Monday Update, Wise Week Edition

And so, the annual week where I have waited too long to get my academic work done, so I spend about five days freaking out about getting the essay written before I get up there.  This year, the added degree of difficulty:  an entirely different schedule, consisting of afternoon bike rides; two sets of soccer practices and an additional flag football practice for Number One Son; and some evening meetings for me.

I coached Number One Son's soccer team on Saturday!  We were lacking the official coach, and the assistant coach was out, so I stepped up to essentially tell the boys where to stand on the field.  To my great surprise, they listened to me, and as the game went on, I got more vocal at helping guide their efforts.  I had a heck of a lot of fun, actually, and really enjoyed encouraging them as they did good stuff (we also won 6-0, and Number One Son scored his first two goals ever, so that helped).

A lot of hullabaloo at work about the results of some silly online employee survey we were all supposed to take last year (they even handed out mugs and cups and post-it note pads with a special logo).  The published results say that five persons in my department completed the survey, which is a mystery since everyone in the department remembers taking it. But since we have been called on the carpet for an apparently tepid response, we are to compose some sort of plan for addressing some of the shortcomings. I would be tempted to take it more seriously if the firm tasked with tabulating our responses had, you know, bothered to include all the responses that were given.  The whole exercise is silliness.

The more time we spend filling out online surveys, and doing administrative paperwork, and formatting documents to meet spec, the less time we have for doing the things that make our jobs meaningful (and count toward things like tenure and promotion):  research, writing, teaching.

On the bright side (and this is unsurprisingly unrelated to work), Number One Son is doing so much better at everything this year, it's night and day.  He really loves his second grade teacher, and has so much more confidence.

In which Piers gets struck

The news from yesterday was bad, following weeks upon weeks of bad.  I've got an academic paper to write that maybe ten people will listen to, and which if I'm honest will probably never see the light of day again--certainly not in a publication. I have a department meeting to attend tomorrow afternoon, even as I am withdrawing as far as I can from the administrative and political workings of the various levels of my institution.  I'm teaching complicated material to students, expending enormous amounts of energy.

And all of this effort for what?  Am I really working for any kind of good, or is this just an elaborate and stressful way to spin my wheels?

In which Piers reviews an important lesson

There are those people for whom you can be super important . . . As long as they need you for something. When that's done, you find yourself on the outside looking in again. I've begun to experience this phenomenon at work. While it is not the most pleasant thing in the world, I'm at least glad to know where I stand.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Monday Update, Post-Soybean Edition

Well, the Soybean Festival came to town this past week and brought the rain with it . . . yes, that's right.  All summer it has barely rained, and then when there's a week long street festival:  it rains.  Hard.  We'll take it, but it does mean that I have to mow the grass now.

The coming of the Soybean Festival is traditionally (for me, at least) the time that work really kicks off . . . and so this week the soccer practices (and flag football for Number One Son) have really taken off along with meetings and such.  The schedule is now even more involved because Little Red has soccer practice and games as well.

Speaking of soccer, Little Red scored 4 goals on Saturday . . . the boy has a little motor.  Number One Son also played really well, though he could use just a bit more aggression.  He took a couple of shots on goal, but they didn't go his way.  He has come a long way since his days of standing still in the middle of the field.

My good friend JVG has cajoled me to start riding with him on weekday afternoons after work (three days a week).  It is a new thing for me, but it has worked out remarkably well.  It gets me away from campus and pays at least some modest physical dividends.  Today we rode a good 25 miles or so.

On our ride, we ran across a heartbreaking sight:  two puppies, obviously litter mates, probably 6-10 weeks old, walking along a ditch by the side of the road.  They were both gaunt--you could see their ribs and their hipbones.  They were also starved for attention . . . it's probably a good thing I was on my bike and not in my car, or we might have two more dogs here at this house.  For a while, the memory of the two of them wagging their tails and reaching up for my hand just sapped the strength right out of my legs.

I have a little over a week to prepare a presentation for the annual conference I attend in Virginia.  Should be simple, since I clearly don't have anything else going on.

At the end of week two,

A self-assessment:

1.  In my attempt to reboot myself and my career, I have come to recognize that I need to protect my time.  This may involve closing my office door when it needn't be open, or leaving the office for the confines of the library, or leaving campus altogether.  The place will get along fine without me, and I have found that time is easily wasted here at my desk.

2.  I also feel remarkably detached from the bulk of my work.  I'm okay when it comes to teaching, but the rest of it doesn't even begin to penetrate.  I am trying a new set of tasks & responsibilities in an effort to shake off at least some of the lethargy.

3.  High on the priority list is learning to write again--a daunting prospect.

4.  I am trying some group bike rides in the mid-afternoon after work a few days per week.  Again, it's a matter of doing things differently to see if I can jump-start some energy.  I am not accustomed to riding with people, so it is a bit of a challenge.

5.  No matter the number of laudable goals, to make any kind of personal change at 38, when also attending to a family, mortgage, etc., is a big-time undertaking.  I am attempting to be patient when results don't come as quickly as I would like.

LOL, Chronicle.

The above item is from the daily digest from the Chronicle of Higher Education.  That's right:  those students at Harvard were too flummoxed by Ambiguity to understand they were cheating when they were, you know, CHEATING. 


You know what this deserves: