Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Freak Out Day? Holy @#$% Day?

We need a name for that day, during the summer, when you suddenly realize that the new semester is bearing down upon you, and you've accomplished approximately 5-10% of everything you swore you'd get done this summer, for sure, not like last summer when you wasted a huge amount of time trying to play the guitar and napping inside your office. 

This summer I meant to:

(1) re-vamp and re-organize my fall courses; and

(2) complete one article that's been accepted; and

(3) make significant progress on a second to be submitted in the fall; and

(4) contribute witty and deeply provocative posts here several times a week.

So far, I've managed to:

(1) try to play the guitar; and

(2) take some outstanding naps.

. . . . OK, honestly I'vew gotten a lot more done than that.  But, I got an email today letting me know that I was supposed to have posted my first assignment for the fall semester of Property I already.  Thus the title of this post.  Apparently, I used to know something about "property", even taught it recently, and am expected to teach it this year to "law students."  All of this is only vaguely familiar to me at this point.

If you have suffered a similar experience, we need a name for this day.  Any suggestions?

Mark Edwards

[Comments are eagerly solicited, but held for approval, so there will be some delay in posting them]


https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/property/2010/07/freak-out-day-holy-day.html

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Comments

As a student, I tended to call this day "Procrastination Pay Off Day" where you get to find out whether all of the times you said, "I promise that eventually I will bust my a** and get this done" turned out to pay off.

Posted by: Bobby Mauger | Jul 21, 2010 9:41:35 AM

Mark,

Do what I always do in this situation, take an assignment from last year, tweak it a little, submit it, play some guitar and take a nap!

Dave

Posted by: Paper Cup Lids | Jul 22, 2010 6:59:41 AM

How about "And we are human too day" in which we try to hold in our attention simultaneously the value of our (perhaps too) ambitious aspirations, the common experience of not meeting them, a sense of compassion for ourselves and our colleagues, all tinged with a chuckle and sealed with a promise to set more realistic expectations next summer?

Posted by: Tim Iglesias | Jul 22, 2010 9:01:24 AM

How about "I-hope-the-dean-who-gave-me-a-summer-grant-isn't-reading-this-blog day"?

Posted by: MD | Jul 22, 2010 11:07:51 AM

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