Thank you everyone, we've taken care of the dragon in the boiler room: it turned out it was a vegetarian dragon, so the sheep and even the virgins (or the Admins) were unnecessary. An amazing feast of middle eastern and south Asian foods was put out, and he's been happy as can be. You may think hummous and saag paneer don't go together, but you're not a dragon.
Meanwhile we have an emergency: the instructor for Advanced Magineering has had to take a medical leave, and we need volunteers to cover the next 3 weeks. (This can be 3 separate people.) Unfortunately, due to budget issues, this is just a work overload and there will be no extra compensation. Please explain the creatures that you will work with your students in magineering to create. Bonus points for creatures that help people and do not cause chaos.
It is obvious that we all work at universities, all of which have slightly temperamental or erratic buildings. (There's probably a bonus section on the particular monstrosity built on campus in the 1960s that is an Architectural Treasure but completely non-functional.) But somehow we all function, and the universities do too. If the higher admins at NEWSCOMI had to deal with this, they would never manage.
Anyway, people have been doing lots of impressive things, and here are the goals for this week:
Contingent Cassandra:
--Make further progress on the research project: set up spreadsheet and add at least one source and/or set up Omeka site and add one source.
-- Engage in some sort of purposeful movement – short or long walks, stretching, weight-lifting, and/or stair-climbing – at least 5 out of every 7 days
Daisy
One small internal grant application (good chance to get)
Make figures for lovely coauthor
Student posters and talks for conference
One conference talk and lots of organization
Enjoy conference!
Dame Eleanor
Exercise: swim x2 or x3, cardio + weights x3, yoga at least x4
Work: sample syllabuses for 2 course proposals; ~3-4 hours/day on research (reading, translating, outlining, writing); prep for Latin group. Meet with collaborator on one conference paper.
Social: karaoke party Saturday night! Prep, attend, be good sport.
Planning: 2024 planning
JaneB
1a - move intentionally (which is what we are calling exercise for now because exercise sounds tiring just saying the word) three days
1b - do seven household tasks (check list in my bullet journal)
2a - write a letter to a friend and get some urgent post items into the post (Cunning Plan - buy a second hand copy of The Golden Bough which nibling really ought to read (according to me, their loving Aunt), send it as an unbirthday present, that means I have a parcel to send so can book a pick up from the post man instead of trying to get the brain squirrels to actually go to a postbox, which they seem to find very tricky right now)
2b - do some D&D preparation for a game I run, and do my best to make sure my character survives the really stupidly dangerous mission we've all decided to tackle this coming week in the game I play in
2c - spend a chunk of time on some sort of art or craft
3a - be professional in check-in with Interim Head of School and maintain boundaries
3b - do 8 hours, not more than 20% over
4a - spend at least an hour on the Mixed Volume Paper
4b - do whatever urgent things have come in in relation to the PhD selection processes (this week that will be preparing for a shortlisting meeting for another programme)
Julie
1. Teaching prep, continue keeping to minimum.
2. Start work on postponed new lecture to avoid temporal dysfunction in two weeks' time.
3. Project proposals.
4. Feedback on oral presentations from last week.
5. Prep for job interview panel on Thursday.
6. Tax return - URGENT!!!
7. Other admin stuff.
8. Exercise more than last week.
9. Organise weekend with friends.
heu mihi
1. Process and probably reject journal submission; read another, more promising submission; reread submitted article that got two diametrically opposed reviews (sigh)
2. Three General Education reviews
3. Review and revise abstract for plausibility of argument (due 2/15)
4. Very roughly pull material for conference paper (due 3/5)
5. Begin ch. 3 revision
6. Reread part 2 of ch. 6 and try to do some revising or whatever
Susan
1. Deal with Administrators and figure out where the data gap is
2. Don't otherwise get overwhelmed with administrivia
3. Do 4 hours on Famous Author, send to editor and friend reader
4. Do 4 hours on Big Collaboration introduction, read (very late) chapter
5. Do Letter of Rec #2
6. Three more journals
7. 15 minutes de-cluttering
8. Move, eat well, sleep enough
9. Organize housing for next year
10. Do taxes
11. Do more garden work
12. Do something fun
13. Take stuff to city dump, take stuff to Goodwill.
LAST WEEK
ReplyDelete1a - move intentionally (which is what we are calling exercise for now because exercise sounds tiring just saying the word) three days NO
1b - do seven household tasks (check list in my bullet journal) four
2a - write a letter to a friend and get some urgent post items into the post yes, no despite the tricks, sigh
2b - do some D&D preparation for a game I run, and do my best to make sure my character survives the really stupidly dangerous mission we've all decided to tackle this coming week in the game I play in no and yes
2c - spend a chunk of time on some sort of art or craft yes. Found some "anxiety soothing art" short videos and tried stuff out. Made a pleasurable mess. Will do again!
3a - be professional in check-in with Interim Head of School and maintain boundaries ish. She keeps saying "you look better" and "just pop on campus for a change of scene!" and I'm finding it really hard to know how to respond when the good girl instinct is to say thank you and agree, but the true answer is either "I'm a bit manic because I'm on the last shreds of my energy for the day" or "I just got up [for a 1pm meeting] and last week we met at the end of my 2 hours of work [and yes, that had left me feeling unwell and fatigued and confused which may have affected my demeanor]". To the "just pop" one the answer should be "the GP said to be fully remote" but, oh. Oh I am a wimp! Born doormat! Did raise a couple of aspects of accommodations and potential issues with workload assignments for next year - as in, I only want the 80% I am paid for, properly accounted, and I don't want to have timetabled classes every day on campus or at 9am and 5pm on the same day, I'd like if possible a condensed timetable. We'll see! She actually had some MORE things she thought I might teach, but...
3b - do 8 hours, not more than 20% over 12 & a half hours so 56% over. Sigh
4a - spend at least an hour on the Mixed Volume Paper yes. But it won't make the deadling because my co-author had a nightmare week too
4b - do whatever urgent things have come in in relation to the PhD selection processes (this week that will be preparing for a shortlisting meeting for another programme) stuff for Northern and Exotic this week
THIS WEEK
1a - move intentionally three days
1b - do seven household tasks (check list in my bullet journal)
2a - buy, wrap & post birthday present for male parent along with the now very overdue urgent letters
2b - do some D&D preparation for a game I run, play D&D
2c - spend a chunk of time on some sort of art or craft - make a card for my Dad
3a - be professional in check-in with Interim Head of School and maintain boundaries
3b - do 8 hours, not more than 20% over; call GP practice to set up an appointment to review the phased return
4a - comments on Many Author R&R
4b - set up a meeting to go over edits for Never Ending Paper
4c - do whatever urgent things have come in in relation to the PhD selection processes (this week that will be related mostly to Exotic and to timetabling)
Dear NEWSCOMI Faculty Council
ReplyDeleteI wish to withdraw from my assigned place in the "Chaos Goblin Control and Rehabilitation" class. Given the last 3 weeks and the events of this weekend I have decided I would be better off in the special topics workshop “Unleash your inner Chaos Goblin and Embrace the Entropy” because sometimes you just have to admit that you’re in “if can’t beat them, join them” territory.
Also, I need to apologize for the extra heat in the rooms, I did not read the sign on the dragon’s feeding schedule correctly. When I read “refried beans and spicy onion pickle” I thought that was the “OK to feed” list. As I know now it was in fact the “do not feed” list but the dragon was adamant that she wanted the bushel of beans and the bucket of pickle. I now suspect the slightly charred edge of the paper where the do/don’t headings were smudged might have been a deliberate attempt to circumvent the “do not feed” list. Anyways, the resident dragonologist said it would take about a day for the worst of the fumes to dissipate.
Thank you for your patience.
Last week’s goals
One small internal grant application (good chance to get) DONE
Make figures for lovely coauthor DONE
Student posters and talks for conference DONE
One conference talk and lots of organization DONE
Enjoy conference! ONGOING…
Chaos goblins are out in force… Conference was amazing, so much fun! But… literally everyone from our province, representing 5 different universities worth of people, are now stuck at the conference location in the province next door because a giant slow-moving storm is dumping all kinds of snow, now measured in metres. Also winds up to 100km/hr… And more snow coming… So roads are closed everywhere, especially over the mountain pass we crossed to get here. Almost all our department faculty are here, we have something like 20 students, so it is all just a big happy extended road trip. The students are mostly having a blast but it looks like we might be here till Tuesday. We are blowing what is left of the department budget to pay for their rooms. So your basic goblin party…
This week’s goals
Record and post lectures for snow days
Drive home and not end up in snowy ditches
Dust off old paper and do revisions
Paper review for nice journal
Read and comment on student thesis draft
Contact coauthor on other old paper and light fire under collective backsides to do something about it (we may need to borrow the flatulent dragon for this one)
Oh my goodness, I hope the goblins are being good company and that everyone gets home safely!
DeleteWell, I do apologize about the chaos goblins. And it was probably me leaving the spicy onion pickle out.
DeleteThe weather does sound dramatic, though, being snowed in at a conference! Now time for a murder, right? I mean, that's the horror genre! Otherwise, what a great week!
Oh hey . . . we've never done a horror-themed TLQ session! What a cool idea!
DeleteBut wow, what a trip, what a story! You are certainly getting into the spirit of this session, and I am torn between pity and hilarity. I would hate to be snowed in with my department, but it sounds like you do better with yours, and I hope that everyone continues to be safe, warm, and happy. You sure have a lot of DONE for last week, and this one, well, it is one for the books!
Wow, that is quite a story! Hope wherever you are holed up is warm and with no danger of running out of food (and with provision for laundry!). Safe travels home.
DeleteI was at a conference in Belgium when the volcano erupted in Iceland that temporarily closed all air travel. I was on the Eurostar, so was one of the few people able to get home. I remember my last glimpse of Spanish friends as I left was of them huddled round a laptop desperately trying to figure out how to get home. I think some ended up hitching lifts.
I am not at all a fan of horror as a genre - but a nice "closed setting" murder mystery would be fun, where the culprit turns out to have deserved it and justice is served at the end of the story...
DeleteWhen the Icelandic volcano went off a lot of colleagues were at a major conference in North America, and mostly ended up flying into the south of Europe then using train or bus to get north. One grad student got very confused about geography and got a flight to the Azores "because it's in Portugal"... it's really NOT possible to get a bus or train from the middle of the Atlantic, and it took him ten days (and quite a lot of project budget) to get a flight out of there...
A friend of mine got stuck in Greece for 3 weeks thanks to that volcano. I was in Ireland for a conference, and b/c I'm afraid of flying, had booked nonstop flights in both directions, whereas other North Americans there had routed through Heathrow. So in the middle of chaos and flight announcements reading "cancelled - cancelled - cancelled" right down the board, there was my "Chicago-O'Hare" reading "ON TIME," b/c it could route south of the dust cloud. I love that we all have our volcano travel stories!
DeleteMy proposal for Advanced Magineering: a force field that, when activated, repels requests to take on additional tasks when someone is already at workload capacity. Ideally, this would be programmed to flash warning lights once someone was approaching the workload limit, but since many colleagues would ignore the warning lights, an extra feature is required. Persistent requests would be met with electric shocks, increasing in intensity with each repetition. JaneB is welcome to test the prototype once we've made sure the force field is working. Currently, many seem to be flickering on and off.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Teaching prep, continue keeping to minimum. - YES
2. Start work on postponed new lecture to avoid temporal dysfunction in two weeks' time. - YES (just)
3. Project proposals. - YES
4. Feedback on oral presentations from last week. - YES
5. Prep for job interview panel on Thursday. - YES
6. Tax return - URGENT!!! - YES (just)
7. Other admin stuff. - NO
8. Exercise more than last week. - YES (1 extra run)
9. Organise weekend with friends. - Sent text message suggesting dates
It might seem like a lot, but it was all stuff that had to be done and/or was overdue. This week I have 14 hours teaching, plus a research seminar, a meeting with a dissertation student and two appointments for the kids, so back in survival mode. It would all be manageable, except I also have to write a lecture on something I know very little about...
This week:
1. Teaching prep, keep to minimum.
2. Write new lecture for Monday.
3. Email backlog.
4. Write reference for student.
The has-to-happen things count! Although we try to focus on the important-not-urgent, sometimes the urgent takes over, and then it is important to give yourself credit for getting stuff done! I didn't know till last week that British tax day is Jan 31, so that sure makes the US April deadline look good by comparison.
DeleteThere are weeks when getting what needs to get done done is the accomplishment. That's actually a pretty successful week. (And it's the first year that I got my UK taxes in before January 29, so I feel you on the deadline.)
DeleteWhen the force field is ready, I think it will be a highly successful addition to everyone's tool box.
Very happy to test the forcefield!
DeleteI, too, would be happy to test the forcefield (and am pretty sure I could recruit a number of colleagues to do the same). It would have been interesting to have prototypes for all participants to try when we had a whole-department retreat on workload last semester. The official line is that there are enough people to accomplish all the work that needs to be done; it's just inequitably distributed (i.e., some people are slacking). I'm sure there are, in fact, a few slackers, but not as many as some seem to imagine. It would be interesting to have an objective, visible, measure (and the forcefield sounds much more entertaining than the service "dashboards" chairs are being urged to maintain and make available for all department members to see, in the name of "transparency").
DeleteMagineering proposal: bookworms who digest the contents of the books they eat their way through, then produce neatly written, indexed, and tabulated notes of said contents. Advanced classes: work with readers' interests to provide guidance to bookworms so that the notes include highlighted quotations that readers can use in research papers.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
Exercise: swim x2 or x3, cardio + weights x3, yoga at least x4. YES (x3, x3, x3, close enough).
Work: sample syllabuses for 2 course proposals; ~3-4 hours/day on research (reading, translating, outlining, writing); prep for Latin group. Meet with collaborator on one conference paper. NO, NO, YES, YES.
Social: karaoke party Saturday night! Prep, attend, be good sport. YES.
Planning: 2024 planning. ABOUT 10 MINUTES.
ALSO: long story short(ish), last week my MIL fell in her kitchen, spent 2 nights in hospital, behaved badly and erratically, then +/- got back to herself and agreed to enter an assisted living facility. But for the moment she's still in her old condo, with her kids providing 24-hour attendance. Since my husband and I try to insulate each other from our families of origin, I haven't been doing any hands-on care, but I'm his support staff, so to speak, and so have had extra home duties. So work has been taking a back seat, the more so because of extra insomnia (the karaoke party was fun but also got me wound up to the point where I couldn't sleep till 4:00 a.m.; then last night when I went to bed at a normal hour, I woke up twice with severe foot cramps, and the second time couldn't sleep again until after I got up at 6:30, tried to get on with the day, and then at 7:30 crashed for a very welcome two hours of sleep. But the shape of the day was then Pear).
New goals (why did that come out "toads" the first try?):
Exercise: swim x2 or x3, cardio + weights x3, yoga at least x4
Work: sample syllabuses for 2 course proposals; ~3-4 hours/day on research (reading, translating, outlining, writing); prep for Latin group.
Social: make reservation for a birthday dinner out
Creative: write out story climax idea/scene
Planning: 2024 planning; make appointments for feline check-ups; make eye exam appt for me.
I'm interested in purchasing / hiring the bookworms. Desperately need.
DeleteOh, my. Parental crises are always exhausting, even when they are not your crisis! I am glad you've got the decision to move to assisted living but that's a hard one. And you have to find a place that is affordable and not dire. I hope that stabilizes soon.
Given the drama (and the sleep disruptions) I think last week was pretty good. Regarding sleep, the foot/leg cramps are awful, and I have a feline alarm clock which can go off any time after 3:30. I now tell him that I don't get up before 6, and I try to keep to that.
Fortunately my MIL is well-off and there is an opening at a facility where Sir John's brother's FIL already lives (so the family is familiar with it). She can move in on Friday! So we just have to get through this week.
DeleteOoh, yes, can the bookworms digest things into lecture form?
DeleteSorry to hear about your MIL. That is tough, even if you are one degree removed, so to speak.
Those worms sound very handy... sorry to hear about your MIL but it does sound as if the situation has an exit path at least...
DeleteWe are very, very fortunate. My husband can't help worrying, but from my perspective it's all vastly smoother than it was with my parents, so I am counting many blessings here!
DeleteSounds like more or less a best-case scenario, but still not easy.
DeleteMy week in magineering we will develop a magicritter that eats only email, and will go through email and delete the things that are no longer relevant. My inbox is currently just under 4000, and most of that is probably deletable. (I keep something to know about an event, and then don't delete it.)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, how I did:
1. Deal with Administrators and figure out where the data gap is STARTED/ MEETINGS THIS WEEK
2. Don't otherwise get overwhelmed with administrivia LOL, NO
3. Do 4 hours on Famous Author, send to editor and friend reader 2, got some last books from library, but NEED SOME TIME!!!
4. Do 4 hours on Big Collaboration introduction, read (very late) chapter YES, but 2 more chapters to read
5. Do Letter of Rec #2 YES
6. Three more journals TWO
7. 15 minutes de-cluttering I THINK SO?
8. Move, eat well, sleep enough NO YES YES
9. Organize housing for next year YES! Housing secured, lease signed
10. Do taxes YES
11. Do more garden work YES
12. Do something fun Not really
13. Take stuff to dump, to Goodwill NO, NO
As with heu mihi last week, a grad student crisis erupted (psychiatric hospitalization) and it took A LOT of time & energy; I've mostly passed it off to others, but still dealing with follow up. I think we have the teaching covered, but then another student had emergency surgery this past weekend. JUST STAY HEALTHY, folks, PLEASE. Also, it's been rainy, so not great for moving stuff, going to the dump, gardening, etc. I was going to have dinner with a friend on Saturday, and we ended up just having a zoom drink because we couldn't decide what to do and neither of us wanted to host...
This morning I had my annual eye dr appointment, which confirmed that my eyes are not changing much, and I chose new glasses, so that was fun.
This week:
1. Read last two essays for Big Collaboration
2. Finish Epilogue on Famous Author and send to editor: I just need two or three hours
3. Deal with data disjunction with colleagues so it's not just me
4. Don't let administrivia overwhelm me. There will be meetings. There will be many meetings.
5. Three more journals/ enter readings in Zotero with notes
6. 15 minutes decluttering
7. Take stuff to Goodwill, take stuff to dump
8. List ramps on facebook marketplace
9. Move / Eat / Sleep
10. Do something fun
Meanwhile, maybe I had better get working on the email eating critters.
I hope your eye exam will inspire me to get on with making an appointment for mine! Sorry to hear about all the grad student drama; may this week be a nice calm antidote to last! Sleep is more important than anything else, IMHO, so it's excellent that you did well on that score.
DeleteEchoing Dame Eleanor, sorry to hear about the drama. It does sound draining. Hope this week is calmer.
DeleteWHY IS EVERYONE FALLING APART?? At least in my case one of my grad students was also signed off with burnout/mental health crisis about a month after I was so at least I felt less guilty about not being there for them... but honestly, the number of sick leave out of office email messages is abnormal...
DeleteWishing you a very calm week in lieu of the last one!
There do seem to be a lot of crises happening, and I think that's typical in many places. People are just stretched to the limit.
DeleteI could definitely make use of your email-eating magicritter, especially if it could quietly identify and eliminate duplicate reminders of zoom meetings that I have snoozed at different times (I find the snooze function very useful, but by the time I get to the day of an event, I often turn out to have 2 or 3 or 4 snoozed reminders, and then the organizers send another 1 or 2 in the course of the day).
Oh, extra work? Yes! Already doing it! More please! (Seriously, this week--the first full week back--is chock-a-block with meetings &c. On Friday--to give you my worst example--I have one meeting from 2-4:30 and another from 4:30-6:30. What in God's name is going on, you may rightly ask.)
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Process and probably reject journal submission; read another, more promising submission; reread submitted article that got two diametrically opposed reviews (sigh)
-YES, YES, NO--still need to do this
2. Three General Education reviews - YES
3. Review and revise abstract for plausibility of argument (due 2/15) - YES, and thankfully I think that it's submittable, if not great
4. Very roughly pull material for conference paper (due 3/5) - SO ROUGHLY THAT I'M GOING TO SAY NO
5. Begin ch. 3 revision - HA HA ABSOLUTELY NOT
6. Reread part 2 of ch. 6 and try to do some revising or whatever - HA HA AGAIN, NO
This week:
1. Review four grant applications--I've been a grant reviewer for this organization for about 6 years, during which time there has been one application, total, in my field. Well, apparently this is The Year for Medieval Studies, and I have four! Due next week!
2. 1 hour a day on my actual research and writing
3. Reread article with diametrically opposed reviews
4. SCHEDULE TAX MEETING
5. Read ahead for class
6. Schedule yet more meetings
7. Get caught up on non-university volunteer service work
A meeting on Friday after 4:30 is cruel and unusual!
DeleteI hope you get some wins this week to offset the crowded schedule.
I'm with Dame Eleanor. Anyone scheduling a 4:30-6:30 meeting on Friday better be serving refreshments. Sometimes the meetings just eat us.
DeleteThe only acceptable meeting at that time on a Friday would be in a bar or pub.
DeleteNoooooo, not the bar meeting, those can drag on for ages on a Friday.... (or is that just with my colleagues? Quite a few of them (male, all) would regard making it last longer as a way to avoid end of week child duties...)
DeleteIt's so hard not to feel guilt, and yet it isn't your fault that there is no slack in the system. Another way to think about it is collegiality: everyone will have times when they need to drop stuff and let others pick it up. I know people have picked up for me in the past so, depending on who it is, I don't mind picking up in my turn. But collegiality only works if people aren't too exhausted to begin with. It's infuriating that you are being asked to pick up marking for no pay. Can you refuse? Or if you can't, ask what other things on your already long list they would be happy for you not to do instead? Hoping you can protect some time for yourself this week.
ReplyDeleteThat marking is just not going to get done quickly - I can't fit it in and at least whilst I have the protection of a phased return to work note (this week and next, then I need to review) I am feeling a bit more legitimate about saying no. Lots of no! But it is so not the students' fault & I feel bad about the impacts on them... sigh!
ReplyDeleteAfter a very long day of providing feedback to my current students, I'm envisioning magineering directed at creating a herd of creatures that harness some of the signature qualities of felines (yes, I know), especially their propensity to walk and sit on computer keyboards and/or in between the user and the screen, to force students (especially but not only online ones) to read directions before attempting to complete an assignment. I'm thinking of some combination of stepping in just the right place to open the window or document with the directions, tails used as pointers to highlight key instructions, and making it impossible to type until the directions have been fully read and absorbed. If nothing else, asking our students to brainstorm about the creation of such a critter might bring home to them just how serious we are about the whole direction-following thing.
ReplyDeletelast week's goals:
Delete--Make further progress on the research project: set up spreadsheet and add at least one source and/or set up Omeka site and add one source.
Mostly: did set up the spreadsheet, and identified a number of questions I need to answer before I begin adding sources
-- Engage in some sort of purposeful movement – short or long walks, stretching, weight-lifting, and/or stair-climbing – at least 5 out of every 7 days
Yes: 6 out of 7 days
this week's goals:
--Begin taxes (putting research work on pause this week to try to forestall an April trainwreck by getting this done earlier than usual)
--Engage in some sort of purposeful movement – short or long walks, stretching, weight-lifting, and/or stair-climbing – at least 5 out of every 7 days
I love the sound of those cat-critters, and I think it would be an excellent idea to ask students to brainstorm how they might work!
DeleteExcellent work with last week's goals!
This was a good week. And like Julie's force-field, these critters would become required apps for most faculty!
DeleteThe whole no-slack-in-the-system thing is a pervasive problem. It's very, very, hard to persuade the higher-up adminicritters (yes, them again) that there needs to be slack in the system, because life happens, for both us and our students. I think for them slack=inefficiency. But they seem perfectly comfortable sending emails asking us to offer our students grace, flexibility, understanding, etc. -- which I genuinely want to do, but there are only so many hours in the day, or days in the week.
ReplyDeleteSaying that things really do take the amount of time they do, and that hours don't appear out of nowhere, seems like a completely valid form of resistance (I occasionally find myself asking "okay, so what am I/are we supposed to stop doing to make time for that?"), except that, yes, the people most immediately affected are often the students.
I have been deeply irritated, at times, by the emails (especially in the years immediately post-shutdown) calling on us to support students in all kinds of ways when I was utterly depleted. Those emails have largely stopped, as I think that now we're seeing the unfortunate effects of TOO much flexibility re. attendance, etc. (we just got an email about new disability accommodations--they are much more specific [and limited] than the previous "may not be able to attend class," etc.). But this is neither here nor there. I'm outraged on your behalf, JaneB, about this marking nonsense.
ReplyDelete