Completely Random Bullets of Crap and I Forgot What I Was Just Doing

• Hmm, there's something I was supposed to look up/do online just now, but I have already forgotten what it is, so I opened up blogger. Here I am! I hope I jog my memory loose.
• So far today I have done 3 cc apps, which is good, and will probably try to get ahead on some more. Unfortunately, the next one due (soon!) has a crapload of special attachments I have to create from scratch and I have no desire whatsoever to create new and exiting sample teaching materials. I have lots of new teaching materials to prepare for my actual courses this semester!
• Also on my list of things to do this weekend is everything I absolutely hate doing, like read my student evals from last semester (shudder) and clean out the inbox and voicemail for my office phone. And clean the apartment up a bit more. Oh, the to-do list is waaaaaay longer than that but the jobs/evals/emails are what always turn my stomach in knots.
• Classes look cautiously ok so far but interestingly several of the students who made the most interesting and useful comments in class have already mentioned they are not from the area. As in, "When I used to live in _____ City [not so far from where I grew up] they would talk about this issue in the news and [make some sort of brilliant and insightful analysis of their own here]." Interesting. Meanwhile in the course of our first-day brainstorming about which type of media do they think has the most influence on us today, several of the other students have already said that coming up with a list of different kinds of media that exist is "too hard." Mind you, "television" was already up on the board. It's an interesting little data point about "fit," I think. I need to get me back to a city! And I would love to see what sort of curriculum is going on in our local and regional high schools. I mean, I probably wouldn't. But it is so strange to me that I can bring in activities and assignments that people are clearly using all over the place and at the community college level and something is "off" about how they work here.
• I have two new to me classes to prep from the ground up this semester ---- I mean, I've mostly prepped them, but I'm back in that lovely place where I get up in the morning and go, "oh yeah, I have a vague idea about what we should cover in our second class meeting but haven't actually planned the details of class or figured out how long any activities will take arrrgh!" This will be fun. Another reason why I need to get all my job apps out at the very beginning of the semester.
• It is sunny out so I want to make sure I go outside today and take a nice walk somewhere. I have been bad about doing that, post-tenure meeting. The problem is that, while disengaging is good, I haven't been using that freed-up time to get my apps out and move on. And the lead time/waiting time is sooooo long! I am ready to pack and run away from everything now, not months from now.
• Ooh speaking of, I had to do a lot more of the "process" things associated with getting non-renewed or whatever. I'm not going to put any of the details here, cause now I'm freaked out about what one is supposed to do ---- but really, this is not a process I am familiar with nor one that gets written up in the academic "how to" blogs or The Chronicle or whatnot. I don't know what I am supposed to be doing or what the "right" way to get fired is! And clearly there are the written policy ways and there are the "real" ways and right things to do, none of which are written down anywhere. 
• Did mention that 3 students have already stopped by ---- it wasn't my office hours but I happened to be in the office with the door open ---- to get help? On the one hand, that is great for my confidence and my sense of being a good teacher that they feel comfortable seeking me out with a problem. On the other hand, all three were very technical tech problems, so I got to learn all about tablets and our wifi and help them and call our campus IT people and try to get through, which isn't something I particularly want to do for myself. But, you know, maybe if I mention it in class at the right moment I can turn around a discussion or influence the evals. We'll see.
• I suppose I should go work more. Sigh. Or clean the bathroom. Double sigh. Or mend that stupid hole up by the waistband of those pants on top of that pile there. Triple sigh. Or I could post this and then take a nap