A Crazy Cat's Life

One of my favorite websites is Rate Your Students . It's for us academics who need a place to vent about the hells of our jobs. Until I found this site, I was losing my mind trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. As I discovered, it wasn't me but the students. That alone saved my sanity. This week, a lot of the entries have been about the end of the year conferences and the hell of job interviews. It really is amazing hearing some of these interviewees complaining about 4/4 teaching loads (four classes in the fall, four in the spring). They are looking for the ideal, lofty positions with 3/3 or even 3/2 schedules so they can focus on their research. To them, teaching is just an annoyance to pay the bills. I wonder what they would think of my 7/6/4 schedule (seven in the fall, six in the spring, and four in the summer)? They would probably shit in their pants as they ran away screaming in the process. The difference between them and me? Besides a higher level of...

...but I don't think vacations agree with me. While a good week off is quite enjoyable, I think having four weeks off is not the best thing for me. I'm trying to keep myself busy but I'm falling into the habit of sleeping in and just doing nothing productive. Trust me, I have plenty to do but it's like I'm getting into a rut. What's worse? My depression has been acting up. It got really bad yesterday after the insurance adjuster was over looking over the damage for the roof leak. I guess the prospect of dishing out $1,000 for a deductible isn't helping my mood. I also don't like people in my home. I'm an incredibly social person but my home is my sanctuary, my safe spot. People invading it is not a good thing. On the bright side, the insurance company says that not only will they cover fixing the wall but painting the entire room as well. As the room hasn't been painted in ages, they want to make sure that the walls "match." ...

I'm an avid reader of Fark.com. It's a fantastic website that finds some of the most insane news articles in the world. I tend to end my day reading a few of the articles just to get a good laugh. One of the news articles today was based on a controversy over a new PETA flash game . Basically, on the fourth stage of the game, you get to throw snowballs at Sarah Palin. Supposedly, Palin's office had a fit about the game and threatened PETA with a lawsuit if they didn't take down the game. Personally I had fun throwing snowballs at the Olsen Twins, Madonna, and (of course) Palin. Check it out if you are so inclined.

I have not lost my mind - it's backed up on disk somewhere. -- Unknown

...for not getting into the holiday spirit this year? I tried. I really did. I listened to Christmas music, watched some Christmas TV specials. Nothing I did could get me into the mood. Who knows? Maybe it's karma for giving that dipshit an F? Nah. When I looked back at his work, he truly handed in F quality material. Anyways, I raised enough kids' grades to make up for it. Every class got a curve in their final grade. Ya, I'm tough but I also realize that if the entire class is doing poorly that's more a reflection of me than of them. So pretty much 200+ kids got the grade bump (including said dipshit who got bumped back down anyways). Maybe it's just too much stress. The semester ended a bit earlier than normal but I've been dealing with a lot of crap since then. The roof leaking is never a fun thing. Also, I'm panicking trying to get my online class ready for the next semester. Oh yes, did I mention the horde of whining e-mails with student...

What a lovely way to be spending Christmas Eve: putting buckets down in the living room because the roof is leaking. The worst part is that we told the condo association on numerous occasions that there was a leak but they kept on passing the buck saying it wasn't the roof, that it was something inside the condo (namely, something they would not have to pay for). The leak is not only ruining the walls, it coming through a track lighting fixture which means that will have to be replaced as well. Oh and did I mention that someone stole our cover for our grill? Ya, just noticed that too when we went out back to check the leak. Lovely.

I handed in grades and the Semester From Hell is technically over. Unfortunately, it won't really be over until the last of the "Why did I get X grade?!!!!" e-mails stop. *sigh* This is the worst part of teaching. How can you not expect an F when you did not show up to class nor did you hand in the assignments? I realize that a) all of your living relatives over the age of 50 died/had cancer/required your constant care, b) Blackboard was constantly down/your computer crashed/your dog ate your flash drive, and c) if you don't pass you are going to lose your financial aid/get put on academic probation/lose your scholarship/get kicked out of the country. Not to sound like a complete evil bitch, but I don't care. I'm on vacation. I have an out of office message on my e-mail that says do not contact me until next semester because...get this...I'M ON VACATION. Please do not fill up my mail quota with your whining. I do not want to hear it. I've hea...

...never, EVER piss off a professor before she has handed in the final grades. Case in point: Idiot student comes looking for me this morning to get his final grade. I wasn't there because I canceled my morning office hours due to the icy roads. This was posted in the announcements at 4am this morning and there was a huge note on the door saying what time I would be in. Idiot student proceeds to harass my office mate about my absence and makes rude remarks about me. Mind you, this was 15 minutes before my official office hours began anyways. Then, when he comes back later, I had stepped out for a quick bio break. Idiot student then proceeds to harass my other office mate and tells her how rude it is for me not to be there even though he said I would be back in a couple of minutes. I find out about this and am really pissed off. Idiot student had been a thorn in my side the entire semester. One of his favorite things to do was ask a question in the middle of my lecture about...

'Nuff said.

The crying, begging, and pleading phase is about to begin.

It was 67 years ago today that the U.S. was pulled into World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I find it rather ironic that today, as I'm putting together the last of my notes for one of my U.S. history courses, one of our next topics will be about that day. Did you know that the Japanese actually considered the attack a failure? None of the aircraft carriers they wanted to hit were in port, most of the ships could be repaired, the repair facilities at the port were left undamaged, and so were its oil reserves. I always found that interesting because our history classes portray it as such a devastating blow, which it was. It also wasn't the only attack of the day...well, technically, the attack day was December 8th due to the international date line. The Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Malaysia were also attacked as well to weaken the American, British and French forces in the region. So today I'm bowing my head in honor to those who lost their lives on th...

When we woke up this morning, we discovered that Bomber had crossed over the Rainbow Bridge sometime during the night. At least my baby isn't in pain any more. Bomber 1998-2008

...when you spend your entire weekend writing tests, getting lessons prepped, and avoiding grading but you forget to do one very crucial thing until 10pm on Sunday night: the laundry. I knew I had to do laundry today especially when I dug through my drawer and could only find the "emergency" underwear (come on...we all have at least one of those). *sigh* Only four more weeks. I have now officially entered the Last Month of the Semester. My brain is fried and I haven't even started the stack o' grading on my desk from the term papers the little brats handed in a few weeks ago. *sigh* Only four more weeks. People have started asking me what I'm doing for the holidays. Holidays? What the fuck are the...oh...you mean the four weeks off I get in four weeks? Thanksgiving hasn't been much of a holiday to me. Too many years of spending that one alone especially since almost my entire family is numerous hours away. I enjoy spending the day with Bear and my in-...

It has been a very long couple of weeks. I wish I could say that all my stress is due to school but it isn't. We found out a week ago that Bomber is dying of cancer. Bomber is my little mush cat with only one eye and one hip (long story). I got him after my kitty Xanadu, who was my first kitty that was mine, passed away back in 1998. I figured since Xanadu was a mutt, I would get another one. The shelter I went to gave me a hard time because I had a cat that was declawed (mind you, I got it from that particular shelter) but it wasn't going to stop me. I walked around meowing, seeing who was going to respond. Two kittens did: a little white female kitten and a little black male one. As I went closer, I noticed that the black one only had one eye. When he was brought in as a tiny baby, all the kittens from the litter had developed ulcers on their eyes. His was so bad that he lost the eye. The volunteer told me that nobody wanted to adopt him because of it. I took him o...

Oh man. There are few times when I am moved to tears (good ones that is) when I hear a speech. Maybe it's because we've been so disheartened by having Dubya as our president and the poor public speaker he is, but damn was that a good speech. Now I know how the American people felt when JFK gave his inaugural speech back in 1961: the power, the belief, the hope. Maybe I just drank a bit too much of the Obama Kool-Aid over the past few months. Whatever it is I feel good. I have hope. Damn. Even the pessimistic and cynical side of me can't fuck this feeling up right now.

As I'm going through today's New York Times, I found two interesting Op-Ed pieces. The first is in regards to John McCain and what has happened to him over the past year . Ironically I liked the guy back in 2000 because he did go against the Republican grain. This piece describes what happened to him and how he was transformed into a Bushie. The second is a piece about the legacy of Bush and who you should vote for (without naming names). The last paragraph is my favorite part: Vote for the candidate you think has the smarts, temperament and inspirational capacity to unify the country and steer our ship through what could be the rockiest shoals our generation has ever known. Your kids will thank you. Remember to vote on Tuesday!

Every semester I think I've had the worst students that have ever existed. The next semester, I always get ones that are worse. I'm going through drafts for term papers and my head hurts beyond belief. I'm not a drinker but yesterday I contemplated stopping at the liquor store to get some wine to help me through the grading. Ya, it's that painful. It's not the bad writing. That I can live with. It's not the fact that my students don't realize that "cuz" and other text message slang words are not appropriate in a term paper. It's that the idiots can't follow instructions. What is so difficult about listing five sources in your bibliography? And I'm sorry, when I mean no more than two internet sources I mean no more than two internet sources. I'm not willing to negotiate with you. If I want you to use Chicago Style citation in your paper and I even give you a "quick guide" on how to do it, I expect you to do it. ...

Found this over at a friend's site. Too funny. :)

It's that time of the year again: time for "How Stupid Are My Students?" The first comes from a recent test I gave on the roles the rivers played in the development of Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures and why they developed so differently. Student A's response: It's because the Nile River flows up and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow down. The second comes from a written assignment regarding their term papers. For this one, all they had to do was give me the first paragraph of their term paper and five sources they are planning on using. It is an incredibly easy task that, if one wanted to be truly lazy, could do in their pajamas while browsing the library catalog online. Fifteen minutes tops. Student B decided that this assignment was just too hard . So she went to a website about her topic, copy and pasted not only the opening paragraph to use as her own but even copy and pasted the bibliography down at the bottom of the website. If you're going ...

Sarah Palin did not win the debate this past Thursday night. It wasn't even close. Yes, she did better than most people expected. However, going from a 50 to a 60 in a class is doing better but it's still failing. As I was watching the debate, I was amazed at how well McCain's camp "trained" her for this debate. You could tell exactly when a question was asked that she could answer: she would get that smile on her face and lean to her right on the podium. It's the same look some of my students get when they realize they know an answer on a test. However, when she didn't know the answer, she stuttered and then changed the subject. Hmmm...this sounds like something my students would do: if they didn't know the answer they would give me an essay on something they did know even though they are still not answering the question. You know what those students get? An F. You know what Palin got? An F. Biden was impressive. Ya, so he was dry. So what...

Last night as I was watching TV, the local newscasters did their "tonight at 11" commercial. Normally I ignore those because they usually tell me about murders or hit and runs or something along those depressing lines. This time they got my attention. Why? I heard "Washington Mutual" and "big news" and I knew I had to get on my computer to look up what was taking place. It is now official: we have our first major bank failure. My students have been asking all week about the financial crisis taking place. After explaining to them about sub-prime mortgages and credit default swaps, I always get the "what do you think is going to happen?" That's when I sigh and dread my answer. I am a historian. I've studied the recessions of our country throughout its existence as well as those of other countries. The big ones usually have triggers that cause a meltdown of a country's economics. In 1873 (what I'm teaching my U.S. history st...

Sorry I haven't written in a while. My schedule makes my life feel like it's the last few weeks of the semester during the entire semester. Every waking moment is devoted to prepping, teaching or grading. Man I need to learn to say no. On the bright side, there are only three students that I already hate but an entire class is on the way to that distinction. I don't know what it is about Western Civ I classes. Every semester now it seems I get one class full of idiots. Not all the students are idiots, mind you, but a good majority of them are. They aren't stupid but it's clear that they don't want to be in class and that they are in college just to appease mom and dad. These are the type of students who do the minimal amount of work and expect to get A's. Namely, they are a professor's nightmare. I have to put up with their lame attempts at "work," babysit them for the three hours that I have them, and then explain to them why they di...

...NOT! I decided to teach six classes this semester. Why? Well, the extra money is always nice but the main reason was to teach a current events class. I used to teach the class when I was an adjunct many moons ago but since it's not a "priority" class, I haven't been able to teach it since I became full-time. With this being an election year I desperately wanted to teach it. It would mean a heftier work load for me but after I talked to Bear about it, I decided to do it. On Wednesday, I get a frantic call from the dean's secretary. There's a class that needs to be covered. I'm thinking "no fucking way." Seven classes is just nuts. Also, I already have five different class preps with the six classes I had. Adding this class would mean an additional prep. Nope. Nada. No way. It's Thursday and I'm walking to my office when I hear the dean calling "Cat! Cat!" Uh oh. The dean pleaded with me to take the class. Part...

The other day I was having a conversation with my parents about the upcoming election. They are staunch Republicans so they say "you're voting for McCain, right?" Honestly, I don't like either of the candidates. I liked McCain eight years ago. Today? Nope. Too damn old. (ironically, one of my favorite websites is Things Younger than John McCain ). Mind you, Obama isn't thrilling me either. However, after watching some things about McCain, I'm getting pretty scared about the guy. For example, today, John McCain said he doesn't know how many houses he has. How do you not know how many homes you have? They are rather large expenditures to not remember. In his case, they are rather large with the cheapest is worth over $800,000. And he has SEVEN of them! Showing off these beauties is a video I found off of the The Real John McCain website. Geeze. The $520 Farragamos and the private jet just make McCain just an "average joe." Bah. You w...

Today in the New York Times , it was revealed that the cute little girl (the one on the right), did not sing the Chinese national anthem at the opening ceremony. It was actually the one on the left. I had heard about this a couple of days ago and it still pisses me off. Why wasn't the girl on the left standing in the Bird's Nest? She wasn't "cute enough." Her teeth were too imperfect. “The reason was for the national interest,” explained Chen Qigang, general music designer of the opening ceremonies, who revealed the deception Sunday during a radio interview. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression.” Oh for pete's sake. That girl is adorable! Her imperfect teeth make her look perfect to me. Little kids aren't supposed to have perfect teeth. That's what orthodontists are for. LOL I realize that China is trying to give the world this perfect image of itself. And to the ignorant, they are probably doing a...

Someone posted a comment on my Carlin post about my torn peroneus brevis tendon and I missed it so I apologize for the delay in responding to you. My advice, get a good doctor (whether ortho or pod) and get it fixed now. My current doc (the best ankle/foot surgeon in the state), told me he would do the conservative approach for the first three months. If a person was still in pain, he would have done surgery to correct it at that point. I wish he was my doc from the beginning. :( I walked on my bad foot/ankle for almost a year before it was fixed. I would say about 1/2 of that year was spent in a walking cast on and off. I should not have waited so long for treatment because by the time surgery was done I was told that 50-60% of my movement would return if I was lucky. The surgery itself was successful and I am in considerably less pain now than I was beforehand. However, my mobility is still very limited. My injury was not nice. Not only had I torn the tendon, it had been almo...

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Exxon's second quarter earnings came out today . Lo and behold, it reported the largest profit ever for an American corporation at over $11 billion. As Louis Black would say: we're getting fucked up the ass and we're allowing it to happen.

It was bad enough to hear that Tim Russert died so suddenly last week. It is even worse to hear that George Carlin died on Sunday. That guy was really a pioneer. I realize that not everybody liked him. He was the sort that you either loved him or hate him. But as he got older, he made some pretty decent observations about the problems with our government and our society. RIP my friend. Carlin making you think: Old classic Carlin and his Seven Words:

No, I did not get the tenure-track job. It went to the department head's pet, which really didn't surprise me. I hate it when I'm right sometimes. The part that really irks me is that the department head is blowing me off. I sent him an e-mail asking if I could talk with him for like fifteen minutes to find out why I didn't get the job. I worded it in such a way that I'm looking for constructive criticism, a way to make me more appealing the next time a tenure-track line opens. It's not like I plan on storming into his office and aiming straight for his balls. I honestly want to know what made the "pet" a better candidate than me. I got a response back that he can't see me for close to two weeks because he was "busy." Why do I not believe that? The guy isn't teaching any summer classes and it's not like I was looking for a four hour block of his time. Could he be scared of me? Who knows. Maybe it's a good thing th...

I just got some sad news today. It seems another kitty from the catblogosphere has passed on. Bonnie was special to me in the sense that she was a "friend" of Ayla's. It's kind of hard to explain to the uneducated masses that some people love to write not only about their pets but from their pet's point of view. That's what Jen does over at the Bonnie & Victor site. That's what I did over on the Ayla the Grump site. Through them, we make virtual friends and we learn to love their pets almost as much as they do. It broke my heart to hear that Bonnie passed away and so suddenly. Bear and I were talking about Ayla a few days ago and how I've been having so many problems starting up another kitty blog. He thinks that the Ayla site gave me a truly creative way to vent (unlike this site which is just venting). I think he's right but even though we have nine cats, none of them have the unique, snarky personality that Ayla had. I tried doin...

I first should start with the good news. My mom had the surgery and she's doing fine. The doctor is confident that all the melanoma was removed. Right now, my parents are back at home and are resting. They will see the doctor again at the end of the month to see how the reconstruction of the eyelid went. Other bit of good news. I got a second interview for the tenure-track position I applied for. This means I'm down to the Round of Three. Not too bad considering there were over thirty applications in the beginning. What is left is the toughest part: convincing them I am better than the other two candidates. Hopefully that interview will go well. I have my fingers crossed. As for the never ending part...what part of you failed and you earned that F do you not understand? I've got two students who are "shocked and outraged" by their Fs. One was very nice girl but she does not have any functioning brain cells in her head. She did not pass a single assignm...

I finished up every tiny last bit of grading this afternoon. It was such a relief to get through the last writing assignment and tally up the final grades. This has been an awful semester in more ways than one. You've heard about all the non-school crap I've had to deal with, and some of the academic poop as well. But you know life really sucks when you have to grade over 150 papers that read like this. The opening paragraph to a paper on the Holocaust: The Concentration Camps were where the Jews had to go after they got kicked out from there own homes from the Nazis. Things for the Jews got really bad. Oh it gets better... The good things were that Buna was a very good camp. People there were able to care for one another with out getting into trouble. The Buna camp was a bit better than the rest of the camps. The good thing about the camps was that people were given new cloths to wear and also were given two tents to live in...The whole point for the concentration camps...

...of GRADING HELL. Oh yes folks, it's that wonderful time of the semester: the last week of school. And guess what I am doing? Trying to bury myself out from the huge stack o' shit papers. I am looking at my calender of hell and discover that I have...hmmm...let's see...fourteen more assignments to grade. Oh joy. Thankfully only four of them include term papers. The rest are just rewrites or short writing assignments. Currently I am giving my brain a rest before it revolts and leaves on me. Nobody truly understands the horrors a teacher goes through this time of year. Case in point: I was told from a very early age that if you do not understand a word, go look it up in the dictionary. Now I realize that my vocabulary leaves something to be desired but I am always trying to improve myself. My students do not understand that concept. If you do not understand what the word "procreation" means in my question about how it is important to Xenophon's ana...

...I truly hate these things. State moves to ban fake testicles on vehicles

My mom finally saw the specialist yesterday to see what will happen with her eye. The news is both good and bad. The good news is that the cancer is not affecting the eye itself so that is OK. The bad news is that it is melanoma and its on her eyelid which means part of it will have to be removed. The good news is that she is seeing one of the best eye reconstructive surgeons in the country and he has already explained how he is going to use a piece from her inner lip to replace part of the eyelid. That surgery will not be until May 13th. After that, she will be checking with an oncologist to make sure the cancer did not spread. Of course my mom is freaking out about all of this. My mother is very self-conscious of appearances, and I think she is more afraid of looking disfigured than the actual concept of cancer. I know that sounds harsh but if you knew my mom you would understand. She is a good lady. Her priorities are a little different than mine. For me, I'm more fr...

I am so sick and tired of students bitching about their workloads this time of the semester. "OMG I have, like, three five-page papers I've got to write! I don't know why they give us so much work to do." Ah fuck you. Sorry. I know it sounds harsh but unless you've sat at the other side of the desk, you have no clue how hard it is for the teachers. Trust me, the less work we give you, the easier it is for us. Therefore, if we give work, it's not because we're are sadistically evil (masochistic, maybe, but not sadistic). We actually care about you learning something. Anywho...can you tell what kind of day I've had? This time of the semester is crazy for everybody. So to give you all an idea of what live is like for teachers at this time of year, here is another day in the life. This is actually a continuation of yesterday since it was such an oh so classic day. 6:00am - Get up and get ready. More like dragging than actually getting up. 6:50am -...

I hope my week doesn't continue the trend. 6:50am - Leave for school, hoping to get in early enough to get today's lesson preps done on time. 7:15am - Pull into the Pathmark shopping center. Realized I forgot to put on makeup when I left the house this morning and since it was charred into my head as a child "you don't go out without makeup" I was forced to purchase some at the supermarket. Bad makeup that is rather expensive. Joy. 8:15am - Arrive at school, sit down and start working on today's lesson preps. 8:30am - The fire alarm goes off. Since my office is on the third floor, I am forced to hobble down three flights of stairs with my air cast and cane. 8:45am - Watch firetrucks show up at the college and then leave. 9:00am - Let back into the building. Try to take the elevator back up to the third floor. It breaks down in between floors. I'm stuck in a tiny, cramped elevator for ten minutes. Did I mention I'm claustrophobic? 9:10am - Eleva...

Warning: political rant coming through. /rant on So I'm driving down Route 23 today in desperate need of filling my car's tank. First place I see has regular gas at $3.24 a gallon. Next place I see has it at $3.21. After passing five gas stations the lowest I saw was $3.19 a gallon with the highest at $3.29 a gallon. Why is gas so damn expensive? (And yes, I realize New Jersey has incredibly cheap gas compared to the rest of the country. Our state doesn't have a heavy gas tax. Instead, they screw us with our property taxes.) My dear Bear tells me it is because people are investing in gas futures driving the price up. Well fine. That is the way capitalism works. But if they are supposedly "paying" so much for gas, why is it that companies like Exxon are making record-breaking profits ? Something is fishy here. Back in 1960, when Kennedy was elected, the country was getting out of the third recession of the 1950s. One of the big concerns Kennedy had was no...

My excursions into the land of the brainless idiots gets more amazing as each day passes.... Case #1 - Paper on the End of World War II It was Nixon who dropped the bomb on Japan? OMG. You mean they lied to me all those years in grad school?!!! Hell, they told me it was Truman. Lying bastards. First on Nagasaki and then on Hiroshima? Damn. I guess the textbooks can't even get the order straight. Oh wow. the bombs used were "highly explosive and ready to cause damage"? And here I thought nuclear weapons only fizzled. Did I mention this was her research paper? Case #2 - Either Incredibly Stupid or Incredibly Insulting. Take Your Pick Mr. Numbnuts hands in a paper that was over 50% plagiarized. I tell him if he wants to pass my class he must rewrite the paper from scratch using his own words and I'll give him credit for the assignment. The rewrite gets 50% of what it would have originally gotten if that had been submitted in the first place. I call it the ...

Case in point: In my Western Civilization I class, I have my students create fictional characters who will tell me what life was like during the time period they chose. Not one, but two students created Catholic characters. I have no problem with that. What I have issue with is the fact that one student's character lived during the age of Plato (428 – 348 BC) and the other during the age of Julius Caesar (100-44 BC). See what's wrong with this? Hmmm. Could it have to do something with the BC part? Like as in BC stands for BEFORE CHRIST ? Unless these characters could see far into the future, it ain't gonna fly. Bah.

You can tell that dreaded time of the year has started: last month of the semester. I hate this time of year. You don't even want to know how many papers I have to grade. I've given up on counting. If they actually handed me in physical papers (instead of electronically) I would have a stack about three feet high. Hell, I was even at work over the spring break grading. One of these years I will actually listen to myself and give them less writing assignments. Ya right. LOL. On top of this, I have somehow managed to re-injure my foot and ankle. No, I don't know how. It is highly possible that I twisted it somehow in my sleep. Figures, eh? So, I'm back in the boot/walking cast for two weeks. If it is not better by then, I'm getting another MRI. The doc mentioned I may have re-torn my tendon. Joy. :( Even worse...yes, it does get worse...my mom was recently diagnosed with cancer. It is a melanoma on her eyelid so hopefully it isn't too bad. She'l...

I found a link to another professor who wanted to dispel the myths that teachers have the "easy life." It is so true. Yes, we may only actually teach 15 hours a week but what we do outside the classroom is enormous. Here is my typical day: 7:45am - Alarm goes off. Hit snooze button. 8:15am - Realize I have to get out of bed and shower ASAP. 8:30am - Out the door to work with a stop at Dunkin' Donuts to pick up my coffee. 10:00am - Arrive at school. Yes, my commute is that long. 10:15am - Go through my mail, sort through the numerous worthless books the publishing companies send to me and respond to the huge list of e-mails sent to me in the middle of the night by "panicked" students. 11:00am - Go to class and teach. The first 10 minutes are a waste of time because about 1/4 of the class shows up late (even though they know they lose points for lateness) and I would have to repeat everything I said. Then I can finally lecture. Hopefully I won't catch ...

Normally Fridays are my day off. My chance to sleep in, do nothing, and all out veg. With physical therapy, however, that had to change. Teaching Monday through Thursday and then having to go to PT three of those nights was too much. So now I do PT on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. This also gives me a chance to go into the office and get some work. So, I'm driving to PT this morning and the weirdest thing happened to me: I had to slow down to let a wild turkey cross the road. Turkeys are not rare sightings where I live but it is very rare to see a lone turkey, and even more so that it was a female. It was just really weird. Then, my day got better. I received some student evaluations from last spring. I know that I am a good teacher but students these days are lazy and I make them think (OMG....I'm so horrible). Anyways, even I was surprised by these evals. Every single one of the sixty-some-odd students said they would recommend me to other students. Damn. Also, ...

Oh boy I hope not. It's bad enough that I'm in the middle of grading papers and exams, but then some bad news came across to me. I was hired as an "Instructor" which is a semester-by-semester temporary full-time appointment (one of many "contingent" faculty positions). It can be renewed for up to eight semesters. My college tends to keep the people for the full eight semesters. Heck, why not? We are not tenure-track and we get paid a lot lower than people who are tenure-track. And the way I look at it, anything is better than being an adjunct (part-time professor). However, our new president wants to get rid of this position and has stated that he will be limiting the term of the position to no more than four semesters. I heard those of us currently working will be "grandfathered" to the eight-semester track but there has not been any definite proof of this. Now, I work in the summers. Do those count as "semesters?" No one can tel...

Thanks PhD comics for illustrating the life of college grading!

A colleague just forwarded me the following article that came out in the Washington Post last week. "Me: If It's All About You, You're in Trouble. Why a Sense of Entitlement Can Wreak Havoc on Happiness." It does a great job of explaining the problems of today's youth and their belief that everything should be handed to them. Welcome to my life. Oh, and did I mention the student who in the first month of class asked me the following questions: How do I write an essay? How do I do research? What does ____ mean? (a lot of basic English words...and no it is not a foreign student) How do I save a file? How do I upload a file to Blackboard? (the online program the school uses) My question: how the fuck did you get out of high school? Goes back to banging my head against my desk. P.S. I found a great blog called Rate My Students where other faculty members bitch about their students. It's nice to know I'm not alone. :)

Well, I think I started hating them the first week of classes. I don't know what it is this semester but all my colleagues and I are having bad classes. The kids are incredibly whiny and bitchy. There is this strong sense of a "why do I have to do this?" attitude. One of my friends called it an extreme case of "entitlement," namely they are so good that everything should be handed to them. I've had a few of them myself. Couple of cases in point: I give out a review sheet. It's pretty much what is on the test but full of generalizations (i.e. "the characteristics of absolutism"). This means they have to go into the notes and study what the characteristics are. I'm not going to give them all the info. I don't have time for that crap. One student got all pissy and said "what? I have to look this up?" like I was some sort of evil bitch making him scrounge around in dumpsters naked, or something just as horrible. Um, hel...

It started when a friend posted up a video called "Bad Day at the Office." It was the perfect video for today since I had a really crappy day... Then Bear told me about a video that was pretty funny. First though, you have to see what it was based on. Called "I'm f&%@ing Matt Damon" (funny but probably NSFW).... Jimmy Kimmel responded to his girlfriend "f#$@king Matt Damon" with "I'm f@#$ing Ben Affleck." I am now in a MUCH better mood. :)

It's only February and I'm already burned out. Not a good thing, eh? Ya, tell me about it. I originally thought my tiredness was due to getting over the flu but now I'm thinking otherwise. It didn't make sense at first. I had four weeks off (instead of the three they usually give), I'm only working ONE job, and I'm only teaching five classes. Why am I burned out? This is an easy schedule compared to what I have been doing for the past year. Well, ok maybe the four weeks off weren't the most restful. Bear keeps on reminding me that I had surgery and that isn't restful at all. Then, because of the surgery, I wasn't as fully prepared for the start of the semester. Getting the flu on top of it didn't help either. But it's only February! I shouldn't get burned out until at least March! How the hell am I going to make it until May?

In my 20th Century U.S. history class, I'm currently covering World War II. As I was discussing the Allies push east into Germany, one of my students told me that General Patton pissed in the Rhine River as they were crossing. Honestly, I hadn't heard of it before but it didn't surprise me. Of course, when I got to my desk, I had to know if it was true or not. Not only was it true, Patton was photographed doing it! "Dear SHAEF [ Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force ], I have just pissed into the Rhine River. For God's sake, send some gasoline."

The cast is off! The doc said the incision looked good and was healing nicely. I'm in a new brace now (with metal rods in it) to keep me from accidentally rolling my foot. The pain & torture...um...sorry physical therapy won't start until the week of the 25th. He said that my foot is going to "be angry enough" with me trying to walk on it that I don't want to throw in PT as well just yet. Fine by me. Now if I can just shake this flu I'll be in good shape.

Anybody who goes out when they are very ill, especially sick with the flu, are now susceptible to the label of "biological terrorist" in my books. One of my students comes into my class last Thursday with the flu. He tells me how miserable he is and then proceeds to sit in the front row. I tell him to go home, but does he? No. What happens? Three days later I'm out sick with the flu. Normally this wouldn't be so bad but I had already used up two of my sick days at the start of the semester due to my foot surgery. Then I had to use up my last three this week for this stupid flu. Now I'm out of sick days with three months left in the semester. To me, this student is a biological terrorist. Bah. I hope I give it right back at him when I see him in class tomorrow.

arrrgh!

For a nice change, NJ's primaries are early enough in the race that our choice may actually matter. The primaries used to be in June but thankfully our legislatures got smart and moved them up to Super Tuesday. Yes, I will be voting. No, I still have no clue who I'm voting for. I'm not thrilled with any of the candidates in either party. I'm a democrat so I will be voting in the democratic primary. According to my sample ballot, I have six choices: Joe Biden - Who? Oh ya, the guy with the Plan for Iraq. Nice idea Joe, but what else do you stand for? Oh wait, you're FOR the Patriot Act? You want to build a wall on our border to Mexico? Never mind. Dennis Kucinich - He tried to impeach Cheney which is a brownie point in my book. Oh wait, he what? Damn. Bastard dropped out of the race. John Edwards - The one candidate I did like and he too dropped out of the race. Poo. Hillary Clinton - How I hate thee. Let me count the ways... Seriously, I don't...