How was your week? I hope there was goodness, and strength to get through the less-than-good.
Our adventure here continues! On your journey, you have a text of some kind that you carry with you, for solace, for enthusiasm, for joy, for wisdom. Whatever you character needs. This might be a phrase, a koan, a poem, a book. What will serve you and your character well? Time and space remain flexible. If you’re flitting through the 14th century, you can bring a 20th century text with you.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Last week’s goals:
Contingent Cassandra
--Do some sort of movement on at least 3 days, spread over at least 2 modes (walking, stretching, weight-lifting, gardening/snow clearing)
--Complete at least one of my individual contributions to curricular project (2 would be better)
--Continue curriculum-project planning & organizing (beyond attending meeting & assigning reviews as submissions come in, which is TRQ at this point)
--Take at last a half-day break and schedule a full-day one for next week
--Work on habit of writing first thing in the morning (even if it’s class materials and/or curricular project contribution at this point)
--Brainstorm some topics/questions for morning reflective writing later in coming weeks
--Work on habit of professional reading at end of day
--Work on getting to bed earlier
Dame Eleanor Hull
Health: the usual sleep, stretch, exercise, eat safely.
Research: finish incorporating edits into revised introduction, send to editors; keep up with language work.
Teaching: assign and check one set of in-class writing; post an essay assignment; set up teaching-plan documents for both classes.
Admin: finish annual documents.
Life Stuff: assorted dull tasks.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Survive the meeting-rich week -- seriously, four or five meetings every single day!
Write conference presentations.
Knit half an hour a day for sanity.
Write 500 words a day. Edit 4 pages a day. Draw one character’s face.
Good Enough Woman
1) Prep for classes; send all handouts to reprographics in a timely matter.
2) Make a significant dent in the garage.
3) Outing with daughter to a play.
4) 500 words or 90 minutes on novel.
5) One chapter of Minds in Motion.
6) 90 minutes on conference paper.
7) Exercise: 7500 steps, yoga, or 7-min workout.
9) Complete Letter of Recommendation.
10) Complete accreditation work for one standard.
heu mihi
1. Really finish syllabi and assignments.
2. Write 4000 words of NaNo 2018.
2. Write 4000 words of NaNo 2018.
3. Notes on ch. 5 research; reread ch. 5 and start taking notes and start preliminary integration of new research.
4. Exercise x5, sit x5, write/research x5.
4. Exercise x5, sit x5, write/research x5.
5. Weekly accounting; two nights off alcohol 6. Read Malory books 1-3
humming42
1 prepare for classes and write syllabi
2 finish reading current books for review
2 finish reading current books for review
3 write timeline and outline for February essay
JaneB
1) Teaching Mark two small assignments. Make a detailed list of teaching prep needed and check the (frequently changing) online timetable. Set the first half of the exam questions for the new module with the short answer exam (which needs lots of questions). Start to enter resit exam questions for first year module (not due until July, but if I don't do it now it will be a lot more work then...)
2) self-care: do something not-work every evening other than stare at the phone, go to bed early on work nights, drink 1.5-2 l of water a day and focus on hitting >5 fruit and veg portions a day.
3) research Work on ScaryPilotPaper, send zero draft to rest of team. Set up second new run for ProblemChild2. Comments on FlatProjectAdjacentDocument. Make sure newsletter for SocietyThing is progressing. Reply to emails about Gallimaufray.
4) making stuff and being creative: finish current block of research-themed knitting and start a test swatch for the next one. If I go to the parents, work on the giant crochet project.
5) domestic chaos reduction
Book at least two sessions with CRW. Remove layer of christmas detritus from living room. Catch up with washing up (I did catch up with the laundry last week, that was a small but pleasing thing...)
oceangirl101
1. Organize first day of teaching, develop BB website
2. Deal with graduate student drama (2 of them, ugh)
2. Deal with graduate student drama (2 of them, ugh)
3. Meetings with University Media folks for upcoming conference
4. Reintegrate into the department after being gone, do my best to not cry publicly (although I am sort of ok with this and really beyond caring)
5. Work out 3 x
waffles
1. Get all feedback on K and make all relevant revisions.
2. Take care of all references in K.
3. Revise biosketch
4. Update my NCBI profile
5. Get JAMA peds paper in better shape.
6. Talk through my obstacles related to my F32 paper with California mentor/collaborator (this paper makes me feel so inadequate).
7. For my crafting goal: Embroider a uterus! I did multiple crafty projects over the break (some miniature embroidery and I made a llama pillow) - super fun!
Topic: I want a good travel narrative like the Divine Comedy with me, to remind myself that there is a happy ending at the end of the road, and there are interesting stories of (eventually) overcoming adversity along the journey. If I could also take The Book of the City of Ladies with me, I could use the examples of strong women as well.
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals:
Survive the meeting-rich week -- seriously, four or five meetings every single day! Yes, with an altercation, but done.
Write conference presentations. Yes, and the slides, too!
Knit half an hour a day for sanity. Yes.
Write 500 words a day. 4 out of 5.
Edit 4 pages a day. Yes.
Draw one character’s face. No, but I did find pictures like more characters.
Analysis: The meetings were mostly a waste of time, unfortunately, but not surprisingly. I did manage to call in to one from home so I could get some other things done, but got in trouble for not being in my office, so was not able to be that efficient again. The conference presentations went pretty quickly, thankfully, because I have to give them next Saturday. The editing went well, but the new words less well. I suppose I was just want feeling them. Knitting continued to be a wonderful break, and drawing remained a challenge. I suffer from perfectionism, and when I don't do something well, I get frustrated rather than concentrating on my progress. I am putting drawing on next week's goals as well.
Next week’s goals:
Survive the airports.
Survive the committee meetings.
Give the presentations.
Knit half an hour a day.
Write 500 words a day.
Edit 4 pages a day.
Draw one character’s face.
I hope everyone has a productive week. Float like mist, all!
Why on earth would anyone care whether you were at work or not? That said, my mentor has been getting flak for that too - but she's not even in the office 50% of the time, and is rarely even in the country, much less this city.
DeleteGah, the run-on sentence! which should read "with me, as I could..."
DeleteSome people think that presenteeism proves you are actually working - I think it says more about THEM than the person they complain about, as why would they think not on campus = slacking off unless that's what they do? Others feel that they need to SEE the person to properly communicate, or have power issues, or have some sort of belief about "but what if a student/client/colleague needs to talk to you urgently and you aren't there?".
DeleteIt's a pain, but it's sadly becoming more common as HE becomes more "businesslike"...
Perfectionism is a tough hurdle, but as similar dilemmas, self-realization is the first step to being kinder to ourselves.
DeleteI'm very interested in the discussion about being present. My department is a mash up of two academic programs that have very different ways of being. We're officed on two different floors. The other program, everyone is in their office or the department office or each others' offices, talking and enjoying the day. My program's floor is a ghost town. Even people who are in their offices have their doors closed. These differences are the source of a lot of tension and lack of trust, and I have no idea how to remedy any of it.
Administrators at my institution would like to see faculty around more. I think they see it as evidence of "engagement" -- which is generally agreed to be a positive thing, but I'm not sure anyone knows quite what they, let alone anyone else, mean(s) by it -- and, yes, availability to students, even though most of our students are on campus the minimum possible hours -- even if they live on campus many of them leave to work for pay -- and prefer email or grabbing professors before or after class (and sometimes during, when they're supposed to be doing some sort of group work) to ask questions.
DeleteAt the same time, they're advocating more and more online classes (for the convenience of students, some of them apparently imaginary students whose only obstacle to finishing a degree is adequately flexibly-scheduled classes) *and* they insist that we don't need private offices in which to meet with students, even about sensitive matters. They're currently planning a new building in which my department will be housed, and they've heard from any number of us that if you want humanists to spend more time on campus, you need to give them quiet, private places to work while there, but we just keep getting more shared or at least very publicly visible space, apparently so that it will look to visitors like something is happening. Classrooms are also apparently going to be mostly glass-walled, despite the prevalence of ADHD (and accommodations emphasizing distraction-free environments), fear of active shooters, etc., etc. There will, at least, be lots of natural light, but that's about all I can say in favor of what I've seen. There's definitely a panopticon vibe to the whole thing.
I think it's just going to be the Morte d'Arthur. I'm really enjoying plowing through it this time!
ReplyDeleteI'm also counting reading it as "teaching" work in my weekly accounting, since it is fairly important for one of my classes. That explains why the teaching category was so dominant this week, even though classes don't start until tomorrow. (And the internet was out for nearly the whole week, too, so I did a LOT of reading!)
Oh and by the way, the press voted to give me a contract for my book on Friday! So I officially have to do my revisions!
Finally: I'm still doing the two-nights-(or more)-off-alcohol thing, but I'm taking it off of my accounting because I do feel weird writing it down. Not sure why I feel like I need to tell you all this, but there we are.
Last week:
1. Really finish syllabi and assignments. -DONE
2. Write 4000 words of NaNo 2018. -DONE
3. Notes on ch. 5 research; reread ch. 5 and start taking notes and start preliminary integration of new research. -DONE
4. Exercise x5, sit x5, write/research x5. -DONE
5. Weekly accounting; two nights off alcohol -DONE. Accounting: Total 1831 minutes (30.5 hours); research 634 (34%), teaching 1029 (56%), service 153 (8%).
6. Read Malory books 1-3 -DONE; I'm actually almost done with book 7. I know that I won't be able to keep up that momentum for much longer, though!
This week:
1. 2500 words of fiction.
2. Book revisions: Better articulate concept M using scholar AP; draft section on later chapters of MP.
3. Exercise x5, sit x5, language x4, write/research x5.
4. Weekly accounting.
5. Read Malory book 8.
6. Read and prep for writing group.
Congrats on the book!!!
DeleteYes! Excellent news! Champagne for one of your alcohol-plus nights!
DeleteYay, book congrats! Nice to feel it's going to become real!
DeleteHuge congratulations on the book contract! What wonderful news. I was wondering last week if time without internet would be good reading/writing opportunities, so I am glad reading was a plus for you.
DeleteCongrats, indeed, on the book contract. That's definitely a "have to" of the positive sort.
DeleteYay on the book contract! That's really exciting!
DeleteCongratulations on the book news! That's fabulous!
DeleteBTW, you might have already mentioned this, but how are your tracking your hours? Are you using an app, or just writing down how much time you spend doing each thing and then totaling?
I hope you continue to have fun with Malory. I haven't actually read the whole thing *she says with a whisper*.
The text my character in my musical will have is a poem by ntosake shange called "Pages for a friend." I pasted it below. It would make a good song in my musical - if we could get the rights. :)
ReplyDelete1. Get all feedback on K and make all relevant revisions. DONE
2. Take care of all references in K. DONE
3. Revise biosketch NOT DONE
4. Update my NCBI profile NOT DONE (not a priority)
5. Get JAMA peds paper in better shape. GETTING THERE!
6. Talk through my obstacles related to my F32 paper with California mentor/collaborator (this paper makes me feel so inadequate). NOT DONE
7. For my crafting goal: Embroider a uterus! I did multiple crafty projects over the break (some miniature embroidery and I made a llama pillow) - super fun! PARTIALLY DONE! I did the sketch and got the colors of embroidery thread I need.
Last week my project manager friend did a training for our postdoc group. I thought it was brilliant - not sure what some of the others thought. I was frustrated, however, that less than half of all postdocs attended it. That said, afterwards one of the other postdocs asked to talk to me - she was in tears bc her postdoc mentor seems disinterested in her goals and has never asked her what she wanted to get out of her postdoc. Really sad.
I did some good tackling of things that made me feel insecure/incompetent last week (i.e., stats related) - so I'm proud of that. My K is almost done - which will be a relief, but the waiting will be so stressful!
This week:
1. Talk with CTSA and revise recruitment strategy of K.
2. Read over and revise human subjects training section
3. Give K to mentor for final review.
4. Revise marriage paper and send back to collaborator
5. Do my parts of B's paper and send back to him.
6. Try to finish JAMA peds paper up to discussion. Make outline for discussion.
7. For my crafting goal: Finish the uterus. :)
PAGES FOR A FRIEND
Ntozake Shange
letters from friends used to be an art form
literary exquisite observations of the soul
aesthetics and compulsions to give
order to whatever this life is
pages for a friend kept many a prairie
woman I lingering by her fire in a sod house
from committing suicide / some prairie
women killed themselves anyway
the letters from their friends
crushed in their fists / the same
fists that beat walls trying to
keep up enough anger not to die
not to burn the kettle swinging
over the fire / the ladle too hot to handle
loneliness stalking the
farmyard a warring Comanche
pages for a friend fluttering off
in the wind / lost breaths wishes
dying for someone to loom over the horizon
anyone / come talk / please come talk to me / now
i've no one to write
i'm so lonely i'm not sure i remember
how it is you read
you see i've memorized all the letters
my woman friends sent me
i could recite some to you
let me make some coffee &
we could sit & talk
please, mister, let's just talk
before i forget how & become silence.
waffles
Some post-doc mentors are just useless. They tend to get lots of money and lots of postdocs for some reason, probably because they spend their energy outwards and upwards, towards the people that GIVE those things, rather than downwards... It's not fair, but it is very real. At least there are other post-docs to lean on, commiserate with, and have the "it's not you, it's them" and "you aren't alone" conversations with...
DeleteThank you for sharing that exquisite poem. I would definitely pencil it for the script, rights pending. I'm also reminded of Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art," which would be a fine poem for this traveler to put in her pocket.
DeleteHummingbird: Thanks for sending me to that poem - I really like it!
DeleteJane: I think part of the issue (in addition to what you note) is that there is a tendency for this program to keep their PhD students as postdocs. So there is no transition to this new role and thus no discussion of where they are headed. As a friend said today (who is in that same boat), you just keep sliding down the slide the way you've been doing all through your PhD.
I'm glad they at least have others in both the same and slightly different situations with whom to compare notes; that does help a lot with the "it's not just me; is it?" issue (I'm a bit young to have firsthand knowledge,but I think that was part of the point of 1970s consciousness-raising groups). It sounds like the training was good for that, among other things. And the Shange poem (which is devastating) definitely underlines the value of sharing and comparing experiences.
DeleteSounds like a pretty good week, overall!
DeleteI am not feeling very inspired, but rather am feeling quite overwhelmed and fearful. So I am going to turn to my youth for two books that inspired me then: Ed Abbey The Monkey Wrench Gang and Jack Kerouac Dharma Bums.
ReplyDeleteLast week was remarkably hard getting back from being away, but I managed ok.
1. Organize first day of teaching, develop BB website YES
2. Deal with graduate student drama (2 of them, ugh) YES
3. Meetings with University Media folks for upcoming conference SOME
4. Reintegrate into the department after being gone, do my best to not cry publicly (although I am sort of ok with this and really beyond caring) OK
5. Work out 3 x OK
This week I want to start getting into research things:
1. Teaching prep - redo both ppoints, work on BB site
2. Edits on co-authored book
3. List of things to complete in lab
4. Start to look at R and R
5. Start to look at figures for article submission
6. Fun thing x 2
7. Gym x 3, and additional walk or ?
The big elephant in the room is I am putting off looking at the book- will try to do that next week or next, seems like too much now.
I've been a big Kerouac and Beats fan since I was a teenager. On the Road would be my go-to, and I think all of his books are good travel companions.
DeleteI'm glad that you are gently coming back to things and giving yourself the space for that.
I tried to respond earlier and my comment got eaten. I wanted to suggest doing something tiny about the book when you start, like opening a file or reading an e-mail, or reviewing your last entry in your research journal if you have one, just so you can shrink the elephant a little.
DeleteExcellent advice DEH, re starting tiny to shrink the elephant. I like the use of tiny, it gives me the option of starting even smaller than small which seems like a good one.
DeleteMy character is probably lugging around a book she can't currently read - she needs an encryption key or a spell object or a translator - and it's heavy and annoying but important. This is standing in for the "secret book of how things work" in the university, in funding, in life. I am feeling very stupid at the moment - a bit of I'm-not-well brainfog (laryngitis - again), a bit of I'm-stressed-and-confused-and-have-too-much-on (ah, the joys of work) and bad communication from colleagues, a bit of just mid-life fuzz. On a more positive note, I think I will give her the collected "Don Camillo" stories, and the Denise Levertov poem below as a loose slip of paper in the pages, ready to be discovered when she needs it. One of those stories a day is an excellent reminder of hope and humanity across political divides.
ReplyDeleteStepping Westward - Poem by Denise Levertov
What is green in me
darkens, muscadine.
If woman is inconstant,
good, I am faithful to
ebb and flow, I fall
in season and now
is a time of ripening.
If her part
is to be true,
a north star,
good, I hold steady
in the black sky
and vanish by day,
yet burn there
in blue or above
quilts of cloud.
There is no savor
more sweet, more salt
than to be glad to be
what, woman,
and who, myself,
I am, a shadow
that grows longer as the sun
moves, drawn out
on a thread of wonder.
If I bear burdens
they begin to be remembered
as gifts, goods, a basket
of bread that hurts
my shoulders but closes me
in fragrance. I can
eat as I go.
LAST WEEK'S GOALS:
Delete1) Teaching Mark two small assignments. Make a detailed list of teaching prep needed and check the (frequently changing) online timetable. Set the first half of the exam questions for the new module with the short answer exam (which needs lots of questions). Start to enter resit exam questions for first year module (not due until July, but if I don't do it now it will be a lot more work then...) DONE bar one report, NO, NO, NO
2) self-care: do something not-work every evening other than stare at the phone, go to bed early on work nights, drink 1.5-2 l of water a day and focus on hitting >5 fruit and veg portions a day. most nights, went to bed but didn't sleep until wee hours, yes, most days
3) research Work on ScaryPilotPaper, send zero draft to rest of team. Set up second new run for ProblemChild2. Comments on FlatProjectAdjacentDocument. Make sure newsletter for SocietyThing is progressing. Reply to emails about Gallimaufray. NO, YES, YES, YES - done, NO
4) making stuff and being creative: finish current block of research-themed knitting and start a test swatch for the next one. If I go to the parents, work on the giant crochet project. YES, and started repeatedly but kept having to rip out. I am SO BAD at knitting from a chart, and Fluffball tried to "help"
5) domestic chaos reduction
Book at least two sessions with CRW. Remove layer of christmas detritus from living room. Catch up with washing up (I did catch up with the laundry last week, that was a small but pleasing thing...) YES< no, no but made inroads
Last week started OK, then I got sick again, or the sick returned, or something. Monday I moved things around and made bookings etc to visit the parents this weekend, and from then on everything went wrongish, and my voice is playing up and I feel Distinctly Unwell which is very annoying. And stressful. AS if there weren't enough stressful things around.
Teaching starts a week today (Monday) and I have lots of prep to do, but hopefully can work from home a fair bit too. LikesMaths is leaving so I want to go to her farewell dinner tomorrow, and I have an internal interview for a new role I'd really like (it would involve quite a lot of tedious admin, but would buy me out of about 2/3rds of my current classroom teaching, and a 2-3 year stint of less voice strain sounds really appealling - and I'd still have student contact through small group tutorials and project students). Trying not to get my hopes up after many rejections (often couched as "because your teaching is too valuable...") but the regime is changing, and maybe it's my turn...
1) Teaching: finish small assignment marking, check marking for big module (TRQ but it's here so it can be ticked off). Make a detailed list of teaching prep needed and check the (frequently changing) online timetable. Set the first half of the exam questions for the new module with the short answer exam (which needs lots of questions). Start to enter resit exam questions for first year module (not due until July, but if I don't do it now it will be a lot more work then...)
2) self-care: do something not-work every evening other than stare at the phone, go to bed early on work nights, drink 1.5-2 l of water a day and focus on hitting >5 fruit and veg portions a day.
3) research: Work on ScaryPilotPaper, send zero draft to rest of team. Set up fourth new run for ProblemChild2. Reply to emails about Gallimaufray.
4) making stuff and being creative: start test swatch for next block.
5) domestic chaos reduction
Remove layer of christmas detritus from living room. Catch up with washing up.
So I'm not adding much this week, just aiming to ACTUALLY do what I PLANNED to have done by now...
To go with the Levertov, Judy Grahn: the common woman is as common as a common loaf of bread, and will rise.
DeleteFluffball wanting to help with knitting reminds me of a book I'm reading about Edward Gorey, Born to be Posthumous. Gorey's home companions were all cats, and he told an interviewer that "anywhere from one to six cars are almost always sitting on wherever I am working."
DeleteI hope teaching prep continues on pace, and sleep arrives more quickly as well.
Mmmrrrgghhhhh - I wrote a comment then accidentally deleted it.
ReplyDeleteMy narrative journey would be urban fantasy - witches, faeries, and things that go bump in the night. I'd carry an aged scroll - browning paper, rolled up with wax seal and ribbon. The paper would be ancient looking yet strangely robust as I constantly unroll and reread it. The text would be ornate yet strangely legible "stop complaining and get on with it".
From week 1:
1. Ascertain what I need to do for screencast presentation and draft it - nope
2. Locate/dig out all the stuff on Albatross and International and Workload so they are easy to find when I have time to work on them. - nope
3. Mark and give feedback on all items of coursework that have been lurking on my desk (7 group projects and presentations; 36 small pieces of work; 36 reflective diaries) - down to 2 x 36 small pieces of work
4. complete teaching admin prep for forthcoming semester (3 module guides, 2 module intro presentations, 5 sets of assessment guidelines - 2 articles, 2 portfolio, 1 poster/presentation), put all teaching events in diary and check rooms are suitable/check for clashes) - yes
5. Prepare documents for meetings week after (outreach) and week after that (sustainability) - outreach done, sustainability nope
6. Chase up ethics on Workload project - yes and still waiting
7. Finish and Submit ethics on Enhancement project, student project 1 and 2 - enhancement nope, student project 1 and 2 submitted and received approval
8. Draft Workload funding application and send to boss - yes
9. Draft Social Workload presentation if accepted for conference - has been accepted but not drafted.
This week:
1. Finish workload funding application
2. do paperwork for sustainable committee meeting
3. mark coursework
4. draft social workload presentation
5. start working through edits to Albatross book chapter
6. Finish and submit Enhancement ethics
7. if time, work on screencast on diagnostic
My plan for the week is to clear all the marking/teaching/admin off Monday - Wednesday, take Thursday a a research day and work at home Friday to get lots done before next week.
I imagine your scroll with text-to-speech capability, screeching "Git on wiv it!" at the most inopportune moments.
DeleteYour goals for this week and last make clear just how intensive first-of-semester prep can be. And the transformation from person-on-break to person-leading-class is staggering when you step back and think about it.
DeleteMay that scroll serve you well.
Topic: my first thought was my motto "Live with uncertainty and work the process," and then the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and then I decided given my mission, what I mainly need is a map of the terrain, roads, rivers, caves, useful deserted barns, villages friendly or hostile, plus any information about the final battle plans that the generals or their aides can be coaxed to divulge.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
Health: the usual sleep, stretch, exercise, eat safely. YES. Often I get to bed by 10! Sometimes earlier! Sometimes, it's true, later, but not past 11.
Research: finish incorporating edits into revised introduction, send to editors; keep up with language work. YES (yay!) and YES.
Teaching: assign and check one set of in-class writing; post an essay assignment; set up teaching-plan documents for both classes. NO and NO (at least I didn't even assign it, rather than doing that and then not getting to it); YES; YES.
Admin: finish annual documents. YES except for putting in teaching evaluation numbers, which I can do this week.
Life Stuff: assorted dull tasks. YES: I haven't done everything on the list, but enough to feel good about, plus I finally balanced the joint checkbook, after a couple of years of letting it go. That feels like a huge accomplishment.
New goals:
Health: the usual sleep, stretch, exercise, eat safely.
Research: work on conference paper 1; keep up with language work; ILL one or more books.
Teaching: assign and check two sets of in-class writing; add to teaching-plan documents for both classes.
Admin: numbers on teaching doc; search-committee thing; semesterly form.
Life Stuff: more dull tasks.
Lots of YES for your week, and especially send to editors! I think your map need to be three-dimensional, maybe a small box that you can open and the map will magically unfold and come to life.
DeleteCongratulations on the health goals, especially sleep! I wonder if that helped you manage some of the others more effectively.
DeleteNo doubt! It is so much easier to tackle things when I feel tolerably rested.
DeleteI think the book I would carry with me would Patti Smith’s M Train. It’s meditative and far-roaming and there would be some synchronicity between what I need to figure out and what Smith experiences, enabling her to be a spirit guide by coincidence.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1 prepare for classes and write syllabi: yes
2 finish reading current books for review: almost
3 write timeline and outline for February essay: no but collecting lit and data
I have a weekend trip that has a long travel time and short family time, minimizing time for writing and research. Keeping the goals small.
This week:
1 read two books
2 read February essay materials
3 collect data for February essay
I have read Just Kids, but I haven't read M Train. I just read the description, and it sounds great. I think she has great potential as a spirit guide.
DeleteHope the trip was good.
There's a good deal of poetry mentioned upstream, and I think that's probably what I should carry with me. I've been intrigued by the remembrances of Mary Oliver, who died last week, and thinking that I should go explore more of her poetry, especially since observing nature is one of those things that I do less of now that I live in a more-urban environment.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
--Do some sort of movement on at least 3 days, spread over at least 2 modes (walking, stretching, weight-lifting, gardening/snow clearing)[cleared snow one day, walked another, and stretched another, so yes].
--Complete at least one of my individual contributions to curricular project (2 would be better)[completed one and began the second]
--Continue curriculum-project planning & organizing (beyond attending meeting & assigning reviews as submissions come in, which is TRQ at this point)[not really, and I'm behind on review assigning because we had technical difficulty with the platform, which is undergoing an update, over the weekend]
--Take at last a half-day break and schedule a full-day one for next week [managed to spend two half-days reading; still need to schedule next break]
--Work on habit of writing first thing in the morning (even if it’s class materials and/or curricular project contribution at this point)[yes; I've been spending a few hours each work morning doing concentrated writing on curricular materials for current classes or curricular-project submissions]
--Brainstorm some topics/questions for morning reflective writing later in coming weeks [no]
--Work on habit of professional reading at end of day [no]
--Work on getting to bed earlier [working on it, but without a great deal of success]
Goals for this week:
Delete--Movement on at least 3 days in at least 2 modes, including at least one weight-lifting session
--Complete second individual contribution to curricular project
--Deal with technical issue; get curricular-project peer reviews assigned to others; work on my own editorial reviews
--Deal with 3 curricular project loose ends: review form, copyright/licensing page, and description page
--Continue curriculum project planning and organizing (schedule at least conference-presentation planning and grant-report writing)
--Continue morning writing on days I'm working at home (individual curricular project submission; topic brainstorming)
--take or at least schedule a day off in the near future (this week or next)
--make progress on financial stocktaking and organizing
--Decide what professional book I should read next (and maybe start reading it)
--Keep working on getting to bed earlier
The curricular project is definitely threatening to become a hydra-headed monster at the moment, but that's mostly because we have some end-of-month deadlines (so some of this is TRQ, but TRQ in service of a TLQ project, so I'm counting it, especially since it's being juggled with all the usual beginning-of-term stuff -- my online classes began today, and the face to face ones begin tomorrow)
Kudos to you for tackling curriculum work in the mornings. It might be go to also set some parameters (if you haven't already) in order to keep that monster under control.
DeleteSo glad you had some half-day reading jags!
I missed last week and late this week, so it says a lot, I guess. I love all the poetry that people have offered, but I think if I took something on the journey it would be the psalms -- there's something for every mood - anger, sorrow, lament, joy - and so I'd always have company. The poem I return to most often is Diane Wakoski's "Purple Finch Song".
ReplyDeleteGoals from two weeks ago:
1. Get rough draft of syllabus done YES, it's now done and I've taught my first class but up to the last minute...
2. Write 1000 words on Collaboration YES
3. Finish one book review YES
4. Walk YES
5. Go to pottery class YES
6. Try to go to bed so I get enough sleep. Sometimes.
Reflection: I'm not sure what happened to last week, but I've been dealing with issues for my mother, and there were various meetings, and. . . I've realized that when I work at the computer late (i.e. after 9 PM) I don't fall asleep easily. So I need to make sure I don't do that. I can read, but computer stuff not so much. Last weekend I drove my mother down to my brother's house, and we had a bunch of family things because my sister is visiting from the city of light. And this week teaching has started. I'm just about caught up with myself...
Goals for next week (limited because my sister is with me until Saturday, so more family focused than usual.) And there's a fair bit of what my colleague calls adminology necessary right now for graduate admissions.
1. Teaching: finish getting my course site organized.
2. Research: read book for book review #2
3. Walk/ exercise regularly
4. Get into healthy sleep cycle for semester
Despite interruptions and challenges, you seem to have done well with your goals. I'll be interested to hear about how staying off the computer in the evenings affects your sleep.
DeleteIt definitely helps me. It does take a certain amount of planning to make sure that I do computer-based things earlier in the day, and save book-reading for evening.
DeleteWhat book would I take? There seems to be so many possibilities. But Elizabeth's reference to travel narratives made me think of Isabella Bird's "A Lady's Life in the Rockies," and now it's kind of stuck in my mind. It's somewhat appropriate since Bird, when in England, was somewhat of an invalid, but then when she would travel, she was a great adventurous, who also did quite a bit of writing. I need to discover my healthy, strong, writer self within the self who wants to lie on the couch with my aches and pains and fatigue and laziness.
ReplyDeleteLast week's goals:
1) Prep for classes; send all handouts to reprographics in a timely matter. MOSTLY DONE.
2) Make a significant dent in the garage. DONE.
3) Outing with daughter to a play. DONE.
4) 500 words or 90 minutes on novel. NOT DONE.
5) One chapter of Minds in Motion. NOT DONE.
6) 90 minutes on conference paper. NOT DONE.
7) Exercise: 7500 steps, yoga, or 7-min workout. MOSTLY DONE.
9) Complete Letter of Recommendation. DONE.
10) Complete accreditation work for one standard. NOT DONE.
Instead of using the week before classes to get a lot of things done, I used it to indulge my "oh my gosh this is the end of vacation so I want to just relax" feelings.
This week is almost over, but a few goals:
1) Take son on outing to lunch and aquarium store.
2) Study questions for one SF story.
3) Draft curriculum policy (getting to be TRQ)
4) Draft department efficiency report.
5) Write 200 words related to novel (notes, character sketch, etc.)
6) Grading and prep.
In other news, I've been following the elimination diet, and I've been shocked by the improvement in the eczema on my hands and the pain in my joints. It's both inspiring and depressing because it means I have the power to feel about six years younger than I have been feeling but also that I might need to make somewhat drastic and permanent changes in my diet. I hope I'm still able to have a little port and chocolate in the evenings. And the occasional scone.
The one frustrating thing is that the diet does not seem to have had an effect on the little hives/blisters on my eyelids. I think I'm going to try to see an allergist to find out if I'm allergic to something in my environment.
I love Isabella Bird! I imagine you have very mixed feelings about the dietary discoveries: it's wonderful to feel that one has some control over symptoms/reactions but it can be very hard to face the changes. Fingers crossed for port and chocolate! I'm not sure I could face my low-FODMAP diet without chocolate, though I suppose I would because I feel so awful when I eat things I don't digest well. Still, one needs some treats.
DeleteThanks, DEH. I think I have mentioned that my cousin has the FODMAP intolerance (at least that is the current diagnosis), and I saw how much it was affecting her life when I visited her this summer, and I thought of you. I am lucky that my problems are not so life altering or interrupting (I can go about my business even if I'm aching or itchy). But the recent improvements are significant enough that I will probably be facing some changes. We shall see! I will be testing chocolate on Wednesday. *fingers crossed*
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