Convocation, with a dash of Service

This morning is Convocation. I am very excited - I get to wear my robes! And, I rather enjoy rituals. I expect that this will be similar (in some ways) to some of the formal Sorority ceremonies I participated in during college: I take it seriously while many others don't care. I don't mean that in a negative way. But, I've already been warned that the faculty do not really abide by the procession order that I've been studying.

Today is a milestone in another way: I've been asked to do my first 'service' duty. No College service is expected from new faculty their first year, but this is a relatively minor physics-diversity thing. I'm excited to do it! I just need to make sure that I don't say the same thing about too many other service tasks, at least this semester.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes. Last night I worked on polishing my lecture for day 1 of Intro. Class is 50 minutes long - my lecture is about 70 minutes. I haven't entirely figured out how to solve this - I won't let myself cut down on the discussion time that I have allocated in places! Since I'm ending with a demo, it is important I don't run out of time. I might be doomed...