Saturday, November 24, 2007
thanksgiving break
I consider it to be over and must now get back to work. Thus the blogging. Ha!
At my job-for-money, we had the week "off" because our primary client did as well and also because 2/3 of our company was in SoCal at a soccer tournament. The upside of the time "off" was that I could spend quality time in the library on MTW, but the downside of the time "off" was that now that I'm a contractor and not an employee, I don't get paid for not-working. Hmm. Oh well. Beggars and choosers and all that. I certainly hope the house sells soon so I can stop freaking dwelling on this/working. I'm sure my friends do as well.
Anyway, so I spent some quality time with microfilm. At one point I wondered just how much it would cost to own a 57-reel set of microfilm all for my very own, because I will be using it for the rest of my scholarly life (or at least until I have some sort of crisis later in life and switch subjects), but then I thought that might be a little too extravagant and besides, ILL works just fine (this time, hearty thanks to the University of Arizona library for sharing!).
Spending so much time with microfilm proved quite fruitful. I admit to letting out excited squeals of joy when I came across letters that I knew existed and knew said what I "needed" them to say, despite the fact they hadn't been reprinted or discussed in other scholarly work. Who says you can't use the Force in research? Not I! I'm a big fan of going with one's gut/the Force. Until it screws me over, of course. So there's one paper that's sort of cruising right along. Parts of it have been workshopped and those parts have received good reactions from fellow students I respect, as well as the prof. So yay on that. If anyone wants to know what I'm working on, I'll tell you. I just don't want to vomit it up on my blog and be all boring blah blah. But it involves Yosemite the park, The Yosemite (the book), and the Century circa 1890/91. And other stuff. French people.
I will spend some time this morning getting together sort of less-important bits and pieces of work, and then spend the rest of the day and all of tomorrow working on another paper. It is also chugging along, but I have to present a 10-minute summary of what I'm working on, on Tuesday, so it should probably be less floaty-idea-and-citations-in-Julie's-head and more concrete/on paper.
On the personal front, I spent some time with a school chum and her lovely husband, and I declare them to be good folk. Funny thing, said school chum was all "hey, you read profgrrrrl! I've read her blog for years!" and I was all, "dude, we're sushi buddies." Which reminds me: profgrrrrl, don't you need to visit the Pacific Northwest sometime soon? I think you do.
On the other personal front, what would Thanksgiving be without the traditional fighting? Yeah, I got me some of that, too. That was not fun.
On the other other personal front, my dad had his surgery and should be home today, I think. Or yesterday. I'm a crappy daughter, I know. But at least I called on Thanksgiving! He had his L1-L2-L3 vertebrae fused, a rod put in somewhere, and some disc replacements, and blah blah. In other words, his back has been thrashed for years and this is the first step in fixing it up. When I talked to him he was loopy on pain medicine (as you would be) and he said "you had your knee done, right? how did you feel afterwards?" Now, considering that an ACL replacement is not nearly as invasive, lengthy, or all-encompassing as his surgery, I said "I wanted to shoot myself in the head for three days" (which was true, I did) and followed that up with "and so you're supposed to feel like crap for some time because you had a hell of a lot more done!" I hope he doesn't try to push himself too hard. That would indeed be a family trait.
At my job-for-money, we had the week "off" because our primary client did as well and also because 2/3 of our company was in SoCal at a soccer tournament. The upside of the time "off" was that I could spend quality time in the library on MTW, but the downside of the time "off" was that now that I'm a contractor and not an employee, I don't get paid for not-working. Hmm. Oh well. Beggars and choosers and all that. I certainly hope the house sells soon so I can stop freaking dwelling on this/working. I'm sure my friends do as well.
Anyway, so I spent some quality time with microfilm. At one point I wondered just how much it would cost to own a 57-reel set of microfilm all for my very own, because I will be using it for the rest of my scholarly life (or at least until I have some sort of crisis later in life and switch subjects), but then I thought that might be a little too extravagant and besides, ILL works just fine (this time, hearty thanks to the University of Arizona library for sharing!).
Spending so much time with microfilm proved quite fruitful. I admit to letting out excited squeals of joy when I came across letters that I knew existed and knew said what I "needed" them to say, despite the fact they hadn't been reprinted or discussed in other scholarly work. Who says you can't use the Force in research? Not I! I'm a big fan of going with one's gut/the Force. Until it screws me over, of course. So there's one paper that's sort of cruising right along. Parts of it have been workshopped and those parts have received good reactions from fellow students I respect, as well as the prof. So yay on that. If anyone wants to know what I'm working on, I'll tell you. I just don't want to vomit it up on my blog and be all boring blah blah. But it involves Yosemite the park, The Yosemite (the book), and the Century circa 1890/91. And other stuff. French people.
I will spend some time this morning getting together sort of less-important bits and pieces of work, and then spend the rest of the day and all of tomorrow working on another paper. It is also chugging along, but I have to present a 10-minute summary of what I'm working on, on Tuesday, so it should probably be less floaty-idea-and-citations-in-Julie's-head and more concrete/on paper.
On the personal front, I spent some time with a school chum and her lovely husband, and I declare them to be good folk. Funny thing, said school chum was all "hey, you read profgrrrrl! I've read her blog for years!" and I was all, "dude, we're sushi buddies." Which reminds me: profgrrrrl, don't you need to visit the Pacific Northwest sometime soon? I think you do.
On the other personal front, what would Thanksgiving be without the traditional fighting? Yeah, I got me some of that, too. That was not fun.
On the other other personal front, my dad had his surgery and should be home today, I think. Or yesterday. I'm a crappy daughter, I know. But at least I called on Thanksgiving! He had his L1-L2-L3 vertebrae fused, a rod put in somewhere, and some disc replacements, and blah blah. In other words, his back has been thrashed for years and this is the first step in fixing it up. When I talked to him he was loopy on pain medicine (as you would be) and he said "you had your knee done, right? how did you feel afterwards?" Now, considering that an ACL replacement is not nearly as invasive, lengthy, or all-encompassing as his surgery, I said "I wanted to shoot myself in the head for three days" (which was true, I did) and followed that up with "and so you're supposed to feel like crap for some time because you had a hell of a lot more done!" I hope he doesn't try to push himself too hard. That would indeed be a family trait.
Labels: grad school, misc life