"tadpoles." Shhhh. That's what got me into the Phoenix Zoo for free today. The zoo posted a tweet on Twitter that using the secret password would get anyone in free before 11 a.m.
So, I got to see a lot of aminals as La-la, my lil sis, used to say.
I took a slew of pics and posted them on flickr. The clarity in the thumbnails is great, but since I took them all using my blackberry, the clarity of focus when they're blown up is hit or miss. Still, you might have fun at least scanning through. I did.
So, I made it relatively unscathed through my first year at ASU. I haven't updated in a while, I know, but I'm relying on RSS feeds to get this to you :)
Here are the highlights of Spring Semester:
My parents came to see me, and I got to show them where I live and take them around Tempe and Phoenix. They would tell you I tried to take them all over the state. Just too much to see and too little time. I've learned to be a better host since then. I know my visitors need rest too ;) We did drive the Apache Trail and make it up to Sedona (you can check out pics here), so they got to see the ruggedness of Arizona that I'm so in love with.
I only went on one other *serious* hike since the Flatiron hike I posted, and I tore the ligament in the back of my knee (my PCL). I was going on a 23-mile loop hike starting from Peralta Trailhead, and about 3-4 miles in, I tweaked my ankle and fell straight on my kneecap. The gash on my knee was bleeding profusely, so I bandaged it and proceeded to walk the next 7 painful but flat miles to the next trailhead instead of trying to make it back up the mountain I'd just climbed. Some really nice senior day-hikers gave me a ride back to Peralta, so I made it home okay. My knee was worse on Monday, so I went to the doctor and after a lot of referrals and Xrays and tests, they told me my PCL was torn. Repairing the ligament is a non-surgical procedure. Translation: ice, advil, and rehab. Lots of rehab. It's been over two months now, and my knee's still not quite right. I'm guessing another 2 to 3 months before I'm at full capacity again. The worst part is that I had permits to spend a little over a month hiking the Grand Canyon, Peralta Canyon, and some canyons at Lake Powell. I'll have to try again later, I guess.
I did get to go to the Grand Canyon with a friend; you can check out some of her photos of the trip online . We camped out (her first time), and we walked the Rim Trail. It's flat (relatively) and has incredible views, as you can imagine. On the way back, we saw the Painted Desert. I'm hoping to take my sister up there in June and my mom and Aunt Kathy up there in September.
Academically, I'm doing okay, holding my own. Since I'm trying to bridge a few different fields, I feel like I'm playing catch-up a lot, but that's okay. Most of you know I'm all right with that, even kind of like it.
One really cool project I was part of this semester is housed in the Arts, Media and Engineering Department. I won't detail the research here, but this video will give you a sense of the kinds of things I've been exploring in local high school settings.
I'm figuring out the *system* and am learning to *play the PhD game* fairly well. That's probably the hardest part. That and trying to figure out what to specialize in. Every yes is the equivalent of a thousand no's . I've always avoided limiting myself; I've made sure I've had choices and multiple paths to pursue. The goal now is to choose (only) one or two, so I'm trying to learn as much as I can about what I'm getting into and what options might be the best fit for me.
Along those lines... I was accepted into a Preparing Future Faculty program for next year. That should help me get a sense of the major differences and expectations of liberal arts colleges v. Research I institutions, etc., And I'll get a taste of admin in higher ed because I'll be president of GSEA, an organization to support graduate students in the English Department.
My mom says that when I was little I would fall asleep in the car, but the lights of a town would wake me up. She said it was because I was afraid I was going to miss something. She's not far wrong. And this isn't much different. So I'm trying to figure out all the possibilities so I'll at least know what I'm saying yes to and what I'm walking away from as I start to specialize more.
I'm also posting an *academic* blog as I try to delve into and think about social media and digital cultures (part of what I'm *specializing* in). I just put it up today actually. Feel free to check it out; it's in the works: http://jenniferlclifton.org/
Yesterday, I finally got to do a little hiking. I went up to Lost Dutchman State Park and headed up Siphon Draw up a canyon to get to the highest peaks in the Superstition Mountains. It's really only the first mile or so that's a hike, the rest is part hike, part bouldering/rock climbing, which was great fun for me. The weather was atypical for Arizona. Most of my climbing was literally in the clouds. When I first got to the top of Flatiron, I couldn't see anything but white on any side. I couldn't even see the rocks further down the face I was on. Crazy!! But then it cleared off just enough to get a few shots in.
Some older guys in their 40s and 50s came up after me and asked if I'd seen the hoodoos. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I followed them to a different peak (actually the highest peak in the mountain range) and saw these vertical rock formations that were amazing and a bit eerie. I felt like I was walking on the moon or something; it didn't look like Earth. The clouds were too dense to get a good view of Four Peaks or of the lakes on the Apache Trail.
On the way down, the trail was crowded with people, which was surprising, considering the difficulty of the climb. The guys I hiked with for a while told me about some other mountains and trails to check out, and I saw some that cut into Siphon Draw, so I'll probably test out some more trails soon. I'm glad to finally have a little time to do that.
Sorry for the kind of boring post. I just wanted to get something up - it's been a few months, I know - and I wanted to show you my pics, although the color seems off in a few of these. Not much I can do with a point-and-shoot though. More to come soon. Promise :)
Well, we pulled it off. Our presentation at the Arizona English Teachers' Association was a hit, and we were asked to do a repeat of our presentation at a Language and Literacy conference in February.
So, after calming down, I decided that the WTF route would probably not be the most helpful tack to take for us to have any sort of meaningful interaction about Jesus or Facebook. And I decided I would prefer, for her sake and mine (and others'), to draw her into a conversation and tease out what she meant by her comment. So... here's what I wrote instead:
"I am in Arizona, in Tempe just outside Phoenix. I'm working on my PhD and teaching freshman comp. Fun stuff! As to your other comment... I wonder what that would look like, to see Jesus on my (or anyone's) FaceBook page. We do need to think about those kinds of things in light of the way technology and media are revolutionizing the way we think and act and interact. We need to ask these questions and learn to recognize Jesus when we see him no matter where he appears. I haven't checked out your page, but where does Jesus show up (and how) on your page? That might help give me a context for what you were looking for (and didn't seem to find)."
She says she was expecting to find tons of theological books on my book profile. When she didn't, she was surprised. It's interesting that she immediately jumped to some sort of grand sort of conclusion about who I am and what's going on in my life based on what she found on FaceBook. I've only been actively using FaceBook in the past month or so. It wasn't until recently that a critical mass of my face-to -face friends began using it. So, my book profile indicates what I've read in the most recent month or so, and then I've only listed education or young adult lit books. I haven't listed any of the books I'm reading for pleasure-- books about the desert, cycling, Superstition Wilderness, Tempe, bike repair, gardening, video games, or books that I'm re-reading, which is what I tend to do with the poetry and theological books I own. What's even more funny is that at least a third of my always-growing book collection (books that I read and re-read and journal and think about on a regular basis) consists of "theological" books by authors like C.S. Lewis, Kierkegard, MacDonald, Charles Williams, R.C. Sproul, Larry Crabb, Dan Allendar, and on and on... this is just the tip of what comes to mind in the few seconds it's taken to type this line.
I'm curious to see where the conversation goes from here, but I don't think I'll post any more of it here. Although I do think there's an entire worldview behind her comment, I don't think she thought carefully about what she was writing and I don't think she meant any harm by what she said, and even if she did, that conversation would be something better left to a more private realm.
It is interesting, though, to think about the blurred boundaries of public and private. Previously, someone would have to come into my home or talk to me to find out what I'm reading. Now, they look online (if I post it there) and make judgments based not only on what's there but what's not there as well. Similarly, as a friend brought up in a comment about the previous post, I have blurred private and public boundaries by posting the start of our conversation here for the blogging world to see. All of this makes for new ways of thinking about who we are, how we represent ourselves in multiple ways to multiple others, and how we do and can and should interact with each other. What *should* be public and what *should* be private? And who has the right to decide? Lots of, lots of questions...
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