I went to the Nevada State College graduation ceremony tonight. It continues to amuse me that people congratulate me at these things. I suppose it means that I have yet to reach professor-image status.
For the first time, I was actually impressed and somewhat moved by the student speaker. It wasn't the usual 22-year old speaker who talks about how hard college has been, and how everyone has overcome obstacles, and thanks to the parents and faculty type of speaker. He was a late-30s Navy veteran who was homeless and in drug rehab only five years ago. Somehow, the story of overcoming obstacles is more compelling coming from a guy with that type of background. Anyway, this guy is off to get a Master's of Social Work and is interested in becoming a rehab counselor himself.
All my grading is done for this semester, which is nice. I actually had a somewhat lightened load because in one of my classes we had final presentations instead of a final exam. So in some sense, this means that I've completed my 4th year of being a math professor at NSC. But in another way, it's not quite so because I'm teaching a summer session class in a week. So I really have another 7 weeks to go.
I've got a couple days to decide whether I'm going to Catalina island for the faculty retreat. I've got to sit down on Monday morning and chart out the things I need to do this summer, and see whether I can afford the 1.5-2 weeks to go out to California (because I'd make a trip out of it). I'm already thinking of heading back to Livermore at a different time, and all that time not working on stuff adds up. Because of finals, I haven't really had enough time to work it all out. But now that I'm in that in between period, I can take the time to get it sorted out.
I had an interesting chat with the dean, who happens to be Catholic and participates in the faculty group that we've had going on for this year. He was sharing an interesting perspective on Thomas (Didymus, aka Doubting Thomas). Usually, Thomas is put forth in a negative light, that we should be more willing to believe and not wait for evidence or knowledge or that sort of thing. However, the disciples had been warned about being deceived by others (Matthew 20:5, Luke 21:8), so that he was simply being obedient. Furthermore, Thomas' confession is unique in that this is the only place recorded in the gospels where Jesus is called God (theos). Even Peter's confession that Jesus is the Messiah does not take this same (gigantic) theological step. So anyway, that's been an interesting nugget of thought that I was left with from that conversation.
Statewide budget stuff is still going on. Where will the final lines be drawn? Nobody knows yet. So everything is still in wait-and-see mode.
I got a check from Canada last week, which means that my poker money has successfully been transferred back to me. So now most of my poker bankroll is sitting in an online bank earning 1% APY. That's more than what I make playing poker these days (since I never play). I've been thinking about starting to do some investing, but that's going to require me to find some time and do some reading (and have enough motivation). The most likely target will be dividend paying ETFs.
I've lived in this house for two years now. My loan-to-value is 85.6%, so I guess I own about 14.4% of it. Off the top of my head, I would estimate that this means I own my closets and the bathrooms. The next milestone is to get the loan-to-value down to 80% so I can stop paying the PMI. That would be another $60 per month that can be applied to the principal. Part of me wants to try to refinance into a 15 year loan so that I can lower the interest rate, but that would be another thing that I would need to research carefully. I'd also need to consider future uncertainties in that contemplation. I don't know whether I would want to tie up more money into the mortgage with an unclear sense of what I might be making in a couple years from now. So I might just sit tight for a while. I don't know (which is why I need to do some research).
