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The Teaching Front
We’re midway through the French-Indian War in my American History 120s, having blasted through Early Colonialism as rapidly as possible. There are important components which I will pick up later, namely triangular trade, mercantilism and the like when we approach the American Revolution. I didn’t waste any time on the Salem Witch Trials (I never do). On the other hand, I spent a significant amount of time laying down the foundation of slavery in America.
At our present pace, we should arrive at the first exam dates by the end of week five, start of week six. This is later than my peers, probably because I spend a lecture day or two talking about the nature of history in general. On the other hand, I’m further along on the timeline than many of them.
Not that it is a competition. Each teaches there own way. Fortunately for me, the majority of my peers recognize and respect this concept.
In American History 121 I’ve got a split between my two evening classes. One of them is about to fight the Spanish-American War after we spent time on the concept of Imperialism. Prior to that we used Andrew Carnegie as our focal point for the Second Industrial Revolution. And of course, we covered Reconstruction. In the other class we are just about to emerge from Reconstruction. Hopefully we’ll pick up speed over the next two weeks.
I’m building new exams for all classes this semester, generating new essay questions as we move along. I’ve been using the same essays for a couple of years now and it seems to be long past time to switch things up.
Once we clear the first exams I’ll proceed forward to the Pre-Revolutionary Era and Theodore Roosevelt respectively. I think I’ve got at least two to three good classes with the potential for a fourth if I can weed out the dead weight or get them to see the light. The first exam almost always serves as a wake up call for many of them. They’ll make a decision to double down or bail out based upon what happens in the next couple of weeks.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this period is that I provide ample warning for what is coming down the pike. It isn’t an ambush by any means, instead it is perhaps more akin to a carefully scripted training exercise. They are given metrics by which I will grade the exam in the form of commonly made mistakes. In many ways, it is another history lecture for the students, a history of their predecessors and how they tend to react to the first exams in my classes.
Sadly, they frequently ignore these warnings and advance to contact expecting to get through without too much trouble.
They are often sorely mistaken.
Lastly, I had a guest visit my classroom to see how I did business. She was there on the day we killed General Edward Braddock, a bastard in need of frequent killing if you ask me. Later when I talked with my guest, she said if she had more history instructors like me, she might have chosen a different discipline. She gave me high marks for getting my students to class on time, keeping their attention and moving forward at a brisk pace.
I’ve got to say, I always appreciate positive feedback concerning my teaching. Thanks!
The Writing Front
I was able to get fiction writing done on three separate instances this week. Next week, the plan is to increase that to four days a week, Monday through Friday, probably around the two pm time frame. That isn’t my strongest time creatively but it is open and the campus is relatively quiet.
I also transcribed some of the longhand material, tweaking and refining as I went. I’m pretty happy with the results so far.
The goal is to have a finished product ready by semester’s end. Perhaps I might sign up for the National Novel Writing Month competition. This is slated to become a novella sized project and I think the subject matter I’ll address warrants that much coverage.
It feels good to be back in the saddle again. This wouldn’t be possible without the support of the Woman I Love, Trinity, who got her vehicle back to operational status, freeing me from transport duties.
Thank you very much.
The Fitness Front
The transportation freedom mentioned above has given me the flexibility to focus on my efforts in the swimming pool. This week the goal was to complete 4000 yards by today. I fell short by a 1000 yards since I didn’t go today.
On the other hand, my weight is now down to 190.5 pounds, more than twenty pounds less than my January 2012 high of 212 pounds.
My energy levels are good on a relatively consistent basis. On the rare instance when I am late to class and I have to drop for push ups (I believe in paying for breaking my own syllabus rules, believe it or not) I can easily pump out more push ups than are actually required. In fact, I got applause in one class for pumping out twenty without too much effort.
Not bad, given that I had swam a thousand yards with a 25 push up warm up a mere thirty minutes earlier.
The only downside of the renewed fitness condition is that I often underestimate how much projection power I have.
I’ve become known as “The Loud One.”
Other Fronts
The new glasses came in to replace the pair I busted last week. Now all we need to do is just count the days down to the next two pay days on the 22nd and the 1st respectively. Those resources should, finally, after ten months of economic misery, lost sleep and bubbling anger, allow us to patch the last of the major holes in the budget. Barring anymore disasters, we can move forward with getting our fiscal house in order.
I continue to read Dario Cirello’s Aegean Dream, a memoir of the time Dario and his wife spent in Greece. It is strange to be reading this while I am taking Spanish. The commentary on language troubles matches my own efforts at trying to speak Spanish intelligently.
Finally, the new Kindle arrived to replaced the dead one. I’ll pick it up from the landlord’s office tomorrow before I head off to training with the Lifeguard Company I work for.
So it goes. Things are getting better by the day, barring an exception or two. May the upward climb continue.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
On Christmas Day I was surprised with a present wrapped in gold paper which contained a Kindle 2 ereader. This thin device, once charged and tied into the Pod’s wifi, soon provided me with regular issues of USA Today along with a number of other bits and pieces of reading pleasure. My use of the device has been a bit sporadic though, namely due to the fact that I do not always have the money to purchase ebooks for consumption.
Still, I’ve warmed up to the device. I read World War Z by Max Brooks on the device and enjoyed the experience. With the cover, the device almost fit my hand, something I can not say for most books, which are a notch too big and awkward. I wish the page turning buttons were a bit bigger but aside from that, I have no real complaints about the actual reading experience on the device.
The problem?
Well, my Kindle isn’t always available for duty. Sometimes it freezes up. Sometimes it seems like the battery, which is supposed to last for a month even in sleep mode, dies on me. I suffered through a week of frustration as I tried to resurrect the device in order to continue reading Paul McAuley’s The Quiet War.
Never fear, I have a third gen iPod iTouch with a kindle app onboard. I had recently hooked the device into my account, downloaded the info I needed and moved forward from there. When my Kindle pulled a Rip Van Winkle on me, I drew out my Touch and brought up The Quiet War.
Reading on a small screen? How did that work out, you ask? Better than you’d think, believe it or not. The device syncs up with your last read page if it has access to wifi, which the Touch did during lunch. Tapping one side of the screen or the other advanced the text effortlessly.
Which do I enjoy reading off of more?
Well, I gotta say that I think I like reading on the smaller Touch more than I like reading on the Kindle 2. The Touch has farted out on me one time and that was months back. If only you could combine the touch screen ease of the Touch with the read it in the daylight screen of the Kindle 2, I’d be a happy man.
My general thoughts?
First, I wouldn’t have a Kindle app if I hadn’t received a Kindle 2 in the first place. Without the Kindle 2, I wouldn’t have an Amazon account.
Second, I suspect that if I could afford one, I’d purchase an iPad 2 and phase out the Kindle, or perhaps use it as a reserve device. It might be handy to have it open to a page in one book while I’m working on something on another device. Or if I wanted to show someone something, I could sync two devices up and show them the page I was referring to.
Third, I find I do more and more reading off of a screen and less off of an actual printed piece of material.
Finally, I think things are going to change big time. Perhaps not an original assessment of the situation. The key is trying to figure out how to make money out of this change. Those that do so will hold the keys to the printing universe for the next generation.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Last night I made an end of winter break steak dinner for Trinity and I using a new cast iron grill pan. It didn’t turn out too badly for a first effort though I suspect my technique needs a bit of work.
We haven’t had much snow until this morning though. Here is what we woke up to.
Well, at least it isn’t flooding like it is in other parts of the world.
Turns out Trinity came down with some sort of bug, probably the same one that has been trying to undermine my health for the last few days. Given that the roads were terrible and her health not the best, the decision was made to keep her here on this first day of the new semester.
I spent part of the morning reading the paper on the new Kindle.
For the record, that is black tea.
Later the Commanding General took over the couch while I worked on my very first batch of homemade chicken noodle soup.
The above is edited to clear up some of the underexposure. For those that have been to the Pod for parties, we see the living room in normal configuration.
Finally, the soup was more or less ready.
It seems a little bland and not salty enough for my taste but Trinity kept it down. Plutarch is taking a break so riding shotgun there is Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. On this reading I notice that Scout has a thinly veiled contempt of the public education system. In fact, her attitudes mirror my own.
What I like best is that it is subtle, woven into the general narrative without cracking one upside the head with a ballbat. I wish writers would get back to this method.
So it goes. I’ll get my workout and my writing in a bit later.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Tearing Down Tuesday is now available as an ebook at Amazon.com for three dollars American. The story should be accessible on any e-reader out there.
Right now I’m just experimenting to see how things work. I figure Tearing Down Tuesday was the perfect test subject given that it has been published twice and that I do not have any remaining obligations to the previous publishers. Bangar from Down Under was asking if there should be a dedicated day to generate a sales spike and I advised holding off.
In other words, here is what I’m thinking.
If you missed a chance to read Tearing Down Tuesday at Interzone or Apex and you want to read it badly enough, here is your shot.
On the other hand, if you have read Tearing Down Tuesday then I’d advise waiting a bit. I want to offer readers and supporters something more than just the same old story. I want to bundle TDT with my unpublished story Maternal Soldier along with some additional content. I’m still thinking on what that content might be but I don’t think I’ll be able to get to it until after the semester ends.
That bundle, by the way, will be called A Murphy Double Tap and I believe I’ll be selling that for five bucks American.
I have readers. I have fans. I have supporters. Perhaps not many, but enough that they have made their voices heard during the two initial publications.
I figure this is a way to see if we really don’t need editors and publishers anymore. Maybe we still need gatekeepers.
And maybe we don’t.
If we don’t, then I think I just might bypass them.
So it goes.
Other Fronts
Today was testing for the Third Quarter in all classes. Here in a bit I’ll run my 120s through the scantron to see what I get. Tomorrow, Veteran’s Day, will be nothing but grading, grading, grading.
Then it will be time to prep for evals, which are next week. The suit is at the cleaners for the event and I’ve got funds set aside for a fresh haircut.
We’ll see how it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of Tearing Down Tuesday and The Limb Knitter
North Kansas City, Missouri
Those that done said stuff