Launching The Ambivalent Nemesis

Well, it's here.  Have a look around.  I hope the images show up, but if they don't, it's no big deal.  I would like you to make some suggestions for how to improve either the articles you see here or the next issue we put out.

So, today, two tasks:

(1) Read any number of the articles you see in this issue of The Ambivalent Nemesis and compose a brief post that responds to it.  What article is your favorite and why? What article could be revised in some way, and how?  More detail--what kinds?  Less detail--which ones? What suggestions do you have for the next issue?  Should we try "themed" issues, like "The Music Issue" and "The Film Issue," or should we continue with the kind of variety you see here?

(2) If TAN is not unblocked yet, I would like us to spend time with our peer's recent work in their individual blogs.  Browse them, in this class or others, and leave at least three friendly, responsive comments.  Secondly, I would like you to suggest some content from these blogs that might work for our next edition of What We're Loving.  To do this, make a post that copies and links to the post that you want to nominate for consideration.  No need to respond to or discuss your selection; just identify it so that our next editors can find worthy material more easily.

What You're Loving: Podcast Edition

In class today, I am asking you to listen and respond informally to an episode from either of the two podcasts listed below, both of which are increasingly famous for the entertaining, thought provoking, and rather original ways they go about looking at life and the world we live it in.

This American Life is a true-life storytelling program,with each episode focused on a general theme like "summer camp," "middle school," or last week's fascinating episode, "What Doesn't Kill You," which focuses on brushes with death.

TED is a series of, well, lectures.  But they are pretty brilliant and they will not bore you, I promise.  Browse their archives by selecting categories like "funny" or "informative" or "jaw-dropping."  Note: the embedded video players do not seem to run on your laptops; to watch these lectures, you simply have to click on the "download" button and download them to iTunes.

What I would like for you to do:

1.  After browsing the archives and sampling a few, try to focus on a single episode.  You won't have time to listen to a full 1 hr. This American Life episode, but you should be able to hear a few segments. 

2. Compose a brief, informal "What I'm Loving" post on your blog that describes it what makes it worth listening to.  Like the posts at The Paris Review, this response should be friendly, personal, and raise interest in the text you are talking about.  Ideally, your post will be compelling enough to be selected by our editors and published online in the magazine.

 If you somehow finish this project before class is complete, feel free to read your independent reading novel or work on your submission for PBL2, which is due Monday. 

Reading log Tuesday: 10.9.12

If you are not an editor and your work has not been selected for publication, you have other, just as significant jobs.  First, I would like you to invest yourself some in the community of bloggers we are building here.  Read their entries, follow their links if they have any and read what you see there, go back and let the them know what you think.  Let these writers know that there is an audience out there for their work.

Today, let's visit some of the blogs from our class. Go to the blog above yours on the blog roll, invest some time there, leave a comment, and then visit the two blogs above it, doing the same.  After reading those three, visit three blogs with interesting titles from either of the other classes, leaving thoughtful comments if you feel like it.  Listen to music as you go if it helps make this a pleasant experience.

If you are curious to see some of our better-made reading logs, here is a list of the blogs receiving an A+ for this quarter:

ETY2: Bob Loblaw's Law Blog, Homeschool Valedictorian, Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice, *Mariposa10

ETY5: My Life as a Reader, Sam Stone's Blog, A Fragile Thought, iCasey, This is My Blog, Canadian Poetry, The Outspoken Sloucher, we live on porches and swing life away.

ETY7: Casual Corner, So Deep it's Shallow, Tipper Gore's Official Rap Metal Appreciation Blog, Hysteria's Lament, Hoosier Nation, Dry Cleaned Wet Suit, Literary Liaison, Windowledge Marius, Justin's Blog, Three Islands Condensed

Second, nominate, on the blackboard, blogs + entry dates for any two of our three possible blog features.  Nominate them in this format:

Consumed: More Cowbell, Please ETY2 (9.22.12)
WWL: Bookworm Days, entry on Palo Alto ETY2 (9.14.12)
Briefly: Happy Go Lucky, link to Cloud Atlas trailer ETY7 (8.25.12)