Monday, August 16, 2010

The Beautiful Blogger Award

Oh, that Ann T....she's going to make me reveal "stuff" about myself!  As a means to avoid working on my course syllabi (wow...spellchecker doesn't recognize "syllabi" as a correct plural form...it likes "syllabuses"...is that a sign of the apocalypse?) for the fall, I seem to have created a blog.  Ann T. Hathaway, on whose ever thought-provoking blog I have commented this summer, liked my little blog so much that she bestowed upon me this award:

In order to accept this award, I must tell you ten things about myself.  I think I will do a "top ten" countdown of the reasons why I should not have a blog!

10.  I loath HTML!!! am a full-time professor of American history at a small liberal arts college...meaning I have no life apart from school, at least not once the semester starts: I get paid to teach and hold office hours, but I'm also expected to advise the history club, participate in public history and humanities initiatives on campus and in the surrounding community, attend extra-curricular activities on campus, participate in shared governance of the university, and more.

09.  I am the only full-time history professor at present...and likely will be the only one for the next two semesters, at least, which means I have to do all the advising for majors, selection of textbooks, etc., as well as teach several courses I've never taught (U.S. Womens History last fall, two sections of World Civilizations I this fall).

08.  I am scheduled to give five...FIVE...public lectures this fall, varying in length from 15 to 45 minutes, on these topics: the Underground Railroad north of the Ohio River (45 minutes), Alexander Gardner's 1865 photo of Lincoln (15 minutes), Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (15 minutes), white supremacist terrorism in Civil War era Kentucky (45 minutes), and the history of Thanksgiving (30 minutes), plus Q&A for all.  Admittedly, I am well read on such things, but still....

07.  I may have to revise a conference paper I presented last March for possible inclusion in a volume of essays on life after slavery in the American South, and I have several other professional obligations that, while unrelated to my professorial duties in the strict sense, are a part of what I expect from myself, and will look good in my tenure file.

06.  I just signed a book contract for my manuscript on post-emancipation racial violence in Kentucky, and my editor wants a revised manuscript in her hands by January 15...ROTFL!

05.  Did I mention that I find the Blogger program *most* annoying am happily married to The Bug, and would like to stay that way?  One blogger in the house is enough.

04.  I still have yard work to do!  There's grass to mow, a small garden to tend, flowers to look at, birds and butterflies to watch...there will be autumn leaves and woolly sheep and Christmas and snow and spring and baseball, oh my!  How can I possibly have time to blog with all that going on around me?

03.  I have the great family struggle going on down south, 450 miles from us.  My father needs help, and I can't be there for him every day, or even once a week, or realistically once a month!  How can I possibly spend time blogging when there is such great need in the world?

02.  There is great need in my life.  I am in pain...constant, throbbing, equal parts physical, mental, and spiritual.  I endure, but I often forget to live.  I am hurting, and I can be bitter and mad as hell...why would anyone want to visit the blog of someone like that?

01.  Okay, so HTML isn't so bad, and I can manipulate Blogger, but I still don't know if I really want to "social network."  I mean, I hate when I'm tending one of my virtual farms on Fb (yes, I play multiple farm games) and I keep getting pop-ups telling me to go do this or go do that or to let my friends know this or that.  Just leave me alone and let me farm!  I'm talkin' to you, Zynga.  Even at that, there are times when my crops wither on Farmville, and my poor flowers on Farm Town have been dead most of the summer, and My Farm has forgotten me.  Will I let you wither?  Can you wither?  Can I?

Well...it seems obvious that I have no business being here...none whatsoever...and yet...here I am.

To state it more plainly, I. Need. This.  I need you.  So there.

At this time I am supposed to bestow this award on ten worthy bloggers...but I'm just too new!  I'll have to let The Bug make some selections for us...heh.  Thank you, Ann T.  You are a beautiful blogger, indeed.

10 comments:

Jayne said...

HeHe... you didn't know that this is like Prozac for the soul? Now you know why we are all so happy. I've resisted Fb and farming and all that. This is enough to keep up with for me, but I admire people who can find the time. Have a great day!

The Bug said...

You do some of your best work when you've been procrastinating - so I expect brilliance here. Brilliance!

Love you.

Tess Kincaid said...

You belong to The Bug?! Ah-so you're the professor. I didn't make the connection earlier. I love that Dana Bug.

DUTA said...

I'm not on FB as I guess it's a big distraction from the real world. Even blogging takes up time which could be used doing some real work. But, we all need something for the Soul.

Kimberly Mason said...

Number Two broke and mended and grew my heart, all at the same time.

Ann T. said...

Dear C.L.,
Well, I am very glad I conveyed this award to you! A nice mix of guarded and revealing.

I am so pleased to know someone with a book contract, who can discuss the true history of Thanksgiving and Kentucky guerilla actions (very interested in the latter) Matthew Brady and butterfly habitat.

I am sorry for your physical and mental and spiritual pain. I don't think the world likes to think about this too much. Much of my love of language is that I keep thinking I can slide this knowledge in, unaware. Blogging is a curious mix of presenting to others and reaching inside for the immediate. I hope you stick with it for as long as it will do something for you.

As for the 10 Worthies, why don't you just reserve it for some other day? Makes a great post, and it could be 10 great bloggers on the Civil War, even--or whatever you choose!

Hang in with us however you like. That's good with us and for us,

Ann T.

Argent said...

Well, we think you definitely should have a blog. Our motives are purely selfish: we like reading what you have to say. Award earned, I'd say.

Ruth said...

Hi, I'm a friend of The Bug. I smiled through your professorial rants, because I work in the English department at my university. I'm the academic adviser, the one they hired full time so the professors wouldn't have to advise students. So, I get your angst. Also, I can't believe how much is on your plate! Yikes. I have 1,000 advisees and no new hires in sight to help me out, well of course, as the economy has tanked. So, good luck and fortitude to you! Yes, keep blogging because it really is a wonderful thing to have this creative outlet.

So sorry about your pain. And yes, I've let FB almost wither too, almost.

Bekah said...

Dearest Dr. Bug (That is my personal name for you. Yes, I realize we have never met, but I know the Bug IRL so somehow this is how I think of you.)

Welcome to the paradoxical world of blogging... it keeps you from real life, but lets you explore your inner life.

Good luck this semester, and keep us posted about the book!

Carolina Linthead said...

Dear Bekah,

We've been on this path together so long, and yet we've never met IRL? Shame on me. I will keep you posted, I promise, and Dr. Bug is fine by me :-D