{"id":984,"date":"2019-10-09T16:47:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T20:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sheldon-hess.org\/coral\/?p=984"},"modified":"2019-10-09T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T20:47:13","slug":"belated-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheldon-hess.org\/coral\/2019\/10\/belated-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Belated update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Right now I should be grading or preparing for classes, but honestly I’m three blog posts behind where I wanted to be by now (I haven’t forgotten my WisCon promise to make a post about tabletop roleplaying games) and fighting a pretty nasty headache. So what if I take a short break to make a blog post about the very many things going on in my life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New job!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First things first: I work full-time now! There was an opening for a full-time Computer Information Technology and Data Analytics professor at the community college where I was teaching as an adjunct (in Data Analytics) in the spring. I knew I liked the students here, my departmental colleagues, and my bosses, so I applied. It’s academia, so the process took all semester and well into the summer, but eventually I was offered and accepted the position! I’m an Assistant Professor! (Hah, yes, again<\/em>. But as teaching faculty, rather than library faculty, this time.) I get to help build our fledgling Data Analytics program, which is a rare thing for a community college and an exciting development for Southwestern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This first semester has been a lot<\/em>, I won’t lie. I’m teaching five 3-credit classes and co-teaching a sixth with a colleague. Of those, only Python 1 and Data Analytics 1 (the one I’m co-teaching) are courses I’ve (we’ve) taught before, and I had the brilliant idea to go and change the textbook for Python. So for now, my whole life is given over to preparing lectures to go with new-to-me textbooks, wrangling Blackboard, planning assignments\/projects\/tests, and grading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next semester looks a little easier, in some ways: provided things don’t change much between now and then (heh), I’ll solo teach Data Analytics 1, plus a brand new course (Data Analytics 2: Forecasting and Regressions and Stuff … uh, that isn’t the official title, but if that sounds like something you’ve taught or taken, I’d love to see a syllabus!), Python again (without changing the book this time), intro to computers (which I taught this semester), and our HTML\/CSS course (which a colleague is generously willing to share materials for). There’s an experimental course in the works, which, if I end up involved, I’ll split with something like three other faculty members for a very small overage; if that doesn’t run, I’ll split an independent study with a colleague, so we can graduate the first student from the Data Analytics program(!!!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m excited to be here! I’m very tired, right now, because it’s so much work to put this many courses together and because I didn’t optimize well for sleep when I was planning my schedule for this semester. But I really enjoy teaching, and I have an excellent officemate (we share offices, here, and I had a lot of anxiety about where I’d be placed, so this is huge). Most of my department has been really welcoming and helpful, and they seem genuinely pleased that I’m here, which feels good. I’ve made some friends outside of the department, too, so coming in to work is always pleasant, even if I happen to be tired and\/or headachy now and then. And it isn’t too hard to imagine a future when I’ve taught most of my courses a couple of times and they aren’t quite so overwhelming to put together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-work things <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dale and I have reason to believe we’re going to have to move in the near future. (We haven’t been told anything official by anyone official, but we’ve received some news unofficially that, combined with our current month-to-month lease, is pretty clear in its implications.) The timing isn’t great, given everything I just said about being super busy, but then again, my commute is half an hour without<\/em> traffic, right now. So we’ve started the process of putting an offer on a house, much closer to my work and still not far from Dale’s work. (It’s so perfect! I don’t want to lovingly describe it right now, in case it falls through, but wow, it would be so fantastic if it all works out!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also adopted a bird. Well, two birds since the last time I posted. One was found flying around wild in town. Her name is Pepper, and she is a beautiful girl cockatiel. (The animal rescue named her “Matthew McCockatiel,” which is a great name, but she’s definitely a girl.) She hates hands, so we don’t get to pick her up or anything–we hold out hope that she’ll come to trust us with time–but she likes having us around, and she and Phoebe get along pretty well. The other, someone on the internet posted about needing to find a home for, and I really needed a people-loving bird, since neither Phoebe nor Pepper are especially social with humans. His name is Oliver Scribbner, but we just call him “Mr. Scribbner” or “Scribbner” or “Scribbs” or “buddy” … you know how it is with pets. He wants to hang out with us pretty much the whole time we’re home and he’s awake. He makes microwave sounds when he goes into the kitchen and tries to steal our food and is just generally a great little bird. 💛🧡 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three of our four birds (we also have a parakeet who is a cranky old man, but still beautiful and deeply<\/em> invested in bothering the cockatiels), from left to right, Phoebe, Pepper, and Scribbner:<\/p>\n\n\n\n