Almost every semester I get one case of plagiarism. Some are more blatant and idiotic than others. I’m never sure whether I’m upset with them for cheating, or for thinking I was so stupid that I wouldn’t notice.

As most of you already know, at the beginning of this month, I spent a week in hospital having my gallbladder removed. I’ve had gallstones for the past three years, but generally they only gave me a night of pain every few months or so and armed with tramadol (the next step down from morphine), I could handle it. Unfortunately, one night at the end of June, I got the gallstone pain again and it didn’t go away.

“Secularism means food and fireside, roof and raiment, reasonable work and reasonable leisure, the cultivation of the tastes, the acquisition of knowledge, the enjoyment of the arts, and it promises for the human race comfort, independence, intelligence, and above all liberty. It means the abolition of sectarian feuds, of theological hatreds. It means the cultivation of friendship and intellectual hospitality. It means the living for ourselves and each other; for the present instead of the past, for this world rather than for another.”

I’m still deciding how to spread my charity donations, but I’ve decided I want to support a mixture of local, national and international charities, and at levels ranging from relief of hunger and disease to support of education and entrepreneurship. For the latter case, I’ve started lending through Kiva.