Two-a-Days

Well, I’m done with the first week of teaching labs this semester. I had one on Tuesday which went well (they were actually asking lots of questions!), and then today I had two, back-to-back at 10am and noon:15. At least I have a little 15-minute break in between the two labs so I can snarf down a little lunch, but I’m still not a fan of the whole back-to-back labs thing. If we had a couch in the TA office (something we might be able to arrange now that David & Mario have moved into different offices), I so would’ve been up for a nap after the second lab, I was so tired. But at least the enrollment in my three sections is slightly more reasonable now. After reaching a high of 84 (!!) students the other day, now I’m back down to “only” 78. Fortunately the department hired Adam, an undergrad, to grade 20 or so of my labs (I simply gave him one of my two “small” sections), so that I only need to grade about 60 every week. Every bit helps.
Yesterday our Dynamics class was only half as long as usual, because the prof apparently didn’t get the memo about the class being moved to an entirely different building, hehe. Our one chance to enforce the “five-minute rule” and we didn’t even bother enforcing the twenty-five minute rule. What’s wrong with us?? And then after classes last night a bunch of us went out to Mad Mex for dinner to celebrate Shannon’s birthday, which was a good deal of fun. I think we also discovered just how bad we meteo grads are at singing, “Happy Birthday” was sooooo out of tune it almost brought a tear to my eye. 😉
The heat is on at the Australian Open, which I’ve been enjoying watching the last few evenings on ESPN2. For the matches that have been going on tonight (American time), the temp’s gotten up to 99 degrees F down under in Melbourne, with temps expected to soar to 105 or above this weekend. I don’t think I’m too sad that I missed out on some of those sweltering winds coming down from the Outback to the north…
And speaking of Australia, here are a couple of fun stories I recently found in the World Wide Weird section of The Australian newspaper online, one of my favourite websites. Like the story of a talkative parrot that exposed a secret London love affair, a drunk-driving nun in Poland who bribed a cop once but blew the whistle on the crooked cop the second time, and a cow that managed to run away from a slaughterhouse in Idaho. One other bizarre story (not in The Australian though) is about how William Shatner sold a kidney stone he passed for a stunning $25,000. That’s absolutely disgusting, but at least the money’s going to charity, Habitat for Humanity. But seriously, how would you feel if you knew your house was paid for (at least in part) by a celebrity’s kidney stone? Kinda weird, if you ask me.
But perhaps the best story of all is one about Minnesota that found its way into the news all the way Down Under. It seems that a actual, real-life vampire (and former professional wrestler) nicknamed “The Impaler” has declared his candidacy for governor of Minnesota, on the Vampyres, Witches & Pagans party ticket. I never knew such a political party even existed! But one of his main campaign promises appears to be to personally execute convicted murderers and child molesters by impaling them on a wooden pole outside the state capitol building. Interesting. A small part of me actually hopes he gets 5% in the public opinion polls just so that he can make it into the gubernatorial debates in the fall, hehe. The entertainment value alone would be immense!
Well, time to fall asleep while watching the Australian Open, and short little clips of the CBD, Flinders Street Station, and the water taxi along the Yarra River, for yet another night this week. 🙂 I love you Melbourne!