serious posting will resume . . . later

kitten zen

(via cuteoverload, of course)

miscellany (catching up)

- Mom, Dad and I went to a really wonderful family party at Andy and Natalie's house on Sunday to celebrate Mother's Day. After dinner we played Catchphrase, and it went a little like this:

Fabrice: Two syllables. The first syllable is what you call it when you count all of the countries in the Earth together. (Makes circling hand motion.)

Ron: The world.

Fabrice: Yes. Okay. Second syllable is a common English name. A very common English name.

Jerry: Fred!

Fabrice: No, a last name. Like, in the phone book, the most common last name.

Dad: Smith? World smith?

Fabrice: Yes!

Betty (falling over laughing): WORD smith.

Fabrice: Yes.

Megan: That's...no. That's cheating. You can't use the French card every time, Fab!

- In an unexpected development, my students are (still) really enjoying reading Sister Carrie. Hooray for them! I'm a little baffled that the general opinion seems to be that it's a better book than Jane Eyre, but I'll take whatever enthusiasm I can get!

- My sisters graduate on Sunday! WOW.

- Some robins have built a next INSIDE the building where I am holding office hours!

- Someone gets voted out of American Idol tomorrow!

- I am almost out of my daily quota of exclamation points!

- Oh no, there go the rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(I'm, err, a little bit sleep-deprived.)

minjas (midget ninjas)

This is old, but it still makes me laugh! (You might have to stop the video posted on the comments before you watch it.)

"Maybe the smallest thing I can fit into is maybe a Plenty Pack of gum. They can fit into the five-stick pack."

midquarter posting

My time and my sleep has been gobbled up by midquarter reading, presentations, teaching, grading, meetings, and season finale viewing (well, Gilmore Girls at least). In the last three nights, I have had about 12 hours of sleep; TGI(almost)F!

I'm frustrated with some of my students. My lack of sleep last night was mostly due to my commenting on an entire set of drafts in one day. I wanted my students to have the chance to work with the comments before the final drafts are due next week, so I forced myself to finish reading them all. (This probably wouldn't have been too bad if I hadn't started grading so late, but that's my own fault.) However, SIX of the 17 students who submitted drafts were absent today; i.e., they didn't even bother showing up to pick up their drafts. Six absent students = app. two hours more I could have slept last night. Grr.

On the brighter side of things, my students seem to be really enjoying Sister Carrie, which is a pleasant surprise. I'm really proud of the ones who are keeping up with everything--spring quarter is so exhausting. I hope we can find the energy to remain enthusiastic over the next few weeks! Perhaps I will look into bringing sugary things to class. (That went over well last time.)

Somebody please stop me...

...from mentioning to my class that Jane and Rochester cannot get married until a very merry un-Bertha day.

I choose to blame Todd, even though I came up with it myself.

Geoffrey Chaucer hath pick-up lines!

"Yf thou were a latyn tretise ich wolde putte thee in the vernacular."

Go find them here if you need a break. Or if you just want some good lines to use during time travel jaunts. (You know you take them.)

a short story with little point, although it does feature an upside-down bicycle

I mentioned earlier that I sometimes wish I carried my camera with me around campus, because there are often striking or strange sights that I'd like to capture and share. Today, there was a bicycle resting upside-down in the crook of two tree branches. I'm assuming it was probably a prank, although it wasn't particularly high in the tree, so a student--providing he or she was taller than me (and way taller than Alexander Pope)--could have hastily attempted to store it somewhere on the way to class. As I passed it, I noticed that everyone walking by was looking up at it with amused, befuddled expressions. The bicycle united us all into some sort of crazy, communal detective work.

The bike was still there on my walk back to my apartment. As I neared it, I noticed a student with a cell phone glancing up at it, sharing the same curiosity. A few seconds later, she pointed her cellphone at the bike, and took a photo. Predictable? Yes. But also kind of poignant somehow.