Gillian Polack's Blog, page 228
October 9, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-10-09T13:30:00
Today is an 'I don't wanna' day. I have work to do and I start it and then I stop it again. This is my body telling me it's finally on the mend. I'm giving my body until Tuesday to feel woeful and after that, it needs to pick up its game. If anyone wants to go to Floriade on Tuesday, I'm going. My legs will cease wobbling and my brain will cease to be mush.
Tomorrow I have a greater aim. All of the half-finished documents from the last three days will be finished with and emailed to their various homes. I count six unfinished things, in all. I don't know where they came from, because I haven't had time to start things and yet, here they are, forms partly filled in, papers partly written, books partly read. This is the price of all those antibiotics. I'll be glad when Tuesday comes and I get to spend a half day wandering through flowers.
If anyone wants to visit Floriade with me on Tuesday, you are very welcome. If anyone wants to finish my unfinished work, then you are even more welcome!
Tomorrow I have a greater aim. All of the half-finished documents from the last three days will be finished with and emailed to their various homes. I count six unfinished things, in all. I don't know where they came from, because I haven't had time to start things and yet, here they are, forms partly filled in, papers partly written, books partly read. This is the price of all those antibiotics. I'll be glad when Tuesday comes and I get to spend a half day wandering through flowers.
If anyone wants to visit Floriade with me on Tuesday, you are very welcome. If anyone wants to finish my unfinished work, then you are even more welcome!
October 8, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-10-08T19:19:00
I am safely through the Fast. I am now allowed to be officially cheerful again. I'm also allowed to wend my way through lists and wonder why work never finishes and why everything comes out awry. Also, why there's nothing decent on TV at the odd times I can actually watch it.
I've started listing deadlines and can't think of nearly enough to list. If anyone wants me to meet a deadline, tell me what it is and I'll list it and we'll see what happens. So far my best bet is persuading Cat (whom I shall be visiting down the coast soon, for those who are worried about my persistent illness - going to the sea for wellness is *such* a Victorian thing to do, but I was born and brought up in Victoria, so it is appropriate) that she needs a honey cake and that I need to make it. Most of my deadlines are things like course proposals and chapters of dissertation and reducing piles of paper that have somehow accumulated again. Honey cake is far more exciting.
Speaking of excitement, I have 1000 words less to write on my dissertation than I thought. This is because those words were hiding in Ch 4 and really belong in Ch 5 and Ch 4 was too long and not lucid. It's still not lucid, but it's no longer too long. I'm wondering if I cut and shift text from one novel to another whether this will count as High Literary Writing and make me my reputation as deep and dire and controversial. I'm tempted to do it tonight, just because I can. I want to see if my beta readers notice...
I've started listing deadlines and can't think of nearly enough to list. If anyone wants me to meet a deadline, tell me what it is and I'll list it and we'll see what happens. So far my best bet is persuading Cat (whom I shall be visiting down the coast soon, for those who are worried about my persistent illness - going to the sea for wellness is *such* a Victorian thing to do, but I was born and brought up in Victoria, so it is appropriate) that she needs a honey cake and that I need to make it. Most of my deadlines are things like course proposals and chapters of dissertation and reducing piles of paper that have somehow accumulated again. Honey cake is far more exciting.
Speaking of excitement, I have 1000 words less to write on my dissertation than I thought. This is because those words were hiding in Ch 4 and really belong in Ch 5 and Ch 4 was too long and not lucid. It's still not lucid, but it's no longer too long. I'm wondering if I cut and shift text from one novel to another whether this will count as High Literary Writing and make me my reputation as deep and dire and controversial. I'm tempted to do it tonight, just because I can. I want to see if my beta readers notice...
October 7, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-10-07T13:53:00
A quick reminder: don't panic if I don't answer the phone or emails from dusk tonight until quite late tomorrow. I'll be home, but in Holiest-Day-of-Year mode.
gillpolack @ 2011-10-07T13:10:00
This morning has ben largely about food history. This amuses me. I thought I had finished with food history for a couple of years, with the publication of the cookbook, but I forgot the Beast...
This afternoon is about messages and course proposals. This evening is Kol Nidre.
What other astonishing facts about time and life do you need to know? None, for I am going to eat lunch instead of stating such things.
This afternoon is about messages and course proposals. This evening is Kol Nidre.
What other astonishing facts about time and life do you need to know? None, for I am going to eat lunch instead of stating such things.
October 6, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-10-07T00:33:00
I'm a bit worried. My recalcitrant chapter is about the right length and might be in danger of making sense. I had all kinds of notes saying that this bit needed more research and the other bit needed expanding, but I decided to draw threads in together before doing that and lo, most of my research notes disappeared. It will no doubt need vast amounts of work done to it after my supervisor has seen it, but it means I'm 1/3 of the way into sending a bunch of stuff to him. It also means that I'm on schedule, despite all these illnesses. This I owe to the Monash mob*, whose seminar meant I thought about these issues and my backbrain thought about these issues and I was able to see that I kind of maybe perhaps sort of understood them. The question now is whether I've kind of maybe perhaps sort of explained them, and that's where my supervisor comes in.
When I've done the other 2/3, I promise zombie ancestry theory. Celebratively, of course.
This week's celebration is that the Vector editorial included a discussion of my cookbook. Thanks, Shana!
*If anyone else wants me to give a seminar, I'd be delighted. That one was so very useful!
When I've done the other 2/3, I promise zombie ancestry theory. Celebratively, of course.
This week's celebration is that the Vector editorial included a discussion of my cookbook. Thanks, Shana!
*If anyone else wants me to give a seminar, I'd be delighted. That one was so very useful!
gillpolack @ 2011-10-06T12:33:00
Today is about sleeping and taking medicine and getting up and thinking "I must do stuff!" and getting halfway through it and then sleeping and taking more medicine. It's what I should have been doing from Friday to Monday, last week.
I'm doing work on my dissertation in between the sleeping and etc, as I need to get a draft chapter done before Kol Nidre. My current thought is "However did I write this garbage?" which is about right for where I ought to be at the moment. If one doesn't get the garbage check early, then it appears at the last minute and can cause major problems. After I've had my next rest, I have to reduce the garbage factor, which is proving slow and fiddly.
I have now mislaid my letterbox keys as well as all my backdoor keys (actually, I only mislaid one back door key - the others have mislaid themselves). The world is trying to tell me something. Possibly that it's time to go to sleep again. Although it may be that I have a bunch of work to do to get my study back to where it needs to be. A lot of people have been through my flat recently, and even the most well-intended friends will rearrange books when they pick them up to look at them and none of my piles actually reflect any of the things they need to which means that I really don't know what I'm doing. This kind of thing must be much easier for people who don't work using stacks and three dimensional reminders. The first thing after I rest *this* time will obviously be to try to find out where I was up to with all sorts of things. maybe the keys will mysteriously appear if I do this?
ETA: Letterbox keys have reappeared. Life is normal as long as I don't want to use my back door.
I'm doing work on my dissertation in between the sleeping and etc, as I need to get a draft chapter done before Kol Nidre. My current thought is "However did I write this garbage?" which is about right for where I ought to be at the moment. If one doesn't get the garbage check early, then it appears at the last minute and can cause major problems. After I've had my next rest, I have to reduce the garbage factor, which is proving slow and fiddly.
I have now mislaid my letterbox keys as well as all my backdoor keys (actually, I only mislaid one back door key - the others have mislaid themselves). The world is trying to tell me something. Possibly that it's time to go to sleep again. Although it may be that I have a bunch of work to do to get my study back to where it needs to be. A lot of people have been through my flat recently, and even the most well-intended friends will rearrange books when they pick them up to look at them and none of my piles actually reflect any of the things they need to which means that I really don't know what I'm doing. This kind of thing must be much easier for people who don't work using stacks and three dimensional reminders. The first thing after I rest *this* time will obviously be to try to find out where I was up to with all sorts of things. maybe the keys will mysteriously appear if I do this?
ETA: Letterbox keys have reappeared. Life is normal as long as I don't want to use my back door.
October 5, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-10-05T19:09:00
My back door keys are all unaccountably missing...again. I was holding one in my very own hands yesterday (when Emma gave it to me) so this is at least partly my fault. I put back door keys down in safe places and then they wander.
gillpolack @ 2011-10-05T15:34:00
When I wear the right glasses, I can see what I type. It's surprising how my error-rate suddenly diminishes and how nearly literate I suddenly appear. (I forgot my reading glasses for the whole of Conflux. I am so clever!)
Writing Women's Stories
If you were intending on doing my Writing Women's Stories course http://www.anu.edu.au/cce/cecourses/outlines/literature/Womensstories.pdf it needs a few more people in a hurry if it's not to be cancelled. (It's not me, I've been reassured - the whole ACT evening courses have low enrolments right now. We are at the whim of the political winds...)
If it *does* get cancelled, I shall be able to visit Cat and Mike and the sunny, sunny beach far earlier and I shall rid me of this troublesome cough. I shall have money or I shall have health - it's a no lose situation. (Although, having said that, I'd really prefer to teach. I love teaching this course. It's one of the most interesting of the writing ones because it's skills and knowledge and self-expression and just a whale of fun.)
If it *does* get cancelled, I shall be able to visit Cat and Mike and the sunny, sunny beach far earlier and I shall rid me of this troublesome cough. I shall have money or I shall have health - it's a no lose situation. (Although, having said that, I'd really prefer to teach. I love teaching this course. It's one of the most interesting of the writing ones because it's skills and knowledge and self-expression and just a whale of fun.)
October 4, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-10-04T21:26:00
Conflux cookbook order form - by popular request (and thanks to Stuart Herring): http://conflux.org.au/conflux_cookbook_order_form.pdf
