Do i know you?

On my first day of lecturing a couple of weeks ago, I asked a student whether we'd met before...I KNOW. It was a ridiculous thing to say. I know it sounded like the worst pick-up line ever. Not to mention, it was totally inappropriate to say that to a student on the first day of class. What made it worse was that he insisted we hadn't met and I wouldn't believe it. Silly me.

I had almost recovered from the experience until last night when I entered my local convenience store to buy myself some...you know, lady products. Alas, it's THAT time of the month. So there I am, making my way through the isles with a pack of Always maxi-pads and a toothbrush in my hands when I notice that MY STUDENT (the do-i-know-you-from-somewhere guy) IS AT THE CASH-REGISTER. Not shopping. WORKING!!! Honestly, if I blushed, I would have turned five hundred shades of red. T'was a super high-stress situation for three major reasons:

1. Running into a student outside of class, especially at the beginning of the semester brings back memories of running into your own professors into the bathroom and realizing that they shit as well. I mean, come on. Your superiors are not supposed to do earthly things like that, right?!
2. Poor guy had not been in class earlier that day. Running into a student who had missed class that very same day presents you with the challenge of a) acting like a total asshole (Why weren't you in class today?! making your student think: Dude, I have a LIFE!!!) or b) attempting to be cool (which, of course, never works and you turn out to be dorkier than you OR your student thought).
3. I thought I was way past the age when I was embarrassed by my period, you know. The times when I only bought feminine products from female store-clerks are long gone. Plus, I am a feminist you know. I am a WOMAN and, goddamnit, I am PROUD. Turns out...not so much. I just couldn't help but think that if I bought my maxi-pads from my student, he would be scarred for life and every time he would look at me, he would picture me all crouched up above my toilet seat trying to stick a tampon in my...you-know-what. Not exactly the image I want him to remember me by.

So I did what any self-respecting young woman would do. Without even blinking, I smiled, dropped my pack of Always maxi-pads on the floor behind me, and proceeded to the cash-register where I paid for my toothbrush, and left the store faster than I thought possible.

Geo thinks I am blowing this way out of proportion and I'm thinking...well, have YOU ever bought maxi-pads from your student. I didn't think so.

Thank you!

Thank you all for writing! You have made my week!!! I knew it would be pretty exciting to put names to the IP addresses, but I had no idea how overwhelmed I would be by your response. In a totally good way!

Your treat for writing is the unique chance to see a previously unreleased (for obvious reasons) picture of myself. Whoever comes up with the best caption, will get a hand-crafted (bighead-)card by moi.



Again, thank you so much. You rock!

international de-lurking week

So, yeah, hmmm. I've tried really hard to avoid doing this type of stuff, but I've finally given in. Apparently, it's international de-lurking week.



I've been visited by many people but not that many have talked to me. So, please, say hi. You have no idea how curious I am who you are. Tell me your best squirrel-story. Or something.

P.S. For those of you who HAVE been commenting, think of this as Reader Appreciation Day as well. Words cannot describe how much I love hearing from you.

Housing dispute

I went outside of my office building, aka Da Pond, to smoke a cigarette. I had music blasting in my headphones and still could hear this horrendous screeching noise that reminded me of something I'd heard in Lord of the Rings. It went on for quite a while so I started looking for its source. Just as I am putting out my cigarette I notice a squirrel sticking its head out of a hole in a tree and another one attacking it and apparently trying to get into the hole itself. I think they'd been trying to settle this housing dispute for a while because at some point the one from the hole (desperate, yet, foolishly self-assured) jumped out of it and started chasing the other one up the tree. It was pretty funny to watch them battle it out. As much as I hate squirrels (which I seriously do), I do find them rather amusing.

See, State College temperatures have drastically fallen in the last couple of days and people (AND animals, it seems) are having a really hard time figuring out what to do with themselves.

life is short...

...make fools of yourselves while you can...

The Dormitory Boys. Bless their hearts.

Teaching comparative politics

I am teaching again this semester and I find it only appropriate to warn you that you should expect a series of posts about various student-related issues.

In general, I enjoy teaching. I like the cool kids and make fun of the dumb ones which seems to fly well. Also, I am a lot better prepared to deal with stuff now that I actually have a little bit of experience teaching. Still, I suspect I might need your creative input as things come up. Like, for example, how do you make people understand that getting ready to leave 10 minutes before lecture is over is so fucking irritating and rude!!! Honestly, if I had the power, I would get a bow with arrows and pin each anxious bastard to their seat the minute they start shuffling their papers around. I was thinking that screaming out the firmest loudest 'NO' I am capable of could make them stop and reconsider. That's a trick I learned in self-defense class. If you get attacked on the street, the first thing you do is precisely that. You extend your arm and say 'NO' as loudly as you can. Apparently, most attackers do not expect that and many of them are very likely to back off.

As you see, I've got important things on my mind today. All that disciplinary stuff and, of course, what to wear to my first lecture tomorrow. Decisions decisions.

Blogging it right!

Elenko's posted an entry referencing a Jakob Nielsen piece about the ten most common mistakes bloggers make. With all due respect, I say fuck that to both.

As far as I am concerned, the most valuable thing about blogging is precisely the fact that you do not need to observe any rules. Following Elenko's and Nielsen's rules might be productive if you are in the business of blogging, that is, to quote Nielsen, "writing for your future employer." It WILL increase your readership and it WILL bring in more 'valuable' people to your site. Oh, and by the way, could somebody please explain to me according to what standards does Nielsen assign value to various readers?

Both texts assume that there is only one reason for writing and ignore the fact that the vast majority of bloggers are not what we traditionally call experts in any sphere of life. Both assume that people read weblogs for 'information' or to educate themselves. That is definitely true sometimes. SOME people visit professional or specialized weblogs as a way of following latests trends, developments, or products. Not all of us, though. Both texts presume exactly that very same type of audience which is by no means insignificant but in no way exhausts a huge variety of blog-readers.

Certainly, there are basic design and style principles that simply make reading a text easier. And, sure, it is so much better to write frequently than not. Speaking from personal experience, however, the personal (as opposed to corporate) weblogs that I enjoy the most are the most inconsistent of all. I love seeing that a person cares about what they do professionally so much that they have to blog about it. I love reading about personal mishaps: I need to know that there is a breathing person behind the stories. I don't mind seeing drunk pictures taken with a crappy camera-phone: some of the best things in life happen too fast for you to be able to take your nice camera out. I read. I write. I work. I get disappointed. Sometimes I'm funny. Most of the time I'm boring. And, honestly, I do not need to package and sell it according to somebody else's rules. That seems to be Nielsen's job.

I don't know why for some reason people haven't been able to make sense of weblogs on their own terms. Weblogs work and grow not because they are like other websites or media. They flourish because they are unlike them. For that reason, it seems unnecessary to measure their sucess according to traditional media standards.