The Speaker of the House, Ken Kowalski, scolded Alberta MLAs (member of the legislative assembly) for using their BlackBerrys too much and not paying attention. “C’mon now,” said Kowalski. “We agreed on certain things, certain decorum, and I even noted prior to this time toda...

Gah, what a long time away. The Vanes got home last night after a week visiting northeastern Vanes and Vanes-in-law, a trip that began the same day I red-eyed back from MLA. In the middle seat. I walked into my house last night and felt like I hadn't been there in a month. And as much as I want to n...

From the annual MLA conference taking place in San Francisco this weekend, bloggers report: Bev, “English professor at a small college in the Midwest,” says the Hilton is a maddening labyrinth, so “I fought my way out this morning at 6 a.m. (because my body thinks it’s still ...

I've been feeling quiet lately. Partly it's the season. I, like so many of us, am not so good with the dark and November is historically a shitty month for me. I have been really thinking a lot about my cooking as a way to appreciate, instead of dread, the season. Tonight I made an awesome slow cook...

People ask whether to capitalize Internet, web, or net, and which of the following to use: e-mail vs. email, tradeshow vs. trade show, and web site vs. web site. No one likes an indefinite answer, but it’s up to you or your organization. To ensure consistency on such thorny words, most editors...

Listening to: 'These Hard Times' by Matchbox 20 I used the recorder for its first game and recorded over six hours of material with the battery just going down one bar out of three (but it's rechargeable) and things are pretty clear even though a fan is blowing in the room. There was some lawnmowing...

Instead of doing real work, I am going to do some blogging. Why is this, that after numerous months of not blogging, basically, that I feel inspired to blog again? Well, I must say that it is because at dinner last night, one of my friend’s friends made comments prefaced with “I don’t mean to ...

Instead of doing real work, I am going to do some blogging. Why is this, that after numerous months of not blogging, basically, that I feel inspired to blog again? Well, I must say that it is because at dinner last night, one of my friend’s friends made comments prefaced with “I don̵...

I didn't get to see the webcast from the MLA annual meeting on Web 2.0 because of technical difficulties we're still trying to iron out. What we thought was a headquarters firewall issue is apparently a local one, as my tech advisor could view it on his computer, but I couldn't view it on mine, so w...

Like Jeff I've been following, belatedly, this conversation over Graff and Birkenstein on WPA-L. I actually replied to an early conversation on TechRhet on the same subject. So there are two conversations here. One is potentially about Graff and Birkenstein (G&B)'s piece in the Chronicle, as wel...