Good evening to all our crew and guests! As you know our arrival on Primavera is imminent! We’re in the last week of the voyage for forward planning, so we get one more week of goals before we report on our session and pack up our cabins….
We’ve almost made it across the Expanse and travelled all the way through several interstellar clouds of dust. We hunted Demotivators, drank a bunch of random interstellar alcohol, danced with the very handsome Captain Vorpatril, shot the crap out of our floating baggage in a jettisoning ceremony, put on a few dances with appropriate fancy dresses, struggled with albatrosses, fantasized about being 19th Century Cambridge scholars and learned a bunch of stuff about routines and habits and general survival…
One of the things that bugs me most about this endless stretch of pandemic online existence is that everything ends with a whimper. Had a student do Masters defense and at the end we told her she passed, congratulated her, and clicked out of the meeting. No coffee, no bar, no party, nothing… Same with end of classes, reviewed what we did, talked about some cool stuff, thanked students for all their work, and then waited as they all disappeared. And then nothing… And that’s been the case with everything… I’m so sick of the anticlimax that comes with every ending and every milestone!
So for this week’s social hour and check-in see if the following list resonates with you…
How will you plan to celebrate the achievements in this session that you will tell us all about next week?
How can we make these anticlimactic endings feel a little more special?
What do you need to do for yourself to acknowledge all your hard work and enjoy the satisfaction that should come with everything you did?
How can we create a little moment of fun and levity and celebration for things that need it?
I do not know the answers for any of these yet...
GOALS from last week:
Captain Daisy
1) Help grad student with proposals and grant applications
2) Society website updating and general organization
3) Make sure all committee organization is ready for 2 weeks of interviews
4) Keep working on local project, report to partner
5) Outline new grant application for work in new area
6) Final marking and grades for undergrad class if everything gets handed in
7) Field trip!!!!!
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (held over)
Walk 2x5.
Read 1 hour x 5 on early printers.
Edit translation sections 1 x 5.
Draft a daily schedule.
First Mate T’Melnor
Research x 6: 4 x book, 2 x revisions.
Dead language prep for group; anything on #2 is gravy.
Grade whatever there is to grade.
Prep for faculty meeting; review grad apps.
Write letter.
Gently increase activity while healing.
Do some mending.
Visit store for paint chips.
heu mihi
1) Uncomfortable phone call with difficult colleague
(planning on doing this by 9:15 this morning, just to get it out of the way)
2) Write 2 hours if possible
3) Gen Ed review!! Rapidly becoming urgent
4) Run, yoga, sit, language--as fits my schedule
5) Get to the plant store (Saturday?)
6) Get first vaccine shot! I'm FINALLY eligible (today), and amazingly, I was
able to get both my husband and me appointments for later this week.
Humming42
1 Submit Because
2 Submit Young Ones
3 Write and submit next book review
4 Focus on teaching-related responsibilities
5 Also, awesome conference with Boredom presentation!
Karen (held over)
-send around syllabi for sem 2 and draft teaching plan
-catch up on student feedback and be prepped for next week's crits
-be one week ahead in LMS content
Susan (held over)
1. Get to be early enough to not be wrecked by Ginger
George's 4 AM wake up call.
2. 2 x 2 hours on Famous Author
3. Read 3 more chapters in book for review
4. Grade papers
5. Write citations for lifetime awards for professional association
6. Go to sessions for remote conference
7. See someone for fun
8. Do stuff in garden
9. Sit outside with a drink at least one evening. Roses are in bloom, as are
orange and lemon trees. It smells heavenly.
10. Float like mist and ignore the stupid
My support crew are desperately readying the shuttle (campervan) for imminent departure to Primavera (or as we call it around here, long service leave). They have a few days left before they go, I'm staying on a week longer and the mountain of tasks and anxiety levels are getting ever higher. Still, something like progress is happening, and I do keep being reminded that in the current world being able to plan for travel is truly a luxury.
ReplyDeletePrevious weeks:
-send around syllabi for sem 2 and draft teaching plan - yes, done
-catch up on student feedback and be prepped for next week's crits - yes, done but now I've started reminding my postgraduates about my departure date I'm getting more work in from them
-be one week ahead in LMS content - hah, no
This week:
-complete marking for current unit
-rubrics drafted for sem 2
-LMS caught up
-wall work tested
-successful shuttle/van launch
"now I've started reminding my postgraduates about my departure date I'm getting more work in from them"---funny how that works!
DeleteYay for support crew prepping your own shuttle! We will vicariously enjoy your travel.
Thanks! If anyone does want to follow my travels through pictures, I'll be posting on insta at karenunderscoreinunderscoretheoryunderscore - replace the punctuation description with actual punctuation marks, obviously.
DeleteGood luck with the last bits of preparation and things that need to be finished! Almost there!
DeleteWe have done a lot, haven't we? Thanks for the reminders, Captain! And you're so right about the "ending with a whimper" problem. It goes with the general lack of punctuation to days, weeks, months, and semesters: no regular trips to work, no Friday end-of-week rituals with colleagues, no hallway chats about when we'll be done. As the introvert's introvert, I mind this less than many people do, but I don't actually want to be a hermit and I do miss in-person interactions. I would like to be able to celebrate student accomplishments. As I may have said last week, it's hard even to think of what I can do to celebrate the end of the term (exacerbated by my food sensitivities---special meals aren't really an option). So, the prompt is a good one. Maybe I will create a special page in my little Moleskine notebook to sum up all the things I've done this term, and decorate it in color. Usually my lists are utilitarian (who has time for all the fancy penmanship?), but some coloring might be a fun way to celebrate visually. Maybe even draw a certificate?
ReplyDeleteIf people in this group are willing to de-anonymize (and I know some of us already know each other's RL identities), we could do a Zoom call to celebrate the end of this session. If you're not all Zoomed out, and if we can find a time of day that accommodates all the time zones, and so on. Reply to this comment if you'd like to do that.
I'm up for a celebratory Zoom call.
DeleteI'm up for zoom if I can make the time zones work/will be able to connect at the time.
DeleteThat would be really fun!
DeleteI'd be up for that!
DeleteOK, anyone who is interested in a TLQ Zoom call, please send me an e-mail at dame dot eleanor at mail dot com (yes, just mail, no prefixed letter). Include the address you want your invitation to go to, your time zone, and some indication of days/times that work for you. You'll get an invitation from my RL uni Zoom account, once I find a time that works. If there's a clear division in availability, we might even have two calls.
DeleteMe too...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
ReplyDeleteResearch x 6: 4 x book, 2 x revisions. YES book, NO revisions.
Dead language prep for group; anything on #2 is gravy. YES, 1x gravy.
Grade whatever there is to grade. NO.
Prep for faculty meeting; review grad apps. YES, NO.
Write letter. NO.
Gently increase activity while healing. YES.
Do some mending. NO.
Visit store for paint chips. YES.
OTHER: attended one-day conference; commented on a grad's conference paper draft; had an out-of-town friend visit, celebrating the fullness of our vaccinations.
Last set of weekly goals---our grading deadline has been pushed out a week, so I fear grading is going to spill over into next week . . .:
Research x 6: 4 x book, 2 x revisions.
Dead language prep for group; anything on #2 is gravy.
Grade All The Things.
Review grad apps.
Go to campus to sign documents.
Write letter.
Gently increase activity while healing.
Do some mending.
Visit another store for more paint chips.
Start a jigsaw puzzle.
Yay for all the done things, especially the book research bits!And good luck with the grading! Last batch for a while... if that helps!
DeleteSo nice to have visits with friends be good options again!
I am pleased to find how easy it is to take up research again now that I'm not frantically prepping classes! I'm still not to the writing stage, just reading (plus some translation for a project I'm not officially working on right now), but I can feel the urge building. Sometimes it really is circumstances that get in the way of research.
DeleteLast week:
ReplyDelete1) Uncomfortable phone call with difficult colleague - YES, then they called again yesterday for another round of discomfort, but it went fine
2) Write 2 hours if possible - NO, nothing
3) Gen Ed review!! Rapidly becoming urgent - YES, took like 15 minutes
4) Run, yoga, sit, language--as fits my schedule - x3, x0, x1, x0 Whatever
5) Get to the plant store (Saturday?) - YES, Sunday
6) Get first vaccine shot! - YES! Feeling bad about the rest of the world's access to vaccines, though.
It was really fun to see my dad and stepmom. Bonaventure's break was otherwise low-key--we didn't do anything special--but honestly having company was SO exhausting after 13+ months without (I don't think we'd actually had a houseguest since Christmas 2019).
This week: Back on track! Classes end for me on May 4, so this is really the last big push.
1) Run, yoga, sit, Latin
2) Write 3 hours
3) Grad student exams (prepare for and participate)
4) Be gracious about the teaching workshop I nicely but foolishly signed up to attend
5) Grade whatever I have by the end of the week
6) Send out journal proofs
7) Make a plan for reading collection essays
So glad the visit was fun!
DeleteGood luck with the last push for classes. I always find grad student exams quite enjoyable, hope yours are fun too!
I’m still not sure I know the answer to my own questions… The two big things I have been looking forward to as end of term celebrations (field trip and outdoor graduation picnic) have both been cancelled because of a relatively big rise in cases in our area (thanks for nothing stupid bloody hockey tournament!) so I’m feeling a bit adrift...
ReplyDeleteSushi takeout with kid always works as a celebration, so that’s on the list. Colleague and I will do a shopping trip to put together gift bags for the first graduates of a program we started 4 years ago, so that will be nice even though we cannot do their planned grad picnic. Maybe I should buy new stationary? Maybe I will plan out a hypothetical local trip without set timings or bookings, and have it ready for whenever that is an option again? I think that could be fun!
Last week’s goals:
1) Help grad student with proposals and grant applications ONGOING
2) Society website updating and general organization DONE
3) Make sure all committee organization is ready for 2 weeks of interviews DONE
4) Keep working on local project, report to partner ONGOING
5) Outline new grant application for work in new area NOPE
6) Final marking and grades for undergrad class if everything gets handed in DONE
7) Field trip!!!!! CANCELLED…
That was a strange week. Lots of time and energy spent on people-managing for association stuff along with the inevitable stress of grade submissions and endless committees… Here’s hoping that my two reasonably free days with “research” written on the calendar stay that way!
This week’s goals:
1) Sit down with planner and projects and figure out what is next/important/necessary
2) Take photographs of beautiful samples for report/paper
3) Outline plan for finishing half-done paper
4) Outline new grant proposal, send to colleagues
5) Finish organizing awards weeks for association
6) Sushi take-out night to celebrate grade submissions
I like the gift bags idea, and that inspired me to throw in a few goodies along with the traditional book for a prize winner at LRU. Thanks for that! So sorry about the cancelled field trip. I hope you have a super-fun sushi night!
DeleteI’m late showing up here like a person who accidentally locked themselves in their quarters but with all of the tools she needs on the other side of the door. Not that I don’t have what I need, just that I have serious overwhelm right now.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to looking back on this particular voyage because I am certain that I have done far more good work than I have documented. Maybe I will update my faculty activity report as a way to celebrate some of that, since part of it is also the creative work that doesn’t count in the academic zones because it’s outside of my primary discipline.
Last week
1 Submit Because: Finished, nervous about sending
2 Submit Young Ones: No, next week
3 Write and submit review of already-read book: Yes
4 Try to focus on teaching-related responsibilities too: Yes
This week
1 Submit Young Ones
2 Grade, grade, grade
I agree--we need to make sure to give ourselves credit for all the good work we have done. Congrats on finishing Because and being so close with Young Ones. May I ask, on Because, are you nervous for good reasons, such as knowing you always find typos on a final read-through, or are you just feeling reluctant to hit that Send button? If the first, here is official permission to wait and do all the checking (or whatever) that you want to do. If the second, we have your back: go for it!
DeleteThank you so much for the support! I appreciate it greatly. Here's a brief story on Because: the editor is a very dear friend from graduate school and I ended up writing a really strange piece. I don't want her to feel any obligation to accept it and I don't want her to feel uncomfortable about saying heck no to the piece. So I need to write this cover note via email that explains that I know it may be a really bad fit and I am completely ok with that.
Delete1. How will you plan to celebrate the achievements in this session that you will tell us all about next week?
ReplyDeleteI am going to splurge on special tea.
I am going to see the grandkids.
2. How can we make these anticlimactic endings feel a little more special?
I've let meetings I'm running go for an extra 10 minutes or so, just to catch up with each other. One department has evening happy hour, too.
3. What do you need to do for yourself to acknowledge all your hard work and enjoy the satisfaction that should come with everything you did?
Own it, don't belittle it.
4. How can we create a little moment of fun and levity and celebration for things that need it?
Allow ourselves to take the time, rather than rushing to the "next thing."
Play with the neighbors' new puppy.
Channel the joy in little things, and allow ourselves to be young at heart.
Last 2 week's goals:
Walk 2x5.Nope. Only about 10 times.
Read 1 hour x 5 on early printers. Nope. Only about 7 times.
Edit translatio sections 1 x 5. Yes.
Draft a daily schedule. Yes.
Off-the-list: Wrote several emails soliciting contributions to a special double issue I’m co-editing. Wrote up a checklist of what fields mapped to which between the library catalog records and the metadata records we use in ArchiveSpace; discussed same with the systems expert in Archives. It was a bit like speaking Latin to a Greek speaker, with lots of circumlocution and hand gestures, but we got there eventually.
Although I was sleeping slightly better, it was still a slow couple of weeks. I'm just burned out. I have Zoom fatigue, although Dame Eleanor is right, I don’t have to teach a class on Zoom. Mainly, the groundwork I am doing to market the rare book collection will be worth the work, but at the moment, it is more akin to being on a widget assembly line than academic work, and it just dulls the brain. There seem to be ever more widgets that need that half-hour fix.
On the plus side, my introverted family is suddenly eager to be social, so I am going with that as much as I can. Also, the neighbors are coming outside to socialize as all of us of a certain age are fully immunized, which means I can play with the nine-week old puppy across the street.
Next week’s goals:
Write a precis of what needs to be done on each project.
Order those projects by time involved, amount of interest on my part, and interest on the wider world’s part.
Outline what is left to do.
Do the first section of the outline for each of the first three projects.
I don’t want to jinx it, but it does look like this summer will be better than the last one. Take care of yourselves, and float like mist, everyone!
Those are wonderful, detailed answers to Daisy's questions about celebrations. You've met all your goals at least halfway, plus done some "extras," so that looks like a good couple of weeks to me.
DeleteAs for speaking Latin to a Greek speaker, ha! Ago, agere, egi, actum, or ago, axo, egagon . . . ?
Yes, it was exactly like that! Thanks for the reassurance about goals, too!
DeleteSo I'm checking in really late (not for want of thinking about it) and late at night, because I left my computer on and decided to do so before going to bed.
ReplyDeleteThe anticlimax is real. No hanging around with students after class, walking back to my office or to their next class, no end of term parties...I've had a few celebratory visits as friends get vaccinated, but it is strange. And while I like seeing people, I actually like the silence and lack of pressure for company too. We're having a zoom party for our seniors, where we'll recognize them all, but there's not even a cookie. (We're mailing certificates.) My department has also, in pandemic, developed a lively group chat, which today was celebrating 2 positive tenure decisions (one announced by her 2 y.o. daughter, the other celebrated with a donut).
Anyway, how did I do on goals from 2 weeks ago:
1. Get to be early enough to not be wrecked by Ginger George's 4 AM wake up call. Mostly
2. 2 x 2 hours on Famous Author MORE
3. Read 3 more chapters in book for review NO
4. Grade papers LATE but...
5. Write citations for lifetime awards for professional association YES, need to follow up
6. Go to sessions for remote conference YES, DONE
7. See someone for fun YES
8. Do stuff in garden NOT MUCH
9. Sit outside with a drink at least one evening. Roses are in bloom, as are orange and lemon trees. It smells heavenly. NO :(
10. Float like mist and ignore the stupid MOSTLY
I got some infection at the end of last week (not clear why) so was kind of knocked out from Thursday to Sunday. Furthermore, my contractor cut a tendon, so the bathroom project is suspended while he waits to see the surgeon again. But I finished the section of hte chapter that was the big barrier, and with luck will finish the whole thing this weekend. While I didn't read the book for review, I got through 5 journals (still have to enter bib data for articles, but...) A friend and I tried out the courtyard at the fancy new boutique hotel in town. Next week is blessedly the last week of classes, but I'm tired.
Goals (by Tuesday or so?)
1. Finish chapter of Famous Author (3x2 hours, I think)
2. Enter bib information from journals
3. Hand over materials for association to my successor
3a. Schedule annual meeting, write awardees about Lifetime achievement awards...
4. Have fun evening with friends
5. Record a final lecture for students
6. Keep up with exercise and healthy eating
7. Keep reading my book
8. Get good sleep
9. Try not to get frustrated by things I can't control. Float like mist.
You are hereby prescribed an evening in your garden with the roses and citrus trees, by Dr Hull (and I'm sure all the other doctors on board will agree with this treatment). I'm sorry your bathroom remodel is on hold, but yay for fancy boutique hotel courtyard!
DeleteI second Dr. Hull's prescription!
DeleteInstagram shares the images we've got and submitted, and Instagram keeps our photos private. You can quickly view your missing images in your Instagram account if your photos have been removed by someone else or if you still have access to your account. We know that most images open up late for the first upload, while they open quickly in recent downloads; the main reason for this is because the repository of this image is on your phones. If you have already opened a photo and looked at it, you may still be on your phone; all you have to do is bring it back. Here’s how to see deleted Instagram photos. after applying all steps, if you encounter any problem with this then you need to contact Bellen Instagram Klantenservice to get instant support from technicians.
ReplyDelete