My first week of classes went well, I think. I was a little worried about my precalculus class because they aren't particularly interactive, but I think I'm starting to break the ice with them. My super-remedial math class is an unusual case. They seem to be able to perform the calculations I give them, but they seem rather detached from the class. I don't know what that means.
Politics has been fun this week. Obama's speech on Thursday night, immediately followed by McCain's surprise VP announcement makes for great TV drama. I found a little bit of irony in Obama's speech that I think is worth noting. Right towards the end of the
speech, he says, "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things."
Then if you go back and read the transcript, you see that this is exactly what he does. I never really bought the new politics thing, so I suppose I'm more alert to listening to him in that light, but I think it's very amusing that as different as he is trying to make himself seem, it's still just the politics of old.
McCain's choice is really unusual, and I'm waiting to see how it plays out. He is the underdog this time around, with so many signs pointing towards a Democratic landslide victory, so I understand the need of his campaign to make a gamble. If Palin does well, McCain has a better chance of pulling off the big upset. But if she does poorly, it's all over for him.
But enough rambling about politics.
The church is doing a carnival in a couple weeks, and I'll be helping out with it. This will be my first time being involved with the church in some community-focused event. I would also like to invite one of the new faculty (who has a young daughter) to go to it as well. I don't know her religious background, but I also don't think it really matters. It's a carnival.
The temperature is dipping right now, so I think this is the start of the moderate seasons. It's going to be below 100 for a few days, but creep back up to just a hair over 100, but then it should really start dropping for good (well, until next summer).
I went to realtor.com and browsed through houses and condos in the $100,000 - $150,000 range. In the three zip codes I looked at (89014, 89015, 89074), there were 122 places listed. I'm going to try to track these weekly to see how many new places come on the market and how fast they move. I don't know how much house I can afford yet, but at first glance I might be aiming a little low. I might be able to afford a $200,000 place because of a high FICO score. But I don't need to buy a huge place. A 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment is already big enough for me to be very spread out (and sparsely furnished). If I go up to a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom place, I might have a whole lot of extra space that may not be all that helpful. Potentially, Daniel would be a renter, but that's much too far away.
