Today is my birthday, and so far, it has been a good day. I was awakened at 6:40 am by the telephone. I am not exactly an early riser, but I jumped out of bed and it was my brother, singing happy birthday. After I got to campus, a florist delivered a beautiful, and very fragrant vase of flowers from Bob. Then, an emailed birthday postcard arrived from my sister, complete with a verse from Shakespeare. Two friends from my former workplace came to campus and treated me to lunch in the fancy dining room. I bought several bags of miniature candy bars, and handed them out to my class (that always helps the end of semester evaluations a lot).

Back in my office, a second delivery person arrived, bearing a tray of organic chocolates. (This confirms my belief that as an old lady, I will be living on tea and toast [I'd starve before I'd eat cat food], because Bob will have spent all our money.) Tonight, we're off to Villa Valenti, my favorite cozy restaurant (heavenly homemade pasta and specialty sauces, and a great salad bar) and this weekend, my mother has promised to make me a lasagne dinner.

Last night, Rudy and Sophie shared a big box of new toys, rawhides and denta-bones from Drs. Foster and Smith, and this weekend, Hobo will be getting a new plush toy too, in honor of Rudy's special day. My first birthday card came in the mail yesterday, and inside it said that my in-laws bought me a three-seat glider for the yard in Samsonville.

As years go, 42 looks promising.

Happy Birthday Rudy!

Today is Rudy's birthday. Eight years ago I was very sad, because a week before, my dog Howie had died. Howie was over 15 years old and had been failing for a while. He was a somewhat grumpy dog, very smart, and he worshipped me; the feeling was mutual. He wasn't like sunny-dispositioned Rudy in very many ways except for their shared half-beagle ancestry, and the hanging down ears that are the result of being that breed.

Howie's other half was schnauzer, while Rudy's is probably collie. Rudy, his mother, and his littermates were on television and in several newspapers in 1995. They were used to generate publicity for the shelter, and the pups were given away in a lottery. My number was the final number drawn, and Rudy was the last puppy left. I'll never forget the teary-eyed mood I was in when I went to MHRHS that day, or the surprise and joy I felt when my number was called and the attendant handed me a little tri-color puppy. I think God knew just what I needed.

Since that time, I have been a big supporter of the shelter, and every year on Rudy's birthday I send MHRHS a donation to thank them for my wonderful dog.

Cable was down yesterday, I was in a panic because I need to work on my online course and dial-up just won't do. I mean, I can check email and stuff, but some of my development was on the new machine and that has no regular modem. It is back up now, and I am thrilled.

Instead of a post, here's a picture of our trip to Niagara Falls in August - I just picked it randomly, and it turns out to be the long line of people waiting to take the elevator down to ride on Maid of the Mist. I know, I know, I'll trim it and re-upload tomorrow. [I did...now back to real work.]

I got my permanent cap today. I think the soreness will be gone by tomorrow, and then I will be able to really test drive it.

It looks like I am going to update the book I did for Gale Group two years ago. This is going to be a very busy fall!

On Saturday, September 11, 1915, Elwyn wrote: "Hot summer weather, clear fine ev'ng. Not much doing don't feel very good. Pa & Uncle Watson cut & set up buck wheat. Went over Hesley's toward evng & took supper to Jordan's. Went to the dance to night."

9/11.

The SoBig emails stopped pouring into my university email account, which is a relief.

I'm thinking, from the email I received, and also the blurb on the homepage, that I will no longer have to pay for blogger? A "free" tee-shirt was offered to those of us who threw money in the till to this point, and so I ordered mine. I'm not much of a sweatshirt wearer, and I am always cautious about message shirts, I hope it isn't too dorky looking or it will never make it out of my dresser.

The weather today is eerily reminiscent of the 9/11. I guess that isn't really that weird, since bright blue cloudless perfect temperature days are a hallmark of September. Elwyn, whose diaries I am transcribing, wrote something everyday about the weather. Later, I will look to see what he wrote on September 11, 1915.

A few days ago, I finally called IBM about the problems with the mouse on the new machine. I tried adjusting the speed, I tried cleaning it, I tried running the troubleshooter, but the annoying slight jerkiness continued. I tolerated it until now because I spent much of the summer working at the old machine, in the living room. It was too hot up here most of the time, and I felt too cut off from outside. But this Fall, with all the additional work, I really need to be organized, and to keep my stuff in the office. So, they overnighted a new mouse, I just switched, and I'm back in business. It was a shame to have this practically brand new machine so under utilized. I guess I can't say this minor thing pays for the great warranty...but it is such an improvement that it practically feels that way!

YACCS comments are down. The latest update says that the problem should be resolved Monday, September 8. Not that it matters much here at Gully Brook Press, of course, but just in case you were wondering...

Speaking of GBP, I have not updated my main website in a while, including the newsletter and virtual museum. How easy it is to fall into the schedule of academe, with its (barely) 10 month year. Well, as soon as I can see daylight on my fall semester duties, I'll whip something up. Stay tuned.

I made fresh pesto last night, with the basil I grew in Castleton, and the garlic Ma & I grew in S'ville. This is the recipe I used: 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 1 big clove garlic, 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup walnuts (I know, it is supposed to be pine nuts, but it was a last minute inspiration and it is all I had on hand). Combine all in mini-food processor, grind up. You can use a blender instead, or for the old-fashioned and/or muscular, even a mortar and pestle. Slivers of nuts and small pieces of basil should still be visible in the finished product. Yum!

The first day of the semester was hectic, mostly because a lot of students were scrambling at the last minute to register and many came to see me. I also started my classes. So far, enrollment has not changed a lot from the rosters. The day class will wind up with about 30 students, I think. The night class is going to be small, probably less than 20 students, maybe even only 15. That will be nice, it really changes the atmosphere. But for most UA undergrads, even 30 students is a small class. The online class has about 30 registered, but I always have a lot of dropping in the beginning of that class, so it might be smaller than usual, too.

I decided to add in the opportunity for students to attend an occasional real-time chat, and I offered the first one today. I am not making it mandatory, as the course is supposed to be asynchronous, and that is one of the reasons that some students take it, otherwise they would have schedule conflicts. Three students "came," and to tell you the truth, that was probably close to as many as I could handle at once, without having my fingers fall off.

The weather is so-so, overcast, chilly, looking like rain although it is not raining at present. My feet have been flaring up for about the past week, I guess it is time for a new pair of orthopedic shoes. I am on my third pair in 15 months. That's the last pair I had "in stock" so I'll have to make a trip to the Dexter outlet. I have been wearing the new pair for several days but so far they aren't helping much. It takes a while to re-adjust.

But neither the weather or my feet matter much at the moment. The start of the semester is exciting, and I have good vibes about my classes. My niece, who is a fraternal twin, had twins today, a boy and a girl. They are a few weeks early, but everything is fine and they are not too-too tiny (4 lbs. 14 oz. and 4 lbs. 2 oz.). And, miraculously, Hobo is doing well, he is on a stretch of quality days.

So you might say I am having a good day.

Wow, blogger looks different again. As a result, I lost the post I just made!

Yesterday, I found a pretty red-orange maple leaf on the deck. The nearby tree is still green, but the air feels like fall.

The end of summer is bittersweet. I prefer fall, but I don't like to lose the flowers, the garden, and the pool. The insects, on the other hand, will not be missed.

My semester routine starts Tuesday, which I eagerly anticipate and dread, all at the same time.

We put the solar cover on the pool, in an effort to squeeze out a few more weekends of swimming, weather permitting. This was mostly for my benefit, as Bob would swim when it is icy.

I have my temporary crown. The numbness has not quite worn off. I hope it doesn't bother me when it does. The worst part was the shot in the roof of my mouth. That, and having to wait to go to the bathroom until the procedure was over. That's a downside of a morning appointment for me! It was all I was thinking about as the dentist was telling me no gum, taffy, or tootsie rolls until I get the permanent. Bob was waiting for me and he overheard that part. He said he had to laugh because I never have any of those things, regardless of my teeth. Gum chewing is a major pet peeve of mine. I absolutely, positively hate it!

I have the online syllabus in final, the evening class syllabus in "final draft" and the day class syllabus in draft, so that is progress. I tried to focus on curriculum while the drill was whirling away, without much success. There was too much competition from the the need to pee. So the drill became the distraction!

Tomorrow we go to see Steely Dan at SPAC. It is a long-ish drive for us - from the slightly southern part of the Capital District to the way northern part, and there is the added annoyance of horse racing season up in those parts, but I am still psyched. That's a wonderful place to see a concert, especially if the weather holds. We have inside seats, so it should be OK regardless. I've liked that band since high school, and the new CD is good (not all critics agree, but I was relieved that it sounds a lot like their older stuff).

I am getting a lot - maybe even hundreds - of emails in my university account from that stupid "Re: Thank You," "Your Application," "Wicked Screensaver," "That Movie," etc. bug. If I could find the kid (because I am going to assume that's what he [and now I am going to gender stereotype] is, either in actual age or at least in maturity) who is responsible for this time wasting irritation, I would slap him upside the head.

The introduction documents for my online course had to be ready by today, so that has been my focus. When not answering emails from new graduate students who need advisement, that is. I can't tell you how many I received yesterday. All I did was type responses suggesting courses, explaining how to register online, commiserating about schedule conflicts and closed classes.

I managed to revise the syllabus and tweak the intro. documents. Usually I give access to the first "Module" of the class as soon as the system allows access, even though classes at the university don't actually begin until after Labor Day. In my latest design, the first Module lasts for two weeks.

This semester, because I still have a lot of thinkin' to do, I am keeping Module 1 closed. Maybe it won't open until the semester formally starts, maybe a few days before that. I still have to revise the syllabus for the evening class, and I haven't created the syllabus for the day class yet. Both of those tasks will impact the final syllabus for the online class, too.

Developing, and even just revising, takes a lot of planning, if you want to do a reasonable job. All three books are out in new editions. I am digesting the comments from last year's student evaluations, I am trying to prevent cheating, get students to learn more and be satisfied, and not drive myself crazy with the workload of evaluating assignments for three classes. Right now, the online class has 29 students, the day class has 30, and the evening class has 14. I'm sure more will be added to the night class during the last minute scramble to register.

My evaluations are high, but there are always one or two constructive remarks (to be taken very seriously) and the occasional really mean comment. Those bother me too, because I don't like to think that some student hates learning, college, the class, or - gasp - me - that much. It's a fantasy to think you can reach everyone, no matter how jaded.

Something about teaching education classes, is that the research, and the subject of your teaching, also informs you on student motivation, what is the best way to deliver content, how learning takes place, etc. So I am constantly getting fired up about making changes to my methods. It would be pretty lame to share ideas about self-directed learning and then spend the entire semester doing nothing but old tried and true chalk and talk, no matter how comfortable and familiar that may be to everyone, including most students.

But on the other hand, there are time constraints involved. It takes a lot of energy, and there are deadlines to be respected. You have to draw the line somewhere. There are also the realities of the classroom. Half the time the equipment and various bells and whistles for slideshows etc. aren't available or don't work properly. Group work, presentations, experiments and other hands-on methods are expected by some and hated by others.

This semester, I am a little sorry to be removing two elements of self-direction. One is that I am going to randomly assign students to groups rather than allowing them to choose. The other is a change I made over the summer, and I was pleased with the results. There will be no term paper. I have increased the number of essays, and I provide the topics to students.

The first change is to cut down on group dysfunction. Some students joined groups based on already established friendships, and these cliques of students took advantage of the other members, who did not know anyone else in their group prior to class. In the end, the clique members evaluated their friends as having performed in an outstanding manner, and the others in the group were given mediocre or poor ratings, in spite of reality - which was that the non-clique members did the majority of the work and were the actual leaders.

The second change is to diminish the chance that the written assignments are plagiarized.

On the other hand, I am hoping to decrease the use of the lecture format, by working closely with the groups in discussion. Although I believe I will have to provide a lot of direction for it to work, I think with the the right instructions, and some structured assignments, I can get the groups to address the educational issues in a meaningful way in class, and maybe get some good dialogue going. It find that it is such a challenge to engage students during class. Discussion is much easier in the online world.

Not sure if I will ever get the chance to catch up here, as I am (too) busy with other things. Tomorrow, Bob's family will be visiting us in S'ville, and I invited some of my family too. I have been saving up the zucchini, and today I am going to make a pan of zucchini parmesan in preparation. Most of the other food will be summer, BBQ-type items. I'll get it ready tonight and tomorrow morning, after we are there. But here is Castleton I have the better stocked kitchen to do something more complex than grill foods and salad.

I am going to have to develop my courses next week. The online one has to be "up" by Tuesday. Then, of course, Thursday will probably be shot because of the morning dentist appointment. Oh, maybe that will be fine, and not ruin the rest of my day. (Trying to be optimistic.) A numb face won't stop me from posting a few Niagara Falls pictures!

Not catching up but jumping ahead to yesterday...I spent much of the day on campus. The upcoming fall semester is getting to be more than a glimmer, and some activity was starting. I had about 50 emails from that annoying virus, then the firewalls or whatever must have kicked in because most email was delayed until today. What jerks have the time to waste creating these annoying things?

Yesterday morning I went to the dentist for my check up and cleaning. I rarely have problems with my teeth, but over three years ago, when I was working on my dissertation, a few of my right upper molars started to flare up. They hurt when I bit down while eating, it felt like something was caught up there, and there was some in general soreness in that area. I freaked and scheduled an emergency appointment.

The dentist couldn't find anything wrong, and he suggested that I was clenching my teeth a lot. I didn't realize I was doing it, but I thought about it and discovered that I was - awake and asleep. He said I was getting to the age where I have some fissures in the bone, and constantly chomping down when under stress was aggravating them. Eventually, I would probably need to have something more done, but a conservative approach would probably be best until it got more serious. So, he recommended that I simply "stop it."

I really made an effort to stop, and I must have been successful, because it went away. But ever since then, every so often, those teeth bother me again, and I will notice that I have been clenching my teeth. So, I favor that side of my mouth, and try not to clench, and after a few weeks, it goes away.

Until this summer, when it flared up again, but this time a new problem cropped up. That area is cold (especially) and hot sensitive now, and sometimes it hurts when I floss. I have been favoring that side, trying not to clench my teeth, and I switched to toothpaste for sensitive teeth. It isn't bothering me as much when I eat, but it is still wicked cold sensitive. It has been like this since June, and it is driving me crazy.

So, I told the dentist about it again yesterday, and after a little torture (only kidding) he isolated the suspect tooth, which has a large filling in it from when I was a kid, and that filling is acting as a wedge when I bite down. It seems that the future time has arrived, and now I need to have something done. The early approach is to get a crown, and I am scheduled for the first appointment on 8/28. In the slight chance a cap doesn't work, I may also need a root canal at some point, but maybe not.

I'll start with the movie Northfork for my first catch-up post. We started vacation with it, in fact we saw it the same date as this movie review. I agree that the movie is good, worth seeing, even thought-provoking. I think some of the review is on target, but it contains enough inaccuracies and misperceptions that I wonder if he actually watched the film, or just wrote this up from some secondary sources or something.

An obvious inaccuracy, Happy was definitely not mute. And the part about Irwin imagining four angels, then asking "or are they imaginary? They are real for little Irwin, and that should be real enough for us." After watching the movie, I don't see how there can be any doubt the angels were intended to be real, not just existing in the boy's imagination. At the very least this is a misperception, but it still makes me suspect the reviewer did not see the movie.

I think the most irritating "misperception" was this: "one of the subplots involves the need to dig up the bodies in the local cemetery, lest the coffins bob to the surface of the new lake." Yes, it is true there was a subplot having to do with relocating the cemetery, and it was an important part of the story. But I disagree that the significance of this subplot has to do with the macabre idea of coffins emerging on the surface.

Right at the beginning of the movie, there is a frame of a coffin popping up on the water, and later, in one scene of the movie, James Woods' character does make a remark about his late wife being catch of the day if her grave isn't moved. These two moments are overshadowed by the many scenes at the cemetery that have nothing to do with coffins appearing on the water. The reviewer focusing on that as the reason for relocating the cemetery misses the point entirely.

Losing a town is sad. Eminent domain does not create "a burial ground of foolish human dreams" (Ebert, 2003) but instead a watery grave for a special place that existed the past.

The movie made me think of the Ashokan Reservoir. The construction of that water supply happened nearly 100 years ago but you don't have to do much digging to find resentment over the loss of the Esopus Valley among local residents.

At the Mt. Pleasant Rural Cemetery, which was founded at that time, our records indicate that $15 was paid by New York City for disinterment, and an additional $3 for moving a headstone. According to The Last of the Handmade Dams (Steuding, 1985), 2,720 bodies were moved from nearly 40 cemeteries. About 368 remains were unknown or unclaimed, and they were moved to new West Shokan, in what is now called Bushkill Cemetery.

My brother and his family live right next door to the rows of 12-inch by 12-inch bluestone markers, which bear only the initials of the original cemetery and a serial number for identification.

In addition, over 100 bodies could not be located, and so were not removed. They now are under the water of the reservoir, and as far as I know, there have been no reports of coffins bobbing to the surface in the past 86 years.

Wow. That is the longest break I have taken from making posts here since I started this in March 2002. Not that I didn't have ideas, when I did either the Internet wasn't convenient, or I had other priorities.

This summer, the university switched to PeopleSoft, and now faculty can enter grades online. No more handing in bubble forms at the last minute, after the Registrar has closed, at Public Safety! But just as I was about to submit grades on Thursday (the deadline, of course), "Northeast unplugged." Friday morning, power restored, I snap on my network (I have a little two-computer arrangement, could that drain be the straw that broke the camel’s back? But I kept most lights and other unnecessary appliances off, though, just to be a good citizen) and the two machines operate very nicely independently, but there are no network drives, no printing, and no Internet.

Five hours and many iterations of “Restart,” “Skip this step,” “Uninstall,” “Add new hardware” later, it was nothing more serious than corrupt drivers and I was back in business at home. The university, however, was not. I guess that stupid Blaster virus followed by the power failure was too much.

Off to Samsonville (where two recent power outages meant the contents of the refrigerator/freezer hit the garbage) for the weekend. Meaning that back in Castleton this morning, all systems seem to be working everywhere, and I finally submitted the grades!

As the semester draws closer, advisement has started to pick up. I will be teaching three sections of class this Fall, and so soon I will have to get started preparing. But during the next two weeks, there will be a few days just for writing. So I'll start to catch up.

The garden is producing. I think the yield of cucumbers and zucchini will be fine this year, but the beans and tomatoes are off. The plants look good, but too much rain, not enough sun, who knows what else. I am starting to get ripe tomatoes, finally, though.

Back from vacation. The only computing I managed was checking email, and since Friday I didn't even do that. Needless to say, I didn't finish the grades! My deadline is the 14th.

Sometimes it's good to take a break.

Today is the last day of class. Summer session, aside from the hectic pace, is so much more enjoyable than the regular semesters. I think I have learned a few things from the past two spring semesters' cheating episodes, also. This was mostly a good section of class. There are always more "incompletes" in the summer, but that is preferable to minimal efforts, failures, disappearances, and plagiarizers.

I have one batch of essays, one discussion, and one round of journals to evaluate, then I can tally end of semester grades. I'm happy I stayed on top of it. Bob is starting his vacation, and we are headed to Samsonville, which means dial-up, so if I wasn't caught up that would be a disaster. The forecast is lots of rain, but he needs the time off, regardless. If we can't swim, we'll work on the house. That's how we spend most vacations anyway.

The garden is just beginning to produce.

The Chronicle of Higher Education asked five faculty members at various colleges what is on their summer reading list. (Unfortunately, the online article is only available to subscribers.) Three of the five listed, among other thing, the latest Harry Potter book. The Chronicle also runs a list of what is being read on college campuses (based on campus bookstore sales) and Harry Potter is there, too. I wonder what it is about those of us who always feel somewhat outside of the "mainstream?" Not that college faculty or people who shop at campus bookstores are the mainstream, probably they aren't. So I guess what I am wondering is, what is it about some of us who feel outside of both the mainstream and the non-mainstream? I don't mean in some weird, fringe kind of way - hey, my life is pretty mainstream in many ways, maybe most ways - but in embracing, appreciating, understanding certain elements of popular culture, like Harry Potter mania (or, even more absurd, reality show obsession), or being surgically attached to cell phones. I don't know. Maybe it's me.

I was reminded by a photo on the front page of the Independent (the picture is not online) that last weekend, the new Target store opened nearby. The caption said that there was no fallout at the grand opening from the loss of the Defreest-Church House, and in fact the mascot, "Bullseye," was greeting entering throngs from about the former house's location. So I thought this might be a good time to once again tell everyone not to shop there.

From the Daily Freeman, a story about animal cruelty with a happy ending, finally. (Except that 60 days in jail hardly seems enough.)

It was a nice weekend, and I did swim a little, but I was too busy to swim as much as I would have liked.

Today I picked three zucchinis, a cucumber, and some yellow beans, the first of the season. The tomatoes are still a long way off.

Class is over on Friday.

Today was opening day at the Saratoga race track. I am already tired of hearing about it on our local news and in the paper, adding to my irritation is all the publicity about the movie Seabiscuit. It seems that every year the media starts gushing about the season earlier and earlier, sort of like the way Christmas shopping has evolved. This year is worse because of Funny Cides. Horse racing is the most unpleasant thing about the Capital District. The phony society people and their stupid hats, pretending to be classy while they "wager" on this so-called sport. I could barf.

Here's a piece from the Chronicle, refuting the idea that adjunct faculty don't make the same time commitment to students that full-time faculty do. I know I spend enormous amounts of time on students (but then I only teach two classes).

We had a really bad thunderstorm here at about 8:45 tonight. We were right in the tornado warning area, so we heeded the advice and went down to the kitchen and even spent a little time in the utility room, at the most scary point of the storm. According to TV, the storm has now passed into western Vermont. I haven't gone outside yet, but I don't think we had any major damage. The folks a little southwest of here were not as lucky. My poor garden probably got hammered. I hope all is well in Samsonville, trees sometimes get uprooted there which could put the sheds, the pool or the fence at risk.

Chad emailed me to let me know that something was wrong with the comments, so I checked the YACCS website - something I probably should do on occasion but never do - and it said that the updated blogger doesn't like YACCS code that was installed before Septemeber 2002. So I did what was suggested, and the final step was to make a new post - here's hoping it worked.

Distance education is growing! Here is a report from the NCES (via the Chronicle of Higher Education).

Yesterday my nephew got married. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful ceremony, followed by a fun reception.

We had some more pictures developed, and here is a photo of Hobo, taken on July 4. Please keep him in your thoughts!



Here is link to a prayer to St. Francis for healing.

We dropped off a couple of rolls of film, and I scanned a few of the pictures. Here is a photo from this year, of the pink roses near the garden.



And here's one from the past winter, of Sophie watching Rudy roll in the deep snow.



The second roll will include photos on a CD, and it wasn't ready yet. I'll post a few more when that arrives, including one of Hobo, who is doing pretty well!

I finished essay evaluations. During summer session, I have the opposite problem from the academic year -- many of the summer students are overachievers, and cannot handle getting "A-." So there is always a little explaining to do once the grades are reviewed, but this is preferable to the email volleys about cheating.

This story, from the Daily Freeman, has a happy ending, but the cruelty makes my blood boil.

I'm not much in the mood, but I am trying to evaluate essays, and complete mid-semester evaluations. It rained this morning so yardwork is out of the question.

Here are two interesting articles, from AltVetMed and b-naturals, respectively, on cancer fighting diets for dogs.

And, this is a comforting website, with beautiful images.

This was not a good day. It turns out that Hobo does not have a pulled ligament, but bone cancer. We all love him, and we are devastated.

Please keep him in your thoughts.

My parents' doberman, Hobo, a very good dog, hurt his leg and has been very lame recently. He is having surgery to repair a ruptured cruciate ligament, so please have a good thought for Hobo today.

I am having one more computer problem, this time on the new machine. It's a minor irritant, but an irritant nonetheless. The mouse is acting up, you know, being jerky. I've tried adjusting the various speeds but that doesn't seem to help.

Anyway, here's an insightful paper on leadership and distance education (via the Chronicle of Higher Education.)

The author writes, "Distance education advocates who, in the past, put their energy into debating the virtues of out-of-classroom learning, must now play a more valuable role in facilitating discussions and decisions of much wider scope and more profound consequences for the future of their institutions. There must now be a shift in leaders’ focus from the micro issues around technology and its impact on learners to a more macro view of institutions and the impact of technology in this larger context. Thoughtful attention to issues in this wider arena will contribute to appropriate action that will ultimately impact the teaching-learning process, regardless of what technology is utilized."

I have sensed this too. Although alternatives to "chalk and talk" still are cutting-edge and new to some, as technological delivery methods are become mainstream, the larger context must be the focus, which is not different than in any teaching-learning process.

Well, I followed most of the instructions I found here (I left out one or two that I was afraid to try), and along with everything I tried yesterday (running four different spyware cleaning/blocking programs), I think (hope) the problem is fixed.

The high security due to changed Internet options is a little bit of a hassle (I had to exit and add blogger to the list of trusted sites), but it is better than not being able to use this machine, or having it freeze every two minutes, or getting a constant stream of ads that could care less about those lame pop-up controls.

Spammers, (paper) junk mailers, telemarketers, virus, trojan horse and parasite spreaders - screw you! Take that with a virtual rolled-up Biography Magazine!

Aaaaahhhhhh! The downstairs machine has a parasite.

Maybe I wished it upon myself by writing so much about (real) bugs.

I didn't know computer parasites existed, until now. What a hassle! It has just about ruined the machine. I tried everything - removing it with uninstall, removing it by deleting the folders, removing it from Startup. What with plug and play, and the complexities of networks, I don't know as much about tinkering with computers as I did in the old DOS or Windows 3.1 days, and I was getting frustrated. I tried several different programs that remove "spyware," most free and one commercial. I got better results, but still not 100%.

I think I'm going to have to learn some new things. Go through the various suggestions and remove the traces manually, as I would have in the DOS/3.1 days. Either that, or format the machine, which I really, really, really don't want to do. On the bright side, while I am trying this and that - and the hours slip away - I have been been doing a low priority but overdue task, which is cleaning up that machine, removing files that are outdated and not needed.

This article from the Boston Globe, He and she: what's the real difference? (via the Chronicle's Arts and Letters Daily) made me think. I remember learning at some point in the past that women more often write, and say, tentative, qualified sentences such as "it seems warm" rather than "it is warm" or "he seems to like it" instead of "he likes it." I started to watch myself, and it seemed true!

Here's an interesting piece from the New York Times, Where have all the Lisas gone? (via Syaffolee).

I visited the Social Security website listed in the article, and what a wealth of information! It is fascinating to see the trends over time. I rarely meet someone with the same name as me, although in the media I notice it gets used, and of course related names such as Jeanne were never uncommon. I encounter not that similar variants (Gianna, Jenna) more often. I think my name is more popular now than it was when I was a kid, but since 1990, according to the Social Security database, it is on the decline, from 162 to 410. I wonder when it peaked?

In my classes, most of the students were born in the 1970s and '80s, and it's true, I get a lot of Jessicas and Jennifers, Michaels and Christophers. Also lots of Amandas and Jasons, and some Alyssas/Elisas/Alicias. But this summer, there are more "nontraditional" students, and so I have two Marys!

I don't like to kill things. Let me revise that, I don't feel all that bad about pulling up bamboo grass and weeds that invade the garden, but I prefer to leave other things alone, if possible. Edna takes care of rodents - and with an old house they can be a significant issue - and I chalk it up to nature and feel relieved. Rudy usually will nail all annoying flies (Sophie watches bugs with a wrinkly forehead as if she isn't quite sure what is required) but lately he has allowed the problem to get out of control. This could be because I have scolded him to prevent him from going after bees, since I don't want him to get stung, so maybe he sees no difference and is just being obedient.

Anyway, there were numerous of those metallic blue/green flies in the kitchen windows, and since they weren't buzzing around much, I ignored them (Bob said he thought I was keeping them as pets). But the population was growing rapidly, and finally, on Tuesday, I couldn't stand it another moment, so I dispatched them with a rolled up Biography Magazine (I subscribed because of a kid's fundraiser, and it was the only publication of interest that I didn't already receive...it's OK, not great, kind of like a slightly elavated version of Entertainment Weekly. It has a few historical biographies thrown in with the Hollywood fawning, and those are the only worthwhile content). Once they were gone, I found the Webster, and knocked down a few webs, just to eliminate the competition. Since then, any time I even just suspect a fly is nearby, I grab the nearest paper, roll it up, and swing wildly. I'm hooked, and I'm good at it.

I like to work in the garden in the morning, because it is cool, shady, and unlike the evening, the mosquitoes aren't out. Today I put up more strings for the pole beans to climb. Slugs are always a problem, especially when there is a lot of rain in the spring, and seedlings are vulnerable. Using organic methods often requires more hands-on intervention than the chemical model's approach of simply whipping out the sprayer, but in the case of slugs, it isn't all that up close and personal. Pans of beer do the trick; the slugs drown themselves, and at arm's length I dump the contents in the weeds across the road. This morning, I checked the cucumbers and zucchini, since both have blossoms, and discovered that nemesis of curcurbits, cucumber beetles! Despite the name, they weren't on the cukes, but on the zukes. I even rotated my planting this year to avoid them, sprinkled beneficial nematodes, and still they are infesting the zucchini. I do have row covers, but at this stage, they would keep the bees from pollinating, also. Often, handpicking bugs is the only solution.

Earlier this year, the tomatoes had flea beetles - a challenge to capture, since they jump, as the name implies. But I put some water in a coffee can, held it under the leaves, and got the beetles to go for a swim. Within a few days, the infestation was gone - and the seedlings had grown enough for it not to matter as much, anyway.

So, I retrieved my handy coffee can, filled it with water and a touch of dishwashing liquid, and got my special tweezers (a pair I use only to remove ticks from the animals), hiked down to one patch of zucchini - and discovered the cucumber beetles had retreated. I'm sure it's temporary, and they'll be back.

So will I.

Finished another round of evaluations, I am keeping pace with the course schedule this time around. I have vowed that I am not going to have a ton of work to do when the course is over, and also I am trying to intervene the first moment I notice a problem with a student. The first goal is working out nicely - the module is not even halfway done, and I can turn my attention to other things. However, a couple of the problem students do not seem to be listening to my suggestions for improving their work. Hmmm.

My old Pentium II computer, which since January has been moved to the livingroom, was top of the line. That was necessary because when I got it in 1998 I was starting on my dissertation and I had a lot of statistics to grind. This time around, I went for a more middle of the road Pentium IV. It's a lot faster on the Internet, which is great, the monitor is better, and otherwise it is OK, but one thing I really miss is the superior sound system. If I have on a fan, I can barely hear the speakers. Also, the drives are SO loud, that when the machine accesses the CD, the whirring sound drives me nuts. I investigated upgrades to fix the problem, and decided that it isn't worth $300+. I should have upgraded at the time of purchase, when it would not have been as pricey.

A lot of the time I don't care that much because I prefer silence, but as I was slogging though all those essays, I really wanted some background music. So I decided to stop being frustrated, and to try something, but the real stereo is downstairs, and I didn't feel like resorting to one of my burnt-out boom boxes. Yesterday, I checked out the radio on AOL, and problem solved! I am playing the "bluegrass" choice, and couldn't be happier! WDST, the Woodstock station, is a choice too.

I'm so accustomed to hearing SUNY "dissed" (it is sometimes subtle and other times less so, and yes, despite my (1) having three degrees from two campuses and (2) working for the system or a campus in some capacity since 1988) that I sort of tune it out, I simply don't have the energy to take on the myth and defend public universities any longer. Still, here's a great letter from Saturday's Times Union, way to go President Hitchcock!

Long weekends, BBQs, swimming, and dial-up conspire to keep me from posting here.

Last month on the Mohonk garden tour, I envied the roses. Now, my two rose bushes are in bloom. They are beautiful, an old pink on a trellis next to the garden that was here when we moved in, and a red one that we planted under the kitchen window. Sometimes I wish I had a decent digital camera.

Finished both the essays and the yardwork. My class roster has dwindled somewhat from way too many to just about enough, I guess when students see the syllabus they realize that online and summer session do not translate to no work at all, they will actually have to read and write to earn three credits. Sure is hot today, and the forecast says it will be even warmer tomorrow. We are having a BBQ for Independence Day.

I did a little yard work, and also a little essay grading. I really want to put down some landscape fabric in a few places, in an effort to smother bamboo grass (good luck), and I may procrastinate on the essays a bit and do it.

We finally got the pool to be clear, and there were a few hot days for swimming. The yard in Samsonville is badly in need of a weed wacking, though.

On Thursday, my sister and I went to a garden tour and luncheon that was sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County. It is part of the "Master Gardener Program," but to be honest I'm not sure how "master" is defined. I'm not very good at remembering the name of exotic perennials, but I do like to grow things. It was held at Lake Mohonk. What a fabulous place!

I am feeling so melancholy today, because also on Thursday, my uncle died. It wasn't unexpected, but it sure was sad. The services were Sunday and Monday. At the cemetery yesterday, a small boy was playing Taps when the scanners went off and the fire department sounded the alarm in Uncle Bob's honor, since he was a long-time volunteer. It was such a beautiful and poignant tribute.

My brother mentioned at the service that Uncle Bob was the master of nicknames. I remembered that when I was a teenager, he called my friend and me the "cemetery sisters" because we would walk around in the cemetery after school and in the summer.

I don't like the idea of death but I still like cemeteries. The Bushkill Cemetery, where Uncle Bob was buried, and its environs, the towns, the mountains and the Reservoir, are naturally breathtaking. Sometimes I think the landscape becomes almost invisible when you see it on a daily basis, but there are times when the panorama is undeniable. Six years ago when Aunt Jean, his wife, died, those moments at the cemetery were etched in my mind, whispering to be committed to paper, and a short story was the result. Now I have this journal.

They were both such a big part of the community, my hometown, that special place. I have been thinking that people who have never had the privilege to live in a small town, or have never been inclined to stay in one place for any length of time and put down roots, may never find that kind of fellowship. It is traded off for other things, for convenience and change and opportunity and excitement.

I am transcribing an old diary from 1915, that was written by a man who kept a journal every day of his life, from 1906 when he was 16 until 1975, the year before he died. (I hope to do them all, which is a very ambitious project.) He lived in the same community as Uncle Bob, and he wrote a booklet that I have reissued on my website. The title is West Shokan: Eden of the Catskills, and I guess that about says it all.

I spent from Wednesday afternoon until last night in Samsonville. I kept up with my university email and the online course correspondence, but that's it. Dial-up is too much of a challenge, and the pool was calling. The plants here in Castleton look good, but there's weeding and watering to do, plus essays to evaluate. More later.

From barely 60 and downpouring to 90 and humid in a snap! The tomato plants are loving it, the rest of us living things are glad to see the sun, but would have preferred 75 and dry for a while, thank you.

Everyone is all worked up about the Math A Regents. I'm still not sure what seniors are doing in Math A. That means there were 4 years to teach to the test, and still the effort was a failure. Sigh. (An update, Commissioner Mills has announced that the seniors can march, but they might not get diplomas.) The math stuff is all water-under-the-bridge to me, the first step was when I left my administrative job, then the final step was when my dissertation was approved (to the point where when asked to come out west and make a pitch on the subject I said "No thanks") but I have big time mixed feelings. I'm not a fan of multiple choice tests, and I know that the changing Regents standards mean a lot of low-resource kids will fail.

But on the other hand, after 5 years of grading math tests (and discovering that 60%+ of students can't do arithmetic), one year plus of BOCES (and discovering that way too many perfectly "normal" students are labeled), 10 semesters of teaching foundations (and discovering that the majority of students can't write, and a sizable number are ethically challenged), I wonder what is going on in K-12, and not just in the cities or rural areas - but in the resource rich suburbs too.

Hooray! Here's a piece of wonderful news concerning animal rights.

Wow! Blogger suddenly does look different. I know the homepage has been saying this would happen for a while, but I am still surprised.

No time to play with it at the moment -- it is late. I am bothered right now because shortly before we left Castleton to head to Samsonville this evening, I noticed that one of my hanging baskets was missing. I have four nice, identical green planters hanging from the front porch, and every year I "fix" them myself with peat moss and compost. This year, each has a zonal geranium, a petunia, and some vinca.

Two days ago, Bob noticed that some of the marigolds I planted in a box in front of the house had been ripped out, and the plants and dirt were tossed on the ground. We decided it may have been a neighborhood cat, since something like this has never happened before, and I have heard cats will sometimes dig in flowers. The plants seemed OK, so I replanted everything, and forgot about it.

I did hear the dogs barking quite ferociously at one point today, but I didn't pay much attention and I guess that was a mistake. So the marigold mystery is solved, it was not a kitty in search of a litter box, but a vandal. The culprit must not be very tall, because they left the rope hanger, instead detaching just the pot. This makes me think more than one person was involved, someone to support the rather heavy pot, and someone to snap off each hook.

I thought if it was a kid, maybe they just threw the pot away in the nearby trash cans or tossed it in the weeds across the street, but no such luck. I didn't notice any other damage or anything else missing, but on the way out of town we stopped at the local police station and I reported it.

I saw in the newspaper today that the village is considering re-establishing a police force of its own, something which was discontinued in the 1980s. Since then we have relied on the town and state for patrols. The purposes of resuming a village force are to decrease vandalism and speeding, and both seem like worthy causes to me. People drive very recklessly in the village, using our steep one way streets as commuter "thrus."

On Monday, I'll go back to the hardware store to see if I can locate a matching pot, since I bought the four I had three years ago. And, back to the garden center to replace the flowers. Then, next week, I will be on alert!

In the sixteen years we have lived there, we have never had a problem with vandalism or theft. We have wonderful neighbors, and it really is a nice little town. By this I mean not upscale at all, just plain, simple, ordinary, and generally good. I guess we have been lucky. The officer we spoke with said school has had a lot of half days recently, and this means there are too many unsupervised teenagers during the afternoons.

Although to folks who live in areas where crime is commonplace it probably seems like no big deal, this incident makes me both mad and sad! Why would someone want to destroy my flowers?

There is no Tuesday Too

1. A lot of hubbub has been going on the last two days over remarks Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) made regarding the desire to break personal computers to protect copyrights. We're all copyright holders here -- indeed, it would be exceedingly difficult to not go through life in America without issuing at least one de facto copyright -- and since we're all uniformly qualified to discuss this issue, I'd like to know how important is your right of copyright is to you.

"Lord Thring asked me what I thought would be a fair and just copyright limit. I said a million years - that is, copyright in perpetuity. The answer seemed to outrage him; it quite plainly irritated him" (Mark Twain [1906], The Autobiography of Mark Twain). I agree with Mark Twain! I wrote a little more about copyright (and a bunch of other things, most not related) here.

2. Several posts ago, I commented that I had driven on the beach at Ocean Shores. Where is the oddest/most surreal place you've driven or parked a car? In that particular case, it was one of those things that struck me as, "Of all the things I would expect to find on a beach, a big white van isn't one of them". It could be along those lines for you, or on some other odd/surreal definition of your own.

Well, driving in itself is pretty surreal for me, since I don't routinely drive. But as a passenger, two things come to mind. Most recently it would be two years ago, waiting to make a left turn and hearing, from a good, long distance behind someone's brakes screetching, and those lingering moments of anticipation before bang! The truck was rear-ended. Then several years ago, coming back from Saratoga on the northway (a highway that is always somewhat surreal) at night, seeing a strange car, surrounded by some sort of cloud, that appeared suddenly, and vanished. Like a ghost car. Yes, we were tired and yes that ride is tiresome. But I doubt we would both imagine the same thing unprompted...

3. Have you seen anyone, or have you yourselves used smokeless (& ashless) cigarettes yet? More importantly, do you think that smokers with smokeless cigs should be allowed back in public places they've been banned from?

I'm not sure. This is the first time I've heard of them. Sounds like a good idea, but I think the research focus should be on making less toxic cigarettes generally. All the anti-smoking, anti-couch potato, anti-etc. health nut obsession strikes me as both good and bad. Sure, I'm all for it, we should avoid fat, stretch, walk, not smoke, not drink, you name it, of course fast food and watching TV all day are bad. But at the same time, some of it seems to promote an uptight intolerance and plastic way of living, a-la scary science fiction.

I've been happy about, but also have mixed feelings on the recent smoking ban (also surprised it passed). In terms of offices and schools, it has been so long since people could smoke inside them that I don't even remember what it was like, and I think the ban has been a good thing. The people clustered at the doors chaining away never bothered me, as long as the butts stayed in an ashtray.

In recent years, my experience (and I eat out quite a bit) has been that the majority of restaurants had divided up the sections appropriately or bought enough ventilation so that the smoke wasn't really a problem anyway. OK, that's restaurants; honestly, I rarely go to bars anymore. Last time I was in a true bar was after the Blue Room, we stopped at a nice little place called Savannah's. It was definitely too smoky for my liking, and we didn't stay long, but I'm not sure how much people who frequent bars care, or I guess what I mean is smokefree may wind up driving away business.

Somehow, it reminds me of prohibition, and that is regarded as a public policy disaster, if rather romanticized. One thing for sure, making bars smokefree isn't going to get me out of my house and into a "ginmill!" So although for their own good, I wish everyone would quit, and I do prefer smokefree places, I think it should be a bar owner's decision, and patrons can vote with their feet.

I sent the 23 students who have already signed up for the course an email to prompt them to get started. I thought they might need more direction than usual. Online courses always attract a variety of types of students, but summer students are even more diverse than the students who take courses during the year. Their computer skill level may be different, their familiarity with learning over the Internet may not be the same, and they are not necessarily matriculated students at the university, or even anywhere in SUNY.

Something I have been thinking of adding the the course when I teach it in the Fall (summer is too compact to schedule this) are one or more chat sessions. We are not encouraged to do this, since it is supposed to be asynchronous, but I want to try different things to discourage cheating, and increase engagement. I am thinking it may help to keep students "on the same page."

I've had the page count added to Gully Brook Press for a while, and by far the most popular search that gets the site a hit is "bungalow houses."

Today it actually feels hot! Rain is predicted to return tonight and it certainly seems humid enough.

I replanted zucchini, cucumbers and marigolds yesterday because the slugs have been having a feast. I put out some beer traps for them, too.

Blogger has been a little unreliable, I wish switching to something else wasn't such a hassle...

No activity in my class yet, which is a surprise. Usually summer students want to get started early because of the intense workload.

The university switched to an online (from a telephone) registration system, and there are all sorts of snags. But it is too hot to spend a lot of time upstairs working (and no air conditioner will be turned on yet).

Finally, a nice weather weekend, and we opened the pool! The water is very murky, and there were quite a few leaves to scoop out. I didn't relish the idea of getting in that mess, but wound up jumping right in on Saturday without giving it a thought. We have a new fence in S'ville that surrounds the deck and half of the pool. This is the largest area the dogs have ever had, and this weekend was the first time they have been in the new area. The pool has a new deck platform, which replaced a rickety plastic ladder. We haven't bolted down the ladder half that goes in the pool yet, and before Saturday, it was still in the shed. From the deck to the pool there is a boardwalk.

Rather than exploring the yard, both dogs and the cat are most interested in going from the deck to the boardwalk to the steps and platform near the pool. Sniffing around in the grass? Why? I resolved to splash the cat when she comes near the pool, since it would be awful if she fell in, plus she might try to escape the yard by jumping on the edge of the pool and slipping around the fence, but I wasn't too worried about the dogs. I thought Rudy might be brave enough to jump in eventually, but doubted Sophie would have that much nerve. And, I never figured that they would want to go up on the platform unless we were up there, or in the pool. I was inside the house, changing into my bathing suit, trying to get psyched to get in the very green and debris-filled water, and Bob was retrieving the ladder from the shed. Suddenly I heard Bob yell, "Sophie's in the pool!" I ran outside, and saw Rudy standing on the platform. I could hear splashing.

I know dogs can swim, but you must visualize Sophie. Her body is long and enormous, her legs are ridiculously short, and her paws are tremendous.(You can see her picture here.) I ran up the steps and jumped into the disgusting water without thinking about the slime, or even noticing whether the water was cold. At first I couldn't tell if she was struggling - the cover was not tied down but it was still floating in the pool and I thought she might be tangled up in the cables. But then I saw, with relief, that she was fine - she was swimming with no problem, her head was bobbing above the water, those long ears and her face looked very serious. She did not come directly to me when I called her, but instead swam to the other side. In a flash, Bob was in the pool too, he scooped her up, and heaved her up on the deck. After all, she is Bob's baby.

At that moment, we both realized we had no way to get out of the pool. Bob boosted me and I managed to scramble on the deck, and eventually I located the ladder, unscrewed the two halves, and carted it to the pool, so Bob could get out too. We aren't sure whether Sophie fell or if she jumped, but she does not seem scared, and the animals are still way too interested in the pool platform. Eventually we barricaded the bottom of the steps with a wooden skid, and decided we will need to get a gate.

Friday night we went to see the Wizard of Oz at the New York State Theatre Institute. It was a good show, the closing night of the performance and of the season. Of course, there were many kids there, and some were too little to stay engaged so late at night. Looking around the audience, we decided we could almost be mistaken for the grandparents!

Recently I read something about Helen Keller from the New Yorker that was linked in Arts and Letters Daily (I think it caught my eye because of the reference to Mark Twain). The article mentioned that Helen Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan, was in a poorhouse in Massachusetts when she was a girl. That got me thinking about the Poorhouse article again.

In the links at that site, there were some photographs of poorhouse cemeteries, and there is one in Minnesota that is a public park, with horseshoe courts built over the graves. In Ulster County, the poorhouse lands are now the fairgrounds, and the cemetery, or what's left of it anyway, is behind the county pool.

We sometimes walk the dogs in the lovely cemetery near the Castleton house. For some reason, these poorhouse images brought to mind a little stone that is in the cemetery that reads: "In memory of the infants who died during the epidemic of 1918." Who were they?, I have always wondered. Were there so many that they had to be buried together? Or are they scattered about, but only later there was time to remember them?

I think when you are fascinated by history as I am, questions about life and death crop up even more often than they do otherwise. Sometimes I have to tell myself to let it go. But more than being morose, these thoughts also are gentle reminders that it is important to be happy now and to enjoy every day, even the rainy ones, even the ones filled with less than pleasant tasks.

I finally got rid of the poison ivy in the yard yesterday. Also, the deer fence around the garden is up. It is raining today, so I am working on my summer course, which formally starts June 23, but is accessible beginning June 16.

Here's the Chronicle of Higher Education's service, Arts and Letters Daily. There are always a lot of fascinating and very diverse links listed.

Here's an interesting, to the point, and "sure seems true to me" article from Prospect, called Nutrition: the new medicine [click "articles," then "current issue" to get there]. (Via the Chronicle of Higher Education.)

Update on the Wynkoop House, from the Daily Freeman. (Thanks Ma). The greed makes me sick.

There may not be a Tuesday Too.

1. Why do you do these memes? Why do you think people in general do them?

The only meme I have ever done in this ejournal is the Tuesday Too. I started to do it last year when I was new to web journaling because I saw jf's invitation post in the user to user area of blogger. At the time, I didn't have any clue there were memes, I just visited her site, liked the idea, the questions, and the responses of others, and decided to respond to them. I figured, if all else failed, I'd have something to write about once a week, which at the time was my goal for posting.

Maybe others respond because memes are prompts for things to write about? Also because it makes one part of a group, a club, a (gasp) clique?

2. Do you read the responses of other people when they meme?

Yes, I always read the responses of the other TT participants. The questions were good, I don't keep a blogroll, and it gave me a few journals to read now and then. When I come across responses to some other meme, sometimes I read the answers, sometimes I don't.

3. What memes do you try to always do, and conversely which do you avoid, and why?

I always do (did?) the TT, I have never done any others. However, pre-electronic journal, sometimes I would get what I now know to be a meme emailed to me, with instructions to answer and send on to others. It was never as frequent as once per week, and usually there were numerous questions that elicited snappy, short answers.

This weekend, I finished all the planting I had planned. Friday was a beautiful day to work outside, yesterday was OK, but on Saturday I had to brave the rain to do it! It was worth it. Now I hope the weather cooperates a little, and the seeds and seedlings survive.

Two other things we did this weekend, on Friday we went to see the Matrix. I liked the first one much better, this episode seemed to be thin on plot, and overly influenced by video games. On Saturday we saw the Blue Room, and it was excellent.

Here's an interesting story from the Kingston Freeman and a link to the Ulster County Poorhouse website, complete with photographs and other worthwhile links on this subject. (Thanks, J. and Ma.) Today is a fairly nice day, but I found this site so absorbing I could hardly pull myself away.

On Tuesday, I chopped down three large burdock plants that were growing near my garden. I remembered that when I was a kid, my mother cooked the stems, and my father called them "cardone." As I recall, they were delicious. I have always been tempted to give this a try, but most of the burdock I come across are growing in areas that make the thought unpalatable, for example between cracks in a sidewalk, or in a garbage-strewn empty lot. You know, one of those places where you just know a dog has lifted his leg on the plant a few times.

These were growing in rich soil, near where I used to keep the composter. No dogs, not my two nor any others, have been near them. So I searched the Internet for information -- just to make sure my memory was serving me and I wouldn't wind up poisoning us. Burdock are a lot more common in Japanese cuisine, but the root is eaten, not really the stems. I couldn't tell from the descriptions of Italian cardone whether this is exactly the same plant as ordinary burdock, but I decided to proceed anyway. The description of the flavor was a combination of artichoke and celery, and this was good enough for me. They can be served many ways, and usually are eaten on special occasions.

They were very dirty, and cleaning them was a challenge. I cut the stems in 3" - 4" pieces, pulled off the bigger threads, the way you would with celery, then sliced them lengthwise, to facilitate removing sand and bugs. I washed them and washed them and washed them. I boiled them in salted water with lemon juice for 30 minutes to remove the bitterness. When they were done, I rinsed them. I stored them in the refrigerator until today, when I dipped them in egg and bread crumbs and fried them in olive oil.

My memory was accurate! They were delicious, and Bob agreed.

Here's another item from the Times Union on the historic preservation -- or rather, historic destruction -- front that made me sad/mad. This one is about a historic barn being torn down in Clifton Park.

Several days ago I added a site counter to most of the pages in the Gully Brook Press website. On some pages it isn't working right and I haven't had the time to tweak it, but otherwise it has been fascinating. Unfortunately, because it is free it adds an ugly banner to the top of the pages, but I am living with it for the interesting information I can collect. The virtual museum is what brings in the traffic. I can't tell whether the PDF files are getting read, I guess I would have to convert them to regular webpages to track them. I have resisted doing this, despite being urged by others to get rid of the PDF because they are hard to access, since after my experiences I want to make it at least a little difficult to plagiarize.

There is no Tuesday Too (via Sya).

Yes, I've noticed. I hope all is OK. I'll give these questions a try -- and since there's no TT, I suppose it is OK to do it on late Thursday/early Friday.

1. Request from a friend. Even if you don't do anything else for this edition of the faux-Tuesday Too, please answer this: do you ever have dreams where you read something and actually know what it is that you're reading?

I'm ashamed to respond that I can't remember! Sometimes I have vivid dreams and the memory lingers, other times I don't dream, or at least I don't recall dreaming, but I have no clue if I read in my dreams.

2. Got any music in your collection you're absolutely ashamed of owning?

No. I'm not a musical elitist, I can appreciate almost anything and my collection has a very wide range, although I tend to overplay certain CDs. I still have some vinyl, but I rarely listen to it. And, my tastes have changed somewhat over the years. I like almost all folk, bluegrass and country-rock music, and I like some rock, country, jazz, classical, alternative, dance, pop, and show tunes. I like specific musicians or bands more than types of music, for example, I like Billy Joel, Indigo Girls, Dave Matthews Band, Natalie Merchant, Joan Baez, George Winston, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, John Prine, Dave Brubeck. I also like silence - no TV, no radio, no CD player.

3. A two-parter: you're having an allergy attack. What's the first thing you try to relieve your itchy, runny nose and sneezing?

I have some allergies, and usually don't do anything.

I made a post -- then blogger decided to crash and it was gone (I never learn). So it will keep.

The weather has been holding (though rain is predicted for tomorrow), so I have made some progress on the yard. It is so late to be just starting to plant! I want to set out some heirloom tomatoes that my sister started, but they are precious and I haven't wanted to risk them getting soaked. So instead I have been putting them outside for a while every day. They can't stay in their tiny pots forever, and one transplanted they will grow huge -- so they really don't lend themselves to container planting.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting article entitled Scholars Who Blog. There are links to nine sites (most are well known, unlike this site :-), plus two directories.

On one site, I find this gem, Copycats, including comments from many kindred spirits. It was strange to read this, nice to see it isn't just me, bordering on hilarious to see how flagrant it is, and horrible to see how common it is!

The plagiarism I have detected most closely resembles what is called, in the linked post, "The Filing Cabinet." This semester's episode is over, I think. I received a round of emails, the last asking me to telephone so we could clear up our "misunderstanding." When I didn't (I am not on campus and it was long distance!), the student went to the department to complain to the chair, and while there he was advised to put his concerns in writing, and then that handwritten note was mailed to me. He wasn't aiming high, a D- would have been satisfactory. I didn't budge, and at this point, I think there will not be an appeal.

I think it is a huge, and growing problem. This is anecdotal, of course. It may have been rampant years ago, too. Or maybe detecting it is so upsetting that it distorts our perceptions. I know sometimes it overwhelms what should be our focus: serious, honest students who are trying.

I've been giving some thought to what additional revisions to assignments I can make that will decrease the incidence. I already change assignments and topics; my remarks to class on the topic are so extensive sometimes I fear timid students will think I am an ogre. I have heard some faculty argue that teaching is based on trust, so they can't worry about it. That is an optimistic view; it is so appealing to me. But when headlines focus on journalists and business people who are corrupt, I can't help believing that academe should try to reduce the problem. It doesn't matter which came first, rampant cheating in school or unethical workers, that is a chicken-or-egg question. (And frankly, it seems to me that it is at least as likely it was school.)

I do know that it really, really troubles me. (So did the evaluation comment about there being nothing good about class :-(.

Time to work outside! The rain has stopped for a few days, at least.

I'm kind of sore but I'm glad I did that work outside -- since it has done nothing but rain ever since! I pulled out bamboo grass that is invasive in Castleton. After I finished, I had a pile about 7 feet high! I also uncovered three clumps of poison ivy. Every year I "suit up" and remove it. I was too tired to do it after the bamboo challenge, but I think tomorrow will be nice again so it is on my to do list.

Speaking of being nice outside...I hope something gives soon, because the Gully Brook (the real thing is behind the house here in Samsonville) looks pretty threatening for what is usually a gentle, even intermittent little stream.

An "alert reader" (I don't read Dave Barry much any more but I remember that from his column) notified me that the pictures were not loading in the new Battle of Saratoga virtual museum. I checked it from both machines in Castleton, and it seemed fine, but here in Samsonville, they didn't appear. That's the problem with using software that makes webpage design easy, you don't "see" simple errors in the HTML code. In this case, it was pointing to the network drive -- which both Castleton machines can locate, of course. So I'm proud to say I managed to fix it using Notepad. (I don't have any other options on the S'ville machine.) Those two seminars on HTML that I took for work years ago really have come in handy.

Finally, a nice day -- I am going to do some work outside!

This, from the Times Union, "A remnant of rural past turned to rubble -- Colonie -- Former Kemp farmhouse on Wolf Road to be replaced by hotel," made me sad when I read it this morning. Hey, just what Wolf Road needs, more sprawl! But then, I suppose better there than some place where the rural is present rather than past. One negative quote about "tree huggers" shocked me. Since when did a respect for history become tree hugging?

Just now we were having quite a hail storm! It was really coming down out there. I hope it dries up soon, so that I can start to plant.

In the meantime, I updated the Gully Brook Press website. The latest virtual museum focuses on the Battle of Saratoga. The May/June issue of the Nileston News features a story I wrote in 1985, called A Day's Thoughts. Here is a picture of me at about the time I wrote this piece.

Here are the two dogs I mentioned in the story, on the right, a beagle/schnauzer named Howie (1980-1995), and on the left, a poodle named Penny (1983-1999).

Long weekend, rainy, and tiring!

One student continues to dispute his grade - I suppose this is why it is easier to look the other way when there is suspected cheating.

Rudy is a lot better - not 100% but pretty close.

Bob is calling him "Stepford dog."

Rudy is improving of course, he is eating fine now (though he does it while laying down), he goes outside and even stays for a little while beyond what is necessary, he has weakly barked once or twice in the past day, he got in the recliner for a little while this morning (he had not been jumping up on anything), and I have been able to get him to take the antibiotics without a problem.

But he does not have his usual spark, he is fairly disinterested on what is going on (his regular state is super aware, and also he is always in the same room as me - but now he is spending most of his time off on his own), he still will not come all the way upstairs, he hasn't been looking out the window at all, he won't play with Sophie, and he doesn't want to go for a walk.

It is very quiet here, as usually he is very alert, woooo-ing over every noise (and today is garbage day, lots of activity), and I guess he is the instigator because while Sophie did bark at the mailman and the garbage truck, it wasn't for very long.

One other thing (and this is really sad), usually, if you say "Rudy" or address him by one of his nicknames, he wags his tail, even if he is laying down nearly asleep. Now, you're lucky to get one wag (the first day he wouldn't wag his tail at all) when he is wide awake!

The students continue to pester me, leaving voice mails at my campus number and sending me email. What part of "you're lucky I did not refer this to Judicial Affairs" don't they understand? But why should this surprise me? Today, in AOL, I read: "Former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair said he ''couldn't stop laughing'' when the newspaper corrected his fraudulent description of an American POW's home in West Virginia, according to excerpts of an interview with the New York Observer." Oh, so making misrepresentations about Jessica Lynch's family is funny! The article continues, "Newsweek has reported that Blair signed with literary agent David Vigliano to market his story for possible book and movie deals." I called this one. I'll bet lots of fools will line up to see it! This makes me even more sick than I said I was yesterday.

Since the weather is not right for yardwork, I think I am going to start working on a new virtual museum and website updates.

I'm sure he'll be fine eventually, but Rudy's spirit seems to be broken! The good thing about this is that he is not running around straining himself, which he shouldn't do for 3 or 4 days. But the alarming thing is that he is not at all his usual self. He doesn't care about going outside, he hasn't barked at all, and even today he doesn't want to eat, not even his most favorite treat, dried apricots. He was very thirsty last night, and so I let him have one ounce of water per hour, even though he really wasn't supposed to drink anything until today. I'm not sure how I am going to get the antibiotic into him, usually he happily takes it with food. He's easy to pill but I am not going to put him through that in his current state. Sometimes he sleeps but mostly he just sits or lays around staring into space. I know he had to have it done but I feel kind of guilty since he didn't act sick at all before this and now the treatment has turned him from a bouncy happy dog into a zombie.

I've been meaning to write something about the unethical New York Times reporter, because of my experiences with student cheating and plagiarism. I won't bother to link to any story, because this is kind of old news at this point, and also because a simple search turns up more than enough, choose what you prefer. The New York Times is charging to view its original finger-pointing article, though, which I think is low. I know it is now in their archives but I think this story ought to be accessible at their site for free, they owe that much to the readers. They owe more than that, but that's a start. Most of the other articles out there (at least it appears to me) focus on the race issue, either using the scandal to denounce diversity policies, or, on the other hand, bemoaning the fact that the scandal is being used to criticize such policies.

I think both approaches totally miss the point. I could care less about this from a racial perspective. What I see is one more piece of evidence that there are too many people who have no ethics, no pride in work, no sense of fairness, and that there is a club that promotes and condones these attitudes and behaviors, or at least helps to keep such dirty little secrets hidden. It is deeply in there in many eople, even among those who would not be dishonest themselves, and should know better: the distaste for ratting on others, the belief that everything is relative - there is no right and wrong, only shades of gray, and it is OK to use whatever ammo you can to get ahead. Be kind, cut someone a break, they just made a mistake, why are you so uptight and judgmental? So lessons are not taught, and the situation spins out of control. It's easier to look the other way. Honor means nothing, and someone's word is a joke. And if you are the guilty party and get caught, use charm, claim to be the victim, and if all else fails, litigate. Plus, there just might be a book deal, and a TV movie lurking somewhere, so for 15 minutes of fame it is well worth it. A win-lose-win!

I seem to have at least a few students every spring in my classes who share Jayson Blair's ethics. It really makes me sick.

Rudy is home! He is a bit groggy (for him), but aside from that, he seems fine. He can't eat or drink anything until tomorrow, and that is going to be a challenge.

All university classes use a multiple-choice course evaluation that is machine read - we generally don't get results for a few months and the data is not all that illuminating, although most students do fill it out. For several semesters, I have used an online assessment called the Mt. Royal College FAST. I can design 20 questions myself, and the questions can be open-ended short answer, Yes/No, etc. Usually about half the students participate in any semester.

I get a lot of valuable feedback this way, and I have used student comments to make revisions to the class, but you really have to develop a thick skin! I never review the responses until after the grades are in, because time is limited, but also because I don't want the assessment to color my attitude toward the class. Anyway, this semester, in my on campus section, two students responded that given the choice, they would not take the class again. This may not disturb me so much except that it probably is not related to the expected grade (the lowest grade in the on campus cohort was C-), and one of the students wrote the most nasty comments whenever there was the option! Just an example, one question was "what did you like most about this class?" The answer? "Nothing, aside from the fact that it was once per week."

Why is it that all the other wonderful comments, and the constructive criticism, never have quite the same impact?

Rudy is at the vet right now. I am trying not to freak out, but I am on pins and needles. I have to call at 3 p.m. to see if he is alert enough to come home. Sophie cried for a few minutes and watched out the window for a while after Bob drove away with him this morning. When she went outside I could tell she was looking for him. She seems OK now. Something funny, Bob asked the human resources office if he could take the afternoon off and charge it to family sick leave! He was making a point and a joke at the same time, since his co-workers call in every time one of their kids stubs a toe, someone else has to pick up the slack, and then those absent prance around afterwards with a sense of entitlement. Of course they told him he must use his personal leave instead. Now he says they probably filed his request in the "nutjob" file!

I emailed all the students with the outcome of my evaluations. About two minutes later, one of the worst students in my class - someone who put in zero effort, missed every deadline, and quite obviously did not take the class seriously, emails me, demanding a grade change (I failed him) because he is a graduating senior, all set to go to grad school in the fall - until now. He had accumulated less than 50 points in the class (about half were a gift), and his paper was either plagiarized or if it was his own, it had been written for a different class last semester. I didn't report him to Judicial Affairs, only because I didn't feel like going to the mat this time around, since if it was a plagiarism, it wasn't a carbon copy of a paper already handed to me, like the five cases last year. But his situation is supposed to be compelling to me; "oh yeah, I cheated and did no work, but I understand where you are coming from, and I am supposed to graduate, so why can't you do me a favor? Thank you in advance..."

On the other hand - the many wonderful students in my classes more than outweigh the lazy, unethical jerks - but the jerks sure do keep it interesting (and stressful).

Grades are done!! Hooray!

Evaluating the groups takes a lot of time. I am chipping away, getting there. I have to be done by Friday, and this semester, I am not going to miss the deadline, or make myself sick.

We both had discussions with the vet, and determined that Rudy's infection will come back once he is finished with the antibiotics. Also, the opinion is that it is indeed his prostate, even though there remains a slight chance that it could be something more serious. So, we made an appointment to have him neutered on May 19. I'm relieved that he won't have to stay overnight. Rudy is still himself, very mischievous, dashing around the house with slippers, laundry, things he snatched from the table, the trash or my pocketbook, daring us to chase him, playing with his toys, wrestling with Sophie, sniffing Edna, wooo-ing at the mail carrier, in every way a seven-year-old puppy. Although the procedure must be done soon, it isn't an emergency, so it was good it could wait until the grades are in. I will be a nervous wreck all day and I know I couldn't focus on spreadsheet analysis. So please have a good thought for my "Mr. Wuja" on Monday.

I spent Saturday, which was so beautiful, working on student grades. I wanted to be outside, digging, getting ready to plant, maybe putting up the deer fence we got for the garden. Anyway, I resisted that treat and instead I was "good." I made a lot of progress, but there still is a big stack, and a smaller virtual stack, to go. Yesterday I took a break from it to work on the kitchen. We still have odds and ends to finish up in there; a little painting here, a piece of border there. The big project that still is in progress in that room is the closet under the stairs, where we tore the floor out down to the joists and are now putting in tongue and groove pine. It seems a luxurious treatment for the floor of a utility closet, but it was in bad shape and something needed to be done. It trumped working on evaluation because of the disruption - I am tired of fishing plastic wrap out of a box, and having to walk around the carpet shampooer to get to the stove.

All the tests Rudy had have not turned up anything, so he was supposed to be dropped off today for an additional test, and then possibly surgery. He's "intact." I don't have any problem with having him neutered, especially if that fixes the problem - and I suspect it would. But for several days his urine has been clear, and in terms of energy, he is a ball of fire, as usual, maybe more than usual. So it seems the second course of antibiotics is working. We have been carefully monitoring him (I think he is getting tired of it) and anxiously considering the options, and today I summoned my courage, called the vet, and told them we are going to hold off for now. If it comes back (and I know that might happen, because urinary tract infections are hard to beat), we will proceed with additional tests and/or treatment. I don't know why it was hard to do, maybe because of the fear of being wrong, thinking that they suspect something they are not saying, but on the other hand feeling like I know Rudy best, and I don't want to subject him to a bunch of unnecessary procedures, not to mention the expense. But I feel good now having made the decision.

Back to work.

Rudy seems a little better.

Most nights I read for a little while before going to sleep. I am still reading A War to Petrify the Heart, and have finished several other books while working on it. It is fascinating, but not an easy read. I am up to October 1864, about 75 pages left. In one letter he (the soldier) wrote to his future wife, he tells her:

I do believe in view of such task [she was spending time with her young nieces] and a review of old school days you begin to feel old, a natural recurrence to anybody. But don't borrow trouble or think no one else has nothing to look after or think about, for everyone has his or her burden to carry through this world - it may be real or imaginary. A cheerful disposition to throw off fancied ill and not make much trouble when it comes in reality, is everybody's duty to do, if we should enjoy life as [it] is meant for us to do. Hasn't every picture a bright side? Should we continually be looking at the dark side? These "some things which you wish I could know" and which are making you old, if not important to write about, why think about it? Why let every would-be pleasant hour be blasted by the thought so unpleasant. Am I right or am I mistaken. It is the principle I go upon.

I say he was right.

I haven't been able to write (time, technical problems, and other priorities). Rudy is still sick, he had to be seen by the vet again on Monday. He continues to eat, drink, eliminate, watch, play, bark, sleep, and be mischievous as always, but the blood in his urine remains. He has had two thorough exams, urinalysis, a blood test, and x-ray. So far, the results only show that he is in outstanding shape for a seven year old dog, and that he has UTI. So he is on a second course of antibiotics. Friday a specialist is going to look at the x-ray to see if it could be a problem with his prostate, although he has no other symptoms. Well, I figure the other Rudy had prostate problems, so maybe this Rudy does too. Anyway, it is a relief that it probably is not too serious, but the blood still preoccupies us both, although the vet said it is not an emergency situation and Rudy seems fine. But we can't bear to have anything at all wrong with the animals, especially Rudy, who has always been the picture of good health and good nature.

Then, I am in the midst of the end-of-semester crush, and I still have to resolve what to do about the potential cheating I detected.

Tuesday Too, late again

1.) Are you trying out, or do you know anything about these new blogger [thingies]?

This link was how I learned about the new "thingies" (after reading the FAQ I have no more precise word either). You know for years, I was considered something of a techie - not a super techie, but at least an early adopter, and technically literate. By having a website and writing this journal, I continue to be considered kind of cutting-edge by people who don't keep online content. But here in the land of blogs (yes, a word I still hate) I don't know nuthin'! I just haven't spent the time to learn more than necessary I guess, and at the moment it isn't in the plan. *But if this means improvements in Blogger's stability and speed, that's great.

2.) Have you tried other weblog systems that you would suggest that blogger folks switch to?

No, only Blogger since March 2002. Not that the thought hasn't crossed my mind. Blogger wouldn't let me log in on Monday and Tuesday of this week. And right now I think I have to do that tiresome no archive/republishing thing. Again. But the one or two times I investigated switching, it seemed the learning curve might involve investing too much time to bother. So see * in #1.

3.) Lately it's been reported there is so much spam filling the inboxs that people are going to stop using email. On average how much junk email do you get every day? Is it so much that you would consider giving up email? You could make up a funny sentence or two just using the email subject lines, if you're really feeling creative today.

Ugh, I hate spam. I get so much, and the amount has grown a lot over time, especially recently. I have five email accounts. My main AOL account gets the most junk mail, yesterday I got 13 junk messages. I have been ignoring/deleting it unopened for ages, and reporting/banning it for several months, but I don't see that doing this cuts down on the amount, which is frustrating. My two secondary AOL accounts get some, not nearly as much. The ones that come into AOL are: Viagra, Porn websites, Mortgage offers, Online drug offers, Incomprehensible "feedback forms" (less of these lately, they were the majority in the past), Various financial schemes, Some product offers, Scams of ebay or paypal, trying to collect passwords or credit card information, and Body part enhancement. Lots with strange letter combinations in the subject line.

My regular university Outlook account gets some, and what it gets is the worst type - the lengthy pleas for money (that are not always obvious from the subject) and generic ones with scary attachments. My learning network Lotus Notes account gets no spam (although once a few years ago a virus came via this account). Although it is very irritating, I will not abandon email over spam, because it is my preferred mode of communication.

I get paper junk mail also, which immediately gets tossed in my paper recycling bin. Spam wastes time and jams up the Internet, junk mail wastes time and natural resources. So I really hope the no spam legislation passes!!! It worked wonders for telemarketing phone calls here in New York. Let your representatives know you support this. I have been on the do not call list for a couple of years and I rarely receive such phone calls any more, when the phone used to ring off the hook with automated dialers and sales pitches waiting on the other end. Here is a link to help in getting rid of spam, junk mail and telemarketers.

Here are the subject lines of the spam I have received so far today:

As Seen On TV Miracle Youth Pill QfXeOL2t

Do You Need Extra Cash? Get It Now! tgbrcyic

~Mortgage Lenders Fight For your Business...ANZXG

kjim,A Chance for Financial Freedom

Online Medications...Shipped Overnight !!...

hey hun

icd,Hi, Grand Opening - Save 10% on all Products

Email Confirmation [krz}hugrCdro1frp11111]

Making great progress on grading, and then I hit a brick wall. I think I have uncovered at least one case of plagiarism. Must be something about Spring, when thoughts turn to cheating. It is such a mistake to risk this in my class.

I've started to do the grading. I vow I will not procrastinate this semester!

Here's an interesting artistic site from the Catskills! (Thanks, J. for the link.)