I skipped posting this weekend. We spent the weekend in Samsonville, and I didn't use the computer that much. On Saturday, I did my museum volunteering, and for a change we had quite a few visitors, including several fifth to eighth grade girl scouts who were camping in the library. I tried to read student papers while keeping an eye on the collection. That night, we visited my brother and used his outdoor hot tub (something I never thought I'd like until I tried it). On Sunday, we planned out a deck project for the back door with my father, and then we celebrated my sister's April 1 and brother's April 2 birthdays at my parents' house. As usual, Ma cooked up a storm! In between all this I did manage to fit in getting down some of the floor tiles in the kitchen. The pattern is Morocco Slate. It snowed a bit yesterday, and there is a real nip in the air today. March is definitely not going out like a lamb!

I am sore from yesterday's yard work! Something definitely happens around age 40, a wake up call from your body, and the message is: no, you are not exempt from getting older.

Yesterday, in the Albany Times Union, there was a story about the increasing use of profanity by, well, everyone. I wrote on this subject here, and since I am working on student evaluation so that I can focus on tiling the Samsonville kitchen this weekend, this will serve as today's entry.

I got psyched and made the yard less disgusting. It took three hours. This is the earliest I have ever done poop patrol, so you know I must have been really eager for spring, to take this pitiful excuse to be outside. The three guilty parties (actually only two are guilty, since Edna has a litter box) wanted to go inside after a little while, refusing to keep me company during the brutal task. Eventually Rudy came back outside, but Sophie stayed in. It was more icky than I remembered, and that's saying something. I am so relieved it is done! Earlier in the winter, I assumed we would have snow on the ground longer, but it is starting to look like it will be gone by April. So maybe the bulbs will come up after all.

I believe spring is really here! Much of the snow has melted and it's fairly warm (too bad the yard is disgusting). I have to order seeds!

Here's an interesting piece (and it is another freebie) from the Chronicle of Higher Education about teaching philosophy. Much of it is common sense, but there were some good tips. I think I am going to make a list of classes I loved and try to remember one activity each that might be adapted to my own teaching. This may have to wait until summer, but it is worth some thought. Also on the summer list, I picked up some useful ideas at the asynchronous learning workshop that I want to incorporate in my online class. It was very well-attended and I think it could have easily lasted all day instead of for just one hour. It's exciting to hear what others are doing, and also to field questions from those interested in giving it a try. There will be another session on April 8 (and that one has the extra perk of including a free lunch).

Recent posts over at jf's and sya's sites have intrigued me enough to try out this free trial. I still prefer text, but it was interesting and fun to do, although it sort of reminds me of recording an answering machine message...rushing against the beep and never getting it quite perfect!

This is Strawberry Pickin' by Gina Giuliano.

audblog audio post

Tuesday Too

1.) Is the justice system in the US really fair? Why, or why not?

I think overall it is fair, certainly more fair than in a lot of places, but I also believe fairness is relative, and the system can be manipulated at all levels. People with resources - money for the sharpest and sleaziest lawyers, and access to media - tend to get a better deal. And, what is fair is perceived differently by winners v. losers, victims v. perpetrators, those who agree with a decision v. those who do not.

2.) In a crisis are you a leader, or a follower? Why do you take that role?

I'm a leader. Always have been. It just happens automatically. When I consider hypothetical situations, I think I will panic, but the few times I have been tested, for some reason my head stays clear.

3.) Is there some reason for your madness?

Who needs a reason?

Computer scare last night - here I am, tired from the weekend, planning to get some early rest for a change, and suddenly - when dialed in, AOL kicks me off and makes me call in to fix the problem. Turns out it was a Terms of Service violation. In a space of a couple of minutes, eight emails were sent to 120 people using Bob's screen name! "What time was that?" I demanded. "10:24 p.m." said AOL-phone support man. "But that can't be!" I protested, "I was online and he was asleep in the recliner." So, they fixed the problem with the account, gave me a lecture about being safe online, and sent a whole batch of emails instructing about what may have caused the problem.

I downloaded the suggested virus checker on both machines, and it caused the old machine to hang at the Windows 98 screen. The clock was ticking on getting early rest - early for me being any time before 11:15 p.m.-ish, but I managed to locate the various manuals and CDs that came with the machine (this is a miracle) and get old faithful going again. During this time I had awakened Bob, and before he grumbled off to bed, I told him that his days of opening Spam were over. I can't say he clicks on the links or downloads suspect files, but he generally does open it, all 700 items he receives per week. We checked his account, and saw the eight violation messages in his sent mailbox. Half were mortgage schemes, half were about increasing size... "Now people will think I am sending Spam!" he said, which convinced him better than I ever could to mend his ways and hit "report and delete" rather than "read."

While working on the problem, I got the cable Internet going, too. Maybe I'll get that extra sleep tonight instead?

My cable Internet connection is down and I haven't been able to fix it, so I've decided to try waiting it out by using the old machine to dial in. Since upgrading to AOL 8 (install problems from months ago have been fixed) the dial up connection seems faster. But that might be just a fluke since I haven't dialed in from here in a long time and I don't do it enough any more to be certain. Regardless, roadrunner is too expensive to be down!

Missed another entry, but that's OK. I am very, very sore and tired. We worked on the kitchen all weekend. (Still too much ice for poop patrol.) It didn't seem like there was a lot left undone in the kitchen but even after doing some on Saturday and a lot on Sunday, I estimate that there is another weekend of work to do. Bob stripped wallpaper from the stairwell. I finished tiling the pantry, and the doorway area from the kitchen to the utility room, which includes a wooden platform that goes to the kitchen crawl space (jjk: this is probably the source of the spiders. I had to electrolux a few). It is such a hassle to get the supplies out and then put them all away every time work is done, but I can't tolerate living around the mess all week. I stayed up really late again to finish up as much as I could. Now the only area left to tile is an under the stairs closet, which will be a big project.

Tomorrow I am participating in a presentation/workshop on online learning. I am doing my best to be prepared, which is a challenge considering the labors of the weekend left me less than alert. I've abandoned any thoughts of a "Powerpoint" and instead will have to rely on my charm. I find that since I have been teaching, I get a lot less worked up about presentations. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!

A few things I have come across as I get ready: the Chronicle of Higher Education is full of interesting tidbits; here is an article (and it's free !) about the Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (or Teach Act). I am a supporter of copyright law, and unlike many who write online, I don't believe in opposing something that protects freelance writers because it also benefits Disney. This Act sounds very common sense to me, and these are basically the guidelines I follow in my online course.

Print is really more my concern. I don't use clips, but not because of the copyright issue. I'm not big on television in the first place, but I do have an excellent video I show in class, it is the PBS three hour special Only A Teacher. Fortunately, PBS has an great website devoted to the special, and so rather than seeing the film, the online variant gets a link to the site.

Then, the New York Times has a story, New Online Guides Rate Professors. This is something the Chronicle covers from time to time, and I wrote about it here.

The play on Saturday was wonderful! See, the weekend wasn't 100% work. We had a casual dinner before the show. This was the second performance we've seen since I became a subscriber to Cap Rep. Neither had intermission; Driving Miss Daisy was 90 minutes long.

We both enjoyed the play a lot, and this only diminished the experience a little, but sitting that long in a cramped seat was hard on Bob, as rheumatoid arthritis means he needs to stretch or he gets stiff. He said he looked at his watch when he noticed the discomfort and it was 65 minutes into the show. My less troublesome problem is that I generally have to use the bathroom. If we could have taken a break after 45 minutes, both of us would have been more comfortable.

In the past, I have been to performances there where they did have intermission, so I am hoping this is not a new policy or something, and the next show we see (The Blue Room in May) will have a break between acts. If not, I will give them some subscriber feedback and maybe they will take it into consideration for the next season. I can't see why the choice should be to disturb those around us and miss some of the play, or sit there and suffer.

This morning, I got the idea that today would be good to start the annual Spring "poop patrol." What this means is even more disgusting than it sounds, and you know we must really love dogs to tolerate having to do it. But there would be no gardening and no barbecues otherwise. After a winter with two large hound dogs and a small yard, it is so gross, we have to scrape off almost the entire top layer of dirt. It's an awful task.

Anyway, there is still quite a lot of snow in most places, but the day was warm, and I thought, what if I get a shovel, and jump the gun a bit - I'll scoop up frozen turds and the surrounding snow, and it will be so much easier to do than waiting for a total melt and having to hunt around in the grass.

Guess again. In some places the snow is frozen into solid ice, meaning it must be chopped at with the shovel. In others it is soft enough so that I broke through when walking - but not immediately - so walking around is a hazard. Oh, I'll try again tomorrow, I guess.

Inside, we worked on finishing up the details in the kitchen, and unfortunately, all the tasks that are left are very hard jobs. I was scraping off some duct tape from many moons ago, that was intended to keep out drafts et al around a plywood platform that goes to the crawl space. It took so much elbow grease that I have revised my thoughts on whether duct tape could protect from terrorist attack. It is quite possible it could.

Now we are off to see Driving Miss Daisy, a play at Capital Repertory.

I guess it must be spring. I watched some little birds hopping around on the yew. It does look a little tattered, but since some of the snow melted its branches are beginning to stand up.

On the downside, I saw two bugs in the kitchen. One was a spider, which I left alone. The other was some kind of weird beetle, black with red markings. I threw it outside.

The Gully Brook Press website updates for March/April 2003 are complete. This issue of The Nileston News is available in pdf (for ease of viewing) or wpd (to preserve the hyperlinks) and the focus is on saving historic houses (the PDF version is linked here); the latest Virtual Museum is about bungalow houses; and I added a page about a new publication, my 1998 reprint of West Shokan: Eden of the Catskills (1930) by Elwyn Davis.

I have been doing a little more digging about Myrtle McSpirit. I have not had a lot of success yet, but in some ways the lack of information says a lot, too. I am going to keep at it when I have time. Stay tuned.

Working on the Gully Brook Press updates for March-April. I came across this site which advocates boycotting Target, and links to a journal entry of mine on the Defreest-Church House. Also, the story made Preservation's Best and Worst of 2002 (an aside to East Greenbush and Target: no, this is not something to be proud of).

I wasn't going to cross-post this (it's on blogsisters) but then decided if I want to reference it in a teaching reflections summary or something like that it will be easier to find here.

My classes are focused on sociology of education at the moment, and one area we talk about that generates a lot of interest is gender and education. From literature, including 1991's Failing at Fairness: How Schools Cheat Girls and the more recent AAUW's Gender Gaps, we know that girls' learning problems are not identified, boys get more attention in classrooms, and girls start school testing higher in academic subjects but wind up achieving 50 points less on SATs. Finally, middle school is particularly troublesome.

At the same time, U.S. Department of Education data indicates that more girls than boys graduate high school, more women than men receive a bachelor's degree, and women now outnumber men in master's degree programs.

There is a dynamic in education, that achievement is impacted by social group, because while the returns to education are measurable across class, race, ethnicity and gender, as the outcome some groups benefit less than others, and as a result, are not as motivated to complete and excel. But this dynamic does not hold up between men and women. For example, compensation is not equitable between the genders. Yet females are high achievers. So why do women do so well when they receive fewer rewards? Some hypotheses are that women:

-are aware of the discrepancy but don't care
-are focused on the gains of feminism and so ignore the discrepancy
-have a traditionally dependent role which means economic returns are not the motivating factor (i.e. making a "good match")
-are socialized into specific roles in the early years
-value a private motivation (domestic life/home and family/community) more than a public one (economic/polity)

A complicating factor is that boys are disproportionately labeled as having special needs, perhaps because boys more often exhibit developmental delays, or are more likely to have their problems get attention, or because girls are more likely to display rewarded classroom behaviors (sitting quietly, raising her hand in turn).

Personally, I guess I do value private motivation, but at the same time, I see a lot of women in their 30s and 40s returning to college, and many are motived by economic reasons.

Good news on the historic preservation front! A threatened 19th century house in Hurley, New York will be saved rather than demolished, according to this story in the Daily Freeman. Thanks for the tip, J.!

I heard through the grapevine that a former friend of mine is in the hospital for alcoholism, taking the cure because of a "stop drinking or die" ultimatum from a doctor. I'm not sure whether it is true not because the vine is unreliable, but because like many alcoholics, the former friend is adept at telling lies.

I can hope that something so awful is true only because the alternative, that she is still drinking, is worse.

Tuesday Too

1.) Where do you stand on the eve of war, and why?

Here's where I stand: I believe this is a complicated topic, and my feelings cannot be characterized as "for" or "against." I don't feel compelled to choose a team and feel all righteous and judgmental or something. I do have thoughts on the subject - it is impossible not to - but I prefer to keep them to myself. I think war is always a bad thing, but at the same time I think removing Saddam is a good thing. I am tired of being bombarded with this subject in the media and here in ejournals (when I see it is the subject, I hit "back" as fast as I can). If I get an email related to this, I hit delete. In fact, I almost skipped the meme today. I rarely read blogsisters any more because it has evolved to continuous, homogenous, narrow-minded views on the subject, and practically nothing else.

I believe "this too shall pass." Mostly I am an optimistic person, believe very much in having a positive outlook, and see the cup as half-full. I prefer to focus on what some call the "little" picture: my family, my routine, my plans for Spring gardening, how to lead a simple life and help people I deal with on a daily basis, which I believe is really the true big, ultimately more profound and important picture.

2.) Has your position caused arguments with friends or family?

No, because I don't believe in wasting precious time, or risking hurt feelings, arguing about politics, religion, etc. Life is too short to sour relationships.

3.) Is there some other issue that has you grinding your teeth? What is it?

Not grinding my teeth exactly, but three things come to mind: animal abuse, loss of historic buildings, and cheating among students, in that order.

Blogger is acting up. Again. That's one downside of posting more often, one notices how annoying and unreliable this tool can be.

This morning there were two deer attacking the yew in the yard. I watched them from the bathroom window, only about six feet away. It will be a miracle if the bush survives, what with the winter and now this. A bit down the hill, there was another deer grazing on a newly defrosted patch of grass. Soon there will be fawns. My plans for an expanded vegetable garden are evaporating. I live with this in Samsonville, but here in Castleton? They can have the yew, even some of the hosta, but I am not willing to share the green beans. (Or maybe I would be, but experience tells me the deer are not.) So another project is on the horizon: a garden fence. Assuming the ten feet of snow melt in time, that is (I am only exaggerating a little).

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The weather yesterday was picture perfect for a parade.

I may have to revise my goal of writing here every day, since I have not been able to do it so far. The original goal of once per week was easy to exceed, but daily posting may be reaching. I don't know. I guess I won't abandon it yet, though sometimes this may lead to less than riveting entries...

I write from Samsonville. After a hard working week, what with the kitchen rehab, and mid-semester assessments of students, it is nice to be here, away, and put a physical distance, that forces a mental distance from those projects. But I forget how frustrating a dial-up connection can be! So slow...how did I manage?

Occasionally I check, and it is interesting to see how folks find there way here. Recently a lot navigate from typing "Trafficmaster vinyl tiles" in a search engine. (Yes, they are great in terms of installation, I have not had them down long enough to see how they hold up.) My historic preservation stuff yields visitors, too, both the Wynkoop House (which still stands, keep your fingers crossed) and the Defreest-Church House (which does not, and is rapidly being replaced by a Target, ugh, boycott them). As soon as I clear my plate, I am going to work on a new virtual museum and newsletter, and historic preservation will be the focus of the newsletter. I'm considering architecture - maybe bungalows - for the virtual museum, but it's still brewing.

Today I walked the dogs without wearing my coat. I think it must have been nearly 60 degrees outside! Sophie was vacuuming the exposed ground, it has been so long since there was any without snow cover. Plus, with her hair and low to the ground issues, it is hard for her when it is cold and snowy. (Or, for that matter, because of her allergy issues, when it is hot with vegetation.) The dogs play a tug of war, with me as the object that gets pulled in two directions. Rudy wants to trot off, covering lots of territory. Sophie wants to sniff every inch, as slowly as this dial-up connection, usually in the opposite direction. Obedience training, you say? Ha!

Tonight we had a corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots dinner at Aunt Dot's (with cappuccino cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies). Yum! Tomorrow is the St. Patrick's Day parade.

It is snowing again, to Rudy's delight.

Worked all day on the kitchen floor tile job. I do mean all day, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. I did take a couple of breaks...to check my voice mail and email. Summer registration is coming soon and so students are starting to contact me for advisement. Also, the third group projects started today in the online class so I had to spend a little while on that. But the majority of the day was like a show on HGTV, except on that channel projects look so easy, quick, clean...and there is a TV crew on site to help!

Anyway, it's almost done, but unfortunately what's left are quite a few tiles at the edges here and there that need to be cut, and a few will be difficult to trim and fit. So I guess I missed another entry! Home improvement and writing in the ejournal everyday conflict.

Now I'm off to ebay to try to get a hanging lamp for over the table.

Tuesday Too

1.) What's your take on this article from the New York Times today?

I have several reactions:

(I) I remember this subject was extensively discussed when I was a student in the MPA program. There are a lot of issues raised by being able to connect discrete databases because of innovations in technology (for example social services with criminal justice with health with etc.) and thereby make access to information so much easier. I've heard questions like, will employers not offer jobs to individuals with health conditions that might cause excessive time off or increased health insurance premiums? Will the State use EZ-Pass (New York's automated system for paying tolls on the NYS Thruway) to track speeders by calculating how long it should take a driver to get from Exit A to Exit B? (And I privately think, tell me again, how is that second question a bad thing?)

(II) Now because of our current political situation people outside of grad schools are thinking about the nuances of this. It is complicated. I think to a very large degree this is already going on; not just in government, but in industry, here on the Internet, you name it. That Spam is coming from somewhere. If technology can do it, then someone will implement it, scary or not. Do I think there could be a problem, maybe in some cases already is a problem? Yes. Am I concerned or upset at the moment? No. I think I have written here before (and I really write very little on this topic, and I will not start now) a lot of things changed for me on 09/11/2001. Call me naive for this answer, but before that date I think I really was clueless.

(III) I applaud individuals who stand up for what they believe in by "putting their money where their mouth is." I once left a job because I didn't agree with the agenda of the new management. It was a big risk, but I landed on my feet. I have no tolerance for hypocrites who keep putting in time and collecting a paycheck, then bad mouth the organization, damage morale, all the while whining that they have no options, pretending that they somehow are above it all, and are not endorsing the company line.

2.) Network television is swimming in "reality" shows. You are the creator of the latest show to hit the circuit. Give a brief description of your show. Sarcasm welcomed.

"Survivor, No Joke." Contestants fight until death, and the last person left alive is the winner. Loosely based on The Lottery.

3.) What do you really wish you were doing today?

Home, in the company of my animals, finishing the install of the kitchen floor tiles. (I worked at it until 2 a.m. last night!) But instead this is my day on campus.