Quoth the Raven

People have been subtly hinting that I have neglected my journal for the past year. 'Tis true. With the submission of the PhD (I always love the vaguely authoritarian connotations of academic language - you 'submit' a PhD, you 'invigilate' an exam, you 'supervise' your students and 'report' on their progress) and moving interstate I have let the LJ slide. Well I seem to have gotten the writing bug back so am going to 'try' and keep this up to date again in the moments in which facebook is not monopolising my online presence.

So i'm on my last day of leave before returning to a few weeks of intensive orientation for our new international students. I took a few days leave to do the corrections to my PhD that I should have done months ago. They are nearly done. Hopefully my supervisor will just pass them on without suggesting I do more. I really don't want to have to muster up another bout of energy for what seems to me now an exhausted project. Maybe in a few years it will be interesting again but for now It's just old news.

So with Tomb Raider on the box and a packet of salt and vinegar chips to hand it's once more into the breach...

I am eating what a co-worker calls a "truck stop" vege burger. It is cheap, tasty, reasonably healthy and only takes a minute to appear after ordering. It is, quite possibly, the best food object ever. This morning I supervised a quantum mechanics exam, I spent over two hours in a freezing room vaguely anxious that they were going to open some kind of portal into an alternate universe. The building is also famous for its mutant fruit fly breeding program so all in all I'd walked straight into an episode of the X-Files. Now that's it all over I'm vaguely anxious that this IS the alternate universe, but I think that's a standard near-completion-of-PhD thing. I have just under an hour before the next exam starts. If it's on genetic engineering I'm walking straight out again.

Last night signalled the end of an era. My cat Monier, who had recently celebrated her 18th birthday in style (there was a party with many well-wishers, presents, prawns and cake), passed away yesterday evening. Her little kidneys eventually failed. It's sad of course but my parents and I are also somewhat relieved, since it was one of our greatest fears that she would wander off one day and just not return. This way everyone is at peace.

Naturally she spent her last few days making mischief. Mum and dad's house flooded on the weekend (some kind of washing machine malfunction) and pretty much the whole floor was under 3 inches of water. Instead of remaining outside like a sensible beastie, Monier proceeded to paddle through the house, stopping her kitty-paddle every so often to drink the water she was swimming in. Eventually, soaking wet, she went to sleep on a matress while the bewildered tradesmen were trying to shift it.

That's my girl. Sleep well kitty.

Just finished teaching my last class for the semester. I'm always nervous about them going off into exams, worrying if I have taught them enough but my main goal is to get them to actually expand their reading horizons and have a go at reading and thinking about things they may not normally. This is always something of a qualified success with students coming up to me and saying how the course/particular book really inspired them and others always whining that the texts are boring or hard to read. It takes all sorts, but I'm always happy to pass the book-love on to any and all who are willing! So now I'm locked to my thesis - druging through until the next semester when (God willing) I will be able to teach Great Books 2 and the writing subject again and finally submit my Phd!

Thesis is coming along. There seems so much to do, but considering what I've actually done in the past two months the end is nigh-ish. I need to make a list to calm my soul after meeting with the guru who always manages to encourage and stress me out at the same time:

Introduction - done

Theory Chapter
- add some stuff on late century progressive liberalism
- tidy up section on the connections between the occult and science
- make argument about binaries more clear

Literary History Chapter
- explain my theories of occult 'sites' (domestic, city, rural) why they're chosen and how they differ in relation to argument about progressivism and professionalism

Haunted Houses Chapter
- tidy up analysis of the three texts and link clearly to argument

Occult London Chapter
- flesh out
- clarify argument (include Hieroglyphics)
- explain category of the professioanl amateur

Evil Fairies chapter
- conncetions between my analysis and the anxiety theory
- Reconcile The Red Hand being in the rural category
- highlight notions of progressiveness

Occult Researchers chapter
- insert notion of the binaries and highlight argument

Psychic Doctors Chapter
- Tidy up and ensure argument about progress is clear

Conclusion
- all of it!

Ok, this is do-able. (yes I am talking to myself... hello pretty purple giraffe..)

maybe it's almost home time...

I have a migraine. I also have a 2 hour class on Conrad to teach at midday and a chapter on Machen's Evil Fairies to finish before 2:30. To survive this I need:

drugs
eye-drops
drugs
chocolate
drugs
another person in this shared office so I don't go to sleep
drugs
water
drugs
maybe coffee
drugs

It's 8am. Here goes.

Happy 28th birthday my Marquis!

You got a letter from the government today,
opened it, read it, said they were suckers
said they wanted you for the jury or whatever
picture you givin' a damn, you said... ok sure.

Well Tricky didn't exactly write his lyrics for Australian circumstances!

I'm most put out since I've always wanted to do jury duty and haven't been called yet. Figures. I'd love to fill in the form and put down my occupation as 'studies monsters', either that or 'literary psychic detective'. Gee I wonder why I never get called.....

I am taking a brief moment to breathe. This morning I gave 4 chapters of my thesis to the guru but I still have so much to do. I have been staying up late at night (well late for me - about 11pm) to get stuff done because with teaching and admin stuff the days get so messed up. Also I procrastinated on the weekend colouring my hair (now a vary dark browny black with stripey bits), watching movies and eating too much chocolate, so now have a major attack of thesis guilt. I think I now own shares in the company that makes 'V'. 'V' is my friend.

One of the most fun procrastination activities of the weekend was that the Marquis and I started brewing our own beer. We both wanted chemistry sets growing up and never got them so this is our chance, brew ha ha (bad pun, sorry, limited sleep.)The homebrew kit is an early birthday present for the Marquis. One of the most fun parts though was that we decided that we should try and get bottles to fill by drinking our way through a carton of tallies. We both got very silly. Much fun was had!

This weekend we are off to Bundaberg for a family friend's 60th but will be home in time for the public holiday that the nation has kindly scheduled for my birthday on Monday. I still have no idea what I want to do on Monday, but I think that eating chocolate and playing with the playstation (I recently got 3 new games!) will figure significantly. I am but a simple creature with simple pleasures.

Today is my last day at the Cow Campus this semester. I'm excited about getting Fridays back as a writing day; I need all the thesis time I can get! This morning's seminar on exam preparation was a bust. As my cleverly cynical cousin pointed out on the phone last night, running an exam prep class in April is just silly. The people who really need to start studying for their exams two months in advance are exactly the ones who would never turn up to an advance workshop. She was, of course, correct. One lone mature aged student arrived to take part, and she was pretty much on top of things, just the usual anxiety driven questions. Now my job is to help students and I am happy to do so, but as my boss and I discussed afterwards, in economic terms the whole procedure is illogical. I get paid for 8 hours per day once a week to come in, prepare seminars, deliver them and then take individual appointments in the afternoons. Since the attendance is so small, these students could easily be helped in the individual 20 minute sessions instead of preparing powerpoints, handouts etc for no-one. It is just a waste of resources. But, that's the education sector I guess.

Lunch consisted of cold potato gems. This campus used to have fantastic fresh food- now it is all pseudo-take-away. Ick. Oh and I had to pay 80cents for a plastic fork.

I really should go and finish my marking. As I write this my brain already begins to rebell. Must. Mark. Papers. Must... Must... look up pictures of ferrets on google....NO!!!! This is going to be a long day...

Today Miss Muppet gave me a muppet to post to France. It is possibly larger than the nursery which is its destination. My little nephew or neice is going to be waking up to a giant swedish man waving a squishy meat cleaver. On the other hand our contribution was a purple dinosaur and an offer of state-of-the-are baby bicycles so I'm not sure we are exactly 'helping' either! I am so excited though, this kid is going to be so spoiled. As an only child who probably won't have kids herself I am fully embracing the role of eccentric aunt. Besides 'the brioche' as the bub-to-be has been affectionately dubbed, is in all likelihood going to sound like a petit mium add and what could be cuter than that?