yeesh

I can't quite believe how my writing (or non-writing) wanders: I spent the day working on McLuhan for sports lit, but I guess to be fair, I spent much of the morning researching the Poker phenomenon. I guess that is where the problem started: I was able to visualize a whole paper, not just a paragraph, that would get at understanding poker with a McLuhan-style probe. I actually got that paragraph written, but I guess that I also lost focus on designing a hand out for the confence, and I started to slip into something that looks more like a paper.

When I moved on to my Richard Ford part, I pulled up my paper from 1997, started reading, and figured it looked like it was ready for publication ; ) I did a quick search for Ford scholarship, and a little bit has been done, but not a lot. Ford has resurrected Frank Bascombe--a New Yorker story last year--so I started looking at ways of finally getting that piece published. I think I got this idea a few years ago to, but nothing happened. I think I am starting to worry that I won't actually send anything out this summer, get part way into my book project, stop doing that, and then where will I be: high and dry with nothing to show.

I did read a nice interview with Ford where he talked about how he often just wants to quit, and needs somebody to push him along (his wife, mainly). Seeing that, seeing Frank back of the page, made me think that I was getting signs. But I often manage to ignore signs.

So, if I decide to stay focused, I pursue none of these side-projects. If I decide to let myself wander, and I start to work on stand-alones, I have:
1. a Richard Ford paper (for Philosophy and Literature?)
2. Understanding the Poker Craze: Everything McLuhan said in UM comes true in the Poker Craze (for Canadian Journal of Communication) or something like that.
3. the big triangle paper for computers and composition online.
4. maybe a more theoretical paper for Computers and Writing.
5. Anthony and I are talking about something for the special issue on composing with sound.
6. I guess I could also be thinking about my SLA presentation as a paper for Aethlon or some other publication.

Yeah, like I am going to pull all this off! And at the same time keep my book project moving forward, design a new course, be the WPA, manage the dept. website, and have a life.

And I won't do any of these things if I keep taking 10 minutes a day to write on a blog.