I can handle this (thinking positively). I’ve talked to audiences of 50 people and responded to questions. I can certainly talk about my own work with three people who want me to do well, right?

Update: pass!

I think it went well. I’ve got a few revisions/edits to make by the end of the week, but I’m one step closer to being finished! Yeah! Life is good.

Why Video Games Are Good For Your Soul (Publisher: Common Ground, Apr 2005, paperback, 128 pp) – The text is about pleasure and learning. In the introduction, Gee states that the text is for anyone who is interested in video games even though he will talk about game theory. He is quick to qualify “theory” and promises not to engage in too much jargon.

His earlier text is more for an academic audience. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; New Ed edition (May 7, 2004), 240 pp)

Other examples?

May I also suggest a technorati tag?

technorati tag: Happy-Woman-Professor-Day

For example…

When it comes to music, strictly speaking, yes, technologies such as those used by Pandora do mean that a computer is choosing music for me. Is the computer making me stupid? Well, no! How is using that service different than, say, me hiring a mechanic to help out when I don’t have time to handle the maintenance work on my car or bike myself? I know how to change the oil in my car and bike — that does not mean that I choose to do it myself each and every time. I have other priorities right now. Thank you very much.

There are some times, such as when I’m writing, that I just want music to play so that I can concentrate on something else that I am working on. I don’t want to be an active participant in choosing and listening. In this case, I want to use it as a tool to aid my concentration elsewhere.

There are other times that I am in the mood to discover new artists. IMHO, Pandora’s technology is better than LastFM because the folks at Pandora have done more precise analysis, at least in my experience. When I tune in to my station on Pandora, I don’t get just any country song (pick your genre), but one with the same qualities as the original song. In this case, the new media tool is helping me discover possibilities that I didn’t know existed. How is that a bad thing?

You could argue that smaller bands aren’t as well represented. I’d acknowledge that as a constraint. Let’s have a conversation now. What is your best way of finding new and less well known artists?

However, let me just add this caveat: must I always be in control, choosing, and analyzing in order to be considered involved/worthy/academic/smart and not being led around by my computer? Ok, maybe that is more snarky than a simple caveat.

Still, I would argue that observing the behavior of the tool makes me more appreciative of the human work that went into building the tool and makes me much more aware of the many different layers or elements in a composition. In this case, I am discovering more of my own preferences and learning more about music with the help of the tool.

BTW, did you catch that senioritis recommended John Mayer’s CD, Continuum, a few days ago? I’d have to 2nd that recommendation. Now, not only am I enjoying a little Mayer on my internet radio station, but I’m also finding, with the help of the tool, more artists that play similar stuff.

The people at Pandora.com have analyzed more than 4,000 pieces of music on so many different levels than I could ever have the time to do myself, unless I suddenly decided to pursue graduate study in music, which is not on my list of things to do.

We enjoy music in so many situations. Why get all stressed by a computer helping you out once in a while? Can’t we just put on some music and chill?

Thesis: This is it. It has to get finished. I’m graduating this semester. I will be writing daily. I’m feeling good about it too — a very inspiring atmosphere of late has me feeling optimistic about my own research and writing. It’s amazing what a good haircut and a few other discussions will do.

January 30: Columbia Literacy Academy, follow-up talk to the one I gave in November. Will show examples of how teachers are using blogs in their classrooms. My talk: 20 minutes 40 minutes on tech/q&a, Group: ~20

February 28: Missouri Western State University, 1 hour presentation and moderate follow-up forum/panel, Topic: Becoming Literate in a Digital Age: Why networked communications require nuanced responses (or something like that). Audience: 50?

March 1: MWSU, Workshop on blogging with high school students and possibly instructors. 25-30? Time?

March 23: 4C’s Talk on WAC and Digital Literacies.

In the post above, she talks about energy drains and how any incompletes in our life, from email to laundry to car repairs, can drain our energy when we let them hang over our heads for a long time.

Well, in academia, I think we all have “incompletes” of many types. They’re hanging around just by the nature of the work. Not only is there all that stuff we do for students, but there is always another project we want to work on, or that we finally have to finish.

To connect what she wrote about with this type of work, I think it would be beneficial to make 3 to-do lists for long-term projects.

1. One list would be for everything that needs to be done on all our projects. Think of 43 Folders and capturing all that has to be done and getting it downloaded to paper.

2. Then, for the second list, identify what we want to do on a given day towards finishing that long-term project and being as specific and realistic as possible. For some people, it might work to project plan the whole thing, but I think for many people just concentrating on a week at a time would be helpful.

3. After we’ve worked on the project, I think we want to create a what-to-do-next-time list. I think the habit of always saving time to do this list each time we work on the long-term project will help prevent the energy drains that Christine talks about.

Other people have said similar things before and most often linked making the lists to productivity. I’ve even talked about how I think I’m more productive when I fill in the project name on my daily schedule and cross off the hours as filled.

However, making a what-to-do-next-time list for writing projects seems highly beneficial in order to help prevent massive energy drains from the whole project being one big “incomplete.”

Maybe I’m just slow and everyone else has already made this connection. But for me, it’s the difference between saying to myself:

work on the project to get it done, OR

work on a small piece of the project so you can feel better about what you’ve accomplished for that day and so the whole incomplete project doesn’t drain your energy and make your whole life feel out of balance.

In academia, our in-boxes (physical, virtual, and mental) are never going to be empty. But, this idea might be one way to help us feel better about walking away from them at the end of the day without the energy-draining feeling of them leaking all over us.

Although, when they do hire someone permanently to administer the Campus Writing Program, perhaps that person will be interested in promoting digital literacies across the curriculum. I’m not sure when that hire will take place. There is an interim person in the position now.

btw, we’re also going to be searching for two! profs in poetry. Makes me go hmmm. I could say more, but I think it’s best to keep my little blog fingers off that subject and focus on the positive.

Go rhet/comp!

Do non-tenure track contract positions ever turn into job offers for tenure track positions? In other words, does the contract position enable the Uni to check you out first and see if you’re a good fit for the department before they commit to offering you a tenure-track position? Or, do they really want to hire someone temporarily and have that person do committee work and have that person prove they can commit to the ongoing work of the department, for the sole benefit of the department? If the last part is accurate, then please tell me contract positions pay decent.

Yesterday, Collin linked to the First Monthly Carnival of GRADual Progress. I took a look. Some of it’s depressing and some less so.

One of the toughest things for me to adjust to in grad school has been the heirarchies and divisions among the different academic specialists, which affects the grad student population as well. I don’t really want to waste more time detailing all of the ways that people have looked down at or not really understood the work that I want to do. What I’d really like to emphasize, and it took me a while to get this working, is that it is really important to find people who are supportive, willing to mentor, and just plain fun to hang out with. I’ve found a few now, but it took a while.

Whatever we do in life, I think it is important to ask, are your friends an elevator or a cage? If any of you know motorcycle slang, then you know that people who drive cars, trucks, etc. are “cagers,” so when I saw the above post, it really spoke to me. It’s really advice our parents may have told us long ago…”don’t hang out with the wrong crowd.” Are the people you spend time with going to lift you up, tear you down, or be jealous of your accomplishments? Some of each type will be found in academia and elsewhere. The right answer for an academic career will be different for everyone. If you can find good people to surround yourself with, then I think that is a large part of making any situation more doable….even just for the short term.

I’ve found some good people to hang out with in the blogosphere and I’ve even met some of them in person. I have some great friends in Texas, motorcycle and otherwise, that I get to ride with and hang out with occasionally. I still keep in touch with a friend in Florida that I worked with a long time ago. Now I have a few friends in Missouri. Hey…if I accumulate enough friends in different states, it might make a cross country motorcycle trip more feasible…

Seriously, tho…I hope y’all have people in your life who do more lifting than caging.

However, if you look at the corresponding Yahoo map, you’ll notice that there is not a place that is farther north than Chicago. I’m sorry, but I just can’t bear the thought of spending 4-5 years of my life any farther north than that, even though it meant eliminating some really great programs.

What say you — given my interests and geographic preferences, is there a university with an interdisciplinary program that emphasizes digital media and/or professional/technical writing that I’m missing and should consider? Do you know of any academic bloggers who profess or study at the places on my list? Please let me know.

After spending 2 years at Mizzou and then traveling first to Texas Tech and then to Ohio State this summer, I’m especially aware of different graduate program cultures. If you can offer feedback, suggestions, or questions for me to be sure and ask to help me figure out the culture at different institutions, please let me know.

In addition to teaching, tutoring, and pet sitting this summer, I’ll be working on my writing sample, personal statement, and re-taking the GRE (argh!) with the goal of getting all my documents submitted in a timely fashion. Plus, I want to also submit a creative digital media project to improve my chances of getting accepted at some of these places.

Thoughts, ideas, etc. welcome in the comments below or to mmh989 AT mizzou DOT edu. Thanks!