Which Martial Art?

I am still amused with how uncommitted I can be at times. When I applied to TTU, I was starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and continuing with my running. Given my workload the past term, I had little time or motivation to go grapple. Grappling is very intense, and I, frankly, was too tired or not in the mood after long days teaching. My teaching was too important to me. So the BJJ slid. Still, in spite of this, I continued to jog.

Now, six months after I was finalizing my application, I cannot see committing to BJJ. Not where I currently am psychologically and emotionally. Sure, I'll be happy to go there and learn some of the training techniques, improve my non-existent ground game, and, generally speaking, work out with some tough guys. I am not prepared to do that every time I go to train.

In the mean time, I've learned that one of my colleagues at HSU is opening a Tae Kwan Do school. In addition to competing at world cup level and training with Olympic competitors, he teaches composition. Hmmm. Limb destruction and effective use of quotations in the same three minute span... Of course it makes sense.

In a lot of ways, the actual individual art does not matter that much to me. What matters is the spirit of instruction, the caliber of teaching, the heart of the school, and the efficacy of the art. So, I've shifted yet again. I find it highly entertaining that each time I think I have found what it is I am going to do for the rest of my time things change. Then they change again.

This shifting, being slippery, is how many of our students live in FYC. They do not have a clue what their major will be, and each week it's a radical and new commitment. So, here I am, as a student, experiencing exactly that same kind of shift. This kind of shift, this lack of surety is certainly going to be good for my sense of professional balance and placement!

So, for now, it appears like I'll be studying Tae Kwan Do. But I will continue to run. For the time being, much of my running is dedicated to interval work. It's a good change, but it's exhausting.

Preparing for January

I am still on vacation, and I am attempting to do nothing related to composition, the PhD program, or official identity stuff at all. Hmmm. What is a boy to do?

I have been cleaning and organizing papers and books and cds and dvds the past couple days. It is obvious that I am in love with texts. Media. I love them. But I think the true vehicle of my passion is the photocopy machine. Nearly tied with the Xerox is the laser printer.

As I have cleaned things out, I have found stacks of handouts for my classes, print outs for lesson plans, articles that interested me at some point three years ago, and an endless sheaf of aborted Greg-authored texts. Hoo boy. Someone, please, help me organize my writing!

Perhaps most stunning is that I have been oblivious as to just how reliant, how dependent I am upon the laser printer and Xerox. Honestly, I should construct an altar or pen an ode to their value. Really. I have little idea on how I could have completed my professional identify without either of them. And when I think about my pops typing up his PhD on a MANUAL typewriter with CARBON PAPER, I shudder. Shudder.

So, in the New Year, I promise to be more vocally grateful for digital reproduction devices.

In the mean time, I have used this organizational time to clear shelf space for my PhD work. In order to clean space, that means I must pitch stuff. Pitching stuff means that I must make mental room for doctoral work and toss a bunch of semi-aborted projects which have collected but retain near-dead emotional energy. You know, that short story outline which is gasping for life but will never see the light of day, the seven successful steps for student success book outline that will never get past the write-up, the modestly written guide to effective thrift store shopping that, somehow, could never get past page four. Yeah. All that stuff has to go. Filed, stashed, and cut off.

I cannot speak for others, but I am emotionally involved and connected to my texts. Stacks of old work means stacks of old emo-memories. Instead of letting them go fallow and slowly die, I'm putting them out of their misery. My PhD needs my attention and energy.

It's time to cut bait. Funny thing is this: I feel so much better now that I have done this. And I feel revitalized!

On FaceBook

Yes, I have succumbed. I am now at FaceBook.

Financial Aid

This process has been chock full of interesting bumps. Fortunately, Joyce and the TC&R Posse have been great about getting information or answers back to me super-flash-quick.

Regardless of what the Financial Aid office may say or have posted, 3 PhD credits is full-time attendance. This according to Joyce after multiple queries. Why did I confirm several times? Almost every other piece of information coming from the financial aid office indicates you must have 6 credits. Thus, in money matters, I like to confirm things. I have (hopefully not to the point of being annoying), and it is very clear that there's some confusion in the FA machine. Thus, if you are a newbie in the TC&R program and taking one three credit course, you should get full-time aid.

There is a cap on the total financial aid you will receive for the year. This means that if you take the max in Fall and Spring there will be nothing left for Summer. Apparently, there is some aid available for Summer. It can be taken out of the lump total for the year if you've not maxed your F/S aid, or you can go through another application process for additional funds at higher interest rates. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) The MO for success, as I have understood from several folks, is to save all your extra Fall/Spring Financial Aid coin and apply it to the May and Summer expenses.

Summing it up, this wisdom from Lennie:

Joyce will keep you up to date on when and how to register for May. And just a heads-up for those new to the program. The May Seminar tuition and summer tuition pretty much come due at the same time (or at least within a single month). That means you need to have a larger lump of cash ready to plunk down than you might be used to for a Fall or Spring semester, and to my knowledge there isn't a payment plan option (though I sure wish there were).

More Martial Education Leads

Richard Schmidt of the University of Nebraska

Classical Greek ideal of education

Dr. Julie Brown, professor Emeritus and a past coordinator of the program of instruction of Kendo at University of Wisconsin-Madison

Japanese tradition of bunbu-ryodo (learning the classics (bun) and the practice of martial arts (bu)) are like two wheels of a cart.

Information taken from pages 112-116
The Shambhala Guide to Kendo by Minoru Kiyota. Boston. 2002. Shambhala.

Martial Arts & Liberal Education

Levine, Donald N. "Martial Arts as a Resource for Liberal Education," in Japanese Martial Arts and American sports, 173-87.

Texts on Combat/War which Include Training

Chris Hedges: What Every Person Should Know About WarThin anti-war book with Q&A as primary format.

Jonathan Shay: Achilles in Vietnam (Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character)Subtitle says it all.
Suggested from WPA list.

Jonathan Shay: Odysseus in America (Combat Truma and the Trials of Homecoming)Subtitle says it all
Suggested from WPA list.

E. B. Sledge: With the Old Breed, at Peleliu and OkinawaMemoir/history of a Marine who served in WW2 at Peleliu. Clear writing, graphic description, basics about training/coherence in unit.
Suggested from WPA list.

Acquire Mental Lubricants in Advance

I am in the final stretch, and my brain is hurting. I am sure teaching while doing PhD work is going to be equally or more intense. Thus, I need to make sure that I have a set or three of DVDs and/or books as end-of-term mental lubricants to ease my brain during the stress.

Purchase in advance for sanity.

Comics & Graphic Novels: Primers

To get a foothold on graphic novels/comics:

Scott McCloud’s "Understanding Comics" and other books on comics
Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art"

Student Status via eRaider, etc.

I have checked back intermittently at eRaider and the associated TTU sites (how they flow is still not entirely clear to me) and have noticed that my status has been updated each time I go back. What this means is that I can now access some materials at the library, I can see my financial aid status--no record--and so on.

I urge anyone new to the program to invest several hours, if not more, in attempting to understand the set-up. For me, it is far from intuitive.

Similarly, prepare to spend time learning how to navigate the library's database/journal pages. Maybe I'm brain dead from reading so many papers, and maybe the design is poor, but my last couple attempts to navigate have gone poorly.

Reducing Conference Costs

Per Sally's suggestion, watch for opportunities to attend pre-conference workshops and/or help out with workshops during the conference. This could help reduce or avoid specific workshop costs/fees.

Conferences to Attend

Per the list's and Peter's suggestions of possible conferences to attend:

Conference on College Composition and Communication - CCCCs
Association for Teachers of Technical Writing: ATTW
Council for Programs on Technical and Scientific Communication: CPTSC
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers--Professional Communication Section: IEEE-PCS
Association for Computing Machinery: ACM
National Council for Teachers of English: NCTE

Any additional professional organizations related to my research interests

FAQs: Time, Language, Tech

Summary of FAQ Answers for Potential Eventual Document:
(If you have corrections, suggestions, or changes, please let me know!)

Time:
10-15 hours per week per 3 hour course is a reasonable expectation. There are fluctuations, but it's a safe number.

Tech:
Apple & PC both have solid support from TTU--no strong biases either way.

Cohorts:
Most cohorts are 8-12 folks.

Cohort 1/Fall 2004: Frodotypicals
Cohort 2/Fall 2005: M2
Cohort 3/Fall 2006: 3rd Degrees
Cohort 4/Fall 2007: Quadrophonics
Cohort 5/Fall 2008: As Yet Unnamed

Each cohort chooses a name during its first May Seminar. Cohorts accumulate members between May Seminars, so anyone who's been accepted since this last May and before next May will be in your cohort. (Courtesy of Peter)


May Seminars:
1st: Usability Testing
2nd: Document Design
3rd: New Media


Misc:
There is no foreign/second language requirement.


So You Just Got In...
Creating Email:
Do NOT select the ttuhsc option--that is for the Health Science Center; you want the ttu.edu option. Seems obvious, doesn't it? Well, this boy was a bit slow on that uptake.

IT Help for Students at TTU

Courtesy of Peter, a link to TTU's tech help site for students.

Note to Self: Usability Colleagues

To excerpt an email:
Craig McKenney's done work on usability and Konnie Brown has presented internationally on usability issues.

Blogging as Social Action

Blogging as Social Action by Miller and Shepherd

TTU List Advice from 10/25

Readings:

Selber and Johnson-Eiola "Central Works in Technical Communication" is best for TC

Johnson-Eilola and the Slack, Doak, and Miller, as well as Carolyn Miller
Bizzell and Herzberg's "The Rhetorical Tradition" is best for Rhet

Carolyn Miller's article "Genre as Social Action"

Online Tools:

Zotero

Web of Knowledge (Citation Index) at TTU Library; no access at the moment, so review main WoK site

EndNote

EndNoteWeb--a synthesized product combining WoK and EndNote

Cite While You Write--an EndNote plug-in that works with word processing

Links:

Several blogs added to the side bar already

CMS

Also raised is the issue of learning a content management system. At this point, I do not really have a clue as to what all that entails. Still, I know that it is something I must work towards. In the near future, I will hopefully have something more to post on that. I know it is important, I just do not know HOW important.

Learning CSS

It has become quite obvious that I will need to learn more about online content management and CSS. Hmmm. When will I find the time? When will I ever find the time? It will just have to happen, and I will probably build test or experiment sites and projects along the way as I learn. Rather than just think in terms of theory, I prefer to actually generate something--even if I bail on it mid-way--so I can see how it works.

In that general spirit of learning and resources, here's a page with multiple resources for learning CSS.

Proto-Scholar on Maximizing Reading

I have found a couple of posts at the blog Proto-Scholar. The most useful one is a post on how to make the most of reading a non-fiction text and reviewing the general and textual contexts so you absorb the most in a most efficient fashion. Better to post a link than to summarize the already efficient text.

Scholarly Reading

This is review, but it never hurts.

Main points:
What is the author trying to say? Explicitly & implicitly.
How do they say it? Rhetorical moves, structures, etc.
Why is it important?
Do you agree?
How does it compare to other authors in the field?
Where is it positioned in the field?
What is the social context for the book/text?

Using Delicious in Doctoral Work

This is a great article on how to use Delicious for research.

Establish an evolving set of tags, and make sure to use the tags in as uniform a manner as possible. When tagging, list the format (interview, video, mp3, etc.), the author, the subject(person or general), and key content words.

Stick to one-word tags.

In notes section, type up the summary.

Use only three or four tags if possible.

Here are some suggested research tags:

research:
• booklist - possible books to purchase or find in the library, or use this as a replacement for amazon wishlists.
• theory - books or articles on the use of theory
• vocabulary - quick access to important definitions with short summaries
• toread - I need to these articles very soon
• author - key thinker in my area of study
• recommended - a book, author, or site recommended to me by someone else

Read Eaton

Six months before I applied to TTU, when it was still an unattainable dream to me, I checked out the site and followed the advice to read Dr. Angela Eaton's article, Applying to Grad School in Technical Communication.

Then, over the summer as I applied and revised, I read it again.  And again.  And again.  And I reviewed it multiple times as I revised my application.  I cannot say that I followed all of the steps exactly, for this summer was a blur of training, writing, and traveling, but I tried hard.  The end result: I got in.

If you are considering applying to any graduate program in comp, rhet, or tc, do yourself a favor and read the article.  Really.  I am sure it is a major reasons as to why I got in.

Kemp on Tenure

Before I applied to TTU, I researched the faculty there.  During that same time, I had no access to databases, so I could not read some of the proprietary articles without having to pay serious money.  Since I have been working at HSU, it is possible for me to locate and read many, many more of their texts.

Last night I located Fred Kemp's Zen and the Art of Tenure.  Fun stuff, and it has that Kempian tone which is often on the WPA-list.  I wasn't sure if he'd transfer it into his professional publications, but he has.  That said,  here is a choice quote:

I was able to acquire tenure under fairly demanding circumstances because of a

principle that I've adhered to unrelentingly: maintain quality of effort; sheer, fanatical

persistence; and a conscious discretion and technological Uncle-Tomism and you will

overcome nearly all departmental prejudices, especially because the society itself is

becoming our best ally (113).

I am still putting together my response/summary--another habit I want to solidify before I get into the program--and it should be fun to write.

Initial Post

On Wednesday, October 22nd, I learned that I was admitted to Texas Tech's PhD program in Technical Communication and Rhetoric.  Since that point, I've been perpetually giddy.

One of my biggest challenges is to remain organized and to continually reflect on what I am doing.  So, I am applying some of the work I have been doing so far with blogs and adding the influence of Michael Faris' approach as well.  Michael has continually written, posted, and documented his graduate process through his MA and now in his PhD work.  While I do not intend to organize exactly as he has done, I am going to follow the rough model of attempting to keep as much stuff online as possible for several reasons.

First, my papers end up in stacks and piles.  Filing cabinets are not a part of my world, and it is easier to search digitally than any other way.  Need: generate and apply an effective system of tagging, searching, and locating.

Second, I believe in sharing learning.  I have learned from Michael, Nils, Peter, and lots of folks in the field.  They inspired me by their honesty and generosity, so I determined to share what it is I do and how I do it.  Hopefully it will help someone in the future avoid some trouble or stress.

Third, if I really want to be a tech writing guy I must perform tech writing and work in a tech environment.  There is no getting around it.  Put up or shut up, and so I am putting up.

Fourth, I believe in the process of documentation.  I have journaled for over a decade, blogged, written notes on cards, and have heaps of text and memories stored in a variety of places.  I love to write.  This project is yet another excuse for me to write.

Fifth, it is an opportunity for me to learn.

Sixth, this is about as close as I can get to sharing/engaging in public think aloud protocols of the PhD process.  

Seventh, what a great excuse to network!

Finally, I love writing and blogging.  It is fun.