Dave Munger tagged me with a meme about (among other things) the effect blogging has had on my life. The questions seem worthy of relection, so I’m game:
Category Archives: Personal
I must have missed the line in my contract that said this is volunteer work.
The faculty where I teach is at a bargaining impasse with the administration of our university system over our contracts. We are hoping that the administration will come back to the table for a real negotiation*, but in the event that that doesn’t happen, there are plans for a system-wide “rolling strike”, with staggered two-day walkouts at each of the 23 universities in the system.
This prompted some opinion pieces in the school newspaper, including this one. There’s a lot I could say about the claims in this piece (the university is going to hire replacement teachers or drop courses from the catalog because of a two-day strike? unlikely!), but there’s a single sentence that I think merits real attention:
If the teachers care more about getting paid rather than the education of the students, I say let them walk.
Marcel Vigneron was robbed!
I simply cannot accept the final judgment in Bravo’s Top Chef (season 2). Marcel should have won.
Sure, I didn’t actually taste the two meals. But simply on the basis of innovation (especially given that the panel of judges seemed to have really good things to say about the flavors of both meals), Marcel should have had the edge. And that’s before we even get into which of the two finalists showed himself to be more ethical and mature (a category Marcel also won on the merits).
I am now officially interested as heck in learning all about molecular gastronomy. It’s chemistry that non-chemists can see a reason to care about. If Marcel Vigneron or “his people” (if he has “people” at this stage of his career) read this, Marcel has a standing invitation to appear on this blog and educate us about the chemistry of that cool stuff he does in the kitchen.
Beginning of semester moment of clarity.
Since classes for our Spring semester started just last Wednesday, my approach to the university this morning (from freeway exit to parking garage) involved a huge line of cars, creeping very slowly. It also involved campus police directing the movement of long lines of cars at what is, in normal circumstances, a four-way stop. It has been this way since last Wednesday, and it will continue to be this week for probably another week.
In about a week, as if by magic, campus police will no longer be needed to move the traffic, and the lines of cars at any given moment will be reduced by at least 50%.
Paging S/F fans: how should I feel about this?
I took the quiz to find out which science fiction writer I am, and this is the result:
SBC 2007 — links to slide sources.
I promised the folks who were listening to my talk at the Science Blogging Conference that I’d post the links to the various blog posts whose screenshots I used to illustrate my points. Here they are:
North Carolina Science Blogging Conference 2007 — Friday dinner.
Bora just said, “There are twenty bloggers here. Who’s live blogging the dinner?!”
I guess the answer is: Me.
Not entirely random accumulation of items.
I’ve decided that the “intersession” we have between semesters is a cruel hoax. Though it promises a few weeks in which one might actually get some writing done, what it delivers is an endless list of tasks (many spawned by bureaucracy) that one must scurry to accomplish before the next semester starts. Feh!
As I’ve been scurrying, I’ve accumulated some items I’d like to share:
Even at a conference, you’ve got to eat!
Hey, for those of you coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, don’t forget to sign up for the dinners! There’s one big group dinner on Friday, January 19, from 7 to 10 PM, and a bunch of group dinners on Saturday, January 20, right after the official conclusion of the conference.
You know you’ll have fun sharing a meal with other conference attendees, some of whom you may only know through the screen. Make a date to meet them in the three-dimensional world.
For those of you who really like planning your trips, many of the restaurants in question have their menus online. Yes, I’ve already decided what I’m getting both nights. I don’t want to risk missing some good conversation while my head is buried in a menu!
Happy birthday to ScienceBlogs!
As John Lynch points out, today marks the first anniversary of the launch of ScienceBlogs, an experiment in gathering conversations about science in a dedicated corner of the blogosphere. (Yes, I know that spheres don’t have corners. Let me enjoy my mixed metaphor.)