Good afternoon from the Fog and Flame,
I think I need a vacation. Many might say you just had one, but what I think I need is a working vacation, one where I can focus, in an uninterrupted manner. What might I do with such a “respite” of sorts? The first thing I would do is spend two or three days bringing my tech skills back up to date. I need a seminar where I can work with someone who understands things like Camtasia, Media Stream, Vision Thread, or Diigo really well and then work with them creating one artifact after another so it becomes second nature for me. I want to do some much more with the idea of a flipped class and having the various pieces that I can put into the course delivery tool will help my students. Then I would try to merely write. I need to write for a number of reasons. I have noted this in my blog posting before this, but the hammer is down and there are no excuses.
Today, as I have been in the Fog and Flame, I have run into current students, former students, graduated students, graduate students and colleagues. That has been interesting to see the cross-germination that is in that little space. Then there is the issue of paying for your drinks. I have turned to using Square Wallet. Amazing how many things I can do from my phone. As I sit here I have my Mac updating, which is taking significant time because I am on WiFi and I had not updated things for about 6 weeks. Amazing how many things that get out of day and quickly. I have been downloading OS X Mavericks for about three hours, or more.
What I started to write about earlier is my writing. I am working on a book review and it will be done by the end of the weekend. Then I need to do some additional reading about the “rhetoric of place” article that I am working on. My colleague has given me some things to manage and then I have to come up with an outline. I did some work on that article this summer and then it sat the entire fall semester. The third article is a programmatic review article and that should not be that difficult. What I need to do is manage the free time I have and then use that for writing and not random time wasting. It is the very think I tell my students all the time. Now I need to employ it too.
What I have learned more and more about myself is I get overwhelmed and then I shut down. Very little gets accomplished. I think I had too much on my plate and that is still an issue, but I am trying to make changes. Yet some of those changes have been painful and sad. Then there is the fact that I have not even managed all of that as well as I should or must. That will be part of the next week or two. I wish there was an easier way to manage my life. Then again, I should not be surprised because this time of year is difficult for me. While I have never been technically diagnosed with SAD, I am quite sure I am a person who is affected by it.
One of the things I have been really good at, at least thus far into the semester, and I am well aware that we are only two weeks into the process, is to stay ahead of the game a bit more in my classes. I have spent some long evenings in my office, but I think it is beginning to pay off. Organization is a difficult thing, particularly when it is hard to see how it all fits together, but perhaps that is the impetus for my title. Can we actually organize our randomness? Or are they merely oxymoronic and therefore, it is an exercise in futility? I think it is better to be more optimistic and work under the guise that it is possible. In fact, most everything has such a possibility, if one only take the time and puts in the effort.
Tomorrow is the Super Bowl and I had the chance to get a ticket. That would have been quite an experience, but when the Packers are not playing, it is hard for me to be excited. If the Packers were playing . . . it is a no-brainer, I would be there. It will be interesting that it is outside. It is also interesting because two Bloomsburg students (one is actually an alum) have a central role in the PR and management of the PR for the game. That is very cool.
Well, it is time to get back to another task. So, as always, thank you for reading. I hope your life is more than organized chaos. Have a great rest of the weekend.
Dr. Martin
thewritingprofessor55 
I am commenting on one of your blogs for once (even though it is 4 days after you posted it). You definitely have a ton of things to do, and you manage them the best you can. The weather is affecting my motivation this time of year as well. I have been trying to make time for the gym so that I have more energy, even though at times the gym time probably should have been spent working on assignments. Anyways, what is life but organized chaos? Haha I feel that it is better that it is that way. At least you’re never bored!
Dear Dr Martin,
I think it is quite funny that this is the post I stumbled across today. I feel like this past week or two has been complete chaos. My to-do list has been a full notebook page (I wish I was kidding, but I know you can relate as well), yet my motivation has been completely lacking. The worst part is I am constantly angry at myself for wasting time and not getting things accomplished. I have so much to do that I simply want to do nothing and every time I sit down to read my body just wants to go to sleep. Even when I have gotten sleep I am still ready for a nap after one class but I do not have time for that. I have had no focus when studying, which makes getting things done so hard. I totally relate to not wanting to go to events I know would be fun because I have so much to do. The past two weekends I had fun things planned but going into them I was no longer even excited. In the end, I enjoyed both of them, but the week is even more chaotic due to them. I feel like I barely know what day of the week it is but somehow everything will manage to get done.
I also relate to wanting a “working” vacation. I want to be able to have a “break” where I can focus and accomplish all the things I want to do that I do not have time for during school. I feel like I do not have time for anything besides school during the semester. The last thing I want to do right now is read but I would love a vacation where I could just sit on the beach or in a hammock and read a few good books. I need time to just sit and fill out scholarship applications and time to figure out my honors capstone. Even with my schoolwork, I want to do everything perfectly or to a certain standard, but I am at the point where I just need to accomplish things and check them off my list. I wish I could spend more thoughtful time on some things to really soak in all my thoughts towards them.
I think the title of the blog post is fitting for this response because it is very random, chaotic, and probably more of a rant than a response, but I think there is a reason that this is the blog post I came across today. I think in the chaoticness of life everything happens for a reason. It is organized (we just can’t see how while we are going through it). Everything falls into place just the way it should. We always are in the place where we hear what we need to hear.