Crammed in between the other things

I'm back in Vegas for a few days, and now seems like a good time to decompress a bit and reflect on the last few weeks.

I finished putting the notes together for those remedial classes before I left for Catalina Island. That was a big win for me. There's a little bit of work left to do in terms of making corrections and that sort of thing, but those are relatively quick fixes. I should be able to get that done in less than an hour.

As far as getting ready for classes goes, I made it to where I need to be, but I'm not where I want to be. As it turns out, I needed to do four new preps for my classes. The two calculus level classes are new preps because we've changed the textbook (not an edition change, but changed authors -- and it's a good change). I found out a few days before I left for Catalina Island that the textbook for the number theory class changed editions, and so I ordered a desk copy and I'm hoping that there won't be too many changes in the text. But I won't know until I see the book on Monday when I go in. The other class I'm teaching is a completely brand new class. It's specifically on proof-writing, which is a more difficult topic to teach because it asks students to make an intellectual transition to a new type of idea.

But as I said, I'm where I need to be, which is that I have the notes ready up to the first exam for all of my classes. I usually have notes for the entire semester ready before classes begin, and there's just no way I'll be able to get that far with the amount of time I have left. So I will be putting notes together as I go, and hopefully I won't be too swamped with stuff during the first few weeks so that I can just crank it all out.

We will also be hiring another mathematician this year, making it the third year in a row in which we've done this, and the fourth year in a row that we've had a math search. I'm the chair of the committee, which means that I've got to put the ad together. That's something else I need to do. But this is a good thing, because it means we'll be in position to have an actual math major, which is something that I was told we were going to do when I started back in 2007.

On my way out to the island, I stopped off in Long Beach for a couple days to hang out with Justin, Janet, and Ezra. We went to the OC Fair, which is the first time in a long time that I've been to a fair. We went around and had a bunch of different foods. There was a burger (which was good, but nothing special), a sourdough bread pizza thing (which was also good, but also not special), a cube of chili cheese curly fries (which is an interesting concept, see below for more), an orange Julius (which ended up being kind of uninteresting), a large funnel cake (standard, but always a winner).

So about this cube of chili cheese curly fries... I liked the idea, but the execution was terrible. The chili and cheese just kind of sat on top of the cube, leading to a poor distribution of chili. This turned it into just a big block of potato. This can be improved. Instead of making a cube, it could have been a cylinder, like a bread bowl like what you would do with clam chowder. Then you can tear apart the fries from the outside and dip it. You could also dig in with a spoon and divide up the inner tastiness to individual plates. The only downside I can see is that the bottom layer of fries is going to be very soggy from absorbing all of the chili juices. But I don't necessarily think that this is a bad arrangement. (The cylinder of chili cheese curly fries is coming soon to a fair near you!)

The faculty retreat was very good. The theme was Micah 6:8, the morning sessions were taken from Luke, and the evening sessions were all engaging and challenging. There were quite a few topics that were touched on, and a lot of things to think about. I don't really know what to write about it, so I'm going to end up with just a scatter shot of brief notes.

• Luke 9:10-17 - Even though the disciples wanted to take a break, Jesus welcomed the crowd and made the disciples continue to minister even in their fatigue. God's provisions are (more than) enough.
• Luke 9:43-50 - It's not about you and what you do.
• (I can't remember the title of the talk) - When you look around your school, what does justice even look like?
• Mind the Gap - The values of God's kingdom are not the values of academia. Pay attention to the gaps so that you don't get hurt, and watch out for others so that they don't get hurt. Speak into the gap with actions as much as with words.

On the way back out, I stopped back off to spend one more night with Justin, Janet, and Ezra. I was asked to cook dinner, and I decided to try to do what I could with what was in the fridge and pantry (rather than running out to buy stuff). So we ended up with burgers topped with avocado and a fried egg (runny yolk), sweet potato fries (that weren't crispy enough), and some parmesan crusted zucchini rings. Overall, it was pretty good. The timing was off, so the zucchini and fries were a little cold by the time we actually ate. To do it right, I really needed to try to fry all four eggs at once. I did them one at a time, and that messed up my timing quite a bit.

Three days until I leave for Oaxaca. I have a lot to do between now and then.