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absent-minded english teacher (college literature/writing)

[unusual-suspects]

the sun the moon and the stars - greg mort

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 16/30 || wednesday, 02 july, 2025

Much later start today than I would have liked. I don't know what's wrong with me but shortly after breakfast over the last two days, I've had a stomachache. I'm just eating cereal... but I won't be eating that tomorrow.

today: ✓ laundry ✓ revised another reading for summer course

📔 The Secret History (Donna Tartt) | 3% Um. I almost immediately put this down after three pages but I kept going because 1) I already bought it since I couldn't get it from the library and 2) I finally accepted that maybe it's the character that's painfully pretentious and not the writer's style. Made it a tough start, though. 🎧 Automatic | half•alive It's their best that I've heard so far and catchy as hell.

[fledzone]

Can you tell I got busy in the last two weeks of June? It doesn't speak to the quality of Perfume so much as how much I needed to get done before the start of July!

Last month had some great ones: I highly, highly recommend Fever Dream and I Who Have Never Known Men. Both of them were ones I just didn't want to put down; Fever Dream was very short, if that's something you prefer. I Who Have Never Known Men was a bit longer, but it flew by... funny enough, the story doesn't seem particularly reflective, but it's extremely engaging, and you'll find yourself thinking about it for days afterward.

Perfume was great, although I don't think it appeals to everyone, but still probably more than No One Is Talking About This which was also good if you can trust that the way it's written is worth it by the time you get to the end. It wouldn't have had the impact it had otherwise.

At the bottom were Moon of The Crusted Snow and Woman, Eating. The writing wasn't great in either of these (Crusted Snow was quite a bit better, though), and I was actively irritated with certain things in both of them (plot holes in the former and tropes/cliches in the latter).

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 15/30 || monday, 30 june, 2025

For reasons I can't explain, 🎧 Lofi Lamb is the trigger my brain needs to kick into high gear. How did I program myself to become a productivity machine the instant I hear River Boy?

today: ✓ prepared my calendar for July ✓ reviewed June for important notes or overlooked tasks, highlighted significant events and info ✓ revised a handful of the assignment prompts for ENG 300 for clarity based on past notes from students ✓ began redesigning some lectures to turn them into readings for online students... I've been thinking about it and I'd like to configure them to be used with programs like NotebookLM in mind because I assume a certain percentage of students will be attempting to use them anyway ✓ finally finished Perfume! I don't know why that book took so long (although... I have theories). On to The Secret History because several of my students are certain I'll love it. The Goldfinch wasn't half bad, so they might be right.

📔 Perfume (Patrick Suskind) | ⭐ 4.5 📔 The Secret Histroy (Donna Tartt) | 5%

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 14/30 || tuesday, 24 june, 2025

Sorted out the plan for our summer vacation; I didn't think we'd ever get it worked out but after a lot of trips back and forth across the house to confer with everyone all day, it's settled. It's been busy around here lately--my partner is working on getting his workshop set up so that he can get it at the proper temperature and there have been some health things to deal with--but at least things are slowing down a bit before work picks back up.

Speaking of which, I can finally get back to finishing up everything for the summer semester; there's not much left to wrap up, but I'll get the syllabus posted and then there are just a few things left before the course site's ready to go.

📔 Perfume (Patrick Suskind) | 68% This book would make a perfect short story.

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 13/30 || monday, 23 june, 2025 Returned the more long-term tasks to the back burner so I can focus on finishing up anything needed for the summer course that's coming up in two weeks. Got quite a bit done!

today: ✓ built template for both schedules of ENG 300--I'm really looking forward to having less to do each semester in assembling the Bb courses once these are all done! ✓ syllabus for the summer course is done; just needs finishing touches ✓ found the cord to use my monitor with my laptop but now I'm worried my computer is getting too hot ✓ did some vacation research; I don't know what we're doing or where, but these kids deserve to get out of the house this summer, so I've gotta come up with something... ✓ paid some bills

📔 Perfume (Patrick Suskind) | 59% (it isn't that it's not good that I haven't finished it yet, but I'll admit it's clearly not one of those "I couldn't put it down" books) 🎬 The Godfather | 4.75⭐ (watched it on Friday but having been teased by my students for not having seen it, I want it on the record!) 🎬 The Godfather, Pt. II | 4.25⭐

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 13/30 || wednesday, 18 june, 2025

One of the purposes of this project has been to help me understand why I always feel surprised by the beginning of each semester even though I feel like I've been preparing all summer, and I can at least say it's working in that regard. I feel busy but I don't seem to get much done, do I? I'm finding that it's a combination of working from home and the kids being home all day, too. Like a lot of women, I'm finding that I feel guilty when I'm not getting things done for my job and I feel guilty when I'm not spending time with the kids, so I'm pulled in both directions and I struggle to focus no matter what I'm trying to commit to.

Something that cheered me up, though: I received a signed copy of Fool's Quest by my favorite author, Robin Hobb (the generosity she's referring to there is for a donation to Doctors Without Borders; to celebrate her birthday, she offered to send anyone who would donate to DWB a signed book, because she's an angel like that). I now have an extra copy that I'll try to give away to someone. Every once in a while, I'll buy several copies of her books (usually Assassin's Apprentice but also sometimes Ship of Magic) to give to people I meet who I think might like her work, but this one's the middle of the last trilogy, so it might be difficult to rehome.

today: ✓ finished basic course template for ENG 200 ✓ cleaned my desk, which was starting to become far too messy ✓ last-minute trip to campus to put a sticky note on my computer... it's a long story... ✓ planned some of July to make sure I don't forget anything coming up (i.e. annual performance evaluations) ✓ reviewed some saved videos I think might be useful for classes ✓ cut down on some of the random notes I've had building up over the past semester by migrating them to where they belong

📔 Perfume (Patrick Suskind) | 48% 🎙 nao. (her videos playing in the background always help me stay focused) 🎬 Napolean Dynamite (for family movie night)

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 12/30 || monday, 16 june, 2025

Productivity waned a bit while I was distracted with a double ear infection. How that happened, I have no idea. It wasn't terribly miserable, but I also used it as an excuse to do some reading I was slacking on.

This morning, I wrapped up the ENG 100 course template to make future planning easier from semester to semester and moved on to sorting through ENG 200 to put together the template for those. In the afternoon, a trip to the doctor with one of the kids.

📔 No One Is Talking About This (Patricia Lockwood) | ⭐ 4.75 📔 Perfume (Patrick Suskind) | 16%

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 11/30 || monday, 09 june, 2025

Living in the woods means that I'll occasionally see a familiar shade of brown through the back door while I'm reading or writing in my daybook. There are usually two or three white-tailed deer together when I do see them out there, but she was the only one in sight today.

today: ✓ continued working on the course plan for 100E; if I'm lucky, I'll be able to move on to planning 300 the day after tomorrow ✓ redesigned the rhetoric unit's assessment ✓ reorganized my desk to deal with some technical difficulties (power supply died so I had to set up my laptop to work from)

reading: 📔 Moon of the Crusted Snow (Waubeshig Rice) | ⭐3.0 📔 I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman) | ⭐5.0! 📔 No One Is Talking About This (Patricia Lockwood) | 38%

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 10/30 || thursday, 05 june, 2025 ⏱ 08h25m 💪

I feel a little bit like a rock star today: I made quite a lot of headway even if it means I barely moved from my desk all day.

I had almost given up hope on my mechanical keyboard being delivered today and then... it arrived. She's no custom-built showstopper or anything but I love her.

✓ finished Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (highly recommend! might teach this one next spring) for a book club ✓ started Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubeshig Rice ✓ made progress on the course template for the composition intro class - should be able to get it done tomorrow

📔 Fever Dream (Samanta Schweblin) | ⭐ 4.75! 📔 Moon of the Crusted Snow (Waubeshig Rice) | 43% 🎧 jamming at a red light 🎬 Fever Dream | ⭐ 4

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[fledzone]

summer of productivity 09/30 || wednesday, 04 june, 2025 ⏱ 04h20m

Yesterday: a spontaneous trip to a used book store and a few purchases. None of these are books I've read yet (with the exception of the Keret book of short stories, which I've read but didn't have a copy of), and a few of them are Dickens, so I should be set for a good while. I also stopped at a nearby Books-A-Million and THAT cost me a little piece of my soul. Left that place emptyhanded after carrying Percival Everett's James around for a few minutes, reassuring myself it will still be there (and elsewhere at a more affordable prices) once I work through the TBR stack I already have.

Besides, I also had a couple of books arrive from ThriftBooks this afternoon, titles I want to read this summer, one of which is Fever Dream, a book club pick for June.

today: ✓ updated my library catalog; I have some missing from a couple of series that I need to fill in ✓ figured out how to sketch those outlines I needed to make for my course schedules, so I think continuing that tomorrow is going to much easier. Made some progress today but it was like trudging through quicksand trying to figure out the best way to go about it before I actually gained traction.

📔 Woman, Eating (Claire Kohda) | ⭐2.25 📔 Fever Dream (Samantha Schweblin) | 25%

[fledzone]

I have no artistic talent whatsoever, which I why I rely so heavily on making stickers out of pretty things I find online when I feel like doing something creative. This is, like, impostor drawing and watercolor: I put paint in the basic places of a sketch I've turned into a transparent sticker and then put the sticker over it. Turns out I'm not terribly good at this, either.

summer of productivity 08/30. || monday, 02 june, 2025

Lord, today was a struggle. I always think of summer as a time when my schedule is more or less clear for me to manage my own time, but I always forget that my being physically present at home means I'm always accessible to everyone in my life who knows where to find me. I'm just prone to distraction, so it doesn't take much to send me completely off course.

Speaking of which, I'm doing the thing I do every summer: feeling like I need to start with a clean slate. I don't know where this impulse comes from but it's absolutely my archnemesis. To try and ward it off, I'm a) making sure I have a clear goal + process to focus on and b) to be more specific in the tasks I set for myself during the day. I looked at my checklist this morning and it was essentially one item that just said "work." I'm only barely exaggerating. I'll try adding tomorrow's task list to my diary entries here as a way to set me up for what comes next, too…

today: ✓ picked up in the study ✓ moved the rest of my books into the study (my treasured Jacqueline Carey, Robin Hobb, and Brian Jacques books) ✓ revised content and organization for folders: My Content Notes, Pedagogy, and Writing Samples

tomorrow: ▢ sketch outlines of all three English courses based on past semesters + identify what works and what needs to be changed

📔 Woman, Eating (Claire Kohda) | 26% (It's not very good so far but it's short, so I anticipate finishing it today or tomorrow.)

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 07/30. || thursday, 29 may, 2025 ⏱ 02h40m

I'm really noticing that when I sit down to work at my desk, I immediately want to collapse, broken-doll-like, in a pile over my keyboard. I will always read over my notes from yesterday's and today's daybook entries a thousand times without comprehending the meaning of any of it. But I've also noticed that if I can just survive that stage and let it be the uncomfortable experience that it is, I will eventually find myself doing a little something here and there… and the next thing I know, I'm getting shit done. I just have to endure it until I somehow get traction.

But um, not today. I did nothing but yawn over and over and about an hour after lunch, I gave in and called this short list enough for today. Since I'm about to start a fresh daybook, though, I was in the mood to make some stickers. That, of course, I found the energy to do. 😏

✓ finish dividing lecture notes in my composition materials folder ✓ divided lecture notes in my literature materials folder ✓ I actually made a phone call to schedule an appointment at a doctor's office today. 💪 This is my Everest so I feel incredibly accomplished by having done this alone. ✓ moved some furniture around in my study because the armchair I usually read in has some damage that's hurting my back, so it's been replaced by stealing a chair from elsewhere

📔 The Fire Next Time (James Baldwin) | 11% 📹 Daria Studio in the background

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 06/30 || tuesday, 27 may, 2025 ⏱ 04h15m

For a moment there I wasn't sure there was enough fire in me to make any progress today, but I managed to get it together... eventually. Needed some motivation. I haven't used Forest in a while, so I may give that a shot on Thursday, when I get back to work. A walk around lunchtime with the kids to get some fresh air helps, too.

The list format seems unnecessary today since I was focused on a single project: I divided up about twenty lecture notes into smaller parts to better serve adjustments in the schedule when needed. I always want things to look and work better, so the temptation every semester is to rebuild my lectures from scratch... that I haven't done that (yet) is seriously an accomplishment!

📔 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong) | 36%

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 05/30 || monday, 26 may, 2025 ⏱ 04h00m

I hear that people who aren't hermits like me do things on Memorial Day besides sit at a desk, but I don't know those people.

✓ created a course planning checklist template for use in Obsidian; hopefully that'll translate to feeling in the future a little less like being caught up in a hurricane each planning season ✓ created session notes framework for Fall 25 ✓ took some videos for the Cicada Safari app while I took a walk at lunch

📔 The Last Werewolf (Glen Duncan) | ⭐ 3.0 📔 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong) | 21% 🎧 "Chicago is So Two Years Ago" (Fall Out Boy)

[fledzone]

summer of productivity 04/30 || friday, 23 may, 2025

⏱ 05h00m

I have such a newfound respect for librarians. Moving and organizing these books is exhausting and, as I learned when I dropped a handful of books from a high shelf, kind of dangerous. Speaking of books, I'm still not through with Glen Duncan's book. I can't decide how I feel about it, either, but that's a rant for my Storygraph review when I get to it.

As for today, did some work inside and enjoyed the day outside. The kids and I went for a walk in the middle of the day to the tune of SCREAMING cicadas (it's the bourbon brood's year and it's deafening). Worked in my little study before and afterward, and then family movie + pizza night.

✓ rearranged some books to accommodate my geeky top shelf collections, which are mostly Robin Hobb and Brian Jacques, which I haven't brought into my little library yet

✓ began prepping to archive my current daybook; June starts a new Leuchtturm1917

✓ developed a plan to compile lecture and coursework content (because what I WANT to do is start rebuilding things and I'm trying very hard to resist that), which I'll begin implementing on Monday

📔 The Last Werewolf (Glen Duncan) | 63%

🎧 A Visual Poetry

🎬 James and the Giant Peach | ⭐ 4.00