Working woes

So, we've been short one FTE (full-time employee) since February 2009. The person in that advising position resigned during a U-wide hiring "pause." I was not permitted to re-fill the position, and when the new fiscal year rolled around in July 2009, that position was wiped from the books because it was unfilled. That left me with me, 1 FTE adviser, 1 FTE Office Specialist (receptionist).

In order to support our students during the summer registration period and continuing, we had our Office Specialist  do half-time advising (yes, while still being a full-time receptionist AND not receiving any pay augmentation), and a colleague from CIS (College in the Schools) pick up some additional advising. Then the CIS person left in October 2009. Because the CIS person was the most recent departure, that was the position most likely to be refilled, even though I've been short-staffed longer.

The plan then became to move our Office Specialist into advising, since that's what he should be doing, then hire someone to work 50% time in CIS and 50% time as an office specialist, with a student worker picking up the other 50% time reception. Not ideal, but the only thing people were willing to work for.

Of course, with budgets being the way they are, the 50-50 position has been put on hold. Then, my 1 remaining FTE adviser submitted her resignation, meaning PSEO will consist of 2 FTE + 1 student worker. Surely that's a position I'd be allowed to refill. Guess what? We were given approval to hire 1 FTE adviser----the office specialist! Two people, reorganized, still = 2 people!

Next, and here is the really fun part, my boss's boss said that there is a student worker in a different part of the college who will be graduating, and they are creating a job for her that will be 50% time over there and 50% time PSEO reception. WTF? Without going into specifics, apparently there's someone in the same unit who has time to read novels at work...why are we creating a new position for a former student worker when this other person has time to probably do similar tasks? And why are we creating a new position when I have an old position that still needs to be filled?

I've been given permission to hire a temporary adviser for our busy registration time, but seriously. Yes, I'll take the 50% position, because we really do need a body at our front desk, and an invested, fully hired person is better than a student worker. But I am not happy. And when momma ain't happy, ain't no one happy.

A Day with Danes

httI spent the afternoon yesterday with the Upper Midwest Great Dane Rescue and Lauren O'Connor of Driving for Danes. Lauren and her dane, Harley, are driving across the country in 100 days to raise $100,000 and awareness for animal shelters and rescues.

We were at the Eagan Buffalo Wild Wings on a sunny, breezy, Sunday afternoon. We raised $130 in cash donations just from people passing by, and BWW will be donating 15% of their food totals from patrons who submitted one of our flyers. At one point in the afternoon, we had 11 Great Danes on the grass, of just about every color variation except black.

Two of the kids were fosters looking for their forever homes...I very nearly snagged them both, cause they're such sweet little girls.

Retta/Sugar

Ivy

 Lauren noted that Harley is starting to have some aggression problems. Poor boy--he's undoubtedly stressed by the uprootedness and strangeness of the whole situation. He also wants to be with her all the time. I got to hold him for some times while Lauren mingled with the people and other danes. What a fun pup Harley is:

As with most dogs in my acquaintance, he gets especially lovey-cuddly because he wants the Halti off! However, lest you think that poor Harley is being abused, he gets to spend days sleeping on the road, plus meeting all sorts of people. Also, once Lauren gets to Colorado, Harley is going to be treated to a 3-day spa vacation with massages and walks and rest. Most of the time yesterday he was chilled and relaxing by lazing on the grass. It truly is a rough life to be a Harley-dog....

If you need more pictures, I've got them on my flickr page.

Things that Matter: Equality

I don't know why, exactly, but equality issues have been weighing heavily on my mind recently. Perhaps it's because I have many gay friends, or perhaps it's because gay rights issues have been in the news.  For many years, I've agreed that the issue of gay marriage cheapens my own marriage, just not necessarily for the same reasons. Until everyone is legally allowed to marry whom they want, and to have that marriage universally acknowledged the way heterosexual marriage is acknowledged, I feel that all marriages are diminished somehow. I'm not necessarily brave enough to stand up for my convictions enough to get a divorce just because my gay friends can't get married, but that is how I feel.

The sentiment goes deeper, however, and I frequently find myself in problematic places mentally and emotionally. I remember myself as a child, proudly and adamantly stating that I was only prejudiced against people who are prejudiced. In my sheltered world, "prejudice" really only applied to race and skin color. I had no idea about the world of gender, sex, age, or the many other biases visible today. In a way, I'm glad they seem more visible, because we can only get over them after they've been acknowledged. On the other hand, it's not good for my emotional health that so many people are so stupid. Yes, I used that word. Bias against gay marriage is just plain stupid...it's not ignorant, unless a person is simply spouting what his/her parents believe. But to actively believe that gay marriage has anything to do with anyone other than the people involved, and that it will bring doom and despair to the whole world needs to grow up.

As I said, I have many gay friends, most of whom are in committed and loving relationships. Some have children, some are planning to have children at some point, and some, like my husband and I, do not ever plan to have children. I'm ashamed and appalled at the lengths some of these friends have had to go in order to declare their love and committment to each other, when my husband and I just waltzed into the county offices and received our marriage licenses without a second glance.

But I also have friends, or at the very least acquaintances, that force me to constantly re-evaluate my friendship or associations with them. One couple staunchly votes Republican. They are fairly well off, so they definitely favor the "don't tax the rich" policies that Republicans typically promote. That's not the only conservative value they have, and I don't necessarily disagree with their values. They DO support gay rights and marriage...as far as they are concerned from a moral/ethical/religious stance, people are people and who someone loves is no one else's business. But I have problems with them, because for all of their personal social beliefs, they would still rather see a Bush or a McCain (don't really know about Palin) in office than a Clinton or an Obama.  There are many issues that I tend to be more conservative or independent, or even libertarian, about, but I ultimately cannot support someone who doesn't believe in equality of marriage or rights for all people. This couple is more more my husband's friends, but we do see them socially on occasion. We argue almost every time we go to their house, because I cannot completely reconcile the individual goodness of this couple with where they place their political support.

The other conundrum revolves around a friend with whom I recently re-connected. I love him to death...he is one of the sweetest, most caring people I know. But his wife is homophobic. She has outright stated that if her children are gay, she will not support them in their marriages. This is the part I hate: my friend does not believe that at all, but by staying married to her, is he tacitly supporting her hateful views? We're fortunately at a distance, so I really don't ever have to interact with her, but it's very very difficult for me to continue being friends with him knowing that he loves, honors, and is committed to his wife.

I agree that there can be differences of opinion. I'm pretty darn set in my beliefs, but I can generally be friends with people who don't believe the same thing I do. However, there are two places that I just can't ignore these differences: animal welfare and equality for everyone. How do I keep my friendships without compromising my own values? How can I be a supportive friend when I can't abide some of the decisions these people make?

Recent Reads

Here, There Be Dragons (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica) by James A. Owens

Man, did I ever enjoy this one. It's very clever...I laughed at and/or read passages to the husband all the time. The Imaginarium Geographica is an atlas of all of the fantastical worlds ever invented (Narnia, Prydain, etc.). The Winter King is in a bid to take over Arthur Pendragon's throne, and if he does, the boundaries between real lands and imaginary lands will disintegrate, and his forces of evil will conquer all lands. As it is, every land that the Winter King has already contacted becomes shadowed in the Geographica as though it never existed.

John finds out that he has become a caretaker  of the Geographica when he comes to London only to find his teacher/mentor has been murdered. Two other men who are swept into the investigation, Jack and Charles, join John on his quest to restore a rightful king to the throne, save the Geographica, and keep the border between fantasy and reality intact.

The first review on Amazon reveals one of the ending twists. I was fortunate enough to read the book without seeing that review. I probably should have/could have guessed, but the characters of John, Charles, and Jack are quite interesting overall.

Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler

So much better than Twilight though I guess it's for a slightly older audience. Jane is 23 or or so, and out of college, unlike the high school set of that other tome.

Jane has always been an outsider to her hometown of Rockabill, ME. Her mother appeared during a tremendous storm, completely naked. Her parents married, but when Jane was just a young girl, her mother disappeared, leaving husband and daughter to continue. In such a small town, only one of these scandals would have been enough to earn Jane a place on the outcast list. Add to that the accidental drowning years later of her boyfriend, something Jane thinks she could have prevented "if only..." and you've got a situation that no one in her right mind could bear. The only thing keeping her in Rockabill is her father, who suffers some sort of illness, and who refuses to leave on the off-chance that his wife might return.

One night, though, as she is taking her nightly swim, Jane discovers the body of someone who had been murdered, and she learns more about herself than she could have ever imagined. The next day, she is swept up in the world of a handsome young (old?) investigator in a porsche and her life changes in [supernatural] ways that she would never have expected.

Honestly, the sex scenes didn't do much for me, but other than that, I'd give this to anyone who thinks Twilight is a good thing with the hope that they would come to change their minds (or at least appreciate supernatural beings that don't sparkle). Jane was a lit major in college, and there are some fun references to other fictional works (for instance, all Jane knows about a barghest comes from Roald Dahl's The Witches). My biggest complaint with this novel is one I have with all stories it seems: the heroine is always pretty. There is no way I would be able to fit into, let alone look good in, the outfits that Jane gets to where, and the handsome investigator really wouldn't fall for me. But, ah, well, I guess part of the reason we read is to live vicariously.

The Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine

I'm on book 5 or 6 now. These are very fast-paced, fun reads. Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden, a person who has the ability to control wind and weather (there are also Fire and Earth wardens). For every hurricane that destroys something, one or more weather wardens weren't able to completely hold it off. There is an aspect of balance, too, so not every storm is prevented. But the ones that are capable of destroying life as we know it are the ones the wardens really want to prevent.

Joanne ends up having many adventures with wardens and djinn and being on the run from regular and magical humans. She gets herself into many complex situations; while the writing isn't that complex, the novels can be a lot of fun to zip through in a few hours.

Petty Treason and Point of Honour by Madeline Robins

Sarah Tolerance is a "fallen woman" because she ran off with her lover and failed to get married to him before he died. She returns to England during the Napoleonic Wars, and rather than take up her aunt's occupation of running a brothel (one of the only options for fallen women), she becomes an "agent of inquiry." One Amazon review calls her a "liberated Elizabeth Bennett."

While the crimes in these books are actually of some importance (one involves which son will become George III's heir) Sarah's daily interactions with London are quite interesting. These novels are also fairly quick reads, but there is a charming element of historical fiction from the woman's point of view that we don't often get. Especially the pont of view of a woman capable of defending herself, both with fists and swords.

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

A mystery told from the point of view of the dog. Literally. I loved this read. One of the beautiful things about it is that we only ever know what Chet thinks. Quinn doesn't ever take us on any "in the meantime" journies; if it isn't something Chet experiences, we don't know about it until he does.

And Chet is a pretty nifty pup. He failed out of cop school (though he has a good reason for it) and now helps Bernie get by. But Chet is, after all is said and done, a dog. A rival or a cat or a new scent can distract him like most dogs, so readers never get the sense that he is just too good to be true.

My Boys

20090703-DSC_0216
Originally uploaded by dtisinger

I just rediscovered this picture from my Flickr slideshow. It was from Slate Creek (in the Black Hills) last summer; Payton is straddling the Husband's knees, one of his favorite "get close" poses. :-)

Best Friends

Children's author/illustrator Mo Willems has been substituting for Hilary Price in "Rhymes with Orange" this week. I love the strip for 2/15/10 (somewhat appropriately, the day after Valentine's Day, no?)!

Dogs on Thursday: "Cleaning Up After the Dog"

No pictures of the pups, but we did hear this poem on The Writer's Almanac this morning. Here are the last lines for a teaser:

"The bomb diffused,
the world a little safer, a little cleaner,

will not offend the deep treads
of someone's shoes."

East of the Sun and West of the Moon

I've just read two different retellings of one of my favorite fairy tales, "East of the Sun and West of the Moon": East, by Edith Pattou, and Ice, by Sarah Beth Durst.



Both books are pretty straight-forward retellings of the tale, which appears to be a Norwegian version of the "Beauty and the Beast" story: local man who is beset by problems loses a daughter to the polar bear king. The girl's family recovers their fortunes (a la "Beauty and the Beast"), but the girl is still in the bear's palace, where he gives her everything she ever wanted or needed. Ultimately, the girl longs for home, and the bear reluctantly lets her visit her family. She realizes how much she misses him, and returns to the bear, but after her return she violates an unspoken rule that she must never see his human face (because, of course, he is under a spell). Once she views him, he is forced to the troll queen's palace which lies "east of the sun and west of the moon," and the girl must find her way there to save him.

From a narrative perspective, I enjoyed East more, because of the layered voices, and the story telling. I found portions of Ice to drag a little too long, and some plot devices to be clunky (ultimately necessary, but clunky). For the retelling, though, I liked Ice better because Durst added some unique characteristics



Ice is told in 3rd person and follow's Cassie's point of view. Cassie works with her father at an arctic station tracking polar bears. When she tells her father about seeing a giant bear disappear into the ice, he reveals the secret of her mother's "death": her mother did not die, but has been held captive in the trolls' palace because of a bargain the North Wind made with the Polar Bear king.

Once she has identified the king, he speaks to Cassie, bargaining with her that he will rescue her mother from the trolls if she will consent to be his bride. At 18, Cassie isn't really ready to settle down with anyone, let alone a talking bear, but she agrees for her mother's sake.

Durst's primary twist on the original tale is her incorporation of what I assume are actual Inuit stories of the munaqsri (moon-awk-shree), the keepers of souls. The munaqsri are present at birth to provide souls to newborns, and at death the capture the dying soul and keep it in the cycle. If no one has died when a new being is born, there is no soul to provide, and the child is stillborn. Each species has its own munaqsri, but any soul that is lost at a death can be claimed by any other specie's munaqsri. Cassie learns hard lessons about death and its necessity as she ventures out to help Bear with his duties, and later on her own journey to rescue him.

Durst weaves in a subtle message of earth and equilibrium; without the polar bear munaqsri, there is no one to catch the souls of dying polar bears and impart them into new cubs. As the bears gather around Cassie to assist her in her quest to rescue Bear, they disrupt the arctic equilibrium by stripping all seal carcasses bare, which means the other species that depend on the bears' remains have nothing to eat. Later in the story, Durst also reminds us that flora have similar issues; Father Forest is innundated with requests from the various tree spirits to fix their environs (for instance, Aspen complains that the spruce are taking over the aspen roots and crowding them out). Balance must be maintained in order for the world to continue.

The trolls are another interesting innovation in Durst's retelling. Rather than being the ugly, ogre-ish creatures we generally visualize as trolls, Durst's creations are translucent, bodiless, jelly-fish like creatures. They have no life, and they want Bear for him to give them life, but he cannot. Cassie manages to rescue both herself and Bear when she realizes what will help the trolls (no spoilers...it's a unique twist that I found enjoyable). Interestingly, Bear does not magically return to human form at the end, either.



East's narrative style is quite different from Ice's. Pattou gives us multiple perspectives: Rose, her brother, her father, the Troll Queen, and the Bear. In that sense, I enjoyed this version more, because the story unraveled with different meanings and associations.

Superstition plays a much larger role in East. It is set in more of a "mythical" time (as opposed to a more-or-less contemporary arctic research station), and Rose's mother follows and falls prey to village lore. She firmly believes that the direction she is facing at childbirth helps determine the child's personality, with North being the most liable to wander and get into trouble. Even though Rose was supposed to be east-born, she is actually north-born, and her birth came associated with a prophecy of dying under snow and ice. In order to circumvent the prophecy, Rose's mother pretends she was east-born to the point that she forgets Rose's actual direction at all.

The family suffers more and more loss, until finally, one of Rose's sisters falls deathly ill. A white bear, who has actually been watching Rose her entire life, offers to restore the daughter to health if the family will let Rose go with him. Always a wild spirit, Rose agrees to the bargain, even before her family decides.

Again, following the more traditional fairy tale motifs, Rose finds a loom in the palace the bear takes her to, and weaves gowns of silver, gold, and a luminescent moon-like fabric. She uses these gowns later in the story to pay for passage to the trolls' castle and to wear in the trolls' presences to rescue the bear.

In Pattou's story, the bear really is an enchanted human. In his and in the troll queen's voices, we learn that he was a prince who was kidnapped by the troll queen when she was a princess and intended for her husband. Her father, the king at the time, berates her, because the humans they use are supposed to be nobodies, no one who will be missed. As a punishment, he turns the boy into a bear until the curse is broken. A human woman must live with him for one year without ever seeing his human form; the spell will break if that works, otherwise he will be immediately returned to the trolls for the intended wedding.

Rose's mother is her downfall in this version (again, very similar to the original tale) because she provides Rose with a candle that will stay lit even in the magically induced darkness the bear creates when he transforms from bear to human. Some of the candle wax drips on his night shirt, which wakes him to see the damage Rose has done.

Interestingly, Pattou gets some native aspects into her story as well. Rose manages to get to what is probably Greenland, where she meets a native shaman who helps her cross the ice bridge that leads to the trolls' palace. Native mythos isn't as interwoven as it is in Ice, but it does seem to fit within the overall narrative.

The rest of the story pretty much follows the expected patterns, so I won't go into details here (though I must admit that the freeing of the human slaves from the trolls' palace reminded me a great deal of Pullman's The Golden Compass and the freeing of the children from the laboratory).