Gillian Polack's Blog, page 149
September 26, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-09-27T14:23:00
My brain has melted. Again.
One of the big jobs I was expecting to tackle this weekend has been postponed for lots of not-good reasons. This means that tomorrow is more straightforward, but I wish it had not happened in this way. I'm waiting to see what can happen and etc. As usual, lots of etc. It's not my life being complicated this time - it's someone else's.
My life is full of edits. I have two paragraphs that WILL NOT BEHAVE. They looked fine two days ago, but now I don't like them. When I like them again, I am meeting Janeen at Koko Black. This is a reward worth striving for. Also, meeting Janeen keeps me honest in my editing, for she is more careful about style and intent even than I am. If I want to look her in the eyes and smile, then I need to do a good job.
My morning was mainly spent on emails and forms, for we're up to that stage of the PhD. Examination looms...
One of the big jobs I was expecting to tackle this weekend has been postponed for lots of not-good reasons. This means that tomorrow is more straightforward, but I wish it had not happened in this way. I'm waiting to see what can happen and etc. As usual, lots of etc. It's not my life being complicated this time - it's someone else's.
My life is full of edits. I have two paragraphs that WILL NOT BEHAVE. They looked fine two days ago, but now I don't like them. When I like them again, I am meeting Janeen at Koko Black. This is a reward worth striving for. Also, meeting Janeen keeps me honest in my editing, for she is more careful about style and intent even than I am. If I want to look her in the eyes and smile, then I need to do a good job.
My morning was mainly spent on emails and forms, for we're up to that stage of the PhD. Examination looms...
gillpolack @ 2012-09-27T08:58:00
Sleep is such a good invention. Last night I dreamed three really appalling fantasy novels, plus the introduction to my workshop tomorrow. My workshop now has three parts (for I often forget introductions until the last minute) and all I need to do is note them so that none go missing.
I worked quite late last night and managed to diminish my list of impossibilities a bit., I did half the things I had intended and a third of the new arrivals. It could be worse, but today will still be challenging.
At the end of today I have friends arriving for the weekend. No-one appears to be staying with me at this stag, which is a bit of a surprise. it's all about dinners and drinks and panels.
Right now I'm declaring a race. I have five minutes before I make a big pot of coffee. Between now and the coffee I must finish three small tasks. Once the coffee is in front of me, I have until it runs out to finish three bigger tasks. If I can do all this, then the sky is my limit. Or I may get dressed (as my reward). If I can be seriously caught up by lunchtime, I'm allowed a special treat when I run my messages* in the early afternoon.
*One of the things that happened was another set of messages, even though I've run three sets already this week. They're ten-minute--with-car and an hour or so on foot, but will get me walking, which is a good thing.
I worked quite late last night and managed to diminish my list of impossibilities a bit., I did half the things I had intended and a third of the new arrivals. It could be worse, but today will still be challenging.
At the end of today I have friends arriving for the weekend. No-one appears to be staying with me at this stag, which is a bit of a surprise. it's all about dinners and drinks and panels.
Right now I'm declaring a race. I have five minutes before I make a big pot of coffee. Between now and the coffee I must finish three small tasks. Once the coffee is in front of me, I have until it runs out to finish three bigger tasks. If I can do all this, then the sky is my limit. Or I may get dressed (as my reward). If I can be seriously caught up by lunchtime, I'm allowed a special treat when I run my messages* in the early afternoon.
*One of the things that happened was another set of messages, even though I've run three sets already this week. They're ten-minute--with-car and an hour or so on foot, but will get me walking, which is a good thing.
gillpolack @ 2012-09-26T20:08:00
This week is full of extremes. I've decided to start it all again tomorrow morning, just because I can.
I get two weeks without teaching after Conflux, and I think maybe I need it. This is the first year when my teaching levels have matched uni norms, and with the study and the everything else, I think it leaves me prone to mood swings. By which I mean I am perimenopausal beyond dealing right now, on top of the usual. Ten days between periods is tiring, but it's even more so when accompanied by weather shifts and skerricks of bad news. And, of course, a huge flood of work happened while I was offline for Yom Kippur, so instead of just enough stuff to be done before Friday something I have a vast amount. All urgent and all requiring great brain (and I have no great brain, nor even small brain).
My highlight of the week was getting to give a (pretend) speech at Parliament House. It was part of the term-end activities for my regular students. We all enjoyed pretending to be the pollies debating the Franklin debate. I don't know how BCS got us in as school students, but they did and we had a ball.
My low point of the week was the complete lack of regret in the voice of the saleperson who rang today when I explained that I thought it was an emergency. That firm was supposed to have me down as "No phone calls until next year." Next time they ring, I'll get myself taken off their phone list for good. I was so relieved that it wasn't an emergency that I didn't even think of that and just explained why it was a problem that she rang.
And my brain is total thick mud, between one thing an another. I think on Tuesday I shall schedule a day off. I may well need it. If anyone local (even temporarily) wishes to go to Floriade, I am at your disposal.
I get two weeks without teaching after Conflux, and I think maybe I need it. This is the first year when my teaching levels have matched uni norms, and with the study and the everything else, I think it leaves me prone to mood swings. By which I mean I am perimenopausal beyond dealing right now, on top of the usual. Ten days between periods is tiring, but it's even more so when accompanied by weather shifts and skerricks of bad news. And, of course, a huge flood of work happened while I was offline for Yom Kippur, so instead of just enough stuff to be done before Friday something I have a vast amount. All urgent and all requiring great brain (and I have no great brain, nor even small brain).
My highlight of the week was getting to give a (pretend) speech at Parliament House. It was part of the term-end activities for my regular students. We all enjoyed pretending to be the pollies debating the Franklin debate. I don't know how BCS got us in as school students, but they did and we had a ball.
My low point of the week was the complete lack of regret in the voice of the saleperson who rang today when I explained that I thought it was an emergency. That firm was supposed to have me down as "No phone calls until next year." Next time they ring, I'll get myself taken off their phone list for good. I was so relieved that it wasn't an emergency that I didn't even think of that and just explained why it was a problem that she rang.
And my brain is total thick mud, between one thing an another. I think on Tuesday I shall schedule a day off. I may well need it. If anyone local (even temporarily) wishes to go to Floriade, I am at your disposal.
September 24, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-09-25T15:50:00
Some days just don't quite work. I've had to run a second set of messages (lots of walking in my day - very good for me) but this set, I found I had a migraine. It's the same migraine I had on Sunday and proves absolutely that my current cycle contains one 3-5 day migraine. I've taken what needs to be taken and I shall deal, but two of my articles are now officially postponed until next week. They don't get published until November, so I don't really need to be as aforehand with the world as I am. And I'm leaving my novel until tomorrow night and Thursday. Van doesn't need it until Friday, after all, and I am 1/3 of the way through what must be done.
This leaves me with precisely 400 words to write. I have 2 hours. Even with a migraine this is achievable.
I do wish today would behave. It's not bad; it's askew. Migraine days are like this. My brain communicates its bizarre quality to the world at large.
Yom Kippur will sort it properly. At this moment I am sorting just the symptoms with coffee icecream. See you all on the other side.
This leaves me with precisely 400 words to write. I have 2 hours. Even with a migraine this is achievable.
I do wish today would behave. It's not bad; it's askew. Migraine days are like this. My brain communicates its bizarre quality to the world at large.
Yom Kippur will sort it properly. At this moment I am sorting just the symptoms with coffee icecream. See you all on the other side.
gillpolack @ 2012-09-25T11:55:00
My new glasses are being made up. They are of an order funkier than my old glasses. They are also purple.
The cost is about what I expected (though, with luck, I'll get some back on insurance) and they will take a few weeks. The lens is coming from Japan, you see. The optometrist at the glasses shop looked at my script and said that I exist to keep my other optometrist in excitement. I exist, in fact, to keep all optometrists in excitement, for things were a bit busy and someone picked up my script by mistake and another client nearly got prescribed my rather special lenses.
On the way home I ducked into BigW and bought something for Saturday. Anyone who actually buys Ms Cellophane at the launch will be entitled to a very special launch present. This is as well as a bookplate.
When I arrived home, the excitement did not let up. A version of my dissertation has mysteriously disappeared into the ether and needs to be re-sent. These sort of happenings are why I try not to leave things to the last minute.
This afternoon is all about the novel and this evening I am atoning for almost everything. I don't need to remind anyone not to ring between 5 pm today and about 8 pm tomorrow? Good. For if you ring and it's not a life or death emergency, I shall be very unimpressed.
For everyone not planning to ring, don't worry if I don't appear online!
For everyone fasting - well over it and take care, please.
The cost is about what I expected (though, with luck, I'll get some back on insurance) and they will take a few weeks. The lens is coming from Japan, you see. The optometrist at the glasses shop looked at my script and said that I exist to keep my other optometrist in excitement. I exist, in fact, to keep all optometrists in excitement, for things were a bit busy and someone picked up my script by mistake and another client nearly got prescribed my rather special lenses.
On the way home I ducked into BigW and bought something for Saturday. Anyone who actually buys Ms Cellophane at the launch will be entitled to a very special launch present. This is as well as a bookplate.
When I arrived home, the excitement did not let up. A version of my dissertation has mysteriously disappeared into the ether and needs to be re-sent. These sort of happenings are why I try not to leave things to the last minute.
This afternoon is all about the novel and this evening I am atoning for almost everything. I don't need to remind anyone not to ring between 5 pm today and about 8 pm tomorrow? Good. For if you ring and it's not a life or death emergency, I shall be very unimpressed.
For everyone not planning to ring, don't worry if I don't appear online!
For everyone fasting - well over it and take care, please.
The evening news
My eyes are stable and so (for a wonder) is the weather. I'm eating strawberries and contemplating my current task, which is to domesticate 450+ items in a bibliography. This is my second bibliography domestication of the day but the first had only three items.
I've finished one of four more items for today and made progress on three of the others. I may have to leave it at those three. That still wouldn't be bad. One of them is, of course, PhD-related and gets replaced tomorrow with a whole new PhD-related task. These are quite urgent, for I lose 27 hours to Yom Kippur from tomorrow evening and then I only have a day before Conflux. Not exciting for anyone but me, but wildly exciting for me.
If I can keep to these deadlines, I have a good chance of an October that's not impossible. I could lounge around all day reading novels. Wait, that's what I do now. They'll be different novels though. Lots of YA for the Aurealis Awards. My pile awaits me and it contains nearly a full week's reading.
I've finished one of four more items for today and made progress on three of the others. I may have to leave it at those three. That still wouldn't be bad. One of them is, of course, PhD-related and gets replaced tomorrow with a whole new PhD-related task. These are quite urgent, for I lose 27 hours to Yom Kippur from tomorrow evening and then I only have a day before Conflux. Not exciting for anyone but me, but wildly exciting for me.
If I can keep to these deadlines, I have a good chance of an October that's not impossible. I could lounge around all day reading novels. Wait, that's what I do now. They'll be different novels though. Lots of YA for the Aurealis Awards. My pile awaits me and it contains nearly a full week's reading.
September 23, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-09-24T10:07:00
My glasses are crippled. This means I need a new pair in a hurry*. This means I need to get my eyes checked just in case the changes of this year have affected my prescription. There was precisely one appointment open at my rather wonderful optometrist* this week and that was late this afternoon. I'm being picked up by friends in a few minutes.
I'd better get a lot of work done in those few minutes. I'd better get even more work done before my pupils are dilated.
My work for this morning is a fascinating Icelandic novel.
* 'In a hurry' with my vision means - if I'm lucky - possibly late next week using the rapid service which gives people with normal corrections 2 pairs of glasses for the price of one all within an hour. My single pair costs a lot more and every time there is great excitement over my correction.
**This is the bloke who saved my life.
I'd better get a lot of work done in those few minutes. I'd better get even more work done before my pupils are dilated.
My work for this morning is a fascinating Icelandic novel.
* 'In a hurry' with my vision means - if I'm lucky - possibly late next week using the rapid service which gives people with normal corrections 2 pairs of glasses for the price of one all within an hour. My single pair costs a lot more and every time there is great excitement over my correction.
**This is the bloke who saved my life.
gillpolack @ 2012-09-24T09:27:00
I have noticed over the years that the students who are reluctant learners (argue with the need to do work, are passive in their learning style, think they know a lot before they begin) are the most likely to give negative comments on a course. This is not the reluctance shown in the first week, but how much recalcitrance they demonstrate along they way. I'm not sure they *want* to be taught.
I need to hone my mechanisms for getting past their recalcitrance, I fear. I need to find ways of turning reluctant learners into good learners. I can do it when I teach teenagers, but, sometimes, when I teach adults, nothing I do works. Since the likelihood is high that - whatever path I choose - I will discover more reluctant learners who are positive they are participating fully in a class, I need to improve my teaching skills in this regard.
One thing that fascinates me is that the doodling I do in a classroom to keep me from talking all the time (for I tend to get excited about learning and am a danger as a student in some classrooms) is used as a technique by other adults to distance themselves. They don't take in what I'm saying and so when it comes to exercises or discussion it takes them an extra few minutes to pull themselves back into verbal mode. This affects all the students in their vicinity.
So, what I need first are techniques to pull students out of whatever strategies they're using to distance themselves and to bring them into the classroom with the other students. Along with that, I need to think about how safe they feel, for such strategies must have a cause and my students all choose the class.
What I need is an in-service, but the ANU doesn't do this for CCE staff. My teaching qualifications didn't even begin to cover this kind of thing, so going back to my notes is not useful. I shall use the powers of the interwebz! I shall also talk to my mother, who was a teacher of many reluctant students before she retired. She got students at the most difficult school in the state through sciences. I shall also chat about it over the next few weeks, with friends who teach or have taught.
I need to hone my mechanisms for getting past their recalcitrance, I fear. I need to find ways of turning reluctant learners into good learners. I can do it when I teach teenagers, but, sometimes, when I teach adults, nothing I do works. Since the likelihood is high that - whatever path I choose - I will discover more reluctant learners who are positive they are participating fully in a class, I need to improve my teaching skills in this regard.
One thing that fascinates me is that the doodling I do in a classroom to keep me from talking all the time (for I tend to get excited about learning and am a danger as a student in some classrooms) is used as a technique by other adults to distance themselves. They don't take in what I'm saying and so when it comes to exercises or discussion it takes them an extra few minutes to pull themselves back into verbal mode. This affects all the students in their vicinity.
So, what I need first are techniques to pull students out of whatever strategies they're using to distance themselves and to bring them into the classroom with the other students. Along with that, I need to think about how safe they feel, for such strategies must have a cause and my students all choose the class.
What I need is an in-service, but the ANU doesn't do this for CCE staff. My teaching qualifications didn't even begin to cover this kind of thing, so going back to my notes is not useful. I shall use the powers of the interwebz! I shall also talk to my mother, who was a teacher of many reluctant students before she retired. She got students at the most difficult school in the state through sciences. I shall also chat about it over the next few weeks, with friends who teach or have taught.
How to Avoid Gillian at Conflux (revisited)
This is my annual guide on the avoidance of Gillian at Conflux. It's been updated because Conflux has acquired a whole new room of activities. All the bad jokes, however, remain. And I have decided that Evil Gillian will make an appearance at the prophecy panel, wielding whiteboard markers. The complete program is here: http://conflux.org.au/blog/
The usual rules apply: if you want chocolate you absolutely don't want to avoid me; if you want to know where to buy specialist foodstuffs (for out-of-towners), you want to actively seek me out; if you want truly bad jokes, you shouldn't avoid me. If you need coffee late at night, I can be persuaded into making it (and maybe serving home made liqueur alongside) in return for a lift home. For all other forms of avoidance and non-avoidance, here is a simple guide gently expressed in the first person, to make it seem as if Gillian is real and not a figment of chocolate overload:
Friday 28 September 2-4 pm
A two hour workshop on History in your Fiction. There are still places available. I don't know why there are still places available, for this is the stuff I've been researching for the last squillion years and I have worked out some amazing shortcuts and easy ways for writers to understand what they're doing. Also, I don't know when I'll be teaching this subject in Canberra again. (I shall be spending summer finally doing solid work on the book on the subject, I suspect, but that is not at all relevant to Conflux and besides, won't contain my guide to evil shortcuts.) Also, people who go to this workshop get the best chocolate, for I bought some specially to celebrate that all my ideas came together so very neatly. (In other words, cutting edge research! With chocolate!)
Saturday 29 September
1-2 pm How to write prophecies. I'm chairing this and plan to do evil things to my poor, innocent panellists.
2-3 pm panel on apocalypses, chaired by Cat Sparks. I want to talk about roosters, I suspect.
4-5 pm Kaffeeklatsche - again with Cat Sparks. Poor Cat - she has to endure me!
7 pm Smiths bookshop - Ms Cellophane relaunched, along with four much better books being launched for the first time*.
Sunday 30 September
10 am possibility of readings. CSFG readings will happen, whether they include me or not is still to be decided.
3.15-4.15 Time travel panel!
And that's it. I'll also be on the CSFG table at times yet to be determined, inveigling strangers into buying many books. Or maybe many copies of the same book. Buy three copies of the same book and I give you extra chocolate.
*The four much better books are: Jodi Cleghorn – From Stage Door Shadows; Craig Cormick – Time Vandals; Tor Roxburgh – The Light Heart of Stone; Greg Mellor – Wild Chrome
The usual rules apply: if you want chocolate you absolutely don't want to avoid me; if you want to know where to buy specialist foodstuffs (for out-of-towners), you want to actively seek me out; if you want truly bad jokes, you shouldn't avoid me. If you need coffee late at night, I can be persuaded into making it (and maybe serving home made liqueur alongside) in return for a lift home. For all other forms of avoidance and non-avoidance, here is a simple guide gently expressed in the first person, to make it seem as if Gillian is real and not a figment of chocolate overload:
Friday 28 September 2-4 pm
A two hour workshop on History in your Fiction. There are still places available. I don't know why there are still places available, for this is the stuff I've been researching for the last squillion years and I have worked out some amazing shortcuts and easy ways for writers to understand what they're doing. Also, I don't know when I'll be teaching this subject in Canberra again. (I shall be spending summer finally doing solid work on the book on the subject, I suspect, but that is not at all relevant to Conflux and besides, won't contain my guide to evil shortcuts.) Also, people who go to this workshop get the best chocolate, for I bought some specially to celebrate that all my ideas came together so very neatly. (In other words, cutting edge research! With chocolate!)
Saturday 29 September
1-2 pm How to write prophecies. I'm chairing this and plan to do evil things to my poor, innocent panellists.
2-3 pm panel on apocalypses, chaired by Cat Sparks. I want to talk about roosters, I suspect.
4-5 pm Kaffeeklatsche - again with Cat Sparks. Poor Cat - she has to endure me!
7 pm Smiths bookshop - Ms Cellophane relaunched, along with four much better books being launched for the first time*.
Sunday 30 September
10 am possibility of readings. CSFG readings will happen, whether they include me or not is still to be decided.
3.15-4.15 Time travel panel!
And that's it. I'll also be on the CSFG table at times yet to be determined, inveigling strangers into buying many books. Or maybe many copies of the same book. Buy three copies of the same book and I give you extra chocolate.
*The four much better books are: Jodi Cleghorn – From Stage Door Shadows; Craig Cormick – Time Vandals; Tor Roxburgh – The Light Heart of Stone; Greg Mellor – Wild Chrome
gillpolack @ 2012-09-23T20:11:00
My pottage looks quite murky and evil, for the purple has bled into the orange and into the yellow. Murk with bits of orange and purple and green peeking through. Murk with much garlic. Very savoury murk. I must make murk again some time.
