Tonight I had dinner with some friends in Annapolis. I was feeling a bit tired and wanted to be alert for the drive home, so I had some regular tea around 10pm. MAJOR ERROR. It's almost 2:00 now and I can't sleep. Feeling a bit jittery, and my blood is racing through my body like I've been running. This could be a long night...
First lecture the other day went well, I think -- we reviewed some algebra and the concept of a derivative. Taking things slowly at first, as it's been a while since some of the students had calculus. Discovered that doing problems and proofs on the board eats up class time like nothing I've ever seen. Two hours flew by before I even realized it, and I had to cut some of the material I'd prepared. Am also finding it hard to make a maths class interactive and engaging -- I prefer to teach socratically, and that was so much easier with micro. Had a good chat with Dr. Rustici on Friday about how to spice things up with policy discussions. Planning to look at the mathematical implications of minimum wage laws this week. After all, can we have a proper econ class without a bit of Henry Hazlitt in there somewhere? :-)
Spent the last few days ploughing on with the thesis. Concentration is proving a real struggle there -- am finding it almost impossible to work productively for long stretches of time. But I can manage 20 minutes. So I've started working for 20 minutes, then taking a walk or reading a fun book for another 20. Then back to work, and so on. Strangely, I end up with more words by this method than if I'd attempted to work straight through.
4 comments:
In my first year at Oxford, I would work for half-an-hour, practice "keep-ups" with my football for 5 minutes, then work for another half-hour etc. It seemed the perfect arrangement... until my neighbours complained I was making too much noise banging the ball against the wall. So I switched to juggling, and there has never been a problem since :)
so maybe caffeine is beginning to effect you now?? that's really weird.
i had a strange experience almost dying on sunday at 7:30 am. serious back pain and an extremely high fever. i thought it was all over for a little while. i always seem to have these super strange health episodes whenever i come back to school...hopefully this'll be the only one this semester.
so you need to plan a trip to come spend a weekend with me down here. any dates come to mind?
Laura, are you thinking of coming again to Malaysia? Too bad I only attended St. Mary's this year and not in 2006.
Hello, Augustinian Successor -- I don't currently have plans to come back to Malaysia, but would very much like to visit again in the future.
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