Catching up . . .

. . . and looking forward to starting the new school year. Things are already looking hectic, with parties to plan, receptions to go to, microfilm to scroll through, meetings to make, talks to give, and on and on and on. I am chilling at home this holiday, having a vacation in my apartment. I've been out and with friends way too much over the past few days. Am tired of people.

Now that school's starting up again, I'm finding myself caught up in potential conflict. Someone wants to institute secret paper ballotting for our departmental grad student organization. While this sounds like a good idea in theory, I think it may be a bad move for the organization. I mean, in my experience, the informal elections have worked well. When people don't get elected to one position, they can volunteer for another one right after. And etc. Stuff like this is more difficult if you formalize the thing. Plus, there are a lot of positions, and proper elections will take forever! Grumble.