It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

I head off to yet another conference next Thursday.

The conference will focus on the use of social-scientific models in my field (some of my research does fall into this category). It's only a two-hour drive away from Hometown in Waterfall City. I'll be driving down with Advisor next Thursday and returning Sunday afternoon. And since I'm RAing for Advisor, his research expense account will cover my registration, room, and board.

All of these factors made it seem like a good idea to attend this conference.

But it's not the kind of conference that one attends in order to hear papers presented. Instead, this is more of a working retreat: scholars make their papers available ahead of the conference, the attendees are expected to read them ahead of time, and the time at the conference is primarily spent on discussing the papers.

So, in addition to teaching, admin, my own coursework, and, oh yeah, my dissertation, I have eleven additional papers to read, evaluate, and critique.

How do I get myself into these things?