the grid

the grid

Sunday 30 April 2023

2023 Session 1 Week 17: and now we reach the end…

 

Well here we are… The end of another session! I think we’ve done some pretty great things in the last few months. We’ve definitely had lots of rough bits, but I hope the weekly check-ins and chatting has helped with those a bit! Logistics for the next session can be decided with new hosts, Julie is considering, thanks!

Below are our goals from last week along with our session ones for reflecting and celebrating.

One last positive prompt: tell us one or two things for which you are proud of yourself this session! Because you are all lovely and awesome and sometimes everyone needs a reminder of that…

Thank you to HeuMihi for excellent co-hosting, and thank you to everyone who keeps showing up (for all kinds of things!) week after week after week! It means a lot!

Last week’s goals:

Dame Eleanor Hull

- dead language group prep
- finish prepping the last two grad lectures
- more work on expanding article
- review copy-edited Other Article
- do some gardening

Daisy

FINISH revisions on accepted paper
Confirm summer field accommodations and timing (so much work in one sentence!)
Work on two conference talks
Use conference talks to outline paper
Read and edit many student thesis chapters
Finish all marking and grade submissions

Heu mihi

This week--must get back into chapter 2, which is a bit of a hairy mess and nearly entirely unwritten:
1. Draft G section of ch. 2--this includes a quick lit review and rereading the primary text, so this is my Major Goal
2. Read over any of the remaining 3 essays' proofs that come in (proofs are due 5/1)
3. Go to TWO MEETINGS, one of which is actually a 2.5-hour session of interviews for a new Town Clerk
4. Revise short, low-pressure talk
5. Resume normal routines

JaneB

* do the everyday baseline chores when they need doing, not when I've run out of stuff (we keep trying)
* eat more mindfully
* do paperwork for intake to try out ADHD medication (I am so scared about this - but in the usual "meds are best" way, I have to try meds in order to keep my referral for assessment for psychosocial coaching...)
* do some D&D prep, play D&D (because it's fun)
* read another book, do a little crochet
* prepare for staff-student committee, prepare for last week of teaching next week, complete report on commercial project, peer review an article for a journal, don't obsess about the whole union thing/marking boycott.

Julie

1. Finish reading thesis and write report.
2. Two final exam preparation sessions for the modules I taught last term.
3. Meetings with 2 PhD students.
4. Plan this term's research, chase one archivist about visiting in May.
5. Do some minor house jobs.
6. Book dentist and hairdresser.

Susan – on the Camino!


Session goals:

Daisy:

Get my new lab completely functional and organized
Submit 2 papers that have been languishing for far too long
Get my library/music/games/craft space functional and beautiful
Try two 100-day projects (one with yoga, one with drawing)
Get back on the exercise wagon
Do one fun thing every week, bonus points if it is new

Dame Eleanor Hull:

- grade efficiently and return comments in a timely manner
- make progress on book
- do some Responsible Adult tasks (such as get a new driver's license that satisfies Real I.D. requirements, find a new doctor)
- make progress on unpacking and other House Tasks

heu mihi:

1. Encyclopedia entry due 1/31
2. Conference paper due 3/7
3. Book review due 3/25
4. Draft three (ha ha! Look at me being ambitious!) chapters
5. Do fun things, like seeing a friend, at least three times a month
6. Sit regularly, run regularly, get back into a steady yoga practice (at least one lesson a week on average); keep track of alcohol consumption, out of curiosity

JaneB:

1) Self-care - this comes first, and is about making sure that when I don't have very many 'spoons', I don't automatically throw them all into work. It's about maintaining the little habits and slowly adding to them, finding the motivation to make a pan of soup on the weekend, practicing saying "later" and "no" and "not today."
1a) reclaim my immediate physical environment. October, I decided to take some steps, and reached out to a professional declutterer plus researched and signed a contract to get the house doors and windows replaced (original wooden ones are close to 40 years old and have not been well maintained, plus drafty). In November, my roof sprung a leak which ended up requiring a complete re-roof of the house which emptied my accessible savings and beyond - but I do now have a water-tight house. And I'm committed to the windows and doors, so they should get done this month (all these expenses makes industrial action and pay deductions scary... but the medium term will be OK, just got to get through the next few months). After which, I want to work with the decluttering lady every few weeks, until I get to a point where I can possibly feel OK having a cleaner in once a month, and start saving again towards getting some redecorating done by persons not me! (unlike the Dame, I am terrible at painting walls).
2) research stuff. This is mostly just "ticking over" - I have two grad students at the moment, and several early career folks who I work with/mentor in various informal ways at other places, plus am part of various collaborative projects. Things which need to happen during this session:
2a) poor abandoned multi-author paper - needs to be revised using all the comments I got 14 months ago and be resubmitted
2b) review paper - a collective effort, the journal wants it in March (already about a 6 month extension).
2c) paper with senior grad student - their first manuscript, a little side project of theirs which we worked on together - would like to get a full draft by the end of the session
2d) consultancy - SGS and I have about a week's worth of computer modelling to do which is applied work on an interesting problem, will provide SGS with a nice bit of extra pay, and form the final section of a paper the scientist from the commercial organisation is already writing, so low effort for a solid reward
2e) wish-we-never-started project - has been and still is a nightmare but I HAVE to start producing outputs, even through I still don't know how to pay for stuff from the project (it's only been 18months of internal confusion...)
2f) what-do-you-mean-we-got-the-money project (I'm a minor partner on a very off-the-wall sort of project idea which was thrown together in about ten days for a cross-funding-body new horizons funding call, and, well, we were all rather shocked and now something has to happen. Thank the good LORD the hiring has worked smoothly and we have a great technical hire locally to actually do the making things happen...).
3) teaching. I have three modules to coordinate (all team taught, all non-standard in some way), a small herd of final year project students to support, and a newish administrative role to navigate on top of the two I already have. This is actually not only my light semester, but I have some extra-for-this-year-only help with some of the in person teaching (for two units, I do the writing/slides/ViLE setup/marking, and teach the virtual repeat, but the in person classes are taught by other people which saves me some commuting)... my main goal here is just survival, but to set something a bit more measurable, I'm aiming to be at least 7 days ahead in terms of prep/paperwork, and more once we reach March, the bulk of the content delivery is over, and the focus is on workshops and projects and the like.
4) fun: this includes writing fiction or poetry, reading fiction or non-work-related non-fiction, making things, and playing Dungeons & Dragons with my nibling and their friends. I want to spend at least a couple of hours a week doing FUN THINGS.

Julie:
Research:
  Finish and submit the journal article I was working on last term (I came so close before Christmas!)
  Plan how to use research leave next term.
Teaching:
  Keep teaching under control - do only essential prep/revisions, resist the temptation to go the extra mile.   Remind myself no one will notice whether I do or not.
Home:
  Try to tackle some of the projects on the list, but not beat myself up about them.
Life:
  Book holidays.
  Regular exercise
  Try to make some time for myself and use it mindfully.

Karen:

Research - have KL article ready for submission; be on track with body project
Teaching - stay at least a week ahead on VILE; all marking done within 2 weeks
Self and home - keep up monthly and weekly planning in bujo, maintain an intentional exercise schedule each week

Susan:

Research:
  1. Actually finish Famous Author (with whom I am very bored) so I feel free. Send to publisher. Get it done.
  2. Get draft of Intro to Big Collaboration drafted. I'm not teaching this term (lots of admin instead) so this should be possible)
Home:
  1. This is the busy season for the garden: prune roses, pull up grass while the ground is (VERY) wet. Put down weedblock and mulch.
  2. Plant some low growing drought tolerant plants along the new irrigation piping so the yard looks better.
  3. Sort books that I don't want to keep and take them to various places where they might find
homes. (This is in preparation for moving/downsizing when I retire, probably formally 3 years from now.
Life:
  1. Make sure I do something social for fun every week.
  2. Regular exercise. At the very end of this session I've signed up for a 10 day walk along the Portuguese Camino de Santiago. So I need to be able to walk 10 miles a day. Walking, riding my expensive bike, yoga etc. Something every day.

 

May the spring and summer be a good change of pace and a beautiful season :)

 

Saturday 22 April 2023

2023 Session 1 Week 16: This is a long session

Hello everyone,

Week 16! And still we persevere.

I confess that, while I'm never very good at TLQ prompts, I am now totally out. Out! So--how's this for a thematic tie-in--for this week, reflect on something from which you can excuse yourself. And I will excuse myself from thinking of a clever prompt for the TLQ check-in. Or have I just entered into some kind of liar's paradox situation? Hm.... In any case, it sounds like a number of us are at or approaching the ends of our ropes, so letting something just drop might be a good idea.

Last week's goals:

Daisy: 

Do revisions on accepted paper
Finish data processing and make pretty figures for co-authored paper
New data processing
Do budget for summer work
Set exams

Dame Eleanor Hull:

- dead language group prep
- finish prepping next grad lecture
- more work on expanding article
- review copy-edited Other Article
- assign points to a worksheet
- make carrot muffins 

heu mihi:

1. Read over proofs of 7/10 essays
2. Article review
3. Draft short (15-minute?) talk for student event
4. Have fun on our trip

JaneB:

* do the everyday baseline chores when they need doing, not when I've run out of stuff (we keep trying)
* eat more mindfully
* do some D&D prep, play D&D (because it's fun)
* read another book, do a little crochet
* prepare for teaching next week, make progress on the commercial project, mark one more second year assignment and as many late projects as I can, don't obsess about the whole union thing/marking boycott until it happens.

Julie:

1. Finish marking the essays I didn't manage to mark before Easter - now quite urgent.
2. Mark undergraduate dissertations before marking boycott kicks in (if it does).
3. Read PhD student's chapter
4. Start reading PhD thesis I agreed to examine
5. Self-care: book dentist, doctor and hairdresser.

Susan: On the Camino!!


Sunday 16 April 2023

2023 Session 1 Week 15: Spring flowers and planning nice things

Hello everyone!

We are in the middle of April, the last few weeks of our session. We will have this week and one more for weekly goals, and then it will be session goals and wrap-up on the weekend of April 29/30… Just a heads-up, I find the end of the session always kind of sneaks up on me!

Spring is slowly creeping up around here. It is interesting being in a completely new place for a new season, I’m enjoying watching the landscape change slowly. The highlight this week was a yard that is on my drive home. Overnight it turned into a solid blue carpet of tiny flowers – I think they are some sort of starflower? I took pictures and will take them to the garden store for ID so I can buy a huge bag of bulbs they are gorgeous! I am making a list of all the bulbs that seem to do well early in the season here, I’m definitely going to plant as many of them as I can find…

For this week, tell us about three things… In keeping with the spring feeling, tell us about your favourite spring flowers! And because we’re near the end of the session and a bit of encouragement would not go amiss… Also tell us about one nice thing that you are going to do for yourself this coming week, and one nice thing that you are going to do for someone else!

And apologies for the late post – I was going to do it earlier today but both cats were asleep on my lap so I had to finish my book while they purred away in dreamland…

 Goals below!

 Dame Eleanor Hull

- grade undergrad papers
- further grad prep
- keep working on expanding article to chapter
- sleep, walk, yoga in suitable amounts
- do more gardening if time and energy permit
- go to one more medical appointment
- actually write goals in my Moleskine this week!

 Daisy

Do revisions on accepted paper
Finish data processing and make pretty figures for co-authored paper
New data processing
Do budget for summer work
Set exams

 Heu mihi

1. Submit a proposal in our curriculum system to split a 500-level class into a 400 and a 600
2. 10 hours of work on ch. 2, at least
3. Bottle beer
4. Regular routines

 JaneB

* do the everyday baseline chores when they need doing, not when I've run out of stuff (we keep trying)
* do some D&D prep, play D&D (because it's fun)
* read another book, do a little crochet
* do the bare minimum to prepare for teaching after Easter, make progress on the commercial project if the other person gets back to me, mark a lot more

Julie – is in Italy having a marvelous time! Enjoy!!

Susan – we’re thinking of you!!