Akeelah and the grading

I've done basically 2 things since the weekend started on Friday afternoon: grading and watching a movie.

Yesterday, we were to have our first soccer game of the spring season. The idiot director of the leage neglected to let the school where we were to play know that we would need goals for the game. The school locked up the goals, and no one officiating the game had keys to unlock them, so the game was cancelled. Simply put, this sucked. I had been looking forward to the game all day, all week even. But there was no game.

Instead Lauren and I went to her professor's house, and watered their plants. They are out of town, and we're to water their plants once a week, until they get back, in late May. While that was not as exciting as playing in a soccer game, it was a break from the grading I had been doing most of the afternoon.

This morning, I got up, and did more work (surprise, surprise). I worked on a quiz and graded, until I decided to make breakfast (waffles with vegetarian sausuage cooked into them - another Jeffusion original - very tasty).

We then went to see Akeelah and the Bee. It was a GREAT movie!!! I heard it was good, but the premise seemed predictable and somewhat cheesy. It was predictable, but still very good. I don't remember seeing a movie where I could tell what would happen, but still liked so much. It had its moving moments, and, I have to admit, I teared up a time or two. I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a movie to watch in the next few weeks.

The film was put out by Lionsgate, so I should have known it would be good. I don't think I've ever seen a movie I didn't like that was put out by Lionsgate.

After the movie, we were briefly in downtown Mountain View, and then came home to - guess what? Grade. Yay!

Tonight we're going to go to dinner to celebrate our 29th lunaversay, which was yesterday. If you don't know what a lunaversay is, post a comment or email me, and I'll tell you.

Shoes

I haven't blogged in a while, so I figured I should say something to the world.

I'm giving exams tomorrow and the next day, so today is a little bit light, as far as work goes (although I have statistics projects to grade).

Last week we did a lab in stats that required students to ask other students (and me) how many pairs of shoes they have. I realized when answering that question, that I had 4 pairs of soccer shoes (and 2 more pairs on the way). I didn't realize I was such a soccer shoe addict. One pair I never wear anymore, and another is on it's last legs (or should I say feet). A third pair, I just wear around town, and have never actually played soccer in them.

Yesterday, my two newest pairs arrived. One pair are indoor shoes (which I hope to wear when I play on turf) and another for playing on grass. Thanks to ebay, I got both pairs for under $15 each.

I've been wearing the indoor pair around the house, to break them in. Geordi is so scared of them. Since yesterday, everytime he has been bad, all I have to do is walk over to him, with the shoes on, and he runs away, in fear. I have to admit, they are pretty flashy. The laces are on the side, and not on the top....



He really liked the box they came in though...



Since I'm writing about soccer, I should advertise FC Red Storm's website. It's a work in progress, but I think it's looking decent.

It's 22:14 and I'm at work!

For those of you unfamiliar with military time, it is 10:14 pm.

I got to work a little before 9 this morning, taught my classes, did some work, went to my soccer class at 6 pm, and left campus at 7:30 pm. I picked Lauren up, then went home.

The lights were out. Our complex and the one next to ours were the only in the area that had no power. A pole had fallen, or something, at about 1 pm. It was now 8:30, we had no power, and we both had stuff we needed to do. So, we came to my office.

We've been here for a little over an hour now; me preping for class tomorrow, and Lauren preping to talk about her Qualifying Paper, Glide Harmony and Place Agreement in Akan Dialects, to the Stanford Linguistics Department's QP Fest tomorrow afternoon.

If you want to read more about Lauren's research interests, you can go to her webpage.

Anyhow, that's why we're here at 22:24. It took me ten minutes to write this?

One Week Down

It’s Saturday morning, after the first week of classes. I’m sitting in the dining room, and Geordi has started his morning whine. He was just sitting in the window, but now he’s beginning to annoy me.



The first week went better than I expected it would. In statistics, there was a lot of data collecting. That’s what I like about that class. In a lot of other math classes, students have a harder time seeing where and how things are used. In stats, we collect data, and use it as needed, on the spot. Yesterday, I had students get the names and heights of 15 students in the class. I did this, partly to get students to get to know each other. About half of the MPS class is new to me, and the students I had last quarter, so I would like them to get to know each other. Last quarter, I always felt there was a divide between the students I had in the Fall and the students who were new to the class.

Last night, I wrote my first exam of the quarter. What a thing to do on a Friday night, right? Lauren has a bad cold, so we stuck around the apartment for the evening. For no other reason than to post a picture, here is my workspace.



I watched two episodes of Lost on DVD. It’s not a bad show. I don’t watch TV with any kind of regularity, so if I watch shows, it happens after everyone else has watched them, on DVD.

Today, I’m supposed to have practice at 1:00, but my ankle is a little gimpy, from turning it in soccer class, on Thursday. The class is on turf, which I’m not used to playing on, so it was a little rough going. I took a tumble, and then this ankle thing. Our next FC Red Storm game is not for a couple of weeks, so I think I’ll be fine by then.

Spring Quarter

Spring quarter is really hard to get into. For me, it's the most difficult quarter of the year. There is this feeling of being burned out after the Winter quarter, and the one week off doesn't give enough time to recover. The week off is spent grading finals and planning for the first week. By the time the first week starts, I'm burned out.

Anyhow, I hope I can get through the quarter with no major problems, but it hasn't started well. I've had headaches everyday this week - not a good way to start.

Classes are going reasonably well, but I still feel exhausted every night.

I'm planning on taking a soccer class. The first class was rained out, but I saw who others in the class would be. I felt like the oldest person in the class. We'll see how that goes.

Speaking of soccer, FC Red Storm was supposed to have our first game of the spring season tonight, but it got rained out. I was really looking forward to it, but alas. Another week of not having number 8 on my back, and opponents trying to catch up to me.

Killing time

I'm in the Menlo Park Library (I realize in the past 4 days, I've been to 4 different libraries) killing time. I'm putting Alison Krauss and Angie Stone onto my iTunes. I don't have a Menlo Park library card, so I have to do it here.

I did some planning this morning. Chapter 5 of the stats book is kind of cool. It sort of uses calculus, without saying it. I like that.

So, this is the last day of Spring Break. What am I doing on this day? Well, I already said I did work. I plan on heading home, watching some ESPN, and then cleaning the kitchen and bathroom. I've got the cleaning down to a science. I can do both rooms in probably 30 minutes. And I do it well. Whenever we have guests, they seem to comment on how clean the bathroom is. I guess working as a maintenance guy/janitor at Owen Hall paid off. Thanks, Bob (the maintenance manager), where ever you are!

Does anyone read this? and Spring Break

So, does anyone read this blog? I notice that no one ever comments on it, and I'm just left wondering if it is being read.

Anyhow, onto other things...

Spring Break

I'm on Spring break right now, but it doesn't feel like much of a break. I've spent most of the week working. I've spent at least a couple of hours everyday, planning my classes for next quarter. I also want to finish up my application for an MBA program that starts in the Fall. I worte a first draft of a personal statement today, but I think it still needs some work.

I saw Inside Man today. I thought it was a very good bank-heist movie. You don't see many of those anymore. It was great. It was different for Spike Lee, but it still had scenes that had Spike Lee written all over them. I also thought Clive Owen was fantastic. I should see more of his stuff.

I went off on the guy running for governor, Westley, today. He keeps making promises I can't see him keeping. His latest is to make community college free. While this is a good idea, who's going to pay for it? The same people who kicked out Governor Davis when he proposed higher car registration fees? It would cost a lot more to make community college free, so unless he has some ingenious way of covering that kind of cost, I've decided not to vote for him in the primary.