Be the way

And the days just slip on past. Welcome to the new faculty speedway. Yeah, it’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last entry, but there’s way too much that’s occurred to actually try and keep up with events. Probably best not to even try.

I had breakfast with the Dean of Arts and Sciences this morning. Apparently a thing that new faculty get to do. It was pleasant enough experience. I’m still new enough to this faculty gig that the novelty of being a grown up is fun. The Dean’s live on the other side of campus. The nice side of campus where all the old liberal arts buildings are. Quite lovely actually, particularly since the weather is cool today, so the walk was nice. I even got to keep the mug. Now I know why professors always have that coffee mug with college seals on their desks. They get it from having breakfast with the Dean, or some other such rites. Just one of the small rituals nobody ever talks about. But I’d guess here on campus, you’d be able to tell when the new faculty get their breakfast with the Dean by watching their desk for the appearance of a garnet colored coffee mug.

Garnet & Gold. The school colors of the FSU Seminoles, or ‘Noles’ as they are apparently referred to locally. It took us a while to figure out what noles meant. Just slow on the uptake I guess.

Anyway, finally settling into the swing of things. My office now has all it’s furniture, and even some books on the shelves. Getting into the rhythm of meetings and teaching and meetings. Still need to integrate some research into that somehow, but piece by piece it’s coming.

I’m actually quite enjoying my teaching duties. Thankfully, I’m relatively free of performance anxiety, which has always been a bit of a help. Talks and lectures are not a hurdle for me. Indeed, my current assignment is really quite pleasant, as I have almost no control over student grades, but work almost entirely as an enabler. I’m just there to help students learn the information, work their problems, pass exams, etc. I’m coordinating the labs, but the grad student TAs are running things there. Really I just have to herd the TAs and drop in to lab on Wednesdays and interact with the students a bit. Thankfully, I don’t have to grade the labs, or even stay for the entire lab session. Just enough to get a bit of interaction and then out again.

Ding... Time to wash my bowl.

Jumpy Little Black Dots What Bite the Boy!

So for those of you following the great spot mystery, here’s the update... After waiting for the ‘pox’ to develop, we discovered they weren’t. No blisters, no scabs. So we thought it might be hives, perhaps a reaction to raspberry jam. However, by this last weekend, the spots were multiplying again. A trip to the clinic led to the official diagnosis that they were unexplained red spots, “maybe some kind of viral infection”. Sigh.

However we’ve since discovered that we have a flea infestation, and that Laz seems to be particularly tasty to the little bastards. Unfortunately for the bugs, mom and dad’s Buddhist leanings toward non-violence end when the cheeky little buggers attack the boy. So last night we brought in the heavy weapons, (a vacuum cleaner built like a Russian tank, and chemical warfare in the form of a powder made of, amongst other things, peppermint and cinnamon oil.) Initial prognosis looks like we substantially reduced the population of the bouncy little buggers, though I suspect there will need to be a second wave to truly clear them out.