Year: 2019

• The Debrief

  

  Day 1 down.

• one day more

  

  I shared on the weekend that I had been working, and how rare that was (working on the weekend, not working full stop!). I’m now further into that particular grind, working through Day 8 of a nine-day stretch.

  I’m very much feeling it now. At times through a stretch like this you’re in the zone, you find your flow. But then there are times like now, when you feel like there’s nothing left.

  It’s like a day after a rough night’s sleep; but just lengthened over a period of days.

  One more day tomorrow – a full day, but away from the office. A time to discuss, to reflect, to plan.

  Then two perfectly-planned research days, to get my head back into reading and thinking mode.

  Then a long weekend.

  I can do this.

• Come sail away

  It’s been over a year since I worked on the weekend. Since some pretty severe burnout I’ve had to make sure that weekends and most weeknights are kept free, though sometimes the latter is unavoidable.

  But this weekend, between a full and crazy week last week, and an equally insane three days from tomorrow (Monday), I literally ran out of time to get everything done.

  I would now never advocate for weekend work, but occasionally – very occasionally – the grind can have its satisfactions. Particularly if it’s a typically grey and awful Melbourne day outside.

  The task I ran out of time to complete was a paper I’m delivering at a symposium tomorrow. To be fair, I think I’d be forgiven for running out of time, given I organised the symposium, but I really did want something semi-decent to present.

  I’ve basically kicked off conference season myself; after this talk, I have another 2-3 to prepare for late November/early December. But I think I’m being strategic here: with 4ish papers done, I can then work to convert one or two into full articles/chapters next year.

  The RMS Publish or Perish sails on…

• stuff

• the freshness of being

  

  I couldn’t stop watching it. Again.

  Like, the film is two hours and forty fucking minutes long.

  It’s also been a solid two years or so since the first time I saw it. And it’s not the same.

  I thought it would feel slower. That I would be made to feel each agonising camera movement again and again.

  But honestly: it felt speedy. It felt measured. It felt right.

  Yesterday I watched Dave Grohl’s Sound City, and in that they get a bunch of musos to define ‘feel’.

  Essentially ‘feel’ is that moment where everything else fades away, where it’s just you and the music, where everyone is just on the same wavelength.

  I was feeling this film today. It was just me and the film. I was on its wavelength (I promise I’m not high, though can you imagine).

  This time I thought about the doggo. This time I thought a lot about Annihilation (and I’m not the first).

  I came in thinking eco-cinema, and once again that narrowness of vision was devastated.

  What. A. Film.