R. wins 423-397

R. wins 423-397
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

We had quite a game today. Actually, R. had quite a game today. She got three bingos: dieters, grunted, and bonkers. I was only able to come up with one bingo: sluices.

A. wins over the family

A. wins over the family
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Friday night scrabble with the family.

Skype with the sister.

Skype with the sister.
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Renae's computer has a built in camera so we can video chat with Jennette.

All the cool kids are doing it, so here's my personality mosaic:



1. Castle Ruins - St Andrews Scotland, 2. Lunch, 3. ic0452.JPG, 4. oh... the blues, 5. Danica McKellar at Microsoft, 6. cup of coffee, 7. Istanbul Train Station, 8. pie ala mode on laptop on irc channel #sf-raves - dscf0334, 9. Covering Third, 10. HAVING FUN BEING A KID AGAIN !!!, 11. Uncertain Future, 12. at The Beat Museum, San Francisco: Hunky Jim Morrison of the DOORS band

Now you go get one!!

A. wins 377-372

A. wins 377-372
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Late Friday night game. We each got a bingo (R. with 'camions' and I had 'goodies') but R. let me win tonight.

Sync an ipod with iTunes on a linux computer!

Back in March there was some excitement when one of the WINE developers got an ipod to be recognized by iTunes running on linux with WINE. He posted his patch, but it has yet to migrate to the binary releases. So, unless you fancy patching and compiling WINE on your own, iTunes with WINE is not a great option.

I learned about VirtualBox about the same time, and it occurred to me that I could have a small Windows XP guest OS running on top of my Ubuntu install.

I installed the PUEL (non-free) version from Sun and followed the standard installation procedure. After applying a ton of XP patches, so that I could get to the point where I could use the guest XP install, I was able to download and install iTunes. I followed the instructions on the ubuntu site to get USB to work so the ipod was recognized. Here's a screenshot:


I wanted the ability to share folders between the guest and host OS and after a bit of struggling was able to get that to work (see note below). The bonus of getting the folder sharing to work was that I had to enable mouse sharing, which allowed for the "windowed" mode that you see in the screenshot.

I know that this is not the "free as in speech" way to use an ipod, but I also have a Nike+ that I would like to sync with the runnerplus website on a more regular basis. It was starting to be a pain booting into Windows to sync the ipod to have my stats saved to the website. Also, I have yet to find a linux tool that handles smart playlists of podcasts correctly. So far, this option seems to be the closest to what I've been looking for. And, I haven't seen anyone else do this in linux, that I know of. :)

Some notes:

1. USB permissions are not persistent after reboot. Further, you need to set the permissions AFTER plugging in the ipod.
2. The linux host can grab control of the sound card making the XP guest unable to play music. One way to fix this is to shutdown the program in linux that grabbed control of the sound card (if you don't need to use it) and restart the XP guest.
3. Installing Guest Additions seems to be critical for folder sharing! (Some people have posted that it is optional.) In my case, I had to install it TWICE to get the folder sharing to work. (There are other people who report similar behavior.
   

A. wins 341-307

A. wins 341-307
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

We each got a bingo tonight: R. with 'favorite' and I had 'joisted'. Quiet night at Fusion Brew, but I got to try the mango jelly texture for the first time.

R. wins 457-312

R. wins 457-312
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Another huge game for R. She had 2 bingos today: 'spitters' and 'hoagies'. I had one: 'quacked'. This may have been our first 3 bingo game.

R. wins 393-252

R. wins 393-252
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. destroys me tonight with her 'z', 'x' and 'j' tiles. She gets play of the game with 'exam' and 'zax' for 97 points.

0514081749.jpg

0514081749.jpg
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Paul's a drunk. But a drunk with a free shirt.

A. wins 346-292

A. wins 346-292
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

I had all the 'S' tiles tonight. The only bingo was mine as well: 'GuESTED'. I also got to play a word with no vowels: 'CWMS'.

A. wins 336-264 (timed game)

A. wins 336-264 (timed game)
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

At Fusion Brew for a quick game. Both of us pulled strange tiles tonight.

In one of my current scrabulous games, I had in my rack one high scoring tile (J) and six 1-point tiles (AELINS). My opponent had just laid "ZED" for 24 points, and I was down by the same score.


I played around with my tiles for awhile. I came up with "SALINE" but I missed "ALIEN" or "ALIENS". Had I played "ALIENS" and "RICES" I could have gotten 25 points (I think), but I would have spent my "S" tile on a non-bingo, which is something I try to avoid. I was really trying to come up with a 5-letter word that ends with "A" so that I could play it on the triple-word space and make "ZA". But, I couldn't find any such words ending in "A" (and I still don't think there are) so I kept looking. I've been holding the "S" for a few rounds and if I get desperate, I can make "QIS" and "SEX" but I'm really hoping for something better, plus I want that bingo.

So, I went defensive and played "LAZED" (16). I guess that's not a great defensive move, in retrospect. Actually, it's pretty bad. There are a couple of great hooks to play on the front, but at least they won't cross the triple-word-score square. I'll have to cross my fingers and hope my opponent doesn't have a "G" or "B" to lay on it and get another 10 points out of the "Z".

A. wins 329-251

A. wins 329-251
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

Not our finet game today, but the coffee was great at Coffee Nation. I even bought a bag of decaf beans.

R. wins 391-285

R. wins 391-285
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. killed tonight and got the only bingo: nailers.

Job Search Woes #3

So this afternoon (yesterday, really)  I got a voice mail that I had been somewhat expecting for the last few weeks.  Back when I first found out that I would not be a candidate for job in my current department I applied at a school near Renae's job.  I found the opening on the school's webpage.  A week after submitting my application materials, I called their HR department to find out if they had received a complete application package. (They had.)  So, I waited to hear whether I would get a call from their search committee. After not hearing from them after 6 weeks, I called and asked about the status of the search.  The HR rep called me back and said that they had re-evaluated their needs for next year and would probably not be hiring anyone.  Today's voice mail confirmed that the decision had been finalized.

Here are some things I know:

1.  I should be applying to more places.
2.  I'm not entitled to an interview from ANY place to which I apply.

But, here's something else I know:

IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE A SEARCH, YOU SHOULD NOT PLACE AN AD ON YOUR WEBSITE.

Thank you.  That is all.

A. wins 334-298 (timed)

A. wins 334-298 (timed)
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

I got the only bingo this time on my first move: injurer.

What happens when I send a picture to flickr as a twitter?

What happens when I send a picture to flickr as a twitter?
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

At the Coffeehound for a round of grading.

R. wins 395-310 (timed game)

R. wins 395-310 (timed game)
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

R. killed tonight. She had three 's' tiles, the 'j', 'x' and 'q' tiles. She got the only bingo of the game: retrains. (But, she needed a little help on it.) I had one good play: za for 61 points.

Job hunt woes #2 (but should be #23 or greater)

It's been a long six months (minus one day) since I submitted an application for a permanent job.  The application that I submitted was to the university that I am currently at, so I was essentially applying to keep my own job.  (That's an oversimplification, I realize, but it's not the point of this post.)

It has been a long, long, long six months. In December I had two phone interviews with the search committee (who are my colleagues). Then I waited.  And waited.  And waited some more. Back in March, when I couldn't wait any more, I finally asked the chair how the search was going.  I was told to wait a couple more days any he would be able to tell me more.  So I waited a few days, and nothing.  After one week had passed, I decided to ask again.  It was a Friday afternoon at 2:30 pm, before my 3:00 class when I was able to track the chair down and ask if there was an update.  I was told there was an update and that it wasn't good news for me: the search committee had decided NOT to bring me on as a candidate for the position.  What then followed was about 20 minutes of administrative double-speak that did nothing to explain why I had not been given an interview.

Had I not asked on that Friday, I would not have learned about not being a candidate until Monday morning, when the poster announcing the first candidate was posted in the division office.

Slowly but surely the three candidates came to campus.  The first candidate came and it seemed that his schedule was purposely arranged so that I would not have any contact with him.  I was not even introduced to him when we passed in the hall.  It was a little surreal.

Then a week or more passed before the next two candidates came to campus.  I think Spring break was mixed in there as well.  The second candidate was coming on a Monday, and the poster announcing his talks was posted the week before.  When I saw the name on the poster, it looked vaguely familiar.  I went to my email and checked that, sure enough, I had met this candidate before: when he was on campus last May as a candidate for a visiting position that he ultimately did not get offered.  Talk about insulting.  The department thinks a person is not qualified to be a visiting professor, yet he can have an interview for a tenure-line job?  Meanwhile, the visitor that is going on THREE YEARS in the department is not worthy of even being considered?  So when that candidate was on campus, we bumped into each other in the hallway and he remembered me and was kind enough to say hi and ask how things were going.

The third and final candidate came immediately after the second candidate left.  I ran into him while he was being shown my lab.  No one offered to introduce him to me, so he made the initiative to introduce himself.

Meanwhile, while the interviews had been going on, my students were starting to figure out the situation. The campus is small and there are very few secrets kept in the community.  More than one of my students, without my prior knowledge, contacted the department on my behalf and voiced their support of me.  It was nice, but ultimately meaningless.

Also, somewhere along this time, my chair and one of my other colleagues were having trouble looking me in eye or even acknowledging my presence in the department.  One of my other colleagues, who was not involved with the search even commented how the department seemed a little unfriendly or at least not at ease.

Through the grapevine I heard that an offer had been extended to the first candidate.  Then, on April 17th, the colleague who was not involved in the search pointed out that the minutes of the faculty meeting announced that the physics search had been successfully completed.  So the news went public before I was informed.  I suppose it could be argued that I had no right to be told, but it was pretty unprofessional the way the situation was handled.

I was really hoping that the search would ultimately fail, or that for other reasons I would be granted a fourth year as a visitor (which I had been told was not out of the realm of possibility) but today in the afternoon campus mail I received a memo from the registrar and provost explaining procedures for departing faculty.  This was news to me, since I had been expecting to be verbally told one way or the other whether I would be back next year.   Anyway, at least now I know.

I'm trying to look at the big picture and not get too down on myself.  It's really hard though, because I feel like I spent the last three years building up a research project out of next to nothing that I brought to the cusp of where I think I could squeeze out three papers from the data we took this year.  My plan for the summer was to write that all up.  I do suppose I can still work on it this summer, but it will not be as easy if I have to split my time between that and looking for jobs/place to live come August.  I just don't want to see the last three years as being wasted, which I know they were not, but it's hard to put my finger on what it was about my time here that I have to show future search committees.

I thought I had learned that I was right for a liberal arts school and that a liberal arts school was right for me.  Now I have to consider other options in the short term.  I never thought that I was entitled to the position that I applied for.  I guess I made the mistake of believing that I had earned the respect of getting an interview for it.  I know that these sorts of decisions happen all the time at colleges and universities around the country, but that doesn't make it any easier on me.

The last visitor that we had in our department warned me before he left to not trust anyone in the department.  I did not believe him, because I thought that he was just saying that because he left on not-so-good terms with a few of the people in the department.  I now see that you can get along with people you work with and still not trust them.  So I have some advice for the visitor(s) that come after me at this institution: don't trust anyone in the department if you are a visitor.  And, anyone that you find that is not in the department that you CAN trust, will ultimately not be able to help you.