Hrm. (Friday.)

It was a good day to be an academic. Yes, it did mean that I spent most of the day listening to people talk about things I may not have a whole lot of interest in, but I manage to keep myself fed throughout the whole day because of it. And then I did a favour for the gaming convention group by helping seal and label and stamp the preregistration booklets. Then there was some hanging out at Barnes and Noble with some friends from the graduate school. So no real work was actually accomplished today. Perhaps tomorrow. Although tomorrow we may be forced to endure aggravating pop stars rather than self-deprecating librarians and researchers.

Apparently, building Wally World attracts the wrong kind of people, at least if you live in Livonia. I'd say something about how it attracts the wrong kind of people in terms of corporate greed that will do everything it can to push wages down, prevent unionization, and a few other nasty things. But instead, some people seem to think that "if you build it, they will come, and this is bad". Very strange.

There's also a couple bits here and there that you just blink at. Daughter expelled from Christian school because her parents are in a homosexual relationship. Their prerogative, although it may cause some people to twitch nastily. At the same time, this leads into another thing that I twitched mightily at when I read it in the paper the other day...

...you see, some organizations had a "coming out conservative" day a couple of days ago. They accused the university atmosphere of being hostile to conservatives (which, I suppose, it is - I would argue justifiably so, and argue that it stay that way in comparison to the rest of the state's views), and that they were having a day where people could find support in fellow conservatives so that they wouldn't feel they were alone. Most people who understand me might see why the next thing I said was "That's just wrong." I'm sure someone thought it was a clever idea, and that they were very proud of themselves for putting on the event. Making mockery of what is still a real problem in the United States (and possibly across the world) is somewhat tasteless. As someone who's read the satire newspapers around campus, I realize that tasteless is something that can still be turned into funny when presented properly. These conservatives were serious. And that wrecks things considerably. Deciding that your orientation is conservative and telling people about it is nowhere near the magnitude of deciding to accept one's sexuality and tell other people about it.

It stuck in my head enough that I write about it days after it happens. I didn't find it funny, and I'm sure they didn't either. But we're staring at it from very different viewpoints. I find it offensive. They probably found it clever. I would like to beat a considerable amount of people, starting with politicians, over the head until they realize that it is not race or creed or orientation or gender, or even socioeconomic status that determines whether a person will be a paragon of virtue or a reprobate. People are people, and they behave in ways far more complex than we imagine. Admittedly, some of those things above may contribute to situations (and their frequency) where it is easier to do good or evil. When people start treating people like people, then we'll see what people are like. And that applies to me, too. But I'd like to think I can achieve that point, where I treat each person as an individual, without resorting to the shorthand of anything other than personal experience.

Anyway, good night - still have things to possibly do tomorrow. Like the rest of my paper. About three hundred-fifty words to go. They seem to be the hardest ones, because writing about what I observe about observation is a little strange.

Weekends aren't supposed to be spent like this.

Well, there was the academic bit for this morning - probably could have skipped it. Then there was the getting work done. Tomorrow will probably be the reading of new material. And then the assignments, and the revisions, and by then, I have a whole new set of things to read and worry about. If anyone wonders where my sanity went, I traded it to the CRFH board a very long time ago. I'm glad I did, because that way I don't have to worry about anything driving me up the wall about having more assignments to do. As much as I like to work ahead, I get the feeling I'm going to fall behind if I'm not careful. That keeps me trying to juggle time as much as I can (conceivably) to get things done, in, and on time. I could be doing a lot of worrying about nothing, but I really hate stacked assignments. It's aggravating enough that you're assigning a multi-week project, but then you're also forcing me to concentrate on these other, smaller projects that are regimented in just in the right places to prevent any considerable block of work when combined with all the other assignments that have to be completed. (Bitter? Me? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!) But they tell me that it gets better. After the first semester, I'll settle in a bit, or so they say. I suspect that second year will be better in some ways and worse in others. It could end up being nice in terms of having a few classes and a work experience. I may have to consider, if they offer them, summer courses - I don't think they do. This is all stuff I didn't have to worry about as an undergraduate. I'm still trying to figure out how things went from comfortable, if occasionally panicky, moments to ZOMGASSIGNMENTS. It's probably the whole "three hours in class, nine hours on assignments" thing. Grad school has become a full-time job and then some. That might be the biggest adjustment that I'm going for. I'm past the point of no return, really. So I'll have to suck it up or figure out how to balance the group workloads in such a way that I don't die from getting dogpiled by my other assignments.

Thus, the anthem continues - from thesis to grad school. Forgive my incessant rambling, but there are some days where I just don't know if I can hack it. Why should I be worried - all the assignments for this week are finished (one might need a little editing) and I've got a giant jump on next week's assignments. (I'll probably do Tuesday's readings tomorrow so that I can focus on doing the work for Monday on Monday - and then put off impending doom long enough to do Tuesday's work on Tuesday. Back to impending doom on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... you get the idea. If anything gets sacked in this enterprise, it's probably the readings. Where I can get away with it, anyway. But hopefully I'll get far enough ahead of myself that I can just complain about the readings, while having the writings and projects all ready to go.

Again, I could just be complaining about nothing. It took me about one and one-half days to write 1500 words. There are, of course, other things, too, that are going to be due. Not for another couple weeks, though. And as much as I'd like to relax a bit... I stare at the list of Due Dates, and realize that being a month ahead would be better. Such is graduate schooling. And I've got two years of this to get through. ARGH. It feels kind of like what Llewellyn's demonstrating. Although I suspect what I should be getting out of the strip is something else entirely. But at the moment, it feels more like I'm eating my tail.

Oh, yeah, the padded rugby team needs to find a consistent defense. They lost today after a decent first half, but then surrendered a couple successful tries to the opposition, which put them over the top.

Okay, enough complaining and showing off my type Double-A personality. Should just take a breath, maybe meditate for a bit to reduce some stress (which I seem to be piling up on myself), and tell my work to go away for a bit. At least I don't have this guy's ego, nor this guy's disposition. And it's not as bad as Ancient Rome, at least.

Bleh. I'm going to the doctor's when I can find time - this cough thing has stuck around for too long and is too much of an annoyance to just deal with. And with that, I am reminded again that if I really feel like it, I can give myself a stress headache... all I have to do is keep worrying. Thus, I sleep. Will do other work tomorrow. Will attempt to get ahead of myself after that. At some point, will either stress myself into headaches and deadlines or will make breakthrough and relax for some indeterminate amount of time.