a smorgasbord of thoughts

Here is what is going on over here:

I have joined Weight Watchers (International) and now am in week 3. I lost 6.2 pounds the first 2 weeks. I will never write of this again: hearing people talk recipes and "points" and motivational strategies is dull beyond belief. There is some interesting anthropological work that could be done on the discourses of dieting though: the invocation of morality ("I've been good/bad this week"); the weird possessive relationship with food ("drinking my water" "eating my fruits and veggies") - but I am not the person to do such research. Lots of blogs explore the fraught female relationship to food and body image.

I am on the brink of jettisoning my book contract for the textbook I was supposed to write with my now-deceased co-author. It was to be a HUGE amount of work even jointly, and I think my limited research time over the next 18 months could be more productively spent. So that involves some get-up-and-go on pitching new projects.

Blackboard sux sux sux. Did I mention that the online learning system called Blackboard sucks? If I did not need a little extra cash for the summer, I would not be teaching online. I am seriously considering other work options for next summer than this. I could write an entire post about my experiences with online education (and I should): the soundbite version is that online ed is not completely worthless if you really work at the paradigm of guiding students in their learning rather than teaching AT them, but if you are spending hours working the fix-it game in html coding screens, something is seriously amiss. (Just to be clear: I do not teach comp sci and I have no business meddling with html code.)

I think I like HB 0.7mm leads better than the 0.5 in mechanical pencils. (B bought a new desktop today, and I got some new pencils. They ROCK.)

Speaking of office supply, everyone is doing "back-to-school" already, so sad. I walk by the kids in summer school every morning on my 28-minute constitutional, poor bastards. (They are mostly boys, btw.)

We are "borrowing" some friends' CSA share while they are away, and it is AWESOME. It's some work to drive up there and get the stuff and go out in the fields to pick, but it also is very relaxing and satisfying.

Lately there is a skunk in the 'hood in the evenings. Sigh.