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TED Fellowship

A few Smoosiers know that I applied for a TED Fellowship to attend the conference in the Spring 09—all conference fees are waived and hotel bills are paid. Did any other SI member apply for a fellowship? Is there another Smoosier planning to attend the conference in 09?

The only Smoosiers I know to be TED members—with an actual profile posted on the TED website-- are Matt Theobald, Pat Coyle, Scott Semester and me. Are there any other TEDsters out there?

I met Lalita Amos yesterday for a F2F meeting to enjoy a light beverage and fresh fruit at Rick’s Café and Boathouse. It was a beautiful day with the sunlight shimmering off the reservoir, boat sounds, and a nice breeze. Lalita is very intelligent and warm, on top of being just plain fabulous =). After telling Lalita my Fellowship news, she made me promise to blog copiously about the experience. I promise, Lalita! Scott Semester made me promise, too.

I was a little nervous about posting this, because I don’t want to put the kibosh on my chances. And now if I don’t get the Fellowship, I will have to expose my humiliation to all Smoosiers. Or maybe I should let it go quietly into that sweet night.

When I sent the last three sentences to Scott Semester in another blog, he responded eloquently, “I don't think there's any humiliation in applying for the TED fellowship and not getting it. I bet they get a boatload of applications for a limited number of fellowships. It's the ones who never try who have to deal with ... well, if not humiliation, certainly a life different than I'd care to lead [profound life lesson alert]. So, good for you for applying! Keep us posted, and if you do get the fellowship, you damn well better blog about TED on SI!”

I promise, Scott!

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