A record of my life updated at random times and for random reasons.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

December 27

I feel all nostalgic and fuzzy this morning. I have come down with a bug (fever, urpy but not pukey, achey, and now sweaty as the fever breaks), and it reminds me of Christmas seasons when I was young. Seems I was sick at least 90% of those holidays before I turned 12. Of course it could just be that I am still feverish and hallucinating. I had some great fever dreams when sick as a kid. Ants covering every surface, the spider at the foot of the bed whose leg stretched and touched my nose, and my personal favorite, the flying wiener skin. I can remember running into the kitchen to show Mom and Barb my discovery and being horribly disappointed that I could not recreate the phenomenon.

I am also a bit disappointed. I had planned on going for a nice long walk today, but that likely won't happen now. Even worse, the temperature is wonderful and the walk would have been pleasant.

Ahh well. Hopefully, this bug will grow weary of harassing me and move on to more accommodating persons.

Friday, December 26, 2008

What I ate

Chocolate
Pancakes w/ genuine Pennsylvania Maple Syrup
Cream of celery soup w/ french bread and two kinds of spreads
chocolate
three samosas
big blob o curry w/rice
naan
chocolate midnight pie with raspberry sauce and mint/almond stuff
other stuff I am forgetting

I look back on yesterday, and it is all one big eat with a short break for a walk to the lake. It is good I don't eat this way every day. I still feel stuffed after so many hours.

Today, it is back to the old grinding.

Kitty is eating well and getting better daily. I am afraid she is deaf as a post, half blind, and miserable. At least the miserable part was there before her trauma. She hops off the couch with hardly a stumble.

the o on this keyboard sticks, what a pain. maybe I shall turn all o's into e's or a's instead????

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. May your supper table overflow, your family be happy, and your traditions be joyful.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Two things

One: Daph came home yesterday afternoon. She is eating and drinking, but still wobbly as all get out. She does this weird Stevie Wonder head bobble, and falls down at strange moments, but she is alert, and a nuisance, and she hops up on the couch by herself. She has not used her pot yet, I think we will have to find something with lower sides for her.

On the kind side, the vet did not charge for her services. Over ten days stay in the little caravan, injections, etc. etc., and no cost. Yes, I had little wet things in me eyes.


Two: It's fricken cold here this morning. One would almost think I were living in Canada or something.

Three: I have been a lazy bum lately. I have to send out some xmas cards soon or it will be past xmas.

Four: I apparently need to take a maths class or two.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Insomnamaniac

3:43 am and I have been awake nearly an hour. I can feel the weight of my sleeplessness gathering weight, pushing me into an early grumpiness. But I resist, and resistance is not futile as shown by the consistent defeat the implacable Borg suffer at the hands of individuals. Now that was a show laden with ideology.

Poor kitty is still not home. She is eating again, but a bit wobbly on her legs. Vet says she does not think she could make it to the litter box, or else she would be back with us.

Just for the record, it is currently 58 and yesterday's high was 71. December 19. Bring on winter.

Well, lets not. I am definitely in the grips of my usual pre-Christmas blahs.

I have been working on my syllabus for next term this past week. Struggling at times, having some experience from last semester has not made the job easier this semester. I do not think I served my students all that well, at times anyway, and I would like to make this coming semester more useful for them. But therein lies my problem, how to make it useful when most research says freshman English is of little long term value.

I have also been working on my thesis. That is depressing as well. The more I learn about poetry, the more I read and grow, the less I like what I do. I think some of it is not bad, but none of it actually achieves the status I seek. Reaching back to my gamer days, it is like having a perfect game, where every quest was resolved to achieve the greatest reward, every area explored, and before the final you beat the game movie played, I would dump the character I had built and start all over again with a new character. Endings do not interest me as much as beginnings and middles.

Today we are off to a local kittey rescue site to see if we can find Daph a friend. We will not be bringing anyone home today, or even this year I suspect as D must recover first, but we will look and see who might fit our house.

Coffee is ready, so I go for grabbing a cup.

The wind shifts the chimes
a cricket sings
how can this be winter?

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Semester 1 done

At 13:35 I submitted the grades for this term. In the last day and a half I have graded 22 sets of papers from my students,and now I am a bit burnt, dreaming of a nap, but the vet is coming to poke and prod the kitty, so I am not allowed to sleep. Ahhh, sweet sleep.

I did not feel to put upon grading today as the weather is rather damp (thundershowers and rain). It is warm however, right now the thermometer says 67.

I think I learned a great deal teaching this semester. I am convinced it is not a career for me, though I also think I would be good at it given practice.There were days when I left the class this term sure I had wasted the student's time, other days when I was sure I had managed to give them something useful. In general, if pressed to make a claim, I would say the course was not a total waste of their time. Optimism lies at the center of every teachers philosophy.

Nasty booms outside. It still feels weird to get thunderstorms in December. Sounds like hail too!!

It feels great to have finished this semester!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Living the Life

The cold weather lately has frozen up all the intertubes in this area making it impossible to post on this blog. :)

Well, it has been cold, but I have been snuggled up tight with my computer working away. Fortunately I have a little breathing room today and tomorrow. Here is some of what I was working on: http://smlingrell.com/TeachingPortfolio.html

Starting Wednesday, I will have a whole whack of essays to grade, and then this semester will be finito completo. If you are wondering why I am seemingly so silly this morning, it is cause I woke at 3:30 and could not get back to sleep. So, I am in one of them funky sleepy moods.

I do not remember when my last post was, but things have been going well for me. Thanksgiving was pleasant, the last week of school was fine. I took some cookies into class on the last day and gave my students a treat. Hopefully, they walked out of the semester having learned something useful as well.

I now have a few weeks to work on my stuff before the final semester begins. It is going to be a busy time for me. But we can always hope it will be pleasant. :)