I got a very nice (and completely unsolicited) compliment today. A professor (the one for whom I do lots and lots of work) told me that (a) I am "very highly regarded within the department," (b) I am "very clearly doctoral material," and (c) I should "definitely" reapply to the PhD program. (He also said that he's not really sure why I didn't get in the first time around.). Apparently, hard work doesn't go unnoticed forever. Huh.

Yesterday, I was surprised to receive an out-of-the-blue job offer from the Psychology department at the unnamed university where I attend. It's a short-term, contract position to teach a course this summer. It's actually the same course that I've been teaching all year, but because they don't offer assistantships during the summer, the job title is Adjunct Lecturer. While it doesn't sound auspicious, it does mean that I'll technically be a faculty member at a large university. Technically.

I like this for 2 reasons: first, it's going to look great on my resume; second, I'll be paid $1600 for about 32 hours of work, which comes to $50 per hour, a significantly higher rate than the $11.15 per hour that I made at my last job.

The only catch is that the class has reach enrollment capacity (20), or else it will be cancelled. We'll see how it turns out...

I saw a number of interesting headlines today: "Woman Bites Dog Who Was Attacking Her Pooch", "Man Steals Guitar by Hiding It in His Pants", "Real Life Goldilocks Found Asleep in Washington Home", "Hawk Swoops, Attacks Girl At Fenway Park".

Here's a headline. "Reporters Take Thursday off, Tired of Writing about War, Economic Doom, the Housing Crisis, Terrorists, and Global Warming". Take Friday off too, while you're at it.

While visiting Philadelphia, Hilary Clinton recently compared herself to Rocky Balboa. Based on my (borderline obsessive) knowledge of the Rocky movies, I came up with a few possibilities of what she might have meant with the analogy.

1. She saying she is a fictional character played by a less-than-optimally-skilled actor.
2. She's saying she's only in the race because of a publicity stunt by the reigning champ (Apollo Creed/Barak Obama) and is going to lose narrowly to her heavily favored opponent [Rocky].
3. She's saying she's going to narrowly win against Obama but end up looking like a catcher's mitt and suffering from brain damage [Rocky II].
4. She's saying she's going to be overconfident and lose (to Clubber Lang/John McCain) but then have her campaign managed by the person who previously beat her (Creed/Obama) and then win a rematch in the 2012 election (over Lang/McCain) only to get punched in the face (by Creed/Obama) in a 'friendly', unsanctioned, winner-take-all, one-vote election held in a private country [Rocky III].
5. She's saying that an 'unbeatable' Russian (Ivan Drago/Dimitri Medvedev) is going to kill her former opponent/'friend' (Creed/Obama), so she's going to throw her hat into an unsanctioned election on Christmas day in Moscow and be beaten (literally) senseless but then win both the favor of the Russians and the unsanctioned Russian election [Rocky IV].
6. She's saying that she's a washed-up, brain-damaged presidential candidate who's afraid to enter any more elections because she might die [Rocky V].
7. She's saying that she wants one more election before her career is over, so she's planning to fight an scary opponent (Mason Dixon/Howard Dean) to whom she will eventually lose in a split decision [Rocky Balboa].

Come on Hilary, let's think things through before we open our yaps about things we don't understand and haven't thought through.

Last night, I read a news story about how nine 3rd graders (boys and girls) in Georgia were plotting to kill their teacher. (Apparently, she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair.) Together, the came up with an arsenal that included a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, and a paperweight. They planned to knock her unconscious with the weight, bind her with the other materials, and then stab her with the knife. They had even assigned different roles to the different members of the group. They were caught when another student alerted a teacher that someone had brought a weapon to school. The worst part about the whole situation was the response of the school principal. She said, "This is an aberration. We only have good kids at our school."

Wait, what? I'm confused. Do good kids plot to knock others unconscious? Do good kids plan to assault and/or murder their teachers? No, lady. You don't have good kids at your school. You have bad kids. Bad kids who do bad things. Get real.