Last week I had to accept that I cannot type well.

This isn’t to say that I cannot write, or that I fail to follow rules of grammar.  Check out the first paragraph of this post.  I wrote that I type “well,” which is correct, instead of “good,” which is incorrect.  I even used “cannot,” which is more acceptable than “can not.”  I am confident in my ability to put words together.

But when it comes to applying these rules of grammar onto the page, I am all thumbs.

I began drafting my yearly self-evaluation for work.  The evaluation is supposed to reference the Professional Growth Plan (PGP) that each faculty member has on file, so I decided to look review the PGP that I wrote back in October.  It’s a relatively concise document: seven pages of goals that I will shoot for in the next three years in an effort to get tenured someday.  It gets read by my director, the Provost, and the tenure-and-promotion committee.

When I looked it over last week, I found that I had made eleven errors on it.  Eleven.  The document that is supposed to start building a case for my tenure has “a/an” agreement problems, errant words, and a reference to a section of the PGP (“see the section about video projects above for more details”) that doesn’t exist.  If I were a student in one of my classes, I would have lost two letter grades on a paper because of these errors.

How am I supposed to present myself as a serious, detailed scholar when I produce a document that reads like an ENG 101 thesis?

A couple days later I was asked to produce a five-minute video for my church’s Christmas Eve service.  It was a quick job consisting of one still image, a Phillip Glass soundtrack, and about twenty graphic slides.  Total number of spelling errors: four.  I misspelled “forgotten,” “experience” (twice), and “nativity.”

So, I must admit to myself that I am a less-than-acceptable typist, and I that cannot trust myself to produce a document free of errors.  I must be disciplined enough to have my work copy-edited by others before I share it with any sort of serious audience.

And I must be okay with that.

In other news:

• My weight remained static at 185.5 pounds for nine days.  I thought that the scale might be broken, so I intentionally overate one night to see if the scale would notice.  It did, and now I’m at 186.5.  In hindsight, overeating as a means to test my scale was not a good idea.
• I’m spending much of this week in the company of family and friends, so my writing time is competing with visiting time.  As such, I only have one writing goal this week: to complete a draft of the self-evaluation noted above by the end of the day Saturday.
• If I’m lucky, I’ll see big-ass fish this week.

The fall 2009 semester has come and gone.  Grades are posted, student projects are archived, and class notes are filed.  My desk has not been this clean since August, and neither has my daily calendar.

That does not mean it is time to rest, though.  When the calendar is clean for an extended period of time, I instinctively try to fill it with projects.  “Look at all those days with nothing scheduled on them,” my demons whisper from their perch on my shoulder.  “What wonderful opportunities to complete those projects you haven’t had the time for this semester.”  Against my better judgment, I listen to them.  There’s just something so tempting about being productive.

So, here’s what will fill my calendar for the next few weeks:

— Revise a manuscript that explores evangelical/fundamentalist Christian film reviews in order to develop a normative theory of religious media criticism.  I sent a draft of this manuscript for review at a regional conference, even though I have my doubts that it is in good enough shape for presentation.  It certainly isn’t publishable yet, so I need to give it a little attention.

–Do some research, and draft some preliminary ideas, for a manuscript on religious media criticism that I am co-authoring with Dan Stout.  I think my research on normative theories of religious media criticism will help a little here, but the discussion of how religious faith influences media use and interpretation is so wide that there is room for more original work.

— Do some research, and draft some preliminary ideas, for a manuscript on Christian bookstores that I am co-authoring with Anthony Hatcher.

— Compose a self-evaluation of my work for 2009.  The self-evaluation is a formal document regarding my activities for the year, and how they relate to my long-term goals and tenure packet.  It is required for all full-time faculty.  I tend to over-think my self-evaluations.  There is a fine line between being thorough and self-aggrandizing.

–Explore the practicality of producing a video about Class Act.  I enjoy producing–in fact, one of my biggest joys of the semester was producing the women’s volleyball and men’s basketball broadcasts for HPU.  But I have not taken the time to produce an original project in a while.  So I’ve been kicking around the idea of producing a twenty-minute documentary about Class Act, a show choir I was a part of in high school.  It would involve getting interviews with the directors and several students, which I don’t think would be a problem.  It would also involve getting copies of some of the performances, which again would not be an issue.  But to make the project worthwhile I would need to play excerpts of the performances, which would mean playing performances of copyrighted material.  It would not be worth producing the documentary if I could not show it anywhere, and I wouldn’t be able to give it the showings I would like without securing permission to feature the songs.  So, I will need to think about that some more.  Fortunately, I have three weeks to not make a decision.

— Write syllabi for three new classes: Introduction to Telecommunications, Sports Production I, and Mass Media in American Christianity.  The Intro to Telecom class will incorporate a lot of material from the Broadcasting History and Development class I taught at Fisher, so that syllabus is relatively close to completion.  The Sports Production I class will incorporate a lot of material–shooting live events, producing packages, producing highlight reels, working with SIDs, and creating and shooting a weekly sports talk show.  I’m not sure how I will work all of that into a fifteen-week semester, but I’ll try.  The Mass Media in American Christianity class doesn’t start until fall 2010, but I’m gathering material for it already.

— Finally, I want to lose about six pounds.  According to what I can gather from the internet, I need to weigh around 179 to have a healthy BMI.  My weight has been relatively stagnant at 185.5 pounds for the past week.  I was hoping to be consistently at 185 by the end of the semester, so I got pretty close.  So, I’ve lost about three pounds this semester by doing nothing but watching what I eat.  I figure if I exercise some during the break, maybe I can lose a few more pounds.  So, I’ll be making some dates with the exercise bike over the break.

Can I make a dent in these projects in the next three weeks, or is this list too ambitious?

I created a fan page for myself on Facebook, and several friends and family have asked why. It’s not like I’m a celebrity like other folks with fan pages, and it’s a little creepy to suggest that I am.

I suppose I did it for four reasons. First of all, I created the page because I can. Facebook gives anyone the opportunity to create fan pages about anything.

Second, if “Staying Up Late” can have fans, why can’t I?

Third, some of my current students have requested to be Facebook friends with me. I am still on the fence about whether or not it is appropriate for a professor to be Facebook friends with students, but I am more comfortable with students having access to a different Facebook page about me if they want. So, they could be “fans” of Jim Y. Trammell without being “friends” of Jim Y. Trammell.

Finally, there are several people with whom I am Facebook “friends” that I would say I am a fan of as well. In fact, I consider myself a fan of several my close friends whom I’ve had for decades. I love them so much that I eagerly follow their goings-on with teeny-bopper fervor. If they created fan pages I would certainly be one of the first to sign up. I’d even be the fan club president for some.

So that’s why.