Lost

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

So hilarious!

Ahh, Lost.

Goals for the week

I have a lot to do in a week and a half; a ridiculous time frame but not one of my making. So, here are my goals for the week. The photo is where I'd like to be to recover when it is all done and dusted. From here.

1. Marking. I have 9 programs, 27 exams and some other bits and pieces to do. Should take two days if I really get stuck into it. The programs should be done for tomorrow and the exams I technically have until Friday week. Might need that extra time in the end.
2. Thesis proposal. I have all the major bits except the abstract written but there other bits that need to be done too. The due date is Friday but I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss it and it should be pretty much finished for that.
3. Research for exhibition. Yeah, I haven't really done any. It is due on Wednesday week.
4. Exhibition brief. Again, done nothing. Due Wednesday week.

Right, so today is marking. Tonight is thesis proposal.
Tuesday is thesis proposal, meetings and I really want to get to a writers' workshop in the evening.
Wednesday is thesis proposal plus teaching plus uni class plus another evening thing I want to go to (and LOST finale!!!!!!)
Thursday is thesis proposal.
Friday I will send in the thesis proposal and start on the research.
Saturday will be research.
Sunday I will start the exhibition brief.
Monday I'm off to my volunteer job and I'll probably need a recharge in the afternoon and do nothing!
Tuesday will be research and exhibition brief.
Wednesday I teach then will go to my class, hand it all in and then collapse onto the couch.

There are some other little things that need doing, like visiting students who are on prac and actually working on my business, but they'll have to be done around all the other things.

Looking forward to the next ten days been over and done with!!

Have a great week - I hope it is nothing like mine :)

Today I'm....

...waiting for the rain

....watching my fish, Gilli, die

....feeling good about my business

....looking forward to supervising an exam, but only because I'll get some marking done

....feeling tired

....enjoying proper tea

....wanting my thesis proposal to write itself

....wondering how I can have so much work due now for a second semester subject

....wishing I'd organised to go to the farm this weekend

....trying not to clench my teeth so much

....wanting more time in the week

....looking forward to watching the footy tomorrow

how about you?

The Lost Thing

A quick drive by....

If you haven't read his books or don't know who Shaun Tan is then you must, I say, MUST, go to a library and find out.

I've just become very excited about the news that his favourite book of mine (one that I've used in my English classes so successfully before), The Lost Thing, has been made into a short animated film and, get this!, it looks just like the book but alive! Love the people at Passion Pictures, love Shaun Tan, can't wait to see the film. Go and see the trailer and more here.

The Goddess Within

It is the weekend here and I have lots to do (marking) and lots I'd like to do (footy, sleeping). I'm sure your weekend looks something like that too, perhaps without the marking.

This week I listened to this incredible talk by Naomi Wolf - you know the one - she wrote The Beauty Myth in 1991. I've never read it, but I think I should. Half a dozen times at the start of her talk I almost turned off because I didn't fully agree with her but then, wham! She hit me with her conclusion, which she'd be building all along. It is that if women spend their time thinking about their bodies, their appearance and measuring their desirability against other women they are not using their beautiful, smart and incredibly creative brains to think, solve, create and believe. That the enslavement of our brains to this 'beauty myth' means we are not free and that we cannot become all we could be. Breaking away from this, she argues, is freedom; is happiness.

A big call, yes. I have to admit to spending stupid amounts of time in my day thinking (obsessing) about these things and I think many women do this too. Since I listened to Wolf I've tried consciously to stop those thoughts in their tracks, which has been an interesting exercise. It is about being mindful - using mindfulness to alter habits. Something I've been working on for a while now, but not in this area.

Anyway, well worth a listen if you have some time.

The "Other" Me

To save my readers here, who joined up to a craft blog(!), the tediousness of my history obsession, I've been writing my proper "history" posts in another blog. But, there are those here who might be interested so I direct you to: Historian @ Work for lots of history-goodness. But, I do understand that not everyone loves it as much as me, so please just stick around here for various other bits and pieces instead. I will keep both blogs going.

A little teaser from one of the posts over there.

Morning at the River

I've never really considered rivers as things to be fond of, although I've been aware that others do. I guess I've haven't lived near enough to a significant one to spend time there so that I became fond of it. But, that is what is happening now. The Swan River is a lovely river. It meanders gracefully around the suburbs of Perth and almost everywhere its banks are lined with trees dipping their leaves into the water and wonderfully sandy tiny beaches.

Today Bess (the dog) and I went off in search of a new stretch to explore. We arrived in Bassendean, a suburb that sits in a curve of the river just across from the historic Guildford. We went to Success Hill Park and discovered a wonderful little oasis of bushland and riverbank and had it all to ourselves (granted it was 7am on a Saturday). Besides being beautiful, Success Hill is a bit famous and a bit infamous. Famous because perhaps Stirling (our intrepid first Governor) 'watered his horses here' in about 1830 and infamous (although that is not really the right word) for an Aboriginal massacre that happened there a little later on. The Australian ability to take on this little known information and then continue with a morning's walk amazes me, even though I am also very capable of it too. I found out this information from an interpretation board - one of about eight in the park - and I could write a little essay about the way the information is presented, but I won't here.

So, let's just get onto the photos and let go of that prickly, difficult national issue, shall we?

This walk at the river I did take my camera, although I'm having to relearn my old lens because my newer and better one is, sadly, broken. Not all the photos I took worked out and that hasn't happened to me in a long time!

But, Bess and I had the glorious experience of wandering through bushland together, just like we used to. She with her nose to the ground, tail wagging and me with my camera and wide open eyes. Lovely.