Beta Testing and Preparing for your Thesis/Dissertation Defense

The connection between the title topics is tenuous.

I have been talked into trying out a new blog-like platform that turns emails into blog posts. I don't really email all that much, but I like blogs, so I agreed. So far I think this has huge potential for teachers, but I have not yet had the opportunity to try it with a class. I just created my account today and made one post. Since I kind of like the post, I thought I would share it here.

The post is a brief conversation I had with a master student about preparing for their thesis defense, and you can find it at FWD:Everyone, under the title FB Convo on Defense. The tl;dr version: you are not alone, anxiety is normal, you'll be fine, and everyone feels like this. This is then followed by a general idea of what to expect the day of and what to do the day before.

Although I will be testing out FWD, it will not be replacing this blog. When certain topics overlap, however (like the linked conversation above) I may link posts from there to here.

Now its time to get back over to NerdCultures and get those posts graded.

Thank-You Facebook - Taiwan's Tragedy and A Traveler's Piece of Mind

Before dawn on February 6th of this year a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern Taiwan. Reports of deaths started coming almost immediately, albeit slowly at first. Then I heard that an apartment building had collapsed. Later, the death toll would come to 117. I was in shock. Here in Wisconsin it was late afternoon. Less than 2 hours after the earthquake hit my phone started blowing up. My friends, thankfully, were checking in.