The bright side of my otherwise craptastic morning was finding out that I am going to need some seriously painful (& expensive) sounding oral surgery which will involve a bone graft. Lucky me. I can’t wait. 
May 28 2009
The Bright Side of Life
May 27 2009
13 Tips For Getting Some Writing Done
We’ve all seen these lists now and then… tips. Well, The Beau sent me this list from Slate of 13 tips for getting some writing done. Nothing new here, but I thought it might inspire some of the students who read this blog. Personally, I did not follow too many of these tips while doing the PhD… and I still managed to finish it somehow.
*Shrugs* do with it what ye will.
May 26 2009
Criminal Justice Education Resources Online
I received an email from Radek Gabek asking if I would give a shout out to his blog, Criminal Justice Online Blog. The blog is a resource for students and potential students of criminal justice programs at US universities. I hope he will consider doing some research and links to programs in other anglophone countries in the future.
I was surprised to learn that Don’t Forget Your Shovel is read by someone interested in the area of criminal justice, but wonders never cease!
May 20 2009
Veggie Burgers
I made the Best of Everything Veggie Burgers last night for dinner and got rave reviews. We had trouble with them falling apart , so if anyone has any tips on that let me know.
There was a lot of the mixture leftover, so I’ve made smaller patties out of them and frozen them. I’ll let you know how they turn out when we use them later.
May 12 2009
60% Students Find Lectures BorrrRing — Why?
The powerpoint, apparently, is one of the main reasons university students find lectures boring. And I couldn’t concur more. Anyone who has been my student knows that one of the first things I announce is to skip the powerpoint because, in fact, I cannot see ppt presentations. Due to some kind of brain anomaly, when I am tired or stressed (or a combo thereof), a ppt is just a big blurr to me. I can’t see it no matter where I sit in the room or whether I wear glasses or not. During the first year of my PhD studies, when this first occured, I thought I was going blind. Now I know that I’m not, but it is still frustrating when I go to a presentation.
Plus, there frankly is nothing worse than a ppt which is simply a list of words — the outline of your presentation, as if I cannot hear what you are saying.
A good ppt. should enhance a presentation/lecture. It should provide a proper visual stimulous: stats presented in charts, photos, little videos, etc. Something to make your words come alive. And if you did that, then I even I might relent and let you use one in class… and with luck, I’ve got enough sleep recently, am less stressed than normal and I might be able to see it, too!
Continue reading “60% Students Find Lectures BorrrRing — Why?”
May 10 2009
Backlash: Women Bullying Women in the Workplace
Today’s NYT has an article on a topic close to my heart, that is an article on women bullying one another in the workplace. Having been the victim of such a thing, I am pleased to see that someone has taken this bold step to address it in writing, in the open. Many of the things that are said in this article are actually things I said and felt at the time and it reflects my experiences so closely that I have to blog the article here.
Anyone who has been to an all-girls school can tell you how cruel and nasty girls and teen girls are to one another. It’s all encompassing, inside and outside the classroom. It’s petty. It’s a power of wills and words. There is nothing more cruel than the way young women treat one another. My parents used to tell me not to worry, that they would grow up and get over it. But as I’ve discovered in the last year, they don’t get over it. They just get more nasty and use the same tactics to try to get ahead at work.
As one person says in the article, it’s high school all over again.
Continue reading “Backlash: Women Bullying Women in the Workplace”
May 07 2009
Girls on Our [American] Streets
NYT Champion of Causes, Nicholas D. Kristof, has written a very interesting article today on teenage prostitutes in the US. He helps to remind us that the challenges with regard to child rights in the poor parts of the world, also exist in the industrialised world. A reminder we don’t get often enough in a “not in my backyard” world of denial that we live in. A reminder, too, that the US is one of only two UN-member states which has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Teen prostitutes, as young as 13, exist in all parts of the overdeveloped world and elsewhere. I do not mean to single out the US here, but since that is the context about which Kristof writes in his column today, that is the context that appears here.
May 06 2009
End the University…
This was in the NYT last week, but I was too busy to blog it. Another article on the relevancy of Academia, and quite a good one at that.
May 03 2009
Change (Of Scandinavia)
So, I stopped by the ‘vog shop on Queen Street yesterday, just ’cause I was in TO and had to check it out. I picked up a couple new heels for my Angels, phew because they’ve discontinued the only pair my AAA feet can wear,… which I’ll get put on them by a shoemaker here on the end of the earth where nothing is available, but everything can be fixed.
The Cherry-coloured Oolongs are on sale, too, but the TO store didn’t have my size. If you buy them by mail-order you can return them and get credit but only with the specific store which sent them to you. Sigh. Montréal had 3 pairs of 7 1/2 Cherry Oolongs yesterday, but really the 8 that I tried on in TO was really very big. Perhaps I’m a 7?
So, I wasn’t in the ‘vog shop for longer than say 15 minutes and I had 45 minutes left on the meter, so I walked over to Pages for a bit. Stopped myself from buying books because I currently have two on the go and wondered outside.
Looking across the street I saw a store called Change. (aka Change of Scandinavia as it turned out) They were selling bras ‘n things for women. This is actually a major preoccupation of mine because I’m a special size and unless I want to spend $120 on a single bra, I usually buy mine in the US. Seriously. I don’t understand for the life of me why The Bay, Sears, et. al. don’t carry bras in a more diverse range of sizes. It’s not just the super-rich who need a good fitting bra! Indeed, in the US, I buy them in everyday department stores, so why can’t ours do the same? I digress…
So, I wondered into change and boldly said to the woman behind the counter, “Do you carry odd sizes?” She said, “Sure we do. We have them all A through J” Pretty soon, she was measuring me out and giving me a couple to try on. After a few I asked how much they were and was ecstatic to find out that they were cost-friendly. Not cheap cheap, but good quality, well fitting, and between $45-$60 each. Not bad at all compared to $120.
By now, I was running out of time on the meter… but they had a buy 2 get the third free deal, so I persisted. Settled on two. Got a third for free.
Yay.
Of course, they don’t have a store in Ottawa, either.
I mean, why would they? No one else does!
May 02 2009
Another anti-Canada slight?
It’s been a few weeks since we found out the list of the selected teams for the OLPCorps experiment. I could not help but notice that the chosen teams were mostly representing American universities and African universities. Kudos to them for choosing African University partners in abundance, but why such a focus on American universities? There were several proposals coming from Canada, at least one of whom had a team member based in Ottawa whom I met. They seemed to be as organised if not more organised than most. So why the cold shoulder to the Canadian teams? Yet another anti-Canada slight from OLPC, or what? For that matter, what about European based teams?
If the Foundation means to only choose African and American students, then they should make that clear in the future.