Wrapped up the first week of summer school today. Ran some quick errands after school and been at home ever since. Time warps on Friday night, it seems, I've been laying around doing nothing except trying not to take a nap (so I'll actually sleep all night). I really don't want to watch a rerun of Reunited: The Real World Las Vegas. It's either that or what looks like the final episode of Stargate, in which all of the characters seem to be trapped for 20 years in a space station or something. Haven't watched that show since like season two. I'd put something brainless on the DVD player, but I'm not sure I'm ready to invest in that even.

I suppose I could try to grade papers, he said to himself with sarcasm.

I've gotten a little further along The Road in the last couple of days. I've enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would. Hope to finish it in the next day or two, then move on to some more "slummy" Doctor Who novel before tackling The Kite Runner.

Or I could read student essays.

Tomorrow is the last of my short series of grad parties. Granted, it seems like "it never ends." Saw a graduate last night, even. Still, it's a last "formal" thing, which will be nice.

It's nine o'clock now. Maybe I will crack a book before heading to bed. I'm seriously looking forward to sleeping in (or at least my own personal version of it).

It will be very nice to "lay me down to sleep" here in a bit. It's been quite the involved day. Taught two classes. Spent some time with friends talking. Had a class meeting. Had a student council dinner meeting. Led prayer meeting. Ran by Wal-Mart. Now I'm home and writing this as a way of winding down.

This first week of summer school has gone by pretty well. I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. The pace is much better than the last couple of years for me. This has been a year of amazing comfort like that, I think. I'm connecting with some of the younger kids more than I thought I would, which is strange. For the first time in a while I'm teaching kids that I did not teach in middle school. Interesting.

I have hopes that the next two weeks will go smoothly and remain uneventful.

At the same time, tomorrow is another day. Instead of two meetings, I have an afternoon of hotel visits for next year's banquet. Good times. And I've got to get back on The Road before the end of the month. And I need to clean the apartment. And I need to get some laps in over the next couple of days. And it would be nice to actually get on top of summer school. Too much reliance on early-morning preparation.

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year, I suppose. I'm glad for the promise of the slow change. I like my mornings to be nice and dark longer.

Thought I'd share one of the first lines from McCarthy's The Road that earned an underline or a checkmark. Good stuff:

He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.

The first day of summer school went pretty well.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy the writing of Charles Wright: "I seem to have come to the end of something, but don't know what."

I broke a promise-made-to-myself today. Thankfully, this promise had no connection with last week's promise-made-to-myself that was broken as well.

I waited way too long to get my act together for school today. Really need to work on that.

Driving H-3 at sunset is a beautiful thing. The mountains and the clouds and even the concrete are amazing.

Last night at church: "Let your life say something- be an expression of truth."

I still love cranberry-grape juice. Good stuff.

David Tennant might be my favorite Doctor, but Christopher Eccleston wasn't that bad. He was quite good, really.

The Road has more good lines than I thought it would.

I was sad this morning when I found the classroom I would be using wasn't as technologically savvy as the rest of the rooms.

Pork chops are good.

Back to the pool today. First time in three days, I think. Back to the 36.

Graduates are everywhere. . . even at Wal-Mart.

I did something this past week that I haven't done in an awful long time. . . if ever. I read a piece of "commercialized fiction." It felt a bit like "slumming it" in a literary kind of way. Go ahead, call me a literary elitist.

Ever since I moved to Hawaii, I've found myself reading books that are pretty much literary in nature. Books that start and stop, telling a complete story, between its own covers. Sure, there's The Dark Tower series and the work of Jasper Fforde, but those are still writer-centric. Commercialized fiction, to me, usually involves television shows or entertainment properties that can carry a separate book series written by any of a number of authors.

This week, I read Justin Roberts' The Resurrection Casket. It's a nice little hardback that follows the adventures of the Tenth Doctor and Rose during the second season of the new Doctor Who series. Yeah. Because watching the series is not enough. The book, honestly, was a little difficult getting into. I mean, you know it's pretty much a throw-away story: it will never be referenced in the TV series, it will never have a sequel. In the end, though, I enjoyed it. I think I sometimes take my reading too seriously, so this ended up being a nice change. Plus, it also gave me some time to put off starting my next piece of fiction, Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I meant to read it when it first came out and Stephen King spoke so kindly of it. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to buy the hardback. So now I'm reading the paperback, having effectively removed the "Oprah's Book Club" sticker from the cover. Wish I could slap one on there that said "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize." Ah well.

First, let me say that a two hour nap late in the day really CAN screw up the chances of you getting a full night of sleep. I think I got maybe four hours last night. It wasn't tossing and turning, mind you, but it wasn't very restful either. So hopefully I'll get some good sleep tonight.

Today was another full day. Had breakfast with a friend at the original Pancake House down on Kapiolani. Then had a grad-party lunch up at Treetops in Manoa. After that, I went over and walked back to Manoa Falls, which still wasn't as impressive as I'd hoped. Then it was to catch Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Before I say anything about the movie, please know that I've been big fans of both the FF and the SS over the last couple of decades. Also know that I have yet to see the first FF movie (don't plan on it really), and went tonight because the movie looked more interesting than the last and because I got to hang out with friends I had not seen in a while.

The movie was not that bad. It wasn't great. It wasn't as good as X-3. But it was enjoyable. By the time they ended up in China, I was totally into it, really. The acting was rough on almost every level. The effects were cool. The story was fine. The voice of the Surfer was a little annoying, so it was good that he didn't say much. The visual of Doctor Doom just doesn't translate well to live-action. Doom on a surfboard even moreso, mind you.

Two good elements: the "tag" plotline concerning the Four's powers and the sense of doom that the character of Galactus brought to the story. Also the nod to "Frankie" and the introduction of some technology that is all about the Fantastic Four.

Good popcorn movie. Enjoyable overall. Visually well-done. But not as good as Simonson on FF or Starlin and Lim on SS. And that's okay.

Just kidding, really. Though I am staying in tonight. I've done a good bit of socializing over the last week. I've tried to maintain a good balance of getting things done and spending time with friends. So I've had friends over for dinner, went out with friends for lunch, and even met up with a friend for dessert around mid-week.

I've been napping a lot this week, which is really strange for me. I've never been much of a napper (a few times in college, I remember). Just tonight, I came home from a day at school and slept for like two hours (5 to 7ish), which is unheard of in my parts. I celebrated the evening, then, with some Wendy's and an episode of Doctor Who. And I'm hoping that I'm not too-awake enough to hit the sack soon.

So my one real "week off" is pretty much over. I still have a good bit to do before Monday morning, though. I've got things sketched out, but I need to do some more fleshing out. I've had two meetings this week at school. I'll have three more next week after classes. I'm trying my best to be organized and a better "documetor" of what's going on. Hopefully that will help me keep things in line and my messy desk in order.

I'm actually going to see The Fantastic Four movie tomorrow. I have yet to see the first one: probably never will. But a couple of friends invited me along tomorrow night, and I'm enough of a fan of the Silver Surfer that I should probably see it. Reviews aren't very good in the non-comic world. In the comic world, things are kind of split. So it will be interesting, at least.