Early spring thoughts

Our two-week spring break is almost over. Classes start tomorrow, although this doesn't really apply to me, since I'm on sabbatical spring term. (More about that later.)

I've realized that there are a bunch of things I associate with spring break. The most obvious is lots of grading and evaluation writing. This is true for any period right after a term, but it seems especially daunting after winter term, because there are only two weeks before classes start up again. Also, I think I've always taught two classes winter term, so I always have had a lot of evaluations to write.

But in addition to this, there's something distinctive that sticks in my memory about the last two weeks in March. The light is brighter, but it's still cold. I resume running outside, and enjoy the air, even though it's a little colder than I want it to be. The trails are still wet, and often snowy, so I run on gravelly asphalt. A few years ago I tripped while running and cut up my knees and one of my hands. Piles of snow defy the odds and eventually melt.

There is a big rainstorm right now, which is actually quite wonderful. For although it's cold and wet and miserable outside right now, the rain is needed to help melt snow and wash away dirt and grime. When it finally stops I expect the world to look pleasant and cleansed. Flowers and leaves are still a long ways off. But at least the rain will get rid of some of the gritty snow.

I've not given up on this blog entirely. With some more flexible time coming up on my sabbatical I suspect I'll be able to go back to writing at least semi-regularly. I'm also considering retiring this blog and starting a new one. Perhaps a different name/theme/look/whatever will jump start my writing.

I've been twittering a bunch lately, but I feel like writing in actual sentences. Not sure I'm up for paragraphs, but we'll see what happens.

Driving to campus today I wasn't sure what music to listen to. I ended up choosing a Chinese disco/house CD that I got a few years ago and which I've barely listened to. The lyrics, to the extent that there are any, are mostly in English or Spanish. The mix is kinda hyper and treble-ey, but it actually seemed to fit the day somehow. While driving in, I saw an eagle soaring high above the road. Always an impressive sight.

The reality of the financial slump/recession/depression is gradually becoming more real. I hear and read more and more stories of difficult times. Things aren't so terrible at COA, but nevertheless, times are tight. We're short faculty, and it looks like we'll continue to be short faculty for next year and maybe even the year after that. There's not much to be done, although maybe there are at least a few things that can be done, but I'm not sure anybody is doing them.

I had some skull-crushingly frustrating meetings today. But I had a good class and some good student meetings. And I'm working on a grant proposal that is feeling a little unwieldy at the moment. I really wish I were a faster writer.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow, followed by a bunch of rain. Splendid.

Random Bullets of Stuff

Minimally motivated to post a blog update, but not motivated to write paragraphs. So, random bullets:

• I did a fair amount of grading this weekend, but I should have done more.
  
• All three of our cats have had colds. Apple and Monster are mostly over theirs. Ancho is still in the midst of his. His sneezes are quite impressive.
  
• For some reason my eyes are goopy and very itchy right now. It's pretty annoying. I hope I don't have the cats' cold.
  
• Today was a mini-thaw. It got up to 42 degrees, and it almost smelled like spring for a little bit. Lots of slush.
  
• The birds at our feeder must have smelled spring, too, since they were chirping much more than usual.
  
• But now the slush has frozen and there are many slippery, icy spots on roads and sidewalks.
  
• The extra light in the afternoon is very noticable. Spring is still months away, but at least it's getting light later.
  
• The moonrise this evening was amazing.
  
• I'm drinking a Fin du Monde. Delicious. A nice change from Dogfish Head.
  
• We've eaten well this weekend. On Saturday I made a tasty spinach salad and a pasta dish with roasted onions and chard. Today Doreen made a slightly weird but excellent minestrone-like thing.
  
• I'm not quite ready for the week. Hard to believe we're at the half-way point of the term.
  

Miscellaneous Musings

• I've been writing lots of letters of recommendation for students applying to do summer research somewhere. I often go to the web page of the deparment or institute that will be hosting the students. There are usually a few pictures to go with the website, designed, presumably, to encourage good students to apply. The pictures for field biology programs are usually from some scene outdoors, often quite scenic, and most of the time with some animals being studies: perhaps birds of lizards or something. The biomedical program's pictures involve some combination of lab coats, microscopes, beakers, and pipettes. The math department pictures? Well ... not so hot. Sometimes it's a few people sitting at a table. Other times it is a posed shot of last year's students, usually taken in front of a blackboard.
  
  
• My spell-checker wants to turn the word "combinatorics" into "dominatrix." Accepting this change would surely make my letter more interesting, but probably not in a way that would help the student who is applying.
  
  
• Speaking of spell checking, there is one undergrad research program web page on which the city in which the university resides is spelled wrong.
  
  
• And finally, a non-letter-of-recommendation-writing observation. Last night I was reading a quite interesting research paper by, I would guess, a non-native English speaker. The author meant, I assume, to say "manipulating the parameters, we obtain ..." Instead, he wrote, "mangling the parameters, we obtain." Awesome.
  
  

Not gone forever

I've been neglecting this blog, and instead focusing on teaching and grant writing and other stuff. Life has been busy and somewhat stressful, but mostly in a good way. We just finished the fourth week of the term and so far as I can tell, classes are going well. It's been a pretty productive month. I've done a better job than I usually do of staying productive and on top of things. I'm still behind, especially in keeping up with some email conversations and I've only been so-so about grading. But nevertheless, I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll. I'm not sure exactly why. Some of it is having a great mix of classes: Chaos and Fractals, Calculus II, and a tutorial/independent study on Statistics. They're all really different, which is fun.

Also, I moved into a much bigger office right before I left for Germany and Poland in December. The added space has been fantastic. It's made a much bigger difference than I had imagined. I didn't realize how cramped I was in my old office. I can now easily meet with more than one student at a time, I've got a blackboard, and I have enough room to actually organize my books. I'm very pleased.

In other news, January has been a messy month in terms of weather. There have been a number of sloppy storms, and it's gotten "evil cold", to use Andrew's phrase. But we've survived. On really, really cold mornings it's very hard to remember that it was once warm and that it will get warm again. But the days are getting longer and the light a little brigher. So spring will come. Eventually.

Anyway... I may try to get back to posting regularly here. Or I may not for a little while. Sometimes I feel a tiny bit angsty about not posting, but not now. I figure I'll post when the blogging muse visits. In the meantime, I'll certainly continue to twitter and facebook and such.

Merry Christmas

I'm back from Germany and Poland. It was an excellent trip. Doreen and I each came down with a cold right before we returned home. So we've spent the last two days coughing and sneezing, hanging out with the cats, doing some good cooking, and enjoying the warmth of the woodstove. Life could be much worse.


The cats by the woodstove


Doreen and me by the Berlin Wall

There are many more pictures from Germany and Poland on my picassa page.

Disappearing for a little bit

In just a few hours I'm beginning a journey to Berlin, where I'll meet Doreen. We'll hang out in Berlin for a few days and then head to Krakow for a bit. Then back to Berlin and then we fly home right before Christmas.

It was a pretty insane week, but I finished all my narrative evaluations and finished moving my office. Still lots to do, but at least I got a lot crossed off my lists the last few days. I'm really looking forward to not being on email for a week, exploring some European cities, reading, and chilling out.

An Icy Thursday

A scattered update. No motivation for paragraphs:

• There's an interesting ice/sleet/rain storm going on. I just wandered outside and noted that my car is completely encased in 1/8 inch of ice. Maine: the way life should be, only icier.
  
• Why is it that my "break" thus far as seemed busier than the term?
  
• Possibly it's because I have 47 narrative evaluations to write.
  
• Happily, I'm done with (drafts of) all but three evals.
  
• But to write the next eval I need to look at some assignments, which would require getting up, which would disturb the cat that is sound asleep on my lap.
  
• "Area" on my satellite radio is playing a fantastic selection of trance tonight. Perfect for an icy night of coffee and grading. Music like this makes me never want to sleep again.
  
• The sleeping cat just stood up, rotated 180 degrees (Pi radians) and went back to sleep on my lap.
  
• Started a letter of recommendation that I need to finish in the next few days.
  
• The fire is dying and it's getting cold, so the sleeping cat will need to be moved. I think she'll get over it.
  

Monday

Today was a moderately productive but not scintillating day. So I will aim for a moderate-length, not scintillating update. It's gray and chilly and looked quite wintery today. It's supposed to warm up slightly tonight in advance of a windy and rainy storm. I moved some firewood into the mud room and finally put away the lawn mower and weed wacker for the winter. After dealing with recycling, I headed into the big city of Ellsworth to do automotive errands. I was moderately successful. I got my headlight fixed (it was just a broken bulb, apparently), my oil changed, and my car inspected. I was not able to get my snow tires put on. But I have an appointment for Friday. So that means another trip to the big city. Exciting.

Grading progresses slowly. But it's moving along. In addition to writing evals, I've got a bunch of other projects, large and small, that I need to work on the next several weeks. Some I'm pretty excited about, and others are not too inspirational. Tonight I need to do some work on a document that falls into the latter category. Time to grab a beer and see if I can find even a little bit of inspiration so I can write a few paragraphs that are sufficiently peppy and positive.

End of the Term

Today was the last day of fall term. Overall I feel like it was a good term. In both of my classes there was a critical mass of students working hard and interested in the material. I am now faced with very large quantities of grading and lots of evaluations to write. There are also a bunch of other writing projects that I need to work on, as well as lots of errands and correspondence. It's a lot to think about. I'm looking forward to getting some rest the next few days and then getting to work and crossing some things off my list.

Doreen and I had a tasty dinner at Guinness and Porcelli's to celebrate the end of the term. We're now in the living room with a warm fire and three sleepy cats. I'm blogging and web surfing and listening to a Trance around the World epsiode while Doreen reads a Harry Potter book.