Monday Morning

A fair amount of frustration, consternation, irritation today.  They revised my schedule in the weekend but I did not check it because I assumed that the schedule as I saw it late Friday afternoon was set.  It turned out that I missed the first two hours today and my class was furious because I did not show up.  Extremely inconvenient, to say the least.  It's chaotic enough at work without these things happening.  This means that weekends are no longer 'work-free' -- I'm now obligated to check my scheds and mail even on a Sunday.  Well, I will ... and gallivant during working hours, if it goes on this way.

Nevertheless thankful for the sunny day.  A bit less cold would make it even better.  This is Blaak Square (don't know if it even has a name at all) early in the morning.  Had it been warmer, it would have been swarming with sun-worshippers.  It's a car-free area, too.  You'll see the Pencil apartments on the left, the Blaak flying-saucer-shaped train station in the middle, and the huge Markthal on the right.

Olympic Games update -- our third GOLD!  Irene Wüst took the top prize for the 1500 m. women's race!  What a wonderful sport to watch!

MOOC update -- a second course on Project Management began today, this time organized by the University of Virginia.  As I already took one before, this will be a review of sorts.  There's always something new to pick up, even if the topic is familiar and even considering the fact that I'm already teaching it.  As a result of today's lecture, for instance, I was able to improve my own PowerPoint, adding three slides with extra info.  It's a 4-week course which I would like to finish in 5 days, so there will be some intensive studying ahead.  The International Relations MOOC will have to wait a bit but no problem there.  That is the nice thing with upgrades -- the course becomes available forever, unless the univeristy decides to stop teaching it.  By the way, the International Relations MOOC is being given in French, which I don't speak, so I am grateful for the English transcripts.  It is a heavy combination of politics, economics, and history, and I am taking it because I want to learn more about the cultural implications when these three aspects are intertwined.