Well, my summer travel is officially over. I spent the last part of this week starting to reset my life schedule. I was only moderately successful, but that's okay. Real life doesn't truly kick in for another week.
The GFM conference was good, as usual. I think I ended up napping for at least part of every afternoon I was there, which is fine because part of why I go to these things is to get some rest before launching into another year. This year's theme was Connection, so being connected to God, each other, our campus communities, and the world. I don't have too many particular take-aways this year, but that's fine. One of the more interesting talks was from a sociologist that studies uses of social media and technology. She talked about the "infinite novelty" of the internet (which basically means that there's always something new), and how that creates certain types of habits. And it's true... I tend to refresh my Google News tab at work somewhat frequently (if I'm not in class) to see if something new has happened in the world that's worth reading about. So as I go into this next year it's something I'll try to be mindful about.
I also did some reading while I was there, which is a good shift. I've kind of been out of a reading habit for a while, and so it's good to try to get that going again. I read "Justice" by Michael Sandel, which is a book on moral philosophy that explores our sense of justice and different ways we think through right and wrong. I also started into Andy Stanley's "Irresistible." I'm just over a third of the way through.
After the conference, I went up to Livermore to spend time with family. I got up there on Friday afternoon. The Red Egg and Ginger party to celebrate Silas and Jalon was on Saturday. The party was fun. It was family plus some family friends, so it was nice and casual. On Sunday morning, we were intending to go to Brentwood to see Corwin preach, but Silas had a fever, and so that morning turned into a hang out at home time for me. Then Corwin and family came over that afternoon/evening, and it was more general hangout time. The trip was cut a day short because of Silas' illness. So on Monday, we caravanned down to West Covina, had another hangout time, and then Tuesday I drove back to Vegas.
I feel as though I don't have too much to say about the trip because it was mostly just restful. Although rest includes the sleeping/napping that I got in, it was also restful in the deeper sense of being able to slow down and be present with people for a while. The "sabbath" day of the conference was hanging out at the zoo with a few friends from the conference, followed by an extremely casual 2 hour lunch across the street from the Pacific Ocean, enjoying conversation and the ocean breeze. The Red Egg and Ginger party included a bit of play time with the nieces and nephews, and the hangout the next afternoon was a little bit more conversation with adult family.
But now that the rest period is over, it's time to focus back in on getting ready for the semester. I've started putting together my course webpages last week. I have a to-do list on a sticky note in my office that will probably take the better part of next week to finish. Aside from course prep, I need to start in on some paperwork for the math program, and start working on some stuff for the Data Science program. It's going to be an interesting semester. I'm teaching an evening course, which I haven't done in a while. I think that's going to mess with my eating habits a bit if I'm not careful. I just need to make sure I don't get too lazy about making and eating food. I have some ideas of what I might want to try to do, depending on how good our kitchenette facilities are in the future re-constructed Dawson building. But hopefully, I'll be able to do something reasonable there.
Thor seemed to do okay with me being gone. Unfortunately, my attempts to barricade the space under the futon was not successful, so he was hiding there most of the time my friend was checking in on him. I've gone back and reinforced the cardboard with PVC pipe to make it heavier and more rigid, and that change seems to be working. I also bought a toy with feathers, but then just cut off the feathers and used those as a toy. This seems to be working well. It's light enough that it doesn't fall straight down, but I can also whip it around. It seems to be getting a lot higher level of engagement than other things I've tried, so I'm going to stick with that for a while. I really want to get him on a feeding schedule of some type, but that's going to require more thought to figure out how exactly I want to try to do that (and what schedule I think I can realistically maintain). So we'll see where that goes.
Other things? Not so much this time. I have a small Instant Pot, but I haven't used it yet. I haven't even been around the house that much, so it's a good excuse for my piano playing to have not advanced at all in the last month. I took all of the classic video game stuff from my parents' house, and I'm trying to decide if I want to get a small CRT TV so that I can play it with the least amount of lag possible. But I would kind of like to split off the signal to the big TV because I want to see all the big pixels. So I'll have to think about that setup a little bit more and see what I can come up with.
