Well, my first experience as a lecturer is over and I have to say I think it well. I enjoyed teaching and had fun sharing what I find interesting about history with a captive audience for six weeks. I'll see how they felt about it when student evaluations are released to me next week.

Now, what to do? Actually its all lined up already. Reading, conference attending, and lots of research. Hopefully I will be getting down to San Diego quickly to do some stuff. I also need to brush up on spanish to get my pesky language requirement out of the way.

But in the limited free time, I am thinking of catching up on some "fun reading." In particular, David Sedaris's new book, a new mystery by Christopher Reich, and Palahnuik's new one. I also want to watch Deadwood. There are only three seasons of it, so I think I should be able to finish it.

I got to watch the cubbies beat up on Milwaukee yesterday, only making me hope even more that this is the year. The first time in 100 years? We just have to wait and see, but I think our chances are good. As for my Melbourne Demons, this season is even worse than last year. They are definitely going to get the "wooden spoon" which is the "wow, you were the worst" award. Another really bad season and they may be on the chopping block for relocation. Too bad, given they are the official melbourne team.

Musically, I have on repeat loop, The Wombats first full US release. They are from England and extremely good, can't believe it took so long for the US album to come out.

Press Eject

I don't know if its age or taste, but I have recently noticed that I have a very short attention span when it comes to movies. Either I like it or I hate it and take it out of the DVD player. I only find this odd b/c I used to watch anything. Even if I wasn't really interested in the movie I would still let it play. Not now though, 10-20 minutes and if I don't like it, its done. The two most recent to suffer this fate were "Meet the Spartans" and something called "Smiley Face". I like spoof movies, but the Spartans movie was just bad. Not funny, just gross and stupid. As for Smiley Face, it was supposed to be a "female version of Harold and Kumar." Sounds good, till your 20 mins. in and you realize it has no plot and makes absolutely no sense at all. Oh well, in the end it just makes room in my schedule for good movies. We saw "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" at the dollar cinema, a great funny movie. I really liked how it used flashbacks to provide the context for how the relationship had fallen apart. We also watched "Zero Effect". Didn't know what to expect going in, but I really enjoyed it. Good story, quirky characters. I liked the interaction Arlo and Zero the most.

So July is almost over...

Well almost a month since the last post. That's how busy teaching keeps you. Sitting in Peet's right now writing up the last lecture for the class. It's actually been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed it and look forward to doing this permanently someday. After all that dissertation stuff. August has no teaching in it, but I'll be plenty busy with attending a conference, doing research, and brushing up on/relearning Spanish. Then its off to Peru in September.

I have gotten to see most of the big summer flicks. The Dark Knight was simply amazing. It deserved all the hype. I've always enjoyed Ledger's acting and while its sad that he is gone, I'm glad that his last performance was so perfect. He is the Joker, hands down. That said, I have no idea how this film got rated PG-13! And there were so many kids in the theatre. Oh well, the parents will get their just deserts when all the kids have nightmares for the next few weeks. I also saw Hellboy II yesterday and really liked it. A fun summer action/comedy that allows you to escape for a few hours.

Well, that's all til I'm done with the class next week.

A Cat Eat Catgrass world

A real post tomorrow, but here is Madeline trying to eat her catgrass while oddly balanced in the cat tree. She's so cute when she's quiet. Its the meowing thats a little too much at times.