LABOR DAY. Because Monday is a holiday, there will be no new announcements on Monday. The next announcements will be on Tuesday, September 6. 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 choose not to finish those assignments on Friday, you can finish them over the weekend, on Saturday or Sunday; 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; most of you are in the same group as last time, but I have made a few changes based on add/drops. You can complete that assignment today, Friday, or on Saturday or Sunday if you prefer; the usual Monday morning grace period applies.
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 a refund. For those of you who are still deciding whether or not you want to stay in the class, Friday, September 2, 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.
Friday Events on Campus. Free showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in the Union, Governors Room, at 6:30PM, and then at 9PM and then at midnight (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.
Friday, September 2: Death of J. R. R. Tolkien. Today, September 2, marks the death in 1973 of the great English author, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, who is best known for creating the marvelous fantasy world of Middle Earth, in which he set his novel The Hobbit and the trilogy known as Lord of the Rings. I first encountered Tolkien when my fourth-grade teacher read The Hobbit to us in class, and I spent all of junior high reading and re-reading The Lord of the Rings. You can read about Tolkien's life and career in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this drawing that shows Tolkien's own design for the covers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy:
