Sometime early Saturday morning my 5-year-old Power Mac died. I knew because of some email logs my other computer sent me about not being able to access the down computer. I got to the computer around mid-day and tried to restart it. No joy. I could hear the UPS upstairs screaming in pain when I tried that. So I moved the power plug to another outlet, mistakenly thinking that it was the UPS’s problem. Then I tried again. These things happened simultaneously: there was a loud “pop,” the lights flickered/dimmed, and there may have been a spark from the Power Mac.

Today after class one of my students asked if I was teaching Production III next semester, because “[he’d] take from [me] again in a heartbeat.” Another student in my class, his friend, agreed. Don’t that just make ya feel good? Thanks, guys. :) That kinda balances out the statement from earlier this semester by a student in my other class that mine was “the worst production class [he’d] ever taken.” This statement was also said to me in front of at least one other student in the same class, yet somehow didn’t have the same heartwarming effect.