ROAD TRIP!

I am off to Nebraska for a wedding, so don't expect posts for a while. Three of us are driving... and yes, it's a LONG way!

You can start placing bets on survival, sanity, arrival times etc. now.

So far I've been lucky

The 'helicopter' parent phenomena is one that I've mostly managed to avoid, though I've certainly heard the stories. I remember talking to a woman who works in the Registrar's Office who fielded a call from a mother asking if she would check that her son was eating his vegetables. That's just wrong on so many counts, I don't know where to start.

But the more disturbing part about it is the consumer mentality that is creeping into higher education (particularly here in the U.S.). Going to school is seen as a rite of passage and a necessity to obtaining a good job. In a private institution like the one I teach at, the vast majority of freshman are just that "fresh" out of high school with little or no life experience to speak of. In all the freshman classes I've taught, I've only once encountered a student who hadn't come straight from high school, and he was still only 20.

With this mentality, students come to see their education as a product that can be consumed and if they've paid for it, they expect to get out of it a passing grade, an 'A', a credit, whatever it is that they've decided they should get out of it. In other words, I'm supposed to deliver whatever it is they think they are entitled to after they've paid their tuition. It's a weird attitude to encounter and it cheapens the learning experience.

If any of you ever see me acting like a helicopter parent when my kid goes off to school next year, slap me upside the head... hard, ok?

One more thing that can go wrong

Got an electronic memo today:

During the summer, the Office of the Registrar worked closely with Information Services to develop electronic rosters (E-Rosters) for the semester undergraduate day courses. Faculty who are assigned to teach these courses in the fall and are on the University's faculty file will have the ability to print their rosters as often as they wish until the grade sheets are generated. These E-Rosters will reflect the student add/drop activity that was processed at the close of business on the previous business day.

While I understand the rationale behind this, it fills my heart with trepidation. Before it was just that (incorrect) electronic files messed with my ability to work out or access the library. Now there's the possibility that those same kinds of mistakes will screw with my work. Great!

This might actually be enjoyable!

Since I'm going away to a wedding on Wed. night and not coming back till the day before classes start, I figured I should do some work on my course materials etc.

I'm teaching one course this term and two next term, the reverse of what is usually required of us, but I asked for the arrangement so that I would have time to write those damn exams that are still looming over my head during the fall term. Let's hope I get them written, otherwise, I'm gonna be screwed come spring term!

Anyway, the uni has decided to try and make freshman writing more interesting by creating special topic sections of the required freshman course. So I submitted a proposal and it was accepted. It was a series of sequences that I pretty much already was working with, and all but one I've already tried out and found they worked pretty well.

So anyway, I'll be teaching a freshman writing course in "Constructing Narrative Across Media" which means we get to 'read' a whole bunch of stuff that isn't just books. We'll be 'reading' painting, film, and, you guessed it, blogs! Their final project has them revisiting the work they've been doing all term, which means one option is to create a blog of their own - the last time I tried this with students, most of them 'got' it, though some of them really didn't put much effort into it.

The course is great because I get to talk about narrative, which is something I study and actually know something about. And I get to talk about film and blogs... two things I also know a little about. The only thing I don't know much about is painting, but it's the first thing we do, so it's not like the students are ready to start rebelling yet and usually works out pretty good. It also means we get a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts across the street (another reason why it's going to be more fun than sitting in the classroom all the time).

I suspected that there might be an added benefit to the class, and there certainly was - when I logged onto the webCT for the course, I saw that I only have 12 students signed up yet! Alright! Now, sure, that could change before the term starts, but a small class would make this an even better course to teach. It's always easier to get students talking, and everyone talking, when there aren't too many people in the class.

I still need to re-read a bunch of the essays and stuff, and write at least one more assignment before the term begins, but it's looking like this could actually be a pretty cool class!

My imagination fails me

Today while driving, I was cut off by a car pulling out of a liquor store parking lot. I was behind it for a few blocks until it turned off again... into a cemetery.

????

I fail to see the connection.

My Private School Days

Betcha didn't know I ever went to private school, did you? But I did. The only reason I did was because my dad and mom both worked for the school, otherwise, I wonder that they ever could've afforded it.

Besides, when you live in Brasil and don't speak very good Portuguese yet, you're probably best going to a school where the language of instruction is English. So I was playing with Google Earth (which is another in a long line of useful things to do when you're procrastinating about doing the work you're supposed to), and I managed to find the school! Here's the aerial shot:



And before you get all jealous, the pool was under construction when we left. That big green space? A real futbol field. The structure at the top of the picture was the elementary/junior high classrooms and the cafeteria/administrative offices are in the light colored building next to the pool.

Now I just need to find the house we lived in!

It's good to know your limits

How much caffeine would it take to kill me?


After 104.76 cups of Brewed Coffee, you'd be pushing up daisies

Now I know. Do you want to know your limits?

There and back... again

This has been a summer full of travel, well, for my family at least. I've pretty much stayed put aside from a brief foray across the border in search of comedy.

Our family hasn't been together much this summer - they've all been off here and there, back and forth, to and fro, well, you get the picture.

The day after school ended, we sent daughters 2 & 3 off on a jet plane. The next day daughter 1 left. Then nothing much happened for about a month. Then daughters 2 & 3 came back. Two days later, daughter 2 left again. Eleven days later daughter 1 came home. Two days after that daughter 2 came home. Three days later, husband left, and three more days after that, daughter 3 left again.

Today husband gets home, and then in another three days daughter 3 gets home. Four days after that I leave and by the time I get home, school starts.

So, did you manage to keep track there? I did (though I guess I can cheat cause I have the calendar with everyone's travel plans on it in front of me). That makes three days together as a family so far and four next week. In the two months of summer, we only managed to be together for a total of a week!

Is this a having teenagers kind of thing, or just my travel bug family?

Thinking about weddings

I went to a perfectly beautiful wedding this weekend. I'm sure there were some behind the scenes moments when things didn't seem to go too well, but from a guest perspective, I think it was the most perfect wedding I've ever been to. Part of what made it perfect was that it was so uniquely them. No one else would've had their wedding quite the same - the personal touches were just so distinctly theirs that it felt like the day totally belonged to them.

Now, my perception might come from my actually quite limited experience with weddings. Not that I haven't been to many, but more because I feel like I've been to the same one several times. I come from a really large extended family (50+ aunts, uncles & cousins) on each side, and that doesn't include all those people that my cousins have married. Our family gatherings are pretty big - which is why they only take place every four years on my dad's side of the family, and every three to five years on my mom's. (My dad's family is pretty religious about following an Olympic-type schedule, whereas in my mom's family, no one has ever taken on the responsibility of making it regular, so it happens whenever it happens)

Thing is, both families closely adhere to our (their? not sure how I should reference this since I no longer practice) religion, so every wedding ceremony script sounds the same. The music is the same. The reception is the same. The food's the same. The jokes are the same. It was like going to the same wedding over and over again. As a child, I didn't realize that weddings could actually be any different. And the first secular wedding I ever attended was my own!

So I enjoyed and am very glad to have been invited to their wedding this weekend. From the readings to the song they chose for the first dance, it was all theirs.

Congratulations guys!

And I've actually read this one!

Which Neil Gaiman book am I? Glad you asked!


You are Coraline! You are quirky, strange, and
charming. Some people may find you a little
alarming and not always get you... But they can
piss off, right? You are the kind of person who
always needs to be entertained, otherwise you
get uncomfortable. You probably still enjoy
everything you did when you were little, such
as childrens books and Disney movies. You're fun
to be around and are usually the life of the
party.


*~Which Neil Gaiman book are you?~*
brought to you by Quizilla



Cool!

How misogynistic can you get?

So I followed a bunch of links till I eventually landed at this BBC news article. Apparently, one of their newsreaders is rather pissed that women seem to have all the media jobs. I guess he doesn't like the shoe on the other foot.

Then again, the article notes that two recent job changes at the BBC had a woman being replaced by a man, so I don't think he really needs to spray the door lintels at ever BBC studio with testosterone or anything to keep women away.

But the part that really got me was the last paragraph, a direct quote:

"All they [men] are is sperm donors, and most women aren't going to want an unemployable sperm donor loafing around and making the house look untidy."

and making the house look untidy ... because that's all women care about, taking over the media and keeping the house clean.

More light?

I ran across an article in the local paper about the change in daylight savings time that is scheduled to begin in 2007. First time I even heard about it. In 2007, the U.S. intends to move the dates for daylight savings changeover three weeks earlier in spring and a week later in fall.

This is supposed to save energy.

This is Mr. Bush's solution to the energy crisis? It's a bit like putting weather stripping around the window but leaving the door wide open all winter. (and yes, I know there was more to the bill than DST, but not much)

The big concern that I've heard so far while reading up on it is that schoolchildren will walk to school in the dark for those few weeks. No problem around here. I think my kids are the only ones who actually walk to school (their school's are 10 minutes and 15 minutes away). They're constantly getting rides home from friend's parents, though I'm not sure why since there seems to be little call for it. Hmmm... maybe those friend's parents would give me a ride to the bus stop too? It's about as far from the house as their schools are. But I digress.

So now the question with daylight savings is whether Canada is going to follow suit. From what I've seen on the internet, there seems to be much more talk about the potential consquences of following suit than took place in the U.S. Several blogs and sites here seemed as surprised by the announcement as I was. The only ones that aren't are the techies who recognize the problems with producing flexible or two versions of software that recognizes time depending on which side of the border they'll be used on.

CTV actually has a pretty decent article on daylight savings and premiers' responses to the U.S.'s move to adopt the altered scheme. They bring up some pretty interesting points, and since we're much farther north, the concern about reducing the amount of light in the morning is a more serious question than in is in say Florida. And Florida doesn't ever have black ice either, which is difficult to see in the dark.

Wikipedia has a really good (and of course very up-to-date) entry for DST if you're curious.

An Oak Tree? C'mon, I'm not that bad!

According to the Guardian's deadwood at work quiz:

You are the office oak tree, dedicated, sturdy and dependable. Shunning trivial water cooler conversations, instead you focus your energies on perfecting the 3-minute lunch. The thought of leaving the office with work left undone gives you a nervous twitch.

I didn't think it was that bad! Considering how much screwing around I've been doing this week, I think that survey must be flawed.

We still are smarter than computers

I've got this gmail address, you know, where you get ad banners in each message. I usually don't pay attention to them, but one caught my eye the other day, and got me wondering what other bloopers there were. They're supposed to be tied to the message content, but sometimes they're really off. For example:

In a message about arranging travel to a local wedding, one ad banner offered to help me get over my fear of driving. (What about fear of weddings?)

In another message about soccer practices for the week, I was offered help in dealing with fibromyalgia and the 'sleep secrets' of Einstein. (Because I always think of sleep when I think of soccer)

In an email asking for clarification on my teaching schedule, I got offered Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas, for FREE! (Should I be playing instead of teaching?)

In an email from a student asking what my office hours will be for the week of finals, I got offered postal uniforms for cheap. (Does this have anything to do with my feeling that I might end up 'going postal' when I talk to some of my students?)

In another email from a student setting up a time to meet, I got offered a cruise. (To make a quick getaway?)

In an email from an academic journal I subscribe to, I got job offers. (Are they trying to tell me something?)

In an invite to a going away party, I got offered autodial software for my office. (So I could pretend I wasn't home?)

In an email trying to arrange a day to meet for a movie, I got offered a new mattress. (What kind of movie did they think I was talking about?)

In a request from a colleague for to sub a class for her, I got offered "disturbing ghost footage" (Does this mean no students will show up for that class?)

And in an email from my writing group, I got offered a device that will be able to tell me if my drink has been spiked. (What kind of kinky writing group do they think this is?)

Check it out!

I'm a member of a new blog started by a good friend who will soon be moving... *sob* but I'm looking forward to hearing all her travel and new home adventures via blog. Check it out!

One BIG Book!

Finished reading Joyce's Ulysses. Took me eight days.

It's a very long and dense book which is really hard to follow at times because so much of it is internal. It's also highly narcissitic of course (can you use that term for a book?) What I mean is that as a book, it spends a lot of time navel-gazing, or at least it's characters do. It's a hard book to write a plot summary about because there's so much internalization, and I come away from it with more of a general sense of the language and sound of the book than any meaning.

At least I can say I've read it.

Tagged by a meme a.k.a. 15 things I've done you probably haven't

Fifteen things? I don't know that I can get to 15... or that I want to publicly tell all the things I've done that you probably haven't. But here goes...

• I've lived in Brasil
• I've had a turtle for a pet.
• I prepared and filed my own divorce papers without needing a lawyer.
• I moved 3000 miles without knowing where I was gonna live when I got there.
• I got married 36 hours after the proposal.
• The only wedding invitation I gave out was written on a Post-It note.
• I shook hands with Charles, Prince of Wales.
• I've stood with one foot on each side of the equator.
• I ran away from home at the age of 6 because I didn't want to eat my vegetables.
• I've conducted research at the British Library.
• I've made Kiwi wine.
• I got my first cavity when I was 26.
• I've played flashlight tag in Paraguay.
• I've driven 1000 km roundtrip in one day just to see a band play.
• I've cooked a month's worth of food in one day.

Ha! I did it! Took a while though...

Striking more things off the list

I drank Honduran coffee this morning, compliments of my lovely daughter who arrived safely back from Central America with all limbs intact, a craving for chocolate, and her passport!

*whew*

I have nothing to say

But I have spent a little time playing around with the blog itself. The "What I've been reading lately" link (on your left) has been updated - 34 out of those 50 books I challenged myself to read this year - looking good!

Just below you might notice a similar link "What I've been writing lately", which is new of course. I hope you enjoy! (lemme know what you think)

Booker Prize

Today the longlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced.

The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw
The Sea by John Banville
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
Slow Man by J. M. Coetzee
In the Fold by Rachel Cusk
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
All For Love by Dan Jacobson
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The People’s Act of Love by James Meek
Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie
The Accidental by Ali Smith
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
This Thing Of Darkness by Harry Thompson
This Is The Country by William Wall

As a would-be scholar in contemporary Brit lit, I'm a little disturbed to discover: a) I don't recognize/know anything about some of these authors; b) I wasn't even aware that two of my favorite authors who are on the list had books coming out this year; and c) so far, I've only read one of these books.

In all fairness, several of the books on the list haven't been released yet (September or later for the hardcover), and although I've only read one on the list, another is coming in the mail (ordered before this announcement). But still, I really should at least have a passing familiarity with Booker nominated authors/books to call myself a contemporary Brit lit scholar.

Then again, I have so little time to read my comps stuff, let alone anything else, that maybe I'll just wait for the shortlist to be published and read that.