The Blog of Glenn McLaurin

Last night, as I sat in on the third lecture since Monday that I was attending voluntarily, I realized something was amiss. The director of Nourish International was speaking ten feet away from me, taking questions from a small, engaged audience, and my mind was blank. And quite frankly, I am still a touch disappointed in myself.

Without a doubt, every lecture and workshop I have attended this year has benefitted me in some way, but I have begun realizing that I am not maximizing these opportunities.  My university attracts highly accomplished men and women to come and speak on a wide range of issues, and I feel that I should usually be able glean something extra, something particularly relevent to my own life, out of the experience…

While I reflected on the events of the past two days, I came to the conclusion that I can bring about these improvements with just a few simple goals:

1. Research – Much of this problem comes from walking blindly into the lecture, and being forced to develop questions based solely on the material presented, rather than knowing more about the topic beforehand and asking about relevant issues which truly interest me. Alternatively, I need to begin preparing a few questions which would work in most settings.
2. Synthesize – Should I continue educating myself in this way, I need to start drawing more connections. One of my favorite parts about the seminar I am in is that I have already done enough outside reading that I can relate prior knowledge to the discussion of the day. Currently, however, this only applies to a few fields, and I know that I can broaden these horizons.
3. Organize – Throughout my adolescence, no matter how complex my schedule, I could always keep track of every upcoming event in my head, without the need to record anything in a planner. This has changed. I set up a Google Calendar yesterday, created a much more effective filing system on my email account, and am trying to put my life “in order.”

Almost all of my readers are in college or beyond. I would appreciate any suggestions or hints… success stories or failed attempts are equally welcome.  Thank you.

Few things turn me off of a product more than poorly executed “stealth marketing” tactics.  The most successful campaigns work by the very nature of the ad type — I enjoy my exposure to the brand, it entertains me, and I WANT to pass on the experience to someone else.

The marketing appears as an afterthought to the quality of the advertisement, and by this, I don’t feel that my time has been wasted.

It is on these sentiments that I am basing my the following prediction: while ‘The 39 Clues‘ may very well be something of a success, it will never live up to the expectations of the Scholastic executives.  I realize that I am not the demographic that the franchise is being marketed at, but the facts don’t change — any series so heavily reliant on books, trading cards, puzzles, websites, and real-world scavenger hunts, with movie deals already in the works, is simply too broad to be *as* effective as one will expect.  Absolutely, ‘Harry Potter’ branched out and had as much associated merchandise as any succesful modern product would… but the books operated independently – everything else was a perk for the devoted fan.

This theory of “multi-dimensional publishing” bothers me; it feels to much like it should be located in the dip of a marketing version of the uncanny valley.  I realize that many successful children’s shows have been blending entertaining television with learning, or that more recently Wii Fit or the Nintendo DS ‘Brain Games’ series has promoted healthy activities within the scope of a video game… but to me, Scholastic’s plan has a different feel to it.

But it’s hard not to suspect that in this case more just might possibly be less — that with every extra dimension you pile onto The 39 Clues, it doesn’t become more of a rich, immersive experience; instead the book at the heart of its little universe just becomes a little less of a book. Levithan argues that the principle of the thing remains the same, regardless of the media it’s packaged in. “The technology changes, but it’s all about being in your backyard, being Luke Skywalker and Han Solo,” he says. “It’s that role-playing; it’s about being involved in a story. That’s what kids want.” But what if those extra dimensions send kids the message that for a story to feel real, a mere book isn’t enough? With its glossy clear plastic front cover, The Maze of Bones hardly looks like a book at all. It looks like a toy. Like Voldemort and his horcruxes, its soul has been divided among multiple vessels. But what Voldemort failed to understand, of course, is that each division diminishes the whole.

Am I off my mark here, or does anyone else agree with me?

Like anyone who read ‘Garfield’ when they were younger or has seen ‘Office Space‘, I grew up believing that Monday was a generally unpleasant experience, best dealt with by slogging through the day and just trying to survive until the end of the week.

This morning, however, I realized that for me at least, Mondays aren’t that bad. I was up at 6:30, still feeling good from a Sunday evening visit to the gym, in class at eight and out before nine, with two hours to spare before Econ and then another two before Swim Conditioning. For me, stress builds throughout the week, with quizzes and readings due on Thursdays and Fridays, and a million club meetings on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Meanwhile, Mondays, particularly the mornings, represent a fresh start to the week — so much so I even had time to find a new blog that has really caught my attention and update my own.

Alternate Focus: I just read Scott Bradley’s ‘10 Best Questions to Ask When Networking‘, and am curious to see if anyone can think of additional questions to ask. I already proposed “Where are you from?” – can anyone think of any others?

When I left for college, I expected to face a number of challenges: intense homework, a new social scene, dealing with class sizes in the hundreds and an undergraduate enrollment numbering thousands upon thousands.  And thus I prepared myself the best I could – totally willing to adapt where adaptation was necessary – and I feel that I have done well for myself.

How I would begin to interact with time, however, and the fleetingness of it all, was not something I could have predicted.  When I graduated high school, everyone spoke of how fast the previous four years had passed by, and I feel like that doesn’t even compare to the past few weeks.

I almost always have an hour inbetween classes, sometimes two or more – and that time is usually spent studying or reading.  I have free times in the evening – consumed by studying or club meetings.  The mornings?  I am either rushing to class or have my nose in a book.  There have been too few weekends to make a generalized statement, but they as well will certainly pass by far too quickly.

For all the time I would record as devoted to academics, however, I don’t feel like I am missing out on anything else.  I have a healthy meal routine, I am somehow fitting in a fair amount of exercise, and I’ve applied to serve on more committees and signed on to more listservs than I know what to do with.  In short, I’m busy, but I’m happy.

So, where do I go from here?  And with specific regards to my blog, what now?

I hope that as I continue to settle into a routine, I will find – or make – more time available for my writing.  And from this, I hope for my blog to reflect the personal developments I am making, relating specifically to my areas of academic concentration and clubs that I am joining.  Currently, I am entering two different fields: Public Policy Analysis and Urban Studies and Planning.  Both are roughly interdisciplinary, requring courses spanning Economics, Ethics, History, Political Science, Geography, and a variety of other subjects.  I swore that I would not get too caught up in trying to plan my future too many years out, but I am already falling into this trap, out of sheer excitement for courses and opportunities to come.

And my majors may change, and my life will undoubtedly change.  I want this blog, however, to serve as a record of these changes.

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we
have allowed this to happen to ourselves…. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament (US National Commission on Excellence in Education 1983).

The most appropriate response is, of course, to attempt to resolve the issues rather than bitch and moan about them.  Is the government not providing the necessary tools?  Look elsewhere.  One person can do a lot, but collaborative efforts can do so much more for so many more people.  And when truly ambitious people get involved, only the sky is the limit.

Scott Adams (linked above), possesses a drive that puts me to shame.  In fact, most of the people I admire appear infallible in their desires to succeed.  Right now, I want to push my boundaries and become more like those people, find my limits and surpass them.  The fact that the Excellence in Education Committee’s report is a quarter-century old doesn’t matter – problems are inherent in any design, any system, any policy, but solutions exist as well.