Twins

As many of you know, I turned 50 a week ago or so. (200 in base 5 as previously noted.)

Today, I learned for the first time that I had a twin! We were separate at birth but actually came into contact several times over the years with neither of us knowing that we were twins - or I assume neither of us. I know I didn't find out until tonight.

My twin has been all over and has been a part of more people's lives than I have, and that is saying a fair bit. I think it is not even close! Their lives have been colored by the interaction and my twin helped many of them to be able to mold their lives.

I am amused at how little we look alike, in truth. Barely even a superficial resemblance. In some ways, my twin looks to be in better shape, in other ways less so. I suspect it is circumstances at work rather than an innate difference. I'm putting a picture behind the cut.

Certainly, my twin has been more fiscally successful than I have ever dreamt of being. I swear, that is a lot of dough!

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Splash! 2006

This past weekend was Splash, an extravaganza of courses in anything and everything that the folks who run it can find. More than 300 courses over two days. This year, more than 1700 students preregistered, though including walk-ins, only about 1500 showed up to take the classes.

I taught 7 classes: Unknown Science Fiction and Fantasy, Non-linear thinking, Depression, IQ, What we say to people/what people hear, Education Theory and Practice, and a discussion for students and parents on high school, college, and life.

The IQ class was the largest, at 80 - so large that they had to give me a different room than originally scheduled. The last was the smallest, primarily because a) they listed it in the program after 1200+ students had already been through the sign-up process and b) there was no preset parents' program this year.

I had a ball. I loved my classes and my students. Yeah, it might have been nicer if more of my Unknown SF&F students had figured out that Mercedes Lackey, Homer, and Douglas Adams are not unknown, and that Eragon and Beowulf have been read by more than a couple of them. But even then, it went well. The books they suggested served as good points to bounce of for me, letting me segue into other titles and sub-genres.

I'm not sure how to make conversation in the Depression and Anxiety class happen more smoothly - I suspect I should just be grateful that we have it at all. The class I had considered canceling and changing for a different one was the Education course. I ran out of time or it would have been gone and "Counseling your friends" would have been in its place. By the time I got around to looking, there were 12 folks signed up for it. So it ran - and it was good, too.

A number of classes had one or more parents in them, including both the SF&F class and the Ed class. One of the parents had been in my class before, though not in 25 years! She was back in the area, having moved back from the Midwest. Her participation was welcome and - with the exception of the last class, which expressly invited parental involvement - she was by far the most vocal of the adults. None of the students seemed to mind the presence of an adult or two. I would not have had them in the Depression class or, I suspect, What we say to people, but where they were was just fine.

Apparently, I had at least one child of another Splash teacher in my SF&F class and he reports that his son liked it fine. Always nice to know.

It was good, as well, to see people whom I predominantly know on-line, such as my fellow Shero and Splash teacher, Zoe. The "usual suspects" like Jessie and Alexa and Sara B were great to see, too.

I had a good time. I suspect you can tell.