Scramble, scramble

01.05.2005

Despite my having made sure to write both class syllabi before leaving for my European holiday, I was suddenly forced to correct glaring errors:

My 345 class meets Tue/Thur, yet all the dates on the syllabus where for Mon/Wed — I, apparently, forgot to change from the 105 template I built first. I caught it just as I was preparing to hand the syllabus out, rather than yesterday when I went over it in my office. Apologia all around, and corrections on the class website.

My 105 class does indeed meet Mon/Wed, but the first day of class is tomorrow, not Monday. That one I did catch w/ enough time to correct, but only if I can get 55 copies out of the Friedmann Hall copy department early tomorrow. Corrections, of course, on the class website.

W/ that, I hope, I'm finally ready for the start of the semester.

I'm also sitting in on a graduate seminar on Democratization & Institutional Design, which I'm pretty excited about. It's a special topics 640 class — on a topic that wasn't offered when I was taking my coursework, but that's the context of my dissertation. So I'm fairly familiar w/ the literature, but it's always good to pick up things I've read years ago, or perhaps never carefully enough.

But. Mainly. I'm excited to get to spend one night a week listening to other people talk about literature I'm currently wrestling w/. Because. Let's face it. Dissertation writing is an extremely lonely, lonely experience.

It's also a great incentive to finish both my MPSA conference paper and some substantive chapter drafts. Since I'm scheduled to give a presentation on 28 March on MMP electoral systems & regional cleavages in new democracies.

Also, tonight was Megan's going away party at Bilbo's. She's moving to London for several months to study fashion design. A pretty fun evening, w/ some deliberately insane conversation.

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ADDENDUM: I've no idea what's happened w/ campus classroom assignments. But last semester I was in Moore Hall, a former applied engineering building. This semester, my 345's in McCracken Hall, in an ancient chemistry classroom. It doesn't even have a chalkboard. Huh?

Posted by Miguel at 12:13 AM

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