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Summertime, panic time
We’re officially into summer by both of my measures: the calendar and the girls’ high school schedule. Their last courses met today and while they both have exams early next week, that’s hardly...
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In Praise of Vacations
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then leaving work behind for a few days, even a few weeks, can help you love your work again. I’ve been on vacation since the first of the month and much of that...
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The Importance of Being Kempt
Early modernist here so I can legitimately use the term “kempt” whereas those poor folks who don’t at least mentally reside for a good chunk of the year in premodern texts are stuck with only the...
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Observations on the Start of Another Term
I hate starting teaching in the middle of the week. I understand why we’re starting on a Wednesday. My OCD tendencies just don’t like it. Ditto for the last day of term, the first Wednesday in...
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A Dog’s Life
This past month has been an exciting time professionally. Helping to get the news out about Star Wars and History has been great fun. But real life has a way of intruding. In this case, it came in the...
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Holiday Wishes
2012 has been a pretty good year hereabouts. We’ve weathered our storms (some quite literal while others were more figurative). There’s a beautiful new book to treasure in Star Wars and History and...
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Dealing with Derailment
This morning I was all prepared to polish off the last course prep tasks for my winter classes when I got derailed. Pet health issues again: trying to figure out what was wrong, booking an appointment...
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Taking Time
Long time no blog – it’s another teaching term, I’m writing on three separate projects (not quite at the same time, but I jump from one into another). And there’s real life with some moments of...
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Bingeing on Books
I wrapped up my winter’s term marking just as the last of the ice melted off of the lake. While getting back into my academic writing that’s been shelved most of the past month and pulling together the...
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University from Both Sides Now
Eldest has graduated high school and is preparing to start university this autumn. It’s been an exciting and occasionally stressful year in our household with her working through the process of...
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The Incentive Program
A lot of habit-changing programs or groups incorporate some sort of incentive. Lose X pounds of weight, get a branded star or reward yourself with a coveted item. Let’s be honest: sometimes it works....
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Pain Management
Over the past week, I’ve battled a horrific headache that’s felled me by the late afternoon most every day. I’ve described it as rather like having a rusty icepick slowly inserted and twisted from the...
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Another Derailment Moment
There was a family medical emergency this week that necessitated packing one dog off to the kennel, arranging for our trusty cat-sitter to watch the felines and then the loading up of everyone else in...
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Despair in Disorder
Unlike Herrick, I do not delight in disorder. However, the end of term (and two piles of exams) has brought a lot of disorder to both my work and my personal environment. Add to this the usual burdens...
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Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards
The teaching term has definitively ended and it was one of the best I’ve enjoyed in many years. However, if the term is over, the paperwork isn’t! Next week I have to polish off my annual report along...
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Low on Spoons
Of late, I’ve been dealing with health issues and, you’ll be happy to know, I have an excellent doctor who’s taking this seriously. We’re pursuing a diagnosis and have already started on one part of a...
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Feed the Soul
Summer is well and truly underway. I know this because I’ve planted some flowers in my front yard. The roses that survived the winter (four of five) won’t bloom for a few more weeks so I fed my colour...
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Not Much, How ‘Bout You?
It’s been a crazily busy end of the year here. I’m buried in marking at the same time that I have to wrangle a mountain of course preps. Two new on-campus courses and the first run of the ancient Near...
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True Patriot What Ifs
What really differentiates Americans from Canadians? We celebrate our grand national holidays almost simultaneously in early July. We share the better part of a continent and that very long,...
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I’m Ba-ack!: A Report on My Blogging Break
Wow. How long has it been? Ten months or close enough that this blog has been quiescent. Now with the new academic term just around the corner, why am I reckless enough to start my blog back up? Maybe...
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