Gillian Polack's Blog, page 167
July 27, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-28T12:55:00
I never gave you a picture from the ferry going up the Parramatta River. This was wrong of me and I hereby atone:
gillpolack @ 2012-07-28T12:47:00
A picture from ages back (for I'm working with pictures right now) - this is Melbourne, during Continuum. The profile is of my niece.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-28T11:19:00
There's a level of uncoordination that is amusing, and I have that today. The weather was odd last night (we had a bit of a weather shift, on top of the other stuff I reported, so it started getting way cold and then it stopped and snowed on the hills and then it changed again) and the result was a migraine. I still have a bit of the migraine and so I hear everything three times louder and I am unco. It will pass, but until then I get to do daft things and generally make myself laugh. This means that I read 'mango chicken salad' as 'mangled chicken salad' and ponder on the benefits of coffee.
Coffee is magic for my current symptoms, but I still can't use my expresso machine (still can't screw it on tight) and so it's Turkish coffee or nothing. No, it's Turkish coffee or kopi jawa.
No worries, I can deal with today for I have coffee that requires no left hand strength and no co-ordination and cannot overboil if I pay it to. Thank you Detha and Indah and Arni, for introducing me to this, all those years ago. I shall use Turkish coffee to make Indonesian coffee. And I shall add milk. That will tangle the cultural pundits. I could haul out my Vietnamese coffee equipment, but the Turkish grind is so fine that it would puddle through and I would end up with an unholy mess. Kopi jawa is now officially my drink of choice for today!
The coffee is so that I can do the last of my first reference list for the day. I need to find the right publication details for 25 books and then I'm done with that. I shall write a bit more about my library (for I now have a very clear request for an article or articles, with pictures, and I did most of the pictures last night) and also maybe start working on one on Medieval gravegoods and their significance.
The remaining picture to take are of the books in my storeroom (classic Australian novels and the Abbey Girls and the Chalet School, mainly) but if I go to the storeroom I will find toys that require playing with (I have a miniature Indonesian classical orchestra hiding there, for instance) and I may want to find out which Abbey Girls books I've got and to let
know and I need to find out the editions so that I can start looking for the unexpurgated versions and, yes, all this is way more interesting than today's work and so it really has to be put off.
Today is all about being disciplined and sensible so that the tedious stuff gets done and I can get back into my more fascinating work.Dissertation work for today is a nasty form (which comes first) and then work on the bibliography.
Since I can't watch elite sport, I have the third season of Outnumbered to keep me company through the bibliography. I need to talk to friend who might be willing to lend me recent series I want to catch up on (Downton Abbey, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Alphas, True Blood, Fringe and a whole bunch more are as yet unavailable at the library and would function nicely for winter-work).
PS All typos and malapropisms are brought to you by the last hours of this migraine. By tonight my English will be much clearer and we will all regret it.
Coffee is magic for my current symptoms, but I still can't use my expresso machine (still can't screw it on tight) and so it's Turkish coffee or nothing. No, it's Turkish coffee or kopi jawa.
No worries, I can deal with today for I have coffee that requires no left hand strength and no co-ordination and cannot overboil if I pay it to. Thank you Detha and Indah and Arni, for introducing me to this, all those years ago. I shall use Turkish coffee to make Indonesian coffee. And I shall add milk. That will tangle the cultural pundits. I could haul out my Vietnamese coffee equipment, but the Turkish grind is so fine that it would puddle through and I would end up with an unholy mess. Kopi jawa is now officially my drink of choice for today!
The coffee is so that I can do the last of my first reference list for the day. I need to find the right publication details for 25 books and then I'm done with that. I shall write a bit more about my library (for I now have a very clear request for an article or articles, with pictures, and I did most of the pictures last night) and also maybe start working on one on Medieval gravegoods and their significance.
The remaining picture to take are of the books in my storeroom (classic Australian novels and the Abbey Girls and the Chalet School, mainly) but if I go to the storeroom I will find toys that require playing with (I have a miniature Indonesian classical orchestra hiding there, for instance) and I may want to find out which Abbey Girls books I've got and to let
know and I need to find out the editions so that I can start looking for the unexpurgated versions and, yes, all this is way more interesting than today's work and so it really has to be put off. Today is all about being disciplined and sensible so that the tedious stuff gets done and I can get back into my more fascinating work.Dissertation work for today is a nasty form (which comes first) and then work on the bibliography.
Since I can't watch elite sport, I have the third season of Outnumbered to keep me company through the bibliography. I need to talk to friend who might be willing to lend me recent series I want to catch up on (Downton Abbey, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Alphas, True Blood, Fringe and a whole bunch more are as yet unavailable at the library and would function nicely for winter-work).
PS All typos and malapropisms are brought to you by the last hours of this migraine. By tonight my English will be much clearer and we will all regret it.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-28T00:05:00
I have sorted footnotes and got a third through referencing an article and I've written a whole section of another article and I suspect I'm ready for sleep. I don't know why I get a second wind late at night, but I do. My best work is mostly done in the morning or around now. At this very moment, though, I don't want to look up any more references (for I've been checking em-dashes and finding publication dates for the last hour) and so I shall pretend it's midnight and go to bed.
This would be early for me, except that my Sydney friends are early birds and I got into the habit of being asleep before midnight. Not a bad habit, since I'm coming into another of those very busy eight weeks, with teaching at each end of the day. Also, it's still only zero, and if I sleep now I won't even notice if it gets colder. (I'm not sure how much colder it will get - my body is telling me that there's snow falling somewhere near here, however.)
Today has officially been a dull day and I have very kindly shared the full extent of that with you. I am exceptionally and extraordinarily generous.
This would be early for me, except that my Sydney friends are early birds and I got into the habit of being asleep before midnight. Not a bad habit, since I'm coming into another of those very busy eight weeks, with teaching at each end of the day. Also, it's still only zero, and if I sleep now I won't even notice if it gets colder. (I'm not sure how much colder it will get - my body is telling me that there's snow falling somewhere near here, however.)
Today has officially been a dull day and I have very kindly shared the full extent of that with you. I am exceptionally and extraordinarily generous.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-27T19:52:00
I've been lazy about warning locals about weather changes recently. Right now we're going to lose several degrees of temperature and so the BoM's forecast is for a much warmer night than will probably be the case. Unless I'm wrong, it will be a cold, cold early morning Olympic broadcast for those watching it here.
I could be laughing at you. Or I could be sympathetically warning you to prepare hot water bottles and hot drinks and make sure the heater is working. Or I could be honestly admitting that I can't get any signal at all (not even white fuzz) for that set of stations in this weather and so I shall be staying in bed and missing the fun.
Before any more friends suggest more solutions: my ISP connection isn't fast enough for online video (it ought to be, but there are network problems); my flat can't get cable (long story); I don't have an XBox; I'm not willing to move house.
I will miss almost all of the Olympics. There are certain sports I adore and will miss a great deal (and am very open to time spent with friends who share the same loves who don't live in the Kambah shadow), but the wonderful new patronage system means I can't, for the coverage rights were bought by a group of channels that don't cover a whole range of areas in Australia. I'm not alone in missing the Olympics. And it's about par for the course for this year, that WIN would win the bid and that no public broadcaster be allowed to share coverage. It fits.
Just as well I have heaps of other things to occupy myself with. By the time most of my friends have re-emerged to normal life, I shall be waiting, lurking, with articles and dissertation and more...
ETA: It's already three degrees colder than when I wrote this. Three degrees in a half hour. My weather sense is - alas - still operational.
I could be laughing at you. Or I could be sympathetically warning you to prepare hot water bottles and hot drinks and make sure the heater is working. Or I could be honestly admitting that I can't get any signal at all (not even white fuzz) for that set of stations in this weather and so I shall be staying in bed and missing the fun.
Before any more friends suggest more solutions: my ISP connection isn't fast enough for online video (it ought to be, but there are network problems); my flat can't get cable (long story); I don't have an XBox; I'm not willing to move house.
I will miss almost all of the Olympics. There are certain sports I adore and will miss a great deal (and am very open to time spent with friends who share the same loves who don't live in the Kambah shadow), but the wonderful new patronage system means I can't, for the coverage rights were bought by a group of channels that don't cover a whole range of areas in Australia. I'm not alone in missing the Olympics. And it's about par for the course for this year, that WIN would win the bid and that no public broadcaster be allowed to share coverage. It fits.
Just as well I have heaps of other things to occupy myself with. By the time most of my friends have re-emerged to normal life, I shall be waiting, lurking, with articles and dissertation and more...
ETA: It's already three degrees colder than when I wrote this. Three degrees in a half hour. My weather sense is - alas - still operational.
July 26, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-27T12:42:00
My mind is very vagrant. I found the list of work I had to complete by tomorrow, the one I had forgotten to look at all week and thought, "At least I can make a start on it," for it's warmed up*, but not nearly enough. Anyhow, the first thing I did with my list was cross things off. Somehow, at midnight, I managed to achieve a bunch of work. If I can tame five recalcitrant footnotes then the next item goes, and the third item only has a bibliography to add.
My careful calculations tell me that I can finish the complete list by dinner time, including time for a hot bath (for I shall shake this virus!) and possibly the last Lanagan. This is all good, for I do hurt today, for no good reason whatsoever.
In not-news, I don't know how much I'll get to see of the Olympics. They're being shown on stations I only get when the weather is just-so. It's a shame, for the Olympics have always been a solid time for work for me - I sit down at my television and have my workslope in front of me and I do the stuff that is fiddly and requires patience. This year my plan was all about bibliographies, for they are in a mess and need slow and painstaking sorting. I can see myself checking the weather and making my workplans accordingly, just for a little.
*The ambient temperature outside, not the list.
My careful calculations tell me that I can finish the complete list by dinner time, including time for a hot bath (for I shall shake this virus!) and possibly the last Lanagan. This is all good, for I do hurt today, for no good reason whatsoever.
In not-news, I don't know how much I'll get to see of the Olympics. They're being shown on stations I only get when the weather is just-so. It's a shame, for the Olympics have always been a solid time for work for me - I sit down at my television and have my workslope in front of me and I do the stuff that is fiddly and requires patience. This year my plan was all about bibliographies, for they are in a mess and need slow and painstaking sorting. I can see myself checking the weather and making my workplans accordingly, just for a little.
*The ambient temperature outside, not the list.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-27T10:08:00
I may leave my messages until Monday. It's only three degrees outside and unless it warms up a bit I am not tempted at all by the walk. This is somewhat wussish of me, for I have been out in colder, and recently. It's just that I'm very tired of this virus and want to gently encourage it to go.
If there is heatwave in the next three hours, I may still do my messages. If there is not, I shall work gradually through my list of tasks and I shall diminish it and whistle innocently and pretend I never was behind on a couple of them this week.
On a somewhat-related note, it has been suggested that I should introduce people to my library on BiblioBuffet. The introduction would include pictures. How interesting would that be? It's not something I thought of doing, but I'm happy to, if people really do want to meet my books a bit more closely.
If there is heatwave in the next three hours, I may still do my messages. If there is not, I shall work gradually through my list of tasks and I shall diminish it and whistle innocently and pretend I never was behind on a couple of them this week.
On a somewhat-related note, it has been suggested that I should introduce people to my library on BiblioBuffet. The introduction would include pictures. How interesting would that be? It's not something I thought of doing, but I'm happy to, if people really do want to meet my books a bit more closely.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-26T22:55:00
I have just experienced a moment of extreme twerpdom (or should that be twerpishness?): I can't remember anything I promised for July, August or September. My teaching is all written into my diary and so are my doctoral deadlines (which are many, at this stage), but everything else feels very haphazard, for I have forgotten.
If I promised to see you or visit you or send you a rude email, now would be a good time to remind me.
I'm going to give up on my diary for tonight, for it is a lost cause and go meet my next deadline which is a form that must be filed. I began filling it in two days ago and meant to get it in yesterday, but the virus o'ertook me and, in fact, I lost track of time. If I can get it across tonight, that would be a good thing, for then I can get the printed version in the mail tomorrow and lo, something useful will have been done. I have a heap of messages again tomorrow, too, so another won't go astray.
If I promised to see you or visit you or send you a rude email, now would be a good time to remind me.
I'm going to give up on my diary for tonight, for it is a lost cause and go meet my next deadline which is a form that must be filed. I began filling it in two days ago and meant to get it in yesterday, but the virus o'ertook me and, in fact, I lost track of time. If I can get it across tonight, that would be a good thing, for then I can get the printed version in the mail tomorrow and lo, something useful will have been done. I have a heap of messages again tomorrow, too, so another won't go astray.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-26T19:09:00
Only a few more days to get pictures to me of Ms Cellophane in interesting settings! So far, there is not a single NSFW picture. My publisher will be sorrowful...
July 25, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-26T13:47:00
I'm not going great guns on my lists today, but I am pondering the nature of writers coming to their maturity. The guys at Galaxy and I swapped our views of various current novelists last Saturday and we sort of realised that there is often a transition in writing lives. Only a very few authors who last the distance are who they can be early on. Karen Miller is just coming into her own, it seems. Margo Lanagan started finding out what she was capable of about a decade ago.
Sometimes these writers are quite different in their changed voices. Sometimes their changed voices are simply a level more professional and interesting than their unchanged.
Now I'm wondering if that maturity correlates with a professionalism or a change in experience or was simply going to happen in any case. Given the high level of non-similarities between writers as human beings (I will not call us 'eccentric' but I shall think it softly) I rather suspect that each and every writer finds their maturity in their own way, in their own time, and for different reasons.
If I have time for a reading plan this year (on top of PhD and teaching and Aurealis) I shall try to read the first novels writers have produced after they hit this stage. I'm open to recommendations, for otherwise I'm not going to find them.
Sometimes these writers are quite different in their changed voices. Sometimes their changed voices are simply a level more professional and interesting than their unchanged.
Now I'm wondering if that maturity correlates with a professionalism or a change in experience or was simply going to happen in any case. Given the high level of non-similarities between writers as human beings (I will not call us 'eccentric' but I shall think it softly) I rather suspect that each and every writer finds their maturity in their own way, in their own time, and for different reasons.
If I have time for a reading plan this year (on top of PhD and teaching and Aurealis) I shall try to read the first novels writers have produced after they hit this stage. I'm open to recommendations, for otherwise I'm not going to find them.
