Redesigning a course is a lot of work, on top of reviewing almost a dozen grant proposals. I had almost no free time in January and it was a struggle to get exercise. I went to judo once and climbing semi-regularly but definitely less than in December. The real crunch time, though, was mid-February, just before reading week.
This winter is a lot: two snow days this term. Apparently that happened in 2019 as well, but I forgot that.
Apart from the end of the Quebec trip (I was back in Waterloo on January 4), I did not go anywhere all month, except for Toronto/YYZ a few more times that I would have liked (i.e. 3). I was planning to go to Regina, but that was the same time as when I had my tooth extracted and also one of the snow days; my flight got cancelled and I would not have gotten back on the Monday. That would have been OK, since school was also closed that Monday.
The other life maintenance thing is that it’s way past time to replace our flooring, so there was some effort on that front. Also a bunch of small house maintenace things. A hassle. On top of all the other things.
Health news
In terms of personal health news, I also went to the dentist more often than I would have liked: at the checkup, the dentist confirmed that one of my teeth was indeed unfixably broken, and needed a complicated extraction by the specialist (as the billing code said). Anyway, I’m currently waiting 4 months for an implant.
More broadly:
There’s also the monthly roundup from Absolutely Maybe: [TODO]
Professional
The question is: on how many days did I not work? It was SE 465 notes all day, every day, except for the NFRF and SCAM PC. The answer is 3; or, I worked on 28 days, with teaching-related work on 25 of those days, and prep on 20. There are 20 work days in January.
Teaching
The extra-SE465-lecture runway diminished through the first two weeks of January as I focussed on NFRF reviews. But the rest of the term should be, I hope, less intense. Still a bit more prep to do (I have no slides and there are maybe 4 more lectures to write), but not as much as preparing the fuzzing material. The Dafny material doesn’t actually need that many slides.
Grad students/mentees/collaborators
This seems to have been below average somehow, with meetings on 5 days. Not quite sure what happened there. Getting Alex through his PhD proposal this term. Also, met up with alumni of all kinds a bunch of times. Got my former PhD student Jon to help move a recliner upstairs.
Collegiality/Service
Some small things, like a paper review for T-IFS and Pints with Profs; organizing an alumni panel for SE 26 was a bit more; and then significant work on the NFRF reviews, FAUW governance committee, and SCAM organizing.
I got everything done by its deadline.
Trips
Nothing to see here.
Travel Planning
Since Regina didn’t happen, I thought I should go referee at the Edmonton International. Also we made some arrangements for the Wānaka trip in February. Things were super booked three weeks out in summer. Better to book earlier.
I did try to help others get out of Regina. That was a difficult travel day.
Movement statistics
A fair amount of biking, but not much walking. The walk between classes is kind of far but I can’t measure the distance (Gaia GPS won’t tell me).
Movement statistics:
- 🚶 Walking: 18km on 11 days
- ❄️👟 Snowshoe: 6.3km
- 🚲 Biking: 173km on 23 days (max 25km)
- 🚗 Driving: 1026km on 10 days: Quebec (507km) and Ontario (519km, including 2× Toronto)
- 🚗 Taxi: 10km on 2 days (Waterloo before having snow tires installed)
- 🚌 Bus: 217km on 4 days (Montreal, Toronto roundtrip, Waterloo)
- 🚆 Train: 99km (Toronto-Kitchener)
- 🚆 Metro/subway: 3.5km (Montreal, Toronto)
- 🚆 LRT: 10km (Waterloo)
- ✈ Plane: 520km (YUL-YYZ)
- ⛷ Skiing: 42km on 3 days (Mont Grand-Fonds, Schneider’s Farm)
Transit was 324km, with a lot of that being a round trip to Toronto and a bit of that a trip from YUL.
Walks
Cross-country skiing at Schneider’s Farm and snowshoeing to Lac Gauthier on the Sentier des Caps.
Pictures
Yikes.
- Sets of pictures processed: January=1, December=27
- Total pictures selected: January=27, December=919
- Total pictures in selection pool: January=91, December=3092
- Accept rate: 30%
- Pictures posted on this page: 0
Miscellaneous
Well above normal focus on teaching this month.
Had to go to the garage to get the winter tires changed: they were rusted on, and really needed to be hoisted to be shoved off. I always have trouble with getting them off.
There was also an issue with bearings in my rear bicycle wheel. King St Cycles closed last July, so I brought my bike to McPhail’s, where I like the vibe less. Anyway, they replaced the wheel.
I mentioned to my office neighbour that my bike and my tooth were both broken, and then clarified that it wasn’t in the same incident.
Posts
None.
Movies
- Housing Film at the Kitchener Public Library with the filmmaker, Brian Doucet, and a Q&A.
Books
As if.
Acquisitions
None.
Sports
GRR 6×, Joe Rockhead’s 1×, judo 1×. Not bad for GRR, actually.
Food
Yes, well, not so much copious free time.
Québec:
- Le Shack à Patates: Poutine near Mont Ste-Anne.
- SHAKER: actually a local chain with tartares etc, also dumplings
- Paillard: good croissants
Greater Toronto/Waterloo:
- C’est What: burger-like foods
- Pilot Coffee Roasters: can’t say anything about the coffee, but they had some pastries
- Salt & Pepper Hakka Chinese: Hakka is getting quite popular; tasty noodles and fried rice, generous portions
- Fox and John’s: fish tacos, perhaps the breading was not as light as I prefer.
Volunteering
There was a 3 hour refereeing committee meeting that could have been shorter. Also helped with an Ask Me Anything for Ontario referees.
Conclusion
I sure am glad January was over. It was a whole month, with lots of teaching and service.