Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

Parenting is hard

It is the start of the Spring 2024 semester on campus. Nice to see a bustling campus once more, though the only downside is the bathrooms will certainly be dirtier. The flu and cold virus is also going around, so we've got to protect ourselves the best we can. Wash or sanitize your hands often, and try not to touch your face. Even post COVID pandemic, people can’t seem to stay home when they are sick. Supposedly, the area around the eyes are potently vulnerable entry points for viruses.

Was there a chance the Spring semester was going to be delayed? The CFA - the union representing faculty and librarians - were on strike just last week. But on that Tuesday, the two sides came to a tentative agreement. CFA basically got the same deal as we, the employees union - got: five percent raises last fiscal and this fiscal year. Equality is great, isn't it? (The CFA was asking for more.)

Also included in the new contract is an increase of paid parental leave from the current six weeks to 10 weeks. As a housemate to two new parents with five months-old twin boys, I must say parents deserve all the time off they can get from their employers. Parenting is truly another job onto itself. It's not like folks on parental leave are at home playing videos games. In fact, some are happy to return to work, partly to escape the baby responsibilities for just a few precious hours. (Who knew that eating an entire lunch undisturbed can be so precious?)

Anything to encourage and incentivize people to have babies should be pursued. The education industry - the one I am employed by - is predicated on having an endless supply of replacement pupils, year after year. If the population is having fewer babies, then that supply will naturally dwindle. And with it the future stability of this job. So in a totally self-servicing way: good for the CFA in getting an increase in parental leave!

The marshmallow test.

First week of school

It’s been a fairly hectic week. San Francisco State University resumed in-person classes for the spring semester, at 50% of all courses. First week of school is always a hectic time for us on the tech support side (I barely had time to eat lunch on Tuesday) I actually shifted my schedule to an earlier start time to accommodate the service needs. Thankfully I already wake up much earlier than I need to for work, so my rigorous sleeping schedule remains intact.

Three days in thus far and I’ve taken over 10,000 steps on every one of them. This is great for my cardio. If I had an Apple Watch I’d certainly have closed those rings. It’s lovely to see an active campus again full of students and staff. Even at 50% capacity, the halls seem mighty crowded, and lines have returned to the campus food shops. It’s nice to have people back, though I do miss the eerie quiet of the pandemic ghost town just a little.

Some of my coworkers would say they miss being able to find parking easily on the streets surrounding campus. I of course don’t have the problem: I smugly walk to work in about 10 minutes from home.

California and San Francisco have lifted the indoor mask mandate starting on the 16th. The City also no longer requires proof-of-vaccination for indoor dinning. Strangely, San Francisco State have kept its own indoor mask mandate for all of its buildings, deviating from the San Francisco public health guidelines for the very first time. Let’s see how keen people are to follow the masking rules when our campus is the exception, rather than the norm.

From a pure comfort standpoint, I am more than ready to not wear a mask for all eight hours of my workday.

That one week of the year.

Spring final exams are here

It’s the time of final exams around these parts, so the university library where I work at is teeming with students looking to cram in that last bit of studying, or project finishing (perhaps starting?). Look at all these people who’s got perfectly fine desks at home but choose the library instead. Whatever it takes to get the job done, obviously, but it’s a phenomenon I can’t understand.

Why give up the peace and tranquility of the home for the bustle and noise of a crowded study lab during finals weeks? How are these people able to concentrate better at a place with more auditory distractions?

I’d really like to know.  

Some would surely argue there are other items around the home more distracting than the din of fellow students, such as a gaming system, or an over-talkative roommate. I would counter that it may be true before the first iPhone was invented, but nowadays we carry around with us the biggest time-sucking device ever created: the smartphone. I don’t suppose any of these students doing work in the library have left their phones elsewhere.

One scant peek at twitter and it could easily be an hour lost into the abyss. Don’t ask me how I know.

Again, however a student chooses to finish his or her studies is not for me to criticize, but for me, I absolutely need a place of silence and solitude. I do my best work when there’s nothing to disturb me for a solid period of time, and the studying halls of the university library is not it.

That said, good luck to all who are amidst final exams these few weeks; it’ll soon be over.

Duly noted.