Month of August , 2007

Last weeks post at lifehack.org were:

• Sticky Ideas Workshop (Part 3): Concrete Part 3 of my series on Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick
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I fell behind in doing these week posts, because I went out of town over a weekend and came back busy as heck!  So, here's what I've posted at lifehack.org over the weeks I missed:

How to Give Instructions offers advice on, well, giving instructions.

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I've been busy as heck this month preparing for the Fall semester (I'm teaching two classes and co-teaching another, all in Women's Studies), so I haven't been posting much.  I did manage to make time for a short vacation with my family, and have some great pictures to post here once I get them all off my camera and web-ready.  I'm also working on a guest writing slot at a blog I respect greatly -- more news on that as it breaks.  I still need to compile my lifehack.org posts -- I fell behind in that and it's a habit I don't want to break.  More soon...

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the September issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction and my feelings are mixed. I've been forcing myself to read every story, front to back, which is not at all how I would read the magazine if I had picked it up at the newsstand. Isn't that interesting? Because F&SF sent me the copy free, I feel obligated to read it more thoroughly than if I'd spent my own hard-earned money on it!

Let me let you in on a little secret: college textbooks in the US are grossly overpriced. It's been shown time and again that the same books can cost much less in Canada and the UK, and can often be ordered for less even after adding the cost of international shipping!

Another interesting week at lifehack.org! This week's posts were:

Design Better with CRAP, an introduction to basic design principles for writers, business people, and anyone else who needs to present information in the most effective way possible.
A Basic Guide to Thrift Store Shopping, a guide to making the most out of thrifting.

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When I was in graduate school, I tutored low-income high school students through the Princeton Review's non-profit branch, to prepare them for taking the SAT. While I had the satisfaction of knowing I was helping some really smart kids get into college, SAT prepping isn't really education.  Most of it consists of teaching kids how to game the system -- the SAT is a really unsophisticated test, and all it takes is a few simple tricks to boost your score 100 or even more points.

The folks at Fantasy & Science Fiction put word out that they'd send a free copy of their September issue to bloggers who agreed to write about what they'd read. I've been reading Fantasy & Science Fiction off and on for probably two decades now, but hadn't picked up a copy in a while, so I was definitely willing to see what they're up to these days -- especially on their nickel!