Nemesis Press: Lab Day

What are you going to make today?  You have a lot of options.  Maybe you could look at Judd Apatow's "My Ideal Bookshelf" entry as a model for your own, or my "RIYL" column, both in the edmodo PBL Categories library. 

Also in the PBL Categories library is a handout that explains the ins and outs of the brief book reviews you can write, modeled on the excellent site Teenreads.  Maybe you could get a solid draft down for one of those--get somebody to read a book you like.

Or you could work on a Group B project today, listening to a TAL episode or browsing some longreads.  I've linked to seven interesting possibilities in the post below. 

No matter what project you pursue today, enjoy it. 

The Shortlist Seven

 

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7 links that might be good subjects of an e-Shelf blurb this week:

“‘I Pretty Much Wanted to Die’: The origins of Lost, as told by the people who made it, in an exclusive first serial excerpt from The Revolution Was Televised.”  Grantland.

“Giving Thanks for the All-Chuckers Team:  Inefficient ball hogs. Remorseless gunners. Shot-hungry heathens. Say hello to the NBA's fearless firing squad.”Grantland.

“Re-Awakenings: How a woman who couldn’t stop sleeping woke up.” First sentence: “Anna Sumner’s craving for sleep began when she was an 18-year-old high school senior. She thought nothing of it.” From The Last Word on Nothing, via Longform.org.

“A Sorry State: Pop Marketing & Rihanna's Unapologetic Provocation for Profit? Assault as a Marketing Accessory? Why the Rihanna PR Machine show sad signs of our times.” From The Quietus, via Longreads.

“An Imperfect God”  A discussion of the Biblical God as compared to the idea of a perfect god.  From the Times blog Opinionator.

“The Hard Life of an N.F.L. Long Shot,” a look at one player’s efforts to keep the dream alive.  The cover story in this week’s New York Times Magazine.

“Nintendo Confronts a Changed Video Game World” Games for mobile devices have challenged Nintendo’s turf, but the video game maker is pinning its hopes on Wii U.  From the Times. 

Final Blog Review

As of this week, your weekly blogging requirement is concluded.  I hope that you continue checking out books from our library and continue reading, but it is no longer mandatory that you update your reading online. 

If you do continue your blog, however, extra credit is available to you.  Updating it through week 9 of this quarter qualifies you for up to 3% extra credit, the maximum I am allowed to give you by law. 

Today, after your publishing group has submitted its proposals, spend the remainder of the class reviewing what your peers in this or other classes have been writing lately.  Leave comments on at least three blogs that you feel have done an above average job this semester at making their online presence interesting, original, thoughtful.  Tell them what you like about their blog, let them know they have an audience.

Abouts

Some sample "About" statements:

The Online Photographer

The Paris Review

The Selby

A Restless Transplant

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)