Didactic Synapse

True story:

There’s a connection between the sleep deprivation and finding my favorite bookmark after four years — there has to be.

I wonder how much sense it makes for me to spend 4 hours drawing and coloring something like this, which probably gets read by 20 people at most, and very quickly. Oh well.. it’s an interesting story.

In About Four Seconds, A Teacher Will Begin to Speak

I have less than a week of summer vacation left. I’m rested and ready for a new school year, but I’m very comfortable right now in my Cocoon of Sloth. I’ve been playing lots of video games (Uncharted 2, Tiger Woods ’08) and working (slowly) on the biography of Balzac’s wife Eveline HaÅ„ska.

I was supposed to do the second draft of my novel this summer, but .. well, I didn’t. (I did about two and a half chapters, then got worn out and put it back in the filing cabinet.) I had a vision the other day of our house catching fire and how I would need to grab the folder with the first draft in it, since it’s the only copy I have. So that’s another important reason for me to work on it.

I’m really bad about sticking with projects like that — I’m actually amazed I finished the first draft. I’ll tell myself to work on something a little bit each day (I’ve done this several times with working out), and then I’ll do it for a week or two. Then one day I’ll be like “Ehhh, it’s not a big deal if I don’t do it today”, and then the next day I’m all “Yeah whatever.. Two days is okay — tomorrow I’ll go back.” And then it’s like “That thing I said I would do isn’t so important.” And so on.

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Kirstin Schaal is funny. Perhaps you’ve seen her on The Daily Show or The Flight of the Conchords.

Today I’m listening to: Pink Floyd! (I got on a weird Pink kick last night — I went years without listening to them, and then suddenly I broke my neck importing all their albums into iTunes.)

Yay! It’s summer break! WOOO! It’s so nice to sleep late (6:00 AM), goof off (wash dishes), and dress however I want (I’ve been wearing the same shirt since Saturday evening).

But I’ve also been super-productive! In the last 24 hours, I’ve done the following:

• Cleaned all the crap off my desk and stash school stuff down in the basement
• Cleaned out my email inbox (150+ messages, about 2/3 spam)
• Read all the most interesting things on my GoogleReader (esp. The Oatmeal’s Justin Bieber Quiz)
• Updated AidEastTimor with info about the medical ship that will be in East Timor. (Contact your Congressional representatives so doctors can do heart surgery on it and save lives!)
• Badgered people at Feingold’s and Baldwin’s offices about the above East Timor issue, not to mention Dr. Dan’s visit
• Washed the dishes

Woo! First real day of summer! Let the good times roll! But — lest you think my summer will just be cleaning and web work — I also plan to do the following things in the next 2.5 months:

1. Nothing. I will spend one week moving as little as possible, not reading emails or helping anyone with anything.
2. Mass Effect 2. I’ve been waiting to have a big block of time to tackle BioWare’s latest. I’ve finally recovered from DragonAge‘s excruciating final battles, and I’m ready to bring Commander Shepard out of retirement.
3. Transmutation: Second Draft. I spent five years doing the first draft of my fourth novel; now I need to spend five weeks doing the second draft. I’m blocking off July for this.
4. Visiting My Father-In-Law. My wife and I will be driving out to New Jersey to see her dad. Also we’ll be transporting some stuff back here to Madison.
5. More Nothing. I’m always teetering on the edge of cataclysmic insanity by the end of the school year. I need to spend plenty of time resting and being inactive in order to regain my sanity.
6. Exercising? Maybe? I’m always so tired by the end of the school day, so exercise always seems like a really bad idea. But I clearly need to get more exercise, so the hope is that I’ll be more willing now that school is out.
7. Finish Reading — And Then Play — Metro 2033. I’ve been reading this Russian post-apocalyptic novel, on which the video game is based. Once I finish the book (only 150 pages left), I can get the game and play it.
8. Get Pei to FA. For months I’ve been working bit by bit to improve the Wikipedia article on Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei. It’s been reviewed and re-reviewed, and I think we’re nearly ready to nominate it as a Featured Article.
9. Sleep. I’m going to sleep the sleep out of some sleep, as my buddy Paul used to say. No classes, no stress, no waking up at 4:00 AM every day. Hurray!
10. Watch the World Cup. The US is going down. We’re going to lose to Slovenia or Algeria, or both. We drew with England, which I still can’t believe. Goooo Cameroon!

Okay, enough of this activity and work. Time to play some video games! (Oh yeah — awesome sunflower pic from SocksOff.)

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Stadium Status from Internets Celebrities on Vimeo. Good stuff!

Today I’m listening to: A compilation of Fugazi conversing with audiences. Logic + Angry punks = WIN!