Miscellany

[stoutfellow]

Today's going to be a long day.

Every year, those of us with tenure are assigned to observe our non-tenured faculty and comment on their teaching. This semester, I've got two. One is on a long-term non-tenured contract; she is not a researcher, and as far as I know she doesn't want tenure. She's just a darned good teacher, and I feel a little bit embarrassed sitting in judgment on her. I did that observation on Friday. The other one is call staff; these are people we hire on a semester-to-semester basis, depending on need. Unfortunately, his class meets at 6PM Monday/Wednesday, which is after the buses quit running. I'll be observing him tonight, and I hope I'll be able to find someone to give me a lift home.

A couple of years ago, I cut back sharply on my coffee habit, which was running three or four cups a day. (High blood pressure, y'know.) Lately, though, I've resumed drinking, though no more than one cup a day. Mostly it's been on-campus, either from a vending machine or from the coffee machine in the faculty lounge. Both of those are execrable. Yesterday, I decided that if I was going to drink it I'd go for the good stuff. The problem is that I'm not particularly fond of any of the Latin American varieties; the varieties I like are Indonesian (Sumatra Mandheling, Celebes Kalossi) or East African (Ethiopian Harar, Kenya AA), but they're not easy to find. Shop'n'Save's selection of whole-bean coffees isn't very good, and Schnucks is only slightly better. I did find a bag labelled "Sumatra", at least. I think there's a shop that specializes in coffee down the road a bit - at least, there was one a few years ago - but I may have to go online.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been getting very strange online behavior - uninterpreted HTML appearing on web pages, mysterious malfunctions attributed to AdSubtract, a couple of RealPlayer modules refusing to cooperate on shutdowns. I figured RP was probably the culprit, so I uninstalled it; voila, no more problems. I never had much use for it anyway. I suppose Windows MediaPlayer will fill the gap, hopefully without malfunctioning.

I finished Narcissus in Chains yesterday. Though it's intriguing what's happening to Anita, I wasn't much impressed with the overall structure. It seemed less cohesive than previous volumes, possibly because the real story was her transformation rather than her struggle with a specific opponent. Also, there were rather more characters than usual, it seemed; I had to flip back to confirm the identity of one character, who only appeared in two brief but important scenes. Hmph. I keep hearing that the series is coming to suffer from bloat; it's certainly true that the recent volumes are thicker than the early ones. I'll probably stick with it, though, for at least one more book.

Ah, well. I should get dressed now.

Comments

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

I hope you will have gotten a lift home by the time you read this. What *do* you do when you need to suddenly just go somewhere? Are taxis fairly reliable in your area?

And, yeah, vending machine coffee must be recycled liquid once used in industrial etching processes. One paper cup's worth and *anything* that the hydrochloric acid in one's stomach hasn't already killed doesn't have a chance.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've found someone willing to help. He doesn't get out of class until 8:45, but what the heck - Everwood isn't on this week anyway.

When the need is both sudden and urgent, I'm afraid I impose shamelessly on my friends and coworkers. It doesn't happen often; the last time was ten or eleven years ago - a veterinary crisis involving a beagle puppy named Simon, who, alas, died. (He was Ben's predecessor as Murphy's playmate.)

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. That's shameless. Geez, once every ten years is really an *imposition*! (g)

Sorry to hear about your beagle boy. That must have been tough.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The Humane Society had given him his shots before I took him home, but apparently he had already been infected with distemper. One day while I was working at the computer, he had a seizure; I rushed him to the vet, and they gave me pills for him, but it was too late. A week later he slipped into a coma and died. I was in shock for the better part of the next two days.

I brought Ben home a month later.

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

That's sad. I had something similar with a little marmalade kitten I adopted at the Humane Society (about 25 yrs ago!). Wally was absolutely adorable and all he wanted to do was cuddle. Same deal, shots had been given, but the distemper was already cooking. That was a rough week.