Hello everyone, my name is Bobbie.
I would like to begin by stating I look forward to working with all of you educated and talented people with such diverse interests!
My passions include minimalism, deepening self-love, everyday romance (or rather what Lorde would call “the erotic”—non-sexual activities that provide intense pleasure), and the timeless psychology of characters in Victorian novels, especially regarding relationships and personality theories. I have a dual bachelor’s in Psychology and Professional Writing and am somewhere close to halfway-ish through the English Master’s program. Needless to say, my background has firmly established the tendencies to: promote a dry sense of humor in my writing; come across as being “too formal”, “trying too hard”, or “explaining to almost a fault”; and I maybe perhaps have written in a non-committal way while often using passive voice for the past several years.
A few of my hobbies include body training, going to wine tastings/breweries, and learning something new (like gardening, canning, and making dandelion jam). Lately I have been obsessed with watching YouTube videos about professional self-improvement to “unleash my inner beast” and personal spiritual growth to “embrace my inner goddess”. The latest books I’ve read are The Art of Seduction and The 48 Laws of Power, both of which I believe are the Devil’s guidebook on how to train his minions. Next up are The Alchemist and Neuropsychology of Self-Discipline. I suppose I read more for information about abstract theory than reading for pleasure per se.
I generally don’t share my goals because I would rather put them out into the universe energetically! However, I am currently a Professional Writing Tutor at TC3, I have a 13-year-old (who loves video games, manga, and anime), and my life motto comes from Dr. Seuss: Life is a Great Balancing Act.
My questions seem simple, yet my intuition says they are much more complex than I can imagine:
- How is the balance of power shifting in the new norm? Has it shifted at all?
- How can we recover emotionally and psychologically from being socially distant from others for so long and trained to believe that every person we meet has the potential to kill every person we love?
- Bonus: How the heck am I going to learn how to use 5 different platforms within a week when technology and I have a love hate relationship?
Bobby! So glad to be back in class with you!
I’m with you with this technology platform thing— four courses, three different platforms so far. We might not be digital natives, but this turning out to be our test to become naturalized digital citizens. If only there was a inspiring swearing in ceremony at the end of this…
BTW, what does dandelion jam taste like??? Sounds exciting!
Hi Bobbie – great to have you in the class! I second Sarah’s question about the flavor of dandelion jam. In my head it’s tangy and bitter, but maybe that’s grounded in fabricated childhood memories of grazing on backyard weeds? Memory plays such tricks on us!
I totally understand the sense of platform overload. There’s going to be such a learning curve with all the different platforms this semester. That’s a major reason I made “increasing our digital literacy” an explicit goal of this class. The thinking is, we’re inevitably going to mess up, the platforms will glitch, we’ll have moments of joy when everything magically works, but, more often, many experiences of frustration when the tools and platforms fail us. Hopefully we can treat that as part of the learning process. Also, I’d be curious to hear throughout the semester which platforms you like and dislike and why.
More tomorrow!