I’ve got a big meeting today with my dissertation committee. Can you keep your fingers crossed for me and send me some good calm energy?
Thanks! :)
school
This past few weeks I’ve been steadily working on all kinds of projects. But I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels and not really getting anything done. So to prove to myself that I have been working hard, here’s my grant/fellowship tally (my 12/19 tally):
HU done 12/15
WH done 1/2
SC in progress–due 1/14
PF done 1/7
MH decided to wait until next year to apply
I’ve also nearly finished the rough draft of my dissertation prospectus (due tomorrow). So I haven’t been a slacker. And I am getting things done. I just have to keep telling myself that…
On a completely unrelated note: We had our bathroom light fixture fixed today. So no more fumbling with the odd lamp in the darkness (yay!). We also replaced the burnt-out bulbs in the fixtures above the sinks. What was a dark cave is now LIGHT. Light is good. Really. Happy light.
Episode 3 is posted, in which Prof Jeff Wasserstrom makes a strong case for why we should all be caring about China (and reading his latest book). It’s good stuff, people–not that I am at all biased in the matter….
So take a moment to tune in.
Oh, and for my next podcast I’ll be interviewing Pulitzer-prize winner Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Stay Tuned!
People:
This is one of the most evocative paragraphs ever to cross my desk (note: yes, it is from a university undergrad student in a class I taught quite some time ago). The topic of the essay: racial inequity.
We show each other as different in order to show them that they are somebody meant to be in society?…We are making separations and distinctions when we should be showing that we are all squish meat only governed under heartless elitism like a meritocracy should be. In short, we are contributing to the problem in the sense that we are trying to solve race relations by making race. We group people together and they duke it out as what we made them, of different races. To help close this issue before I get carried away, we may have to deal with the fact that ill race relations forever. We make race, we distinguish by race. We all know race and shoot ourselves in the foot.
Even now, our family often laments that we are all just ‘squish meat’ duking it out in our heartlessly meritocratic society…
On Christmas Eve, I posted the latest installment (part 2 of episode 2) of Making History Podcast (a gift for me!).
If you’re interested, this particular episode has a great Q&A with historian Martha Hodes.
I posted another episode of my Making History Podcast earlier today. This was really a fun one to record–Martha Hodes, author of The Sea Captain’s Wife, is one of my biggest historian-heroes.
Take a listen and let me know what you think! :)
On Monday evening I strained my shoulder, neck and back. So badly that I can’t move much at all without pain (and sleep, sleep where art thou?). It is a good thing that one of the few positions that I feel comfortable in is sitting on the couch at my computer. Because I am now the queen of writing grant/fellowship proposals.
Current count:
HU done–due 12/15 (confirmed arrival this morning after the application was LOST IN THE MAIL for two days)
WH in progress–due 1/2
SC in progress–due ASAP
PF in progress-due 1/10
MH in progress–due 1/15
Christmas will happen. But it may be a bit sparse and unfancy this year (IOW, those cards, if they are to arrive, they will be New Year’s cards). I’m glad to know that Friends will fill in the gaps as needed on both Christmas Eve and Day!
On a happier note: I now have a prescription for muscle relaxants. And if you want to see something funny you should see me trying to walk around our apartment all relaxed like that. One might think that I’d had a bit too much brandied hard sauce on my bread pudding (if you know what mean). And can I say how supremely frustrating it is to have to repeat my words like 3 or 4 times before I can be understood?
And people, I say that the smell of Ben-Gay is pretty festive this time of year. I’m now marinating in the stuff–oozing minty menthol goodness from each pore. Yum.
H/T for photo above of Trinity Library
This past week I’ve spent a bunch of time at the Huntington Library. I’ll be back again next week (and the week after that and the week after that….)
If I’m lucky, I’ll be garnering a Fellowship so I can research there nearly full-time. But even without the Fellowship I’ll certainly be there on a regular basis.
I’ve learned a few things in the past week:
1) The library’s cataloging system is only so-so. Key words and search terms are often nonsensical/illogical.
2) The old paper card catalog has items not listed in the online catalog.
3) Many of the items don’t appear to be listed anywhere at all–not on the computers and not on the bitty little cards in the drawers (which drawers, I still don’t seem to be able to pull out of the cabinet properly, so doing the research is a bit painful as I contort myself to see the cards)
4) The trick to knowing what’s in the library is to talk to the curators. They know all.
5) The other trick is to ask lots of questions and request items that may not even exist (e.g. “A finding aid for that collection?…No, there doesn’t appear to be one…”)
Even with all of the confusions and run-arounds of this week’s work at the H, I’m just loving it. Really. I am so very lucky to be close enough to such a place for my research. And it is a beautiful space to spend one’s days….
(IOW, people, more flower pictures from the grounds will be forthcoming…I’m hoping to step foot outside of the inner-sanctum on at least one of my visits next week!)
Today I have been investing my time in “professional activities.” Because I suspect there’s very little chance that I’ll get a job as a professional blogger, I’ve been trying my hand at a few projects that’ll look good on my CV (in other words, taking flower photos and writing sweater poetry does not equal career success).
So I’ve started a podcast about History. You can find my first episode here, and it will be listed on iTunes shortly (under the title of “Making History” podcast). You might also be interested in taking a look at the blog affiliated with my new podcast. It’s pretty dry and professional stuff. But that’s life, right? :)
That said, I’ll bet you didn’t know this:
1) Did you know that there’s an Italian proverb, quoted by Montaigne, that says, “He knowes not the perfect pleasure of Venus that hath not layne with a limping woman”? Essentially it’s saying that women who limp, they’re better in bed. Just thought you might want to know that.
2) Betcha’ didn’t know that I just spent about two hours sitting in my cozy purple chair recording my podcast and then editing out most of my ‘ummms’ and then uploading everything. When I stood up I realized that the whole time I’d been sitting on a very lovely bar of certified organic 73% Super Dark chocolate. Thanks to my butt, it is now a very lovely certified organic 73% Super Dark chocolate soup.
Yum :)