back on the train (yeah)...

For three days, anyway. Me and the Religion Guy are spending all day today planning our course for the fall. Then at 3:00, I'm having coffee with the outgoing Dean. (Not sure why, other than - he asked.) Next two days, we're having a science department "retreat", which basically means... we sit around a classroom and bicker over curriculum. Ok, "bicker" isn't quite the right word. More like dither over curriculum. I don't mind, though. I enjoy big-picture curricular discussions. And it's a good chance to show off all the edu-speak lingo I picked up at my old job.

Speaking of my old job, a good friend of mine from the Old School is interested in the Ecology position at my college. I actually think he would be a really good fit, too. I'd pull some strings if I had any idea what strings to pull, or any access to any strings whatsoever.

My car is back on the road. Those of you following the Twitter will know some of the details. Those of you who don't, well... GET WITH THE FUCKING PROGRAM, PEOPLE!! Short version - $500 fucking alternator, which pretty much makes up for the two car payments we've saved since it was payed off. Also, probably puts off my iPhone purchase another month.

Good news on that front from the MacRumorMill sites, though! There is speculation that the Apple "Back Ta School" promo this year will include a free iPod Touch! Add that to the rumor of a complete design overhaul for the MacBook line, and I could have a Very Special Mac August!

(I know, I've said I will never step to the front of the line for an Apple re-design, since their hot-off-the-drawing-board computers can be a fucking mess until the first revision, but... the timing is such that I really can't wait beyond September. It's encouraging that I haven't heard any horror stories about the MacBook Air. Of course, I think they've sold about fourteen of those.)

Work-wise, the summer is going really well. This "buffer month" when I'm off school, but the kids are still IN, has been really nice. I get up, take the Boy to school, come home, read my mail and stuff, then head down to the guestroom retreat... dim the overhead lights, turn on my paper Ikea-Chinese lamp, set up my laptop on the tiny, clean desk... hook up an external keyboard and speakers... put on some classical background music, and write for about 2 hours straight. If this is what sabbatical is going to be like... I could really get used to it.

Mostly I'm working on polishing up curriculum supplements for the Fall... both so I can use them in class, and so I can put them in my dossier for my review. I've also been working a lot on the dossier itself. They want the written statement of teaching, research, and service to top out at 10pp. What I had written already was more like 20. Not a big deal, some of it just needs to be moved to the Appendices, but it's a lot of thinking and re-organizing.

I tackled two of my syllabi yesterday, for the two courses I've already taught before. No big changes, a cut here, a new topic there... some new books, a different final paper... stuff like that. They aren't done, but they are done enough that I know I can stop thinking hard about them all summer and revisit them in August. The big work will come from the new Science & Religion class, hence the day-long meeting today. We really have nothing set up except for a sort of over-arching "theme", which is a good theme... it's just a question of... do we really have enough for a whole COURSE on these topics? And if not... um... fuck?

Anyway, I have some reading I should probably be doing to prep for the next few days. I'll be back tomorrow.