It is really difficult to make carpenters, of which I really need one, come to one’s house. I have calls out to three or four and apparently I am just not exciting enough. My desire to upgrade things is such that I am tempted, while waiting, to buy a Linux box. I would buy from … More Linux
It is the weekend, but it is also Good Friday, so we cannot sing. Instead we will review Barack Obama. We will do this for several days. I will begin, but it is an open thread. BON – Student loan overhaul ACCEPTABLE – Healthcare plan MAUVAIS – Afghanistan/Iraq (bad, but he had promised this) – … More Review of Barack Obama
What not to do: – Think about it – Talk to vicarious drama kings and queens who would like to help you think about it – Take up nervous habits – Open thread! Alternatives, if you are nervous and must do something: – Think, in a positive way, about alternative careers – Think, in a … More Academic Mondays: Things To Do While Waiting For Your Tenure Decision: Open Thread
It is the weekend, and we are definitely singing. Ridwan has a picture of Edward Said on his blog with the quotation “I have been unable to live an uncommitted or suspended life.” I think that was what Reeducation wanted — something very bland and Protestant somehow. I also tried to do this, but I … More Edward Said
You cannot win an argument with, and you should not waste time trying to bring to reason or cure irrationality, I have often been told. It took me a long time to actually learn this although I finally did recently. In the intervening decades I listened politely to and tried to translate to reason the … More Prolegomena to a Memo (Tentatively Entitled “Dear University Student, Memo #101”)
If I had ever actually sent these I would have been a busybody. When the events took place — and it was not one, but several different occasions — I practically sat on my hands so as not to send them. #101 Dear Junior Faculty, Please do not try to intercede in this matter. Your … More Advice to New Faculty, or, Fantasy Letters #101, #007, #99, and #0
It keeps freezing and then getting warm. Over Mardi Gras there was snow. I keep coming to points where I declare myself free of Reeducation but then realize I am not really. Then I start over. I have now started over at a whole new level and it feels like physical exercise. It might be … More Spring
This semester I am not teaching any foreign language courses and it is wonderful. Last semester on Facebook, I completed the quiz “What kind of elementary school teacher are you?” with the result Funny and Friendly. You are a very funny and friendly teacher. You like to make your classroom a fun place to be. … More Academic Mondays: Funny and Friendly?
In Reeducation you were wrong. You were guilty of evil doing, and you were also a victim of evil doing by others. Not to be victimized was to exert inappropriate amounts of control, and not to be guilty was to be “in denial.” I went to Reeducation to learn how to deal with abusive people, … More Liar, Liar
While flying back from Brazil I was thinking of the amusing posts I could write reviewing the trip and different institutions I encountered upon it. I was also going to review the Miami International Airport including the restaurant La Carreta in its present state there, the city of New Orleans, and the Greyhound bus service … More A Late, Brief Review of My Brazilian Voyage
coldhearted scientist وداد 