Out of Shape

13.5 hours of meetings today. Really. Every year at the end of the spring semester the faculty get together to talk about the "core curriculum". There are five "university professors" that oversee the different components of the core, and since I'll be one starting in July I figured I better go to today's meetings even though my sabbatical gave me a free out.

At one point (after lunch when I REALLY needed a nap) I was chewing on two pens at once and drooled on my shoes. I had future leader written all over me...

Things I had managed to forget in my absence:

1) Let X equal the number of words required to convey concept Y. Given this, a member of a humanities department will take somewhere between 9X and 12X words to convey Y. When finished, a department mate will start in with "What I think Bob is trying to say is...."

2) Consider thing Z. Whatever Z is, someone from the social sciences will remind you that Z is a western (or male, heterosexual, 20th century, etc.) construct and that to REALLY understand what Z is about you need to call it Q and consider it from a different perspective.

3) If you want a scientist to change how something is done you better either make the new way easier OR have data demonstrating that the new way is better.

Back again tomorrow starting at 0730 for small group discussions on future directions. I predict everyone agrees right off the bat and we'll be done by 0800. Or not.


I'm on call for the amulance from 2400-0600. PLEASE - NO CALLS!