UMWBlogs

When: Wed Apr 29, 2009 9am to 3:30pm EDT

Where: College of Graduate and Professional Studies
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Seminar; fee of $75 includes lunch; registration deadline is Thursday, April 23; five-hour workshop for start-up and existing businesses guides participants through steps for creating a business plan and covers research tools, writing methods, documentation requirements, financial statements and methodologies for forecasting business and financial results; workbook included; offered by Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center; (540) 286-8060, rrsbdc@umw.edu or www.umw.edu/rrsbdc/training/businessplan.php

On January 19, 2009, which is both Martin Luther King Jr. day as well as the eve of the Inauguration of America’s 44th President, UMW’s nationally recognized Debate Team–lead by the fearless prof. Tim O’Donnell—will be part of a landmark Inaugural Debate Series sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. At 11:30 a.m. UMW debaters will be facing off against the University of Southern California debate team on the priorities of the next administration, more specifically on the the topics of health care and the economy–should be a doozy!

Find more information from the Smithsonian Institute site here.

Lecture Renewing America’s Promise: First Inaugural College Debates
Inaugural Activities: Three Collegiate Debates

To celebrate the 56th Presidential Inauguration and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, six college debate teams, in three 75-minute debates, argue the priorities of the new Obama administration. Presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture in cooperation with the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

• 9-9:30 AM: Introductory Remarks

• 9:30 AM: Energy and Climate Change: Michigan State University vs. Wake Forest University: These two schools represent the pinnacle of intercollegiate debate, both having won the National Debate Tournament (NDT) — America’s most historic and prestigious national debate championship — in the last three years.

• 11:30 AM: Health Care and the Economy: University of Mary Washington vs. the University of Southern California: These two institutions have long traditions of excellence in intercollegiate debate.

• 2 PM: Foreign Policy: Fayetteville State University vs. Voorhees College These two HBCUs are committed to making debate education central to their educational mission. This debate marks the 100th anniversary of the first intercollegiate debates between HBCUs.

• 3:30-4 PM: Closing Remarks

Cost: Free
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Location: Natural History Museum Baird Auditorium

When: Wed Mar 25, 2009 9am to 3:30pm EDT

Where: College of Graduate and Professional Studies
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Seminar; fee of $75 includes lunch; registration deadline is Thursday, March 19; five-hour workshop for start-up and existing businesses guides participants through steps for creating a business plan and covers research tools, writing methods, documentation requirements, financial statements and methodologies for forecasting business and financial results; workbook included; offered by Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center; (540) 286-8060, rrsbdc@umw.edu or www.umw.edu/rrsbdc/training/businessplan.php

When: Tue Feb 17, 2009 9am to 12pm EST

Where: Northern Neck Planning District Commission, 457 Main Street, Warsaw
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Seminar; free of charge; registration deadline is Thursday, February 12; will cover business tax year and accounting methods, types of taxes a business is responsible for, income and expenses and record keeping; offered by Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center in Warsaw; (804) 333-0286, (800) 524-8915, bhaywood@umw.edu or www.umw.edu/rrsbdc/training

When: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:30pm to Tue Feb 10, 2009 9pm EST

Where: Northern Neck Planning District Commission, 457 Main Street, Warsaw
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Seminar; $30; registration deadline is Friday, February 6; class location is Northern Neck Planning District Commission, 457 Main Street, Warsaw; offered by Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center in Warsaw; (804) 333-0286, (800) 524-8915, bhaywood@umw.edu or www.umw.edu/rrsbdc/training/firststeps.php

When: Wed Feb 4, 2009 9am to 12:30pm EST

Where: Bank of Essex, 1325 Tappahannock Blvd., Tappahannock
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Seminar; free of charge; space is limited; registration deadline is Friday, January 30; workshop for entrepreneurs and businesses seeking to grow their sales in today’s difficult economic climate, as well as start-up businesses; interactive session with opportunities to network with peers and resource providers; offered by Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center in Warsaw; (804) 333-0286, (800) 524-8915, bhaywood@umw.edu or www.umw.edu/rrsbdc/training

When: Thu Jan 29, 2009 9am to 3:30pm EST

Where: Northern Neck Planning District Commission, Warsaw
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Seminar for start-up and existing businesses; $60; registration deadline is Monday, January 26; class held at the Northern Neck Planning District Commission, 457 Main Street, Warsaw; offered by Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center in Warsaw; (804) 333-0286, (800) 524-8915, bhaywood@umw.edu or www.umw.edu/rrsbdc/training/businessplan.php

Just a quick post to tell folks about two nifty plugins (add-ons) for Firefox that make Google searches more . . . well . . . interesting (especially when you search for Edupunk). The first is Search Cloudlet which will include a “tag cloud” in your search results that allows you to refine said results more quickly. You can instantly see which related tags are most common and narrow your results accordingly. When you click on individual tags, you essentially add keywords to refine the search. By switching your cloud from Tags to Sites, you can select from sites that are most commonly associated with your search term and narrow the results by website. It’s fun, fast, and can lead to more serendipitous results. You can also search by top level domain names (.net, .com, .edu), or turn it off within the page if it does get in your way.

The other plugin is Googlepedia, which as you can see from the photo above, inserts a Wikipedia entry right into the Google results page. It nicely replaces the useless paid advertisements space to the right with a useful Wikipedia result. God help you if you search for Edupunk (and no, I don’t mean edulink).

When: Tue Jan 27, 2009 6pm to Tue Jan 27, 2009 9pm EST

Where: Northern Neck Planning District Commission, Warsaw
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Two-session seminar for start-up and existing businesses also meets 6-9 p.m. on Wednesday, January 28; $60; registration deadline is Friday, January 23; class held at the Northern Neck Planning District Commission, 457 Main Street, Warsaw; offered by Rappahannock Region Small Business Development Center in Warsaw; (804) 333-0286, (800) 524-8915, bhaywood@umw.edu or www.umw.edu/rrsbdc/training/businessplan.php

Blog entries should reflect your thoughtful engagement with the ideas that we explore over the course of the semester. They provide a space to be used for brainstorming and feedback for your research project as well as for sharing critical thoughts and ideas about our readings. In many ways, the blogs function as an extension of our classroom conversation: here you can build upon ideas already shared, raise questions that have not yet been voiced, share resources and feedback, while also brainstorming your own projects.

Blog entries will be graded as A (3 points), B (2 pts), C (1 pt), or F (0 pts). Passing entries must be clearly written and reflect an understanding of our texts, a creative engagement with one’s working project, and/or a thoughtful consideration of a related topic or issue. There are 14 weeks to the semester, and I will grade 10 blog entries. You may write blog posts only 10 weeks of the semester, but if you write more I will drop failing (F/O) grades. If a week (Mon-Sun) passes and you have not posted an entry, you will receive a zero grade for that week. You cannot write “extra” entries (e.g. two in the same week) later to make up for the zero, but if you write a weekly blog entry for more than 10 different weeks out of the fourteen we have, that zero can also be dropped. For more information, see our blog grading rubric.

toys as history test 3 (priv. on)

test post 2

Toys as history post for toysashistory09 feed. Test.

I don’t know why and I don’t care why because the reasons behind it don’t matter…tonight I’m thinking a lot about Jesus. I bought a new devotional on prayer today…sure, it’s for teens, but I like this little set of devotionals and I was drawn to it. I was so excited to buy it, so excited to see what I can learn about it’s topic: prayer, and learn about Jesus in general. I’m just thinking about Him in general and have realized that I’m excited by Him. I spend so much time in my life thinking about how I feel about other human beings that I’ve often forgot to understand how I feel about Jesus. There was a point in time where this guy in middle school used to call me a Jesus freak and it made me happy to be one…by 10th grade when I finally had another class with him he asked me if I still was a Jesus freak and I basically shrugged my shoulders and said, “Yeah, I guess.” Just thinking about that response truly breaks my heart. I don’t really understand what happened to me during HS, but let me tell you I hid it well. I’ve talked a bit about it in my previous blogs but I’ve only told Jon about it in reality. It was a point in time where I just feel away from God and just let it stay that way. But, I would’ve told you I was a Christian even though looking back I really shouldn’t have said it…I don’t deserve what Jesus gave for me and the love He has for me, but He’s willing to give it and I’m never unhappy with how He makes me feel. I’m completely in love with Him and I know that with time I can grow deeper and deeper in love with Him. I’m gonna face stuff that will be hard and I will mess things up quite often…but I’ve got Jesus. Having Jesus means I have it all. He’s so good to me and I’m so so thankful. (I almost started to cry just then…) Jesus moves me. I can’t even begin to express how incredible it feels to love and be loved by the creator and savior of the universe…Jesus is what makes me whole. Jesus, I am so in love with You ♥ [And I want the whole world to know!]

Let My Words Be Few by Phillips, Craig, and Dean

If you are playing with BuddyPress, you may want to check out the Buddy Press Dev site. It’s a community site for BuddyPress provides developers to add plugins they have developed, and leeches like me to download them and ask annoying questions in the forums—it’s awesome, at least for me This week there have been some cool additions to the available plugins for BuddyPress. For example, adding your latest Flickr photos to your Profile page (developed by Nicola Greco).

Or adding your latest YouTube videos to your profile page (developed by Nicola Greco).

And there’s the SimplePie plugin for BuddyPress that makes these other two go (developed by Nicola Greco).

Oh yeah, and there is the Twitter to Wire, that allows you to include all your tweets to your BuddyPress Wire (developed by David Aubin). Keep in mind that you need the Twitter Tools plugin isntalled and activated for this one to work, which you do in your blog on the BuddyPress site.

There is also a BuddyPress Dev Site Admin plugin, which allows you to see the latest plugins on the BuddyPress site in the Site Admin area of your blog (developed by Nicola Greco)

I also tried the Community Blogs plugin by Burtadsit, which allows users to add themselves as authors to a community blog, similar to Andre Malan’s plugin Add Users, just integrated into the BuddyPress navigation bar. I like the idea of this plugin, but I haven’t been able to get the add user function to work in the navbar.

And there are more, I just haven’t tested them. I’m impressed by how quickly integration with three major social networking services was accomplished in BuddyPress, and I also like that my various sites (and I am a Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter guy) can so easily show up on you profile page in BuddyPress. What I’m thinking is that they need a plugin for RSS feeds for the proile page from, say, another blog on some other service. They also need a way that you can widgetize and custoize your profile page so that you can easily control the order of what people see and how that can explore your various identities online.

Well I had written something a few days ago and saved it, but I just came back to it and read it and realized that things had changed since then (haha). I was wondering if I was wearing blinders in this situation I’m in and I’ve really began to think no despite one of the things that has been lingering in my thoughts. Sometimes things can be overpowered when one becomes surer everyday…This probably doesn’t make any sense to y’all but…I guess that’s ok.

So, what did I deny the other day (mentioned last blog)? Well, someone said “She’s falling for him!” I didn’t say anything, I just smiled and then I got the “Omgosh she didn’t deny it!” thing…probably because it’s true. This is really hard for me to type out…probably because it puts me way way out of my box..out of my comfort zone. It takes me a while to be able to express feelings towards people, so this is a good first step, eh? Falling in love makes me nervous (though yes, it is exciting and all that). Why? That’d be because when I think of love I think of all the things that start to happen after love…eventually getting engaged if the person is right for you (I’m all fine and dandy up until this point). But then marriage. (Why, yes, marriage is a long long way away for me…but it’s not like I’ve never thought about marriage…now if you know me really well then you’re probably gasping right about now :p) So yeah…marriage. It scares the crap out of me on a number of levels and I’m just gonna throw a few out there. One is that I’ve watched my parents and listened to my mom talk about how frustrating it is to be married to my dad many times…even though they love each other. You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that “After they marry you every thing changes” (<-scaring the crap out of me)…she means that suddenly you have to take care of them like they’re a child sometimes and plus there’s all the responsibilities of being actually a married couple. Let me lay this flat out…I don’t want to get married one day and discover soon after that the guy’s just gonna start treating me like dirt or making me wait on him hand on foot and me start feeling like I’m gettin the short end of the stick [Now, once again - marriage for me is a LONGGGG way away. I'm just saying for now haha.] I don’t want a marriage where it becomes unequal. Marriage is a partnership, right? Well then why is it that I always find that the women I know are doing so much more in so many things than the men are? I see so many women in my life that work so hard at home and outside of home but the guys just work outside of home and don’t really help out their wives with taking care of the kids or the house…or never go out on a date just to be with each other. See why marriage freaks me out? lol. I’ve always been weird about my relationship status and my future relationship status. Had you asked me anytime before like the middle of August 08 if I’d ever be dating anyone or if I’d ever get married…honestly your answer would have been heck-to-the-no (lol)…well, that’s being a bit harsh. I would have probably said, “Nah, probably not” or “Meh, doubtful”. I honestly was happy single….now this is where I’m starting to sound bad lol. I was happy while single, yes, but I’m really very happy being taken by a guy as sweet as Jonathan. I’m taking everything slowly for many reasons…many I’m sure of which he knows or has come to understand. One that’s gonna keep from being able to tell him that I love him for a while is that love…in a romantic way…scares me. Mainly because I start to think about future possibilities and am like WHOA BUDDY! I really just wanna try to take this one step at a time in the present and try not to get myself into the future because I don’t control the future and I can’t erase the past…only God really can. So yeah, I’m announcing it: I’m falling in love. So there.

Someone told me today their view of love. It was that sure, you can fall in love with the person you’re dating…maybe every person you’re dating, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re “the one” for you. I can see what they meant but it also disturbs me. It’s interesting what love can be turned into when I think of it this way and let my mind wander on it. Love should be deeper than what ppl seem to make it when they think it’s because they enjoy spending time with a person…bah, it’s really hard to explain what I mean. When I think of love I think of how I feel about God, how God feels about humans, how I feel about my closest family and my best friends. It becomes deeper after knowing them more and spending more time with them. But love is deeper than just that. Love is taking care of them; love is being patient and nice and understanding them; love is being willing to take a bullet for the person without a thought in the world about doing it (instinct); love is being ok with wanting to or actually being with the person all the time…there are people in my life that if I had them hooked to my side all of the time that’d be ok with me. There’s so much more to love than some ppl make it and I don’t want to take things that are serious and make them seem so…unimportant and small. Though of course I don’t want to put too much thought into love because then it’s too deliberate and “mechanical.” I mean, we’re not robots, but we also shouldn’t be so carefree all of the time lol. Anyway…I may seem to make things more complicated than they are, but it is what it is. My brain makes a lot of things more complicated than they are. I’ve got a lot of thinking and praying to do before I come clean and say anything to the effect of I love you to Jon. But, yes I am indeed falling for him and I didn’t expect it to happen after almost four months, but what the hey, that’s ok [I think I've watched too much Dr. Seuss lately..]

I already had a friend tell me to let her know when we get engaged. I’m like what the?!? TOO SOON BUDDY, TOO SOON! lol. My friends crack me up when it comes to me actually dating. They all approve of Jon and for good reason. I can’t believe I’m dating a guy that is so sweet…and thoughtful…and patient…and cute to boot It’s quite the amazing feeling to fall in love…better than I expected lol. But then again, I didn’t ever really do much expecting considering I always thought I’d be single. I’m harassed all the time now…in a sarcastic voice I often hear “Oh, I’ll neverrr have a boyfriend.” “Oh, I’ll never fall in love” blahblahblah. Well excuse me for being wrong ppl. I was single for 19.8 yrs lolol. I mean seriously, one begins to wonder by then. I think hs guys never really knew what to think of me. I often wonder if they weren’t a little intimidated by my intelligence (sorry for sounding so arrogant lol…I’m just confident. When you’re told you’re smart from since you can’t even remember and you actually get the grades to prove it…you’re gonna be pretty confident.) Idk why no one ever asked me out…well scratch that, I got asked out once but the guy was stupid and was only asking because he was having a competition w/ another guy to see who could get the most yeses. WOW. So immature. Though I do know of one guy who probably would’ve asked me out had I not moved away from MN. He had a huge crush on me and told his mom he was gonna marry me one day. Adorable and all, but that was when I was in 3rd grade. But seriously, it wouldn’t have surprised me if I had lived there that we would’ve dated at some point. BUT ANYWAY! I really have typed probably more about myself than anyone really needs to know :p But whatever. I’m just amazed it’s happening to me…but the good kind of amazed

BTW…I apologize for the probably A.D.D.ness of this blog lol…my brain is pretty A.D.D. sometimes. Like tonight obviously.

I’ll probably blog something sometime soon…something that’ll be super thoughtful and maybe not about my personal life haha :p

Much love from me to you in Jesus! Enjoy these last few days of break Eagles!
♥R/Z

When: Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:30pm to 9pm EST

Where: George Washington Hall, Dodd Auditorium
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: "Who’s Afraid of American Religion?" by Alan Wolfe, professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, part of the celebration of the anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom; free; (540) 654-1342.

So I used to be addicted to talking to/hanging with one friend and then that slowed down and basically just became a desire that she would actually talk to me on a really regular basis because I love her that much, but it wasn’t a need for that to happen anymore (though seriously I wish she would). Now I’m more or less addicted to talking to/hanging with another friend. I really can’t go a day without at least texting her. Though I’m realizing that the difference between how the 2 “addictions” is hard to explain because everyone just assumes they probably feel the same. But, they don’t. One feels more intense in some way…but even I don’t understand why. The whole deal with the 2 relationships I have with them is hard for me to understand. I’m thinking that the difference is that I want one of them “staple-gunned right to my side all of the time” [That comes from Staplegunned by the Spill Canvas: Staplegunned by The Spill Canvas] and then the other one I want to be with on a really regular basis, but if I can’t be with her all the time I could live…as long as I could at least talk to her. I think that’s the difference…I really don’t know. I’m confused lol.

Oh something else I’m thinking about that I’m unsure of how to handle at the moment…though not really a big deal or anything…is what to do when 2 best friends call you their best best friend; especially when you’ve already told one of them that they would be your best friend forever and ever and nothing would change that…is it bad to add someone in your life that you’re really starting to feel the same about? Is that unfair to the first friend? I don’t understand how these 2 always manage to confuse me but my third best friend and I are fine all the time. She has someone that is her best best friend and I well…I do but I’m trying to figure out if I have 2 of those or what lol. But, I know all 3 of them are gonna be in my life forever and that thrills me!! I can’t believe how flippin’ sweet those kids are!

Someone said something to me a couple days ago and I didn’t deny it. I can’t believe what it means…silence really does say a lot ya know.

My sister went back to school today, Alyssa left for school yesterday, Sarah’s gotta work today, and Brooke is away skiing till like 2 days before I start my Spring semester…so all in all my day will be very very uneventful lol. Though I am going out with Jonny tonight to see Yes Man. That’ll probably the best part of the day lol. I guess I’ll be watching movies, playing Super Paper Mario, and texting all day lol. Sounds very familiar to me…except no one will be in my house with me haha.

I miss my family in KY. I only got to spend 3 days with them last week But, I can’t do much about that. At least I can talk to them online and on the phone when I’m not there

Just stop right there,
I think that we’ve got something here…

Hope break is going well ya’ll! Or have a good first day back to classes lol. With lots o love from me & my Jesus!, ♥R/Z

Save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

This post is subtitled “Why Pop Songs Mattered in 2008,” but in all honesty it’s an overall misleading subtitle & so I may just end up scrapping the idea of using a subtitle at all. But seriously pop songs really mattered in 2008! And there are three reasons why.

1. They proved we really are the most post-modern generation after all.

“We” really means “me & kids my age,” but that doesn’t matter in the end because even if it’s my generation, every other living generation exists in spheres around this one — my own — & each of our generation’s actions & products affect all others. These effects include one generation’s recognition of and vested interest in its own products, a self-reflexivity that was mirrored brilliantly in 2008 in one of its golden boys: T.I.

Yes, I recognize & understand clearly that hip-hop at its very core is a genre of music founded on the borrowing from other snippets of artistic effects, but rarely before has a song become so pop-culturally lauded for borrowing from a snippet of a snippet of an otherwise completely unknown, unimportant effect. Let me explain. T.I.’s song “Live Your Life” was one of this year’s biggest radio hits, reaching #1 on the Billboard charts & reaching Platinum sale status (the song alone! Not even the album from which it was pulled! But that’s a whole nother post). The song begins with a sample of the song “Dragostea Din Tei” by the Moldovan group O-Zone, a song that, though it was a hit throughout Europe, holds no real cultural significance in America besides being the subject of arguably the most popular YouTube video of all time. This is the “Numa Numa Kid” video that changed the whole game of YouTube to begin with; not only did it make a hero out of an embarrassingly hilarious, overweight man with small headphones, but it spawned an innumerable amount of spoofs & responses, practically inventing the necessity for the “YouTube Response.” This might not have been the Internet phenomenon to start all Internet phenomenons, but it will certainly go down in the history books as one of THE biggest videos this generation has produced (& there are so, so many…).

Regardless, the insertion of a sample from O-Zone’s song is not so much a consequence of T.I.’s vast musical knowledge (nor is it a consequence of his DJ’s knowledge, as very rarely does an emcee ever pull a Rakim these days & actually make his own music) as it is a consequence of an enormously post-modern culture weighing in on pop radio. The song opens up with the immediately distinctive “Maya-heeeee, maya-haaa” that this generation has come to know so well, borrowing not necessarily from a song that has an interesting or unique sound that would emphasize the strength of a beat, but in fact pointing out to the listener that hey, million-dollar rap stars are just like everybody else. They watch YouTube, they laugh at chubby kids lip-syncing in font of a computer. And this generation’s public responded brilliantly, launching the song up the pop charts & pumping the song out of each & every speaker within reach.

I did exactly the same thing. Because, quite honestly, that song is really damn good. And Rihanna will never cease to be attractive. Probably ever.

2. They proved the love song will never die.

And do you know why the love song will never die? Because the people who are making the most popular love songs today (and probably the best love songs today) are younger than even me. All three of them.

Okay, technically, Kevin Jonas is two & a half months older than me, but I refuse to consider anyone posing in Tiger Beat as being my senior.

In 2008, though, a year that saw a continuance in the world of pop radio of rock songs lamenting love lost & of hip hop songs flaunting money & of country songs disappearing before our very eyes (as hard as it is to listen to one of his albums in its entirety, Alan Jackson might continue to be the last true bastion of modern country music. Chuck Klosterman once called pop country “Wal-Mart country,” implying country albums that sell out in Wal-Marts across the nation, & Jackson makes more than anyone can count, God bless him), the Jonas Brothers exploded onto this September’s Video Music Awards with a premiere of their new single, a Sesame Street-esque rendition of “Lovebug.” At the time, I was actually watching the VMA’s for the first time since that one where Britney Spears carried a big yellow snake onstage (that shit was sick as anything, too), & had both very little knowledge of & very little interest in JoBros. Like most of the country, I was sick of them without having even a clue of what their music sounded like.

But this song was something else; the chorus is sung quietly, a breathless confession about a lovestruck someone losing their breath. It’s a cheap lyrical trick, & it’s one that will always work. And these boys know this, & perhaps this is what makes them geniuses. I would say it’s what makes their marketing men geniuses, but (mostly because I’m making a point here somewhere) because these guys are actually writing their own songs - a rarity in the world of tween pop music, perhaps predictably so - it’s all on their shoulders. And most importantly, they know how to sound innocently in love because they are innocent — the completely terrible & surprisingly uglier-than-expected host of this year’s VMA’s spent an unnecessary amount of time picking on the three of them for sustaining from having sex until marriage. The complete backlash that these statements caused forced the host to later apologize & retract his “funny” comments, & cemented something in the minds of every member of this generation: the Jonas Brothers are one of the most abnormal groups making pop music right now, for their complete admonishment of the current cultural norm of blind promiscuity if nothing else. They’re making love songs without making love, & somehow this is the most unpredictably genius strategy anyone has come up with in recent pop music history.

As for the song changing gears 2/3 of the way in & going Dylan-electric, it grew on me. These guys know what they’re doing, & this is what’s going to keep letting them do what they’re doing for countless generations. Catch this lovebug again…& again & again & again.

3. They reminded everyone that no one makes better singles than Beyonce Knowles.

Not including last year (I guess she was on her honeymoon with Jay-Z, I donno), Beyonce has made my favorite pop single every year since the release of her debut album Dangerously in Love. “Crazy in Love” was my jam junior year of high school — it was everyone’s jam, really, & it will probably go down in history as one of the greatest lead-off pop singles an artist has ever released (in my mind, at least). Senior year was the year of “Naughty Girl,” which, although it isn’t in the same league as “Crazy in Love,” it didn’t really need to be. It was a follow-up single, was hot enough to get anyone & everyone dancing, & became my favorite because it borrowed from the strangest song in pop single history: Donna Summers’ “Love to Love You Baby.” Two years ago, there was “Irreplaceable,” a song that I played on repeat more than any other song I have ever played on repeat. It was heartbreaking, it was crafted with every little piece in place for a very specific reason (all those “whoa-oh”s, give me a break! Those things killed me, every single time. Always.), & it had two false-start choruses before the real one ever even came in…each time it came in. I did not think a song could ever top “Irreplaceable,” & I’m entirely certain this is why Beyonce took a year off before releasing this year’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).”

With the best beat her producers have come up with since “Crazy in Love,” the harmonies in the line “don’t pay him any attention,” & a music video in which nothing happens but Beyonce dancing in a leotard & high heels (I know: what?!?!), “Single Ladies” is this year’s best song by 3 million miles, & will continue to be the best song on the radio until next year, when Beyonce comes out with the defining song of 2009-2010.

The anticipation alone is going to make this a very, very good year.

Professor John Morello’s Communication 370 course (or “Communication and the 2008 Presidential Campaign”) provides a really powerful model for using a course as a video publishing platform, a space for critical media studies, as well as a forum for discussion about the election as it unfolds. Each of the students in this course created their own short speech in support of their candidate of choice (you can see examples here), which were then posted on a third-party service of their choice and embedded on the course blog (see the technical guidelines for this process here).

Yet, the videos were only one part of this course, there was also the on-going campaign commentaries, dissection of campaign ads, as well as timely discussions about the political implications of the economic crisis. All of which made for a dynamic and open forum leading up to election night. And when I say open, I mean open. Numerous comments and discussions on the site came from people that were not part of the class (or even the UMW Community), but were still intensely interested in discussing the election. The fact that both Barack Obama and Sarah Pallin campaigned in Fredericksburg during the final stretch made this course all the more discoverable and relevant to the local community.

But what’s really engaging about the way professor Morello used this space resides in how a web-based course site quickly transformed into an open forum that not only allowed the students to bring in relevant resources from all over the web effortlessly, but also encouraged the class to both create web-based media and engage their classmates and the community out in the open.