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Posts Tagged ‘Bright ideas’

All I want for Christmas …

Posted in Grammar, etc., tagged , , , , , , , on December 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Dominic asked me last night what I asked for from Santa Claus for Christmas. I said I had everything I needed. That’s true. But like most folks, I have an Amazon wish list in case Santa wants to reward me for being a good girl this year. (Though I’m sure I’ve spent time on the naughty list too.)

There are a couple of things I can’t add to Amazon, though, that are in keeping with my role as the grammar guru. One is a Grammar Nerd Corrective Label Pack. (I actually thought about making my own.) In that same vein, another site sells copyeditor marks, but the site appears to be down right now (in the biggest purchasing season of all, no less). And there are a bunch of other funny grammar-themed items out there. There’s also the AP Stylebook iPhone app. For regular readers of this blog who wondered if I won the Thanksgiving contest with my haiku, I did not. I was a little pissed, because I did not think the winning entries were better than mine. Yes, I know I’m biased. Judge for yourself. Here are the winners:

What I really want is time. Or maybe a clone. The clone could work on the research for my dissertation, and I’ll do the fun stuff like teaching, preparing for class, and hanging out with Eddie and the boys. I implemented a No Work Week this week, and I plan to make gingerbread people with the boys today. Wish me luck!

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The birthday week

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , , , on December 13, 2009| 3 Comments »

Hello Blog. It has been a while.

I’ve been busy — a good kind of busy. I’ve been enjoying my first “birthday week.”

It is a concept that Trish introduced to us. It sounds silly and self-centered until you realize that some people have had historically terrible birthdays, and need to get some make-up action later in life. Trish’s stepmother is a Jehovah’s Witness, which means Trish’s family does not celebrate holidays such as Christmas, Easter and birthdays because of their alleged pagan origins. But Trish is on her own now. Enter the birthday week.

My birthday is 10 days before Christmas, and therefore sucks. I never had a birthday party (waaa!) because my parents were not party people, and because all my friends were always off visiting family or whatever.

So Eddie decided this year to take a cue from Trish and make up for past craptastic birthdays.

The birthday week began Thursday with teasers of the week to come. Friday consisted of beer at the Distillery, a massage, wine tasting at the Shannon Vineyards outpost, dinner at Vic’s, and an overnight stay at AVIA. Fantastic!

Room at the inn (AVIA)

Room with a view

Saturday began with a huge breakfast. Lox, cream cheese and capers on a bagel! Shrimp and grits! Fresh fruit!

Breakfast at AVIA

A morning gorge? Don't mind if I do!

After some Christmas shopping and the movie “Precious,” we came home to Trish, Ed and the boys singing “Happy Birthday” around a cake they made. That was my first cake in years and years (waaa! again). John and Heidi arrived a few minutes later for game night, and there was much rejoicing.

I can’t wait to see what else is in store. Thanks, Eddie. It’s the best birthday ever!

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Reality TV love affair

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2009| 2 Comments »

I’ve been so slack. Unwatched on our DVR right now: the second seasons of “Tough Love” and “Tool Academy.” How could I have been so lax? That darn dissertation proposal has kept me from my regular dosage of trashy reality TV.

I did catch “Hoarders” last night, though. You may remember that one of the graduate students in my Persuasive Writing wrote a paper trying to convince me to stop watching “Hoarders.” The argument: The people need help instead of a starring role in gawker TV. So I should stop providing an audience.

Fat chance, Elisa.

If a woman is going to reveal to the nation that she has been living in four-foot-high stacks of used adult diapers because her plumbing has been broken for two years, then I’m going to watch (in horror, of course). Goats ate the back wall of a house to get at the trash inside? Let me get my popcorn.

House of Hoarders

In exchange for letting us gasp at their lives, the hoarders do get help from the show. Yes, it may be limited and come at a price, but it is more than they had before. And I think the show is raising a consciousness that some “pack rats” may actually have a bigger problem.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some TV to watch — while I clean out that hall closet …

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A little Chicken Little

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , on December 2, 2009| 1 Comment »

What is the DEAL with folks in Savannah? People are acting like there has never been a strong storm before. Closing school? SERIOUSLY? Now, the school my kids attend has a bunch of trailers, so I can kind of see their point in that case. But pretty much all schools have been closed since noon and it is just now starting to rain in the ‘Ham.

"The sky is falling!"

"The sky is falling!"

Yes, there is a tornado WATCH in effect.

Yes, there will be strong winds, heavy rain and the potential for flooding in low-lying areas.

But that is every afternoon in the summer, no?

In fact, the radar picture looks very similar to stuff we see all the time.

I’m not particularly worried, and I’m a meteorologist. I also play one on TV!

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Panic + resolve

Posted in Random, tagged , , , , on November 30, 2009| 1 Comment »

My dissertation proposal was due today, the day of my self-imposed deadline. However, I sent it to my committee chair on Wednesday for feedback. I don’t want to work on it anymore until I get that feedback. I really don’t want to work on it anymore, period, but that’s not possible.

This is what my dining room table looked like the day I stopped working on the proposal:

Dining room table/work space/Hell on Earth

I switched gears yesterday from eating everything in sight to rereading everything on my theory reading list.

That list includes “Mass Communication Theory,” which is a struggle. Also on the list:

Herbert Gans, “Deciding What’s News”
Todd Gitlin, “The Whole World is Watching”
Edward Epstein, “News from Nowhere”
David Manning White, “The ‘Gatekeeper'”
Ben Bagdikian, “The Media Monopoly”
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, “Return to the Concept of Powerful Mass Media”

All of this is in preparation for the start of the comprehensive exams tomorrow. From Tuesday to Friday, for three hours a day, I will be holed up at the library at University of South Carolina-Beaufort (South campus) writing my little heart out. If (when?) I pass and successfully defend my proposal, I will be A.B.D. That stands for “all but dissertation,” but it might as well stand for “all but dead.”

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Hands near flushing hold

Posted in Grammar, etc., Random, tagged , , , on November 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I guess this sign is supposed to tell folks that the faucet is on a sensor, but it makes no sense as written. It’s funny, though. I took this image somewhere in Shanghai last year.

My reaction to the photo is similar to what I’m doing today: trying to make sense out of the vast amount of communication research that deals with media ethics and the journalistic decision-making process.

Or it could be a reminder that my life is flushing down the dissertation toilet.

Sigh.

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Persuaded

Posted in Chickens, Random, tagged , , , , , , on November 20, 2009| 5 Comments »

While I enjoyed teaching each of my four classes this quarter, the one that affected me the most on a personal basis was Persuasive Writing. In the final persuasive research papers, the graduate students — all  writers of promise — encouraged me to stop watching “Hoarders,” camp in national parks, support art funding in schools, lobby for a three-point harness on airplanes, write my representatives in support of the Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act of 2009, join the bone marrow registry, and go vegan.

One affected me so much that I’m doing research today. Can you guess which one?

Here’s a hint: Think about my blog.

Yes, I’m considering veganism. Or at least a more cruelty-free lifestyle.

All of the papers were persuasive, but only one made me consider each bite of food, every meal I prepare, and all my grocery-shopping trips. I don’t really object to eating meat in general, but I have always objected to the American meat industry and the horrible way animals “live” and die on factory farms. I don’t eat beef in America, in fact, for this reason.

This morning, I eyed the Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer and felt sad and guilty. I fed Trish and thought of the cellophaned breasts in the refrigerator. I threaded Dominic’s belt through the loops on his pants and thought of milking Rosebud in the second grade.

And now I’m wondering if this Web site is on the up and up.

Thanks, Austin Floyd.

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A moment of joy

Posted in Grammar, etc., tagged , , , , on November 18, 2009| 2 Comments »

In addition to using Twitter and Facebook to communicate, I use social media to procrastinate. And with all the stuff hanging over my head, I’ve been socializing like crazy.

One of the entities I follow on Twitter is the AP Stylebook, of course. The good folks who maintain the account are running a contest. They want people to tweet their reasons for using the stylebook. The “best” answers win a Stylebook Online subscription.

It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

After considering many pithy responses, I decided on my go-to prop: the haiku. Here is my submission:

I use it daily
To torture writing students.
Cue evil laughter.

I didn’t know AP Stylebook retweeted my entry until I looked at my @ box and saw my post retweeted by a whole bunch of other people after the AP RT. That’s pretty cool. I hope I win …

My entry retweeted

and retweeted again

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My eating disorder

Posted in Random, tagged , , on November 17, 2009| 3 Comments »

Here is a nasty little secret about me that few people know (until now, that is):

I find myself having crushes on particular edible items and losing my mind over these items until I make myself sick. And then my addiction is over.

So if I think something is yummy, I will go crazy, purchasing as many as I can find. Take, for example, my latest fixation: Utz chips.

It started with a bag of the crab chips (see related post), and then spread to the Grandma’s kettle ones. Who knows where it will end because I have found an enabler: my friend Terri. We flew to Baltimore together, but she stayed for a few more days to visit her parents.

Though I love to travel, I don’t like to pack and unpack, and I refuse to check bags. So I have to be careful if I shop. While in Baltimore, I did purchase a few things for friends and family, and thus did not have room to bring back any Utz. Plus, bags of chips take up a lot of room and crush easily. Packing = bad idea.

Terri and I concocted a plan: She and her mom would go to the grocery store and do a little shopping for Utz (with some Berger thrown in) and mail me the contraband. And I would pay her for parcels and postage.

This is the image she sent me yesterday:

Utz wonder wall

I almost fell down a flight of stairs at Arnold. Once I gained my composure, I placed my order. Here is part of what is on its way to my house:

Part of my care package

Thank you, Terri, for feeding my addiction.

No intervention necessary. I’m sure I’ll make myself sick, then move on to something else.

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Mystifying

Posted in Grammar, etc., tagged , , , on November 16, 2009| 7 Comments »

The employees of the Inn at the Colonnade in Baltimore may be good at many things, but punctuation and spelling are clearly not on that list. I submit for your consideration three photos taken of the announcements on the hotel channel and one sign.

I understand that not everyone grasps grammar, spelling and punctuation. Fine. But don’t make that person in charge of writing up announcements and making signs.

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