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June 1999

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Thomas "The Fang" Wilson and
Ticks and Crosses
Tuedsay, 29 June 1999

There are certain joys in watching ones offspring grow, in being there when it happens and not hearing about it "second-hand" after the event. With Thomas, we have been through the first smiles and gurggles, the grasping of objects for inspection and tasting (babies learn much about objects by putting them in their mouths), sitting up unaided, and every little step in developing a unique personality that is themselves.

I am indeed fortunate to be able to spend such time with Thomas - a very flexible work arrangement helps. It has its ups and downs (I think I may have covered that aspect before), like I want to get *some* work done, and he wants to sit on my lap being endlessly fascinated by my screen saver, or just playing games with me and giggling.

But getting back on topic, I had one of those "milestones" with him the other day - his first tooth! Yep, thats right - after weeks of red cheeks, buckets of dribbling and several very disturbed sleeps, his first tooth finally broke through! My finger is one of the objects regularly grasped and tasted, except on this occasion when he gnawed away it wasn't the usual gummy glob the massaged my finger, but a hard sharp tooth! So, now he has a new nickname - The Fang!

Its also End of Semester for me at work. That means no more classes to prepare and deliver. Yay! (At least until mid July, anyway).

On the down side though, there are lots of assessments to be marked. Ticks, crosses and correcting comments in red ink all over the place. For some, it is confirmation that they have worked hard and learned much during the semester - its a real joy to mark such assignments. For others, it is somewhat disappointing that they have not made more of an effort. I could see the end result for several students weeks ago - just looking at their class attendance (or lack thereof), and the participation in class activities. I wish there was more I could do for these students. However they have had the same classes, the same opportunities, and the same assistance from me as the successful students. Still, I guess they learn the hard way (by having to re-enrol and fork over more fees) that it would have been better to have spent more time in class and with the books, than at whatever they thought was more important over these past few months. I'm sure I will see many of them again next semester, but not in the continuing classes.

Anyway, enough of the soapbox stuff for today. Tomorrow I am rostered to do enrolments for next semester, so I guess I'll soon see if my prediction is correct.

Clay Pidgeons
Thursday, 24 June 1999

Ha! At least I get one entry in per month! Apparently not frequently enough for some people, but then they haven't been living my life recently, have they!

The old expression "Get a Life" comes to mind, because I sure have been living a life recently - certainly not much time for on-line stuff (well, not fun stuff anyway - lots of work on line though). Between work, study, Cadets, and family (and I *do* take my responsibilities as a father *very* seriously - Thomas can be such fun at time, and of course Kathryn is always dear to me), there hasn't been much time for anything remotely selfish like myself!

Work has been somewhat difficult lately - sure I have had to make sure I am there for the appropriate lectures, but otherwise it has not been easy. Leoni went back to work about a month ago - so I have been giving primary day care to Thomas. That sounds fine in theory, feed baby, change baby's nappy, play with baby, pick baby up, put baby down, try to put baby to sleep... all good stuff for any parent! Sometime Thomas does go to sleep and I can sit at my computer at home and maybe do some work (lesson prep, marking, assignments and stuff), or I can stuff around listening to mp3's, playing games, or trying out "free" software that I don't really want. Then he wakes up and it starts all over again - or I have to wake him up to go get Kathryn from school or to go down town for something. This isn't meant to be a complaint, just a routine description of my non-teaching days for the last few weeks. It feels great to be part of the un-acknowledged work that many women and (increasingly) some men do in family raising. I salute you all.

The title for this piece came from a weekend activity I did with the Cadets a few Saturdays ago. We were engaged by one of the local gun clubs to act as trappers and operate the target launcers for their annula championships. The job involves getting down in a bunker, and as the machine fires a target, to quickly reload, by hand, the machine. There is literally only a few seconds between firings, so one has to be very careful!

Anyway, these past few weeks I have felt somewhat like a "clay pidgeon", being flung out in all directions and then shot down in pieces - metaphorically speaking of course.

My Great Study Endeavour has (hopefully) come to an end. I have spent the past month doing the fice required contracts and three observed teaching sessions, that should have been done over the whole semester. If I have one weakness (Ha, you say, only one?), its my tendancy to procrastinate something horrible. So things do get left to the last moment. But I made it - the last one was handed in last Sunday - the day before the *absolute final deadline*. They are on line if you want to go look - but over the weekend, "they" upgraded the network software here and now the personal work web pages don't work! It will be sorted out and I can let you know where you can go stickybeak (Note: someone remind me?)

And now it is nearly the end of the month. One more working week of madly getting assessments for Semester 1 completed, then its off on another jaunt - this time back "home" to Tasmania to visit the family (and to taste the chocolates from Cadbury's factory in Hobart *wink*).

Now maybe I can find some time to get this mess of a web page sorted out...