An Archive

It’s time for me to pick up stakes and mosey along to a new URL for my blog and a new blogging identity. This blog is now closed — an archive and not an abode.

Thanks for all the memories!

My Forecastfox just raised a pop-up to alert me that the temperature’s risen to a balmy -18 Celsius.

Let’s just say that they don’t call our break week in February “Spring Break” for a very good reason. Brr!

‘Cause, after all, what’s more satisfying? Sleep or online flame wars?

Wait, don’t answer that!

More great insights from xkcd: How It Works (Gender and Math)

Trebuchet (or Auto-Targeting Lasers)

Real Programmers Use. . . .

A quiet day in the office enabled me to get ahead on my marking and enjoy a lunch date with a new colleague. I even had the leisure to track down another useful article for background to use in the expansion of last fall’s conference paper into a full-fledged article. Yes, February break has arrived!

I’ve been grading a stack of assignments that range from the near-sublime to the nearly ridiculous. I have to say that today’s PHD Comics: You know you’ve been grading too long when… sadly captures the feeling of someone who’s been grading!

Ah, Indiana Jones is back at it. The trailer for the new movie’s out: see for yourself.

I got some rather lovely news at work this week. This is great because otherwise I’ve been:

• nursing a nasty cold that involves constant post-nasal drip
• dealing with new snow and old snow (courtesy of Canada Post deciding to shovel it from in front of the mailbox to in front of our driveway — breaking by-laws merrily along the way)
• driving much too much to get people places and errands done
• working hard to get a new collaborative network underway on my campus
• not having as much time as I’d like to work on my next article

Heard from one of the editors of the anthology to which I submitted an article in December. They’re both quite happy with it as they mark up for the minor changes needed. Hooray! That’s a relief because even though they’d approved the proposal and seemed interested in the chapter draft, I know that’s only the first step on what can be a long and frustrating road.

Now I just need to think what’s the best sub-category on my CV to reflect that change. Should it be listed as “Forthcoming” or is there some other phrasing that sounds best? I ask because my dossier goes before a university committee on Monday and it’d be nice to give them that updated information (as well as copies of my other work that came out the end of December). Usually I just go with “Forthcoming” until it’s actually “In Press” or “In Print” but it doesn’t hurt to get some advice now, does it?

Make haste slowly — it’s good advice.

Our U is growing — offering more and fuller programs at a new (to us) location. The road to that hasn’t been easy — some administrators hoped to fast-track this. I have to admit that I was one of the ones pulling the brakes, not because I don’t want to see this growth, but that I want to see it done correctly. We’re already confronted problems that result from the difficulty of communicating well across hundreds of miles and there’s a disquieting feeling that the growth is unthinking. With no tenure-track faculty currently at the remote site and hopes to offer programs with a bare handful of new hires, the committee that I was on asked for a little time and a lot more consultation. At that point, I couldn’t feel happy supporting the nebulous proposal. Read the rest of this entry »

This amuses me, mostly because my schedule usually gets a great deal more complicated around 3:15 in the afternoon.