5.01.2009

Nose Removal Increases Productivity

Of all the things that I anticipated would leave me paralyzed and motivationless at the end of the semester, the one I didn't see coming ended up doing me in.

Allergies. I hate them so hard. I've had them my whole life, year-round, every year, without fail. Before coming to this university, I lived in a state with next to no seasonal changes. I didn't think I even had seasonal allergies. Living through spring in a state that has a full palette of beautiful seasons has taught me the error of my assumption. I find this rather depressing, because it means that I'll be debilitated by allergies during exam time every year! Every morning I wake up, immediately have an allergy attack, pop pills, chug tea to chase off the fatigue, and wander through the day in a haze of exhaustion brought on by my wiped out immune system. I've never needed so many naps before. Reading dry academic texts is difficult on the best of days; with my body is exhausted and my eyes falling shut every few minutes, it's nearly impossible. More caffeine doesn't seem to be helping, it only makes my body feel even weirder. You'd think after all these years, I would have found a solution! I tried opening the window to air out our moldy, dusty townhome, but then pollen blew in the window and covered my desk. So. Best I can do is take a pill every 12 hours on the dot and buy up whatever other over-the-counter symptom treatments are available.

While I'm here, I may as well give a progress update. I'm roughly halfway through my English paper on Promethea. Not all of it has been formally written yet, but I've been making semi-informal annotations to get myself writing. I have a lot of trouble with editing while I write; I won't commit a sentence to paper if it isn't perfectly crafted. That obviously makes for extremely slow progress, which is why I've started doing annotations in blog format. It really helps me a lot, since it seems to take the pressure off and lets me just dump the ideas out of my head without worrying so much. It seems dumb and simple, but it's a huge step in the right direction for me. I'm hoping to have this paper mostly done by tonight, with just editing and formatting left for tomorrow. Then it'll be time to launch straight into my Spectralism paper! Thrilling, really. Wish me luck.