The week started well with classes starting and ended awfully with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I won't say much here about RBG's passing as I think it is too early to figure out the ramifications, but I will say that it is very 2020 to have her die just before the election. The one thing I will say is that if you are motivated to donate money or make phone calls, don't focus on Mitch "Bad Faith is My Middle Name" McConnell's race but the other races that are much tighter. Mitch can be made mostly irrelevant if the Dems gain control of the Senate.
Anyhow, Monday was my first day of teaching. I learned quite quickly that the choice to put up videos rather than teach live online was the right one. I did teach live the first day, and a few different things happened. First, someone was carrying a conversation with someone else--either in the class or at home or on another device--and I can't remember what it was about, but it wasn't appropriate. The students started chatting in the chat box about it (see here) and I was kind of flummoxed. One student said "this is the best fucking thing I have ever seen..." and I responded: "I am pretty sure that is not true." Here's my look: 
The class went on and was otherwise pretty normal for an online class, including me losing my audio and my video freezing a couple of times. The class will provide a weekly uplift for me and my twitter followers as the meme of the week assignment promises to be delightful. Each student has to create four memes, one in each quarter of the class. Only 8 of 110+ did the assignment for the first week, which means that we will get 100 or so divided among the next two weeks. The memes ranged from being funny but not really developing the concept to wonderfully on target. The students vote on who wins the contest with the top four vote-getters each week getting extra credit and the rest of those submitting simply getting a pass grade in the pass/fail assignment. This one did not win but was my personal fave:
My Phd Proposal class also met on Monday, and it went well. It meets twice a month with students workshopping their proposals bit by bit and also one or two present their entire proposal, which is often their practice session before defending it before their committee. As always, lots of questions about the rules of our system--how many people on the committee, how many do you need for the proposal defense, etc--with me never really knowing quite what the rules are. It is kind of like ultimate--which is on its 11th edition of the rules but I still seem to remember the rules that I learned 35 years ago. As this is the third PhD program I have been prof-ing at, I lose track of what the rules are here.
Besides the memes, playing ultimate in the rain on Sunday was a highlight of the week. We once again played the best team in Ottawa--our bubble is very small--and we got crushed after starting off 3-3. But it was fun and it was not too cold. I do worry that as the weather gets colder, my muscles are more likely to pull. The key, as always, is not to run hard or jump much. My style is more of falling down with style--laying out for errant disks. It has been great to be out and run around. Biking is good exercise, but it just isn't fun the way ultimate is. Alas, as winter approaches, the key will be to find cross country skis or snowshoes before there is a run on them.
The baking continues with my siblings and I making various apple cake recipes. The cake I made rivals my apple turnovers and apple pie, better than my apple crisp and apple crumble. This week's competition involves smore cookies, which meant I had to go out and get a kitchen torch to burn the marshmellows. Ok, I used this as an excuse to get one. Whether I start making heaps of creme brulé remains to be seen.
The family zoom has changed recently as my sister added games to our conversations, which, thankfully, reduces the amount of pandemic and politics talk. I get to choose next so I am awaiting a delivery of a game that we can play online. I will report the results next week.
Speaking of zoom, I had heaps of meetings this week with a variety of people. Again, I am glad that I taped my class as it can get exhausting to have three hours of zoom in a row. But these are small complaints.
The bigger frustration right now in Canada is that the testing is still not where it needs to be. A journalist friend went on an odyssey trying to get tested. The problem is that you can only send your kids to school if no one in the family bubble is sick. If someone is sick, then they need to be tested before the kids can return to school. Which means tons of people lining up at the very few testing centers in Ottawa, often waiting hours and then learning that the testing center is booked for the day. And the results come back often very slowly. So, yeah, Ontario has failed to provide sufficient testing for this very predictable increase in testing demand at the start of the school year. A second wave has been declared, so, yes, once again, I am very, very thankful that my school has decided to be entirely online this fall and in the winter.
It would seem like six months into this, we would be doing this better. But we are not. Just as the US has had failing leadership, Canada's leaders have not done nearly enough. And, yes, just as outcomes vary by state in the US, they vary by province up here. Doug Ford exceeded expectations last winter by closing things down and criticizing the party-goers. But on the policy front--getting testing right, shifting resources so that there would be more distancing in schools--he has utterly failed. So, Mrs. Spew and I continue to hunker down with the exception of food shopping, mailing out of US ballots, other errands, and ultimate frisbee.
I hope you and yours are well and manage to dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge this disease. Be well.
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