- John Dickerson, “The Teacher Who Changed My Life“
- Julia Galef, “Surprise! The most important skill in science or self-improvement is noticing the unexpected” (Slate)
- Heather Havrilesky, “How to Write” (The Awl)
- Maria Popova, “Madeleine L’Engle on Creativity, Hope, Getting Unstuck, and How Studying Science Enriches Art” (Brainpickings)
- Sara Scribner, “Roxane Gay: ‘I think the world is ambivalent about feminism’” (Salon)
- Megan Stielstra, “What Would You Grab in a Fire?” (The New York Times)
- Edra Ziesk, “Glad Hall: On the Cycles of Home” (The Millions)
Monthly Archives: January 2015
the world is ambivalent about feminism
[T]here’s not a lot of factual awareness of feminism. It’s more like this word, this scary word, that maybe doesn’t apply to our lives for most of these students. And then some of them are curious and starting to dabble in thinking about feminism and what that might mean in their lives. And some of them are just downright hostile toward feminism because they think it’s something it’s not. And so you’re going to get a range of things. But mostly, I see a lot of ambivalence.
…
I think the world is ambivalent about feminism. So I can’t blame college students. I think they’re reflecting the greater culture’s attitude toward feminism. So what I can do is, in ways that are appropriate, advocate for feminism and help the students learn what feminism is about.
allowed to fail
Sticking my neck out has been something I have learned to do. And I think it’s a good thing.
[…]
Human beings are the only creatures who are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it’s dead. But we’re allowed to learn from our mistakes and from our failures. And that’s how I learn, by falling flat on my face and picking myself up and starting all over again. If I’m not free to fail, I will never start another book, I’ll never start a new thing.
—Madeleine L’Engle
in Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery
and Invention (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
via Brainpickings
why
are we always overwhelmed and never just whelmed?
transitive verb
1: to turn (as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something : cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect
2: to overcome in thought or feeling : overwhelm <whelmed with a rush of joy — G. A. Wagner>intransitive verb
: to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it
2014 Failures (and Successes)
So… these were my writing-ish goals for 2014:
- Finish the Dissertation. No, really. Stick a freaking spork in this thing. [hahaha. ok, so I got it to almost-done, and then I got distracted. see below.]
- Move TC (the lit journal) to WordPress. [YES! YES, I DID THIS.]
- Establish freelance editing business. [I made some moves in that direction at the beginning of the year, but then other things took precedence.]
- Keep record of words written (so I don’t have to answer with a vague ‘maybe?’ to 500-words-a-day challenge question next year ;)). [Yeah, no. zzz.]
- Bonus: Do something creative with my Tumblr. (deliberate vagueness!) [Also no.]
Ok, so what happened is I applied to teach a class and was hired, so I got distracted with that. (I knew this would happen, which is why I stuck with TAing for so long. But I really like this class–it’s feminism/info tech, so…) Getting it all organized, syllabus & stuff, in July/Aug, and then teaching it for the first time in the fall. Anyway, I’m teaching the same class this semester, so it should be easier. So back to the neverending dissertation I go… (blah. I’m so over it, tbh. which is how I’ve felt at the end of every degree, so… I think that’s a good thing?)
Usual TC contributions:
- Excerpts From My Commonplace Book: On Not Writing, December 2014
- What We Were Reading in 2014: Recommended by the Editors, November 2014 (with Stephanie Lenz)
- Tales From the Inbox: Baker & Beaver Discuss First Reading, September 2014 (with Stephanie Lenz)
- What Sets You Apart: On Valuing Your Own Experience, August 2014
- What Writing Is Really Like, March 2014
I’m getting good at doing “cheat” articles 😉 And I love co-writing in docs with Steph. The September article was so fun to write.
- Speak Your Truth, TC 14:3 (September 2014)
- See the World, TC 14:2 (June 2014)
- Brick by Brick, TC 14:1 (March 2014)
What else? Oh, I started those “some things I read this month” posts b/c I read more than just books. I like those, will continue. And I started making Pinterest-friendly images for our articles at TC b/c I noticed we were getting lots of traffic from there. TC’s traffic is wayyyy up since I moved everything to WordPress, so I’m pretty stoked about that. Also, I did like a comic thing for the March AB article and Steph and I started doing podcasts. Look at me, putting my drawings and voice on the interwebs. So yeah, I may have failed at most of my named goals for the year, but (THE) OPPOSITE was an excellent word-of-the-year choice. My track record of being better at just doing things than setting/meeting goals remains intact.
With that said, I have just one writing goal for 2015: FINISH THE DAMN DISSERTATION.
And my word for the year is: OPEN.
in 2015
I resolve to…
- figure out how to buy jeans I can wear longer than 15 minutes without being able to take them off like they’re sweatpants (why do they stretch so much? how am I supposed to know what size to buy if fitting room fit =/= real life fit? #thingsishouldhavefiguredoutbynow)
- subtweet more (the witty kind, obvs.)
- get a new phone so I can annoy people with emojis
The Remainder Table 