Bardiac

Reading the intertubes lately, and talking to some job seekers, I have a sense of alienation, my own, more than theirs.  (They have plenty o...

I had dinner with some folks on the job market the other day, and naturally, talk got around to the job market.  In the course of our conver...

I hope everyone's having good holidays. I had a few colleagues over for dinner last night.  I'm not a very confident cook, and was...

I finished packing up everything in my office, brought the last few things home, and took some goodbye pictures.  There is the green I s...

First, you gather your materials.  I use pencil for grading (except for very short journal sorts of stuff, for which I use different colored...

I've mentioned that my car heater's out, and that this means that I sometimes have to drive around (in seriously cold weather) with ...

I feel like Mephistopheles, where I am is grading jail, nor am I out of it, even when I'm not actually grading at that moment. I have ...

... when you see someone driving in mid-winter with their front driver's side window down. Yeah.  It's minus hella cold here, but ...

One of my facebook friends commented about some job market stuff, and it got me thinking about what we can do to make the job search a bette...

I had a long phone chat with a friend and former roommate from grad school this morning, and it was just great to talk.  We haven't much...

If you're interviewing for an English department type job, don't call Shakespeare "the Bard" even once, and certainly not ...

So, yes, here in the upper Midwest, it's unseasonably cold right now.  If the past is any hint, it's unlikely to stay this cold for ...

Let's imagine, say, a professor is teaching an advanced underwater basketweaving class.  And let's imagine, too, that the class grad...

As I posted previously, we're moving to new digs .  They've promised to get me another file cabinet, and they've revealed that t...

I'm chairing this committee and there's this work we have to do.  It has to get done, or bad things will happen to other people. W...

Back at the beginning of the semester, I wrote about a problem I've had in the past with MA students who disappear for a couple of mont...

Why is it that nearly mindless computer games are so engrossing? Even if I'm not particularly enjoying a game of computer solitaire, I...

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it. Last year, I started a new tradition and had some friends over for Pizza on Thanksgiving (TM...

We did the coolest thing today, thanks to Susan (who sometimes comments here).  We had a Skype session with her and my class, and we learned...

We're moving to a new building, soon, the first new academic building on our campus since the 70s, I'm told.  And it's beautiful...