Here's to a big sweaty orgy of fun for everybody on another Fatty Friday.

Ok, eeew. And dig Chewbacca there in the background. Very nice.


It's that time again. Another week has slipped away, never to be seen again. I say good riddance. It was a mixed bag for me. Started out good. Nice rainy days, with the sound of the rain welcoming me to consciousness in the wee hours of the morning. LOVE waking up to that shit. Love driving to work in it too, so long as it's not a real turd floater. God knows we need the stuff.

I'm at the end of the second week of this semester. The first set of exams are about to be loosed upon the unsuspecting students. Next week will be fun. First exams just in time for Halloween. Nice. Having a great time with a few classes, with the others are harmlessly moving along as usual. It's funny how one class will have a mix of students who speak up and joke and make the class fun, while another class will sit there and stare back in a trance. The whole thing has settled into the normal groove, and I just found out that I'm not going to get paid at the end of this month.

This is one of the real pissy down sides of this sort of gig. If they don't start the semester at the right time of the month, within the first two weeks of the month, the administrators supposedly don't have enough time to get the payroll paperwork in so it can be processed. So we adjunct instructors have to go an extra two weeks before we get paid. If yer like me, and you have so many bills goin out that you're living from one paycheck to another, times like this can really be a pain. Basically, we'll end up getting our money in three larger checks, rather than four regular ones. That will be nice, but the bill collectors don't care if some dufus in the main campus fucked up. Anyway, such is the life of those of us who toil away doing part-time piece work.

Also found out this week that the army is pushing a new thing for next year. They want the soldiers to be able to get more classes done in a shorter amount of time, so the college is going to try a new thing in January. They'll set up a few experimental classes that will last two hours a day, five days a week, for a month. Very much like the mini terms we do over the three week summer of Christmas breaks. I'll get the same pay for teaching a month long class that I get for teaching an eight week class or a sixteen week class (same total amount of contact hours with each). Sound appetizing? I'm psyched about it, just so long as I don't have to give up a few other classes to make the time for it.

Trading one class for another won't work. We just won't agree to teach the classes if it means we're losing money on the deal, not that the administrators would worry about that. Their main motivation is to get more asses in seats and sell more books, but they don't care if we get fucked out of a paycheck now and then. Cool. I know the situation and I sign the contracts, but it amazes me when they tell us how much they appreciate us at the faculty meetings and then try to dick us whenever it will furthers the cause. We just look at each other and shake out heads.

Taking dad to out eat Chinese food and then to another high school football game tonight. His alma mater sucks big nasty dicks at football. They've won one game so far, against the kids I teach each morning in Florence. How funny is that? It's still good times though, and dad loves it. I'll treasure these memories one of these days. Driving to Dallas Saturday to visit with a buddy, go to some new gun store he's found, and probably go see "Flags of our Fathers" again. Might even drop by the gun smith on the way and pick up a new toy. Life goes on. Sis turns a year older this weekend, so we'll be celebrating Sunday over a "bloomin' onion" at the Outback, and then probably some really sinful goodness at the marble slab ice cream place.

Next week will be lots of fun. Exams on Monday and Tuesday, Halloween in the Blogospere (should be fun), and then I'm going to a chilli cookoff in Terlingua, down near the Big Bend, from Thursday to Sunday. So everyone have a great weekend and I'll see ya later. Maybe pictures from Terlingua.