Random Thoughts

In my day, dorm essentials included a typewriter, towels, and bedding.  We didn’t have refrigerators or coffeemakers or microwaves.  (I went to university in the Stone Age, I guess!) So imagine my surprise today when I received a sales flyer advertising their “dorm essentials” — including a 37″ HDTV!  I wonder how much of this is marketing and how much indicates a new reality, in which 37″ HDTVs are considered a necessity.  I am sure it is mostly hype, but how long it will be before it isn’t?  I am getting old.

I really have no excuse for not posting here lately.  I am just feeling a tad overwhelmed and unable to focus on anything for too long.  I am finishing my summer classes next week, am making a conference presentation on the 15th, test students on the 17th and start teaching on the 19th.  This is going to be a bad month for posts, I’m afraid!

But that being said, I am excited about my classes in the fall.  We will be using blogs and wikis more.  I am anxious to get started!

Well, I was gone for a week.  I thought I would have a chance to post while I was gone, but internet access was limited by having to go to a coffee shop to do it.  And then there was so much stuff I HAD to get done that I didn’t do anything extra at all.  Didn’t even really check email.

But now I’m back home.  I have a ton of stuff to get done, but I think I will get a chance today to catch up on my reading and do some writing.  I have missed it.

For years and years I was amazed that my kids never picked up the instruction manual for any piece of technology; they would just play with it until they figured it out. I could never imagine doing that. But today as I was working with Blackboard and Wimba, I realized that I don’t read the book anymore, either. I am not sure when this happened, bt it has definitely happened.

I looked at many of the others in the course with me — all people about my age or younger. They are where I was a few years ago. I understand now why my kids used to get frustrated with me sometimes!

Anyway, this was something that struck me today. I need to pay attention and see how true it is.

The semester is over. I am now trying to clear away the pile of things that got put to one side so I could finish the semester. I am getting to the bottom of all that, so I will soon be able to read and think and blog again.

Probably not.  But in case you did…  It is the end of the semester.  Life is crazy.  I will return!

Or at least it seems to be passing my blog by!  I am not sure what is happening, but I can’t seem to write.  It isn’t anything major, I don’t think.  Just lack of focus and being busy.  And maybe a little lazy!

I am busy working on several projects at work — my summer course, a plan for an online certificate program and the final changes to the curriculum proposal that is in committee now.  It is all pretty easy and fun, but I am letting it keep me from blogging.

Charles suggested that I might think about a doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition.  There is a big part of me that thinks I would enjoy that.  There is a program at New Mexico State that I will look into more. I am not sure if it is all face-to-face or not.  It looks like it is, but I am not sure.  If it is, I probably can’t do it — except maybe in summers.  But thanks, Charles, for reminding me of this possibility.

I thought I had figured out which PhD program I wanted to do.  Yes, I “want” to do one.  I was feeling like I had to start a program somewhere, so I found one I thought I could live with.  I wrote all the people I wanted to ask for recommendations.  I started filling out all the paperwork.  And then I thought seriously about it.  I came to the realization that I am not interested in an Educational Leadership program.  So I am back to looking at my options (not many) and then narrowing them down to what I might be able to afford (almost none).

But all this took me away from blogging.  It sapped my energy and so totally filled my mind that I couldn’t do anything else.  For that reason, if none other, I am glad this portion of it is over.  Of course, there is still the need and desire to get a doctorate, so I have really just postponed making a decision.  But for a few days and maybe weeks, I am going to try to think of something else!  Anything else, actually!

Nowhere. Just here, working away on final projects, grades for the semester, courses for next semester, my faculty evaluation file, and changes to the program for next year.

I kept hoping something in my Bloglines account would inspire me to write something meaningful, but it hasn’t happened. No fault of Bloglines nor of the bloggers I read. I am just too distracted to think real deeply about anything I don’t have to think about right now!