Oh my god, it's alive!
After briefly flirting with the idea of setting up at blogger, I've decided to revive my trusty Procrastinatrix. Perhaps if one day I really desperately want more people to read my insights and insipidity (is that a real word? it should be) I'll migrate, but for now I'll stay.
Research
So far all my excellent gimmicks at becoming more thesis-productive have failed spectacularly. I haven't been writing a thousand words a day, I haven't been getting off the computer by 10pm, I even lost (!) my treat book. I do know what I'm arguing now, so that's a start. My new gimmick is to spend one day a week on articles, hoping I get some decent publications along the way. At the moment I'm working on a critique of Western European identity in the Eurovision Song Contest.
I gave my first conference paper a couple of weeks ago at the Limina: In the Margins conference, and had a great time. It's made me a little more confident about my next conferences: the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand conference in November and the Cultural Representations of the Cold War conference in December. I'll hopefully be able to follow up the conference in December with some more living in Helsinki libraries time, plus another (slightly) white Christmas. Stay tuned for my battles with time zones at the end of the year!
Teaching
I've been teaching again this semester, which of course takes up lots of time, but not as much as previously. It's also been a lot of fun - to the point that I've almost been tempted to sign up for next semester as well, particularly when some students look slightly disappointed that I won't be teaching until next year. But I shall remain strong.
A few weeks ago the unit coordinator had to go on sick leave and so I became the emergency default coordinator. It was/continues to be a good experience: obviously the thesis has gone bye-bye in this time, but I have rationalised my approach to lecturing and even marking to some extent. I'm now down to a three-day turnaround on lectures as opposed to five weeks; and I totally own the lecture theater, technologically speaking...
The exam is on tomorrow, so once I get my section marked I can get back to my research again.
Entertainment
Ben and I have gone through another patch of stand-up shows this year - in fact, we're heading off to the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow in an hour or so. In the past couple of weeks we've gone to see the Spicks and Specktacular (fun, but I'd take an Adam Hills one-man show over it any day) and Ross Noble (laboured a few jokes, but overall fantabulous).
So that's me for now - I may well be back soon.