Hi Everyone!
Happy National Cookie Week! In honor of this ever-so special occasion, grabbed a free chocolate chunk cookie from Insomnia Cookies. Additionally, students were passing out cookies in two of my classes, so it seems like the folks at SFSU take this holiday seriously.
While I am all for cookies, I distinctly remembered a National Cookie Day, and sure enough, it does exist, but it is on December 4th. That’s a whole 3 months away from National Cookie Week, and if you think that’s crazy, there is also a National Cookie Month. Do you want to guess when that is? October, obviously. This is just scratching the surface, though, of this conspiracy.
I started researching other foods, and this pattern of separate food holidays exists for many of the foods we know and love. For instance, Pizza has a national day (February 9th), a national week (January 10th - January 16th), and a national month (October). There also seems to be no rhyme or reason why a particular food item gets a national day/week/month. Take the sandwich, which has a national day (November 3rd) and a national month (August), but no national week. Who is making these food decisions, and what does it take for a food to receive a national holiday? This deserves more research.
Anyway, with that rant out of the way, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…
First update (and quite honestly, the biggest if we are being honest), I finally met Alli Gator around campus! It was at a Gymnasium Naming Ceremony. In case you were wondering what the gymnasium’s new name is, don’t worry, I got you. What was originally known as the Main Gym is now the San Francisco Federal Credit Union Gymnasium. Despite recent cuts to SFSU’s Athletic programs like Men’s Baseball and Soccer, and Women’s Track and Field, this partnership looks like it will help provide student-athletes with sponsorship opportunities.
I have made my first class schedule change, giving an extra day of workshop for the “We Are” Poem. I talked with the students, and they felt that one day was not enough. I want to give students the space to feel confident as they present, and one of those confidence-building practices is practicing. At the end of the day, one day is not going to make or break a class, and if I can do anything to make a speech feel less intimidating, I will do it. If there is any correlation, all the students did fantastically. The poems that they created together elegantly combined each of their individual poems, and their creativity really shone through the speeches, incorporating body language and props. What’s more is that I Googled another poet, Robert Frost! I had someone new in my repertoire to reference besides Dr. Seuss.
My Gender Studies class was asynchronous, and I made the smart decision not to do my work the night of and instead wait until the weekend. I am sordidly regretting it now. In fact, I am still procrastinating doing that right now, by working on my newsletter. I really need to get better at my time management, because it has progressively gotten worse over the past 6 weeks. I would love to hear some tips for procrastination, if you have any, because mine are currently not working.
This week in my methods class, we focused on interviewing as a methodological approach. For starters, we had to interview someone, so I hopped on a Zoom Call with my classmate Seb.
One of the important parts of interviewing that the professor has been trying to get across was about the importance of a post-interview memo as a reflexive practice to contextualize the interview as well as learn and grow as an interviewer. Here are some of my notes from this interview:
I approached the interview with the understanding that it should be more than a simple Q&A session. Instead, I took inspiration from Hesse-Biber (2007), viewing the interview as a space where hidden realities can emerge. It is a process that reframes an interview as a space where the interviewer and interviewee are collaboratively constructing meaning, and this co-construction is enabled through particular interview practices. For this interview, I focused on asking narrative-driving questions, listening for points to return to later, and using silence after asking questions. While I tried implementing these practices and the overall interview felt generative, I could not help but recognize areas for improvement, specifically in allowing more silence between questions, and verbally framing this interview as a co-created space of meaning from the beginning. I also believe that certain phrasing of questions might have impacted Seb’s responses. Overall, the assignment showcased the level of power and responsibility of an interview and reinforced the importance of intentional questioning and creating space for the deeper lived experiences to emerge.
I was given the high honor of being Seb’s “Wine Guy”. I do not take it lightly.
Also in methods, we discussed the importance of keeping to the ethical commitment to participant autonomy, or research consent. This includes clearly stating the purpose of the study, explaining what participation involves, the time commitment, recording procedures, potential risks or discomforts, how data will be used, and informing participants of their right to decline or withdraw at any time.
References:
Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2007). The practice of feminist in-depth interviewing. Feminist Research Practice, 110–148. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984270.n5
While I was just in Southern California last weekend, it was not finished with me yet. I flew back down to help my dad at SCaLE 23x. This event, which was located in the Pasadena Conference Center, has the honor of being North America’s largest community-run open source conference.
As I checked into the event, I was given an expert badge for my lanyard. I was not entirely sure what I was an expert in, but it’s probably safe to say that I can add “Expert” to my LinkedIn page and CV. My primary job was manning a booth, which was great because of my newfound booth babe “expertise”. I also met a couple of SFSU alums. On one occasion, we both said “Go Gators!” to one another and got into a discussion about why our mascot is an alligator. As we were chatting away about it, a German dude pulled out his phone and informed us that originally, SFSU’s mascot was the “Golden-Gaters” in reference to the Golden Gate Bridge, but later evolved into the Gators that we know today. All it took was a German dude to tell me about the history of our mascot.
While this was a conference outside of my field, I did find some value in it. There were a couple of mentorship programs geared toward college students, and while I will have to look a little bit more into them, they could be opportunities for any of my students who are looking for a STEM-related job after college. Additionally, these tech conferences throw some interesting afterparties. One hosted in an old manufacturing building (Whimsy Pasadena) combined Korean Food with Imperial Ciders (8.4% Alcohol) and a coding demo. Another one was a bar (Kings Row Gastropub) where they offered Jim Beam Pineapple Dole Whip slushies!
The only other fun update from the trip was that we stopped at an In-N-Out Burger, which does not sound like much, but I realized that I have not eaten from In-N-Out since moving to California 2.5 years ago. The only reason I went this weekend was that my dad wanted to stop by for dinner. After having that first bite, I forgot just how good these burgers are. When I grew up, we would go out of our way to stop at an In-N-Out whenever we were remotely near one. I am going to make sure it is not another 2.5 years until my next In-N-Out run.
Fun fact: I found out that Animal Style dates back to 1961, in reference to rowdy late-night customers (mostly teenagers) who would frequent the In-N-Out Parking lots, whom employees nicknamed animals.
Never have I more appreciated a public transit system than I have the LA Metro. After driving around the entire trip stuck in traffic, I was surprised to find a mode of transit where I could get someplace 5 miles away in less than an hour. I was able to stop at Union Station, which is both the largest passenger rail terminal and the busiest railroad station in the Western United States. It’s a gorgeous building that combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne styles. It is also the home to the small-scale data-visualization project “LA On The Move”, led by the Data Vandals and the ArtCenter College of Design. The project, which explores how native animals and humans navigate the shared landscape of LA through the reduction of car dependence. Did you know that Pumas can jump up to 30 feet from a standstill?
Unfortunately, I have been stuck in Airport Limbo for the past 5 hours, as my flight has been delayed. The airport truly is a liminal space. I did get a $12 meal voucher, but after scouring the airport, there is a meal in LAX that I can get for under that budget threshold. On the bright side, I did finish writing my newsletter! I guess now I can move on to the school work that I have been procrastinating…
A blood moon (total lunar eclipse) occurred early Tuesday Morning. It was at 3 am for me, but did anyone end up staying up to bask in this celestial event? I had to resort to a virtual video of it, and am linking it in case anyone else did not get to see it live.
