The Book of Na'Lon

the_marquis is just reading lj on our connection and so I am composing this off-line.

Yesterday was a strange day: I did some marking in the morning then had a meeting with a student about her dissertation and potential independent studies project. She’s thinking of putting together a presentation about some of the issues facing people that are long-term carers for loved ones with chronic illnesses – sounds really good! This girl really has improved so much since last year. Teacherly warm glow…

After that I did some marking (yuck!) of first year study skills portfolios. It was quite depressing because most of them didn’t do what asked for, despite repeated explanations. The final two I marked were pretty good, however. But I guess I’d better start on Tuesday with another workshop in using the Harvard Referencing system.

Had lunch with The Marquis, Ceejay, Marxist and Fierce and we had a good laugh about Lala, which Fierce sidetracked into a discussion of words for ‘many of’ – like skein of geese, flock of sheep, swarm of bees… and issues of Lala?

Did some more marking and started to prepare Monday’s session on Depression and psychological disorders during adolescence (cheerful, eh? I so know why I don’t like developmental psychology!), but didn’t get very far before my hair appointment.

I decided not to do anything too drastic just yet, but had the bottom layer taken out, which helps my hair look fuller. I also had a fringe cut. Not to sure about it, but it’s okay I guess, and certainly looks a little more purposeful than the annoying straggly bits I’d been having hitherto. We shall see what it looks like once I have washed it all again.

Back to work after that and back to the lecture for Monday. I managed to get the handout prepared and did a fair bit of the reading I’d meant to do – the session should be okay. But it did take me until about 19.30 until all was done. Because I knew I was going to be late, I called the Marquis and asked him to come and bring me some dinner, so that we could go to the cinema after I’d finished the lecture prep, which he kindly agreed to do.

So it was that we went to see The Last Samurai, which I enjoyed very much. It was a well-paced, well-told story, quite moving in parts. I was particularly pleased with hearing all the Japanese, and amazed at how much of it I recognised from my very brief recent bit of Japanese exchanges on the Soapy Place with pellegrina. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I understood it, but it had a very definite ring of familiarity in some cases. The other thing I thoroughly enjoyed was the visual execution of the Japanese village – much of it reminded me of what has become familiar about feudal Japan from reading Usagi Yojimbo. There was one scene that made me think of the Neko Ninja – I turned to the Marquis and he whispered ‘Neko Ninja’ before I could open my mouth! Anyway. I enjoyed the film, even if some of it was very sad indeed.

Emither update: still on ‘Connected’. Enjoying it very much. Wonder what’s going to happen next.

More headache and bad back. Seeing osteopath tomorrow.

Had a workstation assessment at work today, hopefully that will make a bit of difference.

No meetings today, yay!

Marking to do: blah! Hate it. Assessment should be banned.

Worked on job application, still got to do the inking things in part.

Emither as treat, then bed...

Isn't that absurd. I can't think of a title for my update, but I want there to be one, so I make one up that means nowt. But, heck, why shouldn't I? Today's entry is mostly inane, but read if you wish...

( Don't say I didn't warn yer! )

Today was my first day teaching in Lancaster after the break. It was actually surprisingly nice, despite the digustingly early start.

( Read more... )

I resent having to work at the weekends, I really do. I want to get on with things I want to do. But because I tend to feel guilty about the requirement to do work, I usually end up doing nothing worthwhile at all. And the next thing I know is, it's Sunday night and I am intensely dissatisfied.

So this weekend, I have work to do. This damned assignment for the teaching and learning course, and when I realised yesterday that I hadn't really done the right thing with my drafting so far, I became very unmotivated indeed. Which is a farce, really, giving that part of my assignment is about helping student's find motivation and some form of enthusiasm for research methodology. Grrr.

I tried to break the cycle described in the first paragraph today. I will do some of the things I want to do instead, so that at least I enjoy my weekend as a break from the week. And maybe once I have done some of the things I enjoy, I can get down to work feeling less deprived of my fun.

As a result of my reasoning, I have already reedited chapter one of my Story and sent it to my Evil Twin (jane_somebody) and I have finished and posted off my bi-monthly column for the magazine of a society I belong to. I have also sweated over the current emither with pellegrina which is very enjoyable, but hard, hard work as it's plumbing some psychological depths that are hard to put into words. But very useful exercise nevertheless.

Yesterday, I finally spoke on the phone to my aunt Yo'Quith to thank her for her Christmas parcel. She sent me a couple of video tapes of a puppet show that I used to love as a child, because she saw it and was reminded of one of my "phases" (or "thuses" as eudesia might call it). It's about a ghost that lives in a castle. I don't remember this at all, apart from remembering that I liked ghosts and puppet-shows by this particular group of puppeteers.

Hm... while I think of it, a note for any one who recognises some of the names, such as Na'Lon or Yo'Quith, from my fiction writing and role-playing: I am borrowing these names for various people, including 'Na'Lon' for myself, but here they are only used as descriptors, and no similarity between character and RL person I refer to is intended. There are some similarities between character's family structures and my own family structure: e.g. The Marquis is also Na'Lon's mate in the Game, and Na'Kat really is Na'Lon's mother in Game and fiction. However, that is as far as the similarity goes...