It took an effort, and by effort I mean most of the weekend and Friday before it, but two-thirds of my grades are now submitted. Grading, then making sure I have all of the same grades in independent spreadsheets, the making sure the formulas comport with what’s on the syllabus. After that, I have to make sure I did the math correctly. I do this part several times because, ya know, math. Then I make sure my two spreadsheets agree with one another. With all of those potential stumbling blocks avoided, it’s time to actually upload the grades.
You can import this data from a spreadsheet, but my classes are small enough that I do it by hand. Scroll down a list, select the correct value from the drop down boxes. The problem is that my classes are large enough that all of the names won’t fit on one screen, and so I must scroll. But, also, scrolling websites is somehow a challenge in this, the 21st century.
It’s a process, and now mostly complete.
I’ll wrap up the last class in the next day or so. The good news is that most of the above has been completed for that one too. And summer is coming.
Theoretically. It’s been damp and cold for days. It’s mid-May.
Some around-the-place shots. We have some nice tables out back, and I know I need to clean this off the iron, but the moss does look nice.
Maybe next week, presuming we have a day when it isn’t raining.
The weather doesn’t seem to be hampering some of the other things growing around here. Well, hello, peaches!
I’ll be pulling all of these — and many, many more — inside in a few months.
Want some peaches? Now taking requests.
The rhododendrons are looking lovely, as well.
Let’s go back to California to see the bloody-belly comb jelly. Red looks black even just below the surface of the water, and in the deep sea, where these creatures live, you won’t find spotlights. It is very dark 1,000 feet below the surface in the North Pacific.
These jellies, then, hide in plain sight. Predators and prey never see those incredible colors of the light diffracting off the combs. Technically, these are ctenophores, meaning that they are not true jellies, but the name is sticking. This species were first collected off San Diego in 1979 and described in just 2001.
There’s one more California video, I think. I’ll try to get it here next week.
Tomorrow, we’ll see how things are shaping up with a few of the other growing things. But, for now, I have to get back to the household chores. I have to make the place look presentable; company is coming tomorrow!
