elanya

Megan challenged me to get a hold of a friend of mine who knew a good self-printing service that I could use to get printed copies of my dissertation. And I did! I even went as far as signing up for the site and trying to upload a PDF of my dissertation so I could order a test copy... Unfortunately i need to rotate some pages first, and I have to do that at work since I don't have the right software. So... tomorrow then! However I sort of thing that I'm going to have to get it printed in colour rather than Black and White, so that the charts will be legible, which suddenly makes it a *much* more expensive project... Going from about $15-30 per book to $60-80 :/ I guess the next step is figuring out where all I need to send a hard copy - I know I want at least two, possibly three... /o\

I also started re-reading my dissertation to try and get ideas about how I can usefully cut up the material, and what I can do with it - both the stuff I already write and also other ways I can use the data. So we'll see. It was still a little painful, but I think I'm in a better place than when I first tried.

In other news, I have 6 rows to go on my night vale socks before it is all over but the end weaving. So probably I'll finish them tomorrow. Tonight is for going to bed early :3

It is not quite managing to rain out; it is aggressively misty.

I had meant to try and do some academic type work tonight, and it does not seem to have happened. I'm trying to remember everything I did do, and failing. I did some AO3 tag wrangling. I cooked dinner. I set up my new router (wooh!). I picked up Jola. I skyped with my dad. I chatted with new old roomie (he was my first roomie here, but only briefly, and just came back at Christmas). He made pie (and cleaned up afterward)! And fed me dark chocolate and marzipan! He's a good roomie ^-^

I feel like there must have been more to it - I don't even think I spend that long chatting tonight, though I did some. Maybe facebook ate some of my time? I'm honestly not sure!

ETA: now I remember - winding a recalcitrant ball of yarn :p

Anyway, I had good intentions and completely failed at following through on them. Ahh well, there is always tomorrow!

Meanwhile, I have some thinking to do, as I have been invited to going the AO3 Tag Wrangling staff for the next term (a year) and need to think about whether this is something I both can and want to do. I would like to do more to support the org, but it is an average of 5 hours a week - so an hour every weeknight, say - and if I am going to try and be more productive academically I'm not sure how that will jive. On the other hand, having more responsibilities may help me structure my time better, and since I'm not in the middle of doing anything overwhelming atm, like finishing my diss or job hunting, this might be a good time. I suppose what I ought to do is talk to some of the people I know on staff and get some inside info on the time and work and so forth.

I would also kind of like to do some writing as well... Something something trope bingo >.>

Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to my end of the year writing wrap up. And maybe tell you about my exciting new upcoming trip :V For now - I think an early bedtime is in order.

*waves at Journal land*

So, I was considering doing a year-in-review writing post, and it got me thinking about something that has been on my mind a bit lately, which is how I use my two journals - this one and my writing journal. I feel like big posts on writing probably do belong over there, but maybe people over here would be interested to. Does it make sense to just leave links here whenever I post stuff like that over there? Or is it probably safe to assume that anyone who would care to read about my writing as well as possibly read my actual fiction (mostly fanfiction these days) would have just subscribed directly? I'm not sure so.... if you have an opinion, let me know?

Is anyone still reading this? Is there anything you would like me to try posting about more? I would kind of like to do more regular posts on something or other, but I'm not sure what there is that I can keep myself motivated to talk about. I'm lazy, you see, and I spend most of my time online either chatting or writing or both. I don't feel like I have a lot of complex thoughts on things these days, or if I do I don't have the ambition to write them out on my own. Maybe I should do one of those things where people give me topics for each day for a month and I try to have something interesting to say about whatever?

I'm still sort sick right now, so my motivation is extra low. But I have things I both need and would like to do on the academic front - I need to do *something* with my dissertation, I am just at a loss what it should be. I'm not sure how to synthesize my data down to something manageable for an article and what I would say if I wrote one. I still can't get over the feeling that I went about things all wrong and that I'm not really qualified to have a doctorate, no matter what the nicely framed paper on my wall claims. I do have some obligations I have fallen down on fulfilling as well that I need to step up and do, most of which involve sending (printed, in some cases) copies of the dissertation to various folks. This is a bit of a digression, but I suppose the connection is that I was hoping to rely a little on LJ as a source of external motivation as well - somewhere to report to about my progress the way I did (or tried to do) when I was writing. I'm not asking for anything from whomever may be reading this, but if you feel like poking at me it wouldn't go amiss either.

Would you like to know what I am up to now, Other than work? There's not much - having finished with yuletide, I don't have a lot else on the go writing wise. I signed up for Trope Bingo for the first Time, and I am waiting for a picture to come to me to write a Treehouse Reverse Bang for the Books of the Raksura, but I don't have any concrete ideas. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with my current knitting project (the Night Vale socks), though I'd hoped to be done by now and may have been if I hadn't been ill. I'm planning to start my vest next, with the yarn I got from tethys123, and maybe keep something smaller to carry with me for bus/lunchtime knitting, but we'll see. Not much else on the go, sadly!

Mostly ups, I have to admit.

Like... My dad is visiting! I haven't seen him since like... Christmas 2011 or 2010? So that's pretty cool. We haven't been doing a whole lot - he came to see me, not to See All the Things, though we have seen some of the things (like Red II, and I took him to the galleries today, and found out the hard way that Cushing is closed on the weekends (no GRRM exhibit, alas!). And tonight we feasted on Sodalaks! Really, dad being here means that I have eaten lots of tasty things I haven't had the ways or means to get to in a while.

Also, I graduated! I am officially a doctor of Anthropology now, though I do not at all feel qualified at the moment. I haven't cracked a book of any kind in months and I doubt I could carry on an intelligent conversation on anything related to my field -_- I need to get on that.
The people I'm dogsitting for will be home tomorrow. That's not really a good or a bad thing, just a Thing. It will be nice not to have to split my time between houses anymore, but I will miss the animals, and they have some things here that I don't have at home.

And the big low - one of those things is a working fridge. Cleaning out the freezer today was really really gross, and sad making. And gross. it smelled foul, and there was a lot of...leaky...things...in bags. Also stuff that my old roommate kept for her animals. Ugh. But a new one will hopefully be sorted out pretty quick, at least. what will really suck is having to restock all my fridge and freezer things from scratch :/ At least I didn't *really* lose that much though.

Anyway! I'm a doctor! I have my diploma and it is framed and everything! I got hooded on stage and hugged by my department head!

...The Night Vale fangirl in me likes to point out that I am now *officially* a Hooded Figure. Whether or not I am mysterious... who can say >.>

( picture! )

Well, okay. Technically I have a job I have been hired for, yes, but I can't actually start work until i get my Visa, which I'm hoping will be by the end of the month. Really *really* hoping.

For now... Well, there are things gong on. My dad is coming down here on Wednesday for my graduation on Friday morning. He flies out again on Tuesday morning. I have no ides what all we are gong to do, though - he doesn't really want to leave the sweet protection of the air conditioning ;p I guess I can get him to listen to Night Vale? Watch Firefly? I dunno :3 I'll figure something out, I suppose. Theoretically on Sunday night I have my game, but I'll see if he minds if I play, or what.

I'll be through house sitting next Monday, and then back at the condo. There was someone who was interested in renting the other room, but I never heard anything more about it, so I assume that is not happening. ( This turns into rambling about money things )

That is really not what I meant to write about when I sat down to do thins though. I meant to talk about the fact that I am already flailing about uselessly due to the lack of structure. It used to be I would get home from work/social lunch at like 2:30 and do fuck of of use for the rest of the day. I mean, I've written a lot in the past couple of weeks/months. A *lot*. And that's great! I do enjoy it. I'm having a lot of fun playing in the Night Vale fandom. I even got a tumblr! That should really tell you everything about how my days have turned into a wasteland of uselessness (measured-words.tumblr.com, for the record. Reblog allll the Night Vale @_@). I'm one of the tag-wranglers for the fandom on AO3 and it is hopping. My co-wrangler cleared out the bins of new stuff earlier this morning, and there are already 17 new ones. I'm slow and picky about it too, so it eats time, but I enjoy it as well. But at the same time, it is not precisely helping me get ahead in life. Okay, so it is actually very similar to what I will be doing with my new job, on a smaller scale, but I'm not sure how I'd put it on a resume :p

I'd meant to be doing all kinds of useful things with this time. I thought I'd have started the new job a lot sooner, and that I'd be acclimatizing to a real, actually busy, 8 hour work day, but that once I'd done this, I would start, say, putting together course syllabi and trying to get articles published from my dissertation research. I have done... none of this. I was planning to read more academic stuff on fandom and poke at my co-hosts to keep gong with more ficthropology stuff, and that hasn't happened either. And just read more academic stuff in general! I have so many books I've bought and have only really just peeked at, or read parts of, or never even opened. I need to read more - I have the time now - I should do that right? Heck, there are books in this house I should read if I have time in the next week :p

Anyway. I have a lot of time on my hand, and I'm having trouble organizing myself to make good use of it. I have writing commitments, and I have story ideas and I have original material I want to do Something with. I have knitting to work on. I have articles to write and courses to design. I just need to figure out how I can make myself do these things. Maybe I need to make more lists? Schedules? I don't know. If you see me online too much, make me do something useful. If I'm being morose and whiny, tell me to have some tea. I was feeling meh when I started this, but now I have had tea and feel less meh and more just... bored I guess? I know not having concrete things to do is not going to be good for me longterm :p

Right now, I'm going to go make lunch. That should help too. And after that... I dunno. Maybe I'll read, or knit. Maybe I'll do some market research for stories. Maybe I'll do something with friends in town...

So much on my plate to do right now - yet I am supposed to be going to an annual gaming con some friends of mine do every year this weekend. Probably not my wisest choice.... We'll see how it works out. I want to go this year, becaue I'm afraid I won't be able in the future.

I also have other stuff to do, mostly job-finding and dissertation-writing things.

I saw a really sweet position I want to apply for. There is also a position in one of the galleries here I'd like to try for as well. Time is running a little short on both of them, an, of course, deadlines loom for the diss @_@

Things I need to do today:
Pick up my inhaler prescription
Try and get through my Chapter 4 diss read-through. At least more of it.
Revise my CV for both positions.
Check with my boss at my old job about getting a reference from him for the job here. - emailed!
Start drafting application letters.
Start online application for cataloguer position
*flail*
*flail* more

I think I mentioned the first episode when I released it into the wild, but I have just (finally) posted the second episode of ficthropology! Four of us discuss Henry Jenkins's Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture for about and hour... Something to listen to while you're puttering about with your Christmas baking, perhaps?

If people have any advice on how to promote this kind of thing, I will happily take it, as well :)

Not only do I understand structuring structures that structurate, I can identify particular structu(a)ring structures and how they are re-structured in new contexts.

Can you?

(Actually I suspect that it should actually be structuring structures that structure, but the above is how I've been hearing it lately :V)

I met the Lawlors today. Very nice people, and very helpful. They gave me some more old maps and promised more images and information should I need it. I must get a copy of their book when it becomes available (pre-ordered on Amazon, woot)! It seems like it will have all kinds of exceedingly useful things. There is even a chapter on shipbuilding! Of course, most of that focuses on the later period, but should still be helpful. They also have a house on the island, which will probably give me another place to dig. They were extremely excited that someone wanted to do archaeology there. It is all very encouraging!

I really didn't get much else accomplished today. I did pick up a map from Lands and Surveys, but it is of horrible quality, and practically useless for my purposes. There's 15$ down the drain! I don't think it is possible to get a better one, either. *sigh*

I didn't make it to the archives, and I didn't get a chance to call the methodist minister at HI. There is always tomorrow though! I'm not even sure there is anything else I *need* at the archives that i can think of. One of the maps I got today was Thomas Walker's 1702 map of Harbour Island. And we all know how much I love Thomas Walker don't we? If I knew for sure he was a native Bahamian, he's be my favourite native Bahamian historical figure. But I don't think he was. for someone who loves pirates as much as I do, I seem to like a lot of pirate hunters, don't I? But walker is also The Apple Guy. And the chief justice hat refused to go! He was a bit fantastic. This wasn't quite as exciting as seeing the Cockram map, because they only had a copy, but still exciting!

Speaking of pirate hunters and my favourite historical figures, I finally had my dinner at the British Colonial Hilton (where Fort Nassau used to stand) that I've been promising myself since last year. I wrote a letter to <3WR. They had a dessert buffet, and it was very quiet. An enjoyable dinner, and not at terrifyingly expensive as I'd feared.

I hve a few things on my mind right now, however.

The first is that i'm not sure if i should apply to give a paper on Harbour Island and the maritime cultural landscape stuff that I have been working on at SHA this year (in Toronto), or if I should give some kind of paper at the SAA (which I'd like to do, and I know there will be a Bahama session), or both? That's a big money commitment though. SHA is in Toronto. I don't remember where the SAAs are next year. Oh, Atlanta. So, I dunno! but the regualr abstract submission for SHA ends on the... err, yesterday. Hrm. So an extra 25$ fee if i get something in by July 1st. I kind of feel like I have to go to SHA - I haven't missed one in forever, and it is in Toronto. But really. Really? I dunno :x I guess if I don't go home for Christmas it would be pretty easy to swing! And Dad and Jennifer are thinking about Texas themselves...

( Book Review )

(I hope this doesn't come off as too pretentious - I was reading the book to judge its academic merit, and that is what I focused on here :o)