I'm a trapeze artist

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cwdaniels: heading out to school, class at 1 (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: wish i had a costume to put on. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: getting ready to convert my bike into a fixed gear beauty - pretty excited. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: twitterific is working pretty weird with leopard right now (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: Major Dickason — http://tinyurl.com/228ce3 (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: made some major dickenson’s blend for my morning libations (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: making some eggs, rye toast and coffee for breakfast (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: Reading Newbigin’s “Sign’s Amid the Rubble.” (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: Reading Newbigin’s “Sign’s Amid the Rubble.” (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: oh and listening to lynyrd skynyrd (why such a weird spelling?) (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: eating a mushroom and cheese omlet (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: just woke up, i’m reading for whatever the world throws at me today! (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

I was just emailed by a friend (and fellow Fuller student) who asked me to name my top two or three writing mistakes I see while grading papers and what can be done about it. He’s doing a speech on the topic and wanted to get some feedback from other teacher’s assistants. Here are my three and I am wondering if anyone else has anything they’d like to add?

First, I can’t over stress the importance of academic writing while in grad school, with the dawning of the internet, blogging, and instant messaging, it is very easy to slip in to casual-writing-mode for final papers. Avoid this at all cost by writing a really strong thesis, making and framing your arguments well, using headings and sub-headings, avoiding flowery and unnecessary verbiage, and jamming your footnotes full of academic jargon helps to show you are someone who apparently knows what they are talking about.

Second, I would say you can’t spend too much time on mechanics, other than of course spending so much time that you never turn the paper in. But I have seen many papers that have never been edited, hardly had the spelling checked, and seemed to be missing some of the basic uses of grammar necessary for a strong paper. If you’re not a strong writer like me, then find someone who will help you edit your paper, fortunately I am married to an English teacher. But, there are many starving students who will do just about anything for a Spudaritto at Rick’s.

Third, writing should be fun, and the papers you write for your class should be focused on something that interests you. Here creativity comes in handy, you will sometimes need to be very creative in the way you spin the paper topic in order to keep it interesting, but trust me it can be done. I have been interested in Quaker history and theology since I left undergrad and while I was working on my MA at Fuller I literally wrote something about Quakers in every single paper of mine except for one. Sure, sometimes it was a stretch to fit George Fox into my Hebrew intensive but it’s always worth a shot! Professors and TA’s love that to see you engage the material in a creative way, it not only helped the paper stand out but in the process you will learn how to apply useable content to any number of academic questions and concerns.

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Also related to grammar is the use of quotation marks, you’ll definitely want to check out this website for some tips on what not to do.

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(via gathering | inlight.com)

cwdaniels: back in class - church in mission (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: finished that. enough for today. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

Yesterday turned out to be a great day. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes either through this blog, email, facebook, regular mail or those who met us in person along the journey yesterday. In short, I was successful in having a “perfect” day.

Here’s a few highlights from the day:

• French toast, eggs, oranges and juice for breakfast.
• Went to Peet’s where I drank a latte, and journaled and read the owner’s manual to our new Honda Fit (something I’ve yet too mention here)!
• For lunch we ate grilled cheese sandwiches, with pickles and salt and pepper chips.
• Hung out at the red lion with some good friends.
• Went to Amoeba and got three cd’s Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Love and Hate, The Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack, and Led Zepplin IV.
• We finished the night off at Canters with a Turkey Rueben, and more pickles!

What made it so special really, was just getting to go to some of my favorite places throughout the day and see friends. And I got a lot of fun pictures as well.

I originally got the idea to have a perfect (brith)day from a friend back when we used to live in Canton Ohio. He attempted his own perfect day about 5 years ago and invited us to go a long with him for the ride. Why I remember it is because just about everything he planned to do didn’t work out for one reason or another, which made the whole thing (in my memory) hilarious. One thing after another didn’t seem to work as planned which just kept us laughing the whole time. For instance, he saved up money and had an extensive list of rare music to get at this really great record shop in west Cleveland but when we got there (about 1 in the afternoon) we saw a sign on the door that said “closed for the rest of the day for a staff meeting.” We couldn’t believe it, they had literally closed a halfway through the day. I think it was part of the hype of the day that made all the little mishaps all the more hilarious and such a great story to tell afterwards. So with that story in mind that’s why I set out to do my own. Anyways, the whole thing was really fun and nothing to tragic happened at all, so other than having the story to say I attempted the perfect day there’s not much left to tell!

But it does bring up the question, what constitutes a perfect day and have you ever had one?

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cwdaniels: doing a short blog post. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: quite happy with the way the day turned out. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: back from all our ramblings around town, had a blast doing all of it. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: Making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @KristenJohnson - thanks! (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: heading to peets coffee — think i’m getting a latte. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @Kenneth Thanks! Having fun so far. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: Emily made some amazing (America’s Test Kitchen) french toast and scrambled eggs for b-fast. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: starting the perfect (birth)day! http://tinyurl.com/yobtx8 (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: playing with leopard (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: heading out to pick up the big cat. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: back to working on hauerwas. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @iamjoshbrown thanks Josh - you get a hat tip this week too! (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

Tomorrow is my 29th birthday, and while I hope to do a little post about the whole thing, I wanted to give a heads up now. I am attempting to have the perfect day. That’s right! Some have suggested it can’t be done, I am setting out to prove them all wrong! Or at least have a few laughs in the process. Emily and I have compiled a little itinerary for the day full of all my favorite things from foods, to bikes, music stores, drinks, and 2nd hand clothing shops.

• In the morning I’ll be riding my bike down to Peets and will probably order a Latte.
• Later in the afternoon we will be meeting some Friends at the Red Lion (a classic German pub in Silverlake).
• Then we’ll be off to Amoeba and the Buffalo Exchange.
• And we’ll end up at Canters, LA’s best Jewish deli, where I plan on getting a Turkey Rueben.

We’ve have some set times (some say the times are too restrictive) so friends can meet us at the different places or join us for the whole thing. Also, during the day I will update my twitter when I can so if you want to watch there be my guest! There will be plenty of pictures on flickr as well.

And on another note: I know there are a few of you who really want this and there are some of you who will think this is silly [Hat tip to Josh].

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cwdaniels: working on dress down friday (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: backing up macbook - getting ready for a fresh install (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: Going to bed with the expectation that the next two days are going to be a lot of fun. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: leopard shipped - should be here tomorrow since i’m in LA (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: just got my new headphones in - Shure SCL3s (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: back to reading. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @iamjoshbrown new design looks great (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: just went to local bike shop, seriously thinking of turning my bike into a fixed gear. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: off to peets - trying to plow through hauerwas’ “with a grain of the universe.” his gifford lectures on natural theology. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @KristenJohnson haha - yeah sounds like he could work on his arguments, especially if he’s actually against it! (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @KristenJohnson what shank? and what book? (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: photos of gorillapod http://www.flickr.com/photos/prh/ (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @all - loving the gorillapod - seriously it’s not only really cool looking but works really well. My camera is hanging upside down! (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: The fires are still going crazy but not close to Pasadena at all. http://tinyurl.com/224al2,-117.718506&spn=1.082482,2.103882&z=9 (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: woohoo - just sold our old car. back down to a one car family!!! (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: just cancelled our car insurance! saving money. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: in class, talking about race as it pertains to postcolonialism (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: @sdlatham - looking to see if i have the song. (via Twitter / cwdaniels)

cwdaniels: Joby just arrived - birthday present #1 here. http://www.joby.com/products/gorillapod/original/ (via Twitter / cwdaniels)