Day 326

A quick shot of the Elm Street Parking Garage all lit up at night:

Quote of the Day: "A true friend is the rarest of all blessings." (as found on a very special coffee mug) :)

Day 320

One of the many "unique" art pieces on campus. It's tough to tell in this picture, but it's a boy reclining, and his middle is submerged in the ground. It always looks relaxing to me.

Quote of the Day: "Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not." -- George Bernard Shaw

Day 316

Thanks to soon-to-expire Monopoly coupons, I had a free Egg McMuffin courtesy of McDonald's this morning:

I don't typically like to eat breakfast out, and I don't think I'll pick up the habit anytime soon (hey - I love my cereal in my pj's). But, it was kind of a nice change of pace for today.

I also wanted to give a quick glimpse into a common occurrence during football season around here. Technically, people aren't allowed to set up tents (etc.) for tailgating until noon on Friday. However, to save their spots, they come "camp out" on Friday mornings - EARLY. They do this on the street that runs beside the stadium, which also happens to be a main thoroughfare through campus, so I drive by them on my way in each Friday. Today, I tried to get some cell phone camera shots as I drove (so I apologize for the quality).

Tents sitting out on the grass, waiting to be constructed at noon.


They even bring out port-a-potties for the tailgaters!

What I can't figure out, though, is how these people have jobs that allow them to take off a half (or full) day on Friday so many times during football season! And, where can I get one? ;)

Quote of the Day: "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." -- Colin Powell

Day 314

Two random campus shots today:

1. I LOVE the fall colors from my office window - you can see such a great mix of green with orange, red, and yellow in the nearby neighborhoods. Hopefully those colors come through in this photo:


2. I had to walk across campus today to borrow something from a professor in another building. On the way, I saw this displayed on the "South Oval":


Yes, that is an inflatable bounce-around. With college kids inside. The best part is, I wasn't the only one who stopped to take a picture of this!!!

Random thought: Could today be considered a kind of "Pi Day" on the blog? (Notice my eagerness to mix math and dessert?)

Quote of the Day: "A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction." -- Count Lev Nikolgevich Tolstoy

Day 312

When I walked by this clock today, my first thought was, "I know you how feel, buddy." Then, I knew it had to be today's blog picture. :)

Quote of the Day: "Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking." -- John Wain

Day 305

While working on my teaching plans for this week, I decided that Friday I would break my students up into groups to practice some new skills. So, I took one of their standard roll sheets and highlighted the names so that each group was a particular color. That way, when the roll sheet circulates at the beginning of class, students will learn what group they're in without me having to stand in the front of the class and announce it. Then, I can just tell them where I want each group to locate and let them scatter into their groups. I also group by many criteria: Ability, personality, gender, making sure people aren't with their "buddies", etc. It takes me a while to do this, but (I hope) it really helps class to run smoothly on groupwork days. Plus, students never get bored with their group because it changes every time! Here's this week's roll sheet (with identifying information protected):


Quote #5: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Day 300

My most special water bottle has a slight leak, so Candace made me promise to get rid of it. Before I did, though, I wanted to capture it in the blog. It's from last year's (2009) Summer Bridge Program, and it brings back good memories of my students and co-workers. :)


In other news, I can't believe we're at Day 300 already!!! Any special requests for the last 65 days of the 365 blog?

Day 299

I gave a test tonight, and I was definitely tuckered out by the time I got home. Case in point: I had to turn my laptop on to go over some edits on a paper (thanks, Mom!), but then I promptly turned it off and put it back in my bag -- knowing full well that I still had to blog. *sigh* Here's the culprit hiding from the blog:

Day 295

Very cool morning view out my office window this morning, from left to right, as storms headed in:




Also, after dinner tonight, Patrick wanted to stop by the cookie place in the mall. He was very pleased to see they are finally carrying his favorite cookie again - and I saw one I wanted to try, too. Guess which "black sheep" in the cookie bag belongs to me? Always chocolate... ;)

Day 293

Some days I spend a lot of time in the stairwells of my building, since most of the Math Department offices are within two floors of my office. My office is on the 9th floor, so if you look over the edge of the railing, it can be pretty intimidating. But, for you, blog faithful, I squeezed my eyes shut and held the camera over the edge to give you the view looking down:

...and up:


And then I was dizzy and had to go back to my office. :)

Day 292

I sent out interview requests for my dissertation today... now the fun of scheduling begins! My head is spinning with dates and times already! Looks like this guy will be getting a lot of use in the very near future:

(And many thanks to Dr. Trytten for allowing me to borrow her recorder!)

Day 291

I taught for another teacher in the department today, and after the second class I taught for her, one of the students came up and asked if there was anything he could pray for me about today. I was taken aback by his boldness with someone he had just met, yet somewhat envious of his courage. He seemed truly interested in being a blessing to a total stranger and was willing to risk rejection to benefit someone else. He did pray with me for my dissertation, and then we chatted very briefly before parting ways. In the face of such servanthood, I am ashamed to admit I didn't think to ask if I could also pray for him. I may never see Alex again, but he sure made an impression on me. I didn't have a way to capture this experience with a picture, but I wanted to commemorate it in the blog.

Day 284

I've been working on my dissertation for a few weeks, mostly writing very rough drafts of parts of chapters. I have been using colored highlighting in the Word files to remind me what actions need to be taken with various sections. For example, blue indicates a citation I need to look up later, while yellow indicates a section that hasn't been written yet (but has a heading in the document holding its place). I'm up to five colors (plus comment highlights), so today my dissertation made me think of a box of crayons. Naturally, I had to dig out the crayons Patrick gave me while we were dating and feature them in today's blog. (Apparently, he thought the coloring would help me relax, even then!) First, comparing the crayons to the Word document:

Then, a close-up of the crayons, just because it's fun:

Day 283

To be quite honest, I had a slower week last week than I've had many other weeks this semester. I still had plenty to do (and probably a lot more that I could have been doing), but I didn't have to put as many things in my planner as normal. So, I thought I'd let you see what a light week looks like around here:


I took this picture last Sunday, previewing the week ahead... incredibly blank for me looking ahead at the week to come.


I took this picture today, to show what my planner looks like at the end of the week. I have purposely blurred these shots to protect privacy, but I think you can still get the idea. Here's hoping that next week is slow but also very productive!

Day 272

Haven't gotten this guy off the shelf in YEARS, but today the electronic versions were failing me... plus, I'm old enough that I still enjoy words that are actually printed every once in a while. :)

Day 271

Today, we threw a baby shower for a couple in the math department, Misun and Injo. Here's a peek at the food table before we started:


And somehow, yours truly got nominated to serve the cake... clearly these people have never seen me around food before!


(Fortunately, none of it landed on the floor, and most of the pieces were even served upright!)

Day 270

So... I was supposed to wake up at 6:00 this morning, get to school between 7:15 and 7:30, work all morning, and get a bunch of dissertation stuff sent off to the appropriate people before lunchtime. At 7:42, Patrick startled me awake because he realized we'd overslept by over an hour and a half! Oops! I didn't have any appointments or anything this morning, but it's virtually impossible to park near my building after 8:30 or so, which meant I was in a real rush. I pulled out of the driveway at 8:12, but I had to take this with me:


So today, I did my makeup while I checked my email. I'm sure it looked weird. Fortunately, Michelle is the only one who saw. I managed to get most of my stuff done this morning, anyway, but it sure throws off your day to start with a shot of adrenaline like that! :)

Day 267

I'm working on a teaching philosophy statement for my job applications, and today I realized I needed to find all my old teaching evaluations (10 semesters' worth at OU). On first cull, here's the pile I came up with:


Fortunately, it only took me a few more minutes to go through this pile and weed out precisely which papers were evaluations:

Good thing, too, because this second pile was plenty heavy on the way out to my car!

Day 259

I got my hair cut this morning... not sure if you'll be able to tell from these pictures, but it has more layers and movement (supposedly). Keep in mind that I walked back to my office after the appointment, so the Oklahoma wind had its way with my hair.



Now on to more serious matters. Leaving the building yesterday, Candace and I saw this sign:


At first, I thought this was both funny and a bit sad. It could be taken as facetious, but it if it's serious, it's a sad look at our educational system. Then, I realized this is a play on a similar religious statement where "a scientist" is replaced with "God" or "The Bible" - and it made me even sadder. I sincerely hope this was not intended as a mockery of faith, but I guess I'll never know for sure. I also hope it doesn't negatively impact anyone else who sees it.

Day 251

Yesterday, this mysterious campus-mail envelope arrived for me in the department office.


This box was inside it. Look familiar? It's a duplicate to the box I was so excited about a few days ago. The original box contained my very first business cards! :) This box contained an accidental duplication of my business card order. I was worried I'd get charged a second time (or that my department would be charged for it), so I called to investigate. The woman I spoke with was very nice, and she said it was their mistake and I should keep them (no charge). Bonus!