I’ve been going through the tribulations of immigration paperwork for renewing my work VISA. I’ve gathered my housing permit, my health check, and something else so long ago I don’t even remember turning it in. Now I’m sitting around waiting for the university to process its paperwork acknowledging that I’ve fulfilled my contract so my new employer can renew the VISA. It’s a little early, since there’s still two months to go, but since I’m starting my job soon and I’ve worked at the same school for five years, they are taking it on trust that I won’t skip the country without turning in my students’ grades.
It’s not that any of this is difficult, just time consuming and boring. When Republicans talk about cutting government regulations, a part of me is sympathetic, but they and I would cut very different regulations.
It’s not that any of this is difficult, just time consuming and boring. When Republicans talk about cutting government regulations, a part of me is sympathetic, but they and I would cut very different regulations.
One of my colleagues has a student so addicted to his cell phone that even after he took the phone away from the student, his fingers still wrapped against the palm of his hand compulsively.
I had a really successful debate class today. In the first half of the class, my students were able to successfully derive Ayn Rand’s basic philosophical premises (and sometimes plot points) from her two paragraph description of music (on the first or second page of “Atlas Shrugged,” if you care to look it up), as a part of a discussion of using literature as a polemic.
In the second half of class, we discussed an article in the April issue of “The Atlantic” by Garance Franke-Ruta called “Miss Education” about how women’s success in college doesn’t translate into success in the professional world because, in part, different personality attributes lead to success in those different situations. The other part would be sexism, of course.
We didn’t really debate the article, since few students voiced disagreement. Instead, it was mostly a clearing of the air. I’d given the students a space in which to express their worries and share experiences. That they are Chinese only made the issue starker for them, since China has some cultural time lag. Chinese university students are probably more liberal than American students, but the world outside their campuses can be so 1950s Americana with 21st Century toys (for those who can afford them). I had been worried that the article would be met with silence, since they are only first year college students, but that was trumped by the class being 3/4 women apparently quite observant of the world around them.
In the second half of class, we discussed an article in the April issue of “The Atlantic” by Garance Franke-Ruta called “Miss Education” about how women’s success in college doesn’t translate into success in the professional world because, in part, different personality attributes lead to success in those different situations. The other part would be sexism, of course.
We didn’t really debate the article, since few students voiced disagreement. Instead, it was mostly a clearing of the air. I’d given the students a space in which to express their worries and share experiences. That they are Chinese only made the issue starker for them, since China has some cultural time lag. Chinese university students are probably more liberal than American students, but the world outside their campuses can be so 1950s Americana with 21st Century toys (for those who can afford them). I had been worried that the article would be met with silence, since they are only first year college students, but that was trumped by the class being 3/4 women apparently quite observant of the world around them.
I pulled a back muscle weight lifting, so I’ve been staying home a lot. On the down side, that’s kind of lonely, not going out with friends, and a pulled back muscle is a literal pain in the ass. My butt muscles are doing double duty maintaining posture and helping walking, and I feel it.
On the up side, I’ve graded lots of papers, started studying Chinese again, am reading a novel a day, and have outlined two novels of my own to write (and started writing one of them). Of my projected eight-novel fantasy series, I’ve written four, am writing two, and have outlined a seventh (which will be the sixth in the series order).
The strangest thing is that when I wake up, my back is so stiff just getting out of bed takes serious planning and effort, then by around supper time my back has worked itself out almost to normal, but then I go to bed and the next day I wake up and my back is stiff again. Not as stiff as the morning before, but still back to a serious hindrance.
On the up side, I’ve graded lots of papers, started studying Chinese again, am reading a novel a day, and have outlined two novels of my own to write (and started writing one of them). Of my projected eight-novel fantasy series, I’ve written four, am writing two, and have outlined a seventh (which will be the sixth in the series order).
The strangest thing is that when I wake up, my back is so stiff just getting out of bed takes serious planning and effort, then by around supper time my back has worked itself out almost to normal, but then I go to bed and the next day I wake up and my back is stiff again. Not as stiff as the morning before, but still back to a serious hindrance.
I had insomnia, which I survived by rereading “Wicked,” so I had to push through teaching my classes on zero sleep. Fortunately teaching is better for me than caffeine as a wake me up. I had my nonfiction comp class write their midterms; nothing improves class attendance like announcing an exam. In my fiction class, I showed them Joss Whedon’s acceptance speech from when “Equality Now” honored him for the feminist slate to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly.” We didn’t discuss the speech, they had presentations to give, but I wanted to encourage my predominately female class to write, as Joss put it, “strong women characters.” We’ll see what their next set of short stories are like.
Up date: Last night I slept over eight hours, which felt great. My worst nights’ sleeps are generally followed by good ones, thus I was refreshed for starting my new weight lifting program. Basically, two heavy 5x5 exercises followed by a couple of light weight ones, then EAT. My lower back is a little twitchy, which sometimes happens when I’ve upped my squat, but not as bad as the first time I had a big leap.
Then I went to see “Iron Man 3” and I think it was the best of the three, right up until the “Clean Slate” program, which I can’t explain without spoilers. Suffice it to say I’ve never been a big fan of the mental health = depowerment theme. But the rest of the movie, with Tony Star dealing with the mistakes of his past and the emotional ramifications of his near death experience in “Avengers” was great.
Up date: Last night I slept over eight hours, which felt great. My worst nights’ sleeps are generally followed by good ones, thus I was refreshed for starting my new weight lifting program. Basically, two heavy 5x5 exercises followed by a couple of light weight ones, then EAT. My lower back is a little twitchy, which sometimes happens when I’ve upped my squat, but not as bad as the first time I had a big leap.
Then I went to see “Iron Man 3” and I think it was the best of the three, right up until the “Clean Slate” program, which I can’t explain without spoilers. Suffice it to say I’ve never been a big fan of the mental health = depowerment theme. But the rest of the movie, with Tony Star dealing with the mistakes of his past and the emotional ramifications of his near death experience in “Avengers” was great.
I can just get so obsessive about things sometimes. Sure, there’s always the lingering obsession over women that comes with the bio-chemistry of being a heterosexual male, but other things…
I spent a year when almost everything I read was about theology. For awhile I kept reading about quantum mechanics. My senior year of high school I was so caught up in role playing that when my wizard died I was seriously bummed. From about 1998 until 2010 every life decision I made was judged in terms of how it would help or hinder my writing. These days I read a lot more about weight lifting than I do about writing or the writing business. All last week I was puzzling over how to use a new work out routine that promises to pack on twenty pounds of muscle when I also want to lose 35 pounds of fat (at which point I’d be back at my college weight).
I spent a year when almost everything I read was about theology. For awhile I kept reading about quantum mechanics. My senior year of high school I was so caught up in role playing that when my wizard died I was seriously bummed. From about 1998 until 2010 every life decision I made was judged in terms of how it would help or hinder my writing. These days I read a lot more about weight lifting than I do about writing or the writing business. All last week I was puzzling over how to use a new work out routine that promises to pack on twenty pounds of muscle when I also want to lose 35 pounds of fat (at which point I’d be back at my college weight).
Last night I saw a performance put on by the student musical club at Nanjing U. They call themselves “Phantoms of the Musical” and did a great job, even if I was sitting a little too close to the speakers that handled the music they sang to. I felt quite a mix of emotions, from being pleased at the positive emotional reactions of the student audience to lesbian and transvestite characters, to a little embarrassed at how risqué some of the costumes and dances were, to wishing I knew how to tango to the song about a man and woman singing their complaints about a shared ex-lover. Some of the songs were better performed than others, but they were obviously having so much fun dancing and singing I certainly didn’t care.
In my debate class, I had the students reorganize the desks into a square and divide themselves into four groups based on their opinion of what shaped their personalities the most: genetics, family, society, or themselves. Roughly half the students choose family and the rest almost evenly divided themselves among the other three. This is not to say science should vote with their feet, but it isn’t all that surprising that Chinese kids would weigh their opinion so heavily towards the influence of family. I would contrast that with an article I read from the West, about how the generation gap may have been created by Western parents being too busy to raise their kids and letting their peers have more influence.
One of the things I’ve noticed about the young women in my university is how safe they feel on campus. We were reading an essay that ended in a discussion of date rape without actually using the word “rape,” and I asked the students what the end of the article was talking about. It took these college kids ten minutes of trying to read between the lines before one of them timidly suggested that the end of the essay was about date rape, because it’s just not something Nanjing University students worry about. There’s no jock culture, frat houses, or alcohol on campus, the dorms are single sex, and the male students were raised to be good students, not big men on campus.
Take from that whatever lesson you like.
Take from that whatever lesson you like.
Anthony and I were teaching today, and decided on the bus back to our apartments that we would grab a bite to eat (which turned into a real dinner because I showed him a good restaurant he’d over looked before). He teaches drama, is kind of scruffy, and thin. I teach debate, am in a suit, clean shaven, and outweigh him by about eighty pounds of fat and muscle. I’m also fifteen years older. I looked at him and said, “You can slap me if you want, but I bet in any restaurant in America, anyone who saw us eating together would think we were gay and you were my boy toy.”
“Oh, they’d totally think you were my sugar daddy.”
Anthony and don’t “hang out” but we’ve had several fun conversations when circumstances bring us together. We have passing knowledge of several of each others’ interests and both know the Joss Whedon canon well enough to quote it to each other without explanation. Most of his friends are European night owls and most of my friends are Chinese grad students, so such is life.
“Oh, they’d totally think you were my sugar daddy.”
Anthony and don’t “hang out” but we’ve had several fun conversations when circumstances bring us together. We have passing knowledge of several of each others’ interests and both know the Joss Whedon canon well enough to quote it to each other without explanation. Most of his friends are European night owls and most of my friends are Chinese grad students, so such is life.
