Quoth the Raven - Moonlighting in Utopia

For the past week I have been moonlighting as an exam invigilator. This generally involves me pulling twelve hour days and being a) very bored and b) rather tired for large chunks of the day.

My article on Spectral Traffic is due today and it is still shattered into a myriad of pieces and about 1500 words too short. It both irritates and amuses me that academic conventions about article size(the magical 6000 words)appear to be so neglectful of the nuanced interpretations of the individual writer. My topic, to be analysed to its logical conclusion, only really requires 4000 words. To stretch it out affects my writing style and the neatness of the narrative I have woven. I detest waffle and I resent being forced to do it when I know it is only to meet some arbitrary criteria. Will my readers care? Of course not.

On a more positive note I experienced a lovely utopic vision while supervising a business statistics exam on Wednesday night (this sort of activity generally produces hallucinations particularly when my blood sugar is too low!). I envisaged submitting my PhD before Christmas and therefore having all of January and February simply to read books and watch movies in between bouts of swimming and napping - before returning to teaching and job/postdoc applications in March.

Like all things supposedly utopic I have the distinct impression that this particular vision will not hold up under objective scrutiny. In that case I have decided not to analyse it but just bask in its aftermath, after all I need something to get me throught the next few weeks of publishing deadlines, invigilation and exam marking.

Oh well, off to be run over by some more spectral traffic.