TITLE: A Busy Month
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: October 08, 2004  6:02 AM
DESC: October will keep me busy, on both the personal and professional fronts.
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BODY:
Today begins a busy stretch for me.

This afternoon, I leave for a weekend reunion at Ball State University,
my alma mater.  I'm part of a scholarship program that has quadrennial
get-togethers, and 2004 is our year.  This is Homecoming Weekend in
Muncie, and there will be a lot happening.  Several old friends and
their families will be there, and my brother is coming up to spend
the weekend with me.  Amazingly enough, I never attended a Ball State
homecoming football game, even as a student.  This seems like a good
weekend or a first time.  I also plan two easy runs as I prepare for...

Next weekend, I run the
<A HREF="http://www.desmoinesmarathon.com/">
   Des Moines Marathon</A>.
My training has gone well, with only a couple of hiccups that I
survived.  Now, I'm tapering.  This will be my second marathon
after
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/personal/chicago-marathon/">
   running Chicago 2003</A>,
and I am in much better shape -- physically and mentally -- for
this one.  But I am humble in the face of the 26.2 miles and know
that I will have to be careful and lucky to meet my race goals.

The <I>next</I> weekend, I take off for a week in Vancouver for
<A HREF="http://www.oopsla.org/2004/ShowPage.do?id=Home">
   OOPSLA 2004</A>,
where I am chairing this year's
<A HREF="http://www.oopsla.org/2004/ShowEvent.do?id=educators_symposium">
   Educators' Symposium</A>.
The highlight of the 2004 conference is Alan Kay's Turing Award
lecture.  Alan is also giving the keynote address at the Educators'
Symposium, and I am quite psyched.

But all this travel makes for a busy month.  I'd better get home
to spend some time with my family before I hit the road!
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