Instead of trying to come up with a theme for my summer vacation post, this year I went back through my photos and social media posts to try and sum up my summer. Here goes!
PHD Comics: Summer https://t.co/8k2pKGKaTA via @phdcomics
— Karsten Loepelmann (@kloepelm) June 13, 2018
It is so true, summer is a time to try and work uninterrupted (by teaching at least). I was home with my kids a lot of the time, so there still were interruptions. (I swear, those kids want to eat lunch like EVERY DAY.)
Instead of adding material to my courses, I spent my time scrutinizing my lecture notes overall, and my PowerPower slides in particular. I have increased the legibility, readability, and flow of my lectures, in addition to rewriting material for clarity and understanding. I have converted all physical media to digital files in anticipation of changes to the classroom computers by IST. That also meant spenting several hours with IST staff trying to fix problems, both old and new, with their systems. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of confidence that everything will be running properly by the time the term starts. (Be prepared for your instructors fumbling and cursing a lot!)
Summer isn't all about work, though. There's time for a family trip. After visiting BC last year, we just stuck to Alberta for a short trip--Aspen Beach, Calgary, and Drumheller. After skipping the Calgary Zoo for a few years, we had to go back to see the pandas. My youngest daughter was so excited...and then so disappointed. The pandas just slept. The most action-packed moment was when one of them scratched its ear. Wow. To make up for the disappointment, we bought her an ice cream cone. Then a fly landed in it and everything went to hell. Yeah, good times.
Don't see how they can do kung fu.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum is always worth a visit.
Hoodoo? I dunno.
Who wants to see pictures of Aspen Beach when I could
show you the delicious cannoli at Sweet Capone's in Lacombe?
Ugh, I thought the smoke was bad last year. The BC forest fires brought clouds of smoke again this summer, especially in August. When it's an otherwise nice summer day with wretched air quality, at least I don't feel bad about being at my computer and working all day.
While my wife wasn't looking, I slipped a jalapeño plant in among her annuals when she was buying bedding plants this spring. (Ain't I a stinker?) I didn't have great hopes, but it exceeded all expectations, growing about a dozen peppers. I think I'll pickle them.#nofilter, we swear. It's that smokey today here in #yeg. With all this smoke, the air quality index is "very high" at 9. For more on our EAS live weather cameras, check the link in our bio #yegsmoke #uofa #weathercamera #panaromaview pic.twitter.com/Nbq7MKFI6q— UofA EAS Department (@UofA_EAS) August 15, 2018
Right at the end of August, the Department of Psychology held its annual Welcome Celebration. It's to welcome new graduate students, post-docs, and faculty members, and celebrate our accomplishments over the past year. Although I claim to go just for the food, it's really to hear the speeches. And lookit the nifty two TUTAs (Tolman Undergraduate Teaching Awards) I got!
Now, it's back to school for everyone. This year is just a bit more specialer, though. It's my 25th year of teaching. To those of you who have been taking my classes for 25 years--er, isn't it time to graduate already?
Why aren't you studying?Back to school. pic.twitter.com/wQzYV2b0vh— You Had One Job (@_youhadonejob1) September 3, 2018
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