Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Moving and Shaking

Although, not, today, physically. I was at the office for hours longer than I typically am, and so the plan is to make up for today's lack of a workout tomorrow.

However, it's like everything in the whole world is coming together and all is right with the world with tasks I've been procrastinating about!

  1. I finally, for the first time in over a year, updated my professional website. Note: my professional website really does suck. It's nothing fancy at all. However, I did need to update it because it was filled with broken links and stupidly old syllabi, etc. All of that is now addressed, and while it still is very non-fancy, as websites go, it is no longer embarassing.
  2. I emailed the organizer of an annual conference that I've attended previously and wanted to attend this year, except with the tenure binder coming due, I blew the deadline for abstracts. It turns out I can still submit something! And that if I don't want to, I can chair a panel, and thus be on the program, and thus still get funding to go! (I was inspired to do this today because I got my info about how much I'd be funded for upcoming conferences this year.)
  3. I finally finished updating my cv for JWIBSNA.
  4. Because I did #3, I was able to email potential recommenders. I've made an executive decision to change up the recommenders for this go-around. I've decided to quit bugging the person who was the second-reader on my diss and with whom I've barely kept in contact; I made the bold move of requesting a letter from Fancy Mentor Whom I So Admire. Am debating about having Lovely Friend Mentor update the letter that she's got for me, though since only three recs are required, I don't really *need* a letter from her, since Fancy Mentor actually knows the broader scope of my research better than Lovely Friend Mentor does. Asked Awesome Colleague to update his letter, and AC has agreed, so that's set. The only person I've yet to hear from (sur-fucking-prise) is my diss director, though I'm sure he'll be amenable.... if bad about getting back to me about being amenable, which will mean I'll need to email him about four times over the next month to figure out what is up.
  5. And this weekend, I did what I think was the final set of revisions on the letter for JWIBSNA. So this means that I can send my shit off and be done with thinking about it (aside from the hounding of Diss Director).
The only problem is, because I have been spending my time on all of the above, I'm woefully behind on grading in two classes of the four. And I'm getting even more in over the next couple of days. This weekend will have to be the weekend of grading. (Except of course my parents are planning to come visit. Gah. Maybe I should call my mom and change the plans? - Damn, just did and the plans are set in stone. Well, I shall have to be efficient with my use of time on Sunday and Monday.) I also have a good amount of prep to do for one of my classes. But let's not let all of that overshadow 1-5. Those are fine accomplishments.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

woo! i know what the crazy sounds like!

also, i might be kind of fascinated with your author. I've never read her at all.

What Now? said...

Re: #1, what do you use your professional website for, or how do you suspect that other folks use it? I ask because I've had a lame professional website for a couple of years now, and I just don't really know what to do with it, partly because I think I don't know exactly why I have one or what its function is.

Dr. Crazy said...

Ok, so my website:

1) One audience (the primary one, I think) is students. I include course syllabi, my course policies, a few sample assignments. I had greater ambitions when I made it about including everything on there, and doing fun links for each course, etc., but this was unrealistic. Also, given the way that Blackboard has taken off at my uni, I find that I'm typically posting more there because students are used to going there. But I like that students who haven't taken me before can get a sense of what to expect before they enroll in a course with me.

2) The other audience would be other academics - people looking for sample syllabi, etc., when they're teaching a new course. It's a whole "pay it forward" thing, because how helpful has it been to me to see other people's syllabi on line?

I also have my cv posted, as well as some other stuff about stuff I've done research-wise, as well as some links for students who are considering grad school, and links for how to get to the writing center, about declaring the major, etc.

Given all of the above, I'm not sure I need anything fancier than what I've got - I'd just like it if it looked more polished. Problematically, I do not have time to make it look more polished right now. That said, I'm pretty happy with the info on it. It's just a matter of at some point sitting down to make it look nicer than it looks. Someday, perhaps.

What Now? said...

Thanks, Dr. C.