Author: Lowell

Another Rejection Letter

The emails keep trickling in.  Here’s the latest one I received.  It’s actually one of the better ones — in terms of getting the tone right — but it makes it ever so clear what the odds I’m facing are.

Dear Applicant,
Please forgive this impersonal letter. Last year, our Department simultaneously conducted two tenure-track searches and one visitor search: we received close to one thousand applications (my emphases), and such large numbers of applications have been difficult to manage. Many of these applications were truly extraordinary; we were humbled by the witnessing of so much talent. It is, as I am sure you know, a poor reflection on the state of our profession that so many talented applicants may not end up landing the jobs that they deserve.
As you by now realize, you did not get the job with us. I hope that you realize that this is not necessarily because of any weaknesses in your dossier. Rather, it is, above all, the result of a dramatically over-crowded job market. If you have landed a job elsewhere, please receive my congratulations; otherwise, I wish you good luck next time. In either case, thank you very much for allowing us to consider your application.
Sincerely,
1000 applicants for 3 jobs.  Anyone know how to catch lightning in a bottle?  I’ll pay.

Half Marathon


I decided to run the half marathon again, but this time I had a running partner.  The run went well enough till about mile 10, at which point I inexplicably ran out of gas.  (Uncle) L was feeling better than I was so he put on the afterburners and left me eating dust.  In the end I didn’t miss my goal of a sub-2-hour time by all that much, but it was a bit of a disappointment given how well my long run of a week earlier had gone: today my quads are so sore I can hardly walk stairs; a week ago I ran 12 miles (a mile less than half marathon distance) and didn’t feel it in my quads at all the next day.  Oh well, it was fun (for the first 10 miles).  Maybe I/we can improve on our times next year.

All Worked Up

CBC recently published a story about 2 teenagers that were tricked into eating moose droppings on a school canoe trip.  (The initial story is here and a follow up is here.)  The way CBC presented the story and the public reaction to it got me, well, all worked up.  So what did I do?  I sat down to write a comment on their website and Facebook page.  The comment turned into an essay.  So when I tried to publish the comment on the website, it got cut off about a third of the way through and, since the story is no longer “breaking news,” the story (and my comment) are no longer easy to find on CBC Manitoba’s Facebook page.  Sigh.  But having vented, I want someone to be able to see what I had to say.  If you’re interested, which, I’m sure, you aren’t, you can read it here.

Our Wine Cellar

With my second batch of wine currently “in production,” the need for a place to store it (and the wine from my first batch) was becoming apparent.  There’s this thing about wine.  You need to keep it around for a while before it becomes all it can be.  We’ve been sampling the wine I made in January about every two or three weeks and we can tell how the taste is slowly changing (for the better).  It’s hard to stay patient.  Anyway, with all this wine around, we were needing a place to store it.  Yesterday, I went to the hardware store bought some materials and made some crude shelving.  I guess we now have a wine cellar in our basement.

Easter

Easter was a few weeks ago, but it’s maybe never too late to post some pictures.
The lead up to Easter is always a bit crazy.  Easter always falls at the end of the semester, so if you are involved with a church choir like I’ve often been, the many Holy Week services and the intense rehearsal period leading up to Holy Week always happen right during the most busy time of the entire academic year.  This year was no different and, in addition to the usual choir rehearsals, I decided to work my voice back into shape and sing an aria from Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion for the Good Friday  service.  The work of preparing for Holy Week is usually worth it, but there are many times in the weeks leading up to it that one feels somewhat overwhelmed.
There are grandchildren on both sides of the family now, so Easter usually involves egg hunts.  It was a particularly uncomfortable day at Grandpa and Grandma F’s this year, but the kids seemed rather oblivious to the howling wind.
Aunt I brought a colleague with her again this year.  This one hailed from Deutschland.  While in Manitoba, he was exposed to the wonderful game of “Knipsbrat” and offered some drum lessons (on Aunt K’s new drum) to L and his older cousins.
      

First Time for Everything

It’s Monday evening, March 19th. I’m sitting at my desk working and listening to the thunderstorm outside. Now, having lived in Massachusetts for several years, the experience of a rain shower, even one with a bit of thunder, in (what are traditionally thought of as) winter months isn’t an entirely novel one. I remember watching rain water run down the street in the middle of December and having rain very early in the year. However, in all the years I’ve lived in Manitoba, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a thunderstorm in March! I walked to work today with my jacket hanging over my shoulder. In spite of this, I still worked up a sweat from the walk because it was so warm. I said to my class, “I don’t think you’re supposed to work up a sweat walking outdoors in Manitoba in March. It’s good for us, not so good for glaciers and ice caps.” Craziness!

Big-Budget Commercial

Pam and I were winding down in front of the TV the other day when we saw something that made both of us exclaim. I had just hit the fast-forward to get through the commercials–gotta love PVRs–when we noticed that something was very different. We stopped, rewound to the beginning of the commercial break and then were shown this 3-minute commercial. Wow! I wonder what its budget was. Apparently the target audience for our show is rich suburban females.