Blogs

In August, Amy Rubens (@ambulantscholar on Twitter) posted a thoughtful post on her personal blog about her plans for the semester and how to continue her research agenda while teaching (and also adjusting to a new town and new school). Amy and I met via Twitter some time in the past year when we were trying to finish our dissertations, balance work along with dissertating, and blogging about our phd exploits. We both graduated last May, and are embarking on new jobs this fall. In her post, Amy pointed out that in order to get her conference presentations done in time she will be blogging about her reading; it's a way for her to stay accountable and to digest the information on a long-term. She also discussed how she thinks of her blogging as a form of public scholarship, an idea I sympathize with.

Last week I had a lightbulb moment. Why are so many financial aid rules at odds with so many academic policies and goals?

As September rapidly turns into October, it’s possible that your summer vacation might seem like a distant memory. Maybe it’s time to think about your next one.

Yeah, I stole that from Charlie Sheen, but the inspiration for this post comes from a legitimate comedic source: Louie.

Whispersync is Amazon's new feature that allows for Kindle e-books and Audible audiobooks to sync up. This makes perfect sense, as Amazon owns Audible, and can leverage common platforms and accounts to provide a seamless reading experience across e-book and audiobook reading methods.

Friends, it's time for a serious conversation. We need to talk about your coffee. Bad coffee is a common affliction. With our busy lives we tend to seek out the things that are easy to use.

The cheating scandal at Harvard which could involve as many as 125 students in a single class has gotten extensive publicity. And the impression given is that this is an unusual event. For example, as quoted in the New York Times, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education noted that this cheating incident at Harvard “is unprecedented in its scope and magnitude.” This may be correct, given that it involves almost half of the class, but cheating and academic dishonesty are not unusual events and the “scope and magnitude” of what happens nationwide is certainly disturbing.

As I have described here before, a life-threatening illness and scary diagnosis several years ago transformed my relationships with myself, my loved ones, and my work in a number of ways. One of the resolutions I made during that horrible time was that, if I survived, I would never again refrain from pursuing a goal or passion simply from fear.