Libby Says...
I subscribed to the Unshelved strip after my friend Shelly sent me a strip one time. (At least, I think it was Shelly - she's my librarian (archivist) friend, so it would make sense.) The comic often resonates with me as a reader... and as someone who's thought about a career in a library - after all, what do I like better than books?! Every Sunday, they have a "book club" issue that has their characters give the high points of a book they've recently read. They've covered some great books, from Neil Gaiman's Coraline to A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (look for these and others in their archives). In any case, this strip had to be shared - I think most dedicated readers have had this happen to them: Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Just a tiny page numbering tip for MS Word. When I wrote my last paper, I created a title page using sections (because I like the title information centered in the page), did a different header and footer for the next section, where the paper started, and inserted an automatic page number. Of course, the page number was "2," because that's the default - number all the pages. My professor called me on it, because of course, the title page doesn't count as a page, so jumped to the conclusion that I needed to play around with the field codes when writing this second paper for him. I think my field code idea may have been true many versions ago when I was first a tech writer or when I was teaching software applications. Now, however, the option has been moved to an easier part of the UI (user interface)... at least, if you know to look for it. Insert a page number using the Insert Auto Text option on the Header and Footer toolbar. Then move just three buttons down on that same toolbar to the Format Page Number button. Using this button, you can include the chapter number , change the number format, and decide whether you want to continue numbering from the previous section or start at some other number. Very useful. Can't imagine why I didn't remember it was there. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
I was doing some blog reading this morning, allowing myself the luxury of reading more than just a quick browse through the blogs on my daily read list in Bloglines. As I do sometimes, I had my attention caught by an entry on a blog I don't read all that often, and followed links from there. It makes for a topically related walk through other people's brains. Today's voyage was primarily about science-fiction and fantasy. I've loved sci-fi/fantasy since I was first a reader - I remember reading the Lloyd Alexander Prydain books and the Tolkein's The Hobbit around fourth or fifth grade and got sucked in completely. I was already a reader, but I think that these books made me the unstoppable, want-to-read everything person I am today. Anyway. I digress. My point was that in my blog-wander this morning, I found some interesting things you might want to peek at: When I taught "The Tell-Tale Heart" this year, we did a great "Producing Poe" exercise (based on this PBS lesson plan), where the kids decided how they would produce a movie of the story, from music to lighting and actors. They were focused on picking a mood and evoking that mood through all their choices. Perhaps next year, a nice capstone to that lesson would be to show this video of the 1953 animated version of the story. Eerie and spookily done. (via SFSignal.com) The Internet Review of Science Fiction (IROSF), where they're trying to create a true literary magazine dedicated to SF (currently free). One story from the current issue that caught my eye -- "Telling Stories of Your Life: The Use of Second Person Narration in SF," an essay about point of view in science fiction, especially second person. This topic is of interest to anyone discussing point of view in literature - and might be a good hook if your students like science-fiction (or if you do!). An earlier related article discusses voice in more general terms. An amazingly cool online exhibition of science fiction at the University of Delaware: From Verne to Vonnegut, A Century of Science Fiction. This annotated, illustrated list is the best in sci-fi, categorized for your reading inspiration. Two wide-ranging discussions (by wide-ranging, here I mean appearing on blogs across the blogsphere), one on how and what to suggest to kids who have been hooked into reading through the Harry Potter books (Here and here). Harry will be done this summer, and it would be a true shame to let those readers go - so these bloggers have started categorized lists of suggestions. Here are a few of mine: SCIENCE FICTION 12 AND UNDER: YOUNG ADULT: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card; Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series; Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide books; Glory Road, Starship Troopers, and most everything else by Robert Heinlein ADULT: Old Man's War/Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi; David Weber's Honor Harrington series; Dan Simmons' Illium and Olympos; Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky; most anything by Spider Robinson, although I particularly like the Callahan books FANTASY 12 AND UNDER: The Dark is Rising sequence, by Susan Cooper; The Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander; Watership Down, by Richard Adams YOUNG ADULT: Summerland, by Michael Chabon; Old Kingdom books, by Garth Nix; Heir of Sea and Fire books, by Patricia McKillip; The Belgariad series, by David Eddings; Robert Silverberg's Majipoor Chronicles; Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn books, by Tad Williams ADULT: A Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin; Anne McCaffrey's Pern books ALL AGES: Neil Gaiman books, like Stardust, Good Omens, and American Gods; C.S. Lewis' Narnia books; JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books; Orson Scott Card's Enchantment; Robert Aspirin's MYTH books are a serious giggle The other discussion was on how sci-fi had been ghettoized as a genre and how it's breaking out now (here, here, here, here, here, and here). I've never thought sci-fi fantasy was a ghetto, but I know that many people have looked askance at my reading it over the years. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Thursday was a good media day for English teachers and other language geeks. I know you're always looking for clips to play in class to enhance the multimedia experience for your students. This morning on they way to work, I was lucky enough to be running a few minutes late. When I run late, I sometimes get to hear my favorite NPR show - Engines of our Ingenuity. Today's Engine's episode (transcript or audio of episode 1926) was a discussion by guest Andrew Boyd on the topic of rhetoric. Rhetoric's original meaning is persuasion, although it has come to mean any complex writing. English, humanities, history, and philosophy teachers probably have a good background in discussing rhetoric's origins - popularized by the sophists in ancient Greece, sophist rhetoric was attacked by Plato as not leading to truth. Take a listen to this episode and consider Aristotle's belief that "logic is required to find truth but rhetoric is necessary to communicate truth." This clip would be a good introduction to rhetorical writing or speaking, dissecting persuasive writing (ads or marketing), or convincing students that "persuasive communication isn't an unpleasant afterthought, it's a vital part of bringing ingenious ideas to life." Then on The Colbert Report - the Colbert versus Sean Penn "Meta-free phor all; Shall I Nail Thee to a Summer's Day?"(video)... Who does metaphor-offs? I love Colbert! "Love is a full-length mirror?" lost out to "love is a battlefield" in the human emotions category. Of course, if you want to show this clip, you'll need to be comfortable showing/discussing George Bush's dirty and blood-soaked underwear and its metaphorical meanings, because that was Penn's metaphor-of-choice for the evening. Still, he beat Colbert 10,000 to 1 in the contest, moderated by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Giggle. Colbert closed with promises of a hyperbole-off with George Clooney in the future. I can hardly wait! Some links of interest regarding rhetoric or metaphors: Read Aristotle's Rhetoric as hypertext. Then, take a look at some links for rhetoric and composition - from definitions to blogs and writings. You might also want to familiarize yourself with some rhetorical terms, from alliteration to zeugma, with examples. If you're thinking about producing some rhetoric yourself, you might look at some examples, first, from this archive of speeches, sermons, lectures, debates, etc. What's a metaphor? Here's one answer. And some suggestions for using metaphors in creative writing. Some metaphors we live by and with. And some metaphor poems: I taught Fog and Fire and Ice and The Eagle when taught metaphor and simile in poetry a few weeks ago. So much fun! Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
I know you've noticed yet another long silence. So that those of you in the Notes world have an opportunity to giggle... well, I let the user.ID I'd been using to access my hosting provider expire. And it wasn't an ID for which I still had a certifier. So I had to start over. Sigh. Sheesh - you leave the Notes world for one lousy year and you go right back to making rookie mistakes. Ah well. Life goes on. All is well now, thanks to an new install and some cross-certifying from my friendly neighborhood Chris. As you've no doubt guessed, things here have been busy. I've moved into the new house. Well, mostly. I'm in, I'm just not unpacked. I've got the kitchen 99 percent unpacked, and I'm probably 90 percent of the way there on the books (after buying a few new bookshelves at Ikea), but the bedroom and office are still mostly boxes. I'm wearing the same seven or eight pieces of clothing over and over again (with a quick wash in between, thanks to Philip's regular washing schedule). But I'm loving the new house. I've had a few people over - my friend Marcus was in town and broke in the guest bed in its new room, and we've had a few friends and their kids over for dinner. Every time the kids screeched or pounded, I jumped (post-traumatic stress perhaps?) but then I smiled, knowing that nobody lives underneath me and I'm in my very own place. Yay! Sitting in my living room with the sun streaming in and the breezes flowing through is one of the nicest feelings anywhere. This weekend, I tried to bake this cold/bronchitis out of me by sitting on my back deck to work on a paper - again, very lovely. Will be even more lovely when the back deck no longer has the falling-apart furniture left by the previous owners (heavy trash day coming soon). I've got a few posts backlogged to be written - perhaps by listing them here I'll create some automatic accountability for myself:
There are a few others, but those are the ones I've been promising myself to write for weeks. Every time I think I'm getting caught up and can take some more time to blog and get my act together, something happens: taxes are due, a paper is due, grades are due, I get bronchitis, a baby is born, birthday parties to attend, friends come in town... Mostly good things, but plenty to distract me from sitting on the computer. It's very different for me having to wait until evening to blog - when I worked from home, I could do an entry any time. I worked so many hours that it didn't really matter. Blogging while teaching, especially when I don't use their machines or network to blog... well, that's another matter entirely. I'm off now to replicate my blog, work on some homework, and get in a little relaxation before starting all over again tomorrow, while watching a little guilty-pleasure tv (TiVoed Buffy reruns at the moment -- by the way, I'm trying out the new Buffy Season 8. Slightly different format (comic book), but clearly from the oh-so-beloved Joss). Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link |
| :: Finding Libby :: |
| •Send me e-mail |
| •IM Me at AOL: LibbyNicoles, MSN: LibbyNicole@hotmail.com, YahooIM: LibbyNicoles, or Sametime via YellowBleeders |
| •RSS Feed |
| ::Currently Reading (or Watching or Hearing):: | ||||||
|
| ||||||
| ::Other Stuff:: |
| • Photos: Flickr |
| • Photos: Yahoo! |
| :: Referrers :: |
