I'm Just Sayin'

Updates on what's happening in my life. Thoughts about current events, politics, books, and anything else that I find interesting. Intended for those who know and love me.

Name:
Location: Albany, New York

Friday, August 31, 2007

A Sobering Reminder

Given our typically short collective memories, I sometimes struggle with how to convince people of the relevance of my academic work. Why should we care about Eastern Europe now that the Cold War is long over? CNN has a compelling story about how some people are still experiencing the effects of that period. It's a sobering reminder that the consequences of political policies often outlive the policymakers (and in this case, the political regimes) that made them. It's also quite a different look at Kazakhstan that what you might have seen in Borat.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Poser

There's an article on Inside Higher Ed that's getting a lot of folks riled up. Some assistant professor wrote "The Professor’s Ten Commandments, Thanks to Notorious B.I.G." It's his list of 10 things that (new) faculty should know before starting the new school year. The advice is pretty run of the mill, but the buzz surrounds his use of profanity and his attempt to apply rap lyrics to academic life.

Frankly, I disliked the article because the advice is horrible. Most of it is common knowledge (e.g., "protect your time"), so no points for insightfulness. The rest is just bad advice from someone who has a horribly jaded opinion of academia and therefore is not the best person to be giving such advice in this public forum. The "rules" tell you not to talk about your academic work to other academics, not to trust your colleagues, and not to "believe your own bullshit" (i.e., the stuff you teach in classes). Wow! And I thought I was cynical. This is a lame attempt at trying to be different and edgy by showing that you listen to rap (which is pretty mainstream these days) and that you are comfortable with profanity (hard to find someone who isn't). Two thumbs down for the article itself, although the comments are somewhat amusing.

Acclimation

As much as I enjoy teaching, it generally is a source of significant anxiety. Everyone says it gets easier with time ... and I think my time has come. Today is the first day of classes for me and here are the signs that I'm adjusting to this role:

  • I had no problems sleeping last night. (I usually lie awake thinking of all the things I have to do to get ready for class and obsessing over every possible detail.)

  • Three hours before my first class of the semester and I have not once looked at my notes or syllabus. (I will before class starts, but the fact that I haven't been doing it all day long is a good sign.)

  • I'm not obsessing over what I'll say in class five weeks from now. This was the worst part of the anxiety problem -- it was never ending. This is the advantage of not teaching courses for the first time. This semester I'm teaching both classes for the second time. I still tweaked a lot of the material, but in general I know what to expect and how the class will go.

  • I'm wearing jeans on the first day. While I never dress up for class, I generally adopt business-casual attire for teaching. It helps me feel the role and establish authority for undergraduate classes. This semester I'm only teaching grad students so I lost that justification. There are also some interesting gendered norms about professional attire in academia that I'm rebelling against. (Perhaps there will be a longer post on that subject later.) And, truth be told, I really just like jeans.

  • I'm also wearing sandals. While I've done this all summer long, I've never done it while teaching. Again, it's a level of informality that I don't typically embrace, but it seems okay today. (A friend of mind thinks that it is only acceptable to wear open-toed shoes for business occasions if your toes are painted, so I should report that I have met that requirement. Another interesting gendered norm that I may comment on later.)

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Tedium

Today is one of those days where I have to take care of all of the little things that I've put off for too long and that I simply don't want to do, but they need to get done. I even forced myself to come to the office to do them because otherwise they would have been put off for another day. So after 2 hours of working on a Sunday afternoon, I am boring myself to tears. Here's just a snippet of the "fun" things on today's agenda:

  • Format the citations for the "paper that consumed my summer" so that I can actually send it off. Even though I use citation software, I still find myself cleaning up citations way too often. Probably because I'm lazy about these things and don't use the software as I should. I am always jealous when I read the acknowledgements of an academic book written by a male professor and he thanks his wife for secretarial support. If only! (BTW, I really would love to see such an acknowledgement by a female author, so if you come across one, send it my way.)
  • Fill out paper forms to put my course books on reserve, even though I already filled out the paperless reserve forms. This one just kills me!
  • File the gazillion articles covering all of the open surfaces in my office. Again, a personal secretary would be nice. I have actually been tempted to hire the teenage child of a friend just to help with some of this stuff.

I could go on and on, but I'm starting to feel guilty about transferring my tedium to others.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The End of Summer

Although the September equinox is still almost a month away, summer is over as far as my academic calendar is concerned. Classes start next week, and this week is filled with meetings, orientations, student issues, various defenses, a gaggle of social events, and classroom preparations. And, to make it official, the Beloit College Mindset List is out, reminding us about the generational gap between faculty and students, and it's scarier than ever. The items that make me feel especially old are:
  • The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.
  • They never “rolled down” a car window.

Good grief!

I'm looking forward to the new school year, but I could have used another couple of weeks of summer research time. I don't think there will ever be enough summer research time. While I'm pretty happy with my productivity this summer, I don't know if I'll ever get over the feeling that it's not enough, although I'm much calmer about the transition back to school this year than I was last year. Perhaps that's a sign that I'm getting used to this professor gig.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Day at the Museum

The highlight of my trip to New York was a visit to the museum of natural history. I had been wanting to visit this museum for a long time, but my niece's obsession with dinosaurs finally convinced me to take advantage of my time in the city to check out this museum. She's been fascinated by dinosaurs since she saw Night at the Museum last year. I took her to the New York State Museum in the spring where we saw a whale skeleton, but we haven't had a chance to take her to NYC yet to see the "real" dinosaurs. This museum was incredible. Aside from an entire floor of dinos and other skeletons, all of their exhibits were extremely well done. I spent half a day there and only saw about 1/3 of the whole musuem. I bought my niece a book and some dino postcards to hold her curiousity until we're able to actually take her to the museum. She's going to love it!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

My Curvilinear Relationship with NYC

I can imagine myself living in lots of big cities -- Chicago, Philly, London -- but New York is not one of them. I still haven't managed to feel comfortable in NYC, even though I like to take advantage of the great things going on in the city. It's all just a little too much for me -- too big, too crowded, too dirty, too everything. This last foray into the city for the sociology meetings epitomized the curvilinear nature of my feelings about the city. Plotting my affection for the city with time, the graph would look like an upside down U.

I start out hating it. Getting off the train at Penn Station my senses are immediately overloaded -- the sounds, sights, smells, and even feels of the city are too much and I have to fight the urge to return to the relative comfort of Amtrak (yeah, how scary is that thought?). After a day of acclimation I start to embrace all of the things that I love about big cities -- 24-hour everything, a vibrant night life, being able to walk just about everywhere, mass transit, cultural diversity. After a couple of days that excitement gets old and I am once again feeling claustrophobic, particularly when it's 90 degrees and I just don't want anyone near me.

Overall, it was a good trip, but I came back appreciating Albany more than ever.

I Guess It Was Just a Matter of Time

CNN headline: Couple tries to name child @

Friday, August 10, 2007

Overwhelmed

The latter half of this week has been spiraling out of control. I've been feeling completely overwhelmed by all of the little things going on, although nothing major has happened. Brittany is still sick -- she was getting better, but today we had a different set-back (and I will spare you the gory details). Eddie's knee issue is still undefined and unresolved. I'm off to the sociology meetings in NYC and don't feel quite in the right frame of mind for the schmoozing that I need to do. The summer is ending quickly and I need to finish a few things up before the semester starts again. When I come back from NYC I have to deal with a major dental issue that I've been putting off for a while -- it's going to be extremely expensive, painful, and generally unpleasant. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Battlestar Gallactica

As promised, I really did cut out a lot of t.v. this summer. My main indulgence has been watching the new version of Battlestar Gallactica through Netflix. This was my favorite show as a kid, although it was only on t.v. for a season. I had a major crush on Lt. Boomer (Dirk Benedict). Cut me some slack -- I was only 8, it was the 70s, and I quickly moved on to Han Solo (Harrison Ford).

The new Gallactica is pretty entertaining. They've updated a lot of the characters (including female fighter pilots) and dramatic dilemmas. It's not great t.v. It certainly doesn't have the great writing or character development of most HBO series. Still, it's been fun.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Is It Just Me?

Or does Barry Bonds tying Hank Aaron's home run record seem underwhelming? It's an amazing record held for over 30 years by one of baseball's greatest players. It's the type of momentous occasion that I normally would have been following closely, hoping to catch the game on t.v., even though I'm not a huge baseball fan. And yet, I can't think of this as a great historical moment simply because Barry Bonds is involved. The controversy about his steroid use has tainted the record in my opinion. I'm sure he'll break the record this season and then he'll be known as "Barry Bonds --- Home Run Record Holder." But there will always be an asterisk following this title with speculation regarding doping ... and that's unfortunate.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Lethargy

Our eldest pooch, Brittany, turns 12 this month and we're very nervous that she won't be with us much longer. She has slowed down a lot since we moved to Albany, but this summer her energy level has been at an all time low. She often spends hours on end lying in a corner, not moving or even eating. We struggle to get her outside most days, although she seems to have some energy in the mornings. We've been rationalizing this behavior away for a while ("she's afraid of the July fireworks" or "it's too hot for her"), but the lethargy is so extreme now that we're pretty worried. Not once this week has she gotten up to greet me when I came home for work or moved at all until we force her to go outside at night, and even then Eddie has to go out with her. She was at the vet in June and declared "fine" but we're taking her back this week just to cover our bases. I think that given her age and her health issues, there probably isn't much that they can do for her. Since she's not showing signs of discomfort, we'll probably just leave her be and hope for the best. Still, it's really bumming me out.

Update: After spending most of last evening on the verge of tears because of how unresponsive Brittany was to me, it turns out she was just saving her energy for the return of her knight in shining armor. As soon as the garage door opened, she bounced up, trotted to the front door, and waited in eager anticipation for the arrival of Prince Edward. She then ate the same food I had been trying for hours to feed her and spent an hour playing outside with him. The little traitor! While I still think she's not feeling well, apparently she's going to save the little energy she has left for her true love!