Insignificant Significant Insignificant News

Yes, you read the title of the post correctly. I have some insignificant significant insignificant news. I found out on Saturday that my application to teach the logic course at the University of Winnipeg this fall was successful. So why is this news insignificant significant insignificant news? It’s, as you may have guessed, insignificant news that is, just a bit more significant than other insignificant news, but still pretty insignificant. Are you confused yet?

Let’s work our way from right to left. What makes this insignificant news? Well, I’m 95% certain that, had I not gotten the contract teaching job at the University of Winnipeg, I would have gotten equivalent work at the University of Manitoba, so I wasn’t in the position of being completely out of work if the U of W thing didn’t work out.
What makes it significant insignificant news? Well, as some of you know, when I finally finish my PhD, I’d like to get a job in academia. And, as I’ve been telling some of you, my chances of getting a job in academia are rather like your chances of winning the car you bought a raffle ticket for. Given these odds, not only is it unlikely that I will get a job in academia, it’s even more unlikely that, if I am fortunate enough to get one, it will be anywhere near Winnipeg, Manitoba. The philosophy department at the U of W has, shall we say, been going through some rough times recently. Some people didn’t like some other people, and eventually, a bunch of them decided to go their separate ways. (If you know someone connected to the U of W philosophy department, don’t tell them that I know about this or that I’ve written this post. That could defeat the purpose of my trying to get a teaching job there this fall.) That means that they will be hiring for some long-term (tenure-track) positions in the near future. The reason my news is significant insignificant news is that, maybe, if I am around the department, do my job well, and get to be liked by the right people, I might be considered for one of those positions.
What makes it insignificant significant insignificant news? Well, even if everything goes as well as it could for me at the U of W this coming year, my chances of landing a job there are still, well, about as good as your chances of winning the car you bought your raffle ticket for.
Anyway, in all seriousness, I’m looking forward to the course. It will be a bit of a challenge in that some of the material I will be presenting in the course was material that made some of my graduate-level courses difficult. It will also be significantly more convenient than teaching at the U of M would have been, because I can walk to work if I feel like it—not that anyone feels like walking to work in the middle of winter.

Spring

While we are eagerly looking forward to summer with warm sunny weather for our outdoor activities, we have been enjoying spring. We have visited the geese at the Cemetery a couple of times already. After we are done watching the geese and their goslings, the cemetery is a great place to run.

It is a special treat that some plants grow in our yard after years of neglect and continued neglect. With the support and encouragement of prairechick my gardening expert I am attempting to do some container gardening and hopefully later this summer the front yard will receive an overhaul.

As much as I enjoyed making this quilt (the wedding quilt as it was dubbed by L), it felt good to wrap it up and give it away. I’m not totally happy with it, I tried some new things and learned some things and hopefully it will come in handy for M&C without falling apart.

Spring brings dandelions. L especially loves these bright sunny flowers, he is allowed to pick as many dandelions as he likes and later when the become puff balls he loves to blow them. Seeing his delight makes me wonder why we try so hard to get rid of them. Thank you to Grandma for lovingly accepting L’s bouquet.

Another of L’s favourite summer activities is roasting hotdogs and marshmallows. We did manage to squeeze in a wiener roast at Grandma L’s after some frustrating changes of venue and time.

Despite all the wind and rain that this spring has brought we have enjoyed the sunny breaks at the local playgrounds. K loves the swing and would happily spend her whole time in the swing.


2:03:32

That’s how long it took me to complete my first (half) marathon, 13.1 miles. I missed my goal by 3 1/2 minutes, but, given that I was battling a cold all week, I’ll take it. The race was fun till about mile 8, while running through Kingston Row, when suddenly the pace of my breath began to quicken and I knew that the rest would be a real battle. I managed to keep up with the 2-hour pace runner till about mile 10 and then began to fall behind. Oh well, maybe next time.

I came in 1481st place–just a few placings out of the big money (laugh). 985 men and 495 women crossed the finish line before I did. Lest you think that puts me at the back of the pack, there were 3812 people participating in the race.

Here I am showing off the new hardware I can add to the trophy case.

Soapnuts

So I tried something intersting this week, soap nuts. They are enviromentally friendly and compostable. Even though I fully embrace the concept of being earth friendly it still has to fit within the means of my pocketbook, which truthfully means that it shouldn’t cost me more. As any of you know who have bought groceries organic is not cheaper. However for the cost of a bottle of Tide I bought…

What is a soapnut you say? Soapnuts aren’t really nuts; they’re the fruit of a tree (Sapindus Mukorossi) found primarily in the Himalayas. The outer shell of the soapnut contains saponin, a natural substance known for its ability to cleanse and wash.

Add 2 to 3 in the little cotton bag that comes with the bag of nuts. This should do 3 to 4 loads, one website I found said the hulls would become gray and mushy when they are ready for the compost bin.

Do they work? Well my clothes seem to be just as clean as when I use detergent. While I was watching my clothes slosh around in the washing machine without suds I wondered if the suds just make us happy and our clothes would come out just as clean without adding anything at all. My clothes don’t smell freshly laundered which is something I do miss, but something can be said for the absence of stink.

The Big Day

The big day arrived and the commotion began. Here are some of the junior members of the groom’s family waiting for the bridal party to arrive to take some family pictures.


Although K cooperated by looking at the camera, she stayed with the look of consternation. She was probably thinking, “Why are all of those grown-ups looking and acting so silly?” I’m not sure who is the most well dressed. I guess if one was going to be politically correct, one would say that the bride was. But I’m sure that a parent of two of the smaller members of the wedding party could be excused for choosing someone other than the bride.


After most of the formal pictures were taken, the parents relaxed a little bit and let the children run around on the grass.

Everyone made it down the aisle, but there was a moment, about 10 feet from the doorway, where the three of them stopped to gawk at all of the people who were gawking at them.

The Stars of the Show

Today is the big day, Aunty and Uncle’s wedding. C & M made one mistake when they asked their nieces and nephew to be in the wedding, the cuteness factor is a show stealer. Before the dress rehersal the stars were keeping to themselves and refusing autographs and photos.

They did very well during the rehersal. K is supposed to follow L and J; she passed them both times. Today is the day, we will see if any of them get down the aisle when the sanctuary is full. L is actually carrying the rings on his cushion, maybe C will have to carry her own rings down the aisle.

Easter #2

Sunday we headed to Pansy and had great fun hunting for Easter eggs and baskets. The brief thunderstorm threatened to spoil our fun but it blew over fairly quickly. Grandpa did have to run outside and rescue a basket that was sailing across a large puddle.

K got right into the spirit of looking for eggs. She did quickly discover that if one looked into other people’s pails it was generally more rewarding then looking under furniture.

L had great fun hunting for eggs too although it is a bit disappointing to find out that you can’t eat them all right now. I’m glad that we got to be with family this year but in past years it was fun to recieve the Easter Bunnies parcel in the mail.

Easter #1

Easter Saturday we celebrated in Riding Mountain. It had been 5 years since we were around to celebrate Easter with family so it was good to be a part of the emerging traditions. Saturday afternoon Bert and Ernie were harnassed up and we all went for a wagon ride. Uncle B and Uncle M rode the saddle horses and did some scouting for open trails.


Daddy also did some time on horseback.

L rode shotgun. It had been a long time since I had been up in the hills and it did feel a little like the old west riding across the fields on a wagon with riders coming up from the distance. To L’s delight Grandpa let him hold the end of the reins and that was enough to make L feel like he was driving the team.


Once we got back home I gave L a short ride on Chickaree’s back, he didn’t protest but he wasn’t very relaxed either.

Wasting Time

I’m in a celebratory mood. Why? The academic pressure is off. The paper I was working on was well received by my advisor while I was visiting Massachusetts and I gave my students their final exam Monday morning. So how am I going to celebrate? By writing a frivolous blog entry during the time I would normally be working.

My work bag, the bag I carried my books, laptop, lunch, etc. in, was slowly falling apart. I think I paid about $30 for it at Walmart 7 or 8 years ago. It had served me well, but it was time to get a new one. So about 2 months ago I started casually browsing online during my free time to see what was out there. I didn’t really know what I wanted. I knew I didn’t want a backpack. I often wear sport coats on teaching days and, although you do see people wearing backpacks with suit jackets, I’ve always thought it looked a little odd. I also knew that I didn’t want anything on wheels. You see these bags in airports all the time, but you don’t see them on university campuses. I wanted something that looked at least quasi professional, something that wouldn’t look out of place over my shoulder while wearing a sport coat, but I didn’t really know how big I wanted the bag to be or what sort of features it needed to have. So I started looking.
Somewhere along the line I found out about Timbuk2, a company out of California. They got into the bag market by designing bags for bike messengers, but I became interested in some of their bags designed for more businessy types. Shortly after I became interested in these bags, I began to notice that I would see Timbuk2 banner ads on all sorts of different websites. It then dawned on me that I was experiencing targeted advertising. Google must have tracked my searches and browsing behaviour and began to feed me Timbuk2 banners on different websites I browsed to. I’m not sure how disturbed I should be by this. On the one hand, I’d rather see banner ads for things I’m interested in than for, say, M&Ms or Norton Antivirus Software, but if Google is tracking my search and browsing behaviour, what other information is it gleaning about me?
Anyway, I made of a point of going bag shopping while I was in Massachusetts, and found some places that sold Timbuk2 bags. They seem like excellent bags, but their classic messenger bags that were stocked by most of the retailers I visited weren’t big enough and were a little to loud in color for my liking. Their “Commute 2.o,” a bag for more businessy types, didn’t fit my laptop, so I had to look for something else. I went everywhere. I went to a luggage store. I knew I didn’t want a wheelie bag, but I looked at them anyway. There’s another reason to avoid them. The wheel apparatus makes them so heavy that the carrying handles on them are pointless. Fill them with stuff and you wouldn’t want to carry them any further than you would want to carry a loaded small suitcase. I thought about a fancy leather bag, but I didn’t want to spend more than $200 on a bag that would be on the small side. After visiting about half a dozen other stores, some of them more than once, I settled on this bag by Jansport. I paid the $100 for the bag and then excitedly left the store to move the contents from my old bag to the new one.
I quickly realized that the new one was a bit smaller than my old one. This was a bit of a disappointment and, although I liked the look of the bag, the way it felt on my shoulder, and many of its features–a particularly nifty feature is the fact that it has magnets sewn into the top flap that keep the flap closed even when it’s not buckled, making it much quieter to open the bag than many other messenger-style bags that have velcro, a useful feature when you sometimes get to a lecture or talk a few minutes late–I felt myself beginning to sour on the bag just minutes after I purchased it, a feeling that quickly began to snowball. After having spent weeks researching bags and going to about every bag retailer within driving distance and then spending a not insignificant amount of money, I had a bag that I wasn’t immediately in love with. I told myself to try to keep an open mind. Maybe, I thought to myself, this bag would be just fine if I changed my habits a bit. Instead of having one bag that was often packed full and too heavy to be sensibly carried over my shoulder, I could transition to packing lighter with my new bag and just carrying a second, cloth bag with me for when I need to bring a few books home from the library or haul around a stack of a hundred student writing assignments. Having lived with my new bag for about a week now, I am liking it more and more. Maybe I didn’t spend $100 for nothing after all.
Anyway, that’s my completely frivolous post. And now that I’ve written it, I think it makes me seem a little girly; I just spent a half hour of my life talking about a shopping experience and, not only that, a bag shopping experience. Oh well, I’m comfortable in my own skin. I can handle it.

Why should you help me if I can do it myself?

K is doing exactly what you think she is doing, putting some music on to listen to.

L is busy making a Monster protector. Not sure if it protects the monsters or him. He is learning to tie knots, and never had more fun learning something. At the start of the project he was under the impression that I was going to tie all the strips on for him, I promptly informed him that it wouldn’t be his art if mom did the work. Unlike K who doesn’t want help, L is of the opinion “why should I do it if you can do it for me”.