Synaptic · Texts

I was reading here about the new milk jug design. It sounds like a wonder innovation, but I would like to prematurely mourn the end of the plastic milk crate. And I know college students no longer need to store LPs, but think of all the other uses a milk crate has in the dorm room and first bachelor apartment!

Shortly after I graduated from college, I acquired two kittens who went on to be my companions through something like 10 different apartments, two cities, and three career changes. This past summer, cancer claimed one of my cats (my coffee icon cat). It was very very sad, and I and my other cat soldiered on, but everything felt off. So I have acquired a kitten.

Kittens behave very differently from teen-aged cats. I am re-learning the rules of a house ruled by a kitten:
1) you cannot take a full stride inside; the kitten is under your feet and you don't want to inadvertently kick him.
2) sweeping will take a minimum of three times as long as usual and you may have to remove the kitten from the dust pan more than once
3) if it is on the floor, it's a kitten toy
4) it is very difficult to resist piteous cries about a) wanting you to sit down to provide a lap, b) wanting you to rescue the cat toy under the furniture
5) "sleeping cat logic" becomes more pronounced in your life (sleeping cat logic is the logic you find yourself employing when you tell yourself you can't get out of bed because the cat is asleep on you and you don't want to disturb him).

Gakked from __marcelo
Mostly because between the crazy eighth inning rally (grand slam!) and the contents of my inbox (student crises!) I am not sleepy yet. 5 am is going to SUCK.

Also, this result is disturbingly spot on. This is EXACTLY how I would be a supervillain. And if that implies I've thought about it before this instant, so be it.

Your result for The Supervillain Archetype Test...

The Professional

We are about 2 months out from the last day of last school year. With very few exceptions, I haven't heard boo from students since they left for the summer (that's NOT a complaint). The past two days, I've suddenly heard from a half-dozen. I have an itchy feeling this is the beginning of the school year ramp up.

Now, what do you suppose was the inciting event for several students independently deciding it was a good week to re-establish contact with their professors? I've noticed some sales circulars for dorm supplies. Is it that? Fall fashions have started appearing. Maybe it's just an inbuilt two-month thing. That's when the summer starts to feel like it should wind down? I sort of had the first of August pegged as the trigger, but I'm clearly off by a couple of weeks (by way of excuse, I have not been on semesters very long; I was on quarters for 10 years, and that's a very different schedule).

So... what is it that suddenly reminds college students about school?

Not, mind you, that I'm a particularly invested nature watcher, but this spring has been so bizarre that I've felt entirely out of sorts, like I somehow know in my bones that nature is not behaving normally. But today, 2 weeks later than usual (I know, because they were in bloom when I moved into this apartment), the bean trees finally have their white flowers out. BTW, does anyone know what bean trees are really called? I'm sure they have a different common name, but I don't know it.

I put White Noise 2 in my queue because Netflix told me it had Nathan Fillion in it. Then, partway in, the love interest (inasmuch as a horror movie has a love interest) turns out to be Katee Sackhoff!!! I'd have rather seen the two of them acting together in something better, but it was still fun to see them flirting with one another.

My father called this weekend to tell me that a high school teacher of mine, Mr. Y, passed away. This isn't a tragedy; he was older when he taught me, and that was over half my life ago, and he lived a long life battling Parkinsons (something I hadn't known he had, which says how long it's been since I've seen him). What my father realized, though, was Mr. Y had touched my life more than most, and as my father said to me, "Everyone else is going to be talking about what a good coach he was, but I know you remember what a good teacher he was."

And Mr. Y was a phenomenal teacher. He taught high school chemistry and physics, and he wouldn't let anyone under junior year in his classroom. He was tough as they come, both physically and mentally.

He taught the underpinnings. I didn't memorize a single formula under his tutelage; I could derive anything from base principles and still can over 20 years later. This despite the fact that I left the physical sciences behind a long long time ago. He taught habits of mind and methods of learning in the guise of chemistry and physics, and he was one of the first truly excellent teachers to make their mark on my teaching.

Good bye, Mr. Y, and thanks. I hope I can live up to your legacy.

Stolen from spirit0fstlouis

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Here's the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read 'em for school in the first place.

I'm adding another twist - add a (+) beside the ones you want/intend to read.

( not too bad for someone who wasn't an English major )

I am absolutely buried in grading and practically at the point of despair, and I checked my email for a break. Can I just say that there is nothing quite like getting a "just to catch up" email from a former student to remind me why I do this for a living? I can't really articulate why it's so cool, but I'm sure other folks out there know what I mean.

Also, the Cubs rallied today. It's still been a less than stellar first week of the season, but it's nice to think we have a chance to win, even when we're trailing.

Would anyone care to speculate why it is that when students cite an author they know is female, they tend to refer to her by first name in their essays? Ruth Benedict becomes "Ruth," but you never see Max Weber become "Max." The males are always last name only. What is UP with that?

This is a shout out to any avid reader out there who might have a favorite short story to direct me toward. I am looking for a very particular kind of reading, and I could be persuaded to go so far as a very short novel. The choice must be something that would be reasonable to have a college student with a full docket of classes read over the course of no more than a week, and ideally more like 2-3 days.

Here's what I'm looking for:
A gripping piece of fiction (or possibly non-fiction) revolving around a plot of culture contact that calls into question human nature. I'm looking along the lines of Things Fall Apart or Waiting for the Barbarians (I think the latter does what I'm looking for more effectively, but I think the former gets off the ground more quickly - both would be excellent but are a little long for my purposes).

Ideally, I want something that will be upsetting and provocative and would force an audience of primarily suburban Midwesterners to demand explanations. The perfect text would force their sympathies to be with a protagonist with very different cultural experiences (Season of Migration to the North has good qualities in that direction, but again, on the long side).

The final trick is that it must be something that is really compelling - a fall into it kind of story that people would be inclined to like even if they had to read it for class.

So:
Is there a short story (or three) you are familiar with that possesses the qualities I appear to be seeking?
Alternatively, for those of you who know the three novels above, if I had to go with one of those, what do you think would be the best bet on the readability point?

I have a year to do some reading before I need this - it's a brainstorm for a course I'm teaching in 2009. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

( 1) Outside )


( 2) Pigeon Man )

Now I'm off to watch xmas movie classics I've never seen before and sing xmas carols with strangers at the Music Box. Tomorrow, Sweeney Todd!

Anyone else out there have a first career that they loved but had to leave for very good reasons, where 99% of the time, you know you're 1000x happier with the result than you would have been, but you see something and you kind of feel the ache of that false start like a phantom limb?

( cut for unexpected maudlin )

Hm. In retrospect, I appear to have post-grading blues. Anyone else get those?

It is snowing in Chicago, small wet flakes that stick to everything leaving every surface frosted, limning every tree branch. I live on a side street and overlook a park, and at this moment, all remains relatively untracked and unplowed. This isn't substantial snowfall, a couple of inches at most, but it is pretty. I'll have to wear snow boots tomorrow, but I find myself not minding.

The novelty will wear off soon enough. Right now, let it snow.