Winter Sunshine

Oh, the view that greeted me this morning as I turned off the Wormit roundabout was breathtaking, the fields rolled out on either side of the road bathed in a sun-kissed winter morning haze; the light was perfect. It looked like an impressionist painting. The river was smooth as glass and the Tayport lighthouse looked full of intrigue and mystery, as lighthouses should! It was a glorious way to start the day, therapy for the soul. Living in Scotland has it's advantages!

Early start after yesterday's disaster! Porridge, coffee and I am at my desk and it is only 09:11!

I just hope next door can keep the noise down today, the last few days have been like carnival time! Unusual for them as they are usually quiet as church mice!

Needles in Haystacks

I found myself in the shower, cheerfully exfoliating when I caught the fleeting glimpse of an idea. A fairly decent idea, one I haven't read anywhere else and one I *think* may provide a substantial part of this chapter I am working on!

Once dressed I hurtled down the stairs to my old friend 'google' and starting typing in fervently for some facts and figures, enough to cast a line up and tether that floating, nebulous idea firmly to the ground - before it drifted off into the ether with all the other good ideas I have had over the past year!

Result - google did it's magic and some things got thrown up in the searches that are actually worthwhile and will definitely be useful in my interpretation. It's a poem by H.D. - now I have the facts, the backgrounds etc all I need to work out is when this poem was written. Oh I can find the poem as it is all over the internet, as poems tend to be, in blogs, archives, literary webpages, scholarly essays, book extracts, anthologies etc etc etc - but not one of them provides that elusive little detail - WHEN DID H.D. WRITE 'AT ITHACA' OR 'EVADNE' ??????

I have a feeling the information I need may well be in one of the books in my office so I may well put it aside for one moment and leaving H.D. out of it attempt to create the nexus of ideas that are surfing on the crest of my brainwaves just now!

Hallowed Halls of Knowledge.

As I arrive at university this morning I just took the time to appreciate exactly where it is I go to work each day, where it is that has accepted me as one of their own"scholars" and where it is that provides me with the materials and means to do what I love to do.

This is one of the oldest universities in Europe - it will be 600 years old in 2013. The town grew from the university which I believe started out as a remote religious monastery, perched on the cliffs of the North Scottish sea.

Inclement weather, rolling waves that roar like thunder and winds that howl like the proverbial banshee mark this place out. You need to be of stern stuff to survive the winter here!

The quads are scattered with golden red leaves as the trees shed their summer mantles to steal themselves against the winter months. The rain is covering everything with a dull gloss, permeating the gold stone to a dark slate colour, a warning of worse to come. But it puts a spring in your step to walk through the quads and hear the walls of this ancient place whisper its secrets to you of history, time and the continuity of life.

It may be raining but where better to be than here, tucked up warm in my office, with my best friends* around me and my laptop humming quietly as I type.

I am very lucky to be here, I am very lucky they will have me and I do want to do them proud.

* of course I am referring to the books!!! It is always ALL about the books!

gender and the things that amuse us feminists!

A friend of mine "facebooked" me this today -

it made me smile!

http://www.darcomic.org/2009/02/17/transmen/ sadly the entire image wouldn't fit on here!

Monday Morning

... after the clocks went back isn't so bad, and I am not feeling too tired; it feels like I got up an hour later than normal! I made it to the office even though I had a very sleepy, cosy body next to me, that just makes me want to curl up and stay put - well until he snores that is!

The plan for today is to finish reading the book on manifestoes and then get to grips with the actual context of Vorticism.

I haven't had anY residual pangs of anxiety about the meeting with Herr Supervisor, so I can only feel that what I said truly reflected the situation and how I felt about it. I know that I need to pull out a bloody good piece of writing on this next piece or I am in trouble but I am going back to basics on it and making sure it is edited and re-drafted thoroughly before I hand it over!

My neighbour is writing a novel about terrorism on the back of his recent success in getting a book about terrorist organisations published - he has asked me to act as editor and proof reader. This is quite onerous as it isn't a book I would ordinarily even read once it was finished let alone in its infancy - but I couldn't really refuse and it is superb experience. If he does get it published then the fact I edited it is going to be good for the CV!

I have had porridge for breakfast and I have homemade lentil soup for lunch - so good wholesome workhorse fuel for me!

Was asked to share an essay I did today with a guy working on lepidoptery in Woolf so I shall need to dig that out!! Quite flattering as it was at my old tutor's insistence that he read my paper as he would find it informative for his research! Perhaps I should submit it for publication! And this lady is a formidable ally!

My minor whinge for this morning is this - why does the local coffee shop insist on giving me half a cup of coffee and half a cup of froth?? Hmmm and why is they say women are the 'talkers', yet my all male office next door is full of constant babbling!!! IRONY IS ALIVE AND WELL IN STUDENTVILLE THIS MORNING!

Unburdening the soul...

is supposed to be good for you isn't it?

The supervisor's meeting - or the lion's den as I like to think of it - should be sacrosanct like the confessional.

So why does it feel more like shooting myself in the foot?

I took the plunge and was honest about how I felt - this could prove extremely productive or incredibly foolhardy! Time will tell.

Still all in all the meeting was ok! But then they always are - it's only afterwards that I begin to sweat about the ins and outs of the discussion!

One thing is for sure if I don't stop beating myself and start believing in myself I am going to become that old adage the self fulfilling prophecy!!!

Off home for a cup of tea and a hobnob! Sod that - I think I may even be tempted to run the IBs gauntlet and have a glass of wine!

And next week this blog is going to be a hive of bloggertivity! There is so much in this world to be grateful for, worrying over things that haven't happened and may never happen has no place in it!

Th Search Engine...

... is the most important and integral piece of technology to any researcher ... it is meant to be your friend and your ally and to make life EASIER! BE WARNED - it is NOT and it DOES NOT! It is the most bloody infuriating part of research work ever invented! Every web archive runs their search engine on a different criteria, using different methods ( I still have no idea what the term Boolean means - answers on a postcard please!)

Today I have been scouring the electronic resources available to me trying to locate and article written in January 1930 - (or possibly December 1929), supposedly in The Bookman (a London review). I have the title the author's name, the (apparent) publication, issue, date etc etc etc. Oh I can find the publication but now it appears that article is not in that magazine!

So - you begin again, looking to find the actual article, when it was printed and in what publication. It doesn't stop there. If you are able to find these facts then you have to start actually trying to track down a credible copy or edition of the magazine concerned or a reprint of the article in an anthology. This usually results in one copy in the bowels of a single library in Arkansas - why Arkansas? I have no idea but it seems that most British literary archives somehow make their way over the pond to the greater United States of America!

This is all well and good - if you can find out the facts in the first place. Searching through an archive online is a precarious business. It will allow you to search via all sorts of criteria - ostensibly! But let's face things full on here, do they actually work? Not often.

Today I entered this criteria in a search engine for the Partisan Review 'The Story of the Little Magazines' - entered 'article title' and got back no results. Which is to be expected... but then in insolently red italic lettering is the question - Do you mean the mystery of the missing princess?

Pardon?

No I bleeding well don't you imbecilic patronising bloody excuse for a search engine! If I had meant 'the mystery of the missing princess' the chances are I would have not put in 'the story of the little magazines'! would I?!?

And breath!

As if it isn't bad enough that finding the resources in the first place is hard enough or that my macbook has decided not to load -EVER -that the one archive I use nearly everyday on line, or that the library has very little in the way of resources other than electronic databases - NOW I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH BEING PATRONISED BY THE BLOODY SEARCH ENGINES AS WELL!!!!!

And yes, another deep breathe needed!

So I am back to square one - the book isn't clearly referenced as to where it got its information from, the google search throws up an inaccurate reference sending me on a wild goose chase, and all in all for 2 hours work I have NOTHING! NADA! NIENTE! ZILCH! ZERO!

In summary - what a load of old bollocks!

Of course I could be 'doing it wrong' .... hmmmmmmmm

Still, for a moment there I forgot all about my IBS! ;)