Miscellaneous Musings
I was going to start off with a sarcastic remark about Ian Thorpe's continued presence on the front page, but any capacity I might have for fairly reasoned sporting analysis has been swept away by the look on the face of the Australian swimmer who broke the world record in the 100m freestyle for women. Basically unknown (except to sporting tragics like myself), Lisbeth Lenton came out of nowhere and took a chunk out of Inge de Bruin's record in the semi-final of the Olympic trials. (She hasn't actually made the team yet!) I don't think I've seen such a look of utter disbelief before. She was practically in tears at the press conference. And there was a lovely moment after the race when two Australian women who've also held the record (Shane Gould, 23 years ago, and Dawn Fraser) came up and congratulated her.
I think my inner cynic's gone to sleep.
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I've had the day where you run around frantically doing things, yet seem to achieve very little. At least I've got through a few more of my ILL books, though the Copyright Act's taken something of a beating. (I've got over a dozen books and less than two weeks. I can't take that many notes that fast. I'm hoping "arm about to fall off", "humanly impossible to spend more time in front of the computer" and "definitely for private use - no-one else in the house speaks the language" count as fair dealings.)
Uni Blues
Despite the above, I still want to do a PhD and move into academia. Oh dear.
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NB: I'm as furious as anyone about the way the Federal Government is butchering higher education funding. However, I do not like getting involved in full scale riots. The protests themselves are a good idea, but the message is getting lost in the mayhem. Surely it's possible to challenge the system without throwing furniture and storming buildings. I'd like to think that reasoned dialogue, sheer numbers and public awareness of the injustice of the legislation work better than marches and rallies that lead to capsicum spray, arrests, and publicity highlighting the violence and ignores the cause. Or am I being hopelessly naive?
I think my inner cynic's gone to sleep.
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I've had the day where you run around frantically doing things, yet seem to achieve very little. At least I've got through a few more of my ILL books, though the Copyright Act's taken something of a beating. (I've got over a dozen books and less than two weeks. I can't take that many notes that fast. I'm hoping "arm about to fall off", "humanly impossible to spend more time in front of the computer" and "definitely for private use - no-one else in the house speaks the language" count as fair dealings.)
Uni Blues
- I'd like to offer my most heartfelt thanks to everyone who's translated some of Theodor Adorno's work. The English is still a very tough read, but it's less painful than hacking through the German.
- How can there be honours students working on non-Australian topics who don't know how to get inter-library loans?
- There must be hope for my own writing if someone describing the German public's interest in Daniel Goldhagen's work as a form of sado-masochism can get published.
- It's a good idea to check your diary before suggesting a deadline for a draft chapter - I've just inadvertently committed myself to a frantic weekend of typing over Easter.
- Why is the FAZ's monthly limit for subscriber downloads from the archives only half of what I need? And of course, the rest are going to have to come out of my own pocket. I can hear my credit card groaning already.
- To prove that I have no life, I found the fact that two key authors in a study of the Wehrmacht's role in WW2 are named Streit and Messerschmidt extremely amusing.
- It's a good idea to double-check that you've got all your books before you depart the ninth floor for the loan desk - it's a long way back up for the forgotten essay collection.
- A belief in the man's innocence is one thing - the relegation of all the information about Herbert von Karajan's membership of the Nazi party to the appendix of a supposedly complete biography is taking things a little too far.
- Furtwängler is wretched to type when you can't get umlauts to work on the university computers.
- At least I'm not the only one who's had their grammar incorrectly corrected in a recent draft.
- Research is really bad for the environment, even if you photocopy on both sides of the page and recycle everything possible.
- "Turn your mobile phone off in the library" is apparently a secret Martian code for "let's chat about our sex life while others are trying to read."
- Casual lecturers in my department are treated really, really, really badly.
Despite the above, I still want to do a PhD and move into academia. Oh dear.
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NB: I'm as furious as anyone about the way the Federal Government is butchering higher education funding. However, I do not like getting involved in full scale riots. The protests themselves are a good idea, but the message is getting lost in the mayhem. Surely it's possible to challenge the system without throwing furniture and storming buildings. I'd like to think that reasoned dialogue, sheer numbers and public awareness of the injustice of the legislation work better than marches and rallies that lead to capsicum spray, arrests, and publicity highlighting the violence and ignores the cause. Or am I being hopelessly naive?