North American Calendar Possum

I'm supposed to be writing. Well, editing and adding. Whatever.

Today's the first day in the new term that I've managed to get completely to myself, free from anything but chores and what-not. Naturally, I have ridiculous writer's block, even though I'm editing and adding. Or whatever.

I made the leap at the start of the term to keep better track of my schedule. I'm on a Mac, and I have an iPhone, and it all syncs up nicely, so why not put stuff into the calendar since my school finally has a set-up allowing Macs to connect to things like campus e-mail and such? And I've been dutiful about it, thus far, making sure to plug in events. I've also been trying not to say no to invitations out.

Only now opening the calendar is enough to paralyze me for awhile. I should at least have the decency to fall over and play dead or something when it happens instead of just standing stunned, waiting for the shoe to drop. But no!

First off, I hate that I've hit a point where I can't remember all the details myself anymore. I'm consoling myself that isn't that I'm getting old, but rather that somehow there's more stuff to keep track of. But second, that level of organization feels more than a little confining to me. It was the fascists who wanted the trains to run on time, after all. This much order in my own life feels confining. Certainly, I like a bit of it - no doubt there are folks reading who are laughing a little to themselves thinking of all the amusing moments where I like to impose rules on myself and others. Still, I like the chaos, too (I'll take a picture of my desk sometime if you don't believe me).

So that's the start of the term. My classes are going well, though I'm still struggling to get enrollment for them, but I'm getting there. And if I can get this writing thing (well, editing and adding...whatever) under control, it won't be so bad at all.

Planning for the Term

The new term is almost upon us. Or upon me.

I'm slogging under some sort of lingering sickness that has me sore and congested in a manner that only compares with an L.A. freeway. I've been capable of maybe 45 minutes of focused work these last several days.

My syllabi aren't done. I'm teaching a course I've only taught once before - and it was a nightmare. I've applied for a grant, submitted my first year review, and now I'm pressing. Two abstracts due at the end of the week - trying to get to two summer conferences - and one more grant proposal. God help me. Most importantly, though, I've been lamenting how the iPod has stopped me from listening to full albums. And so it is my plan to make office hours useful by listening to as much of an entire album as possible. I think I might even blog about the experience. Because, goodness knows, nothing useful gets done in office hours, so I should at least get a blog post out of it.

A Return to the Office

Any day now classes will start, which means - of course - that I've only a few short days until my syllabi need to be ready. And since I've managed to ignore huge chunks of e-mail for most of the break (particularly during the trip home), that means there's a lot to do. And though I reviewed most of the applicants' files for our vacant position before I left, all that knowledge seems to have been lost on one of the 6 am flights. So there's a bit to do today.

It's probably not a good sign that I found myself wondering as I trudged up the backstairs to my office what I'd have to do to get fired.

But there are good things happening, to be sure. I had an advisee caught for plagarism last term who's contacted me, explained it was absolutely their fault and explained what they think the reasons for it were, asking for suggestions about how to alter the pattern they see that made cheating seem the way to go. As a beacon of hope for this term, that seems like a pretty big one. I mean how many millions of times have you felt like people - not just students - just refuse to accept responsibility for their actions. And to some degree this makes me feel better about the fact that, prior to the incident, I'd picked the student out as someone who had a lot of potential. I'll take it as the silver lining (he said, cribbing Rilo Kiley) to start the term.