i was sure i'd already earned the orienteering merit badge

Today is the first day of orientation for the Comp Lit department, who I'll be teaching for this semester. It's not a big deal, but orientations are always oh so dull, and 90% of what they cover is either common sense information or stuff I already knew. It's cool, though. It's not like I have anything else to do . . . except finish my syllabus, clean and rearrange our apartment (we're trying to move the computer out of the front room and into the bedroom so that I can study while Amelia watches tv, but our bedroom is very wee, so that means a lot of fancy maneuvering), help some new people at church move in, scan Asian films for use in my class, actually read some of the texts I'm supposed to be teaching . . . you know, the usual stuff.

Speaking of Asian films, I watched a Korean film called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring yesterday. It was really excellent. It's rated R because there's a little bit of a sex scene (naked male butt!) but it's really a great little Buddhist tale about the seasons in the life of one man. He's raised from a young age on a floating monastary in the middle of the lake, tended to by one older monk. As the film begins each season he grows (a five-year-old child, a teenageer, a middle-man, an old man) and you see the development of his life. It's really beautiful and touching. I highly recommend it.

Also, my printer broke down. I think it happened a while ago, but we haven't had much need to print lately, what with school being over and all. I bought a new ink cartridge the other day and it still didn't print, and frankly, I don't know enough about technology to really fix it myself. That's ok: the printer only cost $50 three years ago, so I think I got my money's worth. Now I want to get a new one with printer/scanner/copier capabilities (and maybe even photo printing). I'm looking at the HP 1315xi. It's at Sam's Club for something like $65 and seems to be not so bad. But I'm open to recommendations if you love your printer. I'm not rich, but I could spend more than $100 if there's a noticeable difference in quality. For our real needs, a fairly cheap one would probably work just fine.

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