekends away, and it is nice to visit with friends that live around here on occasion.
Off to the weekend house again. We are having a thunderstorm - it has been so hot and muggy - so the trip probably won't be really pleasant. I have a cemetery trustees meeting on Sunday. Next weekend, we are staying put. Laundry and yardwork build up on all those weekends away, and it is nice to visit with friends that live around here on occasion.
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Big deadline looms! I am writing a booklet on college administration. It isn't coming easy, but it's coming. Luckily I work well under pressure! Also testing a recipe. (So I have to be mindful of the oven, which does nothing for concentrating on writing about education.) We are going to a friend's house for dinner to celebrate her dogs' birthdays and I am making the human's dessert. Whenever I have to make a sweet, I use the opportunity to test one of the recipes in my cookbook. So, this baking is kind of writing-related, and it is also one tiny piece of progress in avoiding a future spell of time pressure. Because if the book proposal gets accepted - I am going to have to get really busy on testing. That would be a good kind of busy, though. My summer course enrollment is over 40 at this point. I suspect I won't get much recipe testing (or writing) done during those 6 weeks.
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Tuesday Too # 14
1.) What's the best thing you did over the holiday weekend?
The weekend was great, long, and tiring. It is not easy to choose the "best." It was spent at the other house. It is always good to go there for a change of pace and to get away from the daily grind. There is no television reception or mail delivery, I only get the newspaper on occasion, and although I do have a computer with dial-up Internet access there, I generally don't spend much time on it.
We arrived there very late on Thursday night, and got back here last night. We had a big yard sale with many of my family members, so this year there was no time or energy for a summer kick-off BBQ. It was a lot of work, but also great fun. We generated a little cash, got rid of loads of junk that was just collecting dust, had a lot of laughs, and met some nice people. Also important, in a very different way: we attended the Memorial Day parade. My father marches and shoots one of the salute rifles for the American Legion, and my nieces and nephew march with their goats for 4-H.
2.) Who would you want to spend the afternoon/evening with getting the answers to all your questions? What do you really want to know from this person/animal?
Well - I'm finding this to be a hard one for several reasons. I'm not sure about "all my questions." And the people who come to mind...famous individuals from history, etc. But, I think maybe someone close to me who has died - probably my grandmother, one of my dear aunts, or perhaps a friend, just for the chance to spend time with them again, visit a bit and finally, ask about what comes next.
3.) Why do you think "there must be more to life than having everything"?
What else is there besides everything? Or is this a simple material question? It's good to not struggle, but beyond a certain point who needs more? And even given a financial struggle, there are so many truly important things (including the love and health cliches) that cannot have a monetary value: knowledge, patience, peace...oh, and of course my beloved hounds...
1.) What's the best thing you did over the holiday weekend?
The weekend was great, long, and tiring. It is not easy to choose the "best." It was spent at the other house. It is always good to go there for a change of pace and to get away from the daily grind. There is no television reception or mail delivery, I only get the newspaper on occasion, and although I do have a computer with dial-up Internet access there, I generally don't spend much time on it.
We arrived there very late on Thursday night, and got back here last night. We had a big yard sale with many of my family members, so this year there was no time or energy for a summer kick-off BBQ. It was a lot of work, but also great fun. We generated a little cash, got rid of loads of junk that was just collecting dust, had a lot of laughs, and met some nice people. Also important, in a very different way: we attended the Memorial Day parade. My father marches and shoots one of the salute rifles for the American Legion, and my nieces and nephew march with their goats for 4-H.
2.) Who would you want to spend the afternoon/evening with getting the answers to all your questions? What do you really want to know from this person/animal?
Well - I'm finding this to be a hard one for several reasons. I'm not sure about "all my questions." And the people who come to mind...famous individuals from history, etc. But, I think maybe someone close to me who has died - probably my grandmother, one of my dear aunts, or perhaps a friend, just for the chance to spend time with them again, visit a bit and finally, ask about what comes next.
3.) Why do you think "there must be more to life than having everything"?
What else is there besides everything? Or is this a simple material question? It's good to not struggle, but beyond a certain point who needs more? And even given a financial struggle, there are so many truly important things (including the love and health cliches) that cannot have a monetary value: knowledge, patience, peace...oh, and of course my beloved hounds...
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
Tuesday Too #13
1.) Do you have a "little kid" adventure story? Consider the term "little kid" relative to your age.
Well - yes, I have many, but I also have minimal time at the moment...how about an adventure story I wrote when I was seven? It's called A Cat in a Boat and it is posted on my website.
2.) What issue would you like to see the Supreme Court of the United States grapple with, or perhaps there's a case you feel they should re-think? Why this particular issue or case?
I have a fondness for history and I tend to take the long view of things (I have a cherished memory of a professor saying in history class, "a decade does not an era make," in response to students getting worked up over some trend, election, legislative bill, conspiracy theory or other) so I guess I don't have a burning interest in, or worry about any particular case. I did notice some other posts on the sex offender issue, and I saw something about it on the news last night. I've thought a bit on the subject for years, starting when a law was proposed (or passed) -- in I think it was NJ -- bearing a victimized child's name. It's really easy to understand why registries to inform communities are appealing, and in all honesty, seem necessary and right. But when I soul-search the question it strikes me as kind of in opposition to the tenets of our system. It also makes me wonder if we have murder registries? Finally, if an offense is so likely to be serial then why are the offenders paroled in the first place? Is a registry the best way to deal with this difficult issue?
3.) What is the URL of the most weird site, or the URL of what you consider a dangerous site? If it's a dangerous site, why do you think it's dangerous.
I'll go with dangerous. I'm sure there are others much worse than the one I'm posting, but after my recent plagiarism episode this is what comes to mind (there are many others in this category): Evil House of Cheat.
4.) You wake-up on death row, and you realize it's not a dream. Even though there is copy of Death Row for Dummies on your bed, you decide to question the guard. What do you ask, and what advice does he/she give you?
I'm stumped by this one. Society would have to change a lot for me to imagine this as a possibility, and I'm not a science fiction writer.
1.) Do you have a "little kid" adventure story? Consider the term "little kid" relative to your age.
Well - yes, I have many, but I also have minimal time at the moment...how about an adventure story I wrote when I was seven? It's called A Cat in a Boat and it is posted on my website.
2.) What issue would you like to see the Supreme Court of the United States grapple with, or perhaps there's a case you feel they should re-think? Why this particular issue or case?
I have a fondness for history and I tend to take the long view of things (I have a cherished memory of a professor saying in history class, "a decade does not an era make," in response to students getting worked up over some trend, election, legislative bill, conspiracy theory or other) so I guess I don't have a burning interest in, or worry about any particular case. I did notice some other posts on the sex offender issue, and I saw something about it on the news last night. I've thought a bit on the subject for years, starting when a law was proposed (or passed) -- in I think it was NJ -- bearing a victimized child's name. It's really easy to understand why registries to inform communities are appealing, and in all honesty, seem necessary and right. But when I soul-search the question it strikes me as kind of in opposition to the tenets of our system. It also makes me wonder if we have murder registries? Finally, if an offense is so likely to be serial then why are the offenders paroled in the first place? Is a registry the best way to deal with this difficult issue?
3.) What is the URL of the most weird site, or the URL of what you consider a dangerous site? If it's a dangerous site, why do you think it's dangerous.
I'll go with dangerous. I'm sure there are others much worse than the one I'm posting, but after my recent plagiarism episode this is what comes to mind (there are many others in this category): Evil House of Cheat.
4.) You wake-up on death row, and you realize it's not a dream. Even though there is copy of Death Row for Dummies on your bed, you decide to question the guard. What do you ask, and what advice does he/she give you?
I'm stumped by this one. Society would have to change a lot for me to imagine this as a possibility, and I'm not a science fiction writer.
Monday, May 20, 2002
My head is numb, my arm is numb, my back is killing me...but I got the grades for my students finished, and they are in. It was torture, because everyone was suspect, and no-one was suspect. I kept going back and forth, agonizing over each point, wondering, did this student cheat too? Well - something great about the academic calendar is that every semester is a new beginning, and so I am still optimistic about summer session.
I did manage to fit in a yard sale day, and that was a good way to take a break. Not so much because of sorting and hauling junk (although in a way that is liberating, too), but because it was clear, crisp and beautiful yesterday, and the weekend house is isolated in pristine surroundings. Chilly, but just what the doctor ordered. Oh, and dinner at my parents' house - with my mother's eggplant parmesan and my father's funny stories sure went a long way to righting what was wrong in my world. Bob, my husband, is on a low-carb diet, which is one of the alternative methods he's employing in an effort to manage the battle with rheumatoid arthritis. Since I do most of the cooking (not to be uppity, but I'm good at it, and although cleaning is not my cup of tea, I like to cook very much) I try to make things that we both can eat, because I know it's pretty hard to sit and watch someone slurp down a big bowl of spinach tortellini without deciding maybe having stiff joints isn't such a bad thing after all. Friday of Memorial Day yardsale weekend, my father is making alla olio, and since I've been having pasta withdrawal symptoms, I have been looking forward to that meal for weeks!
So - now it's back to my contract work (another deadline looms).
I did manage to fit in a yard sale day, and that was a good way to take a break. Not so much because of sorting and hauling junk (although in a way that is liberating, too), but because it was clear, crisp and beautiful yesterday, and the weekend house is isolated in pristine surroundings. Chilly, but just what the doctor ordered. Oh, and dinner at my parents' house - with my mother's eggplant parmesan and my father's funny stories sure went a long way to righting what was wrong in my world. Bob, my husband, is on a low-carb diet, which is one of the alternative methods he's employing in an effort to manage the battle with rheumatoid arthritis. Since I do most of the cooking (not to be uppity, but I'm good at it, and although cleaning is not my cup of tea, I like to cook very much) I try to make things that we both can eat, because I know it's pretty hard to sit and watch someone slurp down a big bowl of spinach tortellini without deciding maybe having stiff joints isn't such a bad thing after all. Friday of Memorial Day yardsale weekend, my father is making alla olio, and since I've been having pasta withdrawal symptoms, I have been looking forward to that meal for weeks!
So - now it's back to my contract work (another deadline looms).
Sunday, May 19, 2002
I'm relieved to say the plagiarism case is over. All ten students attended a meeting in Judicial Affairs today, the day before graduation. The five former students were exonerated, and the five current ones received very serious disciplinary penalties from the university, the least of which was me failing them for the course. They are suspended, it's on their records, etc. It is a very, very sad outcome, but I believe it is better for them to learn this lesson now, at age 22, than at age 50 while working for Enron or Anderson. Sometimes learning involves something other than absorbing curriculum.
This brings me to something else that troubles me, wondering whether there was something about this group of students - their age, major, home, whatever - that produced the behavior. I spent some time working as an administrator for a grant in K-14 vocational education. It was not something I was very familiar with before taking the position, and I may even have had some biases about the quality of technical high schools and doubts about what went on there. Turns out, I witnessed some very exciting things; it was a very postive, motivated environment, a really good place for the students who chose to go there.
There is a philosophy, sometimes found in the vocational-technical arena, but also in standard academic environments and among the general public that the primary reason to become educated is for the market - meaning a job, work, career, money, and all sorts of practical reasons. A simple version of the human capital theory, which extends it beyond the individual to productivity. I'm not suggesting there is no debate; others believe that there should be education-for-educaton's sake or for the improvement of humanity, or the enlightenment of the mind (and body and soul), or to create (and assimilate) better citizens.
Anyway, I do remember when I was an undergrad that nearly everyone espoused the education-for-education's sake perspective. There was just the glimmer of the market view. The business major was just starting to expand at traditionally liberal arts schools.
Now I find that college students are fixated on career preparation and the job market. The vocational grant that I mentioned focused on having students learn about and choose careers by eleventh grade, then channeled them into high school preparation programs that closely articulated with associate degree programs, using applied learning techniques.
I guess I can see a mix of reasons for getting educated - believe me, after being indecisive about what my future would hold, searching, struggling, etc. I can certainly understand the attraction of getting career preparation so life can maybe be a little easier. But as a person who has devoted a good part of my life to education, as a student, administrator, instructor and researcher, I also see the benefits of appreciating the beauty. Could so much focus on "job" instead of "erudition" as the outcome of education be helping to make students think cheating is acceptable? Or is it something else in our culture? I would think I was just feeling super sensitive and that this was a rare instance - if there hadn't been so much press recently in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
I have some other thoughts on this whole subject, which will have to keep. I think I may post a little to BlogSisters, which I have joined because I read about it at jfcates site and I think it is interesting. I am doing some exploring - but time is precious. I have material building up to write about...for the moment that will have to keep too. Too many other demands!
Needless to say, I did not finish grading all my remaining students work. It is a slow, unpleasant task, because I feel like my usual criteria are out the window. But I am taking tomorrow off - that is, "day off" means I am spending a day getting ready for the yardsale. This means loading the truck and making a round trip tomorrow (65 miles each way), because we are having it at the other house. We meant to go today, but it snowed here! It was kind of a major event for May. A big piece of the lilac bush snapped, which was so sad.
This brings me to something else that troubles me, wondering whether there was something about this group of students - their age, major, home, whatever - that produced the behavior. I spent some time working as an administrator for a grant in K-14 vocational education. It was not something I was very familiar with before taking the position, and I may even have had some biases about the quality of technical high schools and doubts about what went on there. Turns out, I witnessed some very exciting things; it was a very postive, motivated environment, a really good place for the students who chose to go there.
There is a philosophy, sometimes found in the vocational-technical arena, but also in standard academic environments and among the general public that the primary reason to become educated is for the market - meaning a job, work, career, money, and all sorts of practical reasons. A simple version of the human capital theory, which extends it beyond the individual to productivity. I'm not suggesting there is no debate; others believe that there should be education-for-educaton's sake or for the improvement of humanity, or the enlightenment of the mind (and body and soul), or to create (and assimilate) better citizens.
Anyway, I do remember when I was an undergrad that nearly everyone espoused the education-for-education's sake perspective. There was just the glimmer of the market view. The business major was just starting to expand at traditionally liberal arts schools.
Now I find that college students are fixated on career preparation and the job market. The vocational grant that I mentioned focused on having students learn about and choose careers by eleventh grade, then channeled them into high school preparation programs that closely articulated with associate degree programs, using applied learning techniques.
I guess I can see a mix of reasons for getting educated - believe me, after being indecisive about what my future would hold, searching, struggling, etc. I can certainly understand the attraction of getting career preparation so life can maybe be a little easier. But as a person who has devoted a good part of my life to education, as a student, administrator, instructor and researcher, I also see the benefits of appreciating the beauty. Could so much focus on "job" instead of "erudition" as the outcome of education be helping to make students think cheating is acceptable? Or is it something else in our culture? I would think I was just feeling super sensitive and that this was a rare instance - if there hadn't been so much press recently in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
I have some other thoughts on this whole subject, which will have to keep. I think I may post a little to BlogSisters, which I have joined because I read about it at jfcates site and I think it is interesting. I am doing some exploring - but time is precious. I have material building up to write about...for the moment that will have to keep too. Too many other demands!
Needless to say, I did not finish grading all my remaining students work. It is a slow, unpleasant task, because I feel like my usual criteria are out the window. But I am taking tomorrow off - that is, "day off" means I am spending a day getting ready for the yardsale. This means loading the truck and making a round trip tomorrow (65 miles each way), because we are having it at the other house. We meant to go today, but it snowed here! It was kind of a major event for May. A big piece of the lilac bush snapped, which was so sad.
Friday, May 17, 2002
What a day. I found two more pairs of students engaged in the plagiarism fiasco. I took it to my department chair, and to the Judicial Affairs office. Both are very supportive, but I am just sick from this. And, although I have finished the cheating detection process (one bright spot is that I think I have proven to myself that this is the first semester it happened) I still have a stack of material to grade for the honest students, that should have been done already. Aiming for Monday, although this weekend was supposed to be dedicated to getting ready for next weekend's yardsale...
Tonight was the target for having all the evaluations completed in my class, because grades are due tomorrow. But today, I discovered that at least three students submitted term papers that are identical to ones that were handed in by former students during past semesters, so I have not finished all the evaluations, because I am now forced to be really, really careful in checking over every assignment so I can detect how widespread a plague this has become. I am upset, disillusioned, and disgusted. (And that's an understatement.) I have heard from four of the six students involved; the two who are currently in the class, both graduating seniors, are pleading for me to overlook this mistake because, they insist, they have never done such a thing before and they have high GPAs. The two from past semesters claim to not know the students from this semester. I have a lot of thinking to do, and I'll have to have some discussions with others at the university.
I've seen some recent articles in The Chronicle that I was saving, intending to use them as the subject of entries here, once the semester is over. They continued on the plagiarism theme that I write about occasionally. The articles suggested that up to a third of an undergraduate class may be buying term papers off the Internet. I guess submitting student papers to term paper cheating detection service could possibly be a violation of student copyright - because those services keep the papers and build their database for the future. And, they are expensive, so many colleges don't subscribe. I occasionally see pitches in some of the writing newsletters I receive, for people with masters and doctoral degrees to write term papers on academic subjects. They always make me uncomfortable, because I wonder - is this legit? Doesn't seem like it. I have almost considered protesting to the newsletter over running such ads. I didn't expect to have to deal with such an extreme and obvious case in my own class! And no service was necessary: I have all the papers from past classes to check against. The guilty parties are telling me they made a mistake; yeah, risking doing this in my class was a really big mistake...
This sort of behavior could make me give up teaching.
I've seen some recent articles in The Chronicle that I was saving, intending to use them as the subject of entries here, once the semester is over. They continued on the plagiarism theme that I write about occasionally. The articles suggested that up to a third of an undergraduate class may be buying term papers off the Internet. I guess submitting student papers to term paper cheating detection service could possibly be a violation of student copyright - because those services keep the papers and build their database for the future. And, they are expensive, so many colleges don't subscribe. I occasionally see pitches in some of the writing newsletters I receive, for people with masters and doctoral degrees to write term papers on academic subjects. They always make me uncomfortable, because I wonder - is this legit? Doesn't seem like it. I have almost considered protesting to the newsletter over running such ads. I didn't expect to have to deal with such an extreme and obvious case in my own class! And no service was necessary: I have all the papers from past classes to check against. The guilty parties are telling me they made a mistake; yeah, risking doing this in my class was a really big mistake...
This sort of behavior could make me give up teaching.
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Tuesday Too # 12
1.) The "ideal" body image has changed over time. During the last 50 years, not only has the image changed; the image is in your face in a way it's never was before (i.e. television). I remember the skinny guy on the back of the comic books, watching forlornly as the muscle boy got the girl, who BTW was not skinny as she would be today (an advertisement for pumping iron). Is it important to you, or your partner that you resemble the current ideal image? Why or why not?
No, I find such obsessions irritating, although of course just being a member of society forces (or at least encourages) one to conform to some norms (shaving, showering, dressing, etc.) and the attention on "healthy living" that is everywhere also creates pressure to embrace a certain lifestyle (low fat, exercise, no smoking, etc.) even among those of us who shun silly, popular advertised images. But this question makes me remember about 15 years ago, when at work someone asked, "if you could be either smarter or prettier, which would you choose?" The office was on campus, and the staff was all 20-something women, mostly graduate students, as a group already bright and attractive. Everyone, and I mean everyone, said without hesitation: prettier. Why? Because all felt they were smart enough, and that becoming any smarter would be a barrier to dating, and maybe even to getting through life!
2.) The Boston Avon 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer (60 miles) starts on May 17th. My sister and her daughter are going on this trek across generations and gender; it can strike at any age, and while it is uncommon, men also can get breast cancer. Why is it important to give up your time unselfishly for others? Is there an issue or circumstance in your life/family that you would be willing to give up 3 days for? Is there an organization or community action that you are part of, or support that we should know about?
I don't know about three straight days - but history is very important to me, and so I volunteer at two museums; I was a tour guide, and now I am the gardener at Historic Cherry Hill, I am a docent at the Bishop Museum, and I serve on the boards of the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and the Town of Olive Historical Society. I financially support many organizations; since I love animals, they are primarily those devoted to animal welfare (ie, Mohawk and Hudson Humane Society and the ASPCA), and to hunger, literacy, and historic preservation. I have done some short-term volunteer work for a few other non-profits on occasion.
3.) Are you the black sheep, or prodigal son/daughter of your family? How come?, and If not tell us who is and why?
My family is large, and very close. My immediate family lives in the same geographical area. I live about 65 miles away, and ever since I left my hometown in 1978 to attend college, I had a plan for when I would return, after my formal education was complete. It took a lot of years to get there; in 2000 I got a PhD. Being a small town, the job opportunities back home are not a perfect match for my skills or my husband's, and commuting is out of the question. But, we managed a somewhat revised version of my plan, in that we have a weekend house there, and this way I get to spend time with them, and participate in most family activities, while still maintaining a tie to the university, and to the conveniences of a weekday life nearer to a city. It has worked out perfectly. I guess in a way this is kind of like being the prodigal daughter, but everyone in my family has some special charms and thankfully, there are no outcasts.
1.) The "ideal" body image has changed over time. During the last 50 years, not only has the image changed; the image is in your face in a way it's never was before (i.e. television). I remember the skinny guy on the back of the comic books, watching forlornly as the muscle boy got the girl, who BTW was not skinny as she would be today (an advertisement for pumping iron). Is it important to you, or your partner that you resemble the current ideal image? Why or why not?
No, I find such obsessions irritating, although of course just being a member of society forces (or at least encourages) one to conform to some norms (shaving, showering, dressing, etc.) and the attention on "healthy living" that is everywhere also creates pressure to embrace a certain lifestyle (low fat, exercise, no smoking, etc.) even among those of us who shun silly, popular advertised images. But this question makes me remember about 15 years ago, when at work someone asked, "if you could be either smarter or prettier, which would you choose?" The office was on campus, and the staff was all 20-something women, mostly graduate students, as a group already bright and attractive. Everyone, and I mean everyone, said without hesitation: prettier. Why? Because all felt they were smart enough, and that becoming any smarter would be a barrier to dating, and maybe even to getting through life!
2.) The Boston Avon 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer (60 miles) starts on May 17th. My sister and her daughter are going on this trek across generations and gender; it can strike at any age, and while it is uncommon, men also can get breast cancer. Why is it important to give up your time unselfishly for others? Is there an issue or circumstance in your life/family that you would be willing to give up 3 days for? Is there an organization or community action that you are part of, or support that we should know about?
I don't know about three straight days - but history is very important to me, and so I volunteer at two museums; I was a tour guide, and now I am the gardener at Historic Cherry Hill, I am a docent at the Bishop Museum, and I serve on the boards of the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and the Town of Olive Historical Society. I financially support many organizations; since I love animals, they are primarily those devoted to animal welfare (ie, Mohawk and Hudson Humane Society and the ASPCA), and to hunger, literacy, and historic preservation. I have done some short-term volunteer work for a few other non-profits on occasion.
3.) Are you the black sheep, or prodigal son/daughter of your family? How come?, and If not tell us who is and why?
My family is large, and very close. My immediate family lives in the same geographical area. I live about 65 miles away, and ever since I left my hometown in 1978 to attend college, I had a plan for when I would return, after my formal education was complete. It took a lot of years to get there; in 2000 I got a PhD. Being a small town, the job opportunities back home are not a perfect match for my skills or my husband's, and commuting is out of the question. But, we managed a somewhat revised version of my plan, in that we have a weekend house there, and this way I get to spend time with them, and participate in most family activities, while still maintaining a tie to the university, and to the conveniences of a weekday life nearer to a city. It has worked out perfectly. I guess in a way this is kind of like being the prodigal daughter, but everyone in my family has some special charms and thankfully, there are no outcasts.
Monday, May 13, 2002
Tired today, and facing a week of intensive student evaluation. The grades for my class are due on Friday. I try to finish up by Thursday night, so that students have a day to react before I actually get the list to the registrar. It is possible to change a grade after that, but I try to avoid extra paperwork. Up to five students per semester ask me to explain their grade - and occasionally I do make a mistake in my spreadsheet. But more often students who did very little in class and so failed or ended up with D- try to get a higher grade, and most often students who did well (B+ or A-) try to get A- or A, respectively.
The weekend was active. Lots of yardwork on Saturday, and a Mother's Day trip on Sunday to South Deerfield, MA where we met the in-laws, went to Yankee Candle and then out to dinner. On Saturday, as I was moving hosta, hosing off the resin furniture, weeding between the bricks of the walkway, and anticipating planting that 5 pound bag of green beans from Seeds of Change, I was thinking about bugs. Something I like about winter in the northeast is that in late Fall there's a frost - and bang, the bugs are gone!
Now, honey bees are always welcome. Also, I plant beneficial flowers near my vegetable garden to attract "good" predator insects that eat "bad" crop-detroying bugs, so I am not referring to being creeped out by bugs in general. What I mean is, I don't like the seasonal infestations of pests. I especially don't like the annual Spring scourge of ants that appears in the kitchen. Then, last July, pantry moths hatched out of a big bag of dog food and by October, forced me to throw away an entire pantry of food. As far as mosquitos go, don't get me started.
I won't use pesticides, an exterminator, or insect repellent. I have found some effective natural products for moth control in Gardens Alive. The ants I either ignore until they disappear, capture and release outside, or kill them manually the minute I see them - depending on my mood and philosophy that season. When I was a very little kid, on a visit to Florida, I got hung up in an anthill, and red ants swarmed on me and bit my legs. What an awful experience! The ants in my kitchen are not those red, tiny things but big, black ones.
I do confess to having a can of unscented Raid, which is reserved for the occasional wasp or yellow jacket that makes its way into the house. I am too scared and incompetent to capture and release or manually kill wasps, and I am terrified that one of the dogs will try to get them. Sophie was stung last summer, and as she is a very allergic dog, her reaction was frightening, and required an emergency call to the vet. Rudy likes to catch flies, so I'm afraid if it was in the house, he would try to get a wasp, too. I spray nothing else; not even spiders, even though in the 1980s I was deathly ill on Fourth of July holiday from being bitten by a brown recluse (fiddleback) spider (they are poisonous). But I know spiders are good bugs, and as long as they avoid me (and are not too awful looking), I do my best to avoid them.
Anyway, this year, we had a couple of weird days in April that were 95 degrees - about a million wasps hatched out. They had nests on the porch, in the awning, near many of the house windows. Although I have the wasp killer, I don't want to use it very much, so I thought, "why didn't I search for and knock down all the wasp nests I could find when it was cold outside?" An army of ants appeared at the same time. Then it dipped below freezing; it may even have snowed. The weather has returned to normal, and I don't notice the wasps. But I think the ants were impervious, because they are back.
Yesterday, after Yankee Candle, we stopped at a butterfly sanctuary called Magic Wings. There was a greenhouse-type room that you can go in, with exotic and beautiful plants, and butterflies of every description flying around. It was incredible. The place was packed. It struck me that if it was another type of insect - mosquitos or wasps or spiders or ants - how freaked out we all would be!
I received a very nice email, from John Kavanaugh, the man who manages the Port Authority's memorial website, reporting that my story about Sirius, the only dog to die in the World Trade Center (see my April 24 entry), has been posted on the website.
I have been doing a little surfing in the weblog world. I am intrigued not so much by any one particular journal but by the phenomenon itself. More on this subject in the future, but at the moment, after reading some of the weblogs of various people, I can envision the need for two journals: one an off-line bound volume, filled with scribblings about its online rival!
The weekend was active. Lots of yardwork on Saturday, and a Mother's Day trip on Sunday to South Deerfield, MA where we met the in-laws, went to Yankee Candle and then out to dinner. On Saturday, as I was moving hosta, hosing off the resin furniture, weeding between the bricks of the walkway, and anticipating planting that 5 pound bag of green beans from Seeds of Change, I was thinking about bugs. Something I like about winter in the northeast is that in late Fall there's a frost - and bang, the bugs are gone!
Now, honey bees are always welcome. Also, I plant beneficial flowers near my vegetable garden to attract "good" predator insects that eat "bad" crop-detroying bugs, so I am not referring to being creeped out by bugs in general. What I mean is, I don't like the seasonal infestations of pests. I especially don't like the annual Spring scourge of ants that appears in the kitchen. Then, last July, pantry moths hatched out of a big bag of dog food and by October, forced me to throw away an entire pantry of food. As far as mosquitos go, don't get me started.
I won't use pesticides, an exterminator, or insect repellent. I have found some effective natural products for moth control in Gardens Alive. The ants I either ignore until they disappear, capture and release outside, or kill them manually the minute I see them - depending on my mood and philosophy that season. When I was a very little kid, on a visit to Florida, I got hung up in an anthill, and red ants swarmed on me and bit my legs. What an awful experience! The ants in my kitchen are not those red, tiny things but big, black ones.
I do confess to having a can of unscented Raid, which is reserved for the occasional wasp or yellow jacket that makes its way into the house. I am too scared and incompetent to capture and release or manually kill wasps, and I am terrified that one of the dogs will try to get them. Sophie was stung last summer, and as she is a very allergic dog, her reaction was frightening, and required an emergency call to the vet. Rudy likes to catch flies, so I'm afraid if it was in the house, he would try to get a wasp, too. I spray nothing else; not even spiders, even though in the 1980s I was deathly ill on Fourth of July holiday from being bitten by a brown recluse (fiddleback) spider (they are poisonous). But I know spiders are good bugs, and as long as they avoid me (and are not too awful looking), I do my best to avoid them.
Anyway, this year, we had a couple of weird days in April that were 95 degrees - about a million wasps hatched out. They had nests on the porch, in the awning, near many of the house windows. Although I have the wasp killer, I don't want to use it very much, so I thought, "why didn't I search for and knock down all the wasp nests I could find when it was cold outside?" An army of ants appeared at the same time. Then it dipped below freezing; it may even have snowed. The weather has returned to normal, and I don't notice the wasps. But I think the ants were impervious, because they are back.
Yesterday, after Yankee Candle, we stopped at a butterfly sanctuary called Magic Wings. There was a greenhouse-type room that you can go in, with exotic and beautiful plants, and butterflies of every description flying around. It was incredible. The place was packed. It struck me that if it was another type of insect - mosquitos or wasps or spiders or ants - how freaked out we all would be!
I received a very nice email, from John Kavanaugh, the man who manages the Port Authority's memorial website, reporting that my story about Sirius, the only dog to die in the World Trade Center (see my April 24 entry), has been posted on the website.
I have been doing a little surfing in the weblog world. I am intrigued not so much by any one particular journal but by the phenomenon itself. More on this subject in the future, but at the moment, after reading some of the weblogs of various people, I can envision the need for two journals: one an off-line bound volume, filled with scribblings about its online rival!
Friday, May 10, 2002
Lots of posting (and procrastinating) this week. This morning, even before having my cup of (microwaved) coffee (you should pause here to consider how disgusting that is, but I'm too (a) cheap and (b) lazy to not use up the leftovers from what my husband Bob brewed when he was getting ready for work -- at a very uncivilized hour), I had to clean up a lot of cat puke and dog sh--. I have two dogs and a cat -- they are the joys of my life -- but that task made the microwaved coffee with skim milk, no sugar afterwards seem gourmet. Edna and Sophie (the guilty parties) slept in, but faithful Rudy (more than likely the not guilty party), the group leader, monitored the clean-up. My sister once remarked over how good Rudy is, "all on his own," which is true, because I certainly never made a big effort in obedience.
Luckily, in the kitchen there is a big bouquet of lilacs. The 60 year old lilac bush in the yard is more beautiful than it has been in the 15 years I've lived here. You can almost drink the scent in the kitchen. I am kind of scent-sensitive, an allergy I've gradually developed over the past few years. I know lots of people think this disorder is faked or psychosomatic, and I may have too, before I developed the problem myself. I think Bob may suspect it's really an allergy to cleaning, though, because natural scents don't bother me, only chemical ones!
I received an email today, about something very upsetting. It originated from a Yahoo group called Nature Potpourri. It was based on an article in New Scientist about using genetic modification to kill off an invasive species. It is so horrible, in fact, that I offer the link without comment.
I figure if I sandwich that awful story between two marvels (lilacs and the news that follows) it can never become palatable but maybe it will be diluted a little: on Wednesday, my copy of the education resource book, Education: Reflecting Our Society? that I wrote arrived! It's not quite the equal of selling fiction or non-fiction of my own design (although it was more lucrative), but still - What a thrill!
Luckily, in the kitchen there is a big bouquet of lilacs. The 60 year old lilac bush in the yard is more beautiful than it has been in the 15 years I've lived here. You can almost drink the scent in the kitchen. I am kind of scent-sensitive, an allergy I've gradually developed over the past few years. I know lots of people think this disorder is faked or psychosomatic, and I may have too, before I developed the problem myself. I think Bob may suspect it's really an allergy to cleaning, though, because natural scents don't bother me, only chemical ones!
I received an email today, about something very upsetting. It originated from a Yahoo group called Nature Potpourri. It was based on an article in New Scientist about using genetic modification to kill off an invasive species. It is so horrible, in fact, that I offer the link without comment.
I figure if I sandwich that awful story between two marvels (lilacs and the news that follows) it can never become palatable but maybe it will be diluted a little: on Wednesday, my copy of the education resource book, Education: Reflecting Our Society? that I wrote arrived! It's not quite the equal of selling fiction or non-fiction of my own design (although it was more lucrative), but still - What a thrill!
Thursday, May 09, 2002
I just checked the status of my "rad," and it said "active." I almost had a heart attack! Yippee! It wasn't a scam. So I figure I'd better post something good. Today, I received the following Wooden Horse Publishing Alert. I'd like to just put a link to it, or copy an excerpt, but this Alert isn't appearing on their website yet and while you are encouraged to share this information, the entire newsletter must be included. So I'm sorry for the length, but here goes.
First, a very brief synopsis. Basically, it is encouraging support for the "Freelance Writers and Artists Protection Act of 2002" which is being sponsored in Congress by Rep. John Conyers, Jr (D-Michigan) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah). I wanted to get additional information, including a copy of the bill itself, so I visited the National Writers Union's site. Sure enough, there were links to all the background information I was seeking.
THE WOODEN HORSE PUBLISHING NEWS ALERT
May 9, 2002
By
Meg Weaver, Editor, mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com
Petra Lattmann, Contributing Editor
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com
Copyright (c) 2001 Wooden Horse Publishing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi everybody,
You get an assignment from a magazine.
You tell other writers how much you got paid.
You've committed a crime.
I'm not kidding. It really *is* against American antitrust law for freelance writers to share information about pay.
That's why freelancers should support a bipartisan bill recently introduced in Congress by Rep. John Conyers, Jr (D-Michigan) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and named the "Freelance Writers and Artists Protection Act of
2002." It will grant freelance authors an exemption from anti-trust law.
The bill is a result of years of lobbying from the National Writers Union and the Graphic Artists Guild.
You can read the bill itself and Rep. Conyers' statement at the press conference introducing the bill on the NWU website at http://www.nwu.org.
Here are some excerpts from Rep. Conyers' statement:
"The advent of the Internet has created an entirely new market for the distribution of creative content, such as music, movies, news articles, and photographs. The desire for instant information has made it more important
than ever to get that work out to millions of people quickly and to have the rights to the distribution of articles and graphics cleared immediately."
"As we saw from last year's New York Times v. Tasini case, however, the creators of information - freelance writers, illustrators, cartoonists, graphic designers, and photographers - often have not shared in the benefits of this new market. In some cases, large media conglomerates often force creators to sign away the rights to their works through "take it or leave it" - or adhesion - contracts if they wish to have them published and distributed."
"Individual writers and artists don't stand a chance of negotiating favorable terms and fees when they must go up against media giants. And because many creators are not "employees" of the publishers, the antitrust
laws forbid them from bargaining as a unit or even sharing information about the pricing of their work. Each freelancer must, therefore, go it alone and negotiate individually with the publishers who control the media
outlets."
"First, this legislation gives freelance writers and artists an antitrust exemption so they can present a united front against the big media companies who have been forcing them to sign non-negotiable contracts that surrender all their rights. In doing so, the bill makes it easier for freelancers to bargain fairly for their rights as a collective."
"In addition, because of the speed and nature of the publishing industry, these same freelance writers and artists often do not have time to have their works protected under the copyright laws before the publications they
go into are printed. As a result, the creators may not receive relief under the copyright laws if their works are stolen. The bill remedies this by automatically protecting the individual works when the publication
receives copyright protection."
"Finally, this bill addresses the problem of the theft of creative works that have not been released. There are creators who decide not to release an article, book, movie, or song, but others steal them and infringe on the
creators' rights. The criminal copyright law penalizes those who infringe works having a retail value of $1,000 or more, but works that have not been released are not protected because they have no retail value. They are,
however, valuable to their creators, and we need to close the loophole in the law that allows the theft of these unreleased or unpublished works. For that reason, the bill amends the law to say that the theft of unpublished works also can be a criminal offense."
If you like to make sure that this bill passes, take the time to either personally visit a member of Congress, write a letter and spread the word.
You can do the latter simply by forwarding this newsletter to writing friends and colleagues and posting it on writers' message boards and mailing lists. You have my permission if you send the newsletter in it entirety.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are stories we have just posted or are working on:
BLUES ACCESS is gone.
WORTH has a new editor-in-chief.
LYMPHATIC RESEARCH AND BIOLOGY is new.
The details are on the Home, Fast News, and Content Watch pages of the site
at http://www.woodenhorsepub.com.
Just in:
THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALIST is a new magazine and website that takes a look at the environment, both at home and work. It features information about how to overhaul your lifestyle and make the environment better. It will include a large range of tips for reducing energy consumption and pollution and will update their readers on current environment challenges and accomplishments. The editors will try to inform about how to apply common
sense, simple technology, and good sense and science to help make our environment better, cleaner and save money. Pitch the editor/publisher, Ray Rasmussen, The New Environmentalist, 2222 Francisco Drive, Suite 510,
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762-3766, (916) 941-1133, fax: (425) 790-4423.
Great Lakes Publishing, the publishers of OHIO Magazine, are now producing the first issue of LONG WEEKENDS magazine. This new travel publication with a circulation of 250,000 in 8 states in and around the Great Lakes region, will concentrate on travel stories about destinations within a one-day drive. The stories will be about hotels, inns, B&Bs, and events in the area. CLEVELAND magazine, which is a typical up-scale city magazine features arts and entertainment, dining, travel, nightlife, homes in the area, and notable places and people. Suggestions for both publications go to the editor, Richard Osborne, who is reached at the magazine, 1422 Euclid Avenue, Suite 730, Cleveland, OH 44115, (216) 771-2833.
PARENTS EXPECTING, the over one million controlled circulation quarterly published by G+J USA, changes course and will lower its circulation and frequency in an attempt to convert a portion of its circulation to paid
readers. Beginning with the spring issue, on newsstands April 16, the 7-year-old full-service pregnancy magazine slashes its circulation to 500,000, with 325,000 copies continuing to reach doctor's offices. For the first time, 175,000 copies will be on newsstands, and the frequency change will depend on how successful this new venture will be. Parents Expecting also had a makeover with better quality paper and a more consumer friendly editorial content. Kate Lawlor is the editor-in-chief, with Ronald Kelly managing editor. They are at 375 Lexington Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10017, (212) 499-2000.
Just so you know: We migrate all these facts into the Wooden Horse database if you need them later (http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/search.asp).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GET WHAT YOU REALLY WANT FOR MOTHER'S DAY...
A subscription to the Wooden Horse Magazines Database - at a special price!
Tired of flowers, scarves or George Foreman grills? Want to really look forward to your Mother's Day gift?
Then give this to your loved ones and have them sign you up for 6 months for $79 or a full year for $119 of access to the magazine database writers must have to be successful today (or do it yourself!)
They, or you, don't have to drive to the mall and fight the crowds. Just click on the links below and get instant access to writer's guidelines, editorial calendars and full contact information for over 2,000 US and Canadian consumer and trade magazines.
*** And, if you have procrastinators in your family, these special subscription prices are available up to, and including, Mother's Day! ***
Here's how to order:
1) Online - just go to:
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/page27.html for 1 year
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/page28.html for 6 months
Just be sure to sign up on or before May 12, 2002.
2) Fax - Our 24-hour fax number is (831) 761-9085. From the purchaser, we need: Name, address, phone and e-mail (in case we have questions), credit card number and expiration date. And for the subscriber: Name, address,
e-mail, and a log-in and password (alphanumerics only, please.)
3) Mail - Our address is
Wooden Horse Publishing
1961 Main Street, Suite 222
Watsonville, CA 95076
Be sure to have your letter postmarked on or before May 12, 2002.
From the purchaser, we need: Name, address, phone and e-mail (in case we have questions). You may pay by check or money order in U.S. funds to "Wooden Horse Publishing" or include your credit card number and expiration date. No COD. For the subscriber, we need: Name, address, e-mail, and a log-in and password (alphanumerics only, please.)
If you have any questions, e-mail Meg at mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com or call her at (831) 728-0835.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Briefs:
BUDGET LIVING will get the Martha Stewart-treatment. The new magazine is scheduled for launch next September and the plans are to create a media empire per industry newsletter Folio: First Day with the "magazine, book, television, radio, syndicated newspaper columns and Internet properties, all focused on various components of the Budget Living theme." Targeted readers are being presented as "men and women in upper-income households who are in the midst of their peak earning and spending years" but who relish good bargains. The magazine itself will probably be on a budget, since founder Donald Welsh will be launching the 148-page, $3.95 per issue title with a modest $5 million...
CONSUMER REPORTS is recalling a glove compartment kit the magazine used as a subscription incentive. The kit contained a flashlight that can overheat and melt the case and a tire pressure gauge that gives inaccurate readings, which could lead people to improperly inflate their tires. Yes, the magazine will list the recall in their regular "recalls" section in the July issue...
ROLLING STONE has been gathering moss, but no longer. Newsstand sales down 10%, $15 million short in advertising revenue in 2001, and fellow music magazine BLENDER growing nicely. So, owner Jann Wenner fired its top editor, a long-time friend, and put Kirsten Dunst on the cover. Is he moving the music magazine into the general entertainment market?...
"Magazine advertising is looking like the second half of the year could be better," said newly minted AOL Time Warner (TIME, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, FIELD & STREAM) CEO Richard Parsons Monday at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference. But then he also admitted that the company had over-hyped the ad sales "synergy" between the various media divisions. The company just posted the largest loss ever for an American company...
Keep writing - and make sure Mother gets what she really wants,
Meg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wooden Horse Publishing
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com
1961 Main Street, Suite 222
Watsonville, CA 95076
mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com
(831) 728-0835
(831) 761-9085 (fax)
To subscribe to the News Alerts or unsubscribe, just e-mail Meg at mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com.
Copyright (c) 2002 Wooden Horse Publishing. Please feel free to forward this News Alert but only in its entirety.
First, a very brief synopsis. Basically, it is encouraging support for the "Freelance Writers and Artists Protection Act of 2002" which is being sponsored in Congress by Rep. John Conyers, Jr (D-Michigan) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah). I wanted to get additional information, including a copy of the bill itself, so I visited the National Writers Union's site. Sure enough, there were links to all the background information I was seeking.
THE WOODEN HORSE PUBLISHING NEWS ALERT
May 9, 2002
By
Meg Weaver, Editor, mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com
Petra Lattmann, Contributing Editor
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com
Copyright (c) 2001 Wooden Horse Publishing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi everybody,
You get an assignment from a magazine.
You tell other writers how much you got paid.
You've committed a crime.
I'm not kidding. It really *is* against American antitrust law for freelance writers to share information about pay.
That's why freelancers should support a bipartisan bill recently introduced in Congress by Rep. John Conyers, Jr (D-Michigan) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and named the "Freelance Writers and Artists Protection Act of
2002." It will grant freelance authors an exemption from anti-trust law.
The bill is a result of years of lobbying from the National Writers Union and the Graphic Artists Guild.
You can read the bill itself and Rep. Conyers' statement at the press conference introducing the bill on the NWU website at http://www.nwu.org.
Here are some excerpts from Rep. Conyers' statement:
"The advent of the Internet has created an entirely new market for the distribution of creative content, such as music, movies, news articles, and photographs. The desire for instant information has made it more important
than ever to get that work out to millions of people quickly and to have the rights to the distribution of articles and graphics cleared immediately."
"As we saw from last year's New York Times v. Tasini case, however, the creators of information - freelance writers, illustrators, cartoonists, graphic designers, and photographers - often have not shared in the benefits of this new market. In some cases, large media conglomerates often force creators to sign away the rights to their works through "take it or leave it" - or adhesion - contracts if they wish to have them published and distributed."
"Individual writers and artists don't stand a chance of negotiating favorable terms and fees when they must go up against media giants. And because many creators are not "employees" of the publishers, the antitrust
laws forbid them from bargaining as a unit or even sharing information about the pricing of their work. Each freelancer must, therefore, go it alone and negotiate individually with the publishers who control the media
outlets."
"First, this legislation gives freelance writers and artists an antitrust exemption so they can present a united front against the big media companies who have been forcing them to sign non-negotiable contracts that surrender all their rights. In doing so, the bill makes it easier for freelancers to bargain fairly for their rights as a collective."
"In addition, because of the speed and nature of the publishing industry, these same freelance writers and artists often do not have time to have their works protected under the copyright laws before the publications they
go into are printed. As a result, the creators may not receive relief under the copyright laws if their works are stolen. The bill remedies this by automatically protecting the individual works when the publication
receives copyright protection."
"Finally, this bill addresses the problem of the theft of creative works that have not been released. There are creators who decide not to release an article, book, movie, or song, but others steal them and infringe on the
creators' rights. The criminal copyright law penalizes those who infringe works having a retail value of $1,000 or more, but works that have not been released are not protected because they have no retail value. They are,
however, valuable to their creators, and we need to close the loophole in the law that allows the theft of these unreleased or unpublished works. For that reason, the bill amends the law to say that the theft of unpublished works also can be a criminal offense."
If you like to make sure that this bill passes, take the time to either personally visit a member of Congress, write a letter and spread the word.
You can do the latter simply by forwarding this newsletter to writing friends and colleagues and posting it on writers' message boards and mailing lists. You have my permission if you send the newsletter in it entirety.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are stories we have just posted or are working on:
BLUES ACCESS is gone.
WORTH has a new editor-in-chief.
LYMPHATIC RESEARCH AND BIOLOGY is new.
The details are on the Home, Fast News, and Content Watch pages of the site
at http://www.woodenhorsepub.com.
Just in:
THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALIST is a new magazine and website that takes a look at the environment, both at home and work. It features information about how to overhaul your lifestyle and make the environment better. It will include a large range of tips for reducing energy consumption and pollution and will update their readers on current environment challenges and accomplishments. The editors will try to inform about how to apply common
sense, simple technology, and good sense and science to help make our environment better, cleaner and save money. Pitch the editor/publisher, Ray Rasmussen, The New Environmentalist, 2222 Francisco Drive, Suite 510,
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762-3766, (916) 941-1133, fax: (425) 790-4423.
Great Lakes Publishing, the publishers of OHIO Magazine, are now producing the first issue of LONG WEEKENDS magazine. This new travel publication with a circulation of 250,000 in 8 states in and around the Great Lakes region, will concentrate on travel stories about destinations within a one-day drive. The stories will be about hotels, inns, B&Bs, and events in the area. CLEVELAND magazine, which is a typical up-scale city magazine features arts and entertainment, dining, travel, nightlife, homes in the area, and notable places and people. Suggestions for both publications go to the editor, Richard Osborne, who is reached at the magazine, 1422 Euclid Avenue, Suite 730, Cleveland, OH 44115, (216) 771-2833.
PARENTS EXPECTING, the over one million controlled circulation quarterly published by G+J USA, changes course and will lower its circulation and frequency in an attempt to convert a portion of its circulation to paid
readers. Beginning with the spring issue, on newsstands April 16, the 7-year-old full-service pregnancy magazine slashes its circulation to 500,000, with 325,000 copies continuing to reach doctor's offices. For the first time, 175,000 copies will be on newsstands, and the frequency change will depend on how successful this new venture will be. Parents Expecting also had a makeover with better quality paper and a more consumer friendly editorial content. Kate Lawlor is the editor-in-chief, with Ronald Kelly managing editor. They are at 375 Lexington Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10017, (212) 499-2000.
Just so you know: We migrate all these facts into the Wooden Horse database if you need them later (http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/search.asp).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GET WHAT YOU REALLY WANT FOR MOTHER'S DAY...
A subscription to the Wooden Horse Magazines Database - at a special price!
Tired of flowers, scarves or George Foreman grills? Want to really look forward to your Mother's Day gift?
Then give this to your loved ones and have them sign you up for 6 months for $79 or a full year for $119 of access to the magazine database writers must have to be successful today (or do it yourself!)
They, or you, don't have to drive to the mall and fight the crowds. Just click on the links below and get instant access to writer's guidelines, editorial calendars and full contact information for over 2,000 US and Canadian consumer and trade magazines.
*** And, if you have procrastinators in your family, these special subscription prices are available up to, and including, Mother's Day! ***
Here's how to order:
1) Online - just go to:
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/page27.html for 1 year
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/page28.html for 6 months
Just be sure to sign up on or before May 12, 2002.
2) Fax - Our 24-hour fax number is (831) 761-9085. From the purchaser, we need: Name, address, phone and e-mail (in case we have questions), credit card number and expiration date. And for the subscriber: Name, address,
e-mail, and a log-in and password (alphanumerics only, please.)
3) Mail - Our address is
Wooden Horse Publishing
1961 Main Street, Suite 222
Watsonville, CA 95076
Be sure to have your letter postmarked on or before May 12, 2002.
From the purchaser, we need: Name, address, phone and e-mail (in case we have questions). You may pay by check or money order in U.S. funds to "Wooden Horse Publishing" or include your credit card number and expiration date. No COD. For the subscriber, we need: Name, address, e-mail, and a log-in and password (alphanumerics only, please.)
If you have any questions, e-mail Meg at mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com or call her at (831) 728-0835.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Briefs:
BUDGET LIVING will get the Martha Stewart-treatment. The new magazine is scheduled for launch next September and the plans are to create a media empire per industry newsletter Folio: First Day with the "magazine, book, television, radio, syndicated newspaper columns and Internet properties, all focused on various components of the Budget Living theme." Targeted readers are being presented as "men and women in upper-income households who are in the midst of their peak earning and spending years" but who relish good bargains. The magazine itself will probably be on a budget, since founder Donald Welsh will be launching the 148-page, $3.95 per issue title with a modest $5 million...
CONSUMER REPORTS is recalling a glove compartment kit the magazine used as a subscription incentive. The kit contained a flashlight that can overheat and melt the case and a tire pressure gauge that gives inaccurate readings, which could lead people to improperly inflate their tires. Yes, the magazine will list the recall in their regular "recalls" section in the July issue...
ROLLING STONE has been gathering moss, but no longer. Newsstand sales down 10%, $15 million short in advertising revenue in 2001, and fellow music magazine BLENDER growing nicely. So, owner Jann Wenner fired its top editor, a long-time friend, and put Kirsten Dunst on the cover. Is he moving the music magazine into the general entertainment market?...
"Magazine advertising is looking like the second half of the year could be better," said newly minted AOL Time Warner (TIME, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, FIELD & STREAM) CEO Richard Parsons Monday at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference. But then he also admitted that the company had over-hyped the ad sales "synergy" between the various media divisions. The company just posted the largest loss ever for an American company...
Keep writing - and make sure Mother gets what she really wants,
Meg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wooden Horse Publishing
http://www.woodenhorsepub.com
1961 Main Street, Suite 222
Watsonville, CA 95076
mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com
(831) 728-0835
(831) 761-9085 (fax)
To subscribe to the News Alerts or unsubscribe, just e-mail Meg at mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com.
Copyright (c) 2002 Wooden Horse Publishing. Please feel free to forward this News Alert but only in its entirety.
It's late at night, so I can't feel bad that I am procrastinating on other work - all I "should" be doing at the moment is sleeping! I've always done my best work when burning the midnight oil - just like my mother and my grandmother. My mother says, "it's the shank of the evening" when it is 10 p.m. But I have mostly forced myself to conform to the world's 9 to 5 schedule (and I've found in some places 8 to 4 is preferred), although I have a bad habit of being habitually late. Oh well! I can't change, or maybe I just don't feel like changing. I still try to keep up a "regular" schedule - except that I don't start my work day at 8 or 9, but the much more civilized 10-ish. So there.
Tonight I went to the YMCA to go swimming. We have a new one nearby, and it hasn't had time to get stinky yet. Among types of exercise, swimming ranks up there in being enjoyable - although my eyes are burning from the extreme amount of chlorine. And that much activity makes it harder for me to sleep. So I guess I can see what all the fanatics say about having more energy after exercise!
My class is coming to the end - it is finals week - and I am reminded of the reasons I like teaching. Several students comment to me about how they will never forget the class, or how much they learned. They thank me. Now, I know it is possible that some percentage is apple polishing - but I'm a person who likes to believe that a larger percentage is sincere. It makes it all worth it, every semester.
I am starting to get a little steamed...I read in one of the interviews on the home page that there are more than 500,000 users of Blogger - the numbers grow every day - so it seems reasonable to assume that at least a few others decided to invest in a micro-ad. As I wrote on Tuesday, I posted something in user-to-user about this, but have not received any comments from others, which considering those numbers, is strange. My order is still listed as "pending rad approval." My money was transferred on 5/2. That's an eternity in the online world! I have sent two emails asking about the status, and received no response. Now $10 isn't much, but I think it is a question of goodwill. Maybe the system isn't up and running yet or something, and that's fine. But I think some kind of communication is in order. Apart from the ad thing though, lately Blogger has been working fine - so much so, in fact, that I got the nerve to tinker a bit with the template. (More to come, although nothing major is in the works.)
Tonight I went to the YMCA to go swimming. We have a new one nearby, and it hasn't had time to get stinky yet. Among types of exercise, swimming ranks up there in being enjoyable - although my eyes are burning from the extreme amount of chlorine. And that much activity makes it harder for me to sleep. So I guess I can see what all the fanatics say about having more energy after exercise!
My class is coming to the end - it is finals week - and I am reminded of the reasons I like teaching. Several students comment to me about how they will never forget the class, or how much they learned. They thank me. Now, I know it is possible that some percentage is apple polishing - but I'm a person who likes to believe that a larger percentage is sincere. It makes it all worth it, every semester.
I am starting to get a little steamed...I read in one of the interviews on the home page that there are more than 500,000 users of Blogger - the numbers grow every day - so it seems reasonable to assume that at least a few others decided to invest in a micro-ad. As I wrote on Tuesday, I posted something in user-to-user about this, but have not received any comments from others, which considering those numbers, is strange. My order is still listed as "pending rad approval." My money was transferred on 5/2. That's an eternity in the online world! I have sent two emails asking about the status, and received no response. Now $10 isn't much, but I think it is a question of goodwill. Maybe the system isn't up and running yet or something, and that's fine. But I think some kind of communication is in order. Apart from the ad thing though, lately Blogger has been working fine - so much so, in fact, that I got the nerve to tinker a bit with the template. (More to come, although nothing major is in the works.)
Tuesday, May 07, 2002
I was reading some posts in the user-to-user discuss area of blogger (because I paypaled my ten bucks for the micro ad, but it is in "pending rad approval" never-never land, and I am wondering about others' experiences) and noticed "Tuesday Too." So, I thought, why not?
Tuesday Too # 11
1.) Over the last few months I've run across a few blogs (disappearing blogs) that state "I've stopped blogging because..." Why might you consider stopping your online journal? If nothing could stop you, and you're totally committed to blogging Why?
I have been keeping a journal online since March. I have kept a journal of some sort on and off for more than 25 years, since I was in high school. I spend a lot of time on the computer, and I believe journaling is great lubrication for a writer, as well as a helpful release for anyone. At the moment, I have no plans to stop. But sure, it's possible that I might stop - and start again - there are many gaps in my old bound, spiral-bound or typed and saved on 5.5" disk volumes. And in my experience, it would likely be suddenly, not after consideration. If I did stop, these two reasons come to mind:
1. Time. I work from home, and important deadlines take precedence.
2. The public nature of this method has both advantages and drawbacks. Sometimes I wonder about the internal censor.
I try to protect against those reasons by setting a goal of one post per week; generally, I can find the time for that. If I wind up with more entries than that, great (although usually that happens when I am procrastinating on something else, like now! Thanks, Tuesday Too.) And, I believe some level of "censor" is needed, even in the old bound volumes.
2.) You arrive at the gates of heaven, and the gatekeeper says, "there's been a mistake..." What mistake? or Who is mistaken about what?
Now, tell me again how you spell your last name? G-U-I-L... And is that J-E-N-A?
3.) There is a theory in Psychology about silencing the self. Current research looks at whether men and women differ in how much they silence themselves and at what time/stage in a relationship they do so. On Chad's site I once read a post. about how men's blogs differ from women's blogs. Do you think this is true and if so how do they differ?
The college instructor in me is saying, "Good question, but what is the citation for that psychology theory? And to which year(s) does "current" refer?"
Well, anyway - in his survey, Chad was a lot more "scientific" than I have been. I am new to keeping an online journal (for some reason I can't get my keyboard around the word "blog" yet) but from the very little I have seen, I'd guess they differ not just by gender, but by age, geography, occupation, purpose, whether group or solitary, etc....and also they have some striking similarities. Just like the people who write them.
Monday, May 06, 2002
I prefer to "edit" and republish posts I make on the same day rather than create a new one, but since the last several posts have stopped appearing in edit mode, I have no choice. Anyway, I was just reading an article about distance learning in The Chronicle of Higher Education. It details how many "popular" professors don't mind integrating technology into the classroom, but shun completely online courses.
I am now teaching my sixth online course, and I have no idea if I am "popular," but my class does close quickly, and every semester many students want to get in on overflow. My summer class is closed already and it doesn't start until the end of June. While I am sympathetic to the idea that the lack of face-to-face contact impacts learning in many ways, some of them negative, online delivery also has positive impacts. One obvious advantage is the flexibility in scheduling, catering to both larks and owls. Another is the self-directed nature of the experience. Finally, the discussion is enriched because it empowers timid, formerly silent students to participate. While it is true that not all of the posting is at a high enough level, the majority of students do make a serious effort.
Weekends are great but it's hard to get back into heavy duty work on Monday.
I went to a garden center on Saturday to get my mother a Mother's Day plant. Oh, it was wonderful. I walked around, admiring the hanging baskets, flats of annuals and patio tomatoes, intoxicated by the beauty. I love gardening. I'm never happier than outside on a clear, crisp, late Spring day, digging. I even like weeding! My seeds are here, this year one thing I bought was 5 pounds of green bean seed. No wimpy little packets here!
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
Blogging seems to be working fine for the past few days; I am not automatically logged in, I can post, and the webpage view is fine, but in edit mode, the last couple posts don't appear! Strange. Anyway, I decided to invest $10 in a little ad on the Blogger home page. A big step - and probably one I wouldn't have taken if it wasn't so reasonably priced. I am not sure what, if anything, to expect.
One of the downsides of working at home is cropping up for me today; the house is pretty messy, and a woman from a floorcovering place is coming this evening to measure the kitchen for new linoleum. I'm not a person who freaks if things aren't immaculate, but I do have some pride. I also have several deadlines - not tomorrow or this week, but big ones, looming there, ominously promising future all-nighters in mid-May if I make the wrong decision now. A little pixie is sitting on my shoulder, saying "you better go downstairs and clean," and on the other shoulder, another little pixie says, "you better stay in this office and keep working." If I was back doing 9-5 in a flashcube, the cleaning would just have to keep...
...While I did someone else's work. So the writing (and teaching) would just have to keep, too.
So the upsides are worth it.
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