Weekend Interrupted

It was kind of a disturbing day. It started out weird when I came out of Clark Hall, looked to the side of the steps and saw a bunch of trash scattered around behind a bush. When I looked a little closer, I realized I was seeing a passport, wallet, ID cards, and the contents of someone's backpack that had obviously been riffled by a thief. I gathered up the stuff and took it to the Biology Department office to call the poor woman who'd been robbed. I suppose she was glad to get her passport and ID cards back. But it did not present an auspicious start to the day.

The first thing on my schedule today, was to meet with Bob. He's an emeritus faculty member in the Department and has been a good friend since I got here -- he's getting up there in years and his health hasn't been so good lately. He's trying to finish the revisions on a publication and was having trouble with the online submission process. I dropped my bags and coat by the door and sat down with him for a few minutes and we got the stuff sorted out -- it's a rather confusing process. Another retired faculty member, who's been keeping an eye on Bob, walked by and saw my coat by the door and thought Bob must have collapsed by the door. He came charging in, ready to perform CPR or something, and then saw that Bob was fine. Poor guy. But it didn't offer me any encouragement for how my day was going so far.

A bunch of students were lined up to print posters for the MCB retreat on Saturday. I spent most of the day with two or three people around me needing support through different parts of the process. By late afternoon, that had sorted itself out, but there were plenty of other things to keep me busy.

In Esperantujo, there's been a lot of excitement about a new Alternate Reality Game that challenges people to find the lost ring. The main clue is that people have a tattoo that says "Trovu la ringon perditan", which is in Esperanto. There's some excitement in the Esperanto community that the game may get big enough -- and have a big enough role for Esperanto -- that it will crossover into the mainstream community and offer a significant opportunity to publicize Esperanto. I decided to make an ad for ARGNet, a website that has news about alternate reality games. We also have a google ad and a landing page with information about the game and Esperanto.

Also in Esperantujo, tomorrow we have a meeting in Gardner to get the new treasurer the authority to draw from the bank account of the Esperanto Society of New England and to try to get the organization moving again.

The middle school principal search has gone out with a whimper. It was a really good process and I really enjoyed working with the search committee. We delivered our report to the superintendent, but now the decision is in his hands. I was glad to participate, although they really couldn't have picked a worse time of the year to run the search. It was a nightmare to have to invest so much time in something off campus during the first two-three weeks of the semester.