Classes begin tomorrow; as usual, I face that fact with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Just like the students, I prefer to be on holiday. Every new semester makes me wonder if I know what I'm doing.Birthday boy Robert (Happy Birthday, again!) says the same thing he always says, "Make them stand on their desks and tear pages out of their books," because apparently Dead Poets Society is the only thing teaching means to him (yes, he does work at Bard).
As usual, I regret not making a better use of my time off. I figure there's got to be some way of getting around the whole need for sleep thing; I did find that drinking tea all day while I wrote did lead to not sleeping, but it was not a very productive not sleeping. Some sleep is required.
I have a course release for heading up Women's and Gender Studies; that "free time" will likely be eaten up by preparation for our conference in March. I'm teaching the Medieval Texts on Film class and also our brand new, never-before-taught Writing for New Media class. Another experiment; why do I do this to myself?
Yes, there's a new episode of The Mangrove Legacy: Alice learns the exciting history of the ghost, Miss Wychwood. Drop by and read for yourself. It's a fun Sunday ritual to dive back into the strangely Gothic adventures. I hope you continue to enjoy it (yes, Cranky -- looking in your direction).
Wish me luck -- we all need it on the first day of classes!
13 comments:
HOW TO BE AN ACADEMIC MASOCHIST...with lots of pointless anecdotes, and tons of 'tude...it's time for the bookstore tour!
LOL -- I shall have to pen m memoirs, then I suppose. All invented, of course, because nothing interesting ever happens around me...
Moi???
;-)
Ah, yes, sleep- I also wish for the day I only need two hours of sleep....
Good luck with the new semester!
Well, my first surprise was that my first class was twenty minutes short than I expected...
only time for one quick Yawp then...
r
Hardy har har -- barbaric yawps a-plenty!
Good luck. I am also an academic sort-of-pagan-ish devout Catholic and practicing witch (boxes are for other people). My term doesn't start for another few weeks - at least the face-to-face bits. Mucking about with timetables at the moment and wondering why I can't stick a few extra days in some months if I want to.
I have linked to you from my new work-in-progress blog craft-blogger.blogspot.com which is turning out more sociological and less magicky than I intended. Please tell me that's how writing is for you, too. If everyone else's writing always turns out the way they envisaged it when they started I may feel like crying.
Lucy
LOL, I find that where I want a story to go and where it ends up are often quite different things. With a narrative I generally know some of the points along the way, but not the whole story. That's part of the fun - I am as surprised as any other reader (well, except I usually know the ending ;-)
I think you're absolutely right to trust your instincts when it comes to writing. Despite all my attempts to do the requisite "branding" everyone tells me I need to do in order to be successful, I just write about what interests me -- and I have a lot of interests.
I'm happy just about anywhere but a pigeon-hole!
standing on the desk(the dead poets society method) isn't the only teaching method... another good method is selling chocolates (the chocolate war method)or being humiliated in french class (the school ties method)or snogging (the another country method)...a not so good method is scrabbling at the book with your bare hands....(the beyond the fringe method)"oh look, I've got a heavy book here..."
-r
"The very thing we were looking for. Careful you don't drop that very heavy book on your foot, ha ha ha..."
I think you watch too many school boy movies, R (and you forgot Tom Brown).
valuable lessons can be gleaned from them...humility (au revoir,les enfants), perseverance (tom brown's school days- the alex pettyfer version), and how to look smart in a blazer while learning.
-r
The latter, I know, you like to combine with a Gossip Girl™ tie, which you do impeccably.
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