Teaching the same class this semester. Hopefully it will go better.

Car just up and died the other day. Probably something electrical. Haven't gotten it taken in to get looked at yet. I've been busy.

I've been into sea shanties lately. The X-Seamen's Institute have a few very good songs on the internet. I may have to purchase their albums. I don't like smooth, polished versions with perhaps instrumental backing (cf: Robert Shaw Chorale's album) as much. In some ways, I prefer the rough, out-of-tune, bad-voice-quality sea shanties of Assassin's Creed 4 (available on internet!).

On the holiday, some of the students of the department did a game day. That was fine, but after the first round of games (there was a game of citadels and a game of ticket to ride, i was on ticket to ride), the guy running it was like, let's all totally play cards against humanity. bleh. i'd already played it this year. after you've played it twice, it's amusing once every, i don't know, 4-6 months, but after that... and it was still, you know, daytime and in the office. i stuck around because all the women left and what else was i going to do, do some work? ha! but yeah, uh, i don't know, the department has a good balance of male vs female, and these semi-unofficial gaming things at the office are great, but i feel like having games like that at them really limits the scope of people who will feel totally welcome and comfortable at them - especially when the idea of playing board games at all already feels like a 'guy geek' thing to many people.

anyway, a much better game the cards against humanity is 1000 Blank White Cards. and it can be exactly as clean or dirty as you wish!

my new motto, in response to that article which advocates against "do what you love, love what you do" (which i won't read because i've resolved to stop reading feelgood lifehack whatever articles circulating on the internet) is "DO WHAT YOU HATE. HATE WHAT YOU DO." by all accounts, i'm succeeding admirably.

someday, somebody in the culture wars will start talking about how america needs a Cultural Revolution and i will be amused (darkly). what a terrible decade.

EDIT: I forgot to add, we started watching Battlestar Galactica (the new series). about 10 years behind the rest of you.