SamR’s week in review (#1006)

Topics/tags: Autobiographical

My family is slowly scattering across the country. To help us keep track of each other, we’ve started a weekly note to the rest of the family. At times [1], I decide to share them with you. I tend to edit a bit when sharing.

Dear Family,

I hope you had a good week. Mine was pretty good although, once again, I can’t remember all of it.

Today is a palindrome: 20200202. That makes me happy.

Mom and I saw Come From Afar [2] on Wednesday night. It’s a musical about planes that were diverted to a small town on 9/11 and what happened in that town. That’s a strange subject for a musical, but it was positive and affirming. The set was simple, but well done. They made great use of the turntable in the center. I was impressed that all of the actors played multiple roles, and it was almost impossible to tell.

On Thursday night, I saw a movie about Toni Morrison that a Grinnell alum had a big role in creating [3]. It was also a positive, affirming film. But I was exhausted, which meant that I dozed off once or twice. I also dozed off once or twice at Thursday’s Convo, which was on historical Chinese literature and, more generally, about ways to more thoughtfully incorporate world literature in the curriculum. I need more sleep. Oh, I also learned that we are inscribing Morrison’s name in the HSSC. I should have known that, since there was a message on the topic on January 29. But I seem not to have read the message.

Being in two classes is a lot of work. (You probably know that.) It doesn’t help that I have work due for Justin on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and for Ralph on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I’m a bit worried about work for Ralph’s class this coming Tuesday. We are supposed to review three of our peers’ papers before class. But they don’t have to be turned in until 5pm tonight, and I have the Super Bowl tonight, a meeting in Iowa City tomorrow morning, Justin’s class on Monday afternoon, a Faculty Meeting, and then the Caucuses. I’m not sure when I’ll have a chance to do sufficiently thorough reviews.

I enjoyed watching Middle dive on Saturday. I also enjoyed making him breakfast before the meet; it was nice to chat with him and to see him prepare for King of Hearts. On that note, did you know that King of Hearts was one of Grandma Freda’s favorite movies? I should find a way to watch it [4].

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I finished musing 1,000 during the week. It’s hard to believe that I’ve written that many.

My to-do list is a bit of a problem; it seems to be getting longer and longer. You’re probably not all that surprised.

Mom and I made our plans and reservations for SIGCSE. I’m looking forward to being in Portland with mom.

I’m also looking forward to Caucusing on Monday. Did I tell you that one of the too-many candidate supporters who called today said, Don’t forget to caucus on Tuesday?

At tomorrow’s faculty meeting, we have preliminary elections for Chair of the Faculty. I’ve left my name on the ballot and have told people that I have no particular interest in the position, but will serve if elected. However, I must admit that it would be nice to be able to work with Dean Harris and a cool opportunity to work with the new president. On the other hand, my musings would have to change significantly and I’m not sure my department can spare me. In any case, we’ll see what the Faculty decide. There are certainly some excellent candidates still on the list.

I’m not sure what else is on my agenda for the week. I’ll figure it out as I go.

Love you all!

[1] E.g., times in which nothing else comes to mind to muse about, or times in which my time is limited.

[2] Mom says it’s Come From Away.

[3] Johanna Giebelhaus ’96 was the editor, lead researcher, and a producer. It’s amazing what you can do with a Grinnell History Degree.

[4] I see that I can rent or buy a digital copy from Amazon. Of course, buy is probably a misnomer, given that it likely has some form of digital protection. The license has an interesting clause:

1. Availability of Purchased Digital Content. Purchased Digital Content will generally continue to be available to you for download or streaming from the Service, as applicable, but may become unavailable due to potential content provider licensing restrictions or for other reasons, and Amazon will not be liable to you if Purchased Digital Content becomes unavailable for further download or streaming.

I can buy it and not have access to it. That seems fair [5]. You’d think that Amazon would have a responsibility to return my purchase price in such cases. Isn’t that what happened with 1984?

I could also purchase a DVD Blu-Ray Disc or a combined region 2 version. There are other issues with the long-term accessibility of these, too. Now I wonder if the Amazon stream is 4K.

[5] There must be a better way to include sarcasm in written text.

Version 1.0 released 2020-02-02.

Version 1.1 of 2020-02-02.