Skip to main content

The Writing Teacher in Summer

It has been a long time since I had the self-discipline to simply stop for the summer. There were always summer courses to teach, curricula to rewrite, etc. I promised myself, however, that this summer would be different. Yes, I’m spending a lot of effort on this blog, and I’ll put in big time preparing for fall classes, but this will be a more relaxed summer than most, time to do some other things:

  • I started the summer running sound effects for Mid-Ohio Opera. When the phone rang on stage, I was pushing the button. When lightning flashed and thunder rolled, I was pushing the button.
  • I spent a week at Disney in Florida with grandkids, my first trip there. I get the idea that I’m one of the last people in Ohio to get there for the first time (probably not true).
  • The highlight of July will be a bike trip on the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland, about 45 miles of riding a day. Fun stuff! Forests, trees, tunnels, rain, sunlight. And of course, to get ready, I had to take a two-hour bike ride every day. Great fun.
  • One evening project has been re-reading all the Harry Potter books. I read them when they first came out, 20+ years ago, but not since, and when I rewatch the movies (a good evening alternative to watching the dreadful news of the day on TV), I keep noticing odd things: plot holes, bits of dialog that make no sense. It turns out that almost all of these problems are resolved by reading the book.
  • When the newest Dune movie came out, I missed seeing it in a theater (alas), but I got my own DVD copy. I’ve been interested for years in how a written piece becomes a movie, so I began by re-reading the first Dune novel. The whole business of stagecraft is also very interesting to me, and YouTube has a lot of “How they did that” material that I’ve been watching. (The sound design people spent a week in Death Valley just to learn what a sandy desert sounds like!) It’s been really enjoyable to go into depth on this piece.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Your Computer Ready for School

Back when I was a student, everyone packed up their portable typewriter for the move to campus. Lots of people got a new typewriter as a graduation gift, but I didn’t. I ended up using one we bought when I was in high school. The story is probably the same for you, except that it’s a computer, not a mechanical typewriter. Whether you just bought a new one or kept your old faithful companion with all of its stickers, you need to do a few things to get the machine ready for college. Getting Old Faithful ready for college Is Old Faithful sick? If the machine crashes a lot, has trouble (and takes a long time) doing things, or pops up weird ads to play poker or look at porn, you probably have a virus. (You just had to download that fancy screensaver, didn’t you?) Take a deep breath—bite the bullet—pay the computer repair shop to clean it up for you. Now that Old Faithful is feeling better … Back u...
1 comment
Read more

Adulting

Business people talk about “hard skills” and “soft skills.” Hard skills can be taught with books of instructions—things such as driving a standard shift, using Microsoft Word, or analyzing a blood sample. Soft skills are such things as showing up on time for work, giving the boss the proper respect, wearing appropriate clothing for the task, and keeping your work area tidy. Many college students figure that the hard skills are all they need, but the hard skills are relatively easy to teach; if you lack soft skills, you will struggle in college and have a lot of trouble finding and keeping a job. Somewhere in the middle area between these are the adulting skills. People who lack these skills might be able to pass courses, but their time in college will be very difficult. Here are a few you will need—and now is a good time to begin working on them. Doing laundry. Surprised that I put it first? The ...
Post a Comment
Read more