A Secret History

• 03:10 RT @mollyfried: The Veritas Unicoder, a functional cyphering/Miskatonic translator! tinyurl.com/cvkm86 #
• 09:41 Theriaca Fina and @nullalux just joined the Handmade Twibe. Visit twibes.com/handmade to join. #
• 13:55 According to @calshakes, it's "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" (btw, half-price Romeo & Juliet tix today only): talklikeshakespeare.org #
• 14:08 @unwoman: Oh, the joys of being "that girl from the internet" await you. :) #
• 14:23 Former student sends stripper to 10-yr reunion in her place, films "I Remember Andrea" documentary: tinyurl.com/AndreaCricket #
• 14:26 RT @Exploratorium: Exploratorium fans! We need your VOTE; nominated for 2 Webbies (Science & Education) tr.im/iUEH #
• 14:47 Insects are efficient and compassionate, ruthless and amazingly intelligent at the same time: tinyurl.com/10insectfacts (nice photos) #
• 14:51 @olorle: That's known as the @steamteam bump, baby. (We twittered about your blog, and we have almost 600 followers.) #
• 15:12 Via @craft: This Saturday (26 April) is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day www.pinholeday.org/org/ #
• 17:49 Promoting for a friend: Blooddrop Clothing & Fineries, Victorian reproduction clothing, other whimsical goods. www.blooddrop.com/ #
• 18:23 Giggling over some of @cockerham's brilliant tomfoolery. www.cockeyed.com/ #
• 18:28 The Tragedic Comical Historie of Buffy the Slayer of the Vampyres: lifeamgood.com/bu_sh_pro.htm #
• 18:34 Drastic changes to 7th ed of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, my secular citation bible: tinyurl.com/prescriptivistHO #
• 18:39 Modern Medical Marvel: Fir Tree Grows in Living Man's Lung tinyurl.com/FirUral09 #
• 18:47 Pathological Waxworks, "Palacio de la Escuela de Medicina" in Mexico City (anatomy, NSFW): tinyurl.com/pathological-waxes #
• 22:17 Perhaps my alt massage therapist will do. He hurt me in all sorts of lovely ways tonight. #

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Bullet point summary:
·Tonight's Back-to-School Night was awesome. They laughed at my jokes, but not at my translations (always a plus).
·New glasses! Although threetimes pointed out that now I look even more like the chick from Ghost World.
·We wowed the LIN 406 folk yesterday with our fabulous presentation of a phonemic word wall and our persuasive argument for an early childhood literacy program based upon phonemic awareness and sound-spelling correspondence.
·Teach For America Bay Summit this Saturday, at which many grad schools and public interest organizations will be wooing us beyond our current oh-so-lucrative placements (there's a life after TFA?).
·L'Shanah Tovah!

From whobunkyboo, of course:

You are DNA. You're a smart person, and you appear
incredibly complex to people who don't know
you. You're incomparably full of information,
and most of it is useless.

Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Quite so. Although said useless knowledge generally serves to keep me amused, at any rate. I do make my own fun.

My voice always hurts whenever I begin teaching again. I'm not used to speaking at such length, much less projecting. My plants miss me, but my students are blooming. Sigh. It feels very much like a Wednesday.

NB: I seem to have acquired a Gmail account. It is nicer than the ucdavis-alumni.com server, so I've routed my mail there.

How terrible is that? Again with the incredibly accurate memes.

Nobody knows...the trouble she's Bean. The Bean escaped from her area last night. Dennis found her this morning reclining behind his stereo system. This would be fairly unremarkable except that Fava is the most destructive rabbit ever. She has, at one point or another, decimated the three computer systems in the office, ate an entire baseboard, and pulled up and shredded the hallway carpet. This is a partial list. And we're seasoned bunn wranglers, well-steeped in the niceties of bunnyproofing and husbandry. Plus, to add insult to injury, she's spotted. [Edit: She's white with black spots. Somebody get some spot remover.] Fortunately, the stereo remains unscathed.

So much time in the teaching profession seems taken up by drudgery: collating, stapling, copying. Dude, I need a grad student.

I'm spending today alone, which is quite a rarity. tutordennis is in Sac for a few days, and threetimes is out and about. I've been puttering around the house and yard with the critters and reading Christopher Moore's Lamb (trying to get in some more pleasure reading before school starts). It's my last week of freedom! I'm looking forward to setting up my classroom starting next week, and meeting the new TFA Corps Members teaching at our site. I'll also be taking an evening Linguistics class at NHU (I hope it's at least reasonably academic, and not one of those applied "teacher education" courses), so I'll be in class until 9:30P on TR. This does not bode well for my leisure time. This Saturday I'm going to a seminar on "Disciplining with Love and Logic," which should no doubt be titled "Asserting Your Absolute Authority over Children without Feeling Guilty." Ick.

When Dennis and I went shopping recently, we parked by the Jamba Juice (which is in the same strip mall-type lot as Albertson's, where we were shopping). So we were heading back to the car with about six bags of groceries and a case of bottled water, when, about 20 feet from the car, the cart's wheels locked up. Apparently, the store has some sort of anti-theft device on their carts. Fine. But we were still in the same parking lot! So, thanks to the anti-helpful device, we had to go back and forth lugging the bags and the case of water across the just-far-enough-to-be-annoying distance to the car. If I were a grumbly sort of person, I'd be grumbling.

Okay, the cats are looking expectant, so I will feed them and then go out to feed myself. Heavenly Salad from Vegetarian House is calling to me! Yummy food, and cult propaganda. What more could one ask?

Disturbing link of the day: Empower yourself!.

I haven't been sleeping at night, as you can tell by my participation in the following meme:
( Kissing Survey )

As posted by vinoepoesia in academics_anon:

I would like to tell you all a little favola which I believe is a perfect example of my everyday interactions in the non-Smith world.

Setting: A bar in New Haven called Bar (appropriately) at approximately 1 AM
Why: To see Ted Leo and the Pharmaceuticals (or something that reminds one of medication) play live, in addition to their opening act which should have been called We Look Like We Go To Smith And Are Under The False Assumption That we Can Rock, Band
Music: Decent
Scene: 20-something hipsters
Personal Physical State of Being: Tired

Taking into consideration the cumulative effect of the above conditions, I decided to leave the dance floor area, grab a beer, and settle into an unoccupied couch the next room over while sporting my best "I'm not a pleasant person so please do not talk to me" face. Apparently said face is not as effective as I had hoped seeing as though I was quickly trapped by Boring Guy # 2. This man told me of his plan to make a lot of money by designing and manufacturing furniture so he could then realize the ultimate dream of producing his original screenplay. To my chagrin, he began to explain the plot of his story, and called the main character Everyman, and told me of the character's subsequent "profound" journey. I offhandedly say, "very Dantesque" and am then met with a look of confusion. To clarify, I say "the Divine Comedy," to which he replies - in an extremely patronizing voice - "this will NOT be a comedy."

My years in the Academy have left me with the perfect conversation-ending ploy: simply mention that a) you study dead languages, or b) you are a grammarian. These statements need not be true, mind you, (although in my case they are--shhh) and you will be immediately met with glazed eyes, nodding of the head, the vocalization "aa-ahh," and *voila* the absence of your unwanted companion.