S. Worthen | Weblog

There is a fair collection of greyish-white hairs tangled among the thorns of the rosebush. Two small pieces had been broken, but most of the plant still seems strong and resilient. Additionally, they have mauled the arctic poppy (poor thing) and the least interesting of the mint plants (they've thus far left the chocolate mint alone).

The poison seems to have worked thus far. There are no obviously living aphids on the honeysuckle, but it still looks rather pathetic. Still, it will be blooming soon and, as long as that lasts, the deck will smell wonderful. The clematis needs to be replaced.

I find it much easier to reply to casual emails, and trivial comments, than I do to reply to academically significant emails. Perhaps it's because I feel more is at stake in the latter, and because I have less of a sure sense of etiquette in writing formal emails. (As you can tell, academic etiquette has been weighin on my mind lately.) This morning, I finally replied to several academically-related email to which I should have replied much sooner.

As long as I'm not rude, surely it is less of a faux pas to just go ahead and respond one way or another than to continue postponing replies for fear of wording it the wrong way, or addressing the recipient incorrectly.

From what I can gather, at least several of the faculty offices in my department were broken into last night by an intruder. He came into the common room too, but a fellow student was there late, grading papers, and the intruder turned right back around and left. A number of computers have gone missing from the offices. I just hope the faculty backed up regularly and aren't going to be missing anything crucial.