Bastards! Things readers should know about me -- I am not a Manchester United fan. I'm especially not fond of their manager, who seems to have blinders on when it comes to his own players' misconduct.

Also, I thank any appropriate deities that my Tuesday class is over. There were some truly cool students, but as a whole, they introduced me to a not-entirely-new concept -- the unwillingness of students to prepare for a class, even when a huge percentage of their grades depend on active participation. Faugh!

Yes, I am ranting. And still not ready to discuss the job market -- instead, I'm avoiding the subject by working on my part of our program assessment (something that elicits interest only in accreditation years) and a proposal to set some sort of guidelines so that students and faculty using Blackboard understand the ramifications of a partially online course. Which us luck -- if you have any ideas on setting student expectations, please share!

Meanwhile, check out the great entries on the changing face of academe via the Invisible Adjunct and some great stuff on the baby gap there and at Crooked Timber. I am simply amazed by these people -- they are productive scholars who blog under their own names ... oh well, maybe after I'm less contingent.

Well -- it's amazing how time flies when all your preps are new! End of quarter resolution -- I will blog more. Reality -- I work for the state, so can only legally blog from home. Blogging -- what one does to avoid the steaming pile of grading that needs doing. Rambling -- what I am doing now.

But seriously, there are some great blogs out there. Current faves are Invisible Adjunct and The Cranky Professor. There's a great conversation on the baby gap at the former, and the latter is a friend. I'm also becoming very fond of this wonderful academic Buffy site because I discovered the wonders of the Buffyverse last summer and am still catching up. The scholarship part makes me feel less guilty, as does the fact that I can talk about Buffy with colleagues who don't think I'm barking!

Next up -- life on the job market -- scary as hell!