group dynamics: October 2005 Archives

This ambidextrous thing is working to my favor. Marcello did beat me the first game, and I haven't topped my highest score ever yet, but I suspect there really is some neurophysical rewiring taking place. Revan and Christiano did the random thing, and LB tied his first game (instead of losing by a pin). Luscious rolled three strikes in a row! I wasn't a witness though, so I'm not sure it counts. Kinda like Lava's (purported) 198 game the week I missed...

Of course there's no serious competition that takes place here, unless it's between my fetishization of The President and the performance of the game itself.

Went to a presentation by homeboy, then had dinner with "homegirl" last night. Both were awesome (and duly labeled by the Little Bro).

These attached documents for emergency planning were sent out by Eric to the social justice listserv. The authors, Nell Myhand and Daphne Muse specifically address disenfranchised communities. Nell discusses her involvement in y2k prevention planning, which was also my entre into the entire combined civic/governmental field of emergency planning. There are extensive and impressive plans in place that will inevitably be woefully inadequate should disaster strike. Some of the lapses will be institutional for various reasons, and others will be personal as individuals fail to cope with intersubjective, relational, and interactional challenges. Regardless of how lucky or privileged you've been, preparedness is something that behooves us all.

Is this philosopher the same guy I've read about in group relations theory? If so, seems like it was quite an offshoot, although some of his work indicates a lean in that direction. For instance, "The Well-Informed Citizen", which is about knowledge as a function of practical experience, and other papers on issues of social justice, such as "Equality and the Meaning Structure of the Social World".

I'll have to do some hunting... I may be confusing him with William C. or some other Schutz. Here's a lead on group development theorizing from 2001.

The Moan and Dove provided a suitable backdrop for a gathering of CommGrads to kvetch and celebrate. Whether or not curriculum needs more structure, and musings about the spring conference ... who will submit proposals? Who might agree to invest labor?

There was also random gossip about someone sleeping with a band, orienting to who's in which cohort, anecdotes about teaching, comparison of living situations, and various tastings: wheat wine, stone arrogant bastard, pabst (how anyone could drink in pabst in a beer hall with a couple dozen other choices is beyond me!), water (yes, we have diversity!), among others. Mostly, there was a lot of laughter. Who else but grad students could juxtapose baby pig races with the carnivalesque?

Simply could not hang in there for salsa after we closed the bowling alley Tuesday. Improved my left-handed game despite hitting the gutter five times in a row (there was speculation I was distracted by Geena).

My right-handed game improved too, as I tied my highest score ever, beating Little Brother by one whole pin! :-) He smoked me in the last game though (did someone say, "motivation"?)

Todd can't get his own info (!) posted to the new Comm Grad website (which is fantabulous), but he did send info on this excellent source for Metadata about Media Activism.

David, Nora, and Anna arrived first. It was perfect timing for me as I got to hold the wee one for a looooong time. I can hardly wait until she's old enough to explain the Egyptian hieroglyphs on my housewarming present. :-) There was some concern about the chewable toy I found for her, but she did no damage. Hunju (!) took care of that later, "confessing" her "crime" after the last five guests rose in unison to leave. That was quite a visual moment - such orchestration! Perhaps Sreela cued them from behind me?

Luscious said I won if I got more than 50, then he decided I got second place. I didn't do too badly with the ambidextrous attempt! Someone, however, did not live up to the rumors of a near 200 pin game last week, but it's possible my presence is a jinx. At least he beat my best score ever! Don worked on physics in between turns, while most everyone else just cheered each other on. There was an exciting moment when 4 strikes went down with 4 successive folk, the next roll was a 9 that toppled but wouldn't go down. *sigh*

I learned the rationale for the odd lanes. It's psychological. I should have guessed! Btw, that lucky guy from a few weeks ago? He's getting better. :-)

and then there was salsa at the Iron Horse. Not a bad night, eh?

A very fitting title and theme for the upcoming conference hosted by graduate students in the Communication Department here at UMass.

I read two different accounts of "Intersubjectivity in an organic pub", In Johnnie's (the first one), there was a link to the second one, David's, which led me to The Collaboratino Cafe.

Yesterday, Todd added #2, Annabelle Claire, to go along with #1, Sam.