The New Normal / Week 01

[magnetic_pole]

Question for you: if I were to set up a new comm, say, "The Covid Coffee Corner," if therealsnape allows us to borrow her clever turn of phrase, would anyone be interested in 1) helping me host it or 2) stopping by to chat? My thought was that we could get folks to sign up to host two posts per day (or every other day?), one for Covid-19 talk and one for anything but. It would mean there would be a place for folks to check in daily and hang out for the next few weeks. (Or is this already going on somewhere?) Comments or suggestions welcome!

ETA: Let's give this a try! I've created covidcoffeecorner, which will post daily at least through the end of March. Come join us there to chat!

***

I'm sorry I've been so scarce lately--I've been experimenting with significantly less online time this semester, giving up Tumblr entirely and limiting my online reading time. I'm feeling very distant from fandom but miss the community and the conversations here.

I'm currently on an extended spring break, during which I need to figure how to get three courses up and running online. I'm feeling a bit cynical about the whole thing at the moment, although in an effort to stay positive, I'm going to avoid complaining and simply post two articles for the instructors and students who might be interested:

Welcome to Your Hastily Prepared Online College Course (humor from McSweeney's)
Please Do a Bad Job of Putting Your Courses Online (a polemical thought piece from an academic)
ETA: I Will Survive (guitar-accompanied parody of Gloria Gaynor's classic for academics learning to teach online)

I will, of course, not deliberately do a bad job of putting my courses online, but I'm deeply suspicious of the impact this half semester (hopefully only a half semester) will have on administrative thinking about the costs and benefits of face-to-face learning...if, indeed, our institutions survive to have this conversation in six months or so. Heaven knows I've found an amazing community here online and had powerful, life-changing conversations online with folks I've never met, but fandom is not academia, even if they overlap and mirror each other in surprising ways; we're motivated to join in and speak up for radially different reasons.

***

Schools, museums, gyms, and bars/restaurants/coffee shops are all closed here. Many--a majority?--of people in my apartment building seem to be working from home. R and I have been taking a long walk every day to get some exercise and get out of the house. Despite my many worries about public health and about the economy, it's beautiful out: sunny, warm, with the first of the cherry blossoms and thousands of daffodils. I'll post some photos below the cut.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I would be happy to host a non-covid chat post on occasions.

[magnetic_pole]

Fabulous! I've set up a DW comm over here: covidcoffeecorner. There's an introductory post asking for suggestions or opinions, if you're interested. Thanks! M.

[glass_icarus]

I'd drop by that! Could probably host from time to time, depending on energy levels. (COVID-related talk from me would be more likely to be about community response type things, as I'm less in the public health loop than I used to be. I'd also be very glad for more excuses for non-COVID talk!)

[magnetic_pole]

Great! I've set up a comm over here: covidcoffeecorner, and there's an introductory post soliciting some suggestions and opinions. Let's see if we can make this period of sitting at our computers a bit more enjoyable. M.

[therealsnape]

Yes, let's do this. I'm willing to help you host this, if the technical stuff involved isn't too difficult. I think a place where everyone could go and comment freely, to each other as well as to the main post, would be lovely.

Let's get in touch over this one!

[magnetic_pole]

Hurrah! Just sent you an email! M.

[write_out]

I owe you an email! That said, I love the idea of a comm like that. I don't want to commit to hosting right now (I need to get work stuff under control), but maybe down the road a bit and I'm definitely up for chatting.

Those flowers are gorgeous! We are so far from that point here, so I'm happy to see such pretty pics.

[magnetic_pole]

No need to commit to anything now, but if you want to check out the comm (still in bare bones format, with a welcome post), it's over here: covidcoffeecorner.

Are the flowers lovely? It's definitely spring here now. Yours will come soon.... M.

[ruinsplume]

I'm in the same boat with you in terms of putting my courses online--four courses plus an independent study, and I loved both the articles you posted (Donnie Darko...omg)

I've been limiting the amount of venting I've been doing with colleagues because I am not tenured, or tenure track, but would be happy to lend an ear (or a mouth) if you want to blow off steam!

[magnetic_pole]

I'm glad you enjoyed the links. The McSweeney's one made me laugh out loud. This is going to be a comedy of errors.

And thanks for the offer to vent. I'm going to try to stay positive and not go crazy over it all right now. It'll all work out, somehow. It's funny, I love being online for fandom, but I only use online tools in a limited way in the classroom. This is going to be a steep learning curve for me.

Good luck to you as you work on it! M.

[boxofdelights]

Lovely! Are those all from your neighborhood this year? I appreciate the reminder that spring is coming!

[magnetic_pole]

They are! All from about a ten block radius, taken over the past five days. (My partner R has a dog-walking gig going, so when I'm at home, as I am now, I walk with her and the dogs, and we see a lot of the immediate neighborhood.)

Your spring is coming! Hang in there! M.

[jesse_the_k]

We had an abundance of teeny green shoots hinting at snowdrops and crocuses, and then it snowed this morning and it's raining now and Ack! I wish the Upper Midwest had Spring as a season.

Which is a whiny way of saying
THANK YOU THE FLOWERS ARE JUST WHAT I NEEDED

and also hurray for the comm!

[magnetic_pole]

It will come, J! I know from my own time in more northern latitudes that it's always sloooooow to arrive, though.

Glad you enjoyed! So happy to have some folks here online to share them with. M.

[semielliptical]

Oh, thanks for the flowers! We only have crocuses and snowdrops blooming at the moment, I'm really looking forward to daffodils.

I will stop by to chat at the community, and might try hosting.

Figuring out how to work or teach entirely online in such a short time is so hard. Ideally it takes time to develop fluency and comfort, like with becoming comfortable with online fan communities. And you're so right about the motivation being completely different with voluntary fan activities and work/learning.

[magnetic_pole]

Crocuses are a whispered promise of even better things to come. :)

The online thing is so hard, S. Despite loving online fandom, I'm very targeted in my use of online tools for the classroom--they're fabulous for some things, and decent for others, but I try so hard to promote discussion and public speaking and small group activities as a way of encouraging active engagement with ideas, and not a lot of that will translate well. (At least not without a lot more time than I have to get these courses started again.) And I was emphasizing local research and book (vs. online) research this semester, too. Need to make a 180 on that front.

*sigh* I'm sure you've heard the same thing from dozens of people recently. Sorry.

We'd love to see you over at the Covid Coffee Corner! :) M.

[conuly]

it's beautiful out: sunny, warm, with the first of the cherry blossoms and thousands of daffodils. I'll post some photos below the cut.

I wandered lonely as a cloud....

In fact, it's the forsythias I notice this time of year. I used to take particular note of the maple blossoms, but then our block lost our two big trees, so.

[magnetic_pole]

We've had lovely forsythia here, too! (Somehow my photos didn't turn out very well, so they're not included here.)

I had to look up maple blossoms and thus just discovered that you could eat them (!). Neat. M.

[walgesang]

What gorgeous pictures, they make me so happy! :D Spring is just starting to peek out here and there, but it is comforting.

[magnetic_pole]

It will come and be lovely, as it always is in your part of the world. Thanks for looking at these. I've enjoyed taking photos, but sharing them is half the fun. M.

[minervas_eule]

Very cheerful flower-pictures - thank you!

[magnetic_pole]

Thank you for looking! R and I have enjoying walking around and seeing all the blossoms, but it's always nicer to share them with someone. M.

And that's the perfect icon! They'll be here in about two weeks, I'd guess. M.

[secretsolitaire]

I've joined the comm -- fun!

And thanks for posting the pretty flowers. :)

[magnetic_pole]

Great! I'm looking forward to all the chatting.

And thank you for looking at the flowers! I'm so happy to share them. M.