Random scattered thoughts

• The latest installment of the Scientiae Carnival is up at Wayfarer Scientista's! Great stuff as always. Yami's hosting the next one on or about November 1; here's the call. (And I love the theme for the next one, too---very creative!)


• I am at an exciting phase in my work right now. See, I had this idea for a journal article that I could construct out of my two most recent conference papers, but I needed to do some additional analyses. Well, I just finished the analyses, so now I can proceed ahead with the paper. Given that on most days I have maybe a half hour to devote to research, this will be a challenge....but I just keep telling myself that a half hour a day is better than nothing, and that eventually I'll finish the article.


• I'm starting to panic about the classes I'm teaching when I return. I think this is fallout from the pre-tenure review from hell: all those inadequacies I've felt as a teacher since then, that I largely felt free to ignore while on sabbatical, are back in full force. I really have no reason to panic, since I'm not even being observed until next year and Baby Jane will be going into full-time daycare about a month and a half before classes start. Rationally, I know this, but it's not helping.


• Where did the week go? I've been so overwhelmed by life this week---even the most mundane household tasks have seemed monumentally difficult. There are a ton of little things that need to be done, and I think I'm just letting the sheer volume of them get to me (even though each one would take in the range of 30 seconds to 5 minutes)....It's made me wonder how the heck I'm going to be able to handle working full time.