I vaguely feel like I should update, but sitting down to do it I realise that I don't have much to report on. I've been trying to write 500 words a day, which doesn't sound like much (and doesn't feel like much) but is turning out to be a bit of a challenge. Partly because it seems like every second sentence requires a whole heap of research, and partly because I still have no idea where the hell my argument is going or what I'm trying to say. So as well as the writing I'm still doing a fair bit of planning, trying to write outlines and chapter outlines and doing brainstorms and generally generating huge amounts of scribbled Stuff. And it feels like there's a heap of stuff that it's absolutely essential to read, so I'm doing some of that every day too. And also there are a few weekly seminars/meetings/knowledge shares that the postgrads from our departments are having. And a lecture (or two, maybe) to prepare for, which I increasingly feel massively unqualified to do. And I have a new student. And I still really want to get around to writing an article I've been planning for a while. And I really want to submit an abstract for Agenda's upcoming issue on biotech.
Plus I've been writing a bit of fiction, and fiddling around with different flavours of ubuntu trying to find one that will work on a computer with a very small and slow brain (and I think I have, and I learnt to burn a boot cd on the uni computers, and I'm almost bursting with excitement to try it tonight). And feisty fawn came out today, and I don't know if I can bear waiting to install it. Plan A is to wait until I have an external harddrive to back stuff up on, just in case (and because it seems like a good idea general, and because I want to play around with my partitions a bit), but I'm really not sure that I have the patience for that.
Basically, I'm terribly excited about a heap of things that I suspect don't make particularly good conversation for most people. It's keeping me happy, although I still have moments of panicking about how terribly behind (I think) I am on my PhD.
Plus I've been writing a bit of fiction, and fiddling around with different flavours of ubuntu trying to find one that will work on a computer with a very small and slow brain (and I think I have, and I learnt to burn a boot cd on the uni computers, and I'm almost bursting with excitement to try it tonight). And feisty fawn came out today, and I don't know if I can bear waiting to install it. Plan A is to wait until I have an external harddrive to back stuff up on, just in case (and because it seems like a good idea general, and because I want to play around with my partitions a bit), but I'm really not sure that I have the patience for that.
Basically, I'm terribly excited about a heap of things that I suspect don't make particularly good conversation for most people. It's keeping me happy, although I still have moments of panicking about how terribly behind (I think) I am on my PhD.