LABOR DAY. Because Monday is a holiday, there will be no new announcements on Monday. The next announcements will be on Tuesday, September 7. Because you do not have any assignments due on Monday, there is no change in the class schedule for this holiday. If you are planning to take off for the three-day weekend, make sure you finish all the Week 2 assignments today, Friday! If you do not finish those assignments on Friday, you can finish them over the weekend; the grace period on Monday still applies as usual.
Week 2 Read and Respond (blog comment) assignment. The Week 2 blog commenting assignment is available now! Make sure you check your groups; there has been a bit of shuffling based on class add/drops. You will probably see the same people you did last time, but check the group listing to make sure. These groups will stay the same for another couple of weeks, and then I will shuffle things around again at random.
Storybook assignments. If you want to receive comments from me about a Storybook assignment before the weekend, please turn it in before noon on Friday. I always do my best to read and reply on Friday afternoon to all the assignments turned in before noon. If you turn in an assignment after noon Friday or over the holiday weekend, I'll be updating the list again on TUESDAY, after the Monday holiday. So, on Tuesday morning, you can check the list of assignments in the Stack and you'll be able to make sure I received your assignment; I'll then start reading through the assignments in the order received to send you back comments. Please do NOT go on to the next Storybook assignment until you get comments back from me about the assignment you have turned in. I reply to the Storybooks in the order they are turned in, so the earlier you turn in your assignment, the sooner you will get back comments and be able to move on to the next Storybook assignment.
Refund reminder: Friday is the last day for refund. For those of you who are still deciding whether or not you want to stay in the class, Friday, September 3, is when you need to make that decision. You can still drop on Friday and get a full refund. After Friday, you can drop the class with an automatic W on your transcript, but the university will be keeping your money.
Monday, September 6: Birthday of Robert Pirsig. Monday, September 6, marks the birthday of Robert Pirsig, who was born in 1928 and who is still with us today: Happy birthday, Robert Pirsig! Pirsig is the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I first read this book when I was 16 years old and I've read it again pretty much every year or every other year since then - let's say twenty times or so. This is the only book I don't think I will ever catch up with - every time I come back to it, it seems a little more far out, in the best sense of that phrase, and I keep running right on after it, learning new things every time. The novel itself is about a motorcycle journey that Pirsig took across the country in 1968 together with his young son, Chris - here's a picture from the trip showing the two of them on the bike; you can learn more about Pirsig in this Wikipedia article.
