tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77150142009-04-21T21:43:05.671-04:00Thinking For A Living is Serious BusinessDr. Crazynoreply@blogger.comBlogger212125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1136390424017259352006-01-04T10:57:00.000-05:002006-01-05T16:31:45.873-05:00

“To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”- T.S. EliotOnce upon a time, a girl decided to call herself Dr. Crazy and to create a blog to chronicle her experiences in a tenure-track job at a regional comprehensive university. She was new to the blogosphere, and she didn’t really know what she was getting into. She thought it would be an experiment in constructing a

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1134746325973148552005-12-16T09:52:00.000-05:002005-12-16T10:33:29.510-05:00

The day begins when the little man jumps onto the headboard of the bed and peers from above at his Mama, meowing until she awakens.As disconcerting as it may be for his Mama to wake up to the upside-down kitty-cat (and to take a picture first thing in the morning), it is a cheerful way to awaken, or so the Man-Kitty believes. Finally having roused his Mama, the Man-Kitty persuades her to feed him

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1134411013318721882005-12-12T12:03:00.000-05:002006-10-14T12:33:45.156-04:00

Or, I suppose, on remaining "named" in my current fashion. I've been promising this post for a couple of weeks, and I've had a few false starts on it. Normally, I abandon posts that I can't start and finish in one go. It has something to do with the kind of writing that I want to do on the blog. I like the immediacy of blogging, and if I'm agonizing over a post I lose some of that immediacy.

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1133379329907717652005-11-30T14:35:00.000-05:002005-11-30T14:54:53.670-05:00

It Makes Me Want to Slit My Wrists...And How I Do It, Too.I thought I'd actually do a post about this after I actually got comments on my last one. And I think that it relates to teaching of any citation style, so perhaps others will be interested even if MLA Style is not their own?Why I Teach MLA StyleJo(e) noted in her comment to my last post that she doesn't do it because it's so painful.

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1132254888250297882005-11-17T12:57:00.000-05:002007-06-01T19:58:15.916-04:00

I was inspired to post about this after reading Dean Dad's advice to a reader over at his blog today about whether she should go to graduate school in History. First of all, I think Dean Dad gives really good advice. But that's not really what I want to discuss in this post. What I want to discuss is 1) generally, what are the ethics that guide our decisions about advising students toward or

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1131478145815902682005-11-08T14:20:00.000-05:002005-11-08T14:29:05.826-05:00

You realize that conferences are perhaps the most important part of what you do.I just had a conference with a student - I think I blogged about him at the beginning of the semester because I suspected him of plagiarism but I'm too lazy to find the link. He didn't plagiarize, incidentally. He's just really fucking bright.And for the past 3 weeks, he'd pretty much disappeared. He's not the sort

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1129151941254832592005-10-12T16:05:00.000-04:002006-02-24T12:39:21.866-05:00

That is, of course, the question. (And God, another really long post follows. My apologies!)In case you haven't noticed, there is a bit of talk out there about what a bad idea it is for academics - and particularly the untenured ones or the masses on the market looking for tenure-track jobs - to blog. After reading the latest cautionary tale about what happened to Daniel Drezner, I thought to

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1129126157835085982005-10-12T09:46:00.000-04:002007-06-01T19:58:15.916-04:00

(A VEEERRRRYYY long post – as you might imagine)I’m writing this post in direct response to a request from a reader, who wanted to know how I decided to do the professing thing – whether this was always what I wanted to be when I grew up and how I came to this point. Now, on the one hand I’m flattered that anybody would be interested, and so of course I’m going to post in response. But I

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1128956906396880352005-10-10T10:18:00.000-04:002006-02-20T16:28:36.116-05:00

This is a promised response to Ryan over at Raining Cats and Dogma to his post "Song and Dance," in which he considers whether it's good that he's as much of an entertainer as he is when he teaches. He asks, "How entertaining a teacher are you? Why/not?" and rather than respond in comments (which had I done so, I would have hijacked them in a wild and conspicuous manner) I decided to write

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1128020376289204052005-09-29T14:48:00.000-04:002005-09-29T14:59:36.323-04:00

Well, obviously this is via Jo(e), but I decided that I couldn't think of 7 surprising things about myself without effort, whereas the little Man-Kitty surprises me every day. His favorite toy, despite the extravagant gifts lavished upon him by his mama, is the little plastic circle thingie that comes off of a plastic bottle of milk when you open it. In a pinch a good back-up toy is a pony-tail

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1127840096816366742005-09-27T12:53:00.000-04:002006-02-20T16:25:59.196-05:00

This is a long one, so be forewarned. I’m thinking about what it means to be a teacher. In a very real way – and perhaps this is because of the kind of institution at which I am employed – teaching and not research is more and more the means through which I define myself as an academic. It’s strange, because one of the reasons I chose graduate school over becoming a high school English teacher

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1126027568559206522005-09-06T13:26:00.000-04:002005-09-06T13:27:10.533-04:00

There was a sweet little Man-Kitty who had only a chair to call his own.

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1126027548161373772005-09-06T13:25:00.000-04:002005-09-06T13:28:36.780-04:00

He did the best he could with his chair. He leapt onto it from behind, he chased his tail while balancing precariously on its back. But, still, he was a forlorn kitty.

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1126027425119428832005-09-06T13:22:00.000-04:002005-09-06T13:33:17.470-04:00

And now he has realized his dream of touching the ceiling. If only we all had it so great!

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1126027513667541582005-09-06T13:21:00.001-04:002005-09-06T13:30:07.036-04:00

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1126027490174238842005-09-06T13:21:00.000-04:002005-09-06T13:33:57.583-04:00

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1126027351686610632005-09-06T13:20:00.000-04:002005-09-06T13:34:31.823-04:00

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1122650971436871742005-07-29T11:29:00.000-04:002005-07-29T11:42:22.443-04:00

I was forced to use an old picture because a certain someone (somecat?) has been refusing to model for me of late. It seems that he resents how much of a social butterfly I've been being this summer, and, even though his only job around the house is to look cute in pictures, he seems to think that even that is now too much. You will notice in the above photo that the little man has taken my keys

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1122037693688809412005-07-22T09:08:00.000-04:002005-07-22T09:08:13.696-04:00

Man-Kitty surveying the wide world beyond his favorite window. 

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1121983818958101512005-07-21T17:58:00.000-04:002006-05-09T08:50:47.140-04:00

which I've pretty much missed the boat on the whole discussion, but nevertheless I'd like to contribute having read Prof. B's post.I don't prefer assholes, but if you believe you are "nice" and you believe that's the reason that I don't like you, you're an idiot. "Niceness," won't make me dislike you, but it won't make me like you either. No, if you're nice and I'm not into you? It's probably

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1121431164488637602005-07-15T08:42:00.000-04:002005-07-15T08:43:33.886-04:00

Man-Kitty being very Kittenish with his favorite toy, the balls connected by a string.

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1121431225820195972005-07-15T08:40:00.000-04:002005-07-15T08:40:25.826-04:00

Man-Kitty doing his favorite acrobatics routine on the back of his chair. Incidentally, this is a favorite location for tail-chasing. 

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1121431286037331922005-07-15T08:38:00.000-04:002005-07-15T08:42:03.136-04:00

But when all is said and done, all of this playful kittenishness can be very tiring indeed.

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1120232509704542332005-07-01T11:45:00.000-04:002005-07-01T11:43:57.586-04:00

Look at Him Then!

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715014.post-1120232553536569292005-07-01T11:42:00.000-04:002005-07-01T11:42:33.540-04:00

And Now He's So Big! 

Dr. Crazynoreply@blogger.com0