Moving Update

Well, there I was saying nasty things about Time Warner and they go and turn all efficient and helpful on me. Originally, the website said I needed to go down to their office and yadda yadda, but I called them up and they scheduled an install the next day, so hey presto, I've got cable and the internet. Hooray!

Other developments. My old bike was in really bad shape, so it found a new home and I got a new one. Hooray again! I haven't been riding to school in about a year now - ever since I came back from Japan, I guess. Anywhoo, I rode around a bit yesterday and today, and it feels so good to be riding again. I live a ways away from school, but one of my friends bikes in every day from about the same area, so I might give it a shot, too.

That's because I'm teaching summer school, starting tomorrow. I'm always a bit nervous before a new class, but I've already taught this particular class two times here, so hopefully it'll go well.

Oh, I promised photos of the new pad, so here we go with a couple pre-move in shots:

Living room:


















Kitchen:

Hooray for funding!

I just found out that I have a real live source of funding for next year! I actually won a competitive fellowship! Woot! It's even enough that I might not have to teach at all next year - just take classes and research. What a novel idea!

Now, the question is, do I want to keep my name in the hat for teaching anyway? I do love teaching and this fellowship allows for some teaching, but these past two years, teaching has been a huge drain on my research time.

If I don't teach, it would be the first time in - jeeze, about 4 years that I haven't taught. Will I remember how life works without it?

Also, on a completely related note, does going to Taco Bell count as celebrating Cinco de Mayo?

Can I Try Today Again?

Wednesdays suck.

I'm teaching a 10am and 11am class. Then I've got a 12pm Japanese class followed by a 3 hour seminar at 1pm. So, you read that right, 6 hours straight of class. Today was even better because I had a presentation in the seminar on a topic that I don't really grok. In the seminar of course, we spent more time on other material that I not only don't grok, but also didn't prepare. When we got around to my presentation, there wasn't enough time, so I had to rush through it.

To recap: I'm tired. I didn't teach well, I wasn't able to turn in some homework for Japanese, I looked like a complete idiot on the seminar material we covered and I didn't have enough time to even try to make up my ignorance with a mediocre presentation.

I might also add that there is a Japanese test tomorrow, too.

Guh. Feh. and Bah.

Yawn And Stretch and Try To Come To Life

I'm trying to get up early and take care of things so I'm not rushing out of door at the last minute with the toothbrush still in my mouth.

Today's my first real trial - so far so good. I got up early (~5:30), went through all my emails and rss stuff and finished a bit of reading I needed to get done before heading out for a 8 mile run (1:07'16").

I'm back from the run now and all I need to do is go over my class preps and I'll be off! And I've got about 3 hours to do that - plenty o' time. (knock wood)

The fun thing is that I'm covering another TA's section today as well as my two sections. I'm a bit nervous to have to deal with another teacher's class. It feels adulterous somehow.

Anywhoo- off to wash the sweat off and get ready for the day!

(on a much less chipper note, look for an upcoming rant about Vista issues - short story: I like Vista, but it wasn't completely ready, and I'm not sure it could have been)

Bullets With Your Name On Them

Ok, well, most of my recent posts have been over at the 365 blog. No real, ya know, words lately. So. Here are some words.

• Note to self. Read all the emails from the prof whose class you are TAing immediately. One might mention that she's going to drop in to your section and observe on a upcoming Monday. So after you start class, she may just slip in to your class and make you freak out just a little bit.
  
• as a side note, the class went ok, mainly. The thing is that I have a different (very) teaching style than she does, and if I knew she was coming I probably would have prepared something a little less like my own class. So, from that point of view, it's probably for the best that I didn't know she was coming. I ended up just doing my thing. Students seem to like it.
• In the section she didn't observe, I did something really stupid. I won't say what it is, but jeeze, I've been kicking myself all day long. Grrr.
• I have a giant stack of papers to grade and I didn't look at them at all tonight.
  
• I am now grading with a green pen.
  
• I ran yesterday and didn't blog it. Here you go: 8.35mi - 1:02'46"
• Ever since I said I'm going to run the marathon coming up soonish, people have been worried about my knees. I think I got a psychosomatic knee-tweak yesterday. It feels fine now though.
  

We Have The Technology

Well, I finally did it. I've made the decision to put my beloved bike under the knife... err... wrench. All of the key parts are original from when I bought it with the insurance money I got after being smashed into by an elderly driver. And that was about 14 years ago. A couple of days ago, the back wheel started wobbling a bit more than could be fixed with a little spoke tightening. So, I took it into a local bike shop and told them to go to town. A bunch of little wear and tear issues are going to be fixed, the cables, both back and front sprocket thingies (TOUCH MY MONKEY) are getting changed out, and I understand they are going to hang a little pine-scented cardboard tree from the rear-view mirror.

Also of note:

• The show I'm seeing tonight (and tomorrow) is actually a three-day marathon-style to-do. I'm thinking of actually dressing up. The horror.
• This morning: 4.39mi - 31'08"
• First day of class was very odd - main lesson learned: If something works in the first class, it cannot work in the second class.
  

Rolloercoaster Me

Whew. The guest lectures went well, and the guest lecturer seemed to be well received by the students - he's one of our more popular folk over here.

It's very interesting to see the different vibe that comes out when someone else takes over in an environment that I've created with the students. I told him that they're usually active and questioning and curious because they are when I'm lecturing, but that's probably just because they're used to me.

That makes me feel really good, because either I'm misreading them completely, or they're actually engaged in my class. Who knew?

I'm sure this will help give away the secret location of my batcaves, but I'm still teaching summer session. I don't even start at the new cave for a few weeks. I'll end up with about a week to get everything moved there, grade all the finals and final papers, figure out how I'm going to live there and attend about 5 different orientations (free food there at least). All this in the week or so before classes start. Oh, yeah, and I'll be TAing, too.

By the way, I'm starting a PhD program. How crazy is that? I just talked to a friend who ran off to DC to get a real job, and she reminded me how absolutely insane this is. I mean, the MA was kind of mildly strange, but within the realm of the comprehensible. I'm going to try to get a PhD. Nobody does that. Nobody sane, at least. Crazy.

So, summing up. I'm happy about the good day, but increasingly panicked about the upcoming weeks (and years). So that's happy plus nervous. I think that calls for gastronomic therapy. Hmmm... maybe tacos? Ice cream? Both?

Hot Topics

This post is for me, so I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense because I've edited out too many identifiers.

I had a mild epiphany as I was drifting off to sleep last night (actually I fell asleep almost immediately after getting home. Right in the middle of MNF, too. So, what I mean is that when I woke up again and spent a dreary few hours trying to reorient myself through sleep-gucked contact lenses, I eventually took those blasted things out and tried to get some work done. Eventually at about 2 or 3 in the morning I gave up and went back to sleep - heap o' healthy, I'm sure, but I digress).

I specifically chose my field to a a bit vague. I straddle two field that generally don't play well with each other, but they're intimately connected. I like dealing with both and think that they are mutually supporting. The classes I'm teaching now are supposed to be Introduction to Gruub Studies (Topic A), which is, incidentally, the name of the department to which I belong, both here and at the soon-to-be-named School Of The Fall.

The trick is, that in teaching this class I've come to the conclusion that I can't teach Topic A, without going deep into Topic B. Topic B is very poorly supported right now at this university, so the vast majority of students have no background whatsoever in it - we couldn't even have it as a prereq (which it should be). I've had a great deal of fun introducing Topic B, but it has taken time away from Topic A.

I've TAed for professors teaching this class a few times, and they've always glossed over Topic B, and the students hurt for it. As a TA, I was always having to shore up the shaky Topic B information before the students could get a grasp of Topic A, and frankly, I'm not sure they were able to really get the Topic A information because they didn't understand Topic B.

The reason this is all so important to me is that this really helps me define myself. I've always thought that Topics A and B were of absolute equal value. I understand now that, to me at least, B must come before A, even if they are both equally important. Maybe this seems obvious to the students, but it's a bit of a flashing lightbulb over my head that clears some things up for me, even if this post is completely unintelligible to anyone else.