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Okay, state of the Meg. (under the cut, because there's a lot of teal deer in there).
* I have finally finished all my assessments for one of the two units I'm studying this semester. The one which was plaguing me for the past few weeks was a group report (there are many reasons I am not fond of group work; this report has reminded me of each and every single one of them), which was due at midnight last night. Final chapter submitted by one of our group members: 12 noon yesterday. My job was to edit it (said group member speaks English as a second or other language - I get the feeling it might be about her third; however, her English is certainly far better than my grasp of any other language, so I'm not actually throwing shade at her about the fact, just mentioning it as a reasonable concern) for correct language usage, format everything correctly in Word, throw together an introduction and conclusion and a title page, and then send out a copy of the finished report to the rest of the group. Which was all done by about 3pm.
* I then sat down and wrote up my critical reflections for the unit (short answers to ten questions, about 250 words each). Problem is, the questions were largely geared toward the majority population of the unit - eighteen-year-olds just out of school, who haven't really been asked to think critically about the culture they're living in prior to arriving at university. Whereas I'm a forty-six-year-old who's been studying cultural studies units on and off since about 1989, and therefore have well and truly got past the whole "Oh Noes, Popular Culture is Ruined Forever, I Can Never UnSee These Problematic Things About My Favourite Media Property!!!" phenomenon. I'm used to the fact my brain will interrupt my viewing to inform me that X character is incredibly sexist, and that Y director hasn't actually moved on from their glory days back in the 1990s when they were considered a ground-breaking enfant terrible, and that consequently what they look like these days is more "enfant" than anything else. Plus, of course, about twenty years in online fandom, which keeps the cultural studies muscles good and active all the way along - to the point where I'm starting to think what needs to happen is a greater degree of academic attention to what's happening in online fandom, because these two areas (academic cultural studies and online fandom cultural deconstruction) are covering a lot of very similar ground. So I said that. I also trolled a bit when they asked for suggestions for other things which could be covered, and suggested getting in a conservative thinker or three to face a roomful of students who are being trained in the habits of critical analysis. Mostly, as I put it, because it would be fun to have a unit where I could have a screaming row with someone and get academic credit for it.
* I have only one more piece of assessment left to do - a revision of a script draft (1000 words, has to be the opening of a longer piece) which got workshopped yesterday. Basically, it needs a chunk of comedic "business" chopped out of it, and a bit more attention on the dramatic point I was attempting to make. So I'm planning to do that tomorrow, and get it submitted on either Sunday night or Monday morning, and then I am DONE for the semester.
* Except, of course, for going to student services and asking them for some assistance with regards to re-enrolments. I'm planning to add a Cultural and Literary Studies major to my existing Creative Writing major, which means I need to notify the department I'm formally enrolled in and get them to add that to my record, but the earliest date I'd previously been given for doing this is now basically two days before the end of the re-enrolment period (the re-enrolment period having been brought forward). So I'm going to go and speak to student services, lay the whole thing out in front of them in a logical fashion, and see whether I can get some up-to-date advice about what I'm supposed to be doing.
* Aside from that, my plans for the next week or so largely include housework. I have been largely neglecting the housework for most of the past three or four months, and my gods, the house looks like it. So I am going to be scrubbing the whole place from stem to stern, and working on catching up with weeks of unswept floors, unwiped surfaces, unscrubbed toilet and bath and so on. Doing all of this with a non-functional washing line is going to be... interesting, but then again, it's a thing, it happened.
* Which reminds me, I need to ring up the real estate people (again) and get a bit of a progress report on what's happening with the various bits and pieces along the way. We still have half a tree occupying some prime real estate in the back garden, we still have a non-functional washing line, and the curtain rod across the rear sliding door is still down (it fell down about a week ago - one of the brackets holding it up worked itself loose from the wall, so that needs to be fixed). Of the bunch of them, the ones which are holding my attention the most are the curtain rod and the washing line. The rear sliding door basically looks out onto our back yard, and the neighbours' back yard, and the back yards of quite a few other places as well, so not having anything over the blasted thing is not only an issue for heat and light levels (given the back wall of the place faces roughly south-east, and gets the morning sunlight first thing these days - we're coming into summer, which means it basically heats up the back of the house which then can't cool off in any substantial way because the rear sliding door doesn't have any flyscreen) but also for privacy concerns as well (ours and theirs). Ah, the joys of living in a near-hovel because it's cheap.
* Steve has suggested we go off on a picnic somewhere in the coming week. Which sounds like a good idea - getting out of the house and out of the district for a bit, and just looking at something which isn't the same old same old. So there's that to look forward to.
So anyway, I aten't dead, I'm finally finished (pretty much) with uni for the year, and if anyone in the Perth metro area wants to visit (or have me visit them), drop me a line and let me know!
* I have finally finished all my assessments for one of the two units I'm studying this semester. The one which was plaguing me for the past few weeks was a group report (there are many reasons I am not fond of group work; this report has reminded me of each and every single one of them), which was due at midnight last night. Final chapter submitted by one of our group members: 12 noon yesterday. My job was to edit it (said group member speaks English as a second or other language - I get the feeling it might be about her third; however, her English is certainly far better than my grasp of any other language, so I'm not actually throwing shade at her about the fact, just mentioning it as a reasonable concern) for correct language usage, format everything correctly in Word, throw together an introduction and conclusion and a title page, and then send out a copy of the finished report to the rest of the group. Which was all done by about 3pm.
* I then sat down and wrote up my critical reflections for the unit (short answers to ten questions, about 250 words each). Problem is, the questions were largely geared toward the majority population of the unit - eighteen-year-olds just out of school, who haven't really been asked to think critically about the culture they're living in prior to arriving at university. Whereas I'm a forty-six-year-old who's been studying cultural studies units on and off since about 1989, and therefore have well and truly got past the whole "Oh Noes, Popular Culture is Ruined Forever, I Can Never UnSee These Problematic Things About My Favourite Media Property!!!" phenomenon. I'm used to the fact my brain will interrupt my viewing to inform me that X character is incredibly sexist, and that Y director hasn't actually moved on from their glory days back in the 1990s when they were considered a ground-breaking enfant terrible, and that consequently what they look like these days is more "enfant" than anything else. Plus, of course, about twenty years in online fandom, which keeps the cultural studies muscles good and active all the way along - to the point where I'm starting to think what needs to happen is a greater degree of academic attention to what's happening in online fandom, because these two areas (academic cultural studies and online fandom cultural deconstruction) are covering a lot of very similar ground. So I said that. I also trolled a bit when they asked for suggestions for other things which could be covered, and suggested getting in a conservative thinker or three to face a roomful of students who are being trained in the habits of critical analysis. Mostly, as I put it, because it would be fun to have a unit where I could have a screaming row with someone and get academic credit for it.
* I have only one more piece of assessment left to do - a revision of a script draft (1000 words, has to be the opening of a longer piece) which got workshopped yesterday. Basically, it needs a chunk of comedic "business" chopped out of it, and a bit more attention on the dramatic point I was attempting to make. So I'm planning to do that tomorrow, and get it submitted on either Sunday night or Monday morning, and then I am DONE for the semester.
* Except, of course, for going to student services and asking them for some assistance with regards to re-enrolments. I'm planning to add a Cultural and Literary Studies major to my existing Creative Writing major, which means I need to notify the department I'm formally enrolled in and get them to add that to my record, but the earliest date I'd previously been given for doing this is now basically two days before the end of the re-enrolment period (the re-enrolment period having been brought forward). So I'm going to go and speak to student services, lay the whole thing out in front of them in a logical fashion, and see whether I can get some up-to-date advice about what I'm supposed to be doing.
* Aside from that, my plans for the next week or so largely include housework. I have been largely neglecting the housework for most of the past three or four months, and my gods, the house looks like it. So I am going to be scrubbing the whole place from stem to stern, and working on catching up with weeks of unswept floors, unwiped surfaces, unscrubbed toilet and bath and so on. Doing all of this with a non-functional washing line is going to be... interesting, but then again, it's a thing, it happened.
* Which reminds me, I need to ring up the real estate people (again) and get a bit of a progress report on what's happening with the various bits and pieces along the way. We still have half a tree occupying some prime real estate in the back garden, we still have a non-functional washing line, and the curtain rod across the rear sliding door is still down (it fell down about a week ago - one of the brackets holding it up worked itself loose from the wall, so that needs to be fixed). Of the bunch of them, the ones which are holding my attention the most are the curtain rod and the washing line. The rear sliding door basically looks out onto our back yard, and the neighbours' back yard, and the back yards of quite a few other places as well, so not having anything over the blasted thing is not only an issue for heat and light levels (given the back wall of the place faces roughly south-east, and gets the morning sunlight first thing these days - we're coming into summer, which means it basically heats up the back of the house which then can't cool off in any substantial way because the rear sliding door doesn't have any flyscreen) but also for privacy concerns as well (ours and theirs). Ah, the joys of living in a near-hovel because it's cheap.
* Steve has suggested we go off on a picnic somewhere in the coming week. Which sounds like a good idea - getting out of the house and out of the district for a bit, and just looking at something which isn't the same old same old. So there's that to look forward to.
So anyway, I aten't dead, I'm finally finished (pretty much) with uni for the year, and if anyone in the Perth metro area wants to visit (or have me visit them), drop me a line and let me know!
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