Gillian Polack's Blog, page 325

gillpolack @ 2010-02-08T17:28:00

Ever since I wondered at a fantasy hero's incipient sex-change when he suggested he might be turning into a 'bluestocking' through reading to his dragon, I've been watching out for modern use of 'bluestocking.' It seems to have a fuzziness of meaning attached these days. I haven't done a proper study of the word, though, so I can't be precise as to what it means except that it's associated with intelligence and reading. I also can't find my copy of the book that raised the question of word...

Health verdict

I'm singing the vegemite song. This is because all the various test-results are in and they're lovely. My thyroid is working perfectly and my blood sugars are perfect. I'm at the later stages of perimenopause and my blood pressure should be within reasonable levels in a week or so.

The bad news is mostly what I knew already. My eyesight is now funky, my heart is no longer perfectly proportioned. I have a smidgeon of kidney damage and elevated cholesterol. My cardiologist-to-be will appar...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-07T19:58:00

Have I said how wonderful my friends are recently?

Late last week I had a special treat from my things-that-make-me-happy-or-less-stressed list (a parcel from narrelle , full of goodies - I instantly devoured the book by Gerry Bartlett and the one by Narrelle Harris - they were so what the doctor ordered!), then the universe gave me another thing from the invisible list I haven't written down lest it blow away in the wind (a visit from my mother), and today Donna and Matthew and James gave me...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-06T20:29:00

Today is dedicated to fatigue. I'd hate to destroy this solid appreciation of the art of exhaustion by saying anything useful here.

gillpolack @ 2010-02-04T23:28:00

I've just been fixing some of the typos I liberally dosed my writing with in the first few days after my eyesight went funky*. When eyesight is funky, certain letters next to each other create confusion. I found I was reading what I wanted to read and not what was on the page, simply because what was on the page was too hard for my new eyesight to digest.

What's totally cool about this is that the worst letters of all are letters which create a sequential array of minims. This means that wh...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-04T16:35:00

It was inevitable. Have little creature, will play. A moment ago it was a zombie. Right now it's a very debonnair gentleman from the Renaissance, in the middle of an Italian dance. Getting from one to the other wasn't nearly as difficult as it ought to have been.

Small creatures, posture and body language

On my way home just now, I stopped off at the art shop. I finally gave into temptation and bought something I've needed for years: a jointed figure.

I need it for two things, one teaching/research and the other fiction-related. I might use it when I'm in need of an intelligent conversation as well, but that's peripheral.

It's a little androgynous creature, about six inches high. It has enough joints so that I have a fair choice of postures. I wanted one that was more articulated still, b...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-03T13:53:00

Class went well. Everyone's nerves settled the moment they saw me, which was good. I didn't even have to ask about homework. And the writing class apparently got equal top level of student love with the cooking class when the powers-that-be did an unexpected evaluation over the holidays to help sort out what to do to meet budget cuts.

Two of my students also quietly told me I look a lot better than I did at the end of last year. One spent the summer reading Life througb Cellophane. He ad...

gillpolack @ 2010-02-02T22:45:00

From my first year at high school, I sent myself messages forward in time.

The first one was when I stood outside the gym, waiting for the phys. ed. teacher. The breeze was perfectly tinged with salt and freshness and it blew through the branches of a tree that overlooked the gym. I looked up. There was a sudden silhouette in the sun.

"Remember this moment," I told myself. "Remember this perfect happiness, just in case you need it" I had already dismissed the difficult times when my fa...

Baggage

If I say "Today's News" will you promise not to go "Oh No!" Some people live their lives in soap opera, I live mine in pantomime. I can laugh and sing and throw things at people that way.

Today's news is actually rather wonderful. It's the first rousing "Life will be good - hang in there" chorus. I think it's at the end of the first act of a 4 act pantomime, but I can't be sure. Australia doesn't do many pantos any more, and I've lost the panto-plot.

I have, in my hot little desktop, thank...