Gillian Polack's Blog, page 278
December 28, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-12-28T18:46:00
I need to apologise to everyone I have grumped at today.
I have the last stages of a virus and I'm full of almost-post-viral gloom. I also have a very, very busy few weeks ahead of me and there are just 2 things that aren't out of the way (that ought to have been done days ago) because people around me didn't pay attention to due dates. If they had emailed me and said "We can't do this - any chance of a bit more time," that would have kept things manageable (because I would have shifted things round), but they didn't and I don't feel well and now I have to fit two extra things into an already-busy period and so I'm grumpy. I feel guilty for grumping, of course, which makes me grumpier.
Only four hours PhD work left to do today and then I can take the rest of the day off and lounge around in glorious grumptitude. And I'm taking tomorrow afternoon and dinnertime off regardless. Rachel and I have foodie plans. And I've decided that if I can't get to Val's for NY any other way, I shall walk and so I shall have a NYE party. Take, that, evil universe!
PS I forgot - one hour other stuff as well as PhD. Very tempting to forget the other stuff...
I have the last stages of a virus and I'm full of almost-post-viral gloom. I also have a very, very busy few weeks ahead of me and there are just 2 things that aren't out of the way (that ought to have been done days ago) because people around me didn't pay attention to due dates. If they had emailed me and said "We can't do this - any chance of a bit more time," that would have kept things manageable (because I would have shifted things round), but they didn't and I don't feel well and now I have to fit two extra things into an already-busy period and so I'm grumpy. I feel guilty for grumping, of course, which makes me grumpier.
Only four hours PhD work left to do today and then I can take the rest of the day off and lounge around in glorious grumptitude. And I'm taking tomorrow afternoon and dinnertime off regardless. Rachel and I have foodie plans. And I've decided that if I can't get to Val's for NY any other way, I shall walk and so I shall have a NYE party. Take, that, evil universe!
PS I forgot - one hour other stuff as well as PhD. Very tempting to forget the other stuff...
December 27, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-12-27T20:08:00
It has finally dawned on me that Gollum's biggest problem is that he lacked any interests outside the One Ring. I therefore plan (retrospectively) to give Gollum a hobby. I'm torn between sending him a membership of the Red Dwarf Fan Club, a complete set of Robert Harbin's origami books (and paper to match), a knitting compendium, and a lifetime membership of Manchester United.
Aragorn also needs a hobby, but since tatting is the obvious answer to this, no further contemplation is necessary.
Aragorn also needs a hobby, but since tatting is the obvious answer to this, no further contemplation is necessary.
December 26, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-12-26T16:38:00
We might be getting a bit more Weather. This is getting absurd. Anyhow, I've done 4 out of the 9 things I planned for today on the work front, had had two nice insights for my dissertation (I know what I'm doing! this is reassuring) and have finished 1/3 of my LOTR marathon. I have 8 hours for the rest. Either that, or tomorrow morning can be an extended part of today. I want to finish all this, though, while everyone's busy doing other things.
Three of the four things I completed were fairly intensive or painstaking and needed much focus and would have been a total pain if I had been interrupted.
Three of the four things I completed were fairly intensive or painstaking and needed much focus and would have been a total pain if I had been interrupted.
gillpolack @ 2010-12-26T13:28:00
Friends in and near Christchurch - I hope you and yours and everyone round you is fine. Thinking many anti-earthquake thoughts your way.
December 25, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-12-26T10:12:00
It's my father's birthday today. One of his great legacies to me was giving me the strength to boldly tell bad jokes, especially puns. In his honour, may I encourage you to share all the jokes that are normally too bad to tell? Dentist and rock jokes are especially important.
Anyone who doesn't want to tell jokes is enitrely welcome to groan at appropriate intervals.
Canberra doesn't seem to do panto. I say this every year. Today I really, really want a pantomime. My LOTR viewing might be spattered with cries of "He's behind you." This is my contribution to Dad's birthday.
Anyone who doesn't want to tell jokes is enitrely welcome to groan at appropriate intervals.
Canberra doesn't seem to do panto. I say this every year. Today I really, really want a pantomime. My LOTR viewing might be spattered with cries of "He's behind you." This is my contribution to Dad's birthday.
gillpolack @ 2010-12-25T22:54:00
Responses to pain are curious. When I talk too much, it's very likely I'm hiding (from myself) that pain is gradually creeping up. That's what happened today. Thank goodness for friends, who understand that I talk. Their kindness meant I had a marvellous day, right up to the time when I could no longer deny I hurt.
The next couple of days may not be terribly easy, but the last couple of days have been totally cool. And I shall have Aragorn and Tim Tams and etc as solace. Friends are worth their weight in diamonds.
The next couple of days may not be terribly easy, but the last couple of days have been totally cool. And I shall have Aragorn and Tim Tams and etc as solace. Friends are worth their weight in diamonds.
gillpolack @ 2010-12-25T22:06:00
I am done with Michael Crichton. I have a stack of notes and they just need a couple of days of thinking before I can write them up. Tomorrow I move onto less parlous lands.
I think the thing that annoyed me most was his lack of consistency. Just in case you need to know.
I think the thing that annoyed me most was his lack of consistency. Just in case you need to know.
December 24, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-12-24T22:48:00
Timeline is still like listening to the douce music of fingernails across a blackboard. Did you know that the study of medieval mills is much neglected? Also that it is highly controversial to study Medieval science and the safest way to do so (in career terms) is to study things like the three-field system? It's important to know these things before I do anything rash like become a Medievalist. Oh, wait, it's too late. I am damned.
My background viewing is the sorrowful Earthsea movie. (Update 1: It's not as bad a movie as I thought it would be. Where it goes wrong is an almost total misunderstanding of the key themes of the book, plus a great confusion concerning ethnicities. I find I don't mind the plot reconfiguration nearly as much as I mind them missing the point/s.)
I emerge into reality at midnight. Wish me luck.
Update 2: nearly finished tonight's section. The good news is that Crichton's errors are not the problem. I've enjoyed novels with far worse history. It's that he both disrespects his experts and relies on them to save the day. I'm really not sure, actually, that he likes *any* of his characters.
It's the "Historians are wrong" approach that makes me want to search out errors and holes in his narrative, even where there are none (although there are not none, just to make it clear) - it just makes me squirm and the way I seem to respond emotionally to squirming is to find out if he has any reason to assume the lousiness of historians. And every time he mucks up I want to say "Serves you right."
If he had shifted the narrative slightly to show just a bit more understanding of what historians do, I wouldn't be squirming and I wouldn't be saying "Ha, ha." I'd be admiring his narrative skills. (He's kinder to archaeologists, for the record. He gives them some wonderful equipment. That's kinder, isn't it?)
Final update for the night: I read an extra thirty pages so I'll be finished faster. I don't think I should be watching the film version of JRRT with this book running through my mind.
My last question of the evening is one for which maybe one of you know the answer. Was Michael Crichton raised in a monoglottal society? It reads like it.
My background viewing is the sorrowful Earthsea movie. (Update 1: It's not as bad a movie as I thought it would be. Where it goes wrong is an almost total misunderstanding of the key themes of the book, plus a great confusion concerning ethnicities. I find I don't mind the plot reconfiguration nearly as much as I mind them missing the point/s.)
I emerge into reality at midnight. Wish me luck.
Update 2: nearly finished tonight's section. The good news is that Crichton's errors are not the problem. I've enjoyed novels with far worse history. It's that he both disrespects his experts and relies on them to save the day. I'm really not sure, actually, that he likes *any* of his characters.
It's the "Historians are wrong" approach that makes me want to search out errors and holes in his narrative, even where there are none (although there are not none, just to make it clear) - it just makes me squirm and the way I seem to respond emotionally to squirming is to find out if he has any reason to assume the lousiness of historians. And every time he mucks up I want to say "Serves you right."
If he had shifted the narrative slightly to show just a bit more understanding of what historians do, I wouldn't be squirming and I wouldn't be saying "Ha, ha." I'd be admiring his narrative skills. (He's kinder to archaeologists, for the record. He gives them some wonderful equipment. That's kinder, isn't it?)
Final update for the night: I read an extra thirty pages so I'll be finished faster. I don't think I should be watching the film version of JRRT with this book running through my mind.
My last question of the evening is one for which maybe one of you know the answer. Was Michael Crichton raised in a monoglottal society? It reads like it.
gillpolack @ 2010-12-24T20:51:00
I have started reading Timeline again. It's less aggravating this time round because I'm pulling the technique to pieces. Crichton has some good technique, whether I like his books or not. There are reasons for best-sellers, whether one wants to admit it or not.
What's also less aggravating this year are the comments about me eating Chinese food tomorrow. I'm counting the comments and when they reach a mystery number (known only to me) I shall make a cultural reference that is equally not related to me or to the person who made the comment. Everyone who has already mentioned me eating Chinese food on 25 December is safe - they didn't hit that secret number.
Does anyone know if Chinese restaurants are even open on December 25 in Canberra? I keep meaning to find out but have never quite got round to it.
My contribution to cross-cultural understanding tonight is watching Spicks and Specks and tomorrow I'm having a fabulous afternoon with awesome friends (I get to play with toddler! and eat amazing icecream and turkey! - though maybe I should eat one then the other and not mix them too much).
Does anyone want my family Christmas cake or pudding recipe? Old Australian Jewish Christmas cake and Christmas pudding, from a good line with just a touch of convict heritage. Make sure I have your email address if you want either. I can also give you Chinese recipes given to me from my Hong Kong friends, just in case you're convinced that Chinese food is universally Jewish.
And now I'm blathering as work avoidance. Every day I don't take off now, I get to take in April (birthday!) or in July (UK and friends!) or in September (Rosh Hashanah with family*). I'd better get back to work.
*Passover in Melbourne is in abeyance due to the money thing. Even if it's in abeyance, I shall have some sort of seder at my place, preferably a silly one. With chicken soup. Chicken soup is holiday food - Chinese takeaway is not.
PS Here I give my humble apologies to the one friend who commented on Chinese food in a semi-public place. It's not fair on her, when all sorts of other people commented privately. It is not her fault. It's me being annoyed at the number of souls who have recently assumed I have the same heritage as Woody Allen. Maybe I look like him? Maybe I have his dress sense? OK, now I'm scaring myself.
What's also less aggravating this year are the comments about me eating Chinese food tomorrow. I'm counting the comments and when they reach a mystery number (known only to me) I shall make a cultural reference that is equally not related to me or to the person who made the comment. Everyone who has already mentioned me eating Chinese food on 25 December is safe - they didn't hit that secret number.
Does anyone know if Chinese restaurants are even open on December 25 in Canberra? I keep meaning to find out but have never quite got round to it.
My contribution to cross-cultural understanding tonight is watching Spicks and Specks and tomorrow I'm having a fabulous afternoon with awesome friends (I get to play with toddler! and eat amazing icecream and turkey! - though maybe I should eat one then the other and not mix them too much).
Does anyone want my family Christmas cake or pudding recipe? Old Australian Jewish Christmas cake and Christmas pudding, from a good line with just a touch of convict heritage. Make sure I have your email address if you want either. I can also give you Chinese recipes given to me from my Hong Kong friends, just in case you're convinced that Chinese food is universally Jewish.
And now I'm blathering as work avoidance. Every day I don't take off now, I get to take in April (birthday!) or in July (UK and friends!) or in September (Rosh Hashanah with family*). I'd better get back to work.
*Passover in Melbourne is in abeyance due to the money thing. Even if it's in abeyance, I shall have some sort of seder at my place, preferably a silly one. With chicken soup. Chicken soup is holiday food - Chinese takeaway is not.
PS Here I give my humble apologies to the one friend who commented on Chinese food in a semi-public place. It's not fair on her, when all sorts of other people commented privately. It is not her fault. It's me being annoyed at the number of souls who have recently assumed I have the same heritage as Woody Allen. Maybe I look like him? Maybe I have his dress sense? OK, now I'm scaring myself.
gillpolack @ 2010-12-24T12:32:00
I managed to do most of the work I had planned last night, though I admit, it was a late night. Two thousand words of various kinds were written and at least five hundred of them are good words. I have a good list of things for today, too. This is the hard-work time of year.
My turkey has been done unto. Twenty-three meals it made, in its entirety. Just as well I didn't get a bigger one! I have ten containers of bouillon and lots of packages of meat and it all makes me glow inside. I love full pantries and larders and freezers. My family may be generations removed from Europe, but something in me still wants to stock up against winter.
My work today is mostly thesis and cookbook, but with a few reviews thrown in for good measure. These are possibly not the reviews anyone was expecting.
My turkey has been done unto. Twenty-three meals it made, in its entirety. Just as well I didn't get a bigger one! I have ten containers of bouillon and lots of packages of meat and it all makes me glow inside. I love full pantries and larders and freezers. My family may be generations removed from Europe, but something in me still wants to stock up against winter.
My work today is mostly thesis and cookbook, but with a few reviews thrown in for good measure. These are possibly not the reviews anyone was expecting.
