help wanted

Seeking responsible and caring individual to stand in for exhausted mother, lecturer and graduate student. The appointment will begin immediately and conclude on December 13. Responsibilities include: preparing and delivering lecturers, grading assignments, and responding to student needs; clothing, feeding, bathing, and supervising the activity of a wobbly toddler; completing grant applications and upcoming dissertation presentation, creating winter interview schedule, and overseeing survey scanning and commencing analyses.

google-ized

So, I feel like every time I go to blogger, they are making it more difficult for me to stay old school. Are they going to force this google-ization on me? When? Should I move over to typepad or some other platform?

I used to be a fan of google but am beginning to feel like they are getting to be a little too big for their britches. I know their employee practices are commendable and all but do they really need to acquire absolutely everything ? Yes, I know, the bottom line, increasing profits, etc. etc. but what about monopolies and separation of powers and all that?

meh.

I'm on campus using my prehistoric laptop (external wireless card, big and heavy, blue line down the left side of the screen, red line down the right) trying to get some work done (teaching of course, the works-in-progress presentation I'm giving in a couple of weeks is sadly mistitled) and am about to head over to the gym after quite a long hiatus (approx 6 weeks).

The winter doldrums set in early this year - during that mid-October spurt of cold and grey. At this point I am underwater - hoping that I will be able to hold my breath until the semester ends. I optimistically imagine that I will resurface with an exuberance and joie de vivre that will carry me through until the new year (my new year, folks, the hint of spring).

Anyway, I am truly off to the gym and not looking forward to the scale or watching how quickly my heart rate soars - likely reaching my target rate while climbing the stairs up to the cardio theater. I am looking forward to sweating and listening to my return-to-the-gym ipod playlist which includes toe-ticklin' tunes from MSTRKRFT, Spouse, Kekele, Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, The Bravery and New Order, among others. On a related note, have I mentioned that I am enjoying the resurgence of the "post-modern" sound in some contemporary music?

if I were you, I would expect a quiz on Monday

I know lots of folks who feel badly about failing those who attend class. In general I concur that it is kind of crappy to fail students who are regular attendees, engaged in lecture and clearly putting in effort to prepare for class and exams.* It seems like nearly every semester I have a student or 2 who falls into this category - just doesn't seem to get it - and I spend significant time with them trying to get them to learn how to read, write and take tests. Anyway, these students I get. I am baffled by the students who come to class and do nothing and yet somehow expect that I will pass them despite their poor performance on exams and other assignments.

I hit an all-time low with one of my sections this week. One of my students entered before class and put her head down on her desk to sleep. Once class began her head stayed down so I called on her. She popped up and answered (albeit in a way that demonstrated she hadn't done the reading) my question and then put her head back down. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt - paying attention with head down - a few minutes later however, there was a slapping noise which was the result of her hand (in her sleep) dropping on to the desktop. Further, there was much less student involvement than usual (e.g. no one responding to questions and comments) and one student, who made no mention to me of an early departure, packed up and left. Meanwhile one of my most annoying students (annoying in that she is outspoken in class at the same time that she doesn't prepare, generally late, AND to top it off added the class at the beginning of the semester to get an A to bring up her GPA (assuming, apparently, that my class - Sociology, after all - was an easy A)) closed her notebook and put her head down on the desk too. I had reached the limit.

"So," I said, "I am sorry. I didn't realize that this was such a horrible lecture. Should we just forget about it and I'll see you next week?"
[Silence]
"I mean," I continued, "I've got 2 people sleeping down here in front, other folks leaving and most of the rest of you sitting comatose. If my lecture is that painful for you all, let's not waste any more of our time, OK?"
[At this point a couple of my tried and true regulars said that they were paying attention and interested. Then the annoying student spoke up.]
"Well, I didn't do the reading so I really don't understand."
"Oh you're not prepared. All the more reason not to pay attention to a lecture in which I am going over the material you should have read before today."
[Silence]
"I will continue the lecture for those of you who are interested. However, I would like the rest of you to pack up. If you have a need to sleep, I highly recommend the sofas in the Union on the 3rd floor. We'll wait a minute so you don't disrupt us further on your way out."
No one moves. After a minute I recommence the lecture and abstain from soliciting any class participation. The sleepers are awake, wide awake. At the end of the period, most students exit through the back. I am still livid and, further, the lecture needs to be completely revamped.

*When this happens, I tend to fault the university for admitting students who are not up to the work and then not following through with services. The university I'm at now does a great job of making itself accessible to those from the community who are interested in being students but I do think that, if you are going to take tuition $$ from folks, you should make a commitment to helping them through successfully.

the stars at night

We were away the last 10 days or so - in TX. We spent time in Austin. Eh - not a fan - kind of a bigger even more all-the-inconveniences-of-a-city-with-none-of-the-perks town like Madison. South Austin wasn't bad and the bats were kind of cool. Then it was San Antonio. What a nice city! An old and walkable city center. The coolness (meaning temperature) of the somewhat over touristed riverwalk. A great place to visit. Last was San Marcos (pronounced locally sanMARcus) which ended up being a pleasant surprise. The outlet malls were on the outskirts and there was a nice little village center and even some good food (best vittles of all 3 locations).

Other things learned:
1. The smell of barbecue (I'm from Maine so the spelling is a guess) makes me ill - burnt flesh with a few spices rubbed in. It permeates everything. I can't even eat the bread or the beans without tasting it and feeling like I'm about to toss my cookies.
2. One can only spend so much time eating cheese enchiladas, rice and beans.
3. At the young age of 14 months I would guess that E has consumed less than 1/8 the sugar of the typical American toddler. I suspect one of the things she is going to enjoy about traveling as she grows older is all the crapola she gets to eat.* We have a pretty established diet of whole grains, unprocessed/sweetened fruits, veggies and legumes, and organic dairy products without additions. So, on this trip, we couldn't give E her normal whole milk organic plain yogurt and ended up with those typical yoplait and dannon-type things. 3 of the first 5 ingredients are some form of sugar! They averaged 12g of sugar per container (less yogurt than E usually eats at a sitting). They also contained less calcium and protein than a typical serving of whole milk plain yogurt. I can't believe people think of those things as part of a healthy diet.

*Incidentally, I didn't travel growing up (barring the trip to the mainland to shop at the mall and our annual family trip to "Funtown," a 30 minute drive from the ferry terminal and, in my mind, basically another country). All the same, my parents ruined their credit on a family trip to DisneyWorld when I was in 7th grade. They purchased a package which included meals at resort restaurants. I think I ordered a steak pretty much every night. Toward the end of the trip, as I was finishing off yet another steak, I turned to my mother and said, "I really like steak, but, when we get home, do you think you could make a green salad and macaroni with butter and pepper?"Sure enough, mom made that for our first dinner at home. She also made it for all my subsequent homecoming meals - home from college, home from Russia, first meal after the Nutcracker closed, etc.