things that make me wish i had a sugar daddy

toast clock from modcloth, $24.99

alarm clock fom modcloth, $44.99 

beaded applique headwrap from UO, $24.00

 

leather moto jacket from AE, $250.00

oh life, etc.

I just finished reading an article by N. Katherine Hayles called “Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes.” I tried to upload it as a PDF, but it’s not working… so you should run to your library and read it in the 2007 issue of Profession.  It’s a pretty short, well-written piece that deserves some attention. Hayles characterizes deep attention as“concentrating on a single object for long periods (say, a novel by Dickens), ignoring outside stimuli while so engaged, preferring a single information stream, and having a high tolerance for long focus times.” Hyper attention, then, is characterized by “switching focus rapidly among different tasks, preferring multiple information streams, seeking a high level of stimulation, and having a low tolerance for boredom.” So, Hayles is concerned with how the pedagogical framework currently used in classrooms and assignments (specifically in literature classes) sets students up for failure (or at least struggle) because the current generation (and upcoming generations) have brains literally wired differently than generations before (as in, brains wired for hyper attention, rather than deep attention). Anyway, I think it’s well worth reading. I’ve always been a multi-tasker, or “hyper-attentive” as Hayles would call me, (it’s just a bit ironic that I began reading this article while baking a carrot cake, and interrupted reading the article by shooting off some e-mails I’d forgotten to send), but this piece really made me consider that “trait” on a different level.

Some recent news about myself: Bennington College is launching an annual anthology of best writing by undergraduate students, and chose my short story “Scars” as one of their fiction pieces. What’s exciting is that, apparently, they considered undergraduate journals from Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Chicago, Carnegie-Mellon, Rice, Stanford, etc. I’m not sure how many or few pieces they’re including, but it made me happy (especially considering my recent frustrations with writing) nonetheless.

Partly because of those recent frustrations with my writing in general, and with some aspects of the program here, I’ve decided to devote most of my free time to sewing, baking, and working at the humane society. Really, sometimes I think I’d be much happier if I only did those three things. Some recent upcoming holiday-inspired developments in my Etsy shop:

Custom name pet paw print stockings:

Ornaments:

You can check out the full list/inventory at my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7721864

a one-week recipe for disaster:

grade 60 blue-book essays + come up with an idea and write a story for next wednesday’s workshop + come up with brilliant things to say and make powerpoint for my lecture on monday (about Ama Ata Aidoo’s Our Sister Killjoy) to 120 students + grade today’s quizzes + make a mid-term study guide for my classes + get things together for my art/craft booth at the okeelala festival this saturday + a 25-hour a week “part time” job at the humane society = pre-mature aging and liver damage due to excessive glasses of wine in the evenings to calm. me. down.

who tall are you?

Designed by Ismaril Wells, the Who Tall Are You Mirror measures your height compared to the height of famous people. Who knew that Venus Williams came in right under the Terminator? (U.O. blog)

hotty toddy gosh almighty

prompted by ally, i think it’s about time i say something about teaching/writing at ole miss so far.  yes, teaching/writing in that order.  the three classes i teach (survey of world lit from 1650 to present) take up a lot of my time, even though i’m reading the same thing and preparing the same thing for each of the three classes.  after three weeks of teaching, i definitely give more credit to my professors from undergrad.  i mean, the first assignment i graded was to watch the movie “babel” and respond to some questions about the movie.  simple, right?  and yet i had to speak with four people after class—one for plagiarizing (she copied sentences straight from online movie reviews), two for handing in the exact same (word for word) assignment (I caught on because they both referred to a “rear view” mirror as a “review” mirror, which I thought was just too strange a coincidence)—and one for writing quasi-funny but mostly annoying discriminatory remarks about the characters in the movie (one that I remember in particular was in response to the question: “what is the argument of this film?” to which he wrote: “don’t give guns to asians.  nothing good ever comes from it.”)

the two classes i’m taking are intro to graduate study (a required class that concentrates on the history of (as well as current) literary and pedagogical theory within the field of english) and the fiction workshop with barry hannah.  i have a bit of a hard time with the intro to grad study class—my brain always kind of goes to mush when thinking about all that theory stuff which i, for the most part, don’t have one bit of interest in—but it’s fun to see the MA and PhD students get all hyped up about it.  not that there’s anything wrong with that—but let’s face it, we’re here for different reasons, right?  i’m  enjoying the fiction workshop, if not for barry’s taking us to a bar for our first class and for his brilliant comments on writing and life in general.  some of the ones worth jotting down:

“I always wonder why people kill themselves.  Or why we don’t.”

“Just because you feel like you don’t have anything to write about doesn’t mean you’re retarded.”

“In Mississippi, you’re either a snob or a grub.”

“I don’t know one meth-head.  I need to get out more.”

care to read more?  tommy franklin interviewed him (and provided many more of barry’s one-liners, such as: “a good funeral will always make you horny”) for the current issue (#40) of Tin House (the 10^th anniversary issue).  i’ve ordered a copy, but it hasn’t come yet.  i don’t have much to say about the actual workshop yet since i haven’t workshopped a story, but i’m up for next wednesday.

i gave my first oxford reading last tuesday at the broken english series (hosted at proud larry’s).  i think it was a great success, not because of what i actually read but because of how many people came and listened and drank and gave me a verbal pat on the back.  oh, southern hospitality. (there’s a very unflattering picture of me, (let’s count my chins, shall we?) reading away…)

and here’s my signature on the podium:

 

in other news:

ollie lifted his leg to go pee-pee on a bush for the first time ever yesterday.  my little boy is all growed up!

there are several banana peppers, cucumbers, and itty-bitty green tomatoes growing on our balcony.  cody calls it my secret garden.

we got a couch!  it’s about time.  it’s tan.  it has dual recliners.  yes, i know, fancy-shmancy.

the state of my life recently

same old heat, same old missing friends (especially the pregnant one and the crafting queen) and family, same old awesome dog-kids, same old awesomer maintenance-man-liquor-store-nightshift boyfriend, same old cleaning scummy apartments lived in by even scummier residents, same old never enough time in the day to do what i want to do, and NOT SAME OLD NEW ETSY SHOP.

i decided i should take pictures to document my life recently:

i already made a sale, wheeee!!!

you can (and should!) visit it here.

meeting pee-pul / new scrapbooking layouts

on the fourth of july, cody & i went to the pool at our apartment complex, where we ran into susan (the manager/my boss) & her daughter.  susan introduced me to her nephew, james (jimmy) kimbrell, who writes/teaches poetry at florida state & was visiting for the holiday.  they invited us over to susan’s apartment for food/drinks/fireworks/calling to bats as they flew in & out of a rotten tree trunk.  we also met alicia (one of jimmy’s students from u of missouri) & her husband, chris, two recent poetry mfa graduates (and now adjunct professors) at ole miss.  the next day we went to a pig roast @ the summer-poet-in-residence house (jake adam york is the poet living there this month).  the food was excellent, we got to meet a few more MFAs, & we hung out (sort of) with actress joey lauren adams (from chasing amy/big daddy/the break-up).  strange, the people you meet from meeting other people.  anyway, alicia speaks highly of jimmy kimbrell, so I ordered his book of poetry “my psychic.”

 also, i’ve finished several new scrapbooking pages:

statistics

so i’m sitting at my computer drooling over kalyn’s incredible cards while cody is watching the news.  from behind me, i hear the newscaster say, “americans are getting fatter, and mississippi is the fattest state for the fifth year in a row.”  first i laughed, and then i realized, wait, there are lots of other categories that mississippi leads the nation in, too!  not only do we lead the nation with the highest rate of adult obesity, but we also lead in the highest blood pressure, diabetes, and adult inactivity!  AND, we top the charts as the poorest state, the state with the highest teen birthrate, and the state with the worst litter removal programs!  we’re runner up for the state with the highest unemployment rate, and third in mobile homes as housing, as well as traffic fatalities!  yet, oxford, mississippi has been ranked as one of the six top college towns in America, one of 10 great underrated getaway spots, one of six best places to retire, and it is included in The Best 100 Small Towns in America.  so, go figure.

i love aprons

a couple of days ago i was cooking in my kitchen and had an extremely intense longing for a southern belle apron.  so, i went to walmart and bought a pattern for $2.44 and fabric on sale for $3.50, and made myself an apron that night.  it’s been a long time since i’ve sewn anything for myself, and it felt so good that i went back and bought a dress pattern and fabric.

the pattern:

in the process:

the final product:

close up:

in other news, i wrote the first 7 pages of a new short story today.  it feels great to be writing again (i haven’t written anything new since march)  and i feel a little less nervous about starting up classes in the fall knowing i’ll have at least one story ready for workshop.

fyi

new (kind of) paintings and story are up