Book Review: “The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection” by Neil Gaiman

I’ve been on a bit of a Neil Gaiman kick lately, since Stardust came out and I read and enjoyed Coraline. Although I’ve been way too busy to read much more (I picked up M is for Magic and another Gaiman book about a month ago) I did have a chance to listen to this […] [Continue reading]

Other People’s Kids

Shall I write a post since I’ve been away the last couple of days? OK, here’s a quick one. Today, my brother and sister-in-law took our kids to the airshow. Every year my sister-in-law’s stepdad, an ex-Navy (I think) flyer and owner of an aerospace company in California comes in to take his grandkids (my […] [Continue reading]

At BlogWorld

I spent the last two days at BlogWorld Expo, here in Las Vegas. It was pretty cool, though I spent a lot more time on the exhibition hall floor than in sessions. First of all because my schedule is so hectic, and second of all because the sessions — at least the ones I was in — weren’t all that interesting (or, rather, weren’t that interesting to me). [Continue reading]

When Dad Won’t Stay Dad, Part I

About 10 weeks ago now, my two oldest stepkids’ (12-year old boy and 11-year old girl) dad dropped a bomb on them (and us). During their bi-weekly weekend stay-over at his house, he sat them down and told them that him and their stepmother were going to go to a lawyer and file to terminate […] [Continue reading]

Book Review: “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry

Last month I reviewed Lois Lowry’s The Giver very positively — it’s an absolutely great novel, for young readers and adult readers alike. So I had high hopes for another novel by Lowry, Number the Stars — hopes which were almost, but not quite, met. Don’t get me wrong: the Newberry-winning Number the Stars is […] [Continue reading]

Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War — Coming Soon!

I was flipping around on Google today and found a link to my forthcoming book, Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War, on Amazon. And there’s a cover image! This is the first I’ve seen it, so I was pretty excited. The book isn’t due out until February 2008 (Amazon says January, so maybe they know something I don’t), and I haven’t even seen the page proofs yet, but you can sign up at Amazon to be notified when it comes out. [Continue reading]

This Week on lifehack.org

I put two posts up at lifehack.org this week; there’s a third in the pipe which I assume will be posted tomorrow. The goal is to post three times a week, but we’re having some small difficulties coordinating that since the editor, Leon, lives in Australia which is actually in the future, while I can only post in the present. Damn International Date Line! The posts this week were: [Continue reading]

Summertime, When the Teaching is Easy…

Well, maybe not “easy”, per se, unless by “easy” you mean “really, really hard”. This week was the first week of the summer session of my women’s studies class, “Gender, Race, and Class”. While I’ve taught about a half-dozen summer sessions of anthropology at the community college, this is my first summer session at the university and my first in women’s studies. Summer classes are a ton of work — class prep every day, unmotivated students, only a couple weeks between intros and mid-terms, and then again between mid-terms and finals. They tend to be breathless, jus-in-time affairs. [Continue reading]

Education for the iPod Generation

Who says education has to stay within classroom walls? Take your education with you with one of the podcasts from Open Cult’s University Podcast Collection. Each series is a recording of an actual class, posted for the world’s use by the professor or university. Subjects cover the range from law and business to arts and humanities to the physical and social sciences. You might also find useful stuff at the foreign language podcasts section on the same site.

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57 Tips for Writing Your Term Paper

DegreeTutor.com’s 57 Tips for Writing Your Term Paper is an incredible resource, extending far beyond 3×5 cards and proper citations. It’s almost a holistic approach to writing that encompasses where, when, and how to research, write, and format your work. My favorite part is the first, “Know Thy Professor” — a pretty keen insight into the life of us academics, and excellent advice for students to whom our lives are, I think, something of a mystery: [Continue reading]