Tuesday evening check-in.

There will be a real post again within a day or so. I’ve been doing stuff in the three-dimensional world. So you don’t feel left out:

• I started coaching U6 soccer again for the Spring season. It’s been 4.5 months since the end of the Fall season. They still have microscopic attention spans.
• Apropos of nothing at all on the interwebs: One of my favorite activities in the whole world is engaging in real dialogue with people who hold different views than mine, where everyone in the dialogue takes each other seriously and no one starts by presuming that the other views are prima facie stupid (nor that the fact of their holding such views indicates the other people are dumb or intellectually dishonest).
• Related to the last bullet: while trouncing Uncle Fishy in an Iron Chef: Battle Barbecue match this weekend (his pulled pig had no chance against my endless veggie grill), I had occasion to brag to the other party-goers about what a splendid bunch of commenters I get in these parts — the optimal combination of smart, challenging, respectful, and funny. You guys rock.
• An advantage I’ve noticed to having my “Ethics in Science” students do handwritten responses to case studies (one before our discussion of the case, then one after the discussion) is that it seems to be helping them to write more concisely in laying out the important considerations of the case. It is not, in all instances, helping them to write more legibly.
• Getting unexpectedly mixed messages about what I should attend to as I approach the fall, when I go up for tenure, has left me with what may well be a permanent case of heartburn. Another source of stress, ironically, is the scolding I expect to get from my primary care physician at my check-up this week for taking on too many stressful obligations.
• JM alerts me to the fact that March 24 is Shutdown Day. On a Saturday — during soccer season — I may be strong enough to participate. Stay tuned.

Soon, dear readers, we will commence the pre-play commentary for the first round of the 2007 Spring Science Showdown. Indeed, the teams in the Chemistry Conference will be taking the field right here! There may also be some tie-in between the matches and some basic concepts. No exploding half-time show, though. (Probably not, anyway.)