Random Monday thoughts

* I have a pretty big deadline coming up mid-week. It's been really hard to get and stay motivated to finish this particular project. Well, that's not entirely true: what's tripping me up is that as soon as this thing is submitted, I should do a lot of post-mortem, clean-up sort of things: filing things away, writing notes to myself, etc. And at this point, the last thing I want to do is that sort of thing. Motivating myself to do that will be really, really tough, but necessary.

* When I grade exams, I admit that I start out with some preconceived notions as to what my students know well and what they most likely struggled with in terms of the questions/concepts. I'm often right, but sometimes my students surprise me. On the exams I'm currently grading, my students totally whiffed on something we (a) spent lots of class time on and (b) was similar in style to questions I've asked before. However, on something we barely covered before the exam, they did absolutely beautifully, and showed a level of understanding that I totally did not expect. Go figure.

* Why do I like Jimmy Kimmel so much?

* The thanksgiving holiday is about 1000 times more enjoyable when we don't travel. Even when we sit around and basically do nothing all weekend. (Hmmm, maybe that's the reason.....)

* A number of my colleague/friends are going up for mid-tenure review this year. Being a good friend, I sent them my dossier materials today. Of course, the temptation to re-read the stuff before I sent it out was great....but what I wasn't prepared for was the flood of feelings doing so brought to the surface. I was such a different person this time last year: hopeful and optimistic. Now, I can't read that stuff without cringing, and without having those still-raw feelings (despair, betrayal) come back quickly. Apparently I still have some issues to deal with around that whole fiasco. Ugh.