Did you lose work in Microsoft Word?
Twice in the last month, my computer has crashed or rebooted while I had files open and work unsaved. These issues were caused by hardware, not software, by the way. When I restarted and reopened the files, the work was gone—and in both cases it was work I really, REALLY didn’t want to have to rebuild. The first case was so horrible that I went looking for solutions–and I found one! It worked great for the second case, too, so I wanted to share it here—both for you and for me, since I’m guessing it will happen again.
- In Word, click on the File menu, and then on Options, near the bottom left.
- Click the Save option on the left.
- Hope and pray that you have Save AutoRecover information every X minutes checked. If you don’t, this probably won’t work. It’s legit essential.
- If it is, copy the URL for the AutoRecover file location.
- Hold down the Windows key (generally between FN and ALT on your keyboard) and press the E key. OR open File Explorer from your Start menu.
- Paste the URL into the address bar of the File Explorer and hit enter.
- The folder should show, and you ideally should be able to find your file.
- Then double-click the file name and it should open up.
- Then save the material elsewhere and move on with your life, appreciating that you live in this advanced era of indoor plumbing, effective vaccines, chocolate, and autosave.
- If this doesn’t work, I got nothing. Maybe you saved it somewhere else? Anyway, back up your files, and good luck!
You Should Host a Tea Party
This past father’s day, I felt like we needed a change of pace and something fun to do, so I decided we should have a tea party. The specifics were inspired in part by a tea party we go to most years at a sci-fi/fantasy convention in Williamsburg, VA, called Marscon. While theirs is Dr. Who-themed, I also wanted to keep our tea party fairly simple, so there was no theme, though that shouldn’t be hard to weave in if you feel so inclined.
My first step was to plan the menu, with suggestions from my stepdaughters. Much of our menu was inspired by Marscon’s, but I simplified it a bit, and added some things I knew my husband would enjoy. My aim was to have some homemade things, mixed with a few things from the store, and a few others that just needed basic construction. That way, we’d have lots of variety, lots of food, and some great teas. Of course, you can serve absolutely anything you like. As a rule, offer things in small amounts, like cucumber sandwiches cut into 4 triangles, because it’s fun to eat lots of different things.
How did I fail to get a decent photo of the tea party itself? It’s a mystery and a tragedy.
Our menu:
- Pimento cheese on celery: This is pretty easy to make if you have a food processor, though you can also buy it pre-made, at least if you live in the south. There are tons of recipes out there, but give this one a try if you don’t have a favorite. I do usually add more pimentos, because I love them! Then just spoon some into 2- to 3-inch sections of celery. Very tasty! The pimento cheese can be made a day or two in advance.
- Caprese skewers: Use bamboo skewers for grilling, or even toothpicks. Or just treat it like a salad. Add mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes, and fresh basil leaves to a skewer, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Our kids love them–and best of all, my oldest daughter made these herself. Don’t make these in advance–and don’t refrigerate fresh basil, or tomatoes unless they’ve been cut.
- Curry chicken salad on mini croissants: I found curry chicken salad at Trader Joes that was quite good, though possibly a little strong. You could also use any kind of pre-made chicken salad, or make your own. I found mini croissants at WalMart, but you could also cut up larger ones. (I actually cut the minis into two.) Or use crackers, or whatever else appeals.
- Ham and cheese biscuits: My husband loves biscuits and ham, so this was an easy choice for me. I wanted them to be fresh and good, without my having to bake them from scratch, so I bought one of those tubes of you-bake biscuits at the grocery store. I also got some thick pre-sliced ham, and sliced some extra-sharp cheddar. Offer condiments based on your crowd’s preferences. You might also brush the biscuits with butter and add garlic powder or whatever appeals before putting them in the oven.
- Deviled eggs: I love these so much, and the kids enjoy making them without supervision or assistance (!), so it was also an easy choice. If you hard boil and even peel the eggs a day or two in advance, these are pretty fast to make.
- Cucumber sandwiches: Use thin white bread, put a thin layer of spreadable cream cheese on each side, add thinly sliced, peeled cucumber, and cut off the crusts. (These are the only sandwiches I’d ever do that for, but they’re meant to be delicate.) You can also add dill weed or other things, to your taste. These are big favorites, and my youngest daughter made them perfectly.
- Mini scones with lemon curd and jam: During the plague, I have made scones twice, and both times they were dreadful. So, I started with a different recipe, but also one that was new to me. Risky, but it paid off. They were delicious! Leave out the vanilla, because that has no business being in scones, and add raisins or currants. Cut into small pieces to make mini-scones. (I also learned that you can freeze the dough, and they bake up perfectly later on. That was a wonderful treat–especially because the kids scarfed these up with lightning speed.) I found lemon curd at Trader Joe’s, but I understand it’s not hard to make. I also would have liked clotted cream, which is traditional on scones, but couldn’t find any. I’ve been told it’s not hard to make either, so maybe next time. I made the scones the night before, and they were perfect.
As for the tea, we had four different varieties. That’s one aspect of the Marscon tea that I’ve always enjoyed, though I often don’t like some of their teas. The solution to that is to understand your audience, and then offer them three new teas that you think they’ll like, plus one old standby for when they’re done being adventurous. That means no bergamot for us, but mint for my husband. First, we had Tazo’s Cucumber White tea, which is low caffeine. It has black tea and lime flavors, and it was good, though subtle. This tea made me wish I’d offered lemon or lime wedges at the table. We also had Teavana’s Peach Tranquility, which is decaffeinated. It has apple, pineapple, and chamomile flavors as well as peach. I quite liked it. The tea I enjoyed most was one I first tasted at the last (2020) Marscon, which was held shortly before the world went sideways. It’s called Williamsburg Port, from Discover Teas, and it’s a mix of black tea, apple chunks, cranberry, blackcurrant, hibiscus, and other flavors. It’s absolutely delicious, as well as a dramatic rich red color.
One issue with this part of the shindig is that, as I realized very late in the planning (shortly before we were due to sit and eat), we didn’t have any teapots in the house. I have at least two or three, but most of my stuff is in storage right now for a variety of reasons (long story). So, please have teapots handy, or a reasonable substitute. (I used a glass 2-cup measure and it was not a reasonable substitute.) Note that they’re easy to find at thrift stores, which it will one day be safe to go back into. Heat the pots with hot water before making tea, to help keep the tea warm, and wrap the pot in a towel for insulation. Also, don’t over-steep the tea (leave the teabags in for too long), as it will tend to make the tea bitter. Part of the fun for us, once we’ve tried all of the teas, is going back for our favorites, so make extra. And if you have picky drinkers, keep some juice handy. Of course, incclude a sugar bowl on the table, and some honey if that’s your thing. Asking people to pass the food and the sugar and so forth is one of the charming aspects of the event, to me.
For next time, I’ve decided on a few changes. I will try to add one more item to the menu (though not sure what yet), and bring the food out in two or three courses, to slow things down a bit. If any of your partiers are the kind to wolf their food, I recommend this approach. We also ran out of a few things, so I will generally make more food–though we were also quite ravenous by the time we sat down.
I’m also going to try to bring in a theme in some way, if only in the form of trivia cards. We have Harry Potter trivia for sure, and probably Dr. Who, and maybe more. It’s key to pick trivia or another non-space-intensive game that everyone can play, or you will lose the kids. Consider a phone app for that as well.
I’ve already told my husband I want a tea party of my own sometime this year, so he’s ready for it. It’s a great opportunity to involve the kids in the prep, and it’s fun to use nice china if you have it. If you don’t: well, it’s easy to find china for cheap these days. Apparently the Millennials aren’t really into china. But it’s pretty, and fancy, and nice for special occasions. If you own a home and aren’t planning to move soon, maybe pick some up at a yard sale or a thrift store and have fun with it. Or check and see if your parents or grandparents have some they don’t use and would like to pass on.
In the end, though, it’s all about gathering at a table with friends or family to eat, drink, and be merry. Enjoy it, as often as you (safely) can!
Meriah’s Kitchen Hacks Part 1: The Principle of Multiples
I have said for years that I want to cook more, and once I got married (July 27, 2020), both my husband and I committed to doing that. But, you know, life is busy, and often it was easier logistically to stop at a restaurant while we were out doing other things, or maybe pickup takeout on the way home. And then COVID-19 happened, and there wasn’t a lot of “on the way home” for me anymore—plus, I did my best to avoid even those quick interactions. That made cooking at home a way of life—and it’s been wonderful!
Along the way, I’ve learned a few things that have made my life a lot easier in the kitchen, and I wanted to share in the hope that they make cooking easier and more fun for you. First is the principle of multiples. This is something I learned years ago. I spent way too much of my life looking for a pair of scissors or a hammer, because I had only one, and sometimes someone would use it and fail to put it back where it belongs—assuming it even has a “place.” The solution, I realized during college, was largely to buy several of each. I currently have maybe five pairs of scissors: positioned in pen cups, that one kitchen junk drawer, a small bedroom drawer for things like nail clippers and razors, and one in my toolbox for good measure. Even if one gets put somewhere weird or ends up covered by a stack of papers, I can always find another one. I also have three hammers, four or five tape measures, and a similar number of fingernail clippers. It’s awesome.
This year, I put that rule into action in my kitchen. I’ve been gradually buying extra measuring spoons, often at thrift stores, but I picked up more tablespoons on Amazon, since I didn’t have enough of those. Bonus kitchen hack: the biggest problem with my large array of measuring spoons was that I always had to dig through the kitchen tool drawer every time I needed one, and sometimes at a critical juncture when I really needed to add a spice to a sizzling or bubbling pot quickly, or when my hands were coated with food. So, I did what I’d often considered in the past, but rejected because I didn’t think I’d use them enough: I put every one into a coffee mug to keep on the counter. It’s seriously the best. When we eventually go back to normal and my cooking reduces in frequency—though hopefully never back to pre-COVID-19 levels—I will find a cover for the mug to keep the dust off of them. But in the meantime, they are getting used, almost daily.
Another item that used to cause me problems was dish towels. I often spent too much time digging through clean laundry piles (not mine, you understand) and the dryer looking for one of the few we had—some of which really weren’t very absorbent—and realized I needed to apply the principle of multiples to this situation too. So I hit Amazon and looked at reviews, and selected this 12-pack of dish towels. Now we always have several in the linen closet ready to go. If I spill water, like yesterday, I can just throw a couple on the floor to soak it up and go grab another. I can use a towel for baking and wipe my hands and mop up spills with it, and go grab another. Etcetera. It’s the best. They also help cut down on paper towel overuse, which makes me crazy.
I similarly realized that what the kitchen was missing was dishrags. We didn’t use them at home growing up, but my grandmother did, and now I appreciate their value. I also discovered that you can get them with a layer of plastic scrubby stuff on one side. They’re perfect for countertop cleanup, in particular when you don’t want to use the kind-of-gross scrubbing sponge you use to get food off of dishes. And, look, a 10-pack!
Other multiples that I appreciate are cutting boards, glass baking dishes (with lids!), silicone scrapers, spatulas, and mixing bowls. Most of these things are quite inexpensive, and they have more than earned their place in my kitchen. Best of luck to you in yours!
[Top]Building and tracking habits (bullet journaling part 2)
As I continue to learn about bullet journals and evolve my own practice, I thought it would be helpful for me, and hopefully you as well, if I recorded some notes about stuff that’s helping and stuff that isn’t. Today (29 May 2020), I spent some time thinking about habit tracking and weekly planning. Here’s what I came up with, mostly about habits.
Done right, habit tracking in a bullet journal can help both with building habits and with supporting your use of a bullet journal (which is, itself, a habit). If building or improving habits is important to you, recording them will support the habit. If you’re enthusiastic about doing and recording those habits, it will encourage you to use your planner. Win-win!
One of the ways to support that cycle is to make sure the habits are specific, measurable, and practical, and that some of them, at least, are small*. Small habits include things like taking vitamins, flossing, or doing stretches–actions that might take just one to five minutes and are easy to fit into your day. This is why I track the number of servings of veggies and fruits I have in a day, rather than to just assign a habit of having 5 or more. I’m almost always going to have *some*, and that’s much better than an all-or-nothing approach.
Of course, it’s also important for habits to be meaningful. One issue I struggle with for my habits right now relates to definition and meaning. Specifically, one of my goals is movement or exercise, but what does that mean for me? I have a dog (he’s amazing!), and I get a fair bit of exercise just walking him every day. What I want and need is *more* exercise. But I haven’t yet determined how to define that. If I garden for 45 minutes, or go for a 30-minute walk, or work out on the treadmill and/or exercise bike I have access to for 30 minutes or more, that definitely counts. But what about 15 minutes on the exercise bike, or 10 minutes of vigorous weeding? Where is the line?
I don’t have that answer yet, but more on that when I do. Meanwhile, check this video out for more on weekly planning, which is another thing I’m still working out.
[Top]I would never do a bullet journal
Or so I said to myself. Why? Because of all the fancy art projects I’ve seen that people call bullet journals. So many of the ones I’ve seen online are elaborate, colorful, artful, and clearly took an enormous amount of time to create and maintain. In some cases, they appear to be an end in themselves, And that, to me, is precisely what I don’t want in a planner. A good planner (and a bullet journal is really mostly a planner) should serve me, not the other way around. And so, I discounted bullet journals entirely. (Though, let me add, you do you. If you want your bullet journal to be an elaborate art project, have at it. This is aimed at people who’ve ignored them, as I had, because of that side of bullet journals.)
But then, during the early stages of the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, I watched a video purportedly about productivity but that was mostly about bullet journals, and what I saw surprised and intrigued me. The bullet journal method was originally designed by a graphic designer named Ryder Carroll, who wrote this book. I confess, I haven’t read the book (though I did just buy it). Instead, I’ve been learning my way around bullet journals through the YouTube channel of Matt Ragland, who made the video I mentioned at the start of this exciting paragraph. I use Matt’s videos because he’s very straightforward and very likable, and his work was my entry point, but you might also want to check out Ryder Carroll’s videos. Also, bonus video link! Matt posted this one recently about his morning routine and I really like it.
I’m not going to explain to you how to do a bullet journal (the videos do a great job of explaining that, along with the essential visuals), but I am going to tell you why I see them as valuable. First, I’ve always had trouble with regular planners. One major reason is that there are stretches of time where I just don’t need them. Like, during the semester, I teach two days a week, have office hours another, and sometimes those three days are just very straightforward. And over the weekend, I might (or might have, in the olden days) just be out doing something with my family or my husband. And then there are trips, whether for vacation or work. Do I need a planner for those days? I mean, maybe—but often I don’t. Even today, I have just one meeting, and a vague intention to do laundry (didn’t happen) and do some writing (check it out—I’m writing right now!). I don’t necessarily feel the need to write that down in a planner. What that means, when I’m using a “normal planner,” is that I have a ton of blank pages. And blank pages mean failure and guilt. And then, at some point, I never pick it up again. Sigh.
With a bullet journal, though, there’s more flexibility. I can start and stop whenever I want. If I skip a day or a few days, or even a few months, I can just start the next day right where I left off. Not that that’s an ideal approach, mind you, but it’s efficient, welcoming, and easy, and I like all of those things. It also means I don’t have to start in January or, with an academic year planner, in August. Perfect!
There are two other benefits I will mention before I stop talking and (I hope) you go check out those videos, if you haven’t yet. One is that you can use almost anything for bullet journaling. The dot grid format is standard, but not in any way required. If you elect to get fancy as I did (total notebook and pen fan!), you can find lots of nifty notebooks on Amazon or elsewhere. There’s one made by Ryder Carroll, one made by Leuchtturm, and (among many others) the lovely book I got, by Tumbitri Meri. That last one has the benefit of being relatively inexpensive, as well as having lots of bells and whistles, like three ribbons for marking your place, page numbers (which are super useful), and a pen loop.
And finally—and this is actually pretty key for me—bullet journals are fantastic for habit tracking. On the right-hand page of my full month spread, I note when I’ve gotten exercise, when I’ve written, and when I’ve eaten my fruits and veggies. All three of those are more likely to get done if I record my progress, so I’m hoping this will work.
There are other benefits—lots of them—so if you haven’t found a planner that’s just right for you, give the minimalist bullet journal style a try and let me know how it goes. I will, meanwhile, keep at it and post an update down the line.
Stay safe and be well!
[Top]The Truth about Tabbouleh
I’ve always believed that most people who don’t like champagne (not counting people who don’t drink) really just dislike crap champagne: the cheap bottles that people usually buy and serve for New Years and other celebrations, with more of a sense of obligation than a desire to pop open something tasty. My theory has been proven valid on many occasions, when I’ve offered up the good stuff to haters and turned them into champagne fans.
Well, it turns out my crap theory of champagne also applies to tabbouleh—at least for me. I’ve never liked it. It’s always struck me as something I would like, but no matter how many times I try it: ugh. Gloppy, oily, and lacking in flavor. And then I went to Lebanon, and WOW. Turns out the real problem is that Americans suck at making tabbouleh. And it’s not just that it tastes so good: it makes me feel good when I eat it, like Popeye with his spinach.
This has a bit more bulgur than I was intending, but it was SO good. The sundried tomato-herb goat cheese was a wonderful addition.
To be honest, I didn’t even recognize it at first, when it was placed on a restaurant table next to me. It was so…green. But real tabbouleh isn’t supposed to be bulgur salad with some parsley. It’s supposed to be parsley salad with some bulgur. It’s typically dressed with lemon juice and high-quality olive oil, but not too much! Additions like chopped tomatoes and either finely chopped onions or sliced green onions were often on the side. And I like to eat it with crumbled herby goat cheese. It’s not much more complicated than that—or it doesn’t need to be. If a bowl of chopped parsley doesn’t sound appealing to you, just take my word for it–it’s fantastic. Give it a try.
Shortly after I returned from my trip I started looking at recipes online, and I was struck by the variety. Some recipes call for mint leaves, diced cucumber, garlic, couscous instead of bulgur, lime juice instead of lemon, and a variety of seasonings, though usually salt and pepper. The photos almost all show far more bulgur than was included in tabbouleh I was served in Lebanon, where I typically had to look closely to see if it was there at all. And once, while on a side-trip to Jordan, the taboula (as they spelled it) seemed to have none. I ended up picking a recipe that looked fairly good, and simply ignoring parts of it that didn’t appeal to me. And I made it with more bulgur than I met with in Lebanon, because I like it. Give this a try and see what you think.
Meriah’s Tabbouleh Recipe
Start with about a quarter cup or so of fine or extra-fine bulgur. I found this in an international food store, but you can also get it online. Regular bulgur is too large/present for this dish. If that’s all you can get, you might try running it through a food processor. Or just go for it—I won’t judge you. (Much.) Pour a half cup of warm water over the bulgur and let it sit. (If you’re not using fine bulgur, follow the instructions on the package.)
Meanwhile, get a whole ton of flat leaf parsley. OK, maybe not a ton. Recipes usually call for two bunches, but no two bunches are ever the same size. (Two bunches of parsley should make a nice side dish for four to six people, depending on how much they like it.) Get a bag and a bowl and make yourself comfortable. Remove most (nearly all) of the stems from the parsley, and discard the stems. I did this in bed while watching TV, and I recommend that approach. Also works well for preparing basil for pesto.
Rinse the parsley and mince it fine.
No—finer than that.
Chop a large tomato into small pieces. Use any kind of tomatoes, in a volume to suit you.
Mince four green onions—both the white and green parts. Feel free to use white, yellow, or red onions instead, and these can also be served on the side. My household onion hater didn’t complain about them, so use more if you’re a fan.
Drain the bulgur if needed, and mix all this stuff together.
Juice a large lemon into a bowl, and fish out all the seeds. Add a similar amount (or a bit less) of fruity extra-virgin olive oil. Because of the nature of the dish, people will be able to taste the oil, so quality matters here.
Mix that in, taste, and adjust as desired. Add salt and pepper if the spirit moves you.
Serve it, if that appeals to you, with herby goat cheese. Enjoy!
Note: Because of the lemon juice and its effect on the parsley, this won’t last long. Either make only as much as you’ll eat within about a day or so, or only add the juice and oil to the portion you’ll be eating that day.
It also occurred to me how easy it would be to mess with the recipe in rewarding ways. In fact, there are probably an infinite number of variations you could try. Go for it! Report back.
This article was made possible in part by support from the VCU Global Education Office, which sponsored the amazing trip to Lebanon.
[Top]Please pick up your eyes
Oh gods, I just did it. I just wrote the words: “He walked down the hallway with his eyes on the floor.”
That is so disgusting. He’s going to get eye slime on the linoleum, and dust and dirt on those sticky orbs. NASTY! Plus, they’re super hard to put back in, unless your characters are robots, and even then it depends on how well they were wired and whether they were removed carefully so as not to damage the connectors.
And the thing is, I know better. I even teach this rule of writing (Keep your characters’ eyes in their heads) to college students. But it’s so, so easy to make this mistake.
Florida Fish and Wildlife, Mystery Eyeball (Head-on view), FWC photo by Carli Segelson.
I can see why people do it so often—why their characters run their eyes over people, or send their eyes across the room. There are tons of sayings that refer to eyes in that way. For example: “Keep your eyes on the prize,” which is both good advice (as long as not taken literally) and rhyming, which is essential for a good saying. (Not really.)
And there’s “Keep your eyes on the ball,” which is also good advice, if you’re playing a ball-related sport. The phrase “Keep your eyes on me,” which is sometimes used in teaching situations, should absolutely never be taken literally, unless it’s a horror movie—which would be pretty cool, now that I think about it.
Granted, your readers will know what you’re trying to say, but enough of them will stumble over words like “he dropped his eyes to the floor,” thinking of the literal meaning, that it just makes good sense—and good writing—to avoid them. So, instead, have your characters aim their attention, or focus their gaze, or simply look: at the floor, across the room, at the ball, etc. Because if you run your eyes over someone, especially nowadays, you’re gonna get arrested. And that’s fair, because you clearly need help.
[Top]My Spark Became My Sway
Last summer I attended a month-long writing residency at the Anderson Center at Tower View in Red Wing, Minnesota. I took a ton of pictures while there, and a few videos, and even kept a journal for a few days until I decided I didn’t have time to maintain it. Upon my return, I wanted to take all of that material, write a larger narrative around it, and publish it on the web in some way, so that people could learn more about the residency, see some images of the center, the flora and fauna, the region, and our field trips, and so that I could share my experience. I also wanted to experiment with digital storytelling, which is a thing that has intrigued me for a while, since I’m a very enthusiastic photographer.
The question was, how would I do it technologically? I did a bunch of searching online, using search terms like “digital,” “story,” and “free.” (Free is my favorite price.) A lot of the tools that came up really weren’t appropriate for what I wanted to do, and a fair number are aimed at K-12 students. This is a great thing, but not what I was looking for. Among a small number of tools that looked suitable, what I chose to use was Adobe Spark.
I picked Spark for a variety of reasons: Adobe is well known and they make great products, it was free, the samples looked great, and the design options were strong. So, off I went, building away. However, after I’d gotten pretty far into the process, I discovered some issues. Critical ones. First and foremost for me, undo didn’t work. I could delete something accidentally and it was just lost. Forever. This would certainly not be acceptable. The next problem was that there was no way to export or save, and the company made it clear on Facebook they had no real intention of adding it. (Though apparently there is a third-party tool that will do it.) And, though I didn’t know it until I switched, if you copy and paste material from Spark into Sway, for example, or a Word doc, Spark randomly inserts extra spaces into your sentences, here and there. Bite me, Spark. (Being an online app, it can change constantly, though, so no guarantees these will continue to be issues.)
A short video from one of our few excursions while we were at the residency. Wonderful experience!
I did a bunch more searching for tools, and found Sway, which was developed by Microsoft and released in 2015. It’s apparently meant to be used for presentations, manuals, reports, and so forth, and worked really well for what I wanted to do. (And undo works, which is super keen since I accidentally deleted a huge chunk of the story I created at one point.) As with any of these tools, the design options are limited, and there are things I liked better about Spark, but I’m still happy with how it turned out. My biggest problem is that I was limited in the number of objects I could include in my Sway. Unless you subscribe to Office 365 (which isn’t cheap), you can have no more than 200 objects. An object is apparently a photo or video or paragraph of text. The digital story I created has just about 200, if you’d like to see what that looks like.
I would prefer more flexibility, more design options, more control over appearance, but that’s hardly shocking considering my background as a graphic designer (though it’s been a while). I’m used to being able to move things a pixel at a time, modify kerning and leading (if you don’t know what they are—trust me, they’re cool), and use hundreds of different fonts. But if you could do that, it would be too complex for most users. In particular, though, I wanted to be able to do more with the images and video. The choices were limited, and I didn’t like the way captions were handled (you have to click on them to read the full caption).
So, what’s next? I want very much to experiment more with digital stories. I plan to look at what I can do with WordPress templates, and keep searching for tools. I also want to try more things with image-centric and video stories. And I’m always happy to see examples and tool recommendations, free or otherwise, so send ‘em my way!
[Top]‘Twas Time to Think
I drove to Red Wing, Minnesota from Richmond, Virginia recently, and back. It was quite the drive: about 18 hours there, and maybe 27 hours home (took the long way back—via Brampton, Ontario). During this very long drive, I used a friend’s Audible account to listen to audiobooks, because I knew I’d get bored–and also deeply sick of searching for acceptable radio stations. (I got standards, y’all.) This worked well and it helped pass the time, which is what it was meant to do. But it also stopped me from thinking. It felt intensely passive at times, and I just didn’t like how that felt.
On a more recent trip, I traveled from Richmond to Neshanic 
Station, New Jersey, then to Newton, Massachusetts, and then to Bowdoinham, Maine. This was a three-day trip, so none of the driving days were anywhere near as long as the three biggest driving days on my previous trip. There was also more to see, it being the very densely populated Northeast—and the drivers were more demented. Also, the radio stations were much better. But I’d still planned on spending the trip listening to a book. Somehow though, without actually planning it, I didn’t end up playing an audiobook.
The result? Deep thoughts. Ideas. Solutions. Alliterative blog titles. Wandering daydreams involving…well, never mind about that. I even recorded some notes with a voice recording app on my phone. The point is, my mind was active. I did the sort of thinking that can only be done with stretches of time and nothing else to occupy me—I mean, aside from traffic, construction, rain storms, and a weird mass of press in a small town in Pennsylvania. (Only my GPS knows why I drove to Neshanic Station via PA.)
Time sitting still or walking is arguably better for such thinking, as it’s less distracting, but this experience reminded me that I have had essential epiphanies while driving. I’ve come up with such valuable connections and solutions, while gently trying to tease apart knots in plots or a dissertation chapter, for example, that I’ve pulled over to write, which is saying a lot for me.
And of course, it reminded me of how little time I actually spend bored anymore, with nothing to do but think. My cell phone has saved me from having to think while waiting on lines, sitting in waiting rooms, waiting for events to start, trying to wake up or fall asleep, and thousands of other times. Yay?
I do sometimes wonder what I’ve failed to accomplish because of this great benefit of technology. One thing I do know for sure is that I won’t be listening to an audiobook on my trip home from Bowdoinham. Not that I think they’re evil, and not that I won’t ever listen to one in the future—they definitely serve a purpose—but I need more thinking time, and this will be a great opportunity to take some.
Ironically, the day after I wrote this, an artist friend (Kim-Lee Kho) posted this article to Facebook. Brilliant minds, and all that.
[Top]I <3 Worksheets: Or, How to Help Students Develop Research Questions More Effectively
It seems to be widely accepted among college professors that the use of worksheets in teaching is lazy teaching. What I’ve learned, however—especially in the last year—is that students love worksheets.
Well, maybe “love” is too strong a word, but I do know from powerful recent experience that worksheets are effective when designed well. I expect this is partly because students are very familiar with worksheets by the time they get to college. Hand them one, therefore, and they will generally do it, willingly. This is true whether I hand them out in class, or post them online to print and fill out.
The reason this is so important for me is that it made for a huge improvement in the first few weeks of my sophomore composition classes last semester. The class is built around a single research project that each student develops and works on throughout the course. Due to a change in curriculum a few years ago, we no long have the first few weeks of class to work on developing the research question. So in the past, I’ve given them instructions and asked them to work on it themselves for homework. The instructions consist of demos of Google Scholar, and how to do what I call “level one research” to help develop a reasonable research question, with examples.
Photo by Chris Yarzab.
This is all well and good: the problem is, students don’t do it. They show back up in class, and few of them have done more than think about it in basic terms. Because the assignment wasn’t concrete enough (even though I specifically said, “come to class with a research question”), it became easy to ignore. I realized a year or so ago that a worksheet, with individual steps and spaces for them to fill out the results, would probably work better.
I was admittedly reluctant to actually put one together, because it felt childish—and they ought to just do the homework. But I finally decided that my reluctance was itself childish, because what matters is what works (and even my colleagues can’t make it through a faculty meeting without playing on their cell phones, so we’re in no position to judge). So, last winter break (“break”—lol), I made time to put something together.
And—WOW! Nearly everyone filled out the sheet in full, and I have never seen a group of students better prepared to discuss and refine research questions in class. It was a tremendous relief—probably for them as much as for me—and it simply worked. With slight revisions, the worksheet is linked below. I would be delighted to hear ideas about improvements—and meanwhile, I’m thinking about other ways I can use worksheets in class. I don’t see using tons of them, but a few more would probably be beneficial for all of us.
Happy teaching!
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