In which Piers has yet another first day of class

1.  I did not give the students the "come to Jesus" speech. I ran out of time before I could rant out of time (ha! ha!).

2.  The break between 12 and 2 is going to be a hard one for work . . . I can already tell that focus is going to be a major issue.

3.  I have a student from last term who is with me again, and determined to be mad at me for the B she received. She was laughing in spite of herself, though.

4.  Though I had many visitors yesterday, when I had no classes to meet, today I've not had a single one.

5.  Meeting the first day of class is always a delicate (or in my case, not so delicate) balance (or mash-up) of friendliness and demonstrating that I mean business.  The good thing is, I guess, that I'm a known quantity to most of these students, either by experience or reputation.

6.  I really am planning to do some things differently this term. We shall see how successful I am at actually making any changes. I have come to accept that any change in behavior, at least when it comes to me and how I do my work and home life, is ridiculously slow, and often tentative at best.

7.  One thing I have been successful at so far since returning from the Christmas break:  I am barely on Facebook anymore. And I am finding that I miss it less and less the longer I'm away from it. That's progress, right?