Oh, how relaxing Christmas break was. If only I could be back there.

The past few weeks have been hectic, and I just seem to be getting busier.

At school, we’re backed up against a bunch of deadlines with the yearbook. I wish I could start over on the whole project and have it be September again. I could get it done so much more efficiently, if we just had the time. At this point, we’re behind – and we’ll probably be behind right up until we submit the final version of the book in April.

At home, I’ve been doing a lot of work on the heating system. We switched from gas fireplaces – which were relatively efficient, but not as effective – to the old steam radiator system. It’s much more effective in terms of heating the entire house, but it eats up more energy (gas bills are no fun), and I’ve been doing a lot of maintenance to try and get it working properly.

After the last round of replacements and fixes today, I think I’ve finally got things under control. No more steam or water leaks, and the water hammer has reduced significantly. Thanks to this experience, I’ll also be writing up a series of articles about working on the system. I’ll probably publish them at AC, but I’ll link to them from here afterwards.

To top things off, I finally started class at Rutgers. I managed to wade through the sea of red tape, get registered (late), pay for classes, and attend both of my classes last week. I’m taking an Ed course about the History of African American Education and a History writing course titled Recent American History Seminar. It’s great to be a student again, but it’s something else piling up and sucking time out of my busy weeks.

I’m working on an Ed. D. in Social Studies Education. It looks like the initial coursework will take me a couple years – until the Spring or Summer of 2011. Then I get to dig into the real fun with my dissertation.

Back to Blogging?

With all of this going on, I haven’t had the energy to sit down and write much. The little time that I’ve had at home to relax, I’ve mostly spent watching TV. I always feel guilty afterwards, but sometimes you just need to veg out.

Starting with this weekend, I plan on getting back to my regularly writing schedule. I’m beginning to wonder how feasible it is to keep up with all three topics – it may be time for Nerds at Work to disappear. Or, it may just get trimmed back to a once-a-week topic. I haven’t had a lot of inspiration lately, because I’ve spent most of my online time writing and very little of it developing.

Anyhoo, look forward to some more posts. Throughout the week, I plan on finishing up my “How to Build a Classroom Website” series and promoting it a bit throughout the ‘net. I’ve also got some thoughts from my first week of class that I want to get down. As for gaming, I want to keep track of my painting progress and reflect a bit on my game last week against High Elves.

Stay tuned.