Whenever anyone says, “Practice makes perfect!” the majority of folks reply with, “Well, duh,” and then promptly move on to doing something else. But, the cliché is good advice. So time to get practicing.
Today was the Ivy League Connection’s mandatory Blog Tutorial. I never thought you’d need a tutorial on blogging, but apparently we do. It was an interesting event, mostly because, well, it was out in Hercules. My parents’ first response was, “Just take the bus!” since they’d both be at work or on their way. Right. I take the bus pretty often for someone my age, but an hour and a half is not exactly what I had in mind for a commute. I had to be there at 10 AM (not am or a.m., Mr. Don Gosney, although I have to say that rule makes little sense to me), which would have meant I had to leave the house before 8:30, an unkind thing to do to a teenager on break. So, luckily, I convinced my mother to take me there and hitched a ride with Don and fellow Columbia-bound student Will to get home. No buses for me today!
The information presented to me in the session was largely nothing new. There were some very good reminders (proof-read, proof-read, and proof-read!) and some interesting advice followed by choice anecdotes (Don’t let your professors brain-wash you, kids!), but all in all very little new information. We all got chewed out a bit for our flagging email response times (which, in all fairness, we deserved). Mrs. L, the Columbia chaperone, sat down with, Will, Eric – yet another student in my Columbia cohort, and the only other ILCer studying Constitutional Law – and myself to go over some logistics for our travels to, from, and within New York City. Apparently we are going to have almost no time after reaching our hotel straight off the plane to change for our dinner reservation the same night. There are few things in which I am truly a stereotypical female, but I do take a fair amount of time to get changed and dressed for any event of importance. But, I’ll have to make do. At least Mrs. L is very well organized!
No, there are no photos for this blog post as I didn't take any, but that'll change when things a bit more exciting start happening.
Irene,
ReplyDeleteI was remiss in not having offered to provide rides for those that needed them and I apologize for that.
As you saw, I drive a minivan and often have room for seven passengers. I've never been much of a bus rider and shudder at the prospect of others who have to rely on them to get around.
I knew going into these tutorials that some of what I would be talking about would already be known by many of our ILCers. From the problems and comments we've experienced in the past, though, we felt the need to require each of our cohorts to "endure" a tutorial so none of you could ever use as an excuse that"no one ever told me". That's also why we require you all to sign a statement that says that you've read and understand the "List of I Understands".
And while there were many that were probably as knowledgeable as you, I suspect that there were a few that may not have been. I know this because in the seven blogs I've read this evening I've only had to make 33 corrections--after you all were admonished and advised.
This is all a work in progress and just as in in Life, we strive to get better with every passing day.