Monday, February 04, 2008

Hi, ho, the merry-o, a conferencing we will go

This conference is probably the worst timing possible! But of course I can't really complain since I was part of the committee when we set the date. For someone on a regular semester system, it's probably absolutely ideal. But with our wacky term schedule, we're in crunch mode.

In two writing classes, there was an assignment due this last week and 1/5 of each class just hasn't turned it in. I really gotta wonder what they're thinking, since the drop date has passed and they're stuck in the course now.... It's really hard as the conscientious-student-type to understand what other students are thinking of when they do stuff like this.

Good news is my conference paper is all there - in fact it's too much there. I need to trim at least 3, ideally 4 minutes off of it. I've trimmed it down considerably to this point, but it's still over the time limit. Problem is, I may have to fundamentally change (damage?) the argument to squeeze it into the time limit.

The other option to decrease speaking time might be to create a powerpoint to go with it. I can offload some of the explanation to visual images instead, you know, a picture's worth a thousand words and so on. But that will require probably more time than I have. I can imagine how a powerpoint would look, it's just that storyboarding it, finding images, designing slides, and timing it would probably take more time than I can afford. If I did it, I'd want to do it right after all...

Ah, well. The end of the week will come whether I'm ready or not, and the conference paper will get delivered one way or the other. I just wish I had an extra day to work on it. *sigh*

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