It’s been a week of mulling over approaches to teaching during the coming academic year. I’m keen to try my hand at preparing a rubric for one of the projects in a performance-based course I teach. Met up with rubrics and the way they operate a couple of years back at the VASTA (Voice and
Continue reading ...I can’t believe this. After being as diligent as I have with the blogging, there I go–almost an entire month without. Ah, but what a month! A glorious week on the east coast of southern Mexico (Azul Resort) with the family for a wedding, and a week in Honolulu for a conference, and hanging out
Continue reading ...A quiet day of taking stock, writing, reading, watching television and tossing stuff!It’s been quite a year. Reading back over other project blogs (USQ 2007 40th Anniversary and SiQP Festival) confirms just how busy I’ve been; I’ve probably convened or attended more meetings this year, than at any other time in my life. Memo to
Continue reading ...Yes a long-ish drive to Brisbane on the hunt for the perfect swinsuit, but it was also a chance to start listening to a new audio book as I did. The swinish hordes of shoppers were not a bit swinish, and looked very much like me, and indeed were not horde-like … the crowds had
Continue reading ...Christmas is over for another year. Can’t say I enjoyed the rampant materialism of the “ka-ching” factor: all-night trading, nightly bulletins trumpeting how much had been taken at the cash-registers etc. The quiet time I spent at home with my son seemed oddly, and wonderfully out of step with what was, and is happening elsewhere.
Continue reading ...And all is well. It’s the first time I’ve spent Christmas at home at Yarrawonga for years. Our ridge is alive with the sound of rainbow lorikeets and cicadas, and the air full of drifts of eucalypt blossom and their sweet honey smell. It’s a glorious warm morning, and I’m musing on Christmases past and
Continue reading ...I didn’t believe I could wind down as fast as I have in the past couple of days. It’s Day 2 of the month off, and I’m energised, engaged, and having f-u-n. And what I’m playing at is reading and learning-new software and how to drive the new Nikon D40, a sweet camera if ever
Continue reading ...No definitely down I think. I am sleeping better, and enjoying the coffee more. The pressure is off at work and there’s time to read (oh how I love this) and sufficient trips to Brisbane without too much to do once I get there. Time on the road to finish Michael Connelly’s Echo Park on
Continue reading ...End of the academic year once again, and this week has seen us gather as a staff to discuss where we’re at and where we’re going collectively as a Department, and individually as workers within the group. Two and a half days of navel-gazing, planning and wishing on stars resulted in a surprisingly consensual assembly.
Continue reading ...Another update on a post out of the archives. Sadly my Jurassic Christmas tree did not survive the dry heat of a southern Queensland summer. It is a glorious tree and deserves to be known about by more Australians. Now for some time I have been feeling extremely guilty about the way my bush garden
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