SATURDAY. 10:49 AM. March is out. April is in. And it's been raining for the last few days.

Spring break is over. And I cannot believe the semester is over half done. From this point on, it's just a rapid slide toward the last day of classes. There is much work to be done.

• Congratulations to my sister, Alenda. She was awarded a coveted Fulbright fellowship to teach English in Taiwan and to make a short documentary about Taiwan. She's pretty amazing. It's exactly what she wants to do for a year -- go abroad and teach. I think she leaves this August and spends almost a full year in Taiwan. Kudos to my super-smart and successful sister!

• I have done my taxes. I hope I did them correctly. They (being the uber-tax people) will let me know if I did or not, I'm sure. It's supposed to be EZ, right? I get a pretty good chunk back this year. So here's hoping to being right.

• Life has been pretty quiet, actually. I'm finally mostly over being sick with allergies. Definitely a good thing.

• Two people I know have recently returned from trips over break to San Francisco. Of course, talking to them and hearing about what they did, where they went makes me homesick for The City. I've been having a number of San Francisco-based dreams as of late, too. My friend Lauren just moved back to the City after living a number of years in the South Bay. She's got a great new apartment and I can't wait to visit. Ultimately, I guess, I'm going to move back West after school is done.

• I hate to admit it, but I was watching cable the other day and caught Hanson's new video for their new single "Penny and Me." I really liked it. Plus, they're growing up to be pretty good looking guys. Isaac, the oldest, is pretty cute with his faux-hawk. Taylor, the middle and lead singer, isn't really my type, but he's working that David Cassidy-esque thing. Zack, the youngest, is my favorite -- totally growing up to be a hottie.

• Work is good. I finally put in my paperwork to get health benefits. I only got the paperwork this past Thursday and I have been working for nearly two months. Crazy slow bureaucracy. I'm really enjoying advising -- it's challenging and rewarding in different way than teaching is. I am also on a task force for work to revise the summer orientation process for incoming freshmen and transfer students. Letters and Sciences sees hundreds of new students every summer during orientation. From what I hear and gather, orientation days can be rough as the office is trying to see, process, and register a hundred or so students for classes in one day.

• I have been sucked into Yu-Gi-Oh!. Every Saturday morning, just like when I was kid, I have to make sure I catch the next episode of the series. I like the storyline and if you can get past how conspicuously expository it is (everything is explained in detail), it's quite fun.

• Teaching is going all right. The middle of the semester is when most students decide whether they're going to sink or swim. I've already lost about four or five kids to the Land of I've Stopped Going to Class. I hope my remaining students pull themselves up by the bootstraps and finish off the semester admirably (or at least pass the class).

• Speak out against the Federal Marriage Amendment.

• For you www.homestarrunner.com fans out there, I hope you caught the April Fool's intro.

• I have spent entirely too much time writing on the Archaea message boards.

• I also spend too much time obsessively checking if anyone's written on my digital studies class blog. Last night, I wrote a two big entries: one on the status of the Coder and one on programming as writing, code as writing, code as story.

• I gained like five new Friendster friends in the past week or so. Then, of course, there is sorely used Orkut.

• Don't forget it's time to Spring forward...

• I want a boyfriend.

read | write

MONDAY. 7:42 PM. The average temperature for this time of year is 68 degrees F. Today's high was near ninety. Someone, somewhere decided that it was going to be summer. Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be nearly twenty degrees cooler, back to normal. Crazy. Spring has definitely sprung and then some. Before you know it, the seventeen-year cicadas will be popping out all over the place.

It's Monday. And I'm having a stereotypical Monday. Actually, this whole past week has been Monday-esque. Everything just seems wrong, out-of-sync, grumpy, disconnected, frustrating, and plain blah. And I don't seem to really have any material cause for it.

The start of last week was pretty hectic. I spent most of the weekend before last doing work for school. I had four major things to get done: grade all of my students' papers, write a short paper for my digital studies class, read a three-hundred-some page book for my queering citizenship class, and write my final long piece for my creative nonfiction class. By that Friday, I had graded all of the papers. Check. Saturday day, I ran Archaea. Saturday night, I worked on my 5-7 page digital studies paper, a close reading of a piece of electronic literature. I decided to write my paper on Nick Montfort's interactive fiction called Ad Verbum. You can read my paper entitled "Words Matter: Nick Montfort's Ad Verbum, A Very Very Close Reading" here. Check. Sunday morning, I read nearly all of The Queen of America Goes to Washington City by Lauren Berlant. Check. Sunday night, I played Tellings.

Then, last Monday night after a full day of work, teaching, and class, I came home, had a quick dinner, and then sat down to work on my nonfiction piece about sailors, shellbacks, and the Navy ceremony held when a ship cross the equator. I had interviewed one of my students, who is a Navy sailor and who has gone through the shellback ceremony. It took me hours to get started. I must have stared at the blank screen for hours. I had all sorts of notes, all sorts of research, all sorts of ideas. But I couldn't get anything down. I almost gave up and went to bed. But around 9:30 PM, I got a few paragraphs down. Then a few more paragraphs. Eventually, the paper spun itself out. I didn't get to bed till after three in the morning. I woke up a few hours later to go to work. While at the office, I cleaned up my paper, added some bits, and then printed it off. I read "Crossing the Line" to my class to great reviews; my professor said he really liked it and it was nearly "flawless." Big check.

By the end of last Wednesday, I was done with all of the work I needed to do. My papers were turned in. I was basically caught up. I had a few days of breathing room before the work starts to pile up again. In fact, for my creative nonfiction class, I'm done with all of my assignments; all I have to do now is just go to class to read other people's papers. So, you would think that after catching up on some sleep, I would spend the rest of the week and weekend relaxing, having a good time, and just enjoying doing a minimum of work. Alas, I didn't.

Last Wednesday, my English 101 class was completely off the mark. They were distracted, unruly, lackadaisical. They hadn't done the work for the day. They gossiped during class. In the end, they disrespected the class, each other, and me. I have not been that angry at students in a very long time. I don't like that feeling of loss of control. I had to stop myself before laying into people. I don't think I ever recovered completely. The class sort of set the tone for the rest of the week and the weekend.

This past weekend was a blur. Much of it was bland. Much of it was less than memorable. I spent many an hour at the coffee house. Chris and Brewer had a barbecue and bonfire out behind the coffee house on Friday night. They fed me. It was good. I hung out with the "velvet rope" gang: Joe, Kit, Jess, Nate, Andrew, Annie, Lita, as well as Chrissy, Alice, Sara. More pictures here. When I wasn't at College Perk, I was home. When I wasn't at home, I was at College Perk. I had a grumpy, grouchy, cantankerous weekend.

I'm having personal drama issues. I figured I would write about them here. But I'm just not feeling up to it. Hopefully, the wheel will turn, things will change, and the storm clouds will pass. I'm sure I'll have more to say about things anon.

I still want a boyfriend.

read | write

MONDAY. 10:26 PM. Good news: I got my tax refund. Bad news: I didn't get the LGBT scholarship I applied for.

SUNDAY. 9:56 AM. I cannot be there in person today, but I am there in spirit. I wholeheartedly support today's March for Women. I hope everyone can see the need and wisdom in protecting and celebrating women's rights, women's bodies, and women's choices. (I also hope people can find connections and coalitions between this march and other protests/demonstrations/actions such as LGBT pride and activism, anti-globalization movements, and anti-war rallies.)

Be well all. This is my digital voice, but these are my very real convictions.

WEDNESDAY. 11:00 AM. Happy birthday to my friend Nancy!