Thursday, January 21

 
 
YEAR:  2016 | Tags:  | | |
 
 
 
 
 

A303, Arcada, 13:10

 
 

I caught the bus today. I was there two minutes before the bus arrived, and that’s all that needs to be said about that.

I had woken up early this morning thinking enthusiastically about some ways that the three courses I start in the next two weeks could work. I suddenly had projects in mind for all of them that tied together with some of my planned research. As I result I sat down at Arcada and started making notes and Powerpoint shows. I spent most of the morning doing this, pausing only to have a conversation with Nathalie about the advisability of submitting a paper to the ELearn conference to be held this April. She more or less insisted that I submit a paper because, among other things, a conference paper is just what I need now when I am about to begin grant-hunting.

I added it to my to-do list.

Lunch was Lidl-fuelled and delicious: blue cheese on bread with tomatoes and lettuce, followed by an unsweetened quark and jogurt mix. I talked to Liisa while eating and we agreed that Two Fisted Tales of Theory was a fine title for what we have in mind.

The sun is out, the sun is glistening, the sky is trying to be blue, and I am waiting for my students to arrive. Some are here and settling in, some are walking through the snow towards Arcada, and some are messaging those here to tell me that they will be arriving “very soon”. This is supposed to be the last cold day for the foreseeable future, and looking out of the window I can believe it.

I will spend the afternoon explaining what we will be doing in the Game Theory and Design course. I will show them a Powerpoint show of the course structure in more detail than they could possibly have expected, and then explain the nature of the Secret Project. They will be suitably shocked.

Fortunately they will also be less sceptical than I had feared.

Afterwards I will write up the session on Its Learning, make some more notes for myself, walk upstairs for coffee and exercise, and listen to Flatt and Scruggs once I get back. Nashville Airplane is a very interesting late sixties album, especially once you know that it (and the fact that it reflected Earl Scruggs’ increasing sympathy with the antiwar movement) were what broke them up after twenty-odd years. Earl Scruggs singing Everybody must get stoned, and meaning it, brings a momentary joy to my heart for some reason.

People don’t have to stop growing, it says to me.