And so it begins ...

Just finished tweaking my syllabus for both classes. It's been a major update and it's rather ambitious but I think it'll work. I just hope the students will enjoy it and find the materials compelling.

I'll find out tomorrow.

UPDATE: The Day After
Friday was a seriously busy day! Taught my two classes in the early morning, then J and I and a few of my colleagues went to see the Shimomura gallery opening, grabbed a quick dinner, and finally ended at the new faculty get-together at the Faculty House and socialized with a number of people for several hours late in the evening. I came home and tried to watch the latest Harold and Kumar movie but it was so stupid and I was so tired that I fell asleep. I went to bed at 11:45pm and woke up at 10am!!!

Both of my classes went well; it is after all the first day so there's really nothing to get worked up about anyways. So I'll see in about two weeks but I do think I have a great set of students who are genuine, supportive, and very engaging.

Signs of Life

About 4 more days until the semester officially begins and I'm sitting in my office working on my second syllabus. I already had two students visit to talk to me about my classes; another student emailed me later today and I still have registration on Wednesday as well.

Running out of time!!!

Shameless

Yep, shameless self-promotion. I submitted a photography of mine to be considered for submission for JPG Magazine. =D

One Week Left

One week left before the new semester starts and I'm already behind in everything. My trip to San Francisco was great. My younger brother's engagement party was a wonderful get-together and my parents looked extremely happy. There was a hitch with my other brother who threw a hissy fit about one thing or another. Whatever. That's his problem. But my trip, as short as it was, comes with a price and I'm feeling the pain in my head as I'm trying to get things in order.

Speaking of pain, I've never heard of Center for Asian Americans United for Self-Empowerment (CAUSE) but they came out with two public service announcements about voting. They both made my head turn and say "WTF?" is up with the ninjas, martial arts, and Asian Americans with pointed ears? It makes me wonder if we're elves or Vulcans. But seriously, can we actually have "normal" Asian Americans voting? I know this sci-fi/fantasy theme is a way to appeal to that age group but it seems very gimmicky and superficial.

Bah. Whatever.

My Head Hurts

New faculty orientation finished yesterday and I am still exhausted! There was a ton of information; lots of great stuff about resources, policies, guidelines, teaching, syllabi making, and most importantly of all, the students and their lives at the college. J remarked that this orientation was tons better and more detailed than the one she received at GMU. The difference clearly showed that Grinnell was extremely invested in seeing their faculty succeed.

I'm off to San Francisco for the next few days for my youngest brother's engagement party tomorrow night. I am excited to see the new couple. I'm also planning to take them on a photo shoot somewhere in The City. Maybe Palace of Fine Arts if the weather is right. I still have to figure out where. I'm not a pro but I'm hoping for a pretty good selection of candids that they can keep for themselves. There's also quite a few friends that J and I will be visiting and of course plenty of restaurants to hit up.

I am not, however, looking forward to seeing my parents. I think that's why my head hurts.

Whoa!

Only got a short minute to post an article from The Chronicle for Higher Education about an altercation between two professors at a debate competition. I've included the clip at the end.

A Professor Is in the Hot Seat After Mooning Debate Judges

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

A debate coach for Fort Hays State University, in Kansas, is under review by the institution after he swore at officials and mooned judges at a tournament earlier this year, in an incident that was recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

The coach, William Shanahan III, a professor of communication, got into a shouting match with a judge—and at one point briefly dropped his pants—during the national tournament of the Cross Examination Debate Association, which was held in Kansas this spring. A video recording of the incident was posted to YouTube last week, drawing thousands of views, attention from the national news media, and calls to the university from alumni and others demanding that it fire the professor for his behavior.

Can It Get Any Worse?

This has been such a sad weekend despite all the Olympic excitement and achievements.

Isaac Hayes, the singer and songwriter whose luxurious, strutting funk arrangements in songs like “Theme From ‘Shaft’ ” defined the glories and excesses of soul music in the early 1970s, died on Sunday in East Memphis, Tenn. He was 65 (NY Times article).

This is so sad ...

Bernie Mac, a stand-up comic who played evil-tongued but lovable rogues in films like “Bad Santa” and “Mr. 3000” and combined menace and sentiment as a reluctant foster father on “The Bernie Mac Show” on Fox, died on Saturday in Evanston, Ill. He was 50 and lived near Chicago (NY Times article).

From What You Are ...

... to what you did. I'm diggin' this clip.

STOOPID!

OMFG ... (by way of Angry Asian Man ) ... OMFG ... WTF asshattery is this??? OMFG ...

2 + 2 = 5

I'm switching from DSL to cable internet. The DSL line that I have now is suffering from frequent bouts of lag and it's driving me nuts. I can't upload my photos, download documents, or play Warcraft because it'll drop the connection. And the tech folks can't seem to figure out what and where the problem is so I'm switching to cable internet to see how it fares. When I do get back to normalcy, I can start posting regularly and upload my photos of Grinnell.

On a side note, it just occurred to me that out of all the books and articles that I slated for my summer reading, I only finished two books.

OMG I suck. =(