After a delicious meal in a basement French restaurant I am now ensconsed in the Claude Fuller suite of an historic hotel in downtown Eureka Springs, complete with portrait of Claude Fuller glowering down at my bed from its place over the mantel.

shrift, I have no worries about your hireability.

Well, I'm growing increasingly worried that I've worked at my company for six years but am no longer considered qualified to work there.

But does the situation at work mean there's no chance of getting an internal transfer out here?

I still think there's a chance, but I'm not sure if a role will open up before my core job changes. I have some meetings set up and a few things to pursue. I'm planning to cram in as many courses as I can to improve my chances.

I don't know. Maybe Facebook or Twitter would take me.

One thing you've got going for you is Company Name Recognition -- seriously, it will impress future employers if they see that particular name on your resume. (It definitely helped me when Lotus was still around. Nowadays, you find recruiters who don't even know what 1-2-3 was. Le sigh.)

This Claude Fuller, Matt? [link]

He looks like he disapproves of everyone's life choices. I hope you slept well anyway.

If it takes 4 tries to back into a parking space when there are plenty available, maybe you ought to rethink your parking strategy.

Rick: [link]

That was interesting Jesse. Like the author, I think that the situation for teaching and research is different. Our faculty still working in their 70's are some of our best teachers--one reason they are still working is the satisfaction they get from teaching day to day. And, conversely, if a tenure track Assistant Professor spends one more second on teaching than is necessary to be rated "Satisfactory" then it has to be for reasons other than career advancement. There is no payoff whatever and much to lose by investing any time in being better teacher. So I don't think that older faculty imperil the teaching mission.

But as I have found out just from having kids, it's hard to stay on top of the research game if you aren't willing to work 12 hours on most days, and all night on some, and that gets more difficult as you get older, so the research productivity of older faculty is often lower. And that is a concern to Deans who rely on grant money to balance the budget.

I had my dentist appointment, or rather, my two back-to-back appointments this morning in Evanston. They found a cavity so I had that filled along with the repair to the other tooth that lost its filling. I was done with plenty of time to catch the 10:00 train from Evanston to Highland Park so I'd be in time for an 11:00 conference call. Except there is no 10:00 train.

So I had to take a CTA train home to get my car so I could drive to Highland park. And on my way home I realized I could have taken a bus to Highland Park instead. Oh well--I'm here now.

I had some marvellous/horrible Misha Collins-centric nightmares last night. Bug vomiting and child endangerment and becoming the most hated person in LA.

Bug vomiting and child endangerment and becoming the most hated person in LA.

Yuck.

I dreamed Hil and I were in a class working on some calculus problems. Except I hadn't done the reading or something and I couldn't remember the calc classes I took 30 years ago so Hil ended up dong all the problems.

Sorry Hil.