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It has been a busy week for yours truly. So busy that my fitness program, which had been running pretty consistent since the start of the new year, got a bit derailed as I dealt with one issue or another.
Let’s get to it.
The Teaching Front
We’re advancing to our first exam, which is far later than normal due to the snow days we’ve had. I’m behind in all of my classes as well, which is yet another struggle. Further, due to the disruptions, it has been difficult to build up momentum and bond with the students. As a result, things are not working quite as smoothly as I’d like. Fortunately, I have no real disciplinary issues on the table.
On the other hand, I see a lot of my students using their textbook and their study guide during the lecture to hunt down terms. On the surface this might seem like a good thing, right? At least they are paying attention to something.
Well, actually, it is a bad thing. It is a sign of a time crunched student, or worse, a bored student, who is attempting to work through the study guide while I lecture. More often than not students believe that the lecture material is not important for the test. I often get students who ask how much of what I lecture on is in the textbook.
Less than you’d think. The lectures are often specifically designed to go deeper into the topics at hand or they are designed to operate hand in glove with the textbook.
So an example would be the lecture on the Pre-Revolutionary Era of American History. The traditional way of teaching this is to start with the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the This Act and the That Act and rest assured that is exactly how it sounds to the student. They are merely memorizing bits of info for regurgitation and that is the last thing you want them to do. Memorization is just an early step towards true understanding.
Rather than lecture on those acts, I make the student responsible for reading the textbook’s coverage of those acts. What I do instead is lay out the case for why the Colonials believed that their only recourse was to declare independence from Great Britain. I lay down the grievances and I fill in the background for the Colonial’s historical understanding and perception of events.
How does that work out? Well, I’m two semesters into using that method and if you are a student who does what I told you to do, take notes on the lecture, tie it to your reading and form a synthesis of the two, then they do fine.
Test results aren’t much different between one strategy of coverage or the other, I might add.
In any event, they are doing their homework while I lecture. I think I’m going to put that on the Why Did I Fail The Test? section of my syllabus for next semester.
The Student Front
I’ve not had a chance to update either the Pondering Tree or Playing with Genesis.
We’ve moved into the actual writing of the novel. The group I am in wrote a combined first chapter this last week.
We’re in a computer lab and to be honest, I am growing to believe that this was not the best choice for the class. It is hard to get into an effective group in order to get any work done. The computers serve as a frequent distraction. Given that I was using my laptop on Tuesday, even I am guilty of this, though I had a reason (which is not the same as an excuse) for having that computer out. If nothing else, the clickety-click-click-click of the keys on my laptop are relatively quiet.
In fact, in terms of technology in the classroom, I think it ought to be banned. No videos, no slides, no powerpoints, none of it. Just a board to write on and comfortable chairs for the students to sit in with a large desk to spread out their things. On C-Span this morning (and what a wonderful discovery that is, a place where people discuss without drama or shouting or Jerry Springer like behavior) an education pundit was talking about a high tech public school on the East Coast which cost a pretty penny to equip with the latest and greatest in technology.
The performance at that school? In the toilet. Students surf the net, IM each other or spend their time trying to get the tech to work in the first place.
Banish to the Computer Science Department and leave it there.
I’ll provide a proper update to Playing with Genesis that covers the actual course material and progress later this weekend.
Research Project Number – 05
The Client was on deadline this week, which was something of a surprise to me. I wasn’t aware of the deadline. No matter. I sat down with the backlog I could most effectively contribute to and worked over the material. By deadline time, I had most of the storyline components covered. There are a few lingering errors in the manuscript but I will catch them later.
It is going to be a pretty big novel, folks. I’m looking forward to seeing how the trilogy ends.
The Writing Front
In the Early Morning Rain by Berry Henderson and myself is currently out to market. We haven’t heard anything back yet so we’re hopeful. It is a new market open to e-subs so I’ll be looking over my inventory to see what can be polished up and put into the wind. Many of the valuable things I have learned in World Building will be helpful in that respect.
On the novel front I was able to drag out the manuscript for the first time in a couple of weeks to give it a going over. What I have right now are a bunch of cobbled together, pasted together scenes which are loosely linked together. In looking over the manuscript I think some major work is needed to better define the roles of the various characters.
There is also one glaring problem, the same one I noticed with my previous novel effort, Convergence Point.
When I have the space to spread out and more specifically, work on a military topic, I tend to let the action and strategy dominate the narrative. It is a natural strength of mine as a storyteller and an historian. Unfortunately, without significant character depth and development, no one is going to care about that action. It will be nothing more than a series of cardboard targets getting cut down on the battlefield.
So that part of it needs significant work. It is the sort of thing I can probably hammer out in a week of concentrated effort.
As for the World Building in the novel, I think some refinement of various structures and institutions are necessary. I definitely want to redefine the family structure of this society based upon what I have learned in Melissa Eaton’s Cultural Anthropology side of the course.
If things go according to plan, I’ll use my time during Spring Break in tandem with Trinity’s Spring Break (which is at the end of the month) to get the project ready for submission to market.
Other Fronts
Over the next few days the Great Summer Job Hunt will commence. Now that I am lifeguard qualified I should be able to, hopefully, get a decent job at around 25 to 30 hours a week maximum. Even more ideally, it will be a posting to an outdoor pool.
Trinity is making plans to travel to California to see her eldest son and wife for a week during her Spring Break. I should be able to polish up the novel while she is out there. I’ve got to say that I am glad to see that fences have been mended with that particular component of her family.
Lastly, March 10th is my father’s birthday. He’ll be sixty-nine years old if my math is correct. No one thought he’d get this far given that he has prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, stage three lung cancer and a heart muscle that more closely resembles a chunk of hamburger than a heart.
I chalk it up to sheer cussed stubborness myself.
Trinity and I are going to see about getting some barbecue for tomorrow night so we can celebrate a bit early. Both of us will be tied up during the week with our respective college obligations.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
For Christmas my client purchased an Amazon Kindle ereader for me. There was a bit of a conspiracy to keep this purchase a secret from me that involved the enlistment of the Woman I Love and my own mother. Needless to say, I was in the dark until Christmas Day when I opened the box to find it sitting there staring at me.
It is a strange thing, this relationship I have with John. Previously we traveled to New York City to meet him in person and do research for After America. New York City had not been high on my list of places to travel to but it meshed up with my schedule better than San Francisco did and since it was February, how could any warm blooded male resist the urge to give the Big Apple to the Woman they Love?
Turns out that New York City took most of my Midwestern notions and flushed them down the toilet. A friendly city, active, exciting and far different from the usual, mean spirited impression we are left with.
Staring at the Kindle, I wondered if I wasn’t on the verge of a similar eye opening experience. I was at best lukewarm to it. Reading off a computer screen has never been a favorite chore of mine. I tend to prefer passages shorter than 2000 words and I find I do not process the information in the same manner as text printed on paper.
So I charged the device, registered it and started to noodle around with it. No, like most men, I didn’t read the instructions. You don’t really need to. The Kindle seems to be an intuitive device for the most part, easily sorted out. It helps that we have wifi in the apartment now so I was able to purchase a couple of books for a test run.
For the record, I picked up Polybius and I picked up Thomas Fleming’s work on the intimate life of our Founding Fathers. Much of what I have read out of Fleming so far is material I was already aware of.
Truth to tell, however, I have not spent much time reading on it until this morning. I was in the mood for a newspaper while Trinity watched the new reality show Toddlers and Tiaras (who comes up with this crap?) and there was the Kindle on my desk.
“I’ll just download a paper,” I thought.
Yeah, but which one? There are a hundred and fifty plus available. I decided to go with something simple and started off with USA Today, the e copy of which is a quarter cheaper. The Kindle downloaded it in less than a second and I was off.
Couldn’t I read the USA Today on my laptop? Yeah, umm, it seems the laptop’s multimedia capability is a bit of a distraction. It is too easy to go check facebook or some such.
The screen on the kindle is just about the right size for reading. You can adjust the text size and at first I had it set for a larger size before I found I was toggling the page buttons too often. I settled for something closer to default, which gives me a block of text I can concentrate on for a few seconds before moving on. The page turn is not instantaneous so if you are impatient, you’ll need to clamp down on that. If you’ve been spoiled with touch screens on the iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad, you are going to have to wait as well.
The screen is not backlit so you can read it in daylight. On the other hand, if you want to read it in a darkroom, you need to turn on a light.
My only real issues with the Kindle so far have to do with overall design as opposed to function. When I hold it in my hand, it feels a bit too slim. Part of this is due to the fact that my hands are shaped oddly and nothing ever really fits them right. I like the item I am reading to seat itself in the palm of my hand, right where the meat of the thumb meets your life line. The other issue is that the page tabs seem a bit too small.
Do I love the Kindle? I think the jury is still out on that. I definitely like my Kindle. I like the fact that I can carry a library of books with me in the palm of my hand and that I can access those books at will. I’ve lost track of the number of times I have loaded up bags full of books to use for research while out of the apartment. The Kindle solves that problem for me. I can see it serving as a useful research device in the future.
The Kindle can also be used to store documents of your own in PDF format. I had given some thought to purchasing a Kindle DX for use in my classes for lecture notes. This would get me away from the massive three ring binders I am in the habit of carrying around. I’m not sure I’ll be using this Kindle for that purpose. I may put my notes on there so I can review them prior to giving a lecture. However, more and more, I find that I lecture without any notes at all.
I know that I definitely enjoy reading on it far more than I do my iPod Touch. The Touch can be used for very short items and I think the finger flick method of moving the text around is better than the tabs. That said, the Touch screen is far too small for lengthy reading. I still can not figure out how folks read books through their cellphones. My eyes ache at the prospect.
Will this thing do away with print books? Hard to say, really.
I’ll have more thoughts on the Kindle reading as time progresses. In the meantime, a hearty and public thank you to John Birmingham for the Christmas present.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Also known at this blog as Research Project Number – 04.
I had a very, very small part in this and it gives me goosebumps to see the trailer.
So buy the book when it comes out this summer!
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Sorry I’ve been away from the Tree for so long. There were tests to grade and record, students to see, bills to pay since April Fool’s was payday (irony be thy name), and sunny weather to enjoy with the Woman I Love. Needless to say, Reality has kept yours truly busy.
The April Fitness Plan
I’ve got until April 27th to get ready for Lifeguard Training. The good news is that I can push myself to reach 300 meters of swimming without break. The bad news is that it takes a great deal of effort and it only features the front crawl. I need to master the breast stroke and the turn required to effectively use the breast stroke. This has to be done in twenty days or less.
I ran into a bit of a snag with my revised swimming plan. Across from the Pod is North Kansas City Community Center (it is across the street from the burning Quik Trip in Birmingham’s Without Warning for those wondering). I went across the street to knock out the first of my morning swim sessions only to find a large swim team contingent there. Granted, they left me to my own lane but I found it oft putting. It prompted me to rethink my fitness plan.
Here it is.
Monday-Wednesday-Fridays
0530 hours: NKC-CC, Strength Training
I’m going to make a change to my strength training workout. I had been working on sheer muscle mass mainly as a way to burn off more calories. The more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn. I also like the additional mass because it gives me a bit of an edge in the classroom (the mass adds just a bit to my command authority).
Instead, I’m going to aim for endurance instead. I’ll drop the level of weight I am using just a notch, say my bench press down to 165 lbs at 10 reps rather than 185 at 6 reps. I have a lot of raw power at my disposal but not as much endurance as I’d like.
And it is probably worth pointing out that the swimming is increasing my overall strength anyway. Yesterday when I worked on the Lat Flex machine for the first time in two months (the Campus Rec Center doesn’t have one I like) I noticed that I was pulling far more weight than I had in the past, up to 255 pounds. So I can probably modify my workout just a notch.
0930 hours: Campus Rec Center, Swim Training
The Campus Rec Center pool is pretty quiet at this time with lots of open lanes. For this week I am going to work at building up my form, breathing and endurance.
M: 100 meters x 5 for 500 meters.
W: 100 meters x 6 for 600 meters.
F: 200 meters x 3 for 600 meters.
1900 hours: Northtown Community Center, Additional Swim Training
I notice that I recover pretty fast between sets which leads me to believe I can probably push myself a bit more. In the evening I’ll hit the pool again. Each night with the exception of Monday night (I teach so I can’t swim) I’ll try to reach the 300 meters mark consistently.
Tuesday-Thursdays
I have a body building class on campus at 1230 hours. I think I need to get down to the campus rec center earlier rather than hanging around the adjunct farm eating junk food and generally goofing off. I also need to work in a cardio element into my plan.
1130 hours: Strength and Cardio Training
It is easier to work back at Northtown so I’ll work chest at the Campus Rec Center.
I will also work in a 20 minute session on the elliptical trainer. This will probably happen during the actual class as my fellow students tie up most of the weights.
If I feel like it, I may hit the pool for some swimming. I think I’ll restrict myself to 100 meter sets.
Saturday and Sunday
With the Northtown Community Center back on line, I can work in some weekend workouts. These will probably be either easy going days or make up days. Usually Wednesday ends up being my paperwork catch up day so I suspect I’ll be running with a variation of the MWF workout.
Consumption
I need to tweak my eating habits. One probably is that fresh fruit is a bit thin on the ground. The apples around here have been pretty crappy and it is still just a notch early for strawberries. I also need to watch the binging.
So it goes. My goal is still the same. Qualify for lifeguard training. Secondary goals include fat loss and increased muscle mass.
The Teaching Front
I handed exams back this week in three of my four classes. It was a mixed bag. Overall there were marginal improvements in all three day classes. The marginal improvement can be traced to some basic facts.
1. Some students have dropped or simply didn’t take the test.
2. Some students took my advice and prepared.
The additional prep work, outlines and note cards, helped most of my students who used them. However there is always a couple of people for whom these tactics do not work. I don’t quite know why this is and it bothers me to hand out a solution to a problem and see it fail for a few students. I don’t think there is any one solution to the problem. Some students aren’t ready for college. Some students aren’t quite getting what I am trying to teach them. Some students have issues outside of the classroom which are beyond my control. Some students simply do not have time.
A few students, I think many students, approach the work the wrong way. They do the prep to get it done, much the same way a fast food cook or an assembly worker does work. Do Task A, go to Task B, connect to Task C, complete task order, set aside and move to next task order. They do it much the same way I used to fill out my DA-2404s when we were on maintenance in the motor pool. You find the same problems with the vehicle that the Army hasn’t fixed, you list them, turn it in, call it good, go get a soda.
They see the material as little bits of data to be memorized. This is not a new observation, James Loewen makes this point in his Lies my Teacher Told Me book (probably one of the only decent points he makes, overall I find the book questionable). So they memorize a little bit of data, hope they see something that matches it on the test, throw it against the wall and hope it sticks. And the more they dislike a given topic, the more likely a student is going to respond in this fashion.
Lately I’ve taken to telling my classes these things.
1. History is not about memorizing useless bits of data. If that were the case then I tell you that I can get a classroom full of parrots to earn As on the test if you give me enough time and crackers to train them.
2. History is about motivations, causes and consequences. A student needs at least that level of comprehension if they are going to understand what is going on. This is different from “intellectual history” which is what some say I should be teaching. But I can’t have a discussion about trends and historiography if they don’t have the slightest idea of the basic facts.
3. 99% of History is about this question, “Who got screwed and why?”
The response I sometimes get is this.
1. I just need my history credit.
2. Just tell me what you want me to put on the essay.
3. I am never going to use this information, why am I in this class anyway? It has no purpose.
I have some sympathy with the later one. The question which drives so many people, my father is a classic case in point is, “Will this put food on the table, pay the bills, make me happier?”
In the immediate sense? No, it won’t. For me it is only lately that my skills as a historian has helped pay the bills, put food on the table and make me happier. But even before I started teaching, my skills as a historian had use in my life. As a security officer it helped me to write a more effective report, which is a first draft of history. Most of my students are moving on to Vocational training in fields where I know they will be writing reports. Mechanics, techs, medical, law enforcement, teaching, so on and so forth, they’ll be expected to write reports, fill out forms, diagnose problems. The skills taught in an history class helps with that, even if they can’t see that we are trying to teach them a way of thinking.
For others there is only ONE right answer. The subjective nature of history drives some black and white thinkers nuts and generates the “Just tell me what you want” statement. Some items are certainly locked in stone, such as dates, who signed what document and why, where places are, where events took place, and who was there.
No one except a nutjob is going to argue that the Declaration of Independence doesn’t exist. It does. We have sufficient documentation to tell us when it was written, by who, how it was revised and why, and the reason for the creation of such a document. Those are facts.
What is subjective is the effects the document had on follow on events or what the people who helped write the document were thinking at the time. If a student thinks there is just one right answer to any question, then this will drive them mad. It will be worse if they are simply trying to get the work done and out of the way.
Anyway, these are the issues I face in the classroom on a general level. Next time I might ponder some about student attitudes toward the essay questions I issue with each exam.
Payday Activities
Well, the first of the month is payday from the teaching gig so it was off to pay bills and whatnot. We’ve restocked the larder, laid in enough to hopefully get us through the month. Perishables are a bit of a problem but we’ll do what we can.
I’ve been making Trinity’s car payment for the last few months. I’m a bit worried about what will happen once summer arrives. There will be no money for the car then. Hopefully we’ll both pick up part time jobs and maybe her summer student financial aid will help with that. Still, I’m looking forward to having the car paid off. Once we get that cleared, we can see about upgrades to the office and living room areas.
And I can start restocking my personal library.
Speaking of books, lately I’ve been looking for books on economic history. I found a couple of good surveys of US Economic History, one set in the Gilded Age, the other a comprehensive examination form 1600 to about the mid 1980s (when the book was published). I was driven down this road for a couple of reasons. One is that I would like to reach a point where I could discuss economic history more effectively in the classroom. The other is tied to Research Project Number – 05, which I think is as much about economic power as it is about military and political power. When I read these books, I’ll post reviews on them.
Niall Ferguson also has what looks like a pretty good book called The Ascent of Money. I’m going to try and snag a copy of that.
Hopefully at some point over the summer I can sit down with a revised understanding of economic history and rebuild my lectures for both American History classes.
Clash of the Titans
I struggled mightily to get out of seeing this movie but Trinity wanted to see it. So off we went, yours truly not very happy about it but I did my best to suck it up.
The film sucks ass. No character development, no reason to give a shit about what happens, it is just awful. Only Liam Neeson’s little moments make it bearable and then just barely so.
That said, there is this.
It is better than the original.
But then, how could it not be?
Other Stuff
Yesterday was a mad day of spring cleaning at the Pod. We scrubbed the shit out of that place and it needed it.
And finally, we’ve been invited out to Sunset Bed and Breakfast for Easter Sunday doings so I’ll be dropping back off the net.
Tomorrow will be another day.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Before I start, one from the flickr archives.
The date? February 2009.
The place? Times Square NYC
The man? John Birmingham
He looks like he is taking a “slash” on Times Square, does he not?
Things I meant to post months ago and didn’t get to due to the crush of life in general.
Speaking of that, back to that.
The Teaching Front: Managing Chaos
Eighteen hours doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? That really isn’t even a part time job when you get to it. But here in professor land, and definitely here in Adjunctland, 18 hours equals a full load plus one. Most full time instructors teach fifteen hours. Everything else is extra everything.
Now, adjuncts teach more than nine hours but that normally entails driving from campus to campus. I’ve only pulled off the multi-campus semester exactly one time thus everything else has been at my home campus.
So, what do I have to do? Here is the To Do List on Planet Murphy.
1. Write a lecture on Old Hickory, aka Andrew Jackson. Yes, I have one in progress but it needs work.
2. Write a lecture on the Rise of Christian Religion in the Roman Empire. No, I haven’t started on that yet. I’m still reading material for that.
3. Revise lectures on the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 to match a peer’s material and figure out where they are going from there.
4. Generate a study guide for my Western Civ class (in fact, I’ll do that here in a second).
5. Plan the Fourth Quarter for all classes under my control which includes study guides and finals.
6. Grade the backlog of material still on deck from the second quarter exams.
7. Create a lecture book dedicated to the new classes I have assumed control over.
8. Try to figure out the best way to deal with my peer’s Powerpoints (something I am very uncomfortable with).
9. Do my own writing for Terri Lowry’s Creative Writing.
10. Do the crits for Lowry’s class too.
Yeah kids. I’ve got my hands full.
The upside? Well, I’ll have enough money on hand to pay the bills, survive the semester gap and maybe buy something nice at Christmas.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Aboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy BSG-71
Location: CIC
Mission: Damage Control and Assessment
I’m running on three hours of sleep after learning that my father is back in the hospital last night. He is having heart trouble, trouble breathing, etc, etc. So that was part of my evening last night on the eleven month anniversary of Trinity and I. Mom’s down with illness as well and I’m having a bitch of a time finding the time and energy to get enough lecture material scraped together for Western Civ.
The problem isn’t knowledge or material. That I have plenty of. No, I just need the time to write the lectures into something useable so I don’t stand there in class and babble on like an idiot. I call those lectures Falling Down the Stairs Lectures. I used to give a lot of them during my first two years of teaching and it is a horrible experience that ranks right up there with a dream where one is naked in public yet no one notices.
In other words, I hate not being fully prepared.
Worse, I hate not getting at least four hours of sleep. It is a wonder I didn’t stand there in class and drool all over myself. As it is, my military bearing and two years of experience allowed me to slug my way through both lectures this morning. I wouldn’t say it was a cheerful experience but my 0800 students seem to know that crossing me is unwise.
Apparently tales that I threw someone out at 0830 for tardiness have gotten ’round the campus (though they are somewhat inaccurate, the general gist is true). My 0930 class is a bit more spirited but that isn’t a bad thing. Some of them will get a wake up call here in a couple of weeks.
Of course the other problem is that running on three hours of sleep makes doing physical fitness training problematic. It is a great way to injury yourself and for those that aren’t following John Birmingham’s blog, be advised that he snapped his ulna in martial arts last week (probably not due to fatigue). I’ve already got some problem spots, notably along the upper right arm near the tricep, some elbow and some shoulder trouble. I don’t need to blow something out when I have a 145 pound stack of weights over my chest because I wasn’t focused.
On the other hand, I was able to get the iPods operational using a campus computer to download iTunes. The iPods are both synced and prepped. I didn’t load any music onto Trinity’s iPod as I only had one of my CDs with me. I’ll try to reload iTunes on my laptop and see if that will work. If that doesn’t work, I’ll load a few songs onto Trinity’s iPod on campus while she is at an extra credit lecture.
As for Dad, well, he’s terminal, kids. We’re all terminal but he is closer to it than most of us are. Estimates range from tomorrow to a year from now. That said, Aunt Margaret said over at my facebook that we Murphys tend to be a stubborn lot (all those bad genetics I guess). He may well outlast all of us, beat the lung cancer and come in under the five percent statistic on remission/cures.
Makes you wonder how long he’d live if he hadn’t gotten Agent Orange related crap.
YouTubeage Action: James Bond OSTs to listen to while writing
When I write some action scenes, I tend to draw upon movie sound tracks, notably those by John Barry but he is not the only one. Here are a couple of my favorites.
This is called “Space March” and it is from the You Only Live Twice soundtrack. It matches the opening scene where an American space capsule is captured by a mystery spacecraft. The scene, if you haven’t seen it, is akin to watching a snake unlock its’ jaw to consume its’ prey, slow but inevitable. The Americans, of course, blame the Russians for the incident, which gets the movie going.
In a similar vein is “007 and Counting” which is matched to the video you see now. A rocket is hijacked by our bad guys in Diamonds Are Forever. It happens to be carrying a diamond augmented laser satellite and you can see where this is going.
So it goes, kids. Repair operations continue. I’ve got to pick Trinity up later from her therapy where she is trying to get her ship back to 100% or at least as close to it as she can.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
New Readers
Seems I have new readers. Ah, such is the danger of hotlinking to my blog.
Anyway, I’m Steve Murphy. Here is a list of labels that apply.
1. Honorably Discharged Veteran, US Army
2. Unrepentant Veteran of the Persian Gulf War
3. Published Writer (two stories to date, both with honorable mentions)
4. Research Consultant
5. Historian
6. College History Instructor
7. Missourian (while I don’t like the state per se, I’m unrepentant about my Midwestern roots as well).
8. Decidedly NOT politically correct.
9. Definitely NOT a liberal.
Just a few things. If you are looking for examples of my writing, you can find both of them at Apex Online Magazine. Tearing Down Tuesday originally appeared in Interzone Magazine, Issue 210 back in June 2007. Apex picked her up for republication. The Limb Knitter appeared in Apex Online back in September 2008 and was recently converted into a podcast at Paul Cole’s Beam Me Up Podcast. You can buy a print edition of The Limb Knitter when she appears in Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One. Just click the link over to the right.
Finally, I usually do not discuss it much, I am the research consultant to John Birmingham. I have two novels to my credit on that front, Final Impact and Without Warning.
Umm, I know a thing or two about science fiction. Some detractors do not care much for that.
So, welcome to the Pondering Tree. Assholes really aren’t tolerated and if you’re all about political correctness then you are probably in the wrong place. But otherwise, folks are pretty well tolerated around here.
Research Project Number – 04
While Trinity was sleeping last night I completed one chapter and got half way through another. This leaves me with two and a half chapters in the hopper to polish up.
For the benefit of the new readers, just what am I doing? My primary job is to work on the military, historical and tactical issues in this project. However, over the course of time, my role has evolved. I will make editorial changes, add details (especially if I have been to a particular place but the client has not) as well as modify dialogue to a degree. The relationship I have with my client is one akin to the apprentice working under a master. I’m very fortunate to have this relationship and as such I generally tend not to toot my horn about it. These RPN updates are more for the client’s benefit and my own than the general reader who might drop by.
But my basic job is to make sure everything is dress right dress. And when in doubt (which happens) and I can’t find answer(that happens to) I blur things just enough so that most readers won’t be able to tell the difference.
Details can be a double edged sword, I find.
Other Fronts
Pretty lazy day yesterday. Trinity and I went to see the latest Transformers movie with her ex-husband (who seems nice enough). The film was okay I suppose. An enjoyable way to spend a cloudy Fourth of July.
We had dinner at the Pod and a quiet night after.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Wolverine
Trinity and I went to see the new X-Men film on Friday at the Screenland Theater on Armour Road in Northtown. Personally, I can take or leave the X-Men series but I did enjoy watching Hugh Jackman portray the growth of a confused young boy with bone claws into a tortured, conflicted man struggling with the bloodthirst of his own brother. Toss in a military conspiracy (isn’t there always one of these in films like this?) and you’ve got enough explodey goodness to keep most folks happy.
I enjoyed the film when I didn’t spend too much time thinking on it. I thought there were moments of violence (I won’t spoil it) that were just a bit excessive and cliched. Maybe it is what that one reviewer meant when they said that one of my stories was emotionally manipulative. Perhaps.
In any case, a good film worth seeing.
As for Screenland, I think I have talked about this theater before. It is North Kansas City’s historic one room theater which was recently expanded to two screens. I saw Indian Jones there when it reopened after the restoration last year. Beer, wine and bar food can be had for reasonable prices. Further, your student ID still gets you a discount, meaning that Trinity and I (who are both still students) got to see the film for $12.00 between the two of us as opposed to $20.00 at any given AMC theater.
When we return to Northtown on the 15th (can’t quite say where, given Trinity’s troubles) we will be making frequent trips to this theater.
The Big Saturday Out on Eight Months
Yesterday was a long day and one of those moments where I had to compromise. My maximum hang time with any human being, even the ones I love, is about six hours. The longer the time goes, the thinner my patience becomes. I can’t tell you why I am this way. Probably the nature of my family. In any case, a sizeable portion of the population isn’t this way. I’ve adapted to the alone time but Trinity, who got entirely too much of it from her ex-husband, can’t stand it.
So we spent yesterday together.
Breakfast was at Room 39 down on 39th Street (notice a pattern?). We’ve got pictures. Maybe at some point I’ll load them. Room 39 runs toward the organic side of the house with prices that are reasonable enough. I had the traditional Midwestern Breakfast, eggs hard, bacon (three strips, not a plate, Birmo), potatoes (which are sometimes hash browns but not this time) and toast. Trinity had a salami bagle with two egg yolks on it along with some fresh fruit.
The setting is small, intimate and tastefully kitted out with the work of local artists. For those who want a latte there is a coffee bar/counter or you can sit at the table. Neither of us know if the coffee would pass the standards as neither of us drink the stuff. But the tea was good.
Moving on from there, our next stop was a hair cut for me and a pedicure for Trinity. That provided for a bit of alone time as we went our respective ways. Your cunning blogger at the Pondering Tree found a place in Liberty where the two businesses are back to back. At SportsClips I got a haircut and massage worthy of a mob boss or real estate mogul. Trinity, in the meantime, got her toes done.
Pleased with that, we paid bills, reserved a U-Haul for move in day (we no longer have truck access) and made our way back to Maternal Support Command to drop off gear. Then it was a trip to the City Market.
We picked up fruit for the week, she found some bread she was happy with and tried to each lunch down there.
Tried because the first place we went to didn’t have anything she wanted. They had a very good lima bean humus though. I also picked up a beef kebab from a vender for next to nothing. She wanted a turkey leg, which consumed a goodly amount of time cooking. I don’t think I’d have been bothered by the lost time if it didn’t make me sick for being undercooked thirty minutes later.
From there we did some more shopping at this and that before making our way down to World Market, which is a shop that will be providing our kitchen ware. We are still having a debate over the kitchen table (ongoing, stay tuned) and over the practicality of purchasing items en mass now or waiting till we move in. I’ve been arguing for patience but in Trinity’s case, I think the purchase of the items is a tangible sign that the move out of Maternal Support Command is a very real thing and not some cruel joke.
We picked up a few things and moved on from there.
By now it is running around 1900 hours. Lunch had been a bit of a disaster so we were looking for dinner. I was trying to come up with a place that Trinity liked that I could eat at. Both of us are concerned about our weight. We eventually hit upon a solution at Noodles and More, which is a chain store selling pasta, asian noodles and most important of all, chicken noodle soup. We went up there and the dinner thing worked fine.
Lastly, we crossed the road to Barnes and Noble (where Birmingham’s book, Without Warning, is prominently displayed in the science fiction section). We found a teenage jazz band sponsored by a local church performing hits from the Swing Era in honor of veterans. Trinity watched most of it while I wandered the stacks, picking up books for skimming review and possible purchase. I didn’t purchase any books, but I did find a couple of viable ones and the band, it is worth pointing out, was quite good.
A long day. I slept pretty good last night.
Murph’s Alone Day
Now I’ve got an afternoon to myself. Trinity is off with her eldest son (no, I’ve not met him yet and I suspect I will not be popular with him) so this gives me time.
Research Project Number – 04
Three chapters in the hopper now, Chapters 14 to 16 from the client. Fourteen is almost complete. Fifteen and sixteen need conversion before I work on them. I’m going to try and get all three done today.
Other Fronts
Got my dad some gooseberry jam yesterday at World Market. Dad is going through chemo for his lung cancer and hasn’t been eating. The gooseberry jam on some waffles proved to be a hit with him this morning. He polished them off. Trinity and I are still trying to track down some gooseberry pie (our primary reason for going to City Market yesterday).
We also started food journals on May 1st. I grabbed the material for that while I was shopping on payday after waking up at 0300 in the morning. I also picked up binders for the Fall Semester lecture notes. Money will be tight come August so I thought I’d get the gear now. Hopefully later this evening we will get back into the gym.
Hopefully.
Later this week I need to run resumes to the other local campuses for the upcoming academic year. I have a possible opportunity which will give me twelve hours of courses if things play out right. There won’t be anything for the summer though, except perhaps for some substitute teaching but you never know. In any case, I’ll spend the summer looking over the new textbooks and spinning up for the fall.
Finally, I have to solve the summer job dilemma yet again. Full time or part time? How much am I willing to do? Where do I not want to work? So on and so forth. Trinity gets to deal with the same thing.
Joy.
Last but not least, I need a traveling keyboard for my laptop. The fact that the keys stick is driving me nuts. I think I may get an Apple keyboard. I’m impressed with the new design.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
Meet the Past: Harry S. Truman
The Kansas City Public Library put together a program where Crosby Kemper (a local big wig from an old family of KC) interviews actors who portray historical figures. Last night’s installment was Ray Starzmann as President Harry S. Truman. The program was put together by a former history instructor of mine, William Worley (he portrayed Tom Pendergast for the first installment last year and will portray Walt Disney next Tuesday). The local public television station, KCPT, is filming these events for air at some point later this year.
I decided that it would make a nice extra credit project for my students, so I put it to them. Go to the event, get proof that you were there, take notes, write a 750 word report on your experience.
I did not tell them that there was free food and wine there. The aisles would have been jammed with soused students.
In any case, with Trinity by my side (see her own report at the Cathedral of Trinity) a good time was had by all. I had a pretty good turn out and got to meet some parents as well.
No mention of the attempt by Puerto Rican Nationalists to kill Truman though. I thought to ask the question but never quite got to it.
So it goes.
The Teaching Front
Speaking of Harry, we started Civil Rights today. My Civil Rights lecture is not the strongest and could use some serious work. Still we worked our way from Plessy v. Ferguson up to The Little Rock Nine. We’ll pick it up from there on Friday. Next week we will do the Cold War and that should wrap up the class, just short of Vietnam.
In the eight week class we will cover the Rise of Hitler and move into World War II. We should get most of it fought out today. Next Monday we’ll do Civil Rights and push on into the Cold War.
I find that I am tired. My energy for teaching faded out sometime last week. I am ready for a rest.
I just wish that break wasn’t going to be three months long.
Research Project Number – 04
I am almost through with Chapter 14. I’ll be consulting with another part of a growing team of researchers on this project here before too long. Trinity is onboard helping with some issues but we have someone else coming on line as well.
Chapter 15 is in my box but unreadable. Hopefully I’ll get another copy later on. In any case, the client is pushing right on along on producing content.
That is a good thing.
Other Fronts
Not much else to report. We are less than twenty days away from the movement to new digs. Trinity and I have been out looking for things for the apartment, laying out floor plans and ground rules. Hopefully we can avoid becoming a sequel to John Birmingham’s He Died with a Felafel in his Hand.
We’ll see how that goes.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter (soon to appear at Beam Me Up Podcast and in Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine’s Anthology VOL. One) and Tearing Down Tuesday.
Trinity’s pain meds are giving her grief so she is lying alongside me at our undisclosed location while I work on the two chapters I have in the hopper. I’ve got some iced tea besides me and a view of the weather as it rolls in.
So, just a quick note. Back to research.
In the meantime, go to John Birmingham’s The Geek blog and contribute to a discussion about the best video game weapon ever.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
Those that done said stuff