Mid-Term Week

This week is mid-term week, which is a great opportunity to catch up on grading and reflect on the progress this year. It's also a nice time for accomplishing small things that make a big difference, like getting some of the overhead lights fixed in my classroom. My students were nearly blinded by the lighter interior! One of them asked to take the exam with the lights off. Generally, though, my students had a great attitude about their midterms and approached the challenge with bravery.

I just completed a Birdley comic that involves both space travel and time travel, and I was on the fence as to whether to make it an imagination sequence or a "real" situation. After going back and forth on it, I went with the real deal, mainly because impractical adventures and time travel are becoming commonplace in Birdley's world... and the series of events in the comic could be the start of a larger story. I'm planning to include the comic in Book #7 on Geologic Time.

Plans for animation are underway, although I will not be diving into it headfirst until the first nine books are done. I am especially looking forward to animating Norman the lizard, who has very expressive movements. He is an anole, better known as the american chameleon. They have been known to see their reflection and mistake it for a rival competing for territory. They will try to intimidate their reflection, jumping up and down and making aggresssive gestures. They could exhaust themselves all day doing this. Definitely animation material.