Productivity

It's been a productive, if frantic, day:

1. Dropped Doreen off at the Bar Harbor airport. Her yogurt didn't make it through security, but other than that her departure was uneventful.
   
   
2. Got my snow tires up on, an oil change, and a yearly state inspection. The car needed some work (brakes and a light somewhere), so I got that done today, too.
   
   
3. While waiting for my car I graded my physics finals and half of the last problem set.
   
   
4. Drove onto campus.
   
   
5. Sent rejection letters to some of the candidates in the search that I'm chairing.
   
   
6. Contacted the three finalists for the position and started scheduling their visits.
   
   
7. Contacted a handful of other candidates that we phone interviewed but who we probably won't be inviting to campus.
   
   
8. Finished grading the last physics assignment and assigned final grades.
   
   
9. Bought a plane ticket for my upcoming trip to Chile.
   
   
10. Reserved a rental car for my week in Santa Fe.
    
    
11. Dealt with over 100 emails.
    

I realize that this probably makes incredibly boring reading. But it's exciting to me. Time to head home and turn my attention to some domestic tasks: laundry, dishes, and packing.

A New Era

As of yesterday, we finally have a high-speed internet connection at home. We can't get cable where we live, and a satellite internet connection seemed too expensive and, from what we had heard, relatively slow. We were close on several occasions to giving in and getting satelliteinternet, but then we'd hear rumors that cable was going to arrive soon. But the rumors never came true.

Then, last spring, the town signed a contract with redzone wireless to provide a wireless mesh network for Mount Desert. We were originally told that we would be online by late August. Didn't quite happen. Putting the infrastructure together tookredzone a lot longer than they had anticipated. But we're now connected. Seems like a miracle.

The connection is still kinda slow. But it's at least five times faster than dial-up, which is a big improvement. And Doreen and I can both be online at the same time, and being online doesn't tie up the phone. So this is a huge leap forward.

In other news, I've had a nice, relaxing weekend. Tomorrow Doreen leaves for a six-week trip to Boliva and Chile. I'll meet her for the last two weeks. Tuesday I head to California to see family for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I'll be frantically working to try and tie up many, many loose ends before I split.

It's Over

The term is officially over. Today was the last day of classes. As usual, I'm exhausted, but in a mostly good way. I feel pretty good about how my classes went, and although as usual I felt too busy, it was a pretty fun term. I'm looking forward to a weekend of doing things around the house, getting organized, and slowly starting my grading and evaluation writing.

Cold, Busy Week ten

Well, week ten of our ten-week term is upon us. As usual, things are pretty insanely busy. But, at least for now, not necessarily busy in a bad way. There's a part of me that enjoys the stress and focus of the end of the term.

The weather has definitely turned wintry. There was a brief snow flurry on Saturday. It didn't stick, but it did get my attention. It's been in the 20's at night, and the days are cool and the leaves are almost all gone.

I'm currently listening to a Prince Birthday Edition of Crap from the Past, which is a super cool weekly radio show from St. Paul.

Hopefully I'll have time for more of an update soon. Right now I need to head home and make dinner, and then read some drafts of student papers and prepare a class on Markov chains.

COA and the NYTimes

There's a very nice article about College of the Atlantic in the New York Times today.

The only thing that's weird about the article is that our president is quoted as saying "we’re exploring the possibility of virtual classes that involve avatars." Yikes. I'm hoping this was a joke or at least there's some context missing that would help this quote make sense.

But overall, the article is great; I think it's a pretty accurate portrayal of COA. It will be interesting to see if this publicity yields a surge in applications.

About Trees

A note to the person who was driving in front of me yesterday on Eagle Lake Road. Yes, the trees are beautiful right now. But if you see a tree that is especially you colorful you don't have to brake suddenly. Because here's the thing about trees: they don't move. What this means is that you can slow down gradually and pull over to the side. Then you can get out of your car and walk back to the tree, or turn around and drive back, or put the car in reverse and go back to the tree. The tree will still be there; it's not going to run away.

Search Terms

Somebody recently found my blog by seaching on google for the phrase vodka in a humidifier. The most search term that has led the most people to this blog is free socks. The vast majority of the free sock seekers who arrive at my blog are from outside the US, with a suprisingly large number from the former Yugoslavia.

Cosmogirl!

Big news! College of the Atlantic has been selected as one of Cosmogirl's 100 best colleges. There is no mention of the criteria they used to select their top 100. I wonder if they'll send us free lip gloss.

Genetically Modified Budweiser

It seems that Budweiser uses genetically engineered rice in some of their beer. Here is a press release from Greenpeace. And here is a post about the GE beer on Brookstone Beer Bulletin, which seems to be a frequently updated website/blog with information about craft beers, especially in Norther California. On the Greenpeace website there is further discussion of the contamination, including an excellent spoof of a Budweiser TV commercial.

Doreen and her Greenpeace colleagues have been working on this for a while. Now that this information is public, it will be interesting to see how Bud responds.

Miscellaneous Updates

A few tidbits from the week and the weekend:

1. The soul-crushers, also known as the NEASC review team, spent around two and a half days on campus last week. I think the visit went pretty well. The preliminary report was mostly very positive, and the areas of potential weakness were pretty much the ones that we had anticipated. I was quite impressed with the review team; they gathered a lot of information quite quickly, and seemed to be quite sharp.
   
   
2. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were quite warm. It was almost summer-like. Today, however, it felt like fall. Not cold, but a little crisp. It was sunny and breezy and beautiful. When I arrived on campus mid-afternoon there were two large V's of geese flying south flying very high above the college. Their honks sounded very cool.
   
   
3. Doreen returned today from a week in Quebec. She brought back some yummy biotechnology: Quebecois beer, yogurt, bread, and cheese.
   
   
4. I planted around 150 bulbs today. Hopefully they'll survive the winter and we'll have a flowery spring.
   
   
5. In addition to doing a lot of work around the house, I finished a batch of Physics grading and completed a review of an NSF grant.
   
   
6. It's starting to get chilly at night. Soon it will be time for the first fire of the season.