Am I the only one who thinks academic conferences are weird? Why do they feel a little bit like a junior high school dance?
For background, go read this post about my last academic conference. I’ll try not to repeat what I said there. Because I’m not in a discipline, I tend to go to conferences that are interdisciplinary or a little tangential to some established discipline. This is a good thing as the presentations can be on a range of topics. I was recalling some of my earlier Renaissance conferences yesterday. While the Renaissance is a huge period covering several countries, there are some conventions that get repeated at conferences. It can get tiring to hear yet another paper about women’s poor treatment in [insert author]‘s work. This latest conference definitely had a wide variety of topics. I heard papers on dna art (very cool), on illness in literature (also cool), twittered subjects (disappointing), and a reading of short stories and essays (perhaps my favorite).
My biggest complaint is the fact that everyone read their papers. This was especially hard on those of us (I’m sure I’m not the only one) who were unfamiliar with the topic being presented. Many of the papers were theory heavy, involving complicated arguments about philosophical positions on consciousness or relationships. Note: people cannot digest such complex arguments in 20 minutes via listening. Perhaps if one is familiar with the theory, one could follow the argument, but most of the time, I could not. Some people, despite reading, did a very good job of distilling the argument into its simplest form. But most did not. Once upon a time, this would have made me feel dumb, but now, I just feel like the people presenting are not doing a good job. If the idea of a conference is to disseminate your ideas to more people, then it seems to me important that the people to whom you’re disseminating your ideas understand them.
The name-tag glance that I mentioned in the previous post was almost non-existent at this conference. And surprisingly, I felt totally comfortable telling people that I was an independent consultant and writer. It helps that I’m not looking for anything from these people. I was there to learn, not to network. During one conversation where I described my background and my current pursuits, someone said, “Wow, you’re really employable!” And that made me laugh, considering my current limbo state. But, I knew that it was also true and why I feel so comfortable (mostly) being in limbo.
The other thing I noticed, and which I mentioned in the other post was the way that people asked questions to promote their own ideas or knowledge. This happened in the very first session, a creative writing reading. Someone asked if the stories could be tied together using some theorist’s work, who said blah, blah, blah. I was rolling my eyes. In Ian Bogost‘s plenary, much of which I found rather difficult to understand, someone did the same thing and he called them on it, saying, “What you’re asking is whether what you’re interested in is at all related to what I just said.” That made me laugh.
The weirdest sensation I had was that of resistance. Some of the sessions actually made me angry at the way they interpreted very practical things, like programming robots, as philosophical conundrums. It’s not that one doesn’t need to have some kind of philosophical stance on the nature of learning in order to program a robot, but a robot does not have a consciousness of its own that one can confront. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you exactly how they made the connection.
Perhaps the most frustrating session along these lines was the one that advertised itself as being about Twitter. I was actually interested in hearing a more theoretical stance on Twitter, but instead, I discovered that they’d used Twitter as a metaphor, dismissing it as a real entity that is having a real impact on how we relate to each other. I doubt any of the panelists even has a Twitter account. And that made me really mad. It was a similar move to using concepts from Artificial Intelligence and programming to talk about the relationship of science to art. The people using those concepts as metaphors have no real idea what those concepts really mean. They’ve never programmed or Twittered or conducted a physics experiment. But I felt like I didn’t have a good counter to their arguments, veering as much as they did from any kind of practical reality. I wish I could have stood up and said, look, I’m a programmer and your metaphor really isn’t working.
I have always been resistance to theory, primarily when it’s drawn from philosophy. What it often feels like to me is that people are drawing on these theories to interpret literature because they’re desperate to make their work more relevant. A philosophical theory arises that changes the way we think about our relationship to the world and the literature people are all over it, using it to interpret everything from Shakespeare to Pynchon. I don’t mean to be unkind. I have seen theories used quite well, but too often, it becomes a mumbo jumbo that only the initiated can understand. It’s at conferences that I most feel that I’m not among the initiated, that I’m not invited to the party.
Image by lorda via Flickr
The reason I joined the NaNoWriMo activities even though I’m not writing a novel (which means I can’t officially win) is because having specific numeric goals is quite helpful. There’s also the group accountability of posting one’s numbers every day, comparing them to your buddies and to others.
I’m still behind a bit. I’ve set a goal of 3,000 words a day instead of the 1500 or so they recommend in order to catch up. I think that means I’ll be caught up by this weekend.
After having spent a lot of time not writing, the last two days, I found I had a lot to say and getting to 3000 seemed pretty easy, but then today, getting there was like pulling teeth. I posted to Twitter that “a watched pot won’t boil and a watched word count won’t increase.” I’d write a couple of sentences and then check my word count and see that it had inched up only by 100 words, not like when I’d check after a couple of pages in previous days.
Without NaNoWriMo, I might have simply quit when I found myself doing that and come back to the work tomorrow. But then there would be the chance that tomorrow I’d feel the same way. You don’t get to choose whether to go to work or not, so why should writing (if it’s your work) be any different. So despite the slowness of the words coming and despite my feeling that what was getting on the page was utter crap, I kept writing anyway. This is what we writing teachers have always told our students. It’s a common strategy to have them free write without editing to get them past the usual excuse of saying they have nothing to say. We give them prompts. We brainstorm. And yet, we often forget those same techniques when we ourselves are struggling.
After I write, I take a shower. While in the shower, I can’t help but think about the things I’ve just written. Quite often, I’ve gotten out of the shower, wrapped myself in a towel and run into the office to jot down ideas before I forget them. These become prompts for the next writing session. NaNo pushes me to keep writing no matter what and as I keep writing, a momentum builds so that the writing starts to perpetuate itself some days. For most of us, writing is something we do occasionally, not every day and so it is like cleaning out the garage instead of doing the laundry, a project not a process. To really write, though, it needs to become a process.
I am 120 pages into this project, 40 of which I’ve written through NaNo. I’m starting to piece things together, starting to see more threads and connections than I thought were there. I know much of what’s actually on the page will be completely transformed, but having a kernel to work with in the first place is truly helpful. And maybe this gives me a way to continue writing instead of postponing it like it’s a garage that needs to be cleaned out.
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For you non-WoW players out there, PvP stands for player vs. player, a part of the game where, instead of fighting virtual monsters, players battle each other. There are PvP servers where this kind of fighting happens constantly in addition to the virtual monsters fighting one must do. But most PvP action takes place in special battlegrounds where a group of Horde players battle a group of Alliance players in trying to reach a certain objective. There’s a capture-the-flag-like place, a place where one holds bases (actually several like this), and a place where one is trying to reach and capture a certain area. Naturally, as one tries to achieve these objectives, players from the other team will try to prevent this from happening, usually by killing people. Killing other players and achieving the objective rewards honors points, which can be used to purchase some cool items.
Back when I first started playing, I tried PvP and generally hated it. My fingers did not move fast enough to counter attacks or attack much myself. But there were some good rewards that came from honors points, namely swift mounts. So I suffered through enough battlegrounds to get my mount and then never really went back. But then, they made it possible to gain experience through PvP. So, I decided to give it a try again with my alt, an undead priest. I was struggling with leveling it because I found questing to be getting a bit tiring. As a priest, it’s also difficult to level simple by killing off a bunch of creatures. To vary my activities, I thought I’d try leveling via PvP.
When I first did this in my 20s, it hardly seemed worth it. I was in Warsong Gulch (a capture-the-flag-type game) and I was rewarded experience only when our team captured the flag and then more if we won. If you’re losing, you don’t get much experience at all, a token amount I believe at the end. So, I held off on that for a while until I got access to Arathi Basin, a battleground I’ve always liked, even when I didn’t like PvP more generally. I happened to venture back in this past weekend on its holiday weekend, when both experience and honors points are increased. I was level 38 when I started. I’m now level 43. Some hard-core players would probably have leveled to 50 by now, but this is only doing a few bg’s a day, throwing in a couple of quests while waiting to be let into battle. You can often complete an AB battle in 10 or 15 minutes (if you’re really kicking butt) and at most 30 minutes. This makes it easy to hop in over lunch, do a quick bg and then go back to work. You can also earn experience by doing the daily bg, for which I’ve been receiving around 7k xp. In AB, I’ve been getting 7-10k xp for each battle, a little less when we’re really sucking.
The other reason I hopped into PvP again besides wanting a more fun way to gain experience was that I wanted to try out healing in a group. I especially wanted to test out the effectiveness of two healing addons I was trying: healbot and grid+clique. It’s hard to find a group for a low-level dungeon these days, so hopping into a bg was an easy way to be in a group quickly. And I was able to test out my addons and settled on grid+clique for now. I’ve found that I enjoy healing in a bg better than attacking and that healing is much appreciated. Like in dungeons, where keeping the tank alive can mean the difference between defeating the boss or not, in bg’s, keeping a powerful player alive can really make a difference between winning and losing. I am often thanked for healing. And no one ever makes fun of me for dying since as a cloth-wearer, that’s a common event.
One reason that I didn’t like PvP before (besides sucking at it) was that the chat in PvP often degenerated into insults about how bad the rest of us are at the game. I still see that, but I’m able to tune it out most of the time, and I have also been in plenty of bg’s where that doesn’t happen, possibly because I’m often doing them at lunch, when there aren’t any kids online. When it’s a bunch of other grownups getting in a quick WoW session over lunch, there’s less likely to be any moaning and groaning.
Once I hit 80 with this alt, I’m not sure I’ll PvP much. Most of the rewards for PvP are PvP gear and if you’re interested in doing dungeons and raids, that gear isn’t going to be so helpful. Plus, I like the quests in Outland (lvl 58 and up) and Northrend (lvl 68 and up) better than the old world quests so I might be hitting bg’s less often as I get up to those levels, though I hear Alterac Valley offers some good xp. Only 8 more levels to go before I get there.
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Now as you probably already don’t know, I am an avid Runescape player, and have been studying it for quite some time. I would like to bring you into my realm of my studies.
Well to start off with, they made a majority of trade between players not actaully be face to face. Like, you would want to buy this item, and you set your price(there is a range for each item) and you would either have your offer in, waiting for someone to sell, or buy it from another player without interaction. This little device is called the Grand Exchange, which looks and sounds surprisingly like the stock exchange, and pretty much is.
Now, prices rise and fall depending on the average price the item was purchased that day. Say at item has a limit of 5 and 12. The “market price” would be 8 or 9. If a lot of an item is bought at more than 9 coins, the market price will rise the next day. The limit will now be 9 and 15, and the market price will be 11 or 12.
Unfortunately, this system is fairly easy to abuse, and a group of rich players can all buy one of an item at the maximum price for a few weeks, and it will rise dramatically then fall dramatically. I call this an unnatural rise.
Example of a rise
Example of a rise and fall
This is horrible. And hear me out. When an item is being “bought out”, it makes the item impossible to buy for a few days or even a week or more. And when it is sold or “dumped” it’s impossible to sell for several days.
Now this is my job. When the game updates its content, which it does fairly often, I like to find the connection to an item and prepare for it to rise or fall. Recently they changed the herblore(making potions) skill, so that there are new higher level potions to be made. The potions require and herb to make, and which can be farmed. Of course people want to level as fast as possible so I bought seeds that make the herbs and also the herbs themselves. Investment I am still holding on to 
.
Now some items like these herbs and seeds rise on their own or a natural rise.
Here is an example
And Another
It’s very fun to how these things work and its sometimes hard to find that connection from the update to the item.
Hope you enjoyed.
They do have their own blogs, I promise. But for some reason, it’s more fun for them to blog here. I think they like the audience. You can see the challenges I face: the sarcasm, the way-too-smart-for-their-own-good attitude. That comes from Mr. Geeky’s side of the family, I promise.
At any rate, expect another post from Geeky Boy later today, who will be blogging about virtual economies. I swear he has a future on Wall Street. He regularly discusses cornering the market on things. Yesterday, he discussed some kind of 6-point connection thing for how he determines what to corner. It scares me.
And I have a couple of posts brewing myself: on the pitfalls of attending academic conferences, on why we feel guilty about creating art, and WoW Wednesday on my new love of PvP. So the joint’s gonna be hopping around here. And now I have to go try to catch up on NaNoWriMo. Cue the music.
Hello people of Earth, Mars, and Wisconsin it is Tween Takeover Monday! Moving on I have been asked a question from one of my “fans” and they have asked the same question to my brother. “How do you feel about screen time for tweens?” he asked. I thought this question was too hard to comprehend so I just feel like giving you a picture of ducks:
I’m just kidding! Here’s my blog about screen time for tweens:
When I get up in the morning I feel a sudden urge to dance, but I don’t. So just like computer time I want to, but I can’t or don’t. Why you ask, why does she choose not to play the sims 3 or runescape, why? Because I have work to do of course but also because I don’t want to become addicted and end up failing school because I play videogames instead of do homework. You don’t want that, do you? (those of you who said yes think about when your 27 and your still stuck in the 10th grade) I know everybody says school is boring and we shouldn’t have homework, but think twice the next time you are out at recess(younger kids) or you are in study hall throwing paper airplanes(older kids) think about how much fun school actually is. Don’t waste your time on computers do your home work and then you can enjoy the sunny, or snowy day.
Please leave comments if you want. Thanks again, Stephanie. (AKA Geekygirl)
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Jody at Raising WEG writes about the relentlessness of having to be the arbiter, the house manager, the soother of emotions, etc. I remember a couple of years ago, when I got so depressed, I actually had to seek professional care, how I could not even begin to deal with the every day needs of the kids. I didn’t really even realize that I wasn’t tending to them. I’d just blocked them out, kind of going through the motions. As I began to realize that I had detached myself, I got even more depressed about it. The very least one is supposed to do as a parent is be engaged in the daily needs of one’s children, but I couldn’t do it.
In fact, I’d say that realizing that my needs and issues were taking away from theirs was one of the many reasons I left my job. All I could focus on at the end of the day were the bad things that had happened to me at work. Rather than giving my kids the opportunity to process their days, I needed to process mine first. And that seemed really unfair to me.
It’s dramatically different now. I can actually have conversations with my kids, not just at dinner time, but after school and on car rides to various activities and in that space between school and dinner. But, the daily grind (outside of those conversations) does get wearing. Though I spend about half of every day doing my own stuff, a good chunk of my day is spent doing laundry, grocery shopping, meal planning, cleaning, coordinating drop-offs and pick ups, counseling on proper time management (aka homework issues), and negotiating proper leisure activities. The laundry, especially, seems never ending. Just when I think I’m going to have a few days’ break, more piles seem to appear from nowhere.
Jody’s kids are eight, and many of her commenters kids are around the same age. I’d say that having kids that are 10 and 14 is easier and harder.
Easier:
- They do their chores properly about 90% of the time. I do usually have to remind them, but other than that, I am assured that the work will get done.
- They can function properly and behave properly under most conditions. Even if they’re tired, they can be counted on to behave properly at a family function or other event. I don’t have to worry about some kind of breakdown.
- They can go places on their own. They’re old enough now to walk over to the ice cream place, the library or the game store. (Though Geeky Girl must be accompanied by Geeky Boy).
Harder:
- School work. Especially for Geeky Boy, grades matter. For both of them, I still have to pay particular attention to their getting their work done, practicing instruments, etc. They would much rather watch tv or play video games.
- Psychological issues such as body image, intimacy, etc. Geeky Girl is not that far away from going through puberty and already, there’s been discussion of what girls wear, etc. Geeky Boy is old enough to be exposed to drinking, drugs, and sex. We are constantly having discussions about these things and also trying to assess their friends and relationships. It’s quite difficult.
- General negotiation of boundaries. When kids are younger, it’s clear what they’re allowed to do or not. As they get older, sometimes it’s hard to decide. If one parent allows their kid to go to a movie unattended, should you let your kid do the same? And then there’s just the general concept of what they should be able to do on their own versus what you’re still having to help them with. I’m still helping Geeky Boy with time management, but I don’t have to help him get dressed or clean up the kitchen.
It’s sort of a weird feeling to tire of parenting. On the one hand, you’re just tired. On the other, you realize how fleeting the time is. I think one of the reasons we get tired, in fact, is that we think our interactions with our kids should be more fun, more pleasant. If the time is fleeting, shouldn’t that time be spent being happy more often than not?
Mondays are always a bit rough, after getting to sleep in, attend soccer games and loll around with the family. They’re especially rough after having spent a few days conferencing. I attended this conference (presentation here). This was the first time I’ve been to this conference and only the second of two purely academic conferences I’ve been to in the last five years. I have more to say about that experience. In general, I think academic conferences are a kind of twilight zone experience, even when one is enjoying them, as I did this one.
Most wonderfully, I was able to meet this blogger, a veteran of the conference and a truly delightful person to get to spend some time with. I was grateful to have someone who knew a few people, who could introduce me around and give me people to eat lunches and dinners with. Without her, I’m sure I wouldn’t have as much fun as I did.
Given that I was conferencing for the last few days, I’m a bit behind on my NaNoWriMo writing, but I have a big writing session planned this morning and I’m hoping to be caught up today. I did do some writing while I was away, just not enough. Gee, the days go by fast. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Gah. One day at a time.
No this is how it happened: Once upon a time in a car ride home my brother Thad was sitting in the backseat next to me doodling on his DS and everyone else was talking and when we stopped we noticed Thad was singing quietly. This is what he was singing:”Giving that cat some pants, giving that cat some pants!!!” And that is the real story!
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