....and I haven't had a cold in a long time. All that wonderful energy amassed last week....pffft. Gone. I'm a walking poster-girl for Mucinex, Tylenol, Puffs, Vitamin C tablets and garlic. And naps.
Teaching is going well, and today is Diss day. OF COURSE it is since I feel like sleeping until Friday. Dammy damn. What timing. But, I think last night may have been the worst of it and I hope these germs decide to leave my lil' body as quickly as they found themselves at home.
I think I can do some Diss work today, though. My Chapter 4 is actually the former second-half of Chapter 3. All together, I realized that is too much material for one chapter, so I separated them. The good news is that I have all the research done because I sat down to write it all out for the recent January Chapter 3 deadline. The bad news is its hard to concentrate today and I'm sleepy. So, if I sit for hours and try to write, it's highly likely that I'll read it on Friday and revise the whole load of loopy prose from today. But, I can do just a little here and a little there at a medium pace---shoot for four new pages instead of fourteen. Get healthy, first. Power-write, second.
In other news, I welcomed three new fish to the tank (for a total of 11), have three tomato plants sprouting (one is almost six inches high!!!) and finally see a flower growing on my peace lily (which hasn't flowered since I bought it 2.5 years ago, although the foliage is beautiful). And, regardless of sneezin' and weezin', life rolls along. Onward!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
first day of "spring".....
semester, that is. At least during the spring semester, we can watch the weather get progressively better, but it's all contextual in these parts. It's a bummer that this first day of class should be so blustery and windy and cold and crappy. I have to walk around campus more than usual to access copy machines, library resources and classrooms in different buildings. Oh, and Starbucks. It will be a 9-hour on campus today, so the weather has affected clothing choice, food intake, efficiency of tasks, parking......I have a lot of copying and organizing to do but that's typical of the first week. I don't teach until 3:30pm, but there is a wicked wind and some patches of the ol' I-90 West can be tricky. Coming home, in the dark, is worse, but at least my day will be done and I'll have that hour to reflect, listen to tunes and avoid being crushed by big trucks.
I'm excited by my classes and ready for a real schedule. Tu/Th teaching days and prep; M/W/F Diss days; Saturdays errands/family stuff; Sundays work (church) and maybe more work in the afternoon if my little dude can find a playmate (the downtown library is open Sundays til 5pm and no one is there then, which rocks). Sunday nights=chill out. We'll see how long this lasts :)
I have 18 enrolled in my "Music of the 1960s" class. The enrollment has some restrictions on it for students, so the smaller number is expected and good, since it's the first time I'm teaching it (and I'm creating it, too). My Monster class (MUS 115) is at 100, and this morning I had the 25th student request to force-add since the class is full. Mon dieu! Um, sorry dude. I get paid by the class, not the student number (although for this biggie, I'll take a double salary. Sure! *sigh*) so 100 it is. See ya next semester. It's in a different lecture hall and I can't really get in much earlier than the start time because it's used all day for the big lectures. I'd prefer to peek in a bit, and hope there are no surprises. I was assured that there is a music console to actually play music (great! since it's a music history class and all), so, again, hopefully no big surprises.
And, Romanticism is full at 30 and begins Thursday night. I'm not changing much from last semester because I think it went well and, well, I have these other two classes to deal with. Revision is what summers are for, me thinks. Poolside with drinkies.
And, I'm off. Welcome back everyone. Hope you are ready to rock and roll.
I'm excited by my classes and ready for a real schedule. Tu/Th teaching days and prep; M/W/F Diss days; Saturdays errands/family stuff; Sundays work (church) and maybe more work in the afternoon if my little dude can find a playmate (the downtown library is open Sundays til 5pm and no one is there then, which rocks). Sunday nights=chill out. We'll see how long this lasts :)
I have 18 enrolled in my "Music of the 1960s" class. The enrollment has some restrictions on it for students, so the smaller number is expected and good, since it's the first time I'm teaching it (and I'm creating it, too). My Monster class (MUS 115) is at 100, and this morning I had the 25th student request to force-add since the class is full. Mon dieu! Um, sorry dude. I get paid by the class, not the student number (although for this biggie, I'll take a double salary. Sure! *sigh*) so 100 it is. See ya next semester. It's in a different lecture hall and I can't really get in much earlier than the start time because it's used all day for the big lectures. I'd prefer to peek in a bit, and hope there are no surprises. I was assured that there is a music console to actually play music (great! since it's a music history class and all), so, again, hopefully no big surprises.
And, Romanticism is full at 30 and begins Thursday night. I'm not changing much from last semester because I think it went well and, well, I have these other two classes to deal with. Revision is what summers are for, me thinks. Poolside with drinkies.
And, I'm off. Welcome back everyone. Hope you are ready to rock and roll.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Back to work....
I do very well with deadlines, usually. Not so with this Dissertation, but that thing has taken on a life of its own, and a very challenging one at that. I turned in Chapter 3 on Friday like I was supposed to, but need to revise my Proposal AGAIN because I've changed the chronological organization of the chapters. Sheesh. But, this project will be done by May 15. Absolutely. I cannot have it hanging over my head like some giant albatross for another summer. No way, Jose.
The deadlines I am better with are the ones like today, which mark the first day of the spring semester for the college where I teach, the day after my son's 10th Birthday, and it's a Monday. So it feels like a fresh start, and it is. I had a six-week holiday break, and although I dreamt of all the many and wonderful things I could accomplish in that time, I did a whole lotta nothin.' Lesson learned: I work well with structure. Having "things to do" actually motivates me to do them. I'm a tasker, eyes on the prize. So, let the games begin!
Yesterday was a great day, though. My son turned 10 which is such a cool age to say, to be, to remember. I love throwing parties and I wanted to invite all the friends (that he wanted to invite) that has made over the past two years of living here. I rented a roller skating rink for two hours and 28 kids came. They had so much fun. In lieu of the annoying and cumbersome party bags that all the guests receive at kids' birthday parties, I had white T-shirts silk screened with a big smiley face and gave one to each child (after they finished eating). So I have a great picture of all the kids in their shirts (but it's on my mother's camera, so I'll post it tomorrow) and fun memories of all these kids smiling their way around the Rink with my son. Good stuff.
The challenge today is daunting. I already said that I have to revise my Diss Proposal, but I can actually do that in the evening after "24" is over (love that show!!). I have three classes this semester (whoo--hoo!!! pay raise!!!) and teach on two days of the week. Tomorrow I have Music Appreciation which I have nicknamed The Monster because it has 100 students in it, all levels freshman to senior. This will be my third semester teaching it, so that one runs like clockwork. I mostly just need to print various things that I've already done (syllabus, study guide, roster) so I can copy them when I get to campus. I used to teach is as a 2.5 hour evening class (which was a doozy) but now it's broken up into two-80 minutes afternoon slots. Change it good.
My Romanticism and Music class runs Thursday night. I love the material in that class. It's basically a philosophy course about the relationship between Romanticism and musical product or reflection. It's also open to music or non-music majors but upper-level only (juniors/seniors). This class always fills quickly and as I stated in the syllabus, the music spans the classical symphony to Kings of Leon, Liszt to Led Zeppelin, and Bob Dylan to Beethoven. Love it. The hardest part is getting them to write a good research paper. More on that as the semester unfolds, but I'm going to work harder to teach them to formulate their ideas better.
The hardest part this semester is the new class that I've created on my own which begins tomorrow night: "Music of the 1960s." I am so excited to teach this class and thank my boss for getting it approved. I'm going to teach it "seminar style" like I do for Romanticism: no textbook, no tests, I provide the readings (online, which is greener and cheapter) culled from various sources (most of which I have on my own bookshelves), and weekly written assignments/responses, and weekly CDs to listen to that I burned on my itunes. I've also included a record review and a biography review. And, all about the 1960s!!!! Whoo---hooo!!!!
But I haven't taught this before so the workload and organization on my right now is a bit heavy. And, I don't want to overwhelm them. The 1960s are such a CRAZY decade, and each year, it seems my lovely college students know less and less about American history, events, people, and ESPECIALLY older popular music. So, that is my task today. Get that class up and running and fun and interesting.
So, here I go again!
The deadlines I am better with are the ones like today, which mark the first day of the spring semester for the college where I teach, the day after my son's 10th Birthday, and it's a Monday. So it feels like a fresh start, and it is. I had a six-week holiday break, and although I dreamt of all the many and wonderful things I could accomplish in that time, I did a whole lotta nothin.' Lesson learned: I work well with structure. Having "things to do" actually motivates me to do them. I'm a tasker, eyes on the prize. So, let the games begin!
Yesterday was a great day, though. My son turned 10 which is such a cool age to say, to be, to remember. I love throwing parties and I wanted to invite all the friends (that he wanted to invite) that has made over the past two years of living here. I rented a roller skating rink for two hours and 28 kids came. They had so much fun. In lieu of the annoying and cumbersome party bags that all the guests receive at kids' birthday parties, I had white T-shirts silk screened with a big smiley face and gave one to each child (after they finished eating). So I have a great picture of all the kids in their shirts (but it's on my mother's camera, so I'll post it tomorrow) and fun memories of all these kids smiling their way around the Rink with my son. Good stuff.
The challenge today is daunting. I already said that I have to revise my Diss Proposal, but I can actually do that in the evening after "24" is over (love that show!!). I have three classes this semester (whoo--hoo!!! pay raise!!!) and teach on two days of the week. Tomorrow I have Music Appreciation which I have nicknamed The Monster because it has 100 students in it, all levels freshman to senior. This will be my third semester teaching it, so that one runs like clockwork. I mostly just need to print various things that I've already done (syllabus, study guide, roster) so I can copy them when I get to campus. I used to teach is as a 2.5 hour evening class (which was a doozy) but now it's broken up into two-80 minutes afternoon slots. Change it good.
My Romanticism and Music class runs Thursday night. I love the material in that class. It's basically a philosophy course about the relationship between Romanticism and musical product or reflection. It's also open to music or non-music majors but upper-level only (juniors/seniors). This class always fills quickly and as I stated in the syllabus, the music spans the classical symphony to Kings of Leon, Liszt to Led Zeppelin, and Bob Dylan to Beethoven. Love it. The hardest part is getting them to write a good research paper. More on that as the semester unfolds, but I'm going to work harder to teach them to formulate their ideas better.
The hardest part this semester is the new class that I've created on my own which begins tomorrow night: "Music of the 1960s." I am so excited to teach this class and thank my boss for getting it approved. I'm going to teach it "seminar style" like I do for Romanticism: no textbook, no tests, I provide the readings (online, which is greener and cheapter) culled from various sources (most of which I have on my own bookshelves), and weekly written assignments/responses, and weekly CDs to listen to that I burned on my itunes. I've also included a record review and a biography review. And, all about the 1960s!!!! Whoo---hooo!!!!
But I haven't taught this before so the workload and organization on my right now is a bit heavy. And, I don't want to overwhelm them. The 1960s are such a CRAZY decade, and each year, it seems my lovely college students know less and less about American history, events, people, and ESPECIALLY older popular music. So, that is my task today. Get that class up and running and fun and interesting.
So, here I go again!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I know it's already January 20th, but....
it's starting to feel like a new year. Or at least a new something. This is good, and these things happen. Chat soon. Like, real soon!!!!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Historical fiction...not a distraction?
I've got STACKS of books in my office that don't belong to me. I have Buffalo, SUNY Fredonia and UW Madison library books in neatly (artistically? not sure) assorted narrative skyscrapers in my office according to content...one stack is about the New Deal, another about Buffalo, some contribute to my Diss "theories," whatever those'll end up being. One of the greatest lessons/tools I learned in grad school was how to "read" a book in under 30 minutes....start with index and table of contents, browse the intro to see the author's point, find the pages needed for my topic, read back a few and forward a few from that, and BAM! That book makes it into a stack or not. Then, they sit perched, waiting for me to really go digging as the gobbledy-gook I'm writing needs them.
But, in the midst of some are books about Buffalo, a few that fall under the category "Historical fiction." The book City of Light was this, and although recommended because it provided a snapshot of Buffalonia history, was poorly written, thin and somewhat bizarre in plot, and not the best way to spend a few late nights. Felt like the author was trying too hard and left all sorts of nuggets twisting in the winds of Lake Erie. Oh well.
Another is The Birth of the Erie Canal, written in 1960, extremely romantic and "imaginative" with characters' characteristics, but sort of fun to read. That's what I did last evening after getting the kiddo to bed and still having energy (where it came from, not sure. It was a long day....). So, I buzzed through this ol' beauty and enjoyed it. There wasn't a single mention of music at all, but the historian in me often dukes it out with the musician, and I found myself fascinated with the history. What a chore and battle is was to tame western New York (after, of course, wiping it clean of the Five Nations....but that is another story, not fictional at all, and probably not fun to read...). Holy canoli. There is a sketch of the Buffalo Harbor from 1815, and I just can't get my head around it. And, because the downtown library and Historical Society are so ship-shape around here, I've looked at A LOT of historical pictures of The Buff. I think conceptually, I can't imagine being a pioneer--in the literal sense--and viewing this wild mane of a region as it was back then as navigational and livable. Phew.
So, as I weed out distractions, I figure that historical fiction will present itself as a viable way to entertain, invite sleep to come, and still keep me in the pocket of my research when the day is done. Once finished with The Diss, I think I'll expand into other areas of the country.....the California coast, Rockies, New England, etc. Any suggestions welcome!
But, in the midst of some are books about Buffalo, a few that fall under the category "Historical fiction." The book City of Light was this, and although recommended because it provided a snapshot of Buffalonia history, was poorly written, thin and somewhat bizarre in plot, and not the best way to spend a few late nights. Felt like the author was trying too hard and left all sorts of nuggets twisting in the winds of Lake Erie. Oh well.
Another is The Birth of the Erie Canal, written in 1960, extremely romantic and "imaginative" with characters' characteristics, but sort of fun to read. That's what I did last evening after getting the kiddo to bed and still having energy (where it came from, not sure. It was a long day....). So, I buzzed through this ol' beauty and enjoyed it. There wasn't a single mention of music at all, but the historian in me often dukes it out with the musician, and I found myself fascinated with the history. What a chore and battle is was to tame western New York (after, of course, wiping it clean of the Five Nations....but that is another story, not fictional at all, and probably not fun to read...). Holy canoli. There is a sketch of the Buffalo Harbor from 1815, and I just can't get my head around it. And, because the downtown library and Historical Society are so ship-shape around here, I've looked at A LOT of historical pictures of The Buff. I think conceptually, I can't imagine being a pioneer--in the literal sense--and viewing this wild mane of a region as it was back then as navigational and livable. Phew.
So, as I weed out distractions, I figure that historical fiction will present itself as a viable way to entertain, invite sleep to come, and still keep me in the pocket of my research when the day is done. Once finished with The Diss, I think I'll expand into other areas of the country.....the California coast, Rockies, New England, etc. Any suggestions welcome!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Distractions, distractions....
One of the things my adWiser suggested (or sort of told me, actually) that would be essential in executing Plan A--turning in a full draft by Jan. 15--was to work on eliminating distractions. Hmmm. Yes, that certainly would help. I nodded, said, "yes, that certainly would help," and smiled tentatively. "I'm serious," she said. "Do you know how much time you spend NOT focusing on this because it is very easy to focus on things you think are important, but are not?" Yes, I do. "Yes, I do," and I smiled tentatively. That conversation happened 10 days ago.
Since then, I've been feeling good about my writing and researching progress, and have been scrutinizing my days, what I "do" in them, and how to clear the clutter. In these 10 days, several things have crossed my path that make this notion of "streamlining" very do-able.
To help spur the above conversation along, my adWiser posed, "For example, I know you love your life in Buffalo and are very busy, but have you had conversations with the people close to you about how your time is going to more focused on YOU for the next three months, and that there may be times you are "unavailable" for various things?" Ummmm, no. So I did that. And it went over well (still have some more people to talk to, but I'm getting there) and everyone so far understands the urgency of my own timeline, what it means to me, what it means to them in the long run and the implications for the short run. "It's OK to say 'no' to things sometimes," said my adWiser. She is right.
Then, Monday, in a moment of downtime and cleaning the house during the 15 minutes I had before my son's bus came roaring down the street, I was sorting through magazines and newspapers and assorted whatnot that had accumulated on my front room table. I found a Rolling Stone magazine with Stephen Colbert on the cover from a few weeks back, and realized I HADN'T READ IT! I asked myself, "What the hell have I been doing that I can't even read my fave mag?" So, I finished my task, still had 7 minutes, and buzzed through the article on him. Interesting guy, but anyway, the way that he approaches his "work" and "life" is that he thinks of two things and two things only: work and joy. If what he's doing doesn't have both, he doesn't do it. And I realized that even as arduous as this Dissertation is, it does--for me, but I'm crazy--fit under both work and joy. Using that model, I've eliminated even more distractions.
THEN, yesterday, after leaving the downtown library, I gave myself 30 minutes to run errands. I loathe running errands. Traffic, in and out of the car, delays, money spent (usually), etc. But, my printer was out of ink (bad), my winter comforter still sat at the dry cleaners from 3 weeks ago (weather's turnin'...need that bad boy) and I had no lettuce for dinner. 30 minutes. Right....my last stop was Office Depot, where at that time of day, should have been empty. I refill my cartridges which saves me money (and is "green") but adds about 5 minutes while they do it. Not today, however. I backlog of printer cartridges sat waiting in a long line before mine. Sheesh. So, I wandered the store pondering the research I just did at the library and browsing things that I neither needed nor could afford. These things happen.
On a shelf near the front sat a book that I have heard of, been interested but never purchased: Tim Ferriss's The Four Hour Workweek. This title appeals to my sense of "work" in that I want ALL of the things I do to be productive yet joyful without losing my soul to someone else's dream. I plunked down in a random on-sale office chair (at least I was in the right place) and started to browse the text while watching and waiting for my little black ink cartridge to make its way to the front of the line.
On page 68, Ferriss says (if you don't know him, give him a glance. His blog is in my favorites here),"Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important." BINGO. More distractions gone.
I don't want to fully admit that I have been inefficient, but I did waste a wholelotta whoo-ha this summer making unimportant things very important, and musing over stupid crap that has nothing to do with my life whatsoever (usually some sort of celebrity-related B.S. or news story, gossip, etc.).
Clearing some distractions has been easier than others. Turning off my email until I am "done" for the day was harder than I thought---what is something "big" happened that I need to know about (it never has, why would I think it would?)? What if someone has something urgent to tell me (that's what phones are for)? How to feel connected to the world while sitting in The Chair writing (make better use of free time and hang with friends instead of dealing with them digitally)? and the excuses go on and on. My world will not end if I don't get my 29 messages of goofiness until 3pm each day, yes? And those "waiting" for my answer (they probably aren't) will get it. After 3pm.
Grocery shopping in bulk at undesirable hours (8:30am) as opposed to convenient (3pm) to avoid a busy store, not cleaning the house until I can do it in a full 15-minute swoop, planning time to do tasks and actually DOING THEM AND GETTING THEM DONE in that time, etc. Interesting. Oh, and no Crack News---CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc. Garbage. If something really big happens, someone will email (and I'll get it at 3pm and the walls won't come a-crumblin' down) or call. It takes a village, afterall....
AND, my brain is ON FIRE lately, and I think it just took that little nudge of confidence, perspective and, of course, a deadline to get it to where it should be. Focused. Not cluttered. Or, at least not as much as before.
So, I took care of some business stuffystuff already, said I wanted to post on M(MotT) today, and hit the library by 11am (if any of you care to join me in the ol' Grosvenor Room and search old newspaper reels from the 1870s...mmmm.......tempting, yes?). I know what I want to find today, will be home by 3pm and ready for the second half of my day. Baby steps. On a clear path, though.
Any more distraction tips are always welcome!
Since then, I've been feeling good about my writing and researching progress, and have been scrutinizing my days, what I "do" in them, and how to clear the clutter. In these 10 days, several things have crossed my path that make this notion of "streamlining" very do-able.
To help spur the above conversation along, my adWiser posed, "For example, I know you love your life in Buffalo and are very busy, but have you had conversations with the people close to you about how your time is going to more focused on YOU for the next three months, and that there may be times you are "unavailable" for various things?" Ummmm, no. So I did that. And it went over well (still have some more people to talk to, but I'm getting there) and everyone so far understands the urgency of my own timeline, what it means to me, what it means to them in the long run and the implications for the short run. "It's OK to say 'no' to things sometimes," said my adWiser. She is right.
Then, Monday, in a moment of downtime and cleaning the house during the 15 minutes I had before my son's bus came roaring down the street, I was sorting through magazines and newspapers and assorted whatnot that had accumulated on my front room table. I found a Rolling Stone magazine with Stephen Colbert on the cover from a few weeks back, and realized I HADN'T READ IT! I asked myself, "What the hell have I been doing that I can't even read my fave mag?" So, I finished my task, still had 7 minutes, and buzzed through the article on him. Interesting guy, but anyway, the way that he approaches his "work" and "life" is that he thinks of two things and two things only: work and joy. If what he's doing doesn't have both, he doesn't do it. And I realized that even as arduous as this Dissertation is, it does--for me, but I'm crazy--fit under both work and joy. Using that model, I've eliminated even more distractions.
THEN, yesterday, after leaving the downtown library, I gave myself 30 minutes to run errands. I loathe running errands. Traffic, in and out of the car, delays, money spent (usually), etc. But, my printer was out of ink (bad), my winter comforter still sat at the dry cleaners from 3 weeks ago (weather's turnin'...need that bad boy) and I had no lettuce for dinner. 30 minutes. Right....my last stop was Office Depot, where at that time of day, should have been empty. I refill my cartridges which saves me money (and is "green") but adds about 5 minutes while they do it. Not today, however. I backlog of printer cartridges sat waiting in a long line before mine. Sheesh. So, I wandered the store pondering the research I just did at the library and browsing things that I neither needed nor could afford. These things happen.
On a shelf near the front sat a book that I have heard of, been interested but never purchased: Tim Ferriss's The Four Hour Workweek. This title appeals to my sense of "work" in that I want ALL of the things I do to be productive yet joyful without losing my soul to someone else's dream. I plunked down in a random on-sale office chair (at least I was in the right place) and started to browse the text while watching and waiting for my little black ink cartridge to make its way to the front of the line.
On page 68, Ferriss says (if you don't know him, give him a glance. His blog is in my favorites here),"Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important." BINGO. More distractions gone.
I don't want to fully admit that I have been inefficient, but I did waste a wholelotta whoo-ha this summer making unimportant things very important, and musing over stupid crap that has nothing to do with my life whatsoever (usually some sort of celebrity-related B.S. or news story, gossip, etc.).
Clearing some distractions has been easier than others. Turning off my email until I am "done" for the day was harder than I thought---what is something "big" happened that I need to know about (it never has, why would I think it would?)? What if someone has something urgent to tell me (that's what phones are for)? How to feel connected to the world while sitting in The Chair writing (make better use of free time and hang with friends instead of dealing with them digitally)? and the excuses go on and on. My world will not end if I don't get my 29 messages of goofiness until 3pm each day, yes? And those "waiting" for my answer (they probably aren't) will get it. After 3pm.
Grocery shopping in bulk at undesirable hours (8:30am) as opposed to convenient (3pm) to avoid a busy store, not cleaning the house until I can do it in a full 15-minute swoop, planning time to do tasks and actually DOING THEM AND GETTING THEM DONE in that time, etc. Interesting. Oh, and no Crack News---CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc. Garbage. If something really big happens, someone will email (and I'll get it at 3pm and the walls won't come a-crumblin' down) or call. It takes a village, afterall....
AND, my brain is ON FIRE lately, and I think it just took that little nudge of confidence, perspective and, of course, a deadline to get it to where it should be. Focused. Not cluttered. Or, at least not as much as before.
So, I took care of some business stuffystuff already, said I wanted to post on M(MotT) today, and hit the library by 11am (if any of you care to join me in the ol' Grosvenor Room and search old newspaper reels from the 1870s...mmmm.......tempting, yes?). I know what I want to find today, will be home by 3pm and ready for the second half of my day. Baby steps. On a clear path, though.
Any more distraction tips are always welcome!
Friday, October 2, 2009
"...It's the final countdown..."
You know I love quoting music lyrics--even in my daily conversations with people--and the above snippet from 80s hair-metal band, Europe, fits my motivations for the next few months. As silly as that song was/is, with the quirky synth line and hairspray and spandex, I find that most people know that song. It refuses to die, and the lead lyric (above) is more fun sung than spoken every time. AND, the song found a new life in the short-lived TV series "Arrested Development," (the best TV ever, for real) as the background music for Gob's ill-fated magic shows. I'm giggling as I think about it. May have to pull out those DVDs later.
Ok, so I'm digressing already. Coffee's kicking in.
Anyway, my trip to Wisconsin over the weekend was exactly what I needed to feel the push and urgency of this Diss project...the never-ending Diss....until NOW. Holy canoli do I have a lot of work to do, but I soaked up some academic ju-ju by meeting with old friends, wandering about the beautiful campus, working in the Wisconsin Historical Society (which has A LOT of interesting Buffalo materials that our fine archives here in The Buff do not possess) and discussing a reasonable plan of final deadlines with my adWiser. She is a realistic person, and told me straight that this is a big, huge, weighty amount of work that I've proposed for myself. But, those of you that know me understand how wonderfully I work with deadlines, so GAME ON.
What I enjoyed most about the weekend, besides seeing some of my old buddies, was being able to finally articulate my project to those that asked about it, and feeling that I have a handle on it. I've been working on this thing for freakin' ever it seems (ok, this is the third year, which is a reasonable amount of time for diss work for a crazybusy person like myself) and I see that its presence and subsequent completion marks a concrete "end," but is really only the beginning. What lies beyond the Diss defense (so far scheduled for May...fingers crossed) is an expanse of possibilities that is probably the MAIN factor behind my renewed optimism and motivation. This project sits on my shoulders like a colossal albatross, squashing the potential to engage in other projects (or money-making efforts) and blocking the view toward the horizon. Time to unwrap it and lift the weight. Heave-ho.
I will probably start using this blog to write about non-Diss stuff as a way to get the brain flowing before whatever is on deck for the day. I've been whining and bemoaning this thing too often here, but.....these things happen. Thanks for hanging in there. I teach interesting classes at my college gig, and they often spawn more questions for me than those that I pose to my students. Which is a good thing. I find cultural events often puzzling, surprising and exhilarating. This forum may be where I ponder them, hit "publish post" and move on. Small nuggets of musicological whoo-ha. Hope you are ready.
I am!
Ok, so I'm digressing already. Coffee's kicking in.
Anyway, my trip to Wisconsin over the weekend was exactly what I needed to feel the push and urgency of this Diss project...the never-ending Diss....until NOW. Holy canoli do I have a lot of work to do, but I soaked up some academic ju-ju by meeting with old friends, wandering about the beautiful campus, working in the Wisconsin Historical Society (which has A LOT of interesting Buffalo materials that our fine archives here in The Buff do not possess) and discussing a reasonable plan of final deadlines with my adWiser. She is a realistic person, and told me straight that this is a big, huge, weighty amount of work that I've proposed for myself. But, those of you that know me understand how wonderfully I work with deadlines, so GAME ON.
What I enjoyed most about the weekend, besides seeing some of my old buddies, was being able to finally articulate my project to those that asked about it, and feeling that I have a handle on it. I've been working on this thing for freakin' ever it seems (ok, this is the third year, which is a reasonable amount of time for diss work for a crazybusy person like myself) and I see that its presence and subsequent completion marks a concrete "end," but is really only the beginning. What lies beyond the Diss defense (so far scheduled for May...fingers crossed) is an expanse of possibilities that is probably the MAIN factor behind my renewed optimism and motivation. This project sits on my shoulders like a colossal albatross, squashing the potential to engage in other projects (or money-making efforts) and blocking the view toward the horizon. Time to unwrap it and lift the weight. Heave-ho.
I will probably start using this blog to write about non-Diss stuff as a way to get the brain flowing before whatever is on deck for the day. I've been whining and bemoaning this thing too often here, but.....these things happen. Thanks for hanging in there. I teach interesting classes at my college gig, and they often spawn more questions for me than those that I pose to my students. Which is a good thing. I find cultural events often puzzling, surprising and exhilarating. This forum may be where I ponder them, hit "publish post" and move on. Small nuggets of musicological whoo-ha. Hope you are ready.
I am!
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