Gillian Polack's Blog, page 104
August 16, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-08-17T12:29:00
I found my missing undergraduate degree. I now have pretty pieces of paper for all my qualifications. None are missing!
I hadn't actually lost it. I just thought I had. What I had done, was put it with a group of equally crucial papers. So... not only do I have my evidence of undergraduate graduation, I have evidence that I was a member of the Gould League of Bird Lovers, that I completed courses in Excel, Supervision and Stress Management, that I successfully undertook School Leaving Examinations in six subjects, that I was a member of the Girl Guides Association and that I won the A Grade Swannie Award in debating for the State of Victoria.
That last has got me into more trouble than all the rest put together, for I went to a state school, and state school bods do not beat private school bods in State-wide debating competitions. I rather suspect that this was the only year ever that the winner of the Swannie was not on the state debating team. Of course, it probably wasn't. The private school stranglehold of debating probably changed muchly over time and probably no longer exists. A friend of mine is in university debating (she's the daughter of two of my debating friends, in fact) so I'll ask her, next time I see her. Until then, I'll treasure the moment when the whole of the state team turned up at university and said "Oh, you were the one who got the Swannie. We wondered." They were nice about it, but quite a few people were rather difficult. Take 'rather' as a gross understatement: it was challenging.
I haven't done competition debating since my twenties. This is probably a good thing.
I wonder whether my Gould League badge will now appear. That would be very cool.
ETA: Debating awards are still a private school thing. I took a look at the current list: http://www.debating.netspace.net.au/schools/swannies.php This is a disappointment.
I hadn't actually lost it. I just thought I had. What I had done, was put it with a group of equally crucial papers. So... not only do I have my evidence of undergraduate graduation, I have evidence that I was a member of the Gould League of Bird Lovers, that I completed courses in Excel, Supervision and Stress Management, that I successfully undertook School Leaving Examinations in six subjects, that I was a member of the Girl Guides Association and that I won the A Grade Swannie Award in debating for the State of Victoria.
That last has got me into more trouble than all the rest put together, for I went to a state school, and state school bods do not beat private school bods in State-wide debating competitions. I rather suspect that this was the only year ever that the winner of the Swannie was not on the state debating team. Of course, it probably wasn't. The private school stranglehold of debating probably changed muchly over time and probably no longer exists. A friend of mine is in university debating (she's the daughter of two of my debating friends, in fact) so I'll ask her, next time I see her. Until then, I'll treasure the moment when the whole of the state team turned up at university and said "Oh, you were the one who got the Swannie. We wondered." They were nice about it, but quite a few people were rather difficult. Take 'rather' as a gross understatement: it was challenging.
I haven't done competition debating since my twenties. This is probably a good thing.
I wonder whether my Gould League badge will now appear. That would be very cool.
ETA: Debating awards are still a private school thing. I took a look at the current list: http://www.debating.netspace.net.au/schools/swannies.php This is a disappointment.
gillpolack @ 2013-08-16T21:52:00
My box of maps finally, finally holds all the maps it needs to. There are no maps spilling out over my library floor. There are a few missing maps, but there's space for them.
Why is my map box so important? I use it to teach worldbuilding. I use it to teach the history of places. I use it to teach the history of nations. I use it to plan my own fiction and to dream about new worlds. If I'm going to invent a place, I need to give it the depth of a real place, and comparing the attributes of a dozen towns in similar geographical positions helps me to make the decisions I need to do this.
I need more maps, but not right now. I have just enough to be going on with.
Why is my map box so important? I use it to teach worldbuilding. I use it to teach the history of places. I use it to teach the history of nations. I use it to plan my own fiction and to dream about new worlds. If I'm going to invent a place, I need to give it the depth of a real place, and comparing the attributes of a dozen towns in similar geographical positions helps me to make the decisions I need to do this.
I need more maps, but not right now. I have just enough to be going on with.
August 14, 2013
I am a tortoise
Late last night I started thinking about learning styles and how I measure them in different classes. This meant that my dreams were more than usually colourful, but they still didn't match the night before, when I came up with a teaching plan and told myself so many times that I had to remember it when I woke up, for it was so very good and I could use it during yesterday's class. Well, my reminder worked, but I didn't teach using it. This was because the plan was inside out and almost entirely useless. Not one of those occasions where dreaming brings forth hidden truths.
Today's waking thought was about my own learning style. It is, in fact, my life-experiencing style and it tangles many people about how much I'm learning and how bright I am and even (if I'm being honest) whether I'm considered worth knowing. The assumption, far too often, is that because I look passive initially, I must be less intelligent than my CV and my life experience testify. Or I must be boring.
A lot of this comes down to my learning style. I'm one of those souls who appears slow initially. I take a longer time than usual to learn basics.
It's like the way I used to run 100 metre races, way back in my school days. I used to be a bit behind at first. Then I used to win. I didn't win because I was so very competitive: I won because I'd worked out the feel of the air and the stretch of my muscles and the nature of the track underfoot and added the sense of joy when it all comes together. Every time I felt that sense of joy, I got a blue ribbon. But I always, always came from behind. I won because in that first second when everyone else was getting a head start, I was fumbling my way, but when I found it, so many things came together that I surged forward. Of course, with training, I would have fumbled less and had faster times. But one doesn't train overweight geek-types, even if they're very fast.
And one doesn't train geek-types in learning skills. When we do well academically, our learning skills must be sound. I've never worked out how to not learn slowly in the beginning. This means that people who see me in a new situation or for the first time almost always underestimate me.
Sometimes this is good and sometimes this is very bad. I once missed a job because someone on an interview panel said "Her CV must be wrong" simply because of the discrepancy between my apparent skills and my interviewable skills in that one single area. I've missed any number of opportunities, in fact, because people select the bright starter rather than the person who sits back and watches. They go for the fastest start in the race, not the actual speed of the runner. I've had any number of apologies throughout my life from people who went with the bright starter and then saw me toddle along until I understood what I was doing. "I didn't realise," I'm told, time after time. "You're actually very good, you know. Don't worry - other opportunities will come up." Sometimes they do, but mostly they don't. Our society really does have a preference for assessing ability at the start line.
This has not been good for my career, but it's been very good for me as a teacher. I'd rather the lack of visibility was a personal choice for my students than a series of lost openings. One thing I've taken to factoring into my teaching are techniques that help my students learn how to learn. I also teach them how to be seen learning, because that helps, too.
I have dreams about teaching because I feel very strongly that good teaching can help people change their own lives. And now I'm moving from polemic to uber-polemic, so I might go and do a bit of work instead.
Tonight I've put in an order for silly dreams.
Today's waking thought was about my own learning style. It is, in fact, my life-experiencing style and it tangles many people about how much I'm learning and how bright I am and even (if I'm being honest) whether I'm considered worth knowing. The assumption, far too often, is that because I look passive initially, I must be less intelligent than my CV and my life experience testify. Or I must be boring.
A lot of this comes down to my learning style. I'm one of those souls who appears slow initially. I take a longer time than usual to learn basics.
It's like the way I used to run 100 metre races, way back in my school days. I used to be a bit behind at first. Then I used to win. I didn't win because I was so very competitive: I won because I'd worked out the feel of the air and the stretch of my muscles and the nature of the track underfoot and added the sense of joy when it all comes together. Every time I felt that sense of joy, I got a blue ribbon. But I always, always came from behind. I won because in that first second when everyone else was getting a head start, I was fumbling my way, but when I found it, so many things came together that I surged forward. Of course, with training, I would have fumbled less and had faster times. But one doesn't train overweight geek-types, even if they're very fast.
And one doesn't train geek-types in learning skills. When we do well academically, our learning skills must be sound. I've never worked out how to not learn slowly in the beginning. This means that people who see me in a new situation or for the first time almost always underestimate me.
Sometimes this is good and sometimes this is very bad. I once missed a job because someone on an interview panel said "Her CV must be wrong" simply because of the discrepancy between my apparent skills and my interviewable skills in that one single area. I've missed any number of opportunities, in fact, because people select the bright starter rather than the person who sits back and watches. They go for the fastest start in the race, not the actual speed of the runner. I've had any number of apologies throughout my life from people who went with the bright starter and then saw me toddle along until I understood what I was doing. "I didn't realise," I'm told, time after time. "You're actually very good, you know. Don't worry - other opportunities will come up." Sometimes they do, but mostly they don't. Our society really does have a preference for assessing ability at the start line.
This has not been good for my career, but it's been very good for me as a teacher. I'd rather the lack of visibility was a personal choice for my students than a series of lost openings. One thing I've taken to factoring into my teaching are techniques that help my students learn how to learn. I also teach them how to be seen learning, because that helps, too.
I have dreams about teaching because I feel very strongly that good teaching can help people change their own lives. And now I'm moving from polemic to uber-polemic, so I might go and do a bit of work instead.
Tonight I've put in an order for silly dreams.
gillpolack @ 2013-08-14T18:29:00
This morning was all about reading aloud. I'm trying to convince my students that bad habits need to be got rid of. Most of the habits changed the instant they were pointed out (as was ideal) but there are a couple lingering. We shall work more on reading to audiences next week, when we shall talk about golden threads in prose and also we shall venture into the strange territory of voice production. We didn't do the voice production today, for I was under the weather. Literally. It will pass by tomorrow, but until then I regard myself as having a license to whinge.
Alas, that a license to whinge doesn't come with a license not to work. I missed some of my deadline-stuff this afternoon, because of being under the weather. I'm not allowed to go to bed until it's all caught up on, so I ought to get started.
Alas, that a license to whinge doesn't come with a license not to work. I missed some of my deadline-stuff this afternoon, because of being under the weather. I'm not allowed to go to bed until it's all caught up on, so I ought to get started.
August 12, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-08-13T14:39:00
My storeroom now contains 2500 books. Fortunately, the friend who helped me get the rest of the boxes there (he did most of it, I just helped around the edges) is an engineer. Engineers are handy, for they know ways of stacking boxes... This means that there's every chance that I can fit 5000 books in the storeroom, which would solve so many problems. I'm going to have to be very clear about my work plans, but I have to be anyway, since this is crunch time from several directions.
What's really handy is that my next eight boxes (for Griff brought me boxes when he came to help me move boxes) are wine boxes and smallish, so I can put them in the storeroom all by myself. Hopefully they can be filled and stored by late tomorrow.
In the meantime, I really ought to do some work.
What's really handy is that my next eight boxes (for Griff brought me boxes when he came to help me move boxes) are wine boxes and smallish, so I can put them in the storeroom all by myself. Hopefully they can be filled and stored by late tomorrow.
In the meantime, I really ought to do some work.
August 11, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-08-12T16:53:00
My big achievement today was to go for a walk. I've done more essential stuff, but it was all essential and just a bit dull, and walking in the rain is a nice thing, especially when the day is not that cold. It was twelve degrees and I rugged up a bit, but I came home much happier than I left.
I think the moral of this story is that I come from Melbourne, where cool rain is always a possibility. The constant sunshine of Canberra is lovely, but walking in the rain (when it's light rain, and not too cold) is something that makes me happy. I've lived in Canberra longer than I lived in Melbourne, but it appears that childhood counts and that a damp climate is soothing to my spirit.
All I did was go to the library to return some things and get more things out. A mere mile and a half. And I had to change half my clothing afterwards, for the raincoat only protected the top half of me. And I needed a warm drink. And it was worth it, every second.
I think the moral of this story is that I come from Melbourne, where cool rain is always a possibility. The constant sunshine of Canberra is lovely, but walking in the rain (when it's light rain, and not too cold) is something that makes me happy. I've lived in Canberra longer than I lived in Melbourne, but it appears that childhood counts and that a damp climate is soothing to my spirit.
All I did was go to the library to return some things and get more things out. A mere mile and a half. And I had to change half my clothing afterwards, for the raincoat only protected the top half of me. And I needed a warm drink. And it was worth it, every second.
August 10, 2013
A rant on creating victims (and on why history is handy)
My morning began with reading a book review of a volume that points to links between the structure of witchcraft accusations/trials and to that of ritual murder/blood libel accusations/trials in the 17th century. For a long time I've wanted a map that shows the pattern of accusation across Europe and North Africa and it seems that finally scholarship is seeing the link. One day I might have my map.
The reason I want a map is quite modern. When I teach these matters, people say "It doesn't happen today." And yet I hear many of my friends (different outsiders, some of them 'pass' and some are entirely in hiding, and some declare who they are in public) and I know very well how much it happens. It seems to me that we may well use the same mechanisms for isolating those we consider outsiders as historians use. The trick has always been to find links between how different groups were treated in the past. Most scholars aren't interested in such links. Experts in the history of witchcraft are seldom experts in antisemitism (let me stick to these examples - there are so many other instances that one could use, but these are the ones in the book review) and they're only now looking at the structure of accusations and comparing structure.
We live in a time of uncertainty. Even when there is no reason to fear, we look for shibboleths in order to define insiderdom and outsiderdom and we define them vigorously. Those considered to be outsiders are likely to get hurt. The question we ask most frequently is how did we manage to do this thing. How did we push a woman to suicide? How did we push refugees to riot? How did we hurt those among ourselves who we define as 'other'?
The answer is in the history of hurt. The "how" is part of our culture.
When we're scared, we follow certain paths, and it was those paths that the review of Birnbaum's new book mentioned. The mention was only brief, but it's important. If we can see the patterns in how people damage other people, then we can explore the links and we can understand. The fear is not fear of Jews, of witches, of anyone, really*. It's a fear of the unknown or the different in a time when people are worried about their present and their future.
If we can understand the cultural dynamics behind the fears and how they manifest, we can reduce the amount people hurt people.
This is one of the many reasons I study history. History not just a subject one learns at school. It's a set of tools that help explain the apparently impossible. There is no logical reason why good people turn into tormenting maggots. Yet they do. Raphael Levy was tortured and died from 1669-1670 because they do.
I need to understand where this comes from. It makes much more sense that most of the hatreds are part of a cultural complex, where people can find the fear that fits their background and enact a ritual that appeases it. I don't think appeasement makes anyone feel safer. If it did, there wouldn't have been such a wave of antisemitism in Poland after the Shoah. I think that turning to appeasement reinforces the feeling that it's all someone's fault, even for people who know with their logical brains that it's not.
I think the best way to dismantle this very ugly part of the culture of many countries is to take it step by step and discover the underlying structure. How and where does it manifest? What informs the manifestation? What kind of people get involved and what are their reasons?
It's not all about one group of outsiders. It's about how communities under stress handle those who they consider to be outsiders. If handing out chocolate** would appease the distress then that's obviously going to be far better than burning people alive or killing them for impossible crimes or driving them to suicide.
Without the deep studies of the effect*** and then analysis of how and where and why they affect culture and personal choice, we're in danger of shifting our hate rather than handling it. It's like giving a sulky child a sweet to stop them crying. All the sweet does is rot their teeth and convince them that if they cry again, they might get more sweets.
The other thing that undertaking deep studies across different hatreds across time does is give us a way of evaluating our own hate.
It's terribly easy to point out "I'm fine, I don't hate witches." But what if the object of our fear has translated to someone else****? If it's possible to tick a little checklist - do I actually know anyone from this group? where does my information come from? why don't I think they'll hurt if I hit them? Am I worried about the current government?***** - then it's possible to discover if one's own fears are producing problems for others. Tackling those fears is a much better way of tackling social bullying than apologising for murder after the event. We're all very pleased that the descendants of the Christians in the Levy case are feeling sorry - but we need to produce a society that doesn't create this garbage in the first place.
Also, we all need to act as adults, and take responsibility for our own fears. We need to handle our own issues. We need to stop transferring them to innocents and making innocents suffer. In some cases individuals are at fault****** but in many cases it's cultural and social and political and it can be made to unravel. It's perfectly possibly to change a victimising culture: the tools are right in front of us.
*Except in very specific instances, which don't fit the general pattern.
**Wish fulfilment here, obviously.
***Starting with a map of the regions where different types of accusations happen - Birnbaum apparently points out that the blood libel accusation began when the witchcraft accusations tapered off in a region of great political instability.
****In the Levy case, for instance, it was a transfer to Jews of what had previously been hatred of witches.
*****These are not useful questions. I think the studies need to be done to produce an understanding of the underlying framework of hatred and victimisation in our cultures and from there we can develop the questions that need answering.
******These people are not people I want to know. I encounter them from time to time and we come to a mutual understanding that we don't want to know each other, in fact.
The reason I want a map is quite modern. When I teach these matters, people say "It doesn't happen today." And yet I hear many of my friends (different outsiders, some of them 'pass' and some are entirely in hiding, and some declare who they are in public) and I know very well how much it happens. It seems to me that we may well use the same mechanisms for isolating those we consider outsiders as historians use. The trick has always been to find links between how different groups were treated in the past. Most scholars aren't interested in such links. Experts in the history of witchcraft are seldom experts in antisemitism (let me stick to these examples - there are so many other instances that one could use, but these are the ones in the book review) and they're only now looking at the structure of accusations and comparing structure.
We live in a time of uncertainty. Even when there is no reason to fear, we look for shibboleths in order to define insiderdom and outsiderdom and we define them vigorously. Those considered to be outsiders are likely to get hurt. The question we ask most frequently is how did we manage to do this thing. How did we push a woman to suicide? How did we push refugees to riot? How did we hurt those among ourselves who we define as 'other'?
The answer is in the history of hurt. The "how" is part of our culture.
When we're scared, we follow certain paths, and it was those paths that the review of Birnbaum's new book mentioned. The mention was only brief, but it's important. If we can see the patterns in how people damage other people, then we can explore the links and we can understand. The fear is not fear of Jews, of witches, of anyone, really*. It's a fear of the unknown or the different in a time when people are worried about their present and their future.
If we can understand the cultural dynamics behind the fears and how they manifest, we can reduce the amount people hurt people.
This is one of the many reasons I study history. History not just a subject one learns at school. It's a set of tools that help explain the apparently impossible. There is no logical reason why good people turn into tormenting maggots. Yet they do. Raphael Levy was tortured and died from 1669-1670 because they do.
I need to understand where this comes from. It makes much more sense that most of the hatreds are part of a cultural complex, where people can find the fear that fits their background and enact a ritual that appeases it. I don't think appeasement makes anyone feel safer. If it did, there wouldn't have been such a wave of antisemitism in Poland after the Shoah. I think that turning to appeasement reinforces the feeling that it's all someone's fault, even for people who know with their logical brains that it's not.
I think the best way to dismantle this very ugly part of the culture of many countries is to take it step by step and discover the underlying structure. How and where does it manifest? What informs the manifestation? What kind of people get involved and what are their reasons?
It's not all about one group of outsiders. It's about how communities under stress handle those who they consider to be outsiders. If handing out chocolate** would appease the distress then that's obviously going to be far better than burning people alive or killing them for impossible crimes or driving them to suicide.
Without the deep studies of the effect*** and then analysis of how and where and why they affect culture and personal choice, we're in danger of shifting our hate rather than handling it. It's like giving a sulky child a sweet to stop them crying. All the sweet does is rot their teeth and convince them that if they cry again, they might get more sweets.
The other thing that undertaking deep studies across different hatreds across time does is give us a way of evaluating our own hate.
It's terribly easy to point out "I'm fine, I don't hate witches." But what if the object of our fear has translated to someone else****? If it's possible to tick a little checklist - do I actually know anyone from this group? where does my information come from? why don't I think they'll hurt if I hit them? Am I worried about the current government?***** - then it's possible to discover if one's own fears are producing problems for others. Tackling those fears is a much better way of tackling social bullying than apologising for murder after the event. We're all very pleased that the descendants of the Christians in the Levy case are feeling sorry - but we need to produce a society that doesn't create this garbage in the first place.
Also, we all need to act as adults, and take responsibility for our own fears. We need to handle our own issues. We need to stop transferring them to innocents and making innocents suffer. In some cases individuals are at fault****** but in many cases it's cultural and social and political and it can be made to unravel. It's perfectly possibly to change a victimising culture: the tools are right in front of us.
*Except in very specific instances, which don't fit the general pattern.
**Wish fulfilment here, obviously.
***Starting with a map of the regions where different types of accusations happen - Birnbaum apparently points out that the blood libel accusation began when the witchcraft accusations tapered off in a region of great political instability.
****In the Levy case, for instance, it was a transfer to Jews of what had previously been hatred of witches.
*****These are not useful questions. I think the studies need to be done to produce an understanding of the underlying framework of hatred and victimisation in our cultures and from there we can develop the questions that need answering.
******These people are not people I want to know. I encounter them from time to time and we come to a mutual understanding that we don't want to know each other, in fact.
gillpolack @ 2013-08-11T00:02:00
I found some old notes from a meeting. I noted the oddest things: applause for a cake (celebrating someone finishing a PhD - why does no-one make me cakes for such things?), a really good introduction to UN compliance and jurisdiction as regards CEDAW, and, (why I'm writing this post) the sources of shame when a woman chooses to have an abortion, and how shaming operates in Australia.
I settled in and took real notes about this. I wrote down "What is normative needs to be compared with what is perceived as the reality." The speaker at this meeting was discussing the difference between shame and guilt in abortion choices and how this fits with one's value as a social being. I noted, interestingly, that discourse on gender can be silenced when issues of shame and guilt are involved, which elevates the potential for stereotyping women who undergo the procedure. They are are stylised and theoretical ie the woman loses their individuality in public life on these issues.
And, just when it got interesting, when I wrote the heading "Shame vs shaming" the page ends.
I can guess what meeting it was and when (the Ministerial Advisory Council on Women, at least a decade ago) for one of the things we were trying to do there was turn the theory into something that worked for women in the ACT, but I may well be wrong. I went to a lot of meetings and took many notes and almost all of them are gone. (ETA: In fact, I think this was a page from something last year, for all my older notes have been archived!)
Still, those issues are ones I use in my fiction. Cellophane is partly about turning away from the stereotypes people lay on one, for instance.
These issues, in fact, lie at the heart of much fiction. The difference between shame and shaming is demonstrable and powerful, and a character's value as a social being lies at the heart of so many good stories.
I didn't realise how much of the understanding of society I simply pick up and use came from all that work over a twenty year period. We were trying to resolve problems then and I'm trying to write narratives that communicate them and individual choices concerning them now. And what I find rather amusing is (largely because I seldom do the Feminism #101 thing, or get into arguments in public) most people seem to accept the storytelling and the basis behind it. I've talked to people who claim to be very anti-feminist, but who care for what I say. This is a very mixed bag. I don't get much criticism, but neither do I get much credit. At least this means I've avoided ratbags, thus far.
That one tiny page of notes has now been recycled, but it's given me a lot to think about.
I settled in and took real notes about this. I wrote down "What is normative needs to be compared with what is perceived as the reality." The speaker at this meeting was discussing the difference between shame and guilt in abortion choices and how this fits with one's value as a social being. I noted, interestingly, that discourse on gender can be silenced when issues of shame and guilt are involved, which elevates the potential for stereotyping women who undergo the procedure. They are are stylised and theoretical ie the woman loses their individuality in public life on these issues.
And, just when it got interesting, when I wrote the heading "Shame vs shaming" the page ends.
I can guess what meeting it was and when (the Ministerial Advisory Council on Women, at least a decade ago) for one of the things we were trying to do there was turn the theory into something that worked for women in the ACT, but I may well be wrong. I went to a lot of meetings and took many notes and almost all of them are gone. (ETA: In fact, I think this was a page from something last year, for all my older notes have been archived!)
Still, those issues are ones I use in my fiction. Cellophane is partly about turning away from the stereotypes people lay on one, for instance.
These issues, in fact, lie at the heart of much fiction. The difference between shame and shaming is demonstrable and powerful, and a character's value as a social being lies at the heart of so many good stories.
I didn't realise how much of the understanding of society I simply pick up and use came from all that work over a twenty year period. We were trying to resolve problems then and I'm trying to write narratives that communicate them and individual choices concerning them now. And what I find rather amusing is (largely because I seldom do the Feminism #101 thing, or get into arguments in public) most people seem to accept the storytelling and the basis behind it. I've talked to people who claim to be very anti-feminist, but who care for what I say. This is a very mixed bag. I don't get much criticism, but neither do I get much credit. At least this means I've avoided ratbags, thus far.
That one tiny page of notes has now been recycled, but it's given me a lot to think about.
August 9, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-08-10T09:05:00
My watchphrase for the weekend is "Festina lente." I didn't get much work done last night, for I was simply too tired. I have an appraisal to do right now, and everything else will happen at a gentle pace. It's sensible.
I don't like being sensible sometimes. Right now I want to simply throw away the paper that has taken over my coffee table and couch and I want to get moving on the fun projects. The fun projects have to wait until I can discuss the amazing amounts of paper with the other person involved, for otherwise we will reach a bad place at an evil moment. The fun projects also have to wait until I run out (temporarily) of these niggling little deadlines that have frustrated my focus all week. That was my aim yesterday, but I'm not quite there.
And, in the meantime, I've discovered Rachel Klein's The Moth Diaries. I need more books this good in my life. I don't need more books like this: one is sufficient, for it's uncheerful. Unless the writer jumps the shark in the second half, it's an amazing novel. I'm reading it very, very slowly to make it last. Also because I've seen too much shark-jumping recently, and I'm a bit nervous.
And now, in the interests of slow hurrying, I shall complete a manuscript assessment.
I don't like being sensible sometimes. Right now I want to simply throw away the paper that has taken over my coffee table and couch and I want to get moving on the fun projects. The fun projects have to wait until I can discuss the amazing amounts of paper with the other person involved, for otherwise we will reach a bad place at an evil moment. The fun projects also have to wait until I run out (temporarily) of these niggling little deadlines that have frustrated my focus all week. That was my aim yesterday, but I'm not quite there.
And, in the meantime, I've discovered Rachel Klein's The Moth Diaries. I need more books this good in my life. I don't need more books like this: one is sufficient, for it's uncheerful. Unless the writer jumps the shark in the second half, it's an amazing novel. I'm reading it very, very slowly to make it last. Also because I've seen too much shark-jumping recently, and I'm a bit nervous.
And now, in the interests of slow hurrying, I shall complete a manuscript assessment.
gillpolack @ 2013-08-09T20:26:00
I was cold outside, but I bravely completed all my messages. I owe no money. All my income-by-cheque has been banked (honestly, why am I still paid by cheque, especially then the payment comes from the US?) and I have the right pieces of paper for tax to account for the US cheque. I have been to the chemist, the library, the post office and the supermarket.
I have earned an evening off, which I will not get. An hour off, maybe. I have four list-items that have to be done today, orthe world comes to a crashing end I can't watch DVDs with Conor tomorrow because deadlines will hit.
And in other news...I have news! I have, in fact a podcast interview where I live in fear of what I said. It's always a worry when the interviewer enjoys the interview. You can find it on the Galactic Chat website and judge for yourself. Admire my pristine Australian accent. Admire my skilled use of the word 'um.' Admire Mr Wright's uber-cool interviewing skills.
I have earned an evening off, which I will not get. An hour off, maybe. I have four list-items that have to be done today, or
And in other news...I have news! I have, in fact a podcast interview where I live in fear of what I said. It's always a worry when the interviewer enjoys the interview. You can find it on the Galactic Chat website and judge for yourself. Admire my pristine Australian accent. Admire my skilled use of the word 'um.' Admire Mr Wright's uber-cool interviewing skills.
