The Difference Between Up and Down

When Biking...

(Mapquest and Yahoo! Maps both say it's about 4 and three quarters miles from my house to the elementary school where my class is. The scale on the map I've been using makes it look like it's just over 2. I feel /much/ better about my speed and endurance over the past couple weeks if I believe the online map thingies, so that's what I'm going to do.)

The trip to the school is nearly entirely uphill. You go up, up, up, and then down, and then repeat the process 3 times. The third time, just as you crest the hill and before you get to go down again, you turn left and go up a little more. They don't seem like very steep uphills, but they're very very very long.

Anyway, the trip /to/ school, when I was in a hurry and worried about being late, took me about 45 minutes. The trip home took me less than half an hour. This is the difference between up and down.

Tomorrow I'm going to take the slightly longer trip that doesn't take me on Tudor for almost 4 miles. (Tudor is not the nicest street, and there are traffic lights at the bottoms of all of those (on the way home) down hills, so you can't even use the coasting momentum to get you partway up the other side.)

Other News

I think I prefer face-to-face classes to internet or phone classes. This isn't really a new revelation, it's sort of been building for a while as realizations go. But, today, having had the first session of the face-to-face class I'm taking, the understanding became clear. I like being able to see the professor. I like having the professor able to see me. I like the group work and discussions. Strange, I know.

I think I learn perfectly well on my own, but I think being able to read the body language of a teacher helps me put together a picture of what he's looking for from assignments that I just can't get from text, or even voice.

Maybe I can find a time to meet the professor of my history class. Although ShaWn's sister-in-law (a doctoral candidate in Alaska History at UAF) says that he's a dork. But she was able to give me some direction for my research paper, where he refused to give me anything at all.

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In the Small World category - one of the people in my group in class taught in Stebbins (Kotlik's sister village) the year before I got out there. She used to live in Loveland, CO, went to college in MA, and her husband is from ME.

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Daniel continues to be a twit in the middle of the night, and I have no idea why. I stuffed him in his kennel and put the kennel in the bathroom, and I think that gave me an hour of sleep before he started howling, again. I wonder if he's not feeling well.

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Saw Harry Potter again. I still liked it a bunch, but I had the same basic reaction -> It would have been much better with 10 - 20 minutes more footage, specifically some more exposition. I probably even would have been satisfied with a single minute of dialogue between Lupin and Harry. Maybe. I also had some more nitpicky thoughts. I don't think I'll go see it again in the theatre, but I'm really really hoping that when the DVD comes out there's stuff on it that was cut. I still really liked all of the things I said I liked, before, though.

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I think I've forgotten something. Maybe later.