Rose's Rambles

Seen on Higheredjobs.com--a very good way *not* to get people to apply (emphasis mine):

DUTIES: Teaching a full load (15 hours) in English/literature courses. Overload teaching is encouraged. Participation in college and departmental committees, college activities and public relations functions as part of the work schedule. Develop functional interpersonal relationships with students and colleagues. Documentation and recordkeeping.

See, at my alma mater, a tenure-track load is usually no more than three classes per semester. Five classes required, more encouraged?! And you're probably expected to publish, too, on top of all the extracurricular stuff. NO THANKS.
(And people wonder why I'd rather not teach....)

ETA: Seen in another job posting for a business writing prof: Specializations in new media and distanced education are desired. *snerk*

The long-awaited moment has arrived. I defend shortly after 4 this afternoon.
I've kind of passed from chasing my tail to sitting down and barking at it....
If you think to, please pray for me. I'll let you know how it goes.

... belated Christmas greetings to you all!
I'm home through New Year's and have mostly been reading from Mum's profile. Sorry to have been so quiet. But it's been a merry little Christmas, and I'd promised one of my committee members that I'd take a break from working on my dissertation, so I've been writing SGA fic instead. Made several pages' worth of progress on my Season 5 AU extravaganza and a fair start on its sequel. :) (Though I do have a question about immigration law, if anyone's able to answer it.)

I've just about decided that August is a more reasonable goal than May. Still need to hear back on the last batch of chapters I submitted, but I was so stressed last week that I could hardly sleep, and the chapters just didn't want to be written. I'll still try to finish drafting chapters by the end of January, but I'm not at all sure I can get all the revisions done by March 1 to jump through all the pre-defense hoops and defend by March 18.

So. *waves* Expect me when you see me!

Through with prelims, passed two for sure and feel fairly confident about the third. On the road most of the day tomorrow, doing deeds (as Desy says) and then heading home for some much-needed R&R with Mum, Chappy, and Sparky. Then it'll be back to work and on to the dissertation prospectus.
Thanks to the Name That Ep challenges on stalag_13, I have the beginnings of an idea for a HH/SGA crossover. Only the characters won't tell me what the mission is. :P
So. *waves*

"With no apparatus to discern between true and false things, the information that is collected in the House of Fame resembles nothing so much as the Internet."--Deanne Williams, "The Dream Visions," The Yale Companion to Chaucer

Oh, and as I was compiling a bibliography at work today, I came across an author whose name is--I kid you not--M. E. Boring. :D

Come join the fun over at stalag_13! It's inspired me to get off my Python kick and start going through my HH DVDs again (which is a good thing considering how badly I need to cut back on TV and focus on my prelims* reading....)

Oh, and Happy Flag Day today, and a happy early Father's Day to my beloved ChappyDaddy!




*Prelims, Lord willing, will be the second week of August. Don't expect to see much from me until then.

Why does every other project seem more interesting at the moment than the midterm that's due at 12:30 tomorrow?

Humbug.

EDIT: Twoooo o'cloooock an' awwwwwwll's wayulllllll... that is to say, FINITO!
Now I just have to slog through John Duns Scotus. XP

EDIT #2: Okay, Duns Scotus is WAY more complicated than Aquinas, even though (at least in this excerpt) he makes the same point. But this just made me laugh:

When it is argued that, "If there is no truth, it is true that there is no truth," the consequence does not hold, because truth is taken either for the basis of truth in the thing, or for truth in the intellectual act of composition and division, but if there is no truth, it is not true that there is no truth, either by the truth of the thing, because there is no thing, or by truth in the intellect, since there is no intellect.

It's "The Suicide of Thought"! :D

I hate Latin.
Specifically, I hate the fact that Latin has no word order. If you give me "fierce where of the Aecean by the spear lies Hector," I will not necessarily untangle it into "where lies fierce Hector by the spear of the Aecean," especially when a) "to lie" looks a lot like "to throw," b) I'm in a hurry, and c) I've misunderstood the previous sentiment as "I wish you had killed me" instead of "I wish I had died by your hand," which happens to be a very important distinction in the context.
Virgil is a great poet, but I despise the way he twists sentences.
Stupid Trojans.

Yes, it is Monday. Thanks for noticing. (But I got a 98 on my last test, so it's not *all* bad.)