Last week I was reviewing an exam to be given this Monday. This is a class I’m splitting with a professor from another department who has been teaching it for years, and, of course, uses the exact same materials every year, errors and all. Apart from cleaning up the errors, I noticed a problem with the format: the multiple choice section was “circle all correct answers”, i.e., there could be more than one correct answer per question. And each problem had an “all of the above: choice, which I pointed out is entirely redundant, since they are already instructed to circle every correct answer. He responded “this is how we get the athletes to pass”.

This was imbedded in a larger conversation where his position was that the sole measure of the quality of the test was whether the students could pass it. This is what I’m up against. This is why I have so little energy to make journal entries. Fuck tenure. People like this should be gone. There’s plenty of young, enthusiastic PhD’s dying for a chance to teach.

Guitar Craft is creeping up on me. I’ve picked my guitar up twice since I’ve been here. Today the absence is present. I wonder if it happens to the circle day in Colorado. Yet something prevents me from putting the guitar in my hands. I think its my aversion to ever doing anything half-assed. I don’t know if I am able to maintain a real practice schedule. It’s not a matter of time, of course. You have time for whatever you make time for. It’s a matter of attention. I only have so much to go around.

Aikido is in the same boat, but for different reasons. I can’t do aikido on my own, and the local group seems to be below the threshold of time & intensity to sustain me. It’s only been a month. I have many adjustments to make.

I see King Crimson is doing a show with Living Colour in Chicago a month & change hence. Do I wait to see if an Indianapolis show is added, or buy tickets now? I saw LC open for the Rolling Stones in Syracuse. I haven’t heard from them since.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of graphic design. Posters for the major’s fair & department office, web pages, etc. It’s something I can get into; ultimately, I just like making stuff, whatever the media.

Not much more I can say.

Arrgh- been neglecting the journal. You’d think now I’d have more interesting things to talk about, and I do. But the journal no longer functions as an intellectual outlet for me. My life does. But I do want to continue: writing things down and making them public is a valuable process. I just have to get used to a new relationship to journaling.

I’m not going to force myself to write something every day. Though I’d like to get back into a rhythm.

In any case, more later. I’m rethinking the PHY 101 course I’ve been assigned. I’ll also link up my home page. It’s still rudimentary, but I haven’t had time to fiddle with it. I’m also the new department web master, so most of my efforts have gone into re-designing the department home page.

The Man in Black is on that train, and he ain’t never comin’ back.

I see Edward Teller has departed at the age of 95. He was perhaps the most hawkish of Cold War scientists, but his accomplishments demand respect. Unfortunately, defense is about the only topic where politicos will listen to scientists. Or used to. Now they’re off to fantasy land.

As I was returning to my office just now, I passed a very short man, mid-thirties, wearing a casual suit with glossy black shoes, carrying a small, empty cardboard box with a very determined expression.

I’m back for more class preparation. Yesterday set me back a day, if not two. Someday I might have time to write something substantial.

Yesterday morning, as I was gearing up for a difficult 9am class, I was asked to cover the Astonomy class that night at 6:15. This is a one day a week three credit night class, lasting 2:45. OK. I spent the remainder of the day trying to come up with enough material (like all my classes this semester, this is one I’ve not taught before). Overall it was a 14 hour day. I’ll take it over my cushy 9 to 5 office job any time.

A fully democratic political system gives all its citizens the right to choose their leaders and representatives; the reciprocal responsibility, implicit in the social contract, is that citizens exercise their franchise with dedication and discernment. Democracy works successfully only when participants are informed and able to make independent judgments. The degree to which they can be swayed by demagogues, influenced by parochial interests, incited by jingoism, or inflamed by ethnic or religious chauvinism is the degree to which democracy does not work. -Robert Lawrence Kuhn, American Scientist (Sept-Oct 2003)