We were mock testing today and I got to the the caller (first time actually). This gave me a really good seat right up front where I could see everything.
As I was watching the senior students run through their tests, I realized something. When we step up to that line and were are ON, we become better people. We are intent, focused, confident, ( Read more... )

I'm in the grocery store trapped behind a large woman pushing a cart VERY SLOWLY in front of me. As I slow down to accommodate her pace, I feel the urge to explode into action ( Read more... )

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Yesterday we had all member training in East Lansing. It was a 4 hour session in which we listened to opening speeches for the New Year, worked on focus exercises interspersed with questions of death, followed by the 4 new assistant instructors walking us through the first five kata followed by KenShiBu practice.
My favorite part was the focus ( Read more... )

Slowly slipping back into school mode. I'm waking up at 6:30 am (but still going to bed at 12 -got to fix that).
My Mom got me a light box for Xmas since she worries about me being affected by SAD in the Winter. So I'm sitting next to it this morning trying to rewire my circadian rhythms. Awfully BRIGHT for this early in the morning.

We finally ( Read more... )

Here I am crawling into bed at 12:00 AM. I'm trying to be a good girl and get to bed at a reasonable time so that I can get up at a reasonable time tomorrow.
Yes, it's true. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Winter semester. Sigh.
That break went by way too fast. Fast as it was, it still didn't prevent me from slipping into my night owl schedule ( ( Read more... )

I read a Psychology Today article that suggested a good way to bring in the new year was to make a list of the accomplishments and pleasures and things that I overcame ( even if they didn't turn out the way I would have liked) in the previous year.
I agreed that revisiting the last year in such a way would be a good way to set goals and have a ( Read more... )

Wow! My ass is really dragging.
Monday is such a long day. I typically go solid from 9:00 - 5:30 with teaching, meetings with students and office hours. From 6-8, I work while waiting for my son to get out of class so we can ride home together.
I actually really like those two hours. It's just me all alone in the building. I spend the time getting ( Read more... )

I was at one of the monthly eLearning meetings a couple of weeks ago and one of the attendees was demonstrating Google Wave for the group.

It is an interesting mashup of a chat, wicki, virtual workspace and information repository.  Apparantly, you can start a "wave" and invite others to it. Once people have access, they can collaborate on a group ( Read more... )

There was a line of about four women with shopping carts in front of me as we were leaving Costco (I hate that place) after checking out. They were walking sooooo slowly. It was like march of the zombies or something.
Speaking of which, I asked my students yesterday what they were planning on doing for hAlloween (trying to live vicariously through ( Read more... )