Irregular Posting

Notice At present this blog is not being updated regularly as I am in the final stages of writing my thesis. I am still regularly updating my thesis progress reports if you want news

Monday, October 25, 2010

Writers group reading and a cold hampers play

On Monday finally finished “Why women don’t Ask”. It is worth reading, yes Fleur it does say something about the Church but I have not worked it completely out yet. One of the surprising conclusions is that if women’s approach to negotiation was the norm, then solutions would be better but only if they are strongly dominant. Against a male style negotiation someone negotiating in a woman’s style would do worse. It is not a simple book and needs some digesting. At the moment it is enough that it is making me more willing to ask for things. On the evening went to writers group, which was a rehearsal for Friday nights reading. The problem is that while the rehearsal is a good idea in principle it only really demonstrates how much work is needed before we actually get up to the level where we are able to read our pieces well. The rehearsal therefore does for timing and getting a feel for faults but nothing else. I unfortunately managed to get the keyboard for my phone swapped to Japanese. Instead of doing the sensible thing and searching the Internet for a solution instead I tried the heavy approach. It worked but it meant I had to reinstall my synchronisations software. Needless to say this took me longer than I would have liked.

Tuesday was fairly quiet. I got my hair cut and also had a meeting over introductory documents for postgraduate students. One of the problems is we draw the distinction between taught students and research students. On the evening went to Bible Study at Herringthorpe and set up with Mike to learn their sound desk by sitting with someone next Sunday and the following Tuesday for Mike to run through. So I should be up to speed by synod on the following Saturday.

Wednesday I had a fairly quiet day. Cliff came down so got to put St Andrews sound system to a more functional state. Somebody, I don’t know how, decided that the spare loose microphone was extra to requirements and went and chucked it out so when another microphone we could not simply replace one. However the church was in luck, some time before Barry had made an extension cable for one of the microphones to receivers which therefore had the part that was broken in it. So Cliff is able to substitute one for the other. I can’t do that sort of work. However a replacement microphone will cost over £40.

Thursday I thought I had a migraine as a woke feeling lousy. It wore off as the day went one but by evening I had the pain high in my nasal passages that normally signs colds. Other than that I did a mock up of the front of the book for the writers group the following day. I made a mistake in what I should have done was to print two A4 images onto A3 sheets as this would have allowed me to trim to the right size, instead I had borders.

Friday I had a heater coming for my flat. I got up early intending to go to breakfast but then checked the time on the email that Argos sent. The time said “7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.”, so although I was pretty sure it was not going to be that extreme and the cold had come out, I decided that breakfast was out. Indeed they turned up exactly when I expected them i.e at 10:00 a.m.. For those who think this is remarkable, I am fairly fortunate living in town centre, this means that I end up normally at a fairly set place in the run, either first thing or last thing. So once I have ordered once or twice from them I have a good idea of when they will turn up.

In the evening I went to writers group reading at the Bank Street Arts Centre. It also had on a jewellery exhibition. They have a bar but it is on a honesty basis so I presume they do not have a license. The room was smaller than the ones we had previously but this suited the group. As always we performed far better at the actual thing than at the reading. I find it intimidating to read something and not get anything back apart from a round of applause. Part of me is left thinking “What did they really think”. I was also fully dosed up on cold suppressants so slightly out of things which might partly have caused my inability to sense what people were thinking. Stuart came down and we got the tram up but for once in my life I did not check where the tram was going and it only went as far as the Cathedral so we had to swap over and get the next tram. Fortunately the tram does not require you to buy a new ticket.

Saturday it was over to my parents. Again I stuffed myself full with cold suppressants so although I was not sneezing all over the place I was not up to much. The only job Dad would let Ruth and Me do was choose the wine. He then dutifully did not have any himself, but his resolve finally crumbled that evening when there were two glasses left in the bottle and nobody to drive home. It is agreed that he will drink wine when others are around and may occasionally have a glass of whisky in an evening. In the evening I got Dad’s email back working or at least I think I did. This is much to my Mum’s relief. She really is not bothered about wine and such but Dad has always enjoyed a glass. It was good to see Ruth although I really was not up to much.

Sunday was much the same. I got the train back about 5 pm giving Mum and Dad plenty of time to get to church, so much so that I was back in my flat before they got there but it did stop them panicking about whether they had enough time.

Today woke with the cold flaring and decided that a day in might well be a good idea. I hope it has eased things. Unfortunately it meant missing Owen Sheers at St Andrews as I am still to full of it to be of much use.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

ASSESS conference in the midst of a busy week

Monday was fairly quiet, went to writers group and we were mainly just pacing ourselves. I have the feeling I probably need to buy more but we shall see as by the time I had already orders for four although one was technically direct and not through me. However don’t let that stop you asking for a copy. If however you want to be sure of a copy and to cut out the middle person then please just turn up at the Bank Street Art Centre (on Bank Street which is behind the Cathedral) next Friday at 7:30 p.m. where we will be reading. There was some discussion on whether we should make it available over the internet. If people abroad want it, let me know and I will email the final pdf file to you.

Tuesday was Bible study. This was quiet, many people appeared tired even of those that had made it. The course is in my opinion taking Acts far to quickly. We will get through it in about ten sessions. The thing is that last time we had Ananias and Saphira, the appointment of deacons and the stoning of Stephen in one session. Any one of those on its own could take a full session to talk over.

Wednesday was my day off. I spent the morning at Herringthorpe as they have no less than two meetings on a Wednesday morning. They have a prayer meeting and a fellowship group and although the two overlap they are not the same and led by different people. This is a Songs of Fellowship church but the Wednesday fellowship group are Mission Praise. I have seen churches where the main hymn book has been the denominational one and the youth have had a supplementary one, but I wonder why this group chose Mission Praise.

Thursday back into work but a largely quiet day and it needed to be. As on Friday it was Assess Conference. This is an annual get together in York of people who use SPSS. So I had an early start as I needed to be at the station for 8:20. That does not sound bad until you realise taxis want to pick you up an hour beforehand so I planned to leave the house at 7:30. The free gifts were good from IBM but the support wasn’t. The fact is that until last year they actually sent people to these events. This meant that it actually was time when I could talk to someone in the company about how we were doing at Sheffield and as it is major research package there, that I felt was important. Now we just have a linkup with someone in US. This should be by computer but both times we have had to use phones. If you have ever heard a mobile phone being projected through a microphone you will have some idea how poor the reception was.

Saturday I did some writing up of things in the morning. In the afternoon I went out to find where Bank Street Arts Centre was, so I could get there easily next Friday. It is in the roads I think of as back of the Cathedral. What I will do coming home at least is get the Tram from Fitzalan Square which is really very close by. It is an interesting place, I think it exists in two floors of a couple of tall former terrace houses. I would say Victorian only what little knowledge I have of Sheffield suggests they may be older. The building is therefore on several different levels, yes there is disabled access at least to the lower floor. I am not sure where we will be performing.

On the evening I went to a social event. The judgement of many people I hear is there could have been more people there but there was a good crowd and I think what they mean is that people who are normally at socials weren’t there, but then the point was to get to know new people and had there been more of them that would have been harder for those who were there. The thing that was perhaps most surprising for me was the entertainment. They have four members who as one of their hobbies do Abba Impersonators together. So they got entertainment put on by them. It was loud. Don’t get me wrong, I have no objection to Abba music, but having to listen with my fingers in my ears isn’t normally how I prefer to listen to it. They had some sing-a-long ones as well and some of the younger people were dancing but I suspect quite a few of the older people went home because of the volume and style of the music.

So today spent the day mainly inside. I think made a slight breakthrough with my research diary keeping. I just need to keep telling myself that what I need to do is to free writing and not bother too much about putting down things correctly after all the only person who is going to read the diary is me. So why do I need things in perfect style if I am typing for myself. Also that I should not bother about getting everything down. What I need to do is just get down an impression of what I experienced and that can be done in a lot looser style than I have used up to now. The skill is actually getting me to start typing and stay at it. Often I pressure myself too much over getting something right, although I don’t know what right is, so I am tying myself into knots. I stop writing because it is so difficult to sort out what is the exact thing I need to write.

This evening went to the evening service, which could well be a favourite with me. This church has lots of small meetings that are called different things but roughly do the same thing. There is Bible Study on a Tuesday, Fellowship Group on a Wednesday and Evening Service. I wonder if the Monday Group is the same, although the one account I have had of it, it isn’t. Oh a comment from tonight which was worth noting. This mornings worship was all age and the comment was that it was almost a different congregation.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

A Cold causes limited damage

Right lets see about the last week:
Last Monday the books were finally available from my writers-group. If you want a copy please let me know, we are officially charging £4. Those who want a copy please let me know. Sarah I will put your copy in your pigeon hole and another for Derek Collins. Alright its partly me showing off as I did the layout as well as the first pieces in the book (I did not collate so had no say over that). However in my opinion the second piece is from a novel that really should be published. Because I wanted to see what the finished product looked like and so even though I new I had something virusey but was keeping going. On the night Jude read a superb piece and she is not always the sort of writer I find easy to get on with.

Tuesday I still had the virusey thing, although some of the symptoms in shared with a cold it also put me off eating, not made me nauseous but just meant I rarely felt like eating. However as I had a team meeting and a advice session with someone in Education, basically I am helping her to do her analysis in NVivo by partly being more expert than her on using NVivo, partly being a sounding board and partly by just saying “yes you are doing fine”. Fortunately I had called off house group on the evening because I felt that with supervision the next day it would over tire me. So I went down to Waitrose to shop and to buy some cold suppressants for the next day. I wanted the same ones as worked last year but when I got there they had added guaifenesin which is an expectorant but it also interacts with amiltryptyline which is one of the drugs I am on. I took some once before accidentally and it is not pleasant, even on the low dose I am on. The problem was then that I had to find an alternative. It made my shopping twice as long as I would have liked.

Wednesday I was down to Birmingham for a supervision. Things went smoothly, my supervisor suggested that I really needed to do a re-write rather than an edit of the paper as my language had got too caught up in the editing. The difference between a re-write and an edit is with a re-write I start with a fresh document, take each section and write from memory what is important in that section having read the section first. With an edit I take the actual words and try to put them into a better form. His conclusion is that I need to limit my editing. The good news is that I seem to have ended up with a weekend to do this because everything else has to be done earlier in the month.

Thursday I finally gave into my cold/virusey thing and spent most of the day in bed. I surprised myself in that I slept until after mid-day. However had I needed I suspect I could have gone into work.

Friday I was up and in work. Admittedly I came home slightly earlier than I normally do but I was working fairly well and not just sitting there doing nothing. Stuart came around in the evening to have a glass of wine (he brings the wine) and eat garlic bread. One of the ironies of life that at present we manage to meet more regularly in a purely platonic way than we ever did when we were going out.

Saturday was one of those in days where I did bits and bobs. I went down town on the afternoon, to buy soya flour (I make a form of scrambled egg for breakfast that uses it and soya dream as well as egg). Also bought some page dividers, I will shortly be on my third folder of written work for my PhD. When I have filled this one I will really be down to serious writing of my thesis. Actually I suspect before then. One thing I did not manage to sort is how to finish my work flow process for poetry. I write it in a small note book originally maybe do two or more drafts, then I produce a more polished piece for my writers- group, but after that there should be a final edit and then put somewhere to keep. The choosing what to keep them in is what is puzzling me and my current work folder is getting rather full!

Today I went to Herringthorpe, it took longer than usual due to the verge being tidied. This seems to largely consist to litter picking rather than actually gardening and certainly does not involve any work on the road. However one lane either way of the parkway is closed. I also ended up parking in the Doctors car park due to be late and there being a baptism. Today we had the blessing of a parent and the baptism of a child. There is no need to tell me that that is liturgically awkward, someone prepared to make promises on their child’s behalf that they cannot make for themselves. There is nowt as queer as folk. If anyone had said to me at the start of this thesis that I would have to spend a good portion of my thesis on the sacraments, I simply would think that they were talking through their hat but in St Andrews Chesterfield one of the major flash points was communion and at Herringthorpe it is baptism. The congregation is split between adult baptiser and fairly strict paedo-baptists. There is also the strong feeling that they see these families at Baptism then don’t see them again. The big question, what does it mean to belong?

Next week is busy, I am hoping on Wednesday to call around at the doctors surgery after a prayer meeting at the church and see if I can persuade the manager to give me an interview. What is really interesting is that in some ways the boundaries between Herringthorpe and this Doctors surgery are not clear cut and they need to get along. On Friday I am off to ASSESS at York.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

The start of terms and system upgrades

Well the students are back at Sheffield and the rain has arrived. Students return effects my work in strange ways. Instead of working flat out on interesting research projects which have taken most of the summer (maybe the oviduct study will turn up again). Anyway there is a bounced paper, don’t know why yet and another one being written which I may well need to review. I am also getting better at instructing people on how to keep tabs of their analysis. Meanwhile trying to keep tabs of the advice I give. There is one person who I am taking slowly through defining the question. I am not sure yet what we will get out of it, so I am not sure whether my advice last time was good or not. Well it is good in that it is a next step, but it might not be the right one and what will be needed is a refinement of the question and a different analysis. Meanwhile in the time spare I have I am reading “Why Women Don’t Ask”.
It really is quite a thorough exploration of sociological issues around how women interact within situations. It deals with not only the fact that women tend not to engage in negotiation and when they do to under estimate what they can get, but also the ways that women might be “punished” if they are too aggressive a negotiator. Its not a simple case that women just need to learn to negotiate but that they need to learn how to negotiate in ways that are available for a women and that some aspects of society also need to change.

On the home front I have been upgrading technology wise. I got a new desktop computer largely for writing up my PhD and am starting to feel I have got it set up how I want it although it is periodically not running one piece of software I need to use. I am not overly concerned about this as that piece of software should upgrade in the next three months and I am pretty sure my computer will handle the new version better. I also realised I was being bothered by the fact that I did not have easy access to my diary. I could take my small laptop with me but that takes so long to start up that for setting dates when at church or such I just don’t use it. So I decided to investigate. Work tends to favour people using an Iphone, but I am not the safest of Apple users and anyway I quite like to be odd ball. Instead I went for an Android phone. I only did this when I discovered that SyncML is available for Android. I actually got away with a lower priced phone than I thought I would and it is now working. It took some time to setup but in the end I got it working. I do not recommend upgrading this early in a contract, but I was beginning to realise that it was partly about keeping myself relatively sane and this would niggle me.

Thesis wise things are progressing fairly smoothly. The week after next is a challenge as I need to go to prayer meeting then onto the local medical centre to try and set up a meeting with someone there to discuss neighbourhood needs. I have written a letter, I think phoned twice and decided that in order to get an interview I would need to actually go and visit them.

Equally unsuccessful has my attempts to talk to Zen about setting up a website. They rand me twice, but both times I was either rushing out for a meeting or in one. I think I will need to set up a new query. If only they would let me send something longer than they do I could give them contact times.

My Writers Group is Reading and launching their third collection of work. For those who are interested there is more information about the reading at the venue and or from the Off the Shelf site. Please let me know if you are interested in a copy of the collection (price wil be somewhere around £5, although I may well pay it) and Morag if you could let me know how many you intend to loose this time!

Otherwise this week I am off to Birmingham on Wednesday. The department told me that everyone had moved to new offices. I was sceptical about this, as my supervisors office is not in the main lot of departmental offices and although the new offices are on the Edgebaston campus they are still a way away from the main facilities and I did not think central admin would want that for my supervisor. Now to do some reading for tonight worship.