The View From Kalamazoo

KALAMAZOO! Less than two weeks! [cue screaming] (oops, that was me. sorry)

My cubicle is FULL of registration packets — and the pile shown is not yet complete! Boxes everywhere!

A few things:
We’re really out of dorm rooms. No, really. SRSLY.

Don’t forget to consult weather.com as you’re packing… and no matter what it says, pack layers anyway. It’s spring, it’s Michigan, and I remind you that we’ve enjoyed Congresses during which it’s both snowed and made it well past 70 degrees. (yes, during the single 5-day period. no, not kidding. SRSLY!!)

Aaaand I’m waaay past insane, at this point. Just so you know.

Public Service Announcement for medievalists: DON’T forget to register before pre-registration closes on 4/15!
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

Planning for the blogger meet-up at the International Congress on Medieval Studies is under way. Don’t forget to pencil-in Session 546:
Weblogs and the Academy: The Scope of the Professional and Boundaries of the Personal in Open, Pseudo-Anonymous, and Anonymous Blogging

• Personalizing the Profession: The Value of “Academic Life” Blogs, Christina M. Fitzgerald, Univ. of Toledo
• Balancing the Personal and the Professional in Academic Blogging, Kristen M. Burkholder, Oklahoma State Univ.
• “A Blogger by Any Other Name”: Pseudonymous Blogging and the Creation of a Legitimate Academic Voice, Julie A. Hofmann, Shenandoah Univ.
• My Blog Is Not Myself: Negotiating Identity in the Academic Blogosphere, Janice Liedl, Laurentian Univ.

(Yes, that was shameless pimping.)

*More pimping: Peter over at medievalists.net has done a ton of work on the ‘Kalamazoo’ section, so go give him kudos. (even if he has plans to put me and a camera in the same room… I’m trying not to hold it against him)

*Reminder: all 240 glorious pages of The omg!uber!Program have been online since Feb. 1.

Sorry, other than the above I have nothing else academic-y to add.  I have an IEP meeting to construct many varied and interesting weapons for — Momzilla has to stomp Tokyo again. (I really hope the new Prez will do something about No Administrator Left Behind, it’s screwed special ed thirteen ways from Sunday)

(An aside for thems that know me: If you plan/need to track my whereabouts at the conference drop me a line at the university email (elisabeth dot carnell at wmich dot edu) and I’ll add you to the google calendar so you can stalk me let me know when and where I’m drinking in the evenings! :P)

See y’all in 5 weeks (5! weeks! aaaagh!)!
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Wait!  There is this sweet bit of awesome:  Breathe Easy Benefit

Breathe Easy Trailer from World's Fair on Vimeo.

Go! Look! See!
Srsly!

Three Rivers Land Trust

More:
Great Rivers Land Trust
Natural land Institute
Little Traverse Conservancy and Raisin Valley Land Trust

In which I yap and yap.

It’s up!

Weblogs and the Academy: The Scope of the Professional and Boundaries of the Personal in Open, Pseudo-Anonymous, and Anonymous Blogging is coming together nicely.

3066

(About 150 less than last year, but given the gas prices and recession fun times here and in surrounded states it was pretty much what we expected.)

Ah, the rest-of-Congress post I forgot to publish before I left town for a few days. Brilliant I am, oh yes:

Friday, and my hopes that all crises could be kept to Wednesday and Thursday have been dashed. *snarl*

On a happier note, I not only snuck off campus for a wonderfully chatty and baba gannouj-filled lunch, I actually got away from Reception long enough to attend Societas Magica’s Divine Names session (and it was fantastic!) I attended a couple of late-evening receptions and, oh frabjous day, I managed to track down a fair number of friends and co-conspirators I still had not connected with.

Saturday held my aforementioned afternoon of session presiding. The general session was interesting, the three papers very different but all leading to interesting questions and all have the potential for continuing discussion on their respective areas. The Weblogs session was engaging and filled with a lot of post-papers discussion and questions (and the lion’s share of the discussion, that of anonymous v. non-anonymous blogging and gendered voices, not only took us past the session ending-time, but has helped generate the topic for next year’s weblogs session proposal). I will be further blogging this, so that’s all for now.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday (cue monster truck commercial). Sunday is really a series of unfortunate moments in time…I’m up way too late at the dance (I always stay ’til the bitter end, alas) so I get way too little sleep, and am way too wiped (both physically and mentally) to properly offer farewell to my compatriots. And I’m packing up the mobile-institute and processing payroll and other bits of paperwork well into the afternoon. Later I get to rent a car at the airport, drive my sorry behind to St. Louis, and spend the next few days witnessing what should prove to be an outstanding dissertation defense and watching my friend process with the other SLU graduate school graduates and stand to be hooded. (there is a list of two people who could get me in a car for a road-trip the last day of Congress, and she’s one of them). I’ll also be an interloper, by sheer proximity, to the English Department’s Shippey retirement fest. And since I currently have almost voice left, I doubt I’ll be doing more than croaking for the next few days (apologies in advance.)

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, good night. See you all next year – same time, same channel.

Ah, the Congress.

First day is (nearly) complete – the last sessions are happening as I type. I’ve made it through the traditional afternoon/evening of All Hell Breaks Loose, followed by All Hell Breaks Loose II: A New Day. It’s good to get the completely insane and utterly unexpected crises out of the way early, it makes those following crises that much more enjoyable for their mundanity.

I miss many folks I had hoped I’d be seeing (but were waylaid by a variety of last-minute Dire Events), but have seen many others wander past my central vantage point, and I look forward to seeing those Johnny-come-latelies who couldn’t be arsed to get here before late Friday (insert put-upon sigh here.) I managed to get out late last night to be social (woo! No, seriously – I usually end up eating alone if I need to utilize the cafeteria, so social is definitely worthy of a woo!)

I, of course, don’t have much opportunity to see sessions until tomorrow when things are calm enough that I’m not too afeared of leaving my intrepid grad. students alone with only the information binders to keep them company. I’m looking forward to a Societas Magica session tomorrow afternoon (Divine Names and Traditions of Use). I’m still on duty as Terry Jones is giving his paper, alas (his last paper overlapped my own session, much to my chagrin – I have terrible luck), and I’m hemming and hawing over whether I want to poke my head in at the evening medieval video gaming extravaganza MEMO has scheduled – but the real fun is Saturday afternoon, when I’m chairing Medievalists in Cyberspace followed by the session I co-organized with the wonderful Shana Worthen, Weblogs and the Academy: Professional and Community Outreach through Internet Presence (here’s hoping I’m reasonably cogent, I passed crazy yesterday morning!) (Especially since I’m blogging them! Take notes, woman!)

More commentary this weekend – later, taters.

(Yes, this is real and untouched. I took it myself probably 12-13 years ago — I’m pretty sure it was the corner of Rose St. and either Cedar St. or Walnut St. I think it explains Kalamazoo rather succinctly. Once I get this whole new-blog-host thing figured out and have a little time [ha ha] I’ll make it the backdrop to this blog.)

Yes, I’ll be blogging (choruses of ‘effing, finally!!’ not appreciated, you grumblers!) the Congress, apparently I’m also blogging some of the cyber sessions for the Literature Compass Blog, and other bits and bobs that need to be addressed.

Oh, yeah, and that Coordinator thing I do. Silly me.