The Summer of Very Little Blogging, Cont.
I must be at an all-time record for lack of posts anywhere online recently. I'm usually quite more active than this, but it's summer, so we'll chalk it up to that.
It's been a week and a half now of my working-from-home only stuff. Not much has changed, except that, for the first time all summer (well, since May 12), I don't *have* to be anywhere to fulfill work hours (even if it was anywhere from 2 days a week to a full 5). Granted, this is what would have been my DREAM scenario two months ago, but now I think I'm just freaked out that it's already mid-July.
Is it, really? REALLY? Because I swear just yesterday I was grading papers and bemoaning how long the summer would be. Now it's just a teensy too short, but that's probably good for me.
Last week, I established a routine that goes something like this:
6:15 to 6:45 a.m.: Stumble out of bed and take dog for a walk.
6:45 a.m. to 7:15 a.m.: Upon return from walk, ensure husband is getting ready for work (or has left). Feed dog.
7:15 to 7:30ish: pour a bowl of cereal/milk, grab a spoon, and herd dog outside so I can eat breakfast on the porch swing, where it's blissfully quiet.
After Breakfast: Grab black notebook, pen, and one of my dissertation-related books (subject-related, not the general "how to write a dissertation" books, although I've scored some of those from the library). Spend at least 30 minutes freewriting, making notes on, reading, or otherwise brainstormingdissertation topic.
Proceed to feel quite accomplished.
After Dissertation Time: Grab one of the many, many books off the shelf and read it. This usually takes anywhere from an hour to 2 hours. When the book is done, I make my notecard about it (argument/themes - I keep it pretty short), then I check it off my list and modify my Google Chat status to reflect it.
CURRENT BOOKS LEFT TO READ STATUS: 48. Yes! (Down from 115, plus 6 articles, as of March/April. The articles have been read, btw.)
Then I move on to whatever seems most pertinent to do. Today, I'm on campus for a meeting about my summer digital project thingy. I came to campus early so I could do some work for the project - and I did (read: look for potential funding sources). And then I remembered: we're meeting today, in part, to assess where to go next. At least, that's MY take on the event.
And frankly, there ARE NOT going to be that many funding sources out there. The funding source identification process is probably the easy part, anyway: it's drafting a proposal that's going to be the hard part.
So here I am.
Aside from my immense satisfaction at being so productive lately - particularly with my dissertation prep - I'm eagerly awaiting the Harry Potter release on Friday. I've seen the fifth movie TWICE now (and I highly recommend it; it's perhaps my favorite) and I'm rereading all six of the books.
(With that said, let me note that you will NOT find spoilers here, nor should you post them in comments. I have too much respect for my fellow fans.)
At any rate, the summer seems to be going nicely. It's going to disappear before I know it; in just a few weeks, I head east to an archive (just for 4-5 days), and then I'll have a couple of weeks before classes start. In between now and then, there's:
-continued dissertation work (goal: have proposal draft by mid-September at the latest)
-revise two papers (goal: get bulk of work done this summer and leave tweaks to the fall)
-continue reading (goal: have all but 15-20 done by end of the summer, which is very doable)
-clean my house (goal: do the stuff that always irks me: deep cleaning, filing, pantry and closets, etc.)
-finish off my work on this digital project (goal: whenever.)
-begin prepping for my BIG class this semester (goal: read and start drafting a major historiography paper my professor recommended. this will also be useful for my dissertation)
-somewhere in there, actually build up my university-based website and do some digital projects of my own (goal: eh, sometime before classes start...)
It's been a week and a half now of my working-from-home only stuff. Not much has changed, except that, for the first time all summer (well, since May 12), I don't *have* to be anywhere to fulfill work hours (even if it was anywhere from 2 days a week to a full 5). Granted, this is what would have been my DREAM scenario two months ago, but now I think I'm just freaked out that it's already mid-July.
Is it, really? REALLY? Because I swear just yesterday I was grading papers and bemoaning how long the summer would be. Now it's just a teensy too short, but that's probably good for me.
Last week, I established a routine that goes something like this:
6:15 to 6:45 a.m.: Stumble out of bed and take dog for a walk.
6:45 a.m. to 7:15 a.m.: Upon return from walk, ensure husband is getting ready for work (or has left). Feed dog.
7:15 to 7:30ish: pour a bowl of cereal/milk, grab a spoon, and herd dog outside so I can eat breakfast on the porch swing, where it's blissfully quiet.
After Breakfast: Grab black notebook, pen, and one of my dissertation-related books (subject-related, not the general "how to write a dissertation" books, although I've scored some of those from the library). Spend at least 30 minutes freewriting, making notes on, reading, or otherwise brainstormingdissertation topic.
Proceed to feel quite accomplished.
After Dissertation Time: Grab one of the many, many books off the shelf and read it. This usually takes anywhere from an hour to 2 hours. When the book is done, I make my notecard about it (argument/themes - I keep it pretty short), then I check it off my list and modify my Google Chat status to reflect it.
CURRENT BOOKS LEFT TO READ STATUS: 48. Yes! (Down from 115, plus 6 articles, as of March/April. The articles have been read, btw.)
Then I move on to whatever seems most pertinent to do. Today, I'm on campus for a meeting about my summer digital project thingy. I came to campus early so I could do some work for the project - and I did (read: look for potential funding sources). And then I remembered: we're meeting today, in part, to assess where to go next. At least, that's MY take on the event.
And frankly, there ARE NOT going to be that many funding sources out there. The funding source identification process is probably the easy part, anyway: it's drafting a proposal that's going to be the hard part.
So here I am.
Aside from my immense satisfaction at being so productive lately - particularly with my dissertation prep - I'm eagerly awaiting the Harry Potter release on Friday. I've seen the fifth movie TWICE now (and I highly recommend it; it's perhaps my favorite) and I'm rereading all six of the books.
(With that said, let me note that you will NOT find spoilers here, nor should you post them in comments. I have too much respect for my fellow fans.)
At any rate, the summer seems to be going nicely. It's going to disappear before I know it; in just a few weeks, I head east to an archive (just for 4-5 days), and then I'll have a couple of weeks before classes start. In between now and then, there's:
-continued dissertation work (goal: have proposal draft by mid-September at the latest)
-revise two papers (goal: get bulk of work done this summer and leave tweaks to the fall)
-continue reading (goal: have all but 15-20 done by end of the summer, which is very doable)
-clean my house (goal: do the stuff that always irks me: deep cleaning, filing, pantry and closets, etc.)
-finish off my work on this digital project (goal: whenever.)
-begin prepping for my BIG class this semester (goal: read and start drafting a major historiography paper my professor recommended. this will also be useful for my dissertation)
-somewhere in there, actually build up my university-based website and do some digital projects of my own (goal: eh, sometime before classes start...)