glass half full? I'm trying.

As another Weekend College term is over, I had my last class this week and no longer teach Monday nights from 6-9:30. This is a good thing, and I am happy about that. Mondays were long days for me, and I was hit with the worst Sunday night blues that I've had since before I started grad school. So it's good not to have that class anymore.

And I will try to stay positive about that even though it means that I now teach on Saturdays. Until the 4th of July. But my Monday nights are free. That's good. Right? Right??

I'm not convinced either.

opera update

It was a fun, but long, weekend of opera shows. We've had pretty enthusiastic crowds, and folks are even waiting until the orchestra is done playing the curtain call to cheer for us. Which is rare. But should happen for every show with a live orchestra.

At shows I've attended, I've often been the lone woot-er at the end of a show cheering for the musicians after the cast has long left the stage. It usually embarrasses whomever I'm with, but I don't care. I know. The cast gets all the glory of a show. A little clapping isn't much, but it is appreciated.

On a side note, I'm really glad I'm only doing three weekends this year instead of four. At first I was disappointed that I'd miss the last weekend and the end of opera party. But I'm not in great shape to do this many shows. And I'm already tired of the pit drama this year. Three weekends will be enough. And then I get 10 months off til next year.

friday book review: ghostopolis

TenNapel, D. (2010). Ghostopolis. New York, NY: Scholastic.

I admit that I have not given graphic novels much respect. I always encouraged my students to read them, but beyond Persepolis and Maus, which everyone has read, I haven't spent much of my literary time on graphica.

However, this term I'm requiring my students to read two, and I need to teach them about this genre, so I'm setting on reading a bunch. I realized something about myself as a reader while reading this one: I don't look at pictures. This is a problem with reading graphic novels since a lot has to be inferred through the pictures. This is good to know about myself, and something I will work on as I continue to get into graphica.

As for the book, it was interesting. The main character, Garth, is a boy who we find out is dying from some incurable disease. Through an unfortunate series of events, he ends up being transported to the ghost world before his time. Turns out he has some impressive powers, and the (evil) ruler of Ghostopolis wants to use his powers to make him even more invincible. Frank Gallows, a ghost wrangler, who usually sends rogue ghosts back to the ghost world instead of humans back to the real world, is sent to Ghostopolis to save Garth.

I liked that the female character didn't have gigantic boobs and next to no clothing like most graphic novels I've taken a look at. Also, it wasn't crazy violent. All in all, a good way to continue to ease into this genre.

red in the face

A coworker recently asked if I ever met anyone (men) at the gym. I spit out my diet coke and didn't stop laughing for a solid minute. The thought of me meeting anyone at the gym is just that ridiculous.

See, I have this problem that I turn tomato red when I work out. Especially when I run. It's embarrassing. Like yesterday, I did a speed workout on the treadmill and I may have imagined it, but I swear a woman stared at me all the way across the floor as I left. I didn't care much about her, since she was texting and "cycling" in jeans at the same time. I can't imagine her "workout" did much for her. Yeah, I can judge too. But I suppose I might stare at me too. It's really that awful.

Anyway, the redness is startling and stays like that forever. This past summer I was walking on my block to cool down after a 15 miler, and my neighbor asked me if I was ok. I replied that I was fine and she said, "But you're so red. You look like you're gonna have a heart attack." Meanwhile, I had just run 15 miles and she was smoking on her stoop. Again with the judging.

So no, I will never meet anyone at the gym. Unless I meet them before I start working out. And they'll have to leave before I start.

why online dating is hard: competing with friends

I've mostly stopped using match.com. It feels like a part-time job that I don't have time for. Or any interest in. I know, I know. I'm never going to meet anyone if I don't do something. But this term has turned out to be a lot busier and exhausting than I thought, and since my weekends are taken up with opera performances until mid-April, I don't really want to spend my precious few non-work hours trolling for bad dates.

But there was one guy I was emailing with. I was a little excited about this one. Turns out, a friend of mine went out with him last week.

Bummer. Guess that's the final nail in the coffin that was my winter in the online dating sphere. Maybe I'll get back at it this summer. Maybe.

feeling helpless

My poor sis has been looking for a job forever. I don't understand this, as she really is the smartest person I know. I helped her prep for her PhD defense, and only by the third time I heard the talk did I start to really understand what she was talking about. I can barely understand the titles of her publications, much less the content. That sounds bad. I don't mean it like she can't explain her stuff. Just that I'm too stupid about paleoclimate geology to make sense of her smart research.

Admittedly, I'm biased. Of course I think my sister should get a rock star job. But this economy is awful. And even in the sciences there aren't a lot of jobs. Then there's the fact that she's overqualified but underexperienced for a lot of the jobs she wants. What a shitty place to be.

Anyway, I'm feeling helpless and know that she's feeling crappy. I guess, though, since the world is ending in a few short months that it won't matter soon. But I still hope she finds something soon.

judgment day

There is a billboard in my neighborhood that states:

May 21, 2011
The Return of Christ
We CAN Know

Apparently, The Bible tells us that the second coming will happen on 5/21/11 and God will destroy the world on 10/21/11. I googled "We Can Know," and that's what the website told me. The website says these dates are 100% accurate and beyond dispute. So it must be true. This is too bad, because I have a midterm scheduled on 5/21, and if Jesus is back, we probably won't have class that Saturday. Also, I have a meeting on 10/21 that's kind of important. But if the world is being destroyed, probably that won't happen either. But there won't be school that day for P-12 kids, so they'll all be at home with their families when the world collapses.

This billboard bugs. And I wish it would go away. Maybe I can replace it with something like, "Read with your kids" or "Eat some vegetables every day."

sigh

The grocery store was busy today. I had to wait in line a long time behind this woman (really she looked about 18 if a day) and two kids calling her mom. The oldest was about 4. While his mom was bagging her groceries, he came back to the line where my food was on the conveyor. He took the yellow squash off the belt and was looking at it. When the cashier had finished with everything else, I asked him if he could put it back so I could pay for it. He kicked me. Then his mom yelled at him to come over to her, and he yelled back, "Kiss my ass, mom!"

Nice.

irish for a day race

Though I've already tweeted about it and updated the Daily Mile with my race information, I feel that it requires more attention.

See, the weather on Saturday was ridiculous. It was -2 windchill when the race started, with gusts of 30+ mph. The air temp wasn't so bad when you weren't in the wind. But when you were, the pain was like needles stabbing you in the face.

I started too far back. This is a common problem for me, one I have only done well on in the marathon, when I accurately started with the 4:00 pace runners towards the front third of the pack. And we did ok that 10K I ran this summer, since there were only like 5 runners in the whole race. But normally, and this race included, I start at the tail of the race thinking I'm slower than most of the runners, and then I'm crabby when I'm stuck running 9:45s for the first two miles. If I had been able to break away, I would have been in better shape for my overall time. I'm not breaking any records, but I'm not super slow either.

That said, I was ready to call it quits at mile 8. I really wasn't super invested in how I did in this race. Problem was that I had no way of getting back to my car except to finish anyway, so I kept going. This is not the first time in a race that I have thought about stopping. But it was the first time I actually considered it.

But I guess I'm glad I finished. I was really happy I didn't have any pain throughout, and I was only a little tight in my left quad and knees after. I'm taking the week off, and will start setting some new goals. Maybe by Saturday when I start back there won't be any snow and ice left? Maybe??

online class

One of the poorest decisions I've made in recent past was agreeing to teach an online Master's level class this term. I think in another term or next year this wouldn't be bad at all. But on top of teaching three other classes, this course has really become the breaking point. As a first-year, I never should have been asked, but since I was, I felt pressure to do it.

The good thing about the class is that it was already designed when I agreed to "teach" it. The assignments were created, the online discussion boards posted. We ended up with too many enrollees, so I just took an additional section of the course. All I have to do is keep up with the reading myself, and grade and grade and grade.

Which is in fact the worst part. It is so hard to be motivated to grade when I have never met these students, never get to talk about their work, and only give them feedback over email. I have a clear deadline in my syllabus for the turnaround they can expect (their assignments are due midnight Monday, and I will have returned their work by midnight Thursday). But I find myself dreading Wednesday afternoons and nights grading all these papers and assignments. I'm usually done in 8-10 hours, but it is a painful 8-10 hours.

The class is fine. The assignments are great actually, and I think my students are learning a lot. I sure am. But I need to learn more about this online teaching thing, and how to make this work for me when I never meet the students. I think this class could be better, for both me and my students. But I don't know enough about effective teaching online. Something to work on in my spare time.

It's not that bad. I understand this. But grading is my least favorite part of teaching (I know that it is for most teachers), and it is all that I'm doing for this class.

Enough procrastinating. Back to case study essays...

retirement

Usually, thinking about retirement means for major stress. As in, I'm never going to be able to afford to do it. Probably the stress will kill me before I hit retirement age anyway.

But tomorrow, it's not about me and my retirement. I'm headed to my folks tonight so I can sit in on my dad's LAST class tomorrow morning. After 37+ years working at the same college, he's teaching his last course. Well, it isn't really his last course because he's pretty sure he'll want to teach again in some capacity somewhere. But the point is, he doesn't have to.

Congrats on an amazing career, influencing the lives of countless college students.

Happy retirement Dad!

friday book review: godless

Hautman, P. (2004). Godless. NY: Simon & Schuster.

This has been on my to-read list for a long time. It was the winner of the National Book Award for Young People in '05. A former student of mine recommended this book to me the last day of school in 2006. I was knee-deep in grad school and cycling between excitement and terror over leaving my middle school job. Needless to say, it didn't get read. But I'm trying to read as many books as I'm requiring my students to read, and one of the categories is NBAYP, so it was the perfect time to read it.

I should find that student, because he was right - I did really like it. It is laugh out loud funny, and very thought-provoking. Teenager Jason, agnostic but leaning toward atheist, he spends his summer creating a new religion, worshiping the water tower. Leading the Chutengodians (as followers of the Church of the Ten-Legged God are called), Jason finds it fairly easy to convert several followers. Over the summer and following a dangerous stunt, several Chutengodians create a splinter sect. And Jason finds that one of his friends is taking things, perhaps, a bit too far. Through his creation and in questioning his devoutly Catholic father, Jason asks us to question our beliefs.

I say that I struggle with religion, that I'm a recovering Catholic, but that implies that I'm concerned about the current state of my beliefs. And that's misleading. I'm pretty sure I haven't believed in much that institutional religion has had to offer me since I was in about 11th grade, though I don't think I was willing to admit to it then. Not sure how to label myself, perhaps as an agnostic theist (though I feel guilty about it with my extended family), church doesn't offer me what it offers other. I prefer to wonder at the world on runs, in beautiful music, in art and words. But I appreciate that others find church to be a safe, affirming community. Like Jason, I just don't.

gotta love it

My college students had their first morning out at a school. They had a brief, unsupervised experience in a school last term, but this is their first longer, supervised placement. They were nervous. I was nervous.

It was great. The school is really amazing. Plus, I got my hug quota for the week from random kindergartners in the hallway. Had never met them, but got hugs nonetheless. One said she liked my shoes. I liked her boots more.

And how great was it when half my students came up to me at the end and said, "You know ____ that you taught us? They were doing that this morning!"

Hoping they see even more value in their courses, and that they learn tons out in this super school.