Celebrations

Daisy 

Where do I even start? It's been a busy month--not exciting, but busy.  I'll make a very long story short. Due to scheduling conflicts, I have had to work full time plus over my break.  After I got semester grades entered, I spent a few days in the kitchen getting the holiday cooking done. We survived the holidays, and I did treat myself to two full days of reading mindless fiction right after the holidays.  Other than that, I've worked my ass off.  I developed all the materials for a 4-credit programming course to be taught online (distance ed.), and had to get 45 hours of lecture recorded over break.  I still have 18 hours to record next week, and then I return to my full time classes on 1/26.  I'm exhausted, burned out, frustrated (with some technology hold ups at central IT that have delayed me and made things extremely difficult), and will be starting a semester at a deficit. I struggled keeping up last semester, and my load this semester is significantly heavier. I can do it. I will do it, but I am a little nervous about what kind of shape I will be in by the end of the semester.

The recording has been challenging.  I've spent most of my life avoiding cameras--especially video cameras.  Only in the last few years have I started to relax and allow more still photos to be taken of me.  The video recording is quite traumatic.  I've discovered that I'm much more facially animated that I would have thought, and I'm not very happy about that.  That's just one of several things I've discovered in watching my videos, and I'm working on changing the over animation, as well as some verbal tics ("so", "okay") that occur too frequently.  It's hard to change things like that!  I hate the sound of my voice.  I hate it in person, and I hate in on recordings. It's rather strange, though, because I apparently have the same voice as my mom and daughters, because people very close to us can't distinguish who's who over the phone very easily.  Their voices sound just fine to my ears, but my own is horrifying.

More distressing than my personal angsty issues, is the pedagogical problems with this delivery method.  Of all the tools and methods available in teaching, the least effective, hands-down, is a long, blathering lecture.  I am required to provide a three-hour lecture every week.  Of course I have activities planned to go along with the lecture (reading, lab assignments, programming assignments, discussion boards, etc.), but nonetheless, that three hours of lecture about programming, doesn't lend itself to being exciting or compelling enough for a brain to listen to one person drone on for three hours. In a classroom, I'm constantly watching the students for feedback. I can tell by their faces and questions if they're with me, if I need to slow down, change directions, etc.  I have nothing to guide me on this.  I'm doing the best I can to make these lectures effective and interesting, but UGH!  there's only so much I can do with just me, a camera, and C++.  I've spent many hours brainstorming on how to make this better for the students.  This is my first DE class, so I'm looking forward to getting some student feedback that I can use to refine and improve things the next time around.

Petey

We continued our tradition of non-materialistic holidays, so there weren't many gifts to open Xmas morning.  We had a couple of items for each child, and then the girls had gifts from my in-laws to open. It became apparent, though, when I grabbed and distributed the first gift from under the tree, that Damon had been part of Xmas in his past life.  Each gift I pulled out, he tried to put is head in and/or grab. He was sure one of those gifts were his.  Each gift that was opened, he positioned himself as closely as possible, offering to "help" open from time to time. We gave him some dog treats and then let him throw, chew, and shred some boxes/containers. He really enjoys demolishing cardboard boxes!  He had a blast.

As always, we headed over to my parents' for Xmas dinner with my dad's brother (and wife) and my mom's sister (and partner).

Luciana turned 15 this month.  Her birthday was on a Saturday, and she was vehement about reserving the day for her own pleasure.  She got her Saturday chores done on Friday, so she didn't have to do any work on her sacred day. M & his brother Dan wanted to see The Hobbit in the afternoon.  L declined going, because she, Dej, Russ & M had just gone to see it the previous weekend. (I chose to stay home and cook while they went. I would choose to stay home and scrape the sewage pipes clean with my fingernails rather than sit through that movie!)  The guys went to their movie, and Dej & Luce camped out in the family room with dogs, cats, and snacks, and watched Korean dramas.  I spent the afternoon making pizza for everyone (along with some sliced fruit and homemade "nutella"). L did not want me to make a birthday dessert, as she and her sister had purchased a bunch of junk food to snack on for their Korean drama marathon (which continued after everyone left until 2 or 3 in the morning), and she didn't want to have any more temptation.  This was the first birthday where she really took control over her birthday (and the surrounding days) and celebrated how, when, and where she wanted to. Many of our birthday traditions were "broken", but that's part of the process. I'm glad to see her taking charge and making plans that make her happy, rather than just waiting around for others to make her day special and ending up disappointed.  Much to my dismay, she chose to go to Red Robin (!!) for her birthday dinner. Much money was spent, no REAL food was consumed.

We are thrilled that M's work situation should improve dramatically over the next month or so.  They have finally hired a co-director, so on 2/1, he will go back to doing one very taxing job instead of two.  Also, the person that they hired is awesome! She is perfect for the position and will bring a skill set and knowledge set to the position that will be very beneficial.  She and M work well together and mutually respect one another.  It's really unfortunate that she has to inherit the absolute mess that the last mistake of a director created.  Really, it's similar to poor Obama walking into the Whitehouse in 2008, inheriting Bush's unjust war, devastated economy, complete loss of world respect, a country more divided and angry than ever, etc.  I hate to see such a good person walk into such a mess, but on the other hand, there are few who could successfully resolve the mess and move on, but she can.  It's a new and happy era, and I'm looking forward to seeing my husband calmer, happier, and back to absolutely loving his job.  Maybe I'll even see him a bit more often.