Dad With Teeth

Summer Heat

Ahh, the respite of summer. School is done for a while and now I can concentrate on other life plans.

Class went well I think. Although writing two 3 hour lectures a week was a lot more work than I expected. I guess I forgot that graduate students are a far tougher crowd. You come in at the start of every class facing a group of people who have spent a disproportionate amount of time listening to lectures. They can tell when you are unprepared. I always had this dark fear of sharks smelling blood, circling my lectures looking for inaccuracies and lack of facts. OK, I exaggerate. But the fear of failure can fill the room in a stink of flop sweat.

The notion of cramming a class on the architecture and nuances of streaming media into 8 classes was a bit overwhelming for both me and the students. It is a ton of material to cover in an astoundingly short period of time. I have been of the belief that the hardest part of teaching is developing the course. Figuring out what I wanted to cover, how I would structure it and what to include took a ton of work. I would get an idea of what detail needed to be explored and then realize I needed better information. Just researching the details took a day or two for each lecture. I do appreciate the 12 brave souls who signed up for the class with no idea what would be included, what the structure of the class would entail and what they would carry away from the experience. Fortunately, I will not have to resurrect this for another year (assuming I have an opportunity to do this again, no guarantees.) Then the challenge will be to try and remember what I meant when I wrote a particular phrase or comment.

The nice part is now I can focus on more important things. Marriage is on the near horizon. Actually it is the very near horizon. The speck that was so far away six months ago is coming at me like a bus. Only two weeks and I jump in with both feet. I am very excited, but not without trepidation. Not about getting married. I am very excited about that. No, I hate parties and the wedding feels like one humungous party. Two hundred people. I am amazed at all the details I never considered. From table cloths to bunting, appetizers to sound systems, permits to pastors… it is a ton of stuff. I have this niggling voice in the back of my head asking, “What will go wrong and will it be funny?” All these life changes in such a short period of time. I guess a life lived well is a full life. I feel as if I have had an opportunity to live many lives and that makes me feel blessed.

posted by Drew Keller @ Friday, July 21, 2006