We got up at about 9:30, and Robert had coffee on already. Sweet.
I downloaded some free crossword puzzle generation software, and created a puzzle for the October edition of the STC Newsletter, which I’m going to start putting together tomorrow. The “theme” of the puzzle is, “Texting, IM Chatting, and Cell Phones.”
I met Joe at Panera’s in Cary at about 1:30, where I got a bunch of stuff done with regards to my next newsletter edition, including:
- Converting my new crossword puzzle to Word, and devising all of the clues
- Devised an email to Will about his 675 Survivors article
- Devised an e-mail to Dr. Dicks about quoting him and asking him if he wants to write a paragraph to include in Will’s article
- Devised an e-mail to Kim about her “The President’s pen” article
- Devised a survey/form to solicit newsletter feedback / letters to the editor
I spent the early evening reading Montgomery’s & Guy’s 1986 article, “Language Variety in the South: Perspectives in Black and White,” for ENG 525 Variety in Language.
This was a very interesting read about the scholarly attempt to answer the question: “How are black and white speech in the South related?” It goes a long way toward debunking various racist assumptions about BE (Black English), NNE (Non-standard Negro English), VBE (Vernacular Black English), and AAVE (African-American Vernacular English), all often referred to under the umbrella of Ebonics.
I took an hour nap from 8:00 until 9:00, and then went into the office, where I worked on homework for both classes.
I left there at 2:00AM, and on the way out stopped on the first floor to check out the new “T3” area, which “debuted” last week. It’s a room with a pool table, a ping pong table, a foosball table, a basketball hoops contraption that looks something like this:
a large plasma screen mounted on the wall with chairs and a couch situated facing it, some desk areas, a coke machine (free soft drinks, juices and bottled water, which we get throughout the building anyway), and a game playing area, where a chess board sits on a game table to let you know that that’s what you’re supposed to do there. I’m not sure if the screen on the wall plays television or not, but it looked like it had a DVD player associated with it, so perhaps it’s just to watch movies.
This is all very cool, and very nice, but I don’t think management really gets the problem — no one has time to “rest and relax” at work, especially since it’s not like you get an extension on your deadline if you do take time to “recharge.”
People who are working 50-60 hour work weeks, because there’s not enough staffing, and “we have to do more with less,” aren’t going to be inclined to take a half-hour to play pool at work, at the expense of just falling 30 minutes more behind in their work.
I’m guessing they’re feeling the need to spend such 30 minutes, if they did take them, with their families, of whom they’re already not seeing enough. But I digress…