- e-music finally has Exile in Guyville! To celebrate, tell me what your favorite Liz Phair song is.
- I ran 6 miles today and had no knee pain, which is something that hasn't happened in several years. Keep up the good work, knee!
- We have a tendency to make impulsive purchases of small appliances. This time, it's a Viking Professional Blender. And that means I will be having banana smoothies for every meal for the rest of the summer.
- A squirrel was standing in our yard, holding a stick. He looked like a minuteman. Then he wrestled the stick to the ground. I think maybe you had to be there.
- My niece has a quote from a song by The Darkness on her Facebook page. I am so proud.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Some Good Things . . .
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? PROBABLY NOT THIS.
I was in the ladies' room of a big-box home improvement store the other day. (You gotta love a story that starts out like that.) As I washed my hands, a woman came into the rest room and entered a stall. Her cell phone rang. She answered it and began conversing with the caller while sitting on the toilet. WTF? I absolutely can't think of a phone call that would be so important that it couldn't wait until after one's toileting business had been completed. And this was clearly not an emergency, life-or-death kind of call. This was chatting about where to eat dinner. The lady on the can and I were the only two people in the restroom. I walked into the stall next to hers and flushed the toilet. Twice.
31 DAYS . . .
. . . until jazz fantasy camp. This year I will be expected to be somewhat prepared. Suggestions for jazz standards you'd like to hear subjected to my vocal stylings will be welcomed.
YOU'RE AS BIG AS A HOUSE! ARE YOU EXPECTING TWINS?
I registered for baby gifts at Target yesterday. The computerized registration required me to enter a due date, so I entered 10/31, which is my brother's birthday.Then I took the scanner to the baby section, which was filled with crying babies. People stared. I think that's because yesterday, I didn't look pregnant. Also, there are some really expensive baby monitors and more types of bottle nipples than I could ever imagine. I have no idea what I'm doing.
ROOT BEER IS NOT MY FAVORITE KIND OF BEER
Did you know that they don't have root beer in Europe? Thus, last week we made root beer with a root beer-deprived Norwegian boy. Then we did a taste test of eight brands. Then we had root beer floats. Blech.
I was in the ladies' room of a big-box home improvement store the other day. (You gotta love a story that starts out like that.) As I washed my hands, a woman came into the rest room and entered a stall. Her cell phone rang. She answered it and began conversing with the caller while sitting on the toilet. WTF? I absolutely can't think of a phone call that would be so important that it couldn't wait until after one's toileting business had been completed. And this was clearly not an emergency, life-or-death kind of call. This was chatting about where to eat dinner. The lady on the can and I were the only two people in the restroom. I walked into the stall next to hers and flushed the toilet. Twice.
31 DAYS . . .
. . . until jazz fantasy camp. This year I will be expected to be somewhat prepared. Suggestions for jazz standards you'd like to hear subjected to my vocal stylings will be welcomed.
YOU'RE AS BIG AS A HOUSE! ARE YOU EXPECTING TWINS?
I registered for baby gifts at Target yesterday. The computerized registration required me to enter a due date, so I entered 10/31, which is my brother's birthday.Then I took the scanner to the baby section, which was filled with crying babies. People stared. I think that's because yesterday, I didn't look pregnant. Also, there are some really expensive baby monitors and more types of bottle nipples than I could ever imagine. I have no idea what I'm doing.
ROOT BEER IS NOT MY FAVORITE KIND OF BEER
Did you know that they don't have root beer in Europe? Thus, last week we made root beer with a root beer-deprived Norwegian boy. Then we did a taste test of eight brands. Then we had root beer floats. Blech.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Misc
WOW. THE LIVIN' REALLY IS EASY
To-do list from a month ago:
To-do list from a month ago:
- Finish grading attraction papers
- Enter participation grades
- Finish grading group presentations
- Finish grading projects
- Write syntax for final grades
- Grade M.K.'s paper
- Calculate M.K.'s final grade & change incomplete
- Final comments on manuscript for D
- Write Stephanie's internship letter
- Print out and complete MPA expense paperwork
- Send reviews to co-authors
- Send reminder about honor cords
- Complete AP forms
- File HARRC forms
To-do list from today:
- Pick strawberries
- Make strawberry ice cream
BUY LOCAL. IT'S ENTERTAINING.
BELIEVE ME--IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF RESEARCH
The Banality's Mom: Have you heard anything from (The Banality's ex-boyfriend from college) lately?
The Banality: Actually, I just talked to him about a week ago. We're co-authors on a paper, and he was getting ready to submit it for review.
The Banality's Mom: Oh? Submit it where?
The Banality: The Journal of Sex Research
The Banality's Mom: Good heavens! And I always thought he was such a nice boy!
GRATUITOUS VIDEO OF CUTE BABY EATING
You know, I just noticed that the way I talk to babies is not so different from the way I talk to squirrels.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
YOU KNOW YOU GET ALONG WELL WITH YOUR EX WHEN . . .
. . . he sends you something like this.
AND LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR
A recent conversation:
Me: Hey . . . do the people across the street have a new baby? I think they might have a new baby. I saw her getting in and out of their minivan all the time this winter. I didn't even realize she was pregnant.
Mr. Banality: I just assumed she was gaining weight.
JUST LIKE A NORMAN ROCKWELL PAINTING
Mr. Banality's annual family reunion/canoe trip was this weekend. The torrential rains prevented canoeing, so we spent some quality time in the game room. An adolescent boy called me ma'am and asked me how the pinball machine worked.
Mr. Banality's family is very, very nice. Of course, I like anyone who can tolerate my endless blathering about behavioral economics, Bayesian analysis, and the participatory culture of the internet.
. . . he sends you something like this.
AND LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR
A recent conversation:
Me: Hey . . . do the people across the street have a new baby? I think they might have a new baby. I saw her getting in and out of their minivan all the time this winter. I didn't even realize she was pregnant.
Mr. Banality: I just assumed she was gaining weight.
JUST LIKE A NORMAN ROCKWELL PAINTING
Mr. Banality's annual family reunion/canoe trip was this weekend. The torrential rains prevented canoeing, so we spent some quality time in the game room. An adolescent boy called me ma'am and asked me how the pinball machine worked.
Mr. Banality's family is very, very nice. Of course, I like anyone who can tolerate my endless blathering about behavioral economics, Bayesian analysis, and the participatory culture of the internet.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Grr.
Here comes the spring term vent: You know I hate it when students point out little mistakes I've made, not because they're confused, but simply because they want to point out that I've made a mistake. I have a student who apparently has adopted this as his new hobby. I'm conscientious about my work. All of the assignments for my course are posted online and have been since the week before the term started. The instructions for assignments are incredibly clear because each term, I make careful notes about things that have confused students and then immediately change the assignment instructions so that students who take the class in the future won't be confused. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's organizing my classes (my desk is a whole other story--I currently have eleven beverage containers in various stages of emptiness on my desk--ew).
Anyway, Mr. Nitpicky loves to send me e-mail messages to ask if tiny mistakes I've made are mistakes, when it's completely obvious that they're mistakes. Like when the instructions for an assignment appear twice on the handout posted online (because I used to print the instructions for this assignment on half sheets and hand them out in class). Does that mean that he should do the assignment twice?
Yeah, I know, this is the whole "is the test over chapters 13 and 14 or 14 and 15" all over again, but seriously, these students have no idea how many hours I put into the friggin' minutiae of teaching, and it's multiplied by about a billion when you're trying to deal with three-hour class periods every day of the week.
Oh . . . all right. I can't stay annoyed for long. I just received a card from a graduating senior who thanked me for helping him to "achieve (his) goals and dreams." *sniff* I have a pretty good job after all.
Anyway, Mr. Nitpicky loves to send me e-mail messages to ask if tiny mistakes I've made are mistakes, when it's completely obvious that they're mistakes. Like when the instructions for an assignment appear twice on the handout posted online (because I used to print the instructions for this assignment on half sheets and hand them out in class). Does that mean that he should do the assignment twice?
Yeah, I know, this is the whole "is the test over chapters 13 and 14 or 14 and 15" all over again, but seriously, these students have no idea how many hours I put into the friggin' minutiae of teaching, and it's multiplied by about a billion when you're trying to deal with three-hour class periods every day of the week.
Oh . . . all right. I can't stay annoyed for long. I just received a card from a graduating senior who thanked me for helping him to "achieve (his) goals and dreams." *sniff* I have a pretty good job after all.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Banality is a riddle, wrapped in an enigma. So don't even try to figure her out.
Last week was "self" week in class. Self-esteem, self-concept, self-evaluation maintenance, self-presentation, self-schemas, self-fulfilling prophecy, etc., etc.
One of these self-related concepts that I tend to think about a lot is self-monitoring, which refers to the extent to which people use situational cues to guide their behavior. I'm a super high self-monitor, which means that I agree with statements such as, "In different situations and with different people, I often act like very different persons," and, "I am good at games like charades." (Seriously, I could kick your ass at charades.) Close friends often tell me that their first impression of me was totally off. I don't think of this as necessarily a bad thing, although Mr. Banality and I have had intense discussions about my tendency to be too business-like with some of my students.
One associated thing that irritates me to no end is when my students draw incorrect conclusions about who I am from my professional behavior. More specifically, it really annoys me when students assume that I'm some naïve, socially awkward nerd. (O.K, admittedly, I can be socially awkward. And I'm pretty nerdy. But I'm not that naïve.) I find this most commonly occurs among male students who try to embarrass me by bringing up inappropriate sexual topics in class or by flirting with me in that way that mean high school boys flirt with the unpopular girl in school to make fun of her (you've seen the bad teen movies). I find it offensive because it's so disrespectful, but I think what bothers me even more is the audacity of their assumption that they have me all figured out. They assume I'm so unsophisticated that I won't even realize they're making fun of me.
I recognize, of course, that these few arrogant students are likely low self-monitors, and because they don't alter their behavior to fit the situation (which helps explain their inappropriate behavior in class), it never once occurs to them that other people might be more complex than they appear.
I have a good friend who, while very, very nerdy, is hardly unsophisticated. We chatted about this very issue of self-monitoring the last time I saw him. Before he got married, female students would flirt with him shamelessly, assuming he was inexperienced and rigidly puritanical, and thus, harmless. In one of his first-year courses, he asked students to choose nicknames so he could maintain confidentiality when posting grades. One smart ass wrote down "The Taint" as his choice, probably thinking it would be hilarious to see that phrase on a class grade list posted outside the clueless professor's door.
I should mention that my friend is clever. And he has a delightfully wicked mean streak.
He called the student into his office and said, in the most painfully patronizing tone possible, "I wanted to talk to you in private because I didn't want to embarrass you in front of the other students. I don't know if some of your friends convinced you to choose the nickname you wrote down, but I just thought you should know that the nickname you chose is a slang term for perineum. Do you know what the perineum is? It's the area between . ."
The student responded (somewhat defensively), "I know what it means."
My friend asked (in a tone indicating that he did not believe for one second that the student had known what the term meant), "O.K., for argument's sake, we'll say you did know. If you knew the meaning of that phrase, why would you choose it for your nickname?"
The student shrugged. "It was funny."
My friend very slowly and deliberately explained, "I know you don't know much about college yet, and that's why we have first-year seminars. But college isn't like what you've seen in the movies. That nickname is inappropriate and unprofessional. Do you understand why it's inappropriate?"
The conversation went on a bit after that, and the student left the office looking very embarrassed about acting like an unsophisticated fool in front of his professor.
Oh, and another item on the self-monitoring scale that is indicative of high self-monitoring? "I would probably make a good actor." Outstanding performance, my friend.
One of these self-related concepts that I tend to think about a lot is self-monitoring, which refers to the extent to which people use situational cues to guide their behavior. I'm a super high self-monitor, which means that I agree with statements such as, "In different situations and with different people, I often act like very different persons," and, "I am good at games like charades." (Seriously, I could kick your ass at charades.) Close friends often tell me that their first impression of me was totally off. I don't think of this as necessarily a bad thing, although Mr. Banality and I have had intense discussions about my tendency to be too business-like with some of my students.
One associated thing that irritates me to no end is when my students draw incorrect conclusions about who I am from my professional behavior. More specifically, it really annoys me when students assume that I'm some naïve, socially awkward nerd. (O.K, admittedly, I can be socially awkward. And I'm pretty nerdy. But I'm not that naïve.) I find this most commonly occurs among male students who try to embarrass me by bringing up inappropriate sexual topics in class or by flirting with me in that way that mean high school boys flirt with the unpopular girl in school to make fun of her (you've seen the bad teen movies). I find it offensive because it's so disrespectful, but I think what bothers me even more is the audacity of their assumption that they have me all figured out. They assume I'm so unsophisticated that I won't even realize they're making fun of me.
I recognize, of course, that these few arrogant students are likely low self-monitors, and because they don't alter their behavior to fit the situation (which helps explain their inappropriate behavior in class), it never once occurs to them that other people might be more complex than they appear.
I have a good friend who, while very, very nerdy, is hardly unsophisticated. We chatted about this very issue of self-monitoring the last time I saw him. Before he got married, female students would flirt with him shamelessly, assuming he was inexperienced and rigidly puritanical, and thus, harmless. In one of his first-year courses, he asked students to choose nicknames so he could maintain confidentiality when posting grades. One smart ass wrote down "The Taint" as his choice, probably thinking it would be hilarious to see that phrase on a class grade list posted outside the clueless professor's door.
I should mention that my friend is clever. And he has a delightfully wicked mean streak.
He called the student into his office and said, in the most painfully patronizing tone possible, "I wanted to talk to you in private because I didn't want to embarrass you in front of the other students. I don't know if some of your friends convinced you to choose the nickname you wrote down, but I just thought you should know that the nickname you chose is a slang term for perineum. Do you know what the perineum is? It's the area between . ."
The student responded (somewhat defensively), "I know what it means."
My friend asked (in a tone indicating that he did not believe for one second that the student had known what the term meant), "O.K., for argument's sake, we'll say you did know. If you knew the meaning of that phrase, why would you choose it for your nickname?"
The student shrugged. "It was funny."
My friend very slowly and deliberately explained, "I know you don't know much about college yet, and that's why we have first-year seminars. But college isn't like what you've seen in the movies. That nickname is inappropriate and unprofessional. Do you understand why it's inappropriate?"
The conversation went on a bit after that, and the student left the office looking very embarrassed about acting like an unsophisticated fool in front of his professor.
Oh, and another item on the self-monitoring scale that is indicative of high self-monitoring? "I would probably make a good actor." Outstanding performance, my friend.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Tonedeaf Test
It's fun. You should do it:
http://jakemandell.com/tonedeaf/
There's a rhythm test and an adaptive pitch test as well. My scores were in the normal range for the pitch tests and "exceptional" on the rhythm test.
http://jakemandell.com/tonedeaf/
There's a rhythm test and an adaptive pitch test as well. My scores were in the normal range for the pitch tests and "exceptional" on the rhythm test.
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