lessons from the first grade...
Before they learn about science, first graders need to learn that...
"Umm... one time... when we were... when I was... um... we were driving in the car... umm... and a DEER ran out into the road and we hit it right in the ribs but it lived"...
is not, strictly speaking, a "QUESTION".
Thursday, September 27
Tuesday, September 25
mostly "fret"...
This afternoon, I met with the director of my play to discuss the staged "page-in-hand" reading next month. Few things make me feel like more of a fake than discussing this play as if I had something to do with writing it. I explained to her that basically what happened was... I thought of an idea for a play... I got a commission to write it... then I went to my friend who I drafted into "collaborating" with me and said - " Here... write a play about this guy and this guy, where this this and this happens" - and he wrote it. No more than 500 words of the script are written by me, and those that are written by me, I all but plagiarized from Galileo and Copernicus! She says that what I did was the hard part of writing, but it really doesn't feel like it.
Anyway, the reading is in less than a month and she has assembled most of the actors for the very small cast, but today she somehow latched onto the idea of having ME read the part of Galileo. And the more she talks about it, the more excited she gets.
This idea fills me with dread.
I don't know why. I don't know why reading a play in front of an audience is something different from reading Galileo's Dialogues in front of a lecture hall, but it is. Very much so. I'm kinda hoping my wife comes up with some reason that I can't make it to the rehearsal on Sunday.
Even if I can overcome the perspiration-inducing thought of doing a dramatic reading with a bunch of real-actors, it bums me out that I won't be able to SEE the play. Especially since I just found out that one of our music profs will be providing the incidental music and soundtrack live on piano using the music of Philip Glass! Shit... I'd rather be doing HIS job!!
I can't think of anything else to write about today, since now my brain is fully occupied by this new development. Stay tuned for more news about my dramatic stage debut and increasingly bizarre life.
This afternoon, I met with the director of my play to discuss the staged "page-in-hand" reading next month. Few things make me feel like more of a fake than discussing this play as if I had something to do with writing it. I explained to her that basically what happened was... I thought of an idea for a play... I got a commission to write it... then I went to my friend who I drafted into "collaborating" with me and said - " Here... write a play about this guy and this guy, where this this and this happens" - and he wrote it. No more than 500 words of the script are written by me, and those that are written by me, I all but plagiarized from Galileo and Copernicus! She says that what I did was the hard part of writing, but it really doesn't feel like it.
Anyway, the reading is in less than a month and she has assembled most of the actors for the very small cast, but today she somehow latched onto the idea of having ME read the part of Galileo. And the more she talks about it, the more excited she gets.
This idea fills me with dread.
I don't know why. I don't know why reading a play in front of an audience is something different from reading Galileo's Dialogues in front of a lecture hall, but it is. Very much so. I'm kinda hoping my wife comes up with some reason that I can't make it to the rehearsal on Sunday.
Even if I can overcome the perspiration-inducing thought of doing a dramatic reading with a bunch of real-actors, it bums me out that I won't be able to SEE the play. Especially since I just found out that one of our music profs will be providing the incidental music and soundtrack live on piano using the music of Philip Glass! Shit... I'd rather be doing HIS job!!
I can't think of anything else to write about today, since now my brain is fully occupied by this new development. Stay tuned for more news about my dramatic stage debut and increasingly bizarre life.
Monday, September 24
(i'm an) old man, look at my life...
The astronomy lecture today kinda sucked. I blame the fact that only 5 or 6 students showed up. The smaller the audience is that I'm speaking to, the faster I talk. As a result, I packed what is often a 1-hour and 20-minute lecture into 50 minutes. Dr. Dave, now with more Zoom-Zoom!
Oh well, at least that means it will take less time to edit the podcast.
So, I'm heading home even later than expected today. I walked down to the PATH station after my late lecture only to find the platform PACKED with people, and the PA announcing extensive delays due to "a track condition". (Did it melt? Is it on fire? Has it been stolen? TELL US THE CONDITION OF THE TRACK!!) I wasn't in the mood to tangle with a crowd like that, so I went back to my office!
I'm in no real hurry to get home, except for the fact that the season premiere of "Heroes" airs tonite. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here yet, but the wife and I bought into the hype over the summer, and got our hands on the DVDs and we are HOOKED. We watched all 23 episodes of season one in a week and a half - no exaggeration. We're particularly excited about this season given that fucking "Lost" is not airing any new episodes at all until fucking FEBRUARY. So at least our supernatural-mindfuck TV-niche is filled with something for a few months in the meantime.
(Why, on a day like today, when I have forgoteen my headphones, must I find myself seated across from New Jersey Asshole Divorced Dad while he disciplines his 7 year old via his Treo?? If I stuck both ends of a USB cable in my ear, would it help?)
We still aren't 100% sure what new shows we'll be buying into. "Cane" looks good. I'll probably give the "Bionic Woman" an episode or two. The only thing we've decided for sure is that we are finally giving up on "ER", a decision which is, in my opinion, at least 4 years overdue.
In other news, over the past 3 months, my arthritis has advanced from a nuisance to a chronic condition. Many days I'm in pain from my left shoulder, through the elbow, all the way down to the fingers... and the first joint on my left index finger is stiff and painful all day pretty much every day. My ankles can now reliably predict the weather. I'm considering finally seeing a doctor about it... mostly just to get some official permission to take 2 Aleve at a time instead of one.
Thinking back to my Mom, I'm exactly the same age she was when I used to mock her for predicting the weather with her aches and pains. I'll be 38 in a few weeks, and... in the words of my wife... "OMG, That sounds SO MUCH OLDER than 37!!!". And somehow, it's true.
Anyway. This old man could use a train nap.
The astronomy lecture today kinda sucked. I blame the fact that only 5 or 6 students showed up. The smaller the audience is that I'm speaking to, the faster I talk. As a result, I packed what is often a 1-hour and 20-minute lecture into 50 minutes. Dr. Dave, now with more Zoom-Zoom!
Oh well, at least that means it will take less time to edit the podcast.
So, I'm heading home even later than expected today. I walked down to the PATH station after my late lecture only to find the platform PACKED with people, and the PA announcing extensive delays due to "a track condition". (Did it melt? Is it on fire? Has it been stolen? TELL US THE CONDITION OF THE TRACK!!) I wasn't in the mood to tangle with a crowd like that, so I went back to my office!
I'm in no real hurry to get home, except for the fact that the season premiere of "Heroes" airs tonite. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here yet, but the wife and I bought into the hype over the summer, and got our hands on the DVDs and we are HOOKED. We watched all 23 episodes of season one in a week and a half - no exaggeration. We're particularly excited about this season given that fucking "Lost" is not airing any new episodes at all until fucking FEBRUARY. So at least our supernatural-mindfuck TV-niche is filled with something for a few months in the meantime.
(Why, on a day like today, when I have forgoteen my headphones, must I find myself seated across from New Jersey Asshole Divorced Dad while he disciplines his 7 year old via his Treo?? If I stuck both ends of a USB cable in my ear, would it help?)
We still aren't 100% sure what new shows we'll be buying into. "Cane" looks good. I'll probably give the "Bionic Woman" an episode or two. The only thing we've decided for sure is that we are finally giving up on "ER", a decision which is, in my opinion, at least 4 years overdue.
In other news, over the past 3 months, my arthritis has advanced from a nuisance to a chronic condition. Many days I'm in pain from my left shoulder, through the elbow, all the way down to the fingers... and the first joint on my left index finger is stiff and painful all day pretty much every day. My ankles can now reliably predict the weather. I'm considering finally seeing a doctor about it... mostly just to get some official permission to take 2 Aleve at a time instead of one.
Thinking back to my Mom, I'm exactly the same age she was when I used to mock her for predicting the weather with her aches and pains. I'll be 38 in a few weeks, and... in the words of my wife... "OMG, That sounds SO MUCH OLDER than 37!!!". And somehow, it's true.
Anyway. This old man could use a train nap.
status? totally quo...
Still suffering from a real dearth of bloggable content. The semester is starting to really kick in... mettings are popping up all over the calendar... some weeks are starting to fill. My play is in a few weeks, and I got my annual invitation to visit the Old School to talk about the end of the universe. Busy.
Today I'm giving a lecture for my online astronomy class. I really only expect two or three people to show up. So, in addition to the astronomy kids, I invited all of the students from the Einstein class and bribed them with 5 bonus exam points. I expect at least FOUR of them to come. There are a lot more groupies/suckups in that one.
I plan on going all-out with the AV on this one. Not only am I recording the audio with my fancy new lapel mic / iPod setup, but I'll be recording the Keynote slides with Profcast, and setting up TWO video cameras - one on a wide shot, one on a tight shot. I want to experiment with Final Cut and see how long it takes me to edit down a 90 minute lecture with multiple camera angles. Not that I plan to do this often... but there are enough "pivotal lectures" that I give 3 or 4 times a year, that it would be really nice to say - hey kids... go online and watch this lecture!
Then tomorrow, I'm teaching a colleague's class, and giving a lecture on the Conservation of Energy. Hell, I should videotape that one too. But for now, I need to make some damned handouts for his class. I should really do that now.
Still suffering from a real dearth of bloggable content. The semester is starting to really kick in... mettings are popping up all over the calendar... some weeks are starting to fill. My play is in a few weeks, and I got my annual invitation to visit the Old School to talk about the end of the universe. Busy.
Today I'm giving a lecture for my online astronomy class. I really only expect two or three people to show up. So, in addition to the astronomy kids, I invited all of the students from the Einstein class and bribed them with 5 bonus exam points. I expect at least FOUR of them to come. There are a lot more groupies/suckups in that one.
I plan on going all-out with the AV on this one. Not only am I recording the audio with my fancy new lapel mic / iPod setup, but I'll be recording the Keynote slides with Profcast, and setting up TWO video cameras - one on a wide shot, one on a tight shot. I want to experiment with Final Cut and see how long it takes me to edit down a 90 minute lecture with multiple camera angles. Not that I plan to do this often... but there are enough "pivotal lectures" that I give 3 or 4 times a year, that it would be really nice to say - hey kids... go online and watch this lecture!
Then tomorrow, I'm teaching a colleague's class, and giving a lecture on the Conservation of Energy. Hell, I should videotape that one too. But for now, I need to make some damned handouts for his class. I should really do that now.
Friday, September 21
Thursday, September 20
all that, and he busts gender roles too...
I did not go to work today. I cancelled class and stayed home so that I could take a sick little boy to the pediatrician while my wife ran in circles at the elementary school running a fundraiser. Turns out, the boy does not have strep throat, and is not nearly as sick as I would have to be MYSELF to cancel class.
I did not go to work today. I cancelled class and stayed home so that I could take a sick little boy to the pediatrician while my wife ran in circles at the elementary school running a fundraiser. Turns out, the boy does not have strep throat, and is not nearly as sick as I would have to be MYSELF to cancel class.
Wednesday, September 19
Tuesday, September 18
to do list...
Instead of a post, I'm going to jot down all the things I need to do today.
* fax parking application
* call eTrac about a replacement card
* track down missing textbook in office
* post some stuff to the dreadful online astronomy class
* reserve a room for a special lecture next Monday
* borrow two funnels from the science lab (don't ask)
Instead of a post, I'm going to jot down all the things I need to do today.
* fax parking application
* call eTrac about a replacement card
* track down missing textbook in office
* post some stuff to the dreadful online astronomy class
* reserve a room for a special lecture next Monday
* borrow two funnels from the science lab (don't ask)
Monday, September 17
i'm sure something will piss me off soon...
Even though I'm back to my train-work-train routine four days a week, I don't feel like I've really gotten back to writing in the blog as much as I should. Today it occurred to me that maybe I'm never in the mood to write because things are going so well this semester. Could it be that the only things I enjoy writing about are those that make me miserable?
(Don't answer that!)
Classes are running like clockwork, with the exception of the online astronomy class, which is kind of stagnant so far. I'm not sure how to get things moving, really. This weekend, I switched tactics from "encouragement" to "threats". We'll see how that goes.
Things are relatively Ok around the house. The Boy is adjusting pretty well to kindergarten, although the elimination of his daily nap (which began over the summer) has been far from smooth. He can be a bit of an unpleasant asshole around 6:30 PM nowadays. Either that or he just passes out unconscious on the sofa around that time. Kinda reminds me of my Dad, actually.
The wife is going to be crazy this week, as it is "Book Fair" time. This is something she volunteers to be in charge of every year, despite the fact that it makes her a basket case for 5 days. She also may wind up as treasurer of the local Girl Scout council chapter. (She is already a troop leader.) This comes as a surprise, as she is barely able to deal with her OWN cookie money twice a year, and our house winds up full of scattered loose checks and twenties. At least the house will be quieter when she is in jail.
That's about it, I guess. I'm gonna go watch some TV now. I just discovered a Mac program called "Miro" that is an RSS aggregator a BitTorrent client and a media player all in one. Basically you tell it what shows you like and it grabs them from the P2P aether automatically as they become available. So I run it overnight on my old iBook and have it save the files to a 2 Gig thumb drive. Then every morning, I can grab a pocketful of TV on the way out the door! Today's pick... the semi-funny "Flight of the Conchords".
Even though I'm back to my train-work-train routine four days a week, I don't feel like I've really gotten back to writing in the blog as much as I should. Today it occurred to me that maybe I'm never in the mood to write because things are going so well this semester. Could it be that the only things I enjoy writing about are those that make me miserable?
(Don't answer that!)
Classes are running like clockwork, with the exception of the online astronomy class, which is kind of stagnant so far. I'm not sure how to get things moving, really. This weekend, I switched tactics from "encouragement" to "threats". We'll see how that goes.
Things are relatively Ok around the house. The Boy is adjusting pretty well to kindergarten, although the elimination of his daily nap (which began over the summer) has been far from smooth. He can be a bit of an unpleasant asshole around 6:30 PM nowadays. Either that or he just passes out unconscious on the sofa around that time. Kinda reminds me of my Dad, actually.
The wife is going to be crazy this week, as it is "Book Fair" time. This is something she volunteers to be in charge of every year, despite the fact that it makes her a basket case for 5 days. She also may wind up as treasurer of the local Girl Scout council chapter. (She is already a troop leader.) This comes as a surprise, as she is barely able to deal with her OWN cookie money twice a year, and our house winds up full of scattered loose checks and twenties. At least the house will be quieter when she is in jail.
That's about it, I guess. I'm gonna go watch some TV now. I just discovered a Mac program called "Miro" that is an RSS aggregator a BitTorrent client and a media player all in one. Basically you tell it what shows you like and it grabs them from the P2P aether automatically as they become available. So I run it overnight on my old iBook and have it save the files to a 2 Gig thumb drive. Then every morning, I can grab a pocketful of TV on the way out the door! Today's pick... the semi-funny "Flight of the Conchords".
Wednesday, September 12
[title here...]
Heading home a little late. Long science meeting today. Exciting topic of the day? Changing the name of our major from "Science, Something, and Something" to "Science, Something Else, and Something Else"!!
Anyway, now that The Boy is in Kindergarten full time, I need to make myself STOP feeling guilty for coming home late a few days a month. I mean... the wife is stuck with the kids from 3:00 until 7:00 FOUR days a week? Big freakin' deal.
Good deed of the day... let a cute blind chick through the PATH turnstyle on my MetroCard when her card ran out. It didn't occur to me until today that those turnstyles have an LCD screen but NO sort of audio feedback.
Heading home a little late. Long science meeting today. Exciting topic of the day? Changing the name of our major from "Science, Something, and Something" to "Science, Something Else, and Something Else"!!
Anyway, now that The Boy is in Kindergarten full time, I need to make myself STOP feeling guilty for coming home late a few days a month. I mean... the wife is stuck with the kids from 3:00 until 7:00 FOUR days a week? Big freakin' deal.
Good deed of the day... let a cute blind chick through the PATH turnstyle on my MetroCard when her card ran out. It didn't occur to me until today that those turnstyles have an LCD screen but NO sort of audio feedback.
what else is going on...
Honestly, not a lot. This one-class-per-day thing is kinda nice. I come in everyday feeling like I'm ready for class and I know what I'm going to talk about. Imagine.
My online class is starting off really slowly. There have been a LOT of "drops". Luckily there have been almost as many "adds". But the conversations aren't going anywhere yet. I may have to change my tactics from encouragement to threats. POST SOMETHING BY FRIDAY OR YOU GET A BIG FAT ZERO FOR THE WEEK.
Of course, there is one kid who has posted 8 times in the past 2 days. I wanna say - "Ok, I get it... you're one of THOSE students. Fine. You get an "A".... take the rest of the semester off."
Honestly, not a lot. This one-class-per-day thing is kinda nice. I come in everyday feeling like I'm ready for class and I know what I'm going to talk about. Imagine.
My online class is starting off really slowly. There have been a LOT of "drops". Luckily there have been almost as many "adds". But the conversations aren't going anywhere yet. I may have to change my tactics from encouragement to threats. POST SOMETHING BY FRIDAY OR YOU GET A BIG FAT ZERO FOR THE WEEK.
Of course, there is one kid who has posted 8 times in the past 2 days. I wanna say - "Ok, I get it... you're one of THOSE students. Fine. You get an "A".... take the rest of the semester off."
Tuesday, September 11
dave's 15 minutes of fame...?
...was actually edited down to about 4 minutes. Still, it's a first step along the road to media domination and my eventual ousting of that irritating Ira Flatow from "Science Friday".
The piece blows my anonymity, but long-time trusted readers can contact me for the link.
...was actually edited down to about 4 minutes. Still, it's a first step along the road to media domination and my eventual ousting of that irritating Ira Flatow from "Science Friday".
The piece blows my anonymity, but long-time trusted readers can contact me for the link.
Monday, September 10
somewhere my school librarian is laughing in her grave...
My childhood disdain for fiction has finally caught up with me.
Our department got a call today from a journalist at NPR looking to interview a physicist about the recent death of Madeline L'Engle. Well, I'm the only physicist here. Problem is... I've never actually READ "A Wrinkle in Time".
(Aside: Nearly every week in elementary school, the librarian would bodliy drag me from the 500-600 shelves over to the fiction section and foist recommendations on me. I would dutifully check them out and then drop them in the returns bin on my way back to get a book about dinosaurs or black holes. I'm about 90% that "Wrinkle in Time" was one of her recommendations.)
Anyway, I talked to this guy on the phone and he claims he only wants to talk about 4 dimensional math and hypercubes, which I can do. Just don't ask me about a book that everyone else read in 6th grade, or I'll look like an idiot. The thing is... it's really a secret fantasy of mine to be one of thopse NPR-go-to-science-guys who Neal Conan call on the phone whenever something sciency happens.
He'll be here at 2:00. It's for a video podcast too, so I'm glad I wore my nice shirt.
My childhood disdain for fiction has finally caught up with me.
Our department got a call today from a journalist at NPR looking to interview a physicist about the recent death of Madeline L'Engle. Well, I'm the only physicist here. Problem is... I've never actually READ "A Wrinkle in Time".
(Aside: Nearly every week in elementary school, the librarian would bodliy drag me from the 500-600 shelves over to the fiction section and foist recommendations on me. I would dutifully check them out and then drop them in the returns bin on my way back to get a book about dinosaurs or black holes. I'm about 90% that "Wrinkle in Time" was one of her recommendations.)
Anyway, I talked to this guy on the phone and he claims he only wants to talk about 4 dimensional math and hypercubes, which I can do. Just don't ask me about a book that everyone else read in 6th grade, or I'll look like an idiot. The thing is... it's really a secret fantasy of mine to be one of thopse NPR-go-to-science-guys who Neal Conan call on the phone whenever something sciency happens.
He'll be here at 2:00. It's for a video podcast too, so I'm glad I wore my nice shirt.
Saturday, September 8
food critics...
When the kids found out this morning that the wife had bought a box of Froot Loops with special "yogurt smoothie" covered loops.... I swear to you. It was like JESUS had come for breakfast. There was literally jumping and squealing.
Not three minutes later...
"These white ones don't taste like a smoothie at all... they're like...? Nasty yogurt or something..."
"Yeah... the smoovie ones are GWOSS..."
Guess I have a few weeks of picking-white-Froot-Loops-out-of-the-bowl to look forward to.
When the kids found out this morning that the wife had bought a box of Froot Loops with special "yogurt smoothie" covered loops.... I swear to you. It was like JESUS had come for breakfast. There was literally jumping and squealing.
Not three minutes later...
"These white ones don't taste like a smoothie at all... they're like...? Nasty yogurt or something..."
"Yeah... the smoovie ones are GWOSS..."
Guess I have a few weeks of picking-white-Froot-Loops-out-of-the-bowl to look forward to.
Thursday, September 6
missing the point of "security"...
Like many universities, my school is becoming more and more draconian in its copying policies. I think officially we are not supposed to copy anything longer than 4 pages for our classes. (Jesus, my SYLLABUS is 8 pages!!) In order to help them police their copier, the Dean's office assigned everyone an individual 4-digit copy code, and the fancy copier keeps track of how many copies you have made.
The thing is... I noticed when I was given my 4 digit code, that they were handing them out IN NUMERICAL ORDER beginning with 1000. Which means, I forgot mine long ago, and now when I want to make copies, I just enter a random number between 1000 and 1100.
Great "system", guys!! Hope you didn't pay any consultants to help you come up with this idea.
Like many universities, my school is becoming more and more draconian in its copying policies. I think officially we are not supposed to copy anything longer than 4 pages for our classes. (Jesus, my SYLLABUS is 8 pages!!) In order to help them police their copier, the Dean's office assigned everyone an individual 4-digit copy code, and the fancy copier keeps track of how many copies you have made.
The thing is... I noticed when I was given my 4 digit code, that they were handing them out IN NUMERICAL ORDER beginning with 1000. Which means, I forgot mine long ago, and now when I want to make copies, I just enter a random number between 1000 and 1100.
Great "system", guys!! Hope you didn't pay any consultants to help you come up with this idea.
it's what, day THREE...?
And already I've overslept once, and fallen behind on my classwork. It's not a HUGE deal. I'm writing a study guide with questions for the 700-page book that I have the students reading, and I haven't finished it yet. But I have questions and summaries written up to chapter 20 or so, which is well beyond page 400, so I'm just going to hand out what I hand out, and give them a revised version in a few weeks.
But I do want to finish as much as I can, so I'm going to spend the rest of my train ride with my nose in this book.
And already I've overslept once, and fallen behind on my classwork. It's not a HUGE deal. I'm writing a study guide with questions for the 700-page book that I have the students reading, and I haven't finished it yet. But I have questions and summaries written up to chapter 20 or so, which is well beyond page 400, so I'm just going to hand out what I hand out, and give them a revised version in a few weeks.
But I do want to finish as much as I can, so I'm going to spend the rest of my train ride with my nose in this book.
Wednesday, September 5
wait... where is the grouchy guy who usually writes here...?
It feels so good to be back to school/work. I haven't been in this good of a mood all summer. This morning there was a pink and yellow sunrise... with a RAINBOW for fuck's sake. It's all I can do not to jump up and kick my heels in the hallway.
It feels so good to be back to school/work. I haven't been in this good of a mood all summer. This morning there was a pink and yellow sunrise... with a RAINBOW for fuck's sake. It's all I can do not to jump up and kick my heels in the hallway.
Tuesday, September 4
back to school...
Well, it wouldn't be the first day of school without a little chaos. I was awakened at 5:05 this morning by a little digital *chirp* sound... timed just close enough together that you can't possibly ignore it, and just far apart enough that it takes you forever to figure out where it's coming from. I finally traced it to the smoke detector in the Boy's room, and decided to try to change the battery, since it was definitely loud enough to wake him up. I was worried about freaking him out... you wake up and it's still dark and you find a guy in your room up on a stepladder with a flashlight... y'know? But all he said when I (inevitably) DID wake him up was - "What the HECK are you doing?"
Anyway, the point is... I woke up before 5:30 today, and I didn't even need to use my alarm!
See, this is the thing about going back to school this summer... Something happened this summer that has not happened in almost 8 years. We slept in. Every day. Usually until AFTER 8:00!! Suddenly both kids are old enough to go downstairs when they wake up (6:20 - 7:00) to watch TV, to play computer games, to fix themselves breakfast... which means that neither my wife nor I needs to wake up until a) someone needs something they can't get/find for themselves... or b) someone starts screaming at someone else.
(Hint: it's usually b...)
Does this mean we've been getting more sleep? Of course not. It means we've been staying up until 1:00 or 2:00. Which means... this week will involve some pretty big adjustments for US. The kids won't have to change their morning routines much at all.
--- --- ---
How ready is Dave for the first day of school? As usual - ready enough, but not as ready as I would LIKE to be. My syllabi are done, but not printed. My semester-long assignment is done enough, although I would have liked to have given it one more look and added a few more problems. The stuff for my other class still needs some polishing, but I have all afternoon today to fuck with that. My online course has enough in it for kids to read and respond to on the first day. Basically, I'll be just barely ready to go. Typical.
It feels really good to be going back, though. It's kinda nice when you have a summer so disastrous that it reminds you that you really do like your real job.
Today's class is the Spacetime & Einstein class, which, last time I checked, had 17 students in it - 11 of whom I've had in other classes. I may just nickname this class "Dr. Dave's Posse". It's good to have a fan club.
--- --- ---
In non-school related news, my wife and I bought into the hype and picked up the DVD set for season one of "Heroes" so that we could catch up before the new season starts this month. We've been watching 3 episodes a night on average. It's pretty surprisingly good - at least as good as "Lost" was in it's first season. And given that they aren't airing ANY new episodes of Lost until fucking FEBRUARY, we need something to fill up our freaky-supernatural-mindfuck slot for the fall.
--- --- ---
There's probably more to say, boys and girls... but I need to open up some work fils and make sure everything is in order. Cross your fingers for me that I can find a working printer and copier this morning.
It's good to be back.
Well, it wouldn't be the first day of school without a little chaos. I was awakened at 5:05 this morning by a little digital *chirp* sound... timed just close enough together that you can't possibly ignore it, and just far apart enough that it takes you forever to figure out where it's coming from. I finally traced it to the smoke detector in the Boy's room, and decided to try to change the battery, since it was definitely loud enough to wake him up. I was worried about freaking him out... you wake up and it's still dark and you find a guy in your room up on a stepladder with a flashlight... y'know? But all he said when I (inevitably) DID wake him up was - "What the HECK are you doing?"
Anyway, the point is... I woke up before 5:30 today, and I didn't even need to use my alarm!
See, this is the thing about going back to school this summer... Something happened this summer that has not happened in almost 8 years. We slept in. Every day. Usually until AFTER 8:00!! Suddenly both kids are old enough to go downstairs when they wake up (6:20 - 7:00) to watch TV, to play computer games, to fix themselves breakfast... which means that neither my wife nor I needs to wake up until a) someone needs something they can't get/find for themselves... or b) someone starts screaming at someone else.
(Hint: it's usually b...)
Does this mean we've been getting more sleep? Of course not. It means we've been staying up until 1:00 or 2:00. Which means... this week will involve some pretty big adjustments for US. The kids won't have to change their morning routines much at all.
How ready is Dave for the first day of school? As usual - ready enough, but not as ready as I would LIKE to be. My syllabi are done, but not printed. My semester-long assignment is done enough, although I would have liked to have given it one more look and added a few more problems. The stuff for my other class still needs some polishing, but I have all afternoon today to fuck with that. My online course has enough in it for kids to read and respond to on the first day. Basically, I'll be just barely ready to go. Typical.
It feels really good to be going back, though. It's kinda nice when you have a summer so disastrous that it reminds you that you really do like your real job.
Today's class is the Spacetime & Einstein class, which, last time I checked, had 17 students in it - 11 of whom I've had in other classes. I may just nickname this class "Dr. Dave's Posse". It's good to have a fan club.
In non-school related news, my wife and I bought into the hype and picked up the DVD set for season one of "Heroes" so that we could catch up before the new season starts this month. We've been watching 3 episodes a night on average. It's pretty surprisingly good - at least as good as "Lost" was in it's first season. And given that they aren't airing ANY new episodes of Lost until fucking FEBRUARY, we need something to fill up our freaky-supernatural-mindfuck slot for the fall.
There's probably more to say, boys and girls... but I need to open up some work fils and make sure everything is in order. Cross your fingers for me that I can find a working printer and copier this morning.
It's good to be back.
Sunday, September 2
ow... fuck...
So, I went outside to play with the kids today, which I NEVER do. But it was a gorgeous day, and my daughter asked to play Frisbee, and summer is almost over, so I figured... try to be a good parent, y'know? Well, I was outside for 3 minutes, and...
AND THEN I GOT STUNG BY A BEE... IN THE EYE!!!!!!
Ok, not IN the eye. But in the puffy fleshy part under the eye, which is fucking bad enough. Basically it flew into my face, got trapped behind my glasses, and it panicked.
Moral of the story...? The outside? SUCKS
So, I went outside to play with the kids today, which I NEVER do. But it was a gorgeous day, and my daughter asked to play Frisbee, and summer is almost over, so I figured... try to be a good parent, y'know? Well, I was outside for 3 minutes, and...
AND THEN I GOT STUNG BY A BEE... IN THE EYE!!!!!!
Ok, not IN the eye. But in the puffy fleshy part under the eye, which is fucking bad enough. Basically it flew into my face, got trapped behind my glasses, and it panicked.
Moral of the story...? The outside? SUCKS
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