Adjuncting to Life

I just finished teaching an adjunct class at Dixie State College. It is my 4th year doing the class, the class is Introduction to GIS which is what I do for my day job, basically making maps on computers. The word adjunct translates directly as "not a full-time professor so not needing qualifications to be able to stick you in a room with 10-20 paying students who may or may not learn anything from your class". Needless to say, adjunct professors are what make Dixie State tick which is pretty scary. The class goes from 7-9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I teach it once per year in the Spring (Jan-May). I really like teaching the class; I enjoy the interaction with students and being superior and knowing more than everyone else in a room about something. But it is hard to have a full time job and then go to a second job and by the end of the semester I am just hating it, wanting it to be over so much. Besides teaching the class I also have to prepare each lecture and lab so that takes a few more hours on weekends and such. I priced it out one time and I think I was making like $9/hour teaching that class. But it is fun enough and if my wife can stand me not being home for 2 more nights a week (besides the Young Men activity nights) I will probably keep doing it.

Now that the class is over, I am really enjoying going home after work and not having anything to do. I literally do nothing most nights. I watch TV, play with the kids, and I even finished a book the other day and I have not read a book for over a year. It will get old soon not doing anything but for now there is nothing better than having an empty day planner, that is a good feeling.

That class is funny though, it is kind of disheartening the way I was hired. I made a map for a guy that also adjuncts there at Dixie and he said they need to teach a GIS class and I said I would like to teach a GIS class and that was the hiring process. I had to make a lesson plan, syllabus, etc. but I could have known nothing about GIS and just said I did. It is funny, they got the best guy for the job and did not even know it. But just like Christmas or child birth, you forget the pain. I will forget how bad it sucked at the end of the semester and I will get excited about it again and by next January I will be raring to go and raking it in, $9/hour at a time.

Complaining about my schedule during the times I am teaching that class is probably pretty pathetic to a lot of people. So I work a 35-40 hour/week job at most, prepare for 2 hours a week, and teach for another 5 so I am working 47 hours in a week worst case scenario. That is not that much. I think about others I know doing much more than that and I feel guilty but my time is my most prized possession. I could not handle a job that required 50-60 hours per week consistently. I always wanted to go to Law School when I was in college so it is probably for the best that that did not work out. I always wanted to go to Law School but never wanted to be an attorney. No amount of money would be worth those crazy hours to me. And I wish the reason was because I am such a doting father and husband and I could not stand to be away from my family. That is part of it but actually to be brutally honest, I just don't like working that much. I have a great job and employer and I don't dread going to work in any way but would I rather be doing a million other things besides working? Yes. Number one would be golfin......er spending time with my family.

Slacker McSlacky

I have been waiting for this week to write about the triathlon and how fun it was but I don't have that much to write. I did not help as much as I have in past years. I barely even said hello to Ben a few times which is a bummer. I did get to hang with Cha-Cha-Cha Chia Gunn, Andius Johnsonius, and Steve which was fun. But looking back it was really a weekend of revealing to me my own mortality in big ways. Three big ways.

1) First of all, much of when I was helping I was writing people's race numbers on their triceps and calves. That was a fun job and I enjoyed seeing people I knew and hob nobbing with those I did not know. You just have to love Triathlon and Marathon racers, they are the nicest and most uplifting and positive people there are in the universe. But I woke up the next day and have rarely been as sore as my legs were that next day. I still am having a hard time understanding why they were so sore. I keep saying to my family that I can not believe it. I did kneel down, write on someone's calf, and then stand up probably 300 times. This may not seem like a big deal but I was REALLY SORE and quite upset about it. I am 32 now, not the young strapping man I was 2 years ago I guess.

2) The second thing was I was excited for the organization this year. I usually spent all my time at the race site setting up and this year I was at the expo almost the whole time I was helping. I have loved staying up until the wee hours the last few years but something in me was so glad this year that I was not staying out too late. I was so glad as I went home at 10:30pm that they had stuff together more this year. At least that is what I thought until I called Josh the next day to go to MI:III and he said he got an hour of sleep. I felt so bad for ditching him cuz I thought stuff was together and was so very sad (wink wink nudge nudge) that I missed staying out so late. I am 32 now, what can I say (even though old man stanley is 34).

3) The last thing that really made me think this weekend was someone died during the triathlon, dying way too early. He was only 35 years old. 35, that is only 3 years older than me. I got a few details from the sgtri website on the forums area below:

http://www.sgtri.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=136

and I was touched by what I read and what was written by many, including Jared. I don't know any more details but there are some photos on there with him and his 4 kids and wife that tear me up inside. I wonder what he could have done to prevent this if anything and what I could do to prevent this from happening to my family. The true tragedy is with those left behind. I wonder about how I eat and drinking Dr Pepper like I do, it could easily be me. I am not a young pup anymore.

So the tri this year taught me that I am old and fat and I have always known I was ugly. As Jim Ford used to say, I may be old but I'm fat. The question is what do I do now?

This Love Has Taken Control..... Of Me......

I have been trying to get my 6 year old into music I like. She has pretty good taste but she is a 6 year old girl. I will flip through stations and see where she wants to keep listening and she is Top 40 girl right now but that is okay. I am hoping to find a happy medium in something like a Norah Jones or Avril Lavigne or something like that. It could be worse, she could be into Country. Right now she has probably never heard country so I'll do my best to keep that streak going but I do live in Kony Kountry so it will be difficult.

I was playing this game with her in the car the other day when a song came on that she liked and that I hate. Well, I used to hate it. Up until 2 years ago when I sang it with Ben from Ben's Blog AKA The Executive fame during the 2004 Triathlon. It is by Maroon 5 which is the same band as Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls, and Third Eye Blind only with a different lead singer. The song goes "this love has taken control, of me, she said goodbye, so many times befoe-oh-oh-ohr. It is a lame song but I have a real affinity for it cuz it reminds me of Ben and me singing it so well together. Hearing songs that remind me of people or of a certain time in my life is a weird feeling. It is especially great when you really like the song and it reminds you of someone or something. It is almost like a good homesick feeling when I hear a song like that. You yearn for a day gone by or feel slightly melancholy but it was such a good experience or fond memory that you are happy at the same time.

Have you ever heard a song you really did not like very much but then you heard it in a certain context and then you like it? Like you finally realized what the song was about or what the artist was trying to say? With the song with Ben I still don't like it really, it is still a crappy song. But this did happen to me with the song "Superman" by Five For Fighting. Do all these crap bands have a number in their title, Maroon 5, Third eye blind, Matchbox 20, Five for fighting? I had probably heard this song 100 times and never really liked it. Anyway, I like the show Scrubs and there was this episode where someone was dying or something and they had that song and it kind of hit me in a certain way. Don't worry, tears were not shed, but I like the song now. What can I say, if you know me you know I am a very emotional person. The sentiments are always very close to the surface. And I am sarcastic too.

Here is a list of other songs that remind me of people, this list is not all-inclusive but is for as many people as I could think of off the top of my head. This list is where there is one particular song that triggers a thought about one particular person so I left a lot of people out here because there was not just 1 song but 100s that remind me of them. Anywho, here is the list:

• Ben - This love has taken control of me from Triathlon 2004 and If you could Hie to Kolob
• Jared - Feel Like Makin Love (Sonic concert)
• Nate - Groovy kind of Love for Shelly Whitehead and Love Bites cuz he is a huge closeted Def Leppard Fan
• Hill - Any song by Hootie and the Blowfish, the next REM
• Bill - Gettin Jiggy Wit it which he put on one of his Mix Tapes. No, not in 1999, in 2004.
• Will Farrell - Blue Oyster Cult, Don't Fear the Reaper
• Clint - Harry Houdini song, Clint's mullet will go down in history
• Sapp - Three, first is any song by Wilson Phillips, second is a song that was on his 80s mix he loved by Anything Box but I can't remember the name, 3rd is that Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm song by Crash Test Dummies.
• Tyler - Also many songs but Sunday Bloody Sunday has to stand out for Ty.
• Dyer- The Church
• Russel the Love Muscle - The Outfield, "Janey's on a Vacation far away...."
• Brother KronMiller - "Blinded by the light......wrapped up like a Deush in a roller in the night....." or anything by Cake or Ben Fold's Five songs
• Jimmy Slim - Smashing Pumpkins, I listened to the whole Siamese Dream album waiting for him to get ready to go to Lake Powell. That Mayonnaise is a great tune.
  
  There are lots of others but this was a quick list. There are millions of others. What are some of yours?