Time: 1:03 AM
Room temperature: 92° F
Body temperature: 104° F
I’ve made no secret of my conviction that living in my apartment is like being the only citizen of my own third-world country. Tonight’s drama confirms that conviction, at the same time that it has made me question the wisdom of the choices I’ve made and had [...]
Archive for September, 2007
29 Sep
Burning questions
28 Sep
Punitive Friday poetry
Last week I blogged about an encounter with a former student who had read this poem in one of my classes. Call me a plebe, but I’m a Heaneybopper from way back. Like most of my students, I wasn’t born when this poem was written, but I am endlessly captivated by the mixture of moral [...]
26 Sep
The Deed, she is done.
It’s official.
I am the chair of a dissertation committee. At the end of the program, there will be fabulous prizes and, oh yes, an original contribution to knowledge, whose author will be an Expert in the Field, with all the—what do they call it at the conferral?—rights and privileges attendant to the degree. If all [...]
24 Sep
Respect the claw
Like an idiot I graded papers for almost twenty-four hours straight last night and this morning. I am way too old for this, but then I taught, fueled by adrenaline fumes. At the end of the period, I returned the papers. Even though I dismissed the class once they received their papers, many students lingered [...]
23 Sep
Actually,
I hate that word.
Sure, I use it all the time; this blog is probably peppered with it. But when someone asks my opinion, hears it, and then responds, “That’s actually a good idea,” I just want to haul off and smack that person so hard that his grandchildren will be born dizzy.
The conversational situation tends [...]
22 Sep
Santa Claus is coming to town
I seem to be expending an awful lot of electrons here whining about my job, which I quite like, so I’ll focus on some of the benefits of working at Jumbo Public University, which I suppose hold true for jumbo public universities everywhere.
I mean, I can’t think of another teaching environment in which you can [...]
21 Sep
Another lame, phoning-it-in post
I’ve spent the morning puttering about the house and am now trying to decide what to wear. Not that it should matter: I have planned a day in my office with the door closed, as I grade papers and begin to write a conference paper. All of this stuff absolutely must be done.
At least the [...]
20 Sep
Bleeeeaaaaaaauuuurrrggggh
After an impossibly long teaching day, I am feeling full of pedagogical accomplishment. And tacos. Four of them. With some lovely Anakena Ona 2005 (a 35/35/30 blend of Chilean viognier, chardonnay, and riesling).
I adore my classes. I adore my students, though I must remember to teach them to write better. (NB: this blog would not [...]
19 Sep
Unconscious perils of pseudonymity
I dreamed last night that I was visiting my grad school. It was great to see people I hadn’t seen in a few years. Since I still haven’t cured myself of the habit of referring to JPU’s library as “the ‘library,’” I was particularly happy to return to my grad school’s library to get some [...]
18 Sep
Poof!
Contrary to the impression I must be creating with my increasingly frequent posts on the job market, it really hasn’t absorbed that much of my attention. Last weekend, for example, I frittered away at least a day fretting about teaching.
Now, we’re only in the middle of week 4, but my classes have been going so [...]
