I have seventeen minutes before my time in the Writing Center is done. I really don't have anything new or interesting to post, but it's been a couple of weeks and I figure it's time. Blathering for seventeen minutes is better than writing nothing at all. Heck, I teach college English. I can blather for 75 minutes straight when called upon to do so.

What's on my mind?

The thing in Boston makes me angry. Like, revenge angry. I'm glad that there are good, compassionate people out there who are focusing on helping the injured and fostering the positive. At the same time, however, I hope there are some remarkably well-trained, fast-moving, well-equipped people who are focusing on tracking down these cowardly weasels and bringing them to their just desserts in the swiftest, most uncomfortable way possible.

(Student just interrupted me to ask a question about how to cite an article. Another minute gone.)

I read a movie script over the weekend that was written by my friend, The Admiral, also known as Brad Barrett. It made me laugh out loud repeatedly. I haven't laughed out loud at a movie in I don't know how long. Maybe it's just because I know Brad and have a similar sense of humor - or maybe it's because he wrote a script that was really funny.

Sometimes I become over reliant on student presentations. Students have been doing all the talking in my American Lit class for the last couple of weeks and now, all of a sudden, I'm like, "Oh me? My turn? Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man? Sure. Sure. Uhm...hold on."

There are new trailers out for Star Trek, Superman, and Iron Man. My eighteen year old students who read comic books and wear their Batman t-shirts to school have no idea how this is practically an age of wonders for their kind. They haven't been around long enough to realize how good they've got it.

It's really chilly in here. The AC is on, but it's only in the 50s outside. Not a good combo for a guy in a short sleeved shirt.

This morning Maryn said, "Have you ever wondered if cereal is like the same as serial - like serial killer? Can you imagine a bowl of cereal coming after you with a knife? That would be scary."

(My buddy the chemistry teacher stopped by to invite me and my kids to the science show this Friday. Apparently, he will be lying on a bed of nails and having a cinderblock crushed on his chest. We'll be there.)

12:00 p.m. I'm out.