Mesmerized

Watch blogs appear on a global map as they update. Warning: dangerously eats away time. [edit: i actually added the link, whose absence made it all seem rather farcical (the link looped back to me: “i am the world, muhahaha”)]

Alas, I wish I were this cool, but Jill found it first (actually, her post says she got it from Frank, so I’ll just trackback everyone. It’s early).

Since today might just turn out to be random (or not so random) links day, have a look at the MT Plugin Directory. You can even get a plugin that filters your text into Swedish Chef language. I wonder if people from Sweden find that stuff just plain tiresome. Do they hug the Swedish Chef, or burn him in effigy? Burk Burk Burk!

I notice that yesterday I said “So, hopefully my draft will be ready tomorrow or Thursday.” As everyone realizes by looking at the date of the post, that was a bit of a redundancy. Tomorrow was Thursday. Clearly, I meant Friday. Or Monday.

Some of you have asked what I do, how I like the new job, and so on. The job is great so far – everyone has been nice and, of course, I don’t mind my view after a few years of working in a library basement. My office space isn’t bad – I have an L-shaped cubby that affords a reasonable amount of privacy. The windows have these large sills, so I can take papers over there to read when my back or wrists start aching from the computer. Having a sixth floor vantage on Pennsylvania Avenue is nice – every couple of days, the roar of sirens floats up and I can look down at a police escort for some dignitary or another. We speculate on who it is – “is the President in town?” “Is some foreign president visiting?” and so on.

I suppose I should clarify what I do – I’m a Program Analyst for the National Endowment for the Humanities, where I work on EDSITEment, a web portal and lesson plan provider for the humanities. EDSITEment has two major components. First, it serves as a portal to humanities websites. The websites listed go through an extensive vetting process (at least three levels of peer review), which usually whittles the applicants from several hundred to 30-40 final choices. The second major component of EDSITEment is the development and distribution of lesson plans for K-12 teachers. The lesson plans all make use of parts of the websites we list, so it really encourages the use of humanities computing projects in high school classrooms.

We’re in the first stages of the vetting process, so I’m working with that. I’ve also written two short “feature”-type articles (think there are generally two new ones a month) and worked on a few other writing projects. One of the things I find most interesting is the review of web-based learning tools that Marcopolo (our funder) is building for all its partner websites. EDSITEment, I should say, is one of eight websites under the umbrella of Marcopolo, who provides most of our funding. Each website is partnered with an appropriate agency or agencies (so we’re with NEH, others are with the Kennedy Center, or NSF, and so on). So Marcopolo is working on “interactive exercises” that can be used in all sorts of websites, ranging from those dedicated to arts and humanities to geography or math. So part of my time is reviewing these exercises, games, and gallery spaces and offering suggestions for improvement.

I do miss the people from my old job at MITH – so far I haven’t found anyone who likes to talk TV/Buffy talk. And I have found no replacement for the co-op, sadly.