reasonable days

[branchandroot]

So, I feel a bit like things have evened out for my job. I mean, we're still doing mad feats of instructional design and support, giving spring/summer instructors a handle on how to teach a fully online course, but we've got a system in place, at least. It isn't the deluge of "fix this immediate crisis". We even have some decent contingency brainstorming going on about Fall.

You may have noticed that every uni president out there is declaring "hope" that fall will be in-person or some kind of hybrid. If you think about class-change, when (in our case) 40K students hit the pavement in the same ten minutes, you will see the issues with hybrid. So, honestly? I'm going on the assumption that only hands-on courses (lab, studio, experiential course) will be on-campus, while the rest... well, the rest do /something/, which may involve reduced in-person meetings or weirdly extended hours to allow staggered passing time, or who the fuck knows.

(For my money, everyone who isn't hands-on will need to stay online. But I'll let the administrators brick-wall themselves to that conclusion in their own time.)

So work is going reasonably! I even made re-contact with the next vendor I was planning a pilot for!

The weather continues springlike, which means lovely, sunny days when it's way chillier than it looks, but all the trees and flowering trees are bursting into bud and bloom nevertheless. They're old hands at this. Half of my new plants have arrived, and are re-hydrating indoors.

And personal life is quite tolerable! Admittedly, I have reached the stage where my SCMs are so tight I get vertigo just lying flat on my back, but a memory from physical therapy solved that. With a towel rolled up under my neck, to support the arch, it's... not the most fun I've ever had, but I can do my 20 sit ups and 70 crunches and not fall over when I try to stand up again. I declare it a win.

(Which means my demi-pointe balance is back! Eee! My extension is still for shit, but I can damn well releve again!)

And then, of course, there's The Bunny. The Bunny that this video bunnied me with. The one about how Meng Yao showed just enough desire to stay that Lan Xichen actually offered to arrange it, which kicks the whole plot down the path shaped like "Meng Yao's entire moral compass is in reference to Lan Xichen" rather than "in reference to himself". The story has reached the point where the Wen sect is about to regret this fact very, very hard. Because adorable Mr "Senpai noticed me!" is about to become utterly feral Mr "You hurt my boyfriend, prepare to die", perfectly prepared to tear through the whole cultivation world like buzzsaw if that's what it takes, and without any restraint except, well, Lan Xichen.

Nie Mingjue thinks this is fucking hilarious, deep down. Both the Nie brothers totally ship it.

We're at about 20K words and still going.

Comments

[trobadora]

Because adorable Mr "Senpai noticed me!" is about to become utterly feral Mr "You hurt my boyfriend, prepare to die", perfectly prepared to tear through the whole cultivation world like buzzsaw if that's what it takes, and without any restraint except, well, Lan Xichen.

Hee! That sounds delightuful. :D

[branchandroot]

I'm having huge fun with it. Pretty sure Lan Xichen is going to be a bit shocked, but also, very deep down, think it's hot.

[glymr]

"Meng Yao's entire moral compass is in reference to Lan Xichen" rather than "in reference to himself".

*gasps*

I WANT TO READ THIS SO BADLY!

[branchandroot]

*grins* It's really a lot of fun to write, because it's so /easy/. Just one or two tipping points and behold, Meng Yao has pretty much everything he ever wanted, all from Lan Xichen's hands. And then the Wen sect interferes and the only thing keeping Meng Yao from trotting around the Qishan pleasure quarters and commissioning the mass poisoning of the Wen sect is that Lan Xichen would look at him sadly if he did.

[princessofgeeks]

Thanks for the update.

I teach at a regional small branch university and I have been periodically scratching my head and then finding the same five articles when I google the topic of colleges reopening in the fall.

I don't see how it can work for a big dorm-focused major school. I just don't. It's weird to not be able to make any plans at all yet about the fall. Plus my son was going to transfer schools in the fall and now he has no idea about that; how it will work, if it will work, where he will live, etc. So weird.

[branchandroot]

I hear you. For us, the decision will be made (at least for now) at the June Regents' meeting. My team is scrambling to prepare recommendations for the dean to pass along then, most of which boil down to "for pity's sake, stay online". But this is a residential college, and so many students and faculty are bound and determined to have /some/ face to face... ugh.

[annotated_em]

Possibly the only person to regret this leg of the Trousers of Time is Xue Yang, since he's going to miss out on his best playmate. *snerks*

[branchandroot]

He is. In fact, he's probably going to be killed as soon as Meng Yao sits in on the interrogation and goes "yeah, no, he doesn't give a damn, torture the yin metal out of him and have done".

[rheasilvia]

I'm glad the job side of things has smoothed out to a tolerable level! What a relief. This is such a crazy time, seriously.

And yay for successful bunnies, perhaps the best way to spend time. :-) I am very impressed with your progress!

[branchandroot]

I honestly think it's the work-crazies that are driving the plotbunnies. *rueful* Well, hey, whatever works.