Journal

 So...  it's been a rough few months with moving and crappy job-ness and tons of work on the dissertation, so finally, I get to go on a well-deserved vacation.  Of course, I'm going to try to not think about the loads of work ahead of me when I get back.  I still hope to graduate this December and start the real job hunt.  *sigh*  

Vacation itinerary: Cleveland- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Christmas Story house, Baseball game, camping.  Then, off to Mackinaw Island in Michigan for some fancy feasting and 4th of July fireworks.  Then off for some more camping and fishing.  Following that, we are off to see Andrew's cousins in Minnesota, catch a Twins/Yankees game, and have fun in Minneapolis.  On our way home, we are stopping in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit for more baseball games.  Fun fun!  I can't wait!

I thought it was kinda assumed that if one makes it to the major leagues, one could catch a pop fly... Hrm...

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Much to my dismay, I had to gym it since it was raining. I started running again to get ready for some late summer 5K's. Did 5 miles today in an hour. Not too bad. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll get up to 7. I guess that's it today. Oh- and I started analyzing my genetics data! wOOt!

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I did it! Ran the whole 13.1 miles... Ugh! I can barely walk right now, but at least I didn’t die. My time was in the 2h23min range... 3 damn minutes longer than my goal time. I did realize, however, that I am not designed to be a long distance runner. I’ll stick to my 5 and 10K’s, thank you! I think my time was somewhere in the middle of the pack, so not too shabby for my first race. I’m really glad that I didn’t do the whole marathon. I think then I would have died. It felt great that the kid that won the full marathon passed me when I had about a half mile to go. Yeah. I can’t imagine running 26.2 miles in under 2.5 hours! That kid is NUTS! Kudos to him and all the other runners today. It’s done and now I can get training for my triathlons instead. I’m going to bed.

I love this time of year, except for the end of semester insanity. I seriously think that the second semester in the school year is worse than the middle. It’s nice out, there’s the anticipation of the field season, time for kayaking and snorkeling... So much to do! I think I will feel so much better at the end of next week. I do sympathize with my former professors, though. Back in the day when taking classes was my only worry, I used to complain incessantly about having to write papers... now that I actually do the grading, I think professors are nuts to assign papers! So what if students can’t write! Not like they can write, anyway. Grammar is not taught properly in schools anymore. I can’t believe the things they come up with. I’m no novelist, by any means, but my goodness! It’s almost masochistic to assign a 10 page paper these days. How do these kids get out of high school? I thought writing was a gen-ed course! I guess I was lucky to have a grammar nazi as my English teacher in high school. It’s important to understand different types of prose and writing, but I think our schools concentrate too much on poetry and not essential writing skills that enhance literacy. Maybe making students read more would help. I’m not talking about text books. Make them read novels- good novels. Get kids reading the classics at a younger age. I imagine that most kids have never heard of Faulkner or Austen. They’d be lucky to know works by Hemmingway or Steinbeck! I’m as big of computer dork as the next person, but I still read novels. Even if they read Harry Potter and some of the other cool children’s books out there, they may have a chance. I can’t count how many students didn’t know the Lord of the Rings were fantasy books first. People don’t even know The Hobbit was the precursor! Okay, well, I have to get back to grading those atrocities... Maybe there’s a little ray of sunshine in there, somewhere...

Okay, so boing blog entry for my first entry in ages... Of course, I deleted everything that was old... The animal behavior class I’m TA-ing went to the Ross Park Zoo this afternoon. It’s a nice little zoo that I grew up going to. There aren’t that many animals there, but it’s good for a small, old zoo. It’s actually the 3rd oldest zoo in the nation! It’s pretty sad that the students are seniors, and after spending 4 years here, they know nothing of the history of the city. Binghamton, even though people incessantly complain about it, is a beautiful and historic city. It’s pretty economically depressed since EJ’s and IBM disappeared, but there’s so much potential in this town. I wish people weren’t stuck in such a rut that they could actually appreciate what they have. If there was more local pride, stewardship in many areas would be so much better. People, in general, seem to be complacent and miserable. That’s where all our environmental and social problems seem to come from. People accept what we have and don’t have any desire to change, even if those changes would make them happy. Complacency and consumerism are going to be the downfall of our society... it’s already happening. Anyway, I have to go and grade papers and make my students even more miserable...

It’s interesting how going to the zoo made me rant and rave about all this...