End of the Semester

It's nearly the end of the semester here, and as usual I'm behind in my grading.

I'm not as far behind as most other professors I talk to, but I'm still behind. And look at me, I'm writing a blog post instead of grading!

This week is the week before final exam week. Another week to get through, then exams to grade, and the summer can start.

I have a lot of tasks planned for the summer. I always do, and get to only a portion of them, but here are some of the highlights. Check back here in the fall to see what I actually managed to do.

Put Up A Slide

My daughter loves slides, so I want to get one that she can use and set it up. She also loves swings, so maybe it'll be a swing set and slide combination.

Research Project

I'm helping another professor with a research project, and this summer is when the bulk of my portion of the work should be done.

Origins

June is the time of the year for Origins, one of the two big annual gaming conventions. We go every year for four days of non-stop gaming. Then we come home and crash for a week.

Vacation

We haven't taken a real vacation in, well, forever. The sort where you take a week or two and go somewhere and enjoy yourselves. We're still talking about where to go, so if you have any suggestions, let us know.

Online Work

I do a lot of online work, creating websites for myself and others. That work will continue over the summer.

Prepare for Fall Classes

Every summer I tell myself that by fall I want to be completely prepared for my classes. It never happens, but I'm telling myself that again this summer. I want to have books picked, syllabi written, and notes and assignments created for all my classes before the fall semester starts.

Exercise

Before our recent move, we worked with a great personal trainer who managed to keep us more or less in shape. We haven't found anyone similar after the move, so we'll see what we can do on our own.

Family Time

I plan on spending a lot of family time this summer. My daughter will be three years old in June, and she's a lot of fun to be around. We'll probably make a lot of trips to local playgrounds.

And there are probably a dozen other things I've forgotten that should be on the list. That's okay, I doubt I'll get all of the ones I remembered done, anyway!

Stargate Goodness

Okay, so I'm optimistic.

I recently bought the big collection of all the Stargate episodes, over 50 DVDs full of every season of the show, plus all the "making of" specials that have been done. When this monster package first came out, it was priced near $300, I think. That seemed reasonable to me, but I didn't have the money.

I have the money now, so I hopped onto Amazon and found that the price was $160 something. I grabbed it, and the new Ark of Truth DVD (a made for DVD movie continuing the Stargate saga).

So when am I going to have time to watch 10 seasons of Stargate? I figure it'll probably be about the time my two-year old daughter goes away to college. Maybe I'll be lucky and she'll become a science fiction fanatic like me, and we'll cut a few years off that estimate.

Oh, and I must have bought when the stars were right...I just checked, and the price is up to $230. Lucky me!