Gillian Polack's Blog, page 244
June 15, 2011
Quantum poets
Today we didn't write much poetry. I reviewed the fine art of reviewing instead. When students said "We can't think of a film to review" I had them review the class. They wrote some of the funniest reviews I have ever read. I was in Evil Teacher mode, you see, and so they reviewed our class as taught by Evil Teacher.
We're now a third of the way through the quantum physics book, and the only complaint today was that there wasn't enough time spent on science. We were finishing a chapter and it all added up to about two lines of deep thought. They were two very important lines, however (about measuring the spectrum and about light as particles).
Instead of having a word of the day, we had bunches and bunches of Australian slang. Everyone's favourite piece of slang was 'rat coffin,' leading to a general resolution by the group that lunch together after class that they would not be getting meat pies.
Today's class had a personality. We laughed almost the whole way through. Students played jokes on each other and on me. We all gave cheek to each other. There were mock arguments. It was a great deal of fun.
We're now a third of the way through the quantum physics book, and the only complaint today was that there wasn't enough time spent on science. We were finishing a chapter and it all added up to about two lines of deep thought. They were two very important lines, however (about measuring the spectrum and about light as particles).
Instead of having a word of the day, we had bunches and bunches of Australian slang. Everyone's favourite piece of slang was 'rat coffin,' leading to a general resolution by the group that lunch together after class that they would not be getting meat pies.
Today's class had a personality. We laughed almost the whole way through. Students played jokes on each other and on me. We all gave cheek to each other. There were mock arguments. It was a great deal of fun.
June 14, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-06-14T21:44:00
My family history gets more and more interesting. The family's place of residence for the 1850 census (the last census before they left for Melbourne) turns out to be Bevis Marks Synagogue. I want to find out why. Instead I must do a manuscript assessment and work on my paper for Leeds.
I don't know whether the synagogue will be open the day I visit, but I was going to ogle the outside in any case. I'm hoping now there will be a tour or something and I can find out if the family was there because it was indigent (after the trial) or part of the congregation. Mum suggests that if the census was taken on Sukkot then a whole host of people would be 'resident' there.
What this may possibly mean (on top of all the possible reasons for having a synagogue address on the census) is that the family is mixed Sephardi-Ashkenazi. This would explain the family cooking perfectly. It also fits the family surnames. I find it very frustrating that I'm running out of time and can't check this out before I go!!
I don't know whether the synagogue will be open the day I visit, but I was going to ogle the outside in any case. I'm hoping now there will be a tour or something and I can find out if the family was there because it was indigent (after the trial) or part of the congregation. Mum suggests that if the census was taken on Sukkot then a whole host of people would be 'resident' there.
What this may possibly mean (on top of all the possible reasons for having a synagogue address on the census) is that the family is mixed Sephardi-Ashkenazi. This would explain the family cooking perfectly. It also fits the family surnames. I find it very frustrating that I'm running out of time and can't check this out before I go!!
gillpolack @ 2011-06-14T17:56:00
I just discovered the new Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine in my letterbox. It contains much yumminess. Only...I won't have time to read it until August.
Ah well, it will still contain much yumminess in August.
In the meantime, I get to admire the cover. Kathleen Jennings is an extraordinarily talented artist.
Ah well, it will still contain much yumminess in August.
In the meantime, I get to admire the cover. Kathleen Jennings is an extraordinarily talented artist.
June 13, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-06-14T09:37:00
This morning is the morning of heavy machinery and heavier arguments. Cars started pulling up outside my bedroom from about eight am. I used this as a reason to get out of bed and do work, except that the moment I did so the occupants of the cars decided to start arguing at great length (for an hour now, in a language I know not) outside my front door.
I want to suggest (mildly) that they take their squabble into private space or get on with the job they're supposed to be doing and leave me in peace. I have a cold, you see. Not a big cold. Not a major cold. Just a small, irritating cold. And their squabble and their machinery and their lack of awareness that there is anyone round other than them echoes my internal discomfort.
I have meetings all afternoon. Peace and quiet and possibly even hot chocolate. That'll sort things.
ETA: For the curious, it appears that the argument is being conducted in Cantonese (I finally found a word I recognised) and that the machinery is the carpet cleaning stuff that was supposed to be finished with last week. If the cleaners of the hall carpets argue the whole time, no wonder a two day job is taking two weeks. For the record, I have tile outside my front door, so I get all the noise and none of the cleaning.*
If they do not stop arguing, I shall put a notice on my front door saying "This is a quiet zone." It won't shut them up (nearly two hours of back-and-forth now, and going strong) but it will make me feel as if I control my own workspace.
The carpet cleaners also explains why I'm so cold. These idiots leave the security door open and the air outside is ten degrees.
Meetings. Hot chocolate. Not long now. If I say it enough, I'll feel warm and reassured.
*I was wrong. Someone is moving in upstairs and discussing every single box with his mates. In the cold. With the door open. With occasional anger but mostly with vehemence. The truck will be empty about the time I leave for my meeting. I gave up on warmth and just turned the heater off. The carpet cleaners must have come and gone at the same time.
I want to suggest (mildly) that they take their squabble into private space or get on with the job they're supposed to be doing and leave me in peace. I have a cold, you see. Not a big cold. Not a major cold. Just a small, irritating cold. And their squabble and their machinery and their lack of awareness that there is anyone round other than them echoes my internal discomfort.
I have meetings all afternoon. Peace and quiet and possibly even hot chocolate. That'll sort things.
ETA: For the curious, it appears that the argument is being conducted in Cantonese (I finally found a word I recognised) and that the machinery is the carpet cleaning stuff that was supposed to be finished with last week. If the cleaners of the hall carpets argue the whole time, no wonder a two day job is taking two weeks. For the record, I have tile outside my front door, so I get all the noise and none of the cleaning.*
If they do not stop arguing, I shall put a notice on my front door saying "This is a quiet zone." It won't shut them up (nearly two hours of back-and-forth now, and going strong) but it will make me feel as if I control my own workspace.
The carpet cleaners also explains why I'm so cold. These idiots leave the security door open and the air outside is ten degrees.
Meetings. Hot chocolate. Not long now. If I say it enough, I'll feel warm and reassured.
*I was wrong. Someone is moving in upstairs and discussing every single box with his mates. In the cold. With the door open. With occasional anger but mostly with vehemence. The truck will be empty about the time I leave for my meeting. I gave up on warmth and just turned the heater off. The carpet cleaners must have come and gone at the same time.
gillpolack @ 2011-06-13T13:03:00
It doesn't feel like the Queen's Birthday Weekend. In NSW and the ACT the Queen's Birthday is marked by fireworks, but this year there weren't any. Guy Fawkes' Night stopped being Guy Fawkes' Night when I moved to Sydney, because of the firework control (and because it turned out to be more a Melbourne thing), and now we don't have Queen's Birthday. The nights in my neighbourhood were quiet the whole time. Not even a domestic broke the placidity.
I don't miss the dangerous side of it. A kid at my primary school lost his eyesight and damaged an arm due to backyard fireworks, and I've worried about the well-being any number of animals since I was a child.
I certainly miss the fun side, however. Rockets that won't light. Big streamer fireworks that pump their sparkle out sideways by mistake and scoot across the yard, chasing errant parents. And the fountains - I loved the fountains. Whenever I was given a chance to pick a firework, I took my time, but I always chose a fountain.
I wonder if the Queen even knows that the day we celebrate for her birthday (not actually her birthday - her day of birth gets no holiday, unlike mine) is now a very ordinary long weekend, with most of Canberra vanished interstate to escape the cold? I wonder if we should move her birthday back about six weeks, so that Canberrans can search for snow, instead. Ski season to replace icy miseries?
My all-consuming question is "Why didn't I even notice the silence until just now?" We have just a half day of holiday left, and I didn't even realise I had missed it.
I don't miss the dangerous side of it. A kid at my primary school lost his eyesight and damaged an arm due to backyard fireworks, and I've worried about the well-being any number of animals since I was a child.
I certainly miss the fun side, however. Rockets that won't light. Big streamer fireworks that pump their sparkle out sideways by mistake and scoot across the yard, chasing errant parents. And the fountains - I loved the fountains. Whenever I was given a chance to pick a firework, I took my time, but I always chose a fountain.
I wonder if the Queen even knows that the day we celebrate for her birthday (not actually her birthday - her day of birth gets no holiday, unlike mine) is now a very ordinary long weekend, with most of Canberra vanished interstate to escape the cold? I wonder if we should move her birthday back about six weeks, so that Canberrans can search for snow, instead. Ski season to replace icy miseries?
My all-consuming question is "Why didn't I even notice the silence until just now?" We have just a half day of holiday left, and I didn't even realise I had missed it.
June 12, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-06-12T12:27:00
Today is yet another day of lists. If I can complete the small things then they add up to all-that-must-be-done and all is well. If I don't complete the small things, then I will run into trouble on too many fronts. So I am completing small things. Lots of small things.
My list of the day currently contains twenty-three items. I've done eight. When I've done ten, I'm allowed lunch. Very strict with myself today, I am*.
It all sounds very clinical, but the work itself isn't clinical at all. Some of it is my 1305 world, for instance. I'm polishing off the fixes from my edit so that I can focus on the Medieval side of it while I'm overseas. I managed to sprain a character's arm yesterday (this took much work) and to fix half the timeline. I roughly allocated dates for the other half, but I know it doesn't quite work. I rush some months and have other months on slow. That's one of the tasks for today - making December appear at the right time.
If I want lunch, I guess I'd better get to work!
*Also liable to Yoda-speak, because all the spam this morning was in Yoda-speak.
ETA: I'm halfway through my list and think I deserve coffee. Much coffee. As soon as possible.
My list of the day currently contains twenty-three items. I've done eight. When I've done ten, I'm allowed lunch. Very strict with myself today, I am*.
It all sounds very clinical, but the work itself isn't clinical at all. Some of it is my 1305 world, for instance. I'm polishing off the fixes from my edit so that I can focus on the Medieval side of it while I'm overseas. I managed to sprain a character's arm yesterday (this took much work) and to fix half the timeline. I roughly allocated dates for the other half, but I know it doesn't quite work. I rush some months and have other months on slow. That's one of the tasks for today - making December appear at the right time.
If I want lunch, I guess I'd better get to work!
*Also liable to Yoda-speak, because all the spam this morning was in Yoda-speak.
ETA: I'm halfway through my list and think I deserve coffee. Much coffee. As soon as possible.
June 11, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-06-11T21:09:00
Tonight I'm in updating mode. Most of the short courses I'll be teaching later in the year are now open for bookings - almost all of them are in Canberra and one is in Sydney. Two of them start in August, so I won't be around to remind everyone. The first (Magic and myth: from the Middle Ages to the 19th century - at the ANU) will be pure fun and the second (Page Perfect: Grammar, Punctuation and Presentation, at the NSW Writers' Centre in Rozelle) purely useful. I'll do another post in August or September, telling you about other courses.
While I'm reminding people of things, you might want to take a look at (if you haven't already) an impressive interview I did with Kaaron Warren. One day I need to find someone who wants to publish the English original. Cristian Tamas is responsible for this translation and also for dealing with any bad jokes I might have made in emails.
Is there anything else you want me to tell you about or remind you of? If there isn't, I might have run out of reasons to procrastinate. Ten more pages of editing before my next break! (Instead of background music, I have X-Men on TV. If it influences the novel, then there will be mutants in Languedoc in 1305.)
While I'm reminding people of things, you might want to take a look at (if you haven't already) an impressive interview I did with Kaaron Warren. One day I need to find someone who wants to publish the English original. Cristian Tamas is responsible for this translation and also for dealing with any bad jokes I might have made in emails.
Is there anything else you want me to tell you about or remind you of? If there isn't, I might have run out of reasons to procrastinate. Ten more pages of editing before my next break! (Instead of background music, I have X-Men on TV. If it influences the novel, then there will be mutants in Languedoc in 1305.)
gillpolack @ 2011-06-11T15:44:00
Today is an in-between day. I'm in between so many things that I don't know whether I"m coming or going, up or down, here or there. This probably means that I'm a bit all over. I'm spread everywhere.
In an ideal world, this would mean that, being spread thin, I was slender, but I'm still my roundabout self. My printer has finally decided to work, so this world may not be ideal, but it's currently almost functional.
PS We have interesting weather, in case you're wondering about hiccups in my writing. My editing is going very, very slowly.
In an ideal world, this would mean that, being spread thin, I was slender, but I'm still my roundabout self. My printer has finally decided to work, so this world may not be ideal, but it's currently almost functional.
PS We have interesting weather, in case you're wondering about hiccups in my writing. My editing is going very, very slowly.
June 10, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-06-10T12:24:00
I'm in between work. I did a slab of my article this morning and assembled most of the ingredients for a big pot of chilli-equivalent (since I'm not using a recipe and this is mostly to use up stuff). After my coffee, I'll do some other work (possibly on my novel) then I'll run a bunch of messages and then I'll do even more work.
As you can see, it's a very exciting day.
Actually, it could be. I just realised that I can kill someone. I need to make a plot note about it at this point, but it will be very useful on a number of fronts. I haven't developed the to-die character yet, so if anyone has a vast need for an accidental death, I'm happy to oblige.
As you can see, it's a very exciting day.
Actually, it could be. I just realised that I can kill someone. I need to make a plot note about it at this point, but it will be very useful on a number of fronts. I haven't developed the to-die character yet, so if anyone has a vast need for an accidental death, I'm happy to oblige.
June 9, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-06-09T14:22:00
I was so very impressed by the number of students who want to do work experience with me this year. Then I discovered the sad, sad truth. My work has been listed in the wrong place on the guidelines, so every kid with a vague experience in computers or who doesn't know what they want to do is ringing, mainly out of desperation. When someone rings now, I ask them what sort of work they wanted and then explain what I actually do. Most times, when I say "It's very hard work" I get "Thanks" and they go away. The other times, we've found out that my trip gets in the way a bit.
This means that there will be no work experience student this year, in all probability, which is a great pity. I was looking forward to sharing the proof-reading.
This means that there will be no work experience student this year, in all probability, which is a great pity. I was looking forward to sharing the proof-reading.
