Gillian Polack's Blog, page 170
July 16, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-17T15:18:00
I have lost a single power cord. If I can find it, I can play back old cassettes and decide which have to go. I need the space and it's a good background activity while working. It's a fine idea, all round.
In the process of looking for a single power cord (which was displaced during the burglary, of course) I have found many cords and a bunch of floppies and CDs and DVDs and bits of stray equipment of various kinds. They're being put back where they ought to have been and slowly, slowly I'm coming to an end of it. Still no cord for my cassette player, though. Which means I'm not nearly at an end of the sorting, I just think I am.
In the process of all this, I'm diminishing possessions a little. Not as much as I ought, but a little. And I found two giant bottles of that home made cherry liqueur. I remember putting them there, now.
This gradual process of diminution, sorting and rediscovery is going to take ma a long, long time, I fear. It will take longer if I keep forgetting the damaged hand and using it, too. I didn't redamage it too badly - just stretched it a bit. Expressing my boredom with hurt.
The only other thing to report right now is that I'll be writing about the Middle Ages (for BiblioBuffet, I think) until dinner, and after that I'm mostly modern until 8 August. If ever someone is foolish enough to write my biography, it should be called 'Mostly Modern.'
I really, really want that power cord, for so much of my dance tapes are eyeing me and want to be played. I used to be able to do (appallingly) a Thai classical dance and I found the music. And the music to some Indonesian dances I loved. What if I forget them during the time the cord is missing!
And now I'm into work avoidance.
In the process of looking for a single power cord (which was displaced during the burglary, of course) I have found many cords and a bunch of floppies and CDs and DVDs and bits of stray equipment of various kinds. They're being put back where they ought to have been and slowly, slowly I'm coming to an end of it. Still no cord for my cassette player, though. Which means I'm not nearly at an end of the sorting, I just think I am.
In the process of all this, I'm diminishing possessions a little. Not as much as I ought, but a little. And I found two giant bottles of that home made cherry liqueur. I remember putting them there, now.
This gradual process of diminution, sorting and rediscovery is going to take ma a long, long time, I fear. It will take longer if I keep forgetting the damaged hand and using it, too. I didn't redamage it too badly - just stretched it a bit. Expressing my boredom with hurt.
The only other thing to report right now is that I'll be writing about the Middle Ages (for BiblioBuffet, I think) until dinner, and after that I'm mostly modern until 8 August. If ever someone is foolish enough to write my biography, it should be called 'Mostly Modern.'
I really, really want that power cord, for so much of my dance tapes are eyeing me and want to be played. I used to be able to do (appallingly) a Thai classical dance and I found the music. And the music to some Indonesian dances I loved. What if I forget them during the time the cord is missing!
And now I'm into work avoidance.
July 15, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-16T16:03:00
I keep coming across books with 'Moonlight' in the title. One of them is a book that I haven't even seen yet (Sophie Masson's Moonlight and Ashes) and one looks as if it ought to have 'moonlight' in the title, but deceptively doesn't ("Midnight and Moonshine" - Angela Slatter and Lisa Hannett's forthcoming work).
All this has messed with my brain and I find myself developing titles for various writers. "Murder in Moonlight" would be by Dorothy Sayers and "Moonlight, moonflight" might be an Anne McCaffrey. "Mystical Moonlight" would be a new Mercedes Lackey and "Mayhem by Moonlight" would be Elinor M Brent-Dyer. "Muddy Moonlight," would be by me, I think, and "Muck by moonlight" would be grunge-steampunk by an author I have not yet read (but want to - grunge steampunk with a large dollop of daftness is my kind of book - hurry up and write 'Muck by moonlight,' someone!). 'Mirkwood by moonlight' is by JRRT, of course, and 'Malheureusement, Moonlight' by a literary author (who I shall not name) writing in the 1950s.
Can anyone add to the list?
All this has messed with my brain and I find myself developing titles for various writers. "Murder in Moonlight" would be by Dorothy Sayers and "Moonlight, moonflight" might be an Anne McCaffrey. "Mystical Moonlight" would be a new Mercedes Lackey and "Mayhem by Moonlight" would be Elinor M Brent-Dyer. "Muddy Moonlight," would be by me, I think, and "Muck by moonlight" would be grunge-steampunk by an author I have not yet read (but want to - grunge steampunk with a large dollop of daftness is my kind of book - hurry up and write 'Muck by moonlight,' someone!). 'Mirkwood by moonlight' is by JRRT, of course, and 'Malheureusement, Moonlight' by a literary author (who I shall not name) writing in the 1950s.
Can anyone add to the list?
gillpolack @ 2012-07-16T12:16:00
Canberra's sparkling winter weather has been replaced by cold days and nights that are only a few degrees colder. No day is quite warm enough to open windows and air things (right now, for instance, it's eight degrees outside) but it's not wet enough for us to get snow. The last time I remember snow in the valleys in Canberra was one November. We don't get snow. Just ice and cold.
July is Canberra's bad month, and the weather isn't helping. Tempers fray and moods fracture. Other cities can say, "Look, the days are getting longer," but longer days don't help in this city.
The trees are already showing their pre-Spring promise and jonquils have begun bobbing up sneakily, we can roast chestnuts and still enjoy swishing the last of the autumn leaves. This July has everything. Including the usual miseries. It's a strange month.
July is Canberra's bad month, and the weather isn't helping. Tempers fray and moods fracture. Other cities can say, "Look, the days are getting longer," but longer days don't help in this city.
The trees are already showing their pre-Spring promise and jonquils have begun bobbing up sneakily, we can roast chestnuts and still enjoy swishing the last of the autumn leaves. This July has everything. Including the usual miseries. It's a strange month.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-15T22:05:00
Just now I'm after almost any excuse to avoid doing any of the things I could do, from work, to dish washing to watching a DVD. I have deadlines, but they're all *days* away, and I'm still not wound back from the overwork bit. And, yes, I still hurt. The pain is winding down and as it winds down, the laziness winds up. What I want to do right now, in fact, is sit in front of an open fire with friends, roast chestnuts and tell really silly stories. Instead, I shall probably end up doing at least one or two of the things I planned to do. I shall just faff around a little, first. For I can, and it's only 10 pm and I have almost full use of all my fingers bar one so I have no excuses to avoid typing. I just have to haul my brain back from wherever it's gone wandering...
July 14, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-15T11:59:00
For another hour I am immersed in administrivia. I've already sent all sorts of drafted and completed documents off to all kinds of people who need them. I have just two more to revise and send, then I'm through this sequence of paperwork. Then I get to drop in on friends and deliver them things and after that, it's articles, articles, articles all day. The more articles I write, the easier my week will be. Tomorrow is Medieval, I think with more administrivia just to keep my life balanced. It would be a shame if my life were unbalanced.
In other news, Melbourne friends brought the cool Melbourne days with them. We need the rain, but it always seems to fall when I have no choice but to go outside.
The big news (in a small life) is that when I unbandaged my finger just now I discovered that the finger is almost down to normal size. I may need to rebandage it in a little, if bending is going to make it worse, but I'll give it some freedom, first. The infection is all gone, too. The aches in the rest of me are slowly going, and it's just a week since the accident, which means I'm healing rather nicely.
For my next feat, I shall issue stern instructions to the world to be gentle and generous for the next twenty years. I reckon I've earned that! In fact, give I've had 51 eventful years, I think the world should be gentle and generous for the same time again. Expect my next complaint when I'm 102.
In other news, Melbourne friends brought the cool Melbourne days with them. We need the rain, but it always seems to fall when I have no choice but to go outside.
The big news (in a small life) is that when I unbandaged my finger just now I discovered that the finger is almost down to normal size. I may need to rebandage it in a little, if bending is going to make it worse, but I'll give it some freedom, first. The infection is all gone, too. The aches in the rest of me are slowly going, and it's just a week since the accident, which means I'm healing rather nicely.
For my next feat, I shall issue stern instructions to the world to be gentle and generous for the next twenty years. I reckon I've earned that! In fact, give I've had 51 eventful years, I think the world should be gentle and generous for the same time again. Expect my next complaint when I'm 102.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-14T19:57:00
My level of high seriousness has been noted. On Twitter I've been told I'm not making puns when I ought to and on Facebook I've been (half-seriously) informed that I am entirely incapable of goofing off. Still, it was worth it. I've finished the footnotes and the review (except for the tidy-up tomorrow) and the dissertation is almost ready to wend its way across the country. I'd send it as is (since the remaining things are small) except that it's always better to push something to its current best, so that we don't have to pick up pieces I've already noted as needing picking up. It's a wonderful way of being lazy, actually doing the work early.
I would goof off tonight if there were anything to watch on TV. I've only got maybe an hour and a half of work to do and I could be tempted by superheroes or anime. Or chatting on the phone. Life conspires against me...except...I can watch Thierry la Fronde. Later, for the migraine must pass so that I can sing the theme tune loudly. I shall tell everyone who thinks I overwork that I am serious studying of the French language. I would be lying.
The other option is to start entering edits on my novel. When they're done, my supervisor gets a nice big package of material. He technically got back today and I was going to give him until Wednesday, but Monday is so much worse a time to receive a ton of stuff from a student.
Decisions, decisions.
And, actually, it's better for my supervisor if he gets the work tonight or tomorrow. This means I work tonight (in a little) but I can get so much stuff out of the way for Sydney that I get time to goof off in Sydney. I didn't mean to, honest!
I would goof off tonight if there were anything to watch on TV. I've only got maybe an hour and a half of work to do and I could be tempted by superheroes or anime. Or chatting on the phone. Life conspires against me...except...I can watch Thierry la Fronde. Later, for the migraine must pass so that I can sing the theme tune loudly. I shall tell everyone who thinks I overwork that I am serious studying of the French language. I would be lying.
The other option is to start entering edits on my novel. When they're done, my supervisor gets a nice big package of material. He technically got back today and I was going to give him until Wednesday, but Monday is so much worse a time to receive a ton of stuff from a student.
Decisions, decisions.
And, actually, it's better for my supervisor if he gets the work tonight or tomorrow. This means I work tonight (in a little) but I can get so much stuff out of the way for Sydney that I get time to goof off in Sydney. I didn't mean to, honest!
July 13, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-14T16:35:00
We're getting a bit of weather, I suspect. This means that the last two chapters of the dissertation have to be finished before dinner as planned (but also before the weather migraine takes over and muddies my brain. Still, last two chapters. It means I can do Exciting Other Stuff after dinner. *looks at list of Exciting Other Stuff* Three things can be done regardless of state of brain. This means that I can get today's work done today. What a novel thought.
Anyone following me on Twitter will be rather pleased when the last words of the dissertation are done today, too. I tweet when bored...
Anyone following me on Twitter will be rather pleased when the last words of the dissertation are done today, too. I tweet when bored...
gillpolack @ 2012-07-14T12:34:00
I am back in dissertation land until dinnertime. I am, in fact, reading aloud every single word, just to check continuity and sense and that I haven't too many egregious idiocies at this point. So far, my biggest problem appears to be that I have mentioned Appendix One but do not yet have an Appendix One.
At one stage I was going to have vast appendices that dwarfed the dissertation, but Van reminded me that I am not an historian in this case and asked me how many of them I needed. The answer was one and that one is maybe 27 lines. I'm not going to have more than 100 footnotes, either. This is sad, for I do like my footnotes.
There are differences between disciplines. I had so many tables containing Medieval manuscripts and their distribution and their dialects and their dates and their context for my first PhD. I knew which dialects were likely to produce scribes for Chretien de Troyes' works and which were likely to produce new stories following his lines. I knew the dialectal and date range for all the prose Arthur and Tristan manuscripts and for an awful lot of chansons de gestes (not the Crusade ones) and how they all made patterns over time and space. I learned so very much about how stories can be extended in various ways by different authors and through combining and recombining in different manuscripts. It was amazing fun and a bucket-load of work at the tail end.
I guess I don't miss the appendices. I still had the fun of research on the way through, and I don't have the bucketload of work at the tail end, trying to make them all make sense to outsiders and checking the cross-referencing fifty times. Same goes for the footnotes. I have them, and most of them are now in correct format (I hope - that's what this reading is for, to polish things up a little before my supervisor tears it all to pieces and I rend my garments and go wailing in the streets), but without all that cross-referencing with all those tables and with the bibliography (for my required style has more redundancy, so all I have to do is check the once at this stage) there is so much less work.
When people tell you that Creative Arts doctorates are easier, it's not because they're intellectually less demanding, but because of the saving in time and energy at this end. Also, as I said two years ago, I needed nine languages* plus palaeography and codicology for that first doctorate and for this I only need four languages**, all of which I already had.
* English, Old French, Old Occitan, Middle English, Latin, French, Franco-Italian (to read one work, basically), Spanish, Italian plus bits of German and Hebrew and others. I don't count the bits!
**English, Old French, French and Latin, for the curious. I'm not counting Old and Middle French as different languages, for that seems to be a bit of a cheat. My English is, in fact, almost tolerable.
At one stage I was going to have vast appendices that dwarfed the dissertation, but Van reminded me that I am not an historian in this case and asked me how many of them I needed. The answer was one and that one is maybe 27 lines. I'm not going to have more than 100 footnotes, either. This is sad, for I do like my footnotes.
There are differences between disciplines. I had so many tables containing Medieval manuscripts and their distribution and their dialects and their dates and their context for my first PhD. I knew which dialects were likely to produce scribes for Chretien de Troyes' works and which were likely to produce new stories following his lines. I knew the dialectal and date range for all the prose Arthur and Tristan manuscripts and for an awful lot of chansons de gestes (not the Crusade ones) and how they all made patterns over time and space. I learned so very much about how stories can be extended in various ways by different authors and through combining and recombining in different manuscripts. It was amazing fun and a bucket-load of work at the tail end.
I guess I don't miss the appendices. I still had the fun of research on the way through, and I don't have the bucketload of work at the tail end, trying to make them all make sense to outsiders and checking the cross-referencing fifty times. Same goes for the footnotes. I have them, and most of them are now in correct format (I hope - that's what this reading is for, to polish things up a little before my supervisor tears it all to pieces and I rend my garments and go wailing in the streets), but without all that cross-referencing with all those tables and with the bibliography (for my required style has more redundancy, so all I have to do is check the once at this stage) there is so much less work.
When people tell you that Creative Arts doctorates are easier, it's not because they're intellectually less demanding, but because of the saving in time and energy at this end. Also, as I said two years ago, I needed nine languages* plus palaeography and codicology for that first doctorate and for this I only need four languages**, all of which I already had.
* English, Old French, Old Occitan, Middle English, Latin, French, Franco-Italian (to read one work, basically), Spanish, Italian plus bits of German and Hebrew and others. I don't count the bits!
**English, Old French, French and Latin, for the curious. I'm not counting Old and Middle French as different languages, for that seems to be a bit of a cheat. My English is, in fact, almost tolerable.
gillpolack @ 2012-07-13T23:36:00
Regular as clockwork, one of my regular-as-clockwork issues has come back to plague me. Each time it returns, it does so with new twists. What scholars care about is seldom what the general public either wants to know or needs to learn. The amount of scholarship on a subject can't often be used to set-up a general article or book or chapter on a subject.
In this instance, it's a chapter of a book and the first draft was all my fault. I wrote lovingly about all my favourite types of Medieval literature. This means that I have the signal responsibility of fixing it, for I know the actual relative importance of Medieval literatures and I had done a careful balance between them and the scholarly importance, and I'd completely left out the general public. Since the general public is who the book is for...
Actually, it wasn't all my fault. It's the way we think about the Middle Ages and are taught them. It's the way some of us focus on Arthur, or some on Icelandic sagas or some on hagiography. Even the best overviews are fuelled by the base we learn from.
I can't ever eliminate my own specialisations. All I can do is balance them a bit more and write something that makes sense of Medieval literature so that someone who reads it has a balanced and straightforward entry point. I made a terrible bosh of the first go, and a bad but not quite as bad bosh of the second. And I've had critical assistance along the way. I don't normally need so many drafts! The problem is that I know the subject too closely and from too particular an angle.
It's very good for me to write for those who don't know my subject at all: it's a salutary lesson. Maybe all specialists should write one book (or one chapter, anyhow) for those who know their subject not at all, and get that sense of "Oh, I didn't know I was carrying this bias," and "My goodness, do I really love this bit so much that I completely exclude all those others?" and "This isn't an overview, it's my first doctorate in miniature." In fact, that first doctorate is part of it. These advanced degrees engrave patterns into our brains, and they're not always the patterns we either need or think we have. It does me a great deal of good to question mine.
In this instance, it's a chapter of a book and the first draft was all my fault. I wrote lovingly about all my favourite types of Medieval literature. This means that I have the signal responsibility of fixing it, for I know the actual relative importance of Medieval literatures and I had done a careful balance between them and the scholarly importance, and I'd completely left out the general public. Since the general public is who the book is for...
Actually, it wasn't all my fault. It's the way we think about the Middle Ages and are taught them. It's the way some of us focus on Arthur, or some on Icelandic sagas or some on hagiography. Even the best overviews are fuelled by the base we learn from.
I can't ever eliminate my own specialisations. All I can do is balance them a bit more and write something that makes sense of Medieval literature so that someone who reads it has a balanced and straightforward entry point. I made a terrible bosh of the first go, and a bad but not quite as bad bosh of the second. And I've had critical assistance along the way. I don't normally need so many drafts! The problem is that I know the subject too closely and from too particular an angle.
It's very good for me to write for those who don't know my subject at all: it's a salutary lesson. Maybe all specialists should write one book (or one chapter, anyhow) for those who know their subject not at all, and get that sense of "Oh, I didn't know I was carrying this bias," and "My goodness, do I really love this bit so much that I completely exclude all those others?" and "This isn't an overview, it's my first doctorate in miniature." In fact, that first doctorate is part of it. These advanced degrees engrave patterns into our brains, and they're not always the patterns we either need or think we have. It does me a great deal of good to question mine.
July 12, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-07-13T13:08:00
I must be recovering, for all I can do today is sleep. I did an hour's work this morning before I gave up and went back to bed and I've been up nearly an hour again now, when the same thing is happening. The other possibility is that I'm coming down with something and this possibility is one I refuse to admit.
I re-bound my finger yesterday and it needs a couple more days secured, but it's definitely improving. The infection is all gone and all the swelling and bruising except around the joints. Most of the muscles (except on the one hand, obviously - there's a joke in there, somewhere) are almost fine, and I was able to wash some light dishes last night and wash my hair (one handed washing!) today. Tomorrow I get to put the rubbish out and on Sunday I tackle the heavier dishes. And I can put on shoes again, not just zip-up halfboots.
I'm progressing, except for this tiredness. I was wondering how such a simple accident could lead to so much fatigue, and then I realised it was on top of a really busy semester, with much teaching (90+ hours), and PhD work, and some travel and exceptional eventfulness and that I followed up the simple accident with 12 1/2 hours work. I have much to do today, but my body is definitely telling me that it needs a nap, first. Again!
Next time, I shall take a holiday.
I re-bound my finger yesterday and it needs a couple more days secured, but it's definitely improving. The infection is all gone and all the swelling and bruising except around the joints. Most of the muscles (except on the one hand, obviously - there's a joke in there, somewhere) are almost fine, and I was able to wash some light dishes last night and wash my hair (one handed washing!) today. Tomorrow I get to put the rubbish out and on Sunday I tackle the heavier dishes. And I can put on shoes again, not just zip-up halfboots.
I'm progressing, except for this tiredness. I was wondering how such a simple accident could lead to so much fatigue, and then I realised it was on top of a really busy semester, with much teaching (90+ hours), and PhD work, and some travel and exceptional eventfulness and that I followed up the simple accident with 12 1/2 hours work. I have much to do today, but my body is definitely telling me that it needs a nap, first. Again!
Next time, I shall take a holiday.
