A Regular Consumer Protects his Sleep?
I have two books in my personal library that are begging to be read. They have been perused though. Taken off the shelf, taken stock of, and then put back on the shelf. One because…
Learning to Rock Climb
Wherein the Author Describes the Beginning “Let me down,” I said. “Are you sure?” “Yes.” “But you are almost there.” “Let me down,” I said again, this time with the loud but hushed quality of…
Writing to an Algorithmic Audience
When you are an English teacher, there are too many ways to teach. In the public view, you are teaching two really important skills: writing and reading. That’s a simplification. Teaching Language Arts is the…
Practicality Versus the Human Element; Or Why We Are Not Vulcans
I have been using a fictional race of human beings as an adjective lately. Because with technology where it is, we have more and more distinguished ourselves from a Vulcan lifestyle of logic. Let us…
Falling Back on Cereal
Before college, my life was littered with empty cereal bowls. This was largely the fault, and perhaps the triumph, of my mother. I ate cereal like one greedily gasps for air after running 1,000 miles…
What I Want to Say When Someone Asks Where I Am From
There was never one house or one place. I was born in a hospital in downtown Cincinnati and taken to my first home in the quaintness of Loveland. It is up to science to know…
The Slow Adoption of Digital Annotation
Up until my late 20s, I thought books were sacred objects that were ruined by creases and marks and the like. A book was there to be preserved so as to be enjoyed by later…
Attention Now
I think it’s fair to say that a staple of modern humanity is that we have these fads of going down paths of traditional tool rediscovery, back to making coffee without a machine or putting…
On Tapping with Thumbs
Tapping on screens ain’t so fancy. It’s pretty darn video-gamish. Something I’d never thought would ever help me in life. I used to lament the waste of muscular strength. My parents, I’m sure, did too….
Worrying about the Old Ways
Tennessee’s SB 1881 has quietly turned into law. It’s a traditions law, one that probably hits home to any student who has gone through elementary school until a few years ago: The course of instruction…