Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Gyminee: Fitness Social Networking

I just discovered Gyminee.  Link fitness goals with social networking and you have, in part, this site.  Exercise and goal planning have helped my teaching significantly, and in a matter of four minutes I found over ten new exercises to work into my regimen.  I do not care for or need the social networking aspect, but the sheer knowledge base of social communities like this can be inspiring.  If you like to train, this could be a great thing.

The Need to Chat

In an earlier post, “Missing Comrade,” I mentioned how I have been having a hard time finding people with whom I easily build a rapport of trust, understanding, and respect.  This is not an instant thing, and I do not believe in simply forcing the issue—if great colleagues arrive, cool; if they do not, oh well.  I do not like forced relationships, and I find forced friendliness and performed closeness repulsive.

Still, I am driven to talk academics.  Part of me, the babbling GI Joe doll with an endless pull-string, is happy to talk anything from trashy gossip to instrumentalism to research methodology.  Hey, just talk to me about something in composition and I am all ears and mouth.  While this makes me a relatively cheap compositional date—you’ll have my attention very quickly—it can lead to some potential problems.  I do not always know how or when to keep my mouth shut.

Alas, since my comrade has been gone, there is no one I can really confide in.  One result has been that I confide pieces of material in one person and other pieces in another person.  I do hope that my pieces are so fractured that no one can see the big picture—at times at least—but I must talk to someone.  And that someone has to be someone who has …

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Blog to RSS: Wicked Anomie

I have pulled several great links from Wicked Anomie: Sociology Run Amok.  The strike for me was “The Carnival of GRADual Progress,” which gets published in intervals.  Each carnival is a collection of informative links.  I suggest you RSS it just like I did!

Five Ways to Stop Procrastinating

Courtesy of Getting Things Done in Academia, five tips on how to stop procrastinating.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Internet Access at Hotels

My experience accessing the internet during conferences—i.e. at hotels—has not been good.  In fact, it has been downright annoying—especially since I like to think that WiFi is a service that should be provided as a courtesy instead of at a price.  But that’s me.  Fortunately, Tom Belden has a useful piece on the art and science of internet access at hotels over at Web Worker Daily.  Before you attend another conference, you might want to read it.

Make a Gantt Chart in Google Docs

Watch this video on YouTube and learn how to make a Gantt chart in GDocs to help schedule your busy adjunct life.

Veterans: Thank You!

Today is Veteran’s Day.  Thank you, veterans!