1. I did finish The Last Empress last night. Then I spent half an hour or so on Wikipedia trying to figure out what elements of the book had been fact and which fiction. Lots of historical events in the book, but I didn't feel I knew the people particularly well at the end.
2. This afternoon was Literary Society; the author of The Last Empress spoke. She gave a really fascinating talk about life under Mao's Communist regime in China. I could have listened to her talk about this longer.
3. Came home and took a nap.
4. Book group. Finally discussed In the Company of the Courtesan, which it seems like I finished 122 years ago.
5. Picked up the next book in the pile, which is a rather serious book of Biblical scholarship, and just thought to myself, "No, not yet. My brain needs to play a little." So I'm rereading Little House in the Big Woods. I used to love this one, and I understand why.
6. Did an auction check in WOW, but that's about it.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
11/15: What I Accomplished Today
1. WOW auctions.
2. Trying to finish The Last Empress for Literary Society tomorrow.
3. Television and Pogo badges.
We watched Compulsion, the Orson Welles take on Leopold and Loeb. It was fascinating to watch the young men, but I thought the film lost focus when it went into court.
We also watched Nova, which was a re-enactment of sorts of the Dover School Board trial on Intelligent Design. Also very interesting.
4. More WOW auction stuff, and now I need to go finish this book.
2. Trying to finish The Last Empress for Literary Society tomorrow.
3. Television and Pogo badges.
We watched Compulsion, the Orson Welles take on Leopold and Loeb. It was fascinating to watch the young men, but I thought the film lost focus when it went into court.
We also watched Nova, which was a re-enactment of sorts of the Dover School Board trial on Intelligent Design. Also very interesting.
4. More WOW auction stuff, and now I need to go finish this book.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
11/14: What I Accomplished Today
1. Prepped a class, graded three classes, taught a class.
2. Television and Pogo badges.
3. Level 35 Human Mage. Did some mage quests and went to Mudsprocket, the new town in Dustwallow. Went to Nijel's Point in Desolace. I was just going to get the flight path and skip the quests, but I may be sorry later; I haven't decided yet.
4. Read a little in The Last Empress.
2. Television and Pogo badges.
3. Level 35 Human Mage. Did some mage quests and went to Mudsprocket, the new town in Dustwallow. Went to Nijel's Point in Desolace. I was just going to get the flight path and skip the quests, but I may be sorry later; I haven't decided yet.
4. Read a little in The Last Empress.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
11/13: What I Accomplished Today
I usually give you the abbreviated version of the day. Today I'll do a more complete version.
1. Got up because Co-Vivant was on the phone with tech support to resolve a Tivo issue. While she was on hold, she told me she had already made a phone call that resolved a financial question we had had. I'm not out of bed yet, and so far, the day is Co-Vivant, 2; Me, 0.
2. Bathed and groomed. Put on a little outfit. Drove to Costco and had a slice of pizza and a soda because we didn't have any good sammich food.
3. Went to the office. Read my e-mails. Finished grading the class that was to meet tonight; I had already graded the in-class work last Wednesday, so today, I just read the papers that hadn't hit the plagiarism check yet and graded the online work. Updated the gradesheet and online interface with the work that will be due next week. I also printed each student's gradesheet so we could verify we're all in agreement about what's been turned in and what hasn't.
Prepared for tonight's class, verifying I had already ordered and received all handouts necessary. I had. Printed my notes for tonight and plopped them into my notebook. Skimmed the reading and the handouts and made sure I remembered how to do this one.
Checked both online classes for e-mails, discussion board posts, or other outstanding issues. Clear. Graded the course I usually grade on Tuesday (sensibly enough). This involves checking quiz grades, entering them from the online interface into Excel, and sending mail to students who have achieved particular milestones so they know they're making progress and don't feel like they're floundering all by themselves in a cold, lonely sea. (Yes, I could just have the online interface itself calculate the grades without the Excel conversion, but I think the class benefits if I actually look at each student's work each week instead of letting the computer do all the calculations. There's probably a happy medium here between automation and my involvement, but I hope to err on the side of over-involvement.)
Read my mail and ordered an exam copy of a text I'm interested in seeing. Verified that I was unable to receive an exam copy of a book I've decided to teach from next semester; found a cheap used copy on Amazon and ordered it.
Worked on the November placement data from the beginning of the month through last Friday.
Worked on compiling the rosters to make it quicker to compile student placement data at the end of the term.
Worked on the faculty survey I sent out a few weeks ago, trying to solve some student mysteries colleagues asked about. Along the way, I decided I'm going to have to gather data to see how students progress from the end of the English as a Second Language Sequence into the Composition sequence; put together rosters for that course from a year ago so there's enough time to gauge success.
Taught the class. I put the opening question on the board for them to answer while I handed back last week's in-class work and papers as well as the gradesheets I printed this afternoon. We discussed logistics (the holiday schedule for the rest of the term, what online work needs to be completed, what courses they should be thinking about for next term). Discussed the reading they were to complete for today; they actually did a pretty credible job on a difficult selection.
I do vocabulary lists in my Comp I and Comp II classes. I didn't used to, and I still think it's irritating (it's college, for heaven's sake), but on the other hand, they simply don't have the word knowledge to be expected to function in academia, let alone the adult, professional world at large. In 101, I have 12 lists, 20 items each, of Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes that are common. (We did this my junior year in high school; not only has it come in very handy, but it was sort of fun. We had two matching sets as each quiz, one matching the morpheme [we didn't use this word] to its meaning and another matching words that consisted of two more of the vocabulary items with what we thought those words had to mean. Rudimentary critical thinking; huzzah!) In 102, I have 12 lists of 20 items each I basically pulled out of thin air: three of Latin roots, three of Latin expressions, two of Greek Mythology, one of Classical history, one of French expressions, one of Biblical expressions, and one of the leftover stuff that didn't fit into the other lists. Today was Biblical expressions, so we talked about things like "Prodigal Son" and "Doubting Thomas." (No, you cannot assume that students know the references, and I can't imagine trying to read adult books and articles without that sort of basic information. Again, I feel a little cheesy having to do it, but as Grandma would say, "If it is to be, it is to be me.")
The students also had a sketch, a rough version of their last paper, due. I read them and discussed each with its writer while everyone else worked a crossword puzzle. (When I finish with each writer, that writer can turn in the puzzle and leave. That way, the people who are too friggin' lazy to get their acts together and pull together a draft can sit there and work the friggin' puzzle until the people who have done their work have already left.)
That's the portion of the day I usually describe as "Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class."
5. Came home and worked on my Pogo badges; tonight's badges were in Word Search Daily and Dice City Rollers. We watched some shows from Comedy Central while I worked on my badges.
6. Co-Vivant has to be up in the morning for her networking group, so she went to bed. Started an episode of The Bob Newhart Show for her to listen to whilst she sleeps.
7. Played World of Warcraft. The 2.3 patch was live today. It wasn't too much work to get the interface back the way I like it, although two of my add-ons, Auctioneer and Gatherer, aren't compatible yet, and it looks like Auctioneer may take a bit since the Auction House has changed substantially. I did the mail check and stats check I would have done last night had the server not gone down for maintenance and patch initiation. I also started the Level 35 Human Mage, finishing the Thandol Span sequence. (I thought I'd already done that, but I guess not.) I worked on her Blacksmithing a little bit.
8. While I played (during griffin flights and such), I read a little more in The Last Empress. Interesting book; she does a particularly good job indicating the isolation the empress feels, as we feel it as well.
9. Tried to play a little Miss Management, but couldn't get a rhythm. Finished level 34 in Build-a-Lot; thought of a technique for 35, but don't have the patience to pull it off.
Now I am tired, so I will go to bed. While I am falling asleep, I will watch today's Ellen show. I also have the Sunday Night Fox animation lineup (except King of the Hill) on the back Tivo, so if I have the energy, I might watch one of those. I also watch Ugly Betty and the TMC shows about big families back there because my Co-Vivant doesn't particularly like to watch those shows.
1. Got up because Co-Vivant was on the phone with tech support to resolve a Tivo issue. While she was on hold, she told me she had already made a phone call that resolved a financial question we had had. I'm not out of bed yet, and so far, the day is Co-Vivant, 2; Me, 0.
2. Bathed and groomed. Put on a little outfit. Drove to Costco and had a slice of pizza and a soda because we didn't have any good sammich food.
3. Went to the office. Read my e-mails. Finished grading the class that was to meet tonight; I had already graded the in-class work last Wednesday, so today, I just read the papers that hadn't hit the plagiarism check yet and graded the online work. Updated the gradesheet and online interface with the work that will be due next week. I also printed each student's gradesheet so we could verify we're all in agreement about what's been turned in and what hasn't.
Prepared for tonight's class, verifying I had already ordered and received all handouts necessary. I had. Printed my notes for tonight and plopped them into my notebook. Skimmed the reading and the handouts and made sure I remembered how to do this one.
Checked both online classes for e-mails, discussion board posts, or other outstanding issues. Clear. Graded the course I usually grade on Tuesday (sensibly enough). This involves checking quiz grades, entering them from the online interface into Excel, and sending mail to students who have achieved particular milestones so they know they're making progress and don't feel like they're floundering all by themselves in a cold, lonely sea. (Yes, I could just have the online interface itself calculate the grades without the Excel conversion, but I think the class benefits if I actually look at each student's work each week instead of letting the computer do all the calculations. There's probably a happy medium here between automation and my involvement, but I hope to err on the side of over-involvement.)
Read my mail and ordered an exam copy of a text I'm interested in seeing. Verified that I was unable to receive an exam copy of a book I've decided to teach from next semester; found a cheap used copy on Amazon and ordered it.
Worked on the November placement data from the beginning of the month through last Friday.
Worked on compiling the rosters to make it quicker to compile student placement data at the end of the term.
Worked on the faculty survey I sent out a few weeks ago, trying to solve some student mysteries colleagues asked about. Along the way, I decided I'm going to have to gather data to see how students progress from the end of the English as a Second Language Sequence into the Composition sequence; put together rosters for that course from a year ago so there's enough time to gauge success.
Taught the class. I put the opening question on the board for them to answer while I handed back last week's in-class work and papers as well as the gradesheets I printed this afternoon. We discussed logistics (the holiday schedule for the rest of the term, what online work needs to be completed, what courses they should be thinking about for next term). Discussed the reading they were to complete for today; they actually did a pretty credible job on a difficult selection.
I do vocabulary lists in my Comp I and Comp II classes. I didn't used to, and I still think it's irritating (it's college, for heaven's sake), but on the other hand, they simply don't have the word knowledge to be expected to function in academia, let alone the adult, professional world at large. In 101, I have 12 lists, 20 items each, of Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes that are common. (We did this my junior year in high school; not only has it come in very handy, but it was sort of fun. We had two matching sets as each quiz, one matching the morpheme [we didn't use this word] to its meaning and another matching words that consisted of two more of the vocabulary items with what we thought those words had to mean. Rudimentary critical thinking; huzzah!) In 102, I have 12 lists of 20 items each I basically pulled out of thin air: three of Latin roots, three of Latin expressions, two of Greek Mythology, one of Classical history, one of French expressions, one of Biblical expressions, and one of the leftover stuff that didn't fit into the other lists. Today was Biblical expressions, so we talked about things like "Prodigal Son" and "Doubting Thomas." (No, you cannot assume that students know the references, and I can't imagine trying to read adult books and articles without that sort of basic information. Again, I feel a little cheesy having to do it, but as Grandma would say, "If it is to be, it is to be me.")
The students also had a sketch, a rough version of their last paper, due. I read them and discussed each with its writer while everyone else worked a crossword puzzle. (When I finish with each writer, that writer can turn in the puzzle and leave. That way, the people who are too friggin' lazy to get their acts together and pull together a draft can sit there and work the friggin' puzzle until the people who have done their work have already left.)
That's the portion of the day I usually describe as "Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class."
5. Came home and worked on my Pogo badges; tonight's badges were in Word Search Daily and Dice City Rollers. We watched some shows from Comedy Central while I worked on my badges.
6. Co-Vivant has to be up in the morning for her networking group, so she went to bed. Started an episode of The Bob Newhart Show for her to listen to whilst she sleeps.
7. Played World of Warcraft. The 2.3 patch was live today. It wasn't too much work to get the interface back the way I like it, although two of my add-ons, Auctioneer and Gatherer, aren't compatible yet, and it looks like Auctioneer may take a bit since the Auction House has changed substantially. I did the mail check and stats check I would have done last night had the server not gone down for maintenance and patch initiation. I also started the Level 35 Human Mage, finishing the Thandol Span sequence. (I thought I'd already done that, but I guess not.) I worked on her Blacksmithing a little bit.
8. While I played (during griffin flights and such), I read a little more in The Last Empress. Interesting book; she does a particularly good job indicating the isolation the empress feels, as we feel it as well.
9. Tried to play a little Miss Management, but couldn't get a rhythm. Finished level 34 in Build-a-Lot; thought of a technique for 35, but don't have the patience to pull it off.
Now I am tired, so I will go to bed. While I am falling asleep, I will watch today's Ellen show. I also have the Sunday Night Fox animation lineup (except King of the Hill) on the back Tivo, so if I have the energy, I might watch one of those. I also watch Ugly Betty and the TMC shows about big families back there because my Co-Vivant doesn't particularly like to watch those shows.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
11/12: What I Accomplished Today
1. Today is Veteran's Day. Hurray! A holiday!
2. Read in The Last Empress more.
3. Television and Pogo badges. Watched another episode of Mrs. Pritchard on Masterpiece Theater.
4. Level 39 Human Paladin. Dustwallow. Dinged 40. Started record-keeping, but the servers went down for the 2.3 patch. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.
It looks like pretty much all I've done for awhile is play WOW. This is pretty much true.
2. Read in The Last Empress more.
3. Television and Pogo badges. Watched another episode of Mrs. Pritchard on Masterpiece Theater.
4. Level 39 Human Paladin. Dustwallow. Dinged 40. Started record-keeping, but the servers went down for the 2.3 patch. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.
It looks like pretty much all I've done for awhile is play WOW. This is pretty much true.
Monday, November 12, 2007
11/11: What I Accomplished Today
1. WOW Auction stuff.
2. Read a lot in The Last Empress.
3. Television and Pogo badges.
4. Watched a NetFlix movie, Bye, Bye, Birdie. This isn't a very good movie, but it's one I always liked as a kid; I've also played in the orchestra of the show twice, once on trap set, once on guitar. It wasn't letterboxed, and it should have been, so now I'll have to send a cranky note to NetFlix.
5. Level 38 Human Paladin. Arathi. Dinged 39. Did part of the Scarlet Monastery; I hadn't done that before, so that was fun. Finished Stockades with friends and then wrapped up the Bazil Thredd line.
No Puzzle Day today. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day.
2. Read a lot in The Last Empress.
3. Television and Pogo badges.
4. Watched a NetFlix movie, Bye, Bye, Birdie. This isn't a very good movie, but it's one I always liked as a kid; I've also played in the orchestra of the show twice, once on trap set, once on guitar. It wasn't letterboxed, and it should have been, so now I'll have to send a cranky note to NetFlix.
5. Level 38 Human Paladin. Arathi. Dinged 39. Did part of the Scarlet Monastery; I hadn't done that before, so that was fun. Finished Stockades with friends and then wrapped up the Bazil Thredd line.
No Puzzle Day today. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
11/10: What I Accomplished Today
1. Level 38 Human Paladin. Arathi Highlands.
2. Television and Pogo badges.
3. I'm still thinking about Sunset Boulevard from yesterday. Gloria Swanson was only 50, and the movie seems to feel it's inappropriate for her to be sexual, at least with William Holden. (And it is, but not because of either of their ages; she is his employer.) I made the comment a few months ago that, as longevity and general health increase, women (and men, but I'm going to use female imagery) are increasingly refusing to fit into the maiden-mother-crone model and "go gently" to that good night of grandparent-hood; they are seeing themselves as ingenues, as sexually desirable and active, until death. (A survey came out a few weeks ago indicating that a sizable percentage of people in their 80's are still participating in sexual activities.)
And hurray. That's as it should be. (At least in some ways.)
On the other hand, one of the problems with cross-generational relationships (and I don't have a problem with such relationships, as long as both people are able to decide to participate of their own free wills and volitions) is that sense of Being Sexual and Seducing. There's a line in the film that, whenever she senses the Holden character is getting bored, she puts on a show for him. And the show she puts on is really quite good: she does a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty dance number and then a spot-on Chaplin impersonation. However, at least one purpose for the former would presumably have been titillation, and it's hard to imagine the exquisite William Holden (or any man of his age at the time) as aroused by the flapper number. It's sort of quaint and charming, perhaps even funny, but it's lost much of its original impetus because the images just aren't right.
As I mentioned, we also watched the film a second to listen to the commentary, which was done by a young man who had written a book on Billy Wilder and particularly the making of this film. What was interesting is that Co-Vivant is 50 and I am 43, and in terms of watching this movie, those seven years seemed significant. He made several comments about Swanson's actions being "creepy" or "over-the-top," and yeah, I was totally with him. Co-Vivant was impatient with these comments and made disparaging comments about how young the reviewer must be, I finally confessed that I was with him on these; I, too, was finding Swanson's facial expressions or hand positions or whatever creepy and unnerving. The difference, I think, is that as a kid, her dad used to show silent movies on their Super-8 home movie projector; we had a movie projector, but we never watched silents on it. I saw a few silents as a kid, but most of my experience with silent movies has been as an adult. For me, they're a little quaint and precious; yes, I can watch the movie and derive the plot and follow the emotional line and such, but it is not a natural form for me. (It's like "movies as a second language.")
I don't think they have that sense of removal or disconnection for my Co-Vivant, so she's going to see Gloria Swanson's mode of acting (which is brilliant, don't get me wrong, and perfect for this movie) as less artificial than I am. She is more the film's original intended audience; in terms of movie watching, I'm a generation younger, and that matters for this film.
4. Played Frannie's Fashion Fits or some such. Pretty good game; it's time management, but the early levels aren't painfully clunky. This one may be worth a BigFish credit; I haven't decided yet.
5. Did auction checks in WOW. Couldn't gather sufficient mojo to get much playing done.
6. Read several magazines. Finished Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time. Started The Last Empress, this month's book for Literary Society.
2. Television and Pogo badges.
3. I'm still thinking about Sunset Boulevard from yesterday. Gloria Swanson was only 50, and the movie seems to feel it's inappropriate for her to be sexual, at least with William Holden. (And it is, but not because of either of their ages; she is his employer.) I made the comment a few months ago that, as longevity and general health increase, women (and men, but I'm going to use female imagery) are increasingly refusing to fit into the maiden-mother-crone model and "go gently" to that good night of grandparent-hood; they are seeing themselves as ingenues, as sexually desirable and active, until death. (A survey came out a few weeks ago indicating that a sizable percentage of people in their 80's are still participating in sexual activities.)
And hurray. That's as it should be. (At least in some ways.)
On the other hand, one of the problems with cross-generational relationships (and I don't have a problem with such relationships, as long as both people are able to decide to participate of their own free wills and volitions) is that sense of Being Sexual and Seducing. There's a line in the film that, whenever she senses the Holden character is getting bored, she puts on a show for him. And the show she puts on is really quite good: she does a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty dance number and then a spot-on Chaplin impersonation. However, at least one purpose for the former would presumably have been titillation, and it's hard to imagine the exquisite William Holden (or any man of his age at the time) as aroused by the flapper number. It's sort of quaint and charming, perhaps even funny, but it's lost much of its original impetus because the images just aren't right.
As I mentioned, we also watched the film a second to listen to the commentary, which was done by a young man who had written a book on Billy Wilder and particularly the making of this film. What was interesting is that Co-Vivant is 50 and I am 43, and in terms of watching this movie, those seven years seemed significant. He made several comments about Swanson's actions being "creepy" or "over-the-top," and yeah, I was totally with him. Co-Vivant was impatient with these comments and made disparaging comments about how young the reviewer must be, I finally confessed that I was with him on these; I, too, was finding Swanson's facial expressions or hand positions or whatever creepy and unnerving. The difference, I think, is that as a kid, her dad used to show silent movies on their Super-8 home movie projector; we had a movie projector, but we never watched silents on it. I saw a few silents as a kid, but most of my experience with silent movies has been as an adult. For me, they're a little quaint and precious; yes, I can watch the movie and derive the plot and follow the emotional line and such, but it is not a natural form for me. (It's like "movies as a second language.")
I don't think they have that sense of removal or disconnection for my Co-Vivant, so she's going to see Gloria Swanson's mode of acting (which is brilliant, don't get me wrong, and perfect for this movie) as less artificial than I am. She is more the film's original intended audience; in terms of movie watching, I'm a generation younger, and that matters for this film.
4. Played Frannie's Fashion Fits or some such. Pretty good game; it's time management, but the early levels aren't painfully clunky. This one may be worth a BigFish credit; I haven't decided yet.
5. Did auction checks in WOW. Couldn't gather sufficient mojo to get much playing done.
6. Read several magazines. Finished Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time. Started The Last Empress, this month's book for Literary Society.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)