military metaphors...
Welp, the 'battles' and whatnot for the g8 are over for now. have you
ever noticed that military metaphors are ubiquitous? likewise spatial
metaphors. *shrug* no comment here, just noticing.
So there's a big space crisis (ooooh, both metaphors!) at the office just now. 30 new postgrad and 10-20 new staff. and we really don't have the room here at my building. some nasty rumours have circulated so i've taken it upon me to organise the postgrads. i'm the postgrad rep for the college of humanities and social science, which is mostly a waste of time but every now and then it helps when somebody has to claim a leadership role.
office politics is what it ultimately is. i'm doing my best to offer my ideas and then represent the collective view. some people strongly disagree with my views, some agree with me, but most push towards the middle. so i'm doing my best there.
i'm not gonna detail the problem. but simply: some feel that we should wait on new facts and not actually SAY anything to the administration, I feel we shoudl be proactive and make it clear we won't stand for the admin. taking away our necessary resources (e.g., our own desks). but most everyone feels a middle ground is best.
alot of people are afraid that we'll piss somebody important off. i'm less bothered. academics aren't nearly as important as they think they are. they way i see it is that you can hate me all you want as long as you give me a desk and a computer. and as long as we stand together, what are they gonna say? 'i hate ALL of the pgs?'
heh. no.
the people who wanna sit back and wait for their supervisors to fight this battle are the people who have really active supes and therefore are gonna get taken care of. but what about the people whose supes are on holday or are less active in politics? not fair to them.
so that's been fun.
i'm generally reluctant to lead. i've always been told i'm a leader by teachers. but as awful as this sounds, i don't like the responsibility. seems like lots of the times we can only 'do our best'...and i don't like 'doing my best' when other people's fates are in the balance. not like i can just save and reload. and what do you do when you're leading leaders? *shrug*
other than that, things are good. probably working tomorrow too. dunno tho, kinda want a proper day off. but i've got lots to do with this dilemma and my own work. we'll see.
this morning was good. did some cleaning, baked some bread (no eggs tho, yikes!) and went to lift some weights. XD
my washing machine leaks like a sieve now, which is annoying. guess a hose broke. time will tell if the landlord tries to make us pay for the repairs, but i'm mustering good arguments for why i wont :)
so this morning i had to wash clothes by hand and then just use the spin cycle. so that was fun. my forearms are sore. but that's not from washing clothes....
tasha is away til monday. she's been gone since wednesday. now that i think about it, it's not been bad. had a comedy night and beans on toast (you gotta try it summer!) last night, thursday was in, wednesday was in with cardio kickboxing. if long distance relationships are like, i think i coudl handle it after all!
summer, when you show up permanently, we'll get you into all of the scottish/english foods you've not done yet. proper haggis, chips and cheese, deep fried mars bars, etc.
anyway, yeah, so tasha's been goen so i've had a good bit of time to myself.
was thinking about this whole rant thing. i'm more concerned about wether or not i'm becoming a ranty kind of person or whether it's just this specific medium. that's the rub. am i becoming a pontificator? i dunno.
i think part of me has developed such that i equate people sharing my views on things with loving me. so perhaps part of me expects close friends and lovers to see things in the same way i do. hence the occasional probs with tasha. and hence the rants.
there may be some truth to that: if you love somebody, you'll take their viewpoints seriously. but share them?
so if someone close to me doesn't share my viewpoint, have I failed to convince them sufficiently? do they care about me less because our opinions diverge? Does a lack of common ground on an issue betray a more important fundamental difference? are my thoughts not worthy of serious consideration? is there not enough love to warrant identification with some part of me?
again, there's some truth here. if you love someone and spend lots of time with 'em, you ought to become more similar on things. but which things?
or maybe when i invest in a person emotionally i expect to not be opinion-ally challenged in my time with him or her. behaviour is one thing, but one's thoughts/beliefs?
hrmmm, some of my reactions here are quite childish. interesting.
battlefield 2 should arrive in a few days. nice. i'm pretty 1337 at that game, but prolly cos everyone on the demo servers are n00bs. i usually take top 5 ranks. but i play medics and don't always go for caps. healing and defending points baby! and nothing is more satisfying than shooting down a chinooks with the land-mounted stingers. hope it's worth the 28 pounds.
the department is strangely peaceful on a weekend. it loses the stressful edge of a hundred people scrabbling for grant money, prestige, academic clout, and job security. the taint of hundreds incrementally losing their souls to the allure of academic standing. There is a real stress to academics but I'd venture that it's not a work-related stress. It's a personal stress: are you smart enough?
It's nice to not have to worry about it.
So there's a big space crisis (ooooh, both metaphors!) at the office just now. 30 new postgrad and 10-20 new staff. and we really don't have the room here at my building. some nasty rumours have circulated so i've taken it upon me to organise the postgrads. i'm the postgrad rep for the college of humanities and social science, which is mostly a waste of time but every now and then it helps when somebody has to claim a leadership role.
office politics is what it ultimately is. i'm doing my best to offer my ideas and then represent the collective view. some people strongly disagree with my views, some agree with me, but most push towards the middle. so i'm doing my best there.
i'm not gonna detail the problem. but simply: some feel that we should wait on new facts and not actually SAY anything to the administration, I feel we shoudl be proactive and make it clear we won't stand for the admin. taking away our necessary resources (e.g., our own desks). but most everyone feels a middle ground is best.
alot of people are afraid that we'll piss somebody important off. i'm less bothered. academics aren't nearly as important as they think they are. they way i see it is that you can hate me all you want as long as you give me a desk and a computer. and as long as we stand together, what are they gonna say? 'i hate ALL of the pgs?'
heh. no.
the people who wanna sit back and wait for their supervisors to fight this battle are the people who have really active supes and therefore are gonna get taken care of. but what about the people whose supes are on holday or are less active in politics? not fair to them.
so that's been fun.
i'm generally reluctant to lead. i've always been told i'm a leader by teachers. but as awful as this sounds, i don't like the responsibility. seems like lots of the times we can only 'do our best'...and i don't like 'doing my best' when other people's fates are in the balance. not like i can just save and reload. and what do you do when you're leading leaders? *shrug*
other than that, things are good. probably working tomorrow too. dunno tho, kinda want a proper day off. but i've got lots to do with this dilemma and my own work. we'll see.
this morning was good. did some cleaning, baked some bread (no eggs tho, yikes!) and went to lift some weights. XD
my washing machine leaks like a sieve now, which is annoying. guess a hose broke. time will tell if the landlord tries to make us pay for the repairs, but i'm mustering good arguments for why i wont :)
so this morning i had to wash clothes by hand and then just use the spin cycle. so that was fun. my forearms are sore. but that's not from washing clothes....
tasha is away til monday. she's been gone since wednesday. now that i think about it, it's not been bad. had a comedy night and beans on toast (you gotta try it summer!) last night, thursday was in, wednesday was in with cardio kickboxing. if long distance relationships are like, i think i coudl handle it after all!
summer, when you show up permanently, we'll get you into all of the scottish/english foods you've not done yet. proper haggis, chips and cheese, deep fried mars bars, etc.
anyway, yeah, so tasha's been goen so i've had a good bit of time to myself.
was thinking about this whole rant thing. i'm more concerned about wether or not i'm becoming a ranty kind of person or whether it's just this specific medium. that's the rub. am i becoming a pontificator? i dunno.
i think part of me has developed such that i equate people sharing my views on things with loving me. so perhaps part of me expects close friends and lovers to see things in the same way i do. hence the occasional probs with tasha. and hence the rants.
there may be some truth to that: if you love somebody, you'll take their viewpoints seriously. but share them?
so if someone close to me doesn't share my viewpoint, have I failed to convince them sufficiently? do they care about me less because our opinions diverge? Does a lack of common ground on an issue betray a more important fundamental difference? are my thoughts not worthy of serious consideration? is there not enough love to warrant identification with some part of me?
again, there's some truth here. if you love someone and spend lots of time with 'em, you ought to become more similar on things. but which things?
or maybe when i invest in a person emotionally i expect to not be opinion-ally challenged in my time with him or her. behaviour is one thing, but one's thoughts/beliefs?
hrmmm, some of my reactions here are quite childish. interesting.
battlefield 2 should arrive in a few days. nice. i'm pretty 1337 at that game, but prolly cos everyone on the demo servers are n00bs. i usually take top 5 ranks. but i play medics and don't always go for caps. healing and defending points baby! and nothing is more satisfying than shooting down a chinooks with the land-mounted stingers. hope it's worth the 28 pounds.
the department is strangely peaceful on a weekend. it loses the stressful edge of a hundred people scrabbling for grant money, prestige, academic clout, and job security. the taint of hundreds incrementally losing their souls to the allure of academic standing. There is a real stress to academics but I'd venture that it's not a work-related stress. It's a personal stress: are you smart enough?
It's nice to not have to worry about it.