Wednesday

Hello, everyone.  I'm not here today, but you don't need me--yesterday, I saw a lot of great early drafts of  book reviews, "One Reader" memoirs, and RIYL pieces, so just continue that good work. I also saw a good number of people invested in some interesting Ted talks and TAL podcasts, so consider spending some time with those today, too.  There is a post just below with a few links to get you started with the Ted videos, but you should browse some on your own there, too--it's a great site. 

See you tomorrow for the vocab test.

More Group B ideas: Ted Talks

If you like to see your podcasts and not just listen to them, think about browsing the Ted site, which is organized really well and lets you select for talks by tags like "jaw-dropping," "funny," ingenious," etc.

Here are a handful of suggestions, but ever time you go there, you stumble upon more.

"Love letters to strangers"

"How to spot a liar"

"Are games better than life?"

A note on how to play these at school:

The embedded player won't work here, so click "Download," click "Save video to iTunes," and then right click on "download/save file as."  Sounds complicated, but it should work.

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.