Gillian Polack's Blog, page 111
June 19, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-06-20T15:08:00
My work is all ordered and I have my last class tonight on Medieval Places (wearing the blue leggings, as requested by my students) but I am procrastinating. All the work is good work (except for job applications, which are simply necessary) and I'm still procrastinating. This may be because I really want to write fiction now, and I can't until the massive stack of stuff needs to be done by next Wednesday at 9 am. My brain requires fiction and my life doesn't allow of it. And I can't take refuge in sorting papers or diminishing my possessions until I get 5 big bags and two boxes of paper into the recycling, for I can't actually move around my loungeroom until they're out. Of course, they're one of the things I'm procrastinating about. The recycling container (the nearby one) is 75 steps away and it's cold outside and I have the remnants of yesterday's headache... but really, it's just procrastination. I've too many things to do and am spoiled for choice, and none of them is the fiction I actually want to do.
I shall start my class prep, I think. That will diminish several things at once, for it's step one to freeing up the backpack I use for Medieval Places so that I can pack clothes for camp. Not that I need to do that yet, but I'll need it sometime.
I shall, in fact, spend a half hour doing small things and then see if I'm still daunted by the number of tasks. And I can finish the first of the eleven to-read books on the bus on the way to work.
In fact, what I shall do is see just how many small things I can finish before class. That way, when I return from class, the place is clear for bigger things. Also, I will have earned my chicken soup. It's smelling gorgeous and looking golden. I just have to make the dumplings, which is one of the small things I can do before class.
My aim, I think, is to finish 20 small tasks before I return from teaching (teaching counts as one, and so does The Loblolly Boy, which is my review book for the bus). Ambition is my new middle name!
I shall start my class prep, I think. That will diminish several things at once, for it's step one to freeing up the backpack I use for Medieval Places so that I can pack clothes for camp. Not that I need to do that yet, but I'll need it sometime.
I shall, in fact, spend a half hour doing small things and then see if I'm still daunted by the number of tasks. And I can finish the first of the eleven to-read books on the bus on the way to work.
In fact, what I shall do is see just how many small things I can finish before class. That way, when I return from class, the place is clear for bigger things. Also, I will have earned my chicken soup. It's smelling gorgeous and looking golden. I just have to make the dumplings, which is one of the small things I can do before class.
My aim, I think, is to finish 20 small tasks before I return from teaching (teaching counts as one, and so does The Loblolly Boy, which is my review book for the bus). Ambition is my new middle name!
gillpolack @ 2013-06-19T22:04:00
I have been persuaded that all my friends need to know an important morsel of information.
As part of a review of what my wonderful Wednesday students wanted from a teacher (an informal thing, for I thought it would be handy, given we've got a few new students and I have life changes and we've been together seven years) all my students discussed their needs ie what they wanted from their writing teacher.
Last week we talked about the specific subjects. That wasn't so useful, because they wanted everything. Science and geology and history and grammar and word knowledge and different forms of poetry and other key aspects of creative writing. That's why they had to do some thinking about it and research on it for homework, and we revisited the question this week. Though last week one student summarised it as "All the things we're learning now, really," which was reassuring.
Anyhow, most of the list of top level stuff my students want from their teacher is less to do with subject matter and more to do with teaching skill and understanding of student needs, which was really cool. They came out with a dream list for teacher instruction.
There was, however, one item at the top of the list. It stood out. It was a little...different.
"Quintessence." I asked what they meant by that and the dictionary was quoted at me. Two of my students would have given me a full etymology, if I hadn't stopped them to ask, "But what do you mean by quintessence?"
It turns out that there is a simple, popular definition of 'quintessence.' Evil Gillian. Evil Gillian is the quintessential aspect of teaching. Bad jokes and all.
Blame Sharyn for this anecdote, which I was going to keep to myself. My students already have their just reward for admiring Evil Gillian, for she gave them extra homework this week.
As part of a review of what my wonderful Wednesday students wanted from a teacher (an informal thing, for I thought it would be handy, given we've got a few new students and I have life changes and we've been together seven years) all my students discussed their needs ie what they wanted from their writing teacher.
Last week we talked about the specific subjects. That wasn't so useful, because they wanted everything. Science and geology and history and grammar and word knowledge and different forms of poetry and other key aspects of creative writing. That's why they had to do some thinking about it and research on it for homework, and we revisited the question this week. Though last week one student summarised it as "All the things we're learning now, really," which was reassuring.
Anyhow, most of the list of top level stuff my students want from their teacher is less to do with subject matter and more to do with teaching skill and understanding of student needs, which was really cool. They came out with a dream list for teacher instruction.
There was, however, one item at the top of the list. It stood out. It was a little...different.
"Quintessence." I asked what they meant by that and the dictionary was quoted at me. Two of my students would have given me a full etymology, if I hadn't stopped them to ask, "But what do you mean by quintessence?"
It turns out that there is a simple, popular definition of 'quintessence.' Evil Gillian. Evil Gillian is the quintessential aspect of teaching. Bad jokes and all.
Blame Sharyn for this anecdote, which I was going to keep to myself. My students already have their just reward for admiring Evil Gillian, for she gave them extra homework this week.
June 18, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-06-19T15:10:00
I promised Sophie Masson my family chicken soup recipe, with photos. This is a very good season for such a promise. I will be drinking soup all weekend and will keep the cold at bay.
I picked up the ingredients on the way home. There was some improvisation, for it's almost impossible to get a decent boiling chook in Canberra these days. All the other ingredients are in season, and most of them were on sale (someone knew my plans!). I shall have soup after class tomorrow and for lunch on Friday and for many meals thereafter. And I shall steam rice in it and add coriander and other yummy things.
I suppose this means I need to actually start cooking...
I picked up the ingredients on the way home. There was some improvisation, for it's almost impossible to get a decent boiling chook in Canberra these days. All the other ingredients are in season, and most of them were on sale (someone knew my plans!). I shall have soup after class tomorrow and for lunch on Friday and for many meals thereafter. And I shall steam rice in it and add coriander and other yummy things.
I suppose this means I need to actually start cooking...
June 17, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-06-18T14:32:00
I dealt with my temper by almost finishing my sorting of papers. Things are a mess as a result, for I have 2 big boxes and a bag of paper to go in the recycling and I cannot lift it. I have 6 boxes of papers to go back in the storeroom. I still have stacks of postcards to move, though the ones I'm keeping are safely away. I have a stack of books and magazines to go to either the opp shop or to Lifeline (it all depends on how I get them there). This is where not driving is not a good thing. Every time a friend drops round I say "Would you mind if we just.."
I can't do much more without more friends dropping round, I suspect. I am negotiating my flat as if it were a minefield.
When the current batch of stuff has gone and when the subsequent tidying is done, I'll know how much space I have. I rather suspect that whatever happens, I have managed to find the space to live here for a bit longer. It doesn't feel like that right now, of course. But it will.
I can't do much more without more friends dropping round, I suspect. I am negotiating my flat as if it were a minefield.
When the current batch of stuff has gone and when the subsequent tidying is done, I'll know how much space I have. I rather suspect that whatever happens, I have managed to find the space to live here for a bit longer. It doesn't feel like that right now, of course. But it will.
I think I might have lost my temper
I made the mistake of watching the news.
The 'gender debate' appears to be primarily about loads of media people saying that it's entirely fine for offensive things to be said about women and to women and that Gillard is to be judged severely for being a woman rather than for anything she's done or not done in office. The ABC is the latest to be struck off my list of organisations acting decently. Tonight they were saying that her being female is sufficient reason for a leadership change.
I've heard it all before. Normally it's about being Jewish rather than being female. An extended narrative has been invented that bears no relation to the truth. It's one that only does harm.
Extending the same views just a bit further from where they are now, the media is intimating that Australia really wants all women to disappear. Or maybe it's after an inoffensive type of hatred where all women just go quiet and pretend we don't exist? That's what good Jews do, after all, so it really ought to be what good women do.
Every day there is another story in the media that reinforces this narrative.
I'm ashamed to be Australian at this moment in time. Political campaigns run this way and along these lines don't have any redeeming features. Journalists who support the narrative that undermines us and our society are unredeemed ratbags.
I am neither a good Jew nor a good woman, obviously, and any media that plays in this foul game loses my respect.
The 'gender debate' appears to be primarily about loads of media people saying that it's entirely fine for offensive things to be said about women and to women and that Gillard is to be judged severely for being a woman rather than for anything she's done or not done in office. The ABC is the latest to be struck off my list of organisations acting decently. Tonight they were saying that her being female is sufficient reason for a leadership change.
I've heard it all before. Normally it's about being Jewish rather than being female. An extended narrative has been invented that bears no relation to the truth. It's one that only does harm.
Extending the same views just a bit further from where they are now, the media is intimating that Australia really wants all women to disappear. Or maybe it's after an inoffensive type of hatred where all women just go quiet and pretend we don't exist? That's what good Jews do, after all, so it really ought to be what good women do.
Every day there is another story in the media that reinforces this narrative.
I'm ashamed to be Australian at this moment in time. Political campaigns run this way and along these lines don't have any redeeming features. Journalists who support the narrative that undermines us and our society are unredeemed ratbags.
I am neither a good Jew nor a good woman, obviously, and any media that plays in this foul game loses my respect.
June 16, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-06-17T10:44:00
ETA: I went outside to check and talked to the tradies. The noise isn't the problem - the chemicals are. They're gluing a new carpet on. Someone forgot to send notices around. As I explained to them, if I had known that the door had to be open all day and that the fumes were so very bad, I would have arranged to be out. My two days of quiet work at home are now not even quite safe (I was smelling the beginning of the chemicals before). The guys were really nice and promised to be as quick as they could, but it will still take a day and a bit. It'll take til the end of the week before the chemicals to fade. And yes, I'm sensitive to these things - this is a physical reaction we're talking about, and one that could get quite nasty. No wonder I am grumpy!
gillpolack @ 2013-06-17T10:37:00
This is so very obviously Monday morning. Tradies have loud radios outside. I'm assuming they're doing Crucial Tradie Things, but the loud radios are an annoyance, as are open front doors when it's six degrees. I can't run all my messages until this afternoon, so I'm working to a very noisy background and this makes me grumpy.
I can't do my messages yet because they keep expanding. I need a final list, so that I don't have to re-do them tomorrow.
Another thing that makes me grumpy is people who are pleased as punch about things that I don't find pleasing. I woke up to an email from an editor. I don't know if I was actually supposed to marvel at being the last writer to be paid for something (I didn't get emails and the editors didn't chase it up) but it really sounded as if I ought to be pleased that they were considering paying me. This is the third time in a month that someone feels I ought to say nice things in order to get money due, and it makes me tired. This is mainly because it's Monday. And at least it's better than the author discount I was offered on a (quite different) volume where the postage made the total more than the retail price.
It's not that anything is terribly bad. It's that I'm under a lot of pressure and so small things niggle. And, of course, it's Monday, the front door is open, and there's a madly awful smell of chemicals from whatever-it-is the tradie is doing.
There are some days when it really isn't good to be working from home. I shall find something that needs doing urgently and do it while my coffee is brewing, and I shall hope that my messages stop piling up soon so that I can get away from the chemicals and the noise. If this can't happen, please watch this space, for I predict more complaints!
I can't do my messages yet because they keep expanding. I need a final list, so that I don't have to re-do them tomorrow.
Another thing that makes me grumpy is people who are pleased as punch about things that I don't find pleasing. I woke up to an email from an editor. I don't know if I was actually supposed to marvel at being the last writer to be paid for something (I didn't get emails and the editors didn't chase it up) but it really sounded as if I ought to be pleased that they were considering paying me. This is the third time in a month that someone feels I ought to say nice things in order to get money due, and it makes me tired. This is mainly because it's Monday. And at least it's better than the author discount I was offered on a (quite different) volume where the postage made the total more than the retail price.
It's not that anything is terribly bad. It's that I'm under a lot of pressure and so small things niggle. And, of course, it's Monday, the front door is open, and there's a madly awful smell of chemicals from whatever-it-is the tradie is doing.
There are some days when it really isn't good to be working from home. I shall find something that needs doing urgently and do it while my coffee is brewing, and I shall hope that my messages stop piling up soon so that I can get away from the chemicals and the noise. If this can't happen, please watch this space, for I predict more complaints!
gillpolack @ 2013-06-16T21:51:00
I've given up on catching-up on email today. It's just too cold. I've caught up on 2/3 of my email, though. Or 3/4. Some useful proportion. I've got about 6o to go. Sufficient unto tomorrow is the email thereof. Also the job applications.
Since I've given up on email, that leaves me only two things to cross of my list. Alas for my laziness, these are not small things. They can be done, but I had better actually start them rather than thinking "It's cold outside." I am getting much use out of my felt shoes. They don't make the cold tolerable, but they do mean I can work.
What would make the cold tolerable would be things that ought to happen actually beginning to happen. Schroedinger's Gillian is getting a bit tired of being the Great Unknown and of living as part of the Great Unknowing. She's going to cheer herself up by finding the most depressing review book on her new pile and wallowing in it. That'll finish one of the two books to be finished today. The second should be more cheerful, since it's about managed landscapes.
Since I've given up on email, that leaves me only two things to cross of my list. Alas for my laziness, these are not small things. They can be done, but I had better actually start them rather than thinking "It's cold outside." I am getting much use out of my felt shoes. They don't make the cold tolerable, but they do mean I can work.
What would make the cold tolerable would be things that ought to happen actually beginning to happen. Schroedinger's Gillian is getting a bit tired of being the Great Unknown and of living as part of the Great Unknowing. She's going to cheer herself up by finding the most depressing review book on her new pile and wallowing in it. That'll finish one of the two books to be finished today. The second should be more cheerful, since it's about managed landscapes.
June 15, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-06-16T12:49:00
My Grand Aims for today are:
1. To catch up on email. This is the hard one.
2. To finish Game of Thrones Season 2. I need GoT for work and Satima kindly gave me season 2, so I won't be so tangled in my analysis after today.
3. To send an urgent letter. The cover sheet for something. Four copies.
4. To do some more of my basic housework.
5. To ring my mother.
6. To sort more papers.
7. To finish two books.
8. To eat chocolate.
9. To write something. I have a choice between six different somethings, so I'm spoiled for choice.
10. To sort out the aftereffects of yesterday's migraine.
Sunday as usual, in other words.
1. To catch up on email. This is the hard one.
2. To finish Game of Thrones Season 2. I need GoT for work and Satima kindly gave me season 2, so I won't be so tangled in my analysis after today.
3. To send an urgent letter. The cover sheet for something. Four copies.
4. To do some more of my basic housework.
5. To ring my mother.
6. To sort more papers.
7. To finish two books.
8. To eat chocolate.
9. To write something. I have a choice between six different somethings, so I'm spoiled for choice.
10. To sort out the aftereffects of yesterday's migraine.
Sunday as usual, in other words.
June 13, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-06-14T13:23:00
Today is the day it all catches up with me. I have a few messages to do outside the home, but I've decided that discretion is the better part of valour and most can wait until tomorrow (a letter won't reach anyone faster by being posted tomorrow) and the one that needs regular office hours can wait til Monday. Discretion is essential for somewhere this week I managed to obtain a mild virus.
My work for this afternoon then is reading a draft of a chapter rather closely, finishing a book, making more progress with those papers and writing a job application. If I can do more, that would be very good indeed, but that's the minimum without which I may not proceed to this evening's work.
All this winter's going to be like this, where I need to be strict and thorough. If I'm not, then what happens is that the boring work rises to the top and I never get to do the fun stuff.
Talking about fun stuff, my next set of courses has been advertised. It actually starts as early as late July, for I've scheduled things a bit differently this year. I knew that I wasn't going to get writing time for a bit, so I've very cleverly put all my teaching on early, so that I get more time to write late in the year (since my Wednesday teaching follows school holidays, which are shorter than uni ones and at different times, so I end up with not much time out from teaching at all, on a good teaching year). At this moment that doesn't look clever, for I hadn't factored on so very much of my teaching going ahead. I need the income, so I'm not really complaining, just noting that it's just as well my health can now deal with normal numbers of teaching hours, for that's what I'm doing. I also hadn't factored in only getting the one week with no teaching in between, next holidays and no break at all, last holidays. If I'm lucky again with enrolments, I will have taught ten months solidly, with just a single student-free week.
This is why, when I get a no-class day and I'm in need of quiet, I'm doing what I'm doing today. Messages can wait- energy needs recuperating. I adore teaching, but I'm not actually an extravert: I need some quiet time to recover myself.
In my wisdom, I decided I ought to teach all-new courses the second half year, too. I'm teaching a bit of editing for writers (for I feel very strongly about writers needing to have the capacity to analyse themselves and to edit and to learn, rather than to sit in triumph after a first draft and believe their work done), and two Medieval courses (one unashamedly milking the current interest in Richard III and the other talking about daily life). I'll also be teaching grammar and punctuation to Sydney writers. For Canberrans and Sydneysiders, more detail is here:
Sydney
ANU:
Six approaches to editing fiction
The Three Richards
Everyday Life in the Middle Ages
I just realised. My nice quiet week in between teaching will be punctuated by a doctorate. And I need to take photos of cracks right now, before I do anything else.
This year is crazy.
My work for this afternoon then is reading a draft of a chapter rather closely, finishing a book, making more progress with those papers and writing a job application. If I can do more, that would be very good indeed, but that's the minimum without which I may not proceed to this evening's work.
All this winter's going to be like this, where I need to be strict and thorough. If I'm not, then what happens is that the boring work rises to the top and I never get to do the fun stuff.
Talking about fun stuff, my next set of courses has been advertised. It actually starts as early as late July, for I've scheduled things a bit differently this year. I knew that I wasn't going to get writing time for a bit, so I've very cleverly put all my teaching on early, so that I get more time to write late in the year (since my Wednesday teaching follows school holidays, which are shorter than uni ones and at different times, so I end up with not much time out from teaching at all, on a good teaching year). At this moment that doesn't look clever, for I hadn't factored on so very much of my teaching going ahead. I need the income, so I'm not really complaining, just noting that it's just as well my health can now deal with normal numbers of teaching hours, for that's what I'm doing. I also hadn't factored in only getting the one week with no teaching in between, next holidays and no break at all, last holidays. If I'm lucky again with enrolments, I will have taught ten months solidly, with just a single student-free week.
This is why, when I get a no-class day and I'm in need of quiet, I'm doing what I'm doing today. Messages can wait- energy needs recuperating. I adore teaching, but I'm not actually an extravert: I need some quiet time to recover myself.
In my wisdom, I decided I ought to teach all-new courses the second half year, too. I'm teaching a bit of editing for writers (for I feel very strongly about writers needing to have the capacity to analyse themselves and to edit and to learn, rather than to sit in triumph after a first draft and believe their work done), and two Medieval courses (one unashamedly milking the current interest in Richard III and the other talking about daily life). I'll also be teaching grammar and punctuation to Sydney writers. For Canberrans and Sydneysiders, more detail is here:
Sydney
ANU:
Six approaches to editing fiction
The Three Richards
Everyday Life in the Middle Ages
I just realised. My nice quiet week in between teaching will be punctuated by a doctorate. And I need to take photos of cracks right now, before I do anything else.
This year is crazy.
