jrtom

http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/2009/09/distance-learning.html

So been there. I can still hear in my head the BRRRRRRRIINNNNNGGG of the kitchen timer that I used, at one point, in a desperate attempt to get the amount of time I was spending grading assignments down to a manageable level (i.e., one in which I could actually do the work I was also getting paid for, for my other 50%-time job, rather than spending 80 hours a week on grading alone).

gaaaaaaaahhh.

(This is my distinctly obscure way of saying, using a tortured chess metaphor, that I have advanced to candidacy in my PhD program, as of yesterday.)

( for those who really care, the framework for the metaphor )

I just got an email from the organizers of an academic/professional conference in the field of social network analysis. The gist is that they have too many abstracts for the amount of time that they have, and are therefore trying to figure out what to drop.

In this email, we find the following gem:

It is likely that we will drop some papers from the program because they aren't about social networks, they don't make sense, they have obviously been lifted from the internet, or for some other reason that convinced us that they don't belong on the program.

Now, I realize that this conference has never claimed to have a formal peer review process for inclusion in the program; it's a conference to which one can bring work in progress, and generally work of a speculative nature. I'm generally fine with that; there's a place for such conferences, and I'm glad this one exists. Heck, I presented there last year and probably would be doing so this year if I had more time.

But I mean, seriously, have the organizers not at least been doing the minimal checking required to filter out papers that aren't about social networks, or don't make sense? (I guess this would be the "hemorrhaging edge" . . . . )

because my connection with it has caused darcydodo to be jealous of me, since the following (apparently true) story happened here:

My Morning: A Play in One Uncomfortable Act

I don't normally think of UC Irvine as having any characteristics that would make someone at UC Berkeley jealous of my affiliation. Certainly if someone were to ask me which of the two was a more likely setting for a tale such as this, Berkeley would win hands down.

This just goes to show that I am sometimes amusingly wrong.