Michael Livingston

Apr

21

The Sandlot

2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Recently, exasperated at one of my student’s, ah, lack of clear thinking, I said the following:
“You’re killing me, Smalls!”
Alas, the young fellow looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears (that, too, is a great old movie reference). It seems he’d never seen that classic of modern film, The Sandlot:

On [...]

Apr

19

Dear Mr. Shanahan

2008 | Filed Under Homelife | Leave a Comment

The annual NFL draft approaches, sir, and the Denver Broncos organization appears to stand at a crossroads. You’ve made some excellent choices over the years — especially in that awesome 2006 draft — yet you’ve also left some of us fans bewildered at times. Oh, I won’t blame you for drafting Maurice Clarett [...]

Apr

18

Robert Jordan’s Office

2008 | Filed Under Academics, Homelife | Leave a Comment

This morning I took up an invitation to visit Jim Rigney’s home and office. Robert Jordan’s office, in other words. The home of the Dragon Firstborn.
It’s hard to describe what a surreal experience this was for me. Robert Jordan was a name of dreams for most of my adult life. I never [...]

Apr

17

Academic Projects

2008 | Filed Under Academics | Leave a Comment

One of my students recently asked me why I don’t write much about my academic life here on the website. The question gave me pause, largely because I hadn’t realized that I’d not written much about academic things. Yet looking over the site I can see the student was right: I’ve not written [...]

Apr

14

Wordpress 2.5

2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I spent a good portion of this afternoon upgrading the website to version 2.5 of Wordpress. Rather stressful, to say the least. I adore the simultaneous ease of use and enormous flexibility of this software, but upgrading is a tremendously frightful process in which you must delete primary function folders and files off the server. [...]

Apr

12

Bulldog Challenge

2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I don’t post too much about the fact that I live and work on the campus of a military college, but every now and then something strikes me as rather unique about this place.
This morning, for instance, not long after I rolled out of bed to greet the stacks of research papers I’m grading [...]

Apr

11

Patio Performances

2008 | Filed Under Student Successes | Leave a Comment

What a busy week! Last night I was the MC for the annual rendition of Patio Performances, in which three talented cadets read their creative writing under the shading oaks of the library courtyard. It is a pleasant 40 minutes, especially on a beautiful spring evening here in Charleston.
The cadets featured were all published [...]

Apr

9

Jordan-Rigney Panel Discussion

2008 | Filed Under Academics, Homelife | 2 Comments

As first reported here (a michaellivingston.com exclusive!), a few weeks ago I gave a speech honoring the literary legacy of James Oliver Rigney, Jr, known to most of the world as Robert Jordan, on the occasion of his induction into the South Carolina Academy of Authors. It was a true honor, and the speech [...]

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