So I'm starting to panic a little bit that I don't have a job lined up for next fall yet. I have a young family, and no matter what, I need to get something with benefits, even if that means stepping out of my chosen profession for a year or so. Now, all of this is build-up for something that may not have an actual payoff. Anyway, in this state, I got word yesterday that my dissertation has been nominated for a prize. Like I said, everything that makes you stand out is a great thing. I don't think it will have much of an impact on my CV, but hey, it's something. Who knows? Maybe I'll even win the prize.
Whither Turtar?
I'm realizing that this is my second "where did I go?" post in a row. Well, the last months have been pretty rough. I finished my PhD last summer, and I've been working as a visiting instructor at a major university in the Rocky Mountains. In case you're wondering, "visiting" really means "replacement faculty, so there's not really a chance we'll keep you beyond the limit of your contract." In other words, you are employed by a history department, but you don't really "belong" there. You don't get the research or travel budget regular employees get, and they stick you with whatever courses they want, rather than letting you choose what you will teach. Then they boot you to the curb. And we thank them for it because really, it was better than nothing. I'm in a job market where there are about 30 regular tenure-track jobs per year, and some of them have upwards of 200 applicants. Unless you do something to really stand out, then you won't get a job.
My disappearance explained
OK, so the already limited number of people reading my blog has probably dwindled to nothing. But I need to explain my absence. While it has been over a month since last I wrote, I never intended to give up the blog. I just got really, truly, insanely busy. Something had to give, and my blog simply had to fall by the wayside. Now I have more time.
Here's what I accomplished: I finished my dissertation, defended it, and moved almost all the way across the country. Plus I organized my lectures for the two courses I'm going to teach this summer. Sound like a lot? No? How about if I mention that we moved all of our stuff out of our house to a storage unit and made lots of repairs on the house itself? I thought you might agree.
I'm a bit tuckered out from the 2.5 day, 2400 mile journey we finished last night, so I'm going to end here for now. I promise to give more details in the next few days, though. I'll just leave you with this thought: I think that the Comfort Suites is a great hotel. We arrived at the one in St. Joseph, MO around 10:00 PM on Wednesday night, and their pool was still open. Each room had a sitting area, and the continental breakfast was much better than most.
Here's what I accomplished: I finished my dissertation, defended it, and moved almost all the way across the country. Plus I organized my lectures for the two courses I'm going to teach this summer. Sound like a lot? No? How about if I mention that we moved all of our stuff out of our house to a storage unit and made lots of repairs on the house itself? I thought you might agree.
I'm a bit tuckered out from the 2.5 day, 2400 mile journey we finished last night, so I'm going to end here for now. I promise to give more details in the next few days, though. I'll just leave you with this thought: I think that the Comfort Suites is a great hotel. We arrived at the one in St. Joseph, MO around 10:00 PM on Wednesday night, and their pool was still open. Each room had a sitting area, and the continental breakfast was much better than most.
Her Nibs's New Pastime
Her Nibs loves to be naked. She's started a new hobby. When her clothes come off in preparation for bedtime, she bolts away from whichever one of us is changing her clothes and runs around in circles shouting, "Nakedy, nakedy, nakedy. . . ." It's actually pretty hilarious.
Cavemen on TV?
I read a little bit about the fall television schedules today, and I've got to say that I'm less than impressed. I tend to watch more TV than I should, but there are only a few television shows that I specifically make time for, and none of them are on ABC, which, regardless of its popularity right now, actually makes what I consider to be the worst shows. This fall appears to be no exception. They've created a spinoff of Grey's Anatomy, which I personally hate, and to top it all off, there's a show about those cavemen from the Geico ads.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't have a problem with cavemen, per se (I loved Phil Hartman as Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer), but this show just seems like a bad idea. Geico makes the worst commercials.I just want to step on the stupid gecko with the accent, and the cavemen are just too creepy. For some reason I shiver whenever they come on my television, and I instinctively change the channel. I really don't think I could possibly watch an entire episode of them. It would weird me out too much. I know Plainbellied agrees with me on this one, but are we the only ones?
In related, sad news, it looks like Andy Barker, P.I., was not picked up by NBC. That's sad, because it was a really clever show. It was one of very few shows that I looked forward to each week during its short run (kind of like Psych on USA, which we download from iTunes whenever there is a new episode). Raines appears to be gone as well. I do have high hopes for the new Bionic Woman show, though I have found myself somewhat uninterested by Heroes.
Anyway, I guess that's enough of that. It's probably good there aren't a lot of shows I like. Maybe I'll stop watching so many shows that I don't.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't have a problem with cavemen, per se (I loved Phil Hartman as Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer), but this show just seems like a bad idea. Geico makes the worst commercials.I just want to step on the stupid gecko with the accent, and the cavemen are just too creepy. For some reason I shiver whenever they come on my television, and I instinctively change the channel. I really don't think I could possibly watch an entire episode of them. It would weird me out too much. I know Plainbellied agrees with me on this one, but are we the only ones?
In related, sad news, it looks like Andy Barker, P.I., was not picked up by NBC. That's sad, because it was a really clever show. It was one of very few shows that I looked forward to each week during its short run (kind of like Psych on USA, which we download from iTunes whenever there is a new episode). Raines appears to be gone as well. I do have high hopes for the new Bionic Woman show, though I have found myself somewhat uninterested by Heroes.
Anyway, I guess that's enough of that. It's probably good there aren't a lot of shows I like. Maybe I'll stop watching so many shows that I don't.
One other thing
While I'm talking about reality television, I should mention this. I'm not a fan of "The Bachelor." It's a really horrible idea for a show, and the few episodes I've seen were some of the worst television ever (although "Joe Millionaire" was worse). However, if you either love or hate the show, you might be interested in the "Sports Gal" blog about the show.
For those who aren't familiar, the Sports Gal is the wife of ESPN's Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, who writes about sports from a fan's perspective (he's from Boston, so I naturally gravitate toward his opinions on a lot of issues). Last season he decided that he wanted to put a theory about predicting football outcomes to the test, so when he wrote his weekly picks column, where he predicted who would win each of the coming weeks' games, he had his wife (who he claims knows nothing about football) pick as well. In return, his wife (they claim) demanded to be given a column of her own without restrictions. It turned out to be hilarious and insightful, and Plainbellied and I looked forward to her column every week. At the end of the season, she actually had a better record than her husband, essentially proving his point that the people picking winners have no better chance than a novice.
Well, I guess ABC liked what it had seen in her column (since they own ESPN), and the fact that she made occasional references to "The Bachelor," and they asked her to write a column about that show this season. It's really funny, and she doesn't pull any punches. I even admit to watching about ten minutes of the show one week in preparation for her column. ABC should give her a medal just for that.
For those who aren't familiar, the Sports Gal is the wife of ESPN's Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, who writes about sports from a fan's perspective (he's from Boston, so I naturally gravitate toward his opinions on a lot of issues). Last season he decided that he wanted to put a theory about predicting football outcomes to the test, so when he wrote his weekly picks column, where he predicted who would win each of the coming weeks' games, he had his wife (who he claims knows nothing about football) pick as well. In return, his wife (they claim) demanded to be given a column of her own without restrictions. It turned out to be hilarious and insightful, and Plainbellied and I looked forward to her column every week. At the end of the season, she actually had a better record than her husband, essentially proving his point that the people picking winners have no better chance than a novice.
Well, I guess ABC liked what it had seen in her column (since they own ESPN), and the fact that she made occasional references to "The Bachelor," and they asked her to write a column about that show this season. It's really funny, and she doesn't pull any punches. I even admit to watching about ten minutes of the show one week in preparation for her column. ABC should give her a medal just for that.
Lawsuits and "Reality"
I've mentioned before that Plainbellied really likes "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," and that I think its smarmy and lame. I'm more of a "This Old House" kind of person, not a "Queen for a Day" type. Well, it looks like "Extreme Makeover" is getting sued by some of the people it featured on an episode of the show. I actually remember the episode pretty well, and I have an idea of what's going on in the case (I heard about it when they first sued a year or two ago). It's an interesting case that deals with two issues: our litigation-happy society and "reality" television.
Here's the gist of what's going on. A group of five siblings lost both of their parents and were taken in by another family. The kids nominated their new caregivers for the "Home Edition" makeover, and ABC signed a contract to rebuild the house. They sent the family on vacation and got to work, putting together a massive house for all of them to live in (the older kids got cars and stuff, too). This all took place in a short time, then ABC basically left. Within a short time, the kids had been kicked out of the house and separated, living among friends. Then they sued ABC the family that they had been living with, and the builder.
The specifics of the case are disputed, but the kids say they were intimidated and bullied in a deliberate campaign to get them to move out of the house. The family they had been living with says that after the show, the kids stopped respecting the rules they had agreed to when they moved in, which led to fights and ultimately to the kids moving out. One key point of contention is that the parents had asked the two oldest siblings to get jobs to help pay for expenses.
Now, I'm not a legal expert (or even a fan of big companies), but I'm a little confused about how ABC is responsible for this. The company didn't sign a contract to build a home for the kids. They agreed to build a home for the people who took them in. Obviously the details will be hammered out in court, but I think it's a tragic situation, made worse by the fact that it played out on reality television. Money really changes people. The way that reality television portrays things makes it seem as though they can somehow swoop in, drop a ton of stuff on people, then leave and expect everything to be fine and dandy. I've seen what they give to people, and often, it seems like they are only trying to give lots of stuff, without a real thought about how it might be used. For example, they built a house for another group of siblings who had lost their parents. In an effort to give them "together" time, they put in a wall of televisions, and each kid got a headset, so they could all be watching different things, lost in their own little world, but since they were in the same place, it somehow counted as "family time" (TV as family time is another issue, and I don't have the space or time to cover that here).
The kicker in all of this, though, is that ABC knew the kids had been kicked out when they re-ran the episode a few months later, but they left it exactly as it originally aired. This is hard for me to fathom. I guess it's just one more way that they manipulate the "reality" to get ratings and advertising dollars. Well, maybe "Pirate Captain" will be better.
Here's the gist of what's going on. A group of five siblings lost both of their parents and were taken in by another family. The kids nominated their new caregivers for the "Home Edition" makeover, and ABC signed a contract to rebuild the house. They sent the family on vacation and got to work, putting together a massive house for all of them to live in (the older kids got cars and stuff, too). This all took place in a short time, then ABC basically left. Within a short time, the kids had been kicked out of the house and separated, living among friends. Then they sued ABC the family that they had been living with, and the builder.
The specifics of the case are disputed, but the kids say they were intimidated and bullied in a deliberate campaign to get them to move out of the house. The family they had been living with says that after the show, the kids stopped respecting the rules they had agreed to when they moved in, which led to fights and ultimately to the kids moving out. One key point of contention is that the parents had asked the two oldest siblings to get jobs to help pay for expenses.
Now, I'm not a legal expert (or even a fan of big companies), but I'm a little confused about how ABC is responsible for this. The company didn't sign a contract to build a home for the kids. They agreed to build a home for the people who took them in. Obviously the details will be hammered out in court, but I think it's a tragic situation, made worse by the fact that it played out on reality television. Money really changes people. The way that reality television portrays things makes it seem as though they can somehow swoop in, drop a ton of stuff on people, then leave and expect everything to be fine and dandy. I've seen what they give to people, and often, it seems like they are only trying to give lots of stuff, without a real thought about how it might be used. For example, they built a house for another group of siblings who had lost their parents. In an effort to give them "together" time, they put in a wall of televisions, and each kid got a headset, so they could all be watching different things, lost in their own little world, but since they were in the same place, it somehow counted as "family time" (TV as family time is another issue, and I don't have the space or time to cover that here).
The kicker in all of this, though, is that ABC knew the kids had been kicked out when they re-ran the episode a few months later, but they left it exactly as it originally aired. This is hard for me to fathom. I guess it's just one more way that they manipulate the "reality" to get ratings and advertising dollars. Well, maybe "Pirate Captain" will be better.
Kids and Secrets
I suppose I'm making up for a lack of entries over the past week by writing a bunch today. In fact, I almost forgot a classic story about Her Nibs.
I was talking to her the other day when she told me that "we got you a present, but it's a secret." When I related it to Plainbellied, thinking Her Nibs had totally made it up, she looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. So I pressed a little bit and got a confession. Ha! I still like surprises, though, so I didn't ask what it was. My birthday is less than a month away, so I figured that's what it was.
Last night I found out I was wrong. Plainbellied had gotten new wheels for my rollerblades, which I haven't been able to use for a while. She also replaced her own wheels, so as long as we can get someone to watch Her Nibs (this summer we'll be really close to Grandma), we can go blading. We used to go a lot before we got married and before Her Nibs came along. Since I'm teaching at our alma mater this summer, we can go on the trails we used to take in the mountains. Pretty cool.
I was talking to her the other day when she told me that "we got you a present, but it's a secret." When I related it to Plainbellied, thinking Her Nibs had totally made it up, she looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. So I pressed a little bit and got a confession. Ha! I still like surprises, though, so I didn't ask what it was. My birthday is less than a month away, so I figured that's what it was.
Last night I found out I was wrong. Plainbellied had gotten new wheels for my rollerblades, which I haven't been able to use for a while. She also replaced her own wheels, so as long as we can get someone to watch Her Nibs (this summer we'll be really close to Grandma), we can go blading. We used to go a lot before we got married and before Her Nibs came along. Since I'm teaching at our alma mater this summer, we can go on the trails we used to take in the mountains. Pretty cool.
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