This tall dark stranger--break--This short pale well-known--break--start over--Out of no discernible (sp) past came this stranger/strange/anomaly--break--just "stranger"--stranger. We do know that he has made a "home"--break--stayed/lived/hung out for some amount of time in such places as Portland, CT, and Denver, CO. "Originally" from Seattle by way of Yakima, Washington; the other "Washington".
I have been instructed to post a biography-type post for this blog. My full name is Juan Morales, and I am a first year graduate student studying in the Creative Writing area. Also, I am a TA.
Before moving to Albuquerque, I lived in Colorado Springs, CO and went to the University of Southern Colorado (now Colorado State University-Pueblo) in Pueblo, CO.
Some of my favorite writers include James Wright, Bruce Weigl, Charles Simic, Ralph Ellison, James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor, and too many others to name.
On a personal note, Rx Bandits, Nofx, and Radiohead have been stuck in my CD player as of late, I like to play hacky sack, and I'm dreadfully afraid of aliens and heights.
Here I sit in an orientation session on blogs, typing about myself for a public post. I'm Michael Page-English. This will be my first term teaching at UNM. I've been teaching comp at TVI for the last two years. I also taught comp at the University of Oregon, where I earned my MA in English. I received my BA in English from the University of Notre Dame. I'm excited to be at UNM, working with a team of people all trying to do their best at teaching.
Hint: if the student thinks an auto biography is the life of the family car, the adult teacher needs to do more work on audience analysis.
People tell me to tell them about myself, and the question is, of course, "What do you want to know?" Eventually we reach some happy medium. It usually involves hobbies, habits, pets, and books.
I just finished Evolution of a Revolt, TE Lawrence - should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in military activities on the Arabia Peninsula. Produced an excellent motto for students: "An opinion can be argued with. A conviction you can only shoot." Or is that more of a caveat auditor? Currently reading the Tournaments of Shadow, which is a 3# treatise by Meyer & Brysac on the Great Game, the Victorian era version of the Cold War. Seems appropriate that the red-headed stepchildren of the Victorian Great Game nations would be carrying on the Cold War, no?
Grad student, starting my third year in Professional Writing, working on defining the banana republic and checking on whether New Mexico is one. Moonlight as an admin asst in the Division of Continuing Education's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Studies Program, and as a tech writer/editor for the Training and Research Institute. For the first, I'm helping evaluate juvenile drug court programs; for the second, I write training materials for security personnel working with civilly committed sexually violent predators. Ohyeah, and I TA Freshmen English as my day job.
Right, then.
Two xx and an xy brought me to this earth. Been traveling around, fell in love a couple of times, had babies come out of me--learned to give up on trying to shape them into angels. They were destined to taste from the tree of life and savor existance. Gonna teach freshman at UNM, worry about commas and semicolons--maybe learn philosophy. At the end of the day, I hope to sit and read a spicy book and have a cat curl up in my lap.
Enough said.
An-young ha-se-yo! (Hello! in Korean). My name is Hyon C. "Billy" Brown. I was born in Korea and moved to this country in 1971, at age of 15. However, since 1971 to 1999, I have avoid the proper learning of this counry's language. I, however, at the late age of mid 40, finally realized the importance of good verbal and written communication skills for one's own banifit. Therefore, I came back to the UNM,where I began and dropped out in 1981, to finish my endeavor to become a better and more compotent person.
The core of my biography is my education and work experience. I went to college after high school in the town I grew up in, Wausau, WI. I transferred to UW Madison and graduated with an English degree. I then took a teaching certification, taught in Milwaukee public and private schools, and did graduate work in special education. I then pursued my dream to do graduate work in English Literature by attending the University of New Mexico, where I am half-way through an MA in English Literature.
I tried planting sunflowers a few weeks ago, but the birds ate all the seeds except for three, which sprouted but are not exactly thriving. Also, I have had some fun with online personality tests and chopping up dead trees with a handsaw. So much for my vacation.
I was born a "hinou-ema" on the Day of the Dead in the same depressed lumber town as Kurt Cobain and the photographer Lee Friedlander; if you tell me which town it is, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. The day I was born, my parents almost hit a herd of elk on the way to the hospital. And the fun facts go on....
I'm currently a PhD student in literature specializing in post-colonial theory and modernist/post-modernist fiction. However, I have not forgotten my roots in creative writing, having received an MA in CW in 1994 here at UNM.
I was named Rita in a bar, by a guy named Bob. The story is longer than that, but not really that interesting. It was a matter of hearing rather than beer. I own a classic tractor -- an Aliss Chalmers G -- that I used to drive when cultivating onions on my farmer's farm.
I am known in other circles as the Knitting Dominatrix. I like to mig weld, too.
If I had my druthers, there would be enough water in Albuquerque so that I could grow tomatoes, artichokes and asparagus (among other yummies) without the fight. In the best of all possible worlds, I would spend my days maintaining thousands of hummingbird feeders.
This is my third year in the Ph.D. program. I am currently teaching English 102, and studying for comps. I completed my coursework last spring. My goal is to finish my Ph.D. by the time I am 40. I turn 38 this summer.
I am an Army brat, and spent most of my childhood in the Midwest.
I teach composition (101, 102, and 220), and in the fall I will be teaching technical writing. I am working on my PhD in 19th century American literature, and I enjoy visiting Yellowstone and rehabilitating raccoons (and bunnies too).
I was born and raised in Maryland, went to undergrad in Virginia and finished my MA in Long Island. I came to the University of New Mexico to study Chicano/a literature but have come to love the open land, the challenging mountain biking trails, and snowboarding under a beautiful blue sky. I am currently in my fifth year of the PhD program and hope to finish my degree sometime in the very near future, or just sometime.
Good afternoon. As a professor at UNM, I've spent years teaching writing--first-year writing, advanced composition, technical communications, and graduate forums on writing in literary, scientific, and professional disciplines. While I've learned much from studying linguistics and rhetoric, I've also learned much from OJT: on the job training, that is. Writers not only read; they write, frequently unsuccessfully. These trials, and many errors, have helped me teach writing more effectively. . . .I hope.
I have been a technical writer and editor much of my professional life, although in recent years my emphasis has shifted to fiction (in fact, my technical background provided my entry into fiction, as my three novels and several short stories arose through my experiences in water and wastewater treatment and analysis). I also write poetry, some of which has been published.
Currently, I'm working on my Master's degree here at UNM in Professional Writing, and my thesis concerns blogging as argument as a way to teach critical thinking to expand the quality and scope of civil discourse. I'm slated to speak as part of a blogging group at the next Conference on College Composition and Communication workshop on the process and advantages of blogging (they refer to my section as the "blogging evangelist" section).
If you stand around for too long and look interested, I will probably offer you a blog. I say the word "blog" aloud. A lot.