Comments | sylvia_rachel: In which I post about various random, unrelated things

sylvia_rachel

In which I post about various random, unrelated things

Feb 09, 2008 14:47

1. Having a great time with the Commendable Crit Contest over at OWW. I've gotten to read some very cool stuff, and have had some extremely useful (if occasionally slightly painful) crit and commentary on some stuff of mine, and also several fun and thought-provoking side conversations. And have been revising like a mad thing. Writing ... well, not ( Read more... )

life, kid stories, music, work, ontario is weird, photos

Comments 9

scbutler February 9 2008, 20:55:20 UTC

Hey! Even in Brooklyn we shovel our own sidewalks! Fuhgeddaboutit!

sylvia_rachel February 10 2008, 22:18:34 UTC

I rest my case ...

On the plus side, I have helped my mom (in Calgary) figure out why that new guy down the street never shovels his sidewalk: after hearing me rant about this concept, she decided he must be from Toronto and not know any better :P

elizabeth_welsh February 10 2008, 06:45:08 UTC

Interesting on OWW -- how does it compare to the KS exchange? Do they do it much the same way?

Snow sucks. I drove south until I found a place where they weren't sure what a snow shovel was. I landed here.

sylvia_rachel February 10 2008, 22:31:15 UTC

Actually, I like snow :) I just hate it when people don't take responsibility for clearing it, because when you just throw down a few handfuls of [environmentally unfriendly, bad-for-pets, car- and boot-destroying] road salt instead of shovelling, what you end up with is a sidewalk full of slush and puddles that then freeze solid on the next cold day and cover the pavement with ice. And then people slip and fall and hurt themselves.

Also, I hate freezing rain. Although if you don't have to go outside, the results of freezing rain can be very pretty.

sylvia_rachel February 10 2008, 22:46:46 UTC

Basically, on OWW you post your story (or chapter, or whatever -- the word limit for a single post is 7500, but most people seem to post between 1000 and 6000 words) and then people read it and post critiques. For every substantive critique you post (i.e., something more useful than "Great story!" or "I don't get it!") you get one point, and when you have four points you can post another thing, but I think you can only have three things posted at one time. They have some guidelines for writing critiques, and a pretty good FAQ, but people do it a lot of different ways; some crits focus more on the big picture, some are very detailed, etc. When you review someone's submission you can choose to make your e-mail address available to the writer, and a couple of times someone has e-mailed me to follow up on one of my reviews (to clarify something, or to answer a question), but I'm not sure how often a real conversation develops ( ... )

homework anonymous February 10 2008, 19:02:35 UTC

I agree about weekend homework. I've learned not to assign homework to my high school students during the week; they have too much trouble getting it done. All assignments are due Monday, and I try to get things graded and back to them at our next class on Wednesday so they have my comments to help them with the next round over the weekend.

to

PS We have no snow here right now. I *knew* there had to be some reason for living in this Hillary-hating sexist Bush Land!

Re: homework sylvia_rachel February 10 2008, 22:48:21 UTC

Seriously? New Haven hates Hillary?

... Oh, you mean because Dubya is a Yalie? Goodness, how petty!

RE: weekend homework, that makes sense -- and your students probably really like you. The more I think about it, the more I think the person advocating the no-homework-on-weekends approach must have MUCH more exciting weekends than we do ;^)

Re: homework anonymous February 12 2008, 04:01:37 UTC

No, New Haven as a whole doesn't hate Hillary or like W. I think the town 99% hates W and is ashamed he went to school here.

But it feels like the entire USA has gone on an anti-Hillary scary sexist rampage. It's terrifying to read the comments on the NYTimes or even to hear about some of the stuff said elsewhere. There's a great Women's Media Center polemic about it; I've posted the link on my Facebook page.

Re: homework sylvia_rachel February 12 2008, 15:52:40 UTC

Oh, OK. Yes, I see what you mean.

There was a really interesting article in the New Yorker recently, sort of comparing Clinton and Obama but not opining either way (how refreshing!), and giving some very interesting insights into their personalities. I'm torn -- but I don't get to vote in a primary anyway, and it's not as though I didn't already know I was going to vote Democratic in the election...