First Day of Summer

It’s coming up on the first official day of summer. So what have I been doing since April?

Reading
I really enjoy the blogosphere these days. And my Kindle. And the library. Ok, well since I don’t have much of a regular schedule, I can sit down and read whenever I wish. It’s a bit overwhelming, but I am at the point now where some writing is necessary in order to make sense of any of it. Here are some go-to blogs that I look at these days:
Forgotten Bookmarks– Blog about things left in books that are found  by a book buyer. Really cool stuff here.


Ox Herding – Great, thoughtful blog about Buddhist issues, social issues, and teaching issues.

The National Poetry Foundation Blog – Cool news, fascinating and insightful criticism, and the occasional eyebrow-raising reading list. Of course this is “National” in the USA sense of national, since that’s where it’s from.


I suppose we can’t just watch online debate videos all the time, can we? Don’t answer that, at least with words anyway.

Writing
I am working on a number of writing projects, some of which I will discuss here as they get a bit more mature. There’s always that MDR deadline that hits around July, sometime, and I have a couple of things I think might be worth sending in. Other than that I am working on a book review essay, a couple of academic essays, and the rough beginnings of a book that started as a late-night attempt to synthesise some of my wilder interests – debate, buddhism, and rhetorical theory to name three.

Mostly my attention has been on putting together a clean and coherent paper for the upcoming Alta Argumentation Conference in Utah this July. I’m presenting a paper on a theory of debate judging – and if I’m permitted, I plan to record the session along with responses from the audience of intimidating, smart, expert argumentation theorists. Keep an eye on this blog starting July 28th, as I plan to give frequent updates on what is being discussed at this premiere, global argumentation conference.

Goofing Off
Finishing the TV series Legend of the Seeker and in between those episodes digging into the Netflix collection of trippy 1970s foreign films about weird stuff. Mostly sci-fi.

So there’s the summary as of the start of summer. I hope it keeps being this fun.

First Day of Summer

It’s coming up on the first official day of summer. So what have I been doing since April?

Reading
I really enjoy the blogosphere these days. And my Kindle. And the library. Ok, well since I don’t have much of a regular schedule, I can sit down and read whenever I wish. It’s a bit overwhelming, but I am at the point now where some writing is necessary in order to make sense of any of it. Here are some go-to blogs that I look at these days:
Forgotten Bookmarks– Blog about things left in books that are found  by a book buyer. Really cool stuff here.


Ox Herding – Great, thoughtful blog about Buddhist issues, social issues, and teaching issues.

The National Poetry Foundation Blog – Cool news, fascinating and insightful criticism, and the occasional eyebrow-raising reading list. Of course this is “National” in the USA sense of national, since that’s where it’s from.


I suppose we can’t just watch online debate videos all the time, can we? Don’t answer that, at least with words anyway.

Writing
I am working on a number of writing projects, some of which I will discuss here as they get a bit more mature. There’s always that MDR deadline that hits around July, sometime, and I have a couple of things I think might be worth sending in. Other than that I am working on a book review essay, a couple of academic essays, and the rough beginnings of a book that started as a late-night attempt to synthesise some of my wilder interests – debate, buddhism, and rhetorical theory to name three.

Mostly my attention has been on putting together a clean and coherent paper for the upcoming Alta Argumentation Conference in Utah this July. I’m presenting a paper on a theory of debate judging – and if I’m permitted, I plan to record the session along with responses from the audience of intimidating, smart, expert argumentation theorists. Keep an eye on this blog starting July 28th, as I plan to give frequent updates on what is being discussed at this premiere, global argumentation conference.

Goofing Off
Finishing the TV series Legend of the Seeker and in between those episodes digging into the Netflix collection of trippy 1970s foreign films about weird stuff. Mostly sci-fi.

So there’s the summary as of the start of summer. I hope it keeps being this fun.

Anxiously Awaiting Summer

It is a horrible time. That time just before summer where debate fades out and you realize just how behind on everything else in your life you have become.
 
It's also the time of year where I constantly worry that I have forgotten to make a hotel reservation, book travel, or register for something. I live in a state of paranoia about quiet, long evenings at home. Something is wrong, something has been forgotten.
 
But it's an adjustment period, and by late May I will have fully embraced the summer life. But I am already thinking about next term. Walking home today I was thinking of how to re-arrange my speech course to make it more useful. I was thinking of eliminating an argument based assignment on identifying propaganda, but it's too good to really dismiss. Here are the questions we had today:
 
What was the first official act of propaganda?
Is seeking such an origin useful?
Are toys propaganda?
What will you hand your child to play with when you are a parent?
At what age are you immune from propagandistic images? Is age a good determinant?
What are the systemic and surface modes of propaganda? (derived from watching a clip of the TV show "Jersey Shore" which I had never seen and was proud of, thanks for ruining it for me)
Is it ok to use propaganda to combat propaganda?
Is it ok to use something based solely on the rubric of effectiveness?
 
This has me thinking of some sort of assessment or some final examination project where students generate lists of questions as the result of the semester. For what else do we have of value?