From a paper currently being graded

"The Iranian government does not allow women to wear clothing, which defeats the purpose of them to have vision."

Dude, woah!

Woah people, I actually today went to a dept. meeting that was about peoples's tenure cases. I actually heard tenure cases come up! They kicked us out of the room after a while though because untenured peoples do not get to vote. We are lowly.

First staff meeting

I attended my very first staff meeting of faculty yesterday. There I discovered, when the doors of the august conference room had swung shut, the lights had dimmed, and all students had scurried away (except for the grad student rep) that: Yes, the staff are all lizard people.*

Yes, once again, I was unknowingly hired by lizard people.
Tom: How could that happen again?
Me: ???
Tom: You should really ask them at the interview, "Are you lizard people?"
Me: It's so awkward, you know?
Tom: Now you have to help them take over the world.
Me: They are starting by trying to get elected as the junior senator from Minnesota. I don't know how to begin to explain to them that that's just going to be very, very tricky.
Tom: The worst part for you is that they truly do not understand how the government works.

*This "lizard people" myth is used by, among other people, an anti semitic guy. This blog rejects racism and anti semitism. Refer to comments section.

Michael Burleigh's favorite word

maladroit |ˌmaləˈdroit|
adjective
ineffective or bungling; clumsy.

I am making my class read an 800 page book by Burleigh. I am taking this occasion to improve my vocabulary.

I think my class does not like the book so much, but I love it! And then I force them to say that they love it, too, by asking them in class what they think of it. Then they all name things about it that they appreciate about it in order to make me think that they in fact read it. Even though I know that secretly, many did not.

Oh, actually, I did have something to post about

Me: Wow, I am tired, and I don't know why! I'm just so tired. And I do not think I read that last email from the department administrator, about upcoming deadlines and stuff and forms we are supposed to fill out, but I will soon...
Dept. Chair/aka "my boss": You know, a lot of people just ignore those emails and those deadlines.
Me: Eh?
Dept. Chair: I mean, I am not saying that you should or anything. I am just saying, you know, that a lot of people just ignore them.

Tired again

Now it is the second week of classes and I am tired again.

Word of the week: Plangent (adj)
(of a sound) loud, reverberating, often melancholy.
When my student mentioned that his contribution to class discussion was courtesy of Wikipedia, my heart issued a plangent moan.

Sorry CBAM that I did not write back to your emails. I am so tired. That is so nice that you got me a present!

Why am I so tired?

Why did the first week of classes make me so tired?

And also: I survived the first week of classes!!!