A Metaphysical Encounter

Today was great fun. The first day of the semester for most, but I got to chill out for most of the day; I don't teach until tomorrow, and the first class that I'm taking isn't until Monday. I spent a good part of the day in my office, but most it wasn't spent doing any kind of work.

Had great discussions with Rod, who was almost my blip today (very soon, though). He told a ghost story, I expounded on my atheism, and we challenged each other's beliefs. They always say you shouldn't discuss politics or religion, but most great conversations seem to involve one or the other, in my experience.

Then my friend good friend Daniel (you can see him rocking out here) stopped by for an impromptu visit, and we got to geek out for a few hours about Legend of Korra and Game of Thrones. Daniel also got a crash course in the strangeness of academics when he caught the tail end of Rod's and my discussion of the extent to which any written work is capable of being "owned" by the writer (I come down firmly on the side of wanting to make money from what I write!). It was an interesting "meeting of the worlds" moment, matched only by my brother stopping by earlier and saying hi to my office mates. Definitely sort of surreal to mix environments like that, but very rewarding.

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching 1302. I'm not too nervous right now, but I know I will be tomorrow before class. That's only natural, of course, but there's not too much that can go wrong on the first day. Maybe if I keep telling myself that I'll actually believe it!

This is an image of the absolutely insane parking situation at UTA. I ended up parking in the middle of bumfuck nowhere; tomorrow I plan on getting here much earlier so I can actually park in the faculty area, which is much closer. Because seriously, there are a metric fuckton of people attending UTA, and the first week is absolutely bananas.