Blog 101

The title of this post refers to the fact that this is my 101st post, so I couldn't resist, even if the title is misleading. So many of us have fond memories of teaching and/or taking courses with 101 in the course name, and that makes the number extra special for academics.

What I am actually thinking about today is how to handle my annual end-of-term spectacular head-on collision of teaching activities with a research proposal deadline, a major research conference, and the other usual advising-committee-research-life time commitments. Somehow, what needs to get done, gets done, and other things have to wait.

It's a rather delicate balance that can be thrown off by unexpected events (e.g., a sick child, pet, or vehicle), but I can deal with those if I have to. I can even deal with the time needed to give extra help to students who have complicated lives involving athletic events, physical and learning disabilities, job/family commitments, emergencies, and such. That's all routine.

Also routine, unfortunately, are those who make appointments with me and don't show up (with no notice beforehand). Try doing that to a 'real' doctor.

Other things that have now been hurled onto back burners until 2007..

- reviews other than what I already agreed to do;
- acquiring new data myself (hooray for grad students and postdocs though);
- any committee meeting that isn't absolutely essential (unfortunately, that still leaves several meetings/week, since the definition of 'essential' is somewhat nebulous);
- cleaning my office except what is necessary to keep heavy things from falling off piles and injuring me or my office mice;
- finishing a couple of papers (alas)

.. but not blogging (obviously).