m2h blogs by Marcia Hansen

This morning as I was checking email, a spider crawled out from under my keyboard. I couldn’t get out of the chair and away from the table quick enough! LOL

I found a napkin and disposed of the spider. I then pushed my chair in and started to type again, but then, wait! something was tickling my knee! I jumped again only to realize it was the power cord on the laptop!

If this was a movie scene, I would have also spilled my coffee. Fortunately, that was not the case.

Tonight while watching a movie on FX, I saw a commercial for Ford Fusion. In the commercial, they quoted comments by Yahoo Autos users. They didn’t refer to the users by name, but they did put their comments in quotes.

I don’t watch a bunch of TV. Is this use of site comments on commercials a common practice now?

In the past 10 days:

1. I got to pet sit for two great animals: Bodhi the dog and Spike the cat.
2. I loaded (with help) a huge moving truck, which my step-father drove it for me.
3. I dealt with an overly picky apartment inspection. I had better get my deposit back.
4. I started an unplanned motorcycle ride home to Illinois after loading the truck all day on Weds (we couldn’t get the bike on the truck). I rode to St. Louis and stayed the night, before making the rest of the trip the next day. Mom followed me in her car. It was the next best thing to being on a motorcycle trip with her. So there was good and bad in not being able to load the bike.
5. We unloaded the truck at home and at the storage facility and returned it.
6. FYI, diesel fuel from Columbia, MO to Dixon, IL was only $130.
7. I am definitely selling my armoire asap. It is too heavy to move ever again. Not even one more time.
8. I couldn’t tow my car (toyota celica) because it is too low to the ground. It’s still in Columbia. Mom will drive me down hopefully on Weds, her first day off, and pick it up. It’s a good thing that diesel wasn’t as much as I thought it was going to be because this extra trip will be an added gas expense.
9. I set-up and configured a wireless router so now I have an Internet connection that doesn’t involve using my parents’ computer.
10. My younger brother’s birthday was yesterday.
11. Happy Father’s Day brunch and birthday celebration today. I was also able to see my nephew Cole–what a sweetie!
12. Tomorrow, finally, will be a day I can get some other non-move related work done.

1. the kindness shown by a man in a red pickup truck who stopped short so I could J-walk.

2. smiles exchanged.

3. Pad Gra Prao – yummy chicken in basil and chili sauce at Thai Kitchen

4. good conversation

5. signing paperwork for $100 travel grant to help recoup funds spent at C’s.

6. Diet Fitz’s Root Beer at Rendezvous.

7. uncontrolled laughter between friends at my look of pleasure upon taking that first sip of root beer.

8. spicy teriyaki stir-fry and cheesecake rangoons with chocolate sauce at HuHot.

9. more good conversation

trying to figure out what to say to someone who says: all those degrees don’t mean much and have you thought about putting away the books, finding a husband, getting married and having babies so you won’t be alone in your old age and will have someone to take care of you?

ahh, the well-intentioned. It makes me so sad to have to deal with this.

My computer is finally uncovered again. Every time I didn’t know what to do with something this weekend as Mom and I were packing ended up on my desk. Mom arrived Wednesday afternoon and left yesterday afternoon. She was here to help me pack and celebrate my birthday. We packed 65 boxes and carried them down to the garage over 3 days, which will make it much easier to load the truck/pod come moving day. We also took much of Saturday off to play.

On Saturday, we started the day at the Farmer’s Market before heading to breakfast at Ernie’s. Even though I’ve been in Columbia for three years, this was my first visit. The coffee was not very strong, but the food was really good. The eggs and hashbrowns I had were delicious, and Mom was happy with her vegetarian omelet. The people at the next table ordered biscuits and gravy and french toash–both of which looked fabulous and made mom and I say we had to come back again to try them. Next we went for maincures and pedicures at Glamour Nails and Pedicures. The lotion and the hot towels wrapped around my legs were the best parts, next to the great massage chair. The rest of the afternoon we spent at the mall and the movie theater (Waitress was ok–a good rental, but not a movie I would watch over and over). The day ended with dinner at Red Lobster. Yum! I think Mom was trying to make up for not being with me last year on my birthday. She was so generous, and I really enjoyed her visit.

This morning I stopped in the coffee shop for their Memorial Day pancake breakfast. S. was supposed to meet me, but didn’t make it. Oh well, it gave me time to do some blogging.

Happy Memorial Day~

On May 7th, I was notified in a congratulatory email from Margaret Gunderson (gundersonm@missouri.edu) of Educational Technologies at Missouri ( ET@MO ) that I am a finalist for the University of Missouri Teaching with Technology Award. The winner will receive $500! Yeah me!

I was going to ask you to keep your fingers crossed for me. But, not so fast…Don’t cross those fingers or even think about uncorking the champagne bottle now.

I received another email from Gunderson that was not nearly as pleasant as the first.

It seems Gunderson has learned that some finalists may no longer be employees of Missouri during Fall 2007 when the award will be given. She consulted the Faculty Advisory Board for advice and they have determined that:

# Any finalist selected as a category winner, but who is no longer employed at MU during the 2007 Fall Semester, will not be eligible to receive the award monies.
# Finalists who are leaving the university have the choice to continue in the awards process by submitting examples of work. If the departing finalist is selected as a winner, then that person will receive a plaque, but will not receive award monies.
# Finalists who are leaving MU and who decide to not continue with the award process will be acknowledged by letter for their impact in effective teaching with technology at MU.

Given this new information, my choices are to keep going, compile an extensive portfolio and possibly get a plaque, or drop out now and get a letter.

I reviewed the Teaching with Technology Awards information on the ET@MO website. The eligibility language states:

Eligibility: Any faculty member with a primary teaching appointment is eligible, including tenure track, nonregular, and clinical faculty. Support staff involved in supporting technology in teaching, as well as graduate instructors and teaching assistants, are eligible.

They are changing the rules in the middle of the process. There is no mention anywhere that the winner must be an employee of the University at the time the award is given. The award nominations are made in March, portfolios of finalists are reviewed during the summer, and the award is given in the Fall. With the award process spanning an academic year, isn’t it short-sighted of them not to have considered that graduate students would be moving on to other jobs? That is what we are expected to do. It’s our plan of study.

How can they believe that it is an acceptable practice to change the eligibility criteria in the middle of the awards process, especially since they have already notified me that I am a finalist?

I am stunned and so disappointed by this news. Several faculty went to a lot of time and trouble to nominate me for this award.

When I talked about this situation with a good friend, her question was, “why wouldn’t they want to give an alumna this award?” Good question.

What do I do? Since I won’t be an employee in Fall 2007 (btw, as a grad student instructor, was I ever an employee?), do I continue with awards process and possibly get a plaque? Or, do I just remove my application and be content with being a finalist and get a letter? Or, do I sacrifice both and call/email and complain? Would that even do any good or have any effect?

I turned in grades last Monday, and I’ve been sick ever since. Yesterday and today, I finally feel more human. I can’t believe it was 5 days of sniffling, sneezing, and body aches to celebrate the end of the semester.

It’s a good thing I’m finally feeling better. I’ve got an apartment to clean and organize before Mom gets here Wednesday evening to help me start packing.

Decisions to make:

1. External Hard Drive – what brand? USB or Firewire? portable?
I have about $100 to spend. I need to move my music and images off to make more room to install the Adobe Creative Suite. Somehow in the last 3 months, I’ve used a third of my hard drive, but I need at least 6 GB of space to install the programs. I think what I’m going to do is to move all my documents, my iTunes Library, and iPhoto library off the computer to the external hd and then reinstall the OS and only essential programs including the creative suite. Get it delivered here ASAP or to the parents.

2. Rent a truck or get a pod
I’ll have to check prices to find out whether it will be cheaper to get a moving truck (twice) and storage building or get a pod. I’m going to move home for a short time while I find a job. I’ll need to pay to move my stuff to a storage facility and then move it again to wherever I end up. Or, I want to check prices and whether I could get a pod delivered to load up and then just have them deliver it to me at the new place. But, if I get a pod, then I’ll have to see if Mom and a brother can come back the middle of June (my lease end date) along with my step-father Dennis because we would need someone to drive the truck, someone to drive my car, and then I would need to ride my bike (no one else rides it!), as well as someone to drive the vehicle they come down here in.

3. Set a move-out inspection with the apt. manager. My lease ends at 12 noon on June 14th. If I and family load truck/pod on morning of the 13th and clean in afternoon, then I could do the walkthrough on the morning of the 14th. It’s cutting it close, but it would give me a few hours to fix anything if they quibble over anything.

4. Make a hotel room reservation for June 12 and 13.

5. Decide whether to sell maitress/box springs, sofa, dining room table/chairs, and entertainment hutch that are all nine years old and starting to show some signs of wear. Then, I could rent a smaller truck and lease a smaller storage space. Could I be happy at the new place without these until I have funds/time to replace them? Probably, except for the bed, which is really too soft now and I should replace with something more firm anyway for my back health.

6. Decide what to eBay or garage sale and separate from other items.

7. Decide what books go where. Are there books I can purge from my collection? What books go to storage? What books go with me?

8. Get bike serviced for summer. Buy battery. What else?

9. Take car for service. Also get it washed.

10. Sort/shread unnecessary filing, paperwork and unclaimed students’ papers.

I’m sure there are more decisions to make, but that is enough of a list for now.

Daniel Anderson posted a quote from Daniel J. Levitin’s text, This is Your Brain On Music : The Science of a Human Obsession, which I’m clipping part of below:

The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert— in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.

Dan wonders what might be gained by aiming for engagement rather than mastery.

I wonder how this might connect with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work on Flow. In Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, MC states, “Even the simplest physical act becomes enjoyable when it is transformed so as to produce flow” (97). Paraphrased steps in this process are:

1. set goal and subgoals
2. measure progress to goals
3. focus on goals and make fine-tuning adjustments
4. develop skills to match opportunities
5. adjust goals when boredom hits

Do we need to change the language we use when we write assignments? Rather than say something on the order of: For this assignment, you must write an argument that…, would we be better off to say: For this assignment, you need to set a goal and subgoals for this project…, identify the skills you will learn… Would students understand/relate/engage more with ‘goal’ language?

Everyone has signed off on the thesis and all that remains is for me to print and deliver it to the grad school tomorrow. YES! Note: I caused a bit of discussion in the Grad School. Apparently, I was the first person to request a Creative Commons License rather than a Copyright on my thesis. The good news is that they’re going to let me do it. What they told me is: “it probably won’t hold up in a court of law, but it doesn’t conflict with any of our standard practices, and the language you suggested is okay so you can go ahead and include it.” So, it’s not an enthusiastic endorsement, but at least the necessary go-ahead. One step forward…

I taught my last class at Mizzou today. Well, maybe. I’ve applied for a job on campus and had the first interview yesterday. We’ll see if I make it to the second round. If nothing else, the interview will be good practice for future interviews.

So, yes, now that the thesis is done, I need to find a job. Some of you know already, but this is the first time I’ve announced on the blog that I didn’t apply to PhD programs for the Fall (I just HAVE to replenish the bank account first) and so now the job search begins.

Ideally, the new job will be a temporary position that I can keep for at least a year before I apply to programs, or it will be a permanent position at a place that has a PhD program or near a University with a PhD program. I would enjoy staying in academia to teach or to do some other sort of work. I would also enjoy doing some contract work in industry, perhaps technical writing, content management, project management, or education and training (some things I’ve done before or that I’m qualified for). I’ve also thought about doing some educational consulting, as I’ve really enjoyed doing workshops with teachers. Or, maybe some combination of these! I’m really considering all my options. The lease is up on my apartment on June 14 and I can go anywhere in the country for the right position (currently defined as: a new challenge). I will probably temporarily camp out in Northern Illinois at my parents’ house unless I find something before my lease is up and can move directly. Although, if there is someone who needs house and pet sitting over the summer, that would also be an option.

The options are really mind boggling right now and it’s not like there are 1000s of jobs just waiting for me. I will HAVE to do more thinking and narrow things down some in the next few days so I can be a little more strategic. However, if you have any ideas or know of something I should consider, please email me at marcia DOT hansen AT gmail.com.

I also want to design a new website and get that up to date so I can refer people to that new site. I’m not sure how much time I have before the site on Mizzou’s webspace will come crashing down and take my current vita with it.

Which reminds me — I need to redirect email from my mizzou account to my gmail account. And, clean that account out. Ugh!

Ok, that’s enough news/to do list for now. I’m grabing a beverage and watching Grey’s Anatomy.