Years and years ago, my one uncle (my mom's brother), who's a chemist and respects education highly, promised my mom that he would always buy all the school books for me and my brother while we were getting our degrees.
We've never abused that kindness and have always limited ourselves to what books were most necessary, but even then he said a few years ago about me, "I never thought I'd be paying this long."
Anyhow, like a month ago I decided to hit my uncle up for $160 of school books for stuff I've been buying to teach my one class, and on my behalf my mom hit my uncle up for that and tried to get him to round it up to $200.
The other day I got the check in the mail, and it was for $200.17, and in the memo area was written:
$200 - Books. $0.17 to pay a small sales tax
. . .
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Regional conference.
A couple weekends ago I went to a regional conference, where I delivered the paper.
The conference is notoriously weaker on the whole than its national counterpart, but the sessions I went to were surprisingly solid and the same quality as national, and I wasn't the only one saying that, it turns out.
The first day me and a couple people who had graduated from my school went out for drinks to the local bar ("The Library"; it's one of those names like "The Store" and "The Office", so you can say, "Hey, I'm going to the store" and put one over on your spouse).
The one younger dynamic prof somehow started talking about how she always checks name pronunciations and the titles of papers before she introduces sessions, and the one time she forgot to do that and went up to intro papers cold, the very first paper title she read was like half unpointed Hebrew.
"What did you do?!?", we were like.
"I just went for it," she said. "What else can you do?".
She said the paper author later told her she did a very good job, but she's not sure if he said that just to make her feel good.
The conference is notoriously weaker on the whole than its national counterpart, but the sessions I went to were surprisingly solid and the same quality as national, and I wasn't the only one saying that, it turns out.
The first day me and a couple people who had graduated from my school went out for drinks to the local bar ("The Library"; it's one of those names like "The Store" and "The Office", so you can say, "Hey, I'm going to the store" and put one over on your spouse).
The one younger dynamic prof somehow started talking about how she always checks name pronunciations and the titles of papers before she introduces sessions, and the one time she forgot to do that and went up to intro papers cold, the very first paper title she read was like half unpointed Hebrew.
"What did you do?!?", we were like.
"I just went for it," she said. "What else can you do?".
She said the paper author later told her she did a very good job, but she's not sure if he said that just to make her feel good.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Chatty person on the subway.
Last week on the el a (half Indian half black?) (mid-20s) girl with knee-high boots with leather fringes and a black purse with shiny metal spike studs sat down next to me, chit-chatting on her iPhone.
In the new style of subway cars, most people face each other, but we had gotten one of the new seats by the doors that face forward.
"Oh I love this," she was like after she hung up, stretching out her feet forward into the empty space in front of us. "So roomy!"
We then started talking about the new style of cars, and she said that when they had first debuted, she was going through a tunnel that we had just gone through and the cars were rocking, and the tunnel was actually scraping the metal exterior of the car she was in.
"There was sparks and everything, and you could see it, and you don't think it takes long to get above ground from that tunnel, but they were going slow and it took forever, and then there was smoke and the smoke started filling the car! We all got up and ran to one end of the car and we call the conductor, and then he goes on the intercom and says, 'Smoking is not permitted in [acronym of the city's public transportation agency] vehicles,' and we call him right back and say, 'No, we're not smoking, the car is smoking!'"
She then said that the sparks and flames and smoke stopped once they got out of the tunnel and the conductor got out to inspect the car at the next stop, but by then nothing was wrong.
A few minutes later, when she got gum out for herself, I asked for a piece, and she gave it to me.
In the new style of subway cars, most people face each other, but we had gotten one of the new seats by the doors that face forward.
"Oh I love this," she was like after she hung up, stretching out her feet forward into the empty space in front of us. "So roomy!"
We then started talking about the new style of cars, and she said that when they had first debuted, she was going through a tunnel that we had just gone through and the cars were rocking, and the tunnel was actually scraping the metal exterior of the car she was in.
"There was sparks and everything, and you could see it, and you don't think it takes long to get above ground from that tunnel, but they were going slow and it took forever, and then there was smoke and the smoke started filling the car! We all got up and ran to one end of the car and we call the conductor, and then he goes on the intercom and says, 'Smoking is not permitted in [acronym of the city's public transportation agency] vehicles,' and we call him right back and say, 'No, we're not smoking, the car is smoking!'"
She then said that the sparks and flames and smoke stopped once they got out of the tunnel and the conductor got out to inspect the car at the next stop, but by then nothing was wrong.
A few minutes later, when she got gum out for herself, I asked for a piece, and she gave it to me.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
You know what I hate?
On some days during the winter, if it's a nice day, my salt deodorant doesn't quite work right, and I notice that BO is starting to adhere to my sweater I'm wearing.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
== BREAKING NEWS == BARHOPPING ==
Today marks the end of my 2nd year of barhopping.
Over 2 years, I've been to 1203 bars in city limits.
This past year, I went to 680 (=13.1 bars a week, 1.86 bars a day).
That beats out last, when I went to 523 (=10.1 bars a week, 1.43 bars a day).
Over 2 years, I've been to 1203 bars in city limits.
This past year, I went to 680 (=13.1 bars a week, 1.86 bars a day).
That beats out last, when I went to 523 (=10.1 bars a week, 1.43 bars a day).
Addendum.
Also, after the field trip, when we were waiting for the bus, one student was like, "I'm glad you did a good job not swearing in front of the Mormons. I was wondering if you were going to slip."
Also also, that day my coffee thermos had leaked in my bag, and a university library book on Mormonism that I had checked out had gotten soaked in espresso, and I was afraid my bookbag would smell like coffee for the field trip.
Also also, that day my coffee thermos had leaked in my bag, and a university library book on Mormonism that I had checked out had gotten soaked in espresso, and I was afraid my bookbag would smell like coffee for the field trip.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Mormonism field trip!!!
The other week like half my class went to a "family home evening" event for college students and young professionals in the local Mormon singles ward.
Already, two students have mentioned in emails to me that they loved the field trip.
Anyhow, my art students noticed/asked the most interesting things:
- the girls all had longer hair (at shortest, shoulder length) and their outfits showed no cleavage.
- people (and people were late 20s at the oldest!) tended to use the word "homosexual" and not "gay" (as in someone said, "Yes, we have four homosexuals in this ward" in response to a question; the student who noticed this said that the vocab choice actually grated her ears).
- though celibacy is mandated for gays, supposedly 2 lesbians work at the local temple; they're these older women who live together and are obviously butch, and no-one asks if they sleep together or not.
- most people said it was hard to be gay and Mormon (my students asked a lot about this), and 2 of the people there had a (black) (gay) (Mormon) roommate who literally lived in a closet in their apt. "Like, actually in the closet," they said.
-one young law student kind of hinted he was more liberal with sex than other Mormons his age, and when someone asked him how, he said that on dates he would kiss and hold hands, though "nothing naked" ("And he said it like he was all proud and was a rebel!", one student said).
- when I was asking about what's needed to get a temple recommend (which gets you into the temple), it emerged that the bishop asked rote questions, but a lot of times people had to be able to honestly answer that they adhered as they understood adherence... "Like with tithing", the one law student said. "Some people say a tenth, some people say a tenth of after tax income, and others don't count investment income." Our readings had said that a lot of times people tithed less if they were poor and couldn't afford it, but it blew me away that there seemed to be this culture of jesuitical Mitt Romney-like tithing where you re-arranged finances in order to f*ck your own church.
- students were wondering since if you can get married for eternity in Mormonism, if you could get divorced for eternity too... and the answer is yes! You appeal to authorities in Salt Lake City and get the seal "broken", to use the correct terminology. One woman there said her uncle married way too young and got his marriage sealed in the temple, and then later had it "broken" and is now remarried and re-sealed. "But you can't get it broken casually, though," she said. "Because everyone is kind of thinking, who knows, maybe they'll get back together."
Also, one student said she enjoyed the quiz game they played so much, that she could see herself "being Mormon in another life".
Also also, my one student who did all of the reading for the first 3 weeks is already like a third done with one of the major books in the course that we're not even due to crack open for like a month yet.
Also also also, my students were intrigued by how there's Mormon feminists, they never thought there could be such a thing... Next time I teach the course (*if* I teach the course) I'm going to have to put a short reading on from one, I already have an idea.
Already, two students have mentioned in emails to me that they loved the field trip.
Anyhow, my art students noticed/asked the most interesting things:
- the girls all had longer hair (at shortest, shoulder length) and their outfits showed no cleavage.
- people (and people were late 20s at the oldest!) tended to use the word "homosexual" and not "gay" (as in someone said, "Yes, we have four homosexuals in this ward" in response to a question; the student who noticed this said that the vocab choice actually grated her ears).
- though celibacy is mandated for gays, supposedly 2 lesbians work at the local temple; they're these older women who live together and are obviously butch, and no-one asks if they sleep together or not.
- most people said it was hard to be gay and Mormon (my students asked a lot about this), and 2 of the people there had a (black) (gay) (Mormon) roommate who literally lived in a closet in their apt. "Like, actually in the closet," they said.
-one young law student kind of hinted he was more liberal with sex than other Mormons his age, and when someone asked him how, he said that on dates he would kiss and hold hands, though "nothing naked" ("And he said it like he was all proud and was a rebel!", one student said).
- when I was asking about what's needed to get a temple recommend (which gets you into the temple), it emerged that the bishop asked rote questions, but a lot of times people had to be able to honestly answer that they adhered as they understood adherence... "Like with tithing", the one law student said. "Some people say a tenth, some people say a tenth of after tax income, and others don't count investment income." Our readings had said that a lot of times people tithed less if they were poor and couldn't afford it, but it blew me away that there seemed to be this culture of jesuitical Mitt Romney-like tithing where you re-arranged finances in order to f*ck your own church.
- students were wondering since if you can get married for eternity in Mormonism, if you could get divorced for eternity too... and the answer is yes! You appeal to authorities in Salt Lake City and get the seal "broken", to use the correct terminology. One woman there said her uncle married way too young and got his marriage sealed in the temple, and then later had it "broken" and is now remarried and re-sealed. "But you can't get it broken casually, though," she said. "Because everyone is kind of thinking, who knows, maybe they'll get back together."
Also, one student said she enjoyed the quiz game they played so much, that she could see herself "being Mormon in another life".
Also also, my one student who did all of the reading for the first 3 weeks is already like a third done with one of the major books in the course that we're not even due to crack open for like a month yet.
Also also also, my students were intrigued by how there's Mormon feminists, they never thought there could be such a thing... Next time I teach the course (*if* I teach the course) I'm going to have to put a short reading on from one, I already have an idea.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Baltimore accents.
Like a month ago I was at a bar with my one (light-skinned black) friend from Arkansas, and we bumped into a museum curator I know from the sex doc series and a few people who had been at an exhibit closing party with her.
One of those people was an old (white-haired) (leftie) activist guy from Baltimore, and I realized when he was talking that he had such an interesting accent, and I wasn't sure I had ever really heard a Baltimore accent before or even met someone from there with one.
I think John Travolta tried one for the musical remake of "Hairspray", but it was nothing like the one I heard.
I think I would really like living in Baltimore, though I'm not sure why.
One of those people was an old (white-haired) (leftie) activist guy from Baltimore, and I realized when he was talking that he had such an interesting accent, and I wasn't sure I had ever really heard a Baltimore accent before or even met someone from there with one.
I think John Travolta tried one for the musical remake of "Hairspray", but it was nothing like the one I heard.
I think I would really like living in Baltimore, though I'm not sure why.
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