Horace Says . . .

You know how people lose their way in the woods-
one goes wandering off to the left, another to the right;
both are equally wrong, though each has strayed in a different
direction. So you may rest assured that if you're to be counted
mad the fellow who laughs at you is no saner himself.
He too has straw in his hair.

Book II, Satire 3, 48-53

Steady as she goes, part 2

Well, the emotional struggle I detailed below has calmed, and I now find myself in a good position--because it seemed like a challenge. And in response to that challenge, I find that I'm working and teaching with a new passion--reading more, speaking with more self-assurance, even doing paperwork with more alacrity. So. We'll try to keep up the momentum, yes?

Steady as she goes

Today is the day for angry students. I'm not sure what I did to merit the hostility I received from more than one quarter today, but it has happened. I'll admit that I'm extra sensitive to these kinds of reactions--I (fairly or not) see myself as a person whose position here is justified in large part because of my good relationships with students. And when I start getting the evil eye from a student or two that I thought I was on good terms with? It's unnerving.

No thanks, I'll pass

From today's email inbox:

As part of the Civil Rights Conference, the Counseling Center is sponsoring an activity called "Caps of Distinction." This interactive workshop provides an opportunity for students to experience what it would be like to have a different identity and enhances empathy for others. It provides valuable preparation for participating in a multicultural workforce and functioning within a diverse campus community.

Unfortunately, we have had very little response to this activity. We are suggesting that professors offer extra credit for this experience and/or bring a class to the workshop, which will be held Tuesday at 11 am in the University Center. The workshop will last for one hour. Certificates of Attendance will be available.

Please contact us by NOON on MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25th to let us know if you are planning to have students attend. We need a minimum of 15 students for this to be a worthwhile exercise, so we will cancel if an insufficient number of students are signed up. It would be a shame for our students to miss the opportunity to learn about others who are different than they are - this is crucial knowldge in today's world. Please CALL the Counseling Center (7720) on Monday morning to let us know if you wish to have students participate.

Thank you.

[emphasis mine] At least this kind of thing is still voluntary at my institution. If it fails this year, however, I can foresee a change in policy.

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time

bookshelf/staircase.

Probably says a lot about me.

It is Strange

to be two weeks away from an event that will change our lives so completely. I stood with The Little Boy in the bathroom as he was "brushing" his teeth (mostly sucking the toothpaste off the brush, argh) the other night and realized that our cozy little family was about to change dramatically. It's a good thing, but it's irrevocable--and I think perhaps knowing that makes me want to look back and treasure what's been.

Juvenal says...

Still, if you must have something to pray for . . .
. . .then ask
For a sound mind in a sound body, a valiant heart
Without fear of death, that reckons longevity
The least among Nature's gifts, that's strong to endure
All kinds of toil, that's untainted by lust and anger,
That prefers the sorrows and labours of Hercules to all
Sardanapalus' downy cushions and women and junketings.
What I've shown you, you can find by yourself: there's one
Path, and one only, to a life of peace--through virtue.
Fortune has no divinity, could we but see it: it's we,
We ourselves, who make her a goddess, and set her in the heavens.

(Satire X, lines 354-366; trans. Peter Green 1967)

It isn't often that a player at a school like this gets national notice

. . . which probably makes it sweeter for Lester Hudson, a guard for the UTM Skyhawks. I've seen him play in a couple of games. Yes, he's good.

I'm going to study these just as a refresher

Rules for Handling Your New Baby.

This is the kind of email I like to see

"Due to low enrollment, the Listening Skills, Delegation Skills, Teambuilding, and Giving & Receiving Feedback training sessions have been cancelled."

Translation: folks correctly saw these "training sessions" as enormous wastes of time, so we've admitted the obvious.

This blog needs pictures

and since we're three weeks away, I give you the obligatory older sibling and mommy tummy pictures:

Hugo Project, Vol. 8

Clifford Simak, Way Station. Hugo winner for 1964.

A cold-war novel unsurprisingly concerned with the possibility of nuclear war--plot features a Civil War veteran who has been chosen to run a galactic "way station" by which various alien species travel through our arm of the Milky Way. Thus, it's a novel of 'first contact' even as it deploys the familiar "are we humans civilized enough to join the rest of the galaxy" motif.

Life with a Little Boy, Vol. 7

Overheard in my house tonight, both in quick succession:

Get your hands out of your behind

Get your nose out of the toilet

Is there a Person Behind Here Somewhere?

I have decided that February is where each spring semester goes to die. Is there a good reason for it? Not that I can determine. But it seems that every February, about a month into the spring semester, I turn into the Troll Under the Bridge. Moaning Myrtle (or the Whomping Willow). Puddleglum. The thing to do, of course, is ride it out and not let it 'get' to me. If only it were that easy.

The Little Boy had a hard weekend--seemed that he couldn't settle down, couldn't stop whining, couldn't resist tearing his books and throwing his toys. Yesterday was hard too. I came home from work and wrestled with him, which seemed to really help. We recognize that part of what's going on is that mommy can't play like she used to, and that's hard. I have to step in and help.

Haven't been on the bike since right before the tornado sirens last week. I do love getting to ride, even if I don't move an inch. It's fun how we can turn on the DVD, watch Looney Tunes or Sesame Street, Old School, and that helps the miles fly by. Usually I go for 10-12 miles at a time. But should I drag it out today? Yes. Will I?

On the docket for this week: Roman and English satire, Astrophil and Stella, Shakespeare sonnets, Utopia, the Faerie Queene. I wish I could tell you the last time I sat down and did any true "academic" work in the sense of research & writing. I also have to go to this all-day meeting on Friday. I know it's a worthy thing to do, and I know I asked for it--but when I read the theme "Good Educational Practice Emphasizes Time on Task" I had flashbacks to ed-school classes back in college. What the blankety-blank does that mean anyway?

See? The troll under the bridge. Bah.

Here's an email that I don't even need to read to know that it's going into the trash

Subject: [campus-l] Expand Your Students' Awareness

Two for a laugh

First, from a website hawking this book, this gem. Note especially the last line here:

Having argued that democracy has failed humanity, the authors go even further and demonstrate that this failure can easily lead to authoritarianism without our even noticing. Even more provocatively, they assert that there is merit in preparing for this eventuality if we want to survive climate change. They are not suggesting that existing authoritarian regimes are more successful in mitigating greenhouse emissions, for to be successful economically they have adopted the market system with alacrity. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that an authoritarian form of government is necessary, but this will be governance by experts and not by those who seek power.

How comforting. I can rest knowing that the "experts" are in charge.

Second, from an email inviting me to submit an abstract to an upcoming conference on George Herbert:

Having sent out more general announcements, we are writing specifically to you as a prominent scholar in the field in order to invite your particular participation as a panel member or a panel chair. We would be pleased to receive from you a proposal either for a 15-20 minute conference paper, or for a full 3-person panel.
We are familiar with and confident in the quality of your work, and your paper would be in the first tier of those to be considered for the published proceedings of the conference—the presses of both the University of Delaware and of Baylor University have expressed interest.

How come nobody told me I'm all of a sudden a prominent scholar? And when did this happen? I could have used this in my performance assessment meeting the other day!

This brings back memories.

Lego Timeline

My brother and I had that spaceship!

Job Evaluation Done

looks like they won't fire me this year!

Two things we learned last night

1. Cats do not like being confined in the hall bathroom with three people for over half an hour.
2. Little Boys react to tension and stress by crashing around the house, shrieking, and generally carrying on. Barking at them to be quiet is generally unhelpful.
   

From the hall bathroom

. . . it's tornado day in Martin, TN. You just know that when it's 70 degrees in early February, bad weather is in store.

6:00 Update: Dinner of pb&j while we wait for the siren to go off again.

8:00 Update: We turned off the TV after listening to the new weatherman get *ahem* aroused by the "supercells" and "reflectivity" and "wind vectors" for about an hour. Folks in Jackson (an hour south of here) got slammed. We've had nothing really dangerous pass through our part of Weakley Co.

9:00 Update: Union University in Jackson has been pretty much wiped out. No fatalities as far as they can tell (Dr. Dockery, the university president, is on the TV right now).

The Last Word on that Super Bowl

Which we enjoyed tremendously, and not just because of that fantastic 3rd down sack-escape-heave-helmet-catch in the waning moments of the game. I told folks who asked that I'd rather the Giants win, because I don't cotton to cheaters or poor sports. I think TMQ, a column I read religiously, sums it up best:

This column has been harsh this season on Belichick, New England management and NFL officialdom. That's not a reflection of my feelings about the Patriots, who are terrific -- it's a reflection of my feelings about cheating. Integrity matters. Neither football nor any other competitive sport will long stay popular or important if spectators cannot be sure whether what they are seeing is real competition or some rigged junk like the erstwhile World Wrestling Federation. We need food and shelter; we don't need sports; we will only care about sports if we know the competition is authentic, fair, and based on high standards of integrity and sportsmanship.

When it comes to the Seven Deadly Sins . . .

. . . is there really any question? Since they don't have 'grumpiness,' it must be . . .

Which of the Seven Deadly Sins Are You?

Wrath -- You have a lot of anger in yourself. Go see a therapist.
Take this quiz!








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