Because he's Giles...

smeh

2010-06-13T16:44:59Z

Wow, I really hate those ads that interrupt LJ viewing. XP

itching and stuff

2010-04-27T12:53:58Z

Dear LJ,

Are you there? It's me, pylduck.

My left eye has been red and irritated since yesterday. Allergy eye drops haven't helped. Maybe I need to take more allergy pills. :P

My eyebrows are starting to be more unruly and to poke out all over the place, too. Is this what it means to get older?

Paul

Marriage v. The Ph.D.

2010-03-26T15:21:44Z

do as i say not as i do

2009-12-08T23:58:21Z

So the vet says to me, "I want you to think about trying Giles on a hypoallergenic diet." She explained that it would involve strictly feeding Giles ONLY the prescribed food--no dog treats, no human food, absolutely nothing else--for eight weeks. I looked at her skeptically and told her that it is hard for us not to feed the Giles little bits of all kinds of food throughout the day. She acknowledged my concerns but persisted in explaining that she thinks it's the best course of action to try to deal with Giles's allergies without the periodic regimen of steroid pills, antibiotic pills, and antifungal/antibacterial ointment (he is now on all three of these meds).

As she is explaining all this to me, she keeps feeding Giles treats, and when she's giving him what is probably the tenth biscuit, she laughs at herself and says, "I see what you mean about the difficulty of keeping food away from him."

dogged reputation

2009-11-13T17:08:14Z

So the other day, a colleague mentioned that his students described me as the professor who always talks about his dog. This is surprising to me since I don't feel like I really talk about Giles that much in class. At least it is a pleasant surprise. There are worse reputations to have.

It will probably only cement my doggy reputation that I have Giles with me in my office today. Four students came in for advising meetings, too. :O

dudes and dudettes

2009-09-29T22:15:50Z

I find myself in the midst of the Obama baby boom. In the past month, I've been to two baby showers. In the past week, I've run into two professors at my school (who started the same year I did) and discovered that they are pregnant.

crick crack

2009-09-22T05:24:16Z

I keep cracking/popping my wrists lately since I started lifting some weights again at the gym. They feel tight all the time now. Is it bad to crack joints? Oh, aging.

.... and

2009-09-19T13:15:16Z

we're back to 3-cup-coffee mornings (from 2 this summer). plus another cup or two later in the day. i probably need more sleep. :O

agree or disagree?

2009-09-13T14:58:22Z

Thesis: Many people don't "get" poetry, especially the kind that plays with subtle slippages of meaning, because their own use of language is so messy that they don't see the precision and multivalence of poetry.

two things

2009-09-02T05:57:27Z

1) Mr. Frog says that in North Carolina the summer I worked out every day, I looked BLOCKY. :O Or perhaps that emoticon should be :[]

2) I just glanced at an e-mail that begins: "TIAA-CREF staff will be on campus this week to counsel employees on their accounts." I misread the "counsel" as "console" at first. I was dismayed. Grief counseling for plummeting retirement accounts.

DESKTOP MEME

2009-08-30T21:43:48Z

petition for adoptee participation in adoption law revision

2009-07-27T04:12:23Z

Please consider signing this petition urging the South Korean government to make adoptees an integral party in the revision of adoption laws:

Adoptee Right to Participate in Korean Adoption Law Revision Petition:

Dear Director Park Sook-ja:

We -- the undersigned Korean domestic and overseas adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, unwed and single mothers, and allied supporters -- strongly urge you to include overseas and domestic adoptees and their birth families (henceforth “invested parties”) as equal partners in the creation, development, discussion, and administration of South Korea's adoption law revisions.....

You can find out more about transnational Korean adoption via Jane Jeong Trenka's blog, TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea), and Harlow's Monkey (blog by social worker), for starters.

zzzzzz

2009-06-14T17:45:35Z

Stayed up too late on YouTube. :P

My new research project will be on CATS AND DOGS IN YOUTUBE COVER SONG VIDEOS.

:D

three things

2009-04-17T22:24:53Z

1) Yesterday, I saw standing next to my Catholic university's sign two Mormon missionaries in their standard white-shirt with tie and dark slacks. They appeared to be proselytizing (talking to another young man).

2) Mr. Giles got to go into the Wine Thief this afternoon and proceeded to spazz out with the guy who worked there. He got two treat snacks and a small rawhide chew stick (that he was too excited to chew so we left behind). If I had known the store was dog-friendly, I would've stopped in long before.

3) Squirrels are everywhere now that we have temperatures in the 60s and 70s.

dog says no

2009-03-27T21:10:02Z

This morning, Mr. Giles and I walked through the convenience store parking lot. Usually when we do so, it means I'm going to tie him up outside and leave him to go inside the store for a few minutes. He does not like being tied up and left alone. Today, as soon as we entered the parking lot, he pulled back and gave me that look that says, "I am not going any farther!" At that moment, a man had just gotten out of his car to go into the store, and he saw Giles's expression and laughed.

i have arrived

2009-03-21T14:51:18Z

In my email inbox today is a message saying that I have been approved for inclusion in the Who's Who in Canada publication.

morning exchange

2009-03-19T14:03:23Z

At the cash register of the diner:

Waitress: (Looking at credit card with beagle photo on it.) Do you guys have a beagle?
Me: (Shows her a photo of Giles.) Beaglish.

We eat there often enough that she knows our regular order. It's also nice that her question acknowledged that we are "together."

three

2009-03-18T07:46:59Z

1. I got a third unsolicited essay from one "Manisha Shekhar" who wishes me to publish it in my "prestigious journal." I seriously don't know if this is spam or from someone who believes I run such a journal! (After I replied to the first request, I immediately got the second submission.)

2. On Monday, Misters Frog and Giles ganged up on me and gave me a flurry of kisses. I giggled and screamed. It was like this:

see more dog and puppy pictures

3. Three more classes to teach until spring break! :D

meh

2009-03-16T14:43:24Z

I feel weaksauce this morning. I'm skipping my morning swim. And I think I shall get a bubble tea on my way to class later this morning.

bleargh

2009-03-09T21:20:52Z

The fog this morning was kinda cool, but it lifted and left a rather dreary and overcast day. I bought a new stainless (natch) steel travel mug to replace the one I lost last week and was dismayed to notice that the inside of the mug is not supposed to be brown as the last one had turned. I need to do laundry and iron some clothes today. Oh, the quotidian chores that wear away our days!

I also missed out on a chance to meet and hang out with a handful of local Asian American writers on Friday. I don't regret spending the day with Mr. Frog instead to celebrate his birthday, but it is also the case that I have skipped out on everything that's been happening in town this year. I just can't seem to get my act together to do stuff. Bother!

paper non-submissions

2009-03-08T15:34:02Z

Also, there's something in the water this semester. I only received 11 out of 18 papers for this class.... It happened with the other classes a week ago, too!

my atomic clock is fail

2009-03-08T15:26:51Z

We have this "atomic clock" that is supposed to tap into a radio signal that broadcasts the time, allowing it to re-set itself during time changes and also to keep itself accurate. However, our apartment, as filled with windows as it is, seems to be a bunker as far as the clock is concerned, and it doesn't really seem able to pick up the radio signal easily. Every daylight savings change, we have to take the clock off the wall and leave it on the window ledge for a few hours before it picks up the signal and re-sets itself. WEAKSAUCE.

pleasantly almost-tired

2009-02-16T16:34:47Z

I got back in the pool again this morning for the first time in about four months. It was nice to get a little panty. I didn't do much, though, in part because the elastic strap on the ~~googles~~ goggles I left in the locker was so dried out that it broke when I tried to stretch it so I couldn't really open my eyes while swimming. I liked the feeling of a kind of all-over muscle exhaustion even though I only swam for about fifteen minutes. I liked the feeling, when I got out of the pool, of the heavy weight of my body (in contrast to the buoyancy of being in the water). I am going to try to get in the pool three times a week.... Mr. Frog also thinks my mood is much better when I exercise (regularly).

thinking in chinese

2009-02-13T21:27:56Z

It's weird to realize that my parents are going through their days surrounded by Chinese language (again), and they likely don't encounter English very much anymore. I can't imagine at this point in my life moving to another country and existing in another language (which is sort of what my parents did when they were my age)...

three students

2009-02-11T20:13:46Z

1) A couple times this past week, I've run into a student I had last semester while getting coffee between classes. She works at the campus eatery, and when I go up to the counter, her face totally lights up, and she says, "Hi professor!" When I leave the counter, she turns to her co-workers or to friends hanging around and says, "That was my English teacher from last semester!" It is lols and cute. I like her a lot. She asked me to write some sort of recommendation letter for her yesterday when I saw her, too.

2) I e-mailed a graduate student I taught a couple years ago to ask her how she's doing--how her conference presentation last month went, how she's finding teaching in the program for the first time this semester, and what progress she's making on her master's essay. I really just wanted to catch up and see how she's doing. She sent back a blank e-mail with her master's essay proposal attached. I guess she thought I wanted the proposal? But didn't respond to anything in my e-mail itself? (I didn't ask for the proposal....)

3) After the literatures of American imprisonment class today, a student came up after everyone had left and asked if we would be reading pretty much the same kind of stuff we've read this past week for the rest of the semester. I ran through the syllabus with her again, explaining the different kinds of writing we would cover. Then I asked her what she REALLY meant and what concerns she had with the reading. She said she was worried the readings might include graphic descriptions of sexual assault. I told her I'd warn her in advance if any of the readings had such depictions. I suppose this means I should read the assigned material in advance....