I periodically have these moments where I suddenly have a moment of “oldness.” I really can’t use the arthritis as a sign of age since I’ve had it since I was eighteen. Sometimes I feel like the fact that the 80s are coming back is kind of a sign of getting old, but not really because for some of us, the 80s and early 90s never really left. When I was teaching, I’d find a new white hair about Continue reading →

Stupid cold. I’m beginning to think I’m not going to get over it until winter break because that’ll be the first opportunity I’ll have to just sleep all day without worrying about grades/grading/homework/lesson plans/etc. So far, my “cold” or whatever it is has gone through all sorts of stages of annoying. First, I had a fever and fatigue and a sore throat for about a week and a half, Continue reading →

I work at a public high school. The part of that statement which concerns itself with my rant is “public,” i.e., run by the government. Last time I checked, the government is not a religious institution, nor does it promote a particular brand of religion. In the United States, there is supposed to be a distinct separation of churches and the state. Quite frequently, the line is blurred Continue reading →

I was going to post this yesterday, but yesterday was a long day…an incredibly long, irritating day. It was bad enough that I had to get up early–bad because Ian and my sleep schedules have shifted drastically toward staying up late and getting up later. So getting up early was irritation enough to start the day off rough. The reason for getting up early is because Tuesday I got a Continue reading →

So I woke up earlier with a horrible leg cramp. My left calf muscles just decided all at once to seize up and cause considerable pain–enough to wake me up. I’m never entirely sure what to do with leg cramps. I’m used to arthritis pain which is primarily in the joints. When a muscle goes nuts, I’m not sure how to treat it. Ian wasn’t in bed at the time, so I wasn’t going to wake him up Continue reading →

In the wake of the school shootings in Virginia, a lot of people around here are a bit jumpy. The shootings are a hot topic all over the department and among the students. So when this emergency message popped up on my computer while I was typing a worksheet for one of my classes, I even began wondering if something was up.

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Well, today’s the day we celebrate the beginning of the zombie revolution by hiding, finding, and eating chocolate eggs laid by an over-sized fey rabbit. Is anyone else fascinated by this bizarre behavior? South Park recently tried to make sense of the connection between Z-day and rabbits via a parody of the Da Vinci Code saying that the apostle Peter was actually a Continue reading →

I dislike Spring. I think it’s the smell. After all, memories are stronger and more easily remembered with a strong smell associated with them. Of course, there’s also something to be said about having other similar chemical compositions in the body to aid in remembering, but that’s neither here nor there. For right now, I’m going to focus on smell. It’s part of what Continue reading →

At present, I am faced with a sort of duality in my life. On the one hand, I want to leave behind Academia for a brief period in order to give myself a break from the tedium of lesson plans, grading, and classes; on the other, I sorely miss the pleasure and enjoyment of taking classes, being challenged by research papers, and learning new things. I enjoy teaching, but Continue reading →

I hate heartburn. Can’t think of anyone who enjoys it, but man, I really fucking hate it. It seems like it has been months (and it probably has been) since I’ve started getting heartburn on an almost daily basis. In fact, I know this has been going on for months. Just type “heartburn” into the search box in the left panel of my webpage, and it pulls up a post from last October. Some days I get it Continue reading →