Beware the Ides of August... it's certainly summer but there's a new school year ahead

Suddenly, a new semester is looming... after a long summer filled with judging and a family reunion and last get-togethers with granddaughter Anna... and rewatching Star Trek, The Next Generation over again, all seven seasons.

That last one I considered as therapy after hours peering at a computer display and it was quite effective. Not sure exactly what will replace it. There are some other Star Trek universe options... just not Deep Space 9 -- ugh. 

I certainly should have created a steadier schedule of revisions and additions and deletions for my CSU and Metro Canvas online courses, but hindsight is always 20-20. This week I have grabbed the "low hanging fruit," so to speak, in terms of adjusting everything from due dates for assignments to trying to make the course more transparent for even the least computer savvy students.

BTW: this new version of Blogger just popped up a message that said the robot had found four links that it would be glad to insert into my post... so I did. Three of them, when followed, take us to helpful starting points on Google to learn more details. The CSU link features California State University, so that is worthless other than to impress upon me that California State must get more searches than Colorado State.

Sorry, now back to my post. 

I hope to update all the weekly objectives for Composing Arguments by end of the day today (Friday), and the CSU Strategic Writing class will get my full attention next week.

Possibly as a way to annoy me, the two universities start a week apart, Metro on Aug. 18 and CSU on Aug. 25... and wrap up a week apart in December. The good news is that I could find the time I needed to focus on first one and then the other as opposed to doubling the hours in one horrid week. 

A number of long-term projects remain in my Tasks list, including a first draft of my next readers theater adventure, based on the 1937 Frank Capra movie "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," and a solid first draft of my history of St. Luke's project that takes us through 2003. 

I must admit to feeling a bit "blocked" for both those projects. My initial enthusiasm in researching and writing about St. Luke's, for instance, carried me for nearly a year. As I approach a natural "pause point" involving the church's third minister going on sabbatical, I now find myself waiting on a number of potential sources who don't seem to have my questions high on their to-do list. 

The Deeds script is more pressing, since a performance is on the books for November. No one cares if or when I finish the St. Luke's project (no one asked me to do it). Naturally, that moves Deeds ahead when I find some time to write and think (usually in the afternoons). 

Of course, afternoons are a great time to slip downstairs to the media room and fire up Paramount+ for some Star Trek reruns...