Holidays!

I'm looking forward to the uni holidays. Not that I get a holiday from my PhD. Technically, I only get four weeks off per year, and I've already used that up. Besides, I don't think I'm in a position to take time off from my research.

I'm looking forward to a break from teaching. Don't get me wrong, I'm still young and naive enough to like teaching. It's quite fun, most of the time. But it is a distraction. If I didn't have a class to teach in 15 minutes, I could be struggling to write my first chapter. Or, I could be sneaking home early to make a dessert for my bible study's BBQ tonight. If it wasn't for this class, I wouldn't have spent an hour and a half brushing up on the physics of X-rays and putting together different accounts of the discovery of X-rays for the class to compare to see how misleading textbook narratives of the history of science can be. And if I wasn't teaching a science and religion class online, I wouldn't have spent a good deal of the weekend marking journals.

Of course, the distraction of teaching can be good at times. If I'm getting frustrated with my work and need a break, I can check my online discussion groups. Unfortunately, that doesn't work so well if the lazy things aren't posting any messages!

It will be good to have a break from teaching. I'll be able to focus on my PhD and hopefully make some good progress. Progress is sorely needed - I feel like I'm about 8 months behind, which is not a nice feeling. But then, I'll have to find a new distraction. I'll be back to checking my email every 5 minutes to see if anyone is actually replying to my emails (oh hang on, I'm already doing that...). If I'm really desperate, I might have to return to the 1824 forum! Even though there are other people here in the FASS, I still crave human contact!

Is anybody out there?!?!