• Super busy here with white papers for proposals. So, so many white papers. 
• Trying not to get overwhelmed by the sheer wastefulness of so many people writing, so many pitches being  made for one to be allowed to do research, and so very few actually being allowed to do proposed research. In my experience reviewing grants, many, oh so many grants are perfectly good grants. Nothing wrong with the ideas or personnel, and some nice science would get done. But it will never get done.
• As I said, writing white papers, so many white papers, to be able to submit proposals, to be able to get any of them funded.
• My shoulders and neck are terribly stiff, and maybe it’s the overhead fan in the bedroom, but maybe it’s all the sitting and maybe it’s all the stress.
• I’m going on vacation soon, and going on vacation is one of the most stressful activities an academic can engage in even in non-COVID times. There is so much work to do before going on vacation, and so much waiting when you return, that it would make anyone resent taking any time off, because it is never, NEVER, really time off.
• I hate August. The summer is basically over, because the university already started with endless emails for all sorts of orientations for all different groups of incoming bodies. Every morning I wake up to dozens upon dozens of university emails needing my presence for this or that. I wish they would leave us the %$^#% alone until our contracts start in late August. Spring business overflows well into June; fall business starts in early August. No, academic summers are most definitely not oases of free creative thought.
• Student graduating, going off to a good job. I am glad, but not so glad about the last-minute dissertation edits. This student has a hard time with what is essentially anxiety-fueled procrastination masquerading as  perfectionism: endless crossing of trivial i’s and dotting of trivial t’s while avoiding engagement with the challenging parts of work, or in this case, writing. We will get it done on time, but I will have to read and comment on some chapters during vacation. (See above on academic vacations being essentially bullshit.)
• Yeah, this has been more than 5 min. 

‘Sup, blogosphere? What have you been up to?