doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
Archive for March, 2006
against lawn
05 years ago
american life in poetry: column 050
by ted kooser, u.s. poet laureate
Thousands of Americans fret over the appearance of their lawns, spraying, aerating, grooming, but here Grace Bauer finds good reasons to resist the impulse to tame what’s wild: the white of clover blossoms under a streetlight, the possibility of finding the hidden, lucky, four-leafed rarity.
Against Lawn
The midnight streetlight illuminating
the white of clover assures meI am right not to manicure
my patch of grass into a dullcarpet of uniform green, but
to allow whatever will to take over.Somewhere in that lace lies luck,
though I may never swoop downto find it. Three, too, is
an auspicious number. And this seeinga reminder to avoid too much taming
of what, even here, wants to be wild.
Reprinted from the literary journal, “Lake Effect,” Volume 8, Spring 2004 by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2004 by Grace Bauer, whose new book, “Beholding Eye,” is forthcoming from Wordtech Communications in 2006. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
yahoo!
0
No, not Yahoo! (sung in that silly western voice)…but YAHOO!!!!
It snowed. Not much, mind you. But it snowed. Finally.
One of the cool things about the snow this morning, as I drove into town, was how the wind was blowing it. We are having 30-40 mph winds with 60 mph gusts. I was watching the mountains as I drove along the ice-encrusted roads (yes, I was paying attention to the driving) and I watched a huge wind gust roll down the mountain.
Now, I can hear what you’re thinking. I *watched* a wind gust roll down the mountain? How is that possible? Wind is invisible, right?
If you’ve ever lived in the desert, you know you can watch the wind roll in. It picks up the dust and creates a virtual wall of wind and dust.
Today’s vision was the same thing – but with snow. It was impressive. It had to have been a few hundred feet in height and an extra few hundred in width.
The snow is so light right now (not our typical heavy March snow), that the wind just picked it up and created a wall of wind and snow and rolled right down the mountain.
If I thought I could get it on camera from that distance in that light, you would have had the image. But it was too dark and I was too far away.
It was impressive, though.
and another thing…
05 years ago
This is treacherous territory. Looking at societal constructs critically begs people to come back at me.
And I’m okay with that.
While my observations are not scientific, I have been doing them for a very long time and am looking at it from the perspective of understanding the online world and how it emulates the offline world.
So…this is the thing…
I participate in a few online photography memes. I belong to a few online photography groups. And I’ve noticed a trend among those photoblogs that are considered premium and those photos that are consistently voted as top of the class.
For the most part (and this is not always but is so consistent that I think it merits mention), men’s photographs and photoblogs are considered the “best”.
What this makes me wonder is if a man’s perspective is considered the norm. If we see a photograph and look at the way a man shoots images versus the way a woman shoots images, is there something about the male eye that draws us in more than the female eye? Is there something more compelling about the ways men compose shots versus the ways women compose shots?
Or is it, really, just a good ol’ boys network and even if they aren’t all that great, they still pat one another on the back and say, “Well done.”?
And if that is the case, how do women make a place for themselves?
And is it really that important?
holy cow!
05 years ago
Okay, life has gotten increasingly busy for me. My job responsibilities seem to have escalated overnight and I barely have time to breath. I’m rarely even at my desk anymore and for a mole like me, that’s an anomaly!
Yesterday I did the first blog training. It was SO much fun! My supervisor said you could really tell how excited I am about this and it encouraged others to get excited.
I was getting comments about it all day yesterday. When I got to my class last night, I was asked to do a short presentation on blogs. I have built out a blog for the class to use to promote our class themes this semester.
It’s really interesting how freaked out people get about technology and how stubborn they are about wanting to take part in a technological piece of a course. One person was so adamant that there was no way to create privacy that he refuses to do that part of the class. The thing he doesn’t realize is that I really can create a safe place for him to do this work. But he didn’t even want to give that a try.
That’s too bad. I wish he would have tried it, just to see.
okay, so I’m…
0
…not perfect. Can you imagine? And I have more weight on my bones than I should have (but this is something I’m working on).
Last week, I had an ex tell me that I don’t always show myself in the most flattering light. He said that when I share photos of myself with other people online, I should only show those that flatter.
To me, though, that’s being dishonest. I don’t dress up each day and if you know me, that’s what you will find out. In fact, dressing up is a chore to me. You’ll find me in jeans and t-shirts or sweaters much more often than in high heels or hose/tights.
And you know, if a photograph shows me as overweight, well, that’s because I am. And if it’s not something someone likes, then I truly feel that they are missing out.
We place SO much emphasis on this outer shell of ours, that we forget to look inside. Does that person have a good heart? Can that person converse with me on the same level about similar things? Will that person have the same parenting style that I have? Does that person have similar philosophies that I have when it comes to how to live life?
Omigod. I have cellulite. Yeah, it’s unsightly but how often does anyone really see it? I mean, really?
Doesn’t my compassion count more than cellulite?
And you know what makes me laugh even more? Men who say they’ve dated larger women and don’t have a type but the minute they meet a larger woman, they say, “You’re larger than the women I typically date.”
Oh? But you told me that you’ve dated women who have outweighed me by 50 pounds. That’s interesting. Is it the height? Is it the big bones? What makes you think that I’m suddenly bigger than those women who outweighed me?
Grrr.
At least be honest about it. If you dont’ like larger women, say so from the beginning. If you have an issue with not feeling manly next to a larger woman, realize that it is your issue and not her issue and don’t put it back on her.
Those words sting. You have no idea how much they sting.
on a moonstruck gravel road
05 years ago
american life in poetry: column 049
by ted kooser, u.s poet laureate
This fine poem by Rodney Torreson, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, looks into the world of boys arriving at the edge of manhood, and compares their natural wildness to that of dogs, with whom they feel a kinship.
On A Moonstruck Gravel Road
The sheep-killing dogs saunter home,
wool scraps in their teeth.From the den of the moon
ancestral wolves
howl their approval.The farm boys, asleep in their beds,
live the same wildness under their lids;
every morning they come back
through the whites of their eyes
to do their chores, their hands pausing
to pet the dog, to press
its ears back, over the skull,
to quiet that other world.
From “A Breathable Light,” New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2002, and first published in Sou’wester. Copyright (c) 2002 by Rodney Torreson and reprinted by permission of the author. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
beacon of truth
0
Sometimes the lawmakers in my state amuse me. Sometimes they just piss me off. Right now, the members of our state representatives are pissing me off.
On Monday, our misongynistic state legislators decided to make it illegal for a woman to sell her eggs. But there are no similar bills to bar a man from selling his sperm.
Oh, no…a man can make money off of his bodily functions but a woman…oh…a woman…she can do evil things with those eggs – IF SHE SELLS THEM. Not if she donates them. Only if she sells them.
According to the local newspaper, the real credit for this goes to Bob Stump, a very conservative representative from the Phoenix suburb of Peoria.
Rep. Bob Stump, R-Peoria, said the disparate treatment is justified. And, he said, it has “nothing to do with gender politics.”
Uh-huh. Tell us another fable, Bob. Tells us how much you love and respect women. How much you believe that they have the intelligence to know how to take care of their bodies and protect themselves.
Because, frankly, if I don’t have a man telling me what to do with my body, I just might hurt myself. I’m so helpless.
And make money off of my body? Oh…the horror!
Grrrr.
This stuff pisses me off.
One more way that my rights over myself are taken away.
And, it seems, some of the female legislators felt the same way.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said there is no reason to have one set of laws for men and another for women. “You keep your hands off my eggs and I’ll keep my hands off your sperm,” she said.
Amen, sister.
blogging and hierarchies
0
I work for a technology department at a state university and we offer trainings on emerging technologies and existing technologies that could be used in classroom settings. Since I have been blogging for nearly 10 years and I have four (or is it five…hmmm) different blogs going, I am the resident expert on blogs.
My blogs don’t have to be popular, mind you, to give me the status of “expert.” I just have to know how to set them up, what the positive and negatives are for educational purposes, and explain general uses for them.
Because of this status, people send me links all of the time. If it mentions blogging, I get the link. Sometimes they are interesting. Yesterday, one of my co-workers sent me this one. It is very interesting.
However (yeah, there had to be a “however”), all of this talk about “A-list, B-list, and C-list” blogs is starting to irritate me. First off, what arbitrary criteria is used to determine the list that you’re on? Who makes these decisions?
Secondly, a majority of the so-called A-list blogs are written by men about politics. It’s rare to find women on those lists and if there are women, they have to write about politics, as well.
Well, as the old saying goes, everything is political. So why, then, aren’t the private sphere issues (those issues that women tend to write about more – home, education, rape, abortion, prostitution, etc.), just as important as Washington politics?
This reminds me of the 1960s and 70s when women were fighting for equal rights and were asking the same questions. Why are home life or women’s issues not considered as important as those public issues of politics or a man’s job? What is it about women that is so threatening that we can’t talk about them or promote them?
So, interestingly enough (or not, depending on your point of view), my entire thesis project is based on the disparity between the promotion of men’s blogs versus women’s blogs and the necessity of promoting women’s blogs because the issues are important.
If you don’t believe me, check out raven star watcher. This is a blog where three women talk about their different lives involved in child prostitution in North America. Yes, in North America. It is still ongoing. It is something we should be talking about – something we should be hearing.
But, of course, it’s not A-list, so it just can’t be that important.
Can it?