My friend let me know about this and I had to post it. I am a huge fan of all the noise of Irish dancing-I even took an Irish dance class at BYU, but I could never stand Michael Flatley, aka Lord of the Dance. In honor of him... (so well deserved):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LsQ5gcf_fo#t=0m25s

(I can't embed it.)

Work has continued going alright. I have mostly just answered student emails so far. Grading begins next week.
I am going to Cedar City again tomorrow. Lisa and I are going to see Pericles. It is my favorite Shakespeare and no one ever does it. It actually has a lot of plan of salvation/temple imagry in it. I might have to a good quote or two and pass them on when we get back.

Well it was a rough first week trying to get in the groove of doing the class, but things are looking much better today.

In honor of the fact that I am now teaching an English class (unfortunately not a literature one), I decided to post this in case anyone hasn't seen it yet: Jane Austen Fight Club (with yet another appropriate blog background change).

I chose this new background because it reminded me of this.

I was able to set up the "classroom" for one of my sections and they are still figuring out the other one.

I saw the eye doctor yesterday and for the first time-since I was born probably-my eyesight had not become worse. Wahoo.

I saw this on awkward family photos (see link on side of blog) and maybe because of all the weddings I've been to lately, this struck me as extraordinarily funny. Why are they in a tub? Who would do this?

After a few days of much needed alone time, I spent another fun weekend with my family.
I tried to set up my online "classroom," but they didn't have me set up right. I am nervous to start and hadn't heard anything from my mentor teacher, so I was getting a little panicked. He finally sent an email last night-the first one and it was to all of us-and said our classes needed to be set up yesterday. Nice. Well I still don't have access for one of the sections, but I guess I will work on the other one-if I can. Welcome to the world of work.

So my out-of-town family has mostly returned home and now I have to crack down on my major long to-do list. In the mean time, here is the best new U2 song yet: Every Breaking Wave.

Finally have internet in the new apartment. Yay! Now over to my parents to hang out with family.

Went to some great classes at Ed Week and then saw Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing. They were great. I have family in town next week and then things begin to settle down a bit, I think.

I got back from my trip and am off again to Education Week and Shakespearian festival this week. I guess I'm partying before work starts. I'm very glad I have work to go to when this is all done.

Still in Seattle. New U2 songs!  They played these two at the opening concert (which apparently showed Bono in fine form despite back surgury) for the the European leg of the tour.

Glastonbury

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHDXtRUieRM

North Star

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwqHZ5Tn9_M

I don't really like Glastonbury, but North Star sounds promising.

I finally finished moving. It was agony and I ache all over.

I am currently in Boise having made part of the trip to Seattle today. I will be with family and friends doing fun things for the next while, so you might not hear from me.

I am mostly moved in to my new apartment in the Avenues. There will be just the big stuff on Friday or Saturday.

I hate moving.

So I was just introduced to this site where the author posts pictures from pretentious furniture/home magazines and pretends to be the married couple Elaine and Gary who live there and write captions for the pictures they take of their home (does that make sense?). There are some gems. Here are some of my favorites.

I made a delicious whole wheat basil bread with fresh basil from my plant that I haven't managed to kill yet. Yummy.

I found this on a friend's blog thought it was hilarious.

Here are my results for the several chunks of my thesis I submitted:

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Ha! I wish. Some of my other scholarly writing has gotten Kurt Vonnegut and David Foster Wallace. Hum.

Here are results for my journal (the parts that are less likely to do harm if spread somewhere on the internet by some chance-though the site claims it won't-you never know):

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I don't even know who that is except that it is not the really famous Doctorow that they read in lit classes. After submitting several more in addition to those previous, it seems that my personal writing can get nothing but this guy.


I submitted some Joyce and here is what he got:

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Whew. At least they for sure got it right that time :)

My neice got married this week. Everything went well and they looked very happy.

I have to give a talk today on developing Christ-like attributes. I'm choosing developing humility.

In my BYU-I job I learned how to make a video and audio podcast using Jing (cause it's free). Contrary to Bono who loves the sound of his own voice, I don't like how mine sounds and so I will definitely have to get used to doing that for my online classes. It is a very convenient way to convey a message though. I can see it coming in handy for teaching about mechanics or MLA.

Here is a screen capture just for fun.

BYU-I just called me and asked me to teach another section. I'm officially (the merest slice over) part-time for them. I thought for sure I would just get one section and they would see how I do, but they gave me another one. Wahoo.

I thought I would post this little Captain Picard gem.

I got an email from BYU-I today and was informed that I will be teaching for them in the Fall. It's official-I got the job!