Couple things. First of all, the serial blinker has struck again. I just got back from GVSU orientation where, after suppressing countless yawns while they talked about libraries and buses and tech support, I waited in line to have my picture taken for my student ID card. After the presentations, half the crowd stampeded over to building C and got in line. I was something like thirty-second out of about one hundred. Or something. The specifics aren't important, what matters is that there were a whole lot of people behind me, bored and tired and growing more impatient all the time, and I couldn't take a decent picture. The flash seemed to be perfectly in sync with my blink reflex, which, sadly, I can only consistently suppress by holding my eyes WIDE open like I'm really surprised. I was almost doing that by attempt number five, and the girl was telling me about how flexible their hours were, suggesting that I come back later when someone has adequate time to devote to capturing my open-eyed self. Thankfully, attempt five worked, and I was out of there.

While I stood in line, I had time to admire my surroundings. Maybe U of M has spoiled me. A few people have said things to me asserting that this is decidedly so (something about class called Arrogance 101 required freshmen year...absolute tosh, if you ask me). Anyway, I was always under the impressions that universities were supposed to be places of proud, solemn tradition, places of gravitas, not places with striped awnings, fake palm trees, and indoor faux cabanas. Perhaps I just need to diversify my definitions and expectations a bit. We shall see.

For the past two days we've had tech training workshops at school. This year, my students will create digital narratives and podcasts, among other things. To be able to teach a room full of sixteen-year-olds to do this, us teachers had to learn first, so yesterday I facilitated a discussion that became a podcast, and today I made this little gem (see if you can recognize the parts I lifted from a former blog entry). It's rough and simple, but it was my first try, so judge it gently if you feel the need to judge at all.

And there were even more stories to tell, but a certain Mr. Blair recently got to them first, thus draining all of my narrative momentum. They will wait for later.