TW/CW: there is sexual assault in this very old Malay movie. I'm drawing comparisons between the descent into abjection in the protagonist here and Lewis's The Monk.
ps: I will likely surface to post deets on two more events: one a creative writing workshop exploring spatiality and the hypertext with Dr. Darin Bradley, Dr Ewan Awang and Dr Fadhli Kaidhzir as guest speakers (I'll be doing the hypertext fiction workshop part), and the second one my second Memory Studies in Literature and the Humanities webinar.
It didn't take me too long to get home from work today.
A clean home is always nice.
It's a rather desperate week in terms of getting stuff done + academic deadlines as always, but getting stuff done always give me an inner glow of satisfaction. That whole eudaimonia + arete cocktail thingo.
Academic Updates: I've got at least one article in the bag re article acceptance, final copyedits all done. Waiting to hear from the others...
There are other urgent things to settle, however: The two events I am running in November, and I'm going to be giving a talk at the Romancing the Gothic series of events, also in November. Which means I'm prepping for two talks -- I'll be presenting a paper at the Memory in Literature and the Humanities webinar I am running on the 28th of November.
Keynote: Professor Emma Bond.
I'm also writing two grant proposals (which will make four grant applications sent in this year) and preparing a handful of PhD supervisees for proposal defense, and another handful for paper presentations.
Managed to clear a handful of anxiety-inducing things off my academic to-do list, which is another win for today. Got my groceries in (I have them delivered to my office) because by Friday and the end of the last class of the week I'm going to be too beat to even think of weekend groceries (it's going to be Korean food this weekend. Well, that and more pizza), and ordered dinner because I was craving portuguese egg tarts and then found a place that does halal Kristang food, and got excited. Sadly, the egg tarts didn't arrive, I whined at the delivery service for a refund, but then I got egg tarts from another place. THE END.
Dinner, then laundry, then checking my PhD supervisee's dissertation (Malaysian Literature) because final submission is ...SOON.
Finally managed to make my Salmon Kedgeree -- and had it both for breakfast and for dinner. Delish!
Hearing back from two of the speakers I invited for two separate events, which brings me much closer to finalising the programme nitty-gritty for both webinars.
Clearing some more things off the to-do list. Although the list seems to go on for miles. And miles.
We're three weeks into the semester here and it's been go go go and trying to manage all the deadlines while also grappling with chronic pain and fatigue. My to-do list has me sometimes in tears. I've already told my music teachers that class is impossible for the time being. I love my job, but I often wish doing it wasn't such a pain in the you know what.
How's my night going? It's late and I'm sending out invites and responding to invite responses and other fully networking academic issues. Stuff I couldn't do during the day because of other duties.
Goodnight now. Here's Patrick Watson. I saw him live in 2010 and that was such a treat! Some of the best gig photos I ever took also.
Hello Masto! Home late and very sleepy/hoping for an early night. Still working on CE for the article I submitted yesterday (editor bounced it back to me with some corrections based on the latest APA format -- is it just me who finds the new APA's requirement re sentence case when journal/book titles are NOT in sentence case, very illogical? It upsets my eyes, but I do what I must!)
Geese continue to delight me with every single released this year, so enjoy "Space Race"!
Wednesday is my only day with no classes this sem, but it did mean that I was up to my eyebrows in course admin and supervision matters. Also battling a lot of exhaustion from having submitted four articles during semester break (also the mountain of grading I had to do and other stuff). Break? What break?
(It's a good thing I love my job and that there are perks that make it worthwhile)
When you're beyond dead tired but then are gently reminded by the very patient convener that your Folk Horror x Material Culture talk for a British uni* is going to go up on eventbrite soon, so you hammer out an abstract and are suddenly taken aback at your own cleverness.
gently pats self on the back
I'm actually utterly excited for this talk (eventbrite?! omg) but also really tired. Haha.
*edited because I've been such an over-extended/overworked airhead that I somehow had the misapprehension that it was an American uni!
Complex feelings. Students are fundraising to attend SSHA conference in DC & did a 5K this a.m. I wore a sandwich board asking for donations to our Venmo account. Proud of the students & ashamed of the state of US higher ed that we actually ask for money on the street to pay for an opportunity like this. The students are all first gen & all but one is from an underrepresented group.
Fairy-tale scholarship always has me listening to Eddi Reader because her discography was my mainstay back during my M.A. days (my Angela Carter M.A. dissertation), so I've been listening to her album of Robbie Burns songs all week.