Odds and Ends Thursday 41

At 10:40 last night, I finished an episode of “Better Off Ted” and realized I could barely keep my eyes open. Every time I’ve started a new job or come back from a long break I’ve gone through this same sleep shock. It takes a week or two for my body to realize it can’t operate at the same energy efficiency. I expect things should be back to normal (i.e. exhausted Fridays rather than exhausted Wednesdays) by sometime next week. Here are some other recent odds and ends:

• I heard a story about trees on the NPR Shuffle Podcast just now, and they talked about breadfruit. On the infamous Bounty, Captain Bligh so wanted to bring breadfruit to the Western world from the South Pacific, he gave up his captain’s quarters in order to ensure the breadfruit would last. The crew suspected the breadfruit was getting lots of water while they weren’t getting enough. And so began the mutiny.
  
• I’m confused. Yeedl is Max?
  
• I broke down and bought a fan. Paul recommend this particular model. It’s a Chinese brand with a camel logo. It’s a great fan, and it’s got a surprising amount of power. The weirdest part though is it’s got a large blue LED, and when the lights are off at night, it makes my living room look like an X-Files episode.
  
• That “Bye-bye” Cultural Exploration stirred up a lot of controversy.
  
• I made a 2.0 version of my scheduling spreadsheet from last year. It makes it easier to alphabetize the teacher schedules, it can now print a summary of all staff schedules in condensed format, and it expands the number of classes that can be assigned to a teacher from 6 to 13. Essentially, it can do everything but create the schedule, which is the only thing everyone really wants it to do. Oh well.
  
• One teacher this year has 12 classes. The religious knowledge classes only meet once a week, but each one is considered a separate class. By this same logic, I had 15 classes last year. But that shouldn’t have happened.
  
• The big storms have passed, and my water has been a lot more consistent.
  
• To hear a sampling of Country Director Dale’s voice, watch an Ally McBeal rerun. If you close your eyes when John Cage talks, you get Dale.
  
• I’ve started “The Odyssey” again , and I’ve hit the same wall. How has such a banal story endured?
  
• It’s weird how the things I miss ebb and flow. I think I’ve made peace with the absence of burritos, but lately I’ve been dying to go to IKEA. Chalk it up to lingonberry withdrawal.
  
• Though I’m still the only palagi on staff, I feel a lot more like part of the group this year. Now that everyone knows me, people seem happy to see me, and things in general feel less awkward and forced. It’s nice.
  
• From what I heard about the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, it was completely a wash, but now that I’m hearing more details about what went on in the final days, it doesn’t seem nearly as bad as people made it out to be at the time. Am I wrong?
  
• Classes are canceled tomorrow because they’re holding the grand opening of the new art building on campus. Classes were also canceled inexplicably for the latter half of today. I admit I did not protest.
  
• On one hand I’m psyched about this English class. On the other hand I feel like I’m in over my head. I have no idea how to teach English. But that’s the fun, right? Right?
  
• Did anyone else read that story about Men at Work losing a plagiarism suit for the flute riff from “Land Down Under” from the kookaburra song? For some reason that story makes me really sad. Leave Men at Work alone.
  
• Lauren's comment on yesterday's post reminds me of a joke:
  
  
  "Father Reilly," the mother superior reported, "I think you should know that there's a case of syphilis in the convent." "Oh, good," the priest replied. "I was really getting tired of the Chablis."

That's all I got for this week. I hope you're well. Pictures below.

One of the big pulu trees in front of the Government Building blew over during last week's storm.

Pulu trees are huge, and I assume it must have taken a considerable amount of force to uproot this one.

It ripped out a portion of the street on its way down.