disasters happen and are waiting to happen.

EDIT (FROM 22 OCT 2006): as it happened, on friday night, i was informed that I wouldn't be talking last on sunday morning, but on saturday morning instead.

life again throws curve balls.

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it's a day or two to go before the AMS Conference @ Cincinnati, OH. by fortune of fate, i'm talking last on sunday, which is fine; someone has to be last. i've already written the talk and need only print out the slides ..

.. but i have a bad feeling about this.

i'll be talking about the Thesis Problem that Was (read: Died) and haven't gotten to writing up the preprint yet. i simply have no time. how does anyone ever have time to work on new research, write up results, teach a section of 31 students, and attend classes and seminars?!?

small favors: i've never been so happy as to have a "Preliminary Report" category before.

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you'd think that with two days off this week (UM has a 'Fall Break'), i'd be living it up and coasting and enjoying life .. but i'm not.

monday and tuesday off meant an obsessive few days of research: equivalently, i ended up over-thinking the details that don't matter and overlooking the details that do.

today what i thought was a proof .. wasn't.

i realised this only as i was explaining it to the advisor, who was the one to point it out. so i looked foolish again. you'd think that i'd be used to the feeling by now .. but i'm not.

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i'm losing an obscene amount of time to teaching .. or at least, it saps my mental energy. what i thought was a good worksheet confused my class more than it educated, and tomorrow is a lesson on

"yes, this is how you do the worksheet;
no, you probably won't see something this complicated on an exam .. i hope."

i hate hedging my bets. it doesn't mean that i'd rather write my own exams, but .. i hate having to keep marching on pace because i can't let my students learn at their own pace.

uniformity might be great for convergence of functions, but it's terrible for students and learning.

on a side note, i think i inadverently made one of my students cry. this is exactly why i should never make judgment calls, because nobody should EVER trust my judgment.

argh.
conference talk. teaching. planning. packing.

i must get to it, because sometimes we make promises that we must keep, despite time and circumstance.