Now entering Stage Three Sleep Deprivation:

Characterized by mild tremors, reduced motor control, cognitive lag, and speaking to oneself in improvised voices. Also, may produce waves of manic excitement and feelings of euphoria. Occasionally accompanied by random outbursts of enthusiastic singing-along-to-80's-music anterior to complete somatic collapse and degeneration of cognitive function (see Stages Four and Five).

Condition at Stage Three is moderate, recommendation is 8 or more hours of uninterrupted sleep. If this is not immediately possible, subjects are encouraged to find a couch or quiet corner of a library for brief napping....

The good news is that--for better or worse--by 5 pm this evening I'll have two of my still-outstanding assignments out of the way (a syllabus complete with teaching introduction and course rationale, and a set of journal entries on films and selected critical readings) and can look forward to a (hopefully) full night's rest. Who-hoo! After that there's one week of intense effort writing a take home essay exam and a conference length research paper; then I'm scott-free for the semester with one year of grad school under my belt and a Summer of significantly relaxed academic pressures to look forward to. The only question now is, how can I get my blasted fingers to start hitting the right keys again so I can finish up this course rationale for my pedagogy class?