News and Updates

1. The summer is rapidly coming to an end but the projects I have to complete are not and that’s just how it goes in this world of expectations.

2. In my defense, I have made significant progress on the biggest project, the one they’re paying me to do over at Electronic Campus. There is even a decent chance that I’ll have it done by the agreed-upon due date of September. I confess I’m not nearly as worried about that as they are – they don’t pay me until completion, so I figure any delays are my problem. But we’ll see how it goes. It will be nice to get it off my plate.

3. I also sorted another third of the books in my home office and removed about five boxes for donation to an unspecified worthy cause at an even more unspecified later date. This brings me up to about fourteen boxes in my basement. Now that we’re mostly (kind of?) between pandemics, perhaps the various places that take such donations will be accepting of them again. It would certainly be helpful for my basement.

4. One of my rediscoveries during this sorting was a cookbook that was given to my grandfather on the day I was born, according to the inscription on the inside cover. For some reason he was in Madison WI that day. Goes around, comes around, I guess. Perhaps I will try to make some of those recipes someday.

5. I managed to watch most of the UEFA Women’s Cup, including the semi-finals and the finals. They were great games. Alessia Russo’s backheel goal for England against Sweden – “impudent,” according to the announcer – was the goal of the tournament and I hope they replay that forever. Since then the Premier League and other soccer leagues have started up again and the long Summer Sports Dead Zone has begun to pass away for another year.

6. I am watching the ongoing legal destruction of Donald J. Trump with unmitigated satisfaction and joy because I can be petty just as well as the next person, and I am eagerly looking forward to him receiving every last one of the terrible things that are coming to him for his open corruption, sedition, and outright assault on laws, morals, human decency, and the Constitution. Knowing him he may yet find a way to slither out of it, but one can dream. I will also be delighted when every single one of his minions, lackeys, cronies, enablers, and supporters likewise receives their due. I worry about the level of damage they all will do in the process though, as it is already considerable and likely to be ramped up to unholy levels in the coming months as the nets close in. It will take my country generations to recover from the damage they have done to it, if such damage can be repaired at all – it will not be fully healed in my lifetime – and there needs to be a price for that.

7. Kyiv still stands. Russia has begun to mobilize for what they now realize will be a protracted war that they cannot afford and in the long run are not likely to win but cannot figure out how to end, and it is going to get worse before it gets better for everyone regardless of how far away from the battle they are. But Kyiv still stands.

8. It’s actually been a pretty decent summer here, weather-wise. A few ugly-hot days. Some stretches of the usual “way too hot” weather here and there. But for the most part not nearly as bad as it is in many places in the world. Today and yesterday, in fact, were comfortable. Every day where it’s below 90F (32C) is a day closer to November and civilized weather.

9. I have recently had reason to be glad that I spent some time reading The Phantom Tollbooth to my kids when they were younger. It’s interesting how things come back in odd ways.

10. It’s good to hear from former students, and even better when you can help them move forward even after they are technically no longer in your care. Some days are good days.