Today is syllabus day. I have three syllabi to prepare, but I've got old ones to work from. My one big challenge is spacing exams, and planning exams so that the two classes I have that people could conceivably take at the same time do not have exams on the same day (or in the same week). The students accuse us of colluding and planning the exam-times so everyone has an hourly exam in the same week, but that's not true - it's just, there are only so many ways to split a semester into three or four roughly equal parts.

I'm looking forward to teaching again. Skimmed the comments from last semester, got a higher proportion of favorable ones than I did after last spring's semester - I chalk it up to being happier this fall (wasn't digesting various bits and pieces of bad news) and also that I spent more time THINKING about "how can I change this up? Is there something new I can do here?"

I also eliminated the minor paper from one class and just left the major project/paper. I think I'll keep it that way, didn't get comments about being "worked to death" this time.

Interestingly - and unremembered by me - one of my twice-a-week, for 75 minutes classes has become a three-times-a-week, for 50 minutes class. I like that, actually. I think it's easier to teach, and easier on the students, to have more frequent, shorter classes. (It's still an 8:00 class, which is fine with me, but not fine with some of the students, I have found). So Wednesday I really do hit the ground running.

I've also got new beginnings on the research front - first, a new way of looking at some older data - which means I can work on stuff in my office hours without having to go to the field or planning to get grubby. And I have a manuscript being looked over by a co-author. And I have some data to enter. I think keeping up with "New Rule" will be easy this semester, as long as I don't give in to the temptation of "oh, I only have two hours between classes, and I want to spend one of those prepping, so maybe I should just spend this other hour hanging out or surfing the web"