Reading Readings

The academic life is fraught with horrors–fraught I say!–and none more unnerving than the Monday night class.
I kid, I kid; everyone knows that Wednesday night class is where we keep the horror.  Monday night classes are, in contrast, the bomb-diggity.  You heard me:  the bomb-diggity, with a hyphen.  The batch of students I’ve got this [...]

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Chronicle of a Faceplant Foretold

It started on Friday.
I woke, as I always do, around 4:30am.  I cannot explain this particular habit, so let’s just let it slide.  By 4:45 I had my protein shake in hand and was answering student e-mails; by 5:15 I had dipped into the batch of exams that I had to grade.  My process for [...]

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The Perils of PowerPoint

I’ve been a delinquent blogger of late, as you’ve probably noticed.  This semester is filthy with commitments, most of them time-consuming, and as a result the odd hours I might devote to these jottings have become a little more elusive.  I’m also trying to weed out some of the more narcissistic navel-gazery (avid and/or obsessive [...]

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The Synergy Twist

Looking at the calendar once the fall is well and truly underway tends to disorient me:  here we are, more than a month in to the semester’s proceedings and I feel as though we’ve barely scratched the surface.  Students may feel a bit differently, I reckon–once the autumn starts to gobble up their time like [...]

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Dial “M” for Monday

Last night when I went to bed there was mischief afoot in the neighborhood.  Someone somehow summoned the thunder, and I fell asleep to the sound of rumbling not unlike the genuine article.  I don’t think that any fireworks were scheduled or any fusillades of cannon fire were meant to accompany local sporting events (our [...]

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Meanderings

As is so often the case once the semester is underway, I am posting out of a sense of obligation, not as the result of inspiration.  Kindly temper your expectations accordingly.
This semester, alas, is filthy with meetings.  While some are a pleasure–I get to meet with an Honors student every Friday to discuss an ongoing [...]

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The Academic Job Market: English Search Advice (One-Stop Shopping)

It’s that time of year, and I thought it would be wise to consolidate all the job market-related posts under a single umbrella.  They so seldom wear their wellies.
If you’ve stumbled upon these posts for the first time, please know that they represent a) only one person’s perspective, a perspective informed by only a few [...]

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The Midst

Today’s ambition, such as it is, seems exceedingly modest:  make it through the day.  I also resolved not to use the weak qualifier “such as it is,” but we can only aspire so high.
Yesterday I enjoyed a late endorphin surge, as I finally submitted my tenure dossier, which had dominated my desk since early August.  [...]

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Atoms and Eves

No, I don’t really know what the title of today’s post means or implies.   Like The Godfather, it insists upon itself.  Let’s just embrace it and let the magic happen.
Let me begin by noting that it might not be wrong to murder the landscaping crew.  They sweep in once a week, fire up their engines [...]

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Despite and Respite

Today, thanks to some extraordinary diligence over the past several days, I have a smidgen of free time.  Let’s see how creatively I can squander it.
As I mentioned in the last couple of posts, I’m betwixted and betweened:  I closed a door behind me, finalizing the text of the collection and beginning the formal process [...]

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