Last day of school!

I woke up even earlier than usual this morning so I thought I'd make a note of this being the last regular day of classes. My first semester as a professor has rocketed by. I still have much to do...a stack of thirty or so papers to grade, plus a final exam being administered in one class--and, in fact, today to one student who petitioned to take it early--and a take-home final in the other. All in all, it has been a very successful semester. I have already seen some changes that are necessary for the next time I teach these classes, or the next time I teach an upper division Bible class (next semester), etc.

I'm drinking lots of coffee right now to counteract the negative effects of having woken up early. I hope I'll be able to make it through the busy day without crashing. We will see.

I remember that, when I was a student, the last day of class was always a significant day for me. I've always been a sucker for transitions, and usually when I know something's about to end I'm anxious for it to go ahead and end so that I can get on to the next thing. In some ways, that's how I feel about this semester...I'm excited to get on to the next one, especially since I'll be teaching something way outside my expertise yet close to my heart, and what in many ways is the keystone course of the seminary--Doctrine of Holiness. It should be exciting.

Long time, no post

I haven't blogged in a really long time. I feel a little bad about that, because this is one of my primary organs for staying in touch with the people back home. I can say that I've been busy, which is true: one week left to go in the semester; two long writing projects on the docket with the possibility for two shorter ones to be added on; still adjusting to a new culture; preparing for classes next semester, all of which are again new preps and one of which is an outside-the-specialization new prep; and various other things.

But the fact of the matter is that I've just been lazy.

I've been more likely in the down time I have to watch old episodes of The twilight zone on YouTube or play online chess. On the latter, I'm about to give up, because I'm getting frustrated at how pathetically bad I am at it. I cannot seem to improve my play there, so I'm going to quit for a while.

The unfortunate thing about my inattention to the blog as of late is that I missed the opportunity to post about the centennial of the Church of the Nazarene on the date it was being celebrated. I even had in mind the proper title for the post: "Happy birthday, church" or something similiarly corny. Perhaps it's better that I didn't do that because I wouldn't have been happy with the bad line.

In any event, I intend to do better in the coming months about staying up with the blog, and also to spend less time wasting time. I recognize in all of this that there are some philosophical assumptions under which I am operating about time and responsibilities, but I don't have time (haha) to explore those right now. In a little less than an hour, I'm headed off to the US Embassy in Manila to cast my vote in the presidential election. And, as Forrest Gump put it so eloquently, "That's all I have to say about that." I generally detest talking about politics, so I'm glad it's somewhat expected that I don't talk about politics during this assignment. Normally, professors would be very interested and involved making political statements. But this professor bucks that trend, and even if it weren't in my contract to avoid discussing political matters, I would, because I just hate talking about it.

I'd much rather lose at online chess.