Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Random Bullets of End-of-Semester Crankiness

  • I have to stop looking at that blasted wiki. It only makes me feel like crap for the most-part. Realized today that I'm probably out-of-play at two more places. Whatever. One of them I knew I wasn't really in play with from the beginning, and the other, well, I don't know. Of course, I may be counting chickens before the hatching, etc., but that's what the wiki makes one do. I wish I were the kind of person who could stop myself from looking at it, but really I'm not.
  • Today was meeting-filled. And very stressful as the students are very stressed and the stress is contagious.
  • Is it wrong that I keep thinking about how much I'd like a glass of wine? Even though it's only 3 in the afternoon? Because I really would.
  • I heard from a colleague today that all of my upper-div. students are totally freaking out about their paper in my class, even though it is ultimately worth less than the paper that they will do in my colleague's class. This may mean that I'm really not a very nice person, as I make my students freak out.
  • I haven't gotten good work done on my manuscript, and it's really making me freak out. Maybe I'm not a mean person, but rather I'm the sort of person who passes my own freaked out ways on to my students in a sort of share-the-wealth sort of a fashion.
  • Or perhaps there is just a Circle of Craziness that is at work here, wherein I make my students crazy and my students make me crazy.
  • I should probably go work out when I'm FINALLY done here in TWO HOURS, but by then all of those after-work people will be at the gym, and I hate working out when it's busy because I can't just easily go about my business. So I'll probably not, which will make me even more cranky.
  • Until I have a glass of wine, that is.
  • Right now I'm reading some partial drafts for students. I certainly hope that they get it together between now and when the final drafts are do. Sigh.
  • Why don't students understand that every good essay needs clearly to articulate a "so what" or your reader will not give a crap about what you say? Good thing the same does not hold true for blog posts :)
  • I am so cranky. I hate being cranky.

12 comments:

Dr. Brazen Hussy said...

3:00 in the afternoon is a perfect time for a glass of wine. Or two. ESPECIALLY if you're cranky.

Dr. Crazy said...

Brazen Hussy, you're a woman after my own heart, you are!

Anonymous said...

"Good thing the same does not hold true for blog posts"

Phew! I'm feeling less pressure about blogging. ;-)

Really, seriously, you do articulate a "so what" in your posts! Good luck in the end of your semester!

itinerarium said...

I'm firmly in the "it's always 5pm somewhere in the world" camp, so drink away. For everything else you say, "yes" is my answer. Or, "yay yay, nay nay" as the Parson would have it. Or something. Back to work.

Dr. Crazy said...

Dude, I misspelled "due" in that post as "do." Clearly, I really did need that glass of wine that I'm drinking right now.

must go play with the M-K, as he's not allowing me to type - he's meowing and has leapt onto my lap with his favorite shoe-lace. Apparently he needs some qual. time.

Seeking Solace said...

When I was reading your post, ACDC's "Have a Drink on Me" began to play!

Consider it good advice!!!

Tiruncula said...

Yay for afternoons of wine and kitties! And yes, stress is contagious, but no, you can't blame yourself for all the stress everyone's feeling at end-of-term time.

(This isn't going to help your stress any, but could you give me a link to that wiki? Mine seems to be broken. Thanks!)

Dr. Crazy said...

The link to the wiki:

http://wikihost.org/wikis/academe/wiki/start

(That's the one for all academic fields, for all who are interested in fields other than English, as well. I feel bad - I think I'm actually promoting the evil wiki on my blog!)

You're right, T. I'm not to blame for all stress. However, I do think I have a post brewing about making students take one's courses seriously, i.e., freaking them out in productive ways.

And yay for the serendipity of the ACDC song! Love the lovely wine :)

Nik said...

One more question of "do you know what my grade is" before they turn in their final assignments is going to push me over the edge. I'm welcoming the glass(es) of wine with abandon. On a Tuesday.

Dr. Crazy said...

You know what's funny, Nik? My students NEVER ask me what their grade is.... this is either because I'm admirably transparent about grades throughout the semester, because a large portion of the grade isn't figured out until the end of the semester (true in some classes) or because I freak them out so much that they don't feel comfortable asking :)

Nik said...

I think that it's portfolio grading leads to this grade asking business. No more of that I say. I'll follow your strategy to be fully transparent and freaky next semester.

MommyProf said...

This time of the semester, I usually have to remember that lovely feeling that comes in a week or so as final papers get graded, finals get taken and graded and every thing that happens literally feels like a monkey climbing off my back. It's coming, Crazy. Eyes on the prize!