Busy busy busy

Well, end of the semester madness here at Galactic Dharma headquarters. I am atrociously, absurdly, and insanely busy. Sorry I've not written much lately: I usually write these in my work downtime, and there's been precious little of that lately.

I just finished giving and grading (groan) a writing test. An hour ago, I finished writing the Idiom / Vocabulary test for next week. Next year, I've got to start it earlier! It took me several hours today to finish it. In two days I've got to judge a middle school speech contest, which is usually a mixed bag. Some are great, some are ... not so great.

The students have practice SATS today (better them than me!), so while I'm not teaching today, I still have to be here. The exam days are catch-up days for me, and trust me, this close to the end of the semester, I need them.

In book news, I finally finished the 11 book "Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind, which I enjoyed. Each book was around 1000 pages, so it was a major investment in time, but more or less worthwhile. It got a little preachy and overly complicated at times, and I hated book 8, but nobody is perfect all the time. And, unlike Stephen King's seven book "Dark series", I thought the ending was satisfactory.

In other book news, I'm rereading one of my favorite serious books: "Bodhisattva Archetypes: Classic Buddhist Guides of Awakening and and their Modern expression". It sounds heavy, but it's not: reading it is like visiting an old friend.

I recently reconnected with an old friend though facebook. When I lived in Roanoke VA, Gary was my best friend. Moving away, I lost track of him. I was putting random names in the facebook seach field when he popped up. I sent him a message, although I was unsure of it was actually him, but lo and behold, it was. Say what you want about Facebook, for finding and keeping old friends, it's great.

Okay, well I suppose I should go back to work. I'll write more often, I promise!