Dr. B.'s Blog - A blog of rhetorical activities and discussions.

To Do List for 01/21/10

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:57:04 -0500

Because I couldn't come up with a better title and I'm pressed for time since there is freezing rain and I have to make it out for a sushi lunch date.

-Drink coffee (Not Yet)
-Spend way too much time on Facebook (Always)
-Work on draft of policy and letter for folks who need additional professional development (DONE)
-Budget items for WW4C Proposal
-Meet with students (DONE)
-Handle unexpected madness (DONE)
-Call Alison at library about next month's talk (DONE)

Stop the World I Wanna Get Off!

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:47:21 -0500

Ok, so the long weekend is over and I am terribly ashamed at what I didn't get done. I did have another conference call on Saturday and had tasks to do by tomorrow. Status?? Not done. Gonna get 'em done tomorrow though. I had one thing that carried over from Thursday's to do list so it will go on today's

-Drink coffee (DONE)
-Spend way too much time on Facebook (DONE)
-Work on draft of policy and letter for folks who need additional professional development (IN PROGRESS)
-Budget items for WW4C Proposal (FORWARD)
-Meet with students (DONE)
-Prep for 605 (DONE)
-Teach 605 (DONE)
-Call Alison at library about next month's talk (FORWARD)

The first 2 are gimmes. I do that every day. Now let's see if I can do the rest.

Catching Up on Various and Asundry Things

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 03:31:47 -0500

There has been more going on around here than I could ever begin to explain. So I won't even try. Let's just start with this week. I love the beginning of the semester, it is the chance for a clean start...a clean slate. I started off this semester behind by playing catch up with getting all of my materials for my Associate Professor review submitted. All that did was remind me of how painfully little I have completed in the last 3 years with a new baby and domestic issues. But, that is no excuse. I have to do a better job of managing my time. Every so often I start with to do lists and then check them off. In the past that hasn't worked as well as I would like, but a girl can keep trying, right?

Alright so here goes:

Thursday, January 14, 2010
-Drink coffee (DONE)
-Lots of coffee
-Eat something that resembles breakfast (DONE)
-Q Awards and letters (DONE)
-Draft policy and letter for folks who need additional professional development (IN PROGRESS)
-PDF articles for review and send to dept. head (DONE)
-Meet with student (DONE)
-Publisher conference call (DONE)
-Print readings for next week's class (DONE)

Ok, so the first 2 are a given, the third is something (sadly) I do need to remind myself to do (lunch too), and the last 6 sound like actually doing very little but you would be surprised (maybe not if you are a WPA) at how difficult it is to get planned things done in the office when you are dealing with grade appeals, student/instructor/advisor/administration complaints, and various and asundry other crazy ass things that happen on a day to day basis around here. Oh the stories I could tell.

Let's see how this works out. See ya'll tomorrow (ummmm later today).

Video Game Commentary Remix

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:05:18 -0400

There is a very interesting project in the works called "The Wasteland Commentary" which is a mod of the PC version of the video game Fallout 3. The mod is going to integrate "an audio commentary track for Fallout 3 that is accessible in-game via audio holotapes". Right now the editor/mod-er is calling for submissions that are anecdotes, humor, or analysis to add.

I would love to see this kind of thing really take off! I would also love to see it happen for other platforms (yeah, impossible I know). That being said I wonder how long it will be before we will see the same thing happen with playback of footage with commentary that is remixed to serve the same purpose. I would personally love to do something like this, but I just don't play many games on the PC anymore.

I'm gonna let this stew and see if there is a project in this somewhere cuz goodness knows I have too much free time and not enough work!

Job Opening @ Purdue: Come Work with Me

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:10:50 -0400

Here are the specifics. If you are interested or have a promising student please have them apply.

Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition

The English Department at Purdue University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professorship in Rhetoric and Composition. Applicants must have active research agendas and an interest in writing program administration, new media, and applications of technology in writing courses. Teaching load is 2-2, including a graduate practicum in the teaching of composition and other graduate and undergraduate rhetoric and writing courses. Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition or closely related area required. Starting date: August 16, 2010. Review of applications begins Nov. 2, 2009, and continues until position is filled. Send letter of application, c.v., writing sample, and three letters of recommendation addressing scholarship and teaching strengths to Professor Aparajita Sagar, Interim Associate Head, Department of English, 500 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038. Purdue University is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access/Affirmative Action employer fully committed to achieving a diverse workforce.

On Nommo, Invention, and Scribblenauts!

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:54:59 -0400

Let me start by saying that the game Scribblenauts for the DS came out today and now that I have re-read today's readings over coffee (and no crepes) I am going to have to buy it on the way home...for research purposes of course.

The game's tag line is "Write Anything. Solve Everything." which I think is interesting enough in and of itself. The notion that the act of writing can solve anything is pretty revolutionary outside of the academy(and activist circles, of course). So let me go backwards in my title (hey it sounded better that way)...

Scribblenauts is a puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. The game gives you the opportunity to "invent/create/make" usable items just by writing them into existence (see where nommo is gonna come into play??). So if you find yourself at a chasm with a star reward on the other side you can write the words motorcyle and ramp and use those two items to jump the chasm. (Yes, I know that bridge could be just as effective, but nowhere near as much fun). Here's the demo video from E3.

Nommo (as you all know) is the West African idea that there is creative power in the word and that the naming of a thing is what brings it into being. Think about the child naming ceremony in the film "Roots". Scribblenauts gives us the (depiction of the) physical manifestation of this. Things come into being in the Scribblenauts world by being named. These things are literally written into BEING. That is pretty friggin' cool, eh??

Janice Lauer's ears (or eyes in this case) are probably burning because she is being used to talk about video games at this point, but I think that this says something about her work that we can take a piece that is over 3 decades old and apply it (with a little tweaking on my part, of course) to something as cutting edge as games and Composition. That being said she will probably rap me on the knuckles with a ruler if she hears that I have done such a blasphemous thing. In her 1979 article "Toward a Metatheory of Heuristic Procedures", Lauer details the 3 criteria for a metatheory that can be used to build heuristic models to guide writers' inquiry. I argue that those three criteria (transcendency, flexible direction, and generative capacity) are central to a number of video games in general, and Scribblenauts in particular, and that the presence of these criteria make video games a pretty darn good tool for teaching some basic rhetorical concepts and aiding in the teaching of writing.

There is an article in this somewhere and to say the least I think I have found my next conference paper topic. I think that this is my way of just getting the idea down on paper.

From Summer Research to Herding Cats

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:17:59 -0400

No, as a matter of fact I couldn't think of a better title for this post!

From writing about summer research to writing about the first day of school…good Lord I am a slacker. My summer class went as well as could be expected, but there felt like there was little writing done this summer. I am working on a very cool book project with Steve Parks and Christina Kirklighter that looks at the history of NCTE/CCCC caucuses and the preparation for that proposal took a lot more work than I would have thought. It’s been a while since I worked on an edited collection and I had forgotten that it is very much like herding cats (academics think loosely about deadlines…go figure).

That being said…my gaming tv has died twice this summer so it limited my gaming and gaming research a bit as my eyes really are too old to play games on a 27” tv. I had some knee surgery which made me less mobile than usual and this would have been the perfect time for gaming. Peanut has also figured out the connection between the game controller and what goes on on the screen (not to mention the vibrating) and wants to push the buttons constantly. I do break down and let her play ‘Splosion Man from time to time (I usually only game when she’s asleep or in another part of the house) because she loves the music and watching the little man blow up time and time again.

I taught ENGL 106 this summer for the first time in a very long time and I am torn about teaching a 16 week writing course in 8 weeks. It was a long and tortuous process for both me and the students, but ultimately I think that it was a good exercise in workshop writing and portfolio assessment. I may get an article out of it one day (if I ever start writing again). This semester I am excited about teaching ENGL 591: Intro to Composition Theory to our incoming R/C grad students.

Damn, one of the twitterati just reminded me that Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box dropped for the DS today. I loved the first one and the second one is calling my name. Since they will definitely make it into my current games and pedagogy project I guess I could call it research if I picked it up on my way home…especially since the tv is still on the fritz and I need to move forward with my research agenda instead of just knitting on watching episodes of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and “Nurse Jackie” on On Demand (damn you Comcast!)

Okee Dokee, back to some WPA type work and last minute course prep. And I promise to blog a bit more often now….really….especially since I hit my 8 year blogiversary on August 14th and let it go by unannounced. 8 years…wow, that is a long ass time!

Summer Research

Wed, 13 May 2009 13:03:45 -0400

I am officially preparing to do my summer research project. I just ordered a bunch of game theory books, a 1 TB external hard drive, and Rock Band 2 for the XBox 360 (and a few other less interesting things).

Last summer was a wash for research because the Peanut came along and filled our lives with sweet baby goodness. This summer she is crawling around, pulling up, and soon to be walking. I am sure that this will limit the work a little, but hopefully nowhere near as much as it did last year :-)

In the grand scheme of things, it is more than worth it!

Back to..."Normal"

Mon, 11 May 2009 08:26:15 -0400

Now that things are returning to normal (whatever that is) in these parts I guess it's time to get back to work. Today needs to be spent preparing for my upcoming knee surgery and the time off that I am allowing myself afterward.

Today I have got to finish prepping for a dissertation defense tomorrow and finish reading the papers from my Minority Rhetorics seminar so that I can submit grades tomorrow. Oh yeah, and I have to work on the materials that need to be sent out to the new TAs in the next week or so.

Wish me luck!

Introducing...

Wed, 06 May 2009 04:48:28 -0400

Peanut Blackmon! It's official.

We are all very excited!

Slacking Already

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:37:10 -0400

Today is a nasty rainy day and so I didn't even do a to do list. That being said I woke up doing email and have been mired in it ever since. Still nursing the now watery diet coke that I came in with this morning.

In addition to email I have met with a dissertating student and a potential lecture who has visa issues. I need to find a clean coffee cup (or wash one) so that I can have some coffee before I fall over dead asleep in my seat! After that I am leaving to go and read some dissertation chapters!

Work (?) from Home

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:17:43 -0400

I am working solely from home today as we seem to be catching a bit of a cold. Working from home can be a good thing or a bad thing for me. Some days are super productive and everything gets done and some days...not so much. Today is a rainy sick day and I feel more like knitting or gaming than working. Unfortunately lethargy has such a hold on me that I am not working, knitting, or gaming!

I am just sitting in front a my laptop at the kitchen table drinking coffee (I love the Keurig machine) and going through email (well that is work, but barely). I am now being called by said email to work on soliciting submissions from Cs caucuses and task forces for an edited collection that I am working on with Cristina Kirklighter and Stephen Parks. I guess that I can do that without expending too much energy. :-)

Ok, off to do some kind of w-o-r-k.

Off to a Good Start!

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:36:09 -0400

Doing yesterday's 2 do list and have meetings scheduled for C&W 2010 planning (@Purdue ya'll), WPA weekly pow wow with my Assistant Directors, and a meeting with the instructor of an enraged student about said enraged student before meeting with the aforementioned student next week (I love this part of the job >-P ).

So far I have finished the LOR which really only leaves the diss chapter and 3-4 hours of meetings today. Wish me luck! ETA: Got LOR done, did my meetings, finished a junior faculty member's annual review document, talked with the writing lab about a local high school, wrote something else that I remember writing but can't remember what it was right this second!, but no diss chapter today.

On the up side I got to exchange Peanut's All-Stars for the right size and got her 2 other pair of shoes as her feet grow faster than weeds and we find ourselves buying new shoes every 10 minutes.

Today's To Do Disaster

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:10:20 -0400

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I started out with a to do list that looked like this:

LOR, letter for files, RC file, KW call, diss chap, prep 4 class

And what did I get done? The letter for the files, the RC file, the KW call, and I prepped for class. Yep, a class that I had to cancel because I had to take the Peanut to urgent care to have her surgical site looked at and taken care of. She is fine and hopefully healing will follow.

So tomorrow's list is going to start with LOR and diss chap. In addition to the gazillion hours of meetings that are on my calendar. Tonight?? Maybe a glass of wine and some Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on my cool new blue DSi to decompress.

Re:Purposing the blog?; Or, WPA-ing Killed the Blogger

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:23:07 -0400

It seems that I haven;t had any time to blog since becoming WPA. Ok, none since the Peanut was born but WPA-ing made it worse. Now I find myself with a need to keep track of the work that I do as WPA. I work solely on WPA stuff for 4 hours a day and then am supposed to do my own research and teacherly stuff for the rest of the day from home/coffeeshop/library/trunk of my car, but what I find is that everything other than WPA stuff is suffering and I find myself answering email/phone calls/smoke signals/etc. all day and into the night that deal with WPA stuff. How do I stop this or at least keep track of it?

I am now feeling the need to create a daily to do list so that I can get more than WPA stuff done and keep another list of WPA stuff that I actually do during the day. I seem to be a Twitter-aholic so maybe the answer is to do this via Twitter and use hash tags to keep track of it and then go over it at the end of the day? Hmmmmm, yeah I just came up with that. Let me think on that and get back to you.

If you don't Twitter (and don't want to) you can always see my random musings in the left column of this blog ;-P

Ok, off to work.