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August 29, 2005
First Day
Today is the first day of the fall semester, and my first day to teach. I feel strangely nervous, or maybe anxious is a better word. It's been over a year since I was in a teaching stance. Although I'm sure I'll be fine once I get there, I have pre-class jitters. This is normal for me. When I was conducting seminars all the time, I was anxious all the time, even though things always went well.
I have both syllabi completed, copied and ready for distribution in class today and tomorrow. I've got calendars for the first units in both classes, which buys me a little time to remember the really cool stuff I wanted to be sure I got in this semester. My Blackboard sites are getting populated, if not as fast or as prettily as I'd like. So really, everything looks good and seems good.
I begin my student life tomorrow. I have books for both courses, and some sense of what a "typical" week will look like. All I have to be sure to do now is schedule in some time for exercise, study, and blogging.
Posted by cageyer at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2005
say what? I'm what?
You're The Things They Carried! Harsh and bitter, you tell it like it is. This usually comes in short,
by Tim O'Brien
dramatic spurts of spilling your guts in various ways. You carry a heavy load, and this
has weighed you down with all the horrors that humanity has to offer. Having seen and
done a great deal that you aren't proud of, you have no choice but to walk forward,
trudging slowly through ongoing mud. In the next life, you will come back as a water
buffalo.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Posted by cageyer at 08:58 AM | Comments (1)
August 13, 2005
Feels like... school?
It feel like school, in more ways than one. Yesterday, I submitted my draft syllabus for the WRT 307 course I'll be teaching in the fall. Now I need to finish it, do something attractive with it for web purposes, and start really thinking through what I want to do with the class time. Derek's post about his course and his clever and polished website for his course made me realize I'm already behind and I'm not even there yet. Not a great way to start. No link for mine yet - next week, I think.
Ty, Krista and I all began the summer with a bold reading plan. As far as I can tell, the only success in this project at all was Ty's. I fell behind at the beginning and never did catch on. This will add to my fall load.
DP, also known as AJ (I have no idea if she's cool with that) is searching for a text for what appears to be an interesting 105 course. Great new wallpaper over there - check it out. She's been reading and blogging all summer - good job! She'll have plenty to draw on later. I should be doing that. I can't figure out what stops me, unless it's something akin to what Collin posted about having so much one wants to say and not the energy (or time) to do it all so doing none of it.
Derek also has scored the reading list for the class we'll be taking for fall. Seems he's on top of everything. Which leaves me feeling strangely like a huge slacker. He=polished prose and thought out assignments in his syllabus, focus and preparedness for studenthood. Me=rough chatty draft, no clue what studenthood will be about this time. I came grad school believing that I was an academic at heart. Folks like Derek make me reconsider that notion. (And set a really great example I should rise up to).
All of this feels like school because when the semester ended last spring I was really done. I wasn't sure I could ever take another class. I swore I wouldn't take anything that wasn't absolutely required ever again, and that I would finish and get out as soon as I could. Truthfully, if it weren't for the fact I have a fourth-year fellowship dangling in front of me, I might not have continued at all.
Instead I spent thousands of miles alone in a car pondering what I'm doing here. Keith Rhodes posted a timely comment on the WPA listserv about his experiences with the rhet/comp field. He had a successful law career, left it to engage the professoriate, left that for all the reasons one can imagine a smart, motivated, rhetorically skilled individual with solid professional training and experience in law might leave. He's a man I wish I knew personally. Right now I'd love to have a chat with him. All this self-reflection we engage in as a discipline is wearisome. The fact that we're still having the same conversations after 40 years is the subject of an interesting thread over at WPA. The responses are stirring an essay for me. I wonder if I'll actually write it.
Speaking of essays, I read this morning that Amy is due to have an article published in the January College English. She had mentioned that she was publishing. Now I know where to look. Good job, Amy! And another good example to rise up to about taking on the scholarly portion of the professor gig.
I posted a few things over at Donna's place that I recognized as a teaching philosophy about the field of composition specifically. I need to rework those ideas a bit and post them here - as a way of really taking ownership of them. That's a fall project, too. My teaching portfolio needs an update now that I've had two additional years of "education."
I still have my doubts about this whole experiment of mine. I face the fall quarter as a reluctant student, but a willing and able teacher. It'll be interesting.
Posted by cageyer at 09:36 AM | Comments (2)
August 05, 2005
heffalumps and mourning
in which there was much sorrow in the 100 aker wood
:(
Posted by cageyer at 05:27 PM | Comments (1)
August 02, 2005
Heffalumps and Penguins
We have a new baby boy in town - a 345 lb. baby boy named Kedar. He's one of two baby elephants expected at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo this year. That's right - two baby elephants in one year! The Rosamond Gifford Zoo here in Syracuse in internationally known for its elephant breeding program, due largely to Kedar's father, a 33 year old bull named Indi. "Indi has become a key player in the international Species Survival Plan for the endangered Asian elephant," according to the story in the Post-Standard. Kedar is his 9th offspring. The baby to come will be his 10th.
The baby is adorable. You can see pictures at the News Photo page. Select the entry for August 1, "Kedar the Baby Elephant".
Other new cuties at the zoo are the Humboldt penguins. Their photo gallery is on the same page, the entry for June 28, 2005, "Penguins at the Zoo".
Zoo, anyone?
Posted by cageyer at 07:15 PM | Comments (1)
August 01, 2005
Road Trip 2005: Food Finds
In some cases, I had guides to cool local places I had saved from magazine articles. In other places, I chanced upon some very cool food purveyors. If you're traveling, check these out:
The Texas Roadhouse in Lima, Ohio (and probably other places). Not the best ribs I ever had but they do get an A- for atmosphere and points for good introductions. When they learned I hadn't been in before, they brought me a two-rib sampler of their baby back ribs, and gave me a back of their peanuts to take home. Not bad! It's the kind of place where you crack peanuts and leave the shells on the floor, but the beer selections could definitely use an upgrade. If you go, be sure to mention that first time thing. It's kind of cool to watch what happens next.
Boulder, Colorado has many great places to eat, but the one I was interested in was the West End Tavern which used to have the best view of the Flatirons in the city. That was before some idiot decided to allow an office building to go up next door that was two stories taller. Originally it would have completely obliterated the view, but after a long legal battle, a corner of the new building was shaved so the deck still has a view. Progress often sucks. But, though the view may be more limited, the food is still great. I had a wonderful plate of Asian Barbecue Shrimp that would have been enough to call dinner for only $5, and a pint of locally brewed Zolo ale for just $2. Such a bargain!
In the small hamlet of Pt. Arena I found this wonderful place called The Daily Record. It's both a grocery store and a cafe. The store is stocked with organic and natural foods, locally provided whenever possible. I camped at Manchester State Park, and went back to this town to find something for dinner. I had a choice of an ordinary looking mini-mart and this:
How could I not go inside? Fabulous food - Chicken Pesto Panini for dinner, a breakfast croissant the next morning with great bacon and the best latte I have ever had anywhere. If you find yourself on California 1 north of the bay, it's worth a stop.
Cannon Beach, Oregon, is home to a marvelous bakery, but even better it's the home of Bruce's Candy Kitchen, where they make real, soft, fresh, made-on-the-premises salt water taffy. I've been buying candy here since I was a kid. The taffy is the best, but they also offer an assortment of chocolates, including dark chocolate seafoam and cashew crabs. Yummy! (Seafoam is a light, airy, crunchy candy made from spun honey, then dipped in chocolate. I only buy it an Bruce's and only in small quantities because it's soooooo good). Even if you don't stop in Cannon Beach for any other reason, you need to drop by Bruce's and indulge.
I've raved about McMenamins Edgefield before but in the summer there's an additional experience. The Loading Dock Grill features barbecue and burgers. I enjoyed a wonderful smoked pork loin sandwich with a blueberry barbecue sauce that was amazing. Unfortunately, they don't pack the sauce to go. Fortunately, McMenamins does now bottle three of its great ales. 22 oz. to go. Whee! Edgefield is just east of Portland, Oregon, off of I-84 at Troutdale. It's a great place to spend a night before heading east through the Columbia River Gorge. The Loading Dock has live music on summer evenings. Well worth the visit. Great food, beer, wine, atmosphere, and artwork. Edgefield has it all.
In Hungry Horse, Montana, there is a unique store called The Huckleberry Patch, where they sell a variety of goodies made locally in Montana from wild huckleberries. Ice cream, taffy, jelly beans, huckleberry honey, huckleberry creme honey, jam, preserves, tea, and some other stuff I'm forgetting by now. If you can't get there in person, you can order gifts for yourself and others online. Tasty stuff. They used to have a restaurant that was known all over the area for good home cooking and great pie. The restaurant is gone now, but the pie filling is still available.
More accessible for most of us, and worth the trip, is Zingerman's in Ann Arbor. Zingerman's isn't a single place, but a cooperative of several businesses, all run by folks with a passion for what they do. I found Zingerman's Roadhouse in my usual way - I was driving up a road looking for something else, saw the neon sign outside that said "Really Good American Food" and was intrigued. I was delightfully surprised to find this is no ordinary roadhouse. Friendly, comfortable, with an extensive menu of great choices, this roadhouse is a little more upscale than I expected. Planked wild west coast salmon? In Michigan? Or how about cheese flights, featuring small batch cheeses from The Creamery? Or fresh artisan bread from Zingerman's Bakehouse? No fancy pasta titles for this place, but the Mac and Jack is a dish worthy of any bistro, featuring smoked free range chicken, green chiles and fresh Monterey Jack cheese. It was so flavorful and really good. They encourage diners to ask for samples of anything interesting but unfamiliar. I tried their eastern North Carolina choped pork barbecue - the kind with a vinegar based sauce. It was good, but I opted for the comfort food instead. I got the lowdown on the whole organization, how the original founders opened Zingerman's Deli, nearer the University of Michigan campus, and added partners who were interested in starting other restaurant businesses. It's a great success story for all concerned, and the food is incredible. I visited the Bakehouse and the Creamery before leaving Ann Arbor for home. I brought back three kinds of bread and three kinds of great cheese. The Creamery also makes gelato (which I couldn't bring all the way home) that is superb. Intense flavor, soft, dense, wonderfully creamy texture. I tried coconut and dulce de leche. Insufficient superlatives. Good eats, indeed.
Posted by cageyer at 06:09 PM | Comments (2)