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Category: Sunday

Sunday #5: First October Edition

Posted on by Alex Daily

Another week, another Monday, another Sunday.

Two recent teaching realisations: I off-handedly said to a classmate my usual line about how the world isn’t any different for me knowing about an earthquake on the other side of the planet. But she helpfully pointed out quite sternly that it might matter quite a lot when I have students who might be from or have family all over the world.

The other one is I tend to exaggerate a little for comedic effect when telling stories, but I absolutely can not and must not do that when I’m teaching art history that real, actual kids will have tests and exams on later. Pressure!

I’ll get there.

Below the fold: Bits from Letterboxd. Some TV, some Doctor Who, a book.

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The Bowl of Petunias (IV)

Posted on by Alex Daily

Thirty seconds after the age of magic came to an abrupt end, the City of the Golden King hit the ground. No, that was inaccurate. What it hit was the New Bureau of Access, the tiny little office that operated the flying chair used to send people up to the City of the Golden King one at a time.

The thing about this mode of entry into the City of the Golden King was, it made it pretty hard to invade it from the ground. The other thing was, it made it pretty hard to leave. Which meant that, for the most part, people increasingly didn’t. A visiting family member here, a member of law enforcement there. Ten people made a busy week. And so, the job of Director of the New Bureau of Access had, over time, become pretty lonely. So when Fred Patricide, on the occasion of her fifteenth anniversary on the job, took her first ever off-site break, she felt pretty much just… fine about it. There were no flights scheduled until well into the afternoon, the office could do without her for 45 minutes.

And so it did, for every single one of those minutes until the 41st, at which point the glass bottom of the City of the Golden King tore through every single plank, every single little window, every single shred, of the New Bureau of Access. And when the glass bottom was done, the brick foundation came in to smash what was left to a pulp that the… smears would never even reach.

People would go on to call Fred, inaccurately, the “sole survivor.”

Sunday #4: Stress Edition

Posted on by Alex Daily

Another destructively long Monday. I can’t keep Sundaying about how long my Mondays are, yeesh.

Still kinda stressing about having to actually teach an art history class, but I think– no, I know that’s just New Situation Stress, not I Can’t Do This Stress. My Tuesdays have expanded, too — lots of cycling all over town. Good for my thigh muscles, but my knees are protesting. Really running into my own limits at Music class.

I’ve generally turned my disdain of kids around pretty well, I think kids are funny, I can work with kids just fine. But you hate to see a kid hold up a picture of a normatively attractive lady on their phone and ask another kid “smash or pass.” That’s truly just– That’s no good, y’all.

Broke my blogging streak this week, because school, but also because the writing I did do isn’t finished yet or requires additional research — I feel like I rushed the Rogers: The Musical piece, and, look, streaks, yes, but quality over quantity, more yes.

I’ve called this one “Stress Edition” in the hopes that next week won’t be “Stress Edition.”

Below the fold: Small website notes, some media bits and bobs.

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Sunday #3: Cooled Down Edition

Posted on by Alex Daily

Another destructively long Monday. Yeesh. Hopefully the end of the heatwave means these’ll be a little more bearable going forward.

On Friday, after a failed first attempt last week — we’d recorded the appointment as happening on… different Fridays — I had my first introduction at my new school where I’ll be student teaching through to the end of the calendar year. It was nice! The vibes were good! I hung around for the rest of the day and observed some classes. 1B, who I won’t be teaching, wasn’t that different from 1C last year, a lot of the same types of little guy (also known as boy) in there. The combined 5th/6th year was very different, a lot more chill — the difference in age and in, these folks chose to take this class, makes a huge difference. We clicked pretty well. I’ll be involved in one way or another in all of their art-related classes, and I think it’s gonna go: Fine. Great? Somewhere on that spectrum.

Also, another short film in the can. I’ve got a loose go-ahead to release these but I think they’ll be fun to drop as a little miniseries when they’re all done.

Below the fold: Notes on this website and on storytelling. TV and film thoughts.

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Sunday #2: It’s Been Edition

Posted on by Alex Daily

One week back in school. What a destructively long Monday.

A lot of info, in the classical start-of-year info dump manner, about what the school year looks like. Go here, do this, do this as soon as possible, accumulate this, write that. I’ve let it just wash over me. It’ll happen, I’ll get there. One year to go.

We share three of our four Monday classes with another class that’s in the same place on a different trajectory, which makes sense, I understand that when there’s just the six of us it doesn’t make financial sense to treat us the same as if we were 25 people, but by gum, you forget how busy 25 19-to-21-year olds can be. How can you possibly have this much to say to each other, you saw each other four days ago! I joked the weekend before that they were about 400 people strong, and was corrected that they have the energy of an additional zero. No kiddin’. I didn’t go to Teacher School to be in a room full of noisy kids, dagnabbit.

(I understand now that eventually we’ll split back up, but what a day.)

Also shot and edited my live-action directorial debut. I’ll share it here when I get permission.

Below the fold this week: Website update notes, notes on an upcoming project. TV thoughts, a YouTube recommendation. Donald Duck comics, some Big Finish.

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Sunday #1

Posted on by Alex Daily

I’m trying to invent blogging from scratch for myself here. This format is pretty directly inspired by the “weeknotes” a lot of people in tech do, but one, that’s a lot more “job,” and a lot more “journal,” than I’m really doing right now, and two, frankly, the relationship between my life and people in tech is the problem I’m trying to solve here, I’d rather they not be… any kind of guiding light for me in blogging.

So right now these are called “Sunday” recaps, the idea being, here’s some stuff that doesn’t entirely stand on its own but that I still feel should go here, posted some, probably not all, Sundays. When there’s Enough to post. A lot of the time it’ll likely be mostly spare bits of writing, though I’m sure as I come to think blog-first it’ll generate additional, original writing, too. Heck, I wrote this before I added a bunch of notes on updating my website. Here I am, tech-blogging anyway.

Now I just need to start thinking blog-first.

Below the fold, notes on updating my website, some bits and bobs from my Letterboxd, some media diet notes, and a podcast recommendation. Oh, that’s already quite a lot, isn’t it.

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