Ramblings from the 'goblinn

( First, I have more of In Loco Parentis written.  )

( Second, work rant. )
( Finally, Wee Hob and my Beloved. )

It's also been fun, this past week, to read the doings here, even if I am sad to find I don't always understand your doings now. Know that even when I don't comment, I wish all of you well. And I'm sure I'll be commenting more as other procrastination kicks in.....

( It is really different, being back in LJ land.... )

( On the writing front... )

There's also the existential angst I'm dealing with just now, which I will not go into at present. Except to note, that this, too saps one's strength. Or maybe that's just the cold.

Hugs to all.

At this point, I don't know who may or may not remember me, but as I have been thinking about trying to start writing again, one of the things I've realized is that keeping this blog was a bigger part of my writing process and inspiration than I had realized. I need to start making time for it again. I have other very fulfilling things in my life, but I am a writer, and I miss that.

My life is not going to get any less busy being a teacher and mom of a 15 year old now (Wee Hob is not quite so Wee anymore), so waiting until I have more time is clearly not going to cut it.

( So, my plan is )

Before I started any of this, though, I thought I should say thanks to the many people who have given and shared so much with me.

First, hello friends. I've often thought of you, longingly, as I have been grading papers, planning lessons, and making a new life with my Beloved and Wee Hob. Term is over and it went pretty well-- I just have a handful of ungraded papers I set aside for the end so I could check them for Plagiarism.

Below the cut, I have a draft FAQ I'm thinking about putting into my syllabi next term. I'd appreciate comments, especially from teachers past or present. It discusses plagiarism, among other things.

Hope everyone's well. I'll try to skim back through the past 3 months or so on this planning week before the next term starts-- I should have more time as I've taught these classes a time or two now and know what to expect. May even have some time to write, or at least apply beta comments on No Malicious Haunting, something I've been doing in my head the past month or so.
( FAQs for Hobgoblinn's Classes )

Greetings, friends, and apologies for the long silence. I am in week 11 of my first 12 week term, and final exams are next week. I have got through this first venture into teaching fairly unscathed. As one might imagine, the administrative nonsense trumps anything my students can do. Most of the fainthearted have already been dropped for extreme lack of attendance, and are therefore no longer my problem. Except there's this silly little instructor retention percentage to contend with and meetings with said administration to find ways of boosting student retention. Sigh.

But enough of that. I have exams to write. I discovered a great book by Douglas Cazort called Under the Grammar Hammer, and I have presented it in my Developmental and Business English classes using this handout (apologies for the link to the blog-- the handout is a pdf and I wasn't sure how to attach it to my own journal.)

At any rate, if anyone still remembers me fondly and feels inclined to butcher some English in a good cause, I am finding it harder than it looks to deliberately commit particular grammatical sins. It's even harder to commit sins obvious enough for my students to pick up which rule is being broken. If you think you have what it takes, please reply to this post.

Also, If anyone has a good web resource for generating sentences that can be stolen for exams with impunity, I'd love to hear about that, as well. I had a most uncomfortable discussion with a student about plagiarism recently, but I still caught myself contemplating stealing practice sentences later the same day. Funnily enough, the Cincinnati Enquirer often has ready made mangled sentences there for the taking.

Hope everyone is well. I'll check in again in about a week and a half. Love to all.

(ps-- things with my Beloved are still going quite well.)

Update: I've decided to try to write sentences on how hard it is to write bad sentences, and what my high school English teacher, god rest her soul,'s reaction would have been. Kind of a narrative, using the different rules. I'll put it all out, behind a friends lock when I get done....

Just a quick note in response to a nudge from lady_clover. Has it really been only 2 weeks? Not years, or centuries?

( The State of the hobgoblinn address. Since someone asked. )

Just a quick drive by to say "Happy Christmas" to all, and that mine is so far going great. Studying for my new job, house hunting with my Beloved, and just being able to spend so much time with him and Wee Hob has really been lovely.

But I had promised repeatedly that I would get the Sequel to Lost Boys posted by Christmas, and I think the first 12 chapters or so are in good enough shape to justify beginning to post it. I will try to get more up during the next week or so, but chapter 1 is up now. Thanks to sahiya and research_girl ages ago for reading through what I had and offering suggestions a very long while back. If I rushed a little bit now not rereading those and applying more of them, I hope they and you will forgive me.

In Loco Parentis is still in the works, and gillo has my next section of my Summer of Giles story in her capable beta hands. Thanks to everyone for kind words, encouragement and feedback on all my work. It means a lot when people take the time. Hope you enjoy this short intro to the new story.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4737639/1/

( Writing Update first )
( Life and Employment )
I've tried to keep up with everybody, but I have to admit I don't check my F list every day, and I have been doing some selective skipping and skimming. Sorry for that. At least over the next week I'll try to do better. Then my Beloved will be here for two weeks, and all bets are off.

I finally got around tonight to applying beta feedback to the 11th chapter of In Loco Parentis. For anyone who's following it, you can find it here. Comments, as always, are welcome. Special thanks to Betina and Whitehound for taking up the beta mantle, and thanks again to research_girl and sahiya for their invaluable guidance on earlier segments.

( Bad news )

( Better news )
( Good news )
( writing news )
Happy Thanksgiving to all who observe it, and happy next week to everyone else. I'm tired, but I'll be okay.