Confidence? Umm…

How would you rate your confidence level? I have a PhD from UC Berkeley. I’ve presented at national and international conferences. I’ve taught for 31 years. So anyone would think my confidence level would be high. But in another blog post I mentioned the 10 year old boy who hides inside me and undermines thatContinue reading “Confidence? Umm…”

Lose Yourself in the Flow

What activities do you lose yourself in? When I am writing or working on making a film, I often experience the phenomenon of missing time, usually associated with alien abduction. (There are those aliens again!) But the one activity I have always lost myself in, while still being acutely aware of (the) time, has beenContinue reading “Lose Yourself in the Flow”

Life Fertilizer

What experiences in life helped you grow the most? I chose the title above because sometimes life gives you you-know-what (a four letter word for fertilizer, that is), but it changes a person’s direction and helps them grow. As. Mephistopheles says in Goethe’s Faust, “I am a part of the power which eternally wills evilContinue reading “Life Fertilizer”

Can I get a little STEAM?

Not steampunk. Not this time at least, although it has been a recurring theme for me: my theatre production of Birth of Merlin used this aesthetic, and of course, my novel Watchers of the Dawn is aptly subtitled A Steampunk Adventure. Here I am referring to the addition of Art to STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering,Continue reading “Can I get a little STEAM?”

From Terminally Shy to “Watch Me!”

In Episode #56, I try to find an explanation for how someone (me), who exhibited what I have called “terminal shyness” (see Immaculate Misconceptions, page 16, where I explain why I don’t sing in public), can transform into a college professor of performing arts who has presented at national and international conferences and who hasContinue reading “From Terminally Shy to “Watch Me!””

Malapropisms

In  Podcast Episode #53, I talk about malapropisms. This term comes from Mrs. Malaprop, a character in  Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals. Another character says of her that she uses “words so ingeniously misapplied, without being mispronounced.” We have seen this with comedians, such as Norm Crosby. I used to show a RedContinue reading Malapropisms

The Crush Is On

I am retiring at the end of this semester of teaching. People inevitably have two questions: 1) What will you do after retirement? and 2) Are you counting down the days? The first question is often asked with a slight negativity infused into it. I am a college professor; how could I possibly consider leavingContinue reading “The Crush Is On”