Went to a "symposium" today, organized using public funds. The purpose was mainly to brainwash people like me. I was shocked. Yes SHOCKED to see a full house. I spotted quite a few from my organization (whom I avoided) and bumped into a couple others I from other organizations. We are talking hundreds of people, academics and senior administrators in universities, spending a whole saturday sitting on their arses listening to some dribble about "learning outcomes", from four white haired white guys. I thought Ian Saunders made some good points though, a tat pretentious with more name dropping than was necessary (all that reference to Borges and Bakhtin and Charles Taylor - I wonder what all those engineers in the audience must have been thinking) but what he said was most relevant to the humanities and social sciences.

No one was exactly forced to go, but I'm sure most people felt compelled to go. I overheard one white haired tall guy said to two short haired short guys: "Let me say this on record - I came here voluntarily" and then all three bursted out laughing as if that was the most hilarious thing ever said.

I took off during the lunch break and headed off to CWB to pick up some stuff, hesitated about whether I should go back for the afternoon session. It was pissing down with rain by then and I had the good sense to not have brought an umbrella with me. So I did what I had to do, which was to head home. Hah!