Comps. 11 hours from now. Ack.

No, seriously. Comps is kicking my ass. I'm so behind and my meeting is next Thursday. *cries*

For Channukah, my father gave my mother a Canon digital SLR with a sweet lens and all sorts of other things. Last week, of course, my sister and I both tried to persuade him not to go through with it, since our mother can barely use the point and shoot camera she has now (3/4 of her pictures are blurry). I suggested pearls. My sister suggested a ( Read more... )

Why on earth do my students insist on torturing me by turning in work that isn't their own? I waste so much time trying to track down plagiarizers that grading takes forever. I'm convinced one student bought his paper online (and it still isn't that good) but I can't prove it. And now, a C-student is turning in a paper that sounds like it was ( Read more... )

Some notable happenings ( Read more... )

Another semester, another dumb plagiarizer. Honestly, do students think we're so stupid that we can't tell the difference between their weak writing and the text from a DVD boxed set? Third semester teaching, fourth plagiarizer. So annoyed I had to take a two-hour tv break, and now I don't want to look at the rest of these. My father wants me to ( Read more... )

Some thoughts on Aaron Sorkin's new show ( Read more... )

Have been sick almost nonstop since school started - the Spud has been bringing every possible germ home from daycare and then I catch it from her. Luckily I'm just teaching and not taking any classes, but I really should start working on comps at some point in the near future. J had to work today and I could barely move, so she called her ( Read more... )

K has agreed to direct my dissertation! Very relieved. Not that I thought she'd say no, but there was always the chance. She said that now's a good time to get the rest of my committee on board, so I have a few more people to ask, including two professors I've never even spoken to, but who would fit with my topic. I'll be sad to lose L and D from ( Read more... )

So I'm standing in the hallway after class, waiting for the elevator, when one of the professors in my department comes over to me. I've never spoken to her before, but we've said hello in passing. I didn't think she even knew my name, but I know she's on the qualifications committee this semester, and I've been anxiously waiting their decision ( Read more... )