In fall 2002, I defended my master’s thesis at the University of Arkansas’s journalism MA program. I was one of the only — perhaps to this day THE SINGULAR ONLY — person to choose to complete 12 graduate hours in educational technology en route to my MA Journalism degree. Because I’m participating in Magna’s ChatGPT …
This morning, I finished reading adrienne maree brown‘s short book, We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice. I needed to read this book–and, probably, you do, too. brown’s central thesis is that progress does not happen when we are constantly engaging in call-out culture. brown is focused on the behavior of …
When we’re young, I think we all imagined that one day, we’ll be famous. At least, I know I did. I remember watching The Disney Channel as a kid, especially The Mickey Mouse Club (the early 1990s revival, starring future superstars like Christina Aguilera and Tony Lucca and Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake and Ryan …
After basically just not writing this post last year — why? I have no idea — I’m back for my sixth (mostly) annual installment of my favorite reads from the last year. Before I get started, please note that these are my favorite reads of 2022, not my favorite books of 2022. Why the distinction? …
The Airing of Grievances I’ve never been one to celebrate the secular holiday of Festivus, brought into the public consciousness in the 1990s by Seinfeld. Festivus includes several components: an unadorned aluminum foil pole, an airing of grievances, and a physical strength challenge, along with a meal and labeling easily explainable events as “Festivus miracles.” …
“I know you don’t want to hear this, Liz, but I really think you’re on the spectrum.” A friend said this to me during a particularly tense phone conversation back in the spring. It wasn’t the first time they’d suggested I might have Autistic traits, but it was the most forcefully they’d expressed it. When …
I was chatting with someone a couple of days ago, working through how I’m feeling about this season in my life. For the last few months (let’s call them “summer”), I’ve been faaaaaar less ‘productive’ than my normal pace of life. If you’ve been around for more than a minute, you know that doing a …
Hurt people … hurt people. I don’t remember when I first heard this saying, but it has become a near-daily mantra. When someone else’s actions sting, when I’m disappointed or hurt or betrayed, I try to remind myself that it’s probably not actually all about me. Have a seat, Ego. Step up to the plate, …
Our classes start in two weeks, and today I sat down to write an email to my spring-semester students. Are you surprised to hear it was L-O-N-G?? Of course not, unless you’re here for the first time. 😉 I’m so happy with the tone it struck, I thought I’d share with my readers… just because …
Today is our third day of classes on my college’s campus. In person, without any legal backup to mandate masks or vaccines, or even require COVID-positive reporting. In other words, we’re well underway at becoming a COVID hotspot. It’s inevitable. In my class today, 1/3 of my students had masks on. I am literally not …
