lurksnomore

The first thing that I knew and had to be reminded of is that there is no such thing as a "quick run" to the Archives to check a citation.  After an hour and a half, I guestimate that it will take, say, another 4 hours to get what I need.  I found a book (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vols 15 & 16) that show me where to go to get what I want, and I would use and cite them instead of the originals, except for the fact that they have edited the original materials. 

Which brings up the second thing.  I asked the Archivist (nay, I pleaded, I used puppy dog eyes and everything) if I could/should cite to the Publications.  No, I must go to the original College Books from the 1600s and 1700s.  What her eyes said was "You MUST cite to the original source, because look where an author not doing so got YOU."  And I know this.  I know she is right.  *begin whine* but it is so much freaking work to call for materials from the damn vault, and many of them are in piss poor shape and they look like they will fall apart if you breath on them too hard, and if you inhale, you WILL inhale the bindings and I don't wanna *end whine* so back tomorrow and then after Turkey Day, probably, too. 

sigh

The prof of the library research class I just taught told me that I should have a late night cable show about researching. 

I have no idea what that says about my teaching style.

I am one of those folks who get sick on/during vacations and holidays. Since yesterday was a holiday, I have the flu. I will make up MiFu time when I can.

Back to sleeping.

I have been doing my at least 10 minutes a day, but most of it is research notes and thoughts on research. I think I know where the bones of the next section are buried, I just have to dig them up and assemble them. Actually, I'm not sure how much of the writing I've done over the last few days is actually usable, as I wrote about issues very tangential to cataloguing, but it may be that bits and pieces may be useful. After all, I need some way of drawing the reading into the very abstract issues of catalguing, and it may be that a discussion of what can be seen in the Yard today, then to how it was then to the shelves in the buildings that no longer exist might be the way to go. It leaves me able to end by spiraling out again. It might work as a rhetorical device. At least I hope it does.

And now to go help Darling Daughter clean her room so that she can go play with her friends. Why does life get in the way of research?

In which 30 minutes (yay! 20 more minutes than I need to!) of writing is followed by HOURS of writing up notes I was unaware I needed from books of whose existence I was previously unaware.  All so that I can write something tomorrow and the next day and the next...

*sigh* 

I have written each of the three days of Nov. so far, and for at least 10 minutes per day.  Given that I'm trying to write non-fiction, that means that I need about an hour before I start writing to gather all the sources I think I'm going to need, and organize a plan of what I am going to write based on what I have written, and get myself sorted out.  For some reason (I'm blaming it on early and constant training) I just can't face a computer screen and write a first draft, so I am doing all of this long hand, and I'll type it all up in Dec--editing as I go.  Still, three days down and something accomplished each day!

I stopped dithering and asked to join writenao.  Oh, random fluctuations of particles in the multiverse.  10 minutes of writing every day for the month of November.  *exhales* I can do this. 

{Insert usual disclaimers about how awful I am at posting regularly.  Because I really do suck at it.}

oriolegirl suggested that I join or observe writenao for, say, motivational purposes.  Which I might, because I need all the help I can get when it comes to getting my butt in gear to write.  I adore the research process, and I am good at it.  I dislike writing up what I've found mostly because I think I am really bad at it.  But I really need to write, if only to get what I have stuck in my head out.  I think part of the problem is that I see the writing process as a commitment.  Once I start writing, I feel I have committed myself to continuing to follow the pattern I have set.  I need to un-learn that and to remember that I can write anything I want and I get to delete it, too.  False starts aren't false.  They are just learning opportunities.  Now I just need to believe it.

I finally got a new backpack.  I sent away for the Ivar, and really, really liked it except for the fact that I couldn't fit my stuff into it neatly.  The design was great, but the size wasn't.  I sent it back and I decided to take my then-current backpack back to REI for repair, and they looked over the zipper issue, agreed it was a design flaw, and told me that they could repair it, or I could just pick out a new one of equal or lesser value as I had bought it less than 5 years ago.  Which was amazing to me--they stood behind their product's guarantee.  It also tells me that they think a backpack has a lifespan of 5 years which I think is ridiculous--they should last for 10 years, but whatever.  As I didn't really love any of the backpacks, I got a cheap one (since when is $80 cheap?!) and one for Darling Daughter as well, since hers needed replacement.  I'll wait 'till something better comes along now that I have functional zippers on critical pockets. 

In knitting news, I have finished the gusset decreases on Spouse's socks, and now it is just the length of the foot until the toe decrease.  Also, color cards for yarns are a cheap alternative to buying skein after skein and you get enough to touch and test the softness of the yarn as well as see the color.  And I have a needle stash issue.  I keep buying them.  I need to stop.  And I will, really, really soon. 

I may also have committed writing on the Not Project.  I'm pleading the 5th on that one, though. 

The sweater for Darling Son is about to be taken off the needles; I finished the underarm gussets and just have to graft the second one.  Good thing I finished it, too.  He will wear it through this year, but I don't know if he will fit it for two years.  I'm betting not, given how much he grows.  Socks for Spouse are about half way done, so I'll have to cast on Darling Daughter's leg warmers.  Yes, leg warmers.  So very 80s of her, but she "really, really wants them, mommy", and they are less than half as much work as socks, being just tubes, so that should go fast.

Writing for the Project Wot I Am Not Doing is...going.  It is going in fits and starts and is taking a very strange shape.  Part of the problem is that I am not done with the research, but I just need to get some of it down on paper, so I decided to forge ahead, never mind that I'll have to do some major revision work.  I had to get some stuff on paper that will never make the final cut--what ever that means--but the mental purge feels right and necessary.  Then maybe I can get my head refocused for the rest of the research that I think needs to happen.  I don't know for sure if it does, I might know better after I get some of it down.  Then again, maybe I won't.  This Not A Project is being quite frustrating. 

My love of rugby continues, even if I don't talk about--I truth, I'm watching too much to have time to talk about it. 

And that's all for now, back to annual reports and the Not A Project (and the annual report is more fun right now, which says all that needs to be said about the Not A Project, really).

I was listening to On Point on NPR as I drove in this morning as they reviewed the Beijing Olympics.  How it looked, how the athletes were doing, the spectacle of it all.  I realized that I'm all done with Olympic spectacle.  All I want is for the athletes to march in, the torch to be lit and the games to begin right then and there.  No fanfare.  No millions of dollars spent on a show when there a so many other, better things to spend the money on.  Let the athletes BE the spectacle. 

I have become addicted to the nbcolympics.com site because they show the equestrian events without any audio commentary.  There is some in text, but you have to click on the link to get it--and they only give the really important info like breed of horse and so on.  Plus, they aren't showing any of the events on broadcast tv, so it is the only way to see them.  They seem to be on live in the morning (Eastern US time), so Darling Daughter and I can watch all the pretty horses together.  Actually, I have come to prefer the online version of the Olympics mostly because of the lack of commentary (and lack of commercials, and lack of 'spotlights" and so on) over the televised crap.  Even though we watch that, too. 

In other news, I am very dissatisfied with my current backpack, made by REI and am shopping for a new one.  They don't make the one I have anymore, and its a good thing, too.  I am torn between the Ivar Backpack, the Track Daypack from Timbuk2, and an LL Bean Simple Deluxe bookpack.  All three are compromises, and are not what I want to use to travel with (that would be the MEI Voyager) which I don't think would work as well for day-to-day stuff.  I also have a bag fetish, so I have to be very careful and limit myself, or I will just get everything.  Because every situation calls for a new bag, don't you think?  (Though I still miss my old Eagle Creek bag.  I had that thing for years; dragged it back and forth to England, Ireland, Scotland, and never needed more than it.  But they stopped making it, and I can't stand the packs they currently make.  Sigh)

( rant about doctor's offices )

AAAAAAARRRRGGGH!

The only thing harder than teaching people how to do library research is helping them find an f'ing thesis question so that they have something TO RESEARCH AND WRITE.

Okay, thanks.  Feeling (marginally) better now.

I can't remember if I ever said anything about helping someone who was writing his master's thesis about the differences between the US and the EU with respect to "religious freedom".  He and I had a grand old discussion on Islam, the varieties of democracy in the world, the legal and etymological difference between the words/phrases "right" or "right to" and "free/dom" and "free/dom from", and how all of these things are so different than what he was taught growing up in his home nation (Saudi Arabia).  This may have been two fall semesters ago, now.  I remember him because I thought his topic interesting and also that he seemed grateful that I was helpful.  He only ever gave me his first name, but I can never remember names anyway.  His face, I remember; his topic, I remember.  His name?  I had forgotten it by the end of the conversation and couldn't have told you two minutes after he told me that it was.  His thesis showed up in the library today with the others from the year and I recognized the topic and pulled it aside to read.  His surname is the same as that of the world's most wanted terrorist except you have to take out the space and capitalization of the second part.

Huh.  Life is interesting--and so is his thesis.

Spinning is quite a challenge.  I went out and got stuff to teach myself, and have been having quite a time trying to learn.  Fortunately, ravelry has a discussion area for a local spinners group, and I asked if it would be alright if I came along to a meeting to get help.  They said yes, except they are not meeting until late August.  The moderator offered to meet me in the playground while her kids were there and give me some advice.  It helped, but spinning is still more complicated than it looks.  Plus, I haven't been able to do much because it has been too blasted hot and humid to even contemplate touching wool.  Today has been a little cooler, so maybe this evening. 

Instead of spinning and knitting, I have been watching rugby and playing sudoku.  I have come to the sudoku craze very late, but my daughter has gotten me hooked.  Still, its easy to do when traveling and killing time waiting when it is much too hot to knit.  The sweater for Darling Son is almost finished; everything is on one circular and I am about half way through the raglan--now I just need to figure out how the neck/collar works.  I had to frog the socks totally--they were too big.  I do need to get re-started on them; maybe some time while I'm on vacation. 

(yes, I am still Not Working on the Non-Research-Project.  It all got a bit disorganized for a while so I have to go back and sort out what I have and what I still need to get.  Again.)

One of the reasons I consider oriolegirl to be such a wonderful person is that she does not gloat too often about the ease of being a Mac person to those of us suffering with the travails of being Win folk.  Some gloating is expected and, indeed, deserved.  Because software for Win-boxes?  Can cause actual, physical pain.  Case in point being my continuing trials with citation management systems.  ( cut for detailed discussion of software pain )

Other than that, sleep is still eluding me, I miss my kids, and I have a new car--a black Scion xD.  The car, now named Josepha, is a gift from my Uncle Joe, who is randomly, shocking generous.  I'm still boggling over this.  I am also prone to petting her while driving and grinning stupidly at random moments--while driving or walking around.  The old car will go to charity.  Possibly WGBH or WBUR (local public radio/tv) or something.  She probably has a lot of miles left in her (I've only driven her 143,000 or so), and might be useful to someone in need.  Oh,well, that's a thing we can work on slowly.  No rush. 

I admit it, I set myself up for it every time.  See, I have the occasionally insane thought that somewhere out there is a better-then-just-acceptable piece of software for the pc that deals with citation/writing/notes/ideas/etc.  Yes, many exist for the mac, but that is not the computer I have; for better or worse, I have a pc at home and work.  The latest one I have stumbled upon is IdeaMason and it has potential--tremendous potential.  It is a little complex--I had to read the help documentation to sort out how it worked because, oddly enough, this was not made clear in the copious video tutorials they have on their site. 

I sorted out how the hierarchy works and how "stuff" (yes, its a technical term) in it is organized, and how they work with the composition part and the notes and the to-dos and all, and, as I said, it looks interesting.  The stumbling block that will keep me from using it is that I can't seem to make the import function...well...function.  Read the help, watched the videos, read other stuff, and while program tells me that it has imported the 285 records (which is problematic in and of itself as there are only 220) I can't see them anywhere.  A support request sent in yesterday (an e-ticket for service) netted me exactly nothing as they were supposed to email me back with the ticket number and lo, they haven't. 

*sigh*  the perils of the terminally unsatisfied with their software, I guess.

I'm watching a show called re:union and one of the assistant coaches of the winning side said; "...hard to explain that feeling you get...in the shed...its euphoric...a lot of dancing...guys doing things things they wouldn't normally do."

I'll leave you with that thought.

To oriolegirl for getting her Masters Degree in History of Science yesterday (it is her second Masters)!!!!!

Yay!!!