Tag Archives: writing

Sabbatical Day 6 – First Day of Class

I attended my first day of university classes since 1995!  I cycled to class.  It took about 35 minutes which was 5 minutes longer than I planned.  I showed up about 10 minutes to start and there weren’t too many spots left so I ended up at the back of the class in “Mathematics 3020 Introduction to Abstract Algebra”.  I intend to change that for next class on Tuesday – hopefully I will be able to sit in the 2nd or 3rd row instead of the 5th.  I am the “old guy” in the room.  Everyone looks very young.  There was a guy sitting almost right in front of me who answered a lot of the questions.  I answered one, but otherwise shut up.  I took seven pages of notes.  So far, it is stuff that I already know.  I’m trying to decide if I work ahead in the textbook or if I just follow along.  The textbook is pretty well-written (I’ve read up to where we ended the class today) so I could really leap ahead without too much trouble.  I cycled back home immediately after class, ate a terrible lunch, and then fell asleep for four hours.  My day hasn’t had much else to it.

Tonight I’ll do the last little bits of my leadership book:

  • Write acknowledgements
  • Get an ISBN
  • Start the project on lulu.com

I’m expecting I will get final edits tomorrow and be able to finish the export for lulu.com at that time… and then it will be published!  I’ll have completed one of the projects on my board.

Sabbatical Day 5 – Work

Today was one of the few days in my calendar with scheduled work for my company, BERTEIG.  Melanie, Travis and I had a Partner’s meeting (basically board of directors).  Because our fiscal year end is August 31, we spent a bit of time reviewing the financials for the year (thanks Xero for a great accounting platform!) and doing a year-long retrospective.  We also talked about our strategic plans and made some updates to our goals.  Most of the details of that stuff is done with the full BERTEIG leadership team, not just by the Partners.  I can’t really share any details since that stuff is confidential, but suffice it to say that we have some great stuff planned… that I won’t be working on!!! (Sabbatical, remember?)

Aside from that, I spent some time with the family in the late afternoon and early evening.  Walked the dog.  After the kids went to bed, I finished the writing portion of my book titled “I Am Not A Great Leader” and did a v1 cover design.  I’ve sent the full thing to the editor (my mom).  I’ll be releasing it as soon as I get the edits back, get the ISBN number and put it up on Lulu.com.  I’ll be sure to post here when that stuff is finished – actually, I’ll be posting just about everywhere when it is done!  Here’s my super-fast cover design – let me know if you have any feedback.  (I’ll get a professional designer for v2.)

I Am Not A Great Leader - Cover

Sabbatical Day 3 – The Book

Well, I’ve had a few hours to work on the book this weekend, but it’s still not ready for final review.  I probably have between 2 and 5 thousand words left to write before it’s properly done which means it’s going to end up being somewhere between 25000 and 30000 words.  Longer than I anticipated – I guess that means I have lots to say?  I’m a bit frustrated because I really hoped to have it out of the way before my sabbatical started (3 days ago), then I hoped it would be done by the end of the long weekend.  Now… I’m going to give myself just two more days to finish the writing.  That takes me up to the first day of my classes on Thursday.  Here’s hoping!

Today was a nice day.  Verity and I cycled to her school as practice.  I hung back about ½ a block so that she would have to lead the way completely.  She had no problems and is now confident about cycling to the school.  It’s a bit far: about 3.5km and at her normal pace about 20 minutes to get there.  I’m sure she will speed up as she gets more familiar with the route and her own capabilities.  Tomorrow we will go again as it is her first day and I promised that I would ride with her.  We have to leave pretty early.  School starts at 8:30, I want her to be there by 8:15, and I want to leave a bit of a buffer even so.  We will leave the house at 7:50.

Justice and I went to the Western campus to pick up our student cards.  It was super well-organized and quick.  We were in a long line, but it only took about 5 minutes to get to the front and just a few seconds for the staff to retrieve our student cards and give them to us.  I’m now the proud holder of a Wester student card which gives me access to a bunch of university services and facilities.  I’m hoping they have a swimming pool that I can use during the colder months when our home pool is closed.  Anyway, Justice and I also had a bit of a laugh at some campus graffiti about “speciesism” with a drawing of a cow.

One of my main administrative wrap-up tasks is complete: I finished submitting all my receipts for my work expenses.  On sabbatical, I hope I don’t have many and so it will be pretty easy from here on out.  It’s also our business’ year-end so it feels good to have them done in a timely manner.  It took a couple hours this afternoon to finish.

Archive Journal Entry: 20021119

I’ve been very sick for the last two days – a bad fever and serious bowel trouble. I slept 14 hours last night and I have only had two bowls of chicken soup broth to eat in the last 48 hours. Ug. I am feeling a little better now but I’ve missed work today and only worked a few hours yesterday.

I’m writing a story for Justice. He is very interested in knights – he has some Lego castle stuff (Harry Potter) and Melanie got him some books from the library. While I am travelling for work, I think I will try to write a story for Justice every week.

I also just finished reading “The Promethius Deception” by Robert Ludlum. It was okay, but the ending was a little weak. Very good convoluted plot that could have ended well, but really was almost accidentally ended. I also watched “Serendipity” with John Cusak and Kate Beckinsdale. I admit that I got a lump in my throat… but that may have had more to do with my weakened state than any inherent virtue of the film. I was impressed by how well the story kept me wondering how our characters were going to be reunited.