What has your degree done for you lately?

Winter break is for watching instant netflix.  Lately, NA and I have been watching a lot of old Bones episodes (a show about a forensic anthropologist).

In one show, an FBI asks Tempe, "What, are you really going to be a bone lady all of your life?"

She responded, "I studied anthropology for years!"

"I got a degree, too, but I'm not going to let it ruin my life."




Whether you are a work-in-progress or out of grad school for decades, how is your degree treating you these days?

You must not have gone to a public school!

...or so sayeth the CNN news anchor.

A guest came on the show to do a bit about NYE celebrations around the world.  At the end of the segment, the guest told the host some New Year's greetings in several different languages.

The anchor's response?

"Wow.  You must not have gone to a public school like me! I don't know any of those languages."

Chicken vs. eggs

I've been in a documentary state of mind.

Last week, I only lasted six minutes into the bad science of Food Matters.

I immediately followed that with Babies, a French film with no narration.  I couldn't stop watching the infants as they cooed, gurgled, and pooped for the next 79 minutes.

Seriously.


Is this a sign that my biological clock is getting wound up?

Worst shows on television

I nominate $#*! My Dad Says. 






Your turn.

Reality TV mirrors a committee meeting!

I'm on a committee this year that is tasked with implementing a very, very big change for the entire college. There are lots of...um....strong personalities on this committee.

As a junior faculty member, I constantly hear "be seen but not heard!" The way this committee is set up, however, requires that I participate. The trouble is that there is this one committee member (who happens to be male) who is loud, opinionated, and somehow always gets his way. You might even call him a bully.

Man, do I need to borrow Tim Gunn for a day (or at least a morning).

How do you get your voice heard (so to speak) during committee work? Should The Untenured (dum dum DU-UUUUM!) be a silent group, or do you expect your junior faculty to voice their opinions?

Joe vs. the Volcano

I don't care if it has a cult following.

This movie is fucking stupid.

Then again, I might (according to some) have questionable movie tastes, as I also think the following movies are fucking stupid: all of the Lord of the Rings, the Goonies, Star Wars (old and new), The Princess Bride, and The Hangover.

Am I leaving any off?

The happiest I've been all summer

I think it says a lot about my current state of life that the following (all of which have happened in the last two months) did NOT make me the happiest I've been all summer:

• Getting a co-authored paper of previous work submitted
• Having Undergrad get through summer research with only three (very mild!) burns
• Making it through a (short) semester with no criers
• Receiving my first (teeny-tiny) grant
• Watching a movie with N.A. cell phone free

Want to know what really made this shallow assistant prof happy?

It's time to make it work! Tim Gunn is back on tonight! Love him. Want him. Must have him come live in my closet.

Please pack your backpack and go

Summer TV fare is awesome. Top Chef, ANTM reruns, that artist show? Yes, please!

How amazing it would be to vote off an obnoxious student each week? You know, that one annoying kid that can totally throw off the momentum of your lecture? The one that the others shoot eye daggers at? Let's judge that it's his time to go. No longer at the head of the class. Didn't make the grade.

Sigh. I guess for now I'll have to settle to hearing Padma go, "please pack your knives and go."

Ultra-marathon of tennis?

So everyone goes ape-shit over Team America finally doing well in the world cup. Fine.

But where are the U-S-A chants for the conclusion of the billion hour tennis match between Isner and Mahut?

Academic inspiration from the E! network

Today I caught up with a colleague at another nearby(ish) liberal arts college. He complained about how hard it was to recruit majors into his non-STEM field because "all the incoming students want to be pre-med." I countered that students don't have to be a science major to apply to medical school. Students do have to take a lot of science classes to meet the med school prereqs, but having a history, english, or even philosophy degree will not hurt a student's chance at admission (but a crappy GPA or low MCAT scores certainly would)! My colleague was still at a loss as to how to advertise his field to pre-frosh.

This evening I was watching the season premiere of Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami. (Don't judge too harshly; N.A. is off on a trip for essentially the rest of the month + July). One of the Kardashian sisters decided to take to the beach to advertise her boutique, handing out flashy cards as promotion.

I think some branches of academia might benefit from a similar approach.

Now I'm not suggesting that, as in the KaKTM episode, that my humanities and social science colleagues pose naked in body paint spelling out their respective fields (see below). ..or would that be more catchy than a flyer detailing the many benefits of an art degree?





But...do you really want to see your colleagues like this?

Conference craziness

As my students say after they get an exam back, "LIKE, HOLY-EFFIN-SH!T!"

This fall, football is going to be craaaaa-zy! It's NCAA conference musical freakin chairs. (And yes, I suppose this has implications beyond football. But really. What other sports are worth giving up a Saturday?)



And all you USC fans?

Ha ha ha ha ha.... suck it!

Flipping tables at faculty meeting

I was watching reruns on Bravo the other day. This clip in particular always makes me laugh/shudder:




While the general public might find this woman's table flipping behavior completely shocking, I'll bet that it doesn't faze that many faculty out there. After all, don't we see similar tantrums in faculty meeting at least once a semester?

Of course, I'm partly kidding. No one would shout out "prostitution whore" at the university president or a dean, right?


Right?

TV downsizing

I'm not ashamed of my love of (bad) TV. I didn't get cable until well into grad school. I didn't own my own TV until I became a professor. I'm an adult; I can watch reality TV if I want.


Lately, I've been thinking about rearranging my cable package.

If you could only have one channel, which one would it be?

Come on, admit it...

...you know you wanna.


I know I'm not the only one out there watching summer TV (i.e., TV that some would define as "bad").


I just watched So You Think You Can Dance and Big Brother.


Judge away.


(or admit your own guilty pleasures)

Scary TV

I've been on my couch, eating bon-bons, and watching TV for the last four hours. I know-- rough life.

I've been watching some episodes of Flip Your House. That is some scary shit. Watching the short cuts that these lowlives take is more frightening than most of the other reality offerings (even worse than Birth Control Central).

Oops, Survivor* finale is on, gotta run.






*Yes, I watch reality TV. I *DARE* you to tell me why I shouldn't.

If my class was like America's Next Top Model...

...then it would be okay for me to


- disqualify students who arrive late to class.

- (openly) mock their questionable attire.

- tell them that they need to be more fierce.

- send them off to some foreign country for more training.





Yes, I realize that all of you probably watch much higher quality TV. Or no TV at all (Reeeeeeeally?). So you probably don't get my ANTM references. But that, dear readers, is a risk I am willing to take.

facebook etiquette

Dear facebook friends (erm...acquaintances),

Please stop doing status updates about TV shows. I don't watch TV in "real time." I watch TV with my DVR or netflixs, usually around 1 am after one (or three) grading-induced beers.

So I'd appreciate not receiving any spoilers via the effing facebook feed.*







*Yes, I could stop checking facebook. But it is my internets equivalent of chocolate or Gossip Girl: it is bad for me but I HAFTA have it. NOW.

How busy am I?

My DVR is 97% full.