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Our vegan friends cancelled their dinner date with us tonight. So sad, but relieving in a way. I didn't feel like rushing to clean and cook, and neither did Amy, so it made the evening much more relaxing. Beyond that, the idea of people coming over and being social makes me a nervous wreck. I usually take this out on the house and become absolutely OCD about it's cleanliness. I've even been known to start cleaning in the middle of a conversation when company is over.
Okay, so that happens quite a bit anymore. I never used to be like this.
The NASCAR lesson went very well today, I think. Shawn, who's working on me with this project, said that I taught the lesson "perfectly" and that it helped him know exactly how to teach his version. I taught a straight-lecture version of the NASCAR/Global Economy version of the metaphor. He's doing something with more of an active learning focus. The deal is, we've given them pre- and post-quizzes. Whichever method makes them improve most, we can write it up into a education paper trumpeting not only the active learning approach but the NASCAR metaphor. That makes us not only contribute to the base of pedagogical metaphors, but to the base of teaching approaches as well.
We work well together. On top of that, it's a relationship that's beneficial to each of us -- he gets a publication about teaching economic geography, I get a publication about teaching in which I'm a co-author with this year's KSU Distinguished Teaching Award winner. I'm happy that I'm going to work with him and Mary this fall on a special readings course on economic and political theories and meta-theories.
Okay, okay... I'm a dork. I know.
On top of all of this, he told me that I had a good command and rapport with the class, and that my lecturing techniques were above the curve. It's good to hear that from, ahem, this year's KSU Distinguished Teaching Award winner.
So, instead of eating vegan food and being terrified, Amy and I went out to the dog park with Charley, then went on a walk in the Gorge. The Gorge is an amazing city park, as I've mentioned before. If it was in Indiana, it'd be like a super-duper-"best-we've-got"-state-park. Here? It's a city park. It always recharges my batteries to go there. I do need to get some shoes with some hella-support. My long 24 years of flat feet and obesity are starting to wear on my bum ankle. Being without health insurance for the next two-plus years, it's going to stay that way.
I need to just buy a ghetto-rigged air-cast... and hire a welder to create me steel supports for my soles that will never wear out. That would be heaven.
Tomorrow is a Saturday, which by instinct and habit makes me tremendously happy. However, this Saturday will be spent indoors, writing my newest masterpiece of a paper. With a little effort and focus on my part, I could get a rough draft done for tomorrow, which would put me way ahead of the game. Well, a day or two, at least. Problem is, I haven't bonded with my new home-office as a workspace. See, until about a month ago, my office was in a little tiny closet-like room in our house, and the birds occupied our spare bedroom. Then, we realized what a waste of space this was and switched the rooms. Well, at least partially... the transfer is not complete. I haven't bonded with my new workspace.
And, one thing that bugs me about this house is that all of the windows have mini-blinds. I love to have the windows open at just about all times, letting in all of the light possible. However, the very very close proximity of neighbors (one set of which is a little too nosy) and... our need for privacy sometimes... makes this hard to do. Once they're closed, they're so easy to forget to open.
In my new office, though, even though the windows don't face anything or anyone that can see in, they always get re-closed no matter how many times I leave them open. And mini-blinds, even when they're turned to let some light in, still rob at least 50% of the daylight. They're not even really convenient... their only benefit is that they were free with the house. I hate them. I'm thinking of uninstalling them completely in that room. No one can see in. Why not? Maybe this will be a bonding experience for the office and me.
If only I didn't have that 20-25 page paper to concentrate on tomorrow...
Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ on April 29, 2006 12:44 AM | Permalink
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