Northwoods' Government Workers

At the end of spring, I got a notice from a Northwoods' state tax office about a mistake I made on a property tax thing.  They were right, I'd made a mistake, so I sent off a check.

Then yesterday, I got a second notice from the same office.  So I looked up, and sure enough the check had cleared, so this morning I called the office.

You know what I'm going to say, right?  I was put on hold for an hour, hung up on, had a surly government person, and so on.  Except you're wrong.

The person who answered the phone was the person whose name was on the letter.  She was courteous and pleasant, looked up the thing, made whatever correction was necessary, and reassured me that all was fine.  Then she suggested that I call the local county tax folks so that the same thing won't happen again.

And I did that, and the county person was just as pleasant, looked up my stuff, and made the adjustment.

Our governor trashes state workers, but the state workers I've encountered seem to do a good job and do it pleasantly.  (I've pretty much had pleasant experiences with people in government offices here, and that includes the drivers' license folks.)

Dear Joss Whedon,

You know, there are a LOT more scripts where that one came from!  May I suggest Cymbeline?  Or perhaps Twelfth Night?

With happiness, Bardiac



So, while I was on my trip, I was in Madison, too, and saw the new Much Ado, and I was very happy!

What's not to like?  Okay, one little bit, perhaps, where it felt like Hero really wasn't quite hitting things.  But mostly, what fun!

The whole film felt a bit restrained and understated, and that really worked with the black and white.  The audience at the theater laughed in all the right places, and a few extras (body language things).

I usually hate the Dogberry stuff.  But this time, it worked.  The concept of playing off all those cop shows and security stuff, along with the understatedness of the physical comedy (there was some, but not tons), was delightful.

They cut a bit; the big one I noticed was where Antonio wants to fight with Claudio.  That cut felt right, and I bet most people didn't feel like anything was missing.

I enjoyed Conrad's casting.  They changed the pronoun gender, but not the name, and I liked thinking about Conrad in a different way.  It also made the overwhelming maleness of the Shakespeare stage a little less male (the same with the clerk).

That moment when Claudio says he'd even marry an "Ethiop":  he said it right in the face of a Black woman, and she gave him a look filled with daggers.  It took on the casual racism of the line, and made us think about it and deal with it, and that's much more interesting than cutting it or pretending it's not racist.  People in the audience where I was sort of gasped, and that's really good; they were confronted with the racism, and they reacted.

I usually find Leonato rejecting Hero supremely painful to read or watch.  But this film played it very restrained, and it was less uncomfortable for me.  It was also short, or felt short (did they cut some part?  or just do it quickly).  Leonato wasn't really violent towards her (as I recall), and that made me less uncomfortable.  I guess the question is, should I be happy being less uncomfortable, or is that discomfort really important?  I have a feeling it works better for a modern audience with the restraint.

The casting worked for me.  And the black and white filming, and cinematography made the actors' look like real people, not made up automatons or something.  I thought Beatrice was especially good, and Claudio.  He seemed appropriately immature and goofy in love, which makes his rejection come out of his inexperience.

One thing I didn't get: the opening with Beatrice and Benedict in bed.  I mean, yes, there's an implication that they've had some sort of relationship in the past, but that made it feel really odd to me that they'd fall in love (rather than just jumping into bed again).   It leaves me thinking about the problem of female chastity in the play, and how that has meaning (and does still today).  I'm finding that interesting to think more about, at any rate.

In conclusion, you should all go see it!  Let me know what you think, okay? 

(And if you don't like it, be comforted that someone else will film it again at some point, and someone else again will be producing it on stage.  That's part of the beauty of plays!)

And, seriously, which play would you like to see Joss Whedon do next?  (Because forget all the modern stuff, Shakespeare for the win!)

Birding Trip!

I took a birding trip to Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin!  And I saw birds!  I even took a couple of pictures. 

It was a really good time!  And now back to prepping for classes and working on my writing.

Forster's Tern

Black-Necked Stilt

Black-Necked Stilt (Black Terns behind)

Eastern Kingbird

Barn Swallows

Bank Swallow

Pied-Billed Grebe

Yellow-Headed Blackbird (female)



Now That's Different

I just learned that the physician I've seen at the local clinic is not going to be working there any longer.  (The local clinic claims to be all about evidence based medicine.)

The weird thing is, zie has started a new local business that offers life coaching, yoga, and reiki.

The conjunction of evidence based medicine and reiki makes my brain melt.


(And now I guess I'll be asking friends for suggestions at the clinic.)

Yellow Warbler!

I just had one on my deck this morning.  Unfortunately, I saw it only because I heard a thud and looked up, and there it was, perched on a deck chair, looking a bit dazed.  I looked through my binoculars (yes, I have a pair handy where I sit, doesn't everybody?), checked the bird book (yes, also handy right there), and made a pretty certain ID. 

But by the time I got my camera, it had flown off.  I hope it's okay.

I'm pretty excited.

The Taste of Summer

I got the first strawberries of the summer at the farmers' market in town this morning.  There's nothing quite like fresh strawberries.  I ate a few already, and put the rest in to macerate for dessert after dinner.

Fresh strawberries!

Eating on the Bike

I went for another 30 miler today, and it was way better.  I don't think I've gotten a bunch more fit in two days, though.  I think I ate better today, and that makes a lot of difference.

On Sunday, I didn't take any food, but ate a 100 calorie bag of sports beans.  Today, I took a 250 calorie sports bar thing.

I think I need to be a lot more thoughtful about eating on longer rides because it really does make a difference!


On today's ride, I saw a snake in the middle of the road.  It was maybe 2-3 feet long (it was curvy, and I didn't stop to look closely), and mostly brown.  I'm guessing maybe a hogsnake?

Filling Forms

I started the process of filling out a grant form this morning.  I signed onto the newish system.  Then I tried to sign my collaborating student on.  It seemed to work, except it would kick me back and the collaborator slot would be empty.  So I tried again.  And again. 

And then I called the grant office, and the very nice person there tried, and tried again, tried something else, and then said she's call the person who's paid to handle computer forms.

Bleargh.

I find grant forms pretty darned stressful anyway, but the newish ones are just horrible.

We're using these newish ones because we're too cheap to pay the royalties to use the sort of forms we used to use.  I wonder how much the difference in cost is, especially with pretty much every office having to set up new forms in some way and then troubleshoot them, and so on.

Of course, the office that decided not to pay the royalties doesn't pay me, because I was working on my own time this morning.  So they just don't care.  Or maybe they're happy because they aren't paying and who cares about faculty summers.


Anyway, this grant is due in a couple of weeks, but I wanted to get started because I'm lousy at grant writing sorts of stuff. 

I think this could be a very cool project, potentially useful, even.

Wish me luck!


I did get an email back telling me that the form had been fixed.  Now to write a narrative of the project.  Oh, joy.

Five More Miles

Yesterday, I rode 25 miles, slowly, because these days I'm slow.

Today, I rode 30 miles, also slowly.

I feel those extra five miles a lot right now.  It doesn't seem like I should, right?  An extra 25 minutes or so?

On the other hand, it's also an additional 20% over what I rode the previous day, so I guess that makes sense.

And that's how things are around here.  I'm reading and working on classes and a student's thesis.  I'm gardening and weed whacking.  I'm biking a bit.  And I'm hanging out with friends, which is probably the very best part of summer.

On my ride today, I saw a Sandhill Crane, a number of Eastern Kingbirds, and, I'm pretty sure, my first Ruffed Grouse.  It was standing along the road on a curve, near some woods, and barely bothered to look at me when I rode by maybe five feet away.

I've also taken a few photographs.  I have a friend from college who takes fantastic photos.  Then he uses photoshop on them to enhance colors and such.  But often, they look unreal somehow.  Not in the, hey, I made it black and white way, but in a really weird way.  And then, of course, I wanted to try some of that.  So I did.


Here are some pictures after a storm passed the other day.

Unretouched.  I was trying to get at the way the sun comes through, near the upper right.

And this one is made black and white.
 




Unretouched
 

Cooked by photoshop's automatic fixer
 

So, the move to black and white seems fine.  The sky was really orangy, as it is at sunset sometimes, and the black and white makes it a bit dramatic, but not weird.

 

But the other one looks too, I don't know.  It's interesting how it picked up the contrast so that you can see through the tree a lot more clearly than you can in the original.  But the sky looks way more pink than it did.  The cloud looks way less ominous and dark than it really was.

 

Clearly, I need to play with more pictures!

Summer Panic

I don't know why, but I'm feeling stress about my classes this coming semester. 

Fortunately, Flavia is a goddess and is helping with one.  (Thanks, Flavia!)

And now I'm here to ask you, the internet knowledge base, for some more help.  I'm looking for some theories of comedy, old comedy, new comedy.  And readings on theories of comedy.

I have some few ideas.  I'm going to look at Freud, and some Bakhtin (on carnivalesque).  But I'm sure you wonderful folks can help me learn more.  Please!

(I'm teaching a senior seminar on early modern comedy plays.  The plays I've got a solid grounding for, but it's only when I start to think about the more theoretical side that I sort of panic.)

In other news, I turned in my book order for my final class yesterday, the one Flavia has been so helpful about.  And in doing so, found out that two of the books I'm planning to use have new editions that I don't have yet.  So now I'm waiting on new desk copies to work on that class.

I think I should make a list and check it twice.  I'm feeling sort of overwhelmed, and like everything I want to do is do-able, but will take a lot of time, so I sort of don't know where to start.

Okay, deep breath.  Morning coffee on the deck.   (I did finish weeding the whole of the yard once through yesterday, which leaves me feeling pretty good about the yard.  Last year I grew some marigolds, and they self seeded into some pots, so I transplanted a bunch of marigolds around the yard.  They're tiny now, but in a couple of weeks, they should be bright and cheery.)

Dairy Breakfast the Third

For me, this year.  (I didn't put up photos from the last because it's not held on a farm, so it's not as fun to take pictures.)

Let's get started with some cuteness.

 

So cute.  They said they separate the calves from the cows within a few days, which seems sort of lonely.  And then they're in these little pens for a couple of weeks to make sure they're healthy and don't share any germs.  Then they're put in age-group pens.

 

 

Breakfast for the cows, too.

 

The yellow thing on her nose prevents her from trying to suckle other cows; the dairy guy said that there are a few who try, and they put the plastic thing on to prevent that.  Who knew?





Our delightful hostesses.

There are horses, too!

And four of the best words in the English language:

Ice cream for breakfast!

This is a strange looking cow, no?

This dairy breakfast featured pancakes.  They were good, but just not nearly as good as the Belgian waffles. 

The question of the day: can I find another dairy breakfast for next week?

Writing on the?

Oddly, my readings list has disappeared from the sidebar this morning.  (It's still on the template, so I'm not sure why.  I didn't reset it.  My guess is a blogger issue?)

I've been reading a text to think about whether to order it or a different one for our gateway to the major class.  I'm finding it interesting, and thinking of going with this text rather than the other one.

About 100 pages in last night, I saw the first of a few chapters where someone has made marginal comments and notes.

The comments are all in my handwriting (which is pretty distinctive).  And yet I have no memory of having read this book previously, nor is it bent in ways that would indicate it's been read.

I'm guessing I read a few chapters for some reason.  Weird.

First Day of Summer!

I'm done with my workshop, so today's the first day I've really felt free, with no work type responsibilities coming up to think about very quickly.  (Except ordering books and prepping and stuff.)

So it feels like the first day of summer.

I went to a local dairy breakfast, where I had very good custard and strawberries over cornflakes.  Two friends came, and then afterwards we sat on my deck and chatted a bit.

Then I gardened for about three hours.  I weeded a fair bit of the front yard and planted some marigolds that had started in pots from last year.  (I didn't want them in those pots because I have artichokes in those pots.)  And I weed whacked (I have two batteries, each of which lasts 15-30 minutes before needing four hours of recharging, so I weed whacked for both batteries worth).  I still have probably four battery charges of weed whacking to do in this one area (which is dense with weeds, so slows things down a lot), but the whole yard looks way neater than it did two days ago.  (I got way behind being away and with the workshop and lots of rain.) 

I still have a ton of stuffs to do, just in the usual way, but I think a nap may be in order, as a special summer celebration.  Happy summer, blogosphere!

Bought and Sold

Background:  I'm being paid for attending this workshop and the "pay" included lunch each day, the idea being that we'd all hang out and talk about the workshop stuff.  That's pretty much happened.


I was disappointed to learn today that the workshop head has given a book publisher (the one publishing the book we'll be required to use) the opportunity to talk to us over lunch that the publisher will provide.

This will save the workshop funders the cost of lunch for X number of people.  (I'm assuming that neither the workshop head nor anyone else is receiving money directly for providing the lunch opportunity.)

For the cost of that lunch (bought through the campus suppliers by the workshop funders), the time of all the learners in the workshop has been given to the publisher.

The publisher is taking on the cost of providing lunch (I'm assuming not from the campus suppliers, but who knows), and will have access to us to try to sell us stuff.

So basically, my time has been sold.  And I suspect it's been sold pretty darned cheaply.

I suspect that I will take my own lunch and eat elsewhere.  That may piss off the workshop head, but that's life.

I objected to the arrangement when I found out about it, as this is a particularly vile publisher, and was brushed off.  Not only was I brushed off, I was sort of mocked by one of the organizing folks because this is a common practice and how dare I question it.

I'm going to ask tomorrow how much the campus suppliers charge for lunch per person, because then I'll know how much the workshop leaders think my time is worth.  Any guesses?

Am I crazy for objecting?  I mean, this is a particularly vile publisher, no, not that one, but the other vile publisher.  And I know that there's been tons of research on the free pen stuff for medical folks which demonstrated that medical folks changed their prescribing behaviors when they got free pens (or whatever) from pharmaceutical companies.  I'm pretty sure no business is spending money on advertising type stuffs if they aren't thinking it will be worth it in terms of increased sales.

And finally, isn't it a bit amusing that a workshop on rhetoric that uses marketing terms is arranged by people who are seemingly unaware of how marketing works?

Teaching Teaching?

More workshop today.

Here's what I always wonder about workshops that are supposed to develop instructors as better teachers:  why are they so often poorly done in terms of time management and structuring?

We sat today for two and a half hours solid.  No moving around.  There was one short five minute starting point where we made individual lists and shared.  But other than that, it's mostly been being talked at or shown stuffs on a screen.

I think it's really problematic that the folks who are supposed to teach teachers don't use strategies that don't have me wriggling in my chair after an hour and a half, don't have me wanting to do something else.  (When I sit through these things, I totally sympathize with students doing effbee or whatever in boring classes, especially if those classes last all day.)

Death:Intention :: Author:Rhetor

We're discussing rhetoric, and talking about intentionality and such.  (We're looking at James A. Herrick's "An Overview of Rhetoric.")   The speaker is insisting that something that isn't purposeful isn't "rhetoric."   The example was a lazy email from a student, the "hey, did I miss anything in class yesterday?" sort of email.  But it's still a text, and I'm not sure it's not rhetoric, since it's communicative.

I'm having trouble resolving the focus on purposeful and intentional "rhetors" and my literary training in reading and thinking about what might not be intentionally done by an author, but is still there.

Let me give a simple example:  X tells a joke.  Y reads the joke as racist, and calls X on it.  X says it wasn't the intention.

Now X might not have been highly aware of the intention, but the joke may well be racist.  And there may be a sort of unacknowledged intention of trying to get Y (or other audience folks) to accept and adopt the racist point of view, no?

As a lit person, I step back from intentionality, and look for effects and multiple meanings.   That doesn't mean that I don't recognize that people do have intentions and try to achieve those, but that I don't think I can always know those intentions (nor do I think people are always deeply aware of their intentions) and that I think people can express really important stuff without intending to.

The way lit folks read tends to look at authors as cultural products and producers; the way we (here in this room) read tends to look as rhetors as highly individualized, independent, and not as products, but only producers.

I don't think it would really be productive to bring this all up in discussion here in this room, but I do think it's worth thinking more about for me.  Even though I think Freud is wrong about lots of stuff (mostly because he thought his culture was "universal" and "real" and not just one of many possibilities, so was way too essentialist)  I'm influenced by his thinking about intentionality.  I'm also influenced by Barthes, obviously.  And De Saussure!  And Lacan!  (Again, wrong on so many levels but thought provoking.)  (An aside: I sometimes like thinkers who are wrong but thought provoking, you know?  Being wrong in really interesting ways is weirdly good.)

Workshop #2

Both my second workshop of the summer, and the second time I've done this workshop.  I did it last summer, in preparation for teaching our new composition course.  If you remember (or look back to) last August, I was pretty frustrated by the workshop last time and more frustrated by teaching the course in the fall.  It got a lot better in the spring.

I'm not sure if I was invited to do the workshop again because I was so obviously lousy or because I was pretty good.  I'm guessing I'm a remedial retaker.  Alas.  (The weird thing is, I'm not teaching the comp class this year because I'm teaching our gateway to the major class!  But here I am, because the money is helpful.)

It's interesting to see the workshop a second time, when I'm not at all stressed about it.  It's easy to see that other folks are stressed, though.


Last summer, I decided to go with the research and restrain my responses to proofreading sorts of issues in student papers.  And I did.  And it was really good.  I did, on a few occasions, talk to students about grammar issues.  For example, I had one student who was a really good writer, doing all sorts of neat stuff, but who made this one type of mistake.  So I talked to her about it, and voila, she was happy to know and didn't make the mistake again that I noticed.  She was just ready to learn that.

There were a few really resistant folks, totally understandably resistant.  We tend to think that doing something is always better than doing nothing.

But, one of the cool things I discovered looking at my students' writing over the semester was that most of them improved their proofreading sorts of stuff a bit by the end of the term.  I didn't do it, but it happened for some of them.  (Not all, of course.)

The big thing was that it was less stressful for me.  That's huge.


Like all fields, comp has lots of jargony stuff.  I find jargon I'm comfortable with perfectly acceptable, and jargon I'm not comfortable with just obnoxious.  Today, it was jargon that used very capitalist market oriented terms to talk about learning and writing, and I was really uncomfortable with that.  I mean, do we need a market term for learning?  And another for writing?  I'm still not clear how either of these terms is better than "learning" or "writing."  Maybe I'm just more bothered by the capitalist market aspect of the metaphors?  It's seems to me that using these metaphors this way sort of normalizes thinking of writing as a capitalist, market enterprise.  And while it certainly sometimes is, I'm not sure that I want that to be the central metaphor for it.  (I'm not articulating this well, though.)

If it's June, it Must be Dairy Month!

 

It's dairy month, and that means Belgian waffles, maple syrup, and whipped cream.

 

Yes, that's my breakfast.  It was good.  It was very good.

 

And these are cheese curds, some of the best I've ever had.  They were piping hot, melty, and very lightly breaded, and they were oh so good!

 







And here are some of our hosts!

Curious Cow



 



On the left is cotton seed, then ground corn, and ground soy (if I'm recalling correctly).

 

This cow is waiting in line to be milked.  (Doesn't that look so uncomfortable?)

Washing up!

Snacking During Milking

They had a really interesting display of cow food.  On the left is corn silage, the right is hay silage.



On the left is cotton seed, then ground corn, and ground soy (if I'm recalling correctly).  The amounts are (the explainer said) about what one cow eats per day.  Pounds and pounds of this!

 

 

A good time was had by all, at least it seemed so!

 



Derailed

I'm back in the land of the northwoods!  I had a good trip, and an especially good time seeing my old college pals and some family.

But now I feel derailed (which had worried me when I left).  I need to get back on track to finish this paper.  And then I'm teaching new classes this fall (one isn't new, but I haven't taught it since 2004, so it's feeling pretty new), so I have a ton of reading to do.

I've ordered books for two of the three classes, but not the third.  I need to read some more to decide, and then order those books.

Then I need to start reading for prep for real.

It's evidently been raining a lot in the upper Midwest, which means my yard is growing lots.  That's great!  It also means the weeds are growing even faster, which maybe isn't so great. 

So, now for some self-discipline for once.  (I am far too easily derailed in life.)

So You Got a TT Job, Now What?

I thought I'd offer some advice for those who got a TT job this time around, and see what other advice other folks can offer.  My advice comes from the point of view of someone who teaches at a regional school, in a specific department, so it might not hold for other situations, though I think some of it does, or I wouldn't offer it.  (Some of these ideas may be useful for folks adjuncting or doing visiting positions, too.)

Finish Up
If you haven't already, finish your dissertation or thesis.  Even if you can't defend over the summer, finish.  It did it's job, which was to get you the job, so be done if you possibly can.

Pro tip:  If you're like me (and a lot of other people I've talked to), you got to the end of high school and figured you'd learned how to work hard, and then you got to college and realized that you hadn't known what work was.  And at the end of college, you figured you'd learned how to work hard, and then started grad school and realized you hadn't known what work was.  Becoming an assistant professor seems to feel like that all over again for most people I talk to.  It did for me, too.  Know it's coming.  Having a dissertation to finish on top of everything else is way harder.

Find a place to live that will be as relatively worry-free as you can.  Your home is likely going to be a refuge of sorts.


Prepping Classes and Stuff
Contact the IT folks at your school, and find out what sort of course software they use, and also see if you can get access to it a bit early.  If you can learn at least the basics before you get to campus, that's often helpful.  Or maybe you'll find out that you already know it, and that's one less thing to worry about.

I didn't know when I started that a lot of departments keep past syllabi and such around.  In my department, the admin assistants have access to a file for every course.  At the minimum (which is sometimes the case), it has the original course paperwork, which outlines what the course is supposed to do and at what level.  Sometimes it has other information, too.

If someone at the department level (an admin assistant or a chair) is around during the summer, try calling and seeing if you can get a copy of this information for the courses you'll be teaching right off.  You might also be able to get the names and email information for faculty folks who've taught the course recently.  (And, if the admin assistant is good, they'll subtly guide you about who to contact because they'll know.)

You should feel free to ask another faculty member for a copy of their syllabus and course information.  My guess is that most will happily share.  At the very least, you'll get an idea of how much reading faculty might assign at varying levels and so on.  If you get a favorable response, feel free to ask about how the course fits in departmental offerings: is it something required?  Does it need to prepare students for a specific following course(s)?  Does it follow a specific course where students learn X and Y, so you should review those at the start and move quickly to Z?  (If you don't get a favorable response from the other faculty member, you can also try asking the department chair these sorts of questions.)

Pro tip:  A good administrative assistant is a thing of wonder.  Get to know and cherish the people who run things from behind departmental desks and other places.

Contract Time
At schools where I've taught, there's usually a two week or so contract period before classes begin which gets used for meetings. At NWU, the thing starts with university wide meetings, has some college meetings, and departmental meetings. There are meetings for new faculty to get to know each other, and get acquainted with services. Go to these and take them seriously, especially getting to know your fellow faculty members. (At bigger schools, I'm guessing these might get split into colleges, and smaller schools might have fewer new folks, so might combine more.)


Get to Know who to Know
During the week or two of contract prep time, you need to go introduce yourself and start getting to know people at:

The Library.  Librarians make the world go around; find out if you should make classroom visits for some of your classes.
The IT Center.  Whatever it's called, those people are responsible for making computer stuffs work.
Tutoring Center.  Whatever it's called, find out what they can do to help your students.
Research Support.  Again, called different things, but invaluable!
Teaching Support.  Take advantage of what these folks have to offer, at least a little. 

(I'm probably missing some ideas, or there are offices at some places that we don't have, and so on.  In some cases, offices will be combined.)


Tenure and Review Stuffs
One of your jobs as a new faculty member is to get ready for the tenure decision.  Don't obsess as a first year faculty member, but it's part of your job, so do it.

During these first two weeks, departments at my school are supposed to hold meetings for tenure track folks to give them basic information.  This may be led by the chair or by someone from whatever tenuring committee there is.  These meetings are really important.  Done well, they're invaluable.  But try not to panic even if it's not super helpful.

In my department, we have a tenure plan document which lays out in pretty specific ways what we consider in making reappointment and tenure decisions.  We give each new faculty member a copy, and go over the relevant parts.  We also explain our review process. 

Some schools will be more, some less explicit about this stuff.  If you can get fairly explicit information, then take it seriously.  It's worse, usually, if you can't get explicit information.  In that case, you can ask other people who've gone through the process recently to see what they did and ask how it went.  This is WAY harder at smaller schools where fewer people go through the process.  It's also way harder at schools where TT faculty don't really expect to get tenure.

At any rate, you still need to be aware that there are criteria (more or less explicit) for gaining tenure, and that you need to figure them out and meet or exceed them to get tenure.  The good news is that you don't have to do that all in one year.  At my school, we pretty much figure that the first year is for teaching and research, and give folks a pass on service stuff as much as we can.  In the second year, we add in service and advising.

I was part of a departmental review team this past year for a small department, and we felt that their tenure/review process wasn't clear enough, and recommended some changes.  So I know that at my own school, while I feel my department's processes are pretty clear, it's not true in every department.  One of the scary things was that the TT faculty all seemed to have different ideas about what was required for tenure, and didn't seem to realize how different their ideas were until our team asked them in a group meeting.

My concern is that if the department or school is small, and has traditionally tenured straight white men, and you're not a straight white man, then you may need to figure out the hidden rules to get tenure.  It's not necessarily that the department is hiring people thinking that it's going to use them up and spit them out, but that even a department of folks who try to be decent can unwittingly make things a lot more difficult for people not like them.

Similarly, if you're at a school where there's a desire to move things more towards researching, then the tenure requirements for new faculty may be a lot tougher than for older faculty.  Hopefully, schools that do that do so with some awareness and do provide extra support for new faculty research.  But if not, then you have to be aware and on top of things if you want to get tenured there.  (And you also may have to dance across the minefield of resentment or nastiness from older faculty.)

Pro tip:  Make yourself a physical file folder or two.  Put your updated CV in there, copies of your syllabi and course assignments.  Any time you get a note from a student thanking you for whatever, put a copy in there.  When you get any sort of review stuff, put a copy in there. 

When you do special stuff (say for a community library or whatever), put the thank you letter in there.  (If you don't get a thank you letter, ask for one.)  (And if someone does a class visit for you or something special, drop them a thank you note and CC the chair.) 

These files will give you the beginnings of your review portfolio and will help you remember all the stuff you need to add to your CV and such.



This sort of thing is on my mind a lot right now because I'll be chairing our department tenure/review committee this year, and I really want to do a good job.  So I have a request, too:  If you have ideas about what would have helped you succeed as a new faculty member, or what you've seen tenure/review committees do that was absolutely superb (or was horrid), then I'd like to ask for your input and learn from you.


Edited to add:  I see to do this every few years.  Here's what I had to say way back when (2006).

Job Search: Last Thoughts

I thought I'd give one last thought to our job searches last year.  And then I thought that I should make a list of those posts.

March 10: Job Search: The Watch and Wait
Feb 24: Job Search: Win
Feb 17: Job Search: Polish
Feb 14: Job Search: Questions for the Campus Visit
Feb 10: Job Search: Meal Times
Jan 31: Job Search: The Job Talk
Jan 29: Job Search: The Teaching Demo
Jan 15: Job Search: The Wait
Dec 13: Job Search: Other Thoughts on Interviews
Dec 12: Job Search: Practice!
Dec 3: Job Search: What Not to Say
Nov 30: Job Search: Advice from an Admin Friend
Nov 28: Job Search: What I'd Like our Candidates to Know
Nov 20: Job Search: A Disabilities Question
Nov 17: Job Search: Interview Questions
Nov 15: Job Search: Focusing

Nov 4: Application Advice
Nov 3: Another Application Thing
Nov 2: Reading Applications  (I guess I repeat myself sometimes.)
Oct 20: Reading Applications 
Oct 16: Thoughts from the Other Side of the Job Market


I hope the posts are useful a bit to folks preparing to go on the market or on the market.

For folks who got jobs, there's a lot to do to get ready for a new beginning.  For those who are going on the market again, there's the job of getting ready again, updating, revising, and such.  And for those who've decided to do something else, then there's a lot to do there, too.

And then there are those of us who are continuing along in whatever we're doing.  And still, there's a lot to do.

A final note: the searches I was involved in have all either made hires or declared themselves failed.  Some of those may be reauthorized next year.  Of the hires I was more involved in, I'm really pleased with the new folks who will be joining us.  They're going to be superb additions to our community, and I look forward to working with them and learning from them.

I'll be heading back to another teaching writing workshop week after next, and meanwhile, there's the Criterium du Dauphine to look forward to!

Just the Same -- MOOC?

I was thinking, and since MOOCs have been in the air a lot, thinking about MOOCs.  And some of the underlying assumptions and such.

If a MOOC course from Ivy U is appropriate to anyone who logs on, and anyone who logs on and completes should, in theory, have learned everything that the Ivy U student learns in the same Ivy U course, isn't there a sort of underlying equalization of the students as learners?  What I mean is, doesn't that basically say that students at X community college, Y regional university, and Z random community member are all basically the same, since they're all taking basically the same course and supposedly should all get the credit?

Doesn't that undermine the special elite status of Ivy U students somewhat?

If Intro 101 is the same, and Medium 250 is the same for any warm body who takes the course, doesn't that pretty much say that the warm bodies taking the course are basically not that much different?

The Uncoolest Cut of All

I got on a plane this morning.  Just so you know, when I fly, I don't fly first class, or super duper business class.  I fly "hold tight onto the wing so you don't fall off" class.

Anyway, I got on and my seat assignment was the middle of a three seat half-row (there were three more seats on the other side of the aisle).  So, I got there, and sat down, and said something friendly to the man in the seat next to me.  Then another man showed up and was about to sit in the aisle seat when the first one asked if I prefered the center seat, or not, and if not, could he and his friend sit together.  I don't have a preference, so I moved to the aisle, and the second man sat in the middle.

I figured they were a couple who'd had bad luck getting seats or something.

I was wrong. 

The middle man, the second one, had come onto the plane carrying a guitar case, but had to check it, and he was chatty, so he said something about being a 50 year old who still plays music, and I said I'm 50 and still listen, so what the heck, or something like that.

We chatted on a bit; the middle man, it turned out played bass, not guitar, so I asked him who he thought the best bassists were.  And we chatted a bit, and he named some names, and was pleasant enough.  He seemed at the same time a bit shy and gregarious, a bit flirty, but not in an obnoxious way at all.

He asked me about the book I was reading (The Theory Toolbox) so I explained a bit, using music examples.  And we chatted a bit off and on.

But you know how you can be having a conversation with someone, just chit chat, and one of you is talking more about himself, and not asking anything about the other?  It was like that.  I learned a bit about his genius of a record producer, about how he's working on writing music for other bands, and so on.  But it wasn't back and forth.  And that's fine, because chit chat on a plane is just chit chat on a plane.

It turned out they were also on the next flight I was on, but we weren't sitting near each other. 

And then we saw each other again waiting for our checked luggage (because I'd had to check my normal carry-on because it was so crowded, and he'd had to check his guitar, and it turned out a bunch of other stuffs).  And as he was picking up his big, hard sided cases, I thought to ask him about the name of his band.  And I vaguely recognized it.

And later, when I had computer access, I looked the band up, and yep, it was them.

Now I feel sort of bad that I didn't recognize them or know who they were.  I hope they don't feel bad.  But I can imagine their blog post (if they wrote a blog) about this woman who didn't even recognize them.

Fight on the Deck

I put out orange halves for Orioles. 

Today, I saw a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole singing and eating at the orange.  Another male hopped around nearby, moving from the water bowl to deck railing, to a different area of deck railing, and so on.  And then at some point, the second one got near enough and the first went after him.  And then both of them were attacking each other, mostly with their feet grabbing, and once they'd both got hold of each others' feet, they fell to the deck and were squacking and wrastling in place. 

It was sort of scary; they were just so intense. 

But when I got closer to see a bit better, they took off instantly.

I've never seen songbirds fighting before.

The Hard Part

So that's a lie, because it implies there's an easy part to writing, and I've never found that.

This writing workshop has been stellar, though.  No one else came today, but here I am, sitting in the library, spread over a desk, and it's been stellar.  Okay, so I know right now I'm not actually writing on my paper.  Still, it's been a real help.

Yesterday, my colleague (I should give him a name, Writing Guy it is!), Writing Guy peer edited my paper, just pretty much like we were at the writing center as usual.  I admit I'm really anxious, but I like him well enough, and he seems a decent, humane person, so I trusted that he wouldn't trash me or my work.  And no, he didn't.  But he gave me lots of great feedback and ideas for improving on what I've got.

I spent much of this morning working on revising the introductory section to really give strong context and make it work better for the journal I want to submit it to.  Now I'm taking a short break from that (after turning on my computer to type in what I'd written, and thus opening up all too many internet possibilities).  And then, well, I think I should do more, but really I want to go home and mow my overgrown lawn before it gets MORE overgrown or starts raining again.

Here are my big "discoveries": 
1)  I like to spread out when I write.  I need to come to the library more so I can spread out.
2)  I actually write new stuff better by hand, at least in initial drafting, and then revise slightly when I type it in.  That's how I wrote my dissertation and most papers, but I somehow forgot that and tried to just type and write at the same time.  That may work for the blog, but not for stuff where I'm trying to put together a larger argument.
3)  I found it helpful to feel like I'd said "I'll be here" to the writing workshop, because I actually am here, and each day I've gotten at least a decent chunk of work done.  At the same time, I really feel like I want to be outside when it's nice and garden and ride my bike.

So, I need to balance coming to the library and sitting just with my ms and a pad of paper and whatever text resources with playing outside.

And now, I'm off to play outside!

Our Part of the Structural Problem

I've been thinking about some of the post-academic blogs I've seen.

I'm supportive of people who choose to not go to grad school, leave grad school, leave academics after grad school, or leave academics at whatever time.  I think folks should pursue their happiness in whatever way they want (with the respect for other people, golden rule sort of caveat).

That said, these blogs and the responses sound pretty angry.  It makes sense that their angry.  I get that.  But I also feel like there's a lot of anger directed at folks like me: people who managed to get a tenure track job, and especially those who've gotten tenure (as I have).  And I'm not sure I get that.  Or maybe I'm just really uncomfortable with that.

I've been thinking, and I can see a lot of ways that people at PhD producing programs might be more helpful, especially by recognizing the value of non-academic work, by helping grad students prepare for a variety of potential jobs (or supporting a career center that will help with preparation), and by encouraging grad students and graduates to pursue what makes them happy.  I also think that they might work to reduce the number of students accepted to graduate programs, though this isn't totally unproblematic. (see Note 1)

What about those of us at regional universities and colleges, or less than elite SLACs?  What are people like me supposed to do to contribute to a solution or make things less abusive?

Yes, I think most of us advise students that grad school is no brass ring and so forth, and the students who really want to go to grad school want to go and do go, and I'm okay with that.  They should do what they want as long as they have basic information about the toughness of the job market and such.

Beyond that?

Someone might suggest that everyone in my department should take a pay cut and use the extra money to hire an adjunct to a tenure track position.  But that's not realistic.   (Note 2)

What about converting adjuncts to TT jobs?
We just don't have the money to fill the tenure lines we have open because no one would come for the money available, and the administration won't give us more because the legislature is making more cuts.  Again.

Hiring?
I think we do a pretty good job hiring.  We usually tenure folks we hire unless they take another job, which they sometimes do, since we're in flyover country, don't pay well, etc.  But when we get 100+ applicantions for a position, and 50 of them are pretty much qualified, then that's still 49 people who won't have our job.  (Though at least one candidate is likely to have turned us down in favor of another job, too.)


So I don't know what folks like me are supposed to do.  But I do know that there are a lot of folks like me at non-PhD granting universities.  And I think a lot of the anger is directed at everyone in a TT position, but it seems mis-aimed at those of us at non-PhD granting schools.



Note 1:  In my grad department, if they'd reduced my incoming class from 28 to 20--if I recall the number correctly--, for example, they'd have probably done it by eliminating the opportunities those of us from non-elite undergrad backgrounds.  There were maybe four of us from public universities, and I'm guessing only one would have been in.  The other three, probably not.  That includes me.  I think grad programs should accept more, not fewer, students from non-elite undergrad programs.  I'm clearly biased about this.

Note 2: My university has just done a couple levels of equity raises (this year) to try to staunch the bleed of faculty leaving for other jobs because it costs more to hire a brand new TT faculty member and convince them to come here than it does to keep an associate prof with tenure. (This is a place that hasn't had cost of living raises or any other raises apart from promotions for a long while, and that has had pay cuts already via benefit losses.) That is to say, my university can't always convince the candidates it wants to hire to come here for what we can offer.  (And often enough, if a faculty member leaves, that tenure-line is empty for more than a year, and sometimes lost altogether.)

Doesn't Feel Like Summer

It's been great, but it doesn't feel like summer.  I'm more relaxed than during the semester, but not feeling the summer yet.  I think it's a combination of things.

First, every morning and into early afternoon, I've been doing the writing workshop.  It's great, and I've made real progress on this paper.  (Seriously, this is huge for me.)  But it means I'm spending from 9:30 to 2:30 basically working on this paper or another that I'm fomenting.  (Well, except right now I've lost focus, so I'm blogging.  Actually, a fair bit of today has been a bust.)

Still, it reminds me more than anything of my grad time spent just going to a library (I worked extensively in three different library spaces writing my dissertation: a campus library, a local public library, and a special collections sort of library.  All three were GREAT!) and working. 

I should remember and do this even without a workshop.  for one thing, I'm spread all over a table.  You might be able to fit someone else's work on one corner, but otherwise, I've pretty much colonized this huge big library table.  (There are plenty of other tables, and not many people, so it's fine.)  I remember how much I like colonizing a table and working intensely for a couple of hours.  I need to remember and do that more regularly.  I'm much better at working this way than I am working at home or in my work office for some reason.

Second, there are all these other things I feel I need to do.  I'm taking on a departmental thingy next year, and it's a little scary because it's a big responsibility, but I think I'll do a good job.  Still, I feel like I want to get organized up front so I don't need to worry about that part of it.

My garden is nuts and I want to spend time, but I haven't been because of the other things. 

Among the other things, my young relative sent me a paper and editing instructions from hir teacher, so I spent several hours reading and responding to the paper.  I'm impressed by the teacher's instructions, which seem quite good, especially if they're intended for parents and such who aren't much practiced in reading school essays.  And I think my young relative's writing has improved in nice ways this year.  Still, it was several hours this morning reading and responding to the work.  (My young relative is, like most teens, not always quite as communicative as one might wish.  I'm not sure when the paper is due, so I wanted to not be the thing that would cause my young relative to be late or stressed about lateness.)

I'm leaving town for 10 days on Sunday.  That's good, but it's also stressful.  I'm going to get together with college pals one day, but will mostly spend time with my Mom doing a variety of things.  So it's great.  But it also comes in what will be my first real free week to do summer stuff here. 

I'd like a couple days where I just don't have to do anything.  But then I probably wouldn't get anything done of the many things I need/want to get done.

Now, back to work on this paper.

Edited to add:  You know what's, well, frustrating (among many other things)?  I can write intensely for a couple hours, and really feel like I've put in work and energy, and then I got to type what I've written into the revisions for the paper, and it takes all of 3 minutes to type in.  Seriously, I've spent a couple hours and gotten what, two or three paragraphs revised.  Sigh.

Workshop

Our new writing center guru rocks.  Zie made whatever arrangements, and then sent out an invitation to faculty to do a writing workshop.  Basically, anyone who wants to goes over all this week from morning til early afternoon to work on whatever they want to work on, with support from the writing center.

It's a great way to get a start on summer writing projects.  I made some decent progress on one today, so that's good.

I'm really happy that zie is trying to make the writing center work for faculty as well as students.  Very neat!

Missing

I've been a grading demon, and they're all done.

Except. 

Gah!

My final exams involve two bluebooks.  One is for the open book/open note essay section of the exam, the other for the no book or notes short ID and passages section. 

So I have a bluebook for one section from a student, but not for the other section of the exam.

Did the student not do it?  It's possible.  This student is pretty, well, not always totally on top of academic things.

Or did it fall out of the pile in my sunroom (where I was grading) or car?

So now I have to go home and double check those places before I can turn in grades for the class.

My victory lap around the department can't happen until I know, and then I won't be here.  So phooey!

Still, the grading is DONE for the semester!

Let the summer begin!  (More on exciting summer plans soon.)

Good luck to all of you still grading.  Congratulations to graduating students!  Congratulations to my colleagues who are graduating, too!  (That's what I call retiring, how about you?)

Now for a short office clean up so that I can find what I want to find for summer stuffs.

Next up:

Summer project #1
Planning class for our intro class and ordering books!
Reading lots!

Next semester, I'll be teaching two new classes and one I haven't taught since 2004.  So it might as well be new.

For now, summer begins!

Finals Week Revelation(s)

Our first year writing course has several required components these days.  One of them is a self-evaluation that each student writes about his or her progress towards the course goals.  These are pretty fun to read (and quick, since they turned them in during the final, and won't get them back unless they ask to at some point).

Naturally, everyone felt that they'd accomplished all the course goals. 

I found it really interesting that about a third of them mentioned freewriting, most to say that they hated it and found it valuable at the same time.  I totally understand that.  I know when I ask them to do it (and I have them do it a lot in classes) they tend not to like it.  But it's nice to see a number of them look back and write that it was actually useful.  They also tended to acknowledge that they'd never do it on their own.  I wonder if even one of them will use it to get started on a writing project at some point in the future?  Some also mentioned bubble mapping and other brainstorming practices, and some readings, even.

(I've probably blogged about this before, but when I was in grad school, teaching comp with the army of grad students, one of us down in our cubby filled basement was talking about hir difficulty with writing block.  And I asked, because I'm rude enough to ask, if zie had tried freewriting.  No, zie said, zie hadn't.  So I asked if zie didn't teach freewriting in hir comp class, and yes, of course zie did.  But zie had never figured out or become convinced that it might actually be useful to hirself.  I became a convert to freewriting within a couple weeks of learning about it, and it helps me write whatever I write, not enough, but it helps!)

Of course, there's always the chance that my students are just kissing up.  But if so, they shouldn't mention how much they hate it!

I now have left to grade: 
1 set of finals
1 set of finals (partially graded)
3 (I think) late papers

I figure at least five hours of work (including submitting grades). 

My dog, I hate late papers to grade.  You think you've made it through, and some student hands you yet another thing to grade.  I wonder how they'd feel if I said at the last minute, oh, here's another assignment you need to do before you can be done? 

They'd hate it. 

Of course, the late papers come from a handful of students, and often because someone got ill or something.

***

I have this fleece jacket that I love.  It's warmish, and fleecy, and loose enough to go over three or four layers, and it has outside AND inside pockets.  It's probably closer to 20 years than to 15 years old.  I wear it pretty much all the time, or did, until this fall and winter, the zipper stopped working.  So I wore another jacket, which was a bit less warm and didn't have inside pockets (I need inside pockets for my reading glasses, among other things).  But I somehow always felt just a little too busy to figure out where to get the zipper replaced.

Until, finals week.  It's the time to get stuff taken care of, especially if doing that means avoiding grading.

So I called and checked, and found an alterations place that replaces zippers, and they said I should bring in a zipper, since they might not have the right size/color in stock.  So I went to the sewing store and looked pathetic, and the nice saleswoman helped me find the right size/color of zipper.  Then I asked her about the best alterations place she could suggest (because she would know, right?) and she and another saleswoman suggested this other place.  So I went there.

And when I got there, the alteration woman took a look at my demonstration of what was wrong and said that I just needed a new pull thingy, and withing about five minutes, I had a perfectly working new pull thingy on a perfectly working new zipper! 

Now I'm feeling stupid that I waited so long.

***

And last week, my OLD laptop died.  Fortunately I'd been having problems with it for a while, so I'd pulled pretty much everything important off onto a flash drive and put it elsewhere.  So at least I'm not losing anything vital that way.  I took it into the shop today, in hopes they can fix it.  (I don't use it much for computing, but mostly for watching DVDs and playing an OLD computer game.  

***

My bike took me out for a ride yesterday, and it was glorious!  I only went on a local bike path (so pretty flat), but it felt just great.  But the shifting had felt sloppy (the rear shifting), so now it's in the shop getting a rusty cable replaced.  The bike ride totally changed my day for the better.  I mean, I was feeling pretty good, and finished giving my final.  I debated trying to grade through, take a nap, or go for a ride, and I chose a ride.  Then I went home and had the best nap.  So I went from feeling pretty good to feeling really, amazingly, wonderfully good.  I think that bike's about the best investment I ever made.

***

About seven or eight weeks ago, I decided to try the 100 pushups thing again.  I tried it a long time ago, and didn't really do it after a week.  So I tried again. 

I want to admit right up front that I'm an overweight, middle-aged woman who could barely do 2 knee pushups in the initial test thing.  I did "day 1" for a week, and day 2 for just as long.  But I progressed.  I'm now on "week 4" and have been on the first day of that for a couple days, just barely able to do the day's pushups.  But still, that means I've gone from barely being able to do 2 in a row (knees pushups) to being able to do 20 at a time (in the self-test) and now the day's set is 12, 14, 11, 10, 16 (you're supposed to do at least 16, and more if you can, but I can't).  And I can do it, if barely, and using the knee push up method.   I'll be doing this day at least another day or two.

I still can't do a proper toe push up, though I think I'm getting close.  I'm thinking of using a prop about six inches off the ground to see if I can do them that way, and restart the program once I can do a full bunch from the knees.  (Or maybe mix?  I just know that I want to try to keep going until I can do some actual push ups.)

The program adds push ups faster than my body seems able to, but since I seem to be slowly improving, I'm trying to keep my hopes up.

***

And now it's time to grade.  I have until early next week to turn in grades, but I'm hoping to finish by Saturday.  There's an exciting thing starting on Monday, so I'll be talking about that, too!

MOOCs and Power: Gender and Imperialism

Historiann has a really insightful guest post up today by Susan Amussen and Allyson Poska about MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses).  It's well worth your reading if you haven't already.

And here's a helpful contextual piece with a cogent critique suggested by Jonathan Rees of More or Less Bunk (who has blogged about taking a MOOC and blogged critically and well about MOOCs).


(In other news, I need to grade.  Of course, if I were teaching a MOOC, I could depend on my students to grade each others' papers and give appropriate and critical responses.  I've now handed back the papers with comments to each class, and now just have a couple of late papers and two sets of finals to grade.  If I were teaching a MOOC, I could just have them all take a multiple guess exam via computer and the grading would be automatic and already done.)

Need Focus

Some of the academic bloggers I read are now into their summer work, others, like me, are in grading slog.  I think some others are still in teaching mode.

I'm not doing well at the grading slog right now.  I'm finding it hard to stay focused and get things done as I need to.

As of last Friday, I had 63 papers and projects of various lengths to grade.   Of those, 31 had to be graded by today.  The rest need to be graded by tomorrow morning.  I now have 15, I think.  The ones for today are all done.

There's a point with any sort of paper that I'm just tired of reading them.  If they were all superb papers, I would still be tired of pushing through them, trying to grade and respond in some useful way.

It may seem to people who aren't grading that it shouldn't be that hard.  How hard is it, after all, to read a couple of hundred pages of a book, even a scholarly book?

If I don't have to prepare to teach it, I can cruise through a fiction text pretty quickly.  I suppose if I didn't have to think about how I was going to use it or take notes, I could cruise through scholarly texts reasonably quickly, too.  But it seems that I'm pretty much always thinking about how I can use them in classes or research, taking notes, trying to synthesize and put things together, and that slows me down a good bit.  It also means I can't just read when I'm tired because I won't retain enough.

Grading reading is more short term for me.  I have to be able to retain what I'm reading long enough to write a helpful comment, but not longer.  On the other hand, I also have to figure out how to formulate a helpful comment.  If something's brilliant, that's not too hard.  You talk about the best points and how good they are, maybe make a specific suggestion to help make something better.  For lousy stuff, it's harder.

You know how in pedagogy classes folks are always talking about leading with a positive comment?   Sometimes it's really difficult to say anything positive, especially if the writer hasn't really done the assignment or turned in something that gets anywhere near the assignment.

For middling papers, experience has taught me that if I give something a B and lead with a really positive statement, I have to be pretty careful to balance it with at least one specific suggestion for improvement.  Otherwise, I'll inevitably get a student coming up to me wanting to know where s/he "lost points."  I hate the "lost points" discussion.  You didn't lose points.   You didn't earn the points in the first place to have them to lose.

Break is over.  I have a final to give in an hour, and should be able to grade three or four essays in that time.  So I need to try to get a couple more graded before that, and then my evening will be manageable.

Please send focus.

Lacunae

We discussed Chaucer's retraction yesterday, and it got me thinking about the Book of the Lion it mentions, but which modern scholars, at least, don't know.  I wonder if it's a version of Ywain, the Knight of the Lion?  Or something?

And then I got to thinking about other famous unknown texts.  There's Cardenio and Love's Labours Found.

How about it?  What other famous unknown texts are there?


And then, of course, that brings us to the unfinished projects, like Spenser's last 6 books of The Faerie Queene.  I'm not sure I really regret that Spenser didn't finish the project (or the projected next 12 books, either). 

I'm not sure if The Canterbury Tales is finished or not.  I'd love a few more tales.  But I'm not sure that a whole trip's back worth of tales wouldn't be just too overwhelming.

So, finished or unfinished?  Other unfinised projects?

Look on my works, ye Mighty...

and despair.

Moving On

A colleague I like and respect a good deal is moving on to a better position.  It's not, perhaps, an ideal position, but it's a good move for my colleague.

I hope zie loves the new position and that the new employer treats hir like the gem zie is.

It's difficult, isn't it, seeing a great colleague move somewhere that's better for them.  I mean, I had my fingers crossed that this colleague would get a great job offer, was wishing for the very best for hir.  And yet at the same time, I'm sad to be losing the close proximity and collegiality.

I'm not in any of the decision making loops, but I sure wish those who were had seen fit to make a competing offer.  Alas, apparently not.

I'm both elated for my colleague and bummed for me.

Bartleby

I'm at that point in the semester when my preferred response to pretty much every thing would be "I prefer not."

Bardiac, you need to be at this really important meeting to discuss stuff for a committee you won't be on next year.  "I prefer not."

Bardiac, there's a special student event you need to go to.  "I prefer not."

And so on.

It's not that I don't go to my share of "special student events."  I do.  Last week, I spent maybe four hours at special student stuffs.  They were good hours, but they were hours when I wasn't prepping or grading or doing committee work or doing other work, none of which doesn't also need to get done.

All of these special student things are important to the students involved.  I know that.  But they also sometimes feel like I'm watching the clubhouse of mutual congratulations.  This goes doubly for a certain faculty person who will not stop talking or trying to run things despite being retired.


I noticed yesterday that I had a headlight out, so I went to the car mechanic to get it replaced.  He opened it up, pulled the bulb, and off he went.  A moment later he came back to tell me that they'd replaced a bulb in another car that didn't quite need replacing, and they didn't actually have a new bulb, but they'd put the used bulb in mine, and didn't charge me.  But he also noticed that the dye he'd put in the air conditioning system had indeed leaked, so that would need work at some point if I want to run the a/c.  And worst of all, he pointed out some areas where the insulation looked like mice had been at it, which isn't that horrible, except that if mice are after your car's insulation, they may also be heading for the wiring, and repairing wiring gets VERY expensive.  So he suggested I put a couple of moth balls in the compartment, and that might drive the mice away.

I stopped at the hardware store and bought a box of moth balls, and put five on each side of the compartment, closed the hood, and went in, closing the garage door.  And within a little while, the whole area began to smell of moth balls.  Bleargh.  So I went back, took all but four of the moth balls out, put the moth ball box in a plastic bag, and closed the hood again, this time leaving the garage door open.  I left it open til fairly late, but you could still smell the moth balls in the garage pretty well in the morning.  I hope the mice run away. 

I think I need to clean the garage and make sure that anything that could be food for mice is gone, and that anything that could be nesting material is also gone.  (The food, well, I did put some dead marigolds in there over the winter, so I moved them out.  Now I have to get rid of hiding places, too.)

It's always something.  Though I would prefer not.

Automatic F

For anyone who uses the word "bard" when they're not writing about really early texts.  Double F for anyone who uses the words "immortal" and "bard" in the same sentence.

For misuse of "irony."

What are the things that make you want to write the old one legged A?

Text o' the Day

I drew this in class today.  What was I teaching?

This post brought to you by the word "sweat."