20150813.0646

I have to report to the office today for a series of meetings and workshops. The new semester begins on Monday, and I will be in the classroom at half past eight to greet it; I am not the only one, and the need to get things coordinated and consolidated is breaking upon us who will help a new set of college students transition into the kind of coursework they can expect for the next few years. (I am aware that many will complain that it lacks the rigor it ought to have. I am also aware that many would not do well with the kinds of work and the workloads many of the students now face. It is not as if a summer job pays a year's college expenses in most cases, or as if many degrees do not require more coursework than the 120 credit-hours traditionally associated with the baccalaureate--plus prerequisites for those courses that are nonnegotiable but do not count towards the degree. Not at all.)

It is not the only task that faces me today. Yesterday evening, a freelance order came in; I suddenly know what I will be doing with the free time available to me. The book is already bought and the write-up begun. (I follow a standardized template I have developed; the client approves of it, if the repeated acceptance of my submissions based upon it and repeated assignment of orders to me are any indication. Filling in the first few blanks is done quickly, supported by a glance at the table of contents and the copyright page.) I had meant to start reading it, but fatigue set in before I could do so; today will suffice for the reading, I think. The write-up will go through tomorrow and into the weekend, but I had not had other plans in any concrete sense (although I had hoped to do some other reading, and there is other writing that needs my attention yet), so I am not terribly worried about the matter.

Yesterday evening, I also received a package for which I have been waiting for some time. The new Robin Hobb novel is out, and my copy of it reached me at last. It is still in the box, waiting for my attention; I have other things that I must do before I may read it in good conscience. Too, if I know myself, I will likely read the thing in a night, staying awake far later than I ought to do so, and writing a review and commentary on it the next day in this webspace. (I have done something similar a few times before: here, here, here, and here.) I look forward to doing it, as well as to plumbing the text and the greater narrative arc of which it is part for more information from which to conduct part of my part of The Work. For the fact of teaching does not diminish that I am still called as I am to scholarship and the development of new knowledge and understanding, even if it does combine with other paid work to complicate my ability to get such things done.