Categoricons

Used up the past short while playing around with category-associated icons.  Why? Quit with all the hard questions already!

Truthfully, it's a mixture of deeply compelling forces:  1.  avoiding the last bit of shine on my project final.  2.  avoiding the small stack of gradable student work left to be read, thought through, etc. 3. avoiding making lunch for a PS2-marathoning Ph. who has the day off because it's too cold outside. 3b. it's too cold inside to move around much. 4. beats the heck out of putting the rest of the dressings and ornamentation on the x-mas tree, especially since fortune has it that we're motoring over to Detroit City later this week.  5. I'm just in the mood for icons. 6. I've been thinking for some time about the potentials of using category tags to designate author IDs, with a sense that collaboratively authored entries could be represented through the category function, which allows for cross-listing (whereas the single login, solitary author access route does not--as easily).  So as I prepare to use blogs in WRT205 in the spring, I'd like to think about giving students the option of co-authoring entries (maybe even plotting the course so that co-entries are compulsory a few times).  Yah, there's more to it, but it needs more thought, and frankly I'm just not up to it right now.  And yah, I still have to choose readings and so on.  And I didn't even say anything about what that has to do with icons.

So although I'm not overwhelmed by the mind-blowing effects of the categoricons (do say, you like 'em?)--or even sure they impact the design of the blog in any useful way, I'll likely continue to mess around with them some more.  In between getting the rest of my serious, important work done, of course.  Hear the lunch whistle blowin'....

Fear and Trembling

I awoke this morning to an encouraging message about the latest new blog on the block.  Fellow CCRer Jen Wingard launched Fear and Trembling (in Academe) over the weekend.  Already, entry no. 2 is a riff on Texas, which is sure to rustle up some Lone Star snarl.  For me, it's a must-add to the blogroll--smart, thoughtful writing and a great way to give interested attention to stuff going on with others in the grad program. 

Added: Recent entries are brief not because my brain is mush but rather because I'm typing with mittens on. Yeah, mittens. It's -7 F this AM. We have heat, I think, and the furnace is working its blower off, but seven below feels pretty cold right now. Enjoy Texas, Jen.