The cats insisted they go first today, since they got bumped for space yesterday. They triggered a key part of their contract, which is that I’m getting claws in my face until we make it happen here. And these cats need their need their nails trimmed.
This week they’re also executing their soft focus clause. Phoebe, you can see, was very excited about that.
She’s sitting my lap as I type this. Just jumped up, in fact. She insisted on the “very” above. She likes her adverbs.
Poseidon does not approve. It is unclear if he disapproves of adverbs, or of Phoebe getting lap time.
They are competitive and jealous.
Phoebe says very.
So the cats are doing well, and looking forward to Catober. We’re just two weeks from all cats all the time around here.
Today, in my Criticism class, I tried to lead the class through a discussion of two stories. We’re reading a lot of sport media and I’m asking them to start reading these things critically, hence the title of the class. It’s a process, and this is our first week of doing this. (Week one was getting to know you. Week two was about criticism. Now we are beginning to practice the craft. We’ll do this throughout the term and before long they’ll get a feel for it.)
One of the stories was a piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer about one of their recent pitchers.
It’s such an incredible story that ESPN produced a package on it the next spring, and they were able to add a crucial and necessary update. And here’s that piece.
My next task will be to convince them that the criticism doesn’t have to just be about the stories with huge emotional tolls.
In org comm, we talked about communication, what it was, and why it is … no wait, that’s not right. Communication, what it is, and why we will look at it in these particular ways. This is a slowdown from the first two weeks of getting to know you and then group work. Next week, that class will be 19 percent more interesting. We just had to get through today and Thursday. But then we can talk about things like branding, storytelling and audiences, all of which will carry us through mid-October at least. But first, we must slog through this week.
I will be slogging.
