not what you want to see...

When you get to the train platform in the morning...



Yup. That there train is DEAD. If this was a Monday or a Wednesday, you'd have to suffer a stream of vulgarity right now, but as it is... I really don't care too much. I have office hours today, and was supposed to help a coworker with her Mac, but... other than that I really have no reason to be in the city at all. I'm going to sit at this cafe near the station until 8:15... if the 8:15 is running, great... if not... I'm going home. Or somewhere. But nothing I have to do in NYC is important enough for me to stand in the cold this early in the morning.

Update (8:18) - Yup. The train is running. I'm kinda disappointed actually, I was looking forward to going home and grabbing a nap. I guess this is for the best, though. I do have stuff that needs to get done.

Speaking of which... I've decided that the greatest danger facing me this year is that I will piss away all of this free time I'm going to have and wind up with nothing to show for my "easy semester" by the end of it. I'm looking at two classes here, one of which I've taught several times before, and another that I'm team teaching, which means half the time I don't even have to be ready to SAY anything when the class starts. Both classes are M/W, which means Tuesdays I have the whole day free at work, Thursdays I'm home with the kid, and Friday I have all morning and afternoon home with NO kids and blissful quiet. Something should get DONE. Papers should get published, books should get written, masterpieces should be painted, symphonies should be composed!!

So I'm doing this thing where I schedule every block of time, every day. I'm using OmniOutliner to do it, which makes it seem like fun. I'm leaving lots and lots of time for tasks like reading blogs and watching TV on the laptop, but also scheduling specific times for writing, specific times for grading, specific times for paperwork... all the things that usually slip through the cracks. For example, here is Tuesday's schedule, as I have it written out so far...

Train in
---- Read websites
---- Write blog entry
Morning
---- Write - 45 minute "writing sprint" for publications
Noon Office Hours
---- Grade papers OR...
---- Paperwork tasks - forms, letters, faxes, etc. OR...
---- Planning - long term, next semester
Afternoon
---- Yoga class or walk
Train Home
---- Read blogs
---- Watch TV
Evening
---- Go over Keynotes for Wednesday

Perfectly reasonable. In fact, there is way more goofing off than work slated for every day. I think it helps to SEE that. "Look Dave, you really aren't working that much at all! Look at all the blog reading time you have scheduled!" I have to trick myself like this. It's how my mind works.

Anyway, I'm done with my scheduled blog reading and writing, so I may go do some bonus unscheduled work now!