September-December: Week 4

Fencing in, fencing out. What do you need to protect your garden from? What are you using as fencing materials? Are you planting a defensive row of marigolds to ward off pests, or a sacrificial line of roses for the deer to nibble so they'll stay outside of the actual garden? Are you installing an electrified fence, or a picturesque set of wooden rails (perhaps festooned with clematis, roses, or morning glories)? Do you have animals that need to stay in, or predators that you want to stay out?

Respond to the prompt if it speaks to you, or modify it, or ignore it. Let us know how you did on last week's goals, listed below. Set your goals for next week. Come back, if you have time, to encourage each other.

We had two people with Just One Goal last week: I hope you both managed to finish your One Job!

Also, I thought it was great that we wound up with 42 comments last week. Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Goals from last week:

Bardiac
work on revision, work on revision, work on revision, get it DONE!

Daisy
1) One completed section of New Paper
2) One completed data set for co-authored study, plus associated figures
3) Lingering service tasks for national organization for upcoming meeting

Dame Eleanor Hull
1) Health: keep working on getting enough sleep; walk or cardio daily; weights at least twice; two yoga classes and some home stretching; keep up the good work on food.
2) Research: work on last set of revisions; work on two translation-related tasks; keep up with languages.
3) Teaching: finish a set of grading; post more assignments and stuff to the CMS.
4) Life Stuff: plan a social thing; send that blasted form; do some garden tidying.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Organize home office.
Set up new laptop.
Write 2 hours for 3 days.

Good Enough Woman
1. Finish book for book club.
2. Write 500 words of fiction.
3. Order "recent studies" article from ILL.
4. Move or toss ONE THING from my pile in the garage.
5. Start documents for funding request.
6. Grade two batches of short research papers (about 55 total). This will be difficult, but I have more coming in next week, so it would be great if I can get through them by next Tuesday.
7. Think of a new blog name?
8. Copy edits.

Heu mihi
1. Write x 5, language x 5, sit x 5, exercise x 5
2. Revise Wonder per writing group’s comments
3. Read/skim allegory book
4. Finish knitting purple sweater
5. Schedule one social thing

Humming42
1 Finish and submit Sweet

JaneB
1) put clutter in hall and sitting room into boxes and hoover, finish last of the deFurballing of the house, and make a New Kitty Shopping List and shopping trip.
2) collate, tabulate and send data for VeryLargeReviewPaper.
3) clear off my desk at work.
4) type up the patterns for the first two squares of the blanket. Either work on the next design, or start on a re-knit of the one I just did.
5) no refined sugar, make sure I drink enough fluids, and take a minute's standing break every 45-60 minutes of desk time.
6) coffee shop with pen, notebook and fancy coffee!

Oceangirl101
1. Triage medical visits to the house for my Mom and other things
2. Figure out good care giving schedule with other two caregivers
3. Read Chapter of PhD student dissertation draft and comment
4. Write student letter of recs
5. Exercise x 3
6. Outline Ch 6 if there is time

PlantGirl
1) get used to my new students this block and try to manage my stress levels in teaching a totally new class
2) balance teaching (aka current job) with applications for next year's job...TT positions seem to continually elude me.
3) work at least 2X on current book chapter.
4) work at least 4X on FL work.

Waffles
1. Two reviews I am tardy on
2. Mentee’s methods and results
3. Finish presentation for tuesday
4. Finish analyses and results for asthma paper
5. Submit asthma review
6. Work on aim 1 discussion then send to co-author

September-December Week 3

For the topic this week, I'm going aside from the gardening metaphor, because I'm curious about many of your names. I know how JaneB came about, and I seem to remember that Good Enough Woman deliberately adopted her name as a sort of mantra, to avoid falling into the SuperWoman trap. I wanted to honor a little-known medieval woman writer (and now I'm a bit embarrassed about having given myself an aristocratic title). But what about some of the rest of you? I always imagine Humming42 as a hummingbird, quick and bright, but she could have been thinking of something else entirely. So: how/why did you pick your name? Or, if you needed or wanted to change names, who would you be now? 

Also, we seem to be a small group so far this session. If anyone else would like to join, please introduce yourself in the comments this week!

Daisy
1) Plan paper structure – held over from last week
2) Contact graduated student and make paper plans
3) Start data analysis for co-authored study
4) One hour every day on current projects to keep them moving

Dame Eleanor Hull
1) Health: keep working on getting enough sleep; walk or cardio daily; weights at least twice; at least one yoga class and some home stretching; keep up the good work on food.
2) Research: send in answers to queries re MMP; work on last set of revisions; work on two translation-related tasks; keep up with languages.
3) Teaching: finish a set of grading; do another set; write another assignment and/or delay it.
4) Life Stuff: one social thing and send that blasted form that I still haven’t done.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
1) Petition for sabbatical extension.
2) Self-care.
3) Write at least 4 hours for 4 days.

Good Enough Woman
1) Finish article edits
2) Write 500 words of fiction
3) Read 1-2 chapters of SF criticism
4) Take guitars in for a tune up
5) Clear a few things from the garage

heu mihi
1. Service misc: UWC task, WtW editing, WtW emails
2. Sit x 6
3. Write x 5
4. Language x 5
5. Stay 1 week ahead of seminar

Humming42
1 Write 1000 words on Sweet
2 Write 3 modules for online course
3 Set up reading group
4 Edit submitted book review

JaneB
1) reformat LikesMathsPaper1 for second journal, resubmit
2) comments on ProblemChild1
3) clear off my desk at work.
4) type up the patterns for the first two squares of the blanket. Either work on the next design, or start on a re-knit of the one I just did (every time I make a new pattern, I need to knit it twice, it seems...).
5) no refined sugar, make sure I drink enough fluids, and take a minute's standing break every 45-60 minutes of desk time
6) call the cat sanctuary and arrange to meet the scared cat again now he's had time to settle in
7) put clutter in hall and sitting room into boxes and hoover, in case a cat gets delivered, and make a New Kitty Shopping List
8) coffee shop with pen, notebook and fancy coffee!

oceangirl101
1. Get all paperwork for leave done
2. Get all course readings up to BB and notes to whomever my replacement will be
3. Make plans to leave for AZ end of week, find help to tend to house while I am away
4. Meet with undergrads working in my lab, meet with graduate students
5. Exercise 3x
6. Organize books/papers to bring with me to AZ for bookwork

Waffles
1. Analyses for conference abstract (this is kind of annoying bc it is a new doctoral student’s project, but they don’t have any ideas, haven’t looked at the data/survey, can’t analyze data yet, and can’t seem to take the lead on any aspects of the project - I think we should stop and wait till they are ready, but my mentor is pushing it which means I am doing all the work. Not fun)
2. Work on aim 1 discussion then send to co-author
3. Work on creating a job letter for at least one of the places to which I am applying for jobs
4. Maybe work on research statement?
5. Work on revising K aims and send to co-mentors
6. Launch my study!

September-December: Week Two

Last week, employing the gardening/planting metaphor, Bardiac said that, for her, "watering" is exercise and that it's something she needs to do every day. For this week's topic, if you choose to address it, identify what "watering" is for your garden. Is it exercise, as it is for Bardiac? Is it something else? What is it that your TLQ goals need on regular basis in order to grow or even just stay alive?

I really enjoyed reading your metaphors last week. They really help me conceptualize my life and work.

As usual, touch on the topic if you want to, check in with last week's goals, and list goals for next week.

Cheers!

Bardiac

Progress on the revision, MAYBE going to see the Northern Lights (or at least try), and regular exercise

Daisy
1) Submit finished paper (Yay!)
2) Plan out structure of new Northern paper
3) Pick one part of Northern paper and work on it 
4) Nag co-author to send me draft of joint paper so I can add my parts to it

DEH
Focus on health; rest enough, go to 3 yoga classes*, walk or cardio every day, eat safe foods.**
Do a whole bunch of TRQ things so I can stop thinking about them.
Schedule 1-2 hours a day for research and stick to that time.

GEW
1) Figure out session goals
2) Begin drafting a reading list for the SF course
3) Read four SF short stories and finish current novel
5) Go to both dentist appointments
6) Move my body around outside at least once
7) Sign up for local writing conference

heu mihi
1. Send Wonder to writing group
2. Sit x 6
3. Stay 1 week ahead of seminar reading
4. Bibliography search for Longer Impatience

humming42
1 Write 1000 words on Sweet
2 Write 3 modules for online course
3 Set up reading group
4 Finish and submit current book review
5 Edit submitted book review

JaneB
1) make comments on latest versions of Crispier and ProblemChild1
2) make lists for Monday (and possibly go into the office and tidy my desk etc. over the weekend if I have a good day - when I booked this leave next week was the pre-semester prep week, but then the academic year was shifted. When I planned, it went prep week, first year induction week, returners week (induction stuff for second and third years, first year classes start), week when teaching for other years starts. However, the university has changed so that it's now: first year induction week, returners week PLUS all classes start - compressing 4 weeks to 2. AARGH
3) arrange to be interviewed by two possible felines at the shelter, and check out new cattery
4) finish current blanket square (knitting)
5) Go over the week for next week in my diary, and email various people to make appointments of various kinds
6) meal plan and to some extent meal prep for the week
7) Spend an hour in a coffee shop with paper and a pen thinking about this year's NaNoWriMo - do I start over with the first novel in my current sequence (which having written two and three now has continuity holes and other issues - mushing up the three of them into a coherent plot line and starting over would probably be a good move (I like to write by the write-destroy-rewrite-destroy-rewrite-edit method rather than the write once then edit edit edit method). Also fancy Autumnal lattes may be available now.

oceangirl101
1. Prep for Hurricane (cheating, did this yesterday)
2. Finish typing in lost pages of Ch 6 (had a computer crash and lost digital copy but have hard copy)
3. Outline what needs to be done to complete Ch 6
4. Get all course readings on BB etc. 
5. Exercise 3 x

Waffles
1. Get asthma paper close to submission-ready
2. PTSD findings writeup and next steps
3. Lancet re-review
4. Gender & Violence re-review
5. Connect with stats person about other asthma paper
6. Connect with collaborators about drug use paper and methods paper

September-December: Week One

Greetings, TLQers!

Welcome to the Fall/Spring 2018 Session.

Inspired by EAM and JaneB's summer cruise metaphor, I thought we could use a metaphor for this session, too, but I had trouble thinking of a new one that would work well for us. So I thought we might return to one that we played with for a few weeks last spring: the garden plot.

To that end, as you begin this session, you might think of it as a garden that you are planting or tending. Or perhaps you even have a whole farm. Things to consider: How ambitious will you be? What will you plant? Are you planting trees that won't bear fruit for several years? Are you planting some fast-growing flowers to cheer you along the way? Are you going to allow some things to go fallow for a while? Are you going to gather and save some seeds for the future (that have been gleaned from a previous harvest)? Are you going to have orderly raised beds with clear labels, or are you going to let things grow a bit wild, hoping and praying for some healthy volunteers?

Also important: What pests do you anticipate, and how will you prevent them from decimating or destroying your yield? I recently saw an episode of Fixer Upper in which Jo Gaines planted a huge garden and built a lovely--I mean, really lovely--garden house on her property. Around the entire perimeter of the garden, she built (or made Chip build) a chicken run so that the chickens could be a "force field" against the grasshoppers that wanted to eat her plants. Do you need a force field of chickens or some extra special Bugge Spraye?

As usual, feel free employ the metaphor if it works for you. If not, you can always do your check in with whatever commentary or analysis that you choose.

For this week, to get us started, please provide the following:

1. An introduction
2. Some thoughts on the topic (optional)
3. Session Goals
4. Goals for the Coming Week

I am excited to see what fruit this session will bear!

Intersessionary Post

Hi everyone,

Good Enough Woman has offered to co-host the next session running 8th September to 15th December.  So we're now looking for volunteers to co-host with her - I can do it if no-one else wants to, although will probably be away next weekend.

So this is your interim post - a place to come and talk about how things are going with re-entry to the normal year, mourn/celebrate the changing seasons, or to have a final final opportunity to report and enjoy successes from last session or late progress towards those goals.

Possible topic - how do you go about setting REALISTIC goals for the teaching semester?  Looking for tips here, especially after my markedly unsuccessful summer cruise! (although aren't you SUPPOSED to get back from a cruise several pounds heavier, ready for a rest, and completely confused about your timezone and schedule?  In which case I kind of did it right...)