books, books, and... not books

it's been a crazy week. for the past week and a half it's been non-stop overcast and occasionally rainy, but for the past 24 hours it's been ridiculously windy and rainy (remnants of ernesto). that's all well and good but it doesn't motivate me to be overly productive.

don't get me wrong: i've tried to be good this week. i spent 2.5 days putting together Maple help files to go on the calc 3 course page for students to use eons into the future... they're in the editing phase right now, but i'm quite proud of them.

i also was on a TA orientation panel on thursday afternoon helping all the new 1st year science grad students get their burning questions answered... that was actually kinda fun.

yesterday, i even hung out with the new math 1st years again. starting yesterday and going through monday afternoon, they have their orientation to the department which mostly consists of a LOT of math lectures, and occasionally opportunities to get mandatory administrative errands out of the way. i was one of 4 older students invited to entertain them at dinner time... they seem like a cool class that will bond well together (there's generally an every-second-year-bonds-well-as-a-group phenomenon that's applied to our department for a decade or so, and i think they could be the first group on a predicted off-year to buck the trend.)

that's plenty of random topics though... today, (and last night) with all the ridiculous rain, i've not been motivated to get back to the maple webpages, work on my own math, or do anything useful to others whatsoever... so i've been reading.

* last night i polished off cocktail party cheat sheets by the editors of mental floss... each "section" is just 4 pages on a particular person/entity with entertaining conversation starters at the end. it kept me laughing for a few days.

* today, with no motivation to leave the house in the rain, i read Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral cover to cover. last weekend in philly, jessica lent me her copy. she was right about it: you can read it quickly in less than a day and it's a fun cute read. it's also full of lots of recipes at the end of each chapter, some of which i should copy down before i return it. ;)

* next on the list is the number devil. since it's at an age 9-12 reading level, it's mathematical but easy enough to consider leisure reading. maybe it will motivate me to get back to work tomorrow? we shall see....

p.s. all leigh's villagers survived the food crisis! now they die of old age instead and have begun telling jokes and arguing in their free time (neither of which they ever used to do before).