Well, this is a bit of belated blogging about something more worthy of mentioning than anything else I’ve done in recent memory. Earlier in the week, at just about the last possible minute, I was invited to come along with Ray and Dave to the NYSEC Conference and NCTE Convention in Manhattan. The drive down was good fun. We stopped at the Pengiun/Putnam book sale in Binghamton on the way and bought a bunch of books at dirt cheap prices. I didn’t get as many books as Ray or Dave because I’m a bit low on muniats, but I still got eight books for nineteen dollars. I found the newer book by the guy who wrote Looking for Alaska, John Green, called An Abundance of Katherines, and a nonfiction book titled To Air is Human about a guy who becomes the World Air Guitar Champion. Those are the two titles I’m most excited about. Oh, and I’ve never read Ayn Rand, but I got this really nice Rand box set for five bucks (it goes for $45 in stores).
As for our experience at the conference, the obvious highlights were getting to hear Nancie Atwell and Jonathan Kozol speak. As everyone knows, those two are the biggest celebrity heroes in the English education world, and you’d have thought the Beatles were getting off the plane judging by the introductions and ovations they received. But they were deserved, since those two have done for education what the Beatles did for music. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend the whole weekend at the NCTE convention, but I think Mandy did, so hopefully she’ll be able to fill us in on what she attended over the weekend.
Oh, and on the way back Dave introduced Ray and I to geocaching. I think we found a cache in Newbourgh, NY. Ray and I even signed the log in the cache. I signed as Anathoma Andy because Ray taught me that word earlier in the day. I can’t remember what it means now, a day later, but it sounds good. Or maybe just pretentious. Anyway, I took plenty of photos during the trip, so check out the ole flickr.
P.S. I stayed with my friends Ricky and Liz in Manhattan and got to play Guitar Hero II for the Wii for the first time. It was truly an experience. The gameplay requires full concentration, but I couldn’t help being distracted by the brand name guitars and amps while I played, and my play suffered as a result.
2 responses so far ↓
amandayac // November 19, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Glad to hear you had such a good time, Andy! Sounds like you had quite an eventful few days, from start to finish.
sunyprof // November 19, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Hi Andy, good thing your old Eng. prof. is around–that word is anathema–something that’s detestable, yea! You’d better correct Ray! If there’s another word that is spelled with that “o’ instead of the “e,” that only geocachers know, fill me in.
Did you get to any interesting sessions at NYSEC?
What did you think about Kozol’s talk?
I’m so glad you picked up the Green novel since I’ve been wanting an opinion on that title. You know by now that Alexie won the National Book Award for INDIAN. Have you gotten to it yet? I know you’ll enjoy it.
I’m so glad you were able to make this trip–KES
P.S. I liked your comparison of the Atwell/Kozol arrivals to the Beatles’ barnstorm of the States in the 60’s!
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