Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Today I went to Harrison Plaza to buy envelopes in which to send out the Mensa test results. After that I went to the nearby Post Office in Remedios (one jeepney ride away) to buy a sheet of stamps. Then from there, armed with the same hard-backed envelope for carrying the stamps in, I went to the photocopier across the street from the school which was recommended by the former Mensa treasurer as being the best compromise between quality and price for
reproducing the results letters.

I had to do this in a short span of time because I promised my students in astronomy that I would be in the department most of the day for consultation.

I forgot to mention last Monday that my thesis student called up to say that he would be coming over on Wednesday to borrow the bound theses that he referred to in his paper. This is because he needed a format on which to base the chapters he was writing on results, analysis and conclusion. He said that the school library does not allow the photocopying of bound theses in their collection.

He didn’t, though, because he called up again to say that he was the only person in the house. So I’m expecting him tomorrow during the vacant periods between my three astronomy classes.

Only one student showed up for consultation, the same girl from my 230pm class. We did a couple of examples, and I had to remind her every once in a while about always implementing the six simple rules to which I’ve boiled down the lesson. It didn’t take more than fifteen minutes though, because she said they had another class momentarily. She said she’d be back with her classmates tomorrow though.

There were several e-mails I read from the chairman today. One was about submitting to him electronic copies of the exams that he’s been signing for mimeographing or photocopying. This year he plans to have those properly categorized and archived into CDs, maybe for submission to the accreditation board the next time they show up around here.

The department also has a new LCD projector, which, according to the rules of usage drawn up, I can bring to the Observatory when I have my astronomy software demonstration. Although we have an old one that used last term (eliminating the need for me to compete in reservation of the ones in the library, which has proved very difficult to get hold of the past years), it was only compatible up to a certain resolution, and its projection wasn’t very bright that I needed to turn off the light to show the students the screen up on the wall. And even then, the minimal sunshine seeping through the closed blinds still interfered.

With this new one, hopefully as good as those from the Instructional Media Services with regards to how strong its beam is and the high resolution it can handle.

Last in the chairman’s announcements is the approval of the basic course teaching laboratories being air-conditioned. We have, several terms now, eliminated experiments that use gas burners in anticipation of this. It’s also surprising that the labs we use for teaching engineering students in their building had air-conditioners installed there first before upgrading their equipment, although that may not matter eventually. There’s a rumor going around that the kinematics and electricity labs for engineering will soon be transferred to our building.