Work. Virus. Ping!

Today was spent, as I predicted, in frantic preparation for classes, which start tomorrow. I was happy (and somewhat surprised) to find that I had done quite a lot already in the couple of weeks after last semester finished. At least that's when I suppose I did it, unless I have been working in my sleep.

I was less happy to go over my classroom assignments. I only glanced at them when they were sent to me, recoiling with horror and filing them away quickly. Unfortunately this did not make them go away. I am working all day tomorrow and the next day at the same university, but only two classes are in the same classroom. The rest are all over the place, in different buildings. Some are not even on the same campus. The other campus is just over the road, but when you have traffic lights to contend with (and these ones are very slow to change, and there is a lot of traffic) plus you have to go from the 3rd floor of one building to the 11th floor of the next building, which is a five minute walk away (not counting the traffic light wait), and the 11th floor building has two, very slow elevators, one of which is usually out of order, and about two hundred students waiting to get up there as well, perhaps you can see my problem. We have been told very sternly that we must start and finish classes on time. Ha ha. I don't think the ten minutes between classes is QUITE enough. They should install flying foxes to take us from one building to the next if they want us to get to class on time. (Seriously, I think that would be great. Making a dramatic entrance through the window would be a brilliant way to catch the students' attention, particularly if the window turned out to be closed.)

I am letting my gym membership lapse, since I found last year I did not have the time (or energy) to use it during semester. It was a waste of money, and they do not have an option to join for two months, which is how long I ended up using it in a year. The shortest option is a year. However, I can now feel confident that I will get enough exercise anyway. Not only will I be running around during classes, as usual, I will be running around BETWEEN classes as well. Last year I used a step counter to find out how much walking I was doing on a normal work day (including getting to and from work). Fridays were the most active, with about 25,000 steps. This year that number will increase dramatically. Who needs a gym? I can collapse from overexertion without the help of a gym, and get paid for it.

Yesterday I managed to catch a virus. I was just sitting here innocently, and suddenly my computer sneezed at me. It turned out to be RadioactiveJam's fault. He had sent me ... The Indie Virus! I was infected!

It was terrifying. I didn't know what to do. Was there an antidote?

I tracked down the beginnings of the Indie Virus, and found it at Personified. There is a tutorial about it at IrishWonder.

I learned that the best thing to do if you are infected with the Indie Virus is to pass it on. This is what I am doing, and I am feeling better already. You will notice that every time I link the Indie Virus it goes to a different place. These are all good places to visit, and I have chosen posts that I like.

While I was trying to figure out what to do about this virus, I suddenly realized that at some point in the last year or so I managed to break the code for trackbacks on my blog. How long have I not had trackbacks? I remember installing it and feeling terrifically clever. I even figured out how to use it, and Lippy and I pinged each other incessantly for a few days. We had a lovely time. Then, somewhere along the way, I both uninstalled it AND forgot how to use it.

I have now reinstalled it. Ping! Ping! Ping!