Meltdown.

I've been having an incredibly hard time thinking of things to post about. My mind is fried from finals week, and my ego's a bit crushed by turning out such mediocre papers. The 10-week quarter system really does no one any good. The classes are so short (two times a week for ten weeks) and we have to cram in as much reading as the same course at semester-universities (which run on 15 week class schedules), so it's very hard to find time for research while trying to get through the reading for the courses. Not to mention grading, lesson planning, conferences with students, maintaining a relationship, eating, sleeping, and sometimes watching Jeopardy!. What this adds up to (for me and many other grad students, anyway) is a frantic dash to pull together something brilliant in 7 days. It rarely works. The only paper I've ever felt confident about -- and by confident I don't mean that I thought it was great, just solid scholarship -- was written at the cost of the reading for the other class I was taking. And I haven't managed since then to consciously and knowingly put aside some assigned reading so I can get started on personal research. I think I might be wired all wrong for this kind of work. Anyway. Tired. Brain like mush. Have been mindlessly knitting and playing Animal Crossing. That game was made for people like me who are tired of thinking about anything even vaguely intellectual, intelligent, or clever. I just want to win the fishing contest I'm in with Bill the Duck and find some medicine for the sick eagle. Oh, and possibly find a bodice for the cat who lives by the orange trees. He's been after one for days now. P.S. New yarn. Mmmm, tropical storm.