Wednesday 4 November 2009
A loud thump on the doormat this morning – although it sounded like a bigger sound than simply the mail arriving. Actually it was my December issue of Esquire, and it still arrived on time despite the subscription company kindly offering subscribers free access to a digital edition in response to the recent postal strikes.
The weather looked bright and crisp and I made attempts at getting ready to go out to the park to take photographs. Something stopped me however – probably the realisation that I take too many photos of the same thing, if I’m honest. That’s a subject I could go on about until the cows come home: who do I take photos for? Is it worth photographing the same object or scene more than once? When should and shouldn’t you take a photo? Why do I take photographs at all?
Another time though.
Instead, I took a refreshing shower, made a cup of tea, stocked up on digestives and surrounded myself with books and notes. I even got my dictionary out as there’s something frustrating about using a digital version sometimes. The benefits of the latter far outweigh the negatives, but sometimes there is call for something a little more tactile. I think I’d like a big, “proper” dictionary for Christmas.
Speaking of which, I have a couple of things in mind for Christmas but our family doesn’t really ‘do’ Christmas lists. This has been a source of much discussion between John and I, as his family very much does. And they do make a lot of sense. But just because we never have, and my own worry that it could come across as selfish or greedy, it doesn’t feel like something you can just start doing.
I digress. I managed to pile up a few books and get stuck right into essay #1. For an essay with stone cold facts and a chronological order, it’s amazing I couldn’t just sit down and bash it out in one go. But I’m in ‘proper’ uni now – none of that foundation year nonsense – and I’d quite like the practice in reading around and referencing. Sitting down and writing about stuff off the top of my head is one thing I have done for a long time (I’m doing it right now, even) – but academic essay writing is still relatively new to me.
I’m very pleased to announce that I have written 1,200 words (of a 1,500 word essay). I’m even more pleased to say that while I did partially just sit down and write, more than half the time spent on it was in finding useful quotes and references, feeding them into MS Word’s citation system, and padding out my own vague words with them. My only current worry is that it will come across as a series of facts and statements (and quotes), without any real flow or narrative. But I can tidy it up a bit, I’m just glad to have made use of so many sources. Some of the source texts are pretty interesting actually, and it’s a great feeling when you stumble on the perfect quote to include.
Incidentally, if you’re a Word for Mac 2008 user and you have a handy way of making the citation system format bibliographies in the Harvard style, I’d love to know. I found a way to edit the ’styles’ Word uses, and this appeared to make a change in the style of the in-text citations, but not to the bibliography. Obviously I could do it manually, but I rather like using Word’s system. Other options could include Endnote, I suppose. It’s all new to me. Answers on a postcard (or in the comments, whatever).
Finally, it appears that I am now going to see Yo La Tengo on Saturday with John. Which is nice. The next few days are shaping up nicely. Might get a bit of classical music action tomorrow, followed by some potential fireworks and a bonfire. And on Saturday my good friend Nell is having a bit of a do at her shop in the Craft Centre in the northern quarter to celebrate her new shop being open, so I’ll be dropping in to show my face. Besides, it really is a very lovely shop.
