20160410.0849

I'm flashing back to graduate school
Sleeping in
Rising slowly
Facing a stack of papers
And a stack of reading
And knowing I will move on

I thought I was supposed to be done with this.

20160409.0810

Most of the time
She smiles
She laughs
She learns
She is a delight

Sometimes
She sorrows
She hurts
She cries
She is beloved

Every so often
She screams
She kicks
She slaps
She is still loved
Else we'd not put up with it

20160408.0622

For something of a retrospective today, a look back not at last year's treatment of The Patriot Threat, but rather earlier years' treatments of limerick (and the NSFW label should apply):

Political games played by fools
Often transgress many rules
Of couth and decorum
The people ignore 'em
And watch, entertained by the tools

The verses come in no real order
No system applies to their hoarder
Who gathers together
The arrayed words whether
Or not they've been through a sorter

The cat out of the window stares
Looking at birds or at hares
We feed the damned thing
It eats like a king
And like a king, it never cares

And so it has come to pass
That thunder proceeds from the ass
That heavenly farting
That leaves the ear smarting
And makes the celestial a gas

Looking for jobs really sucks
The frantic search for a few bucks
That come from done work
For an arrogant jerk
Will leave me ungiving of fucks

20160407.0633

As I was in the shower this morning, I found myself musing on the idea of what I would do with my money were I a wealthy man. (I had read this comic, and it called to mind an earlier article I had read that notes JK Rowling's surrender of billionaire-dom. [The link is to a different source; I do not recall that I read it in Forbes at first, but it does corroborate the assertion.]) I know that it is greatly unlikely I will ever become a wealthy person. I work in humanities education, in a field whose average salary is in the upper $50,000s for tenure-line faculty (per this source), and I am not on the tenure line (hence the end of my visit), so that I make less. My family once had socioeconomic privilege, but that is some generations back, and it was the kind of socioeconomic privilege that derives not from liquid capital but from real holdings--which we no longer hold, hence the "once." Odds on the lottery are against me. But the thought of having money is pleasant.

So, were I to suddenly become wealthy, things I would do include (and more or less in the order presented):

1. Pay off the family's debts. Mine. Those of the Mrs. Those of my brother. Those of my parents. Maybe one or two others, but definitely those.
2. Set up a trust fund for Ms. 8. I won't be around forever, after all, and it would be nice to take care of her even after I am gone.
3. Put money into savings, bonds, and investments. I have time for slow and steady growth to be workable, but I might also like some more money now. (You expect me to be wholly altruistic?)
4. Buy a really fancy bottle of booze and drink it with a few people. They know who they are. (You expect me to be wholly altruistic?)
5. Make vehemently obscene gestures and statements towards a select few people. They will know who they are. (You expect me to be wholly altruistic?)
6. Set up some scholarships. I was helped, and I would like to pay some of it forward. (You expect me to be wholly selfish?) My undergraduate and graduate schools would be recipients. Maybe a place in New York City.
7. Build a place to live in a nice neighborhood.
8. Fill it with awesomeness.
9. Have a crawfish boil/turkey fry/cook-out, inviting family and the neighbors.
10. Sleep off the party.
11. Get right back to work.

I am relatively unambitious.

20160406.0615

Work continues, of course. I was able to get the reading done for my freelance piece yesterday; the write-up is started, and I expect to be able to get it done in the next day or so. (I have until Friday. It will not take that long.) Whether more work will be forthcoming, I do not know; in some ways, I hope not, since I will soon be moving into a fairly intense cycle of grading, but I am mindful of the money that my freelance work brings into the household. Since I am still acculturated to the idea that I ought to be bringing money into the household, the latter concern carries more weight with me than the former.

That does not mean, of course, that I will neglect my classroom work. I have not yet; part of why the freelance write-up is only started is that I drafted a sample essay for my students, one that runs to a longer ten pages. It will help guide students in each of the classes I teach this term towards better work on their own projects--or that is the idea. Some favorable attention has already accrued to the essay; I tend to post samples on my more professional blog, where they can be seen and perhaps do some good. (That they allow me to develop a professional portfolio helps, as well.) I have a few other things to take care of in that line, some of which will occupy my otherwise unclaimed office time in the next few days.

The freelancing and classroom work, of course, are not the only concerns that face me, although many of the others are being pushed aside in favor of the work that pays. Not all are, though. For example, preparations for the International Congress on Medieval Studies continue; my paper has been ready for some weeks, now, and travel plans are being cemented. A commendable colleague will be going with me this time, and I am in a position to be able to introduce said colleague to some of the luminaries of early modern studies, so I will be doing that--among the many other enjoyable things the Congress has to offer. Additionally, attention to my family persists, as it ought. Ms. 8 is increasingly verbal; yesterday, she asked for "More berries, please," and she said "Thank you" without being prompted. Her propensity toward climbing is perhaps less pleasant, particularly when she tries to use my (overly generous) love handles to do so (it is a strange sensation, being used as a ladder by a toddler, and not entirely comfortable). But it still shows that she is growing, and that she has an increasing sense of herself and her capabilities, and I am glad to see both. I enjoy having a reason to make sure that my work continues.

20160405.0643

Work continues, as ever it must.

My students have begun to fill out the survey I noted yesterday. (I made sure to point out to them that they are getting a choice in their exam from me--and from few if any of their other professors.) At this point, half of the responses are asking for the essay about an assignment not already included in first-year composition. It seems to keep with the overall curricular theme of my classes this term. (I may have noted that I am having my students make arguments regarding their courses of study. It seems they should be interested in such things, although they have voiced complaints about being "bored" with their topics. One or two have noted changing their majors and post-graduate plans as a result of the projects this semester; I feel I have done them a service.) It remains to be seen, of course, if the tendency will continue, as there are still many students who have yet to fill out the survey, but I am struck at seeing the assignment that shows up as preferred at this point doing so.

Also, after a longer-than-preferred hiatus, a freelance order has shown up for me. I have not looked over the details of the order yet, although I soon will. Having the time to attend to other matters that I have had has been nice; it has allowed me to slow down a bit. It has also had a detrimental effect on the family finances, though, and that is far less desirable. Perhaps this new order will be the first in a series of them, and I will be able to get some funding put back a bit in advance of the removal from Sherwood Cottage. We will need the money, as getting from here to there with all of our things in tow is not the least expensive thing that can be done. I do not mind doing the work to that end, even if I am an "entitled and lazy" Millennial. (And I am a Millennial, evidently, although at the leading edge of that age-bracket; I turned 18 in 2000, scant days before the election that resulted in W being promoted from governing Texas to presiding over the Union. Election law in place there and then prohibited me from registering in time to be able to vote.)

So I will be looking over a few papers today, as well as looking at some other work--likely reading a new novel and beginning to make some kind of informed and insightful commentary about it. I hope to get some writing done, as well, both of the sort that I do to help guide my students (and there is more of it to do) and of the sort that pleases me. Some of the tasks are more likely to be completed than others, especially since the Mrs. works all day today, and so I will be playing with and looking after Ms. 8 in earnest. Still, I am in a reasonably good position (although it could be better), and I am not unmindful of it; I am well aware that it could be worse. I could not have work to do, and I would not know what to do in such a circumstance.

20160404.0617

Work continues, of course. There is something like a month of class remaining for me, with the exams I give ending on Jedi Day (coincidentally the anniversary of my writing in this webspace). So it will not be long before my visit ends, and the Mrs., Ms. 8, and I will make the final preparations to go...elsewhere. In the meantime, though, there is much to do. As part of it, I am having my students weigh in on the form of their final exam (ain't I nice?), voting on which of four options for the exercise I am willing to write that they would collectively like--or hate least--to do. To wit:

• A multiple choice exam, largely covering concerns of mechanics and formatting discussed in class and in assigned readings. Note that the presence of the correct answer on the page allows for distractors markedly close to correct; distractors on past multiple-choice exams have differed from the correct answer in such small details as the tense of the operative verb or the placement of a period in an MLA-style citation.
• An essay exam asking for a brief reflective argument that treats an assignment for inclusion in a first-year writing class. An assignment not already included in the class should be proposed and justified to an audience that is in favor of the current assignment sequence but that can adjust the assignment sequence.
• An essay exam asking for a brief rhetorical analysis of a specific example of assignment materials offered to students throughout the semester. Attention will need to be paid to both textual and paratextual features, and a copy of the assignment materials in question would be provided. The audience would be the instructor, who may well use the responses to refine assignment materials in future terms.
• A source-annotation consisting of a correctly-formatted and complete MLA-style Works Cited entry and an effective, appropriate summary of a source to be provided by the instructor in advance of the exam. Assessment thereof would be similar to that applied to annotated bibliography entries' first two components (citation and summary), including mechanical correctness.

To encourage participation, I am offering an A+ quiz grade to students who complete the exercise in a timely manner. (Again, ain't I nice?) But I expect there will be complaints. There always are, and they make harder the work. Still, I do what I can...

20160403.0834

I was going to make some comment
About coding
Using coding
Because thematic appropriateness is good
And I am learning how to code
In at least some small ways

It did not work

The machine always reads the code
As code
And it acts as directed

This is the limitation
Of the machine

It is a limitation
Many face
For we are all constrained
Not only by concerns of hardware
But by the operating systems installed in us
And we can fight them
But only so far

20160402.0809

Over the past days, I have not maintained the practice of reddening the initials and the "important" words in my posts, I know. I do not usually do so in verse, which accounts for the bit at the beginning of this month, but the longer post that ended March does not have that excuse. I suppose I could go back and color it, but I do not know what I would point out as particularly prominent by pixelated pigmentation. It stands out as a more focused and serious piece than most of what I push out into the world in this webspace, and the red-lettering is an affectation meant to entertain. (If it is not working, please do not tell me.) The practice is at cross-purposes with that particular post--which I needed to make, even if having it where it is has...implications about my anxieties and understandings of how such things work. I have, after all, been told that I do not understand the "real world," and I suppose it is an accurate assertion; I do not understand why a state or a nation would not invest in the education of its children and youth.

I am well aware of one of the dominant narratives about it, however, namely that education "turns" people liberal. I am also aware that the systems of formal education in place, at least in the parts of the world in which I have resided, are socio-culturally normative and tend to elide much information and understanding that argues against major talking points of conservative ideology in the United States (which I specify because "conservative" means different things in different places, and I am not discussing them in the current post, partly because I do not know enough to do so intelligently and partly because I am...motivated to focus more nearly locally). There is a prevailing idea in several US educational systems that the US is "the good guy," with the baggage of that unambiguous and overly simplistic descriptor. There is a prevailing idea that the US represents the culmination of all that is right and good in the world, and is indeed the savior of it. In effect, it can do no wrong--or if it is wrong, it is at least far less wrong than everywhere else in the world.

You know where this is going.

I will not enumerate the many things that the US has done wrongly and is still doing wrongly; to borrow from Marvell, we have not world enough or time. (Too, I have ranted about it before in this webspace.) But I will say, and as a person who has been part of several systems of formal education in the United States across more than a decade at this point, and who has seen the results of those systems both in their successors and in the general public, that what the systems teach is not the kind of thing of which they are so often accused. The opposite tends to be true; they tend to reinforce conservative principles, both for good (and there is some good in promoting common understanding, as well as working to instill a common base of knowledge from which people can work in collaboration to move forward) and for ill (and there is much ill in presenting monolithic and seldom-revised or -reconsidered curricula and master narratives about people). Looking at the matter more coldly, it seems that nations and states would have vested interests in promoting such ideas--I remain confused as to why they would not do more with them...

20160401.0615

With apologies to that greatest of Geoffreys, the Well of English Undefiled and one-time Clerk of the King's Works...

April has not yet with showers sweet
The drought imposed by March made to defeat,
But the month before was not so dry,
And temperatures unseasonally high
Have called the buds of flowers into bloom
And kept them from expected freezing doom.
How the Ram has run its course and how
The western winds have matters not now,
Nor yet how birds make melodies
In bright plumage the rare person sees.
The pilgrimages taken anymore
Have sent the youth away; into the door
From which they left they have come back again,
Sharing many stories with their friends
As work continues, hastening to May
When my work ends, and theirs, and they will play
While I will not a blissful martyr seek,
But instead more work, for I am meek.