12/30: What I Accomplished Today

1. Lost Puzzle Day. No mojo this week.

2. Took a nap.

3. Level 43 Draenei warrior. Badlands. Dinged 44.

4. Television and Pogo badges. Watched An Inconvenient Truth. Very interesting. We also watched a Biography about the Johnson & Johnson family, which was surprisingly interesting.

5. Level 44 Draenei warrior. Badlands. Auction stuff.

6. Read more in The Amber Spyglass.

12/29: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 43 Draenei warrior. Stranglethorn.

2. Went to dinner for the Fellas' anniversary.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 43 Draenei warrior. Fishing quest. Set up beginnings of Badlands.

5. Read a magazine and reading Amber Spyglass.

6. Haven't decided yet what I'm going to play for the rest of the evening.

12/28: What I Accomplished Today

1. Spoke to aunt & uncle and made arrangements for evening's entertainment.

2. Co-Vivant played WoW with me! She created a Human Rogue. We got it to level 2, and then we went to Ironforge to get our Christmas presents (this was with my level 43 Draenei warrior, the last of my characters to get her holiday gifts). I don't think she had a very good time, but we'll see.

3. Played a little Farm Frenzy. I also read more in The Amber Spyglass and took a nap.

4. Went to dinner with my aunt & uncle and then saw the late show of Blue Man Group. This was really fun!

5. Came home and watched a little TV; not much, because we were tired, and I had no energy for Pogo badges.

12/27: What I Accomplished Today

1. WOW auction stuff.

2. Finished The Subtle Knife; started The Amber Spyglass.

3. My aunt and uncle are in town, so we had dinner with them. Very fun.

4. A little television and Pogo badges.

5. I actually went to bed at this point because I was tired. I was up a few hours later, though, doing more auction stuff.

12/26: What I Accomplished Today

1. More reading in Subtle Knife. Also read several magazines.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Co-Vivant said she would play WOW with me and try it! Installed it on her laptop so's mebbe we can do that tomorrow.

4. Level 42 Draenei warrior. Stranglethorn. Dinged 43. Auction stuff. Made low-level items for Co-Vivant's character.

12/25: What I Accomplished Today

1. Christmas! This was very fun.

2. Took a nap.

3. Put away some Christmas gifts, and sorted others into destination piles.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Read several magazines and a nice, healthy chunk of The Subtle Knife.

6. Played Sims 2 for awhile, which I hadn't done for awhile. Just did auction stuff in WOW and had four more characters pick up their Christmas gifts; that just leaves one, the one I've been playing.

12/24: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 41 Draenei Warrior. Stranglethorn. Dinged 42.

2. Christmas Eve dinner with Co-Vivant's family. Very fun.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Made a batch of meringue cookies and wrapped the last few presents.

5. Got four of my WOW characters' Christmas prezzies. They're all getting more or less the same things; they're cool things, but since I know everyone's getting the same, there's no urgency to pick them all up. I'll get the other five tomorrow or in a few days.

6. Yesterday's BigFishGame was Bookworm Adventure; I've been waiting a long time for it to come to BigFish from PopCap, so I got that one. Played that one. May play it a little more now, or may play a little more Farm Frenzy or Miss Management before I go to rest a little bit for Christmas.

12/23: What I Accomplished Today

1. Puzzle Day. We came in second both weeks. Blech.

2. Took a nap.

3. Level 41 Draenei warrior. Dustfallow. Dinged 42. Fishing.

4. Television and Pogo badges. For some reason, we watched several shows about the abilities of dogs.

A cousin sent an e-mail link to pictures of a family Christmas gathering for a part of the family I haven't seen in 15 years or so. It's funny how everybody has turned into one of their parents.

5. Finished Golden Compass; started Subtle Knife. Also read several magazines.

6. Finished the Halloween candy. I was really impressed that we ate one or two pieces a day instead of gallumphing them all down. Hurray.

7. Level 42 Draenei warrior. Finished the cooking quest and the Kalimdor half of the fishing quest.

12/22: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 40 Draenei Warrior. Alterac.

2. Read more in Golden Compass and several magazines, including MLA's Profession 2007. I'm reading primarily the K-16 articulation articles as they touch upon issues that come up in several venues for which I'm a representative.

3. Television and Pogo badges. We watched A Beautiful Mind a few nights ago, and tonight we listened to Ron Howard's comments. Some of the things he mentioned we had noticed, and others we had not, which is a good combination; we felt smart, but didn't feel that his comments were a waste of our time.

2. Level 41 Draenei Warrior. Arathi. Dinged 41.

I'm not really tired right now, but if I don't go to sleep, I'll be cranky (perhaps crankiER) for Puzzle Day.

12/21: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 44 Night Elf Hunter. Stranglethorn. Dinged 45. Stats and mail check.

2. Reading Golden Compass. Good stuff.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 40 Draenei warrior. Gnomeregan. Big fun; I think of the grime-encrusted objects as a Christmas gift exchange at the office you always win. Yeah, every now and then you get a Smooth Pebble--but then you get an Iridescent Pearl. Also did auction stuff.

12/20: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 41 Night Elf Hunter. Dustfallow (that's not right). Dinged 42.

2. Reading Golden Compass. Really good book with a compelling storyline.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 42 Night Elf Hunter. More Dustfallow. Dinged 43. Finished cooking quest and the Kalimdor fish. Dinged 44.

5. Skimmed a book by an acquaintance of Co-Vivant's, You are More Than Enough. Not a bad self-help book; more practical than many. Not a whole lot in there that hasn't been seen before, but this particular combination may resonate with some people.

Man, that looks really unproductive.

12/19: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 40 Night Elf Hunter. Alterac.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. The original plan was to have my other distance ed course done before the server closes for maintenance between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1. However, I have it sketched out and mostly done, and I think I'd like the time off now; I'll see about starting this on January 2.

4. Started reading The Golden Compass so I can see for myself what the hullaballoo is about.

5. Level 40 Night Elf Hunter. Dustfallow. Dinged 41. Auction stuff.

6. Probably going to play Farm Frenzy now.

12/18: What I Accomplished Today

1. Tried to get some work done on online class, but today was not a big ole focus day.

2. Went to dinner and then to the Enchanted Forest. The Dancin' Fella performed, and then we went on the train. This was good, clean, silly funny.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 39 Night Elf Priest. Alterac. Dinged 40. Mount, stats and mail check. Very, very 'citing. Had Level 40 Hunter start Gnomeregan. I don't know.

5. Reading was in textbook I'm trying to get converted for online course.

12/17: What I Accomplished Today

1. Got my other online course for spring term sketched in the shell. (I finished one last week.)

2. Finished The Jesus Dynasty. As I've said, the archaeological stuff was good, and a reminder of the importance of James is never a bad thing, but much of it was unsupported speculation unworthy of the scholar capable of producing the archaeological stuff. Started Writers' Choices, for which I have to make notes and quizzes for the above online course that I'm working on.

3. Got six characters through the Greench quest; finished that sucker. Bought the second tab in the guild bank. Very productive day all the way 'round.

12/16: What I Accomplished Today

1. Made fudge (that is properly pronounced "fwudge") and my favorite Christmas cookies.

2. Went to a Christmas party.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Tried to get more WOW characters through the Greench quest. Frustrating.

5. Planning to finish Tabor. Again, the archeology is interesting and seems accurate, but many of his statements are just unsupported speculation.

12/15: What I Accomplished Today

1. Christmas shopping. Mailed package to my family.

2. Took home the lady who cleans the house.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Got three characters through the Greench. Blessed eternal respawn. Auction stuff.

5. I think I'm going to play Farm Frenzy now.

12/14: What I Accomplished Today

1. Pleasant lunch at Asian buffet (only one we've found is good).

2. Turned in grades and copying for the beginning of next term at main campus. My smugness knows no bounds.

3. Christmas shopping, largely unsuccessful.

4. Book group. We each read either a children's book or poetry.

5. Level 39 Night Elf Priest. I've been reading that Winter Veil starts today, and I poked around and saw that one of the quests requires an item that's a common drop among low-level critters. Sent this character to get enough of the level that all of my characters would have enough for the quest and then there'd be some left over to sell; each character needs five, and within about an hour, I had 100, which I thought was good. So I distributed these and sent the extras to my auction character to sell. I'd been reading how much they went for in previous years, and by the time I put mine up to sell, there was already one set there at that rate, which I thought was a little excessive, so I sold mine for less than that, but still a fair amount of money.

Now I am a profiteer. I may have permanently hurt my reputation because I can read a calendar. I know people will get over it, but it's embarrassing (as was farming the low-level item to begin with).

6. Wrapped presents for package to be sent to my family tomorrow.

7. No reading today. It's been a busy day.

12/13: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to a meeting for the College Readiness Task Force.

2. Graded two classes and finished grade sheets and such. Wrapped up fall semester.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 39 Night Elf priest; finished stockades and Bazil Thredd sequence. Auction stuff.

5. Played Home Sweet Home, a time-management game. Not bad, not great. The cryptogram level was sort of fun, but I was worried about the time cutting into my demo hour.

6. Not much book reading today; read some magazines.

12/12: What I Accomplished Today

1. Graded a class. Got one of my online classes ready to go for next semester.

2. Didn't get much television or Pogo badges; fell asleep.

3. Level 38 Night Elf priest. Stranglethorn. Dinged 39. Auction stuff.

4. BigFishGame is another Find-the-crap game. I have enough crap of my own to find.

5. Not much reading today; working a little on magazines.

6. Probably gonna play Farm Frenzy now.

12/11: What I Accomplished Today

1. Graded two classes and parts of the other three. Finished some other work for beginning next term. Very pleased with my level of productivity. Awaiting the cookie that I should be given.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level Level 37 Night Elf priest. Stranglethorn. Dinged 38. Auction stuff.

4. Read several magazines but not much in my book today.

5. BigFishGame is a three-matchy. Played yesterday's, Babysitter Mania, for awhile. Not bad, but it's the same game as Nanny Mania. Again, that was fun, but I've already bought it once, and the newer game isn't different enough to warrant a cash outlay.

6. Had a well-thought-out, considered comment! I'm not sure how the person found my bizarre mix of Missions Accomplished and random musings for the day, but that's neat! (And a little scary; I sort of like talking to myself, but that's okay.)

For the record, I've read enough arguments on the identity of the Beloved Disciple to agree that there is certainly room to doubt the traditional knee-jerk identification with John. Tabor's book, on the other hand, doesn't go into any of these arguments, nor does it offer positive evidence that the Beloved Disciple is James; he simply states that this is so. Now to be fair, I think the chapters were written independently without regard for order and without an editor overseeing continuity, so it's possible that argument appears later in the book, but so far, no dice.

12/10: What I Accomplished Today

1. Graded two and a half classes. Gave a final. Should have graded a little more, but just couldn't stand it anymore.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 37 Night Elf Priest. Fished. Auction stuff.

4. BigFishGame is another time-management thing, so I'll try that. Then I might play more Farm Frenzy.

5. Read more in The Jesus Dynasty. As I've said, the discussion of archaeological sites is really interesting, but some of the speculation is peculiar. He's simply stated that James the Lesser is the Beloved Disciple of John; he's also James the brother of Jesus. I have no problem believing Jesus' brothers were among the disciples (although it is believed by the verse about the prophet receiving no recognition in his own land). I could buy any of those statements if there were some discussion or evidence. Here, the only evidence he's offered so far is a negative argument against John's being the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved. Again, negative arguments haven't worked as definitive proof since Aristotle.

12/9: What I Accomplished Today

1. Puzzle Day. We came in second, but it came down to the fourth puzzle, so it was pretty exciting. (Does life get more exciting than the New York Times crossword puzzle?)

2. Took a nap.

3. Level 36 Night Elf Priest. Desolace.

4. Television and Pogo badges. We had three or four documentaries from the National Geographic channel. (I don't know why, either; it just worked out that way.)

5. Read a little more in The Jesus Dynasty. I almost think the problem is in the editing; in a previous chapter, he screws up Nazarene/Nazirite, but then he explains the difference in a later chapter; wild conjecture that he feels confident in stating as verified fact in one chapter is ignored later. The book is interesting and actually not a bad primer to some of the more esoteric viewpoints I've read, but it has to be taken with an entire salt shaker; a grain is inadequate.

6. Level 36 Night Elf Priest. Desolace. Dinged 37. Auction stuff.

7. Played the BigFishGame Santa's SuperFriends; not as fun as I'd been anticipating. Game for tonight doesn't look like fun.

Now I have to pay the bills. This is a major, sucky drag.

12/8: What I Accomplished Today

1. Changed Co-Vivant's dressing.

2. Did the shopping we need to do this weekend.

3. Level 36 Night Elf Priest trying to figure out where she should start and a some auction stuff.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Changed Co-Vivant's dressing.

6. Fished a lot with the priest and did more auction stuff.

7. Gonna play the Santa's Super Friends game when it downloads. Then I might play some Farm Frenzy, depending on how late it is.

12/7: What I Accomplished Today

1. Co-Vivant had part of her toenail removed this morning. Not a big deal, but she spent the day getting over the local; she also enjoyed getting to see the procedure and the shard that had been causing her pain in such, so she was running on adrenaline; the combination of anesthesia and adrenaline meant I had to keep more of an eye on her today than I thought I'd have to. (I thought she'd sleep all day.) But she should feel better now, so that'll be good.

2. Level 39 Night Elf Hunter. Alterac and Stockades. Dinged 40.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Stats and mail checks.

5. Read a healthy chunk in The Jesus Dynasty. I can't figure out this book; sometimes, it seems scholarly and legitimate, particularly in the archaeology sections, but then he makes a bonehead mistake, like confusing "Nazarene" and "Nazirite." I like the approach that he's willing to think through anything whether it's "offensive to faith or not"--but some things that he establishes as possibilities he then treats later as foregone conclusion. No, no, no. I'll accept that it's possible that Simon the Zealot is Simon the brother of Jesus. Possible. But that doesn't mean that, a few pages later, you can outright say, "Simon the Zealot was the younger brother of Jesus," for example. Establishing a possibility does not establish a fact; sixth graders understand that.

6. The BigFishGame looks like a holiday adaptation of Teddy Factory, which has fun potential; I also wanted to play Farm Frenzy. However, it looks like tomorrow we have to figure out foot treatment, and I have to figure out some sort of food for Puzzle Day on Sunday, so I can't fritter all of tonight away.

12/6: What I Accomplished Today

1. I don't usually work on Thursdays, but next week was just gonna be hell on a Popsicle stick unless I got a little more accomplished. Placement stats and newsletter, a few little student thingybubs, graded most of a class, did some miscellaneous stuff.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Reading more in The Jesus Dynasty. The archaeological material is interesting, but I find it hard to believe that there are a lot of educated adult humans who don't already know the Biblical stuff; you don't have to be a particularly devout Christian, or even a Christian at all, to know that Jesus' genealogy traces to David.

4. Level 38 Night Elf Hunter. Stranglethorn and the new early quests in Theramore. Dinged 39.

5. Now I'm going to play The Office and probably some Farm Frenzy.

12/5: What I Accomplished Today

Apparently missed yesterday. Prepped a class, graded two classes, taught a class. Read more in Lost Gospel of Judas. Television and Pogo badges (watched the first two episodes of Tin Man, which was better than anticipated). Level 38 Night Elf Hunter worked in Stranglethorn for awhile.

Today.

1. Prepped a class, graded a class (only got one done because the pile was so huge), taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges, including the end of Tin Man. Interesting riff on The Wizard of Oz.

3. Finished Lost Gospel of Judas. Next book in the pile: The Jesus Dynasty. When I saw it was another book on a Christian topic, I chuckled to myself and started to reach for the next book, but then I thought, no, let's read 'em in order. I thought it was another "Jesus Married Mary Magdalene" book, but it's about his genealogy and its royal ramifications. (Is anyone not familiar with this theory? I can't imagine that that's the case, but it must be true, because a lot of these books have been produced.)

4. Level 38 Night Elf Hunter. Private Thorsen. Decided time was a-wastin' and I wouldn't play more tonight.

I'm probably going to play some Farm Frenzy now.

12/2: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded two classes, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. All nine characters did three Darkmoon turn-ins; this resulted in 27 Lesser Prizes: 1 gem, 4 patterns (2 blacksmith, 1 tailor, 1 leatherworking), and 22 items, 8 of which were auctioned off and 14 of which were either current or future equipment upgrades.

4. BigFishGames is The Office, which looks like it might be a fun time-management game. I finished all the levels of Farm Frenzy last night, and now I'm going to work on getting at least silver on every level.

5. Read more Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot.

12/2: What I Accomplished Today

1. We won Puzzle Day.

2. Took a brief nap.

3. Level 36 Night Elf Hunter. Desolace. Dinged 37.

4. Television and Pogo Badges.

We watched The DaVinci Code. Worth seeing once.

5. Level 37 Night Elf Hunter. Desolace. Dinged 38. Preparing for Darkmoon.

6. Reading The Lost Gospels of Judas Iscariot. It's a good primer for anyone interested in Gnosticism (and has good explanations of apocalypticism and other terms it's easy to use sloppily).

7. Now I'm going to play more Farm Frenzy.

12/1: What I Accomplished Today

1. Costco.

2. Took home lady who cleans house.

3. Birthday party for one of the Fellas.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. WOW auction stuff and a little hunter fishing.

6. Read some magazines and continue to make progress in The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot.

7. Now I'm going to play Farm Frenzy, which is very deep and rich.

11/30: What I Accomplished Today

1. I was supposed to go to meetings this morning, but the cable people and my Co-Vivant both had changes in schedule, so I couldn't go anywhere.

2. Level 39 Night Elf Druid. Alterac. Dinged 40. Trained and mount. Stats check and mail check.

3. Television and Pogo badges. Watched the Biography on Emma Thompson among other things. I really like this show, but it has two very irritating tendencies (and it shares them with many shows): it has a sort of breathiness to it, a need to instill drama or potential drama into every possible moment of a person's life ("Thompson seemed to have it all--perfect marriage, perfect career. She was about to know perfect heartache." That sentence verbatim wasn't in the show, but that's the way every act ends: with a cliffhanger, like they're afraid we'll forget we were watching a show over the commercial break.); it also summarizes after it returns from each commercial break. We have Tivo; we're not watching the commercials, so we just heard the end of the previous act about four seconds ago. Even had we watched the two or three minutes of commercials, we're capable of retaining the minuscule amount of information we'd been given in the previous act. Both of these tendencies have as their source the assumption that people who watch television are idiots. In many ways, this may not be an inaccurate assumption, but I hate being insulted.

4. Level 35 Night Elf Hunter. Stranglethorn. Dinged 36.

5. Today's Big Fish Game was Farm Frenzy. Oh, my gosh. Sort of a cross between Insane Aquarium and Grimm's Hatchery, although it's a better game than either (and I really like Insane Aquarium). Absolutely addictive; it's stupidly early in the morning, and I should have gone to bed two or three hours ago, but this is a just a good, clean, silly, fun game.

6. Read more in The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot. As with the Robinson book, the discussion is both on the contents of the book and the history of the manuscript, and the latter is quite a bit more interesting than the former (to be fair, I read the Gospel itself a few months ago, and reading two additional books about it relatively soon thereafter is beginning to make the information feel rather old hat).

11/29: What I Accomplished Today

1. Was the third for a job interview committee, so I helped conduct three job interviews.

2. Level 38 Night Elf Druid. Stranglethorn. Dinged 39.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 39 Night Elf Druid. Stockades and Bazil Thredd sequence.

Not particularly interested in going to bed, but I have a meeting tomorrow morning.

11/28: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded two classes, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 37 Night Elf Druid. New quests in Theramore. Dinged 38.

4. Read more in Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot.

11/27: What I Accomplished Today

1. Cable people had to fix something with the phone lines, so I had to be up early to let them in.

2. Took a nap.

3. Level 36 Night Elf Druid. Desolace. Dinged 37.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Read a magazine. Finished Robinson's book about The Gospel of Judas last night, so I started Ehrman's The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot. They go well together.

6. Level 37 Night Elf Druid. Fished in Feathermoon.

11/26: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded two classes, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Read more in The Secrets of Judas. This is an interesting book; I'd have finished it by now, but I don't want to miss information. The strongest parts are the discussions of the history of the actual manuscript. People should be beaten with wet noodles until they understand how to care for papyrus.

4. Level 36 Night Elf Druid in Desolace for a bit. Server will be down for a while because Season 3 of the Arena starts tomorrow (I don't play Arena, so this is irrelevant to me), so I thought it'd be a good time to do some auction junk.

5. Today's BigFishGame is Fashion Craze. Ugh. a. The whole game plays as though it's in the dark; it's like no one turned on the light in the work room. b. The onscreen avatar is incredibly slow and unresponsive. c. There's no way to fix that; the only upgrades are cosmetic and totally unrelated to performance or money earned. I like the actual idea behind this one, but I'm not sure how it got out of beta in this clunky stage. (I'm not convinced it did; I think it's going to be another rip-off like last year's Believe in Santa, which released what was apparently an alpha and then, two months later, released a version that worked better. Made me furious.)

11/25: What I Accomplished Today

1. Puzzle Day. We came in last; we had 20- or 30-odd blanks in the puzzle. Mojo-free week.

2. Participated in the Stranglethorn Fishing Contest! Only got to do the second hour, so I knew I wouldn't win, but I got 25 Tastyfish and a mace fish; I thought that was pretty cool.

3. Took a nap.

4. Got level 40 Human Mage her mount and leveled blacksmithing a little. Stats and mail checks.

5. Television and Pogo badges. Watched Catch 22, and then watched it again with the commentary. Very funny, dark movie. Too often, we all do work for Milo.

6. Level 35 Night Elf Druid. Finished the Tower sequence, dinging 36 in the process. Started Desolace.

7. Finished a magazine. Read more in Secrets of Judas.

11/24: What I Accomplished Today

1. Tired of the Stranglethorn quest taking up 15 inventory slots, so I started running everyone else through it.

2. Went to see Tony Bennett; just fantastic. I didn't know hearing him sing "Maybe This Time" needed to be on my "Things to Hear Before You Die" list, but it did. Check.

3. Finished reading Tomorrow Will be Bright, a book about the migration of my ancestors' migration into Ohio. This is a comfort-book chestnut, a nice little break from The Secrets of Judas, in which I also made a little progress today.

4. Got everyone else through the Stranglethorn quest; auction work.

In absolutely no mood to go to bed, but Puzzle Day comes early.

11/23: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 38 Human Mage. Stranglethorn. Dinged 39. Stockades.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Read several magazines and a little more in The Secrets of Judas.

4. Level 39 Human Mage. Dustwallow (including first aid quest) and Gadgetzan/Racetrack. Back to Southshore. Dinged 40. Auction stuff.

Don't really feel like going to bed, but it's late.

11/22: What I Accomplished Today

1. Thanksgiving!

2. Watched several episodes of The Planet Earth while working on Pogo badges.

3. Read a little in The Secrets of Judas.

4. WOW. Played the Level 38 Human Mage a little in Stranglethorn. My buddy helped me get all my characters into my guild, and I gave everyone rights to the guild bank; people loaded it up. (In fact, it's full.)

5. Played a Play First trial game. Pretty fun.

11/21: What I Accomplished Today

1. Mandatory workshop on Sexual Harassment. Got that done.

2. Took a nap.

3. Read the last three Little House books. Observations:

a. Almanzo's age doesn't square. In either Silvery Lake or Little Town, he's 19 to Laura's not-quite 14; he's underage when he files his claim, but everyone ignores that. In The First Four Years, Laura turns 19 near the time when Almanzo turns 29. Hmm.

b. The beginning of The First Four Years and the end of These Happy Golden Years don't match. I know she didn't get to edit The First Four Years as she did the others, but frankly, that beginning seems more likely than the really vague ending to Happy Golden.

c. First Four Years is rather depressing for a number of reasons. In many ways, Laura epitomizes women up until quite recently (and perhaps for too many even now): she doesn't like being a schoolteacher; she hated being a farmer's wife; she wasn't crazy about keeping house. She seemed happiest when she got to be outside and active, but that came at a cost (at first the constant refrain of "You'll ruin your complexion" was funny, but it eventually became oppressive). She didn't edit it, so it's more a summary than the other books, and that's a shame; I was looking forward to seeing how she was going to perform all these tasks we'd seen her learn on her own, and we didn't get much of that. But it almost seems to be a book about a woman being utterly crushed by her lot, though she seems quite happy about her husband and loves her daughter. She seems to spend much of the book in a daze; the baby who dies before he's a month old is relayed almost in a daze, as though, even 60-odd years later, she's still in shock.

4. Kooky thing happened in WOW. I did some auction stuff and played the level 37 Human Mage a bit, and as I was skippin' through Stormwind, some guy basically offered to give me a guild. It had no members, but it's a guild. Now I've been thinking about starting a guild because part of the new patch is Guild Banks, and I think it'd be really handy to have 98 inventory slots all characters can access without having to mail stuff around or remember who's storing what Elemental.

The trick is that, in order to invite someone to be in a guild, you appear to have to be online at the same time, and since all of my characters are on the same account, that obviously isn't possible. I'll talk to one of my adventuring buddies tomorrow to see if I can put them in the guild and make them an officer and then log from character to character for the invite. That should work.

There are actually several other things I'd like to do now, but tomorrow/today is Thanksgiving, and I need to sleep before the festivities.

11/20: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Pogo badges. Watched a Netflix movie, Separate Tables. Loneliness and missed connections.

3. Last night, I finished On the Banks of Plum Creek. Then I finished and By the Shores of Silver Lake and The Long Winter. Now I'm going to read Little Town on the Prairie.

4. WOW auction junk.

11/19: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Last night, I finished Little House on the Prairie. I'm almost done with On the Banks of Plum Creek now; I'll probably start the next one (which I believe is By the Shores of Silver Lake or some such) tonight. They're as good as I remember; she's very good with giving a sense of the day-to-day logistics. I hadn't read Farmer Boy before, I don't think. That's about her future husband, Almanzo, who spent his early years on a farm in New York; they lived very near a town, and his father was rather wealthy, so the social class is rather different than the Ingalls'. Interesting comparisons and contrast. (Mr. Wilder tells his son Almanzo that they're not going to use a threshing machine because such machines do a poor job and waste much of the grain; Charles Ingalls is big on progress and also has the threshing machine do its thing on his grain.)

4. Did some WOW auction work.

11/18: What I Accomplished Today

1. Puzzle Day. We had four weeks worth of puzzles to grade. We lost two, won one, and came in second one. Not a stellar performance. We also cooked.

2. Took a nap.

3. While I was sleeping, Co-Vivant set up the newer TiVo on the network rather than dialing on the phone. We spent some time poking around to see what some of the new features were.

4. Played Cindy's Sundaes. I thought this would be time management, but it's just a three-matchy. Not a bad three-matchy, but I don't see a need to spend money on three-matchies. The world has enough.

5. Level 37 Human Mage. Stranglethorn. Dinged 38.

6. Finished Farmer Boy and started Little House on the Prairie.

11/17: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 35 Human Mage. Desolace. Dinged 36.

2. Took home lady who cleans the house.

3. Co-Vivant and I had dinner and shopped a little.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Level 36 Human Mage. Desolace. Dinged 37.

11/16: What I Accomplished Today

1. I did finish The Last Empress last night. Then I spent half an hour or so on Wikipedia trying to figure out what elements of the book had been fact and which fiction. Lots of historical events in the book, but I didn't feel I knew the people particularly well at the end.

2. This afternoon was Literary Society; the author of The Last Empress spoke. She gave a really fascinating talk about life under Mao's Communist regime in China. I could have listened to her talk about this longer.

3. Came home and took a nap.

4. Book group. Finally discussed In the Company of the Courtesan, which it seems like I finished 122 years ago.

5. Picked up the next book in the pile, which is a rather serious book of Biblical scholarship, and just thought to myself, "No, not yet. My brain needs to play a little." So I'm rereading Little House in the Big Woods. I used to love this one, and I understand why.

6. Did an auction check in WOW, but that's about it.

11/15: What I Accomplished Today

1. WOW auctions.

2. Trying to finish The Last Empress for Literary Society tomorrow.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

We watched Compulsion, the Orson Welles take on Leopold and Loeb. It was fascinating to watch the young men, but I thought the film lost focus when it went into court.

We also watched Nova, which was a re-enactment of sorts of the Dover School Board trial on Intelligent Design. Also very interesting.

4. More WOW auction stuff, and now I need to go finish this book.

11/14: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded three classes, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 35 Human Mage. Did some mage quests and went to Mudsprocket, the new town in Dustwallow. Went to Nijel's Point in Desolace. I was just going to get the flight path and skip the quests, but I may be sorry later; I haven't decided yet.

4. Read a little in The Last Empress.

11/13: What I Accomplished Today

I usually give you the abbreviated version of the day. Today I'll do a more complete version.

1. Got up because Co-Vivant was on the phone with tech support to resolve a Tivo issue. While she was on hold, she told me she had already made a phone call that resolved a financial question we had had. I'm not out of bed yet, and so far, the day is Co-Vivant, 2; Me, 0.

2. Bathed and groomed. Put on a little outfit. Drove to Costco and had a slice of pizza and a soda because we didn't have any good sammich food.

3. Went to the office. Read my e-mails. Finished grading the class that was to meet tonight; I had already graded the in-class work last Wednesday, so today, I just read the papers that hadn't hit the plagiarism check yet and graded the online work. Updated the gradesheet and online interface with the work that will be due next week. I also printed each student's gradesheet so we could verify we're all in agreement about what's been turned in and what hasn't.

Prepared for tonight's class, verifying I had already ordered and received all handouts necessary. I had. Printed my notes for tonight and plopped them into my notebook. Skimmed the reading and the handouts and made sure I remembered how to do this one.

Checked both online classes for e-mails, discussion board posts, or other outstanding issues. Clear. Graded the course I usually grade on Tuesday (sensibly enough). This involves checking quiz grades, entering them from the online interface into Excel, and sending mail to students who have achieved particular milestones so they know they're making progress and don't feel like they're floundering all by themselves in a cold, lonely sea. (Yes, I could just have the online interface itself calculate the grades without the Excel conversion, but I think the class benefits if I actually look at each student's work each week instead of letting the computer do all the calculations. There's probably a happy medium here between automation and my involvement, but I hope to err on the side of over-involvement.)

Read my mail and ordered an exam copy of a text I'm interested in seeing. Verified that I was unable to receive an exam copy of a book I've decided to teach from next semester; found a cheap used copy on Amazon and ordered it.

Worked on the November placement data from the beginning of the month through last Friday.

Worked on compiling the rosters to make it quicker to compile student placement data at the end of the term.

Worked on the faculty survey I sent out a few weeks ago, trying to solve some student mysteries colleagues asked about. Along the way, I decided I'm going to have to gather data to see how students progress from the end of the English as a Second Language Sequence into the Composition sequence; put together rosters for that course from a year ago so there's enough time to gauge success.

Taught the class. I put the opening question on the board for them to answer while I handed back last week's in-class work and papers as well as the gradesheets I printed this afternoon. We discussed logistics (the holiday schedule for the rest of the term, what online work needs to be completed, what courses they should be thinking about for next term). Discussed the reading they were to complete for today; they actually did a pretty credible job on a difficult selection.

I do vocabulary lists in my Comp I and Comp II classes. I didn't used to, and I still think it's irritating (it's college, for heaven's sake), but on the other hand, they simply don't have the word knowledge to be expected to function in academia, let alone the adult, professional world at large. In 101, I have 12 lists, 20 items each, of Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes that are common. (We did this my junior year in high school; not only has it come in very handy, but it was sort of fun. We had two matching sets as each quiz, one matching the morpheme [we didn't use this word] to its meaning and another matching words that consisted of two more of the vocabulary items with what we thought those words had to mean. Rudimentary critical thinking; huzzah!) In 102, I have 12 lists of 20 items each I basically pulled out of thin air: three of Latin roots, three of Latin expressions, two of Greek Mythology, one of Classical history, one of French expressions, one of Biblical expressions, and one of the leftover stuff that didn't fit into the other lists. Today was Biblical expressions, so we talked about things like "Prodigal Son" and "Doubting Thomas." (No, you cannot assume that students know the references, and I can't imagine trying to read adult books and articles without that sort of basic information. Again, I feel a little cheesy having to do it, but as Grandma would say, "If it is to be, it is to be me.")

The students also had a sketch, a rough version of their last paper, due. I read them and discussed each with its writer while everyone else worked a crossword puzzle. (When I finish with each writer, that writer can turn in the puzzle and leave. That way, the people who are too friggin' lazy to get their acts together and pull together a draft can sit there and work the friggin' puzzle until the people who have done their work have already left.)


That's the portion of the day I usually describe as "Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class."

5. Came home and worked on my Pogo badges; tonight's badges were in Word Search Daily and Dice City Rollers. We watched some shows from Comedy Central while I worked on my badges.

6. Co-Vivant has to be up in the morning for her networking group, so she went to bed. Started an episode of The Bob Newhart Show for her to listen to whilst she sleeps.

7. Played World of Warcraft. The 2.3 patch was live today. It wasn't too much work to get the interface back the way I like it, although two of my add-ons, Auctioneer and Gatherer, aren't compatible yet, and it looks like Auctioneer may take a bit since the Auction House has changed substantially. I did the mail check and stats check I would have done last night had the server not gone down for maintenance and patch initiation. I also started the Level 35 Human Mage, finishing the Thandol Span sequence. (I thought I'd already done that, but I guess not.) I worked on her Blacksmithing a little bit.

8. While I played (during griffin flights and such), I read a little more in The Last Empress. Interesting book; she does a particularly good job indicating the isolation the empress feels, as we feel it as well.

9. Tried to play a little Miss Management, but couldn't get a rhythm. Finished level 34 in Build-a-Lot; thought of a technique for 35, but don't have the patience to pull it off.

Now I am tired, so I will go to bed. While I am falling asleep, I will watch today's Ellen show. I also have the Sunday Night Fox animation lineup (except King of the Hill) on the back Tivo, so if I have the energy, I might watch one of those. I also watch Ugly Betty and the TMC shows about big families back there because my Co-Vivant doesn't particularly like to watch those shows.

11/12: What I Accomplished Today

1. Today is Veteran's Day. Hurray! A holiday!

2. Read in The Last Empress more.

3. Television and Pogo badges. Watched another episode of Mrs. Pritchard on Masterpiece Theater.

4. Level 39 Human Paladin. Dustwallow. Dinged 40. Started record-keeping, but the servers went down for the 2.3 patch. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.

It looks like pretty much all I've done for awhile is play WOW. This is pretty much true.

11/11: What I Accomplished Today

1. WOW Auction stuff.

2. Read a lot in The Last Empress.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Watched a NetFlix movie, Bye, Bye, Birdie. This isn't a very good movie, but it's one I always liked as a kid; I've also played in the orchestra of the show twice, once on trap set, once on guitar. It wasn't letterboxed, and it should have been, so now I'll have to send a cranky note to NetFlix.

5. Level 38 Human Paladin. Arathi. Dinged 39. Did part of the Scarlet Monastery; I hadn't done that before, so that was fun. Finished Stockades with friends and then wrapped up the Bazil Thredd line.

No Puzzle Day today. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day.

11/10: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 38 Human Paladin. Arathi Highlands.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. I'm still thinking about Sunset Boulevard from yesterday. Gloria Swanson was only 50, and the movie seems to feel it's inappropriate for her to be sexual, at least with William Holden. (And it is, but not because of either of their ages; she is his employer.) I made the comment a few months ago that, as longevity and general health increase, women (and men, but I'm going to use female imagery) are increasingly refusing to fit into the maiden-mother-crone model and "go gently" to that good night of grandparent-hood; they are seeing themselves as ingenues, as sexually desirable and active, until death. (A survey came out a few weeks ago indicating that a sizable percentage of people in their 80's are still participating in sexual activities.)

And hurray. That's as it should be. (At least in some ways.)

On the other hand, one of the problems with cross-generational relationships (and I don't have a problem with such relationships, as long as both people are able to decide to participate of their own free wills and volitions) is that sense of Being Sexual and Seducing. There's a line in the film that, whenever she senses the Holden character is getting bored, she puts on a show for him. And the show she puts on is really quite good: she does a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty dance number and then a spot-on Chaplin impersonation. However, at least one purpose for the former would presumably have been titillation, and it's hard to imagine the exquisite William Holden (or any man of his age at the time) as aroused by the flapper number. It's sort of quaint and charming, perhaps even funny, but it's lost much of its original impetus because the images just aren't right.

As I mentioned, we also watched the film a second to listen to the commentary, which was done by a young man who had written a book on Billy Wilder and particularly the making of this film. What was interesting is that Co-Vivant is 50 and I am 43, and in terms of watching this movie, those seven years seemed significant. He made several comments about Swanson's actions being "creepy" or "over-the-top," and yeah, I was totally with him. Co-Vivant was impatient with these comments and made disparaging comments about how young the reviewer must be, I finally confessed that I was with him on these; I, too, was finding Swanson's facial expressions or hand positions or whatever creepy and unnerving. The difference, I think, is that as a kid, her dad used to show silent movies on their Super-8 home movie projector; we had a movie projector, but we never watched silents on it. I saw a few silents as a kid, but most of my experience with silent movies has been as an adult. For me, they're a little quaint and precious; yes, I can watch the movie and derive the plot and follow the emotional line and such, but it is not a natural form for me. (It's like "movies as a second language.")

I don't think they have that sense of removal or disconnection for my Co-Vivant, so she's going to see Gloria Swanson's mode of acting (which is brilliant, don't get me wrong, and perfect for this movie) as less artificial than I am. She is more the film's original intended audience; in terms of movie watching, I'm a generation younger, and that matters for this film.

4. Played Frannie's Fashion Fits or some such. Pretty good game; it's time management, but the early levels aren't painfully clunky. This one may be worth a BigFish credit; I haven't decided yet.

5. Did auction checks in WOW. Couldn't gather sufficient mojo to get much playing done.

6. Read several magazines. Finished Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time. Started The Last Empress, this month's book for Literary Society.

11/9: What I Accomplished Today

1. Getting dressed, I put on a sock with a big hole in the bottom, and I'm too impatient to take the time to change socks (not to mention not liking to throw a sock away so that I have an odd number), so I wore a holey sock all day. This ends up being more upsetting than I'd have thought.

2. Level 38 Human Paladin. Hillsbrad.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

We watched Sunset Blvd., one of our NetFlix movies. Oh, my gosh, what a cool movie. All about power and money and desire and what age does (and doesn't) mean. We watched it again so we could hear the commentary, and then we watched the featurette on the movie, and then we watched the featurettes on Edith Head and Franz Waxman, and if there'd been more featurettes, we'd have watched them. And while everyone in the cast is extraordinarily talented, it sure did sound like each was also playing vital element of their character at just that moment of their lives. There are very few films that I think would reward frame-by-frame scrutiny, but I think this one would.

4. Level 38 Human Paladin. Arathi Highlands. Also auction work. Having read various gold guides, I've come across two or three techniques that, over the course of a week, seem to have made about 50 gold or so. Now I'm obviously going to have to have more gold than that if I'm to get nine mounts, and epic mounts, and flying mounts, and epic flying mounts, but I've learned a lot this week, and maybe I'll eventually learn more and be able to keep up with the financial needs of the little community I've built. (Well, "community" is a strong word, since only one can be online at a time.)

5. I was hoping to finish Muhammad tonight; I only have 10 or 15 pages. I'm really tired, though, so I speckon that'll be on the agenda for tomorrow.

11/8: What I Accomplished Today

1. Had dum-dum food.

2. Level 36 Human Paladin. Started Stranglethorn. Dinged 37.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 37 Human Paladin. Stranglethorn. Dinged 38.

5. Read a big chunk of Mjhammad: A Prophet for our Time.

11/7: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to a training class on Dreamweaver.

2. Picked up the book for Literary Society.

3. Prepped a class, graded three classes, taught a class.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Level 36 Human Paladin. Desolace. Lack 33 points of level 37, which is quite frustrating.

11/6: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Started Muhammed: A Prophet for Our Time.

4. Just did auction checks on WOW.

5. I'm not really tired, but I have a training class at a ridiculous hour tomorrow, so it would probably be wise to go to bed.

11/5: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. I made a list of things I've been meaning to talk about but keep forgetting to, so this will have sort of a grab-bag feel to it.

4. I've seen more episodes of Jon and Kate Plus Eight, and I may have been unfair in part of my initial assessment. They commented how a babysitter was frustrated, and their take was that her frustration is because she tries to break up every little fight, which really isn't practical with six kids the same age. That makes sense to me. I rescind (or at least temper) my "wolf cubs" comments from a few weeks ago.

5. Entertainment Weekly had an article a few weeks ago about television shows with a high "squirm factor": the examples they listed were The Office, Arrested Development, and The Sarah Silverman Show. Yip. I would add Letterman, at least over the last few years as he's mellowed; Alan Kalter is invariably squirm-inducing, and then there's the crazed employee who comes out on stage and flips everyone off now and then.

About 10 or 20 years ago, I remember Letterman also being included in a discussion of "Hot" versus "Cool" Post-Modernism (and the article was so cool that this was called Po-Mo). I don't remember much of this article except David Byrne was mentioned as well, and I think he and Letterman were in the same category, although I forget the specifics. (I don't even remember where I saw the article; it might have been Newsweek, and it might have been Utne Reader.) But I'm wondering if these shows could also be fit into the framework that was established in the previous article; if not, I suspect they'd make an interesting extension of its original premise.
I don't remember it enough to formulate it myself, but I wanted to make the connection.

6. Skin care and Hygiene. We all know life expectancy has gone up quite a bit as the cultural expectation for personal cleanliness has increased; we're also beginning to see some environmental and immune negatives to this.

In a story that will seem unrelated but isn't, it's also seemed to me that the best skincare regime involves no chemicals or goop at all; it's just a) get enough sleep; b) get enough nutritious food; c) get enough water; d) keep clean (but not too clean). I've never seen studies that balance the benefits of hygiene, which are legion, with its downsides: bacteria get hardier as we become more resistant; our immune systems weaken as we live more cleanly than the human body may be able to accommodate; over-washing dries skin and hair; the environmental impact of daily water for washing and the electricity to bring it to an acceptable temperature can't be ignored. I'd like an unbiased study (not sponsored by a soap or shampoo company, for starters) that balances these and all other factors and comes up with a range of best-case-scenario bathing. Three times a week? Four? Five? I can't imagine it'd be more than five. On a global scale, three is probably untenable--but I don't wanna wash less often than that, and I'm usually happier with four or sometimes five if we do a lot or I'm more physical than usual. (This doesn't happen very often.)

7. BigFishGame is King Mania or some such. Not bad, but I didn't finish the hour; after about 40 minutes, I wondered why I was still doing this.

8. Level 35 Human Paladin. Desolace. Dinged 36. I downloaded Auctioneer about a week ago, and I've been having the Dwarf Rogue experiment with some techniques; it's not windfalls, but she's made about 15 or 20 gold over the past four days, which I don't think is bad for about half an hour's time.

9. Hoping to finish The Secret Supper tonight.

11/4: What I Accomplished Today

1. Got stuff we forgot at Costco and did the Target run.

2. Puzzle Day, but the answers didn't print, so we don't know who won.

3. Television and Pogo badges. (I finished several Pogo badges, so I was pleased.)

We watched The Sweet Smell of Success; we hadn't watched NetFlix films for awhile, so we watched one. Really fun puzzle to watch play out.

4. Last night, I placed Big Island Blends, a time management game on PlayFirst. Not a bad game, but nothing I haven't played 22 times before, and it like many other time management games, the early rounds are so slow and clunky, and the onscreen avatar so unresponsive, that it's not that big a disappointment when the trial period's over; you know in another 15 or 20 minutes, the character and machines would be fast enough to allow you to get a groove going, but by then, who would care?

I should also be working on Hometown Heroes, but the last level I played was a flashlight level, and I didn't finish it. I hate flashlight levels, so I'm having trouble motivating myself to try again.

5. Level 35 Human Paladin. Desolace. Auction checks.

11/3: What I Accomplished Today

1. Costco.

2. Plumber came to fix toilet. (I didn't know it was broken, but apparently it was.)

3. Took home lady who cleans house.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Level 35 Human Paladin. Fished. Had a Darkmoon Faire quest in Wailing Caverns; hadn't been there before, so that was fun. Got to Desolace. Checked auctions.

6. BigFishGame looks silly to me. New game on PlayFirst which I'm downloading.

7. Read big chunks of The Secret Supper; sort of a cross between The Da Vinci Code and The Name of the Rose. Nothing so far I haven't read in 22 places, and the tone is sometimes a little breather than I really think is warranted, but it's fun.

11/2: What I Accomplished Today

1. Finished mail check.

2. We went to see Debbie Reynolds today. A little breathier than she used to be, and the intonation wasn't quite as precise as she used to be, but if that's the worst that happens to me at 75, I'll be pretty grateful.

The show was at a local's casino. We walked in, and within about five minutes, we had arrived at the conclusion that, aside from a few employees, we were the youngest, healthiest people in the building. Within an hour, we added to that: After us, the youngest, healthiest person in the building is probably Debbie Reynolds.

The show was really fun; she sang a little, told some jokes, talked about her life some, and showed some video clips. Just good, clean, silly fun.

(Before the show, we had dinner at the steakhouse. That was better than we'd expected and had a really lovely view of the city.)

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 35 Human Paladin. Had some cleanup to do in Stranglethorn.

5. BigFishGame is another dumb searchy-findy. It looks like there's something new at PlayFirst I might enjoy, but I should go to sleep now.

6. Read some magazines. Finished the grammar book I started yesterday; again, I agree that the Kolln was above the reading level of most of our students. She's been using a book by Kirscher and somebody else, and I rather liked its approach. At first, I didn't at all agree with the topics covered or their order, but as I went through it, I began to understand the approach they were taking. It's a consideration; I'll have to see if I can get a desk copy for the fall.

7. Started The Secret Supper. I have no idea where this book came from, but it was on the pile.

11/1: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to the library to pick up some books I'd ordered.

2. Level 39 Draenei shaman. Dustwallow.

3. Television & Pogo badges.

4. Began Rhetorical Grammar. A colleague used to require this book in comp and stopped because students couldn't read it; I see what she means, but it may still have interesting, useful information.

5. Level 39 Draenei shaman. Dustwallow. Dinged 40. Bought mount. Stats check. Started mail check, but a message came that the server's rebooting.

10/31: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded three classes, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Didn't feel like playing the Level 39 Draenei Shaman; fished a little, but that was it. Played a little Miss Management. Played Lottso Deluxe.

4. Read some magazines and a big chunk of Water for Elephants.

10/30: What I Accomplished Today

This autofilled, indicating I already have a post of this name. I shouldn't. I wonder why that happened.

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. I finished Blink last night. Let me make a few comments before I forget:

a. Any standardized test or writing sample is an attempt to thin-slice. The Placement program I administer is rather like the Cook County hospital in Chicago's work with heart patient; we decided to reject a lot of the information we had been gathering and found we got better data.

b. This book is a good example of concrete vs. abstract. The stories and examples are fascinating. The generalizations only work to the extent that you remember the anecdotes.

c. The stuff with the facial expressions was really interesting ("a faked smile is #5; a genuine smile is #5 with #12" or some such). I'd be interested in learning more about this.

It seems like I had other things I wanted to say about this book, but now I cannot remember what they were.

4. Level 39 Draenei shaman. Started the naga in Arathi and realized I wasn't having fun; I hate those three naga quests. So I just didn't do them! Bwahaha! I am diabolical. (I know, I am lame.)

5. Read some magazines and started Water for Elephants, which is very enjoyable so far.

10/29: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 39 Draenei Shaman. Arathi Basin and Highlands. Got to the naga quests. I hate the naga quests. I'll do them tomorrow.

4. Tried to play Miss Management, but I have no mojo.

5. Read some magazines. I think I'll go read Blink now.

10/28: What I Accomplished Today

1. I think all I ate yesterday was four slices of pizza and a bag of Milano cookies. Probably not one of my better moves.

2. Level 38 Draenei Shaman. Arathi Highlands. Dinged 39. Finished Bazil Thredd in Stockades and did that little quest chain.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Read several magazines and made good progress in Blink, which is very interesting.

5. Level 39 Draenei Shaman. Arathi Basin. Had lag, so only played once. (Why do people in their 30s call other people in their 30s noobs? Are they familiar with what the word actually means?)

10/27: What I Accomplished Today

1. Lunch.

2. Level 37 Draenei Shaman. Stranglethorn. Missing Diplomat. Triage. Alterac. Dinged 38 in there somewhere. (This is spread throughout the day and night. I'm not feeling linear or chronological.)

I do not want to be in your guild if your guild's name has no capital letters. I do not want to be in your guild if the name implies date rape (like "Sapped Girls Can't Say No"). I do not want to be in your guild if you rudely and stupidly thrust your petition in front of me while I am reading my mail or looking at my bank vault. I am level 38. I have not been waiting 38 levels for your guild to enter my life. I really don't want to be in your guild if you violate these simple rules, and I probably don't want to be in your guild anyway. Please leave me alone.

3. Television & Pogo badges.

4. BigFishGame is something about Nando where you're drawing paths. Surprisingly engaging.

5. Read several magazines, and read more in Blink, which is very interesting.

6. For some reason, I just checked my Playfirst Medals. I'm not convinced they're all there.

10/26: What I Accomplished Today

Happy Nevada Day!

1. Got us our lunch, and then got us bathed. There are only two of us, and we are both adults, but some days, this still takes hours.

2. Level 36 Draenei Shaman. Desolace.

3. Birthday party with friends. This was fun.

4. Television and Pogo badges

5. Read some magazines. Entertainment Weekly's review of The Jazz Singer on DVD was odd; it's as though the writer had somehow never heard the plot, and his inability to get passed the minstrel show aspect made it impossible for him to watch the film. And yeah, that is hard to stomach, and had anyone at all been born with the gift of premonition, that would not have been the plot at all. But it is the plot. Rejecting the first sound movie because of that is like rejecting Casablanca because people smoke in it: yes, that's true, and that's ugly, but that's so not the point.

6. Level 36 Draenei shaman. Desolace. Dinged 37. Auction check for several characters.

7. Played a First Peek seeky-findy game. Didn't like it very much. BigFishGame is a three-matchy.

10/25: What I Accomplished Today

1. Had a meeting about program assessment. While on the main campus, went from office to office signing various junk that needed my signature.

2. Level 35 Draenei Shaman. Desolace. Dinged 36.

3. Television and Pogo badges. Started watching a new Masterpiece Theater, The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard. This features the actress we had best known as Bubble and various other roles on Absolutely Fabulously as a regular person who runs for Prime Minister. It's very good and entertaining. (Whenever we see there's a show on Masterpiece Theater neither of us have seen, we always say, "Oh, we'll start the first one, and if neither of us is enjoying it, we'll just stop." Almost every time, we get to the end and then look forward to the next part.)

4. Started Blink. Read magazines.

5. Level 36 Draenei Shaman. Desolace.

6. Miss Management.

10/24: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded three classes, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Still thinking about sextuplets. They only get press when they're small and cute. How do you deal with six teenagers? Teens already have issues fluctuating between I-want-to-blend-in and I-want-to-be-unique; would that be intensified for teens born in a herd, essentially? And oh, the logistics of six class rings, six proms, six sets of graduation invitations. ::shudder::

4. Level 35 Draenei Shaman. Stranglewood, just to see how far she'd gotten; better than I'd thought. A buddy wanted to go to Featherwood and train his alchemist, so I logged on my alchemist and we did that together. That was fun.

10/23: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Lots of hullaballoo today because a few days ago Rowling stated that Dumbledore was gay. You know, I think that's actually sort of cool: since it wasn't absolutely pivotal to the plot, there was no need to go into it. There's no need to bring it in just for the sake of bringing it in. I rather like that. In 20 years or so, kids may wonder, "Well, what's the big deal?" But we're not quite there, and in this here and now, I'm okay that she decided not to connect those dots in a book largely (although certainly not entirely) for children.

3. Last week, a family was on Ellen that interested me, so I arranged to Tivo some of their television show, and I saw some last night as I was going to sleep. The show is called Jon and Kate Plus Eight, and it's about a family who couldn't conceive naturally so they used fertility drugs and had twins, later deciding they'd like just one more child, so the mother went back on fertility drugs--and had not one child, but sextuplets. The older twins are now about six, and the sextuplets are two or three. I'm always fascinated with the dynamics of large families, so this was interesting to me.

* The mother is fairly honest. She is highly-strung and a little more...I'm going to say "control-oriented" than I think I might be in this situation--but for heaven's sake, she's got eight children under the age of seven. Control isn't always a bad thing.

* I've only seen two of the episodes, and of course you never know what percentage of family life is being filmed, but I'm a little concerned with the three little boys; they sort of play at each other rather than with each other. There were several shots in which we see the mother playing nicely with the little girls and everything's peachy-keen--but over on the sides, two of the little boys are just whackin' on each other. From what I've seen (which is a tiny fraction of the shows, and I have no way of knowing how representative it is), my inclination is that the family is raising five very nice, well-behaved little girls and three wolf cubs.

4. Worked a little on Pogo badges and television. Not a lot.

5. Level 35 Draenei Shaman. Wickerman. Made sure she'd finished the first batch of Hillsbrad quests. I hate the Sofera's Naze encampment. (What's a naze? Who's Sofera?)

6. Played a little Miss Management. Not a lot, and not very well.

10/22: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Took two more characters through the Wickerman thing; one more to go. Bought the rogue's ram; five more mounts to go (well, six, but the pally's isn't retail).

4. Read a little in the Math for Mystics book. Really not what I expected. I don't read a lot of books that contain the word "spellwork." This is probably good for me.

My, what a useless day.

10/21: What I Accomplished Today

1. Won Puzzle Day! Hurray!

2. Took a nap.

3. Level 39 Dwarf Rogue. Dustwallow or whatever the swamp's called. Dinged 40.

4. Finished What Paul Meant and A Dash of Style. Will probably go back to the Math for Mystics I was reading four or five books ago.

5. Television and Pogo badges.

6. Co-Vivant wonders if part of the cause of her not-quite-Restless-Legs-Syndrome is the way she sits on the couch, so it was time for her semi-annual Move To The Other End Of The Couch. (One end gets better sound reception, and the other end gets better air conditioning, so she migrates like a duck or a retired person.) This requires moving several piles on the coffee table and several things in various little niches under the coffee table, like remotes only she uses and certain first-aid supplies. (No, I don't quite get that, either. Things just go better if she's near the Neosporin.)

7. Mail check and stats check. I did the rogue through Wickerman last night, and I took five others through that quest tonight; I'll do the other three tomorrow. Over 12k in XP and over 4 gold. That's worthwhile.

10/20: What I Accomplished Today

1. Level 39 Dwarf Rogue. Arathi. (Also provided lunch. Way more work than it should have been. Ended up having food delivered.)

2. Worked on puzzles for Puzzle Day tomorrow.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 39 Dwarf Rogue. Finished Arathi. Did Wickerman quest for Hallow's End; worth a friggin' fortune. Started Dustwallow.

5. Read a little What Paul Meant.

6. Played a little Miss Management.

7. Not particularly tired, but I need to go to bed so I'm not a totally bitch for Puzzle Day tomorrow.

10/19: What I Accomplished Today

1. Meetings for School and Department. Interesting information, but not a thing that couldn't have been sent in an e-mail.

2. Came home and napped.

3. Because of meetings, I wasn't able to go to award dinner for mother-in-law. She didn't win, but for being nominated, she'll be inducted into a Hall of Fame, which is cool.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Level 39 Dwarf Rogue. She should work on Honor in PVP venues, but I'm not that interested. She should finish the Deadmines so she can get the final quest in the Stockades so she gets the Seal of Wrynn; I don't think she will. I've finished the Deadmines eight times. I don't really care if I do it nine. It's a nice ring, but I don't think I can stand to do the Deadmines again (at least, not unless I want to farm wool & linen for some reason).

6. Read more in What Paul Meant. He argues persuasively that Luke alters important facts in Paul's life, but I haven't seen a discussion of "why" yet. That's what I'm curious about now.

Not a terribly productive day.

10/18: What I Accomplished Today

1. I don't think I mentioned that I finished What Jesus Meant two nights ago. I've been reading What Paul Meant. Wills' contention, or one of them, is that Luke had various reasons for relaying the life of Paul in ways that are inconsistent with what he himself says in the letters; that's been an interesting discussion.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 38 Dwarf Rogue. Arathi. Dinged 39. Mail check; having a hard time keeping track of who needs who for the Book Chapter quest. Also worked on professions so that people have auction items for the weekend. (I still have seven...well, six mounts to buy. Can't miss weekend auctions.)

4. Played some Miss Management.

I have meetings tomorrow, so I'd best get to sleep.

10/17: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to a meeting for Professional Development for the school district; I'm my college's representative. Very interesting and informative.

2. Taught a class.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 38 Dwarf Rogue. Alterac. Hallow's End started. Took the rogue through the sequence; I don't think I'll do it with anyone else because it just leads to little funny silly treats that put you in costumes for brief periods of time. Not that thrilling.

5. A little Flo, a little Build-a-lot.

10/16: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to a software demo. Didn't see that it did anything that I would like to have done that can't be done with current software.

2. Prepped two classes, graded three classes, taught a class. (I have to cancel tomorrow's office hours because of a meeting, so the work that would normally happen then had to happen today.)

3. Television and Pogo badges. (This, of course, also encompasses General Hangin' Out and Conversing.) Watched a particularly interesting Nova about the circumstances around the genome that causes certain genes to be active or inactive. (This has a name that will be a second-nature word soon, but isn't yet, and I'm not coming up with it right now.)

4. Level 37 Dwarf Rogue. Stranglethorn. Dinged 38. First Aid quest and Racetrack & Theramore clean-up (including finishing Missing Diplomat).

5. Played a few levels of the Hometown Heroes. It's fun, but I don't want to play 30 or 40 levels in a row like I used to want to. Also played Build-a-Lot for awhile.

6. Read a little in What Jesus Meant; the last 25 pages are taking awhile because there's stuff I actually want to know.

10/15: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 37 Dwarf Rogue. Fished. Stranglethorn.

4. Yesterday's BigFishGame was a Sudoku thing; I played 30 minutes or so before I decided I wasn't really having any fun. Today's is Mahjong Roadshow. (Hasn't Mahjong Roadshow been the BigFishGame of the day two or three times before?)

5. Thought I'd finish What Jesus Meant today, since it isn't very long, but that probably isn't going to happen. I'm pleasantly surprised by the book.

6. I have a training class tomorrow morning (not early in the morning, but morning, nonetheless), so I should go get some sleep. We'll see if I actually do, but that's what should happen now.

10/14: What I Accomplished Today

1. Puzzle Day. We brought sammich stuff. Then we lost.

2. Took a nap.

3. Level 36 Dwarf Rogue. Desolace.

4. Television and Pogo badges. Watched Bill Maher (only New Rules; everything else just feels like work, lectures delivered by people, most of whom are less informed than I) and Bill Moyer.

Co-Vivant wanted to watch a show that several calendars concur that December 21, 2012 will be the end of civilization as we know it. I'm not convinced. The claim was that the I Ching was one of the concurring calendars, but it was an extrapolation from I Ching that is unconvincing to say the least. The internet spider predictor--oh, for heaven's sake. Interesting coincidences, certainly, but let's not use it to plan, shall we? I know History Channel has to air the occasional sensational piece because they do well in the ratings, but really. (And the hysterical tone of voice of the narrator sounds less urgent than in need of some sort of medication.)

5. I did finish In the Company of the Courtesan last night and started What Jesus Meant because a woman in book group is reading his new book and wants to read this one and the Paul one, which I'll read next; then we'll swap.

6. Level 36 Dwarf Rogue. Desolace. Dinged 37.

10/13: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to two really good sessions at the Conference before we presented. It went pretty well.

2. Book group. Had not finished the book (In the Company of the Courtesan), but I wasn't alone. Apparently, the book takes an unusual plot turn, so people didn't want to talk about it until everyone had finished it; we'll do it again next month.

3. Came home. Co-Vivant had low blood sugar.

4. Checked mail & auctions in World of Warcraft. Do not have the energy to play.

5. I think I'll see if I can finish this book before I go to sleep.

10/12: What I Accomplished Today

1. Didn't make it to conference at all; house has apparently gone insane.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Got mount for Level 40 Draenei Warrior. Level 35 Dwarf Rogue: Alterac, Stranglethorn, and Desolace. Dinged 36.

4. BigFishGame looks dumb.

5. Read more in In the Company of the Courtesan. I was hoping to have this read before book group tomorrow, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

6. The stench from this mouthpad make my lips taste funny when I lick them. I hope it wears off soon.

10/11: What I Accomplished Today

1. Met with colleague about conference presentation we're giving on Saturday.

2. Read various magazines and made more progress in In the Company of the Courtesan.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 39 Gnome Warlock. Arathi Highlands. Dinged 40. Trained, getting Felsteed. Hurray! First mount!

Stats check & Mail check. Between Warlock & Warrior, enough money so that Warrior should be able to buy mount tomorrow. Yahoozie!

5. I need to go to bed so I can go to the beginning of the conference tomorrow. I'd really like to go to the keynote; the speaker is the editor of one of the more useful journals, and I'm sure he'll have really interesting, important things to say, but I really, really hate 9 in the morning. So we'll see.

10/10: What I Accomplished Today

1. I think I mentioned that Monday started with a plumbing leak and a dryer vent issue. Yesterday started with Co-Vivant figuring out the guy who had come out to fix the plumbing thing went in through the wrong clean-out and Bad Things Happened. (I have no idea what that sentence means.) Today started okay, but the electricity went out at noon. She's not having a good week.

2. Prepped a class, graded four classes, taught a class.

3. Television and Pogo badges. Personal Challenge Marathon! Unfortunately, the sight was slow, so I didn't get to work on all of my badges. (I have seven right now: the two weekly, the three Personal Challenges, my Word game Premium Album badge, and my Mix 'n' Match album.)

4. Level 39 Gnome Warlock. Soloed Dead Mines (hurray!). Finished Stockades quest and got that way cool Seal of Wrynn ring. Pleased and smug.

5. Played a little Hometown Heroes.

6. Read a little more in In the Company of the Courtesan.

10/9: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to lunch with Co-Vivant. We went to Steiner's; we'd heard of it but hadn't been there before. Pretty good.

2. Prepped a class, graded a class and parts of two others, taught a class.

3. Television and Pogo badges. Watched Koppel's report on the California prison system; depressing, but interesting.

4. Level 39 Gnome Warlock. Played a little in Arathi Basin. We got a new mouse mat when we were at Star Trek: The Experience for Co-Vivant's birthday, and it still has that horrid New Rubber Mouse Mat smell. (The plastic ones don't smell, but they also don't give you any traction with your mouse.) I hope this smell goes away soon; I don't even wanna sit here and play while this mouse mat still has a smell.

5. Not reading Math for Mystics because this month's book for the book club came and I realized I only have until Saturday evening to read it.

10/8: What I Accomplished Today

1. When I woke up, the toilet had backed up. My Co-Vivant thought the school had Columbus Day off, so necessary undergarments were in the washer. The problem was that, as we put them in the dryer, the vent came loose, so that delayed the whole laundry thing. She had already called the plumber, but during my "I-am-not-really-awake-please-don't-talk-to-me-yet" part of the day, I was trying to help with damage control. The whole day is weird when you don't get groggy time.

2. Prepped a class, graded a class and two partial classes, taught a class.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 38 Gnome Warlock. Alterac. Dinged 39.

5. Played some Flo: Hometown Heroes, but had no mojo. Played some Build-a-Lot; better mojo, but still not quite up to my normal standard of mojo.

6. Read a little in Math for Mystics. A little more airy-fairy than I expected; I expected a discussion of the link between math and mysticism, but not one written by a Wicca. It's certainly interesting, and the perspective is one I don't see often, but I was expecting to read this book in Scholarly mode, and instead I need to read it in New Age mode. Mode adjustment is hard to do.

10/7: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to Costco and bought some stuff we needed.

2. No Puzzle Day because the Fellas are out of town.

3. Level 38 Gnome Warlock. Stranglethorn.

4. Television and Pogo badges.

5. Level 38 Gnome Warlock. Did the Artisan first aid quest (the first time!) and some clean-up in Gadgetzan. Poised for Alterac tomorrow.

6. BigFishGame is a three-shooty. Excused.

10/6: What I Accomplished Today

1. Talked to my mother. She was relieved the party last night went well.

2. Level 36 Gnome Warlock. Desolace. Dinged 37.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 37 Gnome Warlock. Stranglethorn. Dinged 38.

Nice, useless day.

10/5: What I Accomplished Today

1. Co-Vivant's birthday! Went to Star Trek: The Experience; we were both concerned, but it ended up being really well done and fun. Even the restaurant was good, fresh food instead of the franchised generic blah we were expecting.

2. Birthday dinner! This was really fun; she had a blast, and everyone else seemed to, too.

3. A little bit of badge work when we got home, but we're both exhausted.

4. Level 36 Gnome Warlock; started Desolace, but again, I'm too exhausted to have any concentration, so I think I'm just going to go to sleep.

10/4: What I Accomplished Today

1. Finished The Helm of Horror and some magazines.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 35 Gnome Warlock. Worked on Deadmines; couldn't finish Van Cleef. Worked on Stockades; finished Targarr, Dextren, and the scarves. Finished Missing Diplomat.

Man, that looks unproductive.

10/3: What I Accomplished Today

1. Spent all day thinking there's something I'm supposed to be remembering, and then I remembered: This used to be my anniversary for six years or so. Just as well it isn't any more, but it was nice for awhile. This would have been...the 17th anniversary had that relationship lasted.

2. Prepped a class, graded one full class and most of two others, taught a class.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 40 Draenei Warrior through Brewfest quests.

5. Level 35 Gnome Warlock through Brewfest quests, Northfold manor, and some Kurzen stuff.

6. Downloaded the new Diner Dash; I won't buy it until after dinner on Friday, but I've played the demo, anyway.

7. Read a fair amount in The Helmet of Horror, a modern retelling of the Theseus myth that's sort of No Exit in a chat room.

10/2: What I Accomplished Today

1. No, I don't know why I labeled yesterday 10/30 instead of 10/1. My guess is that I went off the 9/30 title and only remembered to change the month.

2. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

3. Television and Pogo badges. (This is more fun since I finished that ridiculous Backgammon badge that's been clogging up my personal challenge slot for a month.)

4. Brewfest began! Did a few quests with the level 35 Gnome Warlock. Then took the level 40
Draenei warrior; the mount possibility might be best for her. They also integrated live chat tonight, apparently, so there was a lot of lag, making it impossible to finish some of the timed quests. That was sucky; I'm hoping it's better when there are fewer people.

5. BigFishGame looks like a lame, generic three-matchy. Played Carrie the Caregiver 2; again, cute game, but nothing I haven't played before; I probably won't buy it. (I bought the original and haven't felt like it has much replay value.)

6. Build-a-Lot. This is a dumb, silly, addictive game when I'm in the right mood.

10/30: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went by Northern Trust to drop off my membership dues for Literary Society.

2. Met with a publisher's rep.

3. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

4. Television and Pogo badges. (Finally finished the blasted Backgammon thing I've been working on for a month. Hurray!)

5. Level 35 Gnome Warlock. Did some miscellaneous Alterac junk. Died. Fished.

6. Totally caught up on my magazines today. I haven't been totally caught up on magazines for six or eight weeks, so this is good.

Co-Vivant spent 8-8 or so today at a trade show; she had conferences she attended all day for C.E.'s and met various friends who aren't local for lunch and dinner. This is her birthday week, so I hope she has a good time.

9/30: What I Accomplished Today

1. Won Puzzle Day! Hurray! And Co-Vivant had her birthday celebration with her family, which was very nice.

2. Read a lot of magazines today.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Got level 39 Draenei Warrior to 40. Stats check and mail check. Her reputation is nowhere near Exalted with any level. Ugh.

Then I started the Level 35 Gnome Warlock with some run-around Warlock quest stuff. Something too exciting too far.

5. Played a little Miss Management; no mojo. Played a little Build-A-Lot; no mojo. I am apparently a mojo-free zone today.

9/29: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to Costco while lady who cleans house did so.

2. Took said lady home and went to Target on the way back. Except for the actual grocery store, that takes care of the beginning-of-the-month shopping.

3. Television and Pogo badges.

4. Level 39 Draenei warrior. Went to Gnomeregan for the first time; advanced one quest and finished another of the six. This was fun. I then went to the Arathi Highlands to make a little progress there.

5. Wrapped and organized Co-Vivant's birthday presents for the week.

6. Played a little Miss Management.

9/28: What I Accomplished Today

1. Grinding reputation for Level 39 Draenei warrior. It's all but impossible to grind Silverwing rep when Alliance never seems to cap a flag in Warsong Gulch. Blech.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Played some Miss Management.

4. Level 39 Draenei warrior soloed Stockades and then did the Bazil Thredd follow-up sequence, which was stupidly easy at 39. I had decided nobody else was doing that sequence, and then I got the final prize, which is a wicked good ring. Everybody else is doing that sequence. I need nine of those rings in my life.

I have no idea how I'm paying for seven mounts. The first character is 39. Panic is setting in. (Apparently, the mount itself isn't the hard part; the riding lessons are the expensive part.)(The warlock and paladin will apparently get mounts for free. I do not know if this includes the riding lessons or not. It seems to, but I'm unsure.) I had an idea to make some cash today; we'll see if it works.

5. Read a lot of magazines.

9/27: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to lunch. Had dum-dum food.

2. WOW. Ran five characters through the Harvest Festival quest.

3. Television and Pogo Badges.

Watched I Heart Huckabees. This was a very funny, different movie. We enjoyed it very much, but I can see that it's not gonna be a mass-market hit.

4. Ran the last two characters through Harvest Festival. (I did one last night, but it didn't count because she's a Draenei; I also did run the other Draenei through it, sensibly enough.) Then I went back to the Level 39 Draenei Warrior. Working on Warsong and Arathi rep. Tedious.

5. Played some Miss Management.

6. I expect I'll finish Reading Without Nonsense tonight. Smith has some very good common-sense observations (programmatic education methods don't work because people aren't Skinner boxes), but on the other hand, I'm not sure I agree with him that there's no such thing as dyslexia, however. Interesting and thought-provoking.

9/26: What I Accomplished Today

1. Prepped a class, graded three classes, taught a class. Had time in between to take a nice walk.

2. Television and Pogo badges.

3. Level 39 Draenei Warrior. Noticed it was Harvest Festival last night, but that quest doesn't work for Draenei (I confirmed this, and no dice, which is a shame; at level 39, a boost to all Alliance reps would have been nice). Right now, I'm working on Reputation with the Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin factions. Tomorrow, I'll probably try to get the seven relevant characters through the Harvest Festival sequence. Next week is Beerfest, which I'm looking forward to. (Mount? Really?)

4. Finished the levels of Cake Mania 2. Then checked the High Scores. I wasn't on Local. I paid full price for this, and the High Scores feature doesn't work? Checked the global, and I wasn't on it. I'd just finished a complete sequence of levels, and I'm not on the globals at all? Highly unlikely, since the lowest in the 100 were only for a few hundred. Broken High Score Feature. I figured maybe it was for the Endless rather than the Career mode, so I played a few levels of that. Does SandLotGames know how an Endless feature works? The customers still come in waves; you just don't get to upgrade any features between waves. That's not an Endless feature. That's just an irritating variation of gameplay.

9/25: What I Accomplished Today

1. Stepfather's birthday. Called him. Didn't get a callback; he may be hunting.

2. Went to a training session for the gradebook in the Distance Ed interface. Did various chores on the main campus (library books, signing contracts, picking up mail).

3. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

4. Television, Pogo badges, and conversation.

5. Level 38 Draenei warrior. Patch 2.2, so that took some time, and then I didn't have my UI, so that took some time. Alterac Syndicate quests. Dinged 39.

6. Played some Miss Management.

7. Finished a Frank Smith book which was essentially a FAQ that was more a book of the history of psycholinguistics and its history interspersed among some random thoughts on the teaching of reading, all of which was interesting, but none of which seemed to add up to a book. Now I've started another book of his, Reading Without Nonsense.

9/24: What I Accomplished Today

Looks like I've lost a day somewhere, but I'm not sure where.

1. Prepped a class, graded a class, taught a class.

2. Television and Pogo badges. (Well, actually, tonight was less television and more conversation. I should probably be noting that; many nights are.)

3. Put together Co-Vivant's list of stuff she wants for her birthday. She is not a stuff-oriented person, so she seldom remembers what all she has mentioned in passing that she'd like to have; that is my job. However, this year, with all the delightful hullaballoo flying, the accusation has been raised that her list of stuff is stuff I want. Now that's goofy. She likes DVD's; she likes to archive things that way, so she likes to own every season of television shows she enjoys. Me, not so much. She's mentioned several books as well. Now these aren't books I'm particularly interested in; in fact, I've checked both of them out at the library for her to read, and renewed them to boot; neither of us touched them. She didn't happen to be in a reading mode in that six week period, and--well, in those six weeks, I could have finished either of those books 12 or 15 times, and I chose not to read either of them because I'm not interested in them. But everything except the specific business stuff, apparently, is something I want.

I know it's silly, and in a few days it'll be funny, but the very idea that I'm so very, very greedy that I put things I want on her list--oh, well. (Now, to be fair, there was one year in which we needed several household things, and she didn't have any particular things she wanted or needed, so I put them on her list because I had some things I did actively want--and I said right up front that was what I was doing, so we could all share that laugh together. I thought.)

I can't wait for her to turn 50. I know the actual dinner will be fun, and then afterwards, this ridiculous Sturm und Drung should be over.