January s3s musings

Anthony returns with insightful reflections for the new year...

“And that over there, that over there is Georgia.”


For S3S, 2009 began as it should: with a party. The population of Six Mile, South Carolina (553) grew by almost 10% when Tharon and Wendy Howard graciously opened their home to children, students, faculty, and friends, ready to restart another academic cycle.

The numbers may have been twice that if so many had not been lost to the wilderness (It was only by the luck of GPS that I arrived).
If the town of Six Mile is, in fact, six miles long, then there must be a folding of time and space somewhere along its edges.

Of course, it was worth the journey, not only for the Howards’ hospitality and special BBQ sauce for mini-Franks, but also for the sprawling landscape that surrounds the home. It was dark, not much could be seen, but the vastness was felt, especially by those of us from the city. All that non-concrete breathes loudly.


Hand-crafted Howard


Anyone taking a tour of the Howard home must marvel at how much of it was actually made by them. They built the house. They cleared the land. They installed all those nice little lights that wind up the back driveway to the deck.

If you ask, you may even be allowed a glimpse of the Howards’ Other Vehicle, that which contractors envy and the brush fears. Gazing up at its wheels and down at its mulching blades, one has to redefine what is traditionally thought of as the realm of an academic.


Wii


Two points:

1) the Howards have one.

2) Alicia Hatter’s tennis serve is not to be messed with.







Previews

• Carolina Rhetoric Conference: it’s up and running and coming to Clemson February 20-21. Sergio, who plans on offering wholesale web design prices, has just launched the site.

• The Return of PRE/TEXT: chicken claw and all. Keep watch, true-believers. In the meantime, those who are game (sorry, couldn’t help myself), may want to clear a space in your bookshelf now for the just-announced special issue:

[Jan Flyer]

• S3S This Week! Elisa Sparks has sent out a far-reaching invitation, crossing departments, disciplines, programs, Second Lives, and party lines. The gathering this Friday should not be missed.

• More Pictures and other Facebook Delights: Pictures have been loaded to facebook, both on akb's account (in order) and on our new Facebook s3s group page (inverted): s3s on facebook. Check us out, join in, leave comments, have fun.

december delights

Our December s3s event, kindly hosted by the Collamatis, proved to be one of the best-attended and most-festive so far. Please see some of these facebook-based collections of pictures for evidence:
from Christina Hung
from Alicyn Butler
from me

As you've certainly heard enough from me, and asking Anthony to comment on his own event seemed a touch boorish, I've elicited commentary from other event-attendees. So, without further ado...

Alicia Hatter
If there was ever a "memorable moment" from this semester's S3Ss, for me
it was the moment my number was called for the gift exchange. I approached
the glowing Christmas tree and cast my eyes over the variously shaped
gifts waiting to be unwrapped. My number was early in the sequence of 25
or so, so there were many packages left to choose from. I selected an
odd-shaped object with typical snowman wrapping paper. "Surely this is a
special thing," I thought to myself, "For it's not in a bag or a box.
Indeed, it's got such a strange shape there'd be no normal box to fit it
in."

I don't know what I expected, other than fantastic-ness, when I tore into
the wrapping, but I can say that I did NOT expect to find myself in
possession of the item which I held somewhat incredulously in my hands: an
AM/FM clock radio. Circa 1990. Mr. Keith Morton had a sense of humor
indeed!

Merry Christmas, clever gift exchange. I actually can't wait until next
year to pick something from my own abode to re-gift. Much laughter and
mirth are surely to follow. :D

nov s3s

We're a bit behind on our highlights for the last s3s event, but here's a sense of the evening. Apologies for the redundant zooming image motion -- iWeb mildly thwarted me. To see the photos with captions, try this link.

october s3s

Alas, in a terrible oversight, I never published anything about our terrific s3s event in October, hosted kindly by Donna Reiss and Art Young! This event was made particularly notable by the following:

• an exciting tour of downtown Greenville (which I unfortunately missed as I somehow managed yet again to get lost. And yes, I did live in Greenville for a year. I have no explanation.)

• the introduction of much family (the full Ward clan, including daughter, son, and daughter-in-law; Jason Helm's mom Glee; Alicyn Butler's mom; and, for the first time at an s3s, Gavin Hodgson)

• numerous culinary delights (like Donna's homemade hummus and apple cobbler. yum)

• and some birthday cheer (ah, any chance to bring a bit of cheer and embarassment to another's birthday...I'm there).

And now, without further ado, a brief photo montage of said city festivities:




Many thanks once again to Art and Donna!

An RCID Request

This was created by Anthony Collamati, with the help (to varying degrees) of other RCID students. It has been delivered to deans of Clemson University as of today.

Conference Clearinghouse

ATTW
12th Annual ATTW Conference - March 11th, 2009 - San Francisco, CA
Theme: Beyond Work? Technical Communication in Professional, Community, & Social Networks
CFP deadline: 300 word proposals are due October 31st, 2008
http://cms.english.ttu.edu/attw/conference/2009-conference-cfp

PCA/ACA Pop Culture/American Culture: (No Theme)
National PCA/ACA Conference New Orleans Marriott Hotel April 8-11, 2009
CFP: 100 to 250 word abstract due November 30, 2008
http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/national.php

STC
May 3-6, 2009 Atlanta, GA
Proposal deadline Oct. 20, 2008
http://www.softconference.com/subs/stc/2009/
This is a good conference for someone who is interested in usability, training, documentation, and other industry practices.

IPCC
July 19-22 2009, Hawaii
Proposal deadline Oct 30, 2008
http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/pcs/files/IPCC-CallForPapers-2%201.pdf

CPTSC
Oct 2-4, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
http://www.unomaha.edu/cptsc2008/
2009 conference University of Aarhus (theme not defined yet)

IABC (International Association of Business Communication)
June 7-10, 2009 CFP is not out yet
http://www.iabc.com/ic/

ICCC
www. iaics.org is currently unavailable
Computer & Writing
June 16-19, 2009, UC-Davis
Proposal Deadline: Sept 19, 2008
http://writingprogram.ucdavis.edu/carlwhithaus/cw09_8_cfp.html
This is a good conference to go to if you are interested in employing technologies in teaching writing.

24th International Conference on Computers and Their Applications
March 25-27, 2009, New Orleans, Louisiana USA
http://www.isca-hq.org/CATA-2009-CFP.pdf
Sponsored by the International Society for Computers and Their Applications (ISCA)
The topics will include, but are not limited to, the following areas: Algorithms, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, Artificial Intelligence, Image Processing, Computer-aided Design/manufacturing, Real-time Computing, Computing Practice and Applications
Papers will be accepted only by electronic submission (PDF only). A full paper, including title, author's name(s) and affiliation, mailing address, telephone, fax and email of the principal author, should be submitted before October 13, 2008 at the following web site:
https://secure.myhostadvantage.com/V0015065FC/con-reg/default.asp?ConID=81
Full paper Submission Deadline: October 13, 2008 Notification of Acceptance:
December 12, 2008 Pre-registration and Camera-ready paper due: January 9, 2009

Expanding Literacy Studies - International, Interdisciplinary Conference for Graduate Students
April 3-5, 2009, The Ohio State University
Submission Deadline: October 15, 2008
Website: www.literacystudies.osu.edu/conference
Theme: This conference aims to expand the dialogue and explore the landscape and intersections of literacy studies as a framework of critical investigation. This approach is meant to do the double work of expanding the field while critiquing the expansion. To that end, we invite proposals from graduate and professional students in ALL fields.
POSSIBLE TOPICS AND POINTS OF ENTRY: health literacy, literacy and technology, visual literacy, representations of literacy, definitions of literacy, law and literacy, art literacy, uses and abuses of literacy, motivations for literacy, symbol systems, the sociology of literacy, the teaching of literacy, reading and writing, literacy and science, performances of literacy, literacy and popular culture, the future of literacy, histories of literacy, intersections of literacy, production and consumption of texts, multiple literacies, the literacy myth, literacy and social change, sites of literacy, literacy in communities, work literacy.

SECOND LOOKS

Halfway through September, a second S3S gathering, the Vitanzas reopen their home (is it ever closed?), and the surprises keep coming.

So here they are, moments of interest, objects of curiosity, and observations of no particular importance from a newb’s p.o.v.


No, seriously, how big is that deck?
About 10:00 p.m. only a handful of people remain in the Vitanza’s living room, plus, of course, two or three in the kitchen (always a few in the kitchen). This seems strange considering at previous Vitanza parties--I’ve been to 2 others if you count the preview visit--navigating the rooms has remained difficult until close to midnight when the crowd thins.

Suddenly the back door opens and the party’s size triples.

“Smoker’s are back,” someone says.

The picture below does no justice to the numbers of the Second Society of the Third Sophistic. They congregate on decks and patios. They smoke. They chat by floodlight and candlelight. I know Meredith Hilst is counted among their ranks.


Helms is where?
Hawaii. Some say with a student’s family. Others say with a friend he met at a football game. Most whisper of a mysterious romance with a woman remarkable for both her charm and her wealth.

At the party, he’s reached via cell phone. Victor immediately asks to speak

with him.

“Who gave you permission?!” he demands.

The reply never comes. Helms once again has gone underground.


Does it come in a can?
No, we learned, yeast bread does not.


He looks like he’s standing in a trailer park.
There’s a picture on the Vitanzas’ bookshelf, old enough that I remember it in black and white. There are other photos on the shelf, but Keri (my wife) is fascinated by that one. I think it is one of Victor’s relatives.

“I’m not sure. Ask Victor.”

She does, and we learn that it is Kenneth Burke. I suppose that counts as a relative. Someone confirms that the small doorway he seems to be coming in or out of--although it looks suspiciously like a medium-sized motor home--is, in fact, an airplane.


I will fight you for the last piece of that.
Toni’s corn casserole. It’s that good.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

ELSEWHERE
A few other notes to offer some context on the weeks that were/are.


First Year Report
With a manifesto to design in 805, book reviews to write for 801, and rodeo footage* to cut for 804, you can look into our faces this week, and nostalgically relive your first wave of pressure in a Ph.D. program.

*We took a class trip to the Westminster Apple-Rodeo Festival to shoot on the fly. One of the treats was Shawn Minor, the current World Champion Bull Rider. Mythologically fierce bull + Shawn Minor = easy. Other elements of the rodeo offered a little more opposition. I’m sure you’ll see soon (after all, we’re making videos).


That-A-Doer/Maker/Knower
Sergio, Alicia, and Mark put together a few designs for the Serious Gaming Colloquium. Here’s the final version, selected mainly for its comment on the continuing problem of dragon hate crimes in World of Warcraft.

RCID Lessons Learned
From the Body Colloquium: If you see this man driving a convertible--


--run. Or if you like your kisses with a little bruising, go ahead: pull over.


Coming Soon
Party at Art and Donna's. Promises of an urban hike. Bring your canteens.

-Anthony