**Queen**

Another reason to love Queen:

**What is it about Fall approaching?**

I can see the lightest yellowing of the trees out back. It is the tail end of Labour Day weekend. I am gearing up to teach at the insane hour of 8 AM tomorrow (or at least that is how my students will describe the time of class on the course evaluations, specifically under "factors that inhibited your learning"). I have a to-do list of more than 40 things to do. It would be longer if I remembered to add things to the list (adding them is also on my to-do list). I am sitting here on my last day off, working and sensing the impending craziness I have brought on myself by COMPLETELY over-committing this year.

Now I know myself well enough to realize that I do work best under pressure. I finished the Ph.D. as a single parent with small children in a community where I had no family to help. I moved said kids across the country to a town even further from family just to see what it was like to live in a new place (and learn to snowboard, as promised to #1 son). I took a one year book contract and procrastinated so that I had to write it in two months. Done. I moved to another completely new part of the country (3000 mile jump), started a new job and went up for promotion 4 months after arriving. Success.

So yes pressure = performance for me.

So it makes sense that I would set myself up for a series of fall and spring deadlines and challenges that are near impossible to meet. The second I come off a crazy high pressure schedule of deadlines (assuming I don't crash and burn this time), I tend face the inevitable restlessness that seems to result in my browsing through the job advertisements, daydreaming about cool places to live. So I have learned that I have to stay in this hi pressure mode or I will find myself accepting yet ANOTHER job and moving across country AGAIN.

So on top of the current, to-do list, there is the ongoing plan to write my second book (actually there are two more books to do, but my head will explode if I seriously contemplate more than one at a time. Worse than childbirth. Okay, not really). I want to plan thoughtfully (hah) for a Fulbright year in New Zealand or Australia. I want a sabbatical, but have learned that I don't have the patience to stay somewhere long enough to enjoy one (and how crazy it that?!).

First thing to tackle on my list - dump most of the 3000+ emails in my in box. It is an exercise in serial apologizing as I come across the numerous important emails I never responded to because the inbox is so overwhelmingly full. This has become a 2-3 time a year ritual. You would think I'd learn. Must add reading a book on being an efficient manager to my to-do list.

**Post Surgery Limerick**

The upside of getting cut open
Is the reward of seriously good dopin'
Pain free stupor got sacked,
With a stomach so wracked,
So I limp through the house just a mopin'

**There is a reason why some things are free**

I was given the most delightful gift from #1 son this week - a Kindle.

I learned rather quickly that I live in a bubble - free of irritating electromagnetic waves that would allow me to take advantage of the wireless downloading of Kindle books. So I must either walk down the road about a 1/2 mile or take the Kindle to work and let stuff download there. So it won't be subscribing to the NY Times, but I have downloaded a bunch of "sample" chapters to try before buying the books.

I also learned that there are Kindle books available for free. So I grabbed a freebie - just to see if I like reading on this device (I do). Now I understand why the book was free - it was a Harlequin Romance. You get what you pay for. And now I am willing to pay. Next step: learning how to delete books off the Kindle.

**Thumbing One's Nose at the Hamptons**

Okay, this is NOT how it is done.

The NY Times published an article and slide show today of a house on Long Island that is decorated as a response to the excesses of the Hamptons. Lots of vintage stuff - a "schoolhouse" look, if you will.

The article stated, "The schoolhouse décor, which incorporates elements like linoleum, mop sinks and graffiti-covered classroom chairs, is their “tongue in cheek” way of countering “the excess we were seeing in the Hamptons."

Interesting idea, but give a looksee at the slide show and the incredible prices they paid for furniture and accessories. If one pays $1300.00 for a floor lamp or $3500 for a wall sconce, or $510 for some industrial metal shelving, or $1500 for 8 vintage classroom chairs, this is NOT thumbing your nose at the Hamptons. Just because it is not "overstuffed couches or antiques," does not mean it is still not insanely excessive or low maintenance. You want to thumb your nose at the Hamptons, then shop at Goodwill (and not the one in the Hamptons)!

**yo, summer!**

Where are you, for Pete's sake? I am no hot weather fan, but we have yet to hit more than 82 degrees here this summer. I love the cool temps, but it has been coupled with an AMAZING amount of rain. I am watching it come down steadily as a write. It is reminiscent of living in Central America. All this cool weather gave us a bumper crop of snap peas and a long lettuce season, but the squash plants are barely growing, we pulled all the tomatoes and potatoes (thank you late blight). Everything green is growing like crazy (think jungle), but there is not enough sunshine to produce fruit.

I have kayaked three times this summer, the two most recent this past week on the two sunny days we have had in a long time. We have sunny weather predicted for Saturday, so a long bike ride is in order. Taking Monday off work to kayak again. School begins sooner than ever this year. The summer (the one I was supposed to have off, but didn't really have off) is almost over.

The upside of the rainy weather is that I managed to read a book. No small feat given the hectic summer. It was an interesting waltz through a Title IX lawsuit at a small liberal arts college. Being familiar with Title IX and some of the players in this story; it made for interesting reading. Now I am diving into the Accidental Time Machine - pure brain candy. Having only read a few other nonfiction books (plus a weekly dose of Newsweek, monthly dose of Outside, and more Internet new sites than I care to reveal) this year, I am laying claim to the most poorly read person I know. Must find a way to put up that "Good Reads" feature on the blog - maybe that will get me reading.....

**Ahhh, Duh....**

Way ahead of the curve on this one. I keep them in my office to help students stay healthy during the school year. Don't want spinal injuries keeping them out of class....

From the UK Telegraph...

Blue M&Ms 'mend spinal injuries'

**Incident at Oglala**

Today could be a very good day. Leonard Peltier goes (again) before the parole board. Time to stop the madness and let that man go free.

**Because I Still Love Where I Used to Live, I Beg You.... **

Please Don't Californicate Oregon!

**As We Prepare for the Next Round of Academic Hirings**

I have found this letter to be a great template for responding to those pesky job rejections. It has floated around the Internet for several years at least, but I highly recommend it as a template easily customized to any institution. Microsoft Word can even set up a macro that will drop in all the names of search committee chairs, making the job search paperwork process just that much easier.




_________________, Chair - Search Committee
0001 Old Hall,
No Name University
Some town you didn't want to live in anyway, IA

Dear Professor ________,

Thank you for your letter regarding my application for the tenure track opening. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.


This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals. Despite No Name University's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time.

Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,

Your name here

** Guess Who Wrote This Line in Today's WP..."

We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil.


Hint: (Can she please just go away now?)

**Four years studying engineering, $180K, and...**

I couldn't be more proud of the guy in the tall while furry hat and the trumpet:

**An Old Favorite**

Great example of sound design:

** And He Is Still Amazing Today**

**Introducing the Junior Senator from Minnesota**

And still looking for his Weekend Edition news segments on SNL when Franken was a self-contained mobile satellite uplink correspondent....

**Cognitive Dissonance**

So I admit to having read the Sanford/Maria emails. What sticks in my mind is not the intimate quasi-sexual details - innuendo more than anything - but his most fascinating description of his love for getting away from everything and back to nature... in an excavator-


...there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the background, the tranquility that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds...

Can't wait to see the follow up when I watch last night's Daily Show and Colbert Report....

** All I can say is....**

wow.

**Memory Lane**

I was updating my LinkedIn data and came a cross the name of a colleague for whom I worked some 25 years ago. That started a cascade of searches for previous jobs to list. I found a website for people who worked for the Southern Command Network in Panama. I did many years ago. I remember this video on TV. Didn't produce it myself, but was responsible for MANY hours of local programming. Fortunately, none of it is on-line:)

**A beginning is a delicate time....**

The maestro of subtle geekish comedy:

**Why I still miss Oregon**

Bill banning semen-throwing on its way to the governor

by Michelle Cole, The Oregonian

Thursday June 04, 2009, 3:13 PM

SALEM -- Usually politicians love the sound of their own voices. But not so when the topic is a proposed new law making it a sex crime to propel "a dangerous substance at another person."

That substance, as defined in House Bill 2478, includes semen, blood, urine or feces.

**You can't saddle a horse that ain't been born yet.**

I have been contacting and thanking those people who provide advice and/or support during this promotion process and one of my dearest friends, who has listened to me angst in one way or another since we were in Ph.D. studies together, responded with his good wishes and his typically sage, Tony Hillermanesque advice.

I was talking to him about the pending insanity this summer with leadership changes at the school and the incredible staffing shortages I face because of budget cuts while simultaneously having to plan for a record breaking freshman class.

His advice (note that he is happily retired from a position similar to mine) is the title of the post.

**We Be Promoted**

It took over a year - from the time I submitted my letter of intent - to hear the word. The Board of Trustees voted today and the mail came from an iPhone, which makes it all the more sweet. Someday I will blog about the insanity of promotion in academia - insanity raised to the level of an art form at some institutions, but all I can say is I started teaching 13 years ago with a plan to be a full professor the first moment I was eligible. I did it. Major career goal accomplished. Exhale.

**Does this count as a sabbatical?**

After a long respite, I am emerging from the abyss and thinking about the blog. Many, many times I have thought to post, and when the opportunity would come along to craft something, there was no time. I had pretty much given up posting - and I still might. I tried some less work intensive social networking options - Facebook and now Twitter - but I hate the new organization of Facebook, so I hardly go on it anymore. Twitter is still new so I don't know how it might fit into the way I work.

So the school year is largely done yet I face the prospect of working just as hard all summer. After all the angst over this country's private schools have a dearth of freshman next year, we - meaning where I work - managed to pull in the largest freshman class in the history of the college. It may take a hotel to house them all! So my summers now looks to consist of me wandering downtown trying to hire anyone who 1) is holding a camera and 2) is breathing.

Looks like the intensive traveling will subside for now. After AUS and NZ, spent 8 days in the Death Valley area followed by a long pre-swine flu weekend in the Yucatan. Now I am in LA - interviewing job candidates for a couple days, and quickly learning that everyone drives here - really, even if it the destination is a 5 minutes walk. My longest foray on foot has been from the apartment to the parking lot.

My one celebrity sighting? Honestly, I didn't know I was looking at a celebrity at the time. Someone had to tell me afterwards. Yes, my celebrity sighting: A woman with unnaturally large breasts, I mean bowling ball size and shape. I cannot tell you anything else about her physical attributes, as all I could see were breasts. Turns out she is a well known porn star. But I don't know how to IMDB her to find out her list of credits. You can't search using key words like "enormous boobs."