Returning to Earth

So I'm back home for the time being, having finished the eight-states-in-ten-days tour. I know you couldn't come with me, but fear not! There are pictures galore from Dragon*Con for you to examine, quite likely while saying, "What is that he/she/to be determined is wearing, exactly?" I organized the photos into some rough semblance of categories, with Whedon-stuff first. Enjoy and remember - these are your neighbors, your dentists, your teachers, your plumbers and so forth. My, my, but we're complicated people, aren't we? And yes, this post begins with a picture of the 30+ marching members of the 76th Independent Battalion, which is a very elaborate homage to Firefly. These people, who I am proud to call comrades (no, not that kind - don't let the red fool you), may be a little nutty, but I have pecan-like tendencies myself. And trust me - these are the sort of folk you want watching over you, whether you need a strong back or a soft couch.

Back on Earth, school continues. I have technical issues - a mutant talent of mine seems to be the uncanny talent to make all things electronic go wonky at my approach - but they seem to get resolved while also providing computer techs with both job security and funny stories to tell.

Speaking of both technical issues and funny stories, a new blog will soon be linked to this one. I'll be starting a separate blog for the upcoming Buffy class that I'll be teaching as a six-week continuing education class. The class will be interrupted for a week due to the Turkey trip, but I had the idea for the blog before that puzzle piece fell into place. The blog will give students (and non-students, too) a place to comment, along with some nifty links to information about the episodes we'll be concentrating on, essays that have been published on the material and so forth. Oh, regarding the comments - don't get overly excited; I'm going to serve as moderator, just in case people get irrelevant in their statements. See, there was an article about another cont. ed. course in which the instructor justified his class by saying something along the lines of, "Last year, they had a course on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so there's room for everything." Maybe I was just in a snarky mood, but that stuck in my craw to a degree. It was a bloody good class, focusing on depicitons of morality and values. Pffffffbt, I say! Anyway, back to the post, already in progress . . .

. . . and I'm nearly caught up on laundry and most of the papers that piled up on my desk during my absence have been conquered! Honestly, the pile was so high I wasn't sure if I should grade it or climb it.

I'm going to enjoy just sitting still with a dusty dog (we really need rain around here) and look through my pictures, reliving the glory days of otherwise normal people dressed up as Monty Python characters.