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Rhetoric RSS FeedsResearchers: written English language will weather LOL storm - Ars Technica reports on a recent study which shows that instant messaging may not be ruining students' writing abilities after all as many might believe. For instance, Researchers Sali Tagliamonte and Derek Denis studied over a million words from IM communications and compared it to more than 250,000 spoken words of those between the ages of 15 and 20. The two found that, while written and spoken speech share some similarities, IM communications actually leaned toward the formal side.read more...Feed Source: kairosnews.org WordHustler - Full disclosure: one of the founders of this site, due to launch May 19, is a former student of mine. But here's an interesting re-mediation: Web back to print.
WordHustler is conceived as a social network that, according to the press release, "provides writers with a bevy of innovative tools designed to help authors of all genres to get their manuscripts into the hands of editors and find publishing success."read more... Microsoft Word 2007 Automates "Complain about Teacher" - I was browsing the template library of Office 2007 today when I came across an interesting "academic" letter template: "Complaint about Teacher." The letter is probably what you could expect from a parent whose kiddo isn't making the A's she rightfully deserves. Here's a few snippets from it:read more... The Puzzle Box, Chapter 4 -
"Urizen separated out a region from the rest of eternity, shrank it into solid matter, weighed it in his scales, measured it with his rods and plumblines, circumscribed it with his compasses, and wrote laws for it in his great brass-bound books. This sorry region, the region over which Urizen rules, is the universe in which we live "read more... OpenOffice 3.0 beta Released for Mac OS X - OpenOffice.org has released public beta 3.0, which includes native OS X support (previous betas required an X11 installation). The beta is intel only. It may be downloaded from the snapshots section.... ADVENTURE reading near Washington D.C., May 15 2008 - I think I'm going to be able to attend this interactive fiction event at the Unversity of Maryland:
As part of our work on a project funded by the Library of Congress dedicated to Preserving Virtual Worlds (http://www.ndiipp.uiuc.edu/pca/), MITH will be hosting a table-read of the original version of ADVENTURE, recently recovered from backup tapes at Stanford University. We will read through the complete text of the game, and also (geeks that we are) have a look at its FORTRAN source code.read more... Open Humanities Press -- Addressing Greenblatt's Crisis in Scholarly Publication - Today's Chronicle had an article on the Open Humanities Press. One of the board members is Stephen Greenblatt, who as MLA president wrote an influential letter on the coming crisis in scholarly publishing. read more... More from the RIAA - InsideHigherEd.com reports that the music industry is engaging in something akin to preemptive strikes. The article Mysterious Multiplication of Copyright Complaints takes a look at the speculative reasons behind increase in complaints lodged with a variety of colleges and universities, both big and small, despite no evidence of an increase in illegally shared files.
The new complaints seem to be resulting in an increased reluctance to pursue alleged violations. For instance,
Indiana officials are now discussing whether they should continue to respond to complaints from the recording industry with the same aggressiveness. It?s not that university leaders have suddenly decided that illegal behavior isn?t wrong; instead, they are beginning to question the legitimacy of the notices the Recording Industry Association of America sends accusing network users of illegally sharing music.... Video Tutorials on Using Google Docs - Starting tomorrow, I'm teaching an online writing class over our 6 week spring term. As the final project in the course, students will complete a team-based paper assignment. Given that the class is online, Google Docs seems a very effective tool for students. Rather than having to create instructions myself for using Google Docs, I was lucky enough to find this extensive set of video tutorials over at ExpertVillage, How to Use Google Documents. This will be a great resource for use in my face-to-face classes as well. read more... File Format Warz: Do They Matter? - OK, so I admit that I am baiting Charlie with that title, but I would like to ask a few questions to get a sense of everyone's investment in open source vs. proprietary file formats. For those who haven't followed it, here's the backstory (as I understand it):read more... Mixture - It's very strange to have a mixture of emotions as I have now. I'm feeling the loss of my dad, but at the same time, I still get joy out of my baby; it hasn't really tempered that. I don't feel that guilty admitting it, as I think my dad would have wanted me to savor this newborn-baby time with Henry. On that note, I'd like to lighten the mood around here with a list of products that have become even more useful than I expected:
My Brest Friend: first recommended to me by Jodi. This thing has saved my back, literally. Before buying it, I had upper back pain that eclipsed even my c-section incision pain.
Multi-purpose waterproof lap pads: another Jodi recommendation. These are excellent to put over the changing pad, and they're great for possible accidents while co-sleeping (which I hadn't wanted to do, but we're in survival mode, so oh well).
... 1937-2008 - Last night my mom called to tell me that my dad passed away in his sleep. Some of you know that he had been very sick (emphysema and prostate problems) for years now, so this isn't unexpected, though it is obviously sad. Emails are fine, but I'm not really up for talking on the phone yet.
The plan now is that he will be cremated -- both of my parents have always said they wanted to be cremated -- and that a memorial service will be held at a later date, probably sometime this summer. I'm still recovering from surgery and can't travel yet; plus our pediatrician advised us not to take the baby out in public in the first month.
I wish he and Henry could have met and known each other. My dad only saw photos of him and heard him cry over the phone.
... Birth Story - At 28 weeks, ultrasound revealed that my little guy was breech. We figured he had plenty of time yet to turn, so I didn't pay it too much mind. But still, I wondered. My mother had a scheduled c-section because I was breech. My aunt on my dad's side was breech. My first cousin Kristie's baby (on my mom's side) was breech and also delivered by c-section. I know there's no real proof that breech birth runs in families, but it only happens in about 3 in 100 births, and I know of at least four breech presentations in my family. Just saying.
Anyway, time passed, and he didn't turn. I started getting physical examinations in which the doctor felt my cervix to determine which part of the baby was presenting. It was always the baby's bum. We talked about my options: external cephalic version, or c-section. I read up on version, and it didn't seem to have a very high success rate; it seems that often, these women have to have c-sections anyway. The thought of forcing him to turn made ... Bullets of Truth - Uh-huh, a bullets post.
When I look at Henry, I wish I could have a nice long conversation with Keats. The sight of Henry's serene, utterly beautiful little face fills me with tearful and inchoate reflections on beauty, ethics, love, truth, nature, fragility, and deep respect for life. I expect Keats would say, "Yes, this boy is the embodiment of all that I wrote."
Nursing is not easy, but we're muddling through. I wish I had a baby scale so I could weigh Henry every day.
Our house is still in a state of disarray -- unpacked boxes, unshelved books, uncabineted dishes, etc. We just need to hang on for a couple more days, though, because on Tuesday
Mom.
Gets.
Here.
and stays for five days. I can't wait. The NBA playoffs will get us through today and Monday.
Here's an example of something that could not be otherwise (via):
... Precious Little Henry - Whew! Our baby made it out safely and has been doing great since yesterday. He was 20 inches, 7 pounds, 10 ounces at birth. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 in the morning yesterday for the c-section, and the time of birth was 8:40. I intend to write a more detailed birth story later. I'm interested in writing it just to see what it'll look like, as it may be a bit against type as far as birth stories are concerned. You don't read too many planned c-section birth stories, in other words. Here are some pictures we've taken so far:
... Up a Week - Two centimeters dilated, 80% effaced: that's what the doctor told us at today's exam. Given this progress, we've decided that it will be less risky to move this c-section up a week, to April 22 -- less than a week away now.
Since Baby G. is breech, there's an increased risk of prolapsed umbilical cord, so we want to try to make sure we do this surgery well before I'd go into labor. Prolapsed umbilical cord wouldn't necessarily happen even if I were to go into labor, but if it did happen, it would be very dangerous for Baby G. My mom had a scheduled c-section because I was breech, and she went into labor beforehand but I turned out fine, but we don't want to take any chances.
Various cool people he'll share a birthday with include Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks), Jack Nicholson, Charles Mingus, and Vlad... High-pregnant - Oooh, I just remembered that I am now (and have been for a while) høygravid. By the way, I can't tell you how jealous I am of Jill's March 24, 2008-January 2009 maternity leave. Ah, to live in Norway.
... Two observations about nerdy things I watched on TV last night - 1. There's been a lot of speculation about the identity of the final Cylon. Ron Moore has said it isn't one of the principal characters (Roslin, Lee Adama, Bill Adama, Baltar, Starbuck). Lots of internet nerds think it could still be one of those people anyway. I think Jonathan has said before that he'll stop watching it if it's one of those characters, as it would be too easy and, I imagine, soap-operatic to make one of those characters a cylon.
Here's what I'm hoping: that the payoff of the "who's the final cylon?" plotline will come from the circumstances in which the final cylon finds himself/herself when s/he is activated. I'm picturing some big battle, and then at some crucial moment, the cylon is activated. The most likely characters to end up being cylons in this scenario are Dualla or Gaeta. If it's Dualla, there would be some symmetry in the Starbuck/Anders and Lee/Dualla couplings, as Starbuck and Lee would find out t... April 29 - This handy ticker pretty much sums it up:
The little guy is still breech, and this is what I'm opting to do, assuming he doesn't turn on his own (not likely, and I'm not interested in trying an external cephalic version, just so you know). I'm frightened, but I'd be frightened regardless of how this birth happens.
... Baby clothes - I've learned a lot recently about where to find baby clothes -- specifically, the market stratification and where to find the clothes I like best. Here's a primer:
Strasburg Children: VERY EXPENSIVE. Cute clothes if you like little seersucker overalls and sailor suits (I do). Here's a sample:
and they're made of fine fabrics -- the knit items are pima cotton, and the other items are generally also cotton, like expensive sheets with a high thread count. One outfit can run you about $80.00. There are certain members of our families (not naming any names!) who probably would prefer that we dress Baby G. in nothing but these clothes. I was in this store today, and I wanted pretty much all the clothes in there, but I imagine if I'd bought anything, Jonathan would have vetoed any garment from there with extreme prejudice based... Copyright © 2008, Curse Buster Sound. All Rights Reserved. |