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- Submitted Performative Scripting article to QI... awaiting reply (when?)
- Mailed Dialectical Disclosure article to Faulkner for feedback - reply due mid-July.
- Mailed Social Campaign article to Rentner for feedback - awaiting reply (when?)
- Made tentative list of houses/apartments to look at in Lafayette.
- Left voice mail messages at Purdue Bursar, Purdue ISS, BGSU CIP.... awaiting reply (when?)
- Plan to call Isaac - (when?)
- Mailed Vikram about Queer Workplace article prposal - awaiting reply (when?)
- Unable to decide between starting CSR Theory paper or CSR India (with case study) paper... awaiting Revelation (when?)
- Hate the thought of watching TV sitcoms.
- Hate the thought of resuming work.
- Frazzled.
- Mood:
blank
- Mood:
chipper
And yes, it's kind of twisted.
Most people see the play/movie and conclude that Martha and George are a terrible couple - especially Martha who's all shrill and shrewish - who pretty much deserve each other. I agree with last part of that statement, if not the worst: I do think they deserve each other. In fact, the hell they dole out for each other is pretty much by mutual consent and negotiation - and yes, this is where Social Constructionism seeps in. Edward Albee, the producer of the play, says: "And of course, who's afraid of Virginia Woolf means who's afraid of the big bad wolf... who's afraid of living life without false illusions. And it did strike me as being a rather typical, university intellectual joke." In her closing lines, Martha responds "I am, George, I am", signalling that life wthout illusions and social constructions is unbearable - perhaps impossible. How Gergen-like of her! :)
But how about the couple? How well/ ill-suited are they to each other? I venture to say that much of their viciousness springs up through mutual negotiation. Martha says, that's why George married her, so that he could have a battle of wits (and much more!) with her... she says later that George is the only one who's ever made her happy, and that's why he needs to be punished, for which he himself is quite ready... most importantly, she says that appearances are deceiving, and while this may well strike one as being all-too reminesecent of an Ugly Duckling morale, it is also a crucial truth of human interaction (... in the spirit of Gergen and others, I hestitate to say 'nature'.) So George and Martha's 'games' are indeed a creation borne through partnership - unequal perhaps, streaked by rogue prower denominations perhaps, strained by resistance perhaps, but let us not go there yet - and this explains the terms of their 'games' as well: if even one decides it's 'over', then over it is.
A case of throwing the baby out with the bath-water? :)
- Mood:
relaxed
No, I'm not much of a youtuber, other than the occasional music video or funny clip, but I do think there's a lot of similarity between youtube-ing (vlogging?) and blogging... and of course, places where they're different. Michael Velsch (watch the video) is doing some amazing work on his digital ethnography, and highlights several important points about how youtube media shapes/defines personal interactions, the cultural invesrion/tension between expressing inidvidualism and longing for community, and the tension between authenticity and performance. It's a long clip (55 minutes) but VERY watchable!
One point of difference that hit me though... when discussing the "hate as performance" in youtube comments, Velsch argues that anonymity + physical distance + race & ephemeral dialogue = hatred as public performance. While that is very interesting, and probably true in very many cases, I'm trying to see how that may apply in the queered South Asian blogs I study... and I'm coming a-cropper. I think, that's an interesting way in which blogging networks and youtube networks differ... the performance is still there, but not necessarily through hate. I haven;t really seen the kind of "hate as performance" in blogger comments as I have in youtube... perhaps this is because bloggers intrinsically move within more cloesly connected networks, rather than 'most viewed' or 'most rated' picks... perhaps this is because there is after all only ONE youtube, while the list of blogs (even subject-specific ones) are endless...? Something to consider, in the future...
- Mood:
bouncy
- Next semester, I plan to extend the introduction class by making them talk about themselves, what they're looking for in the class, what their Majors are, what stage of their college career they're in, what they plan to graduate, etc. Plan to have them fill in small sheets that I can use as a sort of attendance register for the semester. The idea is to get an idea of how they see the course and how they can best use it for their majors.
- I intend to pay more stress to discussion and participation in the next semester. So, attendance/participation officially becomes a part of the gradebook - I'm thinking, perhaps 50 points added to the normal 400, and I fill that in prior to Finals week, so they basically know how that's all added up, and how much more/less they need to work for in the Final. While I will formulate powerpoint slides, as I did this semester, I want to stress on inputs from the students themselves. Of course, I do need to consider the final roster before I decide on what kind of in-class discussion/participation I want: I may simply end up with way too many students for it to make sense. I already have 30 enrolled so far.
- While I did think of reserving about 10 minutes each day for a quick-fire "what did you think?" session, there are two factors that may qualify this approach: (a) lack of adequate time to cover everything I want to, in the lesson, and (b) 10 minutes before end of class, few will likely to be in the mood for 'discussion' and would much rather just be dismissed - so, should I make the the quickfire discussion round based on the previous day's lesson and timed at the start of the class? Ummm....!
- A stronger attendance rule would also require that everyone attend the WHOLE lab class and not skip mid-way.
- I'm also going to re-align the Midterm exam, by including more questions than the 30 I had this semester.
- The workshop sessions went well, I thought. It helped them formulate their ideas for the major assignments, so that I found that most were doing better at these than in the minor assignments. So that begs the question: instead of just telling them to go online and do the minor assignments, should I keep about 20 minutes of each lab class as a sort of "mini-workshop" for the assignment of the day and make the 24-hour deadline a rule for ALL the minor assignments? Ummm....!
- Workshops however might not be possible if I get way too many students. If I have 20 students in one session, then individual workshop will not be possible - so then, what do I do?.... Can I keep TWO lab classes instead of one for each workshop? is that going to be viable? Or, can I make one of the 'lecture' classes a workshop session? Ummm....!
- Another reason why they might be better at the major assignments rather than the minor ones is because the minors involve a more journalistic style of writing - recognizing the news-worthy elements, adopting the inverted pyramid structure, being much more specific in the lead and headline than they would for an essay header, and so on. So, the minors do involve a different writing approach, and I need to make that clear to them right from the start of the class - and even in the syllabus. They will be required to adopt both the styles while taking this class.
- The movies I showed were a good hit, I thought. Several of them used the movies to think critically and to write their assignments. I'd like to have a longer discussion scheduled around each of these movies, prior to the assignments centered around them.
- While teaching 'features' or maybe 'specialized stories', I want to include writing commentary/opinion pieces. That would be a sort of precursor to the second major assignment. I thought that several of them were unsure while starting as to how to write such a piece, and what can go into one of them. So, a bit more formal guidance on this would be beneficial.
- Make sure all copy-work from the office is accurate, and avoid any mistakes or goof-ups in that department.
- Be more clear on the grading scale: decimal points in the final percentage will be rounded up. This needs to be mentioned in the syllabus as well.
- Other notable mentions in the syllabus: if I'm late for class then wait at least 10 minutes for me before you leave, because I depend on BGSU public transport; make sure that you have my correct email address so that all assignments are emailed to me in time. It is not my responsibility to email them and tell them that they haven't submitted a certain assignment by the stipulated time - they need to check blackboard grades regularly and email me immediatelly if they find a discreancy between what they think they have done and what they've actually done.
- Should I make them start a blog? Now what would that accomplish? Ummm.... participation? But wuldn't participation be more meaningful IN class rather than with a computer screen? And besides, monitoring continuously who's blogging and who's not is going to be a major pain...! So perhaps that's not such a great idea.
- Mood:
optimistic
If God had a name, what would it be...
And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him in all his glory,
What would you ask if you had just one question...
And yeah, yeah, God is great... yeah, yeah, God is good,
yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah!
What if God was one of us,
Just a slob like one of us,
Just a stranger on the bus,
Trying to make his way home...
If God had a face what would it look like...
And would you want to see,
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets?
And yeah, yeah, God is great... yeah, yeah, God is good,
yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah!
What if God was one of us,
Just a slob like one of us,
Just a stranger on the bus,
Trying to make his way home...
He's trying to make his way home,
Back up to heaven all alone...
Nobody calling on the phone,
Except for the pope maybe in Rome...
Somehow, I always think of this as a very calming song... All you religious freaks, chillax. God is in everyone of us, as everyone of us.And that's me on my Hindu soapbox! *wink*
- Mood: good
- Mood:
naughty
I giggle.
Not happening, I assure him. We're grad students. Unless we've got to take a class (and no, grad student's don't sign up for morning class, so I mean got to teach an undergrad class here) we don't wake up early. Take my word for it. He assures me he will buck the trend. I try to coax him with the sweet smell of roasted coffee, but he calls me the devil's temptation and hides in his room. I'm actually fine with being the devil's temptation, so I cackle some more, and settle down with my coffee mug, my laptop and my readings for the night.
***
It's 11.30 am in the morning now, and my roomie yawns as he mopes out of his room, disheveled and all.
:)
- Mood: cheerful
The skyline of Chicago's downtown district reflected in the "Big Bean" at Michigan Avenue...
See you there at the International Communication Association annual conference 2009!
- Mood:
excited
- Mood:
amused
