The Hermit

Days of break remaining: two

Not that I'm exactly a social butterfly anyhow -- especially over the winter break -- but social interactions for me even online have hit an all time low these last four or five days as I try to get everything done both for my classes and around the house. I'm even letting some things I wanted to do for fun fall to the wayside -- for example, I have the newest volume of The Walking Dead, which is the only comic series I've followed religiously for the past two years or so, and I haven't even read it yet...even though I know it will take less than an hour to read through. I have two new issues of Playboy, and several other new issues of other magazines I subscribe to (Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated) which I haven't touched yet either.

However, I did make homemade Chinese for dinner tonight, all of the laundry is done, the cat room is clean, I finished the first season of Community (and ordered season two immediately thereafter -- yes, it's that good), washed all the dishes, packed up all of my books and papers for next week, readied a week's worth of half-dressy outfits with which to impress my students until I can dress normally again, took a shower, fed the cats, washed the dishes, set up my new Blu-ray player, and sent messages/the course syllabus to all of my new students.

...amongst other things I'm probably forgetting, I'm sure.

Oh, I did get to laugh at Tim Tebow losing his game tonight. That made me happy. Though I will admit that it was a bittersweet happy, as the Broncos were beaten by the Patriots, who I also can't stand.

I have been awake all day/night since last night's police incident across the street at 2AM. It's almost 1AM now. I think I've had a productive day. I'm trying to right my sleep schedule again, at least somewhat, by sleeping at night tonight and getting up in the morning hours. If I can do that, I can get on a pattern, and even though I may be worn out after a few short nights of sleep for the first week of classes or so, my body will once more regulate itself and learn how to survive on four-to-six hours a night and copious amounts of coffee in the mornings. To prepare for this certainty, I have a fresh can of coffee chambered and ready to go when I get back to work on Tuesday morning, as I really can't remember how much (if any) I have in the office.

In other news, as mentioned before, my Blu-ray player arrived and I set it up with ease, testing it out with the free copy of Watchmen I got over break. It's really nice. I boxed up my old, normal DVD player and put it in the closet, as I have a feeling it won't be used again until I get another TV at some point to put downstairs in the bedroom.

Incidentally, there are only a few films I would ever want on Blu-ray instead of normal DVD, the new Star Wars collection being a few of them, but as Blu-ray seems to be the wave of the future, it looks like I might as well jump on the bandwagon now. It's not like I'm going to upgrade my collection to Blu-ray or anything. Since I bought that LCD HDTV last year when the former girlfriend and I broke up, everything I watch on it is gorgeous, even the news. So really I don't notice much of a difference. Sound is better, details are a little sharper, but that's about it.

Winding down the last two days of break, I do still have a few things left on my "to do list." I have to finish two different letters, revise a poem I've been working on (yes, I've actually been writing again), and make sure there's nothing I've completely forgotten to do that would be rather important before the semester starts. Other than that? As mentioned before, I'm not planning to do much else for the rest of the weekend.