ask a scatterbrain: anonymity at blog parties?!

Pitseleh asks:
How the heck does the blogger meeting at ASA work? If we are trying (probably in vain) to remain anonymous, how exactly do you meet face-to-face and talk about blogging?

not that there’s anything wrong with that

Have you ever seen one of those screwball comedy scenes in which the regular guy protagonist walks into a bar and only after a few bumbling scenes and conversations filled with misunderstanding and innuendo does he realize… hey, everyone here is gay, this is one of those gay bars people talk about?
I was intrigued by [...]

the culture of workaholism

In writing a review essay about organizational culture and family leave policies, I am always continually struck by the desire–on the part of workers–to assume the responsibilities, hours, roles. It’s a part of their identity within the institution and in their personal lives, and how they define themselves. I am a good worker!
Culture is the [...]

mystery cloths of the bourgeoisie

I arrived in Boston this evening for a conference on public intellectuals. As befitting intellectuals about public intellectuals, we have been put up in a nice hotel right next to Fenway. When I came back from dinner, the turn-down service not only had left cookies on my pillow and started soft music playing, [...]

so you’re going to asa for the first time?

Or you’re wondering if you should go because you didn’t like it last time you went? I’ve been to some 6 ASAs now (not a lot, but enough to draw some generalizations, and hopefully make you feel better about your bad experiences or influence your expectations). So here are some general observations about ASA:

this for all of you nerdy scatterbrains

 

Find more here.

backstage, to your right

Pitseleh and I are having a most awesome discussion about the Goffmanian concept of backstage.  Original post here, followed by part I and part 2.  My tangentially related post here, and a conversation between Pitseleh and I on the elusiveness of the backstage can be found here.
Go read. You know you want to procrastinate. I know you do, because [...]

voodoo for sociology

Do the right thing, people. Head over to Wicked Anomie’s page at Etsy to buy an awesome handmade Blind Reviewer Voodoo Doll. Not only can you use it to vent your frustrations when papers are out of your hands and to punish the cruel reviewers who dare reject your pearls of wisdom, but you will [...]

public sociology. without the squizzle.

The squizzle in the banner in some browser appears to be gone. At least in IE, the banner also seems to have any annoying tendency now to disappear entirely. I will work on more general template repair when I am back from my conference.
Non sequitur: There is not a single Whole Foods in [...]

so i didn’t like table 3. you didn’t have to respond by impaling me.

Wicked Anomie has gone into business selling blind reviewer voodoo dolls.

this sounds like a question for venkatesh

It seems that Venkatesh is on a roll with his rogue sociologist thing. He already has an “ask a thug” feature on the Freakonomics blog, but really, he should have an “ask a rogue sociologist” feature.
From the NYT, comes this sad story and sociological (and legal) question about pro surfer Emery Kauanui, who was beaten [...]

i feel like i’ve been walking around for months with something stuck in my teeth

I am reading this blog on Internet Explorer right now. Instead of the visited links being gray like they are when I read Scatterplot in Firefox, they are blue, which leads to an aesthetically unpleasing mismash of gray and blue all over the page. Not only that, but on the far right of [...]

correlation, or causality?

From CNN.com:
Obama picked up an endorsement from California superdelegate Crystal Strait…
“Barack Obama has shown a real commitment to young voters in his campaign, and in response, young people have overwhelmingly voted and caucused for Obama,” Strait said in a written statement.
“We know that if a young person votes three times in a row for a [...]

public sociology trivia

I still intend to write a post with my thoughts on newsocprof’s discussion of public sociology and the tenure process, which jt also addressed in a response post in The Public and the Private.  That will come later, after the flurry of end-of-term grad advising and family business (including my son’s college graduation and attendant [...]

happy mother’s day

Shout out to the moms today. I got the most awesome hand-made gift from Kid and a couple of great books from Husband that were just what I wanted. Plus, an extra hour of sleep in the morning, plus pancakes with raspberries. What more could I ask for? It was the best Mother’s Day ever.

Yesterday [...]

my summer vacation

BTW: Things are looking final for Sal and me going to Malawi to teach a course on data analysis at the end of June.  This will be my first time to Africa, my first time crossing the equator, and my first time doing anything even remotely like this.  When I signed up, my thought was Adventure!, [...]

why aren’t you blogging???

Because I’m writing a paper on blogging for a small conference on Friday.  I spent several days being stymied by said paper because of teaching, competing professional obligations, my secret new supernerdy hobby, and other distractions.  Then I moved to being stymied by said paper by a general lack of ideas.  More accurately: I have many ideas about blogging, but the [...]

teaching question #2

Is there a way I can see something different on my laptop screen than what is projected onto the lecture screen? I use “bad” PowerPoint slides with too many words because I don’t have the personal organizational capacity to keep track of lecture notes separately from slides, so my slides double as my notes. If [...]

teaching question #1

How do you ask questions that guide a student discussion? I realize I’m a little old to be asking this question, but I’ve realized this is a teaching skill I don’t have. I know how to lecture and tell students what I want them to know. I know how to respond to [...]

not to be confused with the domino’s noid.

It’s the 8th of May, and many back home are chanting “Hooray, hooray, it’s the 8th of May!” I guess people outside of Washington were tired of missing out; there’s apparently a NOID event planned in Chicago today.