Last Quarter 2020, Week 5: Drawing a Blank

I warned you when I volunteered to co-host that you would have to accept prompt-less weeks. This is one such week, because I've Got Nothing. --Unless, in some weird way, "drawing a blank" happens to inspire you somehow? That would be neat. Or you can come up with your own prompt! What question do you want to answer?

In the meantime, here are last week's goals.

Daisy:

1) Finish and record conference talk
2) Make 3 figures for Albatross
3) Outline steps needed for local paper
4) Take one day in the week for doing only research-related things
5) Address difficult professional society issue
6) My intentional thing for the week: outdoor lunch with sweet colleague I have not seen in ages

Dame Eleanor Hull:

*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Grade 2 sets of discussion board posts, 1 set of papers, a batch of varied stuff from independent studies.
*Research: make plan for addressing revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; some other reading.
*Service: work on exam-related document for dept.
*Admin: do two online trainings and get them over with.
*Fun stuff: read more mid-century women's fiction, gardening, create birthday card for great-nibling.
*House/life: pay bills, deposit check.
*Track time, at least roughly.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell:

Schedule the rest of October, planning backwards.
Write up class interviews.
Read and annotate three articles in the digital humanities bibliography.
Walk 2x7; meditate 1x7; write 2 hours x 5; something positive 1x7.

heu mihi:

1) Teaching: Record 2 lectures, edit 4 transcripts (2 per lecture; lectures are broken into segments, if you care), prep PowerPoint
2) Recommendation letter for former student
3) Personal virtue: All the exercise (run x 5, yoga x 2), language x 3, sit x 3
4) Research: 4ish chapters of NunG per day (to catch up), notes on NunG vol. 3
5) Parenting, fun, life: Something fun with kid, French x 2, finish making my book, read for pleasure (any amount)

humming42:

1 work on creative piece
2 write weekly blog post
3 read 10 essays for award judging
4 write/submit conference proposal
5 grade every day

JaneB:

1) set goals for TLQ
2) use BuJo
3) do some Preptober things
4) be kind. be kind. be kind. (but don't be a doormat).
5) organise supplies I have and try to make rational decision about what to buy.
6) referee an article
7) prepare as much of week 4 as possible
8) draft my text for grant application, comment on two manuscripts one very urgently, and other things I doubtless forgot. SIGH

Susan:

1. Famous author: 2 hours
2. Write LOR for grad student
3. Do article review for journal
4. One more week's modules for undergrad course
5. Read for fun
6. Go for a walk x4
7. Make next batch of pepper jelly
8. Stop using iPad before bed
9 Get decent sleep

Last Quarter 2020, week 4: Outside/inside

In the next room of my museum, we have a replica of the scholar's refuge from the scroll painting. On the outside, it looks rough and temporary, a fisherman's shack quickly put together from timbers shaggy with bark and moss. Inside, however, the wooden panels that form the walls are intricately carved with scenes of the mountain in various seasons, and they glow with oil and polishing. 

"I have a treasure within me," says Jane Eyre. What outside/inside contrast is important to you, this week?

Respond to the prompt if it pleases you, let it go if it doesn’t speak. Let us know how you did last week, and what your plans are for the coming week. If you have a chance, come back and chat in the comments, but if you're too busy, know that we're thinking of you and wishing you well.

The goals you/we were working on:

Daisy
1) Make and record conference talk
2) Make 3 figures for Albatross (this is a stretch goal!)
3) Figure out why my work area smells like cat pee and fix it
4) My intentional thing for the week: go visit co-authors a day’s drive away and meet new grad student and talk about fun research project and graduate seminar   

Dame Eleanor Hull
*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Catch up with grading and planning.
*Research: make plan for addressing revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; maybe some other reading.
*Service: prep for next week's meeting; work on exam-related document for dept.
*Fun stuff: read more mid-century women's fiction, see friends in person/distanced, coloring.
*House/life: sign & mail tax return (you have ONE job!).
*Track time, at least roughly.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Interview fourth prof, and write up the notes.
Prepare for the archive trip.
Write class presentation.
Read and annotate two articles in the digital humanities bibliography.
Walk 2x7; meditate 1x7; write 2 hours x 5; put something positive in the planner 1x7.

heu mihi
1) Teaching: Finish 1 or maybe even 2 batches of papers; record that lingering lecture; record 2 more lectures; next batch of PowerPoints. (Being ambitious might work here?)
2) Personal virtue, sans asterisk: Yoga x 2; walk a bunch; language x 3, sit x 2
3) Research: 3 chapters/day of NunG vol. 4; notes on NunG vol. 3
4) Graduate students: Write the next letter of recommendation
5) Fun: Make a book once the paper arrives
6) Parenting: French x 3, fun thing with kid over the weekend

Humming42
(held over)
1 write a tiny project piece
2 work on creative piece
3 write weekly blog post
4 read 10 essays for award judging
5 work on internal grant application
6 try to be patient and not over-zoomed by excessive meetings this week

JaneB
(held over)
1) set goals for TLQ
2) work on restoring BuJo habit
3) set up new noticeboard for Preptober
4) be kind. be kind. be kind. (but don't be a doormat, that's not kind either to JaneB or to the other person when the doormat reaches the limit and snaps at their ankles or just stalks off and they get all surprised).
5) try to stop obsessing about buying more supplies that I don't have storage space for - Br3xit notwithstanding.
6) referee an article
7) prepare as much of week 3 as possible

oceangirl101
(held over)
1. Work on Ch 1 and Ch 8 at least 3 days
2. Erosion data to colleagues
3. DGS stuff
4. Exercise x 3 at a minimum
5. Try to make healthy food choices
6. One night of non-TV watching
7. start reading student diss

Susan
1. One more module for each class
2. Send out notice on speakers
3. 3x1 hour on Famous Author
4. Do something nice at weekend
5. Keep walking/working out
6. Read for fun
7. Get good sleep

Last Quarter 2020, Week 3: Redirection, Renovation

On our way to do some apple-picking this afternoon, we inadvertently ran into a Trump rally. 

That was no fun. My determination to ignore-ignore-ignore went out the window when someone waved a giant Trump flag really close to the front of our car. (I didn't do anything dangerous, just spewed a little venom.)

Anyway, on our way home, we chose a totally different route, despite our GPS's determination to steer us right back into the particular town center where the rally was being held. (In fairness to our GPS, it was the most obvious route.) With perseverance, we were able to redirect ourselves to a more meandering route--one that also happened to be incredibly beautiful, it being early fall in rural New England and all that. So Redirection strikes me as a good theme for the day.

What's kind of funny is that I had already settled on Redirection as a theme for my post last night, when I was lying in bed realizing that I had to come up with a prompt. Actually, in order to provide some kind of linkage to DEH's clever architectural theme, it was going to be Redirection, Renovation--both of which involve taking what you have and either turning it into, or towards, what you want. I had been thinking about Redirecting in terms of taking my anxiety about the upcoming election and channeling it into some more letter-writing to encourage voter turn-out (I just signed up for another batch of letters), but today's adventure has me thinking about how sometimes Redirecting can really be just leaving behind what's aggravating us and going somewhere else--an idea curiously in-line with the Let It Go/Drop It motif that came up in many of our aspirational mottoes in Week 1 Redux.

(How, by the way, did I not see that I was giving us a second Week 1? In my mind the first Week 1 was really Week 0, but of course it wasn't, so.)

Or, if you're more metaphorically inclined, you can think about what part of your allegorical building you would like to Renovate, and how.

I hope that you all had a tolerably decent week, and that many more such (or, ideally, better) are to come.

Last week:

Daisy:

1) Start new early morning work time schedule
2) Make 3 figures for Albatross
3) Write long overdue society thing for committee
4) Make talk for upcoming conference
5) Record more lecture material
6) Stick to “action plan” for the whole week

Dame Eleanor Hull:

*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Catch up with grading and planning.
*Research: make plan for addressing revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; maybe some other reading.
*Service: prep for next week's meeting.
*Fun stuff: read more mid-century women's fiction, see friends in person/distanced, coloring.
*House/life: pruning; sign & mail tax return; put together more bookcases.
*Track time, at least roughly.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell:

FINISH the lit review.
Write up my notes from the first research interview.
Meet with the other two profs and write up their interviews.
Read one article in the digital humanities bibliography.
Walk 2x7; meditate 1x7; write 2 hours x 5; put something positive in the planner 1x7.

heu mihi:

1) Teaching: Next batch of lectures (record them) and PowerPoints; grade 1 set of papers
2) Personal virtue*: Run x 5, yoga any amount x 2, language x 3, sit x 2
3) Service tasks: Two five-year course reviews, majors meeting
4) Graduate students: Write letter(s) of recommendation, read one exam document
5) Research: Finish NunG vol. 3
6) Fun: Order some new papers for bookbinding?
7) Parenting: 3 days of French lessons, do something fun with kid at some point this week

humming42:

1 write a tiny project piece
2 work on creative piece
3 write weekly blog post
4 read 10 essays for award judging
5 work on internal grant application
6 try to be patient and not over-zoomed by excessive meetings this week

JaneB:

1) set goals for TLQ
2) work on restoring BuJo habit
3) set up new noticeboard for Preptober
4) be kind. be kind. be kind. (but don't be a doormat, that's not kind either to JaneB or to the other person when the doormat reaches the limit and snaps at their ankles or just stalks off and they get all surprised).
5) try to stop obsessing about buying more supplies that I don't have storage space for - Br3xit notwithstanding.
6) referee an article
7) prepare as much of week 3 as possible (we're supposed to be working 3 weeks or more ahead... and subject to spot checks... ::eye roll::)

Susan:

1. Finish admin stuff for committee
2. Create one more module in each course
3. 2 x 1 hour on Famous Author
4. Read ms, write review (due Sept 30, so getting dire)
5. Keep getting exercise
6. Get regular sleep
7. Do something nice
8. Be kind to everyone, including myself

Last quarter 2020: week 2

Your guide this week is DEH. So far, we’ve had two “Week One” entries for this session, and I’m inclined to let that stand as a testament to how we’re feeling lately, starting and re-starting and never quite knowing where we are. But let’s not allow this to become the Fibonacci series session. We’ll call this Week Two, and then just add one per week.

“Guide” implies some sort of tour: what am I showing you? We’ve had journeys before at TLQ, maybe more than one. Let’s try a museum, church, or other significant structure this time. What kind of building are you exploring in this final session of 2020? What pieces of art or architecture do you want to spend time with? Will they challenge your thinking, or comfort you with their timelessness? Are they more about broad brushstrokes of color, or tiny delicate details, or ingenious use of form and space?

For this week, I’m going to guide you around a Chinese scroll painting, depicting steep and rocky mountains covered in pine trees, a lake at their feet reflecting clouds and snowy peaks. A small pavilion perches on a cliff above the lake in the lower left corner; in it, a scholar sips tea prepared by a kneeling servant, scrolls and brushes put aside as the scholar gazes at the gnarled pines and the tiny stream splashing over rocks, past the pavilion into the lake. What do you notice in the painting? Can it inspire you to time outside, a peaceful cup of tea, a new notebook, a silk robe to wear while working, a recording of a mountain stream for your white noise?

Respond to the prompt if it pleases you, let it go if it doesn’t speak. Let us know how you did last week, and what your plans are for the coming week. You, yourself, are enough. It will be okay, and even if it isn’t, that’s okay too: just sit with what is, and let it be itself, however gnarly. (Along these lines, formatting glitches are due to programs thinking they'll "help" me when I don't want help.)

Daisy

Session goals:

1) Finish and get rid of the Albatross Paper
2) Learn and do some computer-based analysis with fancy tool for new paper and local grant
3) Get DEI program approved and instituted in my professional society
4) Deliver excellent graduate course for new project students.

Last week:

1) Open Albatross and figure out what to do with it first, then do that thing

2) Record more lecture material

3) Stick to “action plan” for the whole week

Dame Eleanor Hull

Session goals:

Look after my health first.
Do a decent job teaching, and be kind to students.
Revise essay; try to make progress on book, and do at least a bit of language work every week.
Get boxes out of storage unit.

Last week:

*Health: daily cardio and stretching, weights x 3, try to eat carefully and sleep enough.
*Teaching: Assign points to last week's discussions x2 classes, grade second assignment x1 classes.
*Research: make plan for addressing revisions; some time on both dead and live languages; maybe some other reading.
*Service: prep for next week's meeting.
*Fun stuff: watch the Tour de France with Sir John, read more mid-century women's fiction.
*House/life: pruning; sign & mail tax return; put together more bookcases.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Session goals:

Research:
Incorporate research from hoped-for archival trip into the critical edition.
Finish one article, preferably Illuminated, although Flowers is a close second.
Finish the annotated bibliography on critical editions and digital humanities.

Life:
Achieve 10,000 steps a day.
Achieve 60% better meals.
Improve positivity about life.

Last week:

Write something positive in my planner 1x7.
Really finish the last article for the lit review.
Email the other three professors who work in my sub-specialty.
Start organizing the digital humanities references.
Walk 2x7; eat real meals 2x7; meditate 1x7; write 2 hours x 5.

Heu mihi

Session goals:

1. Research: draft an article by summer 2021; prepare a grant proposal by mid-summer 2021
1a. (Re)read NunG books 3-5
1b. Research relevant theology on death in the 13th c.
1c. Situate readings of nuns within theological context
2. Draft my part of intro to collection
3. Language: Make some progress. Aim for 3x week, any length of time.
4. Life: Exercise, yoga twice a week (any length of time), sit some amount every week
5. Watch Pride and Prejudice by myself in the newly fixed-up basement.
6. Try to do at least one of each week's Big Tasks on Monday or Tuesday, to keep them all from piling up on the weekend.
7. Relax into what happens. Change or abandon goals as needed.

Last week:

1) Back into exercise - yoga x2, running x5
2) Language x3, any amount; sit at least once, for at least 5 minutes
3) Read 5 chapters of NunG per day (total of 35)
4) Write 1 letter of recommendation
5) Next batch of powerpoints and lectures
6) 3 Gen Ed reviews

Humming42

Session goals:

1 write a tiny project piece every week
2 spend time with a creative piece every week
3 write weekly blog posts
4 finish writing that online class
5 keep up with teaching things

Last week:

1 spend time organizing tiny writing so far
2 write a tiny project piece
3 work on creative piece
4 write weekly blog post--probably about Dots
5 finish and submit current book review
6 read five essays for award judging
7 make edits to almost-finished online course

JaneB

Session goals: still to come

Last week:

1) comment on a manuscript for a student
2) get through the many meetings of the week with a Positive Attitude
3) self care stuff - get my bullet journal habit back into shape and tick off most of my "habits" every day (water, fruit & veg, the usual stuff).
4) Community Project stuff. An hour's worth.

Oceangirl101

Session goals:

1. Complete book and submit to press!!!! This will entail final writing/ edits on Ch 8, a bit of data crunching for Ch 7, a final read througth and polish of the entire thing, plus copy edits and figures and the bib. I think its doable.
2. Maintain a realistic notion of what is doable this semester in terms of teaching. Be gentle with myself.
3. Exercise 5x a week
4. Eat healthy
5. Advise several students on new projects, get bits and pieces of data/writing needed to collaborators for CNH paper, Canoe paper, and Adze paper
6. Paperwork for aunt to go into state system (I am her POA)
7. Buy porch furniture to make outdoor space comfy
8. Do smell retraining therapy each day in the hopes of getting smell and taste back

Last week:

1. Work on Ch 1 and Ch 8 at least 3 days
2. Erosion data to colleagues
3. DGS stuff
4. Exercise x 3 at a minimum
5. Try to make healthy food choices
6. One night of non-TV watching
7. start reading student diss

Susan

Session goals:

1. Survive the teaching, and maybe figure out how to own it?
2. Finish chapter 2 of Famous Author, by working at least 15 minutes every week day.
3. Keep making progress on getting rid of stuff/ fixing house.
4. Keep walking or getting exercise.
5. Read for pleasure -- a litte?
6. Do something enjoyable weekly with friends. 

Last week:

1. Finish invites for undergrad class
2. Finish schedule for grad class, and record power point.
3. Read Ms. for review
4. 2 x 1 hour for Famous Author
5. Keep editing proposal document
6. Read 1 journal
7. Keep getting exercise
8. Keep going to bed relatively early
9. Do something nice at the weekend (maybe going to the foothills to pick up wine).