Gillian Polack's Blog, page 308

gillpolack @ 2010-06-17T18:06:00

Today I'm sorting out a calendar, sunset times and phases of the moon for a particular year. For anything more recent than the late eighteenth century, this is dead easy: my favourite calendar program will do it all automatically. For anything earlier, I have to adjust it manually to fit the Julian reality. I use another calendar program to calculate the difference and then sort it, slowly. There is probably a better method than this, but it acquaints me with the characteristics of the sp...

Medieval everything - teaching and research and fiction

Only two more Wednesday classes this term. From next term my students only get me for 50% of the time (the joy of budget cuts). Today this was announced and we dealt with it by looking at English language history. I love this class. Whenever we get stressed they want to know about the Middle Ages.

Today was the day for the asking of questions. One persistent question over the last few weeks (since I took up study again) has been what the difference is between a doctorate and an undergrad d...

Medieval everything - teaching and research and fic tion

Only two more Wednesday classes this term. From next term my students only get me for 50% of the time (the joy of budget cuts). Today this was announced and we dealt with it by looking at English language history. I love this class. Whenever we get stressed they want to know about the Middle Ages.

Today was the day for the asking of questions. One persistent question over the last few weeks (since I took up study again) has been what the difference is between a doctorate and an undergrad d...

gillpolack @ 2010-06-15T21:47:00

I spent a long fifteen minutes looking for a map of dolmens and other prehistoric lumps in Herault (SE France). I didn't find anything online and it's really not something I have time to chase in libraries.

I spent a far more successful five minutes finding the border between Aragon and Languedoc in the second half of the thirteenth century. I spent a full hour trying to work out what the interior of those Languedocian hilltop castles (not the ultra-famous ones that get called 'Cathar', bu...

gillpolack @ 2010-06-14T14:10:00

Cat has started a bit of a ball rolling. her aim is to get Peter Watts to AussieCon. Check it out.

gillpolack @ 2010-06-14T12:16:00

I might do a proper post later, but, in the meantime, my latest article for Bibliobuffet is all about the covers of speculative fiction books, Australian, British and from the US. Given that some of the covers are very well known to some of you (from your press or for your book) I do hope that I survive the article!

gillpolack @ 2010-06-13T12:22:00

My reading for Sunday lunchtime is an interesting follow-up on the Jewish fantasy discussion. It touches on some issues that keep invading my life (the Jewish privilege one, for instance - it's good to see it recognised) and it has links to articles that deal with even more issues. It's so strange to recognise things I've experienced in things other people say.

gillpolack @ 2010-06-12T21:28:00

A very quiet day has improved the physical side of things and I'm dealing with the other side. I have to admit, i could do without the soap opera elements of my life, sometimes. One of my friends commented that I'd done interesting things. I haven't, really, but the extraordinary and strange often gravitates towards me. Other people have to travel and lead exciting lives: I stay in my loungeroom (I'm still famous in my loungeroom, in case you were wondering) and excitement plonks itself ...

a health post - sorry

Today is perforce a quiet day. This was kind of of predictable. Normally when I have weeks as busy as this one, I allow a lot of rest time. I still need rest time after a specialist has checked on me, for instance, which I find odd, given how much more I can do in a week now. The thing is, though, that my quiet Wednesday afternoon and evening wasn't so quiet as I'd planned and my placid Thursday morning was an early and busy Thursday morning. I was moving mountains from 7.45 am after a v...

gillpolack @ 2010-06-10T09:06:00

My kitchen tap fittings are deep-set, it seems, and also needed complete replacement. The plumbers (both of whom are absurdly young, shivering with cold and came exactly when they were supposed to) have gone out to get replacement parts. My toilet already has its replacement parts.

I wish it was as easy as ducking out to Reese's to get different fittings for other aspects of my life.

I should stop complaining. Friends have made some bits of the week much less difficult than I expected (E is gi...