6:06 AM:

Evidence that, despite everything, Life Is Good: have you seen the David Hasslehoff "Hooked on a Feeling" video? (Found through Beth's forum.) I feel cheered knowing that I live in a world where something like this exists.

Last time around, quoth Shmuel:

Just don't ask when I'm sleeping, okay?

Not too long after posting the last entry, I went to Kinko's, where I photocopied covers and pages from various editions of the first Harry Potter book, some for inclusion in my term paper, and some for a handout for my presentation. Went home, said my morning prayers, stapled together the handouts for the presentation, spoke to my sister on the phone, and then decided, somewhere around 10:30 AM, to take a short nap. Class was from 1 PM to 2:30, so I set my alarm for noon. At least, I was pretty sure I set my alarm for noon.

At about 1:55 PM, a telemarketer woke me up. Or so I assume; I've been getting a lot of calls from them lately, and whoever it was didn't leave a message on my answering machine. And I blearily looked at my alarm clock, and had a classic Four Weddings and a Funeral reaction, pulled on some clothes and sneakers, grabbed my knapsack, and ran out the door. Without the handouts for the presentation.

I arrived in class, dazed and a bit out of breath, literally as the professor was starting his final sentence of the semester, in which he was going to bid everybody farewell and leave them to fill out the instructor evaluation forms. I apologized, and stumbled through a much-abridged, barely-coherent presentation, which basically consisted of displaying various editions of Harry Potter and the Stone We Can't Decide What to Name and saying something to the effect of: "See! Books! Pretty, pretty books!"

On the bright side, there were audible gasps when I held up the British adult edition...

The fact is that I haven't been sleeping too well over the past few days. This is in part because I've been, like, working on my final projects, but also in part because it's really hot and sticky in my apartment. I've got to install my air conditioner again.

Still, I did finish the Harry Potter essay by the Thursday deadline. Spent part of late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning discussing it with a friend on a MUD, towards the end of which a lightbulb went off over my head, and it all clicked. Really. If you look at the chat transcript (which you won't, unless you're the person I was having the discussion with and you also logged it), I actually typed "[lightbulb!]" at the point in question. I love it when a thesis comes together.

From there, the race was on to finish typing the thing by noon. Which I did, more or less. There were things omitted that I wish hadn't been; the ending is kinda weak, and would have been much better served if I'd gone back and reread the start of the essay; there were points that would have been better made if I'd cited some supporting sources; and, well, there are easily a dozen things I'd have changed in hindsight, but whatthehell, it's done. Yay!

6:41 AM:

Brief update: as expected, I didn't make the research grant deadline on Monday. I did make it through my classes, though. More amazingly, I made it through my New Romanticisms presentation on Tuesday, although, as I admitted, pretty much everything I presented was background material, perhaps useful for helping me figure out my thesis, but that's about it. Still, so far, so good. (Plus I ended up giving out copies of the partly-completed song mentioned in the previous entry. And then singing it, which I hadn't planned on at all, but that's what the class wanted... It went over well, ending the last class of the semester on a humorous note.)

I was supposed to have been working on my Harry Potter essay tonight, but I ended up spending the past couple of hours finally watching my copy of the film version, to double-check one or two points, and on the chance that I'd notice something else relevant to my paper. Admittedly, I was watching it in a teensy-weensy window in the corner of the screen, so I didn't get anything approaching the full cinematic experience. (The plan had been to let it play in the background as I typed, but that didn't last very long.) It was okay. Not great by any means, but not bad either. Perhaps a bit too much attention paid to the spectacle, rather than to conveying the story; to pick a minor example, in the chess game, I'd have preferred to have fewer dramatic shots of exploding chessmen, and a decent overhead view so I could see the positions of the various pieces and perhaps, like, follow the endgame. But that's just me.

(The DVD? Umm, I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when an owl dropped it at my feet. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. And, no, it doesn't have any of the extra stuff that'll be on the official release, or even the film's credits.)

Anyway. The Potter paper is theoretically due today, but I'm almost certainly shooting for tomorrow's automatic "late deadline." Otherwise, I'm giving a presentation on it today (not a problem; there won't be enough time to discuss a fraction of what I have), in my final class of the semester. After that, I'm supposed to speak with my Black Marxism professor at 4 PM, to discuss the topic of my final paper for him. I do hope I have a topic by then; it would help.

On the bright side, the air conditioning in the college computer lab is now functional. Ann Arbor jumped straight from winter to summer, and the past couple of days down here haven't exactly been pleasant. But it's much better now. And it turns out that the New Romanticisms paper can be turned in a day later than originally scheduled, on Wednesday. Every bit helps...

Just don't ask when I'm sleeping, okay?

6:08 AM:

The good news: I wrote about ten pages of material tonight. And that's not including the partly-completed (and entirely pointless) country-western version of a poem I've been trying to analyze.

The bad news: It ain't quite enough, and I'm still in deep trouble.

Let's take a quick overview of the next week and a day, shall we?

Monday. The deadline for application to the summer research program, which would pay me $1500 for up to 125 hours of working for a professor. Which works out to at least $12 an hour, and is much to be desired, and there's enough funding there to cover every first-year student in the program. The catch is that, at the time of application, one can't have any outstanding incompletes or "minimally acceptable grades." I might have already been out of the running due to the latter, but that was by no means certain. However, I still have that incomplete from last semester. And while I've been making some headway on it over the past few days, it ain't gonna be done in the next couple of hours. Goodbye research grant.

Otherwise, two classes today, for a total of 4.5 hours, one of which I'm supposed to read a book for. I'll be lucky if I lightly skim it. Alas.

Tuesday: In my New Romanticisms class, I'm to give a twenty-minute presentation about "The Fairy of the Fountains," by L.E.L., reading a written 8-10 page paper on the subject, a copy of which is to be given to the professor. This is intended as an abridged -- or, rather, work-in-progress -- version of the final paper, which is to be 15-20 pages. As I type this, I have no idea what the hell is going on with this poem, or what my thesis is, or just about anything else. Either I figure it out later today and spend a very productive night typing, or I'm screwed.

I'm also supposed to meet with my Black Marxism professor Tuesday, to belatedly discuss the topic of my final paper. At the time of this writing, I have no clue what said topic might be.

Wednesday: The last day of class. In my Editing class, I'm to give a 15-minute presentation on some aspect of my final (15 page) paper. This -- the Harry Potter paper -- is the paper I just wrote 10 pages of, although there's stuff to fill in and stuff to cut therein. Said final paper is also due Wednesday, but there's an automatic backup deadline of Thursday, allowing one day for those presenting then (rather than Monday) to incorporate suggestions from the class into the final draft.

Also due Wednesday is my (20-page) Black Marxism paper, but that has an automatic backup deadline of the following Tuesday.

Thursday: Late deadline for the editing paper. No class.

Friday: Keep working until sundown.

Saturday: Sleep. Can't do anything until nightfall.

Sunday: Type! Type!

Monday: Faster! Faster!

(Why do I suddenly feel like I'm writing a sex scene?)

Tuesday: New Romanticisms paper due. Masochism and Victorian Fiction paper due. (18-22 pages; mine's on "Masochism and Little Women." I'm still working out my exact position there, but have some tentative ideas.) Late deadline for Black Marxism paper.

Wednesday: Assuming all the above -- including last semester's incomplete -- is actually done, I collapse in a heap, spending the remainder of the week sleeping and watching TV.

Wish me luck. I'm damn well gonna need it.