Catching up

I'll write a real post soon, but for now--

A couple of writing days that were textbook examples of bad practices: Write a paragraph. Decide it doesn't make sense, that the elements don't fit. Decide to check e-mail. Go back to paragraph. Delete most of it. Pick up a book. Read. Write some more. Repeat.

A class in which one of the groups of students did an outstanding job of talking about the story they'd chosen to discuss, so much so that they made me think about the story in new ways even though I'd taught it before. This is why we teach.

Figuring out how to transfer music and audiobooks from the iPod to a computer whose hard drive had been wiped out. I tried iDump and EphPod, but both kept crashing; what worked was (1) deleting iTunes; (2) plugging in the iPod so that the computer could see it as a plain hard drive; (3) copying the iPod folders to the Music folder; and (4) importing the Music folder into the iPod.

Having lunch out with some colleagues since a visitor was in town. Why don't academics do this more often? Everyone I know (myself included) eats hunched over a desk, wolfing down a sandwich or salad in the five minutes before office hours start. Well, almost everyone: some people are ambitious enough to bring leftovers from last night's veggi tofu lentil bake or whatever and microwave them, but that takes a lot of forethought.