Top Left Quadrant: Week 7: TLQ Mixtape

Saturday, 16 February 2019

Week 7: TLQ Mixtape

I am of a person of an age who made mixtapes...and some of us may have more experience with playlists...either way, I am thinking about the music that plays in some part of your adventure. Maybe the song that your character wakes up to, the music that carries her through the day, the music of celebration, or the songs to turn to for comfort. Back in the day one of my favorite mixtapes was one I called Sanctity Songs, even though I was the only person for whom those songs would be considered sacred and holy.

What song(s) are on your TLQ Mixtape or Playlist? I don’t listen to music when writing because I find it distracting, but those songs are certainly prime for the mix.

Last week’s goals below. I hope there is sweetness in your days.

Contingent Cassandra

--At least 1 walk, 1 stretch session, and 1 weight-lifting session, preferably on 3 different days.

--continue editorial & peer review followup (group email and individual emails as necessary

--Finish second individual contribution to curricular project

--Do at least one more editorial review for curricular project

--Continue morning writing on weekdays I'm at home (probably mostly individual contribution; possibly some FLC work and/or question-brainstorming)

--Plan/schedule/perhaps begin work on proposal for curricular project conference poster

--Take a day off

--aim for lights out no later than 9:30 each night (with wind-down reading beginning at 8:00 if at all possible)

Dame Eleanor Hull

Health: return to regular exercise, stretching, sleep schedule.

Research: keep up with language work; more translation style checking; edit introduction based on new editorial comments.

Teaching: prep; look at new set of papers on Saturday.

Admin: semesterly form; committee questions.

Life Stuff: more dull tasks (pick any three).

Good Enough Woman

1) 1 hour on conference paper

2) 1 hour on novel

3) 1 hour on self-evaluation and CV (I'm being evaluated this semester)

4) Exercise 2x

5) Pay bills

6) Float like mist for StageFest and don't let the intensity spill over into all of the other days.

7) Plan Friday carefully so that I have relaxation time and work time. Plan Sunday so that relaxation and recovery will dominate.

8) Be ready to help daughter with baking for V-Day if necessary. Do something new for dessert on Friday night. Maybe chocolate pie?

9) Finish the scarf for MIL if I can (Husband goes to see her on Thursday)

10) Keep up with DE training class (OMG it's so much work)

heu mihi

1. Weekly accounting:

2. Exercise x3 + walk X2, write x5, language x5, sit x5.

3. 2500 words of the novel that is becoming less stupid because I’m getting close to the end.

4. First-round revisions to ch. 4; to-do list for bigger deal stuff.

5. Malory through p. 500.

6. Try to combat the demons by knitting some and writing in my journal at least three times.

humming42

1 Submit book review

2 Submit article review

3 Submit other article review

4 Post to reading group

5 Promotion for big conference

6 Confirm date for small conference

JaneB

1) Teaching: get prep for Scary New Lab Class done, prepare for next week, finish marking small set of essays. Set the first half of the exam questions for the new module. Start to enter resit exam questions for first year module.

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, refined sugar free week. [boring, but listing them seems to keep them in mind...]

3) research: Continue ProblemChild2 analysis. Start model runs for FlatProject. Reply to difficult email about Gallimaufray. Finish draft of grant idea for circulation to collaborators.

4) making stuff and being creative: finish test swatch. Look for rest of yarn for colourwork block, start that.

5) domestic chaos reduction: Complete removal of christmas detritus from living room. Catch up with washing up. Hoover things.

oceangirl101

1. finish conference paper, go to conference next wknd

2. grading and prep for lab

3. meet with figure drafter for book

4. R and R if there is time

5. Light exercise x 2

6. Sleep and rest and relax to reduce pain

Susan

1. Survive Wednesday,

2. Do ILL book

3. Get rid of 100 emails

4. Go back to collaborative essay for at least 4 hours

5. Get tax stuff prepared

6. Start grading student papers

7. WALK 3 times

8. Keep up good sleeping

9. Do something nice/fun for the long weekend.

waffles

1. Revisit JAMA peds paper

2. Revise presentation for Thursday (for the UN NGO)

3. Poster for global health conference

4. Respond to diss chair's email

41 comments:

JaneB17 February 2019 at 19:05
JaneB is currently listening to podcasts about how to be a good manager and FANTASISING (for some reason, they are working better than nature sound type noises for getting me to sleep this month, and I can't listen to the radio as things on the news bulletins sneak into my dreams, and if I set it to shut off after a certain amount of time it shutting off usually wakes me up... my sleep pattern WANTS very badly to be delayed about three hours from what it needs to be to meet my teaching obligations and have a decent chance of parking on campus without spending half an hour going round different carparks and ending up somewhere that is pitch dark after 5pm... at the moment something to listen to helps me keep on track, vaguely). Not sure about my narrative-self. May get back to you on that (insects continue to whine around her, and her party members are bickering, and she's beginning to think the woods are deliberately being inconvenient, but that isn't exactly the material of a mix-tape). Oh, and to share something wacky musically - I have been using a piece of Mongolian folk-rock as the "get up NOW" track in my mornings (met on Cloud's blog) and for the moment am slightly addicted... and the cinematography of the Mongolian landscapes is stunning
here

last week's goals:
) Teaching: get prep for Scary New Lab Class done, prepare for next week, finish marking small set of essays. Set the first half of the exam questions for the new module. Start to enter resit exam questions for first year module. Yes, Yes, Yes, 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, refined sugar free week. [boring, but listing them seems to keep them in mind...] mostly, mostly, yes, yes, fell off THAT bandwagon thoroughly mid-week - a student brought me cake, and there were petit-fours at writing group, so...- and haven't got back on
3) research: Continue ProblemChild2 analysis. Start model runs for FlatProject. Reply to difficult email about Gallimaufray. Finish draft of grant idea for circulation to collaborators. yes, have done first stage on paper. Yes. No. No. Two papers I'm a contributing author on keep coming back to me, and it's really annoying and taking up the very small amount of research time I have at the moment
4) making stuff and being creative: finish test swatch. Look for rest of yarn for colourwork block, start that. no but a little progress, no, no
5) domestic chaos reduction: Complete removal of christmas detritus from living room. Catch up with washing up. Hoover things. yes, no but close, yes. Decluttering woman came yesterday and the area around the front door is TRANFORMED. But then this morning the boiler stopped working which kind of cut off plans to wash a lot of dishes today... and hopefully I can get it fixed Tuesday as I run out of work clothes around Wednesday...

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Waffles18 February 2019 at 14:46
My personal current work playlist is randomly a hip-hop one. It's an amalgamation of songs I liked that were the soundtrack for commercials (!) and music played during the pre-show of a play I really really liked (I was sitting there in the audience frantically shazaming all the music). It energizes me tremendously. I thank Lin Manuel Miranda and the musical Hamilton for introducing me to hip-hop/rap music.

Last week went pretty well in terms of my goals - though I collapsed into an overwhelmed and depressed heap on Friday. Humblebrag postdoc has been successful in getting me taken off a project that I conceived of and implemented. We all got an email from our research dean saying they would be taking it over - and I was devastated and really hurt that the research dean (with whom I have a really good relationship) didn't talk to me about this at all. No one from her team did - that email was the first communication about it from them. I know I should likely talk to her - but I am unsure what would be helpful to discuss and am unsure whether talking to her about it will be helpful in the long run. I may try to talk to one of the faculty members who I think can help me figure out what to do - if anything.

Last week
1. Revisit JAMA peds paper - DONE
2. Revise presentation for Thursday (for the UN NGO) - DONE
3. Poster for global health conference - DONE
4. Respond to diss chair's email - DONE (and crickets…)

Now that my K is in, I have to make progress on the many projects on my list. Ugh.

This week
1. Review student's paper
2. APA grant (due Friday - ha ha)
3. Gender review (dragging my heels bc I am likely to reject it - this will be my 4th review of this paper)
4. Scoping review flow chart
5. PTSD paper - pull together and figure out next steps
6. Next steps for psych program project
7. Next steps for couple ID analyses
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heu mihi18 February 2019 at 20:15
I don't usually listen to music, period--I don't know how that really happened. I listened all the time as a teenager, and at some point I tried to take a break; it was really difficult to be with silence, but once I'd gotten used to it, I found that there was no going back. However, when I was writing a novel back in 2006-2007 (as a way to deal with the job market), I found--embarrassingly enough--that the "Gladiator" soundtrack really worked for me. Over and over again. So I'll just go with that.

Last week became...difficult. First off, snow delays and early closures messed with my schedule (without actually canceling any of my classes or meetings). And then there was something about which I can't give much detail; basically, someone accused me of something--anonymously, thank goodness, but I know without a doubt that I'm the person they meant--on FB, and that was pretty horrible. Especially horrible to see my friends, who did not know that I was the intended target, sympathize with this person and suggest (terrible) countermeasures. To be clear, the accusation is entirely false, although I know that the person believes it is true--and I can't actually confront the person because I'm not supposed to know that it's about me.

This is awfully convoluted; I'm sorry.

Luckily, the three people in the world who know the whole story and are in a position to judge my guilt/innocence are fully convinced that I've done nothing wrong, and the appropriate one of the three is mediating in an appropriate way, so my hope is that it will all blow over.

But can I take this opportunity to observe that it's really horrible when people side with someone on something about which they literally know nothing? And do so in the vitriolic, outrage-fueled way that is FB's specialty? There are many reasons that I'm allergic to FB, but this is a big one.

Anyway, I'm feeling much calmer now, having realized that if this person were to accuse me by name, there's no way that their case would hold water, and several smart, kind people would come to my defense. But it knocked me for quite a loop and I was unable to meditate--although that might have actually helped--for most of the week; I thought that I would just sit and stew for 20 minutes, and that was no good.

So, last week:
1. Weekly accounting: 36 hours, Research 24%, Teaching 69%, Service 7%
2. Exercise x3 + walk X2 -Yes (a little fuzzy on the walks, but let's call it), write x5 -Yes, language x5 -Yes, sit x5 -No, x1
3. 2500 words of the novel that is becoming less stupid because I’m getting close to the end. -No, but a big push on Saturday got me to 1887, which is pretty good.
4. First-round revisions to ch. 4; to-do list for bigger deal stuff. -Yes.
5. Malory through p. 500. -I'm at 439.
6. Try to combat the demons by knitting some and writing in my journal at least three times. -Yes, although I didn't knit as much as I should have for my own sanity's sake.

This week--I'm at my in-laws' until tomorrow, but I only teach on Thursday this week. But my son is off school (the New England "February Break" phenomenon). So I don't know what will happen.

1. Weekly accounting
2. Language x3, sit x4, write x4, exercise x4.
3. Write 2500 words unless I get to the end first.
4. Work on revisions to intro; check original language for chapter 4.
5. Malory to p. 500.
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Dame Eleanor Hull19 February 2019 at 01:22
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Dame Eleanor Hull19 February 2019 at 01:36
I think I'm the right age for mix tapes, but my friends and I were purists about listening to Whole Albums As God Intended, so I don't think I ever made one. Like Heu Mihi, I generally work in silence, although I do listen to classical (wordless) music when grading, because it keeps the fidgety part of my brain busy instead of moaning about comma splices.

My character is listening to wind and creaky boards in an old barn where she has taken shelter, along with a few ominous skittering noises and the occasional shriek of a rabbit being killed by an owl. The damned Top Brass cannot make up their minds, so she's been sent off in one direction with maps for the last-but-two planned campaign that was to go in a totally different direction on the other side of the river, with instructions to "ask people and figure it out." The only language shared by her and the local population is one that the locals associate with Very Nasty Oppressors, so they mostly refuse to speak it at all; the only reason they even listen to her (and then speak their own language, with hand gestures and drawing in the dirt) is because her grasp of it is so halting that she's clearly not one of the Very Nasty group. If this were a novel, this would be the point where she either (a) discovers that The Enemy has already invaded and is about to overwhelm her hometown, or (b) is arrested as a spy, or (c) is attacked by a wandering dragon or similar, then rescued in the nick of time by a Helper Animal or Missing Prince disguised as a peasant, that sort of thing. Since this isn't a novel, she'll just spend a cold and mostly sleepless night thinking about concerts she used to go to in the city before winding up with this quartermaster gig, and whatever made that seem like a good idea . . . there must have been a reason for taking it on . . .
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Susan20 February 2019 at 05:41
So, like Dame Eleanor and Heu Mihi, I generally work in silence. I've experimented with music -- I have a few playlists of classical music that is (like Dame Eleanors) wordless, but I almost never play them; and one of my goals in the next year or so is to get all my CDs onto a network hard drive so I can more easily play music.

And like JaneB, my nighttime soundtrack is talk of various kinds that is mildly interesting but I don't care if I fall asleep with it.

So, how I did:

1. Survive Wednesday, YES, but I got sick.
2. Do ILL book YES
3. Get rid of 100 emails 150 -- more if you include getting rid of stuff as it comes in!
4. Go back to collaborative essay for at least 4 hours -- probably 3 hours, but at least I did something
5. Get tax stuff prepared YES
6. Start grading student papers NO
7. WALK 3 times NO
8. Keep up good sleeping Sort of
9. Do something nice/fun for the long weekend KIND OF

Well, as I went through the nightmare 27 hours with 10 hours of meetings and 2 hours of teaching, I was getting sick. Not surprising. So I kind of was working in Slow motion! Also, my furnace is still not fixed, so I'm working at staying warm. (The furnace people have made 6 visits in the last 2 weeks, and now have provided me with space heaters so I don't freeze to death. The part that will apparently magically fix this will be put in tomorrow.) And while it hasn't taken time, I think being cold has slowed down my work. Finally, the administrivia of my life has demanded time: today I had two meetings related to two different committees, and each was followed by some work that needed to be done. . .

This coming weekend I'm going away, but will get a day at my favorite library (Paradise), and celebrate my "baby" brother's 60th birthday. So my goals are limited. (Also, meetings).

1. Grade papers
2. Draft proposal for summer fellowship
3. Get back to exercise
4. Keep getting good sleep
5. Enjoy my visit with family and friends

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oceangirl10120 February 2019 at 19:56
I used to be a real connoisseur of making/listening to/receiving/exchanging mixed tapes, and then mixed cds, and I hate that its a lost art. I, like others, never listen to music when writing but I do listen to it, often loudly, in the lab. I tend to like a mix of soul, rock, and alternative country. This week has been super super hard thus far, I made it through the conference and my paper and then crashed and burned. I am just trying to make it through the week. I lost a cousin to suicide last week, it brought up my Mom's death etc. nit because she died that way but because I would have talked about it with her and my Dad. I also just found the whole conference thing really hard to deal with while grieving. Its sometimes hard when life goes on when all you want to do is hide in a corner.

Last week
1. finish conference paper, go to conference next wknd Yes
2. grading and prep for lab Prep yes, grading no
3. meet with figure drafter for book No
4. R and R if there is time No
5. Light exercise x 2 Yes
6. Sleep and rest and relax to reduce pain A bit

This week:
1. Catch up on teaching prep and grading
2. Write small travel grant for next conference
3. Look at book figures and set up meeting with drafter
4. Figure out help with statistics for R and R
5. Look at R and R even if you do nothing
6. Exercise x 2
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humming4221 February 2019 at 17:44
That nostalgia for the lost art of the mix tape inspired the topic. I still listen to music from the 80s and before, although I've edged into 90s Britpop a bit in the last few years.

I hope you find good means for self care, as heu mihi suggests.
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Elizabeth Anne Mitchell22 February 2019 at 03:01
First, let me say how sad I felt to read that everyone has had such bad weeks. I hope everyone has a much better time of the next week!

Topic: Elizabeth makes far too many playlists, and is somewhat predictable in what will be played when. My wake up playlists are either Irish contemporary or Medieval contemporary. In the evening, I tend to unwind with John Taverner or other “cusp of the 16th-century” composers. If I am writing fiction, I end up listening to music that fits my character--my latest strong heroine called for the Wonder Woman and Black Panther soundtracks a lot. If I am writing scholarly research, I listen to wordless classical--usually my Katchaturian, Mussorgsky, and Stravinsky playlist, or my Vanessa Mae playlist.

My character listens to her contemporary Irish and medieval music as well, although I have caught her in the middle of the Aquaman soundtrack. I think the main title song, Everything I Need, appeals to both of us.

Last week’s goals:
Write 500 words a day. Only twice this week.
Draw one picture this week. Yes! I think it was drawing faces that was difficult. I could draw landscapes, wardrobes, and so on
Write and post a snippet of the novella. Yes!
Knit half an hour a day. Yes. I finished one lace curtain and am halfway through the second one.

Analysis: The work situation is not getting any better. Every day, I walk into a forest fire of stress, over things that are not important, not urgent, nor particularly helpful to the mission of the university.

On a positive note, I saw my primary care doctor, who told me I have lost 40 pounds since August, have gotten my blood glucose down from pre-diabetic to normal, have progressed from having osteoporosis in every bone checked in last year’s bone density test, to only having osteoporosis in my spine, and osteopenia everywhere else. I am continuing to knit for stress relief, and to meditate several times during the day.

Since it is so late in the week, I’m repeating my goals.

Next week’s goals:
Write 500 words a day.
Draw one picture this week.
Write and post a snippet of the novella.
Knit half an hour a day.

I hope everyone has a calm, wonderful, and productive week. Float like mist, all!
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Good Enough Woman22 February 2019 at 08:02
I am not very tuned into music these days, but I did rock out to Donna Summer one night a few weeks ago, and I've been wanting to listen to Dirty Computer (the Whole Album as God/Janelle Monae intended [to sort of quote DEH]). My other soundtrack right now are mystery audiobooks by Charles Finch. I use them to inspire me to work on my own book. I don't have any clever metaphorical responses tonight. I'm just pushing myself to get the belated check in done.

Last week's goals:
1) 1 hour on conference paper. DONE.
2) 1 hour on novel. DONE.
3) 1 hour on self-evaluation and CV (I'm being evaluated this semester). MORE LIKE FIVE HOURS.
4) Exercise 2x. NOT DONE.
5) Pay bills. NOT DONE.
6) Float like mist for StageFest and don't let the intensity spill over into all of the other days. MOSTLY DONE, IT WAS CHAOS.
7) Plan Friday carefully so that I have relaxation time and work time. Plan Sunday so that relaxation and recovery will dominate. YES FOR FRIDAY, NO FOR SUNDAY.
8) Be ready to help daughter with baking for V-Day if necessary. Do something new for dessert on Friday night. Maybe chocolate pie? DONE.
9) Finish the scarf for MIL if I can (Husband goes to see her on Thursday). NOT DONE.
10) Keep up with DE training class (OMG it's so much work). DONE.

Not a bad week overall. This weekend I have an all-day Saturday event for my son, which is unusual, and I'm hoping he enjoys it. Last weekend, I had to get up at 3:00am for my daughter's event. At least this time, I don't have to get up until around 6:00. After this weekend, my kids' stuff with let up, thank goodness. But I'm on a hiring committee, and I will have to start screening (lots of) applicants soon.

This week:
1) Float list mist at my son's event on Saturday.
2) Help my daughter with acquiring dress for the dance (if necessary).
3) Get some rest.
4) Get as much grading a prep done this weekend so that I'm ready to review applications next week.
5) Pay bills.
6) Get plane ticket for conference.
7) Do check in by Sunday night.

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ADMIN15 September 2019 at 13:55
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Saturday, 16 February 2019

Week 7: TLQ Mixtape

41 comments: