What price academia?
Dec. 2nd, 2005 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
themis1When I originally booked this week off, I had visions of getting done all the things that need doing around the house - minor decorating jobs, tidying up the garden for the winter, sorting clothing, tidying up the garage, the 'media room' (i.e. the hidden room in the garage containing all the old media stuff that's really been superseded by the internet and needs to be disposed of, as well as a huge collection of long-unwatched off-air TV recordings) and the craft room (the 4th bedroom, which is stuffed to the gills with sewing bits and pieces, mending that needs doing, and two unmade dolls houses, not to mention the one I *did* make which still needs some repairs after being moved!!).
Instead ... I spend hours pouring over reference materials, sorting bits of paper on which I have, over the last few months, jotted disjointed thoughts about my job ... producing at the end not, I'm sure, the piece of academic research I'm *supposed* to be doing, but rather a very practical explanation of where we are and what we're doing, ommitting completely the 'how we got here' and 'what all the other academics think' bits. Ah well, the advantage of paying for education is that they can't throw me out. Yet. I have until the end of this year to produce something they consider good enough to register me for the full PhD!!
I also thought, rather foolishly, that I might jot down lots of interesting things about my week in here, but in fact the academic work (dull to describe, if not to do) and the vague feeling that if I was more organised I'd get more done has instead been interrupted by frequent demands for assistance from Tanith, Phoebe and Mintaka who have to go out *now* and then *come in because it's ****ing freezing!* and need food *now* and *again, now* and what on EARTH do they do when we're out all day? It's amazing they don't all fade away ...
Oh yes, and open the door to numerous postmen clutching parcels from Amazon and related marketplace. Nearly all of whom have managed to arrive JUST as I've nipped into the downstairs loo which is, of course, right next to the front door ...
Had our first carol singers last night, sort of. It was actually the round table float with canned music, but how can one resist putting a few pennies in the can when you're being waved too enthusiastically by a father christmas who must've been freezing to death!!!
Ah well, back to the grind!!
Instead ... I spend hours pouring over reference materials, sorting bits of paper on which I have, over the last few months, jotted disjointed thoughts about my job ... producing at the end not, I'm sure, the piece of academic research I'm *supposed* to be doing, but rather a very practical explanation of where we are and what we're doing, ommitting completely the 'how we got here' and 'what all the other academics think' bits. Ah well, the advantage of paying for education is that they can't throw me out. Yet. I have until the end of this year to produce something they consider good enough to register me for the full PhD!!
I also thought, rather foolishly, that I might jot down lots of interesting things about my week in here, but in fact the academic work (dull to describe, if not to do) and the vague feeling that if I was more organised I'd get more done has instead been interrupted by frequent demands for assistance from Tanith, Phoebe and Mintaka who have to go out *now* and then *come in because it's ****ing freezing!* and need food *now* and *again, now* and what on EARTH do they do when we're out all day? It's amazing they don't all fade away ...
Oh yes, and open the door to numerous postmen clutching parcels from Amazon and related marketplace. Nearly all of whom have managed to arrive JUST as I've nipped into the downstairs loo which is, of course, right next to the front door ...
Had our first carol singers last night, sort of. It was actually the round table float with canned music, but how can one resist putting a few pennies in the can when you're being waved too enthusiastically by a father christmas who must've been freezing to death!!!
Ah well, back to the grind!!
