I got an e-mail from Dr. Lee yesterday, asking faculty and grad students for ideas that could be turned into workshop courses in the department. These workshop courses are usually 1-2 credit hours and meet only a few times for a few hours each time and cover cutting edge, experimental or even bizarre topics. Sometimes, they take trips at the students' expense. I had an extra hour before class, so I submitted five proposals today.

1. The Geography of Rock and Roll, including a trip to Cleveland for the Rock Hall.
2. The Geography of Major League Baseball, including trips to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or Detroit, and Akron.
3. The Geography of Beer, including a trip to the Great Lakes Brewing Company, and lots of samples in-class.
4. The Geography of Indiana including field trips. There's no fucking way anyone will take this, but I thought I'd offer being as how I'm the most qualified person on campus to teach it.
and finally, 5. Weird Akron landmarks, which is (partially) an attempt to get sponsorship (via curriculum research and development funding) to embark upon this little adventure I've been wanting to take.

They're all going before the curriculum committee, along with everyone else's proposals. I should know if any of mine are chosen by the end of the month.

The good economic news I mentioned a few posts back seems to be coming to fruition. I've been offered a late-summer teaching gig at Kent State's "Tuscarawas" campus. Apparently, "Tuscarawas," beyond being a mouthful that makes you sound functionally retarded (like the word "aurora") it's also a county name of a place south of Canton. The campus is in the thriving metropolis of New Philadelphia ("I was born and raised, on the playground was were I spent most of my days..." and yes, that goes through my head every fucking time I mention the city name) and is about an hour from here. However, the pay is good enough to make the drive worth my time, and I'll have another notch for my teaching belt. Odd thing is, this will make the fifth college campus at which I've instructed a course. Weird.

Anyway, I'm a simple informal meet-and-greet with the dean, some paperwork and a campus tour away from wrapping this bad boy up. I'm going to shower and shave, dress decently and take the Impala so I'm not sweaty and gross. Gotta impress the dean, at least reasonably. It'll pay me money and give me more fee remission, so I'll get more financial aid. It's a win-win.

And soccer on Univision? Super-sweet. Heartbreaker for Poland today. And there was hockey on NBC tonight. Too bad that every one player on the ice was represented by three on the screen. Sometimes I hate antenna. But usually, I hate cable companies more. It was a hell of a game, though. We watched most of the third period before I got a headache and couldn't take the fuzzyness anymore.