NaBloPoMo 29

NaBloPoMo 29 -- RBOC

• Not posting much because I burned my finger pretty badly. Suffice to say it's pretty lame to turn on the wrong burner, having left a plate on it, and then pick up the plate
  
• That new David Boreanaz show, Bones, is a guilty pleasure
  
• I'm reviewing a book in my field that I really like so far. It's a good kind of envy, really. Oh -- and it's in English! Really. Not jealous.
  
• My cats are driving me up the frakkin' wall.
  
• I'm entirely clueless as to how my evaluations are going to go. I'm worried. I think.

NaBloPoMo 28

NaBloPoMo 28 -- for Acephalous

Because I think Scott Eric Kaufman is funny and bright, I'm allowing assimiliation following instructions doing him a favor and linking to his very important experiment post. Scott's presenting at the behemoth of conferences for Lit people. You know the one. Part of his presentation is on the speed at which memes go 'round the blogosphere. Just so you know, I got this from a friend's Live Journal, Scott!

Anyway, here's what you need to do to help Scott and his work:

1. Write a post linking to this one in which you explain the experiment. (All blogs count, be they TypePad, Blogger, MySpace, Facebook, &c.)
   
2. Ask your readers to do the same. Beg them. Relate sob stories about poor graduate students in desperate circumstances. Imply I'm one of them. (Do whatever you have to. If that fails, try whatever it takes.)
   
3. Ping Techorati.

Carnivalesque XXI

Carnivalesque XXI

Hello all -- Carnivalesque XXI is up at Even in a little thing. See what happens when you mix a real-life antipodean medievalist/college prof/sff author with a History Carnival!

re yesterday's post

Came home last night and the internets were broken. My provider, whose owners have recently been indicted (prosecuted?) for raping the profits (it's that provider with the Greekish name, also connects people to the TV nets), has been bought out by a huge other providser that sounds like bombast. Bombast apparently made the switch last night and this morning. How do I know? No internets. Came home, unplugged the modem and router, nada. Called the not-Greek company's service number, which was supposed to work for Bombast. Out of service. Got a number for Bombast. "We are performing a network upgrade. Do not reboot your modem, as you will be unable to reconnect to the network until the entire upgrade is complete. Due to an unusually high volume of customer calls, we cannot take your call right now."

It's finally back up. Just before it appeared, as if by magic, I called the service number again. The message? "Do you know that most connectivity problems can be solved by simply rebooting your modem and re-starting your computer?" Um ... thanks, Bombast.

Roadtrip

Road Trip

So this Thanksgiving weekend is the first roadtrip I've taken in years. Lots and lots of driving, but well worth it. We went to Our Nation's Capital -- the first time I've been there for the museums and not for things like job interviews (the AHA was there three years ago). We went to the Sackler gallery and saw the Bible exhibit. On the way, we spent hours talking about teaching and historiography -- and teaching historiography -- and World History and other such things.

Seeing finds from Qumran and Nag Hammadi and Oxyrhynchus all in the same place really helped to separate them all in my mind in ways that they hadn't been before. There were also several Syriac and Georgian mss, which were very interesting. Of course, for me, the coolest things were the Carolingian and A/S exhibits. There wasn't much, but what there was, was wonderful in that it represented a good cross-section of 7th-9th century texts and decoration, including an ivory codex cover from Chelles. There were also a couple of things that made my head fuzzy and confused in a "Charles the Straightforward" kind of way:

• There were big maps depicting Europe and the Near East in the 9th c. The area that encompasses what I have always thought of as Francia was called "Carolingia."* Um. I'm a Carolingianist. Or so I thought. But I did not get the memo on Carolingia. Am I frakkin' ignorant? What is going on? Did you all know this and not tell me?
  
• One of the explanatory panels implied that Christianity became the official Roman religion under Constantine.
  
• The exhibit was advertised as mss before 1000 CE. There was a Coptic ms dated to ca. 1400 CE. The text mentioned it as being one of the earliest such illuminated Coptic mss. Ruh?
  
• Boniface was everywhere! Gospels glossed in Boniface's own hand (probably)! Gospels sent by Eadburga to Boniface (possibly)! But despite discussions of the Palace School and Alcuin (but not Aachen), and the development of Carolingian miniscule and the importance of Carolingian scriptoria, they only mentioned Rheims, and not Fulda! I don't really like Boniface, but how can there be any sensible discussion of Carolingian education that does not include Fulda??
  
• There was an elderly man there who explained to his daughter at length that Charlemagne was a huge supporter of education and brought Alcuin (pronounced AL-sue-in) to France, but was himself quite ignorant and uneducated. Um. Because I am a polite person, I muttered very quietly to one of my friends that that wasn't exactly what Einhard said ... but did not offer my opinion to the world at large.

But anyway, wow. I don't know how it affects you all, but there is something really astounding for me to see things that make the people I study and write about so very tangible and real. It's not that I don't think of them as real in the first place, but there's a difference between seeing "stuff from time period X" and "stuff that was commissioned by Y from monastery Z at the time that N was abbot." And in my part of the world, getting a chance to experience that with the MA or LA or Classical world is rather rare. Besides the inherent grooviness of the exhibition, it was also just so cool that my friends enjoyed it, too, and had interesting things to say about what the exhibit said about material culture. After the exhibit, we grabbed a bite, and girded our loins for a weekend of preparation for next week.



*I could understand "Carolingian Empire," but that's not what it said. Carolingia???

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi all -- Happy Thanksgiving!! In honor of the day -- or more in honor of, "I'm actually reading an article in my field and hanging out with historian friends," I have two questions:

• So I'm reading the new Early Mediaeval Europe and Geoffrey Koziol has a new article where he says that the "Charles the Straightforward" name (rather than Charles the Simple) isn't really a good translation after all. But what I want to know is who started to call him Straightforward anyway.
  
  
  
• also, one of my friends, Krautboy, is thinking of starting a blog. He's a historian of Technology and is looking for other bloggers/LJ people in his field. So if you know anybody or any good blogs that historians of S&T would like, please pass them on!

Almost Thanksgiving

Almost Thanksgiving

So, today I went on an extended journey to see my friends Good Witch and Krautboy. We managed to traverse five state lines between us, and ended up at an enormous market, where we picked up the turkey and had lunch. Then a very long drive home in absolutely crap weather. GoodWitch is one of my oldest friends, not in age, but in length of time served. College roommates. Krautboy is a newer addition, but we love him. They're both way too smart, but that's ok! Soon to come -- blogging theircats!

NaBloPoMo 21

NaBloPoMo 21

This is a wimpy post because I am up too late and haven't yet packed to go away for Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, all of you who are celebrating!

NaBloPoMo 20

NaBloPoMo 20 -- Monday RBOC

• I need to update my blogroll. Seriously. With luck, I'll get it done this week.
  
• marking. I keep finding more
  
• Students. I forgot I told my early class they could come up with some ways of re-assigning points. They gave really concrete suggestions for fixing things.
  
• I think I'm starting to like Heroes. I've never seen it before.
  
• One of my cats has an upset stomach. If it continues, I may not get to go away for Thanksgiving
  
• Did I mention the marking?
  
• Most importantly, if you're still reading this, I had the most awful margaritas ever with WN and D tonight -- but the food was pretty good, I think. No really. Lime jello-y margaritas. Narsty. But mole poblano enchiladas! And let me tell you, where I last lived, mole poblano tasted like satay sauce. This was pretty decent stuff. Not enough chocolate, but decent.
  
• I'm so glad The Boy is going to the vet next week to have his teeth cleaned.
  
• I think I'm going to buy these

NaBloPoMo 19

NaBloPoMo 19 -- Gratuitous cat blogging #2

I'm not sure where the ultra-important ribbon has gone to. I wonder if that's what's been upsetting The Boy. Anyway, today is about watching a film for class and marking. As the film is subtitled, I doubt I'll be multi-tasking.

NaBloPoMo 18

NaBloPoMo 18

Well, I was going to post a kitty pic, but I'm on the wrong computer. Today, I went to a conference. Really, it was one panel for a conference for an entirely different field of study. A friend gave a presentation on pedagogy, and I went to cheer her on. it was a good presentation. One of the others was really excellent and useful. I learned some things that I can use next year when I teach either Ancient or MA (depending on where I put in the panegyric and hagiography), in terms of getting students to recognize constructions and tropes ...

I wasn't all that impressed with the other paper, though, but I think it had more to do with disciplinary differences than anything else.

In other news, I'm looking for boots and I'm way behind on marking.

NaBloPoMo 17

NaBloPoMo 17 -- Teaching Carnival PSA

Hey, everybody -- Teaching Carnival XVI is up at Ancarett's Abode. There's all kinds of good stuff, if I do say so myself.

Also, a reminder that the next edition of Carnivalesque (Ancient/Medieval) will be hosted by Gill Polack at Even in a little thing on or around the 25th of November. Also, Gill has a story published in the latest (and sold out, so you can read it online) issue of Subterranean, guest edited this time by John Scalzi.

More cat blogging later today or tomorrow. The Boy and his Ribbon wait in the wings.

NaBloPoMo 16

NaBloPoMo 16 -- gratuitous Cat blogging #1

This is why the Girl makes me crazy. Third floor balcony, folks!

NaBloPoMo 15

NaBloPoMo 15 -- Smiling now!

I just looked at my course rosters for Spring. I have a student in one of my survey courses -- well, I have a bunch of students. But this student has seemed bored and discontented in my class. And the student has signed up for the second half. It is not a required course, but the student's coming back for more! Also, in my other courses, I have non-majors who don't need the second half signed up -- and they're ones I like! And my upper division class? Six enrolled (enough for it to go, but I'd like 15), and I know all but one of them. I love repeat customers!

In other news, I'm behind on my book review (still) and have a pile of papers 7" thick to mark before I can get back to working on my stuff. OTOH, one of them contains blatant plagiarism in the first paragraph, so that's one I don't have to spend time on.

NaBloPoMo 14

NaBloPoMo 14 -- I said what??

Lordy -- just got invited to be on another search committee. I'd really like to, but turned it down. And I got an e-mail from my book review editor. Where's my review? The one due at the end of December? There isn't one due at the end of December. It was due two weeks ago. Guess what I'm doing over the holiday?

In other bloggy news, I am about to spend my hard-earned money on feline dentistry. Turns out that Mr. Soppy's stinky breath isn't just gingivitis. He's got what looks to be a seriously nasty tooth. Not to mention (this is icky) a cyst-like thing that is either not healthy, or like a big super-sized blackhead. Apparently, Schnauzers get these things all the time. Not harmful. But they want to remove it while he's under for the teeth, and make sure. He used to be a fairly inexpensive cat, but by the end of the month, he'll be the approximately $450 or more cat.

Also -- thanks, to everybody helping at the contest and please keep those good suggestions coming. Actually -- maybe that should go to a carnival???

Daily posting to continue -- can't promise quality till I climb out from under this pile, which just reminded me ... I haven't turned on the washer with my clothes for tomorrow yet. Shoot.

Yeah, this is one of those "raw" , "me, me, me" posts. Consider it insight into the life of a swamped junior academic who is feeling very old tonight.

NaBloPoMo 13

NaBloPoMo 13 -- Administrivia

First, there's a contest on, people!!. We have one judge so far, Jonathan Dresner at Frog in a Well. Any other volunteers?

In other news, I got a set of papers back today. Some look fine. Others? not so much. And one of them has an opening paragraph that's loosely paraphrased from an Amazon.com film review. How do I know? Because I've been doing this job a long time, and there are just some comparisons that freshmen will never make. Why? Because for one thing, none of them have seen a film made before 1990. *sigh* So, now I get to go talk to my chair and the dean and find out how much I need to document.

In other news, I've suddenly gone from trying to adjust and get back to researching to an absolute panic about getting my as-yet-not-accepted-but-maybe K'zoo paper done. Why? I have gone from, "how am I going to get enough service on my resume?" to OMG, I've just been appointed to a Big Important Committee, and a second pretty important committee (both university-wide and one very high profile), and oh, yeah, a search committee. And of course, now we're in the wind down of this term, where I have all kinds of marking, and then I'm gone for at least a week during break, and then all new preps for next term plus two conferences (only one of which I'm presenting at, thank goodness, but if I'm lucky, that'll be a paper and a roundtable on things pedagogical). How absolutely crazy am I for really keeping my fingers crossed that my K'zoo paper gets accepted?

Yipes. Just, yipes. And kind of "wow. It's like I'm a real academic like the other kids!"

Good wishes and advice welcomed.

NaBloPoMo 12

NaBloPoMo 12 -- A Contest!

Apropos of a conversation over at Pilgrim's, today's post is in the order of a contest. Can't promise anything but glory, but oh, what glory it is. We were thinking ... people keep saying that we learn history so we can avoid making the mistakes our forefathers have made, but historians? We're like Rodney Dangerfield. We get no respect. I think that also makes us like the Cowardly Lion, which is probably more applicable. So... I've got a phrase or two, and am looking for someone to put them together in a cool and groovy kind of way so we can make T-shirts a la Cafe Press or some such. I'd also like about 5 volunteers for a panel of judges.

So here's the phrase:

"If we're all supposed to learn from history, why is it that no one ever listens to historians?"

If you don't like that one, we did have a couple of others for people to play with:

"Historians: ignore us at your peril"

or

"Historians: ignore us and people die"


What do you all think?

Update: New submissions in the comments!

11-11

11-11

I saw no one selling poppies this year, but think we might see it again. So far, non-mortal US casualties are approximately 46,000. I couldn't find the numbers for the UK or Canada, the only other countries I could think of where disabled vets sell poppies.

NaBloPoMo 10

NaBloPoMo 10

Almost forgot. And I was going to cat blog today. But instead, I went to a colleague's house, ate well, drank well, and watched basketball. Now I'm watching BSG. It is so good. It is the best thing outside the Jossverse. But I'm very tired, and I'm guessing I won't be up to watch all of the Doctor. See you all tomorrow, when my post will be appropriately somber.

NaBloPoMo 8

NaBloPoMo 8

I have nothing of consequence to say today. I could say more to clarify what I said yesterday, but I'm working that out. Many of the anecdotes I would use are personal and I'd have to do some serious editing. Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, I had a good day today. Good teaching, good marking, good colleagues. I meant to go to bed early, yet here I am. Mostly because I'm kind of hooked on this show, Shark. I should probably watch it on the internets, but it's on right now. It's not all that great, really, but James Woods is really good. He's worth watching.

Also, I guess I need to watch Spiderman 2 because the trailer for Spiderman 3 looks pretty good. Not as good as Casino Royale but good enough. In the meantime, I really want to see The Prestige and the other magician movie -- the Illusionist, isn't it?

I did have one thought, though. Why is it that people always challenge measures that discriminate against gay people on civil rights grounds? I'm asking this because for me, it seems like a clear question of the establishment clause. As far as I can see, all the grounds for discriminating against homosexuals are grounded in religious teachings.* Yet not all religions teach the same thing about homosexuality. In fact, there are religions that bless unions between gay people, and others allow actual marriage ceremonies. So it seems that any law that allows discrimination based on sexual preference, including banning marriage (a contractual legal union -- I think that we should do what countries like Germany do, by the way -- a civil ceremony is the legal one, and if people want benefit of clergy, they can go to their clergyman), privileges some religious groups above others. To me, that seems to go against the establishment clause. But maybe I'm wrong. I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.



*OK, there's the cynical argument that the insurance companies don't want to allow spousal benefits to anyone they can ...

NaBloPoMo 7

NaBloPoMo 7

Not to burst anybody's bubble, but now that they've won back Congress, it might be a good thing for the Democrats to remember than not all of those races were won by landslides. There's a lot of work to be done. Although part of me does tend to think that the average liberal is better informed than the average conservative these days, dismissing conservatives as idiots will do no one any good. We have to take them seriously. I don't know what the solution is. But there are an awful lot of people in this country who don't think anything like what I do. Too many not to take them seriously. I do have one other observation, though. I have a lot more in common with people my own age and a bit older -- basically, other Boomers -- than I do with younger people. In general. These common values cross party lines. I can talk wbout politics with intelligent Republicans in their 50s and we will agree on an awful lot when it comes to civil rights, government intervention in people's private lives, the importance of the Constitution, etc., than with younger people. I don't think it's entirely an age thing, though. I think it's an educational divide. Education in this country is vastly different than it was in my day. These thoughts are rather ill-formed, but they're a start.