Dude, finally!

Not to get all schadenfreudal here, but I'm graduating from Binghamton at a great time, class-wise, 'cause the Fall '09 course prospects are the least tempting I've ever seen. So I don't have to smack my head and go, "Oh, now they run that!" I feel sorry for any of my MA friends who do get in for PhDs, though.

Needed

...in my life: a little realignment. Like this and especially this.

The Good News

After sitting on them for almost two days, I finally did look at the midsemester evaluations my students filled out for me. Rather than present them with the university's template, I did it pretty informally, asking them to list one thing they'd learned so far in my class, one thing they enjoyed, and one thing they'd like to change or eliminate.

As with last semester, it's a big relief to see that they don't dislike things as much as it seems. The most frequent complaint I got was actually about peer reviews--which haven't been going as well as I'd like, either, so I'm happy to talk about that and about how we can make them better. (And I did get one request for more emphasis on style and mechanics, with which I would be happy to comply; Wendy put the kibosh on my original proposal of short grammar lessons with the comment, "Don't mistake your interests for theirs"--a bit odd a warning, I can't help thinking, considering that we teach content and organization, the other two categories on which they're graded, without assessing or caring about our students' interest level. So, if other students are up for it, I'll do it, now that I have stated interest.) The favorite thing by far seems to be our class's "open format," the fact that they're allowed to discuss things with me and each other and to ask questions. (Running a close second is the five-minute break in the middle, but they at least explained to me that they appreciate it because their other 90-minute classes don't offer one. Whether I should believe them is another question, but I think I choose to do so.)

I did get one suggestion to "make the class more fun," but that's really the worst there was. I haven't exactly changed anyone's compositional life for the better, but, failing that, I'll settle right now for doing a decent job.

"Bad Poetry / Oh Noetry"

I realized tonight that the big reason all my poetry is narrative, that I can't do a dang thing besides narrative (and even that not very well), is because this journal is the only prose writing I do. Well, besides papers for school. Reflective prose is all I've got: first I did this, then this, then this, and sometimes here's what it means.

But even as a childhood storywriter, that was narrative, too, by definition. Have I ever seriously done--I mean, what other kinds of writing are there? Trying to take mental snapshots and put them into words, I suppose. I do that but rarely; I guess that's mostly what my classmates do.

Everyone seemed to be in a pretty touchy mood tonight in poetry class. I was glad we didn't have time to workshop my poem.

I'm kind of in a bad mood in general these days. I really want to get out of grad school, but get out to where? That's starting to look like a problem. I took the idea of being a five-class-teaching adjunct blithely enough before I'd ever taught anything, but now that I've seen the havoc even two classes can create, I'm afraid of five.

I don't know what I want, honestly. So few things in my life ever fail spectacularly that I'm almost curious to see what that situation would look like, as far as the whole teaching plan goes. But I'm also really bad with failure. Like, I get worried when my life goes too well, but then I whine and moan and freak out as soon as it starts going badly at all, until it's straightened out again.

I'm going to bed.

Thoughts While Looking at a Group Photo

From straight on, does any person's nose not look weird?

I should probably have mentioned that the kid is only a self-plagiarist...

...since (at least theoretically) he did do the assignments once, back in high school, and is now handing them back in, essentially unchanged as far as I can tell, attempting to get college credit for them.

This semester has gone badly, teaching-wise, and it shows little sign of letting up, so I'm hoping for a quick end to the class and at least a modicum of mercy in my teaching evaluations. We'll see.

::headdesk::

This has been the most scatterbrained day I've had in a long time (didn't tell students specific place for meetups; went to wrong house to meet up with Natasha for dinner, went back home to get my phone because I couldn't call her to figure out where she was and why she wasn't answering when I knocked on "her" door, and then came back to get Natasha and found out I had the wrong house; left my bag at Natasha's later and had to go all the way back from it, making a grand total of four trips to Natasha's for what should have been a two-trip night).

I think I may also have caught my first plagiarist. But not because I was smart. Because said probable plagiarist, if indeed a plagiarist, was even more stupid than I was, so stupid that eventually even I figured it out.

I'm really not that good at thinking like a criminal. Goodness knows what else my students have gotten away with since last semester.

On the bright side, at least two of my more trying students took criticism on their first essays very well, with a lot more humility than I expected. One of them told me he'd decided to reread his essay, after he got it back, as though he had no idea who he was, to test an outside audience's reaction. He imitated it for me, complete with his final verdict on the success of his piece: "Nah." Now, granted, he probably should have thought to do that a little earlier, since we did peer-review and oral presentations with these essays, but I'm glad enough that he's finally come to that party that I don't think I'll begrudge his arriving a little late.

My room is a mess, but instead of cleaning it, I'm going to bed.

Good News

The military in general is on my mind a little more lately, what with Erik going off to the Navy next week. To that end, though it's Army news, I'm really grateful about this; it's much better practice psychologically and much easier on the families. Stop-loss happened to my cousin a couple of years ago and he got sent back to Iraq (he's out now), so I know whereof I speak a little, though not with great scholarly depth or anything. So applause to Mr. Gates (does he have a military title, Commander Gates or anything like that? I should know these things) on that one.

Thoughts on Today

I don't like teaching classes consisting of twelve boys and three girls. Particularly when girls are absent, or so silent that they might as well be.

Yay, TNG-tasticness! Yay, lit-geekness!

I'm back from California, which was very nice. Jet lag plus paper-writing-induced sleep lag equals ohhhh boy, but after tonight or tomorrow night I'll be deliciously schoolwork-lessened (or at least schoolwork-stabilized) for a little while, I think.

Pictures, et cetera, soon. If by "soon" you mean "whenever."

Here!

Well, it's past 10 PM for those of you still on the East Coast, but here I am in San Francisco. We've been here for some seven hours and have done a little walking around...that part came after our doing a little napping. Plus I took a shower, since doing so before my 4:30 AM departure from my apartment seemed mean to my housemates.

So it's beautiful here, and I look forward to some Golden Gate Bridging and some sourdoughing ASAP.

We'll probably go to Four C's somewhere in there, too.

Oh, and note to Jo: the Dawn outfit you did was so right. The airport bathroom had a sign by the paper towels that advised us to think of the planet and only use as many as we really needed.

Good morning.

I'm off to Four C's. I'll try to take lots of pictures and post some of them here soon after I get back.

I Wish Chesley Sullenberger (III) Worked for the Airline We're Flying

As most of you know, the prospect of air travel always makes me feel, subtly and illogically but persistently, like it's quite possible that I'm about to die via plane crash.

So guess when we leave on Tuesday morning for California: SIX AM. And I don't mean that that's when I wake up, but that that's when the plane leaves, which means that I need to get up around, like, four. Maybe earlier. Which means that I'm probably going to get all of about three or four hours' sleep, at the rate Monday nights typically go for me. I'm still trying to decide whether I'm going to embrace the potential adventure in that or not. 'Cause I don't want to growl all the time. I'm definitely looking forward to California...particularly the 13th and 14th, since I'll be done with my presentation by then and will be able to abandon myself to compositional geekiness and Californian fun.

It's spring-forward time, so I'd sure better get to bed. Except that if I don't yet, if I just keep running sleep deprivation long enough, maybe I'll be able to go to bed at eight PM on Monday and get up at four AM Tuesday and so be prepared for the trip.

More later, maybe, when I'm more coherent.

yes-s-s-s-s-s

The American Heritage Dictionary does indeed, if you were wondering, recognize "snarkily" as an adverbial form of the adjective "snarky."

So you may all rest easy. It's a load off my mind.

I'm gonna go make some banana ice and, unrelated to this whole question of snarkiness, grade another paper or two before bed.

Entry, or Lack Thereof

I haven't gotten the new U2 album yet. I didn't need the distraction.

What else was I going to say? I forget.

Oh, one other thing!

Dude! I forgot that U2's new album came out, like, today. When I acquire and listen to it tomorrow, I'll let you know how it is.

::shakes fist::

I thought I was going to be saying something fairly original when I posted what I realized on Saturday, which's that "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (dislike the metaphor and most Green Day in general, but really like the tune) and "Wonderwall" are probably both so dang addicting because their bass lines are the same.

No, really, they are. Go check BBD's and then put it up against WW's cello.

Except that apparently the whole world knows this. From Wikipedia:

The verse to Wonderwall is built on a I-III-VII-IV minor progression which several other songs have used. These include "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day, Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around...Comes Around" and Oasis's first single...In late 2006, [lead singer Liam] Gallagher accused Green Day of "ripping off" Wonderwall, saying "If you listen, you'll find it is exactly the same arrangement as Wonderwall. They should have the decency to wait until I am dead. I, at least, pay the people I steal from that courtesy." However, the same chord progression was previously used in "Alive" by Pearl Jam and "Man in the Box" by Alice In Chains. The chord progression can be found in Mahler's 8th symphony as well.

You can tell I fell off the productivity wagon--before this I was scanning the community colleges of New York State (boy, there are a lot of them!) for additional English faculty positions to apply to. There aren't as many, even at the adjunct level, as you might think, and the full-time ones tend to be asking for more than I can give (3 years of prior teaching experience, for example) or ask for things I might be able to offer in a lame and kind of tentative way, but I can't tell from the way they're phrased ("Show how you brought technology into the classroom and how it enriched your students," or whatever it said). So we'll see.

So okay, I ought to finally grade my students' TIBs (though it'd be nice if my printer were working--after using up a third of the black-ink cartridge heretofore, it's now pitching a nonprinting fit, saying said cartridge is "incompatible," which, according to the manual, it's not). Or at least get some class reading done.

Awww

Me (after church, noticing that Christine has been hanging around as I talk to Reverend Matt and Susan P. after the service): "Oh, sorry, are you here to talk to Reverend Matt?"

Christine (cheerfully): "Nope, I'm here because I like you!"

Cheap Culinary Pleasures

Two foods I'm really liking right now:

- Ham-and-provolone-with-honey-mustard sandwiches (currently on potato bread--I don't know what went down at the Wegmans bread-making plant, but when I went grocery shopping this week, all their kinds of "country" bread [the really good cheapish stuff] except for potato and wheat were mysteriously out of stock, and I was bored of wheat).

- Homemade banana ice. I got the idea from a Moosewood cookbook, but my actual directions from elsewhere online. My actual experience wasn't exactly like either thing, and turned out like this:

1) Slice two bananas into the same kind of discs that those of you who put bananas on your cereal (I seldom do, not that you asked) put on your cereal.

2) Arrange them on something and stick them in the freezer. To do this in a single layer may or may not be possible, depending on how big and full your freezer is. I failed to achieve the one-layer state, but it ended up being okay.

3) Once frozen, put your banana discs into a blender (if you failed to freeze them in a single layer, try to break them back into discs as you're putting them in) and add some milk. I don't know how much. Start with half a cup and see what happens.

4) Blend, stopping frequently to stir if your blender is as lame and your banana discs as frozen together as mine, into an ice or ice-cream consistency. This may involve adding more milk.

5) Spoon into a bowl and enjoy. Serves two if neither feels greedy, satisfies one if no one else is interested in trying it.