Halfway

We're exactly at the half-way point of our ten-week term. My class is moving along nicely, I think. I did a bunch of grading tonight so now I'm no longer criminally behind.

The cold weather is starting to get tiresome. It's been a bad year for skating, so I haven't been spending that much time outside, except for hauling wood in from the wood pile. The days are getting noticeably longer, however, which is nice.

There are all sorts of things I'm behind on. Large and small tasks are piling up. I'm starting to get a little stressed out about it all, which I think actually is good. I work better when slightly stressed out. So ... I'm hoping for a moderately stressful, and very productive week.

Cats

From Cats Winter 09-10

Three cats in front of the woodstove on a cold February evening. Left-to-right: Ancho, Monster, Apple.

Staring at the Sea

I've got this song stuck in my head. I like it a lot. Staring at the Sea by DJ Eco. Delicious, rich, energetic trance.

It was warm today. Almost 40 degrees. It felt like spring. I went for a short run outside for the first time since November. The run was pathetically slow, but it was nevertheless nice to get moving.

I cooked a reasonably tasty batch of spicy tofu and seitan. And Doreen just made some very good green tea ice cream. Yum. All in all, not a bad Saturday.

The invisible high school or the invisible college?.

Some thought-provoking ideas about what the internet means from the always interesting Clay Shirky:

Given what we have today, the Internet could easily become Invisible High School, with a modicum of educational material in an ocean of narcissism and social obsessions. We could, however, also use it as an Invisible College, the communicative backbone of real intellectual and civic change, but to do this will require more than technology. It will require that we adopt norms of open sharing and participation, fit to a world where publishing has become the new literacy.

Read the full essay here.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates

I just posted some advice for undergraduates interested in research experiences. I feel like I've had the same discussion about research internships many, many times, and so it might be a good use of time to write some stuff down. Hopefully it will be of use for students.

If you see anything I've missed or have anything to add, please let me know, either via email or by commenting here.

Thanks.

Ready for Winter Term

Winter term starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I think it will be a mostly manageable term. I'm just teaching one class, and it's one that I've taught eight times before. I'll have plenty to fill up my time, and no shortage of things to work on. But it should be less hectic than fall term, when I was teaching two classes, one of which was very large by COA standards. And, I wrote five grants between August and mid-December. (Technically I only wrote four, since one was a re-submission of the August grant. But the resubmission was a complete re-write, so I think it counts as a new grant. And neither grant came close to getting funded, which is incredibly annoying.) But the grant that I liked the most did get funded, which is quite exciting. It's for almost $50,000 a year for two years. My portion of the grant will be to help develop and teach a class on sustainable energy.

Winter break has been nice, although except for the last three days it hasn't really been that much of a break. In some ways I was working as hard during the break as during the term. But it was a good change of pace. But it will also be a nice change to be back in the rhythm of teaching.

I feel I should offer up some year-end pithiness, but I don't have much to say. The academic year is more meaningful to me than the calendar year. I don't really make new years resolutions. If I did it would be to be more productive, exercise more, do a better job of staying in touch with friends, and so on. But I basically resolve these things every day. Results are mixed. I also might resolve to start brewing beer and make my own kim chee.

Chilling Out

For the first time in our long winter break, I feel like I'm actually on break. Between grading, writing evaluations, pushing very hard on a writing project, and also writing a grant, I've been keeping busy. Doreen and I went away for a few days before Christmas, but I had work with me and although it was a nice change of pace, it didn't quite feel like a break. I now have a few days to chill out before winter term starts. I've still got stuff to do, of course, but I feel like I can let up for a little bit.

Currently I'm enjoying an insanely good beer while watching the cats try and get into trouble. The woodstove is hot, and while the house isn't exactly warm, it is rather cozy.

Elegy

Sounds like the Copenhagen summit has ended very badly. This video from the American Natural History Museum seems like a fitting elegy.





If you have a fast enough computer, watch it in full-screen mode by clicking in lower right.

Op-ed and Depressing Comments

Doreen and a COA student have an op-ed piece in the Bangor Daily News today about the Copenhagen climate negotiations. The comments on the piece make for interesting—and depressing—reading. The venom and animus is alarming. It's not surprising, it seems to happen on every article about climate change these days. E.g., here and here. It's rather disheartening.

port-royal

Two nice port-royal videos for grantwriting on a wintry day.