Gillian Polack's Blog, page 138
November 23, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-11-24T09:33:00
The Manager of the household I'm visiting (who is generally known as Mum's Toby) tried to pull a swifty just now. He made much noise as if there was something wrong. I investigated and he led me to the laundry. "I'll tell Mum one of your food bowls is empty," I promised and he looked up at me, all ginger and sweet, and he started purring.
For an hour after that, whenever he started demanding anything, I said "I wrote Mum a note" (which I had, one does not lie to Management) and he did other things. Mum's just got off the phone and, deciphering the note, said, puzzled "But he doesn't get any soft food in the morning."
This is why Mum feeds him. He does the same to one of my sisters and would be in danger of getting quite fat if he were genetically related to us. As it is, he is middle-aged, slender and very imperious.
He seems to have forgiven Mum for this morning's incident, too. This would be when she was watering the courtyard (for plants wilt in 32 degrees without watering) and he was practising invisibility until the water hit him.
And now I must go. The Manager just reminded me I promised to look through ten boxes of rocks. We're looking mainly for my barytes, but I can keep anything I fall in love with. There is some olivine, apparently...
For an hour after that, whenever he started demanding anything, I said "I wrote Mum a note" (which I had, one does not lie to Management) and he did other things. Mum's just got off the phone and, deciphering the note, said, puzzled "But he doesn't get any soft food in the morning."
This is why Mum feeds him. He does the same to one of my sisters and would be in danger of getting quite fat if he were genetically related to us. As it is, he is middle-aged, slender and very imperious.
He seems to have forgiven Mum for this morning's incident, too. This would be when she was watering the courtyard (for plants wilt in 32 degrees without watering) and he was practising invisibility until the water hit him.
And now I must go. The Manager just reminded me I promised to look through ten boxes of rocks. We're looking mainly for my barytes, but I can keep anything I fall in love with. There is some olivine, apparently...
November 22, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-11-23T12:13:00
I have bitten the bullet and started pulling together all the collected research and my various thoughts about what I need in the NF book that was supposed to not begin until the Beast is finished. My brain is ready for it now and the quiet (non-teaching) period is coming up, so I thought I should just see what I have.
It's a lot more advanced than I thought it was, so I've copied everything to a USB thingie and it's now my portable NF for odd moments on busses and other transport, or for when I'm very early to class. It's at the perfect stage for this, for what I need to do with it now is think about each chapter and sort out what it needs to cover and make sure its internal structure is solid. I've been teaching the subjects in it all year (and, in fact, for quite a few years - and they have developed accordingly), and now is a very good time to consolidate what I've learned through working with various people on the subject matter (which is history for fiction writers, of course). When I've done that, I can integrate all the research I've already done for it. Then I shall find out how much work there really is to do.
I think I've just created a whole new means of avoiding tedium this summer.
It's a lot more advanced than I thought it was, so I've copied everything to a USB thingie and it's now my portable NF for odd moments on busses and other transport, or for when I'm very early to class. It's at the perfect stage for this, for what I need to do with it now is think about each chapter and sort out what it needs to cover and make sure its internal structure is solid. I've been teaching the subjects in it all year (and, in fact, for quite a few years - and they have developed accordingly), and now is a very good time to consolidate what I've learned through working with various people on the subject matter (which is history for fiction writers, of course). When I've done that, I can integrate all the research I've already done for it. Then I shall find out how much work there really is to do.
I think I've just created a whole new means of avoiding tedium this summer.
November 21, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-11-22T16:19:00
I'm finishing things up before the Gender Games conference.
While contemplating various deadlines (and nearly reaching one - another ten minutes will do it!), I received the draft ANZAMEMs conference program. Not a lot of papers on modern Medievalism this time. I shall stand tall and represent science fiction (or something).
What's very odd is that I know a full dozen paper-givers. A few of them are new friends from Leeds last year, but most of them are people who knew me in my earlier manifestation. I hope they know about the novels and the second doctorate, otherwise things are going to get very interesting, since my paper is very much going to be about the Middle Ages in key SF novels. On the other hand, I have the late Friday afternoon slot, so maybe most people will be out drinking.
While I'm sorting my life out, I ought to say not to panic if I don't post much between now and next Wednesday. I may post and I may not - it all depends on how busy things are. Right now, they look more than a little busy. Hence the need to finish things rather than simply contemplate deadlines. Once more unto the breach!
While contemplating various deadlines (and nearly reaching one - another ten minutes will do it!), I received the draft ANZAMEMs conference program. Not a lot of papers on modern Medievalism this time. I shall stand tall and represent science fiction (or something).
What's very odd is that I know a full dozen paper-givers. A few of them are new friends from Leeds last year, but most of them are people who knew me in my earlier manifestation. I hope they know about the novels and the second doctorate, otherwise things are going to get very interesting, since my paper is very much going to be about the Middle Ages in key SF novels. On the other hand, I have the late Friday afternoon slot, so maybe most people will be out drinking.
While I'm sorting my life out, I ought to say not to panic if I don't post much between now and next Wednesday. I may post and I may not - it all depends on how busy things are. Right now, they look more than a little busy. Hence the need to finish things rather than simply contemplate deadlines. Once more unto the breach!
gillpolack @ 2012-11-22T11:46:00
I'm Schroedinger's Gillian. I thought I was poised at the brink of a career, for that's what the common assumption seems to be - that one finishes a degree and is qualified and then one simply has to move into the next phase.
Except that the writing and academia combination doesn't work that way. Until I get a job offer, I'm still working in the field, just for next-to-no income. I'm still teaching, I'm just not teaching degree students. I'm still writing (and my list of publications is most definitely going to grow in the near future) but my novels are currently of the "I love this but totally cannot market it, sorry" variety (publishers ask for them, knowing I'm an interstitial writer who writes gentle stories with steady sales and then they're surprised to find out that my latest novel isn't a fast-paced adventure). So I am a novelist and I am not a novelist. I am an academic and I am not an academic. I have work and I have no work. I am Schroedinger's Gillian.
If someone opens the box and it's all negatives, I have to give up my fiction and my research and my teaching and that's something I don't want to do. I want someone to open the box and shout down to me "You have a job, and a novel coming out and a couple more short stories and... oh yes, those academic articles."
In the interim, I have to act as if I am fully-functioning (conference papers, chapters, book proposals) and also prepare for it all to go wrong. Which is life as usual, I guess. At least I have enough money to get myself through summer and a bit over for other matters. Yay for university scholarships and the saving thereof!
Schroedinger's Gillian has to live in two realities at once, so I'm spending some of my carefully-hoarded scholarship money on fixing my flat so that it no longer falls down around my ears. It's preparing for more poverty (making a limited environment liveable) and also preparing for a future (if I have to move, I'll need to sell the flat).
It was, in fact, booking a time with a handyman that convinced me I was Schroedinger's Gillian. BY the middle of February next year the peeling paint will be a thing of history, and the falling tiles will be fixed and grouted and the 70s wallpaper will be replaced and the bathroom will be demoulded (again) and repainted. If the money goes even further, then the kitchen will be improved.
If someone opens the box, I'll let you know my status. In the interim, you really ought to know that it's not comfortable inside this box. Fixed realities are far easier to handle.
Except that the writing and academia combination doesn't work that way. Until I get a job offer, I'm still working in the field, just for next-to-no income. I'm still teaching, I'm just not teaching degree students. I'm still writing (and my list of publications is most definitely going to grow in the near future) but my novels are currently of the "I love this but totally cannot market it, sorry" variety (publishers ask for them, knowing I'm an interstitial writer who writes gentle stories with steady sales and then they're surprised to find out that my latest novel isn't a fast-paced adventure). So I am a novelist and I am not a novelist. I am an academic and I am not an academic. I have work and I have no work. I am Schroedinger's Gillian.
If someone opens the box and it's all negatives, I have to give up my fiction and my research and my teaching and that's something I don't want to do. I want someone to open the box and shout down to me "You have a job, and a novel coming out and a couple more short stories and... oh yes, those academic articles."
In the interim, I have to act as if I am fully-functioning (conference papers, chapters, book proposals) and also prepare for it all to go wrong. Which is life as usual, I guess. At least I have enough money to get myself through summer and a bit over for other matters. Yay for university scholarships and the saving thereof!
Schroedinger's Gillian has to live in two realities at once, so I'm spending some of my carefully-hoarded scholarship money on fixing my flat so that it no longer falls down around my ears. It's preparing for more poverty (making a limited environment liveable) and also preparing for a future (if I have to move, I'll need to sell the flat).
It was, in fact, booking a time with a handyman that convinced me I was Schroedinger's Gillian. BY the middle of February next year the peeling paint will be a thing of history, and the falling tiles will be fixed and grouted and the 70s wallpaper will be replaced and the bathroom will be demoulded (again) and repainted. If the money goes even further, then the kitchen will be improved.
If someone opens the box, I'll let you know my status. In the interim, you really ought to know that it's not comfortable inside this box. Fixed realities are far easier to handle.
November 20, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-11-21T16:01:00
I keep wondering whether I should tell my UK friends that we have a lovely sunny Spring day of 29 degrees. Then I think it would be cruel and unusual torture. Days like this, in fact, are probably the main reason Australia was colonised... So I shall refrain from rubbing it in and shall not tell my friends and I shall go do some work instead.
gillpolack @ 2012-11-21T13:53:00
We got through so much in class today that I am bushed. We developed epigrams and wrote poems and stories starting with the words on my t-shirt. We dangled participles and explored ways of verbally turning the tables on people. Word of the day 'was 'odium' and we wrote elegant sentences using it.
We talked about the difference between a good book and a well-known book and we now all have reading programs for summer. My students have promised me that just because a book appears on a list doesn't mean that they will make assumptions of awesome: they have sworn faithfully to judge books for themselves from here on in. For this, they tell me, they need to read. I've been given very careful instructions as to which books I should donate from my library for the purpose. I shall go through the unshelved books right now and see which six will hurt me least to lose (I'd rather give books to my students than sell them, but I still hate diminishing my library). If I can find eight, it will be even better. The fact that they've happily taken on a reading program for summer (weeks ahead of the holidays, in fact) is another advance.
Right now my block of flats is without water. I might have a bit of a rest until I can make coffee and then I shall do lots of work. A pot of coffee full of work, in fact. And I have the ingredients for two shallow pumpkin pies, and CSFG may well benefit from this tonight.
No doubt there's other news, but I've forgotten it. I did a full hour's work before teaching, you see, and the work is done, but the memory of it is obliterated.
We talked about the difference between a good book and a well-known book and we now all have reading programs for summer. My students have promised me that just because a book appears on a list doesn't mean that they will make assumptions of awesome: they have sworn faithfully to judge books for themselves from here on in. For this, they tell me, they need to read. I've been given very careful instructions as to which books I should donate from my library for the purpose. I shall go through the unshelved books right now and see which six will hurt me least to lose (I'd rather give books to my students than sell them, but I still hate diminishing my library). If I can find eight, it will be even better. The fact that they've happily taken on a reading program for summer (weeks ahead of the holidays, in fact) is another advance.
Right now my block of flats is without water. I might have a bit of a rest until I can make coffee and then I shall do lots of work. A pot of coffee full of work, in fact. And I have the ingredients for two shallow pumpkin pies, and CSFG may well benefit from this tonight.
No doubt there's other news, but I've forgotten it. I did a full hour's work before teaching, you see, and the work is done, but the memory of it is obliterated.
November 19, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-11-20T18:00:00
I decided to identify my cricket today. He's male and a black field cricket, rather large. So now you know. I hope he'll stop with the aerobatics.
What else have I done today? Nothing terribly interesting. Except that I've written a quarter of the story I intend to finish in Melbourne. Or maybe tomorrow night. It depends on where I've put things...my papers are a mess and everything is hiding in layers (including, just at this moment, the cricket - he takes joy in playing peek-a-boo, I think). I shall sort through my papers tonight and diminish them and see what results. One result will be recycling and another will be a long list of tasks I must do in a hurry.
I'm all prepared. I have Thursday's class all sorted, and I've got most of tomorrow's class done, too. This means I have three hours to tackle tasks as yet unknown in between teaching, messages and meetings tomorrow. If I discover more than three hours neglected work, I might be in a spot of bother. Maybe I'll ask my resident cricket to take them on? He's up for aerobatics, I bet he could do officework.
What else have I done today? Nothing terribly interesting. Except that I've written a quarter of the story I intend to finish in Melbourne. Or maybe tomorrow night. It depends on where I've put things...my papers are a mess and everything is hiding in layers (including, just at this moment, the cricket - he takes joy in playing peek-a-boo, I think). I shall sort through my papers tonight and diminish them and see what results. One result will be recycling and another will be a long list of tasks I must do in a hurry.
I'm all prepared. I have Thursday's class all sorted, and I've got most of tomorrow's class done, too. This means I have three hours to tackle tasks as yet unknown in between teaching, messages and meetings tomorrow. If I discover more than three hours neglected work, I might be in a spot of bother. Maybe I'll ask my resident cricket to take them on? He's up for aerobatics, I bet he could do officework.
gillpolack @ 2012-11-20T08:51:00
My day is upside down today. This morning is my evening off, for there is dancing this morning and work this evening. This afternoon is the work I didn't do late last night because I did other work that needed doing. I have no meetings. Once I'm home, it's straight on until morning, or until daylight, or until there's a gap in the work.
I plan to run tomorrow from beginning to end in the normal way. I need to demonstrate to myself that it can be done. Then both Thursday and Friday will be upside down and back to front.
I was talking to my next door neighbour the other day and she does this all far more elegantly than me. She is a good mother during the day, sleeps while her children are at school and then works all night at the hospital. The advantage of her lifestyle is that she wakes up at the perfect time to sit in the sun for an hour and quite a few of us have taken to passing the time of day as she does so. She knows when my life is inside out, for I don't make a noise. When my life is closer to everyone else's normal, the television will be on from time to time.
I plan to run tomorrow from beginning to end in the normal way. I need to demonstrate to myself that it can be done. Then both Thursday and Friday will be upside down and back to front.
I was talking to my next door neighbour the other day and she does this all far more elegantly than me. She is a good mother during the day, sleeps while her children are at school and then works all night at the hospital. The advantage of her lifestyle is that she wakes up at the perfect time to sit in the sun for an hour and quite a few of us have taken to passing the time of day as she does so. She knows when my life is inside out, for I don't make a noise. When my life is closer to everyone else's normal, the television will be on from time to time.
gillpolack @ 2012-11-19T22:42:00
My summer wildlife is visiting early.
Bogong moths keep drowning themselves in my sink. What's so attractive about my sink? I stare at the dirty dishes and can see nothing to warrant early death?
I also have a pet cricket.
Every year I seem to gain a pet cricket. Last year I had two. This year is only one, but he's big and has come early and he's very adventurous. He spent a couple of hours napping on my computer speaker this afternoon and now is exploring my curtains. His vertical ascent is occasionally delayed when his size gets the better of his ambitions and he slides down a foot.
Oh! He's made it to the pelmet. He's leapt. There was a splat sound from behind me. He's now four foot away from the curtains. I am not going to investigate, I'm afraid. I think the visiting wildlife this year is suicidal.
Bogong moths keep drowning themselves in my sink. What's so attractive about my sink? I stare at the dirty dishes and can see nothing to warrant early death?
I also have a pet cricket.
Every year I seem to gain a pet cricket. Last year I had two. This year is only one, but he's big and has come early and he's very adventurous. He spent a couple of hours napping on my computer speaker this afternoon and now is exploring my curtains. His vertical ascent is occasionally delayed when his size gets the better of his ambitions and he slides down a foot.
Oh! He's made it to the pelmet. He's leapt. There was a splat sound from behind me. He's now four foot away from the curtains. I am not going to investigate, I'm afraid. I think the visiting wildlife this year is suicidal.
November 18, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-11-19T09:33:00
I think I should just accept that bad things are going to happen on my mornings until they finally stop happening. Nothing terribly big and bad, but a few small things each and every day. The negatives add to each other and no reason is given. The difficult part of it is that they just *happen* - no reasons given nor ways of sorting. If someone has been hurt or offended, I can't apologise. If I have underperformed, I can't do better, for I don't know what I have done. So these morning negatives not only happen, they pile up.
I get more problems on days that hurt. Today hurts quite a lot - if I hadn't taken time out yesterday, it would be much worse. The pain's not going to stop me doing things today, but I suspect it might get in the way of me enjoying them, especially since I've already had three problems thrown my way this morning.
I did that bit of extra work last night. I just need to enter it on the computer and do a printout and one last big think before I can move on. This is what I do when life is out of control and full of negatives: find the one or two things that aren't out of control and do something to ensure they remain that way.
I get more problems on days that hurt. Today hurts quite a lot - if I hadn't taken time out yesterday, it would be much worse. The pain's not going to stop me doing things today, but I suspect it might get in the way of me enjoying them, especially since I've already had three problems thrown my way this morning.
I did that bit of extra work last night. I just need to enter it on the computer and do a printout and one last big think before I can move on. This is what I do when life is out of control and full of negatives: find the one or two things that aren't out of control and do something to ensure they remain that way.
