In a little less than three hours I go infront of the firing squad… I mean my Database Publishing Class. I do find it a little hard to believe that I’ll be teaching in just a short time. The eerie calm that had settled over me this week has been replaced by a state of abject terror — albiet a calm one.
I’m still changing and tweaking course material. I would write more but I need to finish my lecture notes.
My response to Bleecker’s article is taking longer than I expected. Once again a sobering reminder of why you promise a date only when you have something more or less written.
In the meantime, with the rapid approach of the first day of class on Monday, the panic has finally set in. And there’s probably no better sign of the impending deadline than my decision to change everything. Seriously, since I was rather young, I’ve been making last minute decisions to completely start things over at the 11th hour. To this day, my mother has yet to let me forget a decision I made to completely rearrange my bedroom at 9.00pm on a school night while I was in Jr High. Needless to say that didn’t go over well.
This case is a little less drastic. After getting wise council from other Faculty members on Friday, I decided to switch up the books that I’ll be using for my Principles of Printing class. Instead of Adam’s Printing Technology
The only problem: all of my books were already in. So I had to go to the Bookstore and nicely ask them to send the existing books back and reorder. I got a bit of the stink-eye when I announced my intentions to the clerks. After that initial reluctance, she was quite helpful and the switch was made. During the process, while making small talk, we had the following exchange:
Matt: Sorry to be a pain about this.
Clerk: This isn’t too bad, what really bugs us are the profs who decide to switch their books at the end of the second week.
Well, at least I know I’m not the only one at RIT who goes in for last minute changes.
![[Olympus VN-480PC]](http://azby.fmworld.net/shopping/hard/category/images/vn-480pc.jpg "[Olympus VN-480PC]")
After careful consideration, and the fact I was able to find a discounted model, I opted for the Olympus VN-480PC
As for the Olympus, so far so good — I’ve figured out how to record and erase. One thing that does bug me is how flimsy it feels. From the pictures I assumed it would have a metal bodycasing. It’s just gray plastic. Oh well. Tomorrow I’ll attempt to record a test podcast to see how it goes. After that there will be no stopping me.
In other news, it’s less than a week till classes begin. RIT is quiet as this is an “off” week for them. It’s still odd to walk these halls. A very uncanny feeling, in the Freudian sense — the unfamiliar familiar.
Tomorrow’s entry should be interesting. I’m planning on critiquing an essay on Blogjects — objects that blog. While the concept put forward raises interesting questions, the essay itself is poorly conceived and is on really shaky social theoretical ground. So tune in tomorrow for a Chicago style beatdown. For those really interested, here’s a copy of the essay:
I’m in the market for a digital voice recorder. Not only is it helpful for the interviewing I’ll be doing in the near future, but I’m also considering podcasting my classes ??? or at least allowing for an archive. In part I want to be able to listen to certain ones later on.
So my dilemma is what technology to use. Or as important, how much do I want to spend. The Olympus model that I???m considering would run about $50 and would do everything I need it to do.
The only kink: the iPod. For 3x the amount I could get a 1GB Nano. And then pay the additional cost for the microphone. And I???d be using a square peg (not to suggest that the iPod is in any way square??? it???s more rectangular if anything???) for a round hole ??? the iPod really isn???t designed for recording and archiving. All of that said, it???s so damn cool. And ever since the ill fated MC3, I???ve been a sucker for convergence devices (all the while knowing full well that something that does everything doesn???t necessarily do everything well).
Cookies always taste better after turning in application packets! Its official. My RIT packet is in. Now I can really start to focus on the next quarter and teaching.
In other news I continue to be amazed by my megapixel camera phone. The last few pictures have come directly off of that.