Comments on: The State of the Profession http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/ falling indelibly into the past Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:29:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: kate http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1331 kate Mon, 29 Nov 2004 08:45:38 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1331 <p>"So what I’m thinking of late is that I need to work much harder on making myself completely impossible to deal with and a disastrous administrator.” <br /> -- </p> <p> Ohhhhhhh… so that’s why so many profs I know are soooo difficult to work with.  They’re trying to maintain sanity and regain control of their time.  That makes soooo much sense.  God, am I going to have to consider altering my own easygoing personality in the same way? </p> “So what I’m thinking of late is that I need to work much harder on making myself completely impossible to deal with and a disastrous administrator.”

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Ohhhhhhh… so that’s why so many profs I know are soooo difficult to work with.  They’re trying to maintain sanity and regain control of their time.  That makes soooo much sense.  God, am I going to have to consider altering my own easygoing personality in the same way?

]]> By: KF http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1330 KF Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:19:04 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1330 <p>This conversation has taken a turn that I’d never have predicted. :) </p> <p> I do remember that honeymoon phase, Meg—it lasted a fair while, in various degrees.  I remember very clearly, during my first year here, thinking to myself over and over again, as I stood in front of some class, “good god, they’re <i>paying</i> me to do this!” And I still feel quite certain, many days, that I’m getting away with something pretty amazing.  And then there are days that I spend (as I expect to spend today) in non-stop committee meetings, grading, letter-of-rec writing, and “other duties as called upon by the President,” and those days just make me want to pull my hair out.  (Except that my hair covers some of the sins of my skin.) </p> <p> So what I’m thinking of late is that I need to work much harder on making myself completely impossible to deal with and a disastrous administrator.  Or I need to get me one of those named chair thingies, where I can say, in fact, no, I won’t do that. </p> <p> With the raise, I could get lots of facials. </p> This conversation has taken a turn that I’d never have predicted. :)

I do remember that honeymoon phase, Meg—it lasted a fair while, in various degrees.  I remember very clearly, during my first year here, thinking to myself over and over again, as I stood in front of some class, “good god, they’re paying me to do this!” And I still feel quite certain, many days, that I’m getting away with something pretty amazing.  And then there are days that I spend (as I expect to spend today) in non-stop committee meetings, grading, letter-of-rec writing, and “other duties as called upon by the President,” and those days just make me want to pull my hair out.  (Except that my hair covers some of the sins of my skin.)

So what I’m thinking of late is that I need to work much harder on making myself completely impossible to deal with and a disastrous administrator.  Or I need to get me one of those named chair thingies, where I can say, in fact, no, I won’t do that.

With the raise, I could get lots of facials.

]]> By: meg http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1329 meg Thu, 18 Nov 2004 05:41:04 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1329 <p>Makeup party!!!  (I could take makeup lessons from y’all, for sure.  The only makeup I’ve ever had on in my entire life is lipstick and eyebrow pencil.) </p> Makeup party!!!  (I could take makeup lessons from y’all, for sure.  The only makeup I’ve ever had on in my entire life is lipstick and eyebrow pencil.)

]]> By: Shasta http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1328 Shasta Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:46:31 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1328 <p>I’m happy to talk skincare any time!  Let me know if you want to grab lunch and/or a beer. </p> I’m happy to talk skincare any time!  Let me know if you want to grab lunch and/or a beer.

]]> By: meg http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1327 meg Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:04:44 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1327 <p>I didn’t experience a big zit attack in my late 30s; if anything, it FINALLY eased off—no zit-that-ate-Cinncinnati right before my period every month.  I did wake up with Aetna on my chin saturday morning before my conf paper, but that was short-term freaked-out stress. </p> <p> You’re gonna laugh, but the big secret to getting my face to stop breaking out constantly—it took me 30 years to discover this—turned out to be STOP WASHING IT.  Seriously.  It gets wet in the shower, and I wash it every month or so.  And we’re all much happier. </p> <p> I don’t feel very stressed, but I’m still in the honeymoon phase of “Omigod, I got a real job!” You want stress, try your sweetie saying “If you don’t get a job *this* year....” </p> I didn’t experience a big zit attack in my late 30s; if anything, it FINALLY eased off—no zit-that-ate-Cinncinnati right before my period every month.  I did wake up with Aetna on my chin saturday morning before my conf paper, but that was short-term freaked-out stress.

You’re gonna laugh, but the big secret to getting my face to stop breaking out constantly—it took me 30 years to discover this—turned out to be STOP WASHING IT.  Seriously.  It gets wet in the shower, and I wash it every month or so.  And we’re all much happier.

I don’t feel very stressed, but I’m still in the honeymoon phase of “Omigod, I got a real job!” You want stress, try your sweetie saying “If you don’t get a job *this* year….”

]]> By: KF http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1326 KF Thu, 18 Nov 2004 02:53:36 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1326 <p>Okay, so let’s talk acne: it’s much on my mind of late, as I’m horrified by what I’m finding every time I look in the mirror.  I keep making jokes about how I’m hoping to maybe eke out a year or so between being treated for acne and needing a face lift, but I really just don’t find it all that damned funny. </p> <p> Mine, I know, is totally driven by a hormone imbalance—and this undoubtedly falls into the category of major oversharing, but the imbalance had required my being rather permanently on the pill, but then there was that whole little blood-clot-in-the-leg thing when I was just short of 35, and there went my precious estrogen.  And there went my skin.  The one thing that I know might actually help, getting those bloody hormones back under control, is now verboten.  So perhaps, Shasta, you and I should get together and talk skin care, because I feel like I’ve tried EVERYTHING.  And my dermatologist absolutely could not give a shit.  And I am beside myself about it. </p> <p> And of course the stress produced by being upset about it makes things that much better. </p> Okay, so let’s talk acne: it’s much on my mind of late, as I’m horrified by what I’m finding every time I look in the mirror.  I keep making jokes about how I’m hoping to maybe eke out a year or so between being treated for acne and needing a face lift, but I really just don’t find it all that damned funny.

Mine, I know, is totally driven by a hormone imbalance—and this undoubtedly falls into the category of major oversharing, but the imbalance had required my being rather permanently on the pill, but then there was that whole little blood-clot-in-the-leg thing when I was just short of 35, and there went my precious estrogen.  And there went my skin.  The one thing that I know might actually help, getting those bloody hormones back under control, is now verboten.  So perhaps, Shasta, you and I should get together and talk skin care, because I feel like I’ve tried EVERYTHING.  And my dermatologist absolutely could not give a shit.  And I am beside myself about it.

And of course the stress produced by being upset about it makes things that much better.

]]> By: New Kid on the Hallway http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1325 New Kid on the Hallway Thu, 18 Nov 2004 02:42:42 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1325 <p>Hear, hear on the exhaustion and the damn acne. I escaped it almost entirely in my teens and it came back to haunt me in my late 20s. </p> Hear, hear on the exhaustion and the damn acne. I escaped it almost entirely in my teens and it came back to haunt me in my late 20s.

]]> By: Shasta http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-state-of-the-profession/#comment-1324 Shasta Thu, 18 Nov 2004 02:07:23 +0000 http://www.new.plannedobsolescence.net/?p=601#comment-1324 <p>I wonder if part of the problem is that academics tend to compare their own energy levels to their students’ energy levels, since students are the people with whom many professors work most closely.  I’m not talking so much about commitment to learning, but about the ability to get huge amounts of work done very quickly when necessary--which is often for most undergrads.  Unfortunately, that kind of clutch productivity tends to eat away at the hours available for things like sleep, and aging makes it increasingly difficult to abuse the body in the name of work.  </p> <p> By the way, I seem to know a huge number of women in their early to late thirties who have found themselves breaking out with distressing frequency.  I can think of at least a dozen women who have talked about it in the last year or so.  There must be some sort of hormonal change that kicks in at some point in the thirties; I know I’ve had to completely overhaul my skincare routine, and I still break out way more than I broke out in my twenties. </p> I wonder if part of the problem is that academics tend to compare their own energy levels to their students’ energy levels, since students are the people with whom many professors work most closely.  I’m not talking so much about commitment to learning, but about the ability to get huge amounts of work done very quickly when necessary–which is often for most undergrads.  Unfortunately, that kind of clutch productivity tends to eat away at the hours available for things like sleep, and aging makes it increasingly difficult to abuse the body in the name of work. 

By the way, I seem to know a huge number of women in their early to late thirties who have found themselves breaking out with distressing frequency.  I can think of at least a dozen women who have talked about it in the last year or so.  There must be some sort of hormonal change that kicks in at some point in the thirties; I know I’ve had to completely overhaul my skincare routine, and I still break out way more than I broke out in my twenties.

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