when the sky turns black, and we know it will from time to time, we've been through that, and we came out on top

~Ivan & Alyosha (Easy to Love)


Last night, as I was finishing up writing the second (hopefully slightly less difficult!) midterm for my general chemistry course and pondering how my students will fare on it, I found this email in my inbox from a student who has only spoken to me once:

"Prof Klug,

Hey I just wanted to e-mail you and let you know that I
really appreciate your class this term! This is my second time taking Chem 1211
and I'm understanding it much much better this quarter! So yeah I just wanted to
shoot you an e-mail letting you know that. Thanks for your
awesomeness.

Love,
(a student)"

Whenever I start to feel like I confuse my whole class of 56 students and they must hate the subject matter, I get a glimmer of hope from a simple email or comment that lets me know all has not been in vain. I suppose it just goes to show that all students learn and express their learning in different ways. Though I hardly know this student, they are enjoying the class! It has been my experience this quarter that I mostly only hear from the students who are not enjoying or are frustrated because they are not "getting it," but there are others in that sea of fun faces.

We'll see how they feel after the test tomorrow. I'm expecting a huge improvement, though...

this is all that i can say right now. i know it's not much.

~David Crowder Band ("All I Can Say")


It's hard to know what will happen day-to-day in the sometimes routine events of my life. It's even harder to realize that I'm not at the center of the universe.

Late to work on Wednesday, thinking if I hit all of the lights from Bellevue to Fremont perfectly I'd make it to my General Chemistry lecture just in time, I had a sinking feeling that I'd be late as I crossed the 520 bridge in haste.

10:54am: I turn left to cross the Fremont bridge and the cars suddenly stopped in unison. "Oh crap, what a perfectly horrific time for the bridge to go up," I thought. But when the bridge didn't go up, I noticed that a couple trucks had their four-way flashers on, so I figured a car was stalled. Little did I know that seconds before I got my green light, a terrible crash had taken place.

10:58am: Sitting in a row of cars, I call into work to ask someone to tell my class I would be 15-20 minutes late. "I can't believe this, what an inconvenience." A fire-truck arrives on the scene and then I see it: a paramedic giving someone CPR on the sidewalk. My heart sank: I have been well trained in CPR and first aid. I should have been out there.

I pulled a U-turn and made it over a different bridge...my students were all there waiting for me even though I was 20 minutes late while news helicopters hovered over the area and sirens continued to scream, but that image haunted me all day and is still fresh in my mind now; especially since I just saw the above article which says that the lady who was receiving CPR died later in the day.

Christine Duffy; wife, friend, mother of twin 5-year old boys. Gone in an instant. Christine, I'm so very sorry I didn't do anything, and though I can't play the "shoulda coulda woulda" game, I am truly ashamed that if nothing else, I considered my lateness more of a concern than your life.

______________________________________________________

I'm reminded of something Shane Claiborne said at Quest this fall:

"Lord, forgive me for thinking too highly of myself,
Lord, forgive me for thinking too lowly of myself,
Lord, forgive me for thinking about myself too much."

May we live each day loving, caring, and humbling ourselves so that others may always be our priority. Never waste a moment. Do all you can to help people. Tell them how you feel and start doing what you were meant to do on this earth.

Doritos 2, Everyone Else 0

Doritos has done it two years in a row!

Last year, the mouse tackling the man eating Doritos almost made me wet myself.

Today, in the midst of hundreds of other terribly boring commercials, my pick was definitely this one.

In other news, for the first time in my life (other than three years ago when the Seahawks were in it), the Super Bowl was actually a very exciting and enjoyable game! Go figure...