Get up to speed
It's been forever since I've made a post, so I'm going to have a really quick thing here that really just serves to highlight some key bullet points in my life lately. I'm also making this public. Sorry there isn't more emotional content to this, but this seems to be what happens when I get lazy about LJ.
Sarah and I:
Sarah and I have still been dating, mostly long-distance. This past April, she came to visit me in Georgia for her birthday. I took that opportunity to propose, and she accepted :-) We're slated to be married in Pittsburgh on June 7, 2014 (which marks the three-year point for us). Outside of that, though, we still need to plan more details.
We see each other from time to time. We had a long summer vacation together from May through July. We try to mix up whose family we visit. More importantly, she finished her Associates program in Graphic Design (at Pittsburgh Tech Institute) at the beginning of October, so she's out of school. She's planning on moving to my apartment sometime around the Christmas holiday.
Teaching:
I've still been teaching at UGA. It has gotten to be a bit easier. Last spring, for example, had me running four courses, but it felt like a pretty well-oiled machine. Heck, I even think I found myself ok running Precalculus! Ironically, it was easier for me to have the course meet LESS often (only twice a week for 1.5 hours each), because then I could distribute comprehensive handouts and coordinate my examples with the handouts.
This semester has been the first where I'm getting to teach things I've never really taught before: it's the Math 4000 course which does beginning-level abstract algebra. I've basically flown by the seat of my pants for that course, and I know I've taken the pace slower than the other instructor. However, I think it's been fairly rewarding, and I haven't messed anything up too badly. I will have to discuss pretty soon, though, whether this is something I want to do again. Running a course this high-level really places a different level of expectation on the students, and I don't know if I like it.
Running:
For the most part, I found myself focusing on half-marathons again. However, I got news about joining a full-marathon team for the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October 2013. I figured it was a good way to try getting into a marathon again, and it would also give me a way to spend part of my summer productively by starting my marathon training early.
This plan sort of worked, but it definitely had difficulties. I had multiple restarts where I couldn't go longer than 12 miles before pooping out, which led me to rethink nutrition patterns and some pacing. I made some big changes with my running schedule, exploring some of the other resources that Athens had for runners. I did some track workouts with the Catholic Center group, and I probably overdid it, but I admit it made me feel stronger and probably faster too. More important details will come in a separate post.
Sarah and I:
Sarah and I have still been dating, mostly long-distance. This past April, she came to visit me in Georgia for her birthday. I took that opportunity to propose, and she accepted :-) We're slated to be married in Pittsburgh on June 7, 2014 (which marks the three-year point for us). Outside of that, though, we still need to plan more details.
We see each other from time to time. We had a long summer vacation together from May through July. We try to mix up whose family we visit. More importantly, she finished her Associates program in Graphic Design (at Pittsburgh Tech Institute) at the beginning of October, so she's out of school. She's planning on moving to my apartment sometime around the Christmas holiday.
Teaching:
I've still been teaching at UGA. It has gotten to be a bit easier. Last spring, for example, had me running four courses, but it felt like a pretty well-oiled machine. Heck, I even think I found myself ok running Precalculus! Ironically, it was easier for me to have the course meet LESS often (only twice a week for 1.5 hours each), because then I could distribute comprehensive handouts and coordinate my examples with the handouts.
This semester has been the first where I'm getting to teach things I've never really taught before: it's the Math 4000 course which does beginning-level abstract algebra. I've basically flown by the seat of my pants for that course, and I know I've taken the pace slower than the other instructor. However, I think it's been fairly rewarding, and I haven't messed anything up too badly. I will have to discuss pretty soon, though, whether this is something I want to do again. Running a course this high-level really places a different level of expectation on the students, and I don't know if I like it.
Running:
For the most part, I found myself focusing on half-marathons again. However, I got news about joining a full-marathon team for the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October 2013. I figured it was a good way to try getting into a marathon again, and it would also give me a way to spend part of my summer productively by starting my marathon training early.
This plan sort of worked, but it definitely had difficulties. I had multiple restarts where I couldn't go longer than 12 miles before pooping out, which led me to rethink nutrition patterns and some pacing. I made some big changes with my running schedule, exploring some of the other resources that Athens had for runners. I did some track workouts with the Catholic Center group, and I probably overdid it, but I admit it made me feel stronger and probably faster too. More important details will come in a separate post.