Adventures in the Colonial 'burg: February 2009

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Weird connections

I was just wasting some of my Saturday morning on Facebook, and looking through the "people you may know" page. Obviously many of these people I do not know but I did see an interesting connection. There was someone that I did not know that was friends with two people I am friends with. Not unusual, except this guy is friends with one person I know in Jeff City, MO (through Ellen of course), and friends with someone I graduated high school with in Maine (she is now in North Carolina). I know this happens all the time (I mean, clearly I am friends with both these people), but the connection they have is that they all lived at one point in DC...

I just find it interesting.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Normal sleep is good

I didn't sleep well both nights in the hotel. Mostly, it was because I was worried about oversleeping. Ha! So getting home last night was glorious, and I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in my own bed, with Dante nearby (Dante got to play with Sonya yesterday).

The interview went well, and it seemed like a good place. One of the funniest parts was the second morning I was there, when two professors came to the hotel for breakfast. They had both walked from the same direction on campus (luckily the same way we'd be going to return to the department), and had seen a hawk having breakfast: a squirrel. So as we went to the department, sure enough we saw the hawk flying up to a tree, and he had something in his beak, which from the tail I could deduce was a squirrel. Ah, nature.

Now it is officially a waiting game. We'll see what happens.

Monday, February 23, 2009

And it all begins again

It's a new week, and time for a whole new set of obsessions to set in. I have moved on from over-obsessing on the previous interview I had, because odds are they've made a decision, and I have another interview that begins tomorrow. I will drop D off at the Kennel, then head north for another journey. Most of the interview is tomorrow, with both a research talk and a teaching lecture, and Wednesday there will be a few meetings but I should be on my way home shortly after lunch.

Now I have to complain to this journal because when I responded to proofs for a paper, they did not receive the image that I uploaded on their very faulty website. Grumble.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Sometimes it is just too much

Reading the news, I think, is a terrible way to begin a morning. My mood though is rarely tainted by the news, I'm getting used to the state of affairs we as a nation and a world are in. However, there are other things that I read about this morning that made me sick. And you know, this I will never get used to I think, and mostly because it is of course so very personal for me.

First had to do with this ex-gay crap. If you didn't know (which I doubt), there has been for quite a long time a movement to cure gays of their problems. By what I would consider torture, the "gay" is emotionally beaten down in someone until they fully deny it and step out saying that he/she is an ex-gay (note: not straight). There luckily is an organization Truth Wins Out that is working to rid the nation of this myth. Usually, these poor "ex-gays" will live a miserable life, lying to everyone including themselves, often marry and have kids, later only to destroy everyone's lives around them when they finally admit to themselves who they really are. I read this at TWO this morning. I have to say that I was a very lucky person when I came out, with regards to my parents. Whenever I read about these parents who not only disown their kids for being gay, it saddens me. But that honestly is better than the alternative of a parent who both disowns you and actively hates you for what you are. I know the official party line is that the parent loves his/her child and that is why they must practice this "tough love," but come on. It is hate pure and simple.

Then I read this: Utah State Senator says gays are greatest threat to US. On a normal day this would just make me laugh because, well, the absurdity of things like this really shows the faltering movement of hateful people. But this morning for some reason it really bothered me. I think it's because I'm a little emotional lately anyway, but also, well, I think about that poor 14-year old who knows he or she is gay and hears something like this on a regular basis. I know I believed things like this at that age, which is why it took me so long to come out. I think it is high time that people stopped this emotional abuse on our nation's youth.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

I'm glad my car is made for a moron

I used to hate the fact that Hyundais didn't have an annoying "bling" sound when you left the headlights on and turned off the engine. This is because in my earlier Hyundai (the Scoupe), it would turn off the headlights and leave only the parking lights on. Now, this seems like an okay idea but whenever I did that (which wasn't all that often, but it happened several times) without realizing it, I would come out to a car that wouldn't start because those damn parking lights would drain the battery.

Now, though, with my newer, "fancier" Hyundai, it still does not alert you to the headlights being left on. Instead though, it turns them off and after an unspecified amount of time (I say unspecified because I've never timed it), it also shuts off the parking lights for you, well before the battery will die. I know this much because a) I have done this at least three times since getting the car a year and a half ago, and b) last night I clearly left the lights when I got home. They would have been on for about about 17 and a half hours, long enough for the battery to fade to nothing. But the car started with no problem. Because my car was designed for an idiot, like myself. Happy day.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I'm back, as is my arch-nemesis...

So here I am back in the 'burg, life is "back to normal," and nothing too unusual. I biked to work yesterday, despite the cold and my obvious lack of shape. It's amazing what three or four months can do to someone. Luckily I'm going down to the lab today, so I have to drive. Shucks.

In other news, I have my next interview next week, and it turns out, as expected, my arch-nemesis is also on the short list there. This is a person such that for every short list that I've been on, he is on it as well, so long as he applied for the position. Luckily (for me) he did not (for some reason) apply for the job I interviewed for last week. Last year, I realized that we gave almost identical job talks for the job here, since I could attend his. Additionally, we do, on paper, look very much the same (in person not at all of course), and until now we both have the same luck in getting jobs. Until that happens, I fear he will haunt me as my doppelgänger, and will be my nemesis. Unless I can determine his kryptonite...

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Dante, where are you!?

I just got back from bringing Dante for a walk, this last day I'm in New York, and as I got to the door, as usual I took off his leash and collar before opening the door and entering the apartment. Then, while talking to Corbett, who was playing the piano, I gave Dante his dinner, and was perplexed as to why he wasn't all excited about eating. I then looked everywhere in the apartment and couldn't find him.

Apparently, I came inside and closed the door before letting him in, so he was just waiting patiently out in the hall. Good boy.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Too many thoughts

Currently I'm feeling a "Friday lull," with too many things on my mind. There's the interview that is over from the small-town 'burg, the phone interview (which went fine) from place-I-have-no-desire-to-be, and finally an upcoming interview at a big, public school, in the suburb of a substantial city. And that's just the job front (and I'm not including the Bonn position which is still something I am waiting to hear about).

Then there's work itself of course. Several things on my mind of what I should be doing right now, but many of them are things that I need to sit down and spend a good three-four hours on, and I tend to get unfocussed very easily right now. Part of it is being in New York, and the other is everything else on my mind.

The good news is I have my next New York trip planned, since I'm going to Brookhaven to give a seminar. This way, I can come up to the city for a week, minus the two days being out on Long Island. So it's all good.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

One down...

So I finished the interview in small-town-'burg-that-is-not-Colonial. I won't talk much about it so as to not jinx it. I will say three things:

1) My talk went really well.

2) I think overall I made a great impression.

3) After finishing my four morning interviews today, I discovered too late that my fly had been open all morning.*

Now it's just time to wait.

----
* Note: This is going to be to blame I've decided if I don't get an offer.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

How else to waste time...

I drive out to my interview tomorrow. I've gone through my talk enough, and I think it's ready, and now it's really just a matter of waiting until I have to go. I've done my homework, and I think I'm ready. So that's all about that.

I have to say I hate the fact that I have issues that often cause me to be ripped off. What's even worse is that I know it when it's happening. Here's the deal. I like to use a remote control to give my presentations, so that I don't have to constantly hit the space bar to go from one slide to the next. I stupidly left mine at home in the 'burg, and really wanted one for this talk. So, of course, I go looking for one. Best Buy? Nope. Radio Shack? Nope. Staples? Nope. Circuit City? Yup. But here's the catch.

They are going out of business, right? Well, their sales are not sales at all. Case in point: The controller that I purchased was forty bucks. This is the exact same one that I already own, and I had bought it three years ago from Circuit City for (ready?) TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. That's right.

So I purchased the damned thing, knowing that I was being ripped off, but also knowing that in the end, isn't it worth it to have a little peace of mind?

I thought not.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

(Old) News

Okay, apparently I didn't post this the other day like I thought I did...

So yesterday after a depressing visit to the dentist I got some good news. I have been invited to another school for an interview. This new place is also on the east coast (yay), and also not far from well, anything. It's a much larger school (public) than the interview I have next week, but the departments are comparable in size. It is also in an actual city, not in the middle of nowhere. But of course, it all depends on which place I like better and well, if either of them offer me a job!!

I also have a phone interview next week with another place, but this school is not quite in a place I would ever want to live, so...Plus, incidentally, according to salary charts, this third university has an average Assistant Professor salary that would give me a pay cut.

Not that it's about the money, but if it were in a location that I would dream of living in, fine. This place is one of my nightmares...

Monday, February 2, 2009

Someone is going to have a bad morning.

About a couple of weeks ago, my apartment complex implemented parking permit requirements for all tenants. Everyone who (legally) lives here gets a sticker for their windshield plus two guest passes. (So presumably you could still have someone legally parked here and not legally allowed to live here.) It's mildly annoying but only in that I had to make a special trip to the office (and I don't care much for the office staff here) for the permit. Now, I never thought there was much of a parking problem here, because well, there are always available spaces all over, but that's just me. Plus seriously, how likely were they to enforce it?

Well, as I was walking Dante this morning before leaving for campus, there was the tow truck, examining all the cars for valid permits. And the IROC-Z, which has been here for a long time, clearly had no permit, and they towed it away. I felt a little bad because I didn't do anything (what could I have done, really?), but hell, it's the owner's fault. I don't know whose car it is, and really I could do nothing about the whole scenario. But I felt bad, primarily because someone is going to get up and head out this morning, and have a very bad day.*

-----

* This is of course assuming the owner is still around. For all I know the car was abandoned, because why wouldn't he have a permit? Either he lives here and could get one or he is living with a friend who has one, and thus should at least have one of those temp hangtags. Either way, it's not my problem.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Grumble

I'm trying to remember the last name of someone I was good friends with back in my Catholic days. ("Good friends, you say, but you can't remember his last name? Whatever," you may be thinking but shut up, that was 14 years ago.) I may have something at home with his name on it, but I'm not home now, and it is really bugging me. I need to forget about it and work on what I was planning on doing this afternoon.

Sigh.