(Sorry I'm later than usual getting this up! The day got away from me.)
Here we are in week 6, and the scheduled topic is "Meet Someone Who Is An Irritation Or A Problem." ILR, some of us may be spoiled for choice! In the inherited-house world, feel free to give your real-life irritants warts and other afflictions, or invent a problem that is an improvement over your RL ones. If you cannot face having irritants in this world, then meet a more eccentric neighbo(u)r than has so far crossed your path.
Last week's goals are posted below; let us know how you did, and what your new goals are for the coming week.
Daisy (held over)
Read and edit last week’s AND this week’s new paper draft
Edit student abstracts
Survive meeting trip
Finish hideous report
Mark all the things
Set up sample processing
Finish data compilation so that someone else can take over
Dame Eleanor Hull
- work on both M and S projects this week
- 2 "write first" mornings, 3 "exercise first" mornings
- grade papers for both classes
- finishing touches to syllabuses, load more stuff to the ViLE
- make 1 phone call to schedule a shot
- process application, do one annual training
- get back to latest round of editing tasks, FFS
- spend an hour tidying my study (or somewhere!)
Heu mihi
1. A poster for the coffee hour (complicated because it's
for three departments and like 12 language programs)
2. Draft external review strategy
3. Contact dean about check-in
4. Begin writing external review for department that I visited
5. Write 3000 words
6. Exercise
7. SIT TWICE
JaneB
SELF CARE
3x20 minutes of movement
reading, 1-2 creative things in addition to Inktober doodling, 1-2 social
things (online D&D, anything larger feels Too Much)
LIFE ADMIN
Look at possible sofas
Don’t get lots more stuff
Do something with financial papers project (many things need attention or
filing or just to not be ignored)
TEACHING/WORK ADMIN
Sort out slides for fourth week lectures
Attempt to get responses from all my project students
Meet with recently graduated PhD student about papers
Survive this week's classes
Do "risk assessment" for all modules offered by School (depressing!)
and contribute to strategic planning
RESEARCH
Process more model outputs
Make list of all the other ‘ongoing stuff’
Do one hour on Systematic Review
Arrange meeting for paper I'm helping redraft
Complete and submit ethics application for pedagogic research project
Julie
1. Teaching: give introductory sessions, start writing new
lecture.
2. Admin: read papers for department meeting, go to meeting, stay calm in face
of more proposed ill-thought-through changes, send reminder emails to new first
years.
3. Research and writing: start on conference paper, revise introduction for a
French special issue that we have been given two weeks to produce.
4. House/life admin: sort out the damn finances, go to farm shop, make dentist
appointment.
5. Self-care/fun: read, journal, run, video call with friends, book festival
event.
Susan
1. Finish minor edits on index to large collaboration
2. Unpack enough books so that I can walk through the office without tripping
3. Fix mat for under desk
4. Shop for sofas
5. Schedule handyman for multiple minor tasks
6. Keep up with exercise
7. Have fun on my trip
I met a neighbor walking a small, yappy, nay hysterical dog (said, of course, to be friendly, but it tore my trouser hem before being reined in). I'm not sure where this person and dog live--not on either side of me, nor directly behind me or across the street, or I would have heard the dog before--but she seems to know the neighborhood well and had quite a lot to say about many of the houses and homeowners, most of it probably libellous. She also seems to think I must have inherited a lot of money along with the house (I wish!), warned me against allowing young relatives to live there because Kids These Days (not that she knows a thing about my family), and intimated that inspectors for improvement permits are all either venal or martinets, and that she knows which are which but she couldn't possibly tell me. Her little dog is the sort I refer to as "cat food," and do wonder if my fluffy friend might do something about it. (He's probably too smart to get involved with either dog or its owner.)
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
- work on both M and S projects this week: NO, only M (but that x4)
- 2 "write first" mornings, 3 "exercise first" mornings: YES (and those 3 were the only gym trips I made; it was not a great week for exercise)
- grade papers for both classes: ONE set only
- finishing touches to syllabuses, load more stuff to the ViLE: IN PROGRESS, now very much TRQ
- make 1 phone call to schedule a shot: NO
- process application, do one annual training: YES, NO
- get back to latest round of editing tasks, FFS: NO
- spend an hour tidying my study (or somewhere!): about 20 minutes outside
ALSO: cut my hair, closed a credit union account that isn't earning any interest, attended a historians' reading group that meets approximately monthly, spent awhile with a plumber who came to give estimates on replacing the water heater and doing some other repairs while the water is off, exchanged e-mails with a couple of good friends, drove Sir John & his bike to & from repair place (I'm not sure why I didn't just tell him to take my car, now that I think of it).
I'm feeling a bit panicky about All The Things. I thought I was going to have a good catch-up afternoon this weekend, and then it went to the plumber and other errands, since the water heater went out. And I get to have an extra faculty meeting in the coming week, plus one that strictly speaking isn't extra but the topics are, IMO, utterly unnecessary and the people raising them should know better.
New goals:
- work on both M and S projects this week
- 2 "write first" mornings, 3 "exercise first" mornings
- grade one set of papers
- finishing touches to syllabuses, load more stuff to the ViLE
- make 1 phone call to schedule a shot
- do one annual training
- get back to latest round of editing tasks
- remove clothes from Chair of Doom
- work on Wednesday afternoon & do something fun on Friday after 3
Sympathies on the panicking, I can feel it creeping in. And on water heating - are our lives weirdly mirroring each other at the moment?? Love that you have scheduled some fun.
DeleteMaybe once you chip away at the list a little bit, the panic will subside? I'm usually surprised at how little it takes to make me feel like I'm in control (a total illusion, of course, but one that I nurture).
DeleteI have neighbours with irritating dogs IRL. Here, I don't have neigbours close enough to be irritating, thankfully. On my walks to the village, I encounter the farmer whose land it is. She is apt to glare at me as I walk past and the first time barked at me to be sure not to drop any litter. I obviously didn't. I suspect she hates people walking across her fields and, in fairness, walkers in the countryside can be idiots. I am very careful to close gates, however, and not drop litter. And I don't have a dog, so her sheep are safe. The path is a right of way and both a shorter and more pleasant walk to the village than by the road, which winds a bit. So I don't want to stop walking that way.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Teaching: give introductory sessions, start writing new lecture. - YES x 2
2. Admin: read papers for department meeting, go to meeting, stay calm in face of more proposed ill-thought-through changes, send reminder emails to new first years. - YES, YES, JUST ABOUT (we were all fuming), YES
3. Research and writing: start on conference paper, revise introduction for a French special issue that we have been given two weeks to produce. - YES (if half an hour of notes counts), YES
4. House/life admin: sort out the damn finances, go to farm shop, make dentist appointment. - SOME, YES, NO
5. Self-care/fun: read, journal, run, video call with friends, book festival event. - YES TO ALL
Only one week in, but it felt like a lot. I'd forgotten how much energy teaching takes. Like Dame Eleanor, I also have plumbing issues to deal with (my boiler keeps switching itself off) and too much else.
This week:
1. Prep two different lots of seminars.
2. Carry on writing new lecture.
3. Paper for workshop: at least one full day.
4. Email catch-up.
5. House/life admin: get flu jab, go to medical screening, request a prescription, make dentist's appointment, ring plumber, take contact lenses for recycling.
6. Self-care/fun: run x 3, read, journal, lunch with two friends on non-working day.
It sounds like your neighbour might turn out to be okay once she realizes you aren't like the idiot walkers--a redemption arc? Sympathy/solidarity on the hot water issues, & I hope yours are easily resolved. Congrats on all the self-care/fun things to counteract the annoying meeting & heavy teaching!
Delete[IRL my neighbors are all fine.]
ReplyDeleteI have met Frank. A retired accountant, he lives two doors down, and is sure he should be in charge of everything. We met when I was out for a walk a few weeks ago, and he told me how to fix the boiler in the house. The boiler does not need fixing. Not content with meeting me in the street, he has taken to walking into the house (not even knocking) when I'm working, and proceeding to instruct me on how I should fix things that don't need fixing. The contractor who is working with me told me unofficially that Frank always does this, and his advice is ALWAYS wrong. My assertions that I know what I need to do and will ask for his advice if it's needed have been unheard. It's a great combination of sexism (you're a little old lady, you don't know anything) and agism. My house is now locked all the time, so he has to ring the bell. I'm wondering if I should file a harassment complaint.
Last week:
1. Finish minor edits on index to large collaboration IT'S A LONG STORY
2. Unpack enough books so that I can walk through the office without tripping YES
3. Fix mat for under desk NO
4. Shop for sofas YES, ordered -- also a new chair
5. Schedule handyman for multiple minor tasks YES (just did it today, but that counts)
6. Keep up with exercise SORT OF
7. Have fun on my trip YES
AND ALSO: purchased tickets for my trip to Australia this fall, filed the expense report for my summer research, and started work on a tenure review I'm part of.
Not a bad week, not great. The unpacking is overwhelming, because I keep starting one thing and seeing another. I'm going to try to keep it slow and steady, but I've decided that I'm going to finish a couple of days of limited boxes, and then start dealing with hanging pictures, which I think will help me feel settled. Meanwhile my fancy exercise bike is broken (repair guy came today, I need a new part). But it's cooled down, so today I went for a walk in my neighborhood, which was really nice.
The week ahead is quiet (which is good), but I'm giving papers the next two weekends. It's all theme and variations, so I have the core, but it involves trying out different analytical frameworks to see where they go. Then it's only two more papers this fall!
Goals for this week:
House:
Do 5 boxes a day for three days
Take things down to storage unit, figure out what I really need to keep
Shop for new TV since the sound on mine has gone
Clear one box labeled "Miscellaneous office", most of which is probably trash
Work:
Finish reading book MS, draft my part of tenure case analysis on the research (which is excellent, so a pleasure in all sorts of ways)
Get draft of paper to be given at conference next weekend
Start on short paper for the conference the following weekend
Send email to colleague who is here at My Favorite Library and plan to get together
Life
Keep up with exercise - pick up on walking
Go to first choir rehearsal
Organize getting together with friends
With Frank, I just want him to get his comeuppance (unlike Julie's farming neighbour). What a dork. I hope your plan to tackle the house in steady stints works out! And have fun with your colleague, if getting together happens this week!
DeleteFrank is giving off horror movie vibes. I really hope your windows and doors have secure locks. Good luck with all the boxes!
DeleteI have a raccoon. I might name him Frank in honour of Susan's Frank above... They seem to have similar ornery personalities. Frank is trying to break into my house, but thanks to excellent construction and double-glazed windows he is not getting far. But there are disturbing scrabbling noises every evening. The roof has been repaired and it seems like that was Frank's primary hang-out spot so he keeps trying. My helpful friend from a few weeks back promised to come over with her large dogs while I'm away and have them bark like crazy until Frank decides to relocate voluntarily...
ReplyDeleteIRL I have no goals... I have accomplished nothing from my list. There is no chance I will accomplish anything this week either. So I'm declaring time bankruptcy (just had to look up how to spell that...) and skipping all goals for another week.
But... I'm on an excellent teaching-focused, research-adjacent trip (Wales is awesome and the area I'm in feels very much like home except with sheep instead of apples!). The whole thing has been fabulous and I manged to see three West-end shows on my way here and I have another few days before flying back (in time for dress rehearsal and opening weekend of local show I'm playing...). I will be five kinds of exhausted but it is all great fun. So, Frank can hold the fort at my house for a bit!
PS I cannot tell you how much I love the fact that every UK hotel I've been in has had a proper kettle for proper boiling water with proper tea in it!! None of that horrible "make tea in a Keurig machine or microwave" nonsense from the other side of pond...
DeleteI think if my Frank were a racoon it would be easier to handle him!
DeleteAnd if you're doing a research adjacent trip, that's your goal. No bankruptcy! Enjoy Wales, especially the proper kettle for tea! (I will not get tea in most US restaurants because they hand you a lukewarm pot of water before choosing the tea bag.)
I need to get a collapsible kettle with Continental plug before my next trip to the EU. The tea situation in France (etc) remains remarkably similar to that reported by a Barbara Pym character in the 1950s: "They bring you lukewarm water and a funny little bag . . ."
DeleteAs a UK person who has never seen a raccoon IRL, I always think they sound cute. I'm sure they're not. Enjoy Wales - the parts I have been to are beautiful, especially if the weather is kind. The Pembrokeshire coast is spectacular, if you're near enough to get there. And the kettle stories make me laugh - in Canada, I think everywhere we stayed had kettles or similar, but the coffee-making options were dire for anyone brought up on Mediterranean-style coffee as I am. I always think what sets hotels in Spain apart as really fancy is having a kettle in the room - it doesn't occur to most Spanish people that you won't just go down to the bar.
DeleteJulie, they LOOK cute as all get-out but they are obnoxious about trying to get into one's attic! If I could drink coffee on an empty stomach I wouldn't mind going down to the bar, b/c I do like coffee, but I have to eat first, & that turns into a whole Thing.
DeleteI thought raccoons were super cute when I worked in Canada, but after wathcing one go down a row of bicycles undoing all the saddle bags, checking out the baskets etc. (and several effectively dismantal an "art piece" the architecture students built on the lawn outside my office window!) I had a lot of respect for their very deft little paws and smart little brains! Where I work now we have squirrel issues, but this week part of a floor collapsed in one of the labs which is both a nightmare (re-scheduling timetabled classes! Building chaos as a key corridor is blocked off! Worrying about repairs!) and fascinating (in terms of learning more about how the (old) building was constructed, and about how my colleagues like to try and explain things from partial evidence - the one who is convinced the problem (whereby the floor of a ground floor lab in a building with no basement is now impersonating a shallow bowl) is a ceiling issue in the face of all evidence is quite confusing, in an anthropologically interesting way!), so that's overtaken the squirrel issue for now.
DeleteIn my fantasy house, however, I finally caught sight of what has been clopping around in my walls, and I'm not at all sure I like sharing the house with what I can only describe as biker-squirrels. Not that I've seen any bikes! But there were two of them, and they were wearing foot wraps with hard soles (explaining the tiny clopping noises, I guess) and long waistcoats made of what looked like black leather with tiny studs and brightly coloured sashes which match the study curtains, carrying leather slings and each wearing a bandolier of hazel-nuts. One of them saluted me when it saw me watching, and then they both trotted across the hall floor, ran up the newel post and the stair banister, and disappeared somewhere upstairs. I swear I hadn't had any of the impressively warming brandy I recently found in the kitchen (how did I miss that before?), but I needed a snifter after that! Which is probably why I saw a six inch tall horned rabbit perched on the garden wall when I went out at dusk to check the gate was shut.
LAST WEEK:
Was a week. Two consecutive days was a strain (I got publicly grumpy with people in a committee meeting about my emails being ignored, then felt like a total HEEL when the two people who HAD replied came over to apologise and check I was OK) and my hips are still sulking about it somewhat (I have never gotten along very well with shoes, always happier barefoot/sockfoot, and I still have not found the perfect shoes to wear to work which accommodate my Difficult Shaped Feet (narrow heel, wider toe, deep toes - penguin flippers according to family lore, most of the women have the same issue except of COURSE my sister) and are really stable and comfortable for my limping gait - my choice is more hip/knee/ankle sulks or additional stabby foot pain/toe pain and sigh!). Rant rant.
SELF CARE
Delete3x20 minutes of movement just about - one was 18 minutes because the workout froze on the screen and restarting didn't help so I said so sad too bad time for tea one day!
reading, 1-2 creative things in addition to Inktober doodling, 1-2 social things (online D&D, anything larger feels Too Much) yes, one and Inktober got abandoned quickly, one online D&D
LIFE ADMIN
Look at possible sofas yes. Too much choice, aargh!
Don’t get lots more stuff bought one bag of Halloween candy (fun sized chocolate bars). Too early! Halloween candy got eaten after the Floor News to help me do the brain tetris of how to adjust my teaching around the problem. Good excuse!
Do something with financial papers project (many things need attention or filing or just to not be ignored) no
TEACHING/WORK ADMIN
Sort out slides for fourth week lectures half done - need to get data from practicals happening this week to finish them off
Attempt to get responses from all my project students have not met them all yet, but have tracked them down. Missing Student had to work extra shifts because their cat broke a leg and there was a big vet bill; if it's a sob story it's a very well designed for the target one, but I don't think it is, and good on them for trying to sort the problem
Meet with recently graduated PhD student about papers yes; they haven't done much work on it, but I can't do it for them!
Survive this week's classes yes, although not my best work
Do "risk assessment" for all modules offered by School (depressing!) and contribute to strategic planning yes. Strageic Planning meeting was this week, not last, and it was horrirubbuble - we have to lose headcount and we may have no control over who or where from, but our Head of School wanted us to "game out our options" anyway
RESEARCH
Process more model outputs made some small but useful progress
Make list of all the other ‘ongoing stuff’ no. too scary!
Do one hour on Systematic Review yes
Arrange meeting for paper I'm helping redraft yes
Complete and submit ethics application for pedagogic research project yes! but the wretched online system seems to have mangled most of my Supporting Documents and I have had to resubmit them several times since
THIS WEEK/COMING WEEK
DeleteAs I'm writing on a Wednesday I know this week isn't being very productive - All The Things are getting noisy and distracting me.
SELF CARE
3x20 minutes of movement
reading, 1-2 creative things in addition to Inktober doodling, 1 social thing (online D&D - one game is taking a pause because two regular players are in a Christmas musical performance and rehersals are stepping up, but the other is still active)
LIFE ADMIN
Look at possible sofas
Don’t get lots more stuff
TEACHING/WORK ADMIN
Sort out slides for fourth and fifth week lectures
Survive this week's classes
Do "cold spot analysis", sigh.
Nag people to reply to review emails.
RESEARCH
Process more model outputs
Make list of all the other ‘ongoing stuff’
Finish step one part one for Systematic Review
Work on re-re-rewrite of the group paper I got cross about in late September and left aside to calm down
Attend meeting for paper I'm helping redraft
A collapsing floor certainly creates interesting discussions. I'd worry about the squirrels. They are very smart and they dig up lawns. And as someone who purchased a sofa last week, I agree about the choice. It's really hard.
DeleteI wish you could retire and just write fantasy novels.
DeleteI think 'collapsing floor' wins the challenging situation at work contest. I am in awe of a brain that can come up with the idea of biker squirrels. I feel I'm in Narnia meets Alice in Wonderland.
DeleteI like the prompt, but I'm going to skip it this week because I'm tired and late.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
1. A poster for the coffee hour (complicated because it's for three departments and like 12 language programs) - 17 programs, actually, and I left off ESL (so it should have been 18). But the poster is a thing of beauty!
2. Draft external review strategy - YES
3. Contact dean about check-in - YES
4. Begin writing external review for department that I visited - YES
5. Write 3000 words - YES
6. Exercise - YES: Although I cut the runs a little short, I did my complete array!
7. SIT TWICE - YES!!!!!!! And I even did it before the weekend!
This week:
1. Exercise
2. Write 3000 words
3. Sit twice
4. Get external review as done as I know how (I have two co-authors, so I'm not alone on this)
5. Revise self-study document
6. Just...a whole lot of administrative stuff that I don't want to detail.
My list is pretty boring. All but nos. 1-3 are required administrative tasks, although they don't really have deadlines, so I'm sort of nudging myself to do them here. But I'm happy with having minimal non-administrative goals. At some point, I should start looking ahead to the brand new grad seminar I'll be teaching next semester, but not right now!
That's a lot of YES! Special congratulations on the running, sitting, and writing.
Delete