Random random

[loremipsum]

If you view doing the work that leads to publication as a chore, you're in the wrong profession, for sure. If you love the work, the publication is just a natural offshoot. (I'm using "publication" as a short-hand for whatever counts in your field -- articles in scientific journals, histories, paintings, ....)

 

I think that one can really be enamored of the subject matter and the end result of one’s efforts and still dislike the drudgery (research, citation, editing, etc.) entailed when one wants to delve into and generate literature of it (granted it is an immensely satisfying feeling when one realizes a dream).

 

Aside from that, there’s the bureaucracy and politics and unfortunately, popularity and being perceived as collegial that is part and parcel of academia. As we were headed in the same direction, I walked with one of my favorite professors after class. She talked about how later that day she had to attend some academic function at the university and how she greatly disliked the tedious process of “schmoozing.” And as another professor advised the entire class vis-à-vis becoming a professional academic: “It’s not a fun process.”

[loremipsum]

Bed bugs don't leave easily, so you may got them before they infested the entire building.

 

I’m proactive and kind that way.

[loremipsum]

“Meanwhile in L.A., a neighborhood barber was just arrested for selling drugs. Blew my mind. I’ve been going to him for years. I had no idea he was a barber.”

[+ WilliamM]

I’m proactive and kind that way.

 

No, you were lucky.

[loremipsum]

No, you were lucky.

 

Perhaps that’s part of it. A small part, though, because believe me, as soon as I was aware of their presence, my entire apartment was a veritable dust storm of sedimentary powder.

[loremipsum]

Many a sexual partner have oddly asked after the fact if I’m disease-free or “clean.” For example: “By the way, you’re negative, right?” Favorite way to respond: “No... Didn’t I tell you?”

[loremipsum]

No, you were lucky.

 

And sir, even if I were (note the subjunctive mood), it would impugn neither my proactivity nor my kindness. ?

[mike carey]

And sir, even if I were (note the subjunctive mood), it would impugn neither my proactivity nor my kindness. ?

Oh, so you did, I had thought the subjunctive mood was prohibited in the US by federal law.

[+ Hoover42]

There will be a full moon walk tonight at the World War II Memorial in DC. at 5:30pm.

 

Be there or be square.

 

p.s. Don't expect to actually see the full moon; I think the weather calls for cloudy conditions all night.

[+ poolboy48220]

If you view doing the work that leads to publication as a chore, you're in the wrong profession, for sure. If you love the work, the publication is just a natural offshoot. (I'm using "publication" as a short-hand for whatever counts in your field -- articles in scientific journals, histories, paintings, ....)

Similar to a friend of mine who got a job as a trainer at a big-chain gym. He was an excellent trainer, but horrible at the process of selling and drumming up new clients. He didn't last long.

[+ newatthis]

...Aside from that, there’s the bureaucracy and politics and unfortunately, popularity and being perceived as collegial that is part and parcel of academia. ...

That's got to be true of many professions, don't you think? (Time to dig up that old joke for the 2% who haven't heard it: why is academic politics so vicious? Because so little is at stake.)

[loremipsum]

Similar to a friend of mine who got a job as a trainer at a big-chain gym. He was an excellent trainer, but horrible at the process of selling and drumming up new clients. He didn't last long.

 

Some trainers feel the prevailing methods of reeling in clients and retaining them are unethical. My erstwhile trainer who too worked for a commercial chain had a hard time reconciling his principles with certain business tactics, and lamented that most of his colleagues had no such compunction. He quit and enlisted for the army (first having had to undergo laser treatments to remove the tattoo of his mother’s name on his neck, since they didn’t allow it). Incidentally, we got on famously even though he fit the ideal type (see: Max Weber) of someone who isn’t particularly known for embracing differences: a bro-ish personal trainer living in one of the more conservative areas of San Diego, has a former-cop father, not hesitant to try to physically fight someone if they cut off his motorcycle, and is a vehement Trump supporter.

 

The only aspect to him that perhaps belies all this is that he is a vegan.

[loremipsum]

That's got to be true of many professions, don't you think? (Time to dig up that old joke for the 2% who haven't heard it: why is academic politics so vicious? Because so little is at stake.)

 

Probably, but I’d venture that professional academics are typically more stodgy and not as socially-capable as those in most other professions.

 

Side note: This reminds me of the concepts of introversion and extraversion. Carl Jung popularized these terms, but “extroversion” is the more widely-used spelling today, owing to one Phyllis Blanchard, a psychologist, misspelling it, which led to its greater use. Carl Jung vainly objected to this. “Intro” means “inside” and “extra” means “outside.” Jung thus considered “extroversion” to be “bad Latin.”

Edited October 13, 2019 by loremipsum

[+ poolboy48220]

He quit and enlisted for the army (first having had to undergo laser treatments to remove the tattoo of his mother’s name on his neck, since they didn’t allow it).

The army doesn't allow tattoos? Was this recent? The only tattoo my had has, he got in the service, I think.

Edited October 14, 2019 by poolboy48220

[loremipsum]

\

The army doesn't allow tattoos? Was this recent? The only tattoo my had has, he got in the service, I think.

 

At least not on their necks.

[+ WilliamM]

Some trainers feel the prevailing methods of reeling in clients and retaining them are unethical. My erstwhile trainer who too worked for a commercial chain had a hard time reconciling his principles with certain business tactics, and lamented that most of his colleagues had no such compunction. He quit and enlisted for the army (first having had to undergo laser treatments to remove the tattoo of his mother’s name on his neck, since they didn’t allow it). Incidentally, we got on famously even though he fit the ideal type (see: Max Weber) of someone who isn’t particularly known for embracing differences: a bro-ish personal trainer living in one of the more conservative areas of San Diego, has a former-cop father, not hesitant to try to physically fight someone if they cut off his motorcycle, and is a vehement Trump supporter.

 

The only aspect to him that perhaps belies all this is that he is a vegan.

 

I was in the Army for two years in the late1960s when many guys were drafted. If the military did not take people with tattoos, Trump would have gotten one, rather than bone spurs.

[+ WilliamM]

 

 

German author Thomas Mann receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature for the novel "Buddenbrooks." and his short stories. Stockholm 1929

 

Susan Sontag: Why do I want to meet Thomas Mann; I have read all this books."

[Spursy]

Oh, so you did, I had thought the subjunctive mood was prohibited in the US by federal law.

Yes, by the same statue that decriminalized split infinitives, as it were.

[mike carey]

Yes, by the same statue that decriminalized split infinitives, as it were.

To boldy go where no man's gone before. And also to allow people to use prepositions to end sentences with!

[loremipsum]

Yes, by the same statue that decriminalized split infinitives, as it were.

 

To boldy go where no man's gone before. And also to allow people to use prepositions to end sentences with!

 

An apocryphal anecdote holds that Winston Churchill had an editor who corrected one of his sentences because he deemed it grammatically incorrect — and Churchill wasn’t having it. He said sardonically, “This is insubordination up with which I shall not put!”

 

Personally, ending sentences with prepositions is something I will not be a part of.

[loremipsum]

 

 

German author Thomas Mann receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature for the novel "Buddenbrooks." and his short stories. Stockholm 1929

 

Susan Sontag: Why do I want to meet Thomas Mann; I have read all this books."

 

I’ve been meaning to read Death in Venice for ages. Thanks for the reminder.

[mike carey]

Personally, ending sentences with prepositions is something I will not be a part of.

(As an aside, both are examples of prescriptive grammarians insisting that things must not be done in English because they are not possible in Latin. Rejecting these ideas is something to not put up with. [Note: Sentence ending in two consecutive prepositions.])

[loremipsum]

(As an aside, both are examples of prescriptive grammarians insisting that things must not be done in English because they are not possible in Latin. Rejecting these ideas is something to not put up with. [Note: Sentence ending in two consecutive prepositions.])

 

Yes, Latin versus the English language can also engender some contentiousness among people when pluralizing words, for example, and Greek can come into play, too. An instance of this is the word “octopus.” Should the plural be octopuses (English), octopi (Latin, as plural Latin words end with “i”), or octopodes (Greek, because after all, the word “octopus” is of Greek origin)?

 

But I love the English language, warts (read: imprecision) and all.

[rvwnsd]

I bought three plants for my balcony today: A cactus, an agave plant, and a plant the name of which I can't recall at the moment. The two nicest ones (the agave and the one whose name I can't remember) came from...Safeway! They were $20 each. They get their plants from a local nursery.

[+ purplekow]

A cactus, an agave and an unnamed plant go into a balcony bar. The cactus says to the bartender I need something to drink, I am parched. The agave says to the bartender I want an umbrella drink because I am sweet. The unnamed plant says to the bartender I will have a beer and so you don't leave me unserved remember I am a Forget me Not.