Re-posted from Facebook. I wish I was a more consistent and persistent blogger. But I do appreciate anyone who takes the time to visit this blogsite and check out what I am here sharing, especially those I have known in the past, with whom we have even for a relatively short time got to know each other well and work closely together.
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I will share an update on what I am been doing the last ten days or so, since my last update. I wish I knew of a way to share periodic updates of what I have been doing, and thinking, with any and all people I have known well and been close to, even for relatively short times: some magical space that everyone liked to access and found easy to access. But I don't know of any, and I can only keep up on one social media site even semi-regularly so this is it. However, I'd love to be in touch with and whenever/wherever possible to meet up as well with many more past students of mine to know how they are doing and what's been happening in and with their lives. It's remarkable to care as much as I do for people in what I always experience as such an intensely powerful and meaningful relationship, while working as part of a class together, and then quickly enough never to see or hear from many of these people ever again. I've tried blogging but I am too haphazard to be all that good at it, and often leave off posting any blog entry for months at a time.
1. Last week I spent much of the time writing, and finishing, section seven, focused on the Joy Division song “Dead Souls,” for my book that is nearing completion, _Ian Curtis, Joy Division, and Critical Theory_. I have three more sections to write and then I will have completed writing the whole book: sections on “Atmosphere”, on “Decades,” and on wrapping up and bringing to a conclusion the memoir portion of the book. After that, I am on to finding a publisher, as well as a publisher for the other book I wrote over the course of these past two years, _21st Century British TV Crime Drama, Book One: From Fearless to The Fall_. Unfortunately, I doubt I will finish drafting all of the former book prior to the start of the Fall 2022 semester, although that would be ideal, because I face so much else to do in the meantime, and how ready and able I am to do any of it can be unpredictable, even from day to day–while how much any section of a book will require from me always awaits me writing it.
2. I have selected all of the readings (and all of the screenings and listenings) I am assigning for all of my Fall 2022 semester class, and lined all of these up with a precise day to day schedule of class sessions (class meetings) in each case. That has taken considerable effort, but I am impressed with how it has ended up and with what great potential–extremely exciting–it offers us, students and I, to take on and explore together. I discovered, after having planned everything out for 28 total class meetings, that we will meet 29 times in each if these classes this semester, so I needed to some reshuffling; better to discover we will have one more class meeting than expected rather than discover we will have one less.
3. I scanned to pdf and uploaded to Canvas (our electronic classroom site) all of the readings we will be doing as excerpts from a great many books. Late this past Sunday afternoon I started this process. I discovered after an initial run-through I had to re-scan half of what I had just done all over again because I hadn't set the page size quite right or held the book down firmly enough all the way through the scanning process (I feel sorry for the books doing so, it feels like I am breaking them, but it needs to be done), and in one case had to re-scan three selections from one book twice before getting it right because it was so tricky to get right. I am happy to have all this done. And I am happy as well that Monday evening I showed I am still eminently capable of learning as I scanned from twice as many books as I did Sunday afternoon in half the time and with no errors (no need to scan anything twice). I wanted to do this all myself and quickly before it got too close to the start of the fall semester, and too busy, while also recognizing office staff help is likely more limited than ever and it wouldn't be fair to expect one person to have to do all this for me, when she has much else to do, while also not wanting to leave these books behind waiting scanning for a long time because I am currently using many of them myself.
4. My campus office is all set, after reorganization and after culling of lots of materials. I could probably cull at least as much as I just did and never miss any of it, but that's good progress nonetheless. I now have a stand up (sit-stand) desktop for my computer, keyboard, and mouse, in my campus office, which works well, while network/internet connections are now restored and working once again. I feel like it will be a pleasant place to be at, during student drop-in hours (what I used to call office hours, but no more–I want students all to clearly recognize these times are solely for them to drop in and talk with me, not for any other purpose) and for spending time there otherwise. I haven't spent much time in my campus office the last two years, hardly at all, going months upon months without visiting even once, and really only last spent much time at my campus in early to mid March 2020 before we switched to all-online for the rest of the semester.
5. Last week running went well and this past weekend long walks seemed to go well, during the course of walking, too. But I made the mistake Sunday of deciding I could walk 6 and 1/2 miles wearing Vans shoes that were not well worn in yet, in mid 80s heat and with high humidity. Unfortunately I damaged the little toe on my right foot and scraped the back of my left foot, which led me to decide to walk barefoot the last mile and carry the shoes, as this felt much better. But the damage was worse than that as it turned out I had sprained my right ankle, leading to considerable swelling, and I had developed shin splints in my left leg. All from wearing the wrong shoes while walking at length in the heat. To make matters yet worse, yesterday, and undoubtedly affected by the foot, ankle, and leg injuries, I suffered a severe flare up (I think ‘attack' is actually a better descriptor when it is this bad) of my chronic digestive disorder which meant I couldn't do anything but lie down most of the afternoon and then go to be early yesterday evening. That's chronic illness for you: one day you are able to walk or run, long and fast, with abundant energy and stamina, and then the next day you can barely move at all. But I'm better today, and I hope that feeling of being better will persist. I have learned my lesson, though, now, I think: whenever embarking on a long walk, especially in hot weather, I must wear proper walking shoes and socks, as the three times in the last several months I've experienced ankle swelling have all followed me walking, at length, in the heat, while wearing the wrong shoes and the wrong socks. I used to never get shin splints, or ankle swelling, or the host of other pains I now seem to be able all too easily to get from walking, and from running, but I am learning to expect these and to adjust. I am not going to stop being physically active, and even aiming to continue to be more and more physically active, but I've got to be smart about this. Fortunately, for example, many books and other resources are available for running after 50/60/70 and throughout old age–and for walking as well.
6. Otherwise life has been largely as usual for me: listening to music and preparing as well as doing my Insurgence shows, watching crime fiction TV series from around the world late at night, teaching Aidan to come ‘here' whenever called and not just when he prefers to do so (by means of fun games he is enjoying a lot; we need to use ‘here' because ‘come' he has learned to mean ‘come if I want to do so'), and doing other work toward upcoming writing and fall teaching preparation (I've got a second volume of _21st Century British TV Crime Drama_ to write, _Book Two: From Life on Mars to Line of Duty_ and to start to figure out what I will do in teaching ‘Contemporary Black British Experience' come the Spring 2023 semester). I am also at least anticipating the host of mandatory ‘trainings' I will need to undergo and have to catch up on after two years away, and the need as well to prepare materials for my latest post-tenure review.
7. I know I come across to many as an exceedingly well-organized person who prepares notably well ahead of time but there's generally two good reasons why this is so which not everyone might recognize. First, the better prepared ahead of time, the more flexible and spontaneous and ready to adapt and shift, even dramatically, I can be, which is especially true in teaching, and in allowing students to take discussions wherever they want and need without me losing touch with what I most want to be sure to emphasize and to otherwise get across. Second, because of chronic illness which cannot be anticipated or controlled (I used to mistakenly indicate that I work to try to manage and ‘control' the chronic illness I experience which was wrong because it cannot be controlled; I can aim to manage and cope as best I can but I can't control it), in terms of when it will erupt, in how severe a form, with what precise array of symptoms, and lasting for how long. So being prepared helps for when I am able to do little just to struggle through considerable discomfort and pain solely to get by. Undoubtedly many others with chronic illness are similar to me in this regard (and try also to be prepared in this way). A professor I worked closely with as a PhD student at Syracuse University, who faced his share of chronic illness but never superficially appeared to allow this to slow him down at all, as he always seemed on top of everything, extremely sharp and fast, and highly energetic (appearances can be most deceiving), advised me to prepare, at least roughly two to three weeks ahead, in anticipating the prospect of becoming sick. Good advice, although I still only decide specifically how we will organize and conduct each class session after the immediately preceding one has ended, or at most a week at a time, and I never prepare specific assignments until right before I give them out in class. And I always make a great many changes in teaching every class, from semester to semester. It's challenging to be like that, even though it feels right and necessary, and as far as the impact of chronic illness is concerned all I can do is hope for the best this fall semester.
8. One final thing we have just done: we, Andy and I, have arranged to meet next week with a representative of Human Resources at UW-Eau Claire to discuss what we will need and want to do as we retire. We haven't decided whether we will retire at the end of 2022-2023, 2023-2024, or 2025-2025, but three more years will be the absolute maximum amount for us. We're getting steadily older, and, even so, we still can do a lot, and want to do a lot, but we have increasingly found, over a good number of years now, that the demands of working full-time at UW-Eau Claire leave us little energy left over to do all that much else, and it is hard even to meet those demands. So we would like it, while we still can, to be able to do yet much more, including to be able to offer and contribute yet much more, and to pursue yet further bold new adventures together.
All best regards everyone!