Used or Mused?

Used or Mused?

My Web Design teacher is also the chief webmaster (or something) of the new interface (or something) for Project MUSE. What is it? It’s a way to look up books and articles online. But only on the Johns Hopkins database. So it’s like looking up all species of animals by going to an aquarium. Except, for internet research.

So my teacher has decided to take our class and make us unwilling participants in have us be a part of a study on the usability of Project MUSE. Kinda like how I had my Sports Officiating class come to my apartment and hook up my illegally acquired DVR. There’s definitely some topic-specific learning going on, and possible more than in my example – though I mostly recorded Around the Horn and PTI. It’s actually more like how I would practice my stand up material on my IDIS class. What were they gonna do? Leave? So yes, I feel a little used. But not so much that I don’t like it.

I drove to campus on Tuesday after having completed the “usability assignment” and there was a gentleman on the curb near the parking garage with a bright yellow shirt on that simply read “MUSE” on it. He was waving at traffic. I had no idea Project MUSE was this huge. Suddenly I felt a part of something much bigger. Then I found out there’s a guy named Muse running for city council. That makes more sense.

Why am I writing about Project MUSE? Because one of the lovely ladies behind the project who majored in librarian studies and gave up way too early on my Dewey Decimal trivia question said that every time someone writes on the internet about Project MUSE, she gets pinged. That term is apparently not a euphemism for anything sexual or sport-related like I had originally thought. So I am testing out the reach of the internet to find out if my puny little blog is going to ping the nice librarian lady. (It really does sound dirty, doesn’t it?) Anyway, here you are, Tosheena. If you get this and that means that my blog is one of the top million websites in the country or whatever, I’d be delighted to hear about it. You can ping me at dustinrecsports@gmail.com. If not, at least remember Isaac Asimov.

And In Recent News...

And In Recent News...

Hello again to my loyal following and all apologies for my most recent unplanned sabbatical. My life gets busy like this at this time every year for several reasons, but this year more than most. To catch you up, here’s why I am so busy:

· August 30 – New semester started. As I work at a college, the beginning of the fall semester is unequivocally the busiest time of year. (Ed note: He doesn’t know what “unequivocally” means)

· August 31 – I am teaching a freshman seminar class again this semester. My co-teacher hasn’t quit yet this time, so I’m already feeling a lot better about it.

· September 1 – I start taking my class. I am officially going back to school to earn an MFA in creative writing and began by taking a class in “Personal Essay,” which is pretty much what I have been writing for the last 15 years. You’d think that the presence of a class like this would equal more website updates (Ed note: He still refuses to call them “blog posts”), but that’s not necessarily the case. Last time I took a writing class, my head got so messed up, I couldn’t figure out how to write for my website for months.

· September 3 – I proposed to Jenn. My fiancée. She accepted. We then flew to Barcelona for a week. It’s a hell of a day when flying to Spain is the second-most interesting thing you do in a day. (More on this later)

· September 9 – The NFL season started. I’m not saying it’s important in the scheme of things, but this is a list of what is occupying my time, and I’m not a liar.

Other crap has also happened that I will talk about when the time is right, but suffice to say that I’m busy. I will, however, try to upload a picture from Barcelona each day, if for no other reason than to recapture this awesome trip which now seems like a distant memory. But until then, welcome back! (That was mostly for me)

Class Dismissed: The 2nd Day of Giftmas 2009

Class Dismissed: The 2nd Day of Giftmas 2009

So in a strangely trusting and possibly incompetent decision, someone somewhere in the University of Baltimore thought it would be a good idea to let me teach a class. And not like UMBC did when I taught badminton and duck pin bowling. This was a freshman seminar class called “Applied Learning and Study Skills.” Before you put a stop payment on your tuition check, I was team teaching this class with Katie. She was going to be responsible for all the course content and I was to make sure we had enough dry erase markers in the classroom. This was going to be even easier than coming up with a syllabus for badminton.

Long story short, Katie quit the week before class started, leaving all the course content to me. Thankfully, I had already taken care of the dry erase marker situation, so there was one less thing to worry about. I made a promise to them earlier in the year that I was going to make them cookies. It was my way of saying “Thank you for pretending I was a real teacher for the entire semester.” But the next thing I realized, it was final time. So I had to make them cookies on the same day that I had to give them the class evaluations. Coincidence? I’ll tell you one thing I learned from being a waiter. Make sure you do your best ass-kissing right as you give them the check. I call it the “Waking Ned Devine” principle. Good Joe and I saw this movie about ten years ago and the movie sucked, but had a great last five minutes. We left the theater and Joe actually said “Wow, that movie was awesome!” I informed him that the movie was indeed not awesome, but just had a good last five minutes. To this, he lost the excitement in his voice, dropped his shoulders, started to frown, and replied "Hey... you're right." I’m hoping that I performed a good enough misdirection with the cookies and the collaborative final. “What? You didn’t learn anything and feel completely unprepared for college? No, look over here! Those are M&Ms in the cookies. Yummmmm!”

So one of my students was working on the in-class final that I gave. She was having trouble with the assignment and said something eerily similar to an old classic quote…

The 2nd Day of Giftmas 2009

“Jeez. I have to study to study.”

- Ave

Now where have I heard that before?

The professor of fun,

Duck Pin Dustin.


Still Standing Right Here…

My First GPS

My First GPS

Well, I'm taking a class again. I forgot how annoying it was to have deadlines and worries. But I figured hey, since I don't have to pay for it, I might as well get some free stress on the government's dollar. Anyway, I showed up to the first class and it was 16 women and me (counting the students, instructor, and the girl bringing in the video equipment). I had mixed reactions about that. The first one was the same reaction guys get when they find out they are the only guy just about anywhere. It resembles the first scene of a lot of porn flicks. The second, more realistic reaction, was to curl up into the fetal position and pray we never started talking about driving, PMS, or things we hate about the other gender. On a seperate note, I noticed I bring up football at least once a class for some inexplicable reason.

But enough about me, let's talk about Aaron. There were about 10 or so of us leaving a DC United game and going to eat at some Pizza Hut in Elkridge that nobody in our particular car knew how to find. We didn't realize that until about 15 minutes into the car ride when I asked if anybody knew the directions there...

Quote of the Day 2/27/03

"Yeah, I do. We just follow that car. They switch lanes, we switch lanes. It's kinda like GPS."

-A Rock


Wow. It doesn't seem as complicated as I first thought.

Wiping dirt off a surface,

Dustin.


Still Standing Right Here...

Witless Fitness

Witless Fitness

Well, I know I mentioned before that it was going to happen sometime in the future, and that future was 3 weeks ago tonight. At any rate, I started teaching a college class. All these young, impressionable minds (average age is 26) at the whim of my corruption. UMBC is paying me good money to teach these people about Lifetime Fitness. What the hell do I know about Lifetime Fitness? I'm a contortionist with a high metabolism so I look thin and flexible. The layman would have a tough time distinguishing between me and somebody in shape. That's what I was counting on. 13 out of 13 physical laymen. I got 12.

Thankfully, the thirteenth one is willing to take a bribe. He's actually pretty cool. I spend a lot of class time sitting on the weightlifting equipment with him gawking over the redhead in our class. My class. Anyway, he was asking me if I had ever thought about becoming a physical trainer or anything like that. I told him that I would probably feel uncomfortable having somebody pay me money to get them into shape...

Quote of the Day 7/22/99

"So how's that different from what you're doing now?"

-Joe, unlucky #13.


OK class, get in line. We're going to flail our limbs again today...

Hot for student,

Mr. Robinson.


Still Standing Right Here...