Up and Running

And only.... 2 hours wasted faking my way through the html that I do not understand in order to effect tiny little color changes that probably only I care about. But, dude, I couldn't deal with the brown of the original start-up template, and I did want a change from the old template at the old blog, even if I do remain steadfast in my commitment to orange. But yes, so now I've transferred my blogroll (and this would be a good time for me to invite anybody who'd like to be added to give me a shout) and I've added a counter and I believe that I am ready and raring to go. I've got few different posts on my mind, and I am going to invite y'all to vote about which you'd like me to do this afternoon.

1. Why I think the whole Elexa line that Trojan has come out with is (in fact) a sucky thing for women (because I may have moved my virtual house but that doesn't mean I've had a brain transplant and that I no longer will write about such topics).
2. A continued meditation on the whole "reassigned time" thing, as I really can wax poetic about it in relation to many different topics and I only barely scratched the surface in my first post.
3. A getting-ready-for-teaching post (though I have a feeling that can wait for at least a few days).
4. None of the above, because now that I've written out the topics they are actually kind of lame.

The truth of it is, I want to blog but what I need to do is to

1. Finish my syllabi so that they can be sent to the copy center so that I do not have to copy them.
2. Get the first few assignments ready for the same reason as #1.
3. Eat lunch. {Aside: Lunch will be delicious, as one of my new year's resolutions is to cook something delicious at least four times a week, and healthy, as another of my new year's resolutions is to lose the smoking weight. Thus, I will be eating my delicious four-bean chili, made with black, canneloni, light and dark red kidney beans, ground sirloin (about a pound), one onion (medium-large, depending on how much you like onion), garlic, red pepper flakes, green pepper, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, either a jalapeno or other hot pepper, stewed tomatoes, one can of tomato paste, and .... oh yes, a dash or two of tobasco. This makes about eight servings, and it's great to freeze and reheat. Yay! Dr. Crazy is keeping one of her resolutions. Incidentally, does anybody else notice that when one is trying to have a less calorie-laden diet that eating spicy food really goes a long way toward not feeling miserable? That and my love of peanutbutter on celery really goes a long way toward sticking with it....)
4. Reply to about four or five emails that are really important (sigh).

What I'll probably do is 1 and 2, read some blogs, maybe even do another post myself, and say fuck it and go to the gym. Love the gym, even if the workers are a little too peppy and friendly in my estimation.

Oh, and thank you all for coming to my new place! Actually, that's a fifth potential post - something about the weirdness of deciding to move and how that relates to blogging as an experiment in writing voice for me. So yes, vote on what you'd like to hear about from me or (and this might be more interesting) make any requests for posts that you might like that I've not thought of. Yes. Ok, time for lunch. Feeling like I may starve to death.

Reassigned Time

First, and before I get into the philosophy of this blogspace, welcome! Welcome to new readers (if there are any) and to old (who've followed me from my previous blog, which is in the process of self-destructing under the weight of its own limitations).

For those of you who don't know, "reassigned time" is something that college professor types on the tenure track can apply for to get a break (however small) from teaching obligations in order to - you guessed it - do other work. This is also known as "course relief," "course release," or "release time." One can receive this time for a number of reasons. For example, if one is chair of one's department or if one takes on being the department's director of graduate studies (should one's department have graduate students) one can often expect to get a "course reduction" (another term for this that I forgot about). Or, if one is at an institution like mine - a regional comprehensive university with a 4/4 load - one can apply for "reassigned time" in order to accomplish one's research (since there are no pre-tenure sabbaticals here, thank you very much). Oh, and I guess one can apply for it if one is doing some major service thing as well. You get the idea.

I decided to call this blog "reassigned time" because I feel like it's a title that reflects my lifestyle as an academic. I often feel like any time spent doing one thing (grading, for example) is time that must be "reassigned" from some other essential task (like eating a healthy meal, for example). Also, and I'm sure this comes as no surprise, I've actually got reassigned time this semester. No, this is not like a dream come true. While it's true that I've only got to teach 3 courses and to do two preps, the course whose time was "reassigned" was my one upper-division course, and two of the three courses that I will be teaching are writing courses (though I've revamped the writing course, which now has a theme of "celebrity" about which I'm very excited). So. I'm a person, a single female person, in my third year on the tenure track, at a regional comprehensive university in a metropolitan area in the midwest, who has been "awarded" approximately 6-12 hours a week to do the following:

1. Co-edit a mini-journal
2. Write an article
3. Finally make my dissertation into a book proposal before the thing is totally obsolete
4. Send out two proposals for conferences and make travel arrangements for at least one of them, should I be accepted
5. Find the cash to go to that one conference, if not both, since it's in Europe and I can't expect for my dept. fully to fund it
6. Make use of the gym membership that I bought yesterday to lose, at minimum, the weight I gained a) quitting smoking and b) eating enough for four people over the holidays
7. Continue not smoking, oh, and eat better, too
8. Dating? Can there be time for dating?
   

So that's me in a nutshell and the beginning of this blog. Stay tuned.....

(P.S. Yes, I'm in the process of redesigning the template, adding the blogroll, etc. But now I need to go eat lunch and then go to the gym, because I am all about the good use of time now that I'm in my new space.)