The Chronicle now says we should “embrace our inner North Dakotan” and I disagree with most of the old, tired platitudes they reiterate in their article. But then, I am apparently unusual in that I know what I want and what I want, I want for realistic reasons, not for merely conformist reasons or prestige, … More On choosing a job
Too tame a life, perhaps that is it. I would rather have the life of Sir Richard Burton, or someone like that. He, too, was a scholar. Notice, though, the vocabulary of debt and obligation that goes with academia. You did a Ph.D. People say the price you pay is to teach. You owe the … More “Too tame a life”
It is not that I must protect my time and project, with management and discipline — it is that I must allow my time and project to protect me. My mother has been saying I was an organized person since before I started school. I never knew how she had seen this so soon, how … More Slightly Spontaneous
Of course, this is where I was while Marvin Wilson was being executed. It is truly amazing to be able to drive up and be allowed to park right next to a library like that, or lock up your bicycle and walk right in. The rabble tell me it is prestige I should want, but … More Perry-Castañeda Library
Those small blocks of time are good for many things, including reading. If I am reading a dense or difficult book and I want to truly follow the arguments and remember them — such as to be able to describe them cogently, for example, when the need arises and without notes — I like to … More Those small blocks of time
I think the reason women say they need big blocks of time to get work done in is not that they do not know how to work efficiently. As I keep saying, anyone who got a PhD and a job does know how to work efficiently. Where the front time goes, the first half of … More Those big blocks of time
If you… + have an uncongenial or hostile work environment + lack the materials and conditions needed to do the work you are ostensibly to do + are poorly enough paid that considerable time and energy is spent figuring out how to cover routine expenses, or which not to cover + have an unstimulating or … More An exercise in naming
There is a character in the story I would like to interview so as to understand. I do not understand her or identify in any way but I would like to understand, to be able to see the world from her view. I want to find other literary characters like this. It is a person … More Short story noir II
The issue, we decided last night, was finding a technology whereby to make life in Maringouin consistently bearable enough so as to be able to consistently work. The problem is the amount of energy that goes toward making things bearable, and the fact that efforts in this regard do not produce a reliable enough result. … More Ce que je ferai / White Rabbit
This comment on the Christian fundamentalist idea of generational curses and what to do about them explains yet another undiscovered piece of the strange and highly destructive psychotherapy I went through. The therapist, as I eventually discovered and comprehended, was a true believer in ACOA, Al-Anon, and other 12 step theories according to which, if … More On generational curses
coldhearted scientist وداد 