Sad news... the Entourage eDGe has been discontinued :-(

The Entourage eDGe, may she rest in peace :-(

Many have seen me using my eDGe in class and have heard me talk about her amazing features. Honestly, I think the eDGe has to be one of the greatest devices created for academics, so you can imagine my dismay when I went to their website today and discovered that the Entourage eDGe is no more!!!

Reviewers are talking about how having both an eInk reader screen and an Android powered LCD made it too heavy and too expensive. I have to disagree completely. Devices, like the IPAD for example, may be lighter weight, but they are much more costly and are not nearly as functional as the eDGe. The eDGe allows me to read pdf and epub files and annotate them with a stylus. I can then re-save the file in pdf form with my annotations. And that's just the reader functions! There's also the note pad, not to mention android applications, Docs to Go, audio recorder and a lot more!

I just can't imagine not having mine and I think it's a real loss that they've been discontinued. I just hope someone in the near future picks up where they left off and advertises better! I think this reflects on our society's priorities... we have all these gadgets that are so expensive and yet do great because they cater to our obsessive need for entertainment. Meanwhile, a device that caters to the academic fails. Oh well, I guess I'm just glad I have mine. Still a sad day in my book... :-(

Vacuum Storage Bags

Today I did some packing. Well, technically I was re-packing. I had already tried to pack up all but a few outfits for the summer, but I ran out of space. So I ordered some of those storage bags that you use a vacuum to suck out all the air. So today I re-packed my clothes using the vacuum bags and eliminated an entire suitcase! Yay for small victories!

On an entirely different note, I did some more work on my Spanish I lesson plans. Again, wow is this time consuming! I've got the vocab lists for the entire course, worksheets and quizzes for my first unit written, as well as the directions and rubric for their family tree project. So many small details to attend to. I was freaking out, but then my friend, who just got a job teaching with the program this summer as well, texted me. He was freaking out too - so I feel a little better. Apparently my panic is well-founded. :-)

Wrapped up my day babysitting the most adorable 18 month-old little girl in the world. Her parents went to dinner and I worked on lesson plans while watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer (she was asleep already). Fabulous end to a pretty productive day!

I got a job! Yay!?!?

Trying to find a solution to my lack of funds for moving - I applied for a job teaching this summer. Last week I found out that I've been given three classes and I was thrilled. After today, however, I'm questioning how well this is going to work out. I spent most my day preparing my Spanish class materials. I wrote my syllabus (including agenda and grading scale). I threw in the towel while working on my vocab lists.

I need the money and I really do love teaching, so I'm not about to give up, but seriously... I never dreamed this planning would take me so long! I mean who'd have thought that putting together an agenda and the materials for a class that meets 4 hours a week for 6 weeks would be so difficult? To be fair, I think this is more difficult than a normal high school situation. I've been told here's your class title, teach what you want. No textbook. No objectives. No expectations. The freedom is great, but maybe just a little bit crippling. It's exciting though, and ultimately I'm a nerd so (complaining about the work aside) most of me is loving this.

I've never written a blog before...

This has been by far one of the most interesting, surprising years of excitement in my life and it's only going to get crazier! So at the request of several of my friends, I'm going to keep a blog of my journey. Hopefully I don't suck at blog writing - but I've never tried it nor have I ever really followed anyone else's blog - so it could be a complete disaster. With the disclaimer out of the way let me fill in some background....

I am the first one in my family to attempt college (I just graduated with a BA in History and a BA in English May 15th!!!) - and about a 1 1/2 ago I decided that I was going to go all the way and earn my PhD. This was a really scary decision for me because I had no idea if I could compete to get into good schools. And even if I got in - I didn't know if they would give me funding. Without funding there was no way that I could afford to go. But I decided to go for it and this spring it paid off. I was accepted into 11 graduate programs, 9 of which gave me full scholarships plus living stipends. Starting in January I was getting emails, letters, and phone calls from top programs all over the country and they were recruiting ME! I spent the better part of two months traveling around the country and on phone calls with some of the greatest scholars in my field (which is late medieval/early modern gender history if you were wondering). It was like my very own Cinderella story (thankfully without the glass slippers and awkward ball gown). It even ended with a very teary graduation and Channel 8 news doing a story about me just a couple weeks ago (talk about unreal! Here's a link to the WFAA News Story!)

Finally I decided on Washington University in St. Louis, where I will be funded for 8 years, and I will be studying with Dr. Daniel Bornstein. I won their Chancellor's Fellowship, which includes an unheard of living stipend and a great community of Fellows. I couldn't be more excited to move to St. Louis and start the next chapter of my life. And that brings us to my current situation - which includes a couple huge problems to get past this summer:

1. I can't actually afford to move and the money doesn't start until the end of August
2. I own my place and need to figure out what the hell I'm doing with it

I'm sure in retrospect they will seem like minor problems, but at the moment they are terrifying (doesn't being broke blow?). Anyway stay tuned - I'll be checking in throughout the summer to update everyone.