I was a teenage cartographer pt. 1

Short story: my first summer job in college was for the Montgomery County Auditor. I combed through old property records and drew parcels on an ArcGIS map. I learned a lot from the experience, but most recently I'm reminded of the high difficulty starting a new system of mapping.

For my Scalar Shakespeare project, I want to compile a post a comprehensive map of Shakespearean locations. The problem is that it's difficult to learn Google Maps' KML interface. When all else fails, read the directions...

First, I have to install various geegaws--namely, the google docs app for chrome and google earth--which I prefer not to do on principle. But that all worked out eventually.

Next, I have to dredge through student journals for the locations used throughout the plays. That's a chore because I have to plug in text into google, and then grab lat/long data from there.

Ultimately, I can't resolve the problem of linking between locations. I can't figure out how to describe "Placemark ID" in a way that works with the spreadsheet.

Anyway, here's your friggin' map.


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Writing Journal 2014.2.19.0849

Before:
I have to work more on a review piece. The task is pretty straightforward, so my only metric for success is word count. That's actually a bit of a challenge, I think. I currently perceive my job as grinding out words, but this isn't hack writing. This is an opportunity for me to perform a lit review and hopefully get credit for it. So I need to draw on any skills I have as a rhetorician or salesman. As such, a better metric for success may be to write four or five rhetorical zingers throughout the piece. The other challenge will be to be free from distractions, but that's not really been a problem this morning. If I feel distracted, I'll just tune into some noise-rock.
After:
I didn't get a great deal done in my first half-hour period because somebody I know was upset about a work issue and I had to talk it through with her.
The second timer didn't go well either, but this time I distracted myself.
The third timer went better. I'm closing in on the end of this section.

Writing Journal 1856.17.2.14

Before:
I want to sketch out an argument to merge recent bibliographical findings about plays in parts and recent narratological arguments about character narration. There's many ways to do the hook, but I think the deepest question is whether each side is talking about the same thin: whether the bibliographer's text is the same as the narratologist's. I think the cleverest answer is to say that the observation of character narration is the best way to both critique and improve the text. I'll know how well I'm doing based on the completeness of each idea as I try to sketch out the entire document.
After:
I feel that I've scratched my itch for the moment. I'm also feeling a bit more tired than when I started.

Writing Journal 0918.17.2.14

Before:
I had a bit of a struggle with the last draft of the PFF statement of interest. Did I know my undertaking, tactics, and the measurement of my value? Maybe I faltered in the perceived value of my undertaking. I'm not sure that I had a great understanding of my skills and progress in this undertaking.
After:
Argh... I'm distracted again. I have trouble concentrating with other people typing noisily in the same room, and I also have trouble concentrating with the internet nearby.

Writing Journal 0800.17.2.14

Before:
This morning I have to follow up on the PFF document. There are a lot of feelings wrapped up in this process--especially given that a colleague just got a position that I envy--which can be both productive and counter-productive given that I have to explain my own position to the graduate school. But the graduate school doesn't need me to pour out my heart; they want to see that I can benefit from the specific mentorship that I can offer.
... I just caught myself drifting off and looking at another site! It started as an excusable violation, but in the end it yielded procrastination.
My immediate task is to tell the narrative of my teaching experience. As the name implies, I'll just string together my experiences in narrative form. I'll be tempted to measure my progress by my comprehensiveness, but I have to think rhetorically: the audience wants to see that I'm committed to improving my teaching. The challenge will be modelling that audience--do they want to see overachievers or needy cases. Instead I'll describe my development and then highlight a few areas for further progress, which is a tactic I've developed and employed in the past. Right now the trick will be to deny myself the internet, which is a boundless distraction machine.
After:
I got some sentences down, but I got distracted by a combination of the internet and the wife. I can't blame anyone but myself. I'm probably too tired to completely focus. I'm also not doing a very good job of translating my transient thoughts into writing--that is, I could be using my distraction to break from the functional fixedness of this document, but instead I'm simply breaking from the task before me.

Writing Journal 1446.16.2.14

Before:
The task for the next half hour is to invent the argument of my Statement of Interest for Preparing Future Faculty.
The task is to write about my reasons to apply for PFF, my teaching experience, and my academic career goals. I think I'll begin by fitting these areas into the rhetorical arrangement: exordium (my academic career goals); narratio (my teaching experience); and confirmatio (my reasons to apply for PFF). I'll measure my progress by the degree to which I've filled out each claim and connected it to the next. I see that the challenge will be to construct a model of the audience. But I believe my skill is to write clearly and effectively towards a known goal.
After:
I wrote 140 words. The narratio covers my limited background and relates that to the schools I want to see. I don't think it's very flashy, but it's meaty. The one trick was when I pulled a list of target activities from the PFF informational sheet.

Writing Journal, general introduction

I'm going to be sharing my writing journal on this blog, both to provide some public accountability for my writing habits and also to share some ideas about how academic work happens (to "de-mystify academic labor," as the brilliant Professor Renker says it).

As a general procedure, my writing process follows four steps.

1. Set a procrastination timer. I use a kitchen timer to resist akrasia, that is, to bind my future self to the plans of my past self.
2. When the timer goes off, I have to write a journal about the state of flow. In a few sentences, I try to settle my thinking on seven topics:
1. What to do.
2. How to do it.
3. How to assess progress.
4. Where to go.
5. Challenges.
6. Skills.
7. Isolation (from distractions).
3. I write for thirty minutes. Again, I use the kitchen timer.
4. At the end, I add a little reflection to my writing journal.