20160206.0827

Work continues, even when I sleep in far later than I ought to do. For example, student papers came in yesterday, so I will be grading over the next few days. I am not going to be in a rush to do so, partly because the work of grading is onerous, and partly because there is less urgency at this point than at others. The last set I needed to grade were review versions, something I ask students to do so that their final versions--worth large portions of their total course grades--are better. (Somehow, I still get student complaints about my methods, even though they note few other professors who allow them the chance to get feedback and correction ahead of time.) Because another assignment followed from those papers, I had to turn them around quickly. Another does not follow from the work the students just turns in, so I do not need to rush through things as much. I have a two-week deadline, and there is other grading yet to come, so I am not going to delay overmuch, but I need not rush through things this time as I did last. And that is good.

Less good is that the write-up gigs seem to be on hiatus at the moment. It has happened once or twice before that there have been lacunae in my ability to make money writing about novels to order for other people, so I am not terribly worried about things, but I do miss having the money coming in. Some of that appears to be offset, however, by a new series of tutorials I appear to be about to give; the first of them will take place on Tuesday. And having time away from the write-ups means I have time to put toward other ends, not only the grading that I have to do as part of my regular work, but also my research projects. I have been letting those I know I have slide a bit more than ought to be the case against the other work that I need to do at any given time, but I have less work to do with the freelancing at the moment, so I should be able to put some time to them. I do not want to be in the position of having to rush through things. It is never good.

For this weekend, then, I have my tasks assigned. There is some work I need to do for the classroom, and there is some work I need to do for my ability to exist outside the classroom. It seems almost as if there is enough time to attend decently to both--provided, of course, that I can wake up in a timely fashion and use well the time I have while I am awake. Unfortunately, I do not seem to be off to a good start in that regard; I cannot let things get too easy, after all. That wouldn't be appropriate.