All the students and teachers I know have either returned to school already or else are preparing to return. Good luck to all the incoming freshmen. Most of you worked hard to earn your way into the college you are attending, so be sure to make the most of it so as to make yourself attractive to either the job market or graduate schools. It’s easy sometimes to fall prey to all the distractions on a college campus; just keep your ultimate goal in mind and you should be fine.

I have one week of vacation left, with far too many chores left to finish in that time. As usual, once school begins I will lose most of my weekends and evenings to schoolwork. Teaching is a strange professions in which all the free weekends are grouped together in one two-month clump in the summer. That makes for nice summers but incredibly-stressful school years. And I have grown weary of non-teachers who do not understand the teaching profession complaining about our “working half a year.” Last year I worked over 1900 hours which prorated across 48 weeks is 41 hours per week. How the heck is that working half a year?

This weekend is the World Science Fiction Convention and, as usual, I wish I could be there. I have not attended a worldcon since 1981 for various reasons, one being the expense for an event that nobody in my family but me would enjoy. Hopefully someday I’ll attend another...