Strange days

I woke up at around 1 pm, because my cellphone had run out of battery.

I left, punching in the code for my security system... and after closing the door, I hear my roommate running down to disable the system again. Turns out he also slept in, but for somewhat different reasons.

Get to work only to find the parking lot full. Bicycle parking lot. Thankfully, a girl was coming out and removed her cycle so that I could put mine in its place.

Salsa lesson - and I still mess up the steps on occasion, but its looking better and better each time.

And even after that hour in salsa, I still managed a 10-hr workday. Yep - I got home at midnight. But, as I told (and then sang) my roommate, "I feel good".

His comment - I think I will actually hear you crack quite soon.

He might be right. Although my guess it has already happened.

Random encounters

Today was a pretty weird day.

I arrived at the office at around 11, hoping to get 3 hrs of work before a meeting I had scheduled.

* At about 12, one of my former students from the programming course comes and tells me she needs motivation, because one of the teaching staff was pretty nasty to her. Unexpected, as I was not on duty at the counceling office.

* Before I had finished with her, the head of the institute shows up and invites me to a meeting at the Rectors office about the IT academy. At 2. Completely random.

I do the IT academy meeting, followed by another meeting with mathematicians about their part in our new curricula.

* When walking to my next appointment at the student union, I meet an old friend from physics bus days, but whom I hadnt seen for 2-3 years. Turns out she had also worked as a program manager in the mean time, and she wished me all the best with my job. A few turns later I run into the program manager for the computer systems curriculum just as I am turning the corner.

I do the meeting at the student union, go to the salsa lesson, then leave for the central square to meet Kati, the girl I hung out with while in London. We leave for my place to cook Seitan.

* Just as seitan is boiling, there is a knock on the door. It is my ex-satanist friend, asking for water (as he has just returned from jogging). Has happenned before, but still, the pun is too obvious to be ignored.

We eat, and I send Kati off to where she was staying.

* On my way back, walking over a bridge at around half to one, I notice three people enjoying the night view to the river. As I get closer, they turn towards me instead, and I recognize one - he is the same guy, I had the meeting with at the student union. Another guy also says hi, and his face is also vaguely familiar. Turns out all three are psychology majors.

They invite me to join them in doing nothing. So I get in the car with them, we drive around for a while and then I invite them over for guitar hero.

* As we are starting, there is a knock on the window, with some guy asking us if we have a cigarette. In my 5 years living here, this is the first time that has happenned.

We play guitar hero for half an hour, at which point I send them off on their way - still being visibly surprised about the completely unexpected turn of events their evening had taken.

Happens, I suppose

So, what is it that you do, exactly?

Today I:
* Moved a few dishes that were left over from yesterdays conference to my office and sent an e-mail to the caterers about it
* Comforted one of the tutors, who is having trouble deciding what to do for her bachelors thesis
* Sent an e-mail to the first year students with links and recommendations from yesterday
* Scheduled two lecturers for my "Introduction to informatics" course.
* Spoke with one of the professors about a possible curriculum change
* Had a talk with the vice dean about how best to accomodate the change.
* Counseled three masters level statistics students about organizational matters
* Found a cardboard box for the caterers so they could take the dishes away.
* Spoke with another professor about the curriculum change
* Talked with the head of the institute about an idea to teach high-school students a programming course with the same materials as we have for our first years.
* Uploaded new course plans to the institute website, which I had technical problems with and in the end the institute IT person had to do it for me.
* Helped a first year student figure out what extra courses to take for this and the next semester
* Supervised one of my to-be bachelors students
* Re-scheduled the time when I was going to start helping students with course content.
* Turned out that the uploaded files still didn't go up correctly, so I had to exchange a few more e-mails.
* Had a talk with study systems specialists to resolve the fact I had still not been made the program manager.
* Had a brief discussion with the program manager for mathematics courses and sent an e-mail to the statistics one - both about a single EAP.
* Spoke with the lecturer holding the upcoming course about the said curriculum change
* Patched the curriculum documents to reflect the change.
* Stopped by the defense session for the internships of masters students
* Given a 15-minute interview
* Spent an hour with the vice dean discussing the curriculum change
* Spent half an hour on marketing ideas for UT Science school.
* Reviewed a homework statement sent to me by a guest lecturer in one of my courses.

The game is called hot potato. If you're lucky, it is the game you will be playing for the rest of your life

The better you can motivate others to do important things, the less you have to do yourself. Or rather, the more you free yourself up to do other important things. Simple, at least in theory.

Trouble is, it gets a while to get the hang of it.

In any case - it has been a hard week. 7 days straight with 8-12 very intense working hrs, mostly with people.

And, although exhausting, I have enjoyed most of it. Three reasons:
a) Flow - I usually look at the clock only to realize 2-6 hrs have passed without me having time to notice them do so.
b) Anxiety relief - I had a fairly strong anxiety of not being able to cope with all the responsibilities I have newly received. Well, now I have evidence showing I can, and am actually doing fairly well, all things considered. It is natural to fear the unknown future, but once it actually arrives, the fear is often unfounded. This has been the case.
c) I'm actually fairly good at what I do. Or at least I do not think my time would be better spent doing something else. Not at this point in time, at least. After all, I am doing something I like doing, that also seems to be worthwhile in the long run, and also provides immediate gratification on occasion. Hard to ask for something more.

All that being said, it is very exhausting. At home, the only thing I want to do is to just collapse onto the bed and sleep. Thankfully, on most days, I can. :)

Black, and white are, all I see, ...

Black and white are, all I see,
In my infancy,
Red and yellow then came to be,
Reaching out to me, lets me see.

- Tool, "Lateralus"

I think I finally figured out the deal with Zen teachers. The students go to them always seeking approval... and the goal of the teachers is to teach the poor bastards to stop wanting to do so.

Poor Zen masters...

Also: if you have had a nail recently pulled from your eye, everything else around you suddenly starts looking like it is also in need of a hammer.