When I grow up

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?

Weekend update

I went out Friday night, but other than that my weekend has been quiet. Saturday I went to the Center for Teaching's GradStep workshop and then spent the rest of the day hibernating - I watched the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica. The show is so awesome, it would be hard for the final episode to be totally satisfactory. And they were OK (don't worry, no real spoilers here), except there was a little too much cheesy expository wrap-up. I think the problem is, the show is at its best when the episodes are character-driven, and the finale had to be plot-driven to wrap up loose ends.

This morning I did a bunch of boring administrative tasks at home that have a high drudge/reward ratio. Like punching holes in a 200-page document, six pages at a time, to put in a binder. But that suited my mood; sometimes it just feels good to get something unambiguously done (and have a clean desk).

I spent the end of the year in Phoenix, going to a Desiree Rumbaugh workshop and spending time with friends, but the only souvenir I brought back with me was a cold. The symptoms have principally been a stuffy nose, which leads to no sleep, some sneezing, and a very mild sore throat. This morning, however, I woke up with an entirely new and somewhat discomforting symptom: A desire to work up a budget for my expenses. No, I can't explain that either.

So I did. We'll see how well my budget matches what I actually spend. I don't mean, "Do I end up overspending on dining out?" I'm more concerned about areas of non-frivolous spending - car repairs, medical bills, that type of thing.

Maybe I actually have some sort of strange new year's bug that covertly forces one to make resolutions and all that.

Welcome to 2010

It's not only the start of a new year but of a new decade. I should be doing retrospective posts, like everyone else, but you know what? 2009 was a cruddy year. I am glad to see the last of it. Heck, the oughts were a disappointing decade. Not only did we not get the flying cars and spaceships we were promised, it was a decade in which my life seemed to stand still in many ways. Ten years ago I wasn't too far out of college, working in a job that earned me $14k/year before taxes, and living the wild and crazy life of a single girl, except without the wild or crazy part. Now, I'm back in college, not earning much more (after inflation), and still single. The more things change ...

But surface indicators aren't the only way to measure my life, and there are things that are different. I think some of those will make 2010 better.

And some things, I don't want to change. My family is healthy; I have a lot of great friends; and whatever I have to complain about, things could be a lot worse.

So happy 2010. May this year, no matter what your 2009 was like, be better than the year before.

What would you forget?

Recently, I went to a potluck dinner where we were all assigned dishes to bring, and a discussion arose as to what the most important dishes were. The idea was, if someone didn't show up, or brought an untasty , how badly would it impact the meal? (In this case, the china and silver were provided, and it was BYOB, so the discussion was only about the food. We were also ignoring redundancy - if three people are asked to bring side vegetables, one no-show isn't a problem.)

One person said bread was the least important thing. Someone else said, no, it was dessert. Both of these floored me, because I would argue they are the two most important items. Note, I'm not making any argument that I'm objectively right here - I think all this is a matter of opinion. But while I believe any element except perhaps dessert could be omitted, I want my carbs, and I'm a carb snob.

All a-twitter

If you wish, you can follow me on Twitter.

To the point

What is wrong with this paragraph (from Slate, of all places)?

"To be fair, he does regularly bear witness to cultural rarities, including Santeria rites in Cuba, and he does savor such dishes as a Korean fish snack with the texture of "a Q-tip covered in Vaseline." To be sure, more truthful titles—Rather Interesting Places? Nice Things to Eat?—wouldn't really fly. To be clear, many a travel show deals in extremes, excesses, and superlatives. To wit, Man v. Food seeks to prove that a gastronomist can never have too much of a good thing, however much his body might object to the notion."

A little too-too, perhaps?

Health care branding

As a grad student, my health insurance provider is Gallagher Koster. That's what the printed materials and the website say, anyway. My card says UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, with further logos from Signature Health Alliance, Beech Street, and Medco. Payment notices in the mail come from Klais & Co.

Now Gallagher Koster announces we can get dental insurance through United HealthCare Dental. When you go to their website to look up providers, you have to choose a plan name, and none of them (as far as I can tell) are mine. At least, I've ruled out the ones that have "Arizona" and "Dallas" in their names.

You know, in most businesses, brand recognition is considered a highly desirable thing. How else will the customer know to request Acme products? I guess in businesses where your customers hate you, they want to make sure they don't know your name.

Shout out to Chacos

I had wanted a pair of Chacos for several years. I have two pairs of their flip-flops already, but I wanted real outdoors sandals. So back in the winter I had finally bought a pair because I found them on deep discount. Once I figured out how to adjust the straps, they were very comfortable, but I didn't wear them much - it being winter. Come summer, I'd wear them to a hike, but not while doing anything strenuous.

Then I wore them around camp on a trip to Frozen Head. I discovered that the toe strap on my right foot would slowly tighten up as I walked. Every half mile or so I'd have to take it off and loosen the strap. This was clearly not going to work.

I sent Chaco an email explaining my problem. They immediately got back to me, saying that this was a problem for some people. Either the straps were too slick, or it was the way that I walked. In any case, if I would send them back, they would send me a new pair - a different model if I preferred. So, I sent them back and requested a similar pair without the toe strap. A few days ago they arrived. There was no charge, even though I'd had the sandals for a while, nor did I have to go through any rigamarole about showing receipts or proof that my toe was slowly having its blood supply cut off. And all communication was online - no waiting on hold while Muzak played.

So buy Chacos. They have good customer service.

Tracking my happiness

I've been doing the Track Your Happiness project. This is actually a Harvard study you can sign up for, and as an incentive to participate you get to see your individual data. They send texts three times a day to your iPhone, and you report how happy you were just before the text and answer a few other questions. After you fill out enough, you get a summary report. You get six months off, and then you're "it" again.

The results are somewhat interesting. For example, there seems to be no relationship between my happiness level and the day of the week, my degree of focus (that's the chart you see here), or my sleep quality. I am happier when I am outside than inside, and when I am with others instead of alone - but I'm happiest with just one other person.

It is not surprising that I am happiest when I am doing things I want to but don't have to and less happy when doing things I don't want to and don't have to. (Note to self: Why was I doing them?) Nor is it surprising that I am happier with my friends than with acquaintances.

The amount of sleep I get seems to increase my happiness until I get to six hours, and then it drops off. I suspect this is because I only get a lot of sleep when my period is approaching and I have cramps, which obviously are not a thing that leads to happiness. I can't sleep that much if I try the rest of the time.

They also track your location and what you are doing in relation to happiness, but many of these happen infrequently enough that I can't conclude anything. Most of the activities are pretty bunched together, with the result that housework and eating have the same happiness score. Of frequent activities, working and exercise result in the highest happiness scores of anything that occurred many times.

One challenge I have found is that I am often out of cell phone range. For example, when my sister and I were in the Redwoods, I was out of range for three days. You're supposed to respond late rather than never, but after three days I had no idea how exactly I'd felt at, say, 11:39 a.m.! The only reason I am out of range for that long is because I am out somewhere in nature, so there's no measure of how happy I am when camping, for example.

Odds and ends

Yesterday afternoon went up in smoke. I went out at lunchtime to do errands, and the guy at the Costco gas station pointed out I had a nail in a tire. Since my tires are from Costco, I pulled around to the tire shop, where they said I had nails in both of my rear tires. They fixed one for free, but Costco claims they can't get the rims off of my passenger-side tires (a legacy of the inept dealership back in Indy), so I had to head across town to the Kia dealership. They charged, but it was only $18 - the bigger problem was the time that evaporated out of my day.

In the evening I took a gamble and machine-washed my daypack. I still haven't bought a new one yet, due to lack of funds, and my old one smelled pretty funky. I figured that there wasn't much to ruin if it didn't work out. (Packs aren't supposed to be washed.) I stopped short of machine-drying it, though. It came out just fine - and it smells much better.

The good news is, I do have work lined up for July, so I'll be financially sound this summer.

Dreams

Last night I dreamed I was at a conference. I sat outside drinking a cup of tea and talking with a fellow graduate student, talking about the fate the newspaper business, before heading off to where I was supposed to be. But then I looked at my watch and realized it was after 10, and the graduate student sessions I was supposed to be at had started at 8 - and yesterday I had missed them entirely. That would have been bad enough; even worse, my advisor was running them. I pulled out my schedule, because the rooms I thought they were in were being used for a session on international education, but the room information was vague. A stranger told me he thought they might be finished already, since Friday's session was only a half day anyway.

At that point some sunlight leaked into my eyes and I woke up in a panic - awake enough to know I was not at a conference, but thinking I had slept in until an inappropriately late hour - only to look at my clock and realize my alarm wouldn't go off for another minute.

I almost never have anxiety dreams, so I wonder what my subconscious is trying to get at now.

One of those mornings

On Thursday I had taken my car in for some funny noises and ended up having the belt tightened and a new starter put in. However, the squeaky noises got dramatically worse over the weekend, so I went back out to the dealership this morning.

Instead of sounding like a passel of mice, however, the squeaking had almost disappeared. I counted just five squeaks on the drive out to Antioch and couldn't reproduce the sound at all on a drive with one of the managers.

So I left the dealership, and as I was pulling out onto the street my phone rang. I saw from the area code that I had to call back right away - it was one of the colleges that may participate in my dissertation. I pulled into the hotel parking lot across the street while the caller left a voice message. She said this was her second message and could I please call her back. Immediately I felt horribly guilty, because although I never got the first message, I'm sure that sounds like a very likely story.

I had to pull out my laptop to check my calendar and write down the time we scheduled for, and as I'm finishing up a man comes out of the hotel to ask if I need help. No thanks, I said, I just had to answer a phone call. Well, he tells me, you can't use our internet. I wasn't, I said; I just needed my calendar. I wanted to say, look, do you have a serious problem with internet scavengers hanging out in your parking lot? Unemployed yuppies who can't afford a latte at the coffee shop even to get online? Of course, in this economy there probably are quite a few of those, but they're not hanging out in Antioch.

So now, all over America people probably think I'm a liar with a vivid imagination.

P.S.: As I pulled back into my own neighborhood, the squeaking started again.

Errands

Tall tower
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

This morning I tried to run errands. However, I was not able to replace my passport or actually renew my tags; I had forgotten it was President's Day. President's Day is a crappy sort of holiday because not enough people have it off for it to be a day of general merrymaking, but too many offices are closed to get real business done.

While I was out running out, I took a few photos, including the one at left.

In other news, check out this exciting journal article. (This link may not work unless you're on a campus network.)

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas to all (who celebrate it, at least) and to all a good night!

Chickadees

The view from my office in my apartment is of the fence between our building and the house next door. It's not really an inspiring view, except that the fence attracts a lot of birds. Some of them I know and some I don't - I'm not a birder. But I don't like not knowing, even if I have no desire to take up ornithology in a general way. Often when I read books from 100 or 200 years ago, the writers describe nature with a specificity lost on many of today's readers. How many of us know wildflowers, for example? So when I try to describe what I've seen in nature, it comes out as, "There were purple flowers. And yellow ones." Conversely, many of these older descriptions don't conjure up quite what they are intended to, but they at least sound poetic.

Today I was watching some little gray birds, and with the help of Google image search I figured out they were Carolina chickadees. At least now I know one thing I didn't this morning.

Holiday season

I'm busy with dissertation stuff (and holiday festivity), so apologies for the sparseness of posting.

Last night I went to a holiday party at my adviser's house. He cooked up New Orleans-style food, and his wife (a professional pastry chef) made desserts. The food was really, really excellent.

Today I did a short hike at Shelby Park.

Various other activities have involved eating, working on my dissertation, studying, yoga, and more eating.

Do Synthroids dream of electric sheep?

The last two nights I have had extremely vivid dreams. Nothing particularly bizarre has happened in them (relative, of course, to dreams, not real life). A little web surfing has revealed that this is something some Synthroid takers experience. As far as side effects go, it's not a problematic one, mind you.

I do promise to blog about ASHE soon, BTW.

Bloodwork

The doctors at student health sent me to a specialist for a minor medical issue I've been having. The specialist said, "I think it's a hormone problem. Go to the lab for some tests." So the lab sucked a little blood out of my arm and tested for about eight different hormones, and the results suggested my TSH was slightly high. This is indicative of hypothyroidism, so the specialist sent me back for another round of tests just to be sure.

Meanwhile, I start reading about hypothyroidism online. The trouble with reading about any medical issue is that it's pretty easy to convince yourself you have it, especially when the symptoms are not highly unusual. Fatigue? Trouble losing weight? What Americans don't feel like these are problems? But several of the symptoms were things I had noticed over the past year or two without considering them to be medical problems. My skin has gotten drier; I thought that was just aging. I get cold more easily; I thought that was just getting acclimated to the Southern weather.

But then the second test came back high, too, so I'm being put on Synthroid. Now we get to see what symptoms are really hypothyroidism and what aren't.

Working and playing

I have a fair amount to do over the weekend, partially because ASHE is next weekend, so there's a PowerPoint to make, dry cleaning to get done, etc. But I also have to prep for my dissertation group, write a report for a grant I'm on, and burrow into Stata for a paper we are revising. (Anyone know how to compare regression models using AIC in Stata?)

But I'm also going hiking both days this weekend - one is a pretty short trip - so I have to be efficient!

Weekend update

Even though I stayed home this weekend, I didn't chain myself down to my desk. Friday night I taught. I'd had to thoroughly revamp my lecture, in part because the instructor had changed the syllabus, and in part because an exercise I'd used in the past was too time-consuming to keep. Saturday night I went out for a peep's birthday. We went to PM, where apparently we go for the burgers in spite of it being pan-Asian cuisine. (And after trying the pad thai, which was so flavorless, I have to say - get the burger.) Sunday I went on a hike to Beaman Park. For some reason there were clouds of gnats everywhere. They buzzed in your ears, and I kept my sunglasses on just to keep them out of my eyes. While they don't bite, they were certainly unpleasant.

And - of course - I worked on this dissertation outline.

And the fashion spreads were lame, too

The latest issue of Vogue has a couple of letters to the editor complaining because a special issue on "diversity" could only find three African American models to profile. This issue itself, apparently not being devoted to diversity, is lily-white. (The non-white women profiled are not in the fashion biz; they are pianists or campaign managers or Michelle Obama.) I think Vogue must be the last place in America an actress of central European origins could be described as "exotic."

But high fashion isn't keeping up with the masses. I noticed the ads in the magazine were more diverse, particularly the more low-brow they were. There were no ads in this particular issue for Benetton or other companies that deliberately market diversity*, but advertisements for department stores and other more affordable shops featured more African-American women than the rest of the issue combined. Ignoring for the moment that, as one letter writer mentioned, diversity is more than just black/white, there are African-American women in ads for The Gap, YSL, Dillard's, Movado, DSW, Lord & Taylor, Vogue TV, Revlon, Jennifer Hudson's new album, and House of Design. With a few exceptions, these are stores that translate fashion for the masses, not high fashion itself. On the other hand, the only model in a fashion spread who could be described as black is a seamstress in a crowd of a dozen other seamstresses. (Not African-American - it's a French shoot.)

I'll leave conclusion-drawing as an exercise for the reader, except for one point: Vogue itself can hardly claim it's at the mercy of the supply of models. If Anna Wintour insisted on more ethnically diverse supermodels, the talent scouts would find them. The magazine has too much leverage in the industry to simply wring its hands with any credibility.

* Possible exception - The Gap.

Car resolution

The dealership called me yesterday afternoon to tell me my car was ready. The serpentine belt had not fallen off at all, but I was out of refrigerant, which had caused the air conditioning to turn off. They weren't certain why the car had died; it started up fine for them - maybe something about the compressor. Moreover, they couldn't find the leak. (And a leak it had to be - my oil had been changed 1000 miles ago and all fluids topped off.)

I got on the freeway to drive home, and after about a mile the air conditioning quit. At the next exit I pulled off and called the dealership. They told me to come back. I didn't feel like stalling out on the freeway, so I took back roads. Under the hood the engine was making a rattling noise. Then at the last traffic light, my brakes stopped working. The emergency brake worked, but the car stalled and wouldn't start. I rolled it around the corner and called the dealership again. A manager and a tech came out, and after about 20 tries it started and barely made it back. (I chose to walk.)

So now I was out of coolant, but again they said they couldn't find the cause of the leak. This time the theory was water in my gas tank - the gas light had just come on. I went to the gas station across the street (prices having gone up 30 cents from when I first came in to pick up the vehicle) to fill up. Not exactly feeling secure, I moved my car forward a few feet after fueling. The car was leaving a trail, much like a slug.

I took it back to the dealer, even though they were closing. They were suspicious it was nothing - some coolant had spilled when they refilled it, and they thought it was just the spill dripping. Still, the manager grabbed a master tech who was on his way out to look. After just a few minutes, using no tool more advanced than a flashlight, he figured it out.

A clamp on a hose had broken. When the car was cool, after sitting for a while, nothing happened. But after driving a while pressure would build up and the fluid would leak. All they had to do was replace the clamp.

And why didn't the first two mechanics to look at it notice this?

Unexpected adventures

This afternoon I went to a talk given by the dean of Michigan's College of Ed. I planned to go to a new yoga class at my gym afterwards, not realizing how long the talk was supposed to do. Then a friend sent me a message saying a group was going to Climb Nashville, and would I like to join them? Well, sure. So I drove home to change.

On the way home my a/c suddenly shut off. Uh-oh, I thought. Last time this happened a my drive belt had fallen off, my car stopped dead at a traffic light, and then had to be towed. But this time my car continued to drive just fine. So I decided to head out to the climbing gym.

Halfway there I get a call telling me the gym is closing early tonight, so they're going for a walk instead. I change course and head for the new meeting spot. As I'm sitting at a light by campus, take one guess what happened. Right, my car died. Luckily, once traffic cleared I was able to coast in to a parking lot. A cop helped push me a little farther in.

My friends agreed to come meet me, and I called a Kia to arrange a tow truck. My roadside service had expired, as had my warranty, so I had to pay for it. Meanwhile, a couple of people from my department wandered by and stopped to see if all was well. My friends show up, and then the company Kia had arranged called. At this point it becomes clear they are not a tow company; they thought I needed a jump. (I'm not sure what part of "push 1 if you need a tow truck" followed by me pushing 1 was unclear.) I call Kia back and have to wait an hour for the truck to show. Thankfully my friends waited and gave me a ride home.

Tomorrow, I find out how much the repairs will cost.

woot

I just found out that I had a journal submission accepted. It's both exciting and anticlimactic, since the result wasn't a surprise - it had been through two revisions but fairly superficial ones. (Example: change % to per cent.)

Conference woes

Conference travel can be a real pain. When choosing a site, conference planners have to balance ease of travel against hotel prices (among other things), and neither result is very satisfactory. AERA is always in mega cities - it has to be because of its size; the conference sessions are spread out over half a dozen hotels. And there are always lots of flights in and out of places like New York, San Diego, etc. ASHE, on the other hand, tends to be in more affordable places, but flights are scarcer.

I'm trying to book my flights now for ASHE and not finding anything satisfactory. My presentation is at 1 the first day (not a primo slot), so I need to be there by then. I can take my chances by flying direct on Southwest that morning and arriving at 10:20, if all goes well. Or I can play it safe and go in the night before. My travel money will extend to cover that.

It's the way home that is more difficult. The last session ends around 6, but the last Southwest flight is at 4:30. I'd just skip the last couple of sessions, except there is one at 3 that I really want to, nay, need to attend. (I'm on the job market, so I have to be Visible.) No one else flies direct. But the layover is nothing compared to the cost - over $500 is the cheapest round-trip that leaves in the evening. That my travel money will not extend to.

Not everyone at ASHE is coming from Nashville, of course, but I suspect many attendees are having these sorts of issues. Jacksonville isn't a major business or travel market. Last year's site, Louisville, was similar.

My final option is to fly Southwest but to fly in a day early and leave a day late. My travel funds won't quite cover it, although the extra is small enough for me to swallow.

ETA: I found a solution that is somewhat cheaper and allows me to depart after the last session. I just have to fly Jacksonville to Detroit to South Bend to Cincy to Nashville, arriving 13 hours after I depart. Now that's a winning solution.

Excitement of all kinds

On Friday, one of my friends from Indy stopped for lunch on her way through town. It was great to catch up - I haven't seen her in three years. Then, afterwards, I went to the Apple store and bought an iPhone. I love it so far. Every feature is so intuitive; you don't need a manual of any kind. And while the alpha keys look so much tinier than my fingers, typing is remarkably accurate. Hooray!

The mall is a dangerous place because there are all of these stores there. Expensive stores. I went in to the new Burberry store and wanted to buy half of what I saw, especially this skirt I loved. I mean, loved. Wanted to marry. Someone will have to call George Clooney and tell him that he has been replaced. But at $295, the skirt is only barely more obtainable than George. Alas. (And honestly - I'm a "poor graduate student" now, but even as a well-compensated faculty member, I won't be THAT well compensated.)

But I have an iPhone!

Resolution

Trees
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

I couldn't figure out why I was so tired this morning. I'd slept well last night. Then I realized, "Oh yeah, I hiked 13 miles Sunday." That'll do it.

I tell you this as an excuse to post this nice, soothing lake photo from my hike, instead of the photo I was going to post. The a/c repairman came out today. He didn't find anything under the house, and the ducts were intact. But inside my a/c unit he found a dead possum. Click here if you don't have a weak stomach.

Now the source is gone, but when I got home tonight and tried to turn on the air for the first time, I noticed it was completely off - as in, it doesn't even show the temperature. (I can still tell you what it is - mid-80s and about 3000% humidity.) So, problem removed, but I'm not actually better off yet.

Undead

I had tentatively planned to go on a caving trip this weekend. However, as the weekend approached, unpleasantness pre-empted my weekend.

It started Wednesday night with an unpleasant smell. So I took out the trash. Aired the place out. Thursday morning it wasn't any better, so I scrubbed the place. Then I realized that the odor intensified whenever I turned on the a/c. It smelled like something rotting.

I called my landlord. Flies were started to buzz around. He didn't get anyone out to my place until Saturday, and it wasn't really this guy's job to crawl around under my house. He said the vents appeared covered from the outside, but when I turned on the air he smelled it right away. So my landlord said he'd have the a/c guy call me.

He still hasn't called. And today, I discovered fleas. I had seen a couple but not really noticed them between everything else - for one thing I've been spending little time at home. (It's hot, and it smells. Home sweet home.) I called my landlord with another, more frantic, message, and I bought a flea bomb, which is currently fumigating my place. Meanwhile, I'm staying at a friend's, because my place wasn't really habitable even before I spewed poison into the air.

(Fleas do transmit the bubonic plague, right?)


It hasn't been the best weekend ever.

Buying books

Even though I am technically done with classes, I am auditing one course this fall. It requires seven books, one of which I already own. Another I ordered the other day from an Amazon z-shop at a great price.

This left five books to order today, so I got all organized and comparison price shopped. When looking at used books, I took the lowest price at an acceptable quality. The total cost, including shipping, for the books came out to:
Amazon: $183
Amazon z-shops: $158
Half.com: $166
Campus bookstore: $208
Powell's: $250

You would expect the used books to be the cheapest, with Amazon a little more and the campus bookstore the most. But what's going on with Powell's? Their prices are higher than the campus bookstore!

Natural lessons

I finally completed a task I had been putting off for too long. I was procrastinating because the task sounded tedious, long, and annoying. Then I finally did it, and it was quick and painless. Lesson: The mental agony I spent reminding myself, "You gotta do that" probably took more time altogether than actually doing it.

New pet peeve

I've seen this several places recently, and the newspaper today was the last straw. People of the English-speaking world, "illusive" does not mean the same thing as "elusive."

Elusive means something is hard to capture or find. Think of nature documentaries where the narrator says, "Ah, a rare sighting of the elusive red-throated grottlenose titmouse." Illusive means illusory, not real; "The titmouse proved to be illusive, being merely a holographic marvel designed by my archenemy."

In today's final straw, the newspaper reported that cougars are menacing the tony town-within-a-city of Belle Meade (it's where Nashville's celebrities actually live). The headline said that solutions were illusive, suggesting the mayor had tried several that failed. This led me to wonder if the town leaders were gullible or if the cougars were particularly hard to eradicate. Instead, the article revealed they had not yet come up with any solutions to try.

That's animal cougars, by the way, not the new slang cougars. (Which is a horribly misogynistic term that needs to go away.) Or at least I assume, given that shooting them had been discussed.

Gift idea

I could sure use one of these.

Looking for tips

I'm going to be in DC and I'll have one day all to myself. The next day I'll be doing some sort of touristy stuff with a friend. Last time I was in DC, we did the "walk around the mall" thing and visited the Smithsonian museum of arts and industry.

So there are a lot of places left that I haven't seen. In fact, the choices are rather overwhelming. Anyone have suggestions for what the must-see attractions are? Or for attractions that are a little unusual and not quite overrun with people? (I'll be getting around by Metro and on foot.)

Testing Google Maps walking directions

Google Maps has added walking directions. It's a great idea, but it definitely deserves their "beta" designation.

To test it, I asked it for directions from somewhere vaguely near my house to Shelby Park, and it came up with six possible locations for the latter. You can see the result for the location I chose here. Google Maps and Mapquest are both very sketchy about the park. For example, Google shows the nature center in the wrong place. You can drag endpoints, but if I was actually looking for directions, presumably I wouldn't know the location was wrong. Moreover, you can only drag it to what Google recognizes as a street, not to where the center actually is. The map doesn't show all the park roads, including a major entrance off where Lillian dead-ends into the park and the parking lot for the nature center.

The biggest drawback is that Google Maps still relies on roads only. It's smart enough to know you can walk on one-way streets, but it doesn't know anything about non-motorized paths. There is a trail from the dog park (not shown, but it's where Lillian dead-ends) that runs into the park. The greenway isn't shown, nor is the new pedestrian bridge across the river to the Stones River greenway. The upshot is that the path it show me is more direct than it driving path it shows, but it's still not the fastest way to get there.

July to-do list

• Finish state governance changes report by Friday
  
• Renew AERA membership
  
• Submit research proposal to AERA
  
• Revise and resubmit journal article
  
• Revise co-authored article so we can send it out to a journal
  
• Revise lit review and send to advisor
  
• Write up cycle 2 of teaching certificate
  
• Cook some of my CSA vegetables
  
• See a man about a horse
  
• Continue to work on dissertation

Well, I have a couple of deep, insightful type of posts half written that won't get posted for a while. Last week ended up being a little crazy. Then yesterday afternoon, my iBook's screen died. I have to take it in Monday - the days when you could get a walk-up Genius Bar appointment are long gone. (I don't understand why they don't do triage, or allow someone to pay extra for an immediate visit. For a lot of us not having a computer almost stops our work in its tracks - it's not like when I needed to have a key replaced a couple of weeks ago, or even like an iPod breaking.) In any case I am now sadly unplugged once again.

I'm hating Merrell even more

New ad: "Capsizing in class 4 whitewater and getting back in the boat made for a great water-cooler chat on Monday"

Because you don't do your hobbies for intrinsic enjoyment, but to impress other people. I picture this dude (you know it's a guy) as Drew from Office Space bragging about how he "bagged some class 4" over the weekend while everyone else just waits for him to shut up.

Not buying Merrell products. Ever.

I hate those Merrell ads

I don't know where else they appear, but they're on Facebook at least:

• "Remember how you talked about hiking the Appalachian Trail someday? Why don't you take a hike this weekend?" Message: Yeah, you big lazy lug. Stop just talking and get off your arse and do it, or shut up. Who is this supposed to appeal to? I'm already hiking this weekend, thank you very much. And if I wasn't, do they really think an ad is going to motivate me via guilt? Now if my mom calls me up and says, "Geez, you keep talking about doing the AT," maybe that would work. Merrell? Not so much.
  
• "Remember when you ran further than the guy who got you into running in the first place? Like you'd forget." Message: You are the kind of competitive jerk who has to remind everyone else of exactly how good you are. Ah, yes, July 15, 2006 ...and I was wearing Adidas at the time.

Apparently Merrell is the brand of choice for bullies and jerks. In any case, all these ads make me want to do is not be associated with Merrell in any way. Not that I am now, as their hiking boots don't fit me well. I believe this works out well for both of us.

Conclusion: Nature still constrains us

On Saturday I went for a walk at Peeler Park in northeast Nashville. But this entry isn't about the hike itself; it's about getting there. Nashville is a city with a river running through it. (I have linked to an old map because it does the clearest job of showing the Cumberland River.) Most of the time you'd never notice the impact of the river - oh sure, you see it when driving over, but it doesn't affect navigation. I cross it every time I leave east Nashville and really only notice when a bridge is closed.

But the majority of bridges connect east Nashville with downtown or are part of the interstates. Other parts have town have few or no bridges. Occasionally it becomes obvious, like when I want to go to Opry Mills and go shopping. It's not far away as the crow flies, but I'm not a crow. The only bridge over the right part of the Cumberland is a new greenways bridge, not open to cars. And I noticed it on Saturday as I tried to go to Peeler Park. A bird would cross the river twice, but I had to drive a long way around. The result is that the area, Neely's Bend, still feels pretty rural and undeveloped, despite being close to several more populous areas. On the other side of town is another park in a similar situation, Bell's Bend.

The upshot is that these parks are much less visited than your average greenway, because few people live close to them. Peeler Park does not offer anything other than the greenway and an equestrian path to draw visitors. So, sure, it feels nice and secluded, but to my mind that's not the point of a greenway - it's an urban path, not a wilderness. Yet the seclusion is why these parcels were available in the first place.

Friday

Magnolia
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

One of those days ... the government promised my stimulus check would arrive by today, and yet it hasn't. Still waiting for my refund, too. At least I'm working from home today and not spending $2 to drive to and from campus.

Sigh. I'm supposed to do stuff this weekend ... not even expensive stuff, but it costs money.

Well, flowers are still pretty.

Ways in which I am Not Cool

• I don't like The Decemberists. I think the lead singer has a voice almost as irritating as that dude from AC/DC's.
  
• I'm still aggravated that there are now blue M&Ms.
  
• I'm spending my summer working and dissertating rather than backpacking through Europe or something.
  
• I've never seen So You Think You Can Dance.
  
• When I saw the new Weezer video, I had to look up most of the references.
  
• I'm not in a band. I don't date anyone in a band.
  
• See above, except replace "band" with "singer/songwriter."
  
• I don't own a bicycle.
  
• So you can probably figure out I don't do triathlons, what with not having a bike.
  
• I don't own a Vespa, a loft, a Mini Cooper, or a hybrid.
  
• I haven't been to a dance club in, geez, since I moved to Nashville for sure.
  
• I'm over 30.
  
• Really, that settles things. I'm pretty sure you can't be considered cool once you've hit 30, especially if you did so without having a quarterlife crisis.

Update

Whoo, it's only 80 degrees out!

This week there is no conference to work at, so I'm mostly working from home, dividing time between the dissertation and the work my chair has hired me to do. Not much to report on that, I'm afraid.

Other than that ... I'm still exploring the fun world of vegetables with my CSA share. The second-year students have taken their comprehensive exams and are awaiting the results. I'm eagerly awaiting my tax refund and my stimulus check.

Half done

The second of our four conferences ended today. With two in a row, everything else falls by the wayside, and I realized tonight that my apartment is a mess. I couldn't face tackling it all, but I did clear off my desk. Normally I can't stand having crap on my desk, yet it was piled with books and papers. I should have also gone to the gym to work off some conference food calories, but I really preferred to cocoon.

Tomorrow I will spend most of the day at this event. While on campus, I'll stop in the library to pick up some books on topic x. My chair emailed me today to ask if I had any new thoughts on it, and my response was, "Since yesterday?" (We'd chatted somewhat extensively.) Really, all I'd done was to download some more articles and look up books in the card catalog. So tomorrow I will attempt to acquire said books. Hopefully this weekend I can dive into getting some work done.

On a totally unrelated note, I hate to admit this, but what the heck is RSS? Why would I want to use it? Can anyone explain this to me?

What's up

I haven't posted in a few days because there hasn't been much to post. On Sunday a few of us went canoeing on the Narrows of the Harpeth. It was a nice, easy trip, which was what I needed after the long hike of the day before.

It looks like my summer is getting worked out; I'm working on three different projects, plus trying to work on other research, not to mention the dissertation (let's not). I'll be busy but the upside is pretty good pay.

And we won't talk about the dissertation!

Gas money

Yesterday I saw an article that asked, what if gas goes to $7 a gallon? The article didn't actually explore the ramifications as promised, but it did say that $7 gas was likely in the next four years. And I remember being horrified when gas went up to $1.50!

Whatever the magic number, I can imagine a scenario in which within a decade gas has reached a point where consumption patterns for most Americans will have to change because we won't be able to afford the old ones. That's why I disagree with a piece such as this one, which says environmental change may be possible without deprivation. Anything that gets us out of our cars (or off airplanes) will be felt as deprivation. Anything that raises the costs of goods will be felt as deprivation.

So imagine you can't afford to use your car for your daily commute, and you don't live in a city like New York. How do you get to work? In most smaller cities, suburbs, and towns, the public transit isn't sufficient - there aren't enough routes at the right times and places. Nashville, for example, routes everyone through a downtown hub, and therefore no one uses it if they can afford anything else. Some people might move closer to their jobs, but our housing stock isn't in the right place for this to happen en masse. (And then think of the dual-income households where the partners have jobs on opposite ends of town.)

And what about longer trips? Green advocates say things like, "Take the train." To do that, I'd have to drive eight hours to catch one! And it's the medium-haul trips that are the problem. I suspect that barring complete economic meltdown, Nashvillians who want to visit, say, Alaska are still going to fly. But what about trips to Memphis?

In the short term, I guess we throw buses at the problem. We have the roads, after all. I've harbored sentiments for a while that it was a mistake to dismantle so much of our railway structure. I can see the day when "rails to trails" goes in reverse as we convert greenways back to railways.

And while you think about that, I'm going to get into my conventional vehicle and drive to campus five miles away, a distance which is certainly bikeable and for which there is public transport, although it takes three times as long as driving. You see, I'd like to make changes in my life, but I can't afford them. You add people like me to people who like the current way to doing things just fine, and you end up with no change until the economy forces it.

P.S. This just in: Mass transit ridership is already increasing.

Goodbyes

This weekend was graduation weekend, meaning that all kinds of events were held ranging from The Party to graduation. I ended up not going to graduation (I couldn't decide which of two ceremonies to go to, and split the difference with neither.) But it is a sad time of the year; some of my best friends are graduating. Naturally, I'm happy for them, and happy for the ones who have found great jobs and will thus be leaving town, but I'm going to miss them. Even my officemate, who isn't graduating, is likely to spend most of his summer with the in-laws.

Among other losses, I must say goodbye to - my umbrella. Almost exactly ten years ago, the CWRU alumni association gave them out to graduating seniors. It wasn't very attractive, but it was the one umbrella I couldn't manage to lose while nice umbrellas always disappeared. The cap had recently fallen off the end, and it had to be whacked to make it open. This week I realized I couldn't find it. It wasn't in its usual spot in the car, nor in my office, nor in my living room. I suspect it had an expiration date; if Case was actually having a ten-year reunion, I bet a new umbrella would magically come into my possession. As it is, I'll have to buy one.

However, umbrellas are much easier to replace than friends. So good luck to all of you graduators!

Saving gas

With the high price of gas, I feel guilty and broke every time I drive. This is especially true if it's a longish drive by myself. So I'm trying to cut back on my driving.

Since classes are out, I have to spend less time on campus, although I still need to put in some face time. I'm trying to go in only three days a week instead of four this month. And I'm trying to make one of those days a no-drive day. The trick is to not just put off all my errands until the next day, thereby saving no gas at all. So Tuesdays and Fridays I don't go in, and Tuesday I don't drive. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the library to return a video, and then I'm going to the grocery store. Those are the sorts of errands I shouldn't be driving for anyway, since they're so close. Well, the library, definitely, because books and videos don't melt, I don't check out enough to be hard to carry, and I can always put it off until a sunny day. If I need groceries and it's 102 degrees or pouring rain, forget the walking.

Of course, with this Friday being graduation, I'm going to go to campus anyway. I'm just not going to work.

Random

• Terence posted some pictures from college. My first though was, wow, they look so young! Then I realized that just means that I am getting old. So I pulled out my college photo album and found something weird. The girls look dated (clothes, hair), but they don't look so young. The guys, they look like boys. I don't know what it is, if it's some sort of mental filter and a guy would see the opposite.
  
• Summer is in the air. The temperature is 80 and humid, and I'm already complaining. The graduation tents are going up. And I went to my last class as a graduate student today. Whee!
  
• Papers. Gotta focus on writing papers.

Songs I'm embarrassed to admit I like

(And yet they're all on my iPod.)
Tragedy - Bee Gees
The entire Cyberpunk album - Billy Idol
Shake Your Pom Pom - Missy Elliott
Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys
Broken Wings - Mr. Mister
Baby One More Time - Britney Spears
It's My Life - Bon Jovi
Hotel California - Eagles

Out of here

Whew. Finished everything for AERA. Got my prescription straightened out. Managed to pack. Worked out. Got my hair cut. I'm ready to go to Chicago, and then NYC.

12" of snow, no problem.

Stuff happens

This week has been all over the place. I found out that two grants I had applied for both turned me down. One I knew was a long shot (1 in 30 are chosen). Actually, I was surprised I didn't feel worse - I was just mildly disappointed. Maybe it's because I don't need the money, since our program is pretty generous. I also found out I wasn't being considered for something else I applied for. But then I also got an unexpected accolade.

Mostly I've just been frantically preparing for next week's conference. I leave tomorrow night and I'm still not ready. Actually, the low point this week was probably when I started to pack and had to figure out what clothing fit. Answer: not enough.

You win some, you lose some ... but what you lose usually aren't pounds. Ha.

Random blips on my radar

Nothing major to post here. I've been digging in to get stuff done before I leave for AERA. So just some shorts:

• I was in REI the other day, saw the Quarter Dome tent, and was immediately consumed with gear lust. Which is ridiculous, because a) I have a backpacking tent already, which b) I have only used on two trips. Mind you, I'm not fond of it. It requires ropes and stakes to be set up (it can't stand up with just the poles), and it doesn't have much headroom. It makes me claustrophobic. The Quarter Dome has an amazing amount of headroom for a backpacking tent - I could practically Irish dance in there, if only I knew how - and it doesn't require staking down. But like I said, ridiculous - if I were actually ever backpacking, I'd need to buy a water filter long before I got a new tent. And if I were replacing tents, you'd think I'd start with my car camping tent, which is, honest to goodness, a quarter century old. It works just fine, thank you, and I'm rather attached.
  
• Seriously, I don't have the patience for Iyengar yoga.
  
• Forget April being the cruelest month. In Tennessee, it's March. You can go from snow to 70s in a week. The weather tantalizes you that it's almost spring, but it lies. Also, March showers bring April flowers here. I really should have a pair of those galoshes that are so trendy with the undergrads - or copy my advisor and get duck boots.

Computer issues

My iBook has been acting sluggish, and lately it has gotten worse. Hard disk space seems to have disappeared, and I've gotten a few memory warnings. So I took it in to the Genius Bar, where my own personal genius recommended erasing and reinstalling everything. (After first backing up my data on my external drive, of course.) There probably is a lot of cruft in my system. I've had this laptop for 2 1/2 years, and when I bought it I simply transferred the hard drive over from my previous laptop also of 2 1/2 years.

Still, this could be an expensive proposition. I have software I rely on that can't be easily replaced. Don't think I'm a pirate, mind you. For example, I have EndNote because at IUPUI students could get a copy for free. At Vanderbilt, it would cost me $110.

At least I don't need to figure it out immediately.

Adieu briefly

First, some big news: Today, Ms. Prepared became the first person in my cohort to defend her thesis (and, of course, to pass)! Her defense went really well. So from now on we'll have to call her Dr. Prepared.

Tomorrow I will be leaving town for spring break. Details will be posted after I return.

95% of you can stop reading right now, because the only ones who will find this entry remotely interesting are my college peeps.

In one of those random "I wonder ... let's go look it up on the internet!" moments, I was looking at the Greek Life page at Case. Some things have changed since our day:

Delta Upsilon has enough members to have a South Side house.

Now not only Delta Gamma and Phi Sigma Rho have chapters at Case, but so does Kappa Alpha Theta (installed last fall).

The largest sorority chapter is Phi Mu, with 85 members. KAT is the smallest because it is so new, and Phi Sigma Rho limits its members to engineers, but the third smallest chapter is Sigma Psi, with 59. All in all, there are 446 women in Panhellenic sororities. (Spring 1999, the largest chapter was 59, and there were a total of 218 Greek women.) Sigma Gamma Rho has a campus chapter (rather than a citywide one). Apparently there is also an Asian-American interest sorority called Omega Tau Zeta, not a part of Panhellenic.

Don't worry, though - not everything has changed. For example, Wes Schaub is still the director of Greek Life.

Check-in

I have a delightful cold, manifesting itself primarily as a sore throat and a mild sinus headache. As diseases go, it's not serious - better than the shot-proof flu that's going around - but I'm staying home to keep my germs to myself. Experience has taught me that a mild cold for me will attack most people with twice the vigor. (See, I'm thoughtful like that.) I've been sitting in bed today and catching up on reading that didn't get done during the weekend festivities.

Because of the cold, though, I have no brilliant thoughts to post. I used up what few brain cells are not under attack by virus to write this week's stratification paper. Not that I normally have brilliant thoughts to post, mind you - but under normal circumstances I could dredge up something to say about Step Up 2, brunch, or the peculiar ritual of PhD visit weekend. I got nothing.

Happy V-Day

This upcoming weekend is PhD recruitment weekend. Tomorrow I'm picking some potential students at the airport and then attending the dinner. On Sunday, my practicum partner and I are giving a presentation on our research. In between, I'm going to brunch and seeing a movie. (I also had two invites to go caving and a chance to go to a roller derby. What is this - nothing at all happens one weekend, and the next everyone goes crazy?)

Of course, I also have some of that pesky homework, but not as much as this past week. For one thing, I had to lead class today. I was surprised to hear that lots of my classmates found this week's readings very boring - I had picked this week because I thought it was interesting. Well, mostly - reading Blau and Duncan can be incredibly dry. But there was some org theory brought in, which I always like. Apparently I was alone in that. I gave everyone chocolate, though, in honor of Valentine's Day. Grad students are theoretically above food bribes, being so much more sophisticated than undergraduates. I'd like to think it was my scintillating questioning that kept them awake - more likely it was the caffeine in the truffles.

Sugar

I am disappointed with this bag of candy hearts. It must be old or something, because it doesn't have any of the new hearts in it. (And yet I keep eating, as if the next one will surprise me.)

Buy "Racial Formation in the U.S." and get T-Rex FREE!

One of my class books arrived yesterday with a "freebie fun pack" the store apparently sends with all orders. I now posses an "E-man" comic from 1984 and two trading cards. I don't know what sort of collectible the latter are, except that they feature a dinichthys and some scavengers (which appear to be pteradactyls). Gosh, I'm having more fun already. Bring on the dinosaurs!

This semester seems to be off to an odd start. As I told my officemate the other day, "I know I have stuff I should be doing, but I can't figure out what." That was only half a joke; I'm having a hard time settling in to the the new semester.

Maybe it's because instead of being end-loaded, this semester starts with a bang - next Friday I retake the economics comprehensive exam. Maybe it's because this is my last semester of classes, and I feel as if I'm supposed to be focusing less on coursework and more on research and the dissertation - and yet I have classes I'm really interested in this semester. Maybe I just goofed off too much on break.

Happy 2008

So much for a big transition to the new year. The family was supposed to go to a party, but I ended up with a massive headache. They went, while I stayed home with the dogs, who were spooked by the fireworks. The next day I went to a ashtanga class in Ashland, so at least the new year started off healthy.

It appears to be de rigeur to do some sort of new year post - best of, worst of, new resolutions. I don't do resolutions, so instead here is 2007 in photos.

Since I apparently didn't take any pictures in January, instead I'll use a photo that really represents the entire year:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

Christmastime

It's been quiet here on the blog, but I've just been doing Christmas stuff with the family. Most of you are probably too busy with the holidays to read this anyway, right?

Merry Christmas!

Accomplishments and backslides

My sociology exam is now behind me. I came out of it with a massive headache (as well as with the conviction that I performed reasonably on it), so I treated myself to a peppermint mocha. I have been trying to swear off disposable paper cups, but vice got the better of me this time.

On the way home, I passed a cyclist I had also seen on the way into campus. I thought to myself, here I am destroying the earth in two ways, as I emit carbon while holding an unnecessarily dead tree, while this guy is being virtuous - and burning calories rather than consuming empty ones. The guilt!

Back to work, now, on an assignment due tomorrow morning, so I can go caving later this evening.

Should be buckling down ...

... and I am, really, but I did take some time out this weekend between studying and writing. Saturday night my advisor had a shindig at his place for current and former PPI staff. He and his wife recently bought this place out in the country, so I think this was their trial run at entertaining. It was a good time, but, yikes, I don't think I would want that long of a drive myself.

This morning I went to a yoga workshop by Chris Chavez. A friend had told me about it, but she ended up not making it. It was good, although tough, and it certainly didn't help that I'm out of shape. My brain thinks my body can do things but my muscles beg to differ, and you can only go on sheer willpower so long. But he got me doing handstands, which I've never gotten up the nerve to do. I actually think that it helped that he didn't have us do them right up against the wall. That's supposed to increase your comfort, but I have these visions of smacking my face on the wall and floor, especially if it has molding. However, I didn't faceplant into the trim or do anything else humiliating. Now tomorrow's forecast calls for soreness!

Note: Talk more about heteroskedasticity

Cash Advance Loans

Kickball results

Trophy

I was reminded that I did not post the results of the Peabody kickball tournament. For the second year in a row, our department won. It was a close thing; one game we won in overtime, one we won by forfeit, and we actually tied our final game. But since each of the other teams had lost a game, our record was still the best.

Bitter because I can't

There is an article over at the Chronicle of Higher Ed that is driving me crazy. (I don't think you need a subscription to see it.) Basically, the author says, she finds writing very difficult. When other people don't, first she doesn't really believe them, then she gets mad. She wishes they would all just shut their traps.

What is this, pre-school? "My mommy said I'm special so NO ONE can do ANYTHING better than me! So just shut up!"

You know, this is embarrassing, but I've never gotten the hang of using the Stairmaster. I just can't get the rhythm right. Everyone who looks at me funny when I say this, or says I just need to try agin, because Stairmasters are great - just stop showing off, alright?

I also have no ability to carry a tune. I wouldn't know an in-tune note if it wore a nametag. So next time someone talks about the joy of singing, or how everybody should just be able to have a nice sing-along, I'm going to tell them to can it. Don't make me have low singing self-esteem. As if singing could really be fun for anyone!

Then - and these are the ones that REALLY frost my cupcakes - there are the people who talk about how much they love running. Inevitably, they try to evangelize (maybe not to people in wheelchairs, but to reasonably mobile-looking types) that they ought to take it up. Endorphins, blah blah, great way to keep in shape ... whatever, I say running is hard. That's why I just sit and smirk when they start talking about injuries.

Alright, civilization, new rule: From no on, no one is allowed to talk about enjoying anything else that might possibly make anyone feel inferior. We don't want to know if you can bake a mean cupcake, get a weird thrill from vacuuming, are adept at curling, or can do really nice calligraphy. Because some of us can't, okay? Expressing a positive opinion is the same as rubbing the rest of our noses in it.

Rough times ahead

I've been lucky. My advisor and I have always gotten along, and our differences (for example, I don't wear a bow tie) have never been a problem. Unfortunately, all that is about to change.

You see, I am a Cleveland Indians fan, and he is a Boston fan.

Back to Monday

For some reason, all the rare social bits of my social life decided to activate themselves Friday night. First was the opening night of the Peabody kickball tournament, in which our department won both of its two games - the second one just barely, because Teaching & Learning is very evenly matched with us. After that I ran off to a talk by Stanley Fish. The talk wasn't sufficiently advertised on campus, and I suspect the turnout was disappointing. It was part of a two-day conference that cost money to attend, so most students didn't even look into it; I only found out the day before that students could attend for free. Then, finally, I went to a wine and cheese party one of the first years was having. It was a good time, but I had to leave before it was over, as I was teaching the next morning.

So I taught and spent the rest of the weekend doing homework. For some reason, though, I was dead tired Saturday night. I was a little short on sleep the previous night, but not enough to justify sleeping for 13 hours, and that's what I did. My body must be hoarding sleep for some reason. Maybe it's the colds that are going around now - which seem out of place, since the weather is still hitting 90, but it technically is fall.

Staying organized

I have a new favorite piece of software called Check Off. It's nothing fancy, but it's dead useful. I am an inveterate list maker, and for some time now I've been using Stickies to post virtual to-do lists on my Mac. However, this is unsatisfying to me because I can't cross off a finished item. I can delete it, but then I don't get the satisfaction of seeing all my completed items. Check Off lets you, guess what, check off what you have done, so I just check off things and at the end of the day delete the finished tasks. You can also create folders for sets of tasks. This makes it easy to focus on "stuff to finish this weekend" or "dissertation tasks."

You can download Check Off here (if you have a Mac).

Big Man on campus

Theoretically, one of the things I love about being at a university is all the great minds that appear for a semester or an evening. In reality, I make it to far fewer events and speakers than I intend do. Very often these things are scheduled at the same time as a class or somebody's wedding or something else immovable. Other times I just miss them. So when I heard Salman Rushdie was speaking, I was determined to go.

Alas, by the time I went to pick up a ticket, they were out. (It is parents' weekend - normally there are no tickets or sellouts.) Fortunately someone had a ticket they weren't using, so I was able to attend after all.

Of course it was a good talk, and well received.

Whee!

Tomorrow is payday - time to hit Costco!

LOST

One umlaut. If found, return to Lazorwülf.

A big day for transportation

Today, for no obvious reason, there was a hot air balloon tethered on the Magnolia Lawn. (It sported a Vanderbilt Sports Medicine logo, so maybe it was promoting your local orthopedic doctor?) They were offering rides to all comers, and some of my fellow students planned to go down there this evening, while I was in class.

But as I left class, the balloon was still going, so I got my turn. It was a very short excursion, straight up and then down, and the balloon remained tethered, but still, it was a balloon ride. I'd never had one before, and at the age of 10 I would have killed for the experience. At my advanced age, of course, my reflexes are much too slow for killing.

I do think ballooning should be a more common mode of transportation. Think how much more tolerable your morning commute would be if you gently drifted in to work. What pleasant cross-country excursions you might have! You might even encounter difficulties while circumnavigating the globe and land on Krakatoa, where you would encounter a hidden civilization with all sorts of ingenious mechanical contrivances.

Of course, I'm also still awaiting the renaissance of the zeppelin, so my opinion is not exactly making taste. Either that or I'm so far ahead of the curve I've almost lapped the crowd.

Voulez-vous the bus

Today I had a little adventure: I rode the bus in Nashville.

I've ridden buses all over Seattle and Cleveland, so I'm not anti-public transport - not like the woman who wrote in to one of the Seattle papers saying that quality people didn't ride the bus. But Nashville's route system, frankly, sucks. Pretty much every route has an endpoint in downtown. That means that to get to the airport from the east side, I have to ride west to downtown, and then east to the airport. To get to school from my place would take more than twice as long as driving (and cost more). So, being a good citizen and using public transport was pretty low on my to-do list.

But not today! I had taken my car in to the dealership, where I go if I think the problem is under warranty. Turned out it wasn't - it just needed a new battery. Come time to pick it up, people had better things to do than drive me to Antioch, so I took the bus.

It wasn't a bad experience at all, although I had a longish wait at the downtown transit station. Going through downtown wasn't out of the way. The buses themselves were not crowded and the drivers were pleasant. So, one thumb up, anyway.

Go citizenship

I voted today in the mayoral runoff election.

That is all.

Go Commodores!

Since this is my third year here, I should have gone to a football game by now. I was going to go once last year, to the Vandy-TSU game, but it ended up pouring down rain. Then I was going to go last week, but I wasn't feeling well. Third time's the charm! (Plus my tickets are courtesy of my advisor - he is teaching during the game - so the seats should be good!)

Otherwise my weekend is mostly work. I don't have much more classwork than I typically would at this point in the semester, but it feels as if I have more research stuff going on. I have to revise my event history paper for ASHE, send out the rejected journal article again, and last but hardly least, work on the precis my dissertation chair is asking for. I've been postponing on that last item while comps still hang over us, but since results don't appear to be forthcoming anytime soon, I need to get over that mental block. Project Snowball and Project Trial Balloon are still ongoing as well; the former is not yet something I can do on weekends, and the latter has to simmer on the back burner since other things are more pressing. Oh, and our practicum project from last year is still rattling around. And there's a book lurking somewhere in the future as well. I swear I need scheduling software to show critical paths and flows just to keep track of things - a paper planner just doesn't cut it any longer.

That list makes it sound as if I'm hot stuff, but Snowball, the book, and practicum are co-authored; event history, Trial Balloon, rejected article, and practicum all came out of classes; and doing a dissertation isn't really optional. Projects just seem to accumulate the longer we're in grad school.

I now own stuff

Yay, I went shopping today. I was shocked that I was able to find some dresses, because I can never get any to fit me, but it seems that some of the looser retro cuts that are in make it easier. Also, I have some other new stuff. (Not that you'll necessarily be able to tell - who will notice a new pair of simple black pants?) The only piece I'm not sure about is this sweater. It's cute on me, but I got it in navy, and most of my stuff is black. So yeah, I could wear it with a gray skirt, but it needs a shirt under it, and shoes. No way I'll find navy to match, right? Would it be OK with jeans? Or I could exchange it for black - they didn't have my size in black at the Target I was at, and the other colors were no good.

Life is hard.

No mercy

That's it. I couldn't take it any more. My wardrobe had devolved into an ungodly mess and had to be stopped. So I stopped it.

I went through and and pulled out the clothes that had to go to Goodwill; the t-shirts that were being demoted to gymwear; and the stuff that had hit bottom and was going out with the trash. Then I set aside the clothes that weren't appropriate for school (fancy dresses, suits, cute halter tops, etc.) and the stuff that will expire come Labor Day. Also, sadly, I set aside the stuff that is too small. What did that leave me?

Well, for one thing, two pair of pants. One of which is bright red, so it's not like I can wear them that often, and the other of which I've owned since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Clearly, a strategic plan is needed here. Expect to see me in quite a bit of white this week, as I bid adieu to these items for the season. Next Friday, though, is a very special day for me - I get paid. Forget rent, I'm going shopping. (Just joking, landlord! I've already written the check.)

It's time for back-to-school shopping.

Problems

I am running out of shelf space. While I acquire new pleasure reading from time to time, I also tend to weed through that stuff, so it's not my fiction that's out of control. It's all the books we have to buy for school. This semester I have to purchase 12 books, plus my classes will generate a few three-ring binders of notes. Repeat this four more times, and you have one bookcase that is crammed to the gills.

Now this problem will hopefully solve itself in two years, when I get a nice faculty office somewhere, and I can put all of those books in there to give me a head start on looking smart. In the meantime, though, I figured I'd have to buy another bookcase. Unfortunately, it looks like Ikea doesn't sell my bookcases any more - at least they're not on the website. (Hey, does anyone in Nashville randomly wish to get rid of a blue with birch trim Robin bookcase?) It also doesn't sell the wall shelf that matches it. Sigh. I can't put up one random case that doesn't match the rest. I guess I could get a wall-mount shelf to put over my desk - as long as it is birch (laminate), it would look alright. But I don't know much about how to install one so that it can hold any amount of weight.

***

The record heat and drought in Tennessee continue. We're now 13 inches behind our annual rainfall. This week, some trees started losing their leaves. It's very strange to have autumn crunching underfoot when it's 106 degrees out. Apparently we're waiting for a hurricane to send us rain, never mind the poor folks who have to have the hurricane. I wonder how much can be salvaged agriculturally at this point, between the spring freeze and the drought.

***

I think I have wasps nesting around my front door.

***

When I woke up this morning, I was thinking of all the things I should have put in the comprehensive exam essay for politics of education. I quickly shut that thought train down. It's a big relief to have the exams behind me, but I can't really relax until I hear that I passed.

Celebrating

Comps finished today, so afterwards my cohort went out for lunch. And as a reward for surviving, I spent the afternoon finishing Against the Day. It was completely awesome - everything the Baroque Cycle tried to be but failed. (And that makes Pynchon's book a bargain - it clocks in at 1085 pages, but that's nothing to Stephenson's 2700.) Then this evening I went to a goodbye gathering for a student who is following his advisor to another institution.

So it's been a long day, and now I'm going to bed.

Long days

Yesterday was supposed to be the day we got off early - the participants are done at 5, and they have dinner on their own, so I anticipated being home by 6:30 at the latest. It was going to be great ... I was going to go to the gym and do other boring things all by myself. Then at 5:00 we started to install a piece of educational technology in one of the rooms, and we didn't leave until 10.

I'm tired. We get done Friday night, and it would be great just to relax for a day or two, but I have to keep going. Granted, it's social stuff, stuff I signed up to do, but the thought of having to go to anything looks exhausting from this end. There's a bachelorette party Friday night - which means staying up late - and then Saturday morning I have to get up early to go canoeing. If I fall asleep on the river, make sure I have sunscreen on and let me snooze.

Briefs

I haven't posted much lately, in large part because I am working very long hours. Most of my work wouldn't be interesting for you to read about, unless you're really into stapling or something. So here are a few shorts that don't really deserve their own entry.

• A couple of folks around here have commented that the ticks are bad this year. (Mind you, the ticks themselves probably think things are great.) I have to agree. I never have tick problems, being one of those conservative fuddy-duddies that hikes in pants and wears lots of bug spray, but I've found a few on me this season - actually after each of the last three hikes I've done. Thankfully, they were still crawling around and not yet embedded in my flesh.
  
• Here's an article on the ethics of ethical food.
  
• My latest resolution is to eliminate (to the extent possible) my use of paper coffee cups, which aren't recyclable. Most of the time I'm not getting a fancy drink, so it can be poured into my own travel mug. I was thwarted this morning at church, where the after-service coffee is served in paper cups. My church is generally environmentally conscious, so I suppose it's a matter of too many congregants and, perhaps, not enough cupboard space. Apparently over 14 billion paper coffee cups are used and tossed each year. (This factoid can be found here, and while a biodegradable cup is a step in the right direction, not throwing something away is even better. And lots of things that are biodegradable don't, because they end up in the oxygen-starved environment of a landfill.)

Pause

The weather has been brutal this week. It's in the high 80s, which is hot, but the humidity has been at least 80%, which is the brutal part. It's been especially bad for me because we've been doing a lot of shlepping at PPI.

Last night I got a break and went to go see Ocean's 13. It was pretty good. I don't know that if it was my favorite of the franchise. The first movie spent a lot of time plugging holes so their scheme seemed airtight. Now I'm no expert on casinos, although I'm sure that if in fact someone tried to pull off their deal, it would fail. But as the audience, I believed. With this one, our belief in the team's success was taken as a premise. It also felt like the cast was insanely large. I don't know if it was really larger than 12, but I found myself wondering, "OK, who was that guy again?" because it depended on us remembering the rival thief from 12, Linus' parents, etc. I also never doubted our heroes' ability to pull it off - back to our belief being a basic premise - unlike 12, which really did keep the suspense going up until the last moment. On the plus side, Matt Damon's nose was great.

Anyway, that was my big weekend excitement. The first institutes start tomorrow, so tomorrow through Thursday I'm pretty solidly busy - then we only have a week to prepare for the second round.

Break

Unlike the other Monday holidays, Vanderbilt does celebrate Memorial Day. Perhaps it's because for those of us still in classes in Maymester, we need time off for good behavior after nine months - even with the end of the semester only a week away. So I am getting out and having fun, although it's not a complete vacation. Hopefully I'll have pictures after. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

P.S. The dreams have stopped.

Lesson learned

April is indeed the cruelest month, and I have learned that fiscal responsibility is not responsible. From now on, I'm going to be an impulse shopper, no matter what the cost.

Near the end of last month I found two things I wanted to buy. I had been looking for a fun summer purse for over a year - a year! - and I finally found a cute one at a boutique. It was only $45, which is within even my price range. My momma didn't raise no fool, so normally I would have purchased it on the spot. But I had just paid my taxes and gotten a new clutch, and on top of that I was about to leave town for a wedding. My bank account was running on empty. In fact, I was only in the store at all because I had lost my sunglasses, and for me sunglasses are an essential ranking right up there with, say, underwear. In fact, they're probably ahead. For the same reason I passed on buying a tube of "Rocking Chick" lipstick at M.A.C. It was from their Barbie line of all things and was a ludicrous plastic shade of hot pink that looked fabulous on me. It would have been great for those days when I wanted a little more panache or for evenings, because the typical deep red isn't really me. But I held off.

I went back to the boutique as soon as I got paid and the purse was sold. Being a boutique, they weren't going to have another one. I didn't make it back to the mall until today, and to my horror they told me the lipstick was available for a limited time, and that time was up. I was too despondent to even look for another fun color.

So here I am with no purse, with boring everyday lips, and a completely demolished shopping vibe.

Update: Thank goodness for eBay. I was able to find a tube for sale (for twice the M.A.C. price of course). A girl's gotta have priorities.

Where is everybody?

Not enough of y'all are on MySpace.

Taxes, wah wah

I went to see the Jorge Cham lecture tonight, and then I came home and did my taxes. I would cry, but there's probably a tax on that too.

How can a grad student owe so much? Part of it is the way our pay is structured - the scholarship money (which is taxable if it goes beyond tuition, required fees, and books) doesn't have taxes taken out. In fact, it's not actually reported to the IRS - you just have to be honest or hope you don't get audited. With a Lutheran guilt complex and bad luck, I'm not taking my chances. Of course, the solution to this is to plan ahead - that is, have more taken out of my regular checks. I've changed my withholding so I'll be more caught up next time around. The other part is a financial decision I made that, again, pretty much boils down to you knew this would increase your income, so you should have planned for that!

Honestly, I can kvetch, but realistically I should be able to live on my stipend. Not live the high life, but for a grad student I'm doing fine. It's a matter of choices, and for example I couldn't spend much less on rent unless I moved to a much smaller place, and I'm not Zen enough to let go of my possessions. The biggest problem is that I have a lot of credit card debt, and without savings I'm just nibbling at interest every month. That is, it's a nibble in the debt, but a chunk out of my paycheck. That sucks, but that's my own fault, yes? If I had a time machine I could go back and warn my younger self. Having misplaced my flux capacitor, I will just have to live with the choices I have made.

Keeping on task

Last night my yoga teacher asked me if I had ever been a dancer. "Well," I said, "I took ballet in second grade." (I realized later this wasn't strictly the entire story - I also took a couple of years of ballet at an adults-only studio in Seattle. The experience, while enjoyable, failed to convince me that I had missed out on my life's calling.) While many adjectives have been applied to me in my life - some even positive - graceful has never been one of them. Maybe it was my Danskin sweater.

Otherwise, yesterday was worky-worky-busy-bee. Today promises more of the same.

News flashes

U.S. News & World Report's grad school rankings are out, and Peabody moved up to three overall (tied with Harvard) and to #9 in higher ed.

Yesterday I saw my first '08 presidential bumper sticker (for Obama).

iTunes has finally added a feature I have been longing for; if you buy a single, you can go back later and get the album for a little less. (This offer is only good for six months after the purchase of the single, which seems reasonable to me.) iTunes even helps you out by displaying a list of albums you are eligible for.

And also in Apple news, my laptop returned to me today. In celebration, I'm going to stay in and bond with it by watching Lagaan. Just kidding. I mean, about expecting to to bond with it.

I knew this would happen eventually

Yesterday was not as productive as I'd hoped.

Yesterday evening I went to The Raft, an annual event where professors from the four departments that teach undergraduates debate about which one gets to ride on the raft in a post-apocalyptic setting. (Presumably, the rest die, although I suspect engineering could just build their own raft.) Prof. Heyneman represented Peabody and did an excellent job, but engineering won. I tell you, we were robbed - they won because they had a louder cheering section. Therefore, dear reader, depending on whom you are, I may put the blame squarely on you for not showing up.

When I got home I dumped my bags and headed out the door to run to Kroger. I had my wallet and keys in hand, but the moment I pulled the door shut behind me, I realized I only had my secondary keys - not my car or, more importantly, house keys. And I was locked out. My cell phone was still inside, too, so I couldn't call the landlord. Luckily my neighbor was home, so she called our landlord. He was out and about so I had to wait two hours. I really appreciate my neighbor letting me stay at her place to wait, since mosquitos had eaten half of my body in the few minutes outside.

By the time I got back inside, though, it was too late for me to write my 3-5 page essay for the soc of higher ed (this week's topic: faculty).

Note to self: Get spare keys.

Spring is in the air

I haven't posted much about school lately, in part because we all have spring fever. We're experiencing record highs of the low to mid-80s and the flowers are in bloom. Of course, if it's this warm in March, I'm going to die come summer.

For now, back to reading, and not stuff you want to hear about, either.

All will be well

I got a call from the local Apple store today. Oh, in regards to Lisa's comment the other day - the woman I spoke to gave me the most comprehensive story, but the voicemail a guy left initially said the same thing, albeit less detailed. And apparently the same thing was put on the invoice when it was shipped back to the store. The repair guys in Texas have their story, and they're sticking to it.

The guy who called today (the same guy I talked to initally) asked what they told me, and said that what was on the slip was totally wrong. The LCD screen spots were completely normal and should be covered, as of course should be the trackpad, and he was going to send it back to Apple to have them fix it. Yay! He apologized that it would be shipped out again, but I don't care about that - I didn't figure repairmen would show up at my house in the middle of the night and fix it while I slept. I'm just glad it'll be fixed.

So all's well that ends well, and also it is way better to deal with actual people you've seen face to face than customer service voices on the phone.

It's quiet ... too quiet

Nothing much here ... it sucks not having my laptop, but I have been able to check one out from the library, which I appreciate. It's not the same as having my own; for one thing, I can't print from it. I'm waiting for my laptop to come back from Apple so I can talk to the local store about it.

Passing is possible

Friday morning I went to Y's dissertation defense. She passed quite satisfactorily, so from now on I suppose we must call her Dr. Y.

Things for me haven't gone so well. That afternoon I had to take my laptop in to the Apple store, since on Thursday my trackpad essentially stopped working. It had occasionally been freezing up for a while, but suddenly it was frozen more often than it worked. When I took it in, they also noticed some faint blotches on the screen. I hadn't thought anything about them, but they said it needed to be sent in for a new display, too. (Mind you, my back up hard drive had just recently stopped working - not long after the warranty expired of course! - so I had to buy a new one to back up my data before sending my iBook off to the hospital.)

I'm also experiencing some mild ankle pain and am trying to decide whether I should go see the doctor. Since I've turned 30, it seems like some part or other of my body is giving my grief, but it's generally not serious. My knee really is better, as long as I remember to stretch properly. At the beginning of the semester my left hand was hurting, making it hard to do down dog or even grasp things tightly. I was finally talked into seeing the doctor, although I had to cancel the appointment at the last minute, and it cleared up on its own. I don't want to be a hypochondriac running in every week with some new twinge. So I don't know, is this just one of those things that happen, or is it serious, and how do I know when it is serious?

Single life, part #367

I guess I had too many conversations today about why grad school ruins one's dating prospects. (How many 20- and 30-somethings say, "I've resigned myself to not dating for the next four years" and their conversational partner not only understands but has said the same thing him or herself?)

It's almost depressing enough to turn one to online dating. Now I'm not one of those folks that thinks online dating is just for losers. I've tried it. It just never worked for me. I guess my interest depends on too many factors that can't be determined online. So for me to be reduced to looking at Match.com means I'm having a bum moment.

Anyway, I stopped myself before I did anything stupid, like sign up, but not before I wrote myself an ad.

WHY YOU SHOULD DATE ME

• I recycle
  
• I like puppies
  
• I make great cookies
  
• I can discuss Weber, Mieville, and Fish
  
• I offset my carbon from flying
  
• I have really nice blue eyes
  
• I'm a Democrat
  
• My mom says I'm smart and funny. Would she lie?

WHY YOU SHOULDN'T DATE ME

• I'm not from Nashville. I like it here, but in two or three years I'm going to get a job. I don't know where, but I'm 99% sure it won't be here
  
• I have no free time for a relationship, yet I do expect flowers occasionally
  
• I don't actually have a puppy
  
• I'm 30 and yet Britney Spears is on my iPod
  
• I eat too much meat for vegetarians, too little for carnivores
  
• My baby toes are funny looking
  
• I don't really want to have kids
  
• I have never watched American Idol
  
• Despite doing yoga, I have really tight hamstrings
  
• Any day now, I may get into population ecology
  
• I'm not really into music. Sure, I listen to it, but going to concerts? Meh.
  
• Would you like to hear me talk about my dissertation?

Trying to be a good citizen

I just fulfilled my New Year's Resolution.

Now back to printing out several forests' worth of readings. Hey, at least I print double-sided.

Never mind those photos

OK, it's 4 o'clock, but now I'm just hungry for dinner.

Whileing away

I'm spending most of the rest of spring break finishing up what I need to before classes start. Last night was a party for Y's birthday. Her defense is coming up in a couple of weeks, so this is an exciting time for her. Several of the guests were PhD or EdD students, so the topic of dissertations kept coming up. No, I don't have a topic yet.

I'm supposed to go over to a friend's tonight, but standing between me and then is a short paper I have to finish. It's not long, but it is 35% of my grade. It's become one of those tasks I procrastinate on for no good reason, until I begin to dread it simply because it reminds me that I have been procrastinating. Here's a deal: If I work on it for the next two hours, I get to go take a walk at 4 and take some pictures in Shelby Park I've been meaning to take.

Cold

I have a cold that can't quite make up its mind how bad to be. Physically, there's a minor sore throat, mildly itchy ears, and some snot, but not enough to be totally disgusting. Mentally, though, I'm addicted to sleep and have a slightly woolly brain. I managed to propel myself through reading Weber and Parsons for sociology of higher ed, but I can't bring the readings together enough to write about them. The cold is probably still contagious, so I'm staying home - although the only person I'd be likely to see much of is my officemate, who is responsible for it in the first place. But at home I can wear my pajamas and take a nap if need be. Tomorrow afternoon we have class, so I'd best rest up while I can.

Unfortunately, the taks still facing me to do today/in the next few days are all more mentally taxing than reading (putting together a mock IRB proposal, for example). Most of my mental power at the moment is being used up in wishing the dogs next door would STOP BARKING.