Welcome to the new session! Julie and JaneB will be co-hosting this session, which will run from 14th May to 13th August - 13 weeks. Our half-way check-in will be June 23rd (if we remember) and how is it possible that summer (Northern Hemisphere) is already feeling short when it hasn't begun for me yet?? But that is all the more reason to make the most of it - both for self care AND for the kind of reading, thinking, writing and writing-as-thinking which falls into the Top Left Quadrant.
Usual opening text, borrowed from earlier iterations!
The format will be the same as ever. We will start setting goals for the session this week. Goals can be in any aspect of life although the key focus is often writing tasks that are personally and professionally important but that never quite tip over into important AND urgent. Urgent things sometimes find their way in here too, that is completely ok too, and process goals are also most welcome. Each week there will be a discussion topic or prompt to write about if you feel so inclined, no pressure or expectations. We’ll remind everyone of their big session goals about midway through the session (last weekend of June).
Anyone, whether new to the group or an old friend, is welcome to join. I would love for people to consider inviting a friend or acquaintance or colleague to join in, we would be thrilled to welcome new guests and expand our circle. And finally, don't worry if you miss a few check-ins. Life happens. This is a supportive, generous space with no intimidation factor so enjoy it! If you are not up to regular check-ins we would still love to hear from you occasionally.
Discussion theme - the "writing toolkit"
This session we thought we'd get back to our roots as a group a bit and explore aspects of stocking a "writing toolbox". We're planning to explore the topic broadly, so prompts might be literal (e.g. favourite pens), figurative (inspirational quotes) or whimsical (if you could acquire a magical writing elf, which one writing task would it specialise in?).
1. Tell us a bit about yourself. What's your main focus at the moment? You are welcome to be vague and mysterious in the interest of maintaining anonymity while still introducing yourself to the group.
2. Post your goals for this session (or if you want to do them next week put in a note so I remember to go and find them later!).
3. Post goals for this coming week, ideally they will kick-start the process of working towards the session goals. Or they might just clear the deck for a nice clean start.
4. Or just come say hello and tell us how you’ve been over the break and then come back next week for session goals and discussion.
5. And to start off discussion, let's remind ourselves that writing isn't just a chore or necessary duty - what part of writing is most fun for you, or do you have a particular memory or writing experience when your writing was going particularly well?
Hello everyone, I'm JaneB, I'm a Reader at a squeezed-middle university in northern England, and I'm Burnt Out with capital everythings, trailing a nasty ashy scent around the place. There's a while to go until the end of the academic year here, we're into the assessment period and then there is a period of meetings and stuff (and doubtless a really messy patch when the ongoing Marking and Assessment boycott runs up against some deadlines, especially as there aren't many union members actively taking part in it in my faculty never mind my school or department as far as I can tell. Sigh!). It wraps up in June sometime, with graduation in July, and the main recruitment season starts again mid-August. So I'm hoping for a summer of rediscovering some mojo around that framework... my main focus is balance and self-care, both of my not-working self AND of my work self - some more enthusiasm for teaching and research would be very welcome and so this will be a summer of low hanging fruit and blue-skies thinking (and naps. I love me a nap!).
ReplyDeleteHappy writing, lost-in-the-flow writing, has usually been writing fiction or poetry. Diving into words on teenage summer days, me and a pile of paper and a good pen and a cold drink under a tree or lurking in the roof space of the house, delightful! Weaving words into worlds. Sometimes I have patches of that in academic writing - I love the satisfaction of having done a good writing session, especially one where I've replanned a chunk of text or solved a framing problem, and sometimes I feel delightfully competent when doing parts of academic writing. But a lot of it feels like drudgery because it's not what I WANT to do, it's what a journal will accept or what the REF requires or subject to the whims of the other authors. And it's so often late...
SESSION GOALS:
Delete1) self-care: the usual. Building & maintaining good habits, improving my environment, my ongoing wrestling with the healthcare system for diagnoses.
1a) getting back on top of my personal finances (I am embarrassed to admit that I know I pay into a savings thingie every month but I can't remember who with, never mind any of the details about the type of thingie. Which is of course why I have direct debits set up in the first place because I am scatty, but... cringe).
2) Researcher; things which need to happen
2a) poor abandoned multi-author paper
2b) paper with senior grad student
2c) wish-we-never-started-project (ends this summer)
2d) paper using consultancy work (led by the people we did the work for which is nice)
2e) submit a grant application (for my KPIs - fortunately I'm a partner on several, so one might get submitted this summer)
and I also want to take some time to read and think about who I am as a researcher and who I want to be for the next decade or so.
3) Teaching:
3a) summer teaching duties
i) supervising two PhD students
ii) preparing for an MSc by Research student who will start in the Autumn (in an area related to what I do, but I need to do some reading around!)
iii) supervising an unknown (small) number of taught MSc student projects on unknown topics (usually these are assigned in March - this year it will be "sometime soon" and there are a LOT of students and a three line whip about everyone taking some on. Sigh! Makes taking proper breaks extra difficult).
3b) preparing for next year.
i) establish what I will actually be teaching
ii) putting together a "skills resource" for higher level students which makes it easier for them to find handouts etc. from their first year courses when they learnt specific skills or topics
iii) getting on top of what my 'new' administrative role ACTUALLY needs from me - I've been almost 100% reactive this year.
4) fun. I know fun is self-care, but it's also just FUN. So every week I want to do at least one thing I can point at and say that was FUN, working up to something every day on any day I have off. Some things that count as fun:
4a) book and TAKE leave
4b) crochet - finish "Lithrops blanket", make an anigurumi, start a new simple blanket project
4c) read things (whilst social media etc. are very good escapism/mild disassociation, reading can do the same thing but in a quieter mode).
4d) do things with words (fiction, poetry, journalling, blogging - non-work things with words always used to be my happy place, so maybe spending time there will bring that back...
4e) dungeons and dragons (playing with Nibling and their friends, and I'd like to try out some different ways of playing with different people & maybe get involved in another long-running game but that depends a lot on how well I am doing mentally/socially - I might not have the energy - in which case I can replace that with reading about D&D and preparing extra materials which will make it quicker to play in term time (basically potter around in my elaborate fantasy city and world settings)).
And for the week to come:
DeleteI was off sick for a few days early last week and went to a virtual conference yesterday (so had to write my talk), so I am even more behind than normal. Sigh!
1) self care. this week's goals are about setting baselines - recording what I actually do, and making some brainstorming lists of different things that might be useful to try, or worth doing, or just need to be on a list I can access when I'm stressed and can't think of anything to make for dinner... oh, and I will aim to sort through the small green bucket of random post from Spring which I never opened. Sigh. There is... more of that than I like to admit (did I mention I recently found out I have ADHD? Let's just say that _everything_ I read about ADHD seems to be an "so it's not just me being pathetic?" moment right now. It's not an excuse - I still need to improve a lot of things, especially after all the stresses of the last three years - but it's an explanation of WHY I get into these stupid Jane-ish messes and why some things other people seem to do easily are just unbearably difficult some days, and somehow feeling less inadequate helps. I'm an academic, explanations HELP).
2) Researcher. reschedule meetings for poor abandoned multi-author paper and other paper with FormerPDF. Focus is Wish-we-never-started project - at least 5 hours of work on my part of that needs to happen, on top of meetings.
3) Teaching: read/comment on a lump of text for Senior Grad Student. Hopefully find out about the summer-only MSc projects. Do the end of year paperwork following on from the Happy Sheets. Deal with whatever comes up (we're still at the "loads of emails" stage of the year & will be until marks are out).
4) fun. hopefully play D&D this coming weekend (this one was a no-go because of the dread exam season for most of the players), and work on the 'Lithrops' blanket - I made a solid amount of progress during the virtual conference yesterday and the body is done, I now get to start the border! So that's exciting... oh, and finish the current non-fiction book I'm reading, it's interesting enough to finish but the writing style is like one of those ultra-annoying documentries which keeps switching to dramatic re-enactment (with a lot of repetition throughout the episode and series) with loud cinematic music then back to interesting information so it is a bit chore-like. But I'm past the half way point!
Not pathetic at all on self-care. I am not great with finances: I need to find investments/savings accounts for our money, but I find it all mind-numbingly boring and stressful, so put it off. I have details of what we currently have written down, as otherwise I would completely forget. As for what to have for dinner, I have lists, and coloured sticky tabs in cookery books, plus folders of new recipes and tried-and-tested recipes, and I still have weeks when my brain freezes looking at my meal planner....
DeleteTrying to schedule fun is a great idea. With you on reading. What's an anigurumi?
I really like your separation of fun from self-care. Fun is important! --as your post has reminded me.
DeleteThanks! Anigurumi is a Japanese word for 3-D toys made using crochet - animals, cartoon characters, cacti, all sorts of things... (a few years ago I made a cat toy which was supposed to be a little mouse, and I used some scrap dark red yarn. I stuffed it with some pieces of crisp packet (chip bag for US!) to make it crinkly and exciting for the cat, and she loved it, BUT it very quickly lost it's shape, and I kept spotting it out of the corner of my eye and it looked like a female hygeine product). But I've crocheted a lot more since then, and it's time to try again!
DeleteOK, I am going to look for a pattern for that cat toy, because that sounds fun! Last week I set up a sort of table for things I wanted to do each week in the summer---number of words written, fun thing, social thing, etc---then realized that yes, in my head "fun" and "social" are separate categories. Sigh. There are people I like to see. But "fun" to me tends to be doing puzzles, reading fluff, or baking sweet treats.
DeleteI'm another one who finds money both boring and stressful. I manage, but it's one of those "adulting" things that needs to be done when I'm feeling strong enough, and then rewarded with time on restorative activities.
Social stuff IS fun, but it's expensive fun not self-care-ish fun - if I book a holiday to see family or friends, I need to schedule a few solitary days to slob around the place and do me things at my pace to recover from the social stuff...
DeleteThanks Jane for starting us off. Looking forward to co-hosting.
ReplyDeleteI'm Julie, associate professor in history, at a different university in northern England, one that is not yet too badly squeezed but suffering from many of the same issues as elsewhere in UK HE. I have been widowed and a single parent for a little over 2 years now, prior to which I was dealing with the challenges of a terminal diagnosis for my husband over several years and a Covid pandemic, like everyone else. So where I am now on good days is being grateful that I do (mostly) still love my subject, that I have a permanent contract at an institution that doesn't seem in any immediate danger of falling apart or needing to cut 'dead wood' (though it's never the dead wood that actually gets cut), that I live in a beautiful part of the world and my kids are healthy and surprisingly resilient despite everything. On bad days, I am overwhelmed, dropping numerous balls and feeling that my academic career may be wrecked beyond salvation.
The prompt is an excellent reminder that I love writing, in short. All of it is fun for me. That doesn't mean it's effortless or always goes well, if you measure by word counts or what doesn't get deleted two days later. But crafting sentences, putting words on a page, whether literally on paper or on a screen, makes me happy. I don't write fiction any more (my childhood self is shaking her head in dismay in a corner), but I do keep a diary/journal, and different notebooks for jotting down ideas/random thoughts. I like writing with a pen in a nice notebook, in cafes if possible, or outdoors, but anywhere will do if there isn't too much noise. I would love to be writing another book, and wish my research were advanced enough that I could be doing that.
Thanks--both of you, actually--for the reminder that writing can be fun. It's so easy to get focused on the work part of it. I used to be an aspiring novelist, and, while I have no genuine interest in that career anymore, I do occasionally write long-form fiction and it's amazing how completely absorbing it can be! But academic writing is also pleasurable--the key, for me, is to do it almost every day, so that it doesn't get too intimidating but stays accessible and friendly.
DeleteMy childhood self is in the corner with yours, whispering about how boring the grown-ups are!
DeleteSession goals
ReplyDeleteI have research leave this term, until the end of September, so this is space to breathe and see what can be salvaged from the wreckage. The challenge will be to be disciplined about how I use it.
Research
1. Grant application. The main aim is to get to archives, do background reading and be in a position to apply for funding that would enable the big project I want to do. So honing research questions, and thinking about project design.
2. Writing. Not sure what form this will take, but want to keep some form going alongside the other stuff, because I will feel happy if I do. So adding bits to articles, crafting the grant application (though that's a harder form of writing).
Teaching
1. Ongoing PhD students: give them the time they are entitled to, which is not always the same as what they want/need. I have three currently
(a) Dream student - works hard, great project, has just gone part-time so deadline has been extended, absolute joy.
(b) Bright but needy student - works hard, ok project, tends to ask for more meetings that current amount of written work and stage really need, and my co-supervisor tends to say yes, grrr.
(c) Pain in the neck student - should be finishing in the next few months, is very slow with writing the actual thesis instead of trying for journal articles that are mostly mud-slinging at big names. Does have good project, but never listens to my feedback. Suspect he will become a problem and need to avoid having my time sucked away.
2. New module for next year - am going to try to postpone this to the next session so it doesn't distract. Future me may curse present me, but I think this is one ball I may as well place gently on the ground.
House
I have some large projects (new kitchen, bathrooms) and lots of medium projects i.e. things that aren't huge in terms of money or time but still require me to find someone to do a job/buy some equipment/give up a weekend. There are far too many for one session so:
1. Medium/largeish garden projects, since it's summer (or find new gardener - old one only mowed the lawn and I can get kid to do that for much less money)
2. Sort finances
3. One or two medium other projects e.g. framing pictures for my study.
4. Start one big project (emphasis on 'start' and 'one').
Life/self care
1. Holiday already booked in a couple of weeks! Next year Kid 1 has important exams, so travel will need to be reduced.
2. Read good books
3. Try to establish better sleep habits.
4. Start HRT and see if it works
5. Try to reduce the high cholesterol I have recently been told I have 😢 - so exercise, diet.
6. Find dentist.
7. Overall, try for more balance, being more present with the kids and less stressed. Emphasis on try.
Weekly goals
I am off to the archives in Spain tomorrow! So this is an easy week to set goals for.
1. Maximise time in archives - remember it's a reconnaissance mission, there will be chances to revisit stuff.
2. Spend day i.e. rest of today frantically packing/briefing parents over childcare/celebrating daughter's birthday.
3. Enjoy weekend with some of my Spanish family.
Ooh have a wonderful trip!
DeleteOooh, Spanish archives - that sounds like a great opportunity for a few "mental photographs" - for me that would be a Spanish omelette for lunch somewhere outside with good people watching, I love Spanish omelette. Or tapas, or just sitting somewhere enjoying having nowhere to be for a few minutes. Plus of course archives, which are always wonderful even if the buildings aren't quite as romantic as the word might conjure. I suit being a scientist, but Historian is what my younger self always wanted to be (I kept doing science "for the moment, because it will be much easier to switch from science to history of science to history than the other way around" and, well, now I'm here. Doing science which interacts with history and archaeology), and my nibling currently wants to be an archivist, so I am really drawn to libraries and archives. The imaginary city we play D&D in has a rather spectacular library associated with the Temple of Sophia, a wisdom deity whose followers don't have to believe in an incarnate deity, just in finding things out, organising knowledge so others can access it, and helping people find out what they need to know, and we've had a lot of fun visiting it.
DeleteHappy archives! One of my colleagues is in Seville now, so I'm feeling jealous.
DeleteYou're on research leave, so definitely put that module-prep ball down for now. It will be there later!
DeleteThank you all. I am currently in Toledo, which ticks all the boxes for JaneB, I think. I have had Spanish omelette, and have sat outside not doing much except enjoy the view and some writing. I am lucky in that many of my archives are in lovely buildings - former convents and the like - at least, the Spanish ones, the French seem to love sticking them in horrible modern buildings miles out of the centre. And the town is beautiful, with architecture to gladden a medievalist or early modernist heart. I suspect it would work well for a D&D set - certainly if a dragon came round the corner, it would look far less out of place than the cars currently do. Oh, and there are lots of cats.
DeleteThat definitely ticks all the boxes! Have a wonderful time!!
DeleteHello everyone,
ReplyDeleteI think that you all know me by now, but in case anyone new shows up, here we go: I'm heu mihi, a professor of medieval literature at a research-intensive public university in the NE US. I have a husband who is currently looking for work, an almost-11-year-old son, and two four-month-old kittens. The kittens take up an enormous amount of my time. :)
Session goals, which I'm trying to keep simple:
1. Chapter 2 (draft by end of May/early June)
2. Chapter 4 (if not draft, plan and get ready for fall writing). Accept that actually drafting chapter 4, whose contents I haven't exactly figured out yet, may be an unreasonable expectation and result in the production of total garbage.
3. Plan fall course, which is entirely new
4. Proceedings essay--this should be easy, since I'm not planning to make many changes to the conference paper that it's growing out of
5. Promotion review--should also be relatively easy, since I've already read (and reviewed) the book of the person I'm evaluating
6. Make pages for silly handmade book project--more about this below
7. Intentionally take two weeks entirely off???? --We'll see.
On 6: I like to make books, and I recently came up with what was meant to be a totally silly idea (to help me sleep, I think), about making a book that looks like a house. Then I got obsessed with this idea and started really planning it out. I even cut the pages for it--unfortunately, there are about 120 of them, and, given the construction of the house, I will need to decorate them before I bind it. I've done about 10 at this point. They go pretty quickly, but I don't often sit down to work on them. I'd like to at least get the pages--if not the whole book--done this summer!
This week:
1. Return to ch. 2 (I was at a conference for the last few days) and see where I am
2. Add Peter, Goscelin, and maybe MP sections
3. Read AF to see if she's relevant
4. Make a modest 5 pages
5. Submit receipts, mow, catch up on the ordinary stuff of life
Your book project sounds so fun! I hope we get to see a picture at some point...
DeleteYour book project reminds me of another fun thing I want to do this summer: try making paper. I'm not sure if I want to try to find a workshop, or just read about the process and do it on my own.
DeletePaper-making really isn't hard! I did buy myself a kit, though, so that I didn't have to try to make my own screen. If you don't want to go all in on a full 8.5x11" screen, though, I remember that I got a tin can paper-making kit once, which worked just fine. (The whole shebang isn't terribly expensive, though--the one that I got, an Arnold Grummer Dip Handmold Kit 8.5" x 11"--looks to be about $32. And you can use any old paper to make pulp--marked-up drafts work great!)
DeleteI realize that I'm probably giving you more information than you need! So I'll stop here.
I was thinking more of starting with cotton/linen rags, and making bigger pieces that would have to be cut down. But it does look like it would be easier to come by a small screen.
DeleteI'm Susan, a senior professor in history at a still newish university on the west coast of the US, though my research is in the UK. As a senior professor, I have taken on more than my share of admin tasks, so am chairing an interdisciplinary graduate program. That's in addition to various other jobs, so I stay out of trouble.
ReplyDeleteAs many of you know, my elderly mother lives in town, and since late March has had a series of medical crises and has been hospitalized twice; she is now in hospice, so we'll see what happens. That means my goals are as flexible as possible because I have no idea what will happen. Right now every plan in my life comes with an asterisk.
Writing: I like writing, because I like the way I work out problems while writing. I see new connections, issues etc. So it's always interesting. And I write relatively easily... I just need mental space to do it.
Goals for this session:
Academic:
1. I am co-editor for a massive collaborative project. We've still got some first drafts to receive from the 31 commissioned; we have to write an introduction; and the whole thing needs to be submitted next March. So the goal for this session is to finish first drafts & draft introduction.
2. Famous author: I have finished the draft of a very short book on a very famous author, and have comments on it. If the world smiles on me, I want to look at the comments and do revisions. In a perfect world I'd send it to publishers later this summer.
3. Book prize. I am on the committee for a major book prize, and that requires reading about 20 books in the first round and then another 15 or so in the second round. First round readings need to be done by the end of June...
Goals: Admin
Be ready for the start of the fall semester.
Goals: life
1. Be present with my mother as much as possible
2. Do nice things for myself
I am supposed to spend time in the UK in July/early August, which will include vacation time, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I am sorry to hear about your mother, and wish you both the best.
DeleteBook prizes require so much reading. I hope you find some gems, and that your other projects also go well.
I'm sorry to hear about your mother too. Wishing you both the best, and I hope the new arrangement reduces the number of crises. And yay for the short book being finished, that's fun!
DeleteSo sorry to hear about your mother. Wishing you both the best.
DeleteThanks to our new hosts! I like the session theme.
ReplyDeleteLate-career prof of medieval English literature here, servant to two cats (my husband and I are the living-in couple, I suppose, gardener/chauffeur and cook-housekeeper), starting a summer that doesn't have too many booked dates yet, just a conference in mid-June. I filed my grades last night and spent most of the day on pleasant house-and-garden tasks, with a bit of writing and some work on a jigsaw. What a life!
A lot of writing is fun for me. Organization is the hard part, and finding my argument, then making sure that I don't bury it again. Putting down words is fun, and thinking about my primary texts is fun, and turning acceptable sentences into really good ones is very pleasing.
Session goals:
- Expand an article into a chapter
- Cut down a chapter section into a conference paper
- Make progress on another chapter OR preliminary work towards spring sabbatical project
- Work with library colleague on new project*
- Prep fall classes
- Do some sewing/alteration projects
- Get some house/garden tasks done
- Unpack the boxes in the garage
- House re-organization as necessary to accommodate box contents . . .
- Sleep enough, exercise appropriately (consider joining a gym), enjoy the warm weather.
Goals for this week:
- 1000 words or more on article expansion
- read Relevant Medieval Romance
- do some financial research
- e-mail 3 friends
- write to great-niece
- make a pair of earrings
*partly teaching, partly admin, probably not research-related. Very new, as in fell into my lap last week.
That sounds like a great first day of summer! One thing from the North American system that I wish we had in the UK is the clear, distinct end of the semester which lets summer just... start. Rather than constantly being nibbled away at by meetings...
DeletePerhaps some of you are in touch with Elizabeth Anne Mitchell outside this group, and so will already have heard her news. I'm sorry to say that I sent her e-mail this evening and got an automatic reply saying that she has left this earth. There were no more details.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Anne was the coiner of the motto "Float like mist," which we often use at TLQ (I think the full version was "Stay cool as ice, move like water, float like mist"), and a longtime participant and sometimes host (for example, spring 2016). I appreciated her medieval background as well as her library expertise. I am sure many of us have fond memories of interacting with her online, and a few of us talked with her on Zoom at the end of a session a few years ago (2020?), where she was a lively and engaging presence. TLQ last heard from her in October 2022, when she reported on a biopsy that proved malignant. Again, I am very sorry to have to break the news to the group.
I'm so sorry to hear it. Thanks for letting us know, and for trying to reach out to her, too. ...Words fail.
DeleteI should have reached out sooner. She died in December, and the first time I e-mailed her was in January (no automatic response that time, so I guess it took the family awhile to put it up).
Deletehttps://applebeefuneralhome.com/tribute/details/2997/Nancy-Poehlmann/obituary.html
Oh, dear. I'm so so sorry. This seems so sudden, and is 5 months late. She was so wise and so kind. I appreciated her love of rare books, and will never forget her joy in working at the Morgan library a few years ago. "Float like mist" has been an amazing mantra in moments of stress.
DeleteOh I'm so sorry to hear that. I have thought of her often over the last few months; thank you for letting us know.
DeleteDo you think we should make a titled post about this sad news on this blog, in case former members who see the post titles but don't read every week might see that? Or is that a bit presumptuous?
JaneB, I was thinking I would do just that, if you don't mind.
DeleteI was thinking also a group message to the family about how much we valued her would be good.
DeleteI plan to write to her family. If you comment on the "in memoriam" post, I can point them to it.
DeleteThanks so much for doing that DEH, both writing that lovely post & for passing it on on our behalf.
DeleteI’m humming42, back from a lengthy hiatus from TLQ. Really, the feeling of failing week after week to meet my goals just became too much failure for me. I’m determined to do things differently this summer. Also, I am a professor teaching in the humanities at a mid-sized third-tier state school in the US Southwest, waiting to see what the administration chooses to do about reorganizing my academic department.
ReplyDeleteI’m keeping my session goals focused on the too-many commitments I’ve already made:
Finish and submit Boredom chapter, now that editors have a publisher signed on
Prepare conference presentation about Squares
Draft and submit Squares proposal
Prepare conference presentation about Showcase
Write and submit Showcase essay
Goals for the week:
Make the list of session goals!
Wrap up everything from the Spring semester
Revisit Boredom and create a 2-week plan to finish the draft
The question about writing is akin to things I’ve been thinking about. There are people in my life who don’t have what a dear grad school friend recently referred to as our shared intellectual curiosity. And those people are frustrated that a late-in-career full professor is so deeply engaged with her research. Why not relax and enjoy your life? Why are you always working? It’s not like you make any money for it. Grappling with that, I’ve been able to commit again to my research agenda because writing is a pleasure.
Welcome back! I thought I failed every week last session but I actually did get some things done by the end... and "intellectual curiosity" is a great way to put it! That's what I'm looking to reawaken (it has rather slunk off - the pressures of current UK academic life do not make it feel at all welcome!)
DeleteIntellectual curiosity is what keeps you going! I'm trying to slow down, but clearing the desk so that I can follow my nose is so exciting. But now I know it's just for me.
DeletePutting this here late so it is the right spot for collection later...
ReplyDeleteI’m Daisy, an early-ish mid-career prof in a physical science field. I have a teenaged kid (baby when I started with this group!!) and two new cats, and a partner who used to commute to different provinces for work but now works remotely from home. In July last year I moved to my dream job at a wonderful small university with excellent undergraduate and graduate degrees in my field. Being here is wonderful and I’m loving the process of becoming part of the program and department.
Session goals:
Submit 2 papers based on conference talks from this week
Do analysis and write my part of joint local paper
Field work with 2 students
Garden project TBD
Vacation and regular fun with kid