Works in Progress

28 Days of Thesis Updates: Day Two

Yesterday I spent several long hours feeling appallingly stupid before scrambling my way through about five hundred words. Still less than I need to do, and ordinarily I’d be all angsty about it, but I’m taking my wordcount where I can get it at the moment. In theory, this is the bit of the exegesis that explains what-is-genre in theoretical terms so that people aren’t left sitting there wondering what the hell I’m banging on about or confusing the fact that they’re thinking science-fiction or romance or literature kind of distinctions when I’m prone to occasionally back-tracking to short story as genre or film as genre or something along those lines. My notes say that this is the point where I’m spending some quality time with Bahktin and Todorov, but because I’m me I’ve also managed to worm in some of the personal anecdote kind of stuff I so love and quote from a few “what is a roleplaying game”

PeterMBall 06/01/2009
Works in Progress

28 Days of Thesis Updates: Day One

TO START, AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT THE EXEGESIS IS When you do a creative writing PhD they don’t necessarily ask you to write a thesis. Instead, they get you to write a creative project (in my case, a whopping great lot of short stories) and then write an short exegesis that serves as a kind of thesis-substitute where you do thesis-type-things such as critical analysis of the work and practice, but done with the knowledge that you’re the writer of the creative text up front and center. The irony is that no-one really knows what the boundaries are when you’re doing these yet – the idea only really started to gain traction in the last two decades or so (from what I’m seeing, anyway; the name comes from analytical studies of the bible, and they’ve been doing it for a lot while) and there are relatively sparse examples of what a good exegetical document looks like out there. And, just

PeterMBall 05/01/2009
Works in Progress

Tonight, I’ve got the crazy-eye

If ever there’s a good summary for why this exegesis drives me barmy, it’s this: I just wrote 1400 words of brainstorming notes *just so I could figure out* two of the points I needed to make in my exegesis. One of them, basically, comes down to “I need to explain what I mean about post-modern culture.” I don’t even have any notes on how I’m going to do it, just that I need to do it.

PeterMBall 02/01/2009
Journal

It’s a shiny new year

So many things I planned to blog about today, that I even made little mental notes to blog about because I thought they were interesting, and instead I’m just kind of popping up to say “damn, not enough time” before launching into another salvo on the exegesis. I’m resisting the urge to do a year-in-review post at this point, simply because I’m in no position to look back at 2008 and see it in any kind of objective light. Despite the various good things I managed, both professional and personally, it remains a year characterized by all the things I didn’t get done rather than all the things I did. Today I unravel the sticky knot of what my exegesis is supposed to be doing. Tomorrow you get subjected to exegetical rumblings (which, really, isn’t that big a change from usual for me). Hope everyone is well and bounced back to acceptable levels after the New Year revelry

PeterMBall 02/01/2009
Journal

You know it’s too damn hot when…

It’s been rather hot here in Brisbane, and my flat has a nasty tendency to be one of the warmest places I’ve found in the city unless the breezes’ treat me favourably (of late, they haven’t). I don’t know the exact temperatures, but I do know that I burned myself with *shampoo* when I had my shower this morning – not badly or anything, my palm just had this mild sunburn like sting all day, but still…overheated shampoo. Being scalded by the “cold” water in my taps I’ve learned to prepare for, but this is a first for the hair-care products. I can’t wait for winter.

PeterMBall 01/01/2009
Journal

I’m back

…though I’m still in the process of picking up speed now that the holiday season is over (New Years doesn’t count, I’ll be hammering away at the PhD deadline, but I hope everyone else has a good time). I think I managed to get most of the angst about the exegetical process out of my system over the holiday, so now I can actually do productive things like formulate a plan and write things out. In case you’re wondering, those are the hand-knitted bananas in pyjamas bed-socks my grandmother gave me for Christmas. And while a sweet gift, the cognitive dissonance gives me a headache every time I try to work out the logic of it – I consider them yet another reminder that many people in the world think in a very different way than I do.

PeterMBall 30/12/2008
Journal

Well, I’m off.

Okay, folks, I’m off to the Gold Coast for Christmas, Library books, and several long hours of locking myself in a room and being antisocial while working on my exegesis. This will actually be a nice change from locking myself in my flat and being antisocial while reorganising everything I own (a job that was finished yesterday, and so I am now organised). I’ll be back some time after boxing day and, hopefully, resume regular blogging then.

PeterMBall 23/12/2008
Conspicuous Acts of Cultural Consumption

Burroughs sells athletic shoes, Lydon sells us butter

I never actually thought I’d see a commercial that generated more cognitive dissonance and fear that the end of times are upon us than this one: But this comes pretty damn close:

PeterMBall 19/12/2008
Adventures in Lifestyle Hacking

Mental Reset – Day Three

I have but to rearrange the folder archive of my writing files (to better distinguish between “do now” projects and “percolating for ideas” projects) and tidy up some boxes, then the study is done. Not complete, for there are still projects that remain long-term on the organising front (filing cabinet, wardrobe full of crap), but done enough that I know what needs to happen on all front. I have, however, sorted through seventeen decks of playing cards and tossed those that are no longer complete. I also found a movie ticket for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film that I felt the need to archive once upon a time. No, not the recent one; I’m talking about the first one. Both the ongoing projects list and the very next thing that needs doing lists are getting out of control, but I should be able to burn through the majority of the entries over the weekend. Still,  I move onward to

PeterMBall 19/12/2008
Adventures in Lifestyle Hacking

Continuing the mental Cntr-Alt-Del

It’s day two of the great purge-and-reset, and I’m yet to get out of the office. Twelve straight hours of sorting files and making mental notes on projects yesterday (which proved surprisingly exhausting) and I’m finally down to the last box of lost papers/books and a two-drawer desk-caddy that’s got loose papers in it. I figure I’ll have the study finished tonight, then it’s on to the bedroom. Oh, the things that have been tossed out over the last twenty-four hours. I’ve made seven trips to the bin thus far, each time loaded up with an arm-full of paperwork I no longer need, and what remains is still a pile large enough to animate and give sage advice to fraggles should it so desire. Among the many things tossed out: tax records from 1995; hard-copy of seven chapters from a fantasy novel draft I’m pretty sure I didn’t write – I think it’s Sean’s, from back before I spooked him

PeterMBall 18/12/2008
Works in Progress

Doctorate and stuff.

Just got my latest creative project draft from the associate supervisor (aka our gatekeeper, since he’s the one coming at the work fresh and without two years of living with the stories). It looks like I’m correcting formatting and doing some minor line-edits, with a few spots that need a little more clarity. The rest is largely a thumbs up and an “it’s all good and it’ll earn the degree; now finish your exegesis.” Plus the possibility of teaching work is back on the cards after a long absence, so I may be eating something other than two minute noodles come march. Now I’m going back to the to-do list from hell.

PeterMBall 17/12/2008
Adventures in Lifestyle Hacking

Because ambivalence wasn’t working for me…

So last night I ran down the list: – Feeling like there’s too much to do, yet doing nothing of note? Check. – Spawning new projects I just have to do because “they’re so damn cool” instead of finishing old projects? Check – Not sleeping? Check. – Avoiding blog-posting? Check. – Resurgence of interest in both wrestling and gaming, with a hyper-focus on my favourite wrestling-sim that often supersedes sleep and food*? Yeah, that’s there too; check. Yep, all the signs are there and my customary ambivalence in the face of things that stress me out remains ineffective. It’s time to hit the big old mental reset button and start reworking my to-do list from the ground up. I’ve given myself permission to do nothing but get my life in order for the next four or five days, ransacking the house room-by-room and establishing a workable model for getting done all the stuff I want done. A physical and mental

PeterMBall 17/12/2008