Stress ratchet + headspin

I am running circadian trials again this week and early next week, which means it's difficult to plan and schedule other things. This is making the stress ratchet happen, where anxiety levels creep up over not knowing whether I'm on top of the current job application situation, dealing with ongoing deadlines, and wanting to continue making progress on manuscripts.

So instead of trying to get work done last night, scrottie and I set up the projector to point at a wall of the workshop, and sat in the hot tub for 2 hours watching the first half of At Berkeley.

I am glad that we stopped after 2 hours. I was turning into a prune and it kept me up too late to make it rowing this morning.

I have mixed feelings about the documentary so far, but it does provide an interesting range of perspectives on life and activities here. It's useful to know more about the inner workings of the power and leadership structure, but I share this New Yorker article's quibbles with the perspective offered of university life, so far.

Also, I always struggle with things that are slightly too self-referential and put emphasis on prestige. I need to just keep trying to do what good science I see to work on in front of me.

I suppose we'll finish watching it at some point. I can tell that scrottie would like to argue directly with it in the same way he argues with NPR any time I turn on the radio, and this is something that I have a hard time dealing with. He has restrained himself but still sighs loudly at contentious points he disagrees with. The arguing with the radio and the irksome political coverage are why I never listen to NPR anymore.