Oops, I let my major-post date slip by, 26-Jul-2013.

However, tomorrow, 10-Feb-2014, marks ten years since my first journal entry. Maybe I'll post an entry tomorrow to celebrate.

The roaring pace of my journaling here must be terribly hard to follow. Since the last update, I have completed years four and five in my teaching career, and am almost finished with my education master's (I took a year off after finishing my certification program). I've been getting progressively more involved in the discipline of physics education, including self-study, action research, and the activities in the AAPT and with active physics education researchers.

Still 2 years, 1 month, 26 days until my next "major" journal update.

I noticed that my last entry was from 10 Feb 04; a quick visit to timeanddate.com's duration calculator tells me that is 1727 days, 246 weeks, or 4 years 8 months and 23 days.

A lot has happened over that time span. Back then I was a part-time grad student, trying to make ends meet on a library assistant's salary and trying to figure out what direction I wanted to take next. Within a year, I narrowed down my immediate future career paths to a handful, and began aggressively moving toward graduation and a career. Eventually the right opportunity popped up in one of the several career paths I had an interest in, and I took it.

Now I'm in year three of teaching high school physics, along with a few other courses. I have my master's in physics, and I'm about done with the three-year teaching alternative certification graduate program, which I will extend by a year or two to get a second master's, this time in education.

I wonder what my update will look like in another 4 years, 8 months, and 23 days? I guess we'll see--on Thursday, July 25, 2013.

(Maybe I'll post again in the interim...)

Since I have the option, I might as well use it.

There are several sets of books which I find to be completely indispensable. I must have them. So I own copies of all of them.

1. Dragonlance, both Legends and Chronicles series. The rest of the series' are good too, but L and C are the originals.

2. Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive (all by William Gibson). Essential cyberpunk lit.

3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and all of the other books in the series) by Douglas Adams. My dog-eared compendium copy may need replacement someday, it is so well read.

I plan on making a web page with my reading list; it is quite extensive. These three are essentials, and can at least get everyone started.