Author: James

Posted on

I might need to hit lotto

2013_mac_pro

Apple finally got around to offering pricing and purchasing options for the new MacPro on their web site. Unfortunately the listing is just before the Christmas holiday and a tiny bit too late for me to ask Santa, or my wife, to put one of them under the tree for me this year. This is probably a good thing since the fully maxed out version of the MacPro with a 12 core Intel Xeon E5 processor, 64 GB of ram, Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs,  and a 1 TB internal flash base hard drive clocks in at Continue reading “I might need to hit lotto”

Posted on

2013 NYC Motorcycle Show

2013motorcycleshow

I went with my wife to the NY City Motorcycle show at the Jacob Javits Center yesterday to pick out a bike for her next Route 66 trip. She and a few of her girlfriends did the trip last year while she was on sabbatical. The girls chronicled their entire journey from NYC to Las Vegas on Route66Explororer.com. She had so much fun on the trip that she now wants me to join her next time, and for us to do the journey by motorcycle. She got the idea for the cross country bike trek after our joint Groupon motorcycle class a few months back.

She got so inspired by the class that she went ahead and got her motorcycle license without me. I was kinda pissed off that she went without me, but I couldn’t blame her too much since my schedule during this last year on the tenure track has been so crazy that I haven’t able to set aside the time to take the MSF rider course. The entire time we were looking at bikes at the Javits Center the only thing going through my mind was that as soon as this tenure crap is done I have to get my license.

We spent more than a few hours looking around at the show. I am really loving the Honda Fury, but she fell am in love with the Suzuki Boulevard. The Fury is way too much bike for me since I will just be getting back into the riding groove. I am looking something a bit more practical like the Kawasaki KLR 650.

 

Posted on

#tweetMyClass: Social Media for the Classroom


I was recently part of a panel discussion at the 2013 CUNY Information Technology Conference on the academic uses of social media. The presentation included short introductions, followed by a roundtable discussion, in which the educators on the panel examined which social media practices they had employed over the years succeeded and failed.

Posted on

Happy Thanksgiving

1425269_440807192687942_109478603_o

This year Thanksgiving took on a slightly more poignant tone as I realized that it had been far too many years since my closest male cousins and I had been in the same place.  I should say we were more like brothers than cousins. We all grew up within a few blocks from one another, and were all very close in age. But yet over the years various circumstances have prevented us from getting together. I hope that this year marks a change in that trend.

Posted on

You can kick rocks with an open toe shoe!!

kickrocks

I try not to rant to much on this blog but sometimes things just can’t be helped. I don’t know if it is because of my recent tenure notice, or the fact that the holiday season has begun, but I have been feeling extra salty as of late. All I know is that life is too short to deal with people that do not bring out the absolute best in you. It doesn’t matter whether they are co-workers, friends, or family. If they diminish you, or those around you, then you should cut them loose. If they change their behavior at some later point then you can decide if you want to re-engage with them. But until then they need to kick rocks and keep it moving.

Posted on

Here is to another 50 years

20131123-081244.jpg

I was never really a fan of the Doctor Who series until the reboot of the franchise in 2005. Just like most of people born in the US, the show always had seemed entirely too “British” for me. You always had this old and relatively out of shape guy defending the earth from death and destruction armed with nothing but a blue telephone booth and a screwdriver. He dressed like a moron and usually talked like an individual that escaped from an asylum. He never used guns and rarely ever fought hand to hand. As a person raised on Captain Kirk and Han Solo as my Scifi inspirations, the early episodes of Doctor Who really failed to connect with me. I just didn’t get it. However all of that changed Continue reading “Here is to another 50 years”

Posted on

I feel numb

announce-my-tenure
I haven’t told many people but exactly two weeks ago I received news that my college has decided to award me tenure. I haven’t spoken much about it because I keep waiting for the feeling of elation that some of my colleagues who have gone through the same process have reported. But it hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t know if it will. For the most part I just feel numb.

I am not going to go into extensive detail about why I feel this way. I have already discussed some of my reasons through my research and my media appearances. Suffice it to say, it has been a long and difficult process. Several long years in fact, and it has been Continue reading “I feel numb”

Posted on

Digital Directive: The NY Observer Interview

webDigitalDirective-NYObserver-Nov2013_Page_1

A few months back I was questioned by a writer from the New York Observer on my role as the Academic Director of the Communication and Media program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS). The writer was interested in discussing the online nature of my program and what sets it apart from other traditional and internet based learning environments. Well, today I found out that I was prominently quoted in the Educated Observer, a special advertising supplement to the NY Observer, on the work we are doing over at SPS.

A digital copy of the article, and my statements on the programs at SPS, can be found here.

Posted on

Digital Scholarship Revisited

1383844_10202435612190284_1290086670_n

Today I attended a presentation by Professor Kathleen Fitzpatrick on the role that open access and new forms of peer review will play on the future of scholarly communication. Professor Fitzpatrick is Director of Scholarly Communication at the Modern Language Association (MLA) and Visiting Research Professor of English at New York University. She is the author of Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy. Her writings are among the most respected on the subject of scholarly transformation and were a great influence on my research into digital scholarship and the need to reform tenure and promotion standards for technology engaged faculty.

Posted on

2013 NYC Marathon: Take that Sandy!

1450294_10202421176709406_989922003_n

I am so proud of my wife for finishing her 11th marathon! So far she has completed marathons in NYC, Boston and Berlin. She had been eager to run NYC again because last year it had to be cancelled because of all of the damage incurred during Hurricane Sandy. It is odd to think back to exactly a year ago when instead of cheering her on, we were sitting in a dark apartment huddling around a transistor radio with friend that flew in from Norway to see her run. It was a miserable few days until the power came back on. Also, I had a fair amount of agita because this was the first major marathon in NYC since the Boston bombing earlier this year. My wife only decided to skip that race only because of a nagging training injury. We were lucky.

Fortunately the NYC race was uneventful this year and my wife made it to the NYC finish in slightly over 3 hours and 33 minutes. At first the kids and I were worried that we had missed her in the crowd and then, Continue reading “2013 NYC Marathon: Take that Sandy!”