various randomness of blah blah

Music: radio in German Auto Center (currently "Big Country")

back to ramen

I'm sitting, again, in the car repair shop. Not two days after I got my car out of the shop (replaced a bad water pump and timing belt for a tidy sum of $994.00), the "check engine" light came on again. I ran the car by Auto Zone for a free computer reading, and I'm hoping it's a camshaft sensor that was knocked loose during the last repair. If it's the actual camshaft I will have officially evacuate what little savings I have left after this past year (car repairs, unexpected hospital bill from two years ago, air conditioner repair, and other more-than-normal expenses have taken their toll). Since last July, repairs have cost me almost eight grand. I have a 2001 Volkswagen Golf 1.8 Turbo. Do not buy one of these.

Yes, I know I could have bought a new car by now. But, this one's almost paid off. And once you start pouring money into a car, you think, "well, if I spend this then it will last me two more years," and so on. It's the psychology of car repair, I suppose. Then, before you know it, you've spent so much you cannot justify a new car---you ain't got anything left for a down payment. And so, I will not get a new car next year as I had planned. Must wait two years to justify . . . .

I'm still researching what I want. My inner fetishist wants the Volvo C30. You know, I have this thing for Swedes. But I realize that repair bills for this thing will be akin to my Golf five years in (after the warranty expires; reliability ratings for the c30 are mediocre). So, I will probably shoot for something more, you know, practical, since the sport car hatchback want isn't really a need. Subaru?

take it to the scene, like a teaching machine

Today was the second day of class. I had my graduate seminar in rhetorical criticism yesterday, and things seemed to go well. I'm very excited I only have six students. Six! In eight years as a professor I have never had a graduate class with only six students. This makes me happy to no end, and a more intimate experience will be very nice for a change.

My undergraduate course on "Celebrity Culture," of course, is the opposite: 190 students and counting. On the first day I lecture about the seedy side of celebrity, for the most part. I talked about the death of Michael Jackson, cultural fantasies (namely, tragedy), and rounded it all out with a discussion of narcissism and the Octomom. Some students looked bored. Some looked shocked. And so---with nods to Ellen Goodman---it goes.

de-privation

Bad news about the budget trickles in slowly at UT---it's like a slowly moving tide that has finally gotten just below the knees. They say we'll never get up to our neck. Regardless, the university is doing all sorts of things to brace for cuts Gov. Perry has threatened. Folks have been "let go," mostly staff. Some programs were cut or dissolved. A new "early retirement incentive" program pays you a lump sum has been installed. Faculty identified as "research inactive" will be forced to shift from a 2-2 to a 3-3 teaching load (whoa, won't it be fun determining what "research inactive" actually means!).

One of the more unfortunate decisions that has been made concerns raises: merit pay raises have been frozen for, um, three years. The administration has decided to give out bonus checks in November to the most productive faculty to improve morale (based on the average of last two year's performance. Notably, unlike salary enhancement, bonus checks are taxed as supplementary pay (%25)---and you don't always get that back with returns.

Despite intentions, this approach is manifestly terrible for morale. It's the kind of decision someone who makes six figures believes makes people happy---just like the stimulus check Obama sent when he got to office. It feels like a bone (and not a spirited one). Most folks would much rather just continue the freeze with the hope merit pay may return down the road. My colleagues and I voted to keep our ratings for as many years as it takes until we can turn them into real raises. I'm sure many departments are not doing that. And my worst fear: that this bonus system becomes the reward system, permanently. A friend and colleague says that this kind of crisis opportunity is never reversed in the business world, and insofar as the university is now a corporation, we should not expect things to be different. I hope he is wrong.

Finally, every faculty person I know would give up merit pay to save some staffers. No one, of course, was asked.

Now, I'm not whining---or if I am, it's not because I think something can be done, or because I think this or that person is at fault. The problem with systemic crises is that the response is usually also systemic. Sure, someone not thinking right came up with this bonus idea, but that idea is also part of corporate culture in a broader context. I imagine for those of you teaching at state colleges and universities, this is all familiar. Every school is addressing the cash-flow problem in various ways, none of which are pleasant. And, in a meeting with the dean this week, there's not much we can do because we don't know what the legislature is going to do. Arts and education usually get whacked. Perry is apparently sitting on a major budgetary crisis in an election season, so gosh knows what's gonna happen. Frankly: I hope the Longhorns do well this fall; the better they play, the better chance we'll have in education . . . .

fall rush

Fall semester always seems busier than spring semester, much of which has to do with the bang of beginnings and the whimper of the end. It seems like every deadline is in the fall, every demand for service hits the heaviest in the fall, and so on (May, however, is Defense Month). If I ever get some sort of semblance of a sabbatical---some kind of leave, which I really really think would stave off burn-out---it seems to make the most sense to take it in the spring. In spring, there are less demands on one's time. Well. I am cramming this weekend to make some grant and fellowship deadlines, so I'm thinking ahead. Yes, with a project like mine (NEH review termed it "ghoulish") I don't have a chance, but I gotta try just in case by the time I finally finally finish the damn book the "weird" will be normal and I can spend a semester writing the next book . . . .

Ugh. Whatever. Blah. Gotta try and write tonight.