It never ends, does it?
May. 24th, 2005 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethlakshmiWell... trying to adjust to regular life. Not that, apparently, my regular life is so regular. I get the feeling that a "slow week" for me, is still more hectic than "hectic weeks" for most people.
But... I'm trying to relax. After a 13 hour night over the weekend, a trip to the mall Saturday and a Casa Moomba Plimouth Day Sunday, I have actually had at least a bit of fun. But that relaxed feeling is squashed, every time I re-enter the office. Our schedule is still tight, and full of many picky details and precious little actual engineering. I worked a full day yesterday, and sneaking away Thursday and Friday look unlikely. Trying to remember the many short weeks I take when grad school is frenzied and work is not... it's not helping. I want my life back.
Got a little life back, though:
So... among the war fronts of last week, was my new web-based class - CS503. The short story is, that due to me submitting a second version of the homework (still on time) the grader graded the crappy first copy, not the elegant second copy. When I saw the grade (40/50) and the first homework submission (which I didn't even realize was my own work, because I had rewritten it) - I got all confused and much chaos ensued.
In the end, they agreed to grade homework Take #2, as it was on time, and a correction I made with no assitance. The grade has gone up enormously - 47/50 - making the homework an A and not a B.
Got the first class of dancing Indian ladies together last night. Got 2 out of 3 locals, no long distance ladies (one in CT, one in OH). Through utter serendipity, everyone was able to arrive within 10 minutes of each other, so we were changed and stretching pretty quickly.
Got all the material covered, and then a little more - in ~2 hours. That's a bit long - this is Module #1 (out of 5) and I'm only booked for an hour. But I think I can slim it. Thoughts for me to remember:
- not to get so gabby. Focus, focus, focus.
- a few less choreography dry runs
- have demo tape queue'd ahead of time
- learn music better
- remove the explanation of mutaiya-adavu - it's day 2 and it took at least 15, maybe even 25 minutes
I don't feel bad, though. My dancers were super-attentive, showed no signs of pain and suffering (they are both in great shape) and seemed to not mind the length. I do think that it is a good plan to take longer here in MA, where we live local and have the luxury of long rehersal times. I want my local gang to be as comfortable as possible with this.
Am still brought near to tears with happiness that such nice ladies are willing to give their time to this, and that they willingly travel all the way to my place to squash in my dance room and do this with me. Now... I know that I do the same for classes I love - trekking to Somerville and Cambridge. But... well... I'm just me. I trek all that way for fabulous teachers... Can't get over how lucky I am.
Maybe it's Karma - I can't say that my recruited groups for "Crazy Lakshmi Dancy Plans" are always such winners. I've had some real unique specimens come to learn music/dancy stuff from me. Maybe I've just figured out good brainwashing... er... recruitment practices.
So counting my blessings. Have had quite a few moments in the past 24 hours to be happy about. Not to be letting sucky work get me down.
Dinner with the Mom tonight. Can't fly through 3 different timezones without needing to have a dinner with the Mom. D'oh, d'oh, d'oh. Mom's day present is still sitting on chest of drawers. Garg!! Also forgot to bring pictures. Sucky, sucky.
But... I'm trying to relax. After a 13 hour night over the weekend, a trip to the mall Saturday and a Casa Moomba Plimouth Day Sunday, I have actually had at least a bit of fun. But that relaxed feeling is squashed, every time I re-enter the office. Our schedule is still tight, and full of many picky details and precious little actual engineering. I worked a full day yesterday, and sneaking away Thursday and Friday look unlikely. Trying to remember the many short weeks I take when grad school is frenzied and work is not... it's not helping. I want my life back.
Got a little life back, though:
So... among the war fronts of last week, was my new web-based class - CS503. The short story is, that due to me submitting a second version of the homework (still on time) the grader graded the crappy first copy, not the elegant second copy. When I saw the grade (40/50) and the first homework submission (which I didn't even realize was my own work, because I had rewritten it) - I got all confused and much chaos ensued.
In the end, they agreed to grade homework Take #2, as it was on time, and a correction I made with no assitance. The grade has gone up enormously - 47/50 - making the homework an A and not a B.
Got the first class of dancing Indian ladies together last night. Got 2 out of 3 locals, no long distance ladies (one in CT, one in OH). Through utter serendipity, everyone was able to arrive within 10 minutes of each other, so we were changed and stretching pretty quickly.
Got all the material covered, and then a little more - in ~2 hours. That's a bit long - this is Module #1 (out of 5) and I'm only booked for an hour. But I think I can slim it. Thoughts for me to remember:
- not to get so gabby. Focus, focus, focus.
- a few less choreography dry runs
- have demo tape queue'd ahead of time
- learn music better
- remove the explanation of mutaiya-adavu - it's day 2 and it took at least 15, maybe even 25 minutes
I don't feel bad, though. My dancers were super-attentive, showed no signs of pain and suffering (they are both in great shape) and seemed to not mind the length. I do think that it is a good plan to take longer here in MA, where we live local and have the luxury of long rehersal times. I want my local gang to be as comfortable as possible with this.
Am still brought near to tears with happiness that such nice ladies are willing to give their time to this, and that they willingly travel all the way to my place to squash in my dance room and do this with me. Now... I know that I do the same for classes I love - trekking to Somerville and Cambridge. But... well... I'm just me. I trek all that way for fabulous teachers... Can't get over how lucky I am.
Maybe it's Karma - I can't say that my recruited groups for "Crazy Lakshmi Dancy Plans" are always such winners. I've had some real unique specimens come to learn music/dancy stuff from me. Maybe I've just figured out good brainwashing... er... recruitment practices.
So counting my blessings. Have had quite a few moments in the past 24 hours to be happy about. Not to be letting sucky work get me down.
Dinner with the Mom tonight. Can't fly through 3 different timezones without needing to have a dinner with the Mom. D'oh, d'oh, d'oh. Mom's day present is still sitting on chest of drawers. Garg!! Also forgot to bring pictures. Sucky, sucky.
