:: Homework In Front of the TV ::

When I was in high school, I wouldn't have wanted to do my homework in front of the TV, not that my mom would have let me. And in college? Not once. In graduate school, there were times when the reading was so intense I couldn't even listen to music while studying, and other times when I had to use classical music piped through my earphones just to drown out the noise in my office at school (which I share with 16 people who hold office hours and talk with students... oy...) if I wanted to get anything done.

But now? Now I sometimes find that the only way to get working is to plop myself down on our bed with nothing but a pen and my notes and the television set to a crime-related hour-long drama (Law and Order, Without a Trace, CSI -- all available hourly on cable). This morning, for example, I tried to write for awhile (read: type) but wasn't really getting anywhere. I spent more time thinking about how when you have bare feet, you never feel like your feet are sticking to the floor but when you are wearing socks with a hole in them someplace, it always feels like that one bare spot is sticking.

The best hour of the day (if by best you mean most productive and most clear) was the hour when I had Crossing Jordan on A&E in the background. Not only did I learn about meningiomas but I also finally found some kind of order for my current chapter.

Unfortunately, this tactic seems to have diminishing returns and eventually the television takes over my brain and I have to turn it off and get back to slogging quietly through it all.

(I didn't quite finish the draft last week, by the way. I got something rough done for the encyclopedia article but the draft of the chapter still remains unfinished, though not for lack of hours spent.)