LOG ENTRY: SOL 6

I'm pretty much f_cked.

The first week is always hard, and this year has been no exception, but today we started the second week (only the 6th day of school) and there has been a failure of the vital air circulation system in the Hab... (sometimes I feel like my classroom is my natural habitat considering the long hours I'm cooped up in here)

But no air conditioning aside, I guess it could have been worse... I could have been impaled by a meter stick flying through the classroom.

For the record... I didn't die on Sol 6.

LOG ENTRY: SOL 7

I've been thinking about how to survive this. It's not completely hopeless. Here's my situation:

Teaching science consists of essentially becoming the equivalent of a mission specialist with an in depth knowledge of the material for the lesson du jour, while at the same time communicating this information to students without sounding like you are speaking Martian. In a normal situation this is only a task to be undertaken by the best and brightest (still scratching the cranium on how I got this gig), but with a budget in (continual?) crisis, a questionable air system, supplies stretched beyond thin to account for the remaining 173 days... I've come to a workable solution:

I'm going to have to science the sh*t out of these students.

LOG ENTRY: SOL 11

I got a message...

"Yes!" they said "Yes!"

I haven't been this excited about a "yes" since prom night! (last year I asked if I could skip prom-duty and remarkably got an affirmative response!)

Let me back up here. Before things fell into utter chaos (arrival of students) I was in regular contact with the outside world, and found an offer of potentially matching a teacher with a kind-hearted and strong-souled volunteer willing to give a [much needed it turns out] gift to assist in our 180 school-day mission. I registered, pled my case, and last night (or this morning... days/nights/mornings tend to merge together in situations like these) RedditGifts gave me the news:

"YES, you blood-sucking leech on society, we found you a match" [paraphrased - but considering what I've heard some upstanding individuals call teachers, that would have been a compliment] So in addition to my PRIMARY 180-day mission, I now have my first SUB-mission: Contact my new best friend. Will update.

(get it? submission?)

LOG ENTRY: SOL 12

This may be my last entry.

My sch>>l issued comp]uer a?d in++ernet arr b3ing *%itchy.

LOG ENTRY: SOL 13

GLITCHY.

LOG ENTRY: SOL 14

Ugh! This is backbreaking work!

I fixed the glitch in my technology, namely myself. User error - leaving your computer logged in around prank-happy students can sometimes be worse than exposing it to a semi-radioactive, dusty vacuum (for example)

That was one problem. My next self-inflicted problem: "hands on lab" today completely trashed the Hab...err... classroom. as in there is so much dirt on the floor currently I'm surprised I don't have things like potatoes sprouting up and floorishing right now. [floor!?] back to the backbreaking. (oh, air is still not circulating properly)

LOG ENTRY: SOL 16

THIS IS A DAY I WILL CHERISH FOREVER: I HAVE RECEIVED A CARE PACKAGE!

For this, my semi-anonymous RedditGifts friend - who I only know as a set of initials - I am eternally grateful. As are my students.

Two vital things were shipped to me (very quickly I might add... did you send these on a rocket?!) that are going to help out tremendously.

First Item: A large, detailed topographic map! If anyone (myself or students) were to get stranded a million miles...err... a dozen miles away from any other human soul, knowing how to read [and having] a topo map could literally be a life saver.

Second Item: The Martian by Andy Weir. This [awesome hardcover] book will be read and analyzed by some of my students during our astronomy book project, and their findings will be spoilerlessly shared with the class. (And they will have another option during any free-reading period beyond my "History of Disco Music" collection, which, for whatever reason, they complain about reading over and over)

(by the way, another reason I will cherish today forever is that my oxygen supply is now secure - two words: AIR CONDITIONING)

LOG ENTRY: SOL 17

Call me MacGyver. Some years ago - never mind how long ago precisely - having little or no money in my paycheck, I decided to scavenge every bit of derelict technology that I could find. (and I had a WHALE of a time doing it!)

It has paid off. Sometime in the late 90's, document cameras were all the rage, and I just happened to get my hands on one. So riding on the wave of enthusiasm from Sol 16, I have used this archaic and almost forgotten device to finally produce a picture from my desolate (or so it feels at times) location - a pathfinder image if you will.

Uploaded are pictures of my package.

LOG ENTRY: SOL 17-B

MY CARE PACKAGE