Random Notes from a Crank

I don't know why all these razor blade companies are making razors with five blades. The cartridge is just too large to get around the small spaces on one's face, such as around the nostrils. I had to use my son's razor a while back when I forgot mine when we rented a lake house when visiting my daughter in Southern Illinois, and I much prefer my Mach 3 razor. 

I can't find the article because the whole GOP fiasco to nominate a new speaker has taken so many twists and turns, but one of the reasons Moscow Don and other GOP clowns opposed his nomination to be the next Speaker of the House is because Emmer apparently supports the movement to move to a majority vote for the President of the U.S. and eliminating the arcane and stupid Electoral College. 

I'm a huge proponent of moving to a majority vote for President. 

If you're voting for a Republican candidate for President, say, in Illinois, your vote doesn't count. If you're voting for a Democratic candidate for President, say, in Alabama, your vote doesn't count. 

Those votes don't really count because of the outdated Electoral College, which should have been thrown in the dustbin of history, screws the minority voters in certain states. They should have moved to the majority vote for President sometime in the early 20th century. 

It's ridiculous. 

Sure it's our tradition. But it's, as Thoreau wrote, a "foolish consistency." 

As traditions go, it's DUMB. 

Unfortunately, going to a majority vote for President doesn't address the other problem in our country: two parties don't really represent the political leanings of most voters. 

For someone like me who is strongly liberal on a number of social, educational, and environmental issues but is kind of middle of the road or somewhat fiscally conservative, I almost always side with the Democrats because the views of GOP candidates on various aforementioned issues are abhorrent. 

I'd like most Democratic candidates to be more frugal about some economic issues even though there are some lines I won't cross for GOP talking points about publicly funding private education and their "voodoo" economic theories that make no flippin' sense, among other legitimate concerns about their asinine trust in the so-called free market. 

For example, even though a number of people were taken with the ideas of Bernie Sanders, I backed Hillary Clinton because she was actually asking, "How are you going to pay for that?" Grandpa wanted to let the kids eat whatever they want, but Mom wanted the kids to eat a nutritional meal and then have dessert. 

My work this semester has made me become quite jaded about students' willingness to do the work that's necessary to improve. As much as some people have grading contracts or labor-based grading (based on Marxist principles, which is problematic), it's hard to give people grades on work when they turn in their work. 

Musing of the Moment: Bullshit Receptivity

One of the books I'm currently reading is Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein. 

I've probably prattled on about how much I think Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow is a great book on this blog before, so I was automatically drawn to any new publication with Kahneman's name on it. 

On the books chapter titled "Occasion Noise," I was intellectually smitten by these paragraphs:

"Other studies tested the effect of mood on gullibility. Gordon Pennycock and colleagues have conducted many studies of people's reactions to meaningless, pseudo-profound statements generated by assembling randomly selected nouns and verbs from the sayings of popular gurus into grammatically correct sentences such as 'Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena' or 'Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty.' The propensity to agree with such statements is a trait know as bullshit receptivity....

"Sure enough, some people are more receptive than others to bullshit. They can be impressed by 'seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous.'"

Having sat through a number of graduate seminars in the humanities, I think there's a lot of bullshit receptivity happening in those environs. 

I know I've sat in lectures and so-called discussions where abstruse theories having been bandied about and I've read all kinds of Theory that sounds important and "pseudo-profound" but doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Or change anything for the better. 

Like James Brown sang, these theorists are "talkin' loud and sayin' nothin.'" 

One can also apply this concept of bullshit receptivity to the mass of political ads we have to deal with if we watch any of the local TV stations. 

In sum, there's a lot hokum out there that is quite vacuous.  

Talking loud but what are they really saying? 

Random Notes from a Crank

CVS enjoys giving me coupons, but what's the point if I can't use them on booze and milk? 

Speaking of booze, I watched the initial episodes of Brockmire, and that character really enjoys his Sazerac Rye. 

Can't say that I blame him. 

Great show so far by the way. 

I finally got around to reading Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta, a dystopian graphic novel about Britain under fascist rule. Page 2 of the first issue features radio news/propaganda playing, and one panel says this: "Mr. Karel went on to say that it is the duty of every man in this country to seize the initiative and make Britain great again." 

Let that sink in. 

If I were at this dude's college, I'd take his class for sure: "Professor Caveman." 

Another interesting article from The Atlantic is "Welcome to Pleistocene Park." Scientists in Siberia are combating climate change by bringing back grasslands. The really sexy part of the whole project is that they want to genetically resurrect wooly mammoths. 

Stay Positive: Skills, Attributes, or Attitudes That Do Not Require Much Talent

I rarely talk (if ever) about my work on this blog, but I've had a frustrating semester with one class. I know they can do the work and can improve, but it sure doesn't seem like they want to invest the time and effort to actually get better. And it's frustrating the hell out of me. 

In honor of that frustration, below I offer you items that don't require much talent at all. This is cribbed, in part, from a meme that's been galavanting about social media. But these are things I've thought about for years as an educator. 

Skills, Attributes, or Attitudes That Do Not Require Much Talent:

• Effort
• Paying Attention
• Being Coachable
• Work Ethic
• A Growth Mindset
• Being Prepared
• Following Directions
• Active Listening
• Being on Time
• Positive Body Language
• Caring about the Quality of Your Work
• Giving a Damn

So I'm trying to stay positive about things that work and get good results. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I was happily surprised to read Tom Philpott's article in the May/June issue of Mother Jones. In "Playing Chicken," the author informs readers about how Perdue, the chicken industry giant, has gone to not using antibiotics. Let's hope other meat producers follow their lead because Perdue has based its decision on science and the fact that antibiotics really don't significantly increase weight gain. 

The President killed it at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. 

I'm not surprised at all that students who have a "consumer" mindset to their coursework often get lower grades than students who see themselves as learners. Read all about it in "Students with Consumer Mindset Get Lower Grades." The final ¶ is noteworthy because students are getting that attitude from somewhere: "Government, too, should be cautious when talking about the ‘value’ of higher education purely in terms of a financial transaction as it may encourage students to feel like they are simply buying their degree. As a result, they may start to develop a ‘you teach me’ attitude rather than one that fosters effortful engagement with their chosen subject.”

I'm glad to see the Game of Thrones tv series has rediscovered the Iron Islands. I suspect they'll play catch-up with the books as new happenings unfold. I had suspected Ian McShane will play Victarion Greyjoy, one of my favorite characters in the books, but that doesn't seem to be the case. 

Random Notes from a Crank

As someone who works at a university, I'm often astounded and frustrated how some people with PhDs and impressive credentials can be really @#$%ing stupid.

I would like to watch a sporting event on television without having to listen to commercials about boner medicine. Please stop the incessant marketing of pecker pills. 

I need to start a campaign. 

Because I've become a fan of the TV series Manhattan, which is about the making of the atomic bomb, I recently purchased and have started reading the 25th anniversary edition of The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. When I got it in the mail I was a bit surprised. I didn't realize it was 747 pages long. I'll be reading about this history for a good while. 

Another TV series I've been watching is Jessica Jones on Netflix. I was not familiar with that character until I started doing some online sleuthing. I remember her being teamed up with Luke Cage toward the end of Matt Fraction's Iron Fist series, but she's quite the character. I've had experience with the villain of the series, Killgrave, in a Daredevil comic recently. So it seems like the TV series is piecing together parts of old story lines to create a clean narrative. Though a major discrepancy is that Killgrave, aka The Purple Man, looks normal in the Jessica Jones series. 

Regardless, I've enjoyed the series so far (I'm about six or seven episodes in). In fact, I think I like it better than the Daredevil Netflix series because I have little prior knowledge about Jessica Jones. With Daredevil, I've been reading those comic books since I was a kid. 

Like Wolverine was, Jessica Jones is a drinker, in particular bourbon. As a bourbon aficionado, I've noticed the brands of bourbon she drinks. So far it's been Jim Beam White, Wild Turkey 101, Four Rose Yellow Label, and Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond, which she wouldn't be able to get in New York City because it's only sold in Kentucky and Indiana. 

Random Notes from a Crank

For major writing projects in my courses, I provide the criteria I use when I evaluate their work. For larger projects, I sometimes create what I call "alternate criteria" just for kicks. I thought I'd share the alt criteria for a recent project:

A Successful Teaching Portfolio (Alt Criteria)

• Provides quality writing
•  Lights a candle of pedagogical knowledge
•  Instills pistis in the reader
•  Has rhetorical kung fu
•  Puts the critical in critical thinking
•  Is enjoyable to read
•  Exemplifies phronesis—practical wisdom
• Assures the reader that you know what you’re doing
•  Makes the mind step lively
•  Seduces the reader with smart ideas, policies, assignments, and lesson plans
•  Shows that the Teaching Force is strong in you
•  Offers prose free of hokum, claptrap, “Engfish,” gobbledygook, administrative-speak, and logical boondoggles
•  Is a hooey-free zone
•  Seeks vengeance on anyone who ever doubted your ability as an instructor
• Creates the sound of one hand clapping 

That's me quoting my professional self, something I rarely do on this blog. Don't get used to it. Those hyperlinks above might take you to some places though. 

With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, I wonder if anyone has approached Cheech and Chong about doing a movie? 

Regardless, I'm curious about how much tax revenue those states will generate from pot sales this year. 

Typical of HBO's adaptation of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, this season's first episode of Game of Thrones sexxed up the storyline. If I remember right from A Storm of Swords, when Tyrion and Oberyn Martell meet for the first time, they do so on the road to King's Landing. Instead, HBO has Tyrion Lannister going to a whorehouse to meet the Red Viper, and the first scene that introduces Oberyn and Ellaria Sand plays with the backstory that they're both bisexual. Classic move, HBO. 

And if you're a fan of the series, here's "Death Never in Games of Thrones Never Looked So Beautiful" from Mashable. 

Random Notes from a Crank

If you're a fan of the HBO series True Detective like I am, you'll appreciate this article about the final episode and the series: "Close to Perfection."

As some of you might know, I was once a professor at a two-year college. From my perspective, an article in Salon, "My Hard Lessons Teaching Community College," is a fairly accurate depiction of two-year college work though I think the two-year college where I worked had better metrics of "success" than the ones the author relates. Here are two salient quotations from the piece:

• For many of them [students], why they fail is not a question of talent, or even basic skills. It’s a question so complicated as to be nearly unanswerable. Sometimes, they just don’t want or need what we can provide.
• The other [premise] is much more profound and troubling: that with the right support (the financial aid, the grants, the scholarships, the tutoring, the early intervention, the developmental courses, the disability services, the right counseling, the list goes on and on) anyone can get a college degree. It’s patently false.

This article reminded me of a statistic I've read a couple of times: 12% of students who start at a two-year college graduate with a bachelor's degree after six years. That stat is shocking to most. However, it's not accurate and could be used unethically. Some people who begin at a two-year college have zero intention of getting a bachelor's degree (think of all of the truly vocational programs at two-year colleges), so that stat is skewed for a number of reasons. Also, some people go to a community college to see if college is something they want to try. Some discover it's not for them. No big deal.

Speaking of higher ed, with all kinds of discussion related to massive open online courses (MOOCs), here's some info from this month's Harper's Index: 

• Percentage of students enrolled in massive open online courses who view no more than one lecture: 49
• Percentage who complete the course: 4

Random Notes from a Crank

I've had a cold for about a week or so. Yesterday I facilitated a workshop for two hours. Later that evening, my voice started to go. I'm all hoarse. Sounds like a bout of laryngitis, which I checked out on WebMD because I've never had it before. There appears to be no reason to go to a doctor because all that person will tell me to do is drink lots of fluids and rest my voice. I don't need to waste time in a waiting room and spend money on that advice. But this ailment will certainly challenge my work tomorrow night because I teach a class from 7 to 9:30. Time to teach with my mouth shut, which is what Donald Finkel argues for. 

"Roll Tide" is a wonderful expression, but apparently the librarians at one of the libraries on Alabama's campus have had enough of it being yelled in the library. 

I've shared this commercial before, but the phrase can serve as a floating signifier. 




I'm looking forward to two new releases this spring: English Oceans by Drive-By Truckers and Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Well, at the start of this year, Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana. The media outlets have covered this story, but what the whole deal got me thinking about is one of the business ideas one of friends had when we were in college. I remember loyal reader TGD coming up with the idea that in college towns you could create a service industry that caters to the inebriated. Instead of drunks getting a cab or driving drunk, a business could take late-night orders for fast food and distribute that food to the hammered at a healthy profit. The shitfaced are well known for throwing their money around after they've frequented a keg party, imbibed too heavily in tequila, had three too many jello shots, or pounded down a twelve pack of Milwaukee's Best Light. Or at least that's what I've been told...

This idea could easily be adapted for the pot smokers of Colorado (and elsewhere). You could create a business entirely devoted to curbing drunk/high driving while making a healthy profit. I know, I know. Based on empirical studies, those who enjoy ganga are notorious for ordering pizza when they get the munchies, but high people would surely be fine with a 20 to 30 percent markup on late-night food runs, and this service would keep our streets and drive-thru lines safer, less stupid, and less stinky. 

The new law in Colorado also gets me wondering what kind of sales growth pizza franchises will enjoy in 2014 because it's assumed more people will be partaking of cannabis. I want to see some statistical analysis about business growth related to this new law. Lots of people have talked about how this law might spur Colorado's economy, but I doubt they've talked much about economic growth in the way I'm thinking. 

And for a news program's trenchant analysis of the reactions to the Colorado law, I present to you Tuesday's episode of The Daily Show. Watch and enjoy. 

In the Nov-Dec issue of Utne, there's a trio of articles I thought I'd share. 

Staff writers inform us about how the Blest Machine can convert plastic to oil in "Turning Plastic into Oil." 

In a celebratory and satirical essay, G. Robert Ogilvy provides an ode to calorie-laden, old fashioned breakfasts in "Cupcake Shops Don't Serve Breakfast," which is titled "Breakfast: A Manifesto" in the print magazine. As the author says, "As civilization crumbles around us, we must console ourselves by knowing that there remains at least one thing untouched by the ravages of anarchy and decadence, one unchanging constant, one bedrock [a hearty breakfast] which still has rules." 

In "The Democratic Education of Unschoolers," Astra Taylor reflects on her own experience with being pulled out of public schools to be "unschooled." She offers some biting commentary about the drudgery and hoop-jumping of organized (public and private) educational systems: "What I really wanted--what I still want, even now, as an adult--is that intellectual community I was looking for in high school and college but never quite found. I would have loved to commune with other young people and find out what a school of freedom could be like. But for some reason, such a possibility was unthinkable, a wild fantasy--instead, the only option available was to submit to irrational authority six and a half hours a day, five days a week, in a series of cinder-block holding cells. If nothing else, we should pause to wonder why there's so rarely any middle ground." 

Random Notes from a Crank

To counter the intellectual jock sniffing I've done this season on Sunday Hangovers and my last post, I'm providing a couple of articles from The Atlantic that take a justly cranky and reasonable view about our sports-obsessed culture. 

First up is "The Case Against High-School Sports" by Amanda Ripley, which points out the outrageous costs and mental energy we put toward high school athletics in American culture. As a lot of people know, football costs a tremendous amount of money, and the author details a school district in Texas that eliminated all of their sports programs and the academic benefits they reaped from such a move. She also questions the reasoning behind the claim that sports motivate students to do well in school. It might help a small percentage, but what about the majority of students? 

Of course, I read this article the day after I went to a local high school basketball game. At least basketball is one of the cheaper sports. 

Next is "How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers" by Greg Easterbrook. Like churches, the NFL enjoys tax-exempt status. (The tax-free status of churches could be the source of a rant for another day). As the author puts it, "That's right--extremely profitable and one of the most subsidized organizations in American history, the NFL also enjoys tax-exempt status. On paper it is the Nonprofit Football League." 

In a more positive note for those of us who still believe in physical books and magazines, Scientific American (SA) has an article by Ferris Jabr called the "Why the Brain Prefers Paper." The writer culled a good bit of research, but here are some juicy snippets from the article because SA is smart enough to not give away their articles for free unless you go to your public library (or use a database) to read it:

• "Despite all the increasingly user-friendly and popular technology, most studies published since the early 1990s confirm the earlier conclusions: paper still has advantages over screens as a reading medium. Together laboratory experiments, polls and consumer reports indicate that digital devices prevent people from efficiently navigating long texts, which may subtly inhibit reading comprehension. Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. Whether they realize it or not, people often approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper. And e-readers fail to re-create certain tactile experiences of reading on paper, the absence of which some find unsettling."
• Here's a visual aid that explains how "the physicality of paper explains this discrepancy." 
• For educators, this conclusion merits attention: "When reading on screens, individuals seems less inclined to engage in what psychologists call metacognitive learning regulation--setting goals, rereading difficult sections and checking how much one has understood along the way."  

Stay Positive: Advice about College

Today I overheard a college student talking about how she "innovated" by buying a hard pack of cigarettes instead of a soft pack, so her smokes wouldn't get damaged in her backpack. It's the little victories that make life worth living, I guess. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, babe. 

From time to time I think about the advice (or lack thereof) students get before they start college. Before I started college, my uncle Raymond, a farmer in northeastern Missouri, gave me this advice: "Avoid the clap." It served me well. My mom and dad, in contrast, told me to "work hard" and "try my best," words that also served me well.

If you want to give some good advice to college students, here are "College Life Hacks..." from The Huffington Post. Check 'em out. 

I'm also interested in What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain has to say, which is a follow-up on a previous book called What the Best College Teachers Do. I haven't read either of them. 

Random Notes from a Crank

For a critical take on how history books get it wrong, check out "Setting Free Our History" by Tim Swinehart. It was originally published in Rethinking Schools and was reprinted in Utne.

In the current issue of Utne, they reprinted "Gone Hunting For Food" by Kate Bergin, which originally appeared in This Magazine. The article informs readers about the trend of urbanites discovering hunting and people rediscovering hunting and fishing. The urban hipsters and smart environmental folks have reasserted the practices of gardening, canning/pickling, and now hunting/fishing. I've never been much of a hunter. I'm a horrible shot, but then again, I never got any practice shooting. However, I enjoy fishing even though I haven't had much luck at all around these here parts.

In animal husbandry news (never used that clause before), check out happy pigs and their mudslide via Grist.

The Plight of the Connected

As many of my readers might know or might have noticed, I work in higher education. I'm around 18-2osome-year-olds every day. Well, not every day now since this week is finals, but you get the drift: I have contact with the "next generation" of America on a cyclical basis. 

And I'm tired of seeing them so fucking connected. 

Last week I was walking down the hall in the academic building I work in. It was right before the 8:00 a.m. class, and I walked right by a classroom with college students waiting for their instructor to open up it for class.

There were probably at least a dozen students waiting there. Every single one of them was looking at their damn smart phones -- texting, surfing, checking out statuses, whatever. 

It's not that I hate smart phones. I don't. Mrs. Nasty has an iPhone, and she uses it all the time to help us out -- looking up stuff, getting directions, etc. 

However, the plight of the connected is that they're constantly tied to and looking at their phones at the expense of other endeavors. 

Take the example I used above -- and it's a real-life one, not a hypothetical. It's close to 8 a.m. in the morning, and they're looking at their phones. Even at that time of the morning, I have better suggestions for college students' time as they wait in the hallway: daydreaming, "resting their eyes," chatting with a classmate, reviewing notes, flirting with someone, rereading material because there might be a quiz, checking out someone's ass, et al.

But no, they're tied to their phones, like the devices are electronic newborns/kids that always have to be checked on, cradled, and helicoptered. 

Meanwhile back in the other tactile world, less face-to-face conversation is happening. 

I, like some others, agree with the solution Sherry Turkle relates at the end of "The Flight from Conversation": "look up, look at one another, and let’s start the conversation."

Her argument and what she relates in her book reminds me of Robert Putnam's points in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. 

Yes, technology can help community-building initiatives and spur civic engagement. I think that's hard to deny, and I know people could trot out copious examples of how online systems and smart phones have aided and abetted good (and bad) things happening for a community and for individuals. 

However, I am troubled by people being so tied to their phones that they don't notice what's around them, whether it's people, birds, trees, their own reflections, and other aspects of the "environment."

Look up and notice what's happening around you. 

Or just think about something -- reflect and ponder -- instead of being hyper-connected to your phones. Practice mindfulness. 

Wake up from your technological blinders. 

Stay Positive: Family Art Night

Last Thursday my daughter's school had its Family Art Night. A bunch of the classrooms had their own arts and crafts projects in them, which was fun, but one of the big draws to this deal is the competition to correctly identify famous paintings posted around the halls. If I remember right, there were eight of them.

There was Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon...

Van Gogh's Starry Night

Grant Wood's American Gothic

Edvard Munch's The Scream

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa

Monet's Bridge Over a Pool of Water Lillies

And a Georgia O'Keefe painting that I correctly guessed as a magnolia and a Picasso painting of a woman sitting in a chair that I couldn't identify. No Guernica for the kids...

So it wasn't a real difficult task if you've taken any art history courses, but the wrinkle to the competition is that the kid of each family is asked to describe the painting in his or her own words. 

Apparently, my daughter provided strong (and sometimes humorous) descriptions because she won the whole dang competition. She received a fancy James Rizzi water bottle as a prize. 

Roll Nasty Family Roll. 

Random Notes from a Crank

What you see above is my first purchase on Ebay. That's right. I'm online shopping like it's 1999. The adult beverage inside that fine Schlitz glassware is Shiner's Farmhouse Ale, which is a pretty darn good beer. It has an effective hop profile without being IPAish (though I'm a lover of IPAs). It's their spring ale.  I recommend it if you want a lighter ale that isn't barley-forward. 

As I've written about before, I'm not much of a collector besides music and books, but I was in a colleague's office the other day, and I noticed her old rhetoric-composition books from the late 19th century and early century. I'm told I can get such textbooks rather cheap, which isn't surprising. If I were to collect anything, it would be old rhetoric-composition textbooks because I'm intrigued by how education happened in the bad/good old days. I'm on the lookout for books Barrett Wendell (Harvard), Fred Newtown Scott (U of Michigan), and Joseph Denney (Ohio State). Scott and Denney had very popular textbooks in the early 20th century. 

I haven't homebrewed in years. I'd have to check my homebrew log that I keep, but it had been at least three years I think. Now that we've cleaned up the basement in a major way, I may have to get back in the homebrewing game. Fair warning, Mrs. Nasty. 

Our little homestead got a new back fence on Saturday. A whole section of it blew down weeks ago. It looks nice, and Mrs. Nasty already has plans for planting flowers by it, which will entail me digging up more sod this spring.

Random Notes from a Crank

I'm tired of Iron Chef America still trotting out their tired-ass fake chairman. Just turn over those duties to Alton Brown, Food Network. I watched Sunday's episode, which was "Battle Scotch," and the "chairman" is just dead weight on the show, a silly ruse that never should have been enacted. With that episode in mind though, I can't imagine trying to make food with Scotch. Tough draw.

I got the video below from one of FB friends, but it's clear this instructor has a strict policy about texting in his class.



The big question that is asked, however, is this one: "What do human beings possess in their natural state?"


Hank Hill has the right attitude about the New Year. 

As usual, Mark Schlabach of ESPN had up his Way Too Early Top 25 days ago. But I highly doubt Alabama will end up numero uno at the end of next season like most prognosticators ape. With Ohio State's weak schedule, I see them making it to the BCS Championship Game where they will meet either Stanford or someone a little further off the top five pre-season radar like Florida State (who benefits from playing in the ACC) or Texas. 

Random Notes from a Crank

If you get a chance, check out this short article in Forbes from 2011: "Why Trying to Learn Clear Writing in College is Like Trying to Learn Sobriety in a Bar." While Ellsberg creates a strawperson about humanities professors (or presents a blanket/hasty generalization), especially because he's speaking from the viewpoint of an Ivy League grad, it's a damning portrait that provoked and will probably continue to provoke responses. Thanks to Dr. Kim of Pros Write for passing this along on 12/12/12. 

I rarely talk about my work on this blog because I usually don't want to "go there." In general, I've wanted PlannedOb to be a place for my other interests in life. However, this week provided the highs and lows of what I do. My group of first-year students, as a whole, did fine jobs on their final portfolios, which made me feel good about what they learned this semester and their prospects next semester. One group in my other class, however, did a half-assed job on their final report. In fact, when I met with two of the group members on Thursday, I told them that if I were to receive a report like theirs in a business setting, I would start thinking about ways to fire them. A finals week of pumping sunshine and bringing the pain. 

Some people like to use online systems to sort out their schedules. I, however, am old fashioned. On Wednesday, I bought a new weekly planner and perused 2013 wall calendars. Take that 21st century practices. Huzzah to old technology. 

My son, in his ongoing quest to repeat all kinds of stuff he hears, was funny Thursday morning when shot out his index fingers at Mrs. Nasty and said, "What's happenin', hot sauce?" 

I finished David O. Stewart's American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America a little while ago. I highly recommend the book if you're someone who likes reading about history. Aaron Burr, what a character. He was a fellow who was close to becoming President of the United States over Jefferson in 1800, and then after he was no longer Vice President and after his duel with Hamilton, he hatched a plan that he thought would separate the western part of the US to become its own country along with acquiring grand chunks of Mexico and Florida. And he got off. He beat the rap at his treason trial (thanks, in part, to Chief Justice John Marshall). But the biggest villain might have been General James Wilkinson. Stewart's book reads like a cross between history and detective work because Burr, a highly successful lawyer, was smart not to leave solid records of his true intentions. And when he did leave records, his intentions to various people provide mixed messages. Burr was known to repeat the maxim, "Things written remain." Indeed. 

Now it's on to shuffling my reading life among Everyday Genres: Writing Assignments Across the Disciplines by Mary Soliday, The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us by James W. Pennebaker, and The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men: Stories by Adam Prince. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The other week, my nine-year old daughter asked me this simple question, "What's a Trojan?" You see, the town we live in has one high school, and its mascot is the Trojan. It's a knockoff of the USC Trojan because there the same icon on the football helmet with the red-yellow color scheme. That got us into an interesting conversation because she already knew about the Trojan Horse, which flushed me with pride because I love classical rhetoric and literature -- Isocarates, Artistotle, Cicero, Quintilian, Sapho's poetry, The Illiad, The Odyssey, The Aenead, The Georgics, all that good stuff. So I told about the story of the Trojan Horse in The Illiad, the brave character of Hector, Aeneas' escape and eventual founding of Rome. But I've also wondered why Trojans are the chosen mascot of schools. Think about it: They lost. Why would you want your mascot to exemplify a loser? At least if you go by the depiction of them via the USC mascot, they do have awesome helmets and pointy short swords though. And the noble Hector is someone to look up to; he's much better than that sulky, dishonorable Achilles. Of the Greek force, I always preferred Ajax anyway. 

For a long time now, I've been interested in how physical environments help or hurt learning. If you have a similar interest, check out Tanner's "Explaining Relationships Among Student Outcomes and the School's Physical Environment." 

Often you suspect what a decision is going to be, but sometimes it's worth the chance that patterns of thought and behavior might change. Often they do not change though.

Random Notes from a Crank

Sometimes when I'm at meetings, I can sense it coming. I get this visual image of a wave in the ocean starting to break, and I think "Rationalizations a-coming!" We're awash in them. 

One of the magazines I subscribe to, the magazine formerly known as Ode but now renamed The Intelligent Optimist, had a nice little editorial about the periodical's name change. The Editor-in-Chief, Jurriaan Kamp, relates what I find to be a productive and energizing frame of vision because I can tend toward pessimism and morose moods: "I argue that optimism -- intelligent, not mindless, optimism -- is the only realistic strategy for life. It is not going to prevent bad things from happening. On most days, more will go right than wrong; still, nobody can escape problems and setbacks. But the intelligent optimist accepts reality without immediately coming to a negative conclusion."

I keep thinking that my fantasy baseball team, The Schlitzophrenics, is going to collapse in the end (there's tonight and tomorrow left in the fantasy baseball regular season). I'm trying to be optimistic, but I'm a Cubs fan. We're used to heartbreak, pain, and suffering.