Fulbright Evaluations

For a number of years now, the Hungarian Fulbright Commission has asked me to be an evaluator for applications for those Hungarian hopefuls who wish to go to the US to study, lecture or research.


Each application is reviewed and scrutinized by one American and one Hungarian reviewer whenever possible. Generally, in the past, the request comes in at the very end of the spring semester, one of the worst possible times to fit in yet another activity, but I have never said no. Not only do I enjoy it, they pay me besides.


This year, it seemed that they had forgotten me, at least until a couple of days ago when I received the call to action. They had 8 proposals that needed to be examined. All were in the field of literature, not my area, per se, but I am able to muddle through with some Internet research where needed to fill in my information deficits. 


Basically, I examined two categories: Lecturer/Research all those from here with a doctorate already and those who are applying for student status. Ninety percent of the time, I can say that the Lecturer/Research proposals leave me feeling like a total underachiever, waste of professional life slug. The list of publications, conference lectures and other professional activities makes my head spin. My only consolation is that they have access to the foundation research, which is in Hungarian. I don't have access to databases in English.


Then again, I do justify my sloth with the fact that I try to put the majority of my energy into the classroom and working one on one with students. This leaves less time and much less energy to pursue tracking down professional resources as the foundation for further research followed by writing and publishing. That is my justification and I am sticking to it. 


For those outside or within the US, I highly recommend you check out the Fulbright Commission Scholarship program, but clicking here. To learn more of its history, you can check out this article.

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Luck of the Irish and Some Foot Stomping

After thinking about having a summer vacation last year, the long "To Do" list this summer with fall teaching immediately following, I had to put my foot down. There had to be some R & R (rest and relaxation) for R & R (Ryan and Ron). R the elder is doing his annual trek to Denver and a little town in Iowa that no one has heard of outside of Cedar Rapids. Though he is visiting family, he does claim there are fun times involved. Personally, I love his family, but there is no family in the world I could handle for longer than 3 days including the days of arrival and departure. 


Having been a staunch supporter of equal rights for decades, I demanded petitioned and then threatened to have a fun time this summer also. Foot firmly planted after putting my foot down, we booked a week in Dublin for August. Hunting for a cheap airfare is like looking for an udder on a bull, but we finally found one. The key is being flexible with dates, but we had to fit it in between guests coming and going.


The last time and only time we were in Dublin was 2001. We loved it then, taking some side trips to Tara and other locales. Then we also spent a week in Galway, equally enchanting. Other day trips are on the list this time. I am not mailing anything this go around. The last time, I mailed myself souvenirs I did not want to carry, but they never arrived. 


Dublin, making the thought of the summer vacation ending, bearable. 

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Sunny Skies

Today is the first day in weeks that we have not had any rain within a 24 hour period. For a few days, I thought we would have to move to England just to see the sun shining more often.

With that dose of vitamin D pouring from the sun's rays, I was inspired to meet with a web designer to arrange the new site. This was the suggestion of a former student; they were once co-workers. The designer suggested something I had known about, but had never considered. Use WordPress for the website. I was under the impression it was only for blogs; therefore, it was off of my radar.

With this information, a search of templates produced an ideal one that I can modify with metaphor and create something unique, while still being professional. Following the tutorial, I was able to load WordPress into my domain, but the template failed repeatedly. Back to the hurry up and wait stage, I had to send a note to the designer telling him there was a page missing. He wrote me back with a different download link; the result was the same. After some back and forth name calling and rooting around, I found the defective files to delete them, trying from the beginning. It worked! One less book to order for now.

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Underground News

Having quit just in time, the Budapest city council has officiated a ban on smoking in all of Budapest's underpasses from July 18, 2010. Those caught could be fined up to Ft 30,000.Of course whether or not anyone will uphold the law to impose the fine or bother collecting it will be up for grabs. What has always amused me was that you were able to smoke in the underground up to the line where the metro area was designated. That was off limits. 

In other underground news, it seems that the elevators that were used in Metro 2 construction had a MADE IN CHINA label attached with a Made in Germany sticker covering it up. The problem is that the funds for the reconstruction were from EU pots of gold, where the law clearly states all products must be EU constructed. Ooopah!

Back in the sunshine or rather cloudy skies above, here is one article that makes some sense Let us count the 14 ways the new government could revitalize Budapest from Realdeal.hu. The key word being could, not will, but more like not going to happen.

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High School Pranks

When I was in high school, we would never have thought about a senior graduating prank, but then again, my senior class numbered 51 students. 

Somehow, I came across this story. I just love the creativity the students used and from the looks of it, there had to be a great deal of teamwork involved, not to mention the collection of allowances to afford all of these Post-A-Notes.

Check this out: Awesome Class of 2010 Senior Post-It Prank

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Expressions Dreamweaver Caught in the Web

As I have mentioned, I bought the domains ryanjames.org, drryanjames.com, and drryanjames.net. All three will feed into one site seamlessly, so roads will lead to me. If and when that songbird Ryan James ever gets laryngitis and quits singing, I will grab ryanjames.com too. Don't point your browser at any of these domains just yet; they are no functional.  

I had four things on my list of things to do this summer.

1. Create a website for the above domains

2. Open up Print on Demand stores with the best of my best travel photos

3. Write a memoir

4. Amass a fortune to become filthy rich, but I will settle for abundantly dirty rich

Hitting a few roadblocks has put me behind schedule. I had intended to have my website done by the first of June. Being that I created our B and B website myself and maintain it, I am not working from nothing here. The glitch is that the new site needs more bells and whistles than the other, so the program I used is no longer any good. Newer Internet technology has new bells and whistles too: CSS, aspx, asp.net, Grrrrr.  The upgraded version is now called Expressions, but you need to make sure you are watching videos for the version you happen to have. Being an entirely different program, watching a series of six tutorial videos still left me in the dark. 

Google, Google, Google... Expressions is yesterday's news, no longer de rigueur and possibly a waste of time as too may not support all of the wonderful things I need. But who knows, because after six tutorials, each watched six times, I realized they were building a graphics heavy site that was not going to do me any good. All of the layers and div boxes were making me confused, plus I could not get my floating box layers to go side by side like they were supposed to.

Google, Google, Google...Dreamweaver is the number one choice of 9 out of 10 graphic artists. Download the trial of CS4, skipping over the CS5 version. Watched two videos, had a breakdown, came dangerously close to physically harming Ron who innocently came to interrupt me with a question. What followed was I threw the computer out of the fourth floor (5th floor US) window, placed an ad for a tutor.
 
As John Dewey said, "We do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience."


Reflecting on these experiences, I have come to realize that the web does entice us like the fly for the spider where once trapped, we fight for Expression, but only find a Dreamweaver.

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Blogging Rules 1 and 2

The first two rules you learn in blogging is

1.) to post regularly to maintain your readers' interest.

2.) never break rule number 1.

Though it seems like forever since I wrote last, it hasn't been that long. What I have been doing in the meanwhile is trying to scrape the mold  off of my body. With the exception of one day, it has rained here every day since May 10th. Some days it rained all day, but few. Most days it rained for an hour or two with dark bloated "I am going to get you" clouds still lurking  above ready to pounce upon us with more water. 

The good news is that I lucked out with the State Exams. My days of confinement have whittled down from seven to four. The first of the series is out of the way and it took less than half a day. Yowzer! June 2 did not include me, but I was uncertain. Due to a typo, I was exonerated from June 9, they decided they did not need me on June 16, so that only leave BA State Exams on June 23 and 25th. Well, I do have a doctoral dissertation defense I need to attend on June 7th, being made part of the committee without my raising my hand to volunteer. They needed to fill a minority quota and I was it. I believe I am the ONLY US native speaker with a doctorate in the entire university. Being the largest university in Central Europe and one that offers 68 Masters degrees, this is quite something. I would venture to guess that the number of native English speakers of any nationality with a doctorate, within our university system, would still be few enough to stuff all of us into a phone booth and still have room left over to dial home.

As I said, I was uncertain about today. I had filled the exam dates on multiple calendars. One of the calendars has all of the dates for exams. Other calendars had some of the dates, but no remarks. Then dates were added and deleted, causing much consternation and confusion as when I needed to be where. To avoid mental conflict, I went into school this morning, found my name was no on any committee, but went to my office to work.


I spent from 8:45 am to 3:30 pm working on my classes for the fall. The first day of classes for me is September 14th, yet here I am in June working on the course syllabi and schedules, finding new and hopefully better books, and so on. This is because I have such a hefty "To Do" list for this summer, mostly work filled and not necessarily fun in the fashionable sense of the word, that time is too precious to waste. Three of my classes are no squared away, checked off of the list. One is almost complete, but I am changing books, so need to read it again for scheduling. Then I am teaching a new masters level course Social Problems in the US. After ordering six books for that class to decide which to use, I had them send to a friend who consults here often to bring back from the US. What slipped my mind was that she was married in March, so though I had the books shipped to her home, she had been at her husband's home, 150 miles away. Now those books will not be arriving until August when she returns again. The joys of teaching out of your own country.


Speaking of books, Frommer's owes me 10 copies of my own book. They contacted me for shipping info, but it turns out that they will ship them from jolly ole England, where they have not been printed yet. That puts me on hold. It would seem reasonable they could spend a few extra to ship from the US, where it has been out for weeks now. We have received five phone calls for bookings from the US. Strangely, they prefer that to e-mail or even using our Jajah free call button on the website. Go figure.

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Yes, Virgina There is Freedom of Speech, Now Shut Up and Keep Your Views to Yourself

A tantalizing article arrived in my e-mail from of all places Congress.org, the newsletter that gives us a little view of what our representatives are up to and what mischief they are causing. This particular article is about a teacher, who was fired for expressing his views about the teabaggers. 

Interestingly, the article it points to is Fox News, so you can read the first paragraph "An Oregon teacher who announced his intention to "dismantle and demolish the Tea Party" has been placed on administrative leave until his school district finishes its investigation into whether his political activity crossed the line." To continue reading, click on dismantle and demolish.

So let me understand this, teachers are supposed to teach about freedom of speech, but when they express it on their own time, they can be sanctioned? "The First Amendment requires the government to protect free speech, but state laws determine how private employers can treat their workers." What a wonderful example of democracy we are modeling for all children. Why bother with the amendment then, if we are all watching our Ps and Qs at work. It does give positive credence for self-employment.

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A Week in Review

This week has sped by, so here is a review of the highlights. Our property manager notified me that the real estate agent they work with found tenants for our condo. The only hurdle is that they have to pass the credit inspection of the HOA (Home Owner's Association). The property management company has already cleared them. If the HOA is satisfied, they will move in on June 1st. Like Rumpelstiltskin, we had to promise our first born, ah, rent check to the property manager, so we do not receive anything until July. Keep those fingers crossed.

The thesis grading nightmare has not ended. I had four BA theses to read and grade, but I just finished them today. The first round of State Exams will be this Wednesday. Hopefully, that "I really am on summer break" feeling will kick in before July 1st. Though with almost weekly State Exams on Wednesdays, through June 23 and extras on the 25th, it just may be at bay. 

What I intend to do on my summer vacation, by Ryan James. 


I plan to sort through my photos and find the best the best from the last 17 years. I have found print on demand companies on the Internet where one can create a "store" to sell merchandise from greeting cards to sweatshirts with everything in between on a per order basis. 

Another goal, or as my students love to say, an aim is to create a new website. I have bought the domains www.ryanjames.org, www.drryanjames.com, and drryanjames.net because I am going to get serious about starting a Life Coaching business with specific specializations. Don't waste your time  checking the domains now, there is nothing there. When they are up and running, you will be informed. I really wanted ryanjames.com, or ryanjames.net, but some singer has the .com domain, while some strange little characters that look like they have been kidnapped from South Park are on the .net domain.

In the meanwhile, to keep myself off of the streets, I have been playing around with freebie websites. Here are the ones I have created. 

Dr James Thesis Advising - This has all of the MLA and writing tips. I was tired of repeating it a million times. 

ElTE Journals - Spotlighting my budding writers, they have some of their work here. Good, bad, and indifferent, that is what writing is about, the process. 

Dr James Writing Program - Being the coordinator of this program, having all of my class information and program requirements in one place made sense to me. One stop shopping for students. 

Social Problems MA Class - This is for new class I will be teaching in the MA program come fall. I have not done much more with this site other than create it. The text books I ordered are sitting in Texas, waiting to come here. 

Dr Ryan James - In my travel writer's group, one of the organizers claims there is no such thing as having your name all over the Internet. This is really just a place for me to store things that I will reflect on when I retire. But, it draws attention, so be it.  

BudaBaB - Using the wisdom of more is better for page ranking, I created this supplementary site just to send more people our way. 

BudaBaB Wish Lists - As the name infers, this is where I just humble myself and say, "Hey, if I have helped you with my website and you did not stay with us, here are things I would love to have as a token of your appreciation." I think I did it in a genteel manner.

I have these websites down cold now. I should offer to design websites for people in exchange for books. Any takers?

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Book Launch South Africa

It thrills me to forward to all of you the invitation we received by our very dear friend Patricia Schonstein, a magnificently talented writer. We had the pleasure of meeting Patricia and her equally talented author husband, Don Pinnock in 2005 when we rented their self-catering apartment in Cape Town. It was friendship at first site and we have been friends since both here and there again.

LAUNCH INVITATION
Thursday 27 May 2010
5.30-6pm  
The Book Lounge Roeland Street Cape Town

Patricia Schonstein: Banquet at Brabazan

We are delighted to be launching the new novel from local novelist, Patricia Schonstein.

In Banquet at Brabazan, she takes us to the heart of Cape Town’s violent inner city, creating a cornucopia of events featuring superb food, romance, a cappella, an angel, Shakespearean drama, reflections on South Africa’s war in Angola, drug-money, a multi murder, visions of the Afterlife and various works of fine art with flashbacks to the wondrous A Time of Angels.

The novel is rich with her characteristic use of fabric, fine-art, poetry and magic as well as her deep and philosophical questioning of the human condition.

At core, Banquet at Brabazan is the story of an enduring, secret love affair between a boss and his secretary who create a fantastical, magical, theatrical, costumed, Italianate life for themselves within the confines of her apartment.

Outside of that contrived space, exists the real world of loneliness, xenophobia and crime that have come to mark post-apartheid South Africa.

Patricia Schonstein deftly leads us through both worlds, allowing the lives of a small group of people, who have not met before, to intersect over a period of ten days at Brabazan Bar & Lodge, in Long Street, Cape Town. Here she reveals a poignant and beautiful patina of hope and love. 

With this, her sixth novel, Patricia affirms herself as one of South Africa’s leading authors and a master of magic-realism.
Patricia will be in discussion with Hugh Hodge, the editor of New Contrast .

RSVP  The Book Lounge, booklounge@gmail.com,
 021 462 2425.

Also by Patricia and available through Amazon:

A Quilt of Dreams: A Novel

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Getting to the Root of the Matter

Getting to the root of the matter really has  multiple meanings today. For the last week, we have had rain on a daily basis. A few days, the rain would fall for a few hours, while other days, the entire day was a drencher. The day before yesterday and yesterday as well, the winds have been particularly fierce feeling closer to hurricane weather than spring. 

Reports stated that the unusually stormy winds were gusting at 100-110 km per hour (62-68 miles per hr) in many parts of the country, including Budapest. Although it has not hindered take offs and landings at the Ferihegy airport thus far, but the volcanic ash from Iceland has been the root cause of many flights being canceled in the UK, Germany, and France.

Today was a dental appointment on Margaret Island, where all of those ahead of my 10am appointment were late due tot the weather, though I who needed to take the tram, a metro, and then a bus to get there due to bridge construction, made it on time. When dentist finally made it to me, she rooted around in my mouth. Afterward, we discussed the ill fate of my roots.

When I returned to the bus stop to come home, this poor tree was dealing with its own root of the matter.

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My Nephew Graduates

It seems that my nephew graduated yesterday. The only reason I know this is because I happened to sign into FaceBook to shamelessly promote my book. I don't receive royalties, but I do like to know it is being sold and purchased. Oh, yea, my nephew.

He graduated Cum Laude with a degree is ? I think it was psychology, but I am not certain. During his four years of college, I think we may have communicated maybe 6 times, but I could be exaggerating the number. When he graduated high school, no one had told me, so this was no surprise. To be fair, I have to say that my brother did mention it would be this May back at the beginning of April in a FaceBook note to me personally. Since my nephew, Kevin was in high school, we have offered to fly he and his younger brother, Paul over for a visit. They never took us up on the offer. I guess we are not what you would call close.

That horny gene comes from my father's side of the family. We had hoped my brother would have had them clipped while Kevin was still a baby, but he didn't. What can you do other than suggest and hope?

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My Book is Out If You Can Find It

It looks like Amazon.com is sinking on my list of favorite sites. First my editor told me that the publisher had to manually enter the release date into Amazon.com for my book, because it defaulted to the UK release date. Now, when I search Amazon for either Frommer's Budapest and the Best of Hungary or the title without Frommer's, the page with the 7th edition appears. To find the current 8th edition, you either have to be intuitive enough to click "other editions" or specifically type in 8th in the search box. If you want to find it, click here.

If you go to Barnes and Noble online here, and type in Ryan James in the search box, you will find Frommer's Europe and Frommer's Eastern Europe, two books for which I wrote the Hungary chapters followed by a boxed set of Tales from the Crypt, but nary a fully authored Budapest book. Why the Tales...is there, I have no idea, but it would make a great title for my memoirs. To find my most current book, you have to type in Frommer's Budapest, but they too are showing the UK publication date as you can see here. 

Of course, you can order it directly from Frommer's. Click here. Getting it locally will save you shipping charges, but if they don't have it on the shelves yet, here is the ISBN number: ISBN-13: 9780470551264

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Árpád had this comment and question:

"This is interesting, but I am curious how Google Docs deals with MS Word’s headers. When I upload a file that contains the standard MLA page numbers in the header, Google Docs only displays the last number (at the very beginning of the document) because a Docs document is one continuous page. Have you found a solution for this problem?"

Google has been aware of this issue being a problem, but since there is no license between Google and Microsoft, the choices are limited. If you want to save a document that no longer needs editing, you can save it in Word as a PDF file and upload it to Docs that way. It will keep all of its formatting. When I edit student work where I want them to see the changes, but I don't want them to be able to click on "Accept all changes", I put it in PDF format before e-mailing it back to them.

If you want to collaborate on a document, it has to be in Google Docs format. In this way, collaborate on the document, complete it, download it, and then format it as needed. Save one copy as a PDF and upload it for safe storage. There are programs that will convert from PDF back to Word.

If you are not planning on collaborating on a document, supposedly, by not converting it to Google Docs format it is supposed to keep its Word style. You have to uncheck the box shown here where is states "Convert documents...to the corresponding Google Docs formats".

According to their website, OffiSync Premium for a $30 Lifetime license for 1-50 computers, does keep Office formating for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. I have not purchased a license, so I cannot tell you if it works. This morning, I did try to download a Google Doc directly into Word, but received an error message. I sent a bug report to OffiSync to see why. I am also have trouble installing the program on a different computer with Win 7 Home Premium on it. We will see what they have to say.

Side note: I have been using the pre-release Beta MS Office 2010 and am loving it. I do miss the start up icon where there is now just "File", but otherwise I cannot wait to get the full real program coming out this summer.

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Sharing and Caring Through Docs

For the last few years, I have been using Google Docs and have tons of things stored there. Recently I have been really promoting it to my students. They all need to have a Google account for some coursework, so this is just another extension. This semester, I have been editing my thesis students' work, uploading  it to my Docs account, and then sharing their file with them. I am able to share only their file, so they are not privy to my other files or the work of other students. There are choices as to whether you convert the format to Docs format or leave it in MS Word format. They are then able to download the portion I have edited. If the need arose, we could collaborate on the same document in real time via the Internet, but within Google Docs. If I made comments, they could question the comment immediately and not wait for a face to face, an e-mail or Internet chat where we don't have the document in front of us.

Today, I found this article and I installed the free version of OffiSync. I started to play around with it using Office 2010. It works as well as the demo video shows. I will download it onto my computers with Office  2007 and see how it does with that version. It is supposed to work with Office 2003 as well. In the fall, I will push students to consider installing it. Besides saving to Google Docs, you can save to Google Sites too, the location where they create their web sites for one of my classes. Perfecto!

For a well written easy to understand article of getting the best from Word and Google Docs, read this Lifehacker article.

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Karen wrote:

Karen has left a new comment on my post "This came in the e-mail this morning. Just a stone...":

I just love thoughtful people, don't you?

Ryan's reply: Yes, I do. Makes me think I should have a more visible wish list and shipping address :  )

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This came in the e-mail this morning. Just a stones throw from my birthplace of Long Branch, NJ. I also found out that my book came out in the US; however, Amazon.com is still showing the UK release date. Wiley Publications has manually edited the information, but it keeps rolling back to the old date. If you are in the US, the book is out, but you may have to have it ordered. It in only weeks old, so handle with care.

Dr. James,

     I just want to let you know that I enjoyed the Budapest guide. Although I was born in Hungary, I left in 1956 and had much to learn.

     The reason I'm writing to you is that I live on the Jersey Shore, in Bradley Beach, and I will be in Budapest the beginning of June. I just thought I'd ask if you would like me to bring you something from home. If yes, please let me know. In any case, your book is a success.

Thank you,

Suzanne Beck

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Florida Condo Updated

The property manager just sent me photos of the condo now that it has been painted, the appliances are all in place (with power cords), and the bathroom light has been replaced. He said the Realtor who they work with was very impressed believes it will rent quickly.

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It Has Finally Arrived

I was beginning to believe this day was never going to arrive, but it has and it is today. This is my last day of classes, which for the most part means that my obligations at the university are over until September. There are a few snags along the way, but minor ones. Throughout my 25 years of teaching, I have never failed to have all of my grades completed and ready to turn in by the last day of school. This year, I stumbled somehow. For my Creative Writing class, I put the last class date as the due date for their last and lengthy 12 page short story. Students being who and what they are, nothing arrives earlier than the due date and a handful ask for an extension on top of that. 

 

Not only do I have to hold off on end-of-term celebrations, but I have to read all of these stories this weekend to polish off the grades. 

The other minor hiccup in my spreadsheet of empty days are a few complications called May 26th, June 2nd, 16th, 23rd, and 25th I have to put in a half day's appearance for what they call State Exams. We call them thesis defenses and oral comprehensives.

So I have this whole great canvas of time to fill up with things to do. It is like New Years all over again. I make a list of resolutions about what I am going to accomplish that summer and then never get to a fraction of that wish list. Last summer, I was researching and writing my book, making any other project impossible. Three summers ago, it was the same story: research and write.

This summer, I hope to write and read, read and write and there were some other things that floated through my mind like dust mites travel past our eyesight, but for now they are gone. If they return, they will be duly evaluated and triaged by order of importance, perhaps to also be acted upon. After all, when I return in September, I need to fill an essay of "What I did on my summer vacation".

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