I save all my best illnesses for the late spring and early summer, apparently. There was the time I caught the flu–a really bad flu that almost killed me–in July. (Now I get flu shots every year.) Whooping cough hit me in late May. (I recently had the vaccine for that, too.) Yet apparently I […]
[Continue reading...]Pop song o’ the week
June 9, 2011 By
Lucas and I have been singing this one together on the way into preschool: Some sample lyrics: I dreamed Bob Dylan was a friend of mine. . . He was the owner of the house in which together we all lived– Slept between me and my wife in bed. Oh, the roof leaked in the […]
[Continue reading...]Shiva Nata in the Pink
June 9, 2011 By
I’ve mentioned Shiva Nata on this blog a few times, and I’m finding it to be an excellent tool to help me rethink whatever it is that has me feeling stuck in my writing. I also used it with my senior students in their capstone writing course to help them push through one day when […]
[Continue reading...]University teaching centers and the bureaucratic imperative
June 7, 2011 By
The Slithergadee has crawled out of the sea. He may catch all the others, but he won’t catch me. No you won’t catch me, old Slithergadee, You may catch all the others, but you wo– Shel Silverstein During my 2006-2010 stint on the staff side of academia, I became quite familiar with the bureaucratic beast. […]
[Continue reading...]Creepy
June 5, 2011 By
Found in my inbox: I admire the work done by the folks at this historic site, but the message from Twitter is a bit too evocative, yes?
[Continue reading...]Random snapshots of summer life
June 4, 2011 By
I had an awesome birthday (#36, for those keeping track) on Thursday. Fang wrote me a very sweet blog post. Lots of thoughtful gifts came my way. A colleague was kind enough to bring me flowers and a fancy cake: I received my first evaluation as a faculty member here. The chair was very kind […]
[Continue reading...]Summer writing
May 26, 2011 By
Although this is my first “summer break” in years–I was in staff positions from 2006-2010, and I taught during summers when I was a grad student before then–I’m working harder at research and writing than I have in a long time. You see, I’m considering this my Summer of Strategy. Lucas is in preschool through […]
[Continue reading...]Gardening in what is, apparently, the Arctic circle
May 17, 2011 By
Gardening: I like it, but in a spend-a-few-minutes-a-day-on-it, minor hobby kind of way. After all, I rent, so it’s not as if I can tear up the front or back lawns in favor of large raised beds or rows. (I did make a couple of raised beds in the backyard in Davis, but the landlord […]
[Continue reading...]Fragments of nostalgia
May 12, 2011 By
I. When he was sifting through his father’s papers, my cousin Ian found an essay I wrote in 1996, and he kindly forwarded a digital copy to me a couple years back. (I had sent the essay to my great-uncle John 15 years ago because he helped me out by providing some photographs to illustrate […]
[Continue reading...]Not lost
May 10, 2011 By
One hypothetical I play with all the time is where I’d go if I had one chance to travel back through time–if I could visit any time and place in human history for, say, a week.* Typically I decide I’d visit the 1893 Columbian Exposition because I’m all about the wackiness of the 1890s U.S. […]
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