I got an e-mail this morning that I'd been included in a "Top 100 university bloggers" (or something like that) list. The e-mail encouraged me to mention this on my blog. I clicked over to the site and found that many of the regular suspects weren't listed. (And really, how can it be a Top 100 list without Dr. Crazy or Profgrrrrl?)

A little more surfing showed this site to be a big advertising site for online degree programs.

I am quite annoyed about this "honor." It's no honor to be listed by a link farm that direct traffic to the type of site that cheapens academia. So yeah, I'll mention it on my blog, but without the link, and changing the title to prevent googling. Crap sites like theirs don't exactly improve higher education.)

Let's see how long this blog stays on that honorable list.

Labels: blogging

...but I'm going to boycott Amazon and switch to Barnes and Noble until they stop selling this vile t-shirt.

What on earth is Amazon thinking? Feel free to contact them yourself. Here's the link.

Updated: looks like Amazon got almost 100 negative reviews in a matter of days. The page has been removed! Sometimes the power of negative publicity is a very good thing. But if you missed them on Amazon and are wondering what the fuss was all about, there's more info here.

Labels: sick stuff

But does anyone know what a standard plan ends up truly costing each month?

This man has said that "men abuse their wives is because women rebel against their husband's God-given authority," according to this site.

Well, how nifty to know that it's that simple to stop domestic abuse. Just blame the victim. And in the name of Jesus.

(Seen at Feministing.)

Labels: things that make me so furious I could scream

Got the student evals today. One of my students wrote:

"Quit being so feminist."

That's what happens when you devote one day to female composers. Out of 32 class meetings.

Labels: female and academic

One of the fun things (and OK, challenging things) about getting married at age 37 is that I'm used to doing things in a certain way. Which is totally the right way, of course. As if there could be any other way do to things besides my way? Surely not!

So, about this getting married and compromising thing. It's a juggling act. It's frustrating at times and hilarious at times and fun at times and sometimes all three at once.

Take today, for example. I am unpacking. Unexpected is not so great at figuring out where things go and how to get them there. But he's great at lifting heavy objects, moving stuff wherever I ask him to, and lugging empty boxes to the storage shed or out to the garbage. And he's good at making dinner.

Today he said he'd take boxes out to the trash. A few minutes later, I noticed that the grill was going full blast, and so was the fire pit. I asked him what he was burning (not dinner, luckily), and he answered:

"Cardboard boxes."

Why on earth would he burn cardboard boxes instead of taking them out to the street for garbage pickup, I asked.

"It's fun to burn stuff."

I will never understand what makes guys tick. But life with mine is never dull.

Labels: funny stuff, Unexpected Man

Last week a former student from Musical Basketweaving waited on me at the paint store. While we were waiting for the machine to mix the paint, we made a little small talk. He said, "It will be weird not to call you Dr. Degree pretty soon."

I have a deal with my kazoo students: after they graduate from college, they call me by my first name. But I couldn't recall having told my Musical Basketweaving class that they could do so. So I was a little surprised. I replied, startled, "Oh, are you graduating this summer?"

He looked at me oddly and said, "No, what do you mean?"

Then it dawned on me. He meant that after the wedding he'd have to learn to call me Dr. Unexpected!

So I said, "Mr. Unexpected and I have both decided to keep our names."

He looked shocked. And horrified. And I realized that if he'd actually heard of this practice before, he certainly had never met anyone who had kept her birth name. Ever the teacher, I tried to explain:

"A lot of female professors keep their birth name after marriage, especially if they get married later in life and after their careers are already established. Professors have to publish and create a reputation for themselves, and if we were to change our names partway through our careers, we'd be starting over."*

*Apologies to those of you who've changed your names. I'm in no way knocking your choice and certainly respect it. I was trying for a simple explanation for this particular student, who's never experienced any other culture than the town in which we live.

He still looked baffled, but then those wonderful Southern manners took over and he pretended to understand.

And I realized that over the years I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Luckily I can laugh at the assumption that a woman will automatically change the name she's had for almost 40 years. Because today Unexpected and I got some beautiful towels in the mail as a wedding present. Monogrammed with a "U."

We're going to regift them to his parents this Christmas.

Labels: female and academic

Unexpected is teaching summer school and is grading papers while I unpack boxes. One of his students, a most unpleasant person and a real troublemaker, has written a paper that is downright lousy. Stu Dent has used parenthetical citations...sort of. Stu has dumped entire internet paragraphs into the paper. At the end of each paragraph, Stu has used parenthesis for the source. But the entire paragraph, which is NOT in quotes, is not Stu's own words. Stu has merely done a data dump. (One clue? The footnote from Wikipedia. In an MLA formatted paper, no less.)

Now, this is Unexpected's class, not mine. And I'm not about to tell him what to do. It's not as simple as it sounds, because this student is a horrible troublemaker. Stu has assumed that all of the other students who look like Stu must share Stu's beliefs. The little brat has gone as far as to call other students outside of class to try to get them on Stu's "side." Simply put, most of the other students hate Stu, especially when Stu wasted their class time by throwing a tantrum on the last day of class. The other students made sure to tell Unexpected that this was their favorite class. Ever. (I was in his office and overheard some of them. It's awfully nice to hear good comments from students about one's sweetie, y'know?)

Ideally, the student would fail the class (and not just because Stu is a jerk, but because Stu's papers have really stunk, and the plagiarism ought to be the last straw). But such a "prickly" student, as Unexpected describes Stu, is capable of raising hell. And Unexpected does not feel like dealing with a contested grade, or even a lawsuit, from a racist redneck, right before we get married.

I don't know what he'll do. He doesn't know what he'll do yet. But students like this really suck the energy out of one's teaching.

Labels: students

I am The Person In Charge of a specific program at Regional University. Unexpected is also involved with this program. But I'm the chair of it.

We've both been summoned to a meeting about this program. Unexpected has explained that I'm the Head Honcha about the program. Yet a certain administrator keeps calling him to set up the agenda. I just listened to the voicemail. Administrator said: "We'd like your ideas, Unexpected, about the program. Oh, yeah, and Terminal's ideas too."

I asked Unexpected why he gets the calls, and not I. Unexpected put on his fake-serious face (I love that look!) and explained, the way one might to a very small child, "It's because you have no penis, sweetie."

I offered to buy a strap-on to wear to the meeting. Unexpected thinks it's a bad idea.

Labels: female and academic, funny stuff