the magic of student work groups

It's 2:32 pm and I'm free to leave. Is this for real? Hold me, I'm scared. I hear Myrtle. There must be some kind of a catch.

ahem:

Someone owes me king size chocolate.

Hilary nestled un-self-consciously into the purple silk, feeling a mix of affection and searing physical pain.

grr

GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

cerebrovascular accident

I think that I may have sustained permanent brain damage during the bus ride through PA. But how can this be? Now, if my brain really were damaged, how come my newfound illiteracy is miraculously cured by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?

Spoiler: Ron Weasley attacked by giant brain in Book V.

Bits of doughnut and stolen chocolate:

Breakfast of champions.

meanwhile on 10 ,

EB produced her office key and glanced warily in my direction.

"Hi Ellen -- Dr. Ellen -- hey!" I waved.

"Wrong side of the desk, Ward" Ellen muttered.

home

"Hello", said Hilary. The building wheezed.

Sno Balls:

snack of champions.

reading notes

Notes from Gurak and Lay
Southard and Allen, "Identifying audiences for tech comm research".

These guys look at DF's "Research as Rhetoric", asking the interesting question "Who is the end-user of research-generated knowledge?"

DF proposes 5 audiences: participants, gatekeepers, disc. colleagues, nonnative practioners, "our bosses". S&A complicate these categories:

disc. colleagues: in tech comm, research isn't the only "ticket" into disc. conversations. The tech people are surprisingly egalitarian.
gatekeepers: DF has them just valuing "uniqueness", but S&A want the results to serve authentic research audiences.

nonnative (ie nonacademic tech comm people) : don't reduce reseaerch to "practical uses", don't leave them to interpret -- clarify applications and misapplications. A call for "usefulness" doesn't have to be anti-theoretical or positivistic. Just guide readers toward potential applications.

"our bosses" isn't just academic bosses.

This was a good article. It was interesting. I liked it. I'm going for a walk now.

Grice, "evaluating the complete user experience: dimensions of usability".

G goes beyond the traditional (for us. research) is it accurate? is it complete? Is it clear? to suggest 5 dimensions of user experience:
task dimension
motivation dimension
product dimension
cognitive dimension
interactivity dimesnion
comfort dimesnion

G wants to address these new dimensions through research and designs research quetions to get answers (mostly interview/survey). Theory: This relates to my project because these dimensions are addressed in hacks to a greater extent than in proprietary doc.

Blyler and Thrall's article on cultural studies: cameo analysis of the Sony walkman as a "high-tech" device. The fact that this analysis makes me laugh illustrates another impt. principle of cult. studies research: it's historically contingent. What does the walkman mean now?

Gurak and Silker, research on the WWW is similar to and different from researh in print and irl.

n + 1

And then something happened that was like a parody of the kind of thing that would annoy Hilary to the nth degree. Much to her surprise, the thing made Hilary laugh and the feeling of being annoyed melted away.

A remarkably high page rank in google [See figure A]:

[Figure A]

cilantro

soup w/

pita.

ATTW 2007 Ross Pudaloff Richard Grusin laundry detergent Session A5

Thanks to the WSU English Department's overwhelming generosity, we had the fortune of being able to travel via luxury charter bus to ATTW / CCCC 2007 in New York City. Fortunately, thanks to Grayhound, we were not unnecessarily burdened by our luggage during our stay.

4 hours prior to Session A5, we arrived at 4 am in our lavish hotel room with spacious communial showers and authentic arctic water piped directly from the Alps (cross-ventilated by a permanently open bathroom window). Laundry detergent was conveniently located in a store 5 blocks South of the hotel; this early morning stroll afforded us a rare glimpse of Manhattan nightlife. Even without a map, we were able to navigate through the unlit streets via strategically located piles of garbage ("remember, our hotel is south of the mattress and 1 block west of the dirty needles").

After we emerged from the piles of garbage and theorized our hotel shower [it's an "or" gate with zero potential for practical application], we discovered that NY has implemented a brilliant new fitness plan specifically designed for tourists. After a vigorous workout on the Nordic Track, ie 6th avenue, we arrived at the Hilton for Session A5.

The ease and comfort of our travel hoodies, combined with our total lack of data, really took the pressure off of our panel. For example Hilary presented her abstract ("my slideshow is at a rest stop"), sans data, and quietly exempted herself from paying the registration fee. While the CCCers pretended not to notice our distinctive style, their bemused expressions belied the fact that we were mistaken for characters on the Simpsons: in that sense, we were treated like celebrities. Francie loved our conference room so much that she designated it as a satellite of her 12th floor WSU office and permanent new home for her iMac.

Thanks to ATTW 2007 Ross Pudaloff Richard Grusin Laundry Detergent Session A5, our travel log enjoys a remarkably high page rank in Google. Thanks for the line on the CV.

Sincerely,

Hilary Anne Ward

5 am

no clothes
no toiletries
no laptop or jump drive
no presentation files of any kind
no phone [dead -- charger in luggage]

What actually happened:

"We're here!" I said to Jessica at 3:40 a.m.

"Yay!" Said Jessica with tired enthusiasm.

And then we proceeded to the baggage claim area (scary music).

Crap!

If I told you that all the minor complications were just leading up to what actually happened in NY, would you beleive me?

DONE!

Being done is boring.

DONE!

Being done is boring.

GOD DAMN IT!