Turducken

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2010-04-27T15:32:00.001-05:00

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AERA

2010-04-27T14:04:00.004-05:00

Well, I know what book I'll be picking up at AERA this weekend.

I've spent part of today figuring out my schedule, juggling sessions I have to be at versus those I want to be at, as well as trying to make plans to see friends in town. Also, I've been working on my poster. And making sure I have all the info together for my flight, the hostel, etc.

Link roundup

2010-04-26T21:58:00.002-05:00

Some of these links are getting decidedly stale; time to clear them out.

Which are more effective, taxes on junk or subsidies on healthy food?

How would you like to spend half your waking life fetching water? (Via Elizabeth Royte.)

How much land would it take if we all lived as densely as NYC?

High-fructose corn syrup is part of the axis of evil.

Adorable houses, but ignore the twee captions.

The challenges of "data-driven" decision-making.

Horrifying maternity leave story.

Everyone's already linked to this, but ... is TV programming as we know it doomed? "The most watched minute of video made in the last five years shows baby Charlie biting his brother’s finger. (Twice!) That minute has been watched by more people than the viewership of American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, and the Superbowl combined. (174 million views and counting.)"

I don't own a television. It's not because I don't watch any TV, but because I rarely care to watch it when it's programmed to be on*. I don't just mean I want to Tivo things. I mean I didn't start watching Battlestar Galactica (from the beginning) until the final season. It's not just me - how many people were introduced to Entourage by DVDs their friends insisted they borrow? But media companies still judge television shows by Neilson ratings, as any frustrated fan of Joss Whedon knows.

I don't think that the rise of services like YouTube means that products requiring a cast of thousands will disappear. It means they'll have to be delivered differently, though.

* Also, the cost. Paying a bundle for a bundle of stations you don't care about is so old-school.

Questions to which the answer is "no" that I have been asked lately

2010-04-23T23:22:00.000-05:00

Do you speak Portuguese?
Are you a yoga teacher?
Are you a lesbian too?
Have you heard from [REDACTED] University yet?
Are you going to the workshop on Saturday?
Do you know Will Smith's agent name in Independence Day?
Have you been a vegetarian long?
Have you been here before?
Do you have change for a $5?

A List of Things You Probably Don't Know about Me

2010-04-21T08:09:00.002-05:00

Pretty much my favorite band of all time is KMFDM.
I really loathe a capella music.
I have a secret crush on one of my friends. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know.
I would rather do just about anything other than clean the bathtub.
I would rather clean the bathtub than call strangers on the phone.
I don't like potato chips.
Every morning, when I'm home, I get up and write first thing.
I could eat a whole tube of raw chocolate chip cookie dough, easy.
My hair is turning white.
The three hottest celebrities are China Mieville, George Clooney, and Owen Wilson, but mostly China Mieville.
I'm a really good flosser.
I've never seen any episodes of Gilligan's Island or M.A.S.H.
I know it's trendy to say Moby Dick is overrated, but I love it.
Sociology? Awesomesauce.
I don't like auto-flush toilets.
I've never had poison ivy.
I think it's weird when people say they don't have memories before, say, age 7; I can remember the house we moved out of before I turned 3.
Video games totally bore me.
I eat my Oreos top, filling, bottom.
I would secretly love it if someone dedicated a song on the radio to me. Except I don't listen to shows with dedications.
I covet built-in bookcases.
I don't like the color orange.
It takes me an hour to fall asleep at night.
I wish I didn't suck at team sports.
I have no idea what kind of car you drive.
Snoring is a dealbreaker.
My contact lens prescription is the same in both eyes.

Trail building

2010-04-20T16:25:00.002-05:00

Building drainage
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

I spent the weekend building trail with the Cumberland Trail Conference. We were in pretty rocky territory, so it was slow going; on the second day we were on a wicked slope, so we had to crib the downhill side and build up the inside. But it was a good time and it's great to see our hard work turn into a trail.

Jobs

2010-04-19T22:39:00.001-05:00

Florida International University - Assistant/Associate Professor of Higher Education.

I can't find a good link, but there is a Visiting Assistant Professor position at the University of Southern Mississippi in their student affairs program.

Big South Fork weekend report

2010-04-16T13:49:00.002-05:00

In Maude's Crack!
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

As promised, here's a recap of last weekend. We camped out at Big South Fork, which has some pretty nice campsites - lots of shade, very clean showerhouses, a dish-washing sink, and a RV-free tent area. The weather couldn't have been better, either.

The first day we did a hike in the Pogue Creek Natural Area. Hiking here is limited to guided tours with rangers and the Nature Conservancy. There are no trails, aside from some old logging roads. Rangers Alan and Brandon led us on a nice tour of York Palace (a natural arch), a waterfall, and a cave (closed due to WNS).

The second day we did a loop hike to Maude's Crack and the John Muir Overlook. The crack is a way down a bluff that would otherwise be a real rock climb or a long trip around. The trail also passes by two old communities; BSF only became a park in the 1970s, so there are a lot of foundations still standing. This is a nice hike, but too open to do in the heat of summer. It's also (partially) shared with horses, so be aware of where you step.

Jobs

2010-04-13T10:20:00.001-05:00

Assistant professor of higher and postsecondary education - University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Assistant/associate professor in adult education and higher education leadership - Oregon State University.

Teaching assistant professor at North Carolina State University. (I can't find a stable link to this job, but it's teaching 5 courses a semester in a distance program, non-tenure track.)

Another weekend out

2010-04-12T18:31:00.002-05:00

Foreground background
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

I spent the past weekend hiking and camping at Big South Fork. This is my favorite photo of the weekend. I'll post more about the trip later (including photos showing the landscape, which is full of more arches and whatnot).

Plot cliche I never want to read again

2010-04-09T09:39:00.001-05:00

We were in a tight spot, that was for sure. Every idea we came up with had some flaw in it, some Achilles' heel. The enemy was just too powerful.

"Hey, wait a minute, guys," said Jake. "I have an idea. I know it sounds crazy, but it ... just ... might ... work."

He told us his idea, and pretty soon everyone in the room was nodding. It was the only hope we had with time running short. We assigned Louise to play decoy, while Fred was a back-up distraction. I would go in the back way and Ted in the front. Meanwhile, we sent Terry out to get the supplies we needed.

We were nervous, but the plan went off just as Jake said it would. Fred's backup distraction wasn't even needed. In just half an hour, we had done the impossible and taken the enemy down.

Spectators gaped at the burning rubble where the enemy fortress had once stood. "But how did you do it?" asked General Fortescue, who had come out of his bunker to see if the rumors were true.

"Ah, it was easy, once we figured it out. All we had to do was use to Device backwards, running the current through the Field while the enemy was distracted," I said.

THE END.

If the only way you're building suspense is by signaling loud and clear to the reader that you're withholding The Plan for now, you're building fake suspense. The reader thinks, "I wonder what trick the writer is going to end with," not, "I hope these good guys take down the enemy."

I recently read a story of this genre in an anthology by editors whose taste I generally trust. Sure, it was an older story, but this isn't a case of "was fun but it's been overdone." This is a plot that couldn't have been good the first time someone crawled out of the primordial ooze and used it.

Weekend at Natural Bridge

2010-04-08T21:33:00.002-05:00

View from Lover's Leap
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

April isn't the cruelest month, but it may be the busiest. Last weekend I went to Natural Bridge State Park in Kentucky, near Lexington. You may have heard of the general region it is in - the Red River Gorge, a mecca for climbers. But there is a lot of good hiking there. Some members of the group climbed, whereas I just hiked. We ended up with three absolutely beautiful days of weather.

Geologically, the hills aren't mountains but gorges worn down around sandstone. (You can see this when you look at the horizon - instead of being peaky, the hills are flat on top.) The result is not only formations like the one pictured, but natural arches, such as the one the park is named after. I found it hard to get a good arch photo; it seems I was always too close or too far away. But if you click through you will see that I tried anyway.

I'm in and out of town a lot this month; this weekend I will be at a park very similar to Natural Bridges, Big South Fork on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. It has a lot of similar rock formations, such as arches and cliffs, but it doesn't have as many panoramic views.

Back to work, Prexi

2010-03-29T10:22:00.000-06:00

A big nonprofit commentator argues in today's Inside Higher Ed that college presidents shouldn't spend their time on boards but running their own institutions. While the institution should surely come first, I couldn't disagree more.

It's true, presidents are busy; for most, the job isn't just 40 hours a week. And surely there is an upper limit, if a college president were on 30 corporate boards, I would be concerned. There are only so many hours in a day, after all. But being on a few boards? How much time does that take? How does that compare time-wise to having a family or a hobby or even just taking a vacation?

It's typical, after all, for corporate CEOs to be on other boards, corporate and nonprofit alike. Think about that for a moment. Do you think the president of a Fortune 500 company is less busy with his or her job than a college president?

Let's be blunt. Your college wants corporate CEOs on its board of trustees. If those corporate CEOs have the time, so does your president. And if your president doesn't, either he/she has time management problems or has chosen to do something else instead. (There's nothing wrong with not choosing to be on corporate boards, either.)

Where I would be concerned is when we have what are called "interlocking directorates." An example of an interlock would be if your president is on the board of Corporation X, and Corporation X's CEO is on your college's board. This is a conflict of interest issue, and it's important for presidents to keep in mind. But that's not the problem that the commentator is interested in.

Spring flowers are out

2010-03-27T16:55:00.002-06:00

Spring flowers
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

Flora started blooming last week; spring is attempting to come to Middle Tennessee. This photo is from the 2.5-mile Warner Woods Trail at Percy Warner Park. It was the perfect day for a hike; I was actually too warm in long pants and a short-sleeved t-shirt.

Although it was sunny, mud lingered in spots. The trail widened in these places, where walkers had searched for dry ground. That's not good trail etiquette, but it happens on any popular urban trail. The problem isn't the dirt aspect of the mud so much as it is the slippery aspect of it. (Anyone who hikes in shoes they want to keep clean is deluded.)

I was surprised to see as many wildflowers as I did; around town, I've seen primarily redbuds, dogwoods, and daffodils out. Most of my photos didn't turn out as well as this one, since they were taken with my iPhone. I should get out there with an actual camera.

Modern happenings

2010-03-26T22:35:00.003-06:00

I've felt dumber than a box of rocks this weeks, thanks to a cold. (I never see "feeling like your IQ has dropped 50 points" listed as a symptom of illness, but it should be.) Thanks to Mucinex-D, I at least have the choice between sleeping and breathing - which is an improvement over doing neither. This is why I am posting at nearly midnight despite being ill.

Today was Graduate Student Research Day, at which I presented my scholarship of teaching and learning project, which is part of earning a Teaching Certificate at Vanderbilt.

Yesterday I saw the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble.

Wednesday I experienced a free lunch.

Tuesday I reached a milestone in dissertation data collection.

Monday I went to a birthday party.

That's the past. The future? This weekend I was supposed to do trail maintenance, but I backed out due to the aforementioned cold. Then it was canceled anyway. This at least frees me up for a very important happening on Sunday - the return of team Shazam! to trivia competition.

Why Twitter hasn't lived up to the hype

2010-03-21T17:44:00.001-06:00

I am tired of "social media experts" wondering why Twitter hasn't taken over the world yet. It's because, duh, we're not all "social media experts," and that's the sort of folks it works best for.

Twitter works for (a) people who others tend to search out, primarily celebrities and (b) people who want to be in category a and can develop a niche or hook. So I want to keep up with Neil Gaiman; I follow him on Twitter. I doubt he follows me in exchange.

But Twitter doesn't make it easy to connect with friends or acquaintances, not like Facebook does. I have a friend I know is on Twitter, but I don't know her username. I searched for her using her real name, but no luck. I have other friends that I know are on Twitter, whose usernames I know, whose Tweets I don't read because on Twitter they are an expert - on something I don't care about. They tweet about relational databases or something instead of their life. I care as little about their expertise as they care about mine.

Sure, there are services that help you find people of interest. In my experience, 95% of the suggestions are garbage. Of the rest, some are theoretically interesting but not practically so. I'm interested in higher education news, but if all you do is tweet articles from the two main industry pubs (which I already read), what value do you add? (Especially when you make me go through your website to get to the actual article.)

The best use I've found for Twitter is backchanneling at conferences and events, yet in my field there still isn't a critical mass for this to really be valuable.

The thing is, Twitter seems to be best for disseminating information or hive-mind commentary. It isn't a relationship/network manager like Facebook and other social media websites, which is really of interest to more people on a daily basis.

Death and remembrance on campus

2010-03-20T19:59:00.002-06:00

A little Anne Rice
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

I've walked by this grave a hundred times and never seen flowers on it before.

There's good news and there's bad news

2010-03-15T16:33:00.002-06:00

I found out this morning I was waitlisted for a writing workshop I had applied for. That's the good news and the bad news.

I nearly didn't apply, and I had no expectations going in. The competition was pretty tough this year - at least 145 applicants for 18 spots. Many of the applicants are already published or are regular participants in workshops and critique groups. To be considered one of the top 30 out of this pool is, for me, a huge honor. Don't get me wrong, a waitlist isn't as exciting as a "yes," but it told me what I needed to know - I'm not wasting my time. And think of the money I'm saving!

Technically, I have over two months to continue to wait - but realistically, I figure it's over now. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for bad things to happen to the folks who are going!

Thanks Ricky!

2010-03-13T13:35:00.002-06:00

New Manduka mat
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

So last weekend I went to a yoga workshop with Ricky Tran. It was pretty awesome, although I was very, very tired by the end.

RIcky is sponsored by Manduka, and at the end of the weekend he gave away the Manduka mat he had used for the workshop. He decided to give it to the person with the sorriest mat - which was me! I had been wanting to buy a new mat, but was trying to wait until I could afford a decent one. So thank you!

Job updates

2010-03-11T13:33:00.005-06:00

No, I don't have a job. Yes, things are happening. But this post is about other people.

Several of my friends at Vanderbilt (or formerly at Vanderbilt) are on the market, and congratulations to them for getting jobs at the University of Southern California, Cumberland University, and the University of Tennessee!

I was chatting with a friend in K-12 about opportunities this year. He interviewed at some pretty darn good schools. By contrast, there were no top ten higher ed programs with assistant professor positions this year, and I think that there were no top twenty jobs available, either. (Just to reiterate: At the assistant professor level, which is what I am eligible for.) This is just an illustration of how the first faculty job someone takes is only partially influenced by the opportunities available, which are somewhat random.

When I grow up

2010-03-05T14:45:00.004-06:00

I'm at Vanderbilt's central library, trying to get some writing done, but I got distracted by the pencil sharpener. It's the kind of sharpener that was in every classroom growing up. It bolts securely to the wall, has a dial of holes to accommodate pencils of every size, and is hand-cranked.

I love those things. They're so much more satisfying to use than electric sharpeners*. I have something of a fetish for devices that are mechanical rather than electronic. That's why I have a Zassenhaus burr coffee grinder and a French press, for example. That's one reason I'm better prepared for the apocalypse than you. Never mind that I'll only last as long as my glasses do. (The moment they break, I won't even see the alien overlord preparing to idly stomp me underfoot.)

A serious pencil sharpener is definitely on my list of Things To Put in My Faculty Office. Number one, of course, is bookshelves. Yes, they rank higher than a desk, because I can sit on the floor with a laptop - not that I don't want a desk, too. Also, an enormous bulletin board for right over my desk, and unnecessarily expensive and arty pushpins. But no simply decorative tchotchkes, thank you.

Hm, do you think anyone makes hand-cranked paper shredders? Because if they do, I'm going to run out and get one and start shredding for the thrill of it. (ETA: OMG, I want one of these. Please, please, someone crafty, make me one for graduation, pretty please?)

* Unless, perhaps, you have to sharpen 100 pencils at one go, and you end up with dreadful hand cramps. But how often does that happen?

Picture find

2010-03-02T23:12:00.002-06:00

More deer
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

Sorry for the quiet around here. I've been busy with the dissertation, especially with traveling. As an indicator of how busy, here's a photo from hiking on Sunday - what is noteworthy is that it was the first hike I had done in a month and a half. So, to keep you busy ...

... Kids! Can you find the six deer in this photo?

OK, it's a trick. Three are to the left, out of the frame. But can you find the other three?

Linkdump

2010-02-28T08:53:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the radio silence; I've been out of town collecting data.

The "THERE ARE NO MENS, WHAT WILL WE DO" panic.

There are tribal colleges in Canada and the U.S., but universities, not so much - and now there is one fewer.

One response to the Dodge Super Bowl commercial.

I love chicken-crossing-the-road jokes. And here are more.

I've been disheartened by how much of the commentary around the Amy Bishop case has suggested that tenure, or race, or something, drove her to kill her colleagues. No. Being unhinged is what leads someone to do that kind of thing; triggers aren't causes. Here is a good take on it.

White supremacists more tolerant of homosexuality than you might think; also, funny picture.

Dissertation update

2010-02-18T16:31:00.001-06:00

Wondering how my dissertation is coming along? Wonder no more!

This Saturday I will be attending a workshop at the Vanderbilt Writing Studio on revising the dissertation.
I leave town Sunday to do data collection at one of my three sites. I should be back some time Thursday.
Last week, I submitted an article based on my quantitative analysis to a journal.

Tax time

2010-02-14T17:19:00.001-06:00

I was prepared to begin my taxes, I thought, and was looking forward to an easy time of it - all I did in 2009 was work for Vanderbilt, and I keep my Bolivian tin mine investing under the table.* Then a form 1099-MISC came in the mail for some income I had forgotten. (Hey, I was paid in early 2009 - for work done in mid 2008. Was it any wonder it had receded into the mists of time?)

The form itself fascinates me. Some of the categories on it are straightforward, such as "1 Rents" and "4 Federal income tax withheld." Others are much more interesting: "5 Fishing boat proceeds" - "10 Crop insurance proceeds" - and (my favorite) "13 Excess golden parachute payments." Alas, I have nothing in any of these categories.

*Dear IRS: I don't actually invest in Bolivian tin mines. Please don't audit me.