Bardiac

On Assigning Papers Early and Often

2012-01-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

The folks who do and read lots of comp research tell me that several things help students write better:

1) Writing lots and getting feedback
2) Writing for different purposes, talking about purposes, getting feedback

I've taken that information to heart. The assignments my students have turned in so far have all been short, low stakes assignments. In two of the four cases, the assignment asks them to write a paragraph. A single paragraph of writing gives me a chance to underline something and write in the margin "interesting idea" or "indeed!" I can give short responses, mostly responding to an idea. And I can mark one grammatical problem (if there is one), or remind the student to cite the text, and because I've marked one thing and it's there along with a positive comment, the student can manage looking at it and thinking about it. (And the grading isn't overwhelming for me, either.)

The paragraphs are also a starting point for one bit of class discussion. So those students who feel slow-tongued are prepared and can use it to say something.

One of the four assignments is a summary of a short reading, also short and low stakes. But summarizing is a skill students need to practice, as is reading carefully, so this written assignment is a start.

The final of the four is a short diagnostic piece (for the writing class) about why they're here at NWU. It's ungraded, and I use it to get to know students a bit, to spot really big writing issues early, and to have a chance to give students some positive feedback on their writing.

In each of these courses, students will write other sorts of writing, and will continue to write short pieces as well.

And Then There Were Four...

2012-01-26T09:25:00.000-08:00

piles of papers I need to work on.

I'm falling behind, and it's still the first week! EEP!

Today's tasks (now that I'm done teaching for the day):
read play for tomorrow
read journals for writing class
read journals for Shakespeare
prep classes for tomorrow

and maybe, just maybe, read some more writing diagnostics
somewhere in here, I also have to prep and do some committee work.

Do Unto Yourself

2012-01-26T05:39:00.000-08:00

By the end of the second day of teaching in my week (Wednesday), I had a stack of papers for each of the three courses I'm teaching this semester.

I did that to myself.

At least most of them are really short (paragraph assignments), and the others are short diagnostics for the writing class, so I won't grade them, just get to know the students a bit and be alerted to some potential problems.

Still, I did it to myself. And now I have to go read more of the diagnostics.

More Syllabus Talk

2012-01-25T06:04:00.000-08:00

We tend to discuss teaching stuff a fair bit around here, and the other day, the question of "participation" as part of the grade (and also attendance as part of the grade) came up.

So now I'm wondering, do you folks grade "participation"? And if you do, what counts as "participation" for you? And how do you keep track in a meaningful way?

Do you count attendance in your grades?

Me? I don't count either. We're required to tell students our attendance policy, which suggests that the administration here thinks we count attendance as part of the grade. And indeed, since I read syllabi from across campus, I know lots of people do.

I don't, for a couple of reasons (and the same goes for attendance). On the practical side, it's a pain in the rear to keep track of. I mean, do you mark next to someone's name when they say something in class? What if they say something great, and someone else says something really non-contributive, do they count the same? To be honest, I do my best to facilitate discussions and such, but I can't do that even decently and try to keep track of who's saying what or how often.

I also think that what I really want in class is students who try and are cooperative and respectful with me and each other. But grading that is like grading people wiping their rears.

As far as attendance, I hate the gaming of who gets what excuse and why. The school gives official excused absences for music and sports travel, but I think if someone's kid is sick (or heck, if their dog is sick), then they've made a good decision to prioritize the kid over attending class.

The thing is, I rarely have poor participation or poor attendance in my classes. And when someone isn't attending, they usually have something serious happening and their term is screwed up anyway. And if someone doesn't participate, it may mean that they process verbally slowly, and they may write a really thoughtful paper, or come up with something cool for a project, or whatever. The important thing isn't saying something in class, but learning stuff. I do think that most people learn best when they learn in a variety of ways and by hearing other people learning and by trying out ideas and such and being wrong occasionally. For most people, then, being in a room with other people actively learning helps them learn. Of course, being in a private tutorial would likely be even better for some, but it's not financially realistic here.

And, knock on wood, I almost never have had a student be actively non-cooperative in class. I've had students who can't keep their mouths shut, yes, but when I ask people to, say, freewrite, most of them seem to be doing that. And when I ask them to work in groups, I haven't had anyone refuse.

So why make a rule about something that's so rare that it's not a problem?

I DO try to be really conscious every single day I teach of making that time valuable and worthwhile for everyone in the room. I want students to go away every single day glad that they came to class, glad that they learned something, glad that they've had the experience. I don't always succeed.

There may be regional issues. Students here in the midwest are pretty darned polite, and they're likely to be outwardly cooperative and polite, even if they think something's really stupid or irritating. They're likely to come to class because they're self-selected to be here and have been long trained that being in class is important.

Waht do you do? Why?

High Anxiety

2012-01-24T10:06:00.000-08:00

The first weeks of a term are stressful for lots of students. It's especially stressful for students dealing with new stuff: a new area of study, a new instructor, a new level. The stress comes out in weird behavior. They aren't necessarily bad behaviors, but just a tad off in some way.

For example, in one class, we started looking at the syllabus. We're supposed to list and talk about the whole NWU goals thing, and I'm actually obedient enough to do so. So we've started, and a student's hand shoots up. I give her the go ahead to ask, and she says, "are we going to do X?" Where X is a campus activity towards the end of the semester. She's looking at the course calendar, and X is listed, because it's handy to know when X is. But that's it.

So why ask about that at that point? I guess she was bored by the goals stuff and skipped ahead, and was anxious and needed an immediate answer. I probably should have told her to wait until we got there.

I got an email this morning asking if instead of writing a paragraph about a word in a passage of lit, the student could write about a line. Writing about a line would be better, the student wrote. Except the assignment asks you to write about a word, so I probably think a word will be a good thing to write about. And I know it's just the student being anxious and wanting to do really well, but it's a paragraph that's going to work out to be one percent of the course grade. Try to do the actual assignment before asking to modify it, please.

I've also had the email about what they were supposed to do with this reading I'd asked them to do and given instructions about. (Read to short pieces, grade them as essays, and make some notes about why you'd give the grade you gave.) Sometimes students are too anxious to really hear stuff in class. That's okay the first day, because it's normal to be anxious and we teach the students we have. But it strikes me as inattentive.

Then there's the person who has to give the answer, but doesn't really know anything deeper than a word. What happened during this period (in a class on early modern lit, to get some context going)?

Student: Humanism!

Me: Great, what's humanism?

Student: Ummmm.

Do you not know what the word means but you use it as if it's the answer? Do you not expect a follow up question? (The same thing happens with "renaissance" and "reformation." Those are good words, but you need to know something about them if you're going to bring them up.)

And then there's me. You know how sometimes you say something mildly (or perhaps not so mildly) inappropriate and then dig yourself deeper? I did that. We were reading over the required statement about plagiarism, in which I say that I'll follow through with the NWU policy to an appropriate conclusion. That wasn't inappropriate. What was inappropriate was that I made a verbal aside that I thought drawing and quartering was an appropriate conclusion, but the university wouldn't go along with it. And then of course I had to explain what drawing and quartering were/are.

Jitters

2012-01-23T06:29:00.000-08:00

It's crazy, but after teaching in one way or another for 20+ years, I have the jitters this morning, the first day of classes.

I'm well-prepared. And yet, I have the jitters. I couldn't get to sleep well last night, and I got to the office early. And still, I have the jitters.

I know I'll calm down once I get into a class, but this is just silly.

The Lean

2012-01-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

My neighbor's dog is visiting for part of the weekend, and it's delightful. When I sit down, she sits next to me and does the lean thing. (Outside, when we greet, she also does the standing lean.) I figure the lean thing means that she's content to sit with me and be near. Small dogs do the lean, too, but it's way more convincing from a bigger dog. I imagine a mastiff would be pretty darned convincing, but a lab is perfectly fine.

When her own people appear, then of course I'm beneath notice, unless she's been with her own people and is greeting me. Or if her own people are coming back, she's happy to include me in her general happiness once she's expressed her total joy at their appearance for a few minutes.

She came out to scrape the drive with me this morning, and after a bit, she did the one foot up thing, so I put her inside. That was not good; it would have been far better if I'd kept the pack together and come inside, too. She let me know this by barking while I finished up the drive.

Then we went out to do the back deck, which is shaded in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. And within a very few minutes, she was doing the thing where dogs try to hold up four feet all at the same time, so I let her back in. She got right in her kennel thing, and looked out the window at me with grave disappointment, but no barking. (It's a sliding door window thing, and the kennel is there because it's bird tv sometimes, and she likes bird tv.)

Building a Syllabus

2012-01-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

I was talking with a colleague a bit back about building a syllabus. We have quite different approaches, and it interests me to think about the relative benefits of each approach.

In fact, though, I have a slightly different approach in my writing classes than in my lit classes.

In lit classes, I hand out a pretty obsessive syllabus with all the assignments on the calendar and also detailed in the syllabus. Someone could, I suppose, walk out on the first day and just hand in great assignments and do well in the class. (It's never happened; in fact, I tend to have good attendance in my classes. It probably helps that there are small assignments due relatively often in class.)

For example, if I'm having lit students write an assignment for a given day of class, the assignment is on the syllabus/calendar. So, if they're asked to write on a passage in a text, I've put down the line number information. (It's a pain in the rear to do it ahead, but better than trying to keep on top of things and do it later.)

For writing classes, I give the due dates and journal assignments on the syllabus, but don't give detailed information about the essay assignments until we're starting to work on a given essay.

I had done these differently for a while without thinking a lot about it, but when I did think about it, I thought that first year students would get too wound up with the research assignment too early, and not focus well on what we're working on to build up to it. Maybe that's not the best approach, though? (I could hand out all the essay assignments ahead. It would take a couple hours of prep each to revise from the last time, but I do that prep at some point anyway.)

In the lit classes, most students are at least second year students, and I think it helps them to know what's coming and to see the way the course is built. I don't think most of them think that much about course building, but they can see on the first day of class when each thing is due and plan ahead, and I know some students take that seriously.

My colleague, though, gave students a broad outline, but didn't give them assignments ahead because zie makes them up as the class goes. So, the class might know there's a short essay due in a month, but not exactly when, and not what.

I also have colleagues who give out modular calendars and assignments. For example, they'll hand out a three week calendar and assignments, and do that four or five times during a term. (Their opening syllabus will include the legal stuff, and the opening week or two.)

And I've seen a colleague's syllabus that basically gives the legal stuff and then zie gives assignments daily on the board, pretty much. (That's how most of my high school classes worked, as I recall.)

What works for you? For your students?

What are the benefits or drawbacks to different approaches for you? For your students?

Does the course level (first year, undergrad, senior seminar, grad) matter?

ps. I'm almost done with my syllabus stuff for the semester! Just a few passages to look up and some thinking about other reading for my senior seminar!

Build a Better Shakespeare Site

2012-01-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

I got a polite email the other day from one of those Shakespeare sites, one of the ones that puts up stuff about Shakespeare. The site wanted me to link to it, and offered a reciprocal link.

But I'm not interested, and I think the site needs to rethink its strategies. Here, then, are a couple of ideas I have about making a better Shakespeare site. (I have more that I'd be willing to sell to someone who's actually interested in doing a really good Shakespeare site, but these are free.)

A bit of an overview: The Shakespeare sites like this one are dot com sites, trying to join the Shakespeare industry to make some money, mostly, I'm guessing, by hosting ads on the site and getting revenue that way. They're also selling text access in the form of e-texts.

I'm happy for people to make money on Shakespeare. I make my living partly off Shakespeare, after all.

There are two audiences for this sort of site, the random person who has an interest in Shakespeare and looks something up, and the far greater population of high school and college students who are taking a Shakespeare class. That's the audience you really want to get.

But you won't get that audience from a link here because mostly the people who read here are other academics and adults who aren't all that interested in Shakespeare per se, but are interested in me as friends or because we've built some sort of relationship. Those folks aren't going to click through. Nor am I interested in being linked on your site, because students aren't going to find this blog particularly interesting or helpful.

How could a Shakespeare site use me to get a real audience? The site needs to convince me to 1) list it on my syllabus as a place that will be good for students, and (more important) 2) get other Shakespeare faculty to do the same. That will mean that our ed students will also suggest it to their eventual co-teachers and students. Not surprisingly, I actually know lots of people who teach Shakespeare, and if a site were really good, I'd tell them so. (I've adopted course texts based on advice in comments here, and on advice from faculty friends. Other faculty do the same. And I've recommended texts to other faculty folks, too.)

How do you get me to put a Shakespeare site on my syllabus or share it with other Shakespeare faculty?

1) Cite your sources. Remember when Wikipedia started and everyone said, well, sometimes it's good, but they need to tell us where they're getting the information? And then Wikipedia articles started citing sources. And lo, they're much better now.

Shakespeare instructors at all levels want their students to be aware that there are sources for the information they read on the net. Further, we want students to read information that uses sources the way we want students to use sources. That is, your site should be a model for using sources well because that would help students learn to acknowledge their sources. Please model good citation practices.

2) Part of citing sources is giving information about where you're getting your texts. Are you giving students a text edited in the 19th century? (That's been a fairly typical way of avoiding copyright issues.) Are you using F or Q as your source for Lear? And whichever you use, are you making sure that students know and can learn why you've chosen what you've chosen?

3) When you put up texts, give Act, scene, and line numbers. This is especially important for e-texts. I'm already tired of having students scroll through e-texts looking for a passage, and they haven't been around that long.

I've got other ideas, but a site that did those things well would be a site that I'd recommend to students and other faculty. I'm guessing fellow bloggers will have other suggestions for building a better Shakespeare site.

Physical Therapy is Hard

2012-01-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

I went for my second PT appointment yesterday. At the first one, he, the physical therapist mostly measured stuff, looked at me walk and do other stuff, and so on. He gave me an assignment to soak my foot in contrast baths. So I did that. It wasn't hard, though it took almost an hour a day.

This week's assignments are hard. I need to do stretching stuff and squatting stuff (partial squats), and they're the kind of thing that's hard for me. You know you see pictures of athletes holding huge weights on their shoulders doing deep squats? That's not me. But even these partial squats with no weights are hard for me.

Of course, I like my illusion that I'm decently fit given my age and all, but doing these assignments destroys that illusion pretty quickly. Deep down, I want the therapist to say, wow, you're doing great. But if I were doing great, I wouldn't need the help of a physical therapist, of course.

Like most people, I'm guessing, I like exercise that's easy, thus the bike. Yes, biking can be VERY hard, but I'm not riding up some Col in the Alps as fast as I can. In fact, I don't usually push myself really hard biking, especially during the winter.

So now I am going to get on my bike for a bit, and then do the stretchy stuff when I'm nice and warmed up. And then go give blood.

One interesting thing about yesterday's physical therapy visit: he had me warm up on a stationary bike (as opposed to writing letters on a stationery bike, I suppose) and although it had a huge and uncomfortable tractor seat which felt tilted forward so I was always leaning, but the hand rest was high so I wasn't in anything like my usual road position, it also had a watt thingy. I've never done anything (that I remember) with a watt thingy, so I mildly amused myself by playing with my watts. And while I am ~~betting~~ lying to myself I could add a lot of wattage if properly positioned, even on that terrible saddle I could do just over 100 watts pretty consistently for the four minute warmup.

Remember this ad? At the beginning, Andy Schleck claims he can get 899 watts, and then Alberto Contador says he can get 900. So that puts some perspective on my little 100 watts.

Not Doing Taxes

2012-01-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

I loaded up the tax prep program today and went on line to the NWU site to get my tax info. I've gotten the tax stuff from everyone else, pretty much (I may be missing one, still, but I haven't checked on line yet). (Have I mentioned that I really like being able to check on line for tax forms? I do.)

But not at NWU, at least not yet. The site says they'll make W2s available on the 31st.

The thing is, I was trying to get my taxes done before the semester begins because once it does, taking hours to do taxes is way more difficult. And, of course, the first thing the tax program wants is my W2 information.

I tried looking at the Dec 1 pay stub thing, but the numbers don't seem to add up correctly, and the site says NOT to do that.

So I guess I'll wait. Grrrr.

***

And what are we going to do tomorrow without wikipedia available? I'm an unaware addict, I guess.

Thank You. Plural

2012-01-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

It's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Or at least the day our government chooses to officially recognize him and his work.

I think of Dr. King as being a sort of synecdoche of what we should be honoring, one of many people who worked hard to change law and practices in the US.

I sometimes wonder if I'd been an adult in those days, would I have had the integrity to work for change. I doubt it, alas.

Growing up on the west coast, I didn't hear a lot of discussion about the civil rights movement in my family. The racism in my family was there, but not in the ways it's visible in photos from the south. Instead, I was taught to respect everyone, but. And that "but" meant that things weren't really considered equal. There's a lot in that little word.

But I know now that there were people in our community working hard for change there, too. And I thank them.

And there are people now who are working hard for change. And I thank them.

I work a little for change, but not as hard as I should. I should work harder. Racism is in the air we breathe, but that's not an excuse to work against it.

Today's a reminder for me. Maybe for you, too.

Walk

2012-01-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

I've got the neighbor's dog visiting for a bit, so she took me out on a walk. Yesterday we went out to the green space behind my house and walked down to the watershed area. Today we went over by the undeveloped area on the other side of the hill.

It's not so undeveloped anymore. While I was away, developers put in a roadway coming from the far side in. They clear cut for it, and it's totally different.

We walked along the uncut part for a while, and then I saw a tent, so I whistled for the dog and turned around. I don't have any objection to someone camping out there (either some kids or someone who doesn't have a warmer place to be) but I also didn't want to bother or confront someone who might think I'm some sort of threat.

Since I've been home and started putting seed out again, I've seen a lot of juncoes about. Usually they migrate through, but they seem to have stuck around this year. And I've also seen a couple of goldfinches. Even in non-mating season plumage, they're reasonably easy for a novice birder such as myself to identify, and I'm pretty sure I've never seen them here in winter before. I'm guessing they've stuck around because it's been mild so far and/or because someone else fed during the fall.

It's wonderful to walk with a dog that really enjoys snow. She's all bouncy and runs around sticking her nose deep into where deer have walked (or something else smells good). I got her tired enough that she walked back to the house (and tried to go to her house nearby) but not so tired that she didn't run when I whistled for her to come to my house instead. (I live on a really quiet street, so no worries about a dog or kids around, at least during the very visible daylight.)

InBox

2012-01-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

I checked my email this morning and there's a polite note in there from a student wanting to know about using ebooks. I'm fine with students using ebooks in class, so long as they've got a glossary, notes, line numbers (or page numbers) and are decent editions. The one who emailed indicated that s/he'd be using a computer to read the text and bring it to class.

But here's the question: when I allow open text/open note essay exams, should I allow the computer to be used?

Yes? Sure, the student has been using it all semester and has his/her notes on there!

No? The student has access to the web and that may give an unfair advantage, or worse, the student may plagiarize and it would be a pain in the rear to find plagiarism on a hand written exam. Worse, if the student wanted to type his/her exam, that would seem to invite cutting and pasting.

***

One of the other things in my inbox came from our teaching center place offering us a class in using something called "Let Me Learn." I don't know what that is, but it sounds opposed to what I usually use, which are books labeled clearly "You are NOT allowed to learn!"

I wonder if the makers have any idea of the different meanings of "let"?

Edited to add: In my effort not to be a closed-minded jerk, I went and found the web site and looked around. And I went through their introductory powerpoint, complete with floaty words (you know, words floating onto the screen) and appearing pictures (the ones that appear in a windmill pattern or whatever).

If someone makes a craptastic powerpoint, do I trust them to teach anything in a useful way? Nope, alas, I don't. You?

Lunch Out?

2012-01-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

I'm getting back in touch with my committee and departmental duties for the semester coming, and it looks like we're going to have a number of job candidates on campus in the first few weeks of the semester, and that means we're going to need to feed them.

We usually do a sign up thing for people to have lunch or dinner with candidates. One person is signed on as host. That person pays for the candidate's meal and hir own and then gets reimbursed by the department. Everyone else pays hir own way. And that gets expensive, especially if we're looking at two meals out a week for a couple of weeks. (I do eat out, but not usually twice a week; I almost always take my lunch to work. And when I eat out, it's likely to be with friends, so it's fun, not work.)

We haven't gotten a raise in about 8 years but we've had pay lowered in various ways, so I'm not feeling at all like I owe the state money eating out. (I'm not living high on the hog, so it's not like I won't make my mortgage payment if I pay to go out, but I've cut back in other ways.)

On the other hand, it's important to get to know candidates well enough to put in a word (though I'm often out of step with my department). Hiring new people is hugely important.

Mostly I just want to vent right now, because complaining about this to the chair or anyone else wouldn't be really productive. You're IT!

One Foot, Two Foot, Red Foot, Blue Foot

2012-01-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

I went to the physical therapist yesterday for my appointment, and it seemed good. I felt like an idiot since the foot isn't hurting lately and such, but he looked and had me walk and measured and said that one foot is slightly swollen, and that the ankle has less movement than the other. And then there's balance stuff.

And he didn't seem to think I was an idiot or liar for wanting to bike or ski or run (if only we get more snow for skiing!). And he said I could do what I wanted for activity.

This week, the goal is to try to reduce the swelling, so he's having me do twice a day foot bath things. First I put the foot (well, I put both feet, because one is somehow more awkward) in a hot water bath for 3 minutes, and then I put it (them) in a cold water bath for a minute, and I repeat that for 20 or so minutes.

I couldn't tell it was swollen before, so I doubt I'll be able to see if it's less swollen. But can I say, that putting your foot in hot water right after cold is not fun, nor is putting your foot in cold water right after hot a real pleasure, though either by itself would be fine. And either is fine once the feet are "used" to it.

So now I've pedaled the bike inside for 40 minutes (watching The Tudors season 3, because that was what they had at the library, and I figure I'm not going to be too confused by the basic action even if I pick up during Jane Seymore's time), and now I'm off to soak my feet.

Help, Iarbas!

2012-01-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

There's a character in Marlow's Dido, Queen of Carthage who's name is written Iarbas.

I'm hoping for help with pronunciation.

Wikipedia suggests from other sources "Hiarbas" as another spelling. So how would you say that?

Hee-arbas

High-arbas

Har-bas

or

Yarbas?

(Before I looked up on the wikipedia thing, I was even considering the i for j substitution and wondering about Jarbas, which sounds too unfortunately like a certain Star Wars character.)

Home!

2012-01-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

Onofre visited the redwoods for the first time! And now I'm home safely, and getting back to being home.

Paradox

2012-01-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, and even now, my Mom would say that the thing she most couldn't stand was lying. She hated lying, and indeed, if she caught me out in a lie, I got punished for sure.

Now, there's a man here, and there's a story she LOVES about him. It has to do with making people think that he has cancer, though he doesn't, and thus things are done which convenience him greatly and inconvenience 100+ other people somewhat.

My Mom thinks his doing this is witty and wonderful, and doesn't seem to connect it at all to the lying she hates.

It's not like this is a story of some poor guy sticking it to "the man" because this guy is/was way more privileged than most.

I don't get it.

Good to Be There

2012-01-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

Last year, I came out for an aunt's funeral. And this year, an uncle's partner has died, so I went with my Mom to the memorial. It was beautifully done, but very sad, as you'd expect.

I saw one of my cousins whom I haven't seen for years, yes years. I didn't recognize him at first, but then, he has his father's eyes, except different. My cousin has such sad eyes in some way I can't quite explain.

I wish I were around more to be able to just see and talk to my cousins more casually. I usually see them under sort of stressful or rushed circumstances, with lots of people around.

I also had lunch the other day with another cousin, one I got to know again last year at our aunt's service; we've gotten together several times now, and talked on the phone and it's been more than lovely getting to know him as adults.

Anyway, sad as it was, I was glad to be there today to give my uncle a bit of support. And I was glad to see so many other family members there, too.

We had a bit of a drive today, and I was reminded of how easy it can be to tell directions around here because you can see mountains and know which way they run. I never know that in the Northwoods.

Flyover Country is Layover Country

2012-01-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a shuttle to another city to fly out to visit my Mom for a couple days.

I'm semi-cranky about it. I feel like I just got home from the UK, and then went to my brother's, and came home and now I'm heading out again. I think people who travel a lot must get better at it than I am, because all I want to do right now is hang out in my area, visit friends, and get some work done.

But it will also be good to visit my Mom and see old college friends and some family folks.

Taking the shuttle means I have to leave at 1:45 for a 5:15 flight. That flight at least leaves from a city with more than one flight a day to near where my Mom lives. Unfortunately, on the way back, there seemed to be no way to avoid a layover. So I'll leave at about noon and with the layover and the shuttle schedule, make it back home after 1am, if all goes well.

I hate the layover stuff.

When I interviewed for this job, I was living in a tiny town in the midwest. They said to make arrangements and let them know the flight schedule and stuff. Here's how it would have looked, if I recall correctly:

1) Drive an hour to a small city.
2) Fly from small city to big city.
3) Fly from big city to less big city.
4) Shuttle or fly from less big city to here.

Given that you have to give about an hour for security and stuff before you fly somewhere, it really adds up. So I looked at the roads, and it was a fairly straight shot on state roads, so I said I wanted to drive up. It saved the state a LOT of money (they reimbursed me for gas and mileage) and actually saved me several hours. And the hours I spent driving were FAR more pleasant than the same time would have been flying.

Unfortunately, it's a lot longer drive out to the coast.

Does it seem like there are fewer flights lately? I used to be able to get direct flights from the less big city to either of the airports close to my Mom (there's a third, actually, but it's less convenient).

Small Downer

2012-01-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

I wrote a while back about applying for a summer job on campus advising incoming students; today I got the word that I didn't get chosen. As I had just opened and read it, standing in the department office, my chair walked by and expressed her disappointment for me. It's nice to be supported, but I am disappointed for myself. I'll get over it. (I have to admit to fantasizing a bit about quitting my job the day before classes start. I wonder what would happen to my retirement account? Would the state hold onto it, or would they pay it out into an IRA of some sort, or would they pay out when I am really old enough to retire?)

A friend of mine who's teaching a mid-winter course got told today (the first day of classes) that since some students had dropped, the university is paying her a lot less money. She should have the opportunity then to say that she's not teaching the class, right? Because she signed up to teach it based on a given pay, and they're not paying her that, so she should have some recourse to say she's not willing to work for less. (That would put the students in a bind, of course.)

My moral for the new semester has dropped by 40 points.

Begin the Biking Year!

2012-01-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

My bike's odometer (on the computer) is now at 7703.7 miles.

My goal for the year is to hit 9000 on the computer.

Last year I rode 460 miles. (I just looked at the journal thing, and I didn't ride at all in January or February. But as I recall, I did go skiing a fair bit. And I ran some. And I spent a lot of time walking around the UK! It's all good!)

It looks like my biggest year was 2009 with 2380 miles.

2011: 460 miles
2010: 1020 miles
2009: 2380 miles
2008: 1425 miles
2007: 2011 miles* (There may have been more miles, before I started using the bike journal thingy, but I seem to have started using it in mid-May, so probably not tons of miles.)

Bike journal total: 7296

Snow!

2011-12-31T23:16:00.000-08:00

It was barely snowing when I went to the New Year's party at my friends' house, but there was close to an inch on the ground for my drive home.

I saw a car that looked like it had slid off the road into the median thing (on a freeway), but by the time my brain processed the lights in an unexpected place, I couldn't safely stop, so I went home and called 911.

It's the first time I've ever called 911. Happy New Year. I hope the people in the car are okay.

Then I dug out my drive because three inches in the morning is a lot easier than four, right? That's my theory, anyway. I'd rather dig twice, especially when it's wet and heavy as this is. It's also the wet and heavy that sticks beautifully to tree branches and such.

Happy New Year!

The Year in Review

2011-12-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

Everyone's doing it, so I am.

1) I lived in a big old manor house. Seriously big. But not so old. (As before, if you can identify this, please don't put it in the comments. Feel free to email me if you want to let on.)

2) I haven't gotten to teach Shakespeare in two years (spring 2010 was the last time). But I will be teaching Shakespeare next semester! Yay

On the other hand, I've gotten to teach Chaucer and lots of other early modern lit. And I'm prepping a seminar on Marlowe for next semester, and I'm feeling really good about it.

3) I ran more than before, and didn't bike as much, but I had a good time.

4) I'm overweight and have the beginnings of high blood pressure so I'm trying to exercise more, eat less, and not drink alcohol. (Though I did have the occasional small cider in the UK, because cider!)

5) I finished a big project at work, and it was okay.

***

And for the new year, resolutions? Not so much. But I am working on the weight and exercise and blood pressure stuff. And I'm working on a paper. And trying not to be a jerk. (There's my big life goal. It's a pretty low standard, but if everyone aimed there, things would be better.)

My other goal is to watch as few political ads as possible in the coming year. I may have to turn off my TV a lot.

Discontent

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

I clicked through a blog I read to a collection of personal finance stuffs. Most of the blogs or sites linked seem to be trying to do their financing through blog ads, often a lot of blog ads, enough blog ads that it's sometimes hard to see what they have to say. (And, of course, they're organized so that you have to click a lot to load a new page to read a bit more content, which I'm guessing means the ad counts as another "view" and so adds just a tiny bit of revenue?)

The thing is, most of what they have to say isn't new to anyone who's been even minimally financially aware.

And then there are the ones who are all about how they're going to get rich by age whatever, but they never seem to give enough information so you can see how they're doing it (except by the numbers of ads on the site). If you're making 100K a year, and talking about putting away 5K, that's way different than if you're making 30K a year, isn't it?

There's something ponzi-ish about these, too. (Not in the illegal sense, because they don't seem to be doing obvious investment schemes, but in the sense that we can't all retire at 30 or whatever given that we need folks who are willing to work just to feed everyone.) That's not to say you shouldn't retire at 30 if you want and can. I'm way past that, but go for it.

In a way, looking at these is like looking at dieting stuff. I need to lose weight, and I'd love to find some magic way to do it, just as I'd love to find a magic way to make my income triple.

One of my cousins did a link thing on eff bee about a weight loss app thing. Unless it makes me exercise or not eat, how is an app going to help? (I think it's one of those keep track of things like eating and exercise, and just keeping track helps you be motivated and such. That probably works well, and it would work even better if it gave you some sort of special powers in WoW or EQ!)

But the basics are:

more in than out = gaining weight or saving money
more out than in = losing weight or going into debt

There you are, Bardiac's theory re first world problems. (Now, if I could sell my body fat, I'd have a perfect solution!)

I'm baking pumpkin bread for a party tonight. It smells GREAT! Too good, in fact. It's sort of torturous how good it smells. (Because, did I mention, I'm trying to lose weight? Pumpkin bread isn't on the diet, either. Alas.)

I'm going out to the coast next week, which will blow both the exercise and eating parts of losing weight for a couple days. Bleargh

I also need to update my CV again. I hate that. I should just do it every time I do something, but of course I don't, and then I have to try to remember stuff. Bleargh!

Typing Fast

2011-12-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

When I used to play an on-line game, and even if I chat in eff bee, I often have this weird thing where I'm typing two conversations ahead of the other person. I'll type a comment or question and then wait. (And in eff bee, you get a little message that the other person is typing.) And then I'll get impatient and add another comment or message. And then I'll wait. And then I'll get impatient, and so on.

Maybe it's because the other person is on a slow connection. Or maybe they think before they type? Or they're doing something else at the same time?

I know that I really, really want a response, and that I get impatient without it (until I start putting up a post on blogger).

Genetic Clutter

2011-12-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

When I was visiting my brother, I noticed the clutter in his home office. I get so used to my own office clutter that I don't see it, but I'm reminded to look now that I've noticed his again.

We both tend to stack papers around the room. Our Dad did the same thing. It amazed me when I worked for the family business at various times that he could pretty much instantly put his hands on whatever he needed, even if it were part of a six inch pile of paper. It's genetic, I think. My Mom's much neater genes must be recessives; she doesn't clutter nearly as much as we do. And she was always frustrated by our clutter when I was growing up.

I'm not usually that good at finding what I need, alas. When I was a kid, I had this notebook thing to carry my papers, but I kept losing my homework in there and getting in trouble. It drove my Mom nuts! And rightly so.

So today I cleaned much of the clutter in my office at work, yet again. I seem to clean up about once a year, and then re-clutter. I need to clean up my home office, but I've been a lot better about that since I cleaned it last summer (perhaps because I haven't been here to clutter?), so it won't be too bad.

I also got some stuff done for my Marlowe class, so it was a productive day all around!

Anti-Riot Architecture

2011-12-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

I walked myself over to the campus library this morning to get some Marlowe books, and on the way, I saw the new student center building. When I left in late summer, they were breaking ground. Now the building looks pretty complete from the outside. And what I could see is beautiful!

It's our first new building here since the '70s, if I recall correctly. Remember '70s campus architecture? It was all about limiting and containing riots. Our other buildings tend to look like big blocks with tiny windows, mostly well out of reach of anyone on the ground.

But this new building has lots of beautiful, big windows. Supposedly it's designed to use passive solar and such when it can (there's not much solar during winter here), and to be quite energy conservative.

Really, it's beautiful. I stared out at it from the upper floor of the library and thought, wow, that's a real improvement!

And then I thought about how many more steps the administrators will have to take to get there compared to the current student center (which is where food and the bookstore and such are available). Currently, they have a few steps across a covered walkway, or if the weather's really nasty, they can go underground.

I wonder if there's a new tunnel being built for them?

Did I mention how beautiful the building looks? It's so NOT anti-riot architecture! Windows!

We're supposed to build a new academic building and our department is supposed to move there in a couple years. I hope it also has beautiful windows! Windows!

Prepping the Seminar

2011-12-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

I'm teaching a senior seminar on Marlowe this coming semester, and I'm working on prepping a bit. I've assigned Riggs' The World of Christopher Marlowe, but I'm not entirely thrilled as I think about how it will work for students. It's really dense in some areas in ways that seem likely to be difficult for students. Heck, it's dense for me. (Mostly it's the spy stuff.)

But I like the stuff on educational practices. I'm not sure the students will, though. (I had to order books way back in summer.)

I'm working on a list of terms (people's names, places, etc) to have students do very short (a couple of paragraphs max) papers on to teach each other some basic stuff about the period. I'd be happy for more ideas, please. (I need at least 20 to give everyone one.)

Meanings

2011-12-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

Here's a little something for your reading pleasure. And, if you click through (it's a totally work-safe comic), Calamaties of Nature will donate to Doctors without Borders.

Here's wishing everyone a good day.

Stupid Holiday Movies and Connections

2011-12-23T16:57:00.000-08:00

There seems to be this genre of holiday movies that involve:

1) A young woman who doesn't have a partner (because he dumped her or she hasn't found one).

2) She finds/pays a young man to pretend to be her partner (and this is fiance, because marriage in the future is a super important part of all this). The young man's pretense also includes pretending to be a high powered business/lawyer type, though he isn't.

3) True love is discovered, with maybe a bonus gay brother coming out. Future marriage is planned.

Bleargh!

Message for girls: Having a fiance or getting married is the most important thing ever!

Message for boys: While it's preferable to be a high powered business/lawyer type, you can still get the hot girl anyway because girls are desperate.

Have I just happened to see the wrong channel at the wrong time, or is this a new genre?

I can't help thinking about the coming home scene in Annie Hall, which involves Annie's brother at some point talking about his desire/dream of driving into oncoming traffic, while Alvy looks terrified.

And that reminds me that I'm listening to a book on CD on the road of stories from the New Yorker all of which are mostly about New York. So far, I'm not thrilled. The impression these stories give is that everyone in New York is white (except for a story by Jamaica Kincaid, which is narrated by a young black woman who's a nanny), wealthy (except for the Jamaica Kincaid story, most seem to have trust funds or if they have a job, it's as a director of some foundation or a professor who doesn't actually have to teach), and a jerk. (Sorry, the parallelism sucks there.)

Count me unimpressed.

And I'm Off!

2011-12-22T09:59:00.001-08:00

I'm off to visit family. I just have to pack. And take a nap.

I feel like I just got home or something.

:)

Coolness!

2011-12-20T11:50:00.000-08:00

We have a program here that matches up really good first year students with a faculty member to do a research project. Last fall, one of these students just happened to want to do a Shakespeare project, and I was happy to work with hir. Zie started out with an interest in a specific play, but (as you'd expect) little idea where to go with that. We'd chat once a week or so, and zie would go off and do a ton of reading. Zie's read at least 30 other early modern plays, maybe more, and we've talked about them. I've given hir a fair bit of guidance in terms of suggestions early on, but less so as zie got more and more into the reading.

This past semester, zie has been working on her own, emailing occasionally, but mostly reading even more. Now, having read a ton, zie has found something that strikes hir as very interesting. And it's something I haven't noticed, nor have I seen other critics noticing it. So that's very cool! We met this morning and talked, and sort of set out the rest of the year so that zie can do the project and present it at the undergrad research day on campus.

So now zie is ready to read some criticism, and going to it.

What a delight!

Chores

2011-12-17T10:02:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some garden chores. I think I mentioned last spring that one of my two Tamarack trees had died, and the other had half died (the top half). Well, I cut down the dead tree today, and bundled up the smaller stuff into kindling. I have a friend with an outdoor fireplace thing they use during summer, and I'm hoping they'd like some kindling and small wood pieces. (The tamarack had maybe a three inch diameter bole at the biggest part.)

One of my neighbors stopped by to welcome me back, so I asked him about one of my pine trees. A couple of years ago, the top leader died, and two branchings were vying to become the new top, with no clear winner. So it's either cut one of them off so the other will take over, or have a tree that splits. I chose to cut one of them off (not only for aesthetic reasons, either, but because I want more height and less chance of one part getting weak and coming down on top of my or my neighbor's house). And my neighbor handily had a pole saw. I had my doubts, but it was super easy, and about five minutes from walking into the yard with it to walking out to return it, having cut off the less straight leader.

I figure I have a couple hours of yard cleanup, cutting back dead iris stuff and other stuff, and then I need to get some mulch to put on the strawberries and such, I think.

At least I'm grateful for almost no snow in the yard for gardening sake, even if I'm impatient for skiing sake.

I mentioned back a waysthat one of my feet was hurting. Being back, I went to see the doctor about it, and I'm mildly (and probably irrationally) frustrated.

It starts with the weighing thing. Now I know I'm badly overweight. It's not a secret to anyone who looks at me. But I also know that weighing me means that the clinic gets to tick off extra stuff to make my visit more complex and more expensive, even though the nurse laughingly says that I'm getting more for my money. Yeah, not so much.

And then the blood pressure (also adding complexity to the visit), which was way high, higher than it's ever been. And then the doctor is working with a student nurse practitioner, so the SNP saw me first. That's fine for foot stuff, but I'm guessing this is a student at my school, and that means there's some chance that I've had any given NP student in some class at some point (writing or GE sorts of classes). And that seems weird. But for foot stuff, fine.

So she asks me about the pain compared with the worse pain I've ever had. I'll admit it here, I've never had a lot of pain (and said as much). I'm grateful for that lack of past pain, by the way. So then she asked about the worst pain I could imagine. So I'm thinking flaying alive, burned at the stake, broken on the wheel. I have a pretty good imagination, and given that, I told her that my pain was about a point one (same as I'd told the nurse before). I think that was a mistake.

The SNP pokes the foot a bit, and asks me to walk, so I do. And the foot doesn't hurt that day, though it did the night before a little in a soreness way.

Then the doctor comes in, and starts talking about my blood pressure, which as I mentioned is way high. The thing is, it's always way high at a doctor's office. So she measures it again, and it's down by like 30 points on the top part, but still high. I hand her the card that I've been using to keep track, as I was supposed to do (the nurse at the Abbey was kind enough to measure it for me every couple of weeks), and there it's a little higher than ideal, but not nearly this high.

The doctor says she's more worried about the blood pressure than my foot, and I say that I'm more worried about my foot because it's been hurting. It's not that I don't recognize that high blood pressure is a problem, but the foot hurts, and that's why I'm there. Then we talk about the cold medicine I've been on (which I'd also mentioned to the nurse when she asked about medications).

And she does look at the foot, poke it a bit, and have me walk.

The upshot is: (1) I'm not supposed to take cold medications anymore. She gave me a prescription for an inhaled steroid to use for sinus stuff if I get another cold.

(2) I have another card to do the blood pressure thing every couple weeks.

(3) She gave me a choice between trying some physical therapy for the foot or going to a podiatrist, and recommended the physical therapy, so she gave me a referral to the physical therapy department.

I guess I'm frustrated because what I want is to know what's wrong with my foot, and I don't. And I'm frustrated that I shouldn't take cold medications any more, and worried that the inhaled stuff won't help me and will mess up my nose and make it bleed, and then (if I get a cold), I'll be teaching with a nose that's running and bleeding, because I never feel like I can call in sick with a cold and have three classes of 20-35 people fall behind and get messed up.

And I know it's not really reasonable to be frustrated, because if the physical therapy works, then it won't matter what was wrong with my foot. And I don't usually get more than one cold a year when I'm not running around on busses, subways, and trains in a foreign country, so the cold thing isn't that big a deal, and I do know that having high blood pressure is really bad. But I didn't go for that, I went for my foot. I feel like being honest about the pain (and after all, I'm not disabled by it or writhing on the floor) means that she didn't really take the foot thing very seriously. But then, remembering Elaine Scarry reminds me that another person's pain is really hard to comprehend or really worry about.

The final kicker: I can't see the physical therapist she recommended until January 10th, which is after my new insurance kicks in, complete with a percentage co-pay (I think it's like 10%, but I can't remember for sure), so I guess I will need to call the insurance company at the beginning of the year and ask about if I need pre-approval. And then I'll have to call and ask the clinic how much a physical therapy appointment is likely to run, so that I can try to budget for my 10% (or whatever it is, I'll have to ask the insurance company). Then I'll have to try to get estimates for any other visits, which I gather isn't easy.

I think I need to go cut up some weeds or something to destress some more.

Back in the Saddle

2011-12-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

I came in to the department for a bit today for a meeting (I was glad I was there and it went well), and I was in the other day just to do recycling and say hi.

And the best part of being back is that people are genuinely glad to see me. I even got a hug from someone who doesn't tend to give hugs.

The picture of junk mail I posted the other day? I had about a third of that amount waiting for me here.

And my computer got changed, so I came in and had to start reconfiguring. And now I need to figure out how to print (I had to email stuff to a colleague this morning because I couldn't figure out).

But it's all worth it to have people welcome me home.

Librarians

2011-12-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, and even when I was in college, librarians seemed foreboding.

Nowadays, either I see things differently or there's been a world of change, because all the libraries I've seen in the past few years, and all the librarians I've talked to in the past few years are all about being friendly and helpful, and having a sense of humor while getting the job done.

Our campus library folks put jigsaw puzzles out for people to work on as they pass and bring in therapy dogs during finals for students to pet (the students love that!). And the latest thing: there's a poster up in the library now, during finals week that says,

1% of the semester
99% of the stress

Occupy [Name of Library]

It's brilliant!

You've Got Mail!

2011-12-14T06:40:00.000-08:00

The excitement of re-entry. Mostly this is junk mail. I have two big bags of recycling now. And a few things to put in yearly envelops and keep for tax stuff.

It's fairly easy to winnow down, but I'd like to know a way to get companies not to send me catalogues just because I've bought something from them.

I walked around yesterday with a headache, exhausted but not sleepy (does that even make sense) and took care of stuff. I took your collective advice and tried to make sure I drank plenty of water and waited for night to go back to bed.

And now I feel pretty good. I'm not sure how much of my headache yesterday was having a slight cold (stuffed sinuses more than anything) or jet lag, but it's way better today.

Something weird: I got a letter yesterday on city stationery telling me that they'd been trying to get me to change my meter, and that if I didn't arrange to do it by a date in January, there'd be a huge daily fine. So I called and arranged, and they're supposed to come by today.

But then I thought this morning, wait, where are the other letters about this? Because I didn't see any other notices when I went through the mail, and I'm sure I would have noticed.

And then I thought, uh oh, what if there's some scam thing, and some robbers are going to come steal everything I own at 9:30 am, when we have an appointment?

And then I thought, maybe I should call my neighbor and ask her if she's had a meter thingy.

And then I thought, I bet the earlier notices were part of the city bill thing, and the person I had watching the house didn't actually look at them except to get the amount due?

And then I thought, I'd better get dressed before they come, at any rate. So that's where I am now. About to put down the computer and go get dressed.

Jet Lag

2011-12-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

I need a cure for jet lag, please!

My plan was to spend all day yesterday traveling, arriving home in the middle of the night, and then to sleep forever today.

I woke up and was awake much of the night. And I woke up at about 8am with one of those headaches that isn't fun at all. I changed clothes in the washer/dryer, had hot cocoa and instant mac and cheese (someone needs to go to the grocery store), a couple of ibuprofin. I also called my Mom so she wouldn't worry.

And now we'll see if I can go back to sleep for a bit, otherwise I'll shower, dress, and go to the grocery store.

Help!

Last Night

2011-12-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

Today was my last real day in the UK and in London. And it was a good one. I started off with a ride on the London Eye, and then walked along the South Bank and the market to the Globe and the real Globe site and the Rose site. Then I went to Southwark Cathedral (which used to be a parish church, St. Savior's, back in the day, and may have been the parish Shakespeare attended while in London). Then I went to the V&A and wandered happily through the medieval stuff.

I topped off the evening with fish and chips and a small cider.

Tomorrow, a long day of travel ahead, and then back to the Northwoods. Brrr!

Rounding Out

2011-12-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

About a week or so after I got to the UK, I caught a cold, a nasty, nasty cold. I remember dripping my nose's way around the V&A the first time, sneezing and feeling droopy.

And a couple weeks after I got to the Abbey, I got the same hacking cough of a cold that everyone else was having.

And now, apparently, I've caught another cold, just in time to get on an airplane and share it with everyone on the plane and in two states. Bleargh. So far I'm at the half a day in, scratchy throat beginning the drippy nose phase. Lovely. I can't wait to get on a plane.

And naturally, my plan is to go back to the V&A tomorrow for a last visit. I may also go to the London Eye, depending on how things feel, to do something new to me.

Today I went to the Tower (I bought a historic palaces membership back when, so the visit was easy), then walked to St. Paul's and spent a long time there, said my goodbye to Donne's effigy. Then I walked to St. Martin's in the Fields, which, by the way, isn't in any field these days. It's right next to Tralfagar Square, in fact, and I should have gone there the other day, since when I got there today, it was already closed for a concert this afternoon. So I visited the shop in the undercroft thing, and then headed back to my room for a rest. And now it's time to go out and forage some food.

This week I've had: Chinese, Fish & Chips, Indian, and tonight I'm thinking kebab. But we'll see what looks good when I walk by.

And Again

2011-12-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

Today was a repeat day: I visited Westminser Abbey and said goodbye to Chaucer and Spenser. Then I went on to the Banqueting House, which was a wonderful as before. Then on to the National Portrait Gallery, but this time just the Tudors and Stuarts. (As if there's anything to look at after them!) And finally, an hour or so in the National Gallery to see the Arnolfi portrait, Holbein's Ambassadors, some Reubens and some Rembrandts.

I'm still up in the air about tomorrow. We'll see what I feel like when morning rolls around.

It's really nice to revisit some places. I enjoyed the slight familiarity.

And I'm pretty emotionally ready to go home. (I'm very happy here, but you know how it is when you've been away awhile.)

Vocabulary at the British Museum

2011-12-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

I spent much of the day today at the British Museum. On my first visit, I went to see the things I knew I was supposed to see, if that makes sense. I saw the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles, the Assyrian Lion Hunt reliefs, Egyptian mummies, and so on.

The second time, I mostly went to the Relic show.

(medieval tiles showing scenes from Jesus' childhood.) So today, I figured I'd wander around and see things I hadn't seen or really looked at before. I didn't really have any strong sense, but when I walked in, there was a "what's on" electronic thing showing the mini-tours in different areas, so I decided to give one a try. And it was good, so I gave another a try, and so on.

I went on mini-tours of the Japan gallery, the Africa Gallery, the Mexico Gallery, the Medieval Europe gallery, and the Assyrian Nimrod palace gallery. They were great! I mostly saw and learned about things I hadn't really looked at before, and I learned new stuff on every tour and had a good time.

(Aztec mask built on a real skull, I think) While I was waiting for the Mexico gallery tour to begin, at the sign in the living and dying gallery, a man asked the guide what a "seal" was. I thought, that's odd, because I didn't hear an accent in the question so I thought it was an English speaker who hadn't seen many animals. So the guide started to explain the seal, and after a moment the man said, "una foca?"

And I said, "Exactly, una foca!" And then I thought, holy cow, where did that come from? I mean, it's been forever since I spoke Spanish regularly, and "foca" isn't exactly a common vocabulary word, but when I heard it in that context, I knew that's what it meant. I wouldn't have been able to produce it, or even to recognize it independently, I bet, but in the context, I did. (He was looking at a sealskin parka, turned out.)

From the palace at Nimrod, a falcon headed god thing.

I haven't given a lot of details about the Abbey, but I thought I'd post a few pictures. If you recognize it, please don't name it so that it's not googleable. This is a picture out my bedroom window early in the morning in early December. I wanted to show the frost on the lawn.

Up close, you see the inner gate. Down the drive, you can see between the trees a building called the gatehouse. Then there's green and another tiny gate in the distance. The main drive is just under a mile from the entrance to the Abbey to the far gate, and that's mostly where I went to play outside. (Sorry things aren't quite straight. I was in a smallish window.)

Manuscripts!

2011-12-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

I left the Abbey today. Wow, what an experience.

And came to London, where I'm staying only a few blocks from the British Library, so that's where I headed for a travel break. They've got an absolutely fabulous exhibit of Royal Manuscripts. Holy cow, they are AMAZING. There were some with birds, and some of them I could identify with my little ipod British bird ID app. So cool!

'Tis the Season

2011-12-06T02:52:00.003-08:00

Finals and Frustration

2011-12-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

If I could get three things across to students, the world would be a better place (only slightly better, but better).

1. Do your work and do it ontime.

2. Follow directions.

3. Proofread.

There.

I'm giving a final; I was going to be grading the last few papers at this time, but one of the students didn't manage to bring hir papers. They were due at the beginning of the exam.

Do I fail this student for not turning them in at the beginning of the exam? Zie says they're on hir computer, in the email inbox. Why they aren't in my email inbox, I don't know. And why the student didn't bring hir laptop to class (zie has on many occasions) so zie could put them on my flash drive or email them right there, I don't know.

I'm sort of frustrated. I can't seem to get across to this student. I hate feeling like I'm nagging, so I tend not to, and perhaps don't communicate as much as the student needs. But what the student needs, in a way, is to fail because zie didn't turn in the work. But I don't think I'll do that because it feels petty and dinkish.

I don't know why the student can't manage to turn in work in a timely manner. I'm guessing procrastination is involved, but usually (in my vast experience with procrastination) something is behind the procrastination. And most students do manage to do the work, even if it's not done to the best of their abilities when they turn it in. And some people learn from that.

And some don't. I know, I've been there, though I'm not there right now. And I'll likely be there, procrastinating like mad, at some point in the future.

Edited to add: The student turned in the work, late, but at last.

Last Days, for Now

2011-12-05T03:07:00.000-08:00

I'm finishing up here at the Abbey, and looking forward to a few days in London before I head home. It's a final time to visit some places I haven't seen, and revisit some I've seen.

On my revisit list:

Westminster Abbey
Banqueting House
British Museum (maybe also another visit to the British Library)
Victoria and Albert
National Portrait Gallery (I find I like portraits more than some other art, but I may go back to the National Gallery, too)
St. Paul's (and maybe Southwark Cathedral, because it's got a good feel)

Dr. Virago responded last time, and suggested the Sir John Soane, and I've been there and enjoyed it, but I don't think I need a revisit right yet (maybe next time I'm in London).

I haven't been to the Marble Arch (though I've driven by), so I might go there to stand on the Tyburn marker.

Other than that, who has a good idea? (I'm also willing to get on a train and leave town for a day trip.) I know it's way off season, but that's what it is.

Does anyone know if there's a really fun weekend market on Saturday or Sunday that's still going strong? Somewhere special to visit for good cheer? A really fun pub?

I'll be staying near King's Cross this time, which seems (like Paddington) to have a load of hotels nearby more than a neighborhood. (But it's also on the line to go to Heathrow on the subway without dragging my HUGE suitcase miles.)

Readings

2011-12-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

The other day, I stopped at the Abbey library to see if I could find a book or two to keep me happily occupied between grading. Usually at this point in a semester, I'm buried in grading, but with such small classes this semester, I'm pretty much caught up. (I sort of want to pinch myself or something when I say that, just to make sure.)

The librarian is an enabler. You know how they are. You walk in and say, "Hmm, I'm looking for a fun book." And they chat with you for a minute or two, and then they're showing you a table full of delicious looking books, and the next thing you know, you've stayed up half the night reading a book and crying. (I cry all too easily at books.)

I just finished Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie, and it's quite late, much later than I intended to be up, but I don't know that I'll sleep well after finishing the book. It starts out as a bit of a romp, and then it isn't a romp at all, but intense in an unexpected way, almost too intense. It's worth a read, but do it when you don't have to get up early the next morning.

And before that I read Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, which was good in a sort of disconnected way, and not nearly as intense as Jamrach's Menagerie.

That librarian has a lot to answer for if I can't sleep tonight! (Maybe I should read a bit of one of the Pratchett books I picked up at a charity shop the other day? That would be much more sleep inducing, right?)

Magic Teacher

2011-12-04T01:05:00.000-08:00

The story goes like this:

There's a white female teacher working in a school with a goodly population of Black students. She befriends her students, especially this one student, X, a tall, muscular Black man.

One day, in a class, another student mouths off, and X turns around and gives the student a verbal what for.

***

I am not that teacher. But I've heard that same basic story several times. And what interests me is not the veracity, for I believe the people telling it are basically telling what they experienced. No, what interests me are the common elements that are always part of it.

There's always an emphasis on the Black male student's large size and darkness.

Would the story be the same if it were a scrawny Latino student? An average white woman? I don't think so.

You know how in some movies there's a magical or mystical Black (or sometimes Asian) man who befriends a white man and somehow makes him special? I think there's something like that here, a playing out of cultural fantasies about a large Black man protecting the white woman who is out of place to some extent in her classroom. But in the stories I hear, the white woman is sort of magical, in that inspiring stand on desks sort of way, crossing racial and power boundaries in the classroom to be real friends with her students.

Then there's the implied violence: the Black male student can tell off his classmates because he knows he's the biggest, toughest male in the room.

I'm not sure, but I think it's also important that the white woman telling the story is fairly young as a teacher. I think it's important, though the story-telling woman never emphasizes that. Is that because she doesn't recognize her own youth in the story?

I always hear the story from the white female teacher. (I heard it again recently, so it's been on my mind.) That may be because I don't know many tall, muscular Black men who talk to me about their student days, while I do tend to meet and talk with women who are teachers. Student days don't last long, while a career in teaching lasts a while; and even if I were talking with X in the story, there's no real place for X to tell a white woman such as myself the story about how he came to the "rescue" of another white woman, especially if that "rescue" worked because he was willing to play up the stereotype of the large Black man who uses violence. Or maybe the story wouldn't be important enough to stick in X's memory, just another day in the classroom.

Have you heard magic teacher stories? Would you tell such a story, and if you did, what would you emphasize?

Debbie Downer

2011-12-03T05:09:00.000-08:00

At least I think that's what it was called, an 90s or so SNL skit thing where one of the actors was always responding to whatever with a big negative comment, followed by that whaaa whaaa trombone (or trumpet?) sound.

Now that our semester is over, I'd like to express my gratitude towards the Northwoods students I usually teach, all of whom are far too polite to ever say really negative things about the literature I teach to my face. I'm sure they sometimes say negative things elsewhere, but not to my face. Or if they do, they acknowledge that they're afraid of the literature, that it's not easy, or that they've had difficulty in the past. (Yes, they complain about things being too hard a fair bit, but not abou every single thing. And that's usually first year students, so not in lit classes.)

Why my gratitude? Because I had one Debbie Downer student this semester, and boy was it a drag. If I had the same proportion of downer students every semester, I'd want to do violent things likely to get me arrested.

Partly this is because I really enjoy this lit and so it's a bit of an affront for a student to say that Beowulf doesn't make any sense and they hate it, or Lear is boring.

Mr Downer also tended to interrupt a lot, often with some question only vaguely related. For example, we'd be discussing the fool in Lear, and Mr Downer would raise his hand insistently and at the same time, blurt out, "When is the final again?"

I'm sure Mr Downer will be as happy to go his way and not have to do with me, and I am to go my way and not have to do with him.

In contrast, I had another student who revealed once that he'd really disliked PL before because he couldn't make heads nor tails of what was happening. So I focused some attention on strategies for reading Milton, and Mr NotDowner seemed to start liking Milton a fair bit.

So, Mr Downer, here's to you! Have a wonderful life away from me!

Nerd Nostalgia

2011-12-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

There's a stack of blue books in one of the faculty prep rooms.

When I was in college, I played a fair bit of D&D (AD&D, to be absolutely accurate), and tended to use bluebooks to write dungeons in (little grids rock for making maps).

I can't help thinking of writing dungeons when I see bluebooks, still, to this day.

I hope students somewhere are still writing dungeons in bluebooks.

(Or should that be "geek nostalgia"?)

Small World

2011-12-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

One of the visiting folks here is a deep water basketweaver. I haven't gotten to know her well, but we were both free and had tea today (and shortbread cookies!). We were chatting along, and she mentioned a school she'd been affiliated with, and it just so happens that the deep water tapestry weaver at that school was, some years ago, at a school I was affiliated with for a bit.

And yes, the deep water basketweaver knew the tapestry weaver. And we spent several minutes singing her praises, since she's a wonderful person in all sorts of ways.

But how weird is that, that we've known each other for a while, and only by coincidence did the basketweaver mention her affiliation with that school? And cool. Because in some ways I'm a wanna be deep water person only just on the edges because deep water is harder than Shakespeare and stuff. But I still like knowing deep water people because I get to learn cool stuff from them.

I wonder if the tapestry weaver's ears were burning while we lauded her? I hope so!

A Brief and Shining Moment

2011-12-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

I am caught up.

Yes, there's plenty I should get started on, but just for the moment, I'm caught up.

I am caught up in grading and final class preps. I still have to write finals, and grade them.

I sent off my SAA abstract, and I'm actually happy with it.

Stuff yet to do:
Write finals.
Grade finals and papers as they come in.
Meet with students about their papers so they'll be better than otherwise.*
Pack and figure out packing stuff**
Print out my ticket info, and contact someone at home about picking me up in the wee hours of the night.
Write the actual SAA paper.

In the meanwhile, I've borrowed Julian Barnes' book The Sense of an Ending from the Abbey library, and I'm enjoying that. At some point, I'll have to go buy another Pratchett book (assuming I can find one) to read on trains and airplanes and such.

* You know how students often give reasons for why they can't make this or that office hour. Usually, the reasons are along the lines of "I have to work," "I have another class," or "I can't get childcare." I just had a student tell me that she couldn't meet with me because she was going to [insert somewhat fancy international city]. How cool is THAT? I want one of my students at home to tell me that s/he can't meet with me because s/he will be in York or Paris or something someday.

**I mailed one of the sock monkey hats to one of my cousins yesterday. The people at the Royal Mail were amused and helpful. And then, of course, I couldn't help but send her a hinting eff bee message about it. I would be a terrible spy.

The Mind Boggles

2011-11-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

I'm, err, communicating with a colleague. C has had a bad day.

C tells me s/he is worried that another colleague, Y, is unhappy with hir. I ask why, and C says that s/he'd asked Y about a policy issue (one quite clearly spelled out in the legal stuffs but which has to do with classroom management on a basic level). And then Y had emailed an administrator, and then the administrator had sent out a mass email, basically restating the policy and claiming no responsibility for how individual instructors handle their classes.

And then, C tells me, s/he had sent the administrator an email about the policy email, and gotten back an irritating email from the administrator.

So what I want to know: who the hell emails an administrator an email about a policy like that?

As long as what you're doing is fair, ethical, reasonably in line with the policy, and aimed at teaching the class well, then what does an administrator have to do with the way you manage your classroom?

And who the hell emails an administrator to argue about a policy which is reasonable and quite clear, and which the administrator has basically restated with a nod to instructor responsibility?

Seriously, people, why have you made this a big to do? The administrator is busy doing whatever administrative stuff has to be done, and certainly doesn't want to muddy things up in individual classes. And neither of you needs to worry about what the other does in class (assuming, of course, appropriate ethics are in order, and they appear to be). Aren't you busy enough just doing your own work?

I am glad for great distances sometimes.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Time for a Deep Breath

2011-11-29T03:43:00.000-08:00

I had the best weekend in Norwich, as I told you. I haven't told you about one of the little things that added to the goodness. I bought a book and started reading it.

Now, of course, you think, duh, you're an English professor. You read LOTS of books. And indeed, you would be right. But usually I read books to teach them or books about books, which are all very interesting, but, to be frank, not always fun.

I grew up reading for fun, and one of the things I've discovered is that I don't read as much for fun any more. For one thing, reading is physically tiring (the eyes, the sitting so you can see and take notes, or at least see), so it isn't what I tend to want to do for fun as much. And there's so much work reading that I don't always get beyond it. (The big surprise for me this semester is how much I enjoyed teaching PL and FQ
, at least the parts we did, and how much the students seemed to like them as well.)
But this weekend, I didn't take grading (I didn't have much, and most of it got done yesterday, with one thing yet to grade today), so that left my evening free (because I'm a boring so and so who doesn't go out clubbing after a day of medieval church visits).

So I got a book. For a while now, I've been hearing about Terry Pratchett and that he's a good and funny writer, and since I didn't feel like anything serious (I could have brought PL along for serious, or reread the rest of the FQ), I found Terry Pratchett's books among the young adult stuff, and got one, I Shall Wear Midnight.

And it was good! Lots of fun, relaxing, and amusing. It wasn't the first book in the series (Discworld), but it was the one they had, so that was that. I'd like to read more, but will probably mostly hold off until I get back to my own, homey, public library. (I live my public library.)

Now, I have about 6 more hours of teaching this week, and then it's finals time. But for now, right now, I'm not prepping any big new works (because I know making students read a big work for the final days adds stress, and because Blake and Milton wrote some excellent short poems and such, and also one class is finishing up the second book of PL). And that means I have some time to breathe. It's not that I don't have stuff looming, but I feel a bit relaxed. I went for a short playing session outside today, and I feel so much better for it!

Here's the to do list:

For today: grade 2 papers and prep 2 classes (relatively easy preps and I have a 3 hours to get these done)

And then:
Write and grade 3 finals
Grade papers (when they come in, not huge numbers left)
Write my SAA abstract (for Dec 1)
Mail a sock monkey hat to one of my cousins

My excel grade books are ready to go so that I'll enter the last grade numbers and the final numbers will be there. (I love excel grade books.)

I have a few "duties" here (going to a dinner, a concert, and so on) along the way.

And then there's packing, which I will start on Monday, I think. And finish a couple hours later. And then I'll have to dig through to get my toothbrush out again, since that always seems to happen.

I wonder if there are any more Pratchett books around the Abbey? I've also got a hankering to reread The Hobbit and LotR.

Norwich, Topping Off the Day

2011-11-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

After I had some refreshment (a really good fresh fruit scone with blackberry jam and coffee), I was on to my visiting the parish churches on the east side.

St George Colegate was beautiful, though Georgian on the inside (which, after all, is sort of fitting, no?). But there's just a bit of wall painting sort of surviving. It makes me think how colorful and wonderful medieval churches must have been inside, and makes me wish I could see one restored to look like that somehow. Or maybe a new church built to look like that so we didn't mess with a real medieval church? I think I'd get a really different sense of light and meaning in a really colorful church.

There are signs around the church explaining what's to be seen and such (as in the churches I visited the day before), but I couldn't find any of the monuments they seemed so proud of. And then I saw this. What's that? It's a rug. But there's something sticking out from underneath it. Hmmm.

Success! At least it's success if you consider finding a 15th century grave marker a success, and I do. That gave me the impetus to go around looking, and I found another rug.

And look, it's another old brass marker. (Stick with me, I know how to have real fun!)

I walked around several more medieval churches that were (sadly for me) closed, and through the market. The market in Norwich is just fun. I think in order to really do it justice in a photo, you'd have to get a ladder or something so you got up high to take the picture. I didn't have a ladder. I did have some hot tea (because it's really all about the refreshments). And then I went back to St Peter Mancroft.

If you're like me, you're thinking, who's St Peter Mancroft? It's just the regular St. Peter. The Mancroft part is a place name (a lot of the churches have place names in Norwich). I asked and was told by the docent guy that in old French it was originally "magna croft" or big meadow, but people got lazy, and then it became mancroft.

I ask a lot of questions. Sometimes, you get rewarded by learning or seeing something really unexected. And that happened at St Peter Mancroft, because in addition to asking about the name, I asked the docent if he could tell me where Thomas Browne is buried. I know what you're thinking: Thomas Browne? Really? Did you actually read Hydrotaphia, really? (a tiny bit, and I have no clue.) But nonetheless, he has the courtesy to have been dead a good long time, so I asked.

But sometimes, you hit the goldmine. Maybe the docent is bored, or maybe he's fascinated by really dead guys. And this is the goldmine of Thomas Browne weirdness. This, my friends, is a plaster cast of his skull.

I know, it's not in great condition, but there it is. And it comes with a story. In the 1840s, "they" went to bury someone else in the floor right near Browne, and when they were opening things up, his coffin came open. And the curate at the time decided to take out the skull because it was the height of phrenology and he wanted to see why Browne had been "such a clever fellow" (as the docent put it). So he took the skull and did the phrenology stuff with it, but by the time he was done, "they" had closed up the floor again. So there he was with Browne's skull.

By 1845, it found its way to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, where it was displayed in the museum for a good long time. And then in about 1920, the church vicar asked that it be returned. And it was. But before they reburied it with the rest of Browne, they made a cast. And they wrote up an article in the parish newspaper.

When I asked about Browne's grave, the docent showed me the grave and told me the story, and then took me back to the room behind the altar where the priests do their prep stuff and all, and there was the box with the plaster skull and he showed me that, and then he pulled out the magazine and showed me that.

And then because I'd gotten lucky, he also showed me the 15th century tapestry that they normally keep covered. They think it was made by the flemish clothworkers (the ones who hung out in Strangers Hall and that area). The subject of the tapestry is the resurrection. On the left, Jesus is visiting Mary in a rather fancy house. (Things started looking up after the whole manger thing, I guess.)

A fair bit of time ago, I heard VA Kolve give a paper or something on the imagery of Jesus as a gardener talking to Mary Madgalen. And look, here's a beautiful image of just that from the tapestry!

And below the tapestry sits this huge, massive chest. The docent said it had been brought to this new church from the original Norman church, and was probably the oldest thing in the whole church. How is that for way lucky for me?

I was pretty much full up on excitement, so I walked back down to the train station and caught my replacement bus (because the rail lines were being serviced) out of town.

But I'm going to leave you with one last image. In the little room in back of the altar, a room where pretty much no one but the priests were going to see what's there, some medieval workman carved these lovely heads on the ends of the beams. Unlike the heads way up high in most churches, these are in a fairly small room, and I could actually see them up close. So here one is.

I think you can see why I had an even better time on this visit to Norwich!

Norwich, the Morning

2011-11-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

After my breakfast (there's something about the "traditional" English breakfast that's perfect for walking around a lot; it fills you up a bit and gives you energy, and you don't get hungry for HOURS), I walked to the city walls, or what remains of them. If you look on the map, you'll see there's a little grey dotted-line thing down near the bottom; that's what's left of the city walls. I was staying near the rail station, so I walked along the river path, and then over the bridge where there was an old looking tower sitting near the water, and some walls. If you're thinking of York's or Chester's or Canterbury's walls, well, you're not going to be impressed by these. But if you're thinking that you didn't even realize any of the walls had survived at all, then they're wonderful because they're sort of overgrown and lost on this steep hill where the city has put stairs so you can wander up and along the wall and look out over the city and it's just about as perfect a city wall ruins as you could hope for.

These are, in fact, just the sort of city walls that a modern day timid adventurer enjoys, obscure enough that most people won't even notice they're there, but good for getting a bit out of breath on the stairs and feeling like you've found something. Of course, the modern stairs mean that you haven't actually found anything that hasn't been found and put on the map for you, but you get what I mean.

From the city walls, I walked back along the river, past the rail station and over to the east side of the old city. The cygnets were pretty convinced that I had something to feed them when I wandered nearish the edge. I don't think I've ever been that close to a bird that size before.

There's an old watergate and ferry building (the watergate is 15th century, I think, but the ferry building is quite new), now a private home, but you can still see where the river was dug out a bit.

The river was picturesque in that town river with cool bridges sort of way. Along the southern part, there are a couple of footbridges (as well as car bridges), and they're also building a new footbridge across the northern part. (I heard that it was running over cost and time because they'd built one off-site and brought it by barge only to realize that it was 6 or 8 feet short. Oops. I was only told that, so I don't know.)

There's also something called the Cow Tower, which was built in the 16th century to provide protection across the river. It was built to house canon, and it's tall enough so that it can see over and shoot at the hill across the river. (I was told that the river had been the protection for that whole side of the town since it was so marshy on the sides that you couldn't have gotten an army across very well or easily. But maybe there was also a wall of some sort. Or not.) And if you look closely at the tree near the tower, you'll see a modern art installation. The sign says it's housing for whatever wants to live there, birds or insects. The juxtaposition made me smile.

And then there's this. What is that, you ask? Some sort of medieval swimming pool? The sign says it's a "Swan Pit," the last surviving one in England. At which point I turned to my trusted wikipedia, which uses this very swan pit as its exemplar. I guess it's 18th century?

I wonder what the cygnets would think?

I ended my walk along the river by turning away from the river here. I have a feeling the sign may be a bit newer than the pub. So cool!

More on the afternoon, to cap it off, so to speak, in a bit!

Norwich - Even Better the Second Time

2011-11-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

As you may remember, I really enjoyed Norwich when I visited in early November. I enjoyed it so much that I went back this weekend. You may be surprised to learn that I had an even better time this time.

One part of that has to do with something I've learned about myself: it takes me a good day to warm up to a city, even a small city. But revisiting Norwich meant that I was warmed up as soon as I stepped off the train. I'm glad my first visit was fairly recent because I remembered how to get places pretty well.

Another part has to do with the helpful folks at the tourist office and some just dumb luck. I got a tourist map at the tourist office (I know, I know), and asked about some of the medieval churches. So the woman behind the desk marked out some churches for me that she thought might be open, and I went on my way.

The first one, St Laurence (or St. Lawrence), was open but empty. So of course I walked in. It was totally empty, but the space was peaceable and quiet. At first it's sort of weird being all alone in an empty church, with a bicycle and carrier thing right near the door, just inside. But I walked around a bit and it was good. The ceiling is way up, and the church is amazingly light. But of course, when it was built, it would have had lots of interior paint and such, and wouldn't look all whitewashed.

I walked two blocks (and short blocks at that) to St Margarets. Unlike St. Laurence, St. Margaret is anything but empty. In fact, it was being used for an art exhibition on Saturday, so there was an artist there putting up her work. She was nice enough to let me wander around once I promised not to sue her if I fell and broke my ankle. I like that the building is being used for art and such. It seemed a whole lot less lonely than St. Laurence. (Though not as open for pictures.)

Then I went on to St. Swithun, which is now an arts center. The art center folks were kind enough to let me wander around inside, but there wasn't much to see since the space has been reworked as a concert space with a stage and standing room.

Then it was on to St. Gregory Pottergate, which was probably the very best church of all because it had this magnificent and cool wall painting still up! You need to click on that painting to see it as big as you can because it's so wonderful. As I learned on my last trip to Norwich (at Dragon Hall), there was a religious fraternity thing in medieval Norwich dedicated to St. George (yes, RedCrosse!), so here he is. (There's also a dragon named Snap in the castle museum.)

This is a modern Snap (I'm pretty sure it's not 15th century at least) hanging around. What I learned last time is that the Lord Mayor does an annual entry or something and is led by Snap, and all sorts of other festiveness. I have to wonder what would happen if poor Snap met a real dancing dragon like for Chinese New Year. I have a feeling Snap would feel a bit inadequate.

There's also this great misericord with a guy... well, the description on the website says he's sitting on his haunches, which would sort of fit with the whole semi-sitting on the misericord. But I have a hunch he may not be sitting. Look at his face; doesn't he look like he's concentrating pretty darned hard? I thought so.

Then, of course, there's the ceiling. Who doesn't love a good medieval ceiling! I do, anyway. I can't quite wrap my mind around the idea that people built this 500 or so years ago, and it's still there, and still looks pretty darned sturdy.

I'd pretty much had a day of medieval churches (with some hot cocoa from Caylee's to keep me going), so I wandered through the market and around as it began to get dark. You probably remember my friend Onofre. Well, when I posted pictures on eff bee, some folks said they thought he was great, and some other friends here have said they'd like to give hats to their kids, so I stopped and got some hats. And then when I got back to the manor (on Saturday), I took a picture of the whole clan, with the first Onofre at the upper center in a place of more or less honor. Or something.

They sort of look scary all there together, don't they? (The center is a red fox. He's got the BEST tail!)

In a bit, Day Two of the Norwich Second Visit.

A Rant in the Key of Eff U - Grad School Recommendations Edition

2011-11-27T05:22:00.000-08:00

I'm doing letters of recommendation for grad schools. It takes me about an hour to write a good letter using the materials the student has sent. I'm happy with the letter and enthusiastically recommend the student, who is a fine person and will do well in the chosen career path.

But the forms. Curse a bunch, and then curse some more. Stupid forms!

One insists that I give my country's phone code. Seriously? The address that I've filled in is in the middle of the US and you need my phone code? How about you use some minimal coding knowledge and have the form set so that when I choose "United States" from the country list it automatically knows that the phone code is 001. (Yes, I had to look it up. I don't call the US from outside the country much and I certainly didn't need to devote even a single cell to remembering that number. Except now I will probably remember it through a haze of dementia so that on my death bed I'll croak out something about 001 and whoever is cleaning the floor at the time won't know what it's about or care, but it will be my final sound.)

Some of the forms want me to distinguish between the top 1 or 2% and the top 5%. Really? I teach a good hundred students each semester in a variety of different classes, and you want me to decide who's number 2 vs number 3?

I don't think you actually need the number of questions that you put on those forms. Some of them have ten questions ranging from communication and writing to maturity to creativity to whatever. How do you distinguish between writing and communication? Have you ever had a really excellent student who could write but couldn't communicate? Or vice versa? They aren't quite the same, but they're pretty darned closely related. Most of the choices are like that, too. They may not ask quite the same thing, but they're close enough that you're not going to get a student who does one really well and can't do the other at all.

One form had at the very bottom a choice box for how likely the student was to complete the program. I'd say it depends on funding and disasters; given okay funding and few disasters, this student will be great. Given a bad disaster, the student will die tomorrow. And you think I can answer that question in a meaningful way? (I picked the best one because I think the student is superb. But I still can't predict disasters.)

And finally, the forms where I have to upload the letter, in either pdf or doc format, depending on which it wants (and no, they don't all want the same thing). The screen says that when it uploads properly, you'll see a button that says something like "check the upload" so that you can see what you've uploaded. But it doesn't actually say that. So you start all over, and funny enough, it thinks you've already uploaded the letter.

I think everyone who makes up these forms or decides that they're department will use these forms should be forced to fill out a bunch of fake recommendations just to make sure that what you've SAID will show up actually shows up.

This student is applying to a number of schools. I'm halfway done with the forms, and more than halfway to high bloodpressure. (At least this student isn't applying to different sorts of programs that require different stuff IN the letter like one a year or two ago.)

And one of the universities that was supposed to have sent me information about how to submit a letter of recommendation hasn't.

Yes, recommendations have always taken a long time, but this is stupid.

Okay, back to work.

****

Well, one more thing. I decided to check my eff bee page. I did. And there, at the top, two of my "friends" have somehow clicked like or whatever on a big chain store. One of these people is all on sometimes about how radical and stuff she is, but she likes big box capitalism. That makes good sense.

Let's be honest, you can't click on eff bee that you love big box store and in the next moment assert that you totally support local OWS stuff. It makes no sense. That big box store IS Wall Street. Those profits are going to Wall Street, and they're what they are because the store imports cheap crap from overseas factories that don't allow unionization and that have poor pay and work conditions.

I feel like unfriending some people because they clicked that they like a big box store. How snotty is that? (Pretty snotty.)

Decisions

2011-11-22T02:17:00.000-08:00

It's about the last weekend here at the Abbey until finals, and then I'll spend a few days in London before flying back to the Northwoods.

I'm thinking of a leisurely weekend away, somewhere.

I could go to Durham. I hear there's a lovely cathedral and that it's a good place for walking. I haven't been yet.

I could go back to York. York is incredible, AND there's a big Christmas market I could wander through. But maybe crowded?

I could go back to Norwich. Norwich is friendly and fun, and great for walking. But I was there only a couple of weeks ago. (I still need to post up about my trip to Norwich some more!)

Other thoughts?

So where should I go? (The folks who suggested Norwich before did a great job, and I trust you may have other ideas.)

I've been to:

Edinburgh
Dublin (and a bit around Ireland)
Norwich
York
Chester
Lincoln
Wales (Llandudno, mostly)
The Lake District
Canterbury
Stratford
Burghley House and Stamford
Windsor
Dover

I'm totally game for a tiny town or something different, so long as I can get there and back on public transportation and there's a warm-enough place to sleep.

I'm also getting near the point where I'll prioritize where I want to go while I'm in London.

So far, I'm planning to revisit Westminster, Paul's, the Banqueting House, and the British Library. Other places I should aim for, especially things I haven't yet? (I know a lot of places are closed for winter, but I'm here now.)

Gettin' my Geek On

2011-11-21T06:01:00.000-08:00

I'm teaching Robinson Crusoe right now. I'm always a bit overwhelmed teaching novels. There's so much there, and it's not divided into acts and speeches and such.

Sometimes, that means I get a little focused on little things. And often enough, those are stupid little things. Like this time:

It was now Harvest, and our Crop in good Order; it was not the most plentiful Encrease I had seen on the Island, but however it was enough to answer our End; for from our 22 Bushels of Barley, we brought in and thrashed out above 220 Bushels; and the like in Proportion of the Rice, which was Store enough for our Food to the next Harves... (208)

I know what you're thinking: "Okay, they harvested enough."

But I was listening to a couple audio books recently, one a history of medieval Europe, the other a history of the crusades (from a European point of view), and both texts talked about some important changes in food production during the middle ages. From my poor memory (which is a big disadvantage with audio books), there are changes from a two field system of crop rotation to a three or four field system of crop rotation, which led to greater production. There's also the introduction of the horse collar, which means greater plowing production, and so more land can be cultivated. And so on.

But by the late middle ages, if memory served, the ratio of seed to harvest had gone from 1:2 (which means you then have to hold half the harvest to reseed next year) subsistence farming to 1:3 or 1:4 not-quite subsitence farming.

But ol' Crusoe isn't doing crop rotation, and he's working in imaginary tropical fields (which in real life aren't suited to barley production at all, though apparently in literature they sometimes are, on which, more later).

But by the 1720s when the book is published (as opposed to 1659, when he supposedly got shipwrecked on the island), Jethro Tull (the agriculture guy, not the band) had done some serious agricultural work to increase production. And other rotation practices (and potatoes!) were being introduced around.

Anyway, I was getting my geek on about this, and look what I found! It's a database of three centuries of crop yields in England!

You have to sign in, which I did, and then play around a bit to find an estate for which there's data for the years and crops you've chosen, but it's just way cool! And if you were a real geek, you'd start looking for somewhere that the database covers AND that has good parish records, and you'd go to town wildly looking at food production and birth/death/wedding information.

In Kent, for example, at a manor called Westerham (owned by Westminster Abbey), in 1312-13, the yield for wheat is 4.46 (that's the ratio, again) and for barley it's 7.56. The next year the barley ratio is above 8. But in 1304-5, the ratio for wheat is 1.32 and for barley 1.25. (That had to be a BAD year.) 1348-9 is even worse (1.27 and 1.19), and then there's apparently a 12 year gap in the records.

I've only explored a bit, but the 8 fold increase seems exceptional, and an increase of 2-4 fold seems typical. (You can explore yourself! It's fun and entertaining!)

What does this tell me about Robinson Crusoe? I think it suggests that someone more 18th century than I should figure out if something similar is available for 18th century crop yields. But I suspect what it tells us is that Defoe doesn't actually know much about farming, and so is at best overestimating yields (especially in a tropical context). At any rate, Crusoe is basically doing BAD medieval agriculture (and not using clover in his rotation, as was being introduced into England in the 18th century, or any crop rotation or fallow field rotation), so he probably shouldn't count on the 10 fold yield. On the other hand, it's a neat little thing in the text that they're willing to wait 6 months so that they can get another crop in before bringing over the Spaniards from where they were captives.

Other than that, well it's more entertaining to look at a database of medieval crop yields than to think about teaching an 18th century novel, but I suppose that says more about me than about the novel.

Anyone have crop yield information for the 16th, 17th, or 18th centuries in England?

Sources (because the geek is strong in me!)

Campbell, Bruce M. S. (2007), Three centuries of English crops yields, 1211‑1491 [WWW document]. URL http://www.cropyields.ac.uk [November 21, 2011.]

Daileader, Philip. The Teaching Company: The High Middle Ages. 2001. Audiobook.

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Ed. Thomas Keymer. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

Harl, Kenneth W. The Teaching Company: Era of the Crusades. 2000. Audiobook.

Versailles!

2011-11-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

One thing: when you visit Versailles, it's easy to see why some folks thought they needed a revolution.

That said, wow, I had a great time.

I had been hanging out with Singing Woman, who speaks a bit of French, but she didn't want to go to Versailles, and I did, so I went on my own.

I'll admit it: I was a little nervous before I went to Paris because I don't speak the language and feel unsophisticated and stuff. But it was fine, and better than fine. I got directions at the hotel for the special train (RER) and bought a ticket at the Metro station. I had to switch trains, but it was straightforward and obvious that they were really used to directing tourists to Versailles.

Imagine, when Versailles was built as a palace, it was well outside of Paris. Now it's a suburb. And, according the the stuff I read while I was there, Louis XIV built it so that he could get all the bureaucrats out of Paris and under his thumb to run things, which works well if you're really good at running things and they aren't too big, and then probably doesn't.

This is Hercules, on one of the fireplace mantles, I think. I love the detail of the lion helmet/hat thingy with the eyes closed and the nostrils just off center, and the lion's face becoming one with Hercule's hair. This mantle is sort of a toss off, not one of the big pieces of art, and yet it's still stunning and beautiful. It could be all by itself and I'd stop and gawk.

But then the whole place is just overwhelming beyond belief, and poor Hercules becomes one of a million other things you see and finally can't really take in any more.

Because we'd gotten the Paris pass thing, I didn't have to wait in a long line (yay), and also had already paid for an entry into the Trianon palaces, the smaller palaces in the estate. So after I walked through and got all overwhelmed by the main palace (including the Dauphin's rooms and the family rooms), I got a ticket for the mini-tram thing and rode down to the Grand Trianon. It's a pinkish marble, and just about as beautiful as a building can be in the sunshine.

I really liked it. Somehow, it seemed like an intimate palace, if one can imagine such a thing? I mean, I could imagine real people living there, and I really couldn't imagine anyone real in the main palace at all because it is just too huge for comprehension.

There was a room with malachite vases (look!) and a table and such, and it was just eye-stopping. I could have stared at those vases for a good long time. I love the patterning in them. I guess they're somehow carved out of solid stone? And then polished beyond belief?

Sometimes, I've seen pottery with crystaline glazes that look sort of like that, except not in such a perfect green. (I really like a good, deep green.)

So, in case France is wondering, the malachite vases are welcome to come visit the BardiacShack any time you get bored of having them at the Grand Trianon!

After my visit to the Grand Trianon, I was hungry, and lo, there was a food stand! Actually, it was a baked potato stand. I'd never seen a baked potato stand before, but it's baked potatoes! What (except for Dan Quayle's spelling) could go wrong? Not this! This, my friends, is a potato done in Norwegian style (or something in French), and it's hot potato with sour cream, herbs, and smoked salmon with a lemon slice. I doubt Louis the XIV had a more welcome baked potato! It gave me the energy to go on to the next palace, the smaller Trianon.

I took the tram from one Trianon to the other, and then to the canal thing, and walked through the gardens up from there. (I'm really not happy with the composition of this picture, alas. I took one with a better composition, but somehow the horses are going uphill in the water, so it just doesn't work. I don't know how I got it so off kilter. Still it's Poseidon and horses, and they're coming up out of the water!

The gardens were off season, and yet still beautiful and green and so very full of people wandering about. I imagine in spring and summer it's more beautiful with flowers, but there are also even more people going through. (The gardens were fine, but going through the main palace was pretty crowded. I think part of why I found the Trianon palaces so much more appealing is that they were far less crowded. I can't help sometimes feeling that way in crowds.)

And that was my visit to Versailles. I had figured I'd probably take half a day and then go visit the Orsay in Paris, but it was a beautiful day and I was really enjoying the whole thing, so I didn't rush it at all. And I'm glad I didn't. I got home safely in the evening, and went to bed, and then got up early and was at the Orsay within a few minutes of its opening, so I at least got to see it for a bit.

I love Van Gogh. I would marry this painting if it were allowed. (Maybe France would let me marry the painting, but I'm sure they wouldn't approve of it coming home with me. Alas. Maybe we can just live together?) The thing about Van Gogh is that I can just look at the brush strokes all day. I look straight on for a bit, and then I move over to the side and look at an angle so that I can see the depth. And then I look from the front again. And so on. The Orsay was a pretty darned good time for me!

In addition to the Van Gogh's and other art (Lautrec! Renoir! Monet! Pisarro!) the building itself is beyond magnificent. What a great way to use an old train station!

A word about Renoir. Sometimes, his pictures of people look vapid to me. But sometimes he catches something about them with what feels to me like great affection (like this one) and then he's as good as the best. (I really like portraits, and like Raphael especially. Look at his Castiglione!)

I had a couple of hours at the Orsay, and then went back to travel back to the UK with the student group, back under the Chunnel. What a nice way to start a travel day!

I know you're all wondering what Onofre was up to while I was visiting Versailles. Well, he was up to his usual tricks, trying to get on the head of a statue (but alas, I couldn't reach)!

More Paris!

2011-11-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

After that, we found our way to the Museum of the Middle Ages, the Cluny, which was high on my list, and totally wonderful. They have lots of stuff from the 12th to the 15th centuries especially, and it's just so darned cool to get to see it! I even took a picture of my hat (now called Onofre, by the way) visiting the gargoyly statue on the outside well thing.

From the Cluny, we went to eat. And that was good! And then we walked to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon is big. It's supposed to be like a secular French monument to all things French, but it sort of did nothing for me. And that's strange, because you know how much I like to visit dead people? Well, there are a LOT of really great dead people here: Voltaire, Rousseau, Madame Curie, Alexandre Dumas! All sorts of people. But there's nothing that struck me as, I don't know, personal? about the vaults. There are these big vaults in these crypts, and they're all basically the same (except for Voltaire and one or two others). It's not like there's a little Chaucer thing here and a Spenser thing there, as in Westminster. Nor are you even walking over Darwin and Newton. Somehow, that walking among them made me happy to visit them, but this just left me cold.

After that, Singing Woman wanted to buy a purse at some special shop, Longchamp. We got lost here and there, but finally found it and she got her bag. (She'd been looking at this purse for a good long time, I guess, and knew exactly what color and size and such she wanted. Once we found the store, it took all of perhaps five minutes for her to buy her bag.)

And then it was getting late, but the guide book SAID that that Musee D'Orsay was open until 6pm, so we headed there. Unfortunately, we got there shortly after 5pm, and they weren't letting people in any more. So we didn't get to go in. We did eat dinner, though :)

But the guide book said that the Louvre was open on Friday evenings until 9pm, so we went there. Unfortunately, maybe because of the holiday, it wasn't actually open. The mall was open, so people could buy stuff, but you couldn't go into the galleries to look at stuff.

Next up, Versailles!

So, Paris!

2011-11-18T13:02:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was Paris. It amazes me right now to think back that merely a week ago, I was in PARIS! (I've never been to France, much less Paris, before. Exciting!) We started off by traveling to London, specifically St. Pancras Station, which is where the EuroStar trains that travel the Chunnel (Channel Tunnel) leave from.

We all got our passports checked and then got on our train, and a few hours later, voila, we were at the station in Paris, the Station de Nord. From there, we walked through the station (imagine this huge herd of American students mostly, with a few adults tagging along, more slow and lost than the students) to the metro station (the Paris subway is called the metro, not the tube or the underground), and got on a subway train for three stops. Then we got off, walked around the corner and up a tiny block, and we were at our hotel for the weekend! We got there at about 6pm. Yep, here's my lovely hotel room. Look at the size of that bed!

I was travelling mostly with another faculty member, Singing Woman, who is lots of fun. We get along well. So once we got checked in and dropped our stuff, we wandered around for an hour or so and found a bar/restaurant to have dinner. I had a lovely lasagne, and then we shared a chocolate cake, because, after all, PARIS!!!!!

I should probably mention at this point that Singing Woman and I had bought "Paris Pass" tickets ahead. The idea is that you pay a lump sum and get a four day metro ticket, tickets to lots of museums and tourist stuff, and tickets to a boat ride on the Seine and other activities. You also get to go into the shorter lines for people who already have tickets, which saves a lot of time.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to the Louvre. THE LOUVRE! We visited the Mona Lisa of course. I know a lot of people say that it's a much smaller, less impressive painting in person, but I thought it was plenty big and totally cool and impressive. We also saw other Renaissance paintings. When I went back to school at a local community, I took an art history series of classes, so it's way cool to see a painting from across a room and think, "hey, that's Malateste!" and it actually is. (He's the subject of a famous portrait.) The Louvre is a lot like the British Museum: you could spend weeks wandering around and never see everything. Unlike the British museum, it's a pretty amazingly beautiful space all by itself.

But we only spent a couple of hours, long enough to see some of the pieces we most wanted to (Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, and so on), and then we left and walked through the gardens area to the Orangerie. Even the views in the gardens are artistic :)

The Orangerie holds some of the huge sets of Monet water lilly paintings. There are two large oval rooms upstairs of water lilly paintings, with seats so you can just sit and be overwhelmed and amazed by the paintings. And then downstairs there are selections of other modernist European works, including some really lovely Picassos. But they frown on plebians such as myself taking pictures in there, so I didn't.

We went back out to the garden then (the Tuileries) and found a cafe for lunch. Food is good!

Then we decided to walk to the boat place on the Seine and take a ride for about an hour. It was a nice day, not too cold, and clear enough to see well, and the cruise was on a big barge thingy, so we got to see stuff along the Seine, including both sides of the two islands that make up the very center of the city. (The one is the Ile de Cite, and the other the Ile de St Louis, which was added later, I think. The Ile de Cite is the medieval heart of the city. I may be backwards about these...) So we saw Notre Dame from the water and the Louvre from the water, the Orsay, and so on. Pretty darned neat!

The boat loads and lets off right near the Eiffel Tower, so that was next on our list. There was a HUGE line to ride up, and a smaller line to walk up the stairs, so we went up the stairs. It's got a lot of stairs. And then you reach the first platform, and realize there are a lot more stairs to reach the second platform. But it's totally worth it! We got there and it was becoming dusk. I rode the final elevator up to the top platform, and could see the city lights in the evening light (the last picture in my previous post is from the top of the Eiffel Tower), and that was about as good as it gets.

When we got down, we got to see the tower all lit up, which they do for about ten minutes every hour in the evening. It's something they supposedly started for the millenium, and was so popular that they continued it. It's pretty darned amazing.

And then it was time to eat, so we found a Japanese restaurant and had sushi. Yum, and something completely different from our usual fare. And then off to bed. (Yes, I missed out on the Paris nightlife.)

The next morning, we were at it again. It was the 11th of November, and so rememberance day. We started by walking to Notre Dame, and when we got there, they were just starting a special service in honor of a bishop from one of the Francophone African countries. The place was PACKED. We sat through the start of the service, and then we decided to split up because Singing Woman wanted to stay for the service, but I wanted to wander around the Cathedral. We agreed to meet up in front at 11 am. So I wandered and saw the different chapels and such, and walked around the outside (and checked out the massive line of people waiting for the tower tours) so that I could see the big flying butresses. And at 11 am, I was in front of the Cathedral.

And that, of course, is when the bell started tolling for rememberance. So that's where I was on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year. And I remembered and thought of some friends of my parents when I was a kid, one of whom was a soldier during WWI, the other a nurse, especially. (I think this is St. Denis, who got his head chopped off and picked it up again, if I recall?)

Then Singing Woman came out and we ran into some students, and headed towards the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation, which is Paris's holocaust memorial. It's behind Notre Dame in a park. You know how the Vietnam Memorial is, that you walk down into it? Well this is down, like that, but you take stairs down into a square, and it's very somber and grey, and then there's a crypt thing that you walk into, with the names of concentration camps, and a tomb of an unknown victim. It's quiet, and sad.

And that's enough for this post. More to follow, shortly.

Pick One?

2011-11-17T09:48:00.000-08:00

There's a small (tiny) photo contest, and I'm thinking of entering a photo. Help me choose which one, please!

#7

Which one should I enter? (And can you explain why you chose that one?)

ps. Yes, I took them all, not a hyperactive four year old. I'd love to learn to take better pictures, but I just haven't put in the effort in a real way.

On Tape and On My Mind

2011-11-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

I listen to a lot of books on tape. I listen to go to sleep at night, to stay awake while driving, and to pass the time on busses and trains. (I know the first two seem contradictory, don't they.) Not all books are good for all of these things.

Recently, I finally finished listening to Amy Tan's Saving Fish From Drowning. It's NOT a good fall asleep book because I kept getting caught up in the story and not falling asleep. It's a great bus and train book, though.

I really like contemporary novels that try to do something other than the 19th century realism thing. I like magical realism usually, for example. I like epistolary novels. I like books that try to do something interesting, even when they don't fully succeed.

And so, I liked Tan's novel a lot, because it has a really interesting conceit and works it through in interesting ways. The narrator, you see, is a ghost. And there are gnats (I'm not sure of the spelling) around, sort of mini-gods of places and things, and they have power and the narrator treats them as real, or real enough.

And it's a travel book that thinks about what it means to travel and how and where one chooses to travel, and I think that's important to me. And I love travel narratives anyway.

I would totally love to sit in on a really good college level discussion of the book!

(And I really liked the tale behind the title.)

Separation Anxiety

2011-11-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

It seems like so much is happening at home right now, so much, and I'm here doing this thing, which is fine, but the things at home are urgent. Of course, they're getting done, but I feel like I should be part of things, and I'm not.

I'm keeping busy here, though. I just got back from four days in Paris. I can't quite wrap my head around the idea of spending the weekend in Paris (a long weekend, but nonetheless, a weekend).

Day One: Louvre for a couple of hours. Park. The Orangerie. Rode a boat on the Seine, and then went to the top of the Eiffel Tower (walking what could be walked, including a lot of stairs). It was all magnificent up there!

Day Two: Notre Dame. That's where I was at 11 am, when the bells sounded for rememberance. Then to the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation (a sort of Holocaust memorial). Then to Cluny (which was just perfection for me). Then to the Pantheon. Then a long shopping excursion and getting sort of lost (my friend wanted to buy something specific at a specific place, but we didn't go directly there at all). Then a long walk to the Orsay, which was already closed to new visitors for the afternoon, and then a long walk to the Louvre, which was supposed to be open for the evening but wasn't (because of the 11th?).

Day Three: Versailles. Holy Cow. I really enjoyed the Grand Trianon. I think it felt sort of like an intimate palace, somehow, like real people could have lived there. I can only imagine that the gardens in spring must be beyond belief.

Day Four: The Orsay, and then hours of travel and waiting and more travel. There are several Van Goghs there that I'd be happy to give a home to if they don't want them in France any more. (And if anyone can help with that, I can supply details about which ones.)

According to my camera, which is downloading it's pictures even now, I took 291 pictures this weekend. A lot are repeats, since I tend to take several pictures of the same thing, especially in semi dark places where you're not allowed to use flash, since I sometimes move, and sometimes get lucky and don't move.

And now I'm back at the Abbey, hunkered in my room with crackers and really good Stilton and Poachers cheeses I got at a local market a couple weeks ago. I'm in a mood for quiet and rest, but my neighbor is doing the yelling over skype thing next door.

My hat is acquiring a name. To me, my hat looks like it could take on a life of it's own, not necessarily malevolent (look at that smile!) but perhaps a bit mischevious. Here, for example, the hat is visiting Cluny. Anyway, I'm thinking of calling it either El Mono, or, what I really like but am afraid I'd have to explain to everyone forever, El Mono Onofre.

Do you all remember the book The Milagro Beanfield War? I first read that while I was in the Peace Corps, and some things about it just stuck with me. There's a character in the book, a guy called Onofre, who had lost his arm (sometime before the book starts, if I recall). And when something goes wrong in town, or can't seem to be explained by normal means, everyone blames it on his lost arm, el brazo Onofre.

What do you think? El Mono (or just Mono) OR, El Mono Onofre?

Every time I tried to speak a few words of French, just to say thank you or please, whatever, they came out in Spanish. I only have one foreign language channel, and it's set to Spanish. That's why the hat name is Spanish. And because of Onofre.

Same Old Dance

2011-11-08T05:34:00.000-08:00

I was sitting in the shuttle with some students earlier, and I effectively disappeared, I think. At any rate, they (visiting the Abbey from different schools) were complaining about difficulties enrolling for the courses they wanted. Their complaints included a few choice words about their advisors and others about instructors who either haven't answered emails about letting students over-enroll (my word, not theirs) into full courses or whose answers were unsatisfactory. And they were frustrated by the numbers of courses already full by their enrollment time.

When I taught at a SLAC, we faculty folks were strongly encouraged to over-enroll students who wanted to take a course, but I don't recall it being a huge problem in my courses. (It's way more of a problem in lab courses where physical space is an issue than in the small courses I was teaching, it being a small school and everything.) There was also a sort of implied agreement that if students took and passed the courses their advisors told them to, and didn't change their majors, then they'd graduate in four years.

At Northwoods, we don't have any sort of implied agreement like that. And we have a pretty low four year graduation rate. There are a lot of reasons for that, but one of the contributing factors is that the school has cut course offerings pretty severely over the past ten years without cutting enrollments. This makes it difficult for some students to get the course they want, especially for general education type requirements, their first year. We mostly do okay with composition, though many students don't get to take it their first semester. Still we have very few sophomores taking it unless they failed it as a first year student.

I started wondering when this became a problem. It was a problem when I entered college in the late 70s. I remember students at my school who wanted to do anything biology related being held up because they couldn't get one of the 1200 slots in the first term of the chemistry sequence during their first semester. Since two terms of chem were prerequisites to the first biology course, and the first biology course was prerequisite to all but one other biology course (Human Sexuality being the exception), it put them behind. And for very sequential programs like the one I took, being a term behind was a serious problem.

I'm sure they did the two terms of chem thing so that they could "weed" out or scare off people who weren't actually going to get the grades to get into vet or med school, and so get them started exploring other majors. But it's a cruel way to do it.

And it doesn't make real sense pedagogically. Yes, sure, it's good to know chemistry, but the only biology type courses where I really needed to know the chemistry even a little were the ones that dealt with kidney stuff and permeable membranes and environmental toxicology. Once I figured that out, I got really suspicious of requirements for the sake or requirements.

Anyway, by the 70s, at least at my undergrad institution, people weren't necessarily getting into the courses they wanted when they wanted them. And it didn't seem like a new thing, since there were all sorts of student rumors and strategies about how to work the system.

What about you folks? How are enrollments in classes going? Are things looking over-enrolled a lot?

And do you have a sense of when it started to feel like that? Was it in the beginnings of time, or is it the result of specific decisions made by administrations?

I'm aware that I sound a little "student as consumer who should get what s/he wants" here. I understand the argument that students should take course Y for a GE requirement even though course X makes more sense for their interests. I hear it a lot, especially in certain contexts within my university. But I tend not to disagree, because Y and X, equally wonderful as they are, may not be of equal value to the student getting the education s/he wants to get.

Stylin'

2011-11-08T01:10:00.000-08:00

Do you remember how I said before that I really don't understand people shopping in foreign countries and stuff? Well, I'm going to have to eat my words. Yes, it's true; while I was in Norwich, I went shopping. I couldn't help myself. The castle wasn't open yet, but all the stores and shops and market were, and I started wandering.

And I found an utterly perfect hat.

Do you remember those hats that different people wore to the wedding last summer, the one where William married Catherine? Yes, those hats? Remember seeing all the pictures and commentary about how creative and stylish those hats were?

When you look at pictures from that, they all tell who designed the hat and the dress and so on (I just looked at those pictures, so I'm in the know). Well, I'm sad to say that I don't know who the designer of my new hat is, but I think the person deserves a big "hurrah!"

I also think that if any of the women at the royal wedding had worn MY new hat, she would have stolen the show completely! All eyes would have been on her the whole time. And she would have warmed things up considerably. Not only is my new hat stylish, but it's also supremely practical. Okay, maybe not supremely, but at least a tiny bit, which is more than I can say for the royal wedding hats!

Isn't it GREAT! I love the smile! It's so very me!

Adventures in Norwich, Part the First

2011-11-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

I bought my train tickets ahead, so got a good price for once. (See, I can learn new tricks!) And I got a room at a hotel ahead! I was set to go!

I had called for a taxi to pick me up at 8am, figuring a ten minute ride, maybe 15, and then catch my 8:27 train. You know what this means, right? Yes, the taxi came at 8:15 because it was raining and there was traffic, and blah blah. So I got to the station in time to get my tickets and run across the overhead bridge thingy while the train pulled out. Then I had to buy a new one way ticket, effectively doubling my train fare. Lovely, right? But you know, it was okay because I could do that, and no one was going to suffer horribly as a result.

And so off I went on a different train, did a switch at another station, and got there only 40 minutes or so later than scheduled.

Then I started walking and got sort of lost. Let's just say that Norwich is somewhat confusing. I found the visitor information place and got a good map (they always seem to have the BEST maps, and nice people to circle the places you want to go so you can see them easily and tell you what's open when). That's when I found out that one of the places I wanted to go was only open on Friday and not Saturday, so I moved that to the top of my Friday visit list.

And off I went. And realized that I'd been about two blocks from visiting the Church of St Julian when I'd been lost. And the church is on the way to Dragon Hall (and very close), so I went on in and calmed down a bit. I like to sit in little sanctuary places, though I've never had a spiritual experience in one. Nonetheless, they're calm and quiet, and often quite beautiful in their way.

This is the shrine of Julian of Norwich in the church of St. Julian. Supposedly, Julian of Norwich is named after the church of St. Julian and not the other way around (which I would have thought. For those of you who don't read medieval English lit or religious lit, Julian of Norwich was an English mystic in the late 14th and early 15th century. Or a crazy woman who saw stuff. She had these visions and became an anchorite, that is, she went to live in a small room, anchored to the church. The church of St. Julian was bombed badly during WWII, so they've rebuilt on the site, and since then refurbished.

This is the door from within the church to the new shrine. (There's no door from the outside.) It's fairly close up where, say, the transcept would be in a much larger church, but this is a parish church, and fairly small. (I'm now sure how big the medieval church would have been.) It got me wondering why she'd anchored at this parish church rather than at the Cathedral up the hill a bit, or at one of the bigger parish churches in the city. I guess I don't know nearly enough about Julian.

It's a lovely small church, though, with a nice, intimate, quiet feeling. The door to Julian's shrine is just off to the right of this picture, so you can get a sense of the scale of the church and where the cell supposedly was.

At the back of the church is a 15th century baptismal font that was moved to St. Julian's later (after the war or in the Victorian era, if I recall).

Outside and up the hill was a little shop/library room with two caretakers. I went in and got a couple of postcards and chatted a bit, and learned that it was possible to go into the garden and see the back of the church if you had the key. And these folks had the key, and were happy to lend it to me. So then I had the key and went into the garden.

The two caretakers warned me to be careful in the garden because they said there are drug users who hop the wall and then drop needles and such in the garden. I didn't see any, but while I was there, someone else came in using another key (one kept in the church for parishoners, I think) and a dog for a walk, and she didn't seem too overly concerned about the dog finding needles accidentally.

Here's Julian's shrine from the outside.

It was an overcast, damp day; it had been raining, and felt wet, and I wondered if Julian ever felt quite warm in her little cell. Was there a fireplace? (There isn't in the new built shrine, but why would there be?) Or maybe a brazier? (It might not take a big fire to warm a small space.)

Clearly, I'm not cut out to be an anchorite.

And next, on to Dragon Hall!

A Modest Plea for Help

2011-11-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching Swift's "A Modest Proposal" next week, and I thought it would be cool to look at it on EEBO and maybe show the students.

But I can't seem to get EEBO to find it. I've tried looking under Swift, under the title without Swift's name, under keywords from the title, and so forth. But I haven't had any luck.

And now, of course, I'm completely obsessed. I think we should have a new rule that any early text posted to the web should come with an STC or Wing number so that I can look it up easily!

In lieu of that, however, I'd be grateful if someone with access to Wing or better searching skills on EEBO can help, please. If I can get a Wing number or something, I should be able to get it, assuming it's on EEBO. (It was published in Dublin first, and second, but also eventually in England, but I couldn't find it at all.)

Thanks! (I'd be happy to send a picture postcard from, say, Norwich or somewhere equally exciting to anyone who can help!)

Intersections

2011-11-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, things intersect in ways I don't expect in my mind.

Every student doing the course of study here takes a course in UK history, politics, culture, and such. The course has lectures for a couple hours a week, which are open to anyone, and discussion sections, which, alas, aren't. The lectures are really good; I've been thinking as I listen to the different lecturers how consistently good they are: well organized, interesting, just what you want in a lecture.

Today's lecture was on 19th century British Imperialism.

Have I ever mentioned that I really like the game Civilization? Specifically, I play Civ II. I know, I'm a decade or more behind the times, but Civ II is really good, and doesn't seem as overly complex as some of the later ones.

So today, I kept thinking of how poor a model of imperialism Civ II affords; it's way too easy to take over a country and that's that; once you've thoroughly defeated them, that's it. Not so with real places, of course. You may take over France, but then you have an infant king and voila, France is kicking your butt again. You try to take over India, and they rebel and won't play nice with the salt. And so forth.

Civ II is much easier. And I don't actually have to think about real people dying or suffering when I go to "war" in the game, either.

Booked for Norwich!

2011-11-01T03:02:00.000-07:00

I booked a room for Norwich this weekend! I'm planning to spend one night.

And now, please tell me what I should be sure to see. The cathedral is already on my list, as is the castle. Looking at the area website, it looks like there are several interesting museums, including the castle museum and a Bridewell museum. There's also something called "Strangers Hall."

I know I'm past the prime tourist season, and a lot of tourist stuff is closed now, but I'm where I am when I am.

ps. Is there anything surviving re Julian of Norwich? Which church (or monastery) was she "attached" to? Is there a way to "visit" her? (I wonder how many tourists ask that? It does seem weird to want to visit an anchorite.)

Summer Job

2011-10-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

There are times when I'm confronted by my own snobbery. Here's one.

There's a summer job orienting incoming students and so forth. I'm interested because living in the UK has taken a bit more money than I'd budgeted for and our pay cut has hit, too. Between the two, a bit of summer income would be more welcome than usual. This job pays about the same as teaching a class. (I could have put in a request to teach a class, but I didn't think of it in a timely enough manner. Stupid me.)

But, this job involves working for the non-academic side of campus, the folks who bring us the wonders of alcohol awareness and other stimulating programs. (See, I told you I'm a snob.) It also involves an application form with inviting questions about why you want the job (MONEY!). Of course, you're supposed to write in ~~the usual bullputty~~ an enthusiastic explanation of how committed you are to seeing that undergraduates get the best start ever to their college experience (it's no longer a college career, but an experience).

It also involves questions about your qualifications to be an advisor. Then there's the one about how I want my advisees to view me. Seriously? I want them to view me as a goddess of all things to do with early modern literature, someone whose brilliance is equalled only by her wit and beauty. I don't think any of them will view me that way, but I'd really like it if they did.

But my favorite question is about what I think students think are the most significant issues for their college experience. It's not about what I think are the most significant issues, or what research shows are the most significant issues, but what students think.

Me, I'd put studying hard and using birth control high on the list, along with paying attention in class and participating in college life. I might also put sleeping enough and eating decently.

Students, I'm guessing they put making friends high, along with choosing a major, and, truth be told, getting as drunk as possible without getting arrested or hospitalized.

I'm guessing research would show that they should also be concerned about student loans and debt. And I'm sure some of them are appropriately concerned about debt and such.

What's on your list, and what do you think is on most students' lists?

I have to look at the calendar and really think about whether the money is worth it to me to kowtow to the other side of campus. (And then, of course, there's always the horrifying possibility that they would turn me down. Talk about depressing.)

Stamford

2011-10-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

Burghley House is right outside the market town of Stamford, so naturally, Stamford is where I went next. Can I say, if there were a contest among English towns for "most picturesque," Stamford would definitely be in the running. This is the Stamford Meadows and the river Welland. It's beautiful, and busy with people hanging out or wandering through.

Here's a picture looking towards the town center, with Rod Stewart talking on the phone. (Probably not, but still, look!)

We walked around the market, but I didn't take pictures in the market because I always feel a bit awkward and never much like the pictures. I haven't had a lot of experience with weekly markets in a market town. My own community has a farmers' market during the summer, and that's my experience. That happens in a purpose built open air structure, and pretty much consists of farm produce with some food stalls (a coffee shop comes, and some bakeries), some specialty crafts stuff (a potter and a couple soap or candle makers), and sometimes plants to buy.

Here, the market was in the streets itself, with some vendors selling out of trucks directly and a lot of clothes, especially socks and underwear. I guess the clothing stalls really stood out to me because I wasn't expecting them. There was also a guy hawking garden clippers.

We got some cheese, bakhlava (yum!), and other treats.

The market isn't all there is to see in Stamford. You knew that. This is the inner courtyard of Browne's Hospital. Browne started the foundation in the late 15th century to house poor folks, and it still houses senior citizens. Of course, the current houses weren't built in the 15th century, but in the Victorian era, with later updates. But still, my brain reels at the idea that someone in the 15th century provided something to care for people and it's still doing so after 500+ years. It's amazing, isn't it?

Think of most things people built thinking they'd be remembered for it. Chapels are still there, and sometimes castles or monuments, but this hospital is still providing a home for some people who need one. I guess I think that's just the coolest thing. (There are other almshouses in Stamford, but this one caught my interest because of the early foundation.)

Speaking of monuments, this one is what's been put in the place of the cross put after Eleanor of Castile's body was moved to Westminster Abbey. Supposedly, at each place the procession stopped for the night, Edward I had a wooden cross erected, and those were later replaced by stone carvings, and mostly disappeared or got weathered. A fragment of the one in Stamford survives, but it's in the museum, supposedly, and this modern monument is in its place.

Unfortunately, the museum is closed. It doesn't say if this is a seasonal closing or permanent, but we weren't able to go in and see the cross or anything else.

There is still part of a wall from the Norman era castle surviving. I'm guessing this is from something inside the castle, rather than the castle wall itself. We walked up to see where the castle wall had been, but there wasn't much to see.

And finally, here's a Tudor era mill, which isn't quite on the mill trace anymore, but the map in the Meadows says that the trace has been moved slightly.

I also went to our own town market the other day, and got some bonfire toffee for the upcoming celebrations!

Burghley House

2011-10-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

A pleasant little country house built by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who just happened to be one of Elizabeth I's right hand men and the Lord High Treasurer at a time when that meant a fair bit of money could find a way to your pocket, or by way of your pocket to your country house.

And this one is stunning. You're not allowed to take pictures inside, but you can believe me when I say it's beautiful and amazing and stately.

The outside is just as cool.

First, there are a bunch of fallow deer about. I gather that the estate keeps the herd, and harvests from it, but I'm not sure. At any rate, it's the rutting season, which means the stags all have antlers, and every once in a while you can see a little conflict happening.

You'll have to click to make this big enough to see the two bucks facing off in the back, behind the doe looking bored. But after a few interactions, one of the bucks turned tail and ran, and was chased quite a ways by the other. And then after a few more minutes, there was more conflict. As you can imagine, this is all quite tiring, so the bucks wander off from the does and have a bit of a lie down.

Happily for me, they don't much seem to care of there are people nearby while they relax a bit, and indeed, this one settled down right near a drive.

The deer are very cool, but the gardens are even cooler. There's a sculpture garden which displays a bunch of art that, I'm told, changes every so often. You walk through the garden, and you come upon something you can't quite make out at first. There's just something that catches your eye, and makes you look, trying to see the form.

These faces are HUGE, way bigger than a person, and somehow very peaceful and quiet in the garden, which feels very relaxed, and not formal. I think there are two faces in the garden, but I may have missed stuff, too.

This one you couldn't really get close to because there was a sort of gully thing. But the rust look (I can't say for sure that it's rust, but it looks like rust color) just blends in beautifully with the plants.

There are lots of other sculptures, too, but these are the ones I'd love to have near my house where I could visit them regularly.

Wandering around, we saw this building and mound area, and read the sign inside that said it was an ice house. They could cut ice from the small lake nearby and store it in the underground area and have it last up to two years, which is pretty darned cool.

And inside is another art installation, I think. (I really don't think any Elizabethan's could have put this up, so I'm going with modern!) It's this weird blue electic thing which works really nicely in the space, though I have no idea how they got it in there.

And using the light from the blue, you can see down to the bottom of the ice house, where the pre-refrigerator folks would have stored their ice. It's brilliant, actually, because they (ice houses) are built into a mound and with a north facing door, so they don't get any warmer from the sun than absolutely necessary, and supposedly they keep quite cool with ice in there. (There's a wire fence thing to keep people like me from trying to get any closer, which is just as well, but looks a little weird in my picture, alas.)

And then you step out a bit, and you can see the form, and it's magnificent.

Help!!! (Tree Identification)

2011-10-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

I went to Burghley House the other day, and it's amazing. I'll post more pics soon, even. Meanwhile, I saw this tree. When I first saw it, the trunk and bark looked a lot like a redwood tree to me.

But the needle things look NOTHING like a redwood at all. They're rounded and scaled, and there's lots of them.

Nor do the cones (shown here with my thumb so you get an idea of the size).

For some reason, I've got it into my head that I really want to know what this tree is, but I've been looking at on-line tree identification keys (for the UK and elsewhere) and I'm totally befuddled. But I'm sure for someone, this is an easy call.

Please help me keep what little sanity I still have and tell me what the tree is!

Disconnected

2011-10-27T02:59:00.000-07:00

I feel weirdly disconnected from things happening at home. For example, I keep looking at stuff for "Occupy [Wall Street or somewhere else]," and I don't understand what's happening, really. Of course, there's a very good chance that I wouldn't really understand even if I were in the States, since I'm not very familiar with Wall Street sorts of stuff.

I got a letter from the state, and it was dismal. And another from our HR folks, about some tax withholding thing that they did differently or that changed because I changed health insurers for next year, or something. I'm unclear. It was one of those letters that starts out with a statement about how you're getting this letter because you fall into one of three categories, all highly legalese, and the only one I could fit into has to do with changing my health insurer for next year or maybe the your benefits have changed category.

And that was exciting. Being here, I couldn't attend any of the meetings, but as seems to happen almost every year, my insurer has decided not to serve our area, or not to have a contract with the clinic I go to, or blah blah. I've changed insurers about 6 times in 10 years. And I think a lot of my colleagues have, too. I wonder how much time we non Human Resources folks are devoting to trying to figure out our benefits problems, especially in the past few years with furloughs and all.

And while I would never actually do it, I wish I could just tell them to shove their insurance plan where the sun don't shine.

The good news is that we're not having furloughs this year. The bad news is that the pay cut hurts. (And I think that's what the other possibility about the letter I got is, since we're now going to not have certain benefits and others will now be taxed or something.)

Did you see that the governor of Walkerstan is supposedly going to get a 5.4% pay raise. And all state employees will have a pay freeze with the cut in place. I don't know how he doesn't count as a state employee.

I got my course assignments for next year, and now I have to figure out and send off my request for my teaching schedule. But it feels very far away. Still, I love that we get to request a teaching schedule and usually get something pretty close to what we request. I think it's one of those things we do as a department that makes our lives better.

I miss my pals, my biking pals, my eating pals, my just relaxing pals. There are good folks here, but I do miss my pals.

And at 1 in the morning, I miss being able to go use a toilet without having a good chance of passing a student skyping in the hall outside the bathroom.

I think I may have a tad bit of crankiness, eh?

Cambridge: It's Graduation Day

2011-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

I went to visit Cambridge for the first time on Saturday, and much to my confusion, it was graduation day. I'm sure someone understands such things, but didn't the term just start? Was Saturday a graduation for people who'd finished up their studies in June of 2011? And then they come back for a graduation ceremony?

At any rate, it was one of those fun days when you see young folks in gowns walking around, often trailed by two beaming older folks.

I started my visit with a pilgrimage to Spenser's Pembroke College. Happily, for me, anyway, the gate was open, and I could go in and wander the quads and garden areas a bit. There were numbers of people wandering, and it had a friendly feel.

After Pembroke, I walked up to King's College and visited the famous chapel where I took the required picture of the fan vaulting. It really is a beautiful chapel, but it felt more like a cathedral than what I think of as a chapel, to be honest. I gather that King's was founded with Eton as a place where Eton graduates would go on to study at Cambridge (I wonder if they still have some sort of formal relationship?) and it didn't sound like it would have had all that many students back when the chapel was built, so I'm not clear why the chapel would have been built as such a big space. But it is!

King's didn't feel nearly as friendly as Pembroke, maybe because it was a paid admission sort of thing where you could only go along this basic path through the chapel? I don't know if it's the same on regular days or not.

Then I walked up to the Castle Mound. It's basically a built up hill with fairly wide stairs leading up, so up I went. And at the top, I surprised a couple of people with champagne and a picnic lunch. One of them rather blushingly told me that they'd just become engaged, so I felicitated them and wished them many happy years together and left to give them some hint of privacy. It did seem like a nice place to get engaged. And no, alas, they didn't offer me a glass of champagne. (But you can see from this picture why I didn't realize there was anyone else up there.)

So now, they'll have a lovely story about the day they got engaged, romantically picnicking at the top of Castle Mound until a somewhat unkempt middle-aged woman with an American accent stumbled up. Lovely.

Back down, I wandered down to see the Sedgwick Museum, because I'd heard they have a ton of stuff from Darwin's Beagle voyage, and what self-respecting me could pass that up? What they have are mostly rocks, and a few journals. I liked the journals best, but wow, he had handwriting that's hard to read!

Mostly, though, the museum felt like a bit of a clutter hall, with lots of stuff, much of which would have been fascinating if I'd had something more to help me understand them.

I guess I was expecting to see some of his bird collection, and was both disappointed not to, but also sort of relieved because after feeling lousy at the Museum of Natural History in London, I wasn't sure I wanted to visit popsicle birds. Except they would have been Darwin's popsicle birds.

I went on to the Fitzwilliam, and looked at Greek and Roman and Syrian stuff, and medieval stuff.

Finally, I walked across the river where there are punting tours, but I didn't have time to go on one, so instead I walked up the backs of the universities, thinking to get a different view. Happily, Clare College had its gate opened, so I went and looked at the river from its bridge. There were a LOT of punters on the river, so many, that there was a punting traffic jam under one of the bridges. From the path, I could see into a tiny bit of what the gate said were the "fellows garden" and it was gorgeous, all green and flowered, and just inviting (except for the locked gate).

And then it was time to go.

Paradox

2011-10-25T04:21:00.003-07:00

I think we'll all agree that these two things are true:

1) Computers and systems have grown better (more reliable, faster, etc).

2) Every time someone says they're "upgrading" something in the system, it makes at least one (and often times more than one) thing worse.

How can these things both be true?

Living the Fantasy

2011-10-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

For the first time since nearly the beginning of the semester, I don't have anything planned for this weekend. Last weekend I went to Cambridge and Nottingham. I also walked with some friends to the local town just to walk along a canal path. But this weekend... nothing planned.

I could stay here at the Abbey, perhaps taking a walk in the other direction. Or a bike ride.

Or, you could suggest some places for me to go. I'd like that.

And anyone who is kind enough to suggest a place and email me their snail address, will get a personal postcard from me! (Unless there are more than, say, 20, which is pretty unimaginable.)

Ready, steady, go!

Observation

2011-10-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Based on multiple observations of different individuals: It's pretty nigh impossible to skype without yelling.

Corrolary: if the skyper isn't wearing an earphone, s/he will have the noise turned up loudly enough to be heard well in the next room.

Southwell Workhouse

2011-10-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

This is every Victorian era novel's nightmare place, the workhouse. This one, in fact, isn't as bad as the ones in the big cities, supposedly, but it still seemed pretty dismal. The reason it wasn't quite as dismal was because it was in a rural area, and at least some of the people who went in would be able to leave seasonally for farm labor.

It's not quite as huge as it looks, because the ceilings aren't nearly as high as in a lot of places you see pictures of, and it's also basically one room deep. One side is for men, one side for women, and there's a back area for children.

The whole place house about 150 people, which would be incredibly crowded and noisy, I bet. These beds have straw mattresses, a single blanket, and that's about it. And the window, we were told (the volunteers gave us a GREAT tour!) would have been locked open, even on very cold nights.

And everyone who could work would have been set to some sort of hard work: gardening, breaking rocks, preparing food, or picking oakum. This is where women prepared food, in the basement, which (they told us) would sometimes fill with up to 7 inches of water. What a nasty place to have to work! Food would be kept up on the bench things, but the women would have to stand in the water while they peeled potatoes and such.

They had a food schedule thing up, so we could see how much food people got to eat, and boy, did they have a lot of potatoes. And gruel. And no, they didn't get raisins, cinnamon, and brown sugar on their porridge, I'm pretty sure.

Oakum is the stuff they used to caulk wooden ships. They'd take old ship rope which was usually caked with tar and such, and prisoners and workhouse folks would be set to tear it apart into the fibers. Then the fibers would be resold to the shipyards and mixed with tar (or pine tar) and used to caulk wooden ships.

I tried to take a picture to give an overview of the exercise yards, but it didn't work out too well. You can see the partially circular parts, though, which is where the outdoor latrines are. Yes, it's just that luxurious.

It's not a widely known fact, but I have a latrine rating system. On a scale of 1-10. It's true. I have a feeling these latrines would have been right down with the very worst I've ever used.

The students paired learning about the workhouse and learning about life in the Abbey recently, and I have to say, from what I saw there was a lot to learn.

And once again, I'm very glad not to live in the Victorian era!

Note to Self

2011-10-22T12:56:00.001-07:00

When you ice your sore foot to help it get less sore, your foot gets really cold, and that makes your whole self feel cold.

The more you know.

Wales, Day 2, Llanberis

2011-10-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

On the second day, we went to Llanberis, where you can see the National Slate Museum right outside of town and you can take a train up Snowdon or walk, if you have planned well or had lots of time. We didn't. There were no train tickets because they'd all been sold out; and we didn't think ahead to buy them before. Nor did we have the time we would have needed to climb up.

But we did get to see the National Slate Museum, which was well worth the visit because it's fascinating. The Museum is in an old slate processing plant, right near the actual slate mines, and the sad thing is that even though the plant and mines have been closed for a fairly long time now, they've still left massive scars on the landscape. (If you look closely at this picture, you can see someone climbing the side of the scar. Given how slate seems to fracture, that seems dangerous, but I'm guessing these folks know better than I!)

There's also a famous castle ruins nearby, Dolbadarn Castle, which is supposed to be typical of a Welsh castle before the English invasion in that it's quite small (especially compared to, say, Caernarfon Castle!), round, and on a hill. It looks like there are ruins around it from smaller stone buildings.

All in all, we had a gorgeous day, as you can see from my pictures with the almost unreal blue sky.

(Yes, we did visit Caernarfon Castle during this day, too, and it was HUGE, and amazing, and ingenious with arrow shooting slits that LOOK from the outside like ten slits, but in reality provide space for 3 archers each, each shooting from a different angle.)

And on the last day, day 3, we went by Swallow Falls, and we all took the exact same pictures of the falls that everyone else has taken since the gate and path were put in and photography invented. That didn't make it any less beautiful, though.

While I was sitting on this little wall, waiting for the sheep in the first picture to get a little closer (they didn't) or move somewhere interesting (they did, I think), I talked with another woman about my age, also with a camera and an interest in photography about the difficulty of going to the same beautiful spot that other people have gone to for years and trying to take a picture that feels special or unique in some way. She'd set herself a task for the day of trying to take a picture that would capture the feeling of the autumn in Wales that day, which seemed a difficult thing because it was so green and beautiful that it didn't feel at all like autumn to me.

It did get me thinking about trying to take a picture that would be at least a little original or interesting. And one view that I tried to capture was this lone tree seemingly surviving through the slate mining to today. Or maybe it's grown since? Unfortunately, I didn't do a good job of getting the tree to really stand out, but I didn't take my telephoto lens, so I was more limited.

Then I tried to take this one lone tree near the sheep, sort of changing color by itself. But I think I like the other sheep and background picture up on top more, even though it's a pretty stereotypical shot and the sheep aren't quite as big as I wish they were. (I didn't want to actually go more than a few steps into the field because I don't want to bother them.) It would be nice to have a longer time places so that I could wait for different light and try things out again, but that's not happening this time around.

Still and all, Wales was beyond my expectations, and my expectations were pretty darned high!

Wales, Day 1, Llandudno

2011-10-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

To give you an idea of how much I liked Wales, take a look at my hotel room. Make sure to look out the window as much as you can. Yes, that's the ocean. THE OCEAN! It was gorgeous! And not rainy, but moderately sunny and just beautiful!

I love the ocean, at least in theory. In reality, of course, it's salty and sticky and if your dog goes in and rolls on whatever dead things it finds, pretty smelly. But it's also just so powerfully beautiful.

I took a picture of me dipping my toe into the North Atlantic. (I also dipped my fingers in. Yes, I'm happy to swim in oceans, but I prefer them a bit warmer. I also prefer when I remember to bring a bathing suit.)

The beach is really rocky, but when you look at pictures taken in the Victorian era (when Llandudno was one of the beach resort places to go), the beaches look a lot sandier. I'm not sure if there's been a lot of erosion or what.

But it's drop dead beautiful. Look at the uplifting layers there!

We stayed in LLandudno for two nights, Friday and Saturday, though most of the day Saturday we spent elsewhere. I really enjoyed walking around Llandudno, though. One afternoon, I happened on the post office, so I went in to buy stamps, since I buy postcards to send to friends and family and wanted to send some off. And while I was there, I asked the counter guy how to pronounce the name of the city, and he helped me. And then some other people also helped with some basics (which, alas, I promptly forgot). That did give me the chance to ask them for a dinner suggestion, and they suggested a pub called The Albert. So that's where I went. And there I had a tasty smoked haddock with mash and some hollandaise sauce and a small cider. It was just about as perfect a dinner as one could ask for.

I got to see some juvenile herring gulls up close. This one even posed for me.

And on the second night, a bunch of semi-old (from the fifties and later to about the 80s) racing type cars were parked along the beach promenade, so I enjoyed walking by and seeing them. I was told (by someone in a racing type outfit) that there'd been a rally with races and stuff and this was the end of the rally thing.

There's a cool boardwalk, which reminded me of Santa Cruze beach boardwalk, except without quite the number of rides I remember. And with a lot more big Georgian buildings all attached along a block, rather than frilly California "Victorians." (I love California Victorians, but they don't look like anything built in the 19th century I've seen here at all.

Chester

2011-10-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

When I wrote about my visit to York, several folks mentioned how wonderful Chester is. I finally got to go there, but only for a few hours on my way to Wales. Still, they were right. Chester has this incredibly cool, lively, and yet relaxed vibe. Here's a picture of the center of town, basically, taken from the city walls.

The city walls felt less massive and more part of the town in Chester than in York. There were some shops that had ramps from their upper stories leading to the wall, which I found very inviting.

One part of the city walls (from the East Gate, if I recall) goes along side the ruins of a Roman garden walk thing, which is just beautiful.

If you keep going along that wall, you reach the River Dee, which looks exactly like a peaceful river through a smallish city (Wikipedia says it has just under 80K people) should look.

(It's strange, but in the US, I'd expect to see several species of birds. Here, I tend to see either some crows or jackdaws, a gull species or two, and pigeons. I rarely see LBJs just hanging around. Certainly, on a river like this at home, I'd probably see some swallows and a shorebird, maybe a Killdeer or something. I sort of feel this in a general way here, like I'm not seeing nearly as many birds, nor as many species as I'm used to seeing. I do try to keep my eyes open for them, too.)

If you go towards the center of town instead of towards the river, you get to see the remains of a Roman amphitheater! (Here, you can see one of the city wall gates in the background. Double whammy for your photographic pleasures!)

And just to the side of the amphitheater is a small shrine to Nemesis. I guess Nemesis isn't really as scary as I think of her, since she's not just about revenge and such.

Chester also has ruins of an old Norman cathedral which was pretty much closed down after a Tudor era cathedral was built more in the center of town. Then a parish church was build against some of the ruins. The main cathedral looks big, and really does sit sort of right in the center. But I didn't go in because we were on our way to WALES!

Still, I think Chester would be a good place to spend some relaxing time. And I would especially like to figure out how to take some sort of river or canal cruise.

Music

2011-10-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite memories from college are of sitting in the stairwells while friends played music and sang, and we shot the bull. I think I learned a lot in those stairwells, about caring for people and being a friend, stuff I needed to learn. I also learned to love some music.

Tonight, I went to a friend's room in the corridor and there was music and singing, and it was as lovely and fun in it's more grown up way as those stairwell sessions in college. This is an unexpected and welcome addition to life in the Abbey.

Updating the Update

2011-10-18T02:09:00.000-07:00

The vaccuuming lasted maybe five minutes. Yay!

It's all worked out, and now that I've had a very good night's sleep, I'm much better able to see the humor. The next room over seems to have a fly problem, and they just can't stand the idea of sleeping with dead flies piled on the floor, so they needed to vaccuum when they got back on Sunday night.

I'm sure within the fifteen or so weeks here, I'll do something at least as irritating to them.

There's a big session on the Abbey today for our students, and that faculty member (and spouse) live in the builder's bedroom, so it's one of the rooms that students are going through today. Thus, they wanted it extra clean and tidy.

The idea is that the students are learning to "read" a great house, to understand more about how the household worked, and how people worked within the household. So the students will be visiting parts of the house they don't normally see, the fancy bedrooms, the builder's office, the governess's quarters, the laundry, and so on. Then they'll have to be able to figure out how to get from point A to B as a servant or as a family member (totally different routes), and understand separated those lives were even under the same roofs.

The session at the Abbey is paralleled by a session at a historical "workhouse" so that students will see how three facets of Victorian society lived, a wealthy householder, the servants of the house, and really poor people. Hopefully, they'll also get a sense of other facets, laborers, medium merchants and shopkeepers and such.

Update

2011-10-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

It is 9:30pm, and I am ready for bed.

And my neighbors have started vaccuuming.

FML.

One More Whine Before I Go to Dinner

2011-10-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Imagine you're delivering your spouse's personal computer to the classroom s/he'll be using in a couple of hours. You look in and notice that there's a class in progress.

Do you

a) Stop and wait to deliver the computer when the room is empty
b) Enter the class, leave the computer on a desk, wave, and walk out

If you answer b), please get out of my classroom. WTF, people? Seriously, putting a computer in a class AT LEAST an hour ahead of when it can possibly be needed is more important than the class currently in progress?

(Earlier in the semester, the teaching spouse came into the room and started commenting on how he was going to leave the computer there, totally disrupting my class. Now I realize, these aren't ordinary classrooms, but these are nonetheless classe in progress.)

Thank you for letting me whine. I have to go eat dinner with my colleagues now and not yell or anything, because of course they don't mean anything bad, but are just not thinking, and it wouldn't normally be that big a deal, but the vaccuuming last night and the students gone wild the night before mean that I'm a little short of sleep and equally short of temper.

Rough Night

2011-10-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

See that last post, the one that whines about how tired I was yesterday?

I went to bed. And I was working on getting to sleep, which isn't always easy.

And then, about 11:30 or a bit later, there was a lot of noise, loud clunking footsteps and banging. And I thought, damn, those students upstairs! Sometimes there was a series of five loud footsteps, and then a pause, then five back, and then a pause, and another five, and so on. Sometimes the pause was long enough that I had hope the noise would stop. Sometimes it sounded like it was coming from the other faculty who lives in the next room on this corridor. But it went on a long while.

I wanted to go upstairs and yell, but I'm not sure how to get up to that area, and didn't want to go up there in my nightshirt.

And finally it stopped.

***

This afternoon, at lunch, my neighbors on this floor, a faculty member and spouse, laughingly asked if I'd heard them vaccuuming at 12:30 in the morning.

I wish I'd figured out it was them and banged on the door when I had to get up for breakfast and lecture before effing teaching, say at 6:30 am.

Who the hell vaccuums at 12:30 am? And then laughs about it?

What could be so unliveable that you'd have to come in and vaccuum immediately, that couldn't possibly wait for regular morning? (I can't think of anything that doesn't involve crossing body boundaries in some Bakhtinian grotesque nightmare.)

They didn't get up for breakfast or have to teach this morning at all. Hi-fucking-larious, I tell you.

Now I have to make a karmaic apology to the students I was cursing from my bed.

Tired

2011-10-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Wales was beautiful!

I'm so tired, though. And when I wake up, a full day of classes and responsibilities tomorrow.

I get to a point on a bus where I just do not want to be there any more. Period. I got there about two hours in on our ride home. Unfortunately, we had another hour and more to go.

Responding with Difficulty

2011-10-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

I've been grading essays. One of the bright students in a class wrote an especially abysmal paper. It's sometimes hard to give really helpful feedback even though you KNOW the student worked hard and put in real effort in writing it.

I think, given my small class sizes, that I can afford a generous revision policy, and I think this student, at least, will really benefit from revising the paper. Some students don't, or at least don't seem to, but other students really do learn a lot and are willing to put in the extra time.

I think I was able to write a note that will help this student see at least a few ways to make the paper stronger.

And now, off to get other work done! Life's tough as evidenced by my need to pack this afternoon for a weekend trip to the northern part of Wales. (I know, you're deeply moved by my need for a bit of sympathy, aren't you?)

Before then, I need to print out and give an exam, write some post cards, and go play outside!

I've pretty much been travelling every weekend for the past three, but next weekend I don't have any plans. And then I think it's the weekend after that I'll be going to PARIS!

Thoughts about Wales or Paris?

Words

2011-10-11T14:53:00.000-07:00

It's fun to hear folks at the Abbey picking up British usage. We're pretty much all taking coaches rather than busses now, and we like our chips, bangers, mash, etc.

One person has decided s/he likes the word "knackered." At the end of the day, s/he will tell us s/he's "knackered" and do it with an amused smile.

I like "chuffed" myself, as I've mentioned.

"Chuffed" sounds somewhat friendly, while "knackered" sounds like you've just had an unfortunate experience at a butchers. Of course, a large percentage of experiences to be had at a butchers would be unfortunate from one point of view, I suppose.

I don't think any of us is "knocking up" our friends in the morning, and that's just as well.

Lake District Adventure

2011-10-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

My second morning in the Lake District, I had plans. I wanted to go to see the Castlerigg Stone Circle. I looked at a map with one of the British folks, and he said that it was about a two mile walk up from Keswick, and quite steep. I was a bit worried, being a total whuss and all, but I thought I'd try, so I found my way to the bus to Keswick, about an hour by bus I was told. (Keswick, by the way, is pronounced Kezzick.)

Here's a map so you can follow my adventures for the day. If you look for the longest lake, Windemere, then you'll see Ambleside on the north end. We stayed at Waterhead, just south of Ambleside, and actually on the lake (as you saw from my previous post). If you follow the road up, you will find Keswick, and near it, Castlerigg. Between Keswick and Ambleside is Grasmere. (Can I saw at this time that I love the name "Ambleside"! It's perfect for a place where a lot of people seem to go to go for walks.)

It was also misting fairly thoroughly, not quite to the point of drizzle, but getting close. Never fear, though, because I had on my long johns! (If I ever write a dungeon again, I'm going to put in special long johns of warmth that protect from cold.) And a sweater. And a windbreaker. And I had along a plastic poncho and an umbrella. And my new (from the day before) hiking boots with nice thick socks, and my new (from the day before) hat.

On the bus, after we passed through one village, I realized that I was going to need some help getting off at the right stop, so I asked an older (and by older I mean older than me) woman if she knew if there was a way for me to know when we got to Keswick. She asked me what I was going to visit (because there's more than one stop in Keswick), and when I told her the stone circle, she said that I shouldn't go to Keswick, but should get off the bus earlier, and it was much easier. Then she went up to the front and consulted with the driver, and they agreed.

I had my doubts, but when an older woman tells me that something in her neighborhood works best this or that way, I tend to believe her. But I do get a little anxious, too. So I was getting a bit anxious about finding myself in the middle of nowhere. The thing is, since I'm typing this, you know it came out okay (way better than okay, actually). But when I was sitting on the bus waiting, I didn't know it would come out okay. (Though I wasn't horribly anxious. It's not like I was heading into hostile territory where I didn't speak the language or anything, and where people routinely shoot middle aged white women wandering about.)

Then the bus stopped, and it was, indeed, in the middle of nowhere. There was a wood gate on one side, and a little lane on the other side, and the woman told me to cross over and take the lane. And that's what I did.

The busses are scheduled to go about every hour during the days on Saturdays, so I checked the time and figured that if I'd walked for half an hour without seeing the circle thing (she'd said it was about 15 minutes), and I was doubtful, then I'd turn back to catch the bus at the next hour.

I walked on up the lane, which, happily, was nicely paved, though a bit narrow. At first, it was hedges, and I pretty much couldn't see over them. Then it was a stone wall, which I could almost or barely see over.

Sometimes, there were cattle. Moo. This one looked at me in that way that says, "People make no sense."

Sometimes, there were sheep. They wouldn't get concerned unless I was within about 15 feet or I stopped and pointed a camera at them. Then they'd run a few steps in the other direction. I'm guessing the sheep are pretty much only handled in ways that seem unpleasant: vaccinations, shearing, and the adding of colors on their backs.

We've discussed in some detail the colors on the back among the students and such. I'm guessing none of us has much experience shepherding. One bus driver told us that they were special sheep: the ones marked with green were fed a special diet with mint, and the ones marked with red were fed a special diet with apples, so that the meat would come out flavored. Then for a while I thought that it might be a thing where they put a color thing on the front of a ram so that when he mounted a ewe it would mark her, and then the shepherd would know she'd been bred. But the marks are way too much the same within a flock and different between.

One day I asked someone local, and he said that the sheep were often grazed on common grounds, and that each shepherd marked his/her sheep in a specific way so they could tell them apart. I haven't noticed markings on the black sheep, but it seems more likely than special minty feed.

My point about the sheep was that they seem to want to evade people, but don't seem to want to put much effort into it. And they seem to know they're fast enough to outrun us if they get at least a little headstart, so they put in just enough effort to have whatever headstart seems needful to them. They aren't like dogs that want to be petted even by strangers, or horses that might be curious to see if you have a carrot.

I kept walking up the lane, and then I saw the coolest rock wall thing. It was this gap in the wall, starting maybe gut high, and fairly narrow. At first I just walked past it, but maybe 20 feet later I decided to take a better look, and walked back. And then I saw...

Yes, it's a stone circle! And I'd almost missed it. So I went up the little stone stair leading to the gap and over.

I'm told that on a clear day you get a 360 degree view of some of the tallest mountains in the area, but that day wasn't really clear. Nonetheless, the stone circle was way cool. You can walk right up to the stones and touch them, walk around, stand in the middle, whatever. But while you're doing that, you need to also be careful not to walk right into a bunch of cow or sheep dung. Just saying.

I went to Stonehenge back in August while I was staying in London, and it was good, but this was better because you got to walk around slowly and take your time. There were between 3 and 8 people there (coming and going) while I was there, and everyone was friendly but quiet. I took someone's picture standing in front of a stone with her bicycle, and someone else took a picture of me standing in front of a stone. I don't know quite how to express it, but this circle was friendly feeling in a way that Stonehenge wasn't. The rocks weren't as big, but it felt special to me in a way that Stonehenge didn't.

So now I want to go to more rock circles and see how they feel.

Once I got in there and saw other people coming and going, I realized that if I'd walked up the lane another 50 meters and around a little bend, I would have seen a regular little gate and some cars parked there. But I liked my stile.

I liked my stile so much that I went back and took a couple pictures so you can see exactly how it works. Here's a self portrait of me in my new hiking boots looking down on the steps. Each of the steps is a really long piece of stone that goes through the wall and out the other side to be a step there as well.

Here's another shot of the stairs taken against the wall. In this picture, you can also see the rock mentioned in the wikipedia article, the one that was scarred by being hit by plows over the years, and that the farmer put up.

Except, well, I wonder how much these fields are actually plowed? I mean, the land here is REALLY rocky. It looks like it would be miserable to try to grow crops on. And it was pretty rare for me to see even a small patch of vegetables planted. So I'm not sure that anyone much would have plowed there? Maybe historically they did? I wonder who would know? I should ask our librarian! (I love librarians!)

I tend to figure that people make houses out of rock and walls out of rock when it's really plentiful; when rock isn't plentiful, they find cheaper and easier things to build with--bricks, adobe, timber, whatever. So from the abundance of rock buildings and walls, I think people have been pulling rocks out of the local fields for a LONG time, and they still seem to have plenty of rocks.

After I wandered around the rocks and took pictures and such, I went back over my stile and walked back down the little lane, and waited a few minutes for the next bus into Keswick, where I wandered around the town for a bit before catching the next bus back towards Waterhead on Windemere, which is the place on the water we were staying, and which is near Ambleside. (I gather that "mere" means "lake" so it seems weird to want to type Lake Windemere.)

Where I really wanted to go, though, was Grasmere, so I made sure to ask the bus driver about stopping at Grasmere, and specifically, stopping at Dove Cottage, which is one of the places Wordsworth lived in the area. I'm not a big Wordsworth fan, but being close enough to Dove Cottage, it seemed worth going for a visit. And, Grasmere is supposedly famous for some gingerbread that's made there. If you know me at all, you know I'm pretty much always up for a special trip to get something sweet.

Unfortunately, though the driver said he'd stop and tell me to get off at the Dove Cottage stop, he forgot, and only stopped at the next stop, which was a ways later. Oops. I got off anyway, and actually had the most scary part of my whole trip, walking on the fairly busy road, on an increasingly damp and misty day. I made it safely as you know, or you wouldn't be reading this.

And so I visited a Wordsworth site. And here's the thing. There are a lot of Wordsworth sites around the Lake District, supposedly. There's this one, and the birth site, and the site where he lived after Dove Cottage in Rydal, and blah blah. And each of them has stuff associated with Wordsworth, locks of hair, manuscripts, diaries from Dorothy Wordsworth, a razor, a comb, etc etc.

And looking at them, and thinking about how we pretty much have nothing closely associated with Shakespeare, I was secretly glad because I don't have to deal with the reliquary stuff that Wordsworth people might have to deal with. The Shakespeare industry is plenty more to deal with, but at least we don't have people going on about a lock of hair or something.

The cool thing about the cottage is that it's actually a cottage. A lot of times, you'll see that a building is named "Something Cottage" and then you'll see a picture and it's pretty much a mansion. Dove Cottage is very much a cottage. It's small, with a main downstairs room, a couple more bedrooms or sitting rooms, each fairly small, a kitchen area, and that's it. It's modest, really. And when you think that William Wordsworth and his wife, Dorothy Wordsworth, three kids, and the ever-present Coleridge (evidently he visited a LOT) were all living there, you can imagine that it was pretty darned bustling, and on a rainy day, when everyone was inside keeping warm, probably loud and crowded, too. That made me almost like Wordsworth. (I get irritated at the romantics in general, so if you love them, forgive me.)

It also made me interested to read Dorothy Wordsworth's diaries, though it sounded like there's a lot of this or that person feeling sick, and a lot of long, wet walks.

After the guided tour and visiting the museum, I walked back to the village of Grasmere and found the gingerbread place. Supposedly, there's this one shop, and that's it. And yes, I bought some gingerbread. It was more gingery than most gingerbread is, and fairly good, but it wasn't out of this world amazingly wonderful. So if you're going to go by and are thinking that you might have to stop, you probably don't have to.

And finally, I got the bus the rest of the way back to Waterhead, safe, sound, a little damp, and quite pleased with my day.

The Hostel

2011-10-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

I'm back at the Abbey, and now I can share some pictures. So I'll quickly post up a couple of the hostel, and you'll see why it's so cool. First, here's my room. I love the bright green bedding!

And here's a picture of the outside. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I was told by someone in the town that it had originally been built as a luxury hotel. It was pretty fun, with a nice dining area and good food. We got a hot breakfast every morning, and then they had food for purchase later. And it was good.

I went out on a ferry to Bowness on Windemere, and this is a picture of the hostel from the ferry. What a stunning setting, isn't it?

Lakeside

2011-10-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in the lounge area of the youth hostel where I'm staying this weekend. We got here late last night, got into our rooms (I get a room to myself because I live in the lap of luxury!), and went to sleep. And when I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I saw that our hostel is right on the edge of a lake. It's just beautiful!

I'm amused that I'm staying in my first youth hostel type place at the age of 51. But it's great. And did I mention the view?

I didn't bring the camera connector, so I can't share pictures right now, but trust me, there will be some pictures, and many of you will be jealous.

And tomorrow, I'm going to go visit Wordsworth's house and the museum, just because!

Today, I went for a walk up a hill and through some sheep pastures. And then I walked down the hill, which was much faster. Then I went for a ferry ride to the next town and walked up a hill through the town.

I'm getting weird, I think. While I HAVE bought a couple sweaters (okay, 3 for me, 3 for other people) since I've been here, I don't have much desire to go into shops to shop. I also bought a hat (because my ears were cold), but even though I LOVE outdoor gear and stuff, I don't have any desire to look at it if I'm not needing to buy any. And that means I walk through this little tourist/shopping town, and then walk the other way, and unless I want some hot tea, I'm done. (Even I, as much as I love hot tea, can only manage to stop for a cup or so a day.)

Evangelist

2011-10-06T02:29:00.000-07:00

That's me.

You know, it's really interesting talking with faculty from a variety of schools and fields, as we have here at the Abbey. At times, it makes me realize how much I've learned. At other times, it makes me realize that I have a whole lot to learn.

One of my colleagues here was talking about her disatisfaction with her students' writing skills in her class, which is designated as "writing intensive" in her field. (At her school, students have to take several courses designated "writing intensive" as part of the effort to get students to write better.)

She's telling me that these writing intensive classes give students lots of writing assignments, and it's really frustrating to read and grade the resulting papers.

So I asked, and it doesn't sound like she's teaching them writing skills at all.

And she hasn't yet made (nor has her school) the jump to realizing that it's not enough to just give writing assignments and grade them. Yes, some students will improve some from that, but if you really want students to improve as writers, you have to focus their practice and help them learn about writing in and for whatever field you're in.

But (and this is so familiar)she doesn't want to give up "content" to teach writing.

In the interest of sanity, though, wouldn't it be better to focus at least some time on writing in order to suffer through the grading so badly?

There's also the other elephant here: she doesn't feel confident about teaching writing. And I totally understand that.

And here's where her administration needs to step up: if you want faculty to focus on teaching students writing skills, then you have to put in some serious faculty development to helping them learn to do that effectively in their contexts without it being onerous. And you have to convince faculty that this can work to make student writing better and faculty work more fulfilling. (Let's face it, smacking your head against the wall of teaching without seeing some results is just so frustrating!)

Some of my students have a paper coming due next week. During the last class period, we spent some time freewriting and talking about ideas together. Today we'll do some bubble mapping. And it will take away from the literature we're reading. But it will help them learn about what they're writing about, and it will help them write better papers, and it will help me be less frustrated when I grade them.

The thing is, if you do this with people who are already pretty good writers, they improve WAY more (at least in my experience) because they're ready to put the new tools to work more effectively. And maybe they've forgotten about some of the strategies, and reminding them at a different point will get them to actually use them for real.

I know. I sound like a convert, don't I? Bleargh!

Blarney for Bardiac

2011-10-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

I'm sort of falling behind in writing about my travels, both here and in letters to my family. I came "home" Sunday afternoon on the bus and felt utterly tired and disoriented. For one thing, my sleep was all over the place, and for another this isn't home in some ways (of course), though it's delightful. And then I had to be ready to teach three classes on Monday, in addition to attending the morning lecture (I don't HAVE to attend that, but it's always interesting, and it's a good example for the students who are taking the morning lecture class and supportive of the people teaching that class, so I do), and attending a lecture given by a faculty member in the evening (again, I don't HAVE to attend that, but I value being a supportive member of the community, so I do).

Anyway, the Abbey planners have ways of planning to add class days here and there, and then have days off elsewhere. Thus we'd had an extra day of classes the week before with a Thursday schedule, so we didn't have Thursday class last week.

I had signed up for the Abbey trip to Ireland, and we left after dinner on Wednesday and took a bus to the ferry, a ferry across, then a bus to Dublin for breakfast, and then more bus to Blarney, where, yes, I kissed the Blarney Stone. I figure I need all the help I can get as far as gifts of gab and such, given that my chosen profession involves a fair bit of talking and getting other people to talk.

Here's how it works. First, you walk to the castle/ruin thing. Then you walk up stairs and more stairs, up a spiral staircase. Naturally, this being a big tourist spot, there are a lot of tourists in front, behind, and all around. The you walk up some more stairs until you get to the top of an open wall thingy.

Here I'm looking across at where the Blarney Stone is, except you can't see it. The thing is, there's a sort of inner place, and then an outer wall, with an 18-24" space between in this one area (obviously, they're attached elsewhere). I'm thinking that at one time castle defenders could have looked straight down on people trying to climb the walls and shot arrows at them or something? (On the other hand, it seems like a bad idea to have this sort of gap at the top of a castle so that anyone who gets up that far can crawl in. I wonder if anyone ever got up that far?)

The Blarney Stone is a rock on the inside of that outer wall across the gap. Fortunately, they've got this well-figured out for the tourists. First, there are two guys there whose job is to help you and take pictures. They've got a mat there, so when you go to kiss the stone, you aren't lying on wet rock.

And they've put iron grates around the outer wall part there, and in the gap, so you pretty much couldn't fall down it if you wanted to. Nor, I suppose, could invaders crawl up inside very easily.

When it's your turn, you lie on your back on the mat with your head slightly over the edge, then grab the metal bars and pull yourself out so that you can reach the stone for a quick kiss. Then you push yourself back and try to get up without being any less graceful than necessary.

As you look at it in while you're standing in line, you also have to hope that no one with the flu has gone up just before you.

Here's what it looks like from underneath. That way you can actually see the grate thing, the outer wall thing, and the heads of the helper guys. You can also get a sense of how high the castle thing is that you go up before you get to it.

And now, I hope to have gained the gift of gab. What better gift for someone in the business of professing about literature and stuff?

After Blarney Castle (and the park and stuff), we went on to Killarney, reaching there in the afternoon, in a sort of damp but not quite drizzling weather. I walked a bit, and found a tourist office, went in, and asked the very nice helper person what they would try to see if they had only the afternoon. The helper person suggested the local cathedral and Ross Castle up in the park. She also gave me a really useful map, so off I went. I wasn't too thrilled by the cathedral. (I think after some I've seen, it's going to take something really spectacular to rev my engines.)

But Ross Castle was cool. You walk up a couple of kilometers, through the national park (where I saw a herd of red deer!), which is absolutely beautiful. (See, a park gets me when a cathedral doesn't. I may be biased. I was able to go on a castle tour, fascinating in itself, and also spectacular, because the castle looks over this lovely lake.

In the park, they have something called "jaunting cars" which are little horse drawn cart things with seats, which go through different areas, including on a circular route between the castle and a convenient place in the city itself. Happily, one was there near the castle when I got out of the tour, and even more happily, it had been hired by a couple of students from the Abbey, so they were willing to share the ride back to town with me.

I had a very nice dinner at a pub recommended by the driver and went to sleep.

The next day, our coach took us around the "Ring of Kerry." We stopped every 45 minutes or so, including at a Bog Village. Sadly, while I understand what a "bog" is, I'm not quite sure what makes a place a bog village, other than being near the bog.

But thanks to the magic of the intertubes, I've learned a little bit!

Anyway, the Ring was very relaxing, with lots of naptime and pretty scenery, and not much walking.

The next morning, we left for Dublin, where we spent the afternoon. It wasn't long enough, I don't think. And, of course, it was drizzling rain. I used a hop on hop off bus thing, and rode around a bit, and also got to see St. Patrick's Cathedral, where I visited Jonathan Swift, and then Trinity College, where I visited the Book of Kells.

I seem to be disappointed by visits to see books, mostly. Usually, you're in a jostling crowd of people all trying to view one or two pages of some wonderful text under low light and in a case that protects it well but doesn't make it easy to see.

I got plenty damp, and went to get my room, went up and went to sleep without dinner. (Fortunately, I am not wasting away.)

In the morning, we were back heading for the ferry bright and early. You drive into the ferry on the bus, then get off and go up a bunch of stairs (our buss was on floor five, but the seats were on floors 8 and 9 or something like that). I took this picture from inside the bus as we were going in.

Once in the passenger part of the ferry, you have three basic choices: a couch thing, which would be ideal, because you can stretch out, but which are taken up quickly; a roundish seat, which is pretty comfortable if you pull another up and curl between them a bit; or a "recliner" which doesn't recline nearly enough for me to actually get any sleep.

The first time, I tried to sleep on a recliner, but eventually found a roundish seat and actually got some sleep. The second time, I went for the roundish seat and alternated between reading and sleeping in pretty good comfort.

We went through Wales, and went through a tourist trap of a town known primarily for it's really long name, and then headed home.

This weekend, I'm going on the school trip to the Lake District! And I am NOWHERE near ready. :(

Before I go I need to:
grade several short papers (and print out some of them)
reread Faustus
reread some Herbert
do laundry
pack
recharge my camera battery and such
teach two classes

EEP!