between the rock and the cold, cold sea

For the record, I should like to note that one thing I am not now nor ever shall be poor in (barring disaster) is books.

I catalogue the ones that come into my possession, and resist their leaving. As of tonight, my fiction catalogue stands at some 1400 items; my nonfiction catalogue (which is as yet incomplete: there are some two or three - perhaps four - shelves to go) stands at some 200 items.

Books are necessary for life.

---

This weekend, I must:

1. Write a review.

2. Write an essay - or a draft of one.

3. Write two more short pieces.

4. Begin reading for and drafting the first chapter of my thesis - I sent an abstract of part of this for a paper to a PG research conference, so even if they turn me down, I will have had a Spur to Progress. (I figure if I aim for 5K word chapters, this will give me better odds of turning them into articles/conference papers, which seem to be, aside from the obvious thesis and vivas, how Academic Achievement is measured.)

5. Bake cinnamon and ginger and possibly walnut shortbread.

6. Exercise, if the snow doesn't turn to nasty ice.

I have a damnable presentation due Thursday. Isaiah 11:6-9, social and historical location thereof. Tomorrow, I have a date with the library in all its glory, and I'm not coming home until it's all-but-done.

Damnit.


Progress, Monday 14 January, 2008

The duellist of Alusind

New words: 730
Total words: 5, 460

Reasons for stopping: college work
Darling du jour: He swallowed, pride like thorns in his throat.

Tyop du jour: N/A
Words Word doesn't know: N/A
Mean things: noon, interfering politicians.

---

Gymmed this morning. Barely a twelve-minute mile, bah. On the other hand, not bad for someone who, in the end, achieved perhaps three complete hours of sleep last night.

Good things: government gave me monies (earlier than expected, woo!). Still not dead. Family worries slowly subsiding.

Undone things: plane tickets need alterations. Doctors' appointments, arranging thereof. Accomodation for Calgary. Reading stuff for people.

...Must get climbing kit with nice monies. That would save money in the long run.

Going to fall over now.

"One can see response to empire developing on socio-political, literary, and theological levels. These should not be seen as distinct, but interdependent and conditioned by each other."

And that's all I have. I got nothin', people.

I should be talking about Tiglath-Pileser III and the Assyrian empire. Josiah and Jehoiachim and Zedekiah. Babylonia. Deuteronomistic history. Jeremiah. Ezra and Nehemiah. Redactionism.

But instead I'm sitting here, and all I'm thinking is, two hours till I can watch Criminal Minds. No, four. No, six. No, two. Wait, three - oh, just hurry up already!

My concentration? Is shot all to hell.

Maybe I should try paracetamol and more water and keep on scratching at the damn white page.

*scritch*

*scratch*

I have an essay draft. This is good.

But this is only the beginning. Since the essay deathmarch from hell is now underway. Eight weeks, eight 2000-word essays. Death or glory*.

I doubt I'll have brain enough to work on the novel, much less the endurance to do it well. So I think I'll stop beating myself up over that and go play with short stories with what little brain I've left over. They don't, at least, require novel-type endurance.

Speak not to me of Minoan trade with Egypt. Unless you have a good map.


*Typoed as 'gory'. Paging Dr Freud...

1930 hrs.
Right. I'm typing this in the library, though it won't get posted till after I get home. I'm halfway through an essay on the connections between Egypt and Minoan Crete in the Bronze Age - I swear, every time I think I'm closing on the end of this thing I discover another piece of vital information - and bored, tired and hungry is how best to describe me right now, I believe.

Hope everyone who went had a good WFC.

I don't have anything to say. Would you believe that? So much for my escaping my essay to wax lyrical on... I don't know what I was going to wax lyrical on, but it would have been good, trust me.

...And I just realised something. An essay a week is the same as 2-2.5K a week, or 500 words every working day. With lots and lots of reading. No wonder I haven't felt so much like writing: all my time and all my brain has been eaten by the giant sucking black hole of essay-writing.

Trinity: eating students' brains for >400 years
( my slow work in progress: a long snippet from a short )

---

whatever time it is now.

Tonight I discovered a great and terrible talent: when sufficiently tired, I can burn pasta.

Yes. Pasta.

I sleep now, I think.

I can stop behaving as though I might run out of books, okay? Because I've just counted the TBR pile, and it has roughly fifty fiction, twenty non-college related non-fiction, and maybe twenty college-related non-fiction whose spines I have yet to crack.

Oh. This is not counting the dozen or so classics I picked up in the bargain basement at various times without quite realising what I was doing.

No need to hoard. Not going to run out till the new year, at least, yes?

*hoards*

---

( And this is just a list of things I need to have done by December 19... )

And it was Greek.

When term began, I'd never have imagined that my favourite class this year would be biblical (koine) Greek. I mean, it doesn't have the most alluring air, does it? Learn to read the New Testament and assorted Hellenistic/Roman period papyrii in their original language.

But it's turned out to be - largely because of the lecturer, who I can't praise enough - so incredibly fun. Worth getting up for, and sometimes makes my day.

Good thing too, since I have four Greek classes during the week, and two of them take place at 0900 hours.

---

Tonight, I get a social life. Yes, I am a odd creature, who finds open mic poetry night the highlight of her quarterly social calendar.

And! I have my copy of A Companion to Wolves! At last!

Having finally convinced the library here that yes, I do exist, and yes, I would like to make book requests so can you please fix this so I can, kthnxbai, I suppose I'd better start the essays soon.

Trade and religion in the ancient Med. This should be fun.

Well, so.

There was study. Much of it, and much interesting. I like Near Eastern history of c900-c300 BCE (our course is with specific reference to Judah and Israel, and their relationship to the great empires - the NeoAssyrians, the NeoBabylonians, Egypt and the Persian Achaemenids). It has much that is fascinating.

And Greek. Both the language (koine Greek), and the history and archaeology of Greece from the Bronze Age on down to (and through) Classical times has much to recommend it. Settlement patterns, development of social differentiation and stratification, possible cult and ritual significance of buildings, material culture, oh, I love it so.

Wouldn't want to live there, as they say, but it's an interesting place to study.

Much joy, however, arises from the fact that my Prophecy lecturer will not be present for his lectures this week. Which means I may actually get to have lunch at lunchtime sometime this week.

(I am appallingly sleepy, and will probably think better of having posted this in the morning.)