Student Request- Dog Politics

There are two topics that dominate about 75% of my non-professional conversations and they are dogs (most especially my dog, Max) and India. In today's FYS class our discussion somehow meandered to the topic of animals and consciousness and then moved along to dogs. I have very strong opinions on most things dog related so I steered the conversation away from that. But after class a student asked me what, exactly, my dog politics are and if I would be willing to write about them. So here goes...

My Chuck It List

Many of you probably know what a bucket is, thanks to a movie of the same name. Blogger Heidi Ferrer decided to make an anti-bucket list which ultimately ended up being called the f*ck it list. I have mixed feelings about dropping the f-bomb on my blog, so I'm going to rename mine the chuck-it list, which still rhymes but is less controversial. It's the things that I'm chucking off of my list the things I want to accomplish in my life.

Lesson Learned...Or Why I Should Have Brought Goggles

I'm all about finding ways to exercise that don't involve a treadmill, so I decided to go to the noon lap swim and try some of what everybody calls "the best exercise ever". Let me preface this by saying that my Mom always used to say I swam like a rock. Meaning that, historically speaking, one could say I've always been a bad swimmer. But everybody (meaning doctor-types) say swimming is the best and I had vowed to try new things along with my students, so swimming I went.

Calling the Adirondacks Home

Since a good portion of my FYS class is rooted in a sense of place, I have been thinking a lot about my place(s) lately. Right now I'm calling Saranac Lake, New York in the Adirondack Mountains home. I moved here a year ago and although it's still in the eastern United States, the culture and climate is certainly different from my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Whereas Richmond is a large, sprawling metropolitan area whose main climate highlight is hot, muggy summers, Saranac Lake is a rural village set in the frosty climate of the Adirondack Mountains.