2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 11

Summer weather is finally arriving here and I am not best pleased - if it has to be hot why does it also have to be when I'm working?  At least the change from the last few days to the hotter phase will be smaller than it was so hopefully a little acclimation has happened!  But between the weather, the sense that August is the last month when I might have the chance to do Summer Things, and all the uncertainty and insecurity going on at NorthernUni and in the wider sector (never mind the wider world), I am feeling very unmotivated.  Any tips for keeping going when you're unmotivated but still need to make progress?  I have three weeks until my next block of leave (I booked another week off to sort out more chores, at my slow pace), and I really need to get some solid work done before then.

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY 

Given the information from the sprites and squirrels, you seem to have decided to try and take the fish to the Ladies of the Wood without killing it first, and have proposed a plan.

You can see that the stream flows downhill as it leaves the pond, and between the rocky ledges and the presence of the waterfall over rock, assuming the pond has some kind of sill keeping the water in makes a lot of sense.  Scout does have expertise with explosives, and Cornelius has some supplies and some enthusiasm.  So I think we need to do a skills check... Cornelius got an 11, Scout got a 15.  Given your existing expertise, you are feeling confident that this task requires some careful calculations but is perfectly possible.  The sprites are not quite sure they understand how you plan to move the rocks, but they suggest that they could call up a squad of sprite archers so if the fish tries to disturb you they can scare it/distract it back into the deeper water.  They tell you that they know the deepest part of the pool is near the waterfall, and it becomes shallower where the stream leaves it, and they agree that it's more important to get the fish out and save the trapped small fey, and that repairing the pond can be dealt with later.

Cornelius, Scout and Linnet will go carefully to the outlet of the pond, and watched over by a group of about a dozen circling sprites with their tiny bows and needle-sharp stone tipped arrows Scout as your explosives expert wades into the shallow water and pokes around.  You are able to work out that the lip of the basin isn't solid rock, it's made up of tumbled pieces of broken rock, and largely holding water because of the pebbles and clay and silt that has built up in the gaps.  Linnet's woodcraft helps you quickly scout out the limits of this natural dam across the pool, and work out where best to place some small charges.  Scout will get some help from Cornelius to work out exactly how to do this, and in D&D the mechanism to capture one person getting help from another is that the person doing the task gets to roll the dice twice and take the highest score - in this case I rolled an 11 and an 18.  The explosions aren't very loud, and the leaf mold is damp enough that there isn't a great cloud of dust, but a clear trench opens up in the dam and water starts the trickle then flow steadily through the new channel.  Despite warning them what to expect, several sprites embarrass themselves by being startled enough to jerk out of position or exclaim loudly in their own language, but you politely pretend not to see.

Alice and Martha meanwhile will have taken everyone's blankets and rope, found some fallen wood that seems to be quite solid (they aren't sure about cutting any fresh wood in this place), and worked together to create a fish-carrier which will hopefully work well enough.  As you wait for the water to drain, they will soak a couple of blankets to cover the fish.  As the water drains and the pool shrinks, you'll see the fish moving around in the remaining space.  The sprites will fly to the waterfall side and use their arrows, and a couple of brave dashes into action with swords, to try and drive the fish into the shallows where it can beach itself.  I rolled a 12 for them, and they are experienced with their weapons, so the fish half-beaches itself, enough for you to get close enough to throw a blanket over its head to entangle those teeth and try to drag it onto the litter.  I rolled a 1 for Cornelius, a 16 for Scout, a 9 for Linnet, a 12 for Martha and a 1 for Alice.  You all find it quite an effort, and both Cornelius and Alice get knocked into the water and bruised by the flailing fish, but after a lengthy and frustrating wrestling mtch in which you all get out of breath, muddy, and practice your vulgar vocabulary in every language you know, you have the fish secured.  

You are able to drag the bundle through the gap you made into the stream bed, and lay it there with water flowing over its gills whilst you catch your breath and the sprites have a rather fierce discussion over where the ladies might be at this time of day and phase of the moon.  They've just agreed to send a messenger to several different places when you all feel a change in the wood - the light becomes a little more dappled, a waft of petricor and honey scents the air, the small sounds of flowing water seem more musical, and the magic-users among you feel all the hairs on your body stand up as potentials move around you and three figures step out of the trunks of nearby trees.  The sprites all bow midair, and one of the figures asks in a voice beautifully strung together of leaf-rustle and bird-call and bough-creak why you have not killed the creature.

What do you do?

THIS WEEK'S GOALS

DAISY

• Field work accounting for all participants
• Work on difficult paper every day, GET IT DONE!
• Essential admin
• Read and edit new thesis chapters
• Exercise in some form every day
• Real summer: read thesis chapters on deck? Anything will count…
• I feel like I'm sucking at real summer this year... More than usual...

DAME ELEANOR HULL

- swim x3, weights x2, yoga x4
- finish Alms!
- create syllabus for new class
- create syllabus for other class
- Greek 1 unit
- defrack habitat as energy permits

HEU MIHI

1. Finish (??) a very rough draft of intro (it's got to be short; the rest of the manuscript is already too long)
2. Read 5 essays from the collection I'm reviewing (I've discovered that none of them [so far] presents an argument as such, which makes it easier to read them quickly)
3. Finish batch of letters for progressive political group
4. Process journal article; find reviewers for other article

JANEB

1. self-care: 75%+ of regular chores list, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed. get electrical work done, confirm plans with gardening people.
2. fun: play D&D, crochet or knit some, draw something, read something, do some paintgemming, write something. 
3. teaching and administration: will largely be governed by what I find in my email! So go through my email and process everything. Three teaching preparation blocks, then reviewing where I am in terms of teaching prep versus time left.  Appraisal.
4. research: write a section for the Slowly Developing paper and attend meeting about it, if Consultancy Paper has returned to my desk see what I need to do, spend an hour writing notes about what my project idea might look like for the grant application that opens in September, pick up a lot of "nag other people" threads on behalf of researchers I work with

JULIE - no check in, on holiday!  Goals listed here to ensure they get carried forward

I have four days, then we leave for a break on Friday. Away the following week, so no check-in this coming Sunday.
1. Finish working through archive material.
2. Finish reading book.
3. Send comments on dissertation proposal to student.
4. If time, read draft article for post-doc (not urgent).
5. Shopping, packing etc for trip on Friday, and for daughter's longer trip (taking her to the airport on the way back for her first solo flight)
6. Bathroom project - two meetings with plumbers.
7. Exercise

SUSAN

1. Archive day in dissertation city
2. Three more chapters of Famous Author
3. Finish forgotten stupid task for Big Collaboration
4. Enjoy outings at the weekend (1 concert, 1 play)
5. Meet with successor in admin role to hand over information etc.
6. Change Out of Office message to reflect sabbatical
7. Eat well/ sleep/ keep walking a lot

SUMMARY

Prompt for TLQ - working when the motivation is off on its summer holidays, and weekly check ins

Prompt for TLQuest - what do you want to say to the Ladies?  (I'll try and add some replies in the chat...)

2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 10

 Hello everyone from a (hopefully only briefly) very hot UK.  I'm aware our hot is many others' lovely mild day, but between the humidity and the way our architecture is not designed for this, it's been A Bit Much (even Shoutypants the cat has been taking long naps during the day, and making up for it with heat-energised running around busily in the night).  So let's talk about some practical stuff this week - when the weather is tropical (or otherwise the least work-inspiring summer conditions for you), and your animal instincts are to lie in a hammock with a cold beverage under a tree until later, but you're supposed to work, how do you make that happen?  Do you change when you work, where you work, what you work on, or tweak the details of your work environment whether that's a fancy beverage or sitting with your feet on a cooling gel pad designed for pets?  

Oh, and a second question: is there still interest in trying to arrange a virtual write-in this summer?  If so, can you indicate which weeks and which days of the week are either good or no-go for you, so I can do a quick check of what might be possible?

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY:

You're all currently lurking some distance from the pool, quietly watching to see if anything happens.  When Scout tossed in the different pieces of food, the fish snatched all three with the same agressive, toothy lunge, which definitely inspired you to back off and have a think.  Martha and Linnet will very quietly move a bit further away from the pool and see if they can find anyone to talk to, whilst Scout and Alice keep an eye on the water and Cornelius has his scary nap experience.  

Martha is looking for some small creature to talk to - I rolled a 12 on the d20, and since Martha has specific skills in this area, it only takes a few minutes for Martha to spot a squirrel, and given her abilities she quickly has half a dozen of them in the tree above her all eager to tell their version of the News Of The Week.  Amongst a lot of squirrel extended family gossip, observations on the weather and the quality of the potential Autumn food surge, a particularly reckless adolescent squirrel will tell her how he saw the "greenery toothery two leggers" carrying a wriggling bundle of canvas towards the pool, stopping to dunk it in the stream several times.  He thinks they buried it as they didn't have it later and he supposes they had a good digging place in mind.  He's rather vague about how long ago it was, but it was some time since the last crop of babies arrived, so quite recently.

Linnet will have gently cast "animal friendship" to help the conversation along, then backed off to give Martha some space and, honestly, because the gossip and chatter of half a dozen squirrels given a new audience is really quite a lot to put up with.  Whilst she's sitting quietly on a large, twisted root, extending her senses into the vibrant wood, a pair of sprites will alight next to her.  "We notice you're not doing anything about the fish yet" one says, "do you doubt our word about it being a problem?  Or are you afraid?"  Linnet will politely reply that you don't want to make anything worse, so are trying to collect more information about the situation.  I'm going to roll a d20 dice to see how much Linnet knows about Sprites specifically - she got a 17, and as a druid and woodland dweller, that is high enough that I think she must have actually had a neighbourly relationship with sprites near her remote cottage.  Linnet is well aware that Sprites are unusually "strait-laced" for fey; they pride themselves on their honour and act as border patrol and protector of their communities, and whilst they do sometimes play tricks on humans they are never malicious or harmful.  

The two sprites look at each other, then the other one says "assuming some of the people you travel with are ignorant, we will not at this point be insulted.  Pray assure them that our nature is highly honourable, unlike some of our fey brethren, and tell them that this fish appeared in our pool all unexpected two moons ago. It must have been brought or magicked, the small folk of the waters would have seen it growing and dealt with it appropriately if it were a natural beast.  The naiads were able to move out along the stream, but are in much distress as the fish ate several of the small fey and of their pet frogs before they realised it was there, and there are still small fey trapped in their underwater nests.  As we said, at the behest of the Ladies we are designing a raid to destroy the creature, there is not enough food for it and it is too dangerous to stay in the pool, but the peoples we can call on here are mostly not fighterly, and we prefer not to jump into its jaws with no chance of success." Linnet will thank them for the information, and ask if there were any outsiders in the area before the fish appeared, since the sprites will surely have noted any movements through their territory.  The two Sprites will look at each other again, and their wings droop a little. "The naiads saw the pair who were patrolling this area fall victim to the fish, defending the small fey, before they were able to report - they may have known more.  All we can tell you is that we have not had a powerful magic-user through the woods for months, that we can state with confidence, but small groups of disorderly humans or goblins pass through quite often, restless creatures that they are, and last winter there was an orc band."  Linnet will assure the Sprites that she will share this information and that she believes the group may be able to help.

Pooling your information, it seems like it's in everyone's interests to take action - Cornelius' dream interaction may have been with the small fey trapped in the lake, "greenery toothery two leggers" is a pretty good description of goblins for a squirrel, and the fish is clearly not going to be able to live in the pool long term or escape on its own.  So, what are your next steps?

LAST WEEK'S GOALS:

DAISY

None (other than surviving woods and brooks)

DAME ELEANOR HULL

- swim x3, weights x2, yoga x4
- finish Alms!
- create syllabus for new class
- re-read conference paper, think about expansion
- Greek 1 unit
- dentist
- defrack habitat

HEU MIHI

1. Intro work: Do at least two of the four tasks I've written out for myself.
2. Read part of an Italian novel.
3. Start reading essay collection for review.
4. Look at Festschrift document, at least.
5. Email grad student to check in about progress.

JANEB

1. self-care: 75%+ of regular chores list, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed. Attend eye clinic for lenses, meet with possible garden person, meet with employment counsellor, try to progress one other house project.
2. fun: play D&D, crochet some, draw something, read a lot of somethings, do some paintgemming, write something. Main goal for this second week of annual leave is to do something enjoyable or at least that induces a flow state of mind every day.
3. teaching and administration: NOTHING
4. research: NOTHING

JULIE

1. Plan for rest of session: read through notes, work out priorities, request readings through ILL.
2. Read at least one book/equivalent articles
3. Work through some archive material related to the article I just submitted abstract for (needs doing even if abstract isn't accepted).
4. Keep email to essentials only.
5. Meetings: 1 x post doc, 1 x PhD student, 1 x difficult undergrad, 1 x university PR (with people from Spanish consulate - not quite sure what I'm supposed to be contributing, but involves fancy lunch and some citizenship points)
6. Bathroom project
7. Life admin: birthday presents for niece and nephew, hairdresser, various extra-curricular stuff for son, kit daughter out for trip with friends in two weeks.

SUSAN

1. The rest of today is fun: going to an exhibit that is vaguely work related, then to see Kiss Me Kate, one of my favorite musicals.
2. Three more chapters of Famous Author, and check the references I've got at Big Library.
3. Follow up with editors
4. Start on forgotten task for Big Collaboration, and see whether we need more help.
5. Keep reading for fun
6. Visits with people
7. Any admin stuff that needs doing...

SUMMARY

for real life TLQ - goal check-in and working when the weather is not helping tips/habits

and are you interested in a "write-in" and if so, which week day/week(s) work well or badly for you between now and the end of August? 

for TLQuest: now you can see the big fish, what do you want to do next?  See what you can recall or deduce (effectively ask the DM for more information!)?  Launch into action?

2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 9

 Greetings all from a grey, cool and rainy UK - we're promised more warmth next week by the forecast, but for now I'm enjoying the July cardigans and only having pollen allergies, no heat rashes or chafing to go along with it.  I'm just over one week into a two week block of annual leave and my reading mojo came back in a rush - even a somewhat patronising, ecologically under-researched piece of highly recommended literary fiction got read in a couple of days - and I know that at least Susan and Dame Eleanor also have more reading time in the summer.  So let's talk about books!  Any suggestions for fun, mind-candy summer reads, well-written and informative non-fiction, or something thought-provoking which will hang around the corners of the mind for months to come? Or something teaching or academic career-related which is worth the time?

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY

The group seemed to all feel that following the Sprites' suggestion made sense - the help of the Ladies of the Wood is clearly worth having, and the large fish is a problem which sounds within scope, especially now Cornelius has told Scout that he has some black powder!  Since the herbs you've found are close to the stream, which leads to the pond, between Martha, Linnet and Scout you are pretty confident you'll be able to find this spot again quite easily (you'll all be taking note of distinctive trees and local features that you can remember), so you decide to go after the fish immediately - it's only mid-morning after all.

Walking along the stream bank isn't entirely easy - it's overgrown and muddy, and walking up the stream bed is a hard slog given the varying depth and substrates, from slippery pebbles to fine, cloudy mud, but half an hour of persistence brings you to the promised pool - and it is as beautiful as it sounded, a fairly large pool big enough for a human to have a bit of a swim in, fed from a small waterfall scattering rainbows from the spray, with rocky shelves for basking near the waterfall, and to the left of the outflowing stream there's a shallower area of waterlilies backed by a reedbed.  But it is very quiet, quieter than the surrounding woods.  You settle in in hopefully concealed places to watch and get a feeling for the place.  After a few minutes, a bird (or maybe not) flies over and drops a small object into the water - as soon as it hits, a large scaly shape erupts out of the depths and large jaws lined with several rows of teeth snap at the ripple source, its back curving out of the water revealing spikes along its back and spiny fins, as it drops back down, slapping the water with its tail in seeming frustration.  There's definitely a fish here!  And it's about 8 feet long, too big to get out via the stream.

What do your characters want to do?  You could try to recall information relevant to what you've just seen (you can see what you might know/be able to recall about the creature's nature, any magical aspects or myths/stories that might be relevant or helpful, or see if your observations gave you any clues to its weaknesses), you could try to find some local creatures or inhabitants to get information from, or you could go straight to setting up a suitable plan for getting rid of this fish - it's clearly hungry so that might be helpful, and you all have different skills and weapons to use.

LAST WEEK'S GOALS

DAISY

• Work on difficult paper every day, goal to get it close to done
• Essential admin
• Read chapters maybe
• Real summer: beach with kid after next camp pick-up

DAME ELEANOR HULL

- swim x3, weights x2, yoga x4
- finish Alms!
- create syllabus for new class
- Greek 1 unit
- 2 phone calls
- 1 trip to campus
- dentist
- defrack habitat

HEU MIHI

1. Finish proceedings essay edits
2. Revise Festschrift paragraph
3. Overcome my fear of working on my intro
4. Finish stacking wood
5. Add website page for grad students
6. Work out a bunch

JANEB

1. self-care: 75%+ of regular chores list, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed. Make appointment for physiotherapy (I've reached the make an appointment point on the waiting list), call handypeople about lights and gate and cat-fence, make appointment to talk to employment advisor at neurodivergent adults charity.
2. fun: play D&D, crochet some, draw something, read a lot of somethings, do some paintgemming, write something.
3. teaching and administration: NOTHING
4. research: NOTHING

JULIE

1. Submit grant?!
2. Write abstract for call for papers.
3. Plan archive trip for September.
4. Last bit of admin - report for PhD student review.
5. Read chapter for PhD student.
6. Bathroom project.
7. Life admin - book train tickets, hairdresser.
8. Read book for book club.

SUSAN

1. Three chapters of Famous Author
2. Write again to editors
3. Actually do the stuff for Big Collaboration
4. Read dissertation
5. Plan trip to dissertation city for little archival work
6. Do something fun
7. Keep reading for pleasure

IN SUMMARY

for real life TLQ - goal check-in and book talk!  Any suggestions for fun, mind-candy summer reads, well-written and informative non-fiction, or something thought-provoking which will hang around the corners of the mind for months to come? Or something teaching or academic career-related which is worth the time?

for TLQuest: now you can see the big fish, what do you want to do next?  See what you can recall or deduce (effectively ask the DM for more information!)?  Launch into action?

2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 8

This has been a big week in the UK - our general election happened Thursday, and although there are many reasons to be concerned about the incoming government it is is so many ways better than the last lot (and not just by virtue of being new).  Their first actions are sending positive messages, but as the cynics say, it's the hope that will get you!  At work, the new Head of School started - he seems a little "corporate" but that may be an unfair judgement - maybe he just has a presonal style preference for crisply ironed traditional men's shirts even though the field norm is definitely more T-shirts, sweatshirts and a general impression of clean(enough)-and-comfortable rather than corporate, and he comes from the most casual part of the field.  But I'm sure he had lots of meetings with Faculty etc., and maybe he just had a wardrobe issue what with moving from the other end of the country.  And I just started two weeks of Annual Leave (I'm not going anywhere, the plan is to rest, do some small jobs around the house, and also (given impending Large Changes) do some serious thinking about finances and post-academe options, just in case (I like to have a plan).  All of which FULLY justified me ordering a delivery from a well known and exploitative coffee chain with delicious treats.  For this week's prompt - when it's been a busy week, what is your go-to treat?  I do really enjoy an over-priced, over-sugary coffee based beverage, a cinnamon roll, and an afternoon nap* to deal with the inevitable crash once those items properly register with my middle-aged and grumpy system, but what other options might you suggest?

*naps around here now come with added cat since Shoutypants has decided that I am safe enough and he's willing to sleep on the bed with me, not just pop up for scritchies then go somewhere else in the room to sleep.

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY:

Last week, Martha found some Singing Nettles, Linnet spotted some Perennewinkle, and some sprites spotted the party.  The sprites are friendly, especially since Alice and Cornelius are being good sports about their mishaps and Scout knows to ask the proper polite questions.  Once you've shown them the token Silas gave you and explain your goal, their tone changes a little.  The main speaker says to Scout "as long as that druid makes sure only the necessary parts are taken, then Silas is welcome to what he needs of Singing Nettle and Perennewinkle,  But the Ladies of the Wood are not going to want to talk to people they don't know, much less show them where the Shadestar is, what you call Feyflax, and let you harvest some.  Are you bold enough to earn an audience?" Scout isn't entirely sure if the Ladies are guardian sprites, some other kind of lesser fey, or another creature altogether, but a polite enquiry about what sort of deed might win an audience seems safe enough, so she asks, The sprite replies "just to pick a random example, if you were to follow the stream against its flow for a short while, you would come to a pool with a waterfall, basking rocks and shimmering lilies in season.  But you would not find any of us small folk enjoying its waters, because a giant, aggressive fish-like horror with rows of sharp teeth and a taste for flesh has taken up residence.  We are planning a raid, naturally, but if big folk like you were to bring its body to the Ladies, they'd have to offer you a favour in return."

What would your characters like to do next?  You might choose to harvest the herbs you already found, ask some more questions, ask the Sprites to give you some privacy to talk among yourselves, or set off along the stream immediately - or whatever else you can come up with!

LAST WEEK'S GOALS:

DAISY

Two hours of work on difficult paper every day (doable during field work I think)
Keep up with essential admin while away
Read and comment on proposal draft
Read and comment on thesis chapters when (or if) they arrive
Real summer goals are suspended because it is freezing… Making soup and curries to stay warm!

DAME ELEANOR

- one more day of vacation, plus necessary travel stuff
- finish off the MS review and send
- six (?) hours on Alms
- one unit Greek
- format and send a thing to my Latin group
- do some unfracking of my habitat

HEU MIHI

1. It's window week! Wash the windows, bit of paint around bathroom window, clean bathroom curtain and fix son's blind.
2. Another work-through of chapter 5, including reading and incorporating a couple of articles
3. Start outlining/roughing in intro
4. Score 5 papers for assessment thing
5. Vacuum office rug and prep office for floor waxing
6. Work on proceedings essay edits
7. MAKE THAT DAMN PHONE CALL for the recycling pamphlet

JANEB

I want to wrap up and park a few things because this is the last week of work before a couple of weeks off (already filling up with appointments and stuff, but still, NO WORK).
1. self-care: 75%+ of regular chores list, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed.
2. fun: play D&D, knit some, draw something, read something, do some paintgemming
3. teaching and administration: two blocks of teaching preparation from my list, comment on chapter draft for one grad student and mid-year review paperwork for another, and attend the relevant meetings
4. research: Slowly Developing Paper or Neglected Paper one hour, all comments on Consultancy Paper (want to send it on before I go on leave).

JULIE

1. Final revisions to grant application (hopefully!).
2. Start on abstract for call for papers.
3. Admin - tie up loose ends, contact mentees, book annual leave.
4. Mark resit assignment for difficult student who failed, but has convinced university to let him resit.
5. Fun stuff - facials with daughter (her birthday present), 4th July party at American colleague's house (also election day here in the UK), possible picnic and brass festival in local park if weather OK, watch cycling with son.
6. House - visit at least one bathroom showroom, get ideas and quotes.

SUSAN

1. Get through two more chapters of Famous Author
2. Do stuff for Big Collaboration
3. Do any admin stuff that needs doing.
4. Have fun, enjoy people and adventures
5. Keep reading for fun, figure out what to start when I finish (as I soon will) the 5 volume series I've been reading this month.

IN SUMMARY:

Your TLQuest prompt is: what would your characters do in response to the new information?

Your real-world TLQ prompt is: what sort of treat do you recommend as a good soother after a full week?  And, as usual, report on last week's progress and set goals for the coming week.