Thesis News / Off to Seattle

Well, my Masters Thesis is finally done. And I will be defending it September 14th, bright and early in the morning.

Of course, this means that I will basically be out of the loop for the next two weeks as I prepare my talk, reread the thesis, and get ready for the defense itself.

But before that happens, the wife and I are off to Seattle for an extended weekend of hanging out and relaxing. JJ will be meeting up with a cadre of her old PT classmates while I'll be crashing and hanging out with Mothergoat. For both of us, it will be some much needed R&R - it has been a stressful, busy couple of weeks, and we need a freakin' break.

More when we get back.

First day as an instructor

I taught my very own class for the first time ever today.

And I scared the crap out of them.

No, seriously. I was the death-bringing instructor from the bowels of Hell.

The best part is that I didn't even realize this, as they actually responded to questions when I asked them and a few even came up to me to talk to me once the class was done.

I started out by just standing in front of the room with my arms crossed and stared them down until every last one of them (all 130) were quiet. Yes, I silenced an entire room by just standing there and looking authoritative. It's an old psychologist trick. And it really, really worked. I even heard one of the students say to me, "WOW... how did you DO that?" I just smiled at him.

And then started to talk.

That's when they got scared.

My office mate was passing out syllabi for me, and she couldn't help but chuckle a little, because, according to her, "When you project your voice, you sound very, very angry."

And I did.

And they listened.

Oh, did they listen.

In the teaching textbook they gave us, they advise new instructors that it is easier to "lighten up" than it is to "tighten up" during the semester. So I decided to bring the hammer down now, then loosen up as the semester moved along. So I dropped the hammer. I drilled my exam policy into their heads with near violent force ("If you do not notify me within 24 hours of missing an exam, you will not be allowed to retake it and you WILL get a zero!) and even used a few visual aids (when I was telling them what would happen if I ever caught them cheating, I tore the syllabus I was holding in half, told them that would be the first thing they would hear, and they would then get a zero after being asked in a not-so-polite manner to leave the class - no exceptions).

The funny thing is that I actually feel a little bad for them. Could it be that now that I have the ability to actually destroy a room full of fragile young minds, I feel pitty? Compassion? A desire to use well the sacred trust I have been given as their instructor?

Nah. On Wednesday, I'm going to make them stand up and repeat things in unison. I think that will be fun. ;)

Yes, I'm still here. Somewhere.

I know it's been a while sine the last update, but as you might imagine I've been very, very busy.

The latest news: The Wife and I recently went back to Kansas for her Grandfather's funeral and her sister's wedding. It was a bittersweet experience, to say the least. The upshot is that I really feel welcomed and accepted in her family now, and felt completely comfortable with them.

In other news, work on the Master's Thesis proceeds apace. I just recently finished a draft of the abstract - one of the last things you write for a thesis. Happily, this means that we are getting close, but we aren't quite there yet.

The Wife and I are tinkering about with the house still. Boxes continue to litter the floor, and various pieces of machinery have decided to start working poorly or stop working altogether (The air conditioner in the first case, our cable modem in the latter case). I am settling in to my routine of driving up to Pullman every day for work. It isn't easy to drag myself out of bed at six (the closest I've actually come has been 6:30, and that was only one time), but happily that is the hardest part about the drive. The rest is rather enjoyable. The Palouse has turned a beautiful golden color and the combines are out doing thier part in the harvest.

Next week, I begin teaching classes. This weekend, we take a brief trip to Missoula with some friends to find out what people do in Montana for fun. And, in a few weeks, Halo 3 comes out. Hopefully, I'll have my thesis done by then. If not... well, I'm afraid the Covenant invasion of Earth will have to wait. Science beckons, and she is a jealous mistress.

As the hazy fugue of Summer looses its power, I look back with mixed feelings. We saw a great many strange and wonderful things happen in these past few months. The best? Seeing my woman walk down the aisle and knowing without a doubt in my heart that I had made the right choice, and that I would be overjoyed to spend the rest of my life with her. The worst? Seeing myself through the eyes of those who know nothing about me. At least, not anymore.

Still, it was a beautiful thing to lie next to my woman in the dark of the night, feeling completely satisfied and at peace. It was reassuring to stand with my brothers - in blood and in spirit - in a certain parking garage and propel packaged meats at a concrete wall. It was sad to learn that our most recent dinner at Molly's wound up being the last any of us would ever have there, but at least it went out on a good note. And it was strange waking up to the early morning to see a clown standing over my bed with a sharpened knife in one hand and a severed monkey head in the other.

I mean, I had thought that the clown repellent we installed was working, but I guess I was wrong.

Ok, that last part didn't happen.

But everything else did.

And for that, I thank God.