Update

My hair is back to its normal straightess. Now that it doesn't matter a bit. Stupid hair.

Notes from the MLA

Why did my hair choose today to curl? It's never done it before in my life, yet this morning, when I cared what I was going to look like, it chose to do floopy maneuvers over my left ear. Which is exactly what you want your hair to do while you prepare to go and do THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB INTERVIEWS OF YOUR LIFE.

We've had words, though, and it has promised to behave tomorrow.

In brighter news, a child on a San Francisco street corner saw a sign that amused him, and recited over and over and over "World Famous Male Nude Revue? That's HILARIOUS!" Which it was to all of us that heard him.

Anyway, two interviews down and three to go. Tomorrow evening, I'll be a puddle of puddliness, but I'll no longer have to worry about the strange perambulations of my hair.

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a pleasant and enjoyable day.

Today's Progress

I have written 4 pages of my dissertation, revised 20, wrapped 7 presents, and eaten a bowl of soup. It's going to be a good day!

The Worst Idea in the World (Or Why Christmas Will NOT Be Fun This Year)

There's a conference every year the week between Christmas and New Year's. It's where most of the job interviews for academic jobs in my discipline are done. I'm on the market this year (and even have some interviews, so I might manage to make it in this career), which means that my Christmas is going to be miserable. I'm beginning my panic now, and intend to keep it up through the 29th of December (the day of my last interview). I will then take 3-4 days off, and begin to panic again about whether I've made it to the next level. If you see me, and I gaze at you with glazed eyes, scream, and run away, it's nothing personal, I promise.

A shout out

To everyone I know that has a blog:

I've been getting too much work done, which means that you're not doing your jobs. I want distraction -- at half-hour intervals, and in five minute bites. Coordinate that amongst yourselves, but make sure that you've got it covered, and don't think that you get to take the weekends off. I ESPECIALLY need amusing on weekends.

Thank you; that is all.

This is not a political blog

But I'm SO ANNOYED RIGHT NOW.

Because all I've been hearing is how wonderful Palin's convention speech was. And it wasn't. It was not a good speech. Her timing was off. I'm admitting that she read it with expression, but she isn't a good speaker. Good speakers know the crowd, and the crowd knows how to respond. People laughed when she paused after jokes, but not at the joke. People clapped her points, but only after she'd paused for them to do so. It looked good, but the timing was about a half second off.

And it was a mean-spirited, petty speech. And it said nothing about issues people care about.

Oh, and I'm from a small town too. And I don't think that she represents my mode of thinking.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

But you know what? I'm trying my level best not to pay attention to her, because she is an irrelevance and a distraction. An irritating distraction, but nothing more.