Gillian Polack's Blog, page 189
May 1, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-05-01T22:58:00
My break between term one and term 2 is tonight. And I've spent it sorting papers, eating pastizzi and watching episodes of Dr Who. The only thing remaining unto me before an early night is to choose tomorrow's book. It's Alex Bell's Jasmyn. I'm moving forward in time - today's (and yesterday's, for I had to finish one before I could start another) was from 2008. Thursday's will be from 2010 and the weekend's from 2011. This makes no more sense than choosing books by their cover or the number of pages, but it's fun. And the books make this busy fortnight a lot more fun. So do pastizzi and Dr Who.
April 30, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-05-01T13:59:00
I need three more hours right now. I have mainly big things to do and only forty-five minutes. I'm having a cuppa and then I shall read a review book for a bit. Won't get any of the big things done, but it will still make me feel as if I'm busy. Which I am.
Tonight is the last night of the novelist's toolbox course. It has gone so well that the ANU had decided to offer it in the second half year, as well. it's gone well because I've had a lovely class, which is always a bonus. And tomorrow I get my Wednesday class back, which is a double bonus.
And the tea and the blogging have served their purpose. I suddenly remember a whole slew of small tasks that ought to be done. I just forgot to put them on my lists!
ETA: All the things I wanted to do were buried under paper. What a surprise!
Tonight is the last night of the novelist's toolbox course. It has gone so well that the ANU had decided to offer it in the second half year, as well. it's gone well because I've had a lovely class, which is always a bonus. And tomorrow I get my Wednesday class back, which is a double bonus.
And the tea and the blogging have served their purpose. I suddenly remember a whole slew of small tasks that ought to be done. I just forgot to put them on my lists!
ETA: All the things I wanted to do were buried under paper. What a surprise!
gillpolack @ 2012-05-01T10:47:00
I'm all fine for teaching Latin and worldbuilding*. I have review books spilling in heaps. I've temporarily sorted my email problem. I'm about ready for a big cuppa.
The emails are going to continue to be a problem until I get that replacement netbook. Teaching, likewise, would be a lot easier if, for this sort of course, I could have my notes on the computer rather than have piles of paper spilling everywhere. I haven't heard back from the insurance people on the netbook yet, though (it and the camera** were the priority and everything except the jewellery has already happened or is well on the way) so there is now paper covering every flat surface again. My lounge room will appear from under it eventually, but that might not be until the next set of courses end. It feels a bit as if all the work to clear them was wasted, except it wasn't for the work that was previously inhabiting them is finished. Even though I'm drowning in paper and now need more toner for the printer (the trouble with no netbook is that everything I want to carry with me and use elsewhere has to be printed, so I'm printing over double what I normally would) I'm still very relieved that the handout are done. Even though I have catching-up to do because Latin had to take precedence.
My morning is an "I want more sleep" one, but that's largely the by-product of medication. It will pass in a couple of hours. Maybe I could sleep for those two hours and then wake up, sans medication hangover? It's such a very tempting thought!
*The teaching handouts are done - I just need to photocopy them.
**I've missed a few occasions for getting research/teaching materials without my camera! I so could have used one of them this Thursday. Can't be helped.
The emails are going to continue to be a problem until I get that replacement netbook. Teaching, likewise, would be a lot easier if, for this sort of course, I could have my notes on the computer rather than have piles of paper spilling everywhere. I haven't heard back from the insurance people on the netbook yet, though (it and the camera** were the priority and everything except the jewellery has already happened or is well on the way) so there is now paper covering every flat surface again. My lounge room will appear from under it eventually, but that might not be until the next set of courses end. It feels a bit as if all the work to clear them was wasted, except it wasn't for the work that was previously inhabiting them is finished. Even though I'm drowning in paper and now need more toner for the printer (the trouble with no netbook is that everything I want to carry with me and use elsewhere has to be printed, so I'm printing over double what I normally would) I'm still very relieved that the handout are done. Even though I have catching-up to do because Latin had to take precedence.
My morning is an "I want more sleep" one, but that's largely the by-product of medication. It will pass in a couple of hours. Maybe I could sleep for those two hours and then wake up, sans medication hangover? It's such a very tempting thought!
*The teaching handouts are done - I just need to photocopy them.
**I've missed a few occasions for getting research/teaching materials without my camera! I so could have used one of them this Thursday. Can't be helped.
gillpolack @ 2012-04-30T20:18:00
And in other news (I haven't said that phrase for simply hours!) my new BiblioBuffet piece has been up all day. I meant to post a link to it, but the Latin caught up with me. I've still got about two hours more work to do and then there will be a handout. The worldbuilding handout just needs to be rediscovered and extracted from the middle of the Latin printouts. By about 10.30 tonight I'll have reached 3 pm this afternoon.
My response to this is to take an hour off in forty minutes and the rest of the evening off the moment the Latin handout is sorted. Starting tomorrow I hit the busy period. I will just have to fit the missed work in between other things: it doesn't all have to be done tonight.
My response to this is to take an hour off in forty minutes and the rest of the evening off the moment the Latin handout is sorted. Starting tomorrow I hit the busy period. I will just have to fit the missed work in between other things: it doesn't all have to be done tonight.
gillpolack @ 2012-04-30T17:25:00
My Latin handout is less done than it was before because it appears that my students can't get the textbooks. Instead of being the super-brief summaries that the textbooks will then flesh out, the handout has to work for a six week course. This is very good for me in terms of Latin revision. It's less good for me in terms of time usage.
What does one do when one is faced with more Latin and less time? One buys an enormous bunch of grapes and dreams of Scipio.
What does one do when one is faced with more Latin and less time? One buys an enormous bunch of grapes and dreams of Scipio.
April 29, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-04-30T13:35:00
My Latin handout is three-quarters done. My world-building handout is entirely done. I've even written a bunch of emails (I am perpetually behind on my correspondence right now, because life is kinda like that). Two more items crossed off my day's list and I'm allowed to eat lunch and then go to the library. Also, I'm in danger of being efficient on a Monday. There's something very wrong with this.
New courses!
I completely forgot that today is design-of-new-handouts day. Tomorrow is photocopying day, all going well. If all doesn't go well (if I'm running late due to appointment running late) then Thursday becomes copying day.
One of the courses is Latin for Beginners, which is really a 6 week grammar session and starts 8 May. So many people want to know how nouns and verbs work, for instance. We'll read some simple texts by the end (probably Cicero, but I haven't decided yet) but most of the work will be on grammar.
The other one is a worldbuilding course, where we use the Middle Ages to construct a functional world for writing or gaming or other nefarious purposes. My show and tell for this course was, of course, stolen, but I have already found replacements for some things and others are on their way. This means that there will be fake pilgrim badges and other fine objects to play with and to help develop a sense that worlds can be real. I also have much, much butchers' paper (thanks to Rachel) and textas and coloured pencils, so there will be pretty pictures.
One of the courses is Latin for Beginners, which is really a 6 week grammar session and starts 8 May. So many people want to know how nouns and verbs work, for instance. We'll read some simple texts by the end (probably Cicero, but I haven't decided yet) but most of the work will be on grammar.
The other one is a worldbuilding course, where we use the Middle Ages to construct a functional world for writing or gaming or other nefarious purposes. My show and tell for this course was, of course, stolen, but I have already found replacements for some things and others are on their way. This means that there will be fake pilgrim badges and other fine objects to play with and to help develop a sense that worlds can be real. I also have much, much butchers' paper (thanks to Rachel) and textas and coloured pencils, so there will be pretty pictures.
gillpolack @ 2012-04-29T23:51:00
Ignore the second poll in the previous post. I was learning how to make polls. I always learn in public - it's more embarrassing that way!
Canberra on the Coast
I've decided that it's time to have a public vote on the best argument for Canberra being a coastal city*:
View Poll: Canberra on the Coast
submarine_bells A Sonnet in praise of Lake Burley Griffin
*I meant to do this two weeks ago, I know. Sorry!.View Poll: Canberra on the Coast
View Poll: Canberra on the Coast
submarine_bells A Sonnet in praise of Lake Burley Griffin
Your hometown's lake is nothing like the sea;
Yet somehow it retains a maritime flair.
If sea-bells be marine life, they'd not dwell
In Burley-Griffin's crystal waters fair.
I've seen sea-fishes swimming, small and slight
But no such creatures dwell off Canb'ra's coast.
I have not seen a kraken rise from there,
Nor singing mermaid choirs does it boast.
I love to hear the waves crash on the strand
And smell the briny crispness of the breeze.
Yet well I know that Canberra's lake lacks such,
E'en though its many charms may richly please.
And yet, by heaven, here's a jellyfish now!
So Burley Griffin's sea, or I'm a cow!
Cary Lenehan
This far-flung wide-brown country,
Its shape changed now to inverse.
For making a home with a gum tree,
Has formed now a lake in reverse.
So Sydney secure in the centre does hide,
Contained in terrain all covered in dirt.
And Canberra is now set on the seaside,
Adjoins the sea with which we’re girt.
*I meant to do this two weeks ago, I know. Sorry!.View Poll: Canberra on the Coast
gillpolack @ 2012-04-29T20:51:00
I've been persuaded that I've quite possibly done enough work for one day. I was given a polite talk by a close friend. I'm exactly halfway through the list of things that must be finished by 9 May, though, so it's a good time to take a break. If I don't finish the other half then I turn into a squeegee, but that's not going to happen tonight.
What will I do for the rest of this pleasantly cold evening? I shall finish Mike Shevdon's forthcoming book (which theoretically is work, but is so much fun that I can't count it as such) and make a start on Claudia Gray's Evernight (because the cover is so gorgeous that the book insisted on migrating to the top of my to-read pile and the inside is typeset in such a way that my tired eyes will actually enjoy reading the text, which is always a good thing to find in a novel) and I shall watch TV (Miss Fisher is on later) and eat a pomegranate.
I should start a shopping list, for I'm out of pomegranates after tonight and it's an astonishingly good season for them.
What will I do for the rest of this pleasantly cold evening? I shall finish Mike Shevdon's forthcoming book (which theoretically is work, but is so much fun that I can't count it as such) and make a start on Claudia Gray's Evernight (because the cover is so gorgeous that the book insisted on migrating to the top of my to-read pile and the inside is typeset in such a way that my tired eyes will actually enjoy reading the text, which is always a good thing to find in a novel) and I shall watch TV (Miss Fisher is on later) and eat a pomegranate.
I should start a shopping list, for I'm out of pomegranates after tonight and it's an astonishingly good season for them.
