Procrastadabbler

Weaving in and out of the critique of the new literacies is the concern that forms such as twitter, blogging, IM, email, RSS feeds etc are contributing to the lack of ability among people to attend to lengthy, in-depth texts. The argument goes that we have become so accustomed to gathering our information in bursts [...]

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If an industry is doing some good, but the good they are doing is in the spirit of making them money, is it still doing good? Is a show like Extreme Makeover exploiting the lives of struggling people even as it “helps” them?
I would like to know the tax ramifications of being helped by Extreme [...]

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I’m working very hard to keep my mind open to multiple views of the world. I have my ideology, but I don’t want to become isolated within it. So, I force myself to read things that appear contrary to my belief system.
To that end, I just finished reading Carolyn Chute’s novel The School on Heart’s [...]

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An interesting meditation on naming the world in today’s New York Times. The author is a scientist and writes about taxonomy and how it is a dying practice – that so few of us can name things. The author ends by stating that by naming things, it changes things. It changes our relationship to things. [...]

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Lately I’ve been rethinking my career. I’m going to be 52 this summer. My two brothers are already retired. I have friends and other who are thinking of retiring. And here I am worrying about tenure and publishing and career building. Why am I working so hard? What am I trying to accomplish? What is [...]

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