Phew. I feel like I've been in crank (and perhaps cranky?) mode the past few days, without much room to breathe. KE got called in rather suddenly to get the screws and metal plate operated out of his ankle on Thursday, which has had him out of commission since. Saturday I served a Thanksgiving dinner for 9, making every dang thing from scratch alone. Double phew. It was fun, but pretty exhausting. I'm becoming less and less of a social person as I get older. I'm so much better at one-on-one interactions than groups...
Yesterday I finished up the last revision on my Anne Holt article. Today I prepared my presentation for the seminar I'm participating in in Trondheim tomorrow, and applied for internal funding for the publication of my Cora Sandel book from nearly 3 years ago. I'm also close to diving into the writing for the cabin article in Norwegian for the cabin anthology that the folks up in Trondheim are putting together. I'm excited to meet them for the first time tomorrow!
I also started a half-assed attempt at Christmas cheer here at home with E's disastrous Advent calendar from last year and a new big red star for our living room window. E is much more aware of Christmas and Advent this year because of activities in preschool, so I feel a certain amount of pressure not to let him down.
I'm pretty demoralized in the knitting arena: I've been knitting nether garments for E, but my suspicion that they will just get washed in the machine and shrunk makes me extremely unmotivated to work on them. I reknit the front of my Gathered Pullover, which turned out great, but then I decided to unpick the cast on edge at the bottom to add a couple inches. Turns out it takes forever to undo a cast on edge. Argh. I just need to start adding two inches in length to all sweaters. KE, who has such a good eye for such things has mentioned that on my last two sweaters. All I really want to do now is cast on for a Debbie Bliss Yoke Detail Sweater (Ravelry link) with my stash of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I may just take that with me for the trip to Trondheim, since I couldn't settle on an appropriate book to bring along with me.
Showing posts with label enervation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enervation. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Hengemyr
I'm working on three different knitting projects, and right now none of them are fun. The stole for my friend's birthday is taking forever (just started on the sixth and final ball of yarn), the Easter eggs are surprisingly slow, and the Islender is demoralizing because each time I finish a part of it and hold it up to KE to measure it, I discover I'm at least 5 cm. short of where it should be. Add to that the fact that the last two sweaters I knit are disasters and don't fit, and I'm on a really negative roll here. I kind of long to start a new project, but that would just add yet another unfinished project, and unfinished projects always make me nervous.
I have started trying to rework my Erlend Loe article, which has been accepted for publication pending major revisions. It was pretty disheartening to read the anonymous reviewer's comments, but I'm trying to keep my chin up, knowing that ultimately they will make it a better analysis. But sometimes reviewers can just be plain petty and mean. The reviews of my Norwave article were probably equally critical, but both of them made sure to give positive feedback too. It was simply a joy to revise based on their comments, while this Loe project had me hogtied with some pretty severe writer's block on Thursday when I started looking at it. I kind of gritted my teeth and put my head down on my desk a couple of times, and started ripping my work apart on a macro level. I'm just going to have to get a proof reader to deal with all the grammatical and spelling problems later, once I've got the major theoretical and analytical problems worked out (I wrote it in Norwegian, but was in too much of a hurry to get it proofread. Hubris!).
The good thing is, this rewrite is making me work a lot harder at understanding the philosophy of Gianni Vattimo, which I had referenced in passing in the earlier version of the article. Vattimo writes about the end of modernity, and comes out of a philosophical tradition stemming from Nietzsche and Heidegger. I have to say, the more I read the more I like. I have always avoided philosophy because so much of it seemed so fundamentally wrong to me. It is really refreshing to read about a philosopher who rejects so many of the same fundamentals of western philosophy that I do. I say read about rather than just read, because so far I find his writing inaccessible. I'm still working my way up to it through survey articles and introductions. Reading philosophy is like reading a foreign language. You have to get the basic vocabulary and grammar down before you can start to understand, plus you need the right (cultural or intellectual) context in order to be able to interpret what you're reading. I've got a long way to go, and a relatively short deadline for the revision, so it will be a bit dicey.
Meanwhile, it's Easter week, which is usually my favorite holiday, since my family always celebrated it in a relaxed and fun way with other non-religious families by having a huge brunch and egg hunt in a wonderful (and now non-existent) meadow. But here in Norway there's still a foot of snow everywhere, and even though it's melting there is barely any green to be seen, and certainly no flowers yet that I can find. I'm going to try to pull together a brunch for immediate family (who will think it's weird, but that's okay), but I so wish it was actually springy outside...
I have started trying to rework my Erlend Loe article, which has been accepted for publication pending major revisions. It was pretty disheartening to read the anonymous reviewer's comments, but I'm trying to keep my chin up, knowing that ultimately they will make it a better analysis. But sometimes reviewers can just be plain petty and mean. The reviews of my Norwave article were probably equally critical, but both of them made sure to give positive feedback too. It was simply a joy to revise based on their comments, while this Loe project had me hogtied with some pretty severe writer's block on Thursday when I started looking at it. I kind of gritted my teeth and put my head down on my desk a couple of times, and started ripping my work apart on a macro level. I'm just going to have to get a proof reader to deal with all the grammatical and spelling problems later, once I've got the major theoretical and analytical problems worked out (I wrote it in Norwegian, but was in too much of a hurry to get it proofread. Hubris!).
The good thing is, this rewrite is making me work a lot harder at understanding the philosophy of Gianni Vattimo, which I had referenced in passing in the earlier version of the article. Vattimo writes about the end of modernity, and comes out of a philosophical tradition stemming from Nietzsche and Heidegger. I have to say, the more I read the more I like. I have always avoided philosophy because so much of it seemed so fundamentally wrong to me. It is really refreshing to read about a philosopher who rejects so many of the same fundamentals of western philosophy that I do. I say read about rather than just read, because so far I find his writing inaccessible. I'm still working my way up to it through survey articles and introductions. Reading philosophy is like reading a foreign language. You have to get the basic vocabulary and grammar down before you can start to understand, plus you need the right (cultural or intellectual) context in order to be able to interpret what you're reading. I've got a long way to go, and a relatively short deadline for the revision, so it will be a bit dicey.
Meanwhile, it's Easter week, which is usually my favorite holiday, since my family always celebrated it in a relaxed and fun way with other non-religious families by having a huge brunch and egg hunt in a wonderful (and now non-existent) meadow. But here in Norway there's still a foot of snow everywhere, and even though it's melting there is barely any green to be seen, and certainly no flowers yet that I can find. I'm going to try to pull together a brunch for immediate family (who will think it's weird, but that's okay), but I so wish it was actually springy outside...
Monday, November 10, 2008
Demotivert
This was a hard weekend for me, not because I did anything at all (I didn't), but because my lack of motivation and direction started to get me down. There have been a couple of tasks I desperately needed to accomplish, and I had put them off every day for over a week. These are things that need to be done right away, crucial things that pertain to our move, yet for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do them. I've been incredibly cranky, and have picked some really stupid fights (well not fights, but totally unnecessary spats over minutia) with poor, long suffering KE.
Finally, after a long talk with a very sympathetic KE, I got him to promise to nag (or shame) me into doing them yesterday. My prime motivation was the fact that there was a one-day-only yarn sale at one of the local shops. I know that's pathetic, but it took rewarding me with a trip to the shop to get me to do what I had to do. Unfortunately, the trip didn't turn out as fun as I would have liked. I had E with me, and a few minutes into browsing he peed his pants. Sigh. Toddlerdom.
What I did manage to buy was good old Sugar 'n' Cream for making dishcloths like these, only in off white. Very satisifying knitting, I must say, and the dishcloth it produces is really cool.
Otherwise, I'm slowly progressing on the "rillejakke." I have the peplum and back done, and have started on one of the fronts. It's starting to get awkward since it's all knitted together rather than sewn together at the end:
I got my package of buttons from the McCain campaign the other day (still waiting on the Democrats...). The one that has really given me pause is this one:
I'm flabbergasted. Apparently this is supposed to project a positive message about the fact that the Republican vice presidential candidate was a woman, but I just can't imagine a more denigrating way of expressing that! In a weird way this button completely infantilizes the candidate. It also expresses a weird exhuberance about the candidate's gender, as if that's the only thing that matters. I showed it to a bunch of friends at women's dinner last night, and they first thought it must be a button intended to make fun of the candidate. They were incredulous when I told them I had bought it from the GOP itself!
And finally, a couple of finished objects from last week: the turban hat from Folk Hats for my Mom's birthday, and then a little "child's hat" from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for a 2-year-old's birthday gift (obviously using the left over yarn from the turban). I have to say, I like the child's hat best:
Finally, after a long talk with a very sympathetic KE, I got him to promise to nag (or shame) me into doing them yesterday. My prime motivation was the fact that there was a one-day-only yarn sale at one of the local shops. I know that's pathetic, but it took rewarding me with a trip to the shop to get me to do what I had to do. Unfortunately, the trip didn't turn out as fun as I would have liked. I had E with me, and a few minutes into browsing he peed his pants. Sigh. Toddlerdom.
What I did manage to buy was good old Sugar 'n' Cream for making dishcloths like these, only in off white. Very satisifying knitting, I must say, and the dishcloth it produces is really cool.
Otherwise, I'm slowly progressing on the "rillejakke." I have the peplum and back done, and have started on one of the fronts. It's starting to get awkward since it's all knitted together rather than sewn together at the end:
I got my package of buttons from the McCain campaign the other day (still waiting on the Democrats...). The one that has really given me pause is this one:
I'm flabbergasted. Apparently this is supposed to project a positive message about the fact that the Republican vice presidential candidate was a woman, but I just can't imagine a more denigrating way of expressing that! In a weird way this button completely infantilizes the candidate. It also expresses a weird exhuberance about the candidate's gender, as if that's the only thing that matters. I showed it to a bunch of friends at women's dinner last night, and they first thought it must be a button intended to make fun of the candidate. They were incredulous when I told them I had bought it from the GOP itself!And finally, a couple of finished objects from last week: the turban hat from Folk Hats for my Mom's birthday, and then a little "child's hat" from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for a 2-year-old's birthday gift (obviously using the left over yarn from the turban). I have to say, I like the child's hat best:
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