Silent Night? No way!

Lots of Christmas carols refer to the first Christmas as somehow being quiet.  There is "Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm...."  There is "O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see the lie...How silently, how silently the holy gift is given..."  And, there are others.  No doubt inspired by some late night stroll in a snow covered small town, sometime in December. 

However, it is obvious that none of these people were ever present at a real birth.  It is noisy as "H", "E" double hockey sticks.  After Mom screams or groans or cusses (as I did) for several hours, then the baby takes over, making more racket than you would ever think a 7 pound person could generate.  On top of that, at least in my case, the nurses were shouting at me and at each other because my son's birth did not go as they had anticipated. 

Silent Night?  You must be kidding! 

Art?

The college where I work has a great theater program, and I try to catch all of their productions.  Last night I saw a very thought-provoking play called The Shape of Things. 

It starts slowly, with two college students, Adam and Evelyn, meeting each other and starting to date.  The play, up until the very last scene, is actually kind of boring - just typical dating angst.  The only non-typical aspect is that Evelyn is very manipulative of Adam.  At first, it's minor stuff - suggesting he cut his hair differently, then she moves on to more and more manipulatiion, designed to improve his appearance.  The last thing is she actually persuades him to have plastic surgery on his nose, which he doesn't really need and cannot afford.  Evelyn is an art major, and makes vague references throughout the play to a big art project she is working on, but she is never specific. 

Then, in the last scene, we find out that Adam IS Evelyn's art project.  She has re-made his appearance just as a sculptor would carve an image out of marble.   Her art project presentation includes several "artifacts" of their relationship, including video tapes of their love making.  The whole thing was an act, and we find out that very little of what she told Adam was true.  Adam, on the other hand, is madly in love, and has presented her with an engagement ring.  In her public presentation of her "art project" she rejects his proposal.

Evelyn makes it very clear that the whole thing with Adam was for art's sake alone.  Art is her highest good.  She doesn't understand why Adam is devastated.  She sees everything she has done as something that has helped Adam. 

I guess there is a fine line between artist and sociopath.

Unpopular People

For a number of years now, I have been hearing about some guy called Al Khaida.  No one likes him.  He and his buddies have been doing all sorts of mischief all over the world.  Our army and navy seem determined to stop him, but Big Al is ever elusive. 

Now,  I hear about a new guy that no one likes.  His name is "Fiscal" Cliff.  Haven't heard his last name.
He is expected to show up shortly after Christmas and do all sorts of bad stuff.  The army and navy can't stop him.  Only Congress.  And that's depressing!

Reflections on governments

The current campaign and elections has reminded me of an interesting experience from several years ago.  When I was a graduate student, I was presenting a paper at a conference in Washington, D.C.  One of my fellow presenters was a young lady from China, who was a graduate student at a Canadian college.  Most of the presentations were fairly boring, so we started chatting when we should have paid attention, I guess. 

This was years ago, when China was even less "open" than it is now, and my new friend, I found out, knew almost nothing about American government.  And here we were in the middle of D.C.  I had been to D.C. several times, and knew my way around a little, so I proposed that we play hookey from the conference one afternoon and I would take her on a guided tour.  She thought this was a great idea, so off we went.  Explaining the buildings and institutions to her, and answering her questions, was quite a priviledge and interesting experience.  I wish I remembered more of our conversation now, but the only thing that stuck in my mind was that she was disappointed that the White House was so small.  I explained that it was just a "house" on purpose.  The founders wanted to make sure no one mistook it for a king's palace. 

I saw an interesting interview on TV in the last few days.  The news person was interviewing a gentleman who supposedly had some independent expertese on the relationship between the Chinese government and the Chinese people.  He said that after Tianaming Square (did I spell that right?) the government struck a sort of unspoken bargain with the people.  The government would let them have a capitalist economy, and not interfere, if the people would let the government alone, and not interfere.  The interviewer asked if it was working.  The man said "not really." 

Every college in America now, I think, has a relatively large student population from China.  The vast majority of these young people go back to China after graduation.  This has been going on for many years, at least 20 or 30, and it MUST be having some effect on their society.  It makes me wonder if the Chinese  government, by allowing and even encouraging this, has any kind of clue. 

Wisdom of the crowd.

I watched a few episodes of a series called The Code on the Science channel recently.  The Code, by the way, is mathematics.  It's a GREAT series to show to math students of high school or college age!  It talks about mathematics that occurs in nature and that can be applied to numerous areas of life.  And, I learned a few things! 

One of the things that intrigued me was an experiment that the narrator/host conducted about the wisdom of the crowd.  He filled a large jar will jelly beans and asked a rather long list of people to guess how many beans were in the jar.  There were about 4,000 beans in the jar, but he got guesses that ranged from 400 to 50,000.  Very few were even close.  Yet, when he took the average of all the guesses, he got a number that was within 5(!!) of the actual total.  He says that this kind of result is not that unusual. 

I would write this off as a coincidince except that it goes hand-in-glove with another phenomenon called open source software development.  This is a form of software development in which hundreds or thousands of programmers work on the same project at the same time and communicate very little, if at all, with each other.  According to traditional software engineering methods, it shouldn't work.  I would have bet the farm it wouldn't work.  But it does, and it produces really good software!  I learned about this from a book called The Cathedral and the Bazzar by Eric S. Raymond. As a person who was engaged in software engineering for a living for the better part of 20 years, it blew me away. Software engineering is supposed to work best in small teams of 5 to 8 people who are tightly controlled and in constant communication.  Open source is the exact opposite. 

Does this phenomena apply to other areas?  The underlying philosophy of democracy is the same -- the broad-based electorate is wiser than any small group.  There is another book that I would recommend - Never At War by Spencer Weart.  In that book, Dr. Weart makes a good case that two countries that are true demoncracies never go to war with each other.  He does spend some time defining a true democracy, which is crucial.  For instance, the American Civil war is not a counter-example because the slaves could not vote in the Confederacy.  But, if you use his measuring stick, you will see that though democracies do, unfortunately, find it necessary to go to war from time to time, it is never with another true democracy.  The crowd is even wiser than we knew!

Food for thought...does this mean that the outcome of most, if not all, elections, is the best outcome possible, given the individuals who are candidates?  No matter what you political leanings, you are probably thinking "What?  No way!  What about the time that [insert name] was elected in [insert year], given that he was a(n) [select one or more from: idiot / nut job / spawn of the devil] ?"

Again, food for thought.

Heads still rolling???

Last spring, I thought the last head had rolled in response to our scandals from a year or so back.  I'm not so sure now.  This summer, an administrator resigned, and the word was that he wished to go to school full time to get a doctorate in education administration.  Since his office was in no way  involved in the scandals (or so I thought), I believed this was the case.  Then, recently, I heard his departure discussed in those tones of voice that people use when they know something, but know they are not supposed to directly talk about it.  So, now I wonder. 

And I wonder about a senior staff member that suddenly quit this summer.  In the business office - i.e., money. 

Then, today, a sports coach resigned, effective immediately.  The scandal did report that some student athletes received scholarship amounts above and beyond what was proper, but I thought all of that was taken care of last year.  Are more heads rolling? 

Well, this new president seems to be really cleaning house. 

Every international student file for the last umpteen years is being audited, and I am one of the ones auditing them, since I am chair.  I got two files to look at this week.  One seems normal so far, though I am still in the process of going through it.  The other has a BIG problem!  It seems that this student has mastered the art of bilocation, that is, being in two places at once.  His Chinese transcript shows that he was studying in China during the same school year he was studying here.  How did he do that?? 

I'm not signing anything that says this is OK.  Lots of people signed off on fishy things in recent years.  Those people are looking for work now.  Not me!

Senior Moment

I had a serious "senior moment."  I have a little refrigerator in my office, and I usually bring my lunch. 
The other day I brought some cottage cheese for lunch, but I couldn't finish it, so I put the rest away for another day.  Today, I looked in the refrigerator for it, but it was not there.  I looked in the trash, thinking I had absent-mindedly thrown it out, but no, it was not there.

Then, a little bit later, I looked in a desk drawer for something else, and there was my cottage cheese.  No longer good to eat, of course, but that didn't bother me as much as the fact that I was lame-brained enough to put cottage cheese in a desk drawer. 

So, the next time you have a senior moment, remember, you are not alone.

A heartbreaking trip down memory lane.

Recently, one of my teeth was giving me fits, and my local dentist sent me to the Big City Dentist for consultation.  Turned out, I only needed a crown, but that's another story.  The Big City Dentist has a very interesting waiting room, including old Saturday Evening Post magazines from the 50s and 60s.  I picked up one from the 60's that had an article about the Vietnam War, which was just getting started at the time the article was written.  It reminded me of that heartbreaking time. 

It is very difficult to communicate to those who are either significantly older than I am or younger than I am the impact of the Vietnam War on this country.  For younger generations (not yet draft age when the war ended) it was just something on TV, and they tended to echo their parents views on it.  For my generation, it was heartbreak. 

When the war started, my parent's generation, who had lived through WWII, saw the war the same way they saw WWII.  If the President said it was a good thing, then it was a good thing.  If your country called you to serve, and it did draft a LOT of young men, then you served.  Any other attitude was treason.  But soldiers came home with a very different account of the war.  The generals gave orders that seemed to guarantee defeat.  It wasn't uncommon for an army unit to spend time, energy, and soldier's lives to take a hill, only to abandon it the next day.  The government we were propping up was corrupt, and not much better than the government we were fighting.  It was impossible, in many cases, to tell friend from foe. And, in the end, why were we there?  We had no national interest in that fight. In short, it was a huge mistake. 

But talking about the war in these terms only angered our parents.  My father screamed at me and slammed his fist down on the table when I attempted a discussion.  The next day, he installed a permanent flag pole in the front yard, and hoisted an American flag on it.  This, he said, was for my benefit.  What I learned was to never again attempt any kind of serious discussion with him on any subject, and I did not, from then until the day he died.  Also, I can't fly the American flag on my front porch.  Too many bad memories.

This family argument was repeated in MANY homes throughout this country.  It created a generational rift that I believe has never been duplicated, before or since.  The interesting thing is that this rift created an attitude in the younger generation that, if our parents believe it, it must be wrong.  This expanded to the younger generation's attitudes about many, many things.  It spawned the women's movement, the gay rights movement, the trend away from organized religion, "free love", the drug culture, and lots of other societal changes, some good, some bad.  By the time the war ended, most of the older generation came to agree with our assessment of the war, but it was too late to stop the other societal changes that were well underway. 

More later on Vietnam.

Adventures of a department chair.

I was department chair before - in my previous job at another college, so I knew a lot of this was coming.  But this is a different school, and certain things are different. 

First, there seem to be a lot more meetings that the department chairs need to attend.  I went to some of them in the spring, and another yesterday.  Two hours long and very tedious.  There are some old and pompous chairs whose purpose in life seems to be to split hairs about certain decisions.  I think I will need more caffiene next time. 

Second, the forms are different.  I have already sent forms to the wrong people, and I think someone re-did the form, as well.  That's OK with me.  I am sure whoever did it did a better job.  

Third, there is a program here called dual credit, in which certain high school classes follow the syllabus of a freshman college course, and receive college credit.  Due to the numerous staff changes, the dual credit procedures here are so disorganized and confused I could NOT find out what my department's dual credit offerings were supposed to be from anyone here!  So, I send emails to the high school principals, and got good, up-to-date information. 

So, what is the same?  Confused students are confused students everywhere.  A student came to me last week seeking permission to take a certain course for which he did not have the prerequisites.  As we usually do, I sent him to the course instructor to discuss it.  The student could not find the instructor (as classes had not started yet, this was not unusual), so I told the student to simply go to the class and talk to the instructor after class.  He came to me distraught yesterday, saying the professor did not appear for class.  The problem?  The class was a Tuesday/Thursday class, and he went to class on Monday, then wondered where everyone was.  After we discussed the problem, he agreed to attend the class on Tuesday morning.  He came to me again today saying the instructor was not there.  Turned out the class started at 8:15, but he didn't go until 9:20.  Duh.  This trend does not bode well for the student earning a good grade in the course (or any other). 

Don't fence me in.

I hate generalizing philosophies.  I hate the "ism"s that generalize, also.  I hate categories and tests that put you in some category.  Generalizing categories may or may not apply to any particular person or situation, so why go along with something that could badly mislead you?  I hate people that say small government is always better.  I hate people that say big government is always better.  They are both wrong.  It makes as much sense as saying a semi is always better than a motorcycle, or vice versa.  Look at the particular need, for God's sakes!

I hate people that ask me if I am a feminist, as there are thousands of different defitions of that.  I'll tell you what I believe...if there is something I want to do or be, stay out of my way and let me do it.  And by the way, it would be great if you could treat all other females the same way.  Since I am female, maybe that makes me a feminist, maybe it doesn't. 

All of my life people have made wrong assumptions about me and deniet me opportunities just because I am female.  For instance, the assumption is that girls have less ability and/or interest in math than boys.  Maybe that's true for girls as a category, but it has never applied to me as an individual.  From the time I was in the first grade up to and including my senior year in college (as a math major) I usually made the best grade in the room on all math tests.  Better than the boys.  I was never very competitive, but there were a few boys that seemed to be, and they found it very irritating that I made better than they did.  The fact that they were irritated amused me greatly! 

When I was in grade school I had a teacher than allowed the boys outside during recess on cold days, but not the girls.  When I was in high school band, I wanted to be in the pep band also, but was not allowed to because I was a girl.  I tried to find out why but ran into a brick wall.  I understand that barrier is down now.  Good! 

When I was a programmer, I applied twice for the job as computer center director, and was denied twice. 
Both times, they hired a complete idiot.  One of the people that was on the search committe told me when he retired that the reason I was denied is that a vice president blocked my promotion because I was female.  I guess I could have raised a fuss, but that's not my style.  I was on my way out the door to get my Ph.D. by that point, anyway.    It's ironic that since then, I have been an academic department chair for 3 occasions now, a different but equally demanding management position.  And I did fine. 

I don't want to be a man.  I just want to be a person. 

No good deed goes unpunished.

The joys of being chair keep piling on.  In addition to sections with low enrollments, we had a new problem hit us.  One of our math teachers is also a part-time rancher.  He was out on his tractor last Friday and managed to roll it over on top of himself.  Lots of broken bones, but he is expected to pull through.  But, to make sure his classes are taught (all had substantial enrollment), more class juggling is needed.  This is a small school, and not a lot of majors in either math or computer science.  However, we have a lot of "service" sections.  I went through and counted the sections this dept. staffs, and there are more than 40, not counting internship and independent study sections. 

One good thing...now that I have had a chance to work with the dean and get to know him better, I found out he is a very congenial and easy-going person.  Makes my life easier!!

Haulin A** - Again!

I officially started my new job as department chair this week.  The first order of business was that the former chair and I spent a lot of time switching offices.  Faculty have lots of stuff in their offices!  We all MUST have our own libraries, as the school library simply cannot stock all the books we need for our particular needs for our particular courses.  So, the former chair had a substantial math libray, and I have a substantial computer science library.  More haulin' a**.  But, thank goodness, there were no stairs involved.

Then I found out that a lot of the math books that he had were really not his at all.  They were left over from when the department had its own "library" of sorts, and he simply never did anything with them.  He did not take them, as he figured they were the dept. chair's problem.  They took up all of a huge metal floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, which I could not use for my own books until I figured out something to do with them.  I temporarily put them on top of a row of 4 filing cabinets, but that wasn't enough room.  The rest went to the conference room cabinets.  More haulin' a**.

A week or two after school starts, I plan on putting all of them in the middle of the conference room table, and tell  my faculty to take what they want.  After the faculty takes what they want, the rest will go to the table where students can take books for free.  More haulin' a**.  

The former chair has a bad heart, and the chairman job has affected his health.  He was actually singing while we were switching offices, as he is SO glad to be out from under this job!  He was a good chair, and he will be a hard act to follow, but I'll do my best.  Already, there are problems to be tackled.  Due to the scandals, our enrollment is projected to be down a LOT from the last few years.  What do we do with the courses that only have 2,3,4 students enrolled?  A meeting with the dean must happen soon. 

Strange trip - part II

My ex-husband and I had a very successful divorce.  We remained good friends during the divorce procedure, and afterwords, through his remarriage, until the day of his untimely death 2 years ago. I remain good friends with his widow.  A few years ago, when our son got married out-of-state, the 3 of us went on the same flight, rented a car together, hung out together when there were no wedding-related activities going, on, etc., and generally had a good time.

During the recent trip to my home state, I discussed the purchase of a permanent grave marker with his widow.  Turned out she had been shopping for one, but couldn't decide. And it was expensive!  So, my son and I offered to split the cost in equal 3 way parts, which suited her just fine.  So, while I was there, she and I went to the tombstone company to complete the selection and purchase.  She had already visited with them, so they knew who she was, but when she introduced me as the first wife, they were jaw-dropping astonished!  It was not only because this was a joint decision and a joint purchase, but that it was obvious from our give-and-take that we were friends. 

We were giving them the facts and dates for the tombstone, and neither of us could remember the exact day that he had died.  Was it the 10th or the 11th?  At this point, the widow turned her back to me, pulled up her T-shirt, and asked me to read the tatoo.  Yes, she had his birth and death date tatooed on her back.  Now, it was my turn to be surprised!  

What a strange trip it was!! - Part One.

Earlier this month, I made a trip to my home state for business purposes.  I had aquired a little money from the sale of my house here, and since retirement is approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to use it as a down payment on a house in my home state.  The idea was to rent it out short term, then perhaps move into it at retirement.  The tenants would make my payments for me.  I have had some rental property for some time, and I find that by using a rental agent, it is usually a pleasant and money-making enterprise.

I stayed with some friends while I was there.  I'll call them Jack and Jill.  They had been trying to sell their house for about a year, but after no success for some time, they gave up and took it off the market.  They love the house, but it has 2 stories, and the lady of the house is getting older.  Her knees will no longer allow her to go to the second floor. I asked Jill if they were still interested in selling, and she said yes, and quoted me a price.  I thought about it, but believed it was out of my price range. 

So, I enlisted the aid of a real estate person and looked at several other houses.  I decided tentatively on one of them, and asked my property manager to look at it.  He was willing to manage it for me, but pointed out some things that would need work.  Then, I asked him to look at Jack and Jill's house while he was out and about, and he agreed.  Wow, was he excited!  Their house has charming architectural detail, and is close to a major college campus.  He said he could rent it in a heartbeat, for about 50% more rent than the other place.  He also pointed out it would appreciate over the years much more than the other house. 

So, I made a return visit to my new best friend at a local bank, whom I had approached about loaning me money on the first house.  She ran some numbers and seemed to think she could probably help me out!

That evening, I talked to Jill about going forward with a sale.  She was taken by surprise!  Turned out she had not taken me seriously in our earlier conversation.  But, after I convinced her, she and Jack were both delighted!  They took me out to dinner to celebrate.  That very evening, they drove around to look at some houses that Jill had noticed on the internet.  The next day, they enlisted the aid of a real estate agent, and looked at several on the inside.  Both of them seemed to be quite engaged in their search for a new house.

Then some conversations happened that turned out to be more important than would seem at first glance.  I happened to be in a car with Jack, without Jill along, as he was taking me somewhere, and he said "Jill is a wonderful woman but she can't manage money."  Later, I was with Jill alone, and she said "Jack is a wonderful man but he can't manage money."  I almost laughed out loud because she used almost the exact same words as Jack did.  I did not tell either what the other had said.  Did not want to get in the middle of that!  But I did think that I was glad I would be going home soon, and would not be around when the discussions about their purchase of a new house got serious.  I thought it might get ugly.

Last Tuesday morning I flew home.  Wednesday morning I checked my email, and there was a message from Jill.  It seems that Jack had told her he was leaving her, and had packed some bags Tuesday night and moved into a friend's apartment!!  Yikes!  Jill thinks he had decided this is what he wanted some time ago, and was just waiting until the house was sold before he made his move.  But, it seemed to me that he was very engaged in the joint house search with Jill, so who knows?  I was stunned, as I have known both of them for some time, and from all outward appearances (even while I was staying with them), they seemed to be getting along fine.  Except for that "little" disagreement about money management!  Perhaps discussing the price range of the new house purchase had led to the last and biggest money disagreement.

The sale is still on, as this is what they both wanted.  Jill is trying to buy a house by herself.  So, the closing might be delayed, but that's OK. 

More later about this strange trip.

Haulin' A**

It must have been nice for all of you out there that had an actual holiday on Memorial Day Weekend, complete with barbeque, friends, family, beer, etc.  I did not.  I was haulin'. 

I moved to a new domicile on May 8.  When I was packing, I knew I was filling lots of boxes, but I did not count them.  When the movers were moving the stuff into the new place, I had them first put the boxes on and under the dining table, then put the rest in the second bedroom.  When that was fairly full, they said "What about the rest of them?"  I said "The rest of them?"  They said there were about 50 more (!!!).  I told them to put them in the garage, which is, of course, on ground level.  My new condo is on the second floor, and there is no elevator.  Yikes! 

Due to other obligations, before this weekend I was limited in the time I could devote to this project.  I tried to devote an hour or two each evening, but progress was incridibly slow!  I started by grabbing a box, putting it on my left shoulder and puffing up the stairs.  I am no longer young.  My lower back hurts most of the time and my knees are arthritic, so this was not easy.  Since my new place is smaller than my old place, some boxes had to go back down to the garage for storage, and some items were destined for donation to worthy charities, so I was hauling nearly as much back down as I was hauling up.  I needed a new system. 

So, this weekend I came up with plan B.  I found some tote bags and overnight bags.  I would go to the garage with the empty bags, and open some boxes.  The stuff that needed to go upstairs was transferred to bags.  The stuff I wanted to store was repacked in boxes and left in the garage.  The stuff for charity went into the car.  The empty boxes went to the trash.  Then I hauled the full tote bags up the stairs, one in each hand.  Much easier!  I am now down to about 5 boxes!!!  But the entire weekend (except for a trip to church) was spent haulin'. 

In the middle of all this my son called, and I told him what I was doing.  Always one to look on the sunny side, he told me that all that up and down the stairs would give my "core" a good workout.  I told him my everything was getting a good workout.  Including my patience.

Some of you might say I should label this weekend "haulin' b***" since I was hauling bags and boxes.  However, one cannot haul bags and boxes without also haulin' a**.  And my a** is harder to haul than my bags and boxes. 

But there are a couple of trips that I am looking forward to later this summer, so I will have to make up my missed holiday-ing at that time. 

Final exams - a bright spot.

Most of the time, grading final exams is slow, routine, and dull.  But occasionally, something comes along that creates a bit of a bright spot.  Today I was grading a final that required the student to describe a computer related situation that would create an ethical dilemma.  The student described one in which management decided to adopt the use of new software that might eliminate some jobs at the company.  Here is the quote:

"Most of the employees are against the decision made by me and the management.  They think that use of the technology would made some jobs obsolete and reduce the number of employees.  Most of them are in fear of getting laid."

It's that time of year!

In the academic calendar, it's that crazy time of year.  Both students and faculty are tired, and say and do goofy stuff.  This week, one of the other faculty was helping me gather signatures on a secretary's day card.  She gave me the card, complete with signatures, which I stuck in a drawer and promptly forgot about.  Then I asked her where the card was.  Duh.  She forgave me, as she had been talking about going to the dentist to get her eyes checked.  Duh. 

To make things worse, I sold my house and now I am trying to pack to move.  The move is scheduled for finals week, as the new owners must take possession quickly.  So, that is more craziness and rush at a time I already have plenty of that.  It also involves faxing papers back and forth with my son, as he is co-owner.  Microsoft has a crazy way of doing faxes.  The fax number goes to someone's computer, not an actual fax machine.  That someone must manually route the fax to the right person.  It takes hours.  My son says Microsoft is really not very good with using technology.  I believe it.

And of course, there are students worried about their grade.  A friend posted on his blog that it's a little late in the semester for that.  My view - as long as it is BEFORE the final exam, there is hope.  Two years ago there was a group of angry and upset baseball players who came to me AFTER their algebra final, wanting to know what they could do to improve their grade.  Yes, they did.  I said "nothing", so they went to the department chair and said I was a terrible teacher and they understood nothing I said all semester.  This is probably true, as for most of the class periods they were not actually in the classroom.  It's hard to understand an algebra lesson while asleep in your dorm. 

Graduation is in 2 weeks, and I can't wait! 

Catholics and the Bible.

I have been a Catholic officially for 5 years now, and attended regularly for a year before that.  Still, there are people that warn me to keep up my Bible reading, as the Catholic Church discourages it. 

Baloney!!!

Most Protestant church services have only one Bible reading.  We have 4 every Sunday.  One is always from a Gospel, which we stand up for, to show how important it is. 

Yesterday started Holy Week, and it's Bible reading on steroids.  Yesterday's service included a very lenghthy reading from the Gospel of Mark - about 1/2 hour of standing.  Then there is a church service Thursday night, and 2 services on Good Friday.  Saturday evening is a service called the Easter Vigil that is 3 hours long, and includes an entire hour of Bible reading, essentially describing the history of the universe, starting with Genesis. 

The Catholics love the Bible so much, it is bigger than the Protestant Bible.  There are 7 Old Testament books, plus parts of 2 others, that are retained by the Catholics, having been removed by the Protestants (for a variety of reasons--perhaps I will go into in another post).  And it is historical fact that the Catholic church wrote the New Testament, and they still stand by it. 

A person can be a Catholic or not, of course, as one wishes, but I hope it is a decision based on facts, not misinformation.  Most non-Catholics seem to get their information on the Catholic church from people who have never been to a Catholic service, and are full of misinformation.  It's easy to get the facts about Catholic beliefs.  Go to any major bookstore, or Amazon.com, and purchase the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It's all there.  There are no secrets.  The book is not expensive.   Also, why don't you actually visit a Catholic service?  I promise they will not nail you to the pew, or make you eat a live chicken.  And, you will get to hear the 4 Bible readings for yourself.

As head #3 goes bouncing down the stairs...

In a post last fall, I mentioned that there were 3 other people besides our former president that were cited in the judges ruling as having done bad things--an administrator, a long time staff member, and a faculty member. The administrator has resigned, the long time staff member suddenly retired.  Now, I find out that the faculty member is retiring.  Someone who teaches in  my department talked to him recently, and said "Gee, I didn't know you were retiring" to which he replied "Neither did I."  

This president is holding people accountable!  Good for him!  But, since these folks were acting under pressure from another party, the president had the sense to let them leave gracefully.  Even better. 

Now what?

Just as I was about to start a class on Wednesday morning, the administration evacuated the building.  Seems that someone called in a bomb threat, which turned out to be a hoax.  Of course, it was all over the local paper, which took that opportunity to include all of our troubles listed all over again, going back to the university president being fired last August. 

Then yesterday the current university president told us that the accrediting body is sending a special 3 person team to campus in a few weeks to look into what we are doing.  Our regular accreditation visit isn't due for another 3 years. 

I'm so glad I'm not the unversity president!  What a hornet's nest he has stepped into!

So, now I am wondering - what's next? 

Egad! What have I done?

Our department chair is a very good chair.  Everyone in the dept. thinks so.  But, he has wanted to NOT be chair for a long time.  The reason he didn't quit as chair before now is that he felt no one else was both qualified AND willing to step in.  When I first started working here, he eagerly asked me if I would be interested, as I had experience as chair where I used to work.  At the time, I said no.  But, a few weeks ago I told him that I would be willing to do it now, as I am feeling much better, I am familiar with the place now, and we have a new administration that should be easy to work with.   (In addition, a dept. chair here gets both course releases and a pay raise!)  So, he told our dean he would like to step down, and the dean is now soliciting chair applications from the dept. faculty. 

All well and good, but then last week the new scandal about the "special" international programs broke. Most of these programs are agreements with Chinese universities. The computer science junior and senior level courses are largely (1/2 to 2/3) populated with Chinese students from these special programs. I just talked to the chair a few days ago, and it seems that the Chinese government is mad at us about this whole deal, plus the cancellation of the Confucious institute, and we will probably never get any more of the special program students.  OOPS!  So, now what do we do, Ms. Chair?   Maybe this wasn't such a good time to be chair, after all! 

Black days for the teapot.

Just as I was typing yesterday's post, more things started to happen. 

Actually, it started yesterday morning when an administrator (NOT the one that resigned) missed a meeting, and could not be reached.  Later, it was reported that he was distraught (cause unknown at this point), had a gun, and was on foot.  The entire campus community was sent home, except for the dorm residents, who were put on lockdown.  An elementary school and a high school in the neighborhood were also put on lockdown. 

Later in the afternoon, his body, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot, was found in a neighborhood park. 

I knew him, but not well.  Other faculty members that knew him better were totally shocked.  Never saw it coming.  He was NOT mentioned in the judge's report, so whether or not this was related to the on-going scandals is not known at this point. 

Tempest in a Teapot - Fallout #3

The results of the audit were disclosed today.  It seems that of the 500 or so students in "special" international programs over the last 9 years, about 90% of them were awarded degrees when they should not have been.  Not the fault of the students, but of our own staff and administrators.  Just exactly why and how that happened is not yet clear, but I'm just glad it's out in the open. Evidently the just-fired president was not the only one aiding and abbetting that kind of thing, but his predecessor, also.   I have been hearing for years that this kind of thing was going on.  Finally, someone is doing something about it!  Hot dog! 

Tempest in a Teapot - Fallout #2

The second head has rolled.  The administrator cited in the report as having broken policy announced his resignation yesterday.  (See Dec. 29 post to refresh your memory.) 

The campus has been crawling with auditors for several months investigating lots of offices about lots of things, not just money.  Everything.  Today, the president wants to speak to the whole campus - faculty and staff in the morning and students in the afternoon - to tell us the results. 

Oh, by the way, the proposed Confusious Institute has been cancelled.   This faculty member is glad! 
It would have been a bad idea for a campus this small in the best of times, and this is not the best of times. 

Providence

Yesterday I made two choices that seemed trivial, but turned out to be very important. 

The situation:  I had washed some clothes, and were sitting in the washer waiting to be dried.  In the afternoon (it was a Sunday) I needed to go into the office and do some preparations for Monday morning.  As I was getting into the car, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to put the clothes in the dryer so they would be dry upon my return.  But, I was lazy, and did not want to go back into the house, and so did not. 

Later that evening, when I was home, I found myself with a sink full of dishes (I do not have a dishwasher) and should have put the clothes in the dryer so they could dry while I did the dishes.  I did not.  I got another attack of the "lazies" and decided to watch TV while the clothes were drying. 

The TV is in a basement room next to the room with the washer and dryer.  When the clothes had been drying for about 5 or 10 minutes, there was a very bright spark and a POP from the outlet where my dryer was plugged in.  I went into the room, and did not see any immediate problems, but checked it again in a couple of minutes, and there was smoke coming out of the outlet.  The wall behind the outlet was starting to turn brown.  I unplugged the dryer and shut off the breaker at the box.  Fire averted!

If I had started the dryer before I left for the afternoon, I would have come home to a pile of charcoal instead of a house.  If I had been upstairs washing dishes while the dryer was going, it would have been somewhat better in that I would have probably been able to call the fire department, but there still would have been significant damage.  Thank God for making me lazy yesterday. 

Book Review - the Inheritance Cycle

A young man named Christopher Paolini has written a wonderful 4 book fantasy series called the Inheritance Cycle.  I am just now wrapping up the 4th book.  It's about a boy and his dragon, essentially, but a wonderfully complex narrative, especially the last 2 books.  The first book, Eragon, was made into a movie that was only so-so, except for Jeremy Irons, who is always good.

The entire series is about various communities of humans, elves, dwarves, and other creatures fighting to overthrow an evil king.  Much of it seems borrowed from the Lord of the Rings, such as the nature and appearance of the elves and dwarves.  But, the way the evil king was defeated in the end seems quite original to me.  At least, I have never encountered anything like it.  Maybe someone out there has. 

(Spoiler Alert)  In essence, our hero sent the evil king on a guilt trip.  This king had great ESP powers and could force his victims to hear, see, or feel anything.  He could also inflict great mental pain.  But, in this series, dragons also have ESP power, as well as the humans they are attached to.  So, our hero, with dragon assistance, forced the king to hear the screams and feel the pain he had inflicted on his many victims over the years.  It overwhelmed him, and he committed suicide.  I've never heard of such a thing in a fantasy series.

I'm not quite finished with the book.  There is a star-crossed love match between a human and an elf, and I am eager to find out how that pans out.  But, it's a great series. 

Girl Programmer vs. Winter

Most of this fall and winter has been unusually mild for this area.  A few times the temperature dipped to the single digits, but bounced back the next day.  However, starting about a week ago, we have had a series of cold fronts, each more determined than the last to dip us into some serious bone chilling temps. 

This saga begins with Tuesday night when Big Purple failed me.  The zipper broke.  Big Purple has no buttons or belt to fasten it closed--it's the zipper or nothing.  It was already very cold, and the weather man said to expect temperatures to keep falling all day Wednesday.  

When I left the office Wednesday evening at 4:00 it seemed especially nippy to me.  In addition to the cold, there was a stiff wind from the north.  I had to deliver a document to an office in another building.  Normally, I would walk it over, but due to the coat problems and the cold, I decided to drive there.

My car had a little difficulty starting, which is unusual.  And, I had just installed a brand new battery about 2 weeks ago.  But, it did start, and I drove to the building (and found a parking place right in front!) and delivered the document.

I had on my best gloves, which are well padded and insulated.  But when I returned to the car, the tips of my fingers were hurting.  I thought, gee, it must be really cold.

I had some errands to run, but decided to postpone any of them that involved actually leaving the car.  So, my next stop was the drive-by window at the bank.  The time and temperature display at the bank said 14 below zero.  Well, that's nippy.  The bank errand did require me to have my car window rolled down for a period of time.  Didn't like that.   Next stop, the drive by mail box, then home.  By the time I got home, my finger tips had stopped hurting, but not because they were warmer.  Not good. They were red.  I put them in warm water, then they started hurting again, but not for long, as they slowly warmed.

The weather man said last night that with the wind, our wind chill index was 30 below zero.  No wonder my fingers hurt.  I had church choir practice scheduled, but I was afraid that by the time I was finished at 9 pm, my car would not start.  When it gets to about 15 or 20 below, car starting becomes an issue, unless your car is in an attached garage.  Didn't want to risk it,  so I didn't go. 

So, it's Winter 1, GP 0.

Movie Review - Kill Bill

I just saw Kill Bill parts I and II for the first time yesterday.  How campy!  How fun! 
Uma Thurman plays a lady who is out for revenge for a number of reasons.  She has a list of people that "need killin'", as Southern folk say, and Bill is the last on the list.  And doggone, if she doesn't go through the whole list.  I especially like the parts where the movie makes fun of those Ninja movies where people fly through the air just by moving their legs like they are running!  Very violent, but a real hoot!!  (Think Starship Troopers, only more so.) Made for a fun weekend.