I got e-mail from blog readers asking whether I were all right, and yes. I had a PTSD episode, which I disliked. I have been researching flashbacks today and realized something fundamental, but not at all new; I had merely forgotten it. Back when I was seriously going to quit academia, a series of events … More Everyone is fine
I am not interested in this, but I need to be. I would be more interested if we did not have a cumbersome textbook and website package to navigate, and if we had a/v that really worked. I am getting more interested because I am getting a part-time TA to whom I need to be … More How can I become more interested than I am in teaching basic Spanish courses, to the language requirement?
I am recovering from a fit of depressive pique I had over a question of academic identity, really. I see this now having pondered that post by Squadromatico, which is not only about what parts of life one gave up, or what parts of one’s ambitions remain unrealized, but more profoundly about what parts of … More On identity, and on a battle line
Before saying anything truly grave I want to say there is one thing I definitely did not give up for academia and it is that I did not get fat. Seriously: there is this famous colleague I have who gained dozens of pounds eating chocolate during their tenure year, and who says it was worth … More Take Four
Here is a comment I really support: “Part of being solid in a career is making those choices as to what you will and will not put up with. The thing that we all need to learn is to how to deal with it politically.” I like it because it goes against what I was … More Et plus tard
Self-esteem: por los suelos. Pressure, of every kind: high. Fatigue: extreme. Immediate Reason: the language program. I am so tired from it, and so traumatized from the language teaching wars. The trauma would end if we had a program with goals and policies, and if it were coherent and feasible and we all actually followed … More Today’s weather
I have been having a crisis all day and should have taken the day off to rest, actually, since this is fatigue driven. (I have not been practicing the right kind of mental health hygiene, which involves having enough sleep, exercise, and meditation time, in some weeks.) But if it is true as we have … More Alguma coisa percebo
“Bateson is undoubtedly correct in believing that the effects of the double bind on the child are particularly devastating. All the grown-up voices around him, beginning with those of the father and mother (voices which, in our society at least, speak for the culture with the force of established authority) exclaim in a variety of … More Girard
It is all well and fine to tell students to read up to a certain point and then write, but that advice when given me has always been given as a way to get me to stop working or to invalidate work done. That is why I so resent it, and this resentment is my … More Dream-ritual for Mictlantecuhtli
It is harder to write when you have not yet read enough than it is when you have. It must be yet harder to write if you have not done much research at all. And it is hard to publish pieces which are poorly researched. Telling people to stop reading and write, makes writing harder … More Another illumination on the standard advice
