NOVAblog

It's You, Stupid...

2012-02-09T18:29:00.009-05:00

My last post left me wondering: did I have a particular personality that would cause me to continually become injured during workouts/training? Let's examine the evidence:

1. When I was a swimmer, I trained from the ages of 11-19 without injury; the only surgeries I had (on my knees at 16) were because of a genetic mutation in the plica folds behind my knees. Two weeks after surgery I was back to normal.

2. My Injuries started at 19 and 20 (swimming: rotator cuff tear, knee breakage) then again in my 30s at 35 (hernia, during gym workout), 36 (hip cartilage tear while running), and 38 (Achilles tendon pulls, left leg; calf tear, right leg) all in succession. Part of the problem, I know, was an oblivious coach who didn't notice stroke changes in favor of speed workouts; my association coach in high school would have easily spotted the problem that led to the shoulder injury. Swimming butterfly with hips low in the water--causes "dragging" of the lower body through the water, creating more resistance and, thus, puts more stress on the shoulders/rotator cuffs. The knee break was from an accident running stadiums and cannot specifically be attributed to poor coaching but a mix of distraction, condensation on the seats, exhaustion, etc.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I'm injured all the time. I need to buy stock in Icy-Hot and Aleve. So I keep wondering: is it in my adult personality that leads me to be injured all the time? I've read the article "The Influence of Psychological Factors on Sports Injuries" from The American Journal of Sports Medicine and author Astrid Junge suggests that through a review of the prevailing literature and research, that

A personality profile typical of the “injury-prone” athlete does not exist. However, several studies have shown a certain readiness to take risks (lack of caution, adventurous spirit) on the part of injured athletes.

So could it be my adventurous spirit? Possibly. But I'm not running at 4 a.m. in the dead of winter or solo hiking, so I don't know if that's it. A certain readiness to take risks? We're getting warmer. I also think there are aspects of my personality that lead to injury: I'm impatient, I'm undisciplined, and I have a tendency to ignore long-term plans for short-term adrenalin highs. For example: if like last week I'm running an "easy hour," I ratchet up the "easy" to "beat my time from X race." I don't think of the consequences because I need to see results that show improvement. I revel in pain, maybe because I'm used to it? And I attempt to run 100% when I'm not 100% ready, like I did today (but, hey, at least I ran .15 total this time, totally up from .10 a few days ago).

In the article from the Sports Science Exchange Roundtable, Daniel Gould and Linda Petlichkof suggest that "The stress of daily life and a lack of social support are more important than an athlete’s personality in contributing to the risk of sports injuries." Hmmmm. Sure, I'm stressed in my daily life: I have work, a 16-month-old daughter, a dissertation to finish, papers to grade, dinner to make, dogs to walk, sleep to attempt, and a dozen other actions to take in any given day. But I also have social support: husband, sister and brothers, mom, family, friends. So could this mean that my personality tics are so strong as to outweigh all other factors? Or is this in issue of "correlation does not imply causation"?

Another Injury Bites the Dust

2012-02-07T17:26:00.002-05:00

Now that I'm on a running kick and doing more than 20 miles per week, I decided to register with a friend for the Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond, a race I ran before back in 2009. I've been following Runner's World's Marathon Training Schedule, and last week I was in week 3, with a long run of 8-8.5 miles coming up on Saturday.

So Thursday, I was 3.38 miles into my hour-long run, doing small inclines on the treadmill to simulate running outside (it's easier to run on a treadmill--no wind resistance, no uneven terrain). I told myself to go slow, of course, but I didn't. I was averaging 6.1-6.2 mph; I wanted to get under my Monument 10k time from 2009. So almost 3.5 miles in, I feel a strain, then a "pop!" in my right calf muscle. Agony. Imagine if somebody shot your calf muscle with about half a dozen BBs, all at once, and all in the same place. I immediately hopped off the treadmill and hit pause. I gasped for air. My eyes rolled dizzingly up toward where my brain should be. What was I doing? I turned the treadmill back on, slowed to 1 mph, and walked to 3.5, because I'm also a little bit obsessive compulsive. Well, I didn't exactly walk. I hop-limped my way another tenth of a mile.

Here's the amazing thing about doing Internet research; within minutes I was on my trusty computer looking up all the symptoms of the pain I had in my leg. Check out this website: Pulled-Muscle.com: an entire website designed to soberly educate me about my latest injury. I've iced the muscle, soaked in a hot tub, and forced myself to walk, very slowly, 2-3 miles a day. I will have to wait two weeks to fully run? If I have a "Grade 2" injury (moderate pain walking, no pain at night), then I'm supposed to wait 4-6 weeks to run again. I don't think I can do that. But if I don't, I might create so many injuries that running the Marine Corps Marathon in October will be a moot point. At one point yesterday I was hobbling-shuffling on the treadmill at 5 mph, but I could only hold the pace for less than .10 of a mile. Oh, the agony! I just signed up for a race and here I am in the injury column again.

I think my next post will be about the psychological ramifications of being insane and not knowing when to stop, pace oneself, or make rational training decisions.

Ultraendurance Training

2012-01-30T17:15:00.000-05:00

I have taken longer than I usually do to come up with a suitable topic for my blog this semester. I've been intrigued by many of the student blogs I'm seeing, from issues of single parenthood to discussions of athletic performance. There is a great variety of blogs in our classroom this semester.

And so this leads me to explore the topic of ultraendurance training. But a bit about me first so that this makes sense. I'm an English professor who, back in her heyday, was a competitive swimmer. From the time I was eleven I was in a pool, and by the time I was in high school, I was training twice a day. I moved away from home at 16 to train with a more competitive team, and I earned a scholarship to Florida State University in the early 1990s. My best events were the 200 butterfly and the middle-distance freestyles (200, 500, 1650). But we trained hard. At RSA (Raleigh Swimming Association), we did what is now called "garbage yardage"--sometimes exceeding 6,000 yards (or almost 4 miles) per practice. Add this to our running and weightlifting schedules, and you could say with confidence that I was an endurance athlete.

My swimming career ended abruptly after two back-to-back injuries. Rotator cuff tear (right shoulder) my freshman year, then a full-on accident running stadiums at Doak Campbell basically ended it all: I fell and shattered my patella (kneecap) and tore my MCL and ACL. I had to learn how to walk all over again. And after weekly visits to the sports medicine doctors to patch me up, I was given a medical release my junior year. What a way to end a career.

Fast forward 20 years (or thereabouts). I'm now in a sedentary job (college professor) and I have a 15-month-old daughter. I enjoy running (don't even ask me to swim--too boring now), but I get injured a lot. Funnily enough, it's not my knee that's the problem. In 2008 I had hernia surgery from working out too intensely with the crunch machine at the gym. In 2009 I had hip surgery to repair cartilage tears. Then in 2010 I had my daughter and another surgery: a C-section.

None of this is stopping me, and I can't say why. My step-mother, running addict who has recently completed 2 marathons, has challenged me to the Marine Corps Marathon this October. Can I do this? Can an injury-prone nutjob endorphin addict really get into marathon shape? And what comes after marathons? I'm currently reading Born to Run and it's inspiring me to bring back that old fanaticism of two-a-day workouts and really pushing myself. Before I hit 40, can I combat potential injuries and do something my 20-year-old self would admire?

For this semester, my goal is to run 20 miles (at a pop, no stopping unless to hydrate) by April 30. Can we really get our glory back?

Blogging in 2012

2012-01-18T11:28:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to decide which topic I should blog about this semester. I'll probably put together a poll. Politics? It's certainly timely. Armageddon myths? Timely as well. I'm still interested in personal finance, and helping others learn how to budget/save/invest is a passion of mine, one that I also think is related to being socially active, so I might have to consider that topic, too.

What's imperative for me to discuss? What keeps me up at night? What would benefit others with my research?

Here is a link to CNN's Money section.

What a long, stange blog this has been

2009-12-15T21:42:00.004-05:00

Sorry to crib the title of this post from the Grateful Dead, but it couldn't really be helped. Writers find inspiration in many strange places...

This semester I wrote about teaching, specifically at the community college level. Let me first say that I love my job, although at times I am confused, saddened, and in a rightful fit regarding issues that we deal with: violence in the workplace, grade inflation, budgets, plagiarism, creativity, endless committees, learning disabilities, technical glitches, writer's block, and a myriad of other things that come our way.

This by no means means that college composition is a boring field to be in (I guess it all depends on what a professor has her class spend time on: I'd be on the verge of committing Hari Kari myself if we had to do endless academic essays and grammar workshops). But there are great things happening in our field, and hopefully compositionists will continue to use technology to support writing environments for college students. I can't wait to see what technologies we have 10 or 20 years from now. Virtual writing spaces? Sign me up!

Hopefully this has been a productive semester for you all, too. Maybe one or two of you will continue blogging; some of you will delete your blogs the second class is over. Either end of the spectrum is OK with me. My hope is that you continue to read blogs and see the power inherent in the ability for an "Average Josephine" to have immediate access to an almost unlimited readership. As we have seen, some bloggers came up on our list of "worst" blogs, but many came up on "best of" compilations because of the scope and 3-D aspects of their sites.

So, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite professional blogs. Check them out. And if you don't find something you like or want, or need to read, then the job is for you to fill that gap:

Salam Pax: tinyplanet.org/iraqblog; "Shut up, you fat whiner!" at justzipit.blogspot.com; http://salampax.wordpress.com/
Nate Silver: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
Heather Armstrong: http://www.dooce.com/
"James Chartrand" et al. http://www.copyblogger.com/
Firedoglake authors: http://firedoglake.com/

More to come at a later date. Hasta la vista! Ciao!

Julie P. Q.

Woodbridge Campus Shooting Today

2009-12-08T15:23:00.003-05:00

This is not going to be some eloquent post about student/professorial stress. We've all heard the stories about what happens at school (or work, or home) when somebody who is imbalanced, mad, sick, or all of the above uses violence to deal with the issues in their lives. Unfortunately, one of those common places just happens to be college campuses.

There was a shooting at my college campus today; I'm not always on campus on Tuesdays, and I was not there. I did get the following text from NOVAALERT "Woodbridge Campus Only--Slelter in Place Until Further Notice. There is an emergency on campus." Yes there was. I got in touch with a colleague and she told me that an upset student went into one of his classes and shot at the teacher. She didn't see ambulances, but there are about 30 police and state vehicles out front. Students went running. We have no idea if anybody's hurt.

To my students: give me a call (see syllabus) if you want to chat. This is not the time to worry or be alone. We're all in this together. If I have any updates on the situation I'll post here.

Student Success in Surprising Places

2009-12-07T21:11:00.004-05:00

Karen* was a student in one of my Preparation for ENG 3 classes a few years ago. She was in her mid-twenties, had a few children, and worked while going to school almost full time. The first thing I noticed about her was her attitude. She was always ready, willing to learn, smart as hell. But she didn't lord her abilities over other students, and even though she was quite intelligent, she struggled with some aspects of college work (didn't we all?). I recall that she had a particular issue once with providing proof that she wanted that medical career. I asked her, "Where is this coming from?" She spent the next three months figuring out her motivation to become a physical therapist, and she realized that it stemmed from the time her aunt was in a rehabilitation center after suffering a fall; the time she spent with her aunt affected the rest of her life, especially her career ambitions. Her writing project described this incident and the upcomging degree requirements in clear detail.

It's important for me to say that Karen aced the English class she was in with me, although she didn't have it so easy in the next one. That could be chalked up to how she got along with her next professor; the type of work provided; how professors grade differently in a subject as subjective as English; her contexts (that is, the time and ability she had to dedicate to her work, and the other life events going on around her). She passed the class and made sure she was in line to get into a particularly tough medical program.

Knowing what I knew about her life story: that she had children in her teens and had to leave home; that she had had difficulty with family and high school; that she struggled to give her children a lifestyle that was comfortable and a mom they could be proud of, it's easy to say that Karen was motivated. Most students in her position would have caved to the pressures. I cannot imagine it myself, having gone through college in the traditional way (at 18-21), without kids and with a full athletic scholarship, to balance all of the competing needs, requirements, and desires of those in her family: those of her mother, her children, her partner, her boss. I would have easily quit just for a few extra hours of sleep a night.

Karen keeps in touch with me to this day. I even asked her to come back to ENG 3 and provide a motivational speech to the students there. Her message was, "It can be done." And then she proceeded to provide examples from her life and from her work in that class to support it (oh, and it made this English professor's heart happy to see a thesis point being driven home with supplemental support!).

Karen is now in her medical program. She'll get her degree--she works so hard at it, studying at every possible moment, getting tutors, working with her professors. She might not be a natural at some of the scientific concepts (most of us aren't), but she bullies her way through the work and makes herself bend to grasp the knowledge. She's so ambitious that she'll most likely eventually go for a master's degree. And she'll get it.

Karen is a success: the statistics suggest that she has less of a chance than a younger student who is unburdened with a full-time job and family. Peng and Lee suggest that "Demographic characteristics likely to place students at risk include low family income, low parental education, single-parent family, and limited-English proficiency. Data were derived from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), a survey sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics" (1992). This means that all of these factors coalesce to affect how well a student does, even as early as elementary school.

I am personally included in these statistics: I was raised within a single-parent family, who also, at least when I was younger, dealt with a very low family income. Luckily my mom (like Karen) survived the lean years; went back to school and eventually earned multiple masters' degrees, raising her children's chances at success. But my mom's parents had it rough: while they stayed married, my grandfather didn't get past 8th grade and worked in a labor-intensive job his whole life (as a painter); my grandmother worked, too, at a medical supply company on the line, especially to bring in money to help take care of extended family. My mom's only options were relayed to her early on: nun, teacher, or nurse. The family just didn't have enough money for something else (she always wanted to be a lawyer). Thankfully she had those options...

In an article by Christina Burke, she suggests that women with obstacles are now taking charge of their futures, moreso now than ever before. Sue Beran is one of them: "Despite difficult circumstances--working two jobs, the daily commute from Moulton, a separation and being a single mom with two small children --she managed to graduate summa cum laude --with highest honors --and a 4.0 in an associate degree in applied sciences in medical laboratory technology."

Sometimes I guess students need those life experiences to be motivated to find their passion and do the work they need to succeed. College will be here when they're ready (but, sadly, it'll just keep getting more expensive). In the meantime, students like Karen make for exciting and fulfilling teaching.

*Karen's name and a few identifying details have been changed to protect her identity.

References Cited
Burke, C. (2008). Hard Work Pays Off at The Victoria College. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington: May 11, 2008. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu:2048/
pqdweb?did=1476608301&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId
=1364&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Peng, S. S. and R. Lee. (1992). Measuring Student At-Riskness by Demographic Characteristics. ERIC--Resources in Education. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (San Francisco, CA, April 20-24, 1992). Retrieved December 6, 2009, from http://csaweb116v.csa.com.ezproxy.
vccs.edu:2048/ids70/view_record.php?id=7&recnum=2&log=from_res&SID=tjbg52
mi9o8kgve3kg1t43d734&mark_id=search%3A7%3A6%2C0%2C10

Helicoptering: Or When Parents Hover and Students Run for Cover

2009-12-01T21:03:00.004-05:00

Here's a scenario. Let me know if this sounds familiar to you: A mom wants to motivate her son into finding an academic advisor, applying for financial aid on time, taking a full complement of classes. Son is in his 20s, lives at home, and is fairly typical of a lot of students I see, especially in a very metro area. These students stay close to home, go to community college, and rely more on their immediate family for day-to-day needs (roof, car, insurance, food, health care, incidentals). Is this a good thing, a bad thing, both, or none?

In the past I've suggested to parents in this situation that they need to let their kids make decisions or else they'd have a 35 year old man-child (or woman-child) still living in the attic. For some people, they never want their children to leave home. As an educator, this is one of the worst things imaginable for me. The problem becomes: who is responsible for the 23-year-old student? His education might be partly my responsibility. That is, I have to get current, timely information to him, and I have to be able to evaluate how he processes that information so that I can tell whether or not he's learned the course content. But isn't "Jimmy," the student, responsible, too? He has to come to class, do his work (on time), and do good enough work to successfully pass the class in question.

So where do mom and dad, and grandma, and Jimmy's girlfriend Patsy come in? Unfortunately, they sometimes show up on stage and refuse to sit down. I've seen parents do their college children's homework; call and complain about grades and treatment; storm the dean's office; house, feed, wake up, cook, clean and pamper adults who do not work, but only go to school, and only sometimes at that.

This confusion is not about the hardships of the economy: there are plenty of families out there living together, working hard, and making a multifamily living arrangement work during difficult times. Rather, this confusion is more about middle-class American parents who have always given to their kids to the detriment of themselves, who email professors to find out the grades of their 28-year-old princess, who continue to pay for Jimmy's classes, even when he's failed the same one 3 times (two from a lack of showing up, one from showing up but not turning in any work). Where is the social responsibility to raise prepared adults?

I realize that this "rant" (for lack of a better word) focuses on parental responsibility and how it should be that parents transfer responsibility to their teens so that said teens are ready for the trials and tribulations of a college life. I've recently had a student complain that I got all "volcano" on him for calling him out on web surfing during a class. He never once mentioned that he was breaking a syllabus rule, and being completely rude at that. Where is the responsibility? And what would a professor like me have Jimmy's mom do? Here are some suggestions:

1. Make him go to school full time or work full time
2. Make him pay rent or get his own place
3. Stand up for your stress: don't say something then back down
4. Remind your kids of how hard you worked, how hard their grandparents worked, sacrifice.
5. Look after yourself first. Kids respond well to parents who are not punching bags or victims.

There comes a time in which parents (and professors) can spoon-feed ill-prepared students all the materials they need ("oh, you want another handout because you lost the last one?" "you'd like another week to do the work because you forgot?") but all this does is just delay the inevitable: the more excuses we as professors accept (and parents of college students accept), the harder our lives become in the end.

And isn't it typical that I write an entire post about what's wrong with some students, in that their parents were too lenient? What about all those success stories of students who struggled against the odds, put themselves through school, raise kids, work 2 jobs, suffer but succeed? I think that will have to be my next post. Because without them, it would really seem hopeless sometimes.

Posting feedback for Thanksgiving week

2009-11-25T14:52:00.001-05:00

Just a note: I'll not be giving feedback on Wednesday/Thursday this week (due to the holiday) but on Friday and Saturday.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and relaxing Thanksgiving!

Julie

Editorial Tricks of the Trade for Quotes

2009-11-19T18:15:00.002-05:00

How to use editorial tricks:

A quote from the article, "Continental, American Expand Peak-Day Surcharges"

... = means to take out text in the middle of a quote.
(emphasis added): means to highlight some text in a quote and acknowledge it (see $10, 20...i)
[ ]: means to add clarifying information in a quote

United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and its Northwest Airlines subsidiary are charging $10, $20 or even $30 above the published base fare on designated dates, said Ryan Berryman, senior. ... Continental [authority] has similarly expanded its surcharge dates, spokeswoman Mary Clark said. [emphasis added]

Video links

2009-11-19T17:56:00.005-05:00

Adding Video

1. Find your Chad Vader video
2. Find the embedded link (if on the web) and copy
3. Toggle to your blog
4. Toggle to "edit HTML"
5. paste in the field before/after the text where you want it to go
6. Toggle back to "compose"
7. Publish post...

Density: Or Why Don't Students Take My Advice?

2009-11-17T21:16:00.007-05:00

Maybe I'm the knucklehead here. Am I speaking clearly? Elaborating on my point? Being honest with my assessment of a piece of writing from a student? I think I am. But it's gone overboard, and it's a minor technicality at that. I have a few students in particular who don't cap their "i"s--in emails to me, in Blackboard posts, or in actual essays. In all three places, as a matter of fact, after much reminding. And I don't know what to do about it.

I've tried being nice, friendly, just providing a little reminder here and there about the power of academic etiquette. I'll suggest, "Hey, Bob, don't for get to cap those "i"s--this is for academic credit, right?" Then, when the issue doesn't change, I go into "Bad Cop" mode. Bad Cop consists of, over the last two semesters, institution of the "-2 Rule," which basically means that any instance of text-speak (noncapitalization, strange abbreviations, etc.) in any academic communciation with me results in a lowering of 2 points, per instance, off a student's final grade. I once had to cut 16 points from a student's overall grade for continued text addiction.

Here's how I feel about it: either the student is just sloppy, rushing, or they plain don't care. But it is my job to show them that the rest of us care. I can be reading a newspaper like The Washington Post and completely stop reading an article if I notice this error showing up. If I stop reading it enough, the newspaper loses my business.

The Collin College Faculty Association mentions issue specifically in their "Students' Guide to Academic Etiquette":

Students should check their electronic mail daily. Students should not expect instant replies to their mail, nor should they expect instructors to reply to messages on weekends and holidays. Students should avoid chat-room style of grammatically incorrect sentences, using lower-case "i" for the pronoun "I," shouting" a message through the use of capital letters, and disrespectful discourse. Students should inquire first whether attaching assignments to an e-mail is an acceptable alternative to handing them in during a class period. [Miller]

On the surface of things, this seems reasonable. I might not agree with every note that Collin College has put on that weblink, but this seems quite alright.

I have to offer one caveat: that the respect-through-etiquette goes both ways. Professors had better not wait two weeks to respond to an email or a request for help. We have to run the spell-checkers, too, in addition to being clear, concise, direct, encouraging. It's more than a matter of form: students are our employers. They pay for our services, and we need to bring our "A" game into every space in which we interact academically.

It's important to note: an error here or there is human. A consistant repetition of an easy fix is thickheaded.

References Cited
Miller, Joyce Marie. (2005). "Students' Guide to Academic Etiquette." Collins College Faculty Association. Retrieved November 16, 2009, from http://iws.ccccd.edu/jmiller/A_Student

Feedback and Commentary Shorthand

2009-11-12T15:50:00.004-05:00

There are a few new abbreviations/acronyms I'm planning on using in feedback on blogs. Here are some clarification descriptions about what I mean:

Flow: When I use the term flow, I generally mean that a sentence is choppy because of word choice, missing words, or even a repetition that would appear in multiple sentences. To fix this issue, proofread your text out loud: 90% of the time students "catch" the error when they hear their writing.

PR: Proofreading needed. Maybe there are spelling errors, or undercapitalization (think "i"), broken words that should be combined (my self vs. myself), homonym issues (their vs. there), and so forth. Let me know if you want to learn some cool proofreading tricks to help catch these mechanical issues (ruler, out loud, back-to-front, and team reading methods are some of my favorites).

FORM: The formatting seems to be off. There could be too much white space between paragraphs, or no spacing, or neon fonts, or everything in italic (which strains the eyes).

PP: Issues with plagiarism appear. This is generally an unintentional thing (forgetting quotes, or forgetting to name the source of the quote), but because everything you post is submitted for academic grade, it's important to know that if you cut/paste, you must quote. 100% of the time. In addition, you need to name the source and hyperlink or create an old-fashioned reference.

BH: Bury that hyperlink! Place it inside a word so that there are no interruption in the flow of your text.

MORE: I want to see more details. You might be making a good point about an issue, such as "There is little doubt that we have spent billions in Iraq" but how many billions? On what exactly? Blogs are small spaces with which to do big things: convince your audience that you have researched, found good sources, and can easily back up a main argument with specifics.

REF: Look at your references--are you following MLA or APA style? Do you have the 5 main elements of a reference: author, title of piece, URL, copyright date, and access date. In addition, did you name each source in the text where you used it?

What I will do for the last 5 weeks is use these shortcuts at the end of a post, in parenthesis, like this: (RES, PR). This way, I'm giving you an indication of suggestions that aren't content related, but I'm making you do the legwork in reviewing your piece to find them. Of course, I'll always be available to help one-on-one as well.

Belonging to both Camps: Being a Teacher and a Student

2009-11-08T10:58:00.007-05:00

Some people find it passing strange when I tell them that I am both a college English professor and a writing student. At the moment, I'm working on my dissertation to complete my Ph.D. in English composition. This Tuesday, I have a meeting coming up with both my dissertation director and a committee member, after I witness a close friend's final dissertation defense.

This is a strange place to be because of a few factors: I find writing sometimes an infuriating process, in that what I think I want to say sometimes comes out completely different than I had intended. This echoes Peter Elbow (1973) regarding "translation" of thoughts to text. Elbow suggests that our memories are quite like movies in our mind, and translating them to others is a review process that asks, "did you see that movie the way I did?" Generally people don't. In my head, I know what I am going to say, but then when I read a text, it usually isn't what I expected. I know my students go through this process a lot, too. This is generally why it's much easier to give feedback to others; we can "see" errors or mis-steps in language use, detailing, and structures in others' writing because we are seeing it for the first time. This is in opposition to working on our own texts, in which sometimes we're so familiar that we can't see the glaring issues on the page. I think the cliche here is called "not seeing the forest for the trees." We can relate this to work in a writing classroom with texts, or even extrapolate it out to life situations in which a person, like myself, pays attention to one issue without focusing on the other.

Consider this analogy: say a person is driving down the street, paying close attention to directions to get to the right place. But what they're not paying any attention to is the gas gage, which is now in the red. They won't get to their destination without both directions and enough fuel. It's unfortunate that many of us overlook the obvious (the data behind the details) when we're trying to get to our destinations. In my case, I hope I attended to enough of the structures inherent in dissertations (provided a clear methodology, enough of a literature review, and a sound thesis/issue) so that I get the "it's looking good" pep talk on Tuesday.

I sometimes think that being a teacher-student would be a benefit to my current students. Of course, I understand the anxiety of submission, of grades, of approval. I cannot tell you how many times I've left one of my professor's offices on cloud 9 simply because I got the feedback, "you're on the right track." I'm hoping to hear that this Tuesday, but part of me wonders whether this dissertation process will ever end. I suspect that this is a lot like a student in a 16-week class at about week 12. They've done quite a bit of work, and they're tired. My students might be working, with families and life situations that keep them from busy, tired, and sometimes distracted. All I can suggest now is to hang in there. At some point, this too shall pass. I thank Monique (a previous student) for that sentiment...

Reference
Elbow, Peter. Writing without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.

This College Grading Thing...

2009-11-03T12:53:00.003-05:00

Over the past few semesters, I've worked with a wide range of college students: the overprepared, the underwhelmed, the "just passing time until something better comes along," the honor rollers, and a plethora of others. What intrigues me currently is that there is no one "typical" college student, but that so many college students expect classes to be "typically" easy for them.

Yes, some English classes (of which I have the most experience) will be easy for some students; these students are either naturals, in that they were the ones who won the writing awards in high school, served on the school paper or yearbook, read voraciously, and have a natural ability to write effectively regardless of their audience. They are out there. And then there are those who struggle mightily to get the A or B grade, submitting draft after draft, working overtime, getting tutors. They succeed even without the "natural" talent.

It's the others that continue to surprise me, even after 9 years of teaching full-time. When I was a college student, I never expected courses to be a "gimme." I did expect college professors to abide by their own syllabi and be reasonable, grading on topics they covered in class, to be available for help during office hours, to be pleasant and to not show favorites. But I'm noticing a trend in what I consider beyond-the-pale behavior in the demand for A grades by those whose work is not exemplary.

Here's an example. A few semesters ago, I had a student in one of my classes get a B. From all the documents and my own experiences as a grader, I know that B stands for "above average effort" and is considered a good grade. The student in question wasn't particularly bad at what she did: she showed up for all her classes; asked questions; did her work on time. Based on my rubrics for how I grade, and the grades she did, she got a good, solid B. Now here's the disconnect: I received an email from her a few days after the course was complete, complaining about the B. It seems as if Samantha (a pseudonym) figured that her attendance and regular submissions earned her the A grade.

So I ask you: what is in a grade? What differentiates an A from a B student? My answer is generally the same: it's in the writing. Showing up and asking questions is good, of course, but in an English class the writing is the significant output device, the way in which a student can display their knowledge of course concepts, their ability to negotiate the terrain of scholarly writing, and their opportunities to move an audience from apathy to acceptance.

I'm sure Samantha continued to be upset about her grade. But this is happening more often, and sometimes it just has to do not with the earned effort, but other outside pressures that revolve around both teacher and student. Consider the points made by Richard Schiming of Minnesota State University regarding grade inflation, a term coined to describe why some teachers and professors give higher grades than the average:

Institutional pressure to retain students;
Increased attention and sensitivity to personal crisis situations for students;
Higher grades used to obtain better student evaluations of teaching;
The increased use of subjective or motivational factors in grading;
Faculty attitudes;
Content deflation; and
Changing mission.

It happens often, and there isn't just one neat solution to fix the issue. Some students are used to getting good grades. But what college faculty need to do is make clear that there is a standard difference between high school and college work, just as there is between undergraduate and graduate-level work. That showing up is great, but it by no means is a guarantee of excellence. That every professor grades uniquely, and that students should learn the context of the classroom, meaning that knowing what to ask and give each individual professor is as necessary as completing the assignment on time.

And, sometimes, the most important thing to learn is that not everybody is an A student, and that there is nothing wrong with a B or a C.

Blogs We're Exploring This Week in Class

2009-10-29T16:23:00.005-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Here are some blogs from previous semesters to review:

A Global Topic with a Personal Approach ...
1. Jesse: Her blog was on Environmental Defense, and how she could alter not only her habits but educate those around her to create greater change.

Immigration blogs:
2. Jesus: His blog was from the perspective of an immigrant soldier.
3. Ben: His blog was from the perpective of a native-born American with concerns over illegal immigration.
4. Monique: Her blog was from the perspective of a native-born American with friends who were immigrants.

Examples of Summary, Synthesis, Analysis: The Matrix

2009-10-29T16:12:00.003-04:00

Summary: “In the near future, a computer hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, for the purpose of placating us while our life essence is ‘farmed’ to fuel the Matrix’s campaign of domination in the ‘real’ world. He joins like-minded Rebel warriors Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) in their struggle to overthrow the Matrix” (Gittes, 2006).

Synthesis: Think about how the Matrix was filmed (there is a short on the DVD and on Youtube called “bullet time” in which the Wachowski brothers explain this new filming technology). Now consider how this bullet-time technology has been manipulated, in both music entertainment (with use in music videos) and parody (think the Scary Movie franchise). These entertainers synthesized “bullet time” by expanding it out to other genres. This keeps The Matrix in the news and shows how this particular technology evolves in mainstream media.
Ways for us to synthesize “bullet time” (see “Bullet Time …sort of” on youtube): Think of ways to combine ideas from multiple sources to further your position on any topic imaginable. Using multiple sources to come up with new ideas is the main goal of “synthesis.” Could we now write an article on how technology (specifically “bullet time”) has allowed for new conceptions of the use of special effects in entertainment, using as sources not only The Matrix but Scary Movie and music videos?

Analysis:
James L. Ford’s article “Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema” in The Journal of Religion and Film, Vol 4. #2, 2000., provides a nice analysis of the movie with a religious-mythology focus:

Here is the abstract of Ford's article:

This essay analyzes the recent film The Matrix from the perspective of modern-day myth-making. After a brief plot summary of the film, I note the well-documented parallels to the Christian messianic narrative of Jesus. I then go on to highlight the often overlooked parallels to the Buddhist existential analysis of the human condition. In particular, I note a remarkable resonance between The Matrix and the fourth century (C.E.) philosophical school of Buddhism known as Yogacara. By highlighting the syncretic or combinative nature of the film’s symbolic narrative, I submit The Matrix as a cinematic example of the dialectical process of myth-making by means of Peter Berger’s theory of socio-cultural construction.

References cited

Ford, J. L. (2000). Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema. Journal of Religion and Film, 4(2), 2000. <<http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/thematrix.htm>>

Gittes, J. (2006). The Matrix—Plot Summary. Retrieved October 25, 2006, from http://imdb.com/title/tt0133093/plotsummary

My new topic: The Politics of Teaching

2009-10-27T20:04:00.006-04:00

From the Perspective of a Teacher-Student

I had the hardest time this semester coming up with a relevant topic to blog about. I've done politics twice (and I feel burnt out enough to not try it a third time so soon). I've blogged about personal finance, about home improvement, even about my dissertation. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something that is timely, sometimes controversial, currently affects my life, and that is challenging to do. So I've come down to this topic: the politics of teaching.

This blog will cover the good and bad that comes with this career choice. I'd like to discuss topics that seem taboo in an educational environment: bad teachers, bad students, good administrators, bad rules (like NCLB), the politics of politics in education, crappy pay, unacceptable costs, lower standards, golden opportunities, amazing success stories, and dismal failures. It all happens, is happening around us as we speak. Since I'm a student too, this semester, this blog is being written by a student-teacher-student.

I never thought I'd be a teacher. I specifically switched majors in college to not teach: I initially studied cultural anthropology (it ended up as my minor, but I was only 3 hours away from double-majoring). I was that scared of teaching that I wouldn't go into the field. But then after not knowing what to do with myself after graduation, I went to graduate school for a degree in English literature to avoid life's responsibilities and to shamelessly (or shamefully, now as I see it) mooch off of my mom longer than I should have done. My mom asked me once, "Well, what will you do with an English degree?" I had no earthly idea. I wasn't the most responsible human being back in the day.

I ended up as a technical editor and managing editor of academic journals (in anthropology) for quite a few years until I wraped my head around the idea that I wanted to be in the classroom. At first, I adjuncted at three different colleges--good experience but seriously, the wages were obscene (when you count in grading, conferencing, and planning, are somewhere around $3 an hour). The first day I taught I thought I was going to pass out. They gave me that power. It was frightening to know that I had 24 students' grades in my hands. More than that: I had the opportunities to explore the power of writing with them, and the myriad arguments, epiphanies, dilemmas, and solutions this power comes with.

I tell you this introductory tale of my falling-into-teaching because I think that sometimes we need to face our fears. I don't know why I didn't want to teach back then, because upon reflection I always liked working with people and I always loved English. The first class I taught, back in 2000, was on a whim. One day, sitting in my office cubicle, staring at a wall, I thought, "Why not teach?" And it was that one whim that led me to where I am today. It's kind of frightening. What if I had thought instead, "I'm really craving a 7-Layer Burrito at Taco Bell?"

Semester Summary...It's Over Already?

2008-12-16T20:46:00.007-05:00

I've been trying to come up with a witty and philosophically unambiguous ending for this semester of blogging. For days now, I've let the potential closings percolate in my head, like a crock pot full of words instead of soup. I realize that that is a strange analogy, but these days most of my ideas come from food. That is even stranger since this blog is supposed to be about politics. But food can blend with just about anything, right?

I have had plenty of fodder to work with this semester: the amazing election season, the hilarity that is Sarah Palin (she never fails to amuse), the very interesting turmoil that comes with a president-in-waiting behind a president that gets shoes thrown at him (and, as I heard on the radio today, some sheik from Saudi Arabia wants to pay about $10 million for those shoes). This just proves a few things: (1) politics will always be fun to write about when there are funny politicians out there as bait; (2) even though the election season is over, I can still attempt secret car wars with those who have "Allen for Senate" or "Say it 'aint so, Joe" stickers hanging limply on their back bumpers; and (3) I should have said much more about the ridiculousness that is politics in this semester's blogs.

Maybe because I was so downright scared of what might have happened this election season, I didn't find the humor that is out there, but if I do tackle politics in the future, I think that would be my goal: because if we can't laugh at the horrendous state our country is in (economy, global warming, wars on two fronts, wars on civil rights, attacks on those who are just sick and tired of the politics of the holidays, and so on).

Will there be a next time around? Probably so. I'm sure I'll rekindle blog writing next fall, as I will be taking this spring off from ENG 112. Potential topics might include: the environment; 70s and 80s easy listening; historical fiction (what's so fictional about it, really?); addiction to the Food Network; or a plethora of other manageable topics. I have a few months, so I'll marinate on that for the time being.

Ciao! (Or chow!, as you like it.) See you at the inauguration parade...

Could Blogging Have Stopped WW2?

2008-12-11T15:45:00.003-05:00

Check out this article from the Associated Press and published on the Huffington Post: "Nobel Prize Winner: Blogs Might Have Stopped Hitler." In this short post, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio suggests that the free-flow of information could have prevented WW2.

Do you agree?
Why WW2 and not the genocide in Darfur? The Russia-Georgia aggression? The U.S. foreclosure/bank crises?

Another Political Corruption Case?

2008-12-09T22:47:00.003-05:00

It's not so hard to believe: as my quasi-sister-in-law reminded me a few months ago, Chicago wasn't called the windy city because of the weather. Rather, it was because Chicago politicians are all full of hot, corrupted air. Today, we learned that Democratic Governor (and under investigation long before today) Rod Blagojevich (pronounced Bleh-goya-vich) was arrested today because of charges of "scheming to enrich himself by selling Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a lucrative job for himself. In excerpts released by prosecutors, Blagojevich snarls profanities, makes threats and demands and allegedly concocts a rich variety of schemes for profiting from his appointment of a new senator" (Associated Press, 2008). What's frightening about Blagojevich's profanity-laced tirade unleashed on anybody who wouldn't pay him for the senate seat is the boldness (or inanity) of his actions.

Of course, we've seen this before. Even today, Larry Craig, the Republican senator from Idaho, lost the appeal of his disorderly conduct charge relating to his "wide stance" gay-sex solicitation charge stemming from a vicarious visit to a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom stall (Orr, 2008). Then there is Ted Stevens, another U.S. Senator, who was convicted of concealing home-improvement gifts and who was just convicted in the last two months, right before he lost his senate seat to Anchorage's mayor, Mark Begich.

Is it that senatorial and U.S. gubernatorial jobs attract criminals? Maybe, but probably not any more so than any other job that has power and influence attached to it. Rachel Maddow, on her December 8th MSNBC show, pointed out that in 1993, the Chicago Sun-Times happily (or relievingly) reported that in the previous 12 months, there hadn't been a Chicago alderman who was convicted (or charged) with a crime. There are petty criminals everywhere. Governor Blagojevich was in the right place (Illinois government) at a very strange time, a time when a senator like Barack Obama had recently gotten elected and around the same time performed amazingly at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. As Obama's star was on the rise, Blagojevich's was on the wane. In the last few years, he has been in trouble for everything from land deals to family feuds. The hope of ending Illinois corruption (the previous governor, George Ryan, was also convicted of corruption and is serving time in federal prison), doesn't seem to have been broken by Obama's good fortune.

But there is a point to most of this: that even those who are most corrupt in U.S. politics can also do some good in their time in office. Ryan passed a moratorium on the death penalty; Blagojevich attempted to pass a law that would force pharmacists to honor all prescriptions regardless of personal position. Even Larry Craig promoted a balanced federal budget (unfortunately, this was on the only positive thing I could find in his record). Finally, Ted Stevens is pro-choice. The point is is that corrupt politicians are mainly people who, even if we agree with them on some issues, have come to our attention for trying to work around a system that they were elected to support. It's as bad as Pete Rose betting on baseball, as bad as grandma's overly dry pot roast. It's what we expect of politicians, and it's why Americans might so ambivalent about politics.

Let's hope with the election of Barack Obama (I'm crossing my fingers here) that we see a new turn toward ethical political reform, not only in the White House (I've yet to mention the legal problems with the last two holders of that office), but spread across U.S. politics as a whole. Don't hold your breath but, instead, make sure your representatives are holding up their end of the bargain: representing us instead of trying to rip us off. The first thing you can do is contact your local state and U.S. Representatives. Check their records. Contact them. And if all else fails, don't vote for an incumbent whose track record makes you blush.

References Cited
Associated Press. (2008). Illinois Governor's Words "Beyond Greed." MSNBC.com Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28148126/

O'Connor, Matt, and Rudolph Bush. (2006, April 16). Ryan Convicted in Corruption Trial:
Co-defendant Warner also guilty. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 8, 2008, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060417ryantrial,0,4525779.story

Orr, Jimmy. (2008). Senator Larry Craig Loses Airport Bathroom Misconduct Appeal. ChristianScienceMonitor.com Retrieved December 9, 2008, from http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/12/09/senator-larry-craig-loses-airport-bathroom-misconduct-appeal/

Salam Pax links

2008-12-04T17:02:00.006-05:00

Hi Everybody,

Check these out:

1. Salam Pax's original blog at tinyplanet.org/iraqblog
2. "Shut up, you fat whiner!" at justzipit.blogspot.com
3. Salam Pax for The Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/salampax
4. An article by Slate journalist Peter Maass: http://www.slate.com/id/2083847/
5. Salam Pax's new blog at http://salampax.wordpress.com/

And this quote, from Salam Pax and published on The Guardian's website, in the article "I Became the Profane Pervert Arab Blogger":

My name is Salam Pax and I am addicted to blogs. Some people watch daytime soaps, I follow blogs. I follow the hyperlinks on the blogs I read. I travel through the web guided by bloggers. I get wrapped up in the plots narrated by them. I was reading so many blogs I had to assign weekdays for each bunch, plus the ones I was reading daily. It is slightly voyeuristic, especially those really personal blogs: day-to-day, mundane stuff which is actually fascinating; glimpses of lives so different, and so much amazing writing. No politics, just people's lives. How they deal with pain or grief, how they share their happy moments with anybody who cares to read.
And I cared. We had no access to satellite TV, and magazines had to be smuggled into the country. Through blogs I could take a peek at a different world. Satellite TV and the web were on Saddam's list of things that will corrupt you. Having a satellite dish was punishable with jail and a hefty fine because these channels would twist our minds and make us do bad things. They spread immoral values. Of course he and his buddies were incorruptible so they could watch all the satellite TV they wanted.

"A" Complete Guide to Blogging?

2008-12-04T16:31:00.004-05:00

Check out this link on Amazon.com about Ariana Huffington and company's new book: The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging. For homework this week, read the first chapter (just scroll down the page a bit). Would this information help a newbie jump into blogging?

Check This Out: Worst Blogs?

2008-12-02T18:36:00.002-05:00

Hey Gang,

Check out this list by JP Raphael at PC World magazine: do you agree about the 11 "lamest" blogs on the net? Did any of those blogs come up in your "Worst Blog" search?

Julie

Staying Focused

2008-12-02T18:07:00.003-05:00

In the course of my blog writing (this semester on politics), I've had an easier time staying focused on my previous topics. Those were: politics (fun, during the midterm elections), finances (pretty interesting), the dissertation (absolutely horrible experience, will never write about writing again!), home improvement (harder to write about and stay motivated than it seems), and, finally, back to politics, which is a topic that makes me wonder, sometimes, why I didn't major in political science.

So I played hooky last week: I didn't post a thing. I kept thinking that I could come around to it, that something political would strike me: the Franken/Coleman recount (according to the Huffington Post, the difference is now down to 13 votes out of 2.9 million); the Martin/Chambliss revote (the polls close tonight at 7 p.m.); the Obama cabinet; even the big bailout(s); there's plenty of fodder out there.

So why am I having so much trouble this semester? I guess it amounts to what everybody else in this class is dealing with: when one juggles classes, grading, dissertation, husband's new job, husband's surgery on Friday, dogs, planning the Christmas Iditarod (our drive to Colorado), and so on, it seems as if politics has been put on the back burner. I mean, Obama won, right? I have finally had the opportunity to relax, something that I didn't think would happen since the midterm elections when everything ramped up.

Here's something that has been bugging me, and it's probably not worthy of a full-length blog post, but it's about post-election hypocrisy: Politicos around this great nation seem to be changing their colors. I have been expecting Keith Olbermann to put George W. Bush at the top of his "Best People in the World" this week because he finally owned up to it, saying that, as you can see here in the article from the LA Times, "Bush tells ABC News: 'I was unprepared for war'." Next thing you know, Bill O'Reilly will be stating that it's a good thing there is separation of church and state. No, wait, he just said that this week. That wasn't his opinion 5 years ago. Give kudos to Olbermann again, who pointed this out on Countdown. This week, O'Reilly stated that he was "a secular guy." Just a few years ago, here's what O'Reilly said: "These antichristian zealots talking Judeo-Christian philosophy today reject that honor. But in reality, they are cowards. They hide behind the bogus separation of church and state argument to batter any public displays they find offensive. Led by the ACLU and aided by secular judges the anti-Christian Americans are insulting and denigrating a key part of America." I expect by next year both O'Reilly and Bush might join the American Atheists, but that might be an insult to my husband, a proud atheist. To see O'Reilly vilified by Olbermann, check out this link:

So it seems as if the next month and a half will be absolute mayhem: some politicians will be falling off the radar (let's hope that's Sarah Palin, Larry Craig, Fred Thompson, Michelle Bachmann, Rudy Guiliani, and even Bill Clinton) while others will be making appearances for the first time. And the pundits will continue to harrass and harangue. I'm looking forward to learning more about Ron Paul, though, because I get the feeling he won't be going away any time soon. He's like Ross Perot on steroids, which isn't a bad thing, now is it?

Post Feedback This Week

2008-11-28T12:26:00.002-05:00

Hi Everybody,

Hopefully your Thanksgiving was a nice and safe one! Just as a reminder, I will be giving feedback on this week's posts later today and tomorrow. Remember also that you will have two more posts due next Tuesday, and feedback for those will happen next Wednesday. Just hang in there--we're almost done the semester.

This is the perfect time to start thinking about your blogging community: how well have you researched and read blogs in your subject area? Attempt to read 1-2 new blogs a day for the next week or so--then you will really have a nice selection of community members to choose from.

See you in a week!
Julie

Watch that Tone!

2008-11-18T21:26:00.008-05:00

There are all sorts of ways one can manage the tone of their writing online. When it comes to blogs, however, the tone can feel much more informal, a "hey you!" message yelled IN ALL CAPS for effect rather than a more subtle "I really mean to grab your attention." These stylistic differences can certainly be seen in blogs.

Blogs can be both personal and professional, political and apolitical. It all depends on the person and the context of the post. I, for one, tend to have a semi-informal approach in the writing of my blog. While the context this semester is politics, I'm no expert on foreign policy, I'm no Rhodes scholar, I'm just a composition professor who happens to be addicted to politics. So my tone is most likely "academic-lite." What does that really mean? It means that I attempt to pay attention to the words I use as I articulate points, considering both my audience (this class) and the genre of blogs. It's a tricky balance sometimes to say the right thing the right way. When writing about politics, being too obnoxious or verbose can turn a reader off.

Like Stephen King has said, "The road to hell was paved with adverbs" (Moncur). Adverbs, those "-ly" words, litter our writing, especially academic writing and, as the case may be, strangely, romance novels. Where else would you find him staring longingly at her heavingly ample bosom? Where else, but in a blog or online, could you find out that someone was "really, really republican" or even "two very-nearly-Democratic-Party-house-organs" (whatever that means, see Kinsolving for a clearer explanation)?

Most blogs, it can be pointed out, like The Drudge Report, are light on the professional tone and would rather get down and dirty, more like The Enquirer than The New York Times. For example, the big headline (with, unfortunately, no front-page story to go with it) says "100,000 Citizens Resist Obama in First Week." What does that mean? He's the president-elect. What can one resist at the moment? It's not as if we can re-do the elections. The sneaky part of that front-page headline is that it's an advertisement, asking readers to sign up to oppose a "socialist" Obama. Really, now? We've gone to the Marxist argument again? (How's that for a shift in tone?)

Then there are regular blogs like "Just Another Political Blog," in which our author, Canadian Zach Hall, provides thoughtful and philosophical-esque commentary about not just Canadian issues but, rather, about global conundrums such as the environment. I think our class blogs should strive to be more like Hall than The Huffington Post and Drudge. First of all, in ENG 112 we don't have ample supplies of copywriters at our disposal; we aren't paid big salaries to blog; and we haven't the archive to rely on previous work or the vitriolic ire of political party affiliation. That said, what is impressive about a one-person blog like Hall's is that it sets an appropriate tone: concerned citizen, intellectually curious, not afraid to use a thesaurus as he educates us about his understandings of politics.

In the end, the tone of any piece of writing should match the content and context of the piece. If one is writing about the war in the Congo, descriptions of murder and rape will appear. You can't and shouldn't be squeamish about telling the truth. If one is writing about relationships, it could be a mixed bag of psychology and emotional dialogue. Just remember: there are good samples and blogs to mimic, especially in your genre. Find them, peruse them, comment on them. You'll never know until you really venture out how your blog fits in to the rest of your community.

References Cited

Kinsolving, Les. (2008). Round 1: The Barack-Hillary Feud. Accessed November 17, 2008, from http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=40362

Moncour, Michael. (2007). The Quotations Page: Steven King. Accessed November 17, 2008, from http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Stephen_King

Check out this Iraq Veteran-Blogger

2008-11-13T13:11:00.001-05:00

First, the story on CNN.

Now, Colby Buzzell's blog: CBFTW.

Facebook: An Election Frontier/Faceoff

2008-11-10T18:49:00.005-05:00

I have been quite surprised by the anxiety and animosity that has been swirling around in this postelection week. Both with my family and with friends, what could have been a surprisingly exciting time for celebration (Obama, according to the Associated Press, won by over 8 million votes) has turned into a post-win funk. This should have been a time for gratuitious champagne drinking and general deep sleeping at night. Instead, the Facebook/home faceoff has begun.

First, let me speak to family political affiliations. It just so happens that I'm the child of two retired military professionals; both raised by lifelong Democrats but both of whom vote Republican (one for military reasons, one for who knows what). My sister is a mixed-bag of political affiliations: she once worked for the Dukakis campaign, and she's both voted for Gore and Bush Jr. My brothers are staunch Republicans, probably because of their father's politics. And then there's me: a very liberal liberal who admitedly voted for Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Kerry, and Obama. I've even gone the red route on occasion.

So why are family relationships so tenuous during election season? It can all be summed up by law student Megan Bode, in "After You Vote, Please Leave Politics at the Polls" for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The honeymoon phase of trying to convince our partners, aunts, cousins, or pals that their candidate isn't the right one fades, and we are left with just bitterness, anxiety, and stress. My sister called me to explain her vote to me on Wednesday morning. I had just had a stunningly long day at the polls the day before, and so the call (and the admission of which candidate she chose) was surprising. Then came the litany of reasons why. Of course, I didn't agree with her explanations about foreign policy and general experience (because if I did, I would have voted for McCain, too). I wondered why she was unloading so much on me. Did it really matter? Then came the zinger. She said, "You'll just have to get over your dissapointment in me." Was it dissapointment, or shock, or something else? I still haven't tied an emotion to it. It was too late to convince her otherwise: she had already voted, and the election done. Yet this revelation, more than my brother's snarky text that he'd jokingly "decided Obama--psyche!" really got to me. I guess I had expected more.

One would think that once the election is over, that the feelings of anger would subside. Not likely if you were to read Jezebel's Online's article "How Facebook Status Updates Are Ruining Your Post-Election Social Life" by a blogger that goes by "Hortense." I never realized how much animosity I still harbored when I would view friends from college or high school or my last job posting comments on the social networking site about bunkering down in Idaho, running out to get a gun, the Democrats taking everyone's 401K, or what a charlatan Obama is. Really? Has it gotten that bad? Obama seems to be coming off in some of these anti-Facebook groups as a communist or the antichrist (if you can believe it, there are at least 5 Facebook groups touting this one). Of course, there is free speech, and I'm sure there have been many who have also accused Bush of being the bearer of Armegeddon as well, but I wonder: is all this displaced anger going someplace?

I can't be alone: almost 20,000 views of the Facebook faceoff from the Jezebel site show that the topic is timely. For those of you with Facebook, have you almost lost your cool with a family member or friend who has been I-moting (Internet emoting) politically spurious comments that leave you speechless, uncomfortable, or even crazed? What do we do about it? Confront our family members and friends? De-family/friend them? Ignore the behavior? This is a question I don't know how to respond to. Any feedback would be helpful!

The Election ... Amazing!

2008-11-04T23:10:00.009-05:00

This will be a somewhat teary, emotional, adrenalin-filled post. I ran a Virginia election precinct today and it was overwhelming. Weeks of training and reading up on Virginia Laws, preparation all day yesterday at our voting site, and up at 4 a.m., at the precinct at 4:45, opening the polls at 6 a.m., calling the registrar about 50 times with voters in the wrong locations, not registered, having moved, missing absentee ballots, and a myriad of other issues. Calling an election polling station hectic is a kindness. It was a monster. I just got home at 10:30 p.m.

There were times of silence; after 9:30 a.m., as the trickle of voters came in small groups instead of a deluge. And there were times of anger, especially when democratic and republican election officials try their best to do their best to protect voters and at the same time don't think of voters as real people but an "ideal." There will be more of that in another post.

I am proud of my country. I can admit that I've always loved America, but there have been times I've been mighty confused by racism, poor economic decisions, certain political actions past and present, ignorance of civil rights for hundreds of years, and so on. But there has been so much more beauty than anything else. Just seeing the smiles of the volunteers at the Fairfax County Government Center is but a small example: standing the rain, on their feet for 14 hours, easily giving a smile and a helpful hand with all our precious materials: our votes.

I hope we can become a more unified country. I know it will be hard. It will take years of a crushingly bad economy and two wars in which we must support our soldiers and all innocent people in war zones. I'm not a preachy, emotional person, but I'm crying my eyes out tonight. Happily.

Most Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Polls...

2008-10-26T20:59:00.008-04:00

At this point in the election cycle, I'm generally pacing up and down, and back and forth, spending hours talking about politics (I got a call from Moveon.org today with a request to volunteer this weekend) and then surfing political blogs to find out the latest tidbit of news on what will happen to America over the next four years once we know who our president will be and the direction our country will inevitably go.

The website that crunches every number in sight is FiveThirtyEight.com. The site's authors and contributors, Nate Silver and Sean Quinn, pour over statistics and polls done by the major U.S. Polling Agencies, from Zogby to AP to Gallup. They crunch the numbers from a variety of polls, whose methods are sometimes interesting and strange. For example: say you're 20 and haven't voted before in a presidential election. In some traditional poll models, you might be excluded from the data because you don't have a track record. In this upcoming election, polls like that would exclude millions of new registered voters, 350,000 alone who were registered in Virginia between January 1 and October 1 (this excludes all those last-minuters who turned in forms in the wee hours of October 5th or 6th, the last days to offically register) (Raising Kane, 2008).

What's so great about this poll projections website is the vast amount of data that one can pour over: what are Virginia's numbers? With 13 electoral votes, we're holding at 95% odds to swing to Obama, 5% to McCain, say Silver and Quinn. But those numbers, like the polls themselves, update daily, sometimes several times a day. It all depends on who picks up the phone. And for most of us who predominantly use cell phones as our only phone, it won't be us that they call. My sister, who has a landline and lives in Gainesville, has gotten, at last count, 13 polling calls. I've gotten none. Check out this great article highlighting some interesting statistics on cell-only users at Politics and Technology. The thing to pay attention to is what will happen to polling in the future: more and more people are dropping land phone service and are moving to cell-only service. And because it a federal (FCC) law that doesn't allow solicitation on cell phones, we generally get polling peace and quiet. This quiet will eventually skew phone polls unless the federal laws are updated.

Of course, I can't tell you in one short blog everything you would want to know about presidental voting polls. But I can tell you that sites like DailyKos.com, who prominently display daily tracking poll numbers (today it's Obama 51%, McCain 40%) do draw my attention. And that's no surprise: in the land of the 59 cent burrito and "Zero Money Down" on a house or car, it seems as if America has a love affair with numbers of the right variety. It also just so happens that because I have already voted for Obama (no secret there), I have to say that I'm pretty pleased about how these numbers are tracking. But then again, they'll have to hold for 8 more days. And crazier things have happened.

Reference Cited
Raising Kaine PAC. (2008). 350,000 New Registered Voters in Virginia Since January 1, 2008! Retrieved October 26, 2008, from http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=16521

Back to Politics: Vote 2008

2008-09-28T18:11:00.007-04:00

Starting in mid-October I'll be cranking away at this blog again, and I haven't blogged since the midterm elections in 2006 on issues surrounding politics, but if this isn't the perfect time, I don't know when it would be.

I'm now moving from an assistant chief in this year's elections to an actual chief of a polling site. I'm both excited and terrified. Excited to be part of the process and to be taking on a job that I believe allows me to make sure that everybody who shows up at my polling station has their U.S. given right to vote. There are times, of course, in which I've had to turn people away--but it's usually that they showed up at the wrong site, or that they forgot they didn't change their registration after college. I've never had to turn somebody down due to ID purposes (unlike what might happen in Indiana). I'm slightly obsessed and a little bit terrified that I might not get any sleep the night before and be a zombie during the action of the day...

I have seen people being unfairly treated when voting. A woman who happened to be African American was being unduly "processed" at the check-in table before she was given the "a-ok" to vote--I wasn't working this site, just voting at my own polling station, and I think this experience caused me to go volunteer to work the polls. I didn't hear the whole conversation between the woman and the poll workers, so I don't know for sure what went down, but I didn't leave until I saw that she voted. My hope is that it was for a legitimate reason (roll-related) and not racism. I'd like to think that, in Virginia, we don't discriminate, but I've lived in the south most of my life and I know better: discrimination happens everywhere. So I think it's up to us to protect all citizens and make sure not only that they feel safe voting, but that they have every opportunity to vote.

I'm just hoping that this November I get enough sleep the night before and that we get a great turnout. I hope that this process works this time, and that everybody votes. Otherwise, we can't complain about how the world is falling apart if we do nothing to speak up about torture, needless death, environmental protection, illegal wars, a deficit that grows every second, women's rights to their own bodies, better MPG standards on cars, and so on, and on, and on, and on...

FINAL CLASS IS ON!

2008-05-06T17:58:00.005-04:00

Hey Y'all,

We will meet on Thursday (May 8) night for our final class. Please bring analysis papers, printed-out favorite blogs, and yourselves, of course (ready for short, informal presentations).

Thanks go to Dr. Trad, my surgeon. He scheduled the surgical shenanigans for Friday at 1:30 ...

Julie

Summary Post: Home Improvement

2008-05-06T17:50:00.003-04:00

Well, it's hard to believe but eight weeks are here! Class ends on Thursday and so does this installment of my blogs. Each topic I have chosen has made me more proactive in some way.

First I started with politics. After that blogging experience, I became an assistant chief election officer for Fairfax County. I've worked 3 main elections, and it's been a very rewarding experience. Then I blogged about personal finance. I was into money before, but this blogging topic really opened my eyes about what I could do differently. Rev up those Roth IRAs and get moving. And I did. Then there was the "dissertation" blog. What a farce! I thought that since the other blogs had enhanced my life in some way, then blogging about my dissertation would keep me writing it in earnest. This didn't work at all and just ended up alienating both my audience and me from the project. (This reminds me: always consider one's audience!) Finally, in this semester's blog installments I tackled home improvement, and I think I've done a lot in a little time: reseeding and manicuring a front lawn; ripping off wood panelling and painting the hallway; buying (they're on the way!) new light fixtures for that hallway and some nice frames for family photos to give it some personality; fixing a leaky roof; and buying (just one) a chaise lounge so that I can relax as I grade final papers.

Home improvement is really about environment setting. Walking into a nice, updated home (or part of a home) gives me a satisfied feeling. It's so much better than the 70s throwback that this house was. Improvements need to continue: we didn't buy new construction. However, that's ok. There is something to be said about doing it yourself. It might not be perfect, but I paid less and got it my way!

See you online...
Julie

Green Living

2008-04-29T23:02:00.006-04:00

I have recently become fascinated with "green" living. Last week was Green Week, and local cities (like the one I was visiting in Bristol, Rhode Island) were sponsoring "green clean-ups," in which, ironically, multitudes of men on gasoline mowers were cleaning/polluting all in one.

Now, Home and Garden TV is having a sweepstakes, and the prize is none other than a "Green Home." HGTV describes the concept home with 7 main environmental goals: (1) Conveniently Located so long travel isn't necessary; (2) sustainable site, in which the environment around the home is not unduly affected; (3) water efficiency--reducing home water use by about 40%; (4) energy--the home will use approximately 25% less energy than a comparable home in a regular neighborhood; (5) materials and resources all locally provided or made; (6) indoor environmental quality; and (7) education--the sweepstakes educates the public about all the potential options for "green homes" (HGTV, 2008).

So this got me wondering: how environmentally friendly is my own home? Within the last year we remodeled the kitchen, throwing away all the old cabinets in the local dump (no green there); we bought new cabinets instead of refinishing the 1970s ones (nope); we bought mostly Energystar appliances (50% on this one--the frig was a good deal and so that one isn't so efficient); new siding makes the home more efficient (that counts); we replaced stone pavers with green grass (great for the O2 but still takes on water, so 50% there).

Here's where I can go green: new bamboo flooring, as it's a rapidly renewable resource (so says HGTV) and that can go all throughout the downstairs. We can also buy environmentally friendly paint for any future remodeling job; we can replace the overly cold-running refrigerator with an Energystar appliance; we can run fans instead of air conditioners; we can turn off lights (I'm already a fanatic about that); we will replace all old windows and the door with better materials so that the home is fully insulated; we can keep the old, crooked tree in the backyard that is upending the air conditioner because it provides great shade to the house; and, finally, we've replaced all bulbs with the newer halogen ones so that we save on energy.

Well, it's not much, but it is a start.

References Cited

Home and Garden TV. (2008). Green Home: How Green is the HGTV Green Home? Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/green_home_2008/article/0,,HGTV_30916_5816498,00.html

My Blogging Community: Ideas

2008-04-22T13:11:00.003-04:00

If I were taking ENG 112 and had to come up with my blogging community, the first thing I would do is isolate what community I am in. Realistically, my blog can be a part of multiple communities: those of English teachers, those of writers of classroom-based blogs, those of people who are interested in home improvement for a variety of reasons.

Because the assignment for the analysis paper requires students to discover which genre community they are a part of, this means that the focus should be on the actual content of the blog. So from all of this I understand that my community for a paper in ENG 112 would have to be other home improvement bloggers.

Here is a list of bloggers that fit the bill:

1. Heather Goss's Diary of a Fixer-Upper, which is linked in Washingtonian Magazine. This is a refreshing look at a successful career woman who is investing in a home and trying to do the work herself. Great photos abound, and her writing style is easy, conversational, yet informative.

2. Houseblogs is a community of bloggers with very up-to-date information on the mortgage crisis, "green" (or environmental) building, how to build the debt-free way, etc. The Houseblogs site is quite like the Huffington Post site. One main page links me to dozens of home improvement bloggers. I could get hundreds of bits of data on this site daily, and I include all of its bloggers as multiple sources yet linked in this easy-to-access site.

3. And now to a real expert. Bob Vila's House Blog is a great site because of his vast experience in home improvement. Anybody who has watched "Bob Vila" or "Bob Vila Home Again" on PBS or the DIY Network would recognize him. And his name is big in the industry--sometimes we just need to go to the "experts." He has 27 years in the industry, and so I feel quite comfortable taking his advice. I would use his site by fact-checking other suggestions from other bloggers and seeing if Vila has commentary on that issue. That way, like with academic research, I both know who I'm quoting and making sure that I have the most informed information possible.

And now-on to the paper!

99.152% Done My First Post-Blog House Project

2008-04-21T22:19:00.006-04:00

I never thought it would happen, but hell as frozen over. Well, maybe not. But my hallway project (with exception of one corner's light touch-up and the remounting of a new light) is complete. Because this wasn't a necessary project (like fixing a leaking toilet), it was more of a labor of love. And here's what we did to get the "hallway project" done.

The initial problem was the wooden paneling was that it was, well, wooden paneling. I can't see any real justification for it. My childhood bedroom was a child's wood paneling fantasy, and that was in the 70s and 80s, so maybe this remodeling project is about escaping my childhood bedroom for something more "grown up." The panels graced the stairwell as nicely as any 1970s cheap plywood could, attached by nails and glue, made to look more like wainscoting than an actual wood wall because it only went partially up the walls. It was both cheap and incomplete. Coupled with tacky eagle-encrusted light switch plates, my husband and I think we bought this townhouse simply to rectify my 1970s flashbacks.

And so we tore down paneling, sanded down the remaining glue, patched holes, painted walls upwards of 16 feet in spaces (the stairwell itself soars up two storeys), and at one point I was teetering at the top of a ladder, inhaling fumes, trying to be a perfectionist and getting the job done right. It was a one-time-only study in perfection for me. I don't think I'll go back to that soon.

I think the most important thing about home improvement is that the job actually improves the home. I go up those stairs at least ten times a day, and before the redo I could feel my blood positively bubble over to boiling when I wondered why it took me three years to get to the job. But now that I have completed it, I wonder what I can do next. So if you read this, answer the poll above. I promise to tackle the job that gets the most votes!

The Association...

2008-04-16T10:51:00.003-04:00

One thing that homeowners might have to deal with while working on home improvement projects is the dreaded homeowner's association. The purpose of that association is to keep your neighbors (and you) in line. They take dues (ours is double--we have a neighborhood association and the Reston Association [RA]) for things like garbage and landscape maintenance, management of parking issues, and basic oversight of each home. When a home gets into disrepair the homeowner's association (in our case, RA) can put a lien on the owner's property, which requires the homeowner to fix the problem or pay a penalty before they can sell the home. RA actually did this to a neighbor of ours because her front porch light wasn't the right shape. Unfortunately the acceptable light design was discontinued years ago and RA hadn't updated their documentation. $120 dollars later, the lien was finally gone. But talk about bad blood...

The purpose is protection, one guesses, from crazy neighbors who might bring down the value of other properties with trashy front yards (think 50 garden gnomes) or tractor trailers parked on the lawn. But what we have experienced with our neighborhood association is a partnership with predatory towing companies, an interest in cheap holiday decorations (which have only come down last Sunday, four months later), support for the local solicitors such as the ice cream truckers, who blare horrible calliope music in the form of the repetitious "Music Man" in the neighborhood every day at least twice a day, and a general interest in unrest.

There are sites on the web that are out to help homeowners learn the real problems with these associations. For example, the American Homeowner's Resource Center attempts to shine a bright light on the real legalese that these associations can use to take power from homeowners. The goal of these associations was once a good one: support your neighbors and community, keep the neighborhood clean, and everybody's property will benefit. Short of starting a revolution, however, I don't see what we can do to remove Reston Association from our lives other than moving. However, with the way the housing crisis is looming large in our neighborhood (at least 6 foreclosures or short sales at last count), that isn't a possibility.

So what are homeowners to do? Maybe all one can do is fix up their property to code and neighborhood standard and wait it out while maniacal neighbors snoop and intrude and just plain make nuisances of themselves. In the meantime, I'll be buried up to my eyeballs in paint.

Home Improvement's Not Always Been So Pretty

2008-04-08T16:40:00.004-04:00

As I was priming the stairwell walls this week, I was thinking about the turn to "hipness" that home improvement has taken. It's now considered a cool thing to do to take a house in disrepair and to do all those fixer-upper things (painting, carpentry, drywalling, plumbing, electrical work) that we used to hire out for ages ago. There are even titles for people who do this as a career: "flippers," who fix up dilapidated homes in the hopes of a big payday. But, back in the day, those jobs related to home repair were solidly blue-collar. You didn't do them because you wanted to make a lot of money, but you took those jobs because there wasn't really anything else available.

One of the many people involved in home repair was my grandfather Bernard (a.k.a. "Pete"). Pete was a WW2 vet who came back from France and Germany scarred, grumpy, silent, but ready to work. He took a job as a painter and worked 6-day weeks until his health deteriorated. Some of it was from a youth of smoking and blowing up cherry bombs in friends' cars. Then there was the war. The years of painting (I remember the most famous building he painted in Worcester, MA, was the Polar Bear Cola Co. building, and it must have taken weeks). Every night that I spent in his presence I can remember him drinking a beer and pouring a pat of salt on his hand, in the space between his thumb and index finger, to replenish all the salt he lost as he sweat through 10-12 hour days of painting.

It was not glorious work. It was strenuous, backbreaking: when Pete died he was inches shorter than when he was young, with a stooped back, replaced knees, arthritic hands. And then there was the emphysema. Of course that wasn't all from painting, but who knows about what fumes he breathed in for 40 years during his work? When he came home, he was covered in paint, smelled like paint, and just wanted a smoke or two or five. On his days off, my mom remembers that during the summers he would drive his wife and daughters about an hour to get to the beach. Even on his days off he wasn't off: coughing, hacking, curling under the strain of making people's homes and workplaces brighter.

And so while I was painting my one small stairwell, I thought about how Pete handled doing it, day after day, month after month. It had to have gotten monotonous, ingratiating, irritating. To deal with unfair practices and health issues, Pete had joined a painter's union (does this explain why I'm so pro-union?). But in the end all his health issues caught up with him and he died in a haze attributed to emphysemic senility.

Why am I reminded of this? When I was at Home Depot the other day, after I had my paint mixed (Ralph Lauren's "Architectural Cream"), I wandered over to another aisle in which "environmentally safe" paints (called Freshaire) were being sold. Of course I was lazy and just kept the paint I had mixed, but a part of me wondered what damage I might be doing to not only me but future people who buy my place. What ingredients are in the RL paint? What is better about the environmental stuff (more on this in another cross-over post)? Could these technologies (even in paint) have helped my grandfather have a better end-of-life? If I breathe in this stuff, what will happen to me in 10 years?

So maybe this is silly, or over-exaggerated, but I continue to wonder ...

The Day of Two Jobs

2008-04-01T21:03:00.006-04:00

Well, we've begun early. And added another home improvement job to the list today. Because it was beautiful, sunny, and in the 60s, I decided to go ahead and reseed and dirt the front lawn, take the panelling to the dump, buy paint and edgers, and sand the stairwell walls.

Here are a few things I've realized about home improvement jobs. One has to be really patient and do things perfectly to get the job done right. I am neither patient nor do I care about perfection; that would explain the so-so paint job in the kitchen. But this time I let my husband take the home improvement lead. He sanded while I had the glorious job of holding the vacuum. An hour later, it's 90% done (batteries died on the orbital sander and are recharging).

Even though I didn't do all the work, I have been reading up on Internet home improvement sites so that as I move along this semester, I can learn and tackle as many jobs as I can.

The first great site is "Hometime" by the PBS home improvement gurus. What's great about this site is not only the written text, but the buried videos and purchase lists that come along right on the main page. Talk about navigation ease. In addition, the Do-It-Yourselfers have great tips on painting our tricky stairwell. What's nice is that you can also view videos on this site, or if you have cable just turn on your trusty DirectTV and watch shows like "DIY to the Rescue" and "Sweat Equity" because really, there are two fundamental reasons to do these renovations: enjoyment of having a nice home, and resale value.

References Cited

DIY Network. (2008). Home Page. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/tv

Hometime. (2008). Drywall. Retrieved March 30, 2008, from http://www.hometime.com/Howto/projects/drywall/drwl_8.htm

The Beginning of Improvement?

2008-03-31T19:24:00.006-04:00

We've decided on a project to complete: the "stairwell job." It's not that complicated, we've started already, and if we don't finish the job my home will look like the underneath of a highway bridge. Here's what we have done so far: We've already removed the wooden paneling (still waiting for removal to the city dump), and on Saturday Dac (the Mr.) patched all the holes that came into being from ripping the panelling off the walls. The next few steps in the process will be:

Sand all new patches and old glue blobs that still appear on the walls;

Purchase a nice, neutral nonwhite paint. My options are from the Ralph Lauren
collection: Cream stone, Sailor's Knot, Modern Studio, and another sample I just lost;

Prime and paint the stairwell, which extends up at least 16-17 feet in places. This might make us use some tricky ladder combinations to get that done; and

Sit back and enjoy a nongraffitied stairwell.

About that graffiti'ed wall: Apparently there were at least two men
living in this house in the 70s; one is named Bruce. The other, interestingly,
is Manino Jr. Maybe it's Bruce Manino Jr., but the handwriting is different. You see, we found inscriptions on the wall from those responsible for the fake wooden panelling, and so I'm dedicating this job to Brucie, wherever he might be now.

Costs
1. One can Ralph Lauren paint: $26
2. Sander from Home Depot: approx. $20
3. Patching adhesive: $5

Full cost of project: about $50.

Timeline
1. Sand down spots Friday, April 4
2. Purchase paint Friday, April 4
3. Paint: Hopefully by April 15

Let's see if I can now stick to the schedule!

Examples of Summary, Synthesis, Analysis: The Matrix

2008-03-27T16:10:00.004-04:00

Summary: “In the near future, a computer hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, for the purpose of placating us while our life essence is ‘farmed’ to fuel the Matrix’s campaign of domination in the ‘real’ world. He joins like-minded Rebel warriors Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) in their struggle to overthrow the Matrix” (Gittes, 2006).

Considerations of Synthesis: Think about how the Matrix was filmed (there is a short on the DVD called “bullet time” in which the Wachowski brothers explain this new filming technology). Now consider how this bullet-time technology has been manipulated, in both music entertainment (music videos from Rascal Flatts) and parody (think the Scary Movie franchise). These entertainment venues are taking an idea that became quite popular from The Matrix movies and expanding it out to other genres. This keeps The Matrix in the news and shows how this particular technology evolves in mainstream media. Ways for us to synthesize “bullet time” (see “Bullet Time … Sort Of” on YouTube).

Think of ways to combine ideas from multiple sources to further your position on any topic imaginable. Using multiple sources to come up with new ideas is the main goal of “synthesis.” Could we now write an article on how technology (specifically “bullet time”) has allowed for new conceptions of the use of special effects in entertainment, using as sources not only The Matrix but Scary Movie and music videos?

Analysis: James L. Ford’s article “Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema” in The Journal of Religion and Film, Vol 4. #2, 2000.

References cited

Ford, James L. (2000). Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema. Journal of Religion and Film, 4(2), 2000. <<http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/thematrix.htm>>

Gittes, Jake. (2006). The Matrix—Plot Summary. Retrieved October 25, 2006, from http://imdb.com/title/tt0133093/plotsummary

Home Improvement

2008-03-25T20:07:00.004-04:00

Ok, so I have chosen my topic for the next eight weeks: home improvement. I can hear you saying it now, "that's a boring subject." Well, it isn't as exciting as my last forray into blogging, in which I carped on and on about my dissertation topic. That was an experience I thought would be good for me and it ended up confusing me even more. I have learned in blogging about various topics (politics, finance, composition theory, and now home improvement) that I need variety in writing, that I need to learn to use power tools, that I need to explore avenues that interest me (like making my house livable), and I think this blog can be a great catalyst for that.

So. Here I am. We're in the middle of a house project right now (removing horrid wooden panneling from our stairwell), and it's been at the ready for about 3 weeks. Another reason I think this blog will be good for me is that it will motivate me to make some positive changes in the house. We have done a lot so far: torn down an ugly overhang, put on new siding, added new lights downstairs, almost-completed the half-bath, painted the deck and fences, fixed masonry, installed a new kitchen, even. But there is so much more to do: scrape the glue off the walls (the glue that held the disgusing panneling in place), install new floors downstairs (the vinyl tiles and carpet have been abused by my dogs); change light fixtures upstairs, remodel the 1973 bathroom, down to the lovely flowery vinyl tiles, move the water heater (long story), fix closets, paint rooms, repaint deck (wrong stuff!), resod front lawn, build out small decks in front of house, and so on!

I know for a fact that all of this can't be done during this course, but here is what I can do: learn to use power tools; investigate do-it-yourself vs. expert work on all the projects left to go; attempt a job on my own, like finishing the half-bath (24 months and counting!); interview a friend who is a jack-of-all trades carpenter/plummer/electrician; and plan a budget that will let me know if these things are doable or if I'm just smoking somthing. Finally, if this isn't enough territory to cover, I can provide commentary and review on some of my favorite HGTV shows (House Hunters, anyone?). I think there's plenty of material to work from.

So now I actually have to get off my backside and do something. This is what enrages me about blogs like mine...action is required!

So, until Thursday...

In-Class Exercise: What is "General Welfare"?

2007-11-28T19:15:00.000-05:00

Here is the preamble to the U.S. Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. [as quoted off Cornell University Law School's website]

What does general welfare mean? How can we adequately define it?

Consider, for example, how politicians fighting for the upcoming U.S. presidency are promoting or fighting over a new concept for America: "Universal Healthcare" (UH). Can the preamble's goals be tied to UH? Which candidate do you think supports the preamble most closely with regards to health care or what you have come to define as "general welfare"?

Where Does This Piece of Writing End?

2007-11-20T14:56:00.000-05:00

The Waiting Game

So by now most everybody within a 100-foot radius of me at any moment knows that I've started my dissertation. Proposal round three is with my director, and I'm sure I'll get it back after the Thanksgiving Holidays. For rounds one and two I was suspicious of any large white packet that came in the mail. Is this the one with the feedback? Is it a sweepstakes offer? Could it be quarterly losses from my 401(k)? Any of the above would have been depressing. I was waiting (am waiting still) to jump through this last hoop on my way to finishing my Ph.D. work. And it still feels like the beginning.

For starters, here are all the places in which any graduate school can waylay the best of educational travelers (or gatekeeping mechanisms, as they are):

Acceptance to any graduate program (GPA, letters of recommendation, work histories, other experience, writing samples);

Introductory courses/grades;

The "qualifying portfolio": a place in which, midway through coursework, students must put a portfolio together that's considered academically viable work;

Finishing coursework (both required and elective) at a steady pace with acceptable grades (mostly "A"s);

Getting somebody to chair your dissertation committee;

Getting the proposal passed;

Signing up other advisors/readers to be on your committee;

Passing the 3-chapter defense; and

Passing the final dissertation defense.

And so, three years in, I am only at step 6. I guess it feels like I've done more than that, but there is so much left to do. And where does this writing piece end (the theme, of course, of my dissertation)? Through rounds and rounds of submission, feedback, frustration, rewriting, and resubmission, I have gotten this far. And I guess that's pretty good. But this piece of writing will then blend and merge into my dissertation itself (mostly part of the prologue and chapter 1), continue to change, and not be anything at all like I thought it would be.

I am a stranger to my own written voice. I never sound on paper like I do in my head, or when I speak. It is as if there are three writers here, and each voice is distinct; yet I never know who will show up for the final version. I just hope that I don't have to wait too long to know whether I can take that next step. I mean, I know it's coming, but the waiting is excruciating.

And this reminds me: this is exactly what it feels like for my ENG 111 students to wait 8 weeks for a grade (I'll never do that again!).

Photo Courtesy the Yoga gurus.

Week 5: In-class exercise

2007-11-15T16:36:00.000-05:00

Blogs and reporting...

How do blogs and "legitimate" (depends on how you define it) news outlets report on the same issue?

Take a look at the recent Hollywood writers' strike. Here are two bloggers different interpretations of issues surrounding the strike: Writer's Blog or Lowrychris's "Is the Writer's Strike in Hollywood just Gold Digging by the WGA?" and how media (newspaper and online news outlets) are reporting on the issue: "Bad Day at The Office" from MSNBC.

Questions to consider:
1. How do these different types of Internet "reports" handle the issue of the Writers' strike?
2. What are the writing style(s) shown? Are they similar?
3. Based on what you see here, where do you go to get your news?

References Cited (Thus far)

2007-11-13T18:43:00.001-05:00

Here is a copy of my growing References Cited list. Not all the pieces are used in my proposal, but I believe I will be actively using them (99%, at least) in the main project.

Baynes, Kenneth, et al., eds. After Philosophy: End or Transformation? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.

Berlin, James. Rhetorics, Poetics, Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1996.

Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Cleveland: Meridian, 1962.

Carter, Michael. Where Writing Begins: A Postmodern Reconstruction. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

China Daily. “Archaeologists Rewrite History.” China Daily, June 12, 2003. 29 Sept. 2007 http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jun/66806.htm

Dobrin, Sidney. Constructing Knowledges: The Politics of Theory-Building and Pedagogy in Composition. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

---------. “From Writing Processes to Cultural (Re)production: Composition’s Theoretical Shift.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, 22 March 2002.

Faigley, Lester. Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition. Pittsburgh: U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1992.

Fish, Stanley. “Being Interdisciplinary Is So Very Hard to Do.” Profession 89, 15–22, 1991.

Guthrie, W. K. C. A History of Greek Philosophy. 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1962.

Haldane, John. “Philosophy, Death, and Immortality.” Philosophical Investigations 30(3), 245-265.

Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Toronto: Bantam, 1988.

Hyers, Conrad. The Interpreter’s Bible. 12 vols. New York: Abington, 1952.

Joyce, Rosemary. The Languages of Archaeology: Dialogue, Narrative, and Writing. London: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.

Journet, Debra. “Writing within (and between) Disciplinary Genres.” In Thomas Kent, Ed. Post Process Theory: Beyond the Writing Process Paradigm. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

Klein, Julie. Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice. Detroit: Wayne State U. Press, 1990.

Knoblauch, Cy, and Lil Brannon. Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1984.

Lucas, Gavin. The Archaeology of Time. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Luce, J. V. An Introduction to Greek Philosophy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Lukacs, John. At the End of an Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.

Lyon, Arabella. “Interdisciplinarity: Giving Up Territory.” College English 54 (1992): 681–93.

McIver, Tom. “The Alpha & the Omega.” Skeptic 7(3), (ID # 10639330), 1999.

North, Stephen. The Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton, 1987.

Plato, and Albert Keith Whitaker. Parmenides. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 1996.

Preucel, Robert. Archaeological Semiotics. London: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.

Said, Edward W. Beginnings: Intention and Method. New York: Basic, 1975.

Vandenberg, Peter, Sue Hum, and Jennifer Clary-Lemon. Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 2006.

Vitanza, Victor. “Three Countertheses: Or a Critical In(ter)vention into Composition Theories and Pedagogies.” In Harkin and Schlib, eds. Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age. New York: MLA, 1991.

Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. New York: Macmillan, 1933.

Class Exercise: Blog Genres

2007-11-07T18:17:00.000-05:00

In small groups, present your topic and discuss the blog leaders in your field. Come up with a list of reasons (a rationale) as to why these might be the bloggers you discuss for your final paper. For example: What makes them a leader? site popularity? Current on issues? Writing style? Technical prowess?

Break apart from groups and write a “review” of one of these bloggers (you can use this as one of your posts next week).

Note: If there are no other bloggers on this topic, you can either broaden your genre (from Colbert to politics in general, for example) or you can write about why you’re the lone blogger on this topic.

The Dissertation Process ...

2007-10-29T18:53:00.000-04:00

In this blog post I'm going to outline the process of getting through my particular Ph.D. program in English composition. Each university’s academic program has different requirements for the degree, so this one is particular only to Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

What Happens Before the Dissertation:
Students who have survived the application process should select a focus for their studies pretty soon upon entering (by about 12 hours into the program). In our program, a student could focus on English (composition) or English (Teaching English as a Second Language). We also have a sister department that is literature based. The courses themselves cover everything from “Quantitative Research” to “Teaching Writing” to “Second Language Literacy.” After taking the first 9 hours, students are required to submit a qualitative proposal (QP) that is a packet of documents including new writing, samples of previous coursework, etc. After passing the QP, students move to candidate status, continuing their courses, selecting appropriate electives, and finishing required ones. What's good about this is that the variety of professors, feedback, and coursework should prepare most students for the longer, sustained project of the dissertation.

On average, dissertations are approximately 205 pages in length (Hearther, 1998). During a recent conversation I had with my dissertation director, Dr. Claude, he asked me in all seriousness, "do you think you can cover all this in 200 pages?" He had been reviewing my proposal section that outlined the project. In the back of my mind, I was wondering, do I have enough to make 200 pages? But it seems that with the actual writing itself, the text flows. That's another great thing about directors. They can see the forest through the trees, definitely highlighting potential pitfalls along the way. What I thought was not enough content was becoming a content flood.

Clarifying the Content
So I'm about to start the third round of this proposal, hopefully my last. My job now is to show how my dissertation project both relates to English compositionist and NCSU professor Michael Carter's Where Writing Begins while standing on its own. The similarities are probably clearer than the differences: My text will complete the cyclical nature of the question Carter's book ends with: if the next question is where writing ends, that's what I plan on exploring. My chapters will mirror Carter's chapters, too; however, I'll have less "room" to maneuver because Carter's manuscript probably closed in on 350 pages. I have about 60% of the space to theorize.

But it's in the differences and details that I'm getting stuck: Carter uses the Greek archê (beginning) to deconstruct how we view beginnings, and then to apply that meaning to reconstruct how we envision beginning writing and how we can teach that, knowing what we know now. He uses a break-down/build-up method. I want to move from Carter’s conception of archelogical to my understanding of archaeological; the differences are not just temporal mor the addition of an extra "o" in the word. As Carter sees "beginnings"; I'm looking to "endings." I want to view the “end” of writing through the lens of writing as an artifact. This is a huge departure from his work, and justifying this transition is getting tough.

My next step is being able to articulate this difference, submit it as a new proposal, and get that approved. Then, I can work on convincing two other professors to sit on my committee. And, then, over the next two years, I write, and research, and theorize, and make corrections, get feedback, and repeat. I have two defenses to prepare for, and then when all that is said and done? I’ll have 200 pages of writing that probably only 4 people will ever read. What a strange process academia is ...

References Cited
Hearther, N. K. (1998). Dissertation Abstracts Database Now Tops 1,500,000. Retrieved October 29, 2007, from http://www1.umn.edu/oit/newsletter/0398-itn/abstracts.html

Post 3

2007-10-18T18:17:00.002-04:00

Analysis Paper Overview & Checklist

2007-10-18T18:17:00.001-04:00

Things that’ll get you ready to write your analysis paper:

1. What is your topic?
2. Who are the other bloggers on your topic? What are they saying?
b. How do you fit into this crowd?
3. A good selection of your blogs--Aim to have 8-10 blogs completed by the time of your beginning this paper
4. At least 3 references (excluding your blog)
5. Comfort in formatting a paper in MLA or APA style (see dianahacker.com/resdoc)
6. Accurate documentation standards (quoting/paraphrasing)

What to cover in your paper:

This paper is an analysis of your blog community (including you!).
It should cover the following points:
1. What is the background on your topic?,
2. What are bloggers saying about this topic/issue?,
3. How you have become part of this community? (Have you?),
4. What’s good/bad/working/not working about writing about this topic?
5. Suggestions for future bloggers on this topic.

Remember, this is a 4-5 page document.

Keep your text focused (on topic), full of details, accurate with documentation, etc. I want you to see what the issues have become in your blogging community. This is were the analysis comes in.

Fall Semester 2007

2007-10-18T16:14:00.000-04:00

New Topic Brainstorming

And so we start another round of blog writing. And I wonder to myself, what do I write about this time? The first round was about politics, the second round about finances. I suppose I could discuss why the Broncos are doing so poorly this season or why Florida State just can't crack the top 25, or I could write about home improvement, the improvements I just finished and my plans for more, or I could write about my dissertation, or that marathon I keep gearing up for while letting injuries and school get in the way.

All of these topics require research on my part: for the Seminoles and Broncos I have to become an arm-chair coach of a game I've never played. For home improvements I have to really evaluate costs, home values, and the market. For my theoretical dissertation, which is in the hands of my director, I have to keep reading, writing, and exploring on a variety of topics related to compostion. For my running, I have to figure out why everything gets in the way of training, and come up with a new training scheme. All of these things can become part of my blog experiences for the next 8 weeks. However, I can only choose one.

Although all these topics are related to me personally, they're scattered as such and I must narrow the field. A blog on everything would have no sound structure, no overall development on one topic that can really enhance both my writing and my experiences with(in) the world. Thankfully I have a few days to decide.

To Summarize ...

2007-05-08T18:11:00.000-04:00

It's actually quite hard to summarize my experiences blogging about finance. Certainly I think I've learned a lot about myself as a money manager, what I should invest next, how I can save to invest. There are a lot of life lessons in seeing how one functions, and I've realized, quite frankly, I'm a bit sqeamish when spending money. I can live with that.

We're still in the process of getting our life insurance taken care of. Funny or not, this is one of those major things I had to do to get my finances straight. Because part of investing is preparing for the future, and life insurance does that. Just this week we had a home nurse come and check our weights, heights, blood, urine (urgh), etc. and infinitum, to make sure we don't smoke, don't overdrink, don't drug, don't have HIV or diabetes or any of those other million risk factors that will cause our insurance company to lose out on their investment in us. It's kinda creepy to think this much about the potentialities of death when the whole idea of investing is to prepare for a comfortable, financially secure future. There's a whole lot more to this than just the stock market.

So what have I learned? I've also learned that being financially smart means doing a lot of little things in preparation for the glory days of retirement, and it also means giving up some of the frivilous things now. I'll pay off my car next March and then drive it, literally, until it implodes, hopefully in 4 or 5 more years. We'll keep updating this fixer-upper to add value to our property. And I won't skydive, because that makes my life insurance null and void if I die from it. And who wants that?

As an investor, I found out that I'm moderately risky, like to watch money grow, and I can do it based on dollar-cost averaging. Maybe that's investing in moderation, but because I don't make a killing as a teacher, so what? It's something. My goal has been to highlight my assets, protect them, and grow them, while marking down debt like mortgage and student loans. It'll take time, and that is probably the one thing I find frustrating the most. It takes time to both grow money and get rid of debt. For those of us who are impatient, this can be excruiating, like Chinese water torture. But I think the reward is worth the wait, right?

Final Paper and Presentation Considerations

2007-05-03T18:07:00.001-04:00

Touch on the following points:

1. What your blog is about (highlights)
2. What is your blog community? What are the similarities and differences among blogs? (give a few examples)
3. What are the issues that arise in writing a blog about this topic? (the how and why questions)
4. Where to go from here? Suggestions for future blogging…

Week 7 In class discussion

2007-05-03T15:42:00.000-04:00

Here are some links for our International blogs discussion:

Salam Pax's blogs
Where Is Raed?
Just Zip It

Peter Maass's Slate article
"Salam Pax Is Real"

Or this article from the British newspaper The Guardian:
"Salam's Story"

What else did you find?

Privacy on the Net

2007-04-30T17:57:00.000-04:00

I think dealing with issues of privacy are certainly important for this kind of writing venue. Let's face it: we're taking our discussions and moving out of the normal, safe writing sphere of the classroom, in which only a few selected students and a professor or two generally have access to the texts we create. That in itself allows for a kind of writers' vacuum to develop around us all, a shield of imperviousness that makes writing on the net somewhat of a hazard.

So, in some respects, we're brave individuals. This was a strange, scary, odd sort of project, but one that can certainly pay dividends in the future (thinking back to my topic). For me, the privacy afforded me in writing on finance is controlled by a few factors: not using my full name; my husband's request that I severely limit my listing personal financial data in a public place, like listing my actual bank or yearly salary; the knowledge that students of mine will read my writing and respond; and a bevy of other concerns. Of course, being a newbie on the financial front is never something that's easy to admit, as much as it's to admit that while I do not balance my checkbook on a daily basis, I do track my investment/retirement accounts quite obsessively. With all this information floating out on the information superhighway ether, I've actually felt quite insulated so far.

Well, until I read this ominous article today from MSNBC: Threats stifle some female bloggers: Sexual harassment on the rise in blogosphere. And, of course, a concern that stems from a previous post of mine (where are all the women in finance?) reaches cyberspace. This is the place that we're generally getting our most updated information. The Internet, of course, is not a magic balancing act, a place in which equality rings perfectly true each time. But there is a good lesson in all of this craziness. There are always limitations that are not only placed on our writing (by the school, by a professor, by a boss) from outside but also those from within. You'll notice in the article above that self-censorship seems to be the fall-back position people take to protect themselves. Certainly, I've done it in previous posts by not discussing particular details in this investment game I've joined, and I have been frustrated by my inability to be perfectly honest.

But can we ever be perfectly honest? In academia, certainly not. Students are limited by the parameters of the assignment, the time and energy needed to write, and the goals of the assignment, teacher, school, class, etc. There are sometimes too many variables to count. Hopefully the main thing is that we learn context, the ability to self-censor when it is advantageous to us. There is nothing wrong with positively manipulating the situation as long as self-censoring doesn't lead to lying. Think of it as the "sin" of control. Sometimes people don't deserve to know everything. And that includes your professors! However, there are always things they should know, or the readers of your blogs deserve to know: your agenda, your goals, your details as pertaining to specific topics. They all deserve to know where you researched, and what words are yours versus what words/ideas can be attributed to others. There are certain rules to play this blogging game just as much as there are to write a paper or send an e-mail. It all depends.

I've just about done it!

2007-04-24T20:05:00.000-04:00

Ok, so impulse investing works kinda like impulse shopping (well, it is shopping, right?). I've stayed on track, tackling about 150 pages of Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence (2004), and I decided to jump in. Well, here's the plan. When I get a small financial windfall in about three weeks, all that money will be routed directly to my new investment account that I created yesterday through USAA.

Reading this last book has been even more empowering, and based on all these voices demanding action, I'm taking it. Schwab's advice has been a good balance to Orman and Astre (and, interestingly, it's Orman who provides the back-jacket blurb that praises New Guide). Of course, the section "getting started" suggests that there is no better time than now. And Schwab is right. Investments must be done as soon as possible to take advantage of compound interest, the earnings monster that turns a yearly investment of $4,000 into a cool million in about 40 years. When the interest rolls into the principle, and that keeps building, the pot grows, and grows, and grows. That's why I have to start now. And I figured out a way that I can do that without taking too much risk. It's always smart to ease oneself into the shallow end of the pool. I can dive deep later.

Because I belong to USAA, and they have my retirement accounts, I took Schwab's advice (p. 47) and did the prework to investing: creating an emergency fund, ordering 30-year term life insurance for my family, maxing both my work 401(k) and a Roth IRA, and, finally, investing with a lump sum ($3,000) and adding to that $200 monthly, which will be automatically deducted from my checking account. This is Schwab's "pay yourself first" goal, and I know that by signing up to do automatic investing plans (AIPs), I can actually have my money working for me long-term, without having to actively write a check.

The next step was setting up the investment accounts at USAA. I would suggest that anybody who has access to free certified financial advisors take advantage of the service. USAA, for example, has a 1-800 hotline whose agents helped me reallocate my IRAs (to make them more aggressive), set up the term life insurance, and plan for my investments, all in one phone call.

I'm starting with two mutual funds (a collection of stocks, bonds, and sometimes cash assets that allows for diversification across industries, sizes of companies, etc.) that can either be managed by a group of people (more potential but more risk) or set on auto-pilot thorough pacing by the "indexes" like the S&P 500. My two funds will be managed. I also realized that I am not going to be a day-trader; this knowledge that I am gaining does not make me comfortable enough to by individual stocks. To do that, I'd have to also set up a brokerage account. I might in the future, but the great thing is that I'll be investing now regardless of whether I work with individual stocks or bundles. Schwab calls me the "Validator" investor type (p. 66), and that's somebody who's interested in the market but who also wants advice from experts to manage the minutia of my portfolio. Of course, this portfolio will consist of at least 80% stocks (I hope for 83%), 12% bonds, and about 5% in cash assets. I have the profile of a moderately aggressive investor, and this should work because I don't need the money next year, and since I can sit on the investments, the volatility of the market (the big up and down swings) won't affect me if I hold throughout the storms.

Schwab also notes that the stock market has grown, on average, approximately 10% a year; that's a lot of return for our money. My hope is that in a few years, as the compounding grows this money far beyond the principle payments, that I can do something good with it. I see now how important investing is, but it's not the first step in money management. It's really at the tail end of getting out of bad debt, purchasing security (home, insurance), and recognizing that we all must plan for our futures because, at this rate, the government certainly isn't going to have solvent Social Security forever.

References Cited
Schwab, C. (2004). New Guide to Financial Independence. New York: Three Rivers Press.

In-class links, week 5

2007-04-19T16:02:00.000-04:00

Hey y'all,

Here are the links to the workshop items for today

Newspaper article, from CNN.

Blog, from Dave Nalle at Blogcritics Magazine.

References:

Associated Press. (2007). Brownback pushes flat tax rate plan: Several details of plan would be set in the coming months [electronic version]. Msnbc.com. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18151229/

Nalle, D. (2007). Tax day: The bureaucrat in the bedroom. Blogcritics Magazine. Retreived April 19, 2007, from http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/17/072651.php

Clearing the Way...

2007-04-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

Note: I realize this will come across as a selfish, another "me" posting. But, hey, this is my blog, and this is about me learning how to grow my money! Don't you hate it when people (especially those in the academic sphere) tell you your writing isn't supposed to be about yourself, and that you should be objective? There's usually no such thing as objectivism. (Not Ayn Rand's "Objectivism," of course, but an author's right to a well-written and researched, honest opinion). Be a bit selfish. It can't hurt your writing.

I'd like to step away from planning my big, great investment coup and discuss a point mentioned a few blogs ago: what to pay off first? The advice varies. Suze Orman says high-interest loans and home. Patrick Astre states that keeping the house for tax purposes (and setting up a "mortgage buster" with the help of annuities) is good, so go with the high-interest debt. This seems to be a 50/50 split. Most advisers agree on that debt that negatively affects a credit score: credit cards, car payments, etc. So here's my plan:

Car Note: I have just under $4,000 left on my Jetta. Interest is at 1.9%. I should probably pay it off (make me feel better), but since the rate is pretty low, it isn't sucking any of my wealth away. And anyhow, interest was paid up front. I'm now riding the principle payments, with only 11 to go.
Student Loans: these vary between mine at around 6% to my significant other's, much lower at 4%. This debt is more significant. Alone, I have about $13,000 out and growing. Getting that terminal degree is anything but cheap.
Mortgage: Fluctuates with a first and second between 5.3% on the first and 7% on the smaller second. We're riding an interest-only 5 front on a 30-year for 3 more years, which means that 5.3% will feel a lot bigger because we're not required to pay it at the moment. We expect to move between now and 2010, so hopefully the interest on the first will not kick in. Because of our age (early 30s), Orman suggests that we don't need to move to a shorter loan (15-year) until we find the "retire in" home (pt. 4, "Buying a Home," 2002).

To free up money to invest, paying off my student loans first makes sense. Orman suggests, however, that it's feeling trapped or financially stressed that makes people crazy. So, if you feel the pinch, pay off the mortgage. I like this option, but student loans seem, in the end, the more reasonable option. With the car paid off next spring, and a good dent in student loans made, I see no reason not to start investing in the market now, following Orman's "dollar cost averaging" (DCA) scenario. Then, next year, I'll have that $2,000 to really dabble with. I might not make as much with DCA in the short run, but it will be less risky until my feet are wet enough...

References Cited
Astre, P. (2005). This is not your parents' retirement: A revolutionary guide to investment for a revolutionary generation. N.P.: Entrepreneur Press.

Orman, S. (2002). The courage to be rich: Creating a life of material and spiritual abundance. New York: Riverhead Books.

Strategizing Investing

2007-04-16T18:48:00.000-04:00

A recent article in Forbes Magazine titled "The Obesity Index" highlights just one of many strategies that investors make when playing the market. In this scenario, James Altucher of Formula Capital has taken a personal position, that obesity is bad, and translated that into a possible investing scheme (with scheme not being a negative connotation).

Altucher has taken a personal interest in finding companies that fight obesity, and then investigating how they perform for investors. His article highlights the fact that an investor can be both focused on philanthropy and smart investing. I wonder, however, how NutriSystem (as one of his highlighted stocks), with its prepackaging, would affect my environmental stance. Of course, the balance comes with which pull is stronger: I want to help support getting rid of obesity, but I also want to support the environment. Prepackaged meals create much waste. But saving U.S. dollars by fighting the obesity epidemic might just help those same people eat less red meat, which would lessen our support of fast-food establishments, which certainly create waste and pollution and tear down rainforests through the creation of cattle grazing land. The permutations are endless!

Picking emotionally tied investment choices reminds me of how I play-invested as a child. I would use our local Fayetteville Observer newspaper and follow all the companies that advertised during NCAA basketball season. Jefferson Pilot was the one that immediately comes to mind. During 7th-grade investing class (we only had it two days stretched over a month, if I recall), I "bought" all those stocks of companies who supported my TV viewing habits. And I lost money horribly. It might have been because I had no idea what investing really meant. It might also have been because I wasn't being logical with the choices. Or, maybe, it was because I wasn't really investing any money and my short attention span was too busy watching Duke and NC State basketball.

Glenda is right--had my school actually spent more time on investing and less on catechism and home economics, more of us would be quite comfortable with where our money goes and how to invest.

Taking Worth into Account

2007-04-10T19:56:00.000-04:00

Here's where a focus on finances gets brutally honest. In This Is Not Your Parents' Retirement, Patrick P. Astre asks readers to do a realistic evaluation of assets (those things we own that have value) versus current liabilities, both good debt (a mortgage) and bad debt (of the credit card variety), and all things we "owe." Subtracting liabilities from assets comes up with our net assets, what we're truly "worth." This was a shocking exercise. Here are the sobering results:

Our assets: $373,750 (take into consideration with this figure a home's total worth, not just what I have invested in it), 401(k) and IRAs, savings, car values, valuables, etc. Seems like a lot, but now look at the liabilities: $354,213 (mortgages, a couple's student loan debts, final year of a car payment, etc.). Our net worth comes only to $19,537. The good news here is that we are worth something, that we own property, and that I'm maxing an IRA and 401(k), and planning to build our savings. The bad news is that I have a few years yet to work my way out of those student loans, and I'll probably need more before I'm done my terminal degree.

In one way, I haven't yet gotten to how much to invest, and when to do it. I'm still laying out my financial realities. Astre is right in that knowing where you are is a good start to taking you toward a satisfying end goal: those beautiful 30-plus years in retirement (I know I'm going to live a long existence) when I can live off investments and portfolios while drinking mimosas and reading tawdry paperbacks in my chaise lounge.

One caveat: The book itself is written more for my parents' generation (the baby boomers). This hearkens back to my last entry, when I was complaining about the lack of volume of investment tomes written by women. Now the focus seems to be that those who really need to worry about this stuff are at least 20 years closer to retirement than I am. Hopefully more of us will get interested in our financial futures.

References Cited

Astre, P. (2005). This is not your parents' retirement: A revolutionary guide for a revolutionary generation. No City: Entrepreneur Press.

The Laundry List

2007-04-10T17:40:00.000-04:00

I've decided that I want to go beyond the Internet with my quest to learn more about investing. My first post-Web stop was the local (Reston) library, where I picked up these gems:

1. Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence, by Charles R. Schwab;
2. Straight Talk on Investing, by Jack Brennan;
3. The Smart Investor's Survival Guide, by Charles B. Carlson;
4. This Is Not Your Parents' Retirement, by Partick P. Astre; and
5. Personal Finance Planning, by V. Victor Hallman and Jerry Rosenbloom

Here are some things that struck me while picking out these books, and maybe this says something about the state of finances in our county: hardly any of the authors for the books I was interested in (investments and retirement planning) were written by women. There were many books out there by women, but they fell into a few categories: "You're newly single!" or "Girl, get out of debt!" or even, and I say this will all honesty, "Picking the right money man." What?

I get the impression that money is and has been, for a variety of reasons, that finance has resided within the den of men for most of modern history. Of course there are exceptions, certainly I was drawn to following Suze Orman's CNBC finance show, and I also read her books. That's a start. But where are the rest of the women? Why are books on money for women focusing on debt management mostly, and those for men generally about "getting rich"? Is it true that men are just more monetarily inclined? This is something that I'll definitely be thinking about as I attempt to absorb this data. And there's a lot of it (Personal Financial Planning itself has 626 pages). I've gotta go read now...

An Attempt to Recover Information...

2007-04-08T21:18:00.000-04:00

Note: Starting this blog with research is akin to finding a needle in a haystack: where to begin? Using the NVCC libraries for academic papers is generally a good place to start, but it all depends on the context of the writing. In my case, I’m writing about investments here, so while the library does have good information, using a search engine like Google to hunt down active, legitimate investment sites is not a bad action either.

Beginning with Basic Research
One of the websites I've found is Investopedia, and I like it for its diversity: its name is a play off “encyclopedia,” as other sites like Wikipedia have done on the Internet. But don’t confuse it with anonymous tidbits of cultural trivia. It’s much more dynamic than an encyclopedia: Investopedia has tutorials and training links, “ask the expert” functions, financial articles from taxes and investing to retirement, stock quotes, calculators, and quite a bit more that I haven’t even qualified yet. I'm still reeling over how much there is for me to learn. I think it's good that I start with some definitions and then place myself as a “newbie” within those terms depending on my future actions.

So here are a few useful definitions: Stocks are actually part of “debt investments” (Orman, 2002), in which people like me give their money to corporations (buying a share) As defined by Suze Orman in The Courage to Be Rich, using the stock market is a must to build wealth: "invest in the market for growth and to use as your approach ... dollar cost averaging" (2002, p. 317, emphasis mine). So what is “dollar cost averaging” (DCA)? It is investing small amounts of money, say $25-50 per month, in the markets without starting off with a lump sum. Tim Middleton, in his article "The Costly Myth of Dollar-Cost Averaging" disagrees with this position, describing DCA as similar to what we do with our monthy contributions to a 401(k) but it is slightly different when working the markets. He provides samples of DCA and lump-sum investing in the same fund, with lump-sum approaches netting an 11.7% return and the DCA only 9.8%. That doesn't seem like too much of a difference, but with the right amount of money over the long term, this could be significant.

My goal is not a small one: I want to get confident enough to invest in the stock market. Hopefully this will happen within the next month and a half. Londo Carver, another blogger in our group, suggested that a $2,000 start is a good one for stock investment purposes. I'm going to see how this pans out. According to Chad Langager, an Investopedia advisor, investing with a sum as small as $1,000 is certainly possible, but it's pretty hard to build that base into something much bigger quickly. He falls between Orman and Middleton. Langager states that the intitial money investment isn’t even the only thing to worry about, because

One of the biggest considerations for investors with a minimal amount of funds is not only what to invest in but also how to go about investing. Not long into your investment journey you may find yourself bombarded with minimum deposit restrictions, commissions and the need for diversification, among a myriad of other
considerations. [Langager, 2007]

So, on top of managing my basic needs, like bills and creating a 3-6 month “emergency” cash stash, and now debate between having an initial fund for additional bonds investments. Orman might get us in the game earlier, but Carver, Langager, and Middleton suggest starting with a bit more to lose. The research continues...

References Cited
Langager, C. (2007). Start investing with only $1,000. Investopedia. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/06/invest1000.asp

Middleton, T. (2007). The costly myth of dollar-cost averaging. MSN Money. Retrieved April 3, 2007, from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P104966.asp

Orman, S. (2002). The courage to be rich. New York: Riverhead Books.

Frustrations!

2007-04-08T21:08:00.000-04:00

Just a note: when I went to the new Blogger functions, I lost my last post. I was wondering why this happened! Please make sure that, for your own records, that you print your posts out, or save them in Word, so that you don't lose valuable writing and ideas.

Now what was I saying about money?

2007-03-29T18:54:00.000-04:00

What I know about finances, generally speaking:

What I know about my finances is tempered about what I don't know. Here's an example:

Today I checked my money market account and was dinged a $15 "maintenance fee." What was that? I called and it just so happens that that account has a $2,500 set bottom limit, and I went below it. I thought it was $1,500. What I don't know about my finances #1: my limit on my money market account. Wait, I know that now.

Another thing I don't know about my finances is investments, specifically stocks and bonds. I get my 401(k). I understand the principle of my ROTH IRA. What I don't know about my finances #2: How do I invest in the stock market? Do I need a broker? How much is a trade fee? How often should one be active/trade?

And here's what I know: I am not a typical woman when it comes to money (ask Suze Orman). I don't cosign for friends who need loans. I have, in the past, given loans, but then immediately regretted it because I knew they'd probably reneg on the money. I don't do that anymore. I also don't overshop. In addition, I don't have kids, who supposedly cost a fortune.

So that's what I think I know, for now. As you can see, there's a lot to learn. I'm currently reading Suze Orman's The Courage to be Rich. Do I have the courage? I don't know. Does it actually take courage? Maybe. There's a lot to consider when planning for the future. Is this whole thing a bit of hooey? Who knows.

My Rationale for Working on Finances

2007-03-26T19:35:00.000-04:00

This entry will "defend" the topic I have now officially chosen for my blog: working on my finances. I'm not going to go into every sort of detail here, but let's just say I realize that I am not 21 anymore, and that had I started some serious savings back then, I'd be in greater shape now. And for some strange reason, I'm starting to love money. Is that such a bad thing?

This blog is not about debt, as I am thankful I don't have multitudes of credit cards or a nasty shopholics addiction. However, I am now addicted to following my 401(k) and my ROTH IRA around almost daily, and I've taken to reading how-to finance/investment books, and so I want to know how to realistically (not on a rock-star's salary) keep my IRA and retirement accounts filling up, test the stocks/bonds markets, all the while handling a mortgage, car payments, school loans, and the always frustrating house repair without pulling my hair out.

I think I have a plan: keep reading and researching, mostly with investments and retirements, while trying to figure out how to pay off student loans/mortgage without losing hundreds of thousands in dollars in interest and fees. And what about financing a vacation in here somewhere? Everybody needs to take a vacation once in a while.

So here are some specific topics I'll attempt to discuss as the weeks progress:

1. How I'll invest (do I use a broker?);
What to pay off first, and when (car, house, student loan);
How much will home repairs get me in this market (is it even worth it to try?);
How much money do I have to start with to do something with the stock market or the bonds market?; and
How much do we really need to know to be financially successful?

I'm sure more ideas will come my way. I plan on using Money and Smart Money magazines; the The Motley Fool website; USAA, my investments and insurance group, for advice and help from a financial planner; The Wall Street Journal; and a myriad of other sources to really give me sound beginnings here. I also hope to take "lifelong learning" classes through Fairfax County Continuing education (pretty reasonable fees!) on investing, financial planning, etc. I don't know if I can start those classes before this semester ends, but a plan is better than nothing, right?

Welcome, Spring semester ENG 112

2007-03-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

It's now that time again to start blogging. What about? I've been wondering that myself lately. Of course, issues surrounding politics are always on my mind, and the environment, travel, and being in school again also make me think I can write for 7 weeks about those topics, too. There are so many things I think I want to write about, and now that we're not in the middle of midterm voting, it's a bit harder for me to buckle down and choose a topic.

I'm sure you'll feel the same way. My suggestion is to make a list of the things that interest you most: music and bands, maybe, or becoming a doctor. Maybe you've traveled a lot and want to explore writing a travel blog. I've recently gotten into "finance" and think I'll probably write about how I can learn and start investing in the stock market. The options are quite open, and so take some time to check out previous student blogs, the blogs listed in the writing parameters handout, and other sensational texts on the Web.

Julie

What's in a definition?

2006-11-28T15:32:00.000-05:00

It was reported just this weekend that MSNBC/NBC news stations are now calling the conflict in Iraq a "civil war" (Reuters, 2006). Merriam-Webster's definition of civil war is "a war between opposing groups of the same country." Reasonable enough? The term seems to adequately cover the Shi'a and Sunni conflicts raging in the streets all over Iraq. However, President Bush and his cabinet reject this definition, as he believes that the conflict in Iraq is being caused by Al Quaeda. And now this disagreement on terminology has become a political debate.
Why would Bush so strongly disagree with both the CIA and current generals working in Iraq on what to call the war in Iraq? What would it mean to the current U.S. administration if, indeed, Iraq's "sectarian violence" is a civil war?

Sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq has increased dramatically in the past week. Multiple bombings in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday killed more than 200 people and drew reprisal attacks in
Sunni neighborhoods. [Reuters, 2006]

Maybe, then, blame can be brought right back to the U.S.'s door. What is the difference between "sectarian violence" and "civil war" anyhow? Is this just another parsing of political-babble-speech that seems to allow for distraction of the serious casualties of the war: both American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis? What does this mean that the U.S. administration is unwilling to tie words to the issue? It means that we're not really talking to one another, just speaking at one another, and that words like "mission accomplished" brandished on a naval carrier can signal "major battle operations," but that, just recently, Bush could also state that our war on terrorism (Iraq) must continue on until it's abated. Yet

A day after a Pentagon report described spreading sectarian violence and increasingly complex security problems in Iraq, President George W. Bush painted a rosier picture. ... "Our commanders and diplomats on the ground believe that Iraq has not descended into a civil war," Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address. "They report that only a small number of Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, while the overwhelming majority want peace and a normal life in a unified country." [Associated Press, 2006]

Terminology can be a frightening thing. One minute you can be a freedom fighter, the next, a terrorist. And it could mean that, if Iraq has spiraled from sectarian violence into civil war, that the United States bears quite a bit of responsibility. I think this is why what the definition of is is, and why we care so much to define anything at all. Definitions serve as justification for actions. Terrorism is a mighty label, and it just might define many actions, most of them not caused by the actions of Iraqi people.

References Cited
Associated Press. (2006). Bush: No civil war despite 'bloody campaign' of Iraq violence Accessed November 28, 2006, from http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/02/america/NA_GEN_US_Iraq_Bush.php
Reuters. (2006). NBC label of civil war at odds with White House. Accessed November 28, 2006, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15921476/

The Time Remaining...Financial Realities

2006-11-21T19:07:00.000-05:00

I'll start here with the "Time Remaining," Other issues that Pelosi and the newly elected Democrat-led U.S. Congress hope to enact during the beginning of their tenure in January:

Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients. Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds. "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday. [Kos, 2006]

Minimum Wage
I think this one will be easy to discuss, as so much of this will affect my life and the lives of those around me. In the past, when I was in graduate school, I worked a minimum-wage job. Paying rent, tuition, car notes, insurance, and basic living expenses like gas and food, on a single person's minimum-wage salary, would have been impossible if it were not for the significant help I received from my mother. (Thanks, mom!) Can anybody in the DC area reasonably live on $824 a month (the federal minimum wage of $5.15), before taxes?

Student Loans (You know you have some)
Of course, now that I'm back in school, I have student loans. Getting a Ph.D. is not cost-free, even though my employer contributes $1,500 a year. My tuition is approximately $6,000 a year (out of state tuition is over $500 per credit hour) for four years. Tuition and books come out to about $26,000, not counting running two households (one in PA, where my school is, and one in VA, where I have a mortgage). So, minus help from the college (about $4,500-6,000, when all is said and done), I will still have to find at least $25,000 with which to fund my continued education. I have been able to pay some of the tuition out of pocket, and all the rooming, books, and other fees. I expect that I'll have about $17,000 in student loan debt when I get my Ph.D., which is quite low in the scheme of things. With the way it's looking, if I repay in 10 years at the current 6.8% rate, I'll owe $23,456. If I pay it at Pelosi's reduced rate, I'll owe only $20,077. That's a savings of $3,379.

Pharmaceutical Companies & Profit
The whole point of the federal government managing prescription drugs directly with the pharma companies is to save tax dollars. At the moment, pharmaceutical companies are some of the most profitable companies on the Fortune 500 (see Healing Daily). Seniors deserve affordable medications, just as we deserve affordable health care. This small step is leading the way toward universal healthcare, I hope. Let's just see what Clinton et al. propose in the coming year; however, more so than this, it'll take a new president to really affect change in pharmaceutical overcharging and health insurance mismanagement. Both of these groups are the reason most Americans cannot afford reasonable health care, and why those that can must sometimes stay in dead-end jobs because they're tied to the benefits. And that leads us to stem cell research ... a topic for my next blog entry.

References Cited
Kos. (2006). The Pelosi Agenda: Draining the Swamp. Accessed November 6, 2006, from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/6/11395/3029

What Is It about People and Their Politics?

2006-11-21T18:41:00.000-05:00

I just got an email from a close friend of mine, my ex-husband, who stated, "I like it better when you are not all political ..." You see, we exchange emails on a daily basis; he tells me how my dogs are doing, what the weather's like in Montana, how triathalon training is coming along. I tell him how my house renovations are going, what classes are like, and tend to complain here and there about current events. Just the regular chit-chat among people of like minds...or are we?

He thinks he's much more conservative than he is, and I know I'm as liberal as I am. But there is no convincing him to see it my way, and I have to admit I'm much too emotional sometimes to handle political conversations with the appropriate saavy required when talking with him, or my mom, or my sister, especially, primaily because I'm attempting to convert them instead of having a rational conversation. This reminds me of the Tucker Carlson-Jon Stewart Crossfire debate (check it out on Youtube.com), in which general political "ribbing" became an all-out flame war.

There are probably those of you out there who never realize that things seem to be going fine...until something political comes up. The old saying "never bring up politics or religion at the dinnertable" seems to ring false here. What else are we supposed to be talking about that has anything remotely tanglible to do with our lives? The Cruise-Holmes wedding? Whether Blink 182 will ever get back together? Maybe for a few minutes, but then there has to be something bigger going on, about our lives, that takes up the space. If not, we're truly not acknowledging the real issues in our worlds.

In Talking Politics, author William Gameson studies people talking politics, those regular people who have issues and are willing to sit around and discuss it while being viewed. This is a brave experiment. Gameson's angle is to examine "the extent to which media and popular discourse define issues in collective terms" (p. 29). An issue can only become a collective conern if we talk about it. But getting to the point, being able to talk about issues like feminism, sexism, the environment, U.S. foreign policy, or even gas prices sometimes sets people (like me) on a defensive that then becomes a diatribe. So what do we have to do? We have to learn to listen, but we shouldn't shut down. Those conversations must happen, and I think they start at the dinnertable. Or through e-mail. Or on a billboard. I think I'll continue to talk politics, but maybe start small, like on lobbying reform, before I throw a left jab on the environment.

100 Hours, Day 2

2006-11-14T23:17:00.000-05:00

Note: Because these issues are so intricate, I've decided to keep breaking up entries from Pelosi's 100-hours initiative. Here are the goods for Day 2.

During Day 2 of the 100-hour initiative, Pelosi and Co. vow to "enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001" (Kos, 2006). This is a desperate attempt to provide answers for the victims' families and American public, but it all suggests that there is so much more that we need to do to protect ourselves, and confront acknowledged perpetrators like Osama bin Laden, than what we have to show for our collective efforts after 5+ years.

The first thing that all Americans should do is obtain a copy of the 9/11 Commission Report. The good news is that you don't have to buy it at Borders anymore; it's the size of Baltimore's Yellow Pages anyhow. The bad news? I have yet to meet anybody who has actually read it all; I certainly haven't. The worse news? It's 585 pages. The hope is that those of us who like to discuss current international policies, wartime strategies, and homeland security must read chapters 11-13:

11: Foresight--And Hindsight
12: What to Do--A Global Strategy
13: How to Do It--A different Way of Organizing the Government
(See 9/11 Commission, 2006)1
The Commission convened in 2002 to explore the events of 9/11 and to try to take a proactive stance on future issues of both terrorism in the United States and a forced preparedness of the U.S. government to create and manage action plans (consider it a non-Hurricane Katrina response that the Commission was looking for: something organized, civilized, and that had the best interests in all citizens at stake).
Here's a frightening sidenote: "at best we can determine, neither in 2000 or in the first 8 months of 2001 did any polling organization in the United States think the subject of terrorism sufficiently on the minds of the public to warrant asking a question about it in a major national survey" (9/11 Commission Report, 2004, p. 341). Yet now we are innundated with the latest terrorist newsclips, notes, "white powder in the mail" fears, and terrorism "threat levels." We have become so inundated with terror in our vocabulary since 9/11 (but it didn't start there, right? I remember home-bred terrorism with Timothy McVeigh and international terrorism with the strike on the U.S.S. Cole and the barracks in Beruit) that we haven't stopped to wonder what the governent has done to address the concrete issues presented in the commission report. Moneys spent for preparedness in major U.S. cities, like New York City, have been cut (see The New York Times' "Homeland Security Grants to New York Slashed" ); Pelosi herself notes that
Five years after 9/11, we still do not have 100 percent screening at our ports, we still do not have a mandate for chemical and nuclear plants to safeguard them, we still have not brought anywhere near what we need to of fissile material that poses the biggest danger to the safety of the American people. Our ports are not secure, our borders are not secure, and our country is at risk. We could be safer. [Pelosi, 2006]
It's sound advice to listen to, especially from an elected government official who's willing to take responsibility to fix these tangible problems. But it's only a beginning, and it takes time. How much time do we really have? What's the alternative?

References Cited
9/11 Commission. (2004). 9/11 Commission Report. Accessed November 10, 2006, from http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf

Kos. (2006). The Pelosi Agenda: Draining the Swamp. Accessed November 6, 2006, from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/6/11395/3029

Pelosi, N. (2006]. Pelosi: Five Years After 9/11, We Are Not As Safe As We Should Be. Accessed November 9, 2006, from http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/Sept06/5_Years_Later.html

Note 1. 9/11 Commission Report image from www.alumnireview.queensu.ca/spotlight

The First 100 Hours, Introspective

2006-11-13T11:55:00.001-05:00

Now that the election is over (and what an election that was!), the Democrats, led by minority leader and now Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (no relation) vow that the first 100 hours in office will see true change to the issues that affect most Americans. Let me shout it from the rooftops: it's about time. It's overdue. Regardless of political persuasion, we're desperate for a refocusing and a fixing of problems that make Americans suffer needlessly.

Of course, those who voted last Tuesday were making statements about issues that mattered, like the war in Iraq, the corruption rampant in Washington, and the like. However, other issues that are at a tangent to most of our everyday lives were propped up as issues affecting our "moral fiber." Those prop issues, like gay marriage (because, quite honestly, this is not an issue that affects most households but, instead, is an acknowledged issue for the religious right to fight against and get their masses to the polls), abortion, and the loaded phraseology of the "Death Tax" allows regular Joes like you and me to be sidelined to what is immediate, as evidenced in Pelosi's "100 Hours" plans:

Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation."
Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission
that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients. Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds. "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday.
All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.
To do that, she said, Bush-era tax cuts would have to be rolled back for those above "a certain level." She mentioned annual incomes of $250,000 or $300,000 a year and higher, and said tax rates for those individuals might revert to those of the Clinton era. [Daily Kos, 2006]
I would like to look at each of these points, in the context of being the average American. I want to see how this affects my life, and if any of these issues really will promote change. For today's blog entry, I'll focus on Day 1. For tomorrow's, I'll tackle the rest. There's a lot to talk about!
Day 1: Breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation means that lobbyists, with pockets full of dollars and incentives, cannot bribe or otherwise push unsound, unsafe, or unsavory legislation suggestions at our representatives. In this way, our representatives can, and hopefully will, be voting on and suggesting legislation based on American citizens' needs, not corporations like Halliburton or Shell. They have never needed tax breaks, especially when Jim Efstathiou Jr., of Bloomberg online, points out that the "U.S. Energy Bill Showers Tax Breaks on Oil Drillers, Utilities" (2006). The 14.5 billion in tax incentives, as shown in this article, go to
Oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and utility owners such as Southern spent $367 million over the past two years lobbying Congress on energy legislation, according to data from PoliticalMoneyLine and the Center for Responsive Politics. The legislation contains tax breaks of $1.6 billion for oil and gas producers and refiners and $3.1 billion for utilities. [Efstathiou, 2006]
So it seems that tax breaks are beneficial: if you're an oil or utility company or a millionaire. Breaking the lobbyists' holds on these practices will not only save Americans hundreds of millions of dollars in lost taxes from corporations, but they should also encourage (and legislate) the imposition of new rules for car companies and utilities providers, at least: work on and support alternative fuel sources. Of course, gas companies like Shell and Amoco might state that they have incentive to become environmentally sound, but the numbers, and the American tax breaks, tell a different story.
References Cited
Efstathiou, J. (2006, July). U.S. Engergy Bill Showers Tax Breaks on Oil Drillers, Utilities. Accessed November 10, 2006, from http://quote.bloomberg.com/
apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a1eDReAgtETw&refer=news_index
Kos. (2006). The Pelosi Agenda: Draining the Swamp. Accessed November 6, 2006, from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/6/11395/3029

The Election is Coming! The Election is Coming!

2006-11-06T14:28:00.000-05:00

I sort of feel like Paul Revere here, warning unsuspecting citizens that the British (or the candidates, in this case) are coming. This time, though, most people know that because of the TV advertisements, mail flyers, news debates and editorials, door-to-door volunteers, and those thousands of environmentally unfriendly stake signs that appear in intervals of inches all along our roadways. To be honest, I get it: I don't need 370 Allen signs or 412 Hurst signs to remind me ... it's definitely election season.

When I first started this political commentary blog, I thought I'd be more broad in my discussions of election issues, especially in the Montana and Pennsylvania senatorial races. However, as it goes, I've become more focused on both the Virginia election and the issues with my volunteering during election day and what happens to voters' votes. I don't think these issues are cut and dry, but, nevertheless, they are important, even if you don't vote. Issues of "freedom" are at the core of our ability, as U.S. citizens, to act out, to speak out, to promote change. And there has been many opportunities for change, even in the last 100 years. Women have finally received the right to vote; segregation was declared unconstitutional; child labor laws protect children from gulag-like working conditions and serve as enforcement for children to go to school and obtain the same education as anybody else, rich or poor. Sexual harrassment laws and whistle-blower protection now allow for those in the minority in certain fields to have the same opportunities to pursue happiness, and be protected when they witness lawbreaking at work.

Yet why is the United States the "second-worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world?" (CNN, 2006). Why is it that we're ranked 9th in the world in the rate of high-school educated adults (CBS, 2005)? That

One in five American adults are working to pay off medical debts while an alarmingly high” number of Americans with chronic illnesses skipped their medications because they could not afford them, according to a new study. ... The study, by The Commonwealth Fund, also found that 41 percent of working-age Americans with annual incomes between 20,000 and 40,000 dollars were uninsured for at least part of the past year, up sharply from 28 percent in 2001. [Political Nonsense, 2006]

Aren't these the issues we really should be worried about during election day?

References Cited

CBS News. (2005). U.S. Education Slips In Rankings. Acessed November 6, from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/13/national/main838207.shtml

CNN. (2006). U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says. Accessed November 6, from http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/

Political Nonsense. (2006). Study finds Americans can’t afford healthcare. Accessed November 6, from http://blog.politicalnonsense.com/2006/04/26/main/study-finds-americans-cant-afford-healthcare/

Reaction to "Hacking Democracy"

2006-11-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I viewed HBO's new documentary Hacking Democracy, in which curious writer (and, they add, grandmother) Bev Harris wondered why her county moved to the use of electronic voting machines, especially after the 2000 presidental election voting debacle in Florida, in which Al Gore lost to George W. Bush after debatable electronic election results. The documentary is in result to her years-long survey/investigation into the problems inherent in voting machines.

At the core of the debate is the issue of public transparency in the voting process. Voting should be simple and explainable to the average U.S. citizen. Each of us has usable a social security number. Those without felony criminal records, and who are registered to vote, should have the ability to both vote and take with them a record of that vote, which can be tied to either their SSN or a created "pin number." In the state of Virginia, not only can day-of-election voters not vote with a paper ballot, they will not receive any record that shows who they voted for. When voters vote, they "sign in" at one table, receive a laminated voting card, and then move to the voting machine, in which they vote, but in which the machine has no idea who did the actual voting. This process seems rife for error.

This "anonymous" vote does not lead to tracing back of voters to votes. For some, this would be a reasonable process, but then there comes the issue with the machines themselves. We are not allowed the proprietary information on how the machines count votes. Not even the municipalities that purchase the machines know exactly how the machines tabulate votes. This, coupled with anonymous records, allows any company, or any programmer with access to the tabulating computer, the opportunity to manipulate an election. Consider the worldwide implications of this power, coupled with a minute amount of computer programming knowledge. Some think this is just conspiracy-theory thinking. But for those of us who care enough about democracy to partake in the process will find that cheating, in politics, is a common enough practice. At the heart of the matter is whether municipalities purchase these machines, knowing that the companies who sell them donate to particular political parties and have significant political agendas.

This is not a Democratic or Republicans-only issue. Both parties debate the use of these machines in certain counties (conveniently, where they've both lost elections before). For more information, I'd suggest reviewing BlackBoxVoting.org, a community created to investigate voting fraud on a major level, and the group focused on in the documentary.

References

BlackBoxVoting.org. (2006). The Official Black Box Voting Website. Accessed November 2 from BlackBoxVoting.org.

Simon Ardizzone and Russel Michaels, dirs (2006). Hacking Democracy. 90 min. Public Interest Pictures.

Election Training

2006-10-31T18:18:00.000-05:00

I went for my two-hour election board training today, and it was an interesting experience. I was in a room with about 200 other "chiefs" and "assistant chiefs" for the upcoming midterm elections. I was one of maybe two volunteers who hadn't had duty before.

The atmosphere was electric: there had been problems recently in Montgomery County, MD, and Fairfax County doesn't want to repeat the performance. And there are the details (boy, are there details). I have a thick, 3-ring binder that I have to memorize before Tuesday so that I can make sure that those who show up to vote and are eligible can vote. This will be an arduous process. I have to be there at 5 a.m. and can't leave until the polls close. That's at least 14 hours of duty. But I think it's my responsibility as an American to take part in the political process, and there are many ways to do that: volunteer for a political party; do jury duty; report crimes; respond when someone's in need. All of these things we can do and should do.

Here's an interesting statistic that I learned about this contentious election coming up: because it's not a presidential election, generally the voter turnout is much less. During other midterm elections, about 11,000 absentee ballots are filled out. However, Fairfax County expects approximately 30,000 absentee ballots when all is said and done. That's the equivalent of a presidential election. Tuesday is going to be really busy--so get out early and vote!

For information on voting in Prince William County, clink on the PW hyperlink. For Stafford County, click on that one. See you at the polls!

Week 2 Post 1: Reading the Post

2006-10-30T00:57:00.000-05:00

Of course I've been reading, and watching, and living the life of an election volunteer for Fairfax County for the upcoming November 7 elections. What does this mean, exactly? I don't know: I'll be in training at the Fairfax County Government Center on Halloween (fitting, isn't it?), and I'll post my second entry this week after that educational affair. Until then, I realize that, election official or no, I am not immune to the spate of negative election practices done throughout the country, but especially on our doorstep. We're in the middle of the muck during a very important race: that of the Virginia senatorial race between Jim Webb and incumbent George Allen.

Take a look at the examples. Even in our own local paper, the Washington Post highlights the logical fallacies (on a play on the fallacy Ad Hominem: an argument in which the person is attacked; it's like saying that President Bush is wrong on Iraq because he is a horrible public speaker). The argument might not be wrong, but the logic behind it is certainly flawed. Yet I digress. What I have seen from Allen is a TV ad attack on Jim Webb's fictional novels and statements (however archaic and sexist) that Webb made in 1979. Webb has countered with reminding viewers of the "macaca" racial slur that Allen used this year, and his obvious alignment with the "stay the course" phraseology this year when asked about Iraq policy.

But here's what I'd like to know: Where do they discuss and/or promote issues relevant to us? What do they stand for, not what do they think their opponent is wrong for? I've received two flyers in the mail this week from the Jim Webb campaign. He's all for having our tuition be tax-free, removing troops from Iraq, not privatizing healthcare. So that's something. I've had nothing in the mail from George Allen. Nor have I seen much positive stuff on TV from either. At least Webb did make it to NVCC Woodbridge last Wednesday, meeting with one of our history classes and discussing the issues.

I guess it comes down to either reading or watching. I do both. If I just watched TV, I'd be so filled with vitriolic smearing and bravado that I'd either have to have a testosterone shot or move to Bermuda. Either way, it feels much like a fiasco. I hope it doesn't get worse on election day. If you see a political ad that only highlights important issues, let me know.

Reference Cited
Booth, William. (2006). Ads Hominem: Nasty Campaign Bites. Washington Post, October 29: D1. Accessed October 29, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/28/AR2006102800967.html

My Political Action: ENG 112 writing

2006-10-21T19:38:00.000-04:00

I hope that your blogs are as dynamic as the work we'd have done on Blackboard. At least this time around, you get to control not only what you say (that's always been your prerogative) but, in this outlet, what it looks like and who has access to what you say. You are really publishing your work to a worldwide forum now, instead of an insular class website. I say, interesting!

My blog for the next 8 weeks will be about politics, local and national. I am experimenting with my civic duties by volunteering to work the midterm elections on November 7, and this blog will chart my experiences, my research into the issues, and the repercussions of the election. This is a huge step for me: I've always considered myself proactive, but I've never really done much more than donate money to a few favorite charities and yell at the TV during election coverage. I think it's time to do much more. Of course, this idea comes from my studies (I'm a student, too), and I find that the more I'm learning about myself as an English instructor, the more I realize that there are "a thousand ways to skin a cat" (or teach English). Sorry for the bad cliché. Of course, I'd never skin cats. I'm a vegetarian into animal rights.

Just note: this blog will not be about my political views in specific detail. Of course, they'll come out. However, I will spend time analyzing the campaigns of Allen/Webb (Va. Senate), as well as watching other national races. I'm interested in the Santorum race (PA), the Burns race (MT), and the political jockeying of who will announce their interest in the 2008 presidency. Finally, take a look at the first link I've provided, to a political blog connected to Newsweek called “The Gaggle.” Pay particular attention to the commentary. Do these writers convince you of their positions?

Eco-podcasting

2006-06-26T19:52:00.000-04:00

Professional Podcasts:
Podcasting has become a great way to enhance using the Internet (including using blogs) in classes. Because I'd like to intertext with weblinks that include podcasts, I've linked to some important podcasts below that highlight the focus of using the internet (specifically blogs) in support of ecocomposition. Take a look at http://www.nature.com/nature/
podcast/index.html, Nature's podcast directory, and scroll down to the June 1 podcast. You can then listen (by way of .mp3 file) to recent discussions on "The balmy Arctic, levee lessons, Hobbit origins, dangerous chemistry, Saturn's hot moon, secrets of REM sleep, and lab animal endings" (Nature, 2006). For those students who either do not have the software or the capability to listen to the .mp3 can read the accompanying text file.

Creating our own Podcasts:
For an assignment studying place and sustainability, for example, students in my class could access my blog to listen to the podcasts I create, or find links to podcasts that I've found related to course topics. Linking is especially important in working within blogs, and these links can help promote podcasting as a more interactive tool while working in an online environment. Students can also create their own podcasts, providing neighborhood interviews or taping the street dialogue as it happens.

Podcasts can be used for more than neighborhood studies: One of my colleagues, Melody Wise, actually uses podcasts to discuss student papers. She records her commentary and sends the .mp3 file along with the attached paper, to students in e-mails. This is a novel approach with student learning, especially for students who are auditory learners.

References
Nature. (2006). International Weekly Journal of Science. Podcast, June 1, 2006. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html, June 26, 2006.

Recent Reading List...

2006-06-21T18:14:00.000-04:00

I've just finished Derek Owens's Composition and Sustainability, a book that highlights the ways our places influence our views on the world. Even more, Owens discusses how it is that we should bring the concept of "sustainability" into the classroom.

I am going to attempt to write about my neighborhood (at home in Reston, VA), just like I'll have my students do this fall. The hope is that, in addition to critical issues like race (whether you believe it's a social construct or not), gender, and class, important issues of environmental concern get left out of the critical pedagogy mix.

I'd like to not let that happen. I'm including a link to amazon.com with some of these titles. Buy them. Read them. Use them!

Composition and Sustainability:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814100376/sr=8-1/qid=1150928144/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0168146-2575160?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Composition and Resistance
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0867092815/qid=1150928355/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-0168146-2575160?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

This is a edited book by one of my professors, Dr. Claude M. Hurlbert, and Dr. Michael Blitz. They focus on issues of resistance in composition, not only in the classroom but in our departments, across full-time faculty and adjuncts, within the debates that rise from our many theoretical positions. Interesting!

About to read:
Don McAndrew's "Ecofeminism and the Teaching of Literacy" College Composition & Communication v47 n3 p367-82 (1996). What's great about this is Don was also my professor for the research methods class. He's the guy in the Hawaiian shirt, much too smart for us mere mortals! But what's great about this is that his article covers both ecology and feminism (I bet). I'm into the environment, I'm a feminist. What's to lose?

More for the reading list later...

By way of Pittsburgh

2006-06-21T18:09:00.000-04:00

Here's a photo of us "first years" on Mt. Washington, right across from Pittsburgh's skyline. I'm not the one in the Hawaiian shirt--that's our professor who was happy to put us through our paces for a day of investigative research.

Starting the Blog

2006-06-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

This blog is inspired by the idea that students in English Composition courses might be interested in a new forum/genre/template/context for their writing. What you'll see here is the beginnings of my foray into cyborg space so that I can practice what I preach. Here goes...

NOVAblog

It's You, Stupid...

Another Injury Bites the Dust

Ultraendurance Training

Blogging in 2012

What a long, stange blog this has been

Woodbridge Campus Shooting Today

Student Success in Surprising Places

Helicoptering: Or When Parents Hover and Students Run for Cover

Posting feedback for Thanksgiving week

Editorial Tricks of the Trade for Quotes

Video links

Density: Or Why Don't Students Take My Advice?

Feedback and Commentary Shorthand

Belonging to both Camps: Being a Teacher and a Student

This College Grading Thing...

Blogs We're Exploring This Week in Class

Examples of Summary, Synthesis, Analysis: The Matrix

My new topic: The Politics of Teaching

Semester Summary...It's Over Already?

Could Blogging Have Stopped WW2?

Another Political Corruption Case?

Salam Pax links

"A" Complete Guide to Blogging?

Check This Out: Worst Blogs?

Staying Focused

Post Feedback This Week

Watch that Tone!

Check out this Iraq Veteran-Blogger

Facebook: An Election Frontier/Faceoff

The Election ... Amazing!

Most Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Polls...

Back to Politics: Vote 2008

FINAL CLASS IS ON!

Summary Post: Home Improvement

Green Living

My Blogging Community: Ideas

99.152% Done My First Post-Blog House Project

The Association...

Home Improvement's Not Always Been So Pretty

The Day of Two Jobs

The Beginning of Improvement?

Examples of Summary, Synthesis, Analysis: The Matrix

Home Improvement

In-Class Exercise: What is "General Welfare"?

Where Does This Piece of Writing End?

Week 5: In-class exercise

References Cited (Thus far)

Class Exercise: Blog Genres

The Dissertation Process ...

Post 3

Analysis Paper Overview & Checklist

Fall Semester 2007

To Summarize ...

Final Paper and Presentation Considerations

Week 7 In class discussion

Privacy on the Net

I've just about done it!

In-class links, week 5

Clearing the Way...

Strategizing Investing

Taking Worth into Account

The Laundry List

An Attempt to Recover Information...

Frustrations!

My Rationale for Working on Finances

Welcome, Spring semester ENG 112

What's in a definition?

The Time Remaining...Financial Realities

What *Is* It about People and Their Politics?

100 Hours, Day 2

The First 100 Hours, Introspective

The Election is Coming! The Election is Coming!

Reaction to "Hacking Democracy"

Election Training

Week 2 Post 1: Reading the Post

My Political Action: ENG 112 writing

Eco-podcasting

Recent Reading List...

By way of Pittsburgh

What Is It about People and Their Politics?