Saturday 28 February 2009

three and a half weeks till easter

I don't want to do any more work! I want to ring my parents and my best mate who I shamefully owe phone calls to, and lie around reading my new novel about Peter Pan which comes enthusiastically recommended by J, and start tracking down all the movies we got off IMDB in which Brendan Fraser is gay, Jewish, and/or at a boarding school, and write fanfic, and finish my 'Charming Man' songvid, and make a new mix CD for walking to work, and write a report on the convention I was at last weekend...

but, oh, Lord, the week I have coming up. Actually accomplished today and yesterday:

* replanned the penultimate chapter of my book (Chapter 4), started planning Chapter 5 in more detail, bodged together an 8000-word draft of Chapter 4 (from old papers, saved as '4frankenstein') and wrote up about 2000 words of it into near-final-draft form
* read a 40-page chapter from a PhD student, annotated it, and wrote a 2000-word response
* marked (very late) a 4000-word essay on Frankenstein which had got paper-clipped to the bottom of a small pile of MA second-marking and therefore been overlooked.

Still on the pile of things I was going to accomplish today and yesterday:

* peer-review 7,000-word journal article on 'Plato's Pharmacy'
* second-mark 15 2,000-word essays on George Eliot (very, very, very late and promised to the office next week WITHOUT FAIL)
* second-mark 15 bundles of unseen translation/prepared translation/ practical criticism exercises (only very late)
* second-mark 8,000-word dissertation on the reception of Ovidian myth in poetry and visual art (not actually late yet!)
* redraft lecture on genre for Monday morning, prepare Powerpoint
* prepare 50 lines of Vergil for translation class on Monday morning

Tomorrow is my day off, and I will not work on it, not least because Charlie and J and I are going on a long walk from 1pm and then I am cooking dinner, so I can't. And then next week looks like this:

Monday
9-11: teach 2-hour Latin class (lecture on genre, 50 lines of Vergil)
11: meeting to discuss arrangements for workshop on the philosophical implications of the close-up on Thursday
2-4: teach 2-hour MA class (student presentations on history and literature)
4:30: meet with postgrad students who want to set up a theory reading group, advise them on what theory they should read
5:30: pick up work samples and references for 15 long-listed applicants for a one-year postdoc
6:00: get home, prepare for Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday
9-2: read work samples and references for 15 long-listed applicants for a one-year postdoc
2-4: office hours (usually chocka, with anything from requests to discuss crunchy theoretical issues for a PhD application to random Latin grammatical queries to worries over mental health problems)
4-6: School of Humanities interdisciplinary school seminar on 'Character' which will be AWESOME
8-9: tai chi class
10:00: get home.

Wednesday
morning: run session on Reception MA for postgraduate open day (with lecture and Powerpoint), till
3:30: go to workshop on The Prospects for Feminist Methodology (till 5:30)

Thursday
9-10: teach Latin class (Ovid)
11-12:30: teach Contemporary Writing class on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
1-5: workshop on the philosophical implications of the close-up, probably followed by dinner with the speaker

Friday
11-1pm: shortlisting meeting for postdoc application
1-2pm: mentoring workshop
2pm: possibly resume shortlisting meeting

And to be fitted in somewhere next week:

* read final bundle of UCAS application forms for English students, evaluate according to criteria, annotate and return to office
* write unseen exam for Latin class
* mark 7 new essays which were handed in yesterday, probably mostly on Slaughterhouse-5.