It's all about me! 3:41 pm
the lack of blogging, yet again. Holiday travel has taken over my life as has a journal submission. The writing was done but it had to go online and it took me much longer than expected to freshen my FrontPage memory. Ugh!
Off to a New Year’s eve celebration but will write of my sad return to my home in NOLA when I am back online in 2007.
Peace out~
Metablogging 10:20 pm
Time says to take a bow!
…look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.
NOLA 11:26 am
NOLA 8:38 pm
“Families blame more deaths on Katrina”:
Friends and family say the deaths of many New Orleans residents were hastened by the stress and heartache of seeing their hometown ravaged and their lives upended.
It's all about me! 11:39 pm
The first issue of Saw Palm came out today. My fiance Andy has a story published in it.
It’s been lovely living with a fiction writer. I’ve learned so much and his dedication to his work is amazing. He just sent off several more stories this week and I can’t wait for more people to read his work. Just the other night I was looking for a book to read and couldn’t find anything, so I read one of Andy’s new stories–I love that he’s always got new material!
NOLA 11:32 pm
Who dat say dey gonna beat them Saints? Who dat? Who dat?
And as they were beating the Cowboys tonight, I came across Chris Rose’s essay “Saints preserve us.” In it, he asks:
I can’t stop wondering what life would be like around here if the Saints were 4-8 instead of 8-4. Or worse. What if we were 2-10? How would we deal with it?
Am I a lesser man because I have linked my emotional well-being to the success of a football team? And am I any lesser because, if that football team were 4-8 instead of 8-4, I would dump them on the sidewalk in front of my house with all my Sheetrock, old 8-tracks and moldy footwear?
Hell no!!!
Razzle Dazzle 7:20 pm
A human version of the Bass and Rankin 1974 classic comes on NBC tomorrow night. My friend Lara plays the mayor’s wife and is featured in the first pic of the slideshow on the official webpage. Go check it out! Also, the extended preview is a dance number “challenge” between Mr. Heat Miser and Mr. Snow Miser and is pretty silly 
It's all about me! 1:37 pm
otherwise entitled, why I think I didn’t blog much this semester!
This semester started out quite stressful. I was teaching a new course and debating whether or not to take my comprehensive exams. I also had an Incomplete hanging over my head and a course in a new department. Of course, it all ended swell and I think I’ve learned more this semester than any others in my PhD career! Well, maybe that’s not necessarily true, but in terms of the grand lessons of making decisions and getting over writer’s block/procrastinating habits, I’ve been successful.
Teaching Expository Writing was a joy and I cannot wait to do it again in the Spring. I had met with other teachers early on but our styles differed, so I stuck with my initial idea to build off of techniques I learned as a grad student in a nonfiction writing workshop. The students were great and I think they enjoyed the course too. The last weeks of individual conferences and presentations were quite informative and they’re a strong group of writers. I was always impressed with how they made the projects their own.
I think it helped that I was also being challenged to write in the same way I was assigning–with dialogue, fully developed characters, and plot. Once I got over the idea that I was writing about the trauma of Hurricane Katrina and just focused on my story, I realized that writing personally was OK and important in an academic setting [thanks to being introduced to Carolyn Ellis, wounded body narratives and the field of autoethnography].
Waiting to take my exams was the smartest decision I could have ever made and while I know it will be a hair-pulling process in the Spring, I feel better informed about things now. I still haven’t created complete reading lists yet but that’s something I will work on over the break.
Getting engaged 2 months ago was of course the most fabulous highlight and I kind of wish we could get married sooner than we’re planning, but I really doubt I could write a dissertation and plan a wedding at the same time. You know me and distractions.
As for not blogging much this semester, writing my Katrina narrative was such a healing exercise, I didn’t find myself reflecting further or going online much. And when I would open a browser, nola.com was my home page [still is], so I found myself engrossed with what’s happening at home. If I want to move back, I need to be informed. In brief, the crime rate is skyrocketing but the Road Home efforts are improving. Let’s hope the new year is more peaceful.
That’s all I got for now. With holiday travel looming, I don’t see myself blogging much again til the new year, but you never know.
Metablogging 9:57 pm
Who knew the Vatican did such things?
St. Isidore (c. 560-636) served as a powerful bishop in present-day Spain and is best known for his voluminous writing on a host of topics. His most influential work was the Etymologies, also known as the Origins, an encyclopedic tract in which he tried to record everything that was known. Small wonder that the church saw fit to recognize him as the Internet’s patron.
