Long time no post! The middle of my June has, indeed, been crazy (a friend’s FABULOUS wedding, and running around North America with another friend!), but the last few weeks have been quiet. I’ve done some research, but mostly I’ve been rediscovering time for myself. One thing that I’ve lost in the past few years, in my desperation to keep up with both my arts and academics, is that I don’t really give myself much ME time. Yes, I spend (far too much) time on the internet, reading webcomics etc., but that’s not ME time. However, for two weeks in the middle of this month my computer was getting repaired (oops), and so I had to find other ways to entertain myself than the endless streaming of digitized information. So, gleefully, I’ve been reading children and young adult fantasy novels, a guilty pleasure that I feel absolutely NO guilt about. I discovered Rick Riordan, first via his new book “The Red Pyramid” and then via his “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series (OMG I just finished book 4 and haven’t bought the last book yet NEED NOW), which despite what I’ve heard about its related rubbishy movie has been really quite entertaining. I also went to see Knight and Day with a friend, and to my surprise it was quite awesome. Not fourteen flavours of awesome, but at least five. And I’ve gone SWIMMING. If it weren’t for my dislike of public pools, I’d go swimming all the time. I find it calming and restorative, and I do some of my best thinking underwater.

Representative of this whole rediscovery, however, is a craft project I began years ago. The yarn, pattern, crochet hook and beads were a store-created kit given to me by my parents, but as I rarely worked on gifts for myself, it was often put off until I went on holidays (or at least plane flights), because crochet hooks are OK on planes (knitting needles aren’t). But on this trip home, I’ve finally finished it.

It’s lovely, soft, and light. And its structure reminds me that I shouldn’t over-structure my life — leave time for the ME-time, and the arts and academia will follow.

Tags: art vs. academia,crochet,life
Categories: Academia, Arts, crochet
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I currently have issues stringing a spoken sentence together, due to exhaustion. I spent this past weekend at a conference (if you know anything about medieval academia, you’ll figure out which one without me having to say), and I am SHATTERED.

Things I learned:

• Textile-loving people are awesome, regardless of where you are.
• An etsy-seller makes hair-swords. For buns. DUDE.
• I really need to get over  “OMG I TOTALLY CITED YOU IN MY DISSERTATION/THESES!!!” and remember that my heroes are, in fact, cool people with a shared interest.
• I can be a foreigner in my own country.
• People who study monsters are really sweet.
• Academic papers can sound like spoken word performances, if it’s the right paper and the right person.
• Someone will be obnoxious if your paper is rather spoken-wordy. NB: This did not happen to me personally, nor was I this person.
• You can live off of bad coffee and even worse wine.
• Dessert is a necessity.
• DO NOT TELL MEDIEVALISTS IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY. THEY WILL MAKE THE CAFETERIA SING.
• “Once Kalamazoo, always Kalamazoo.”

I will return when I have regained enough energy to both A) begin my fabulous research treks, and B) make something arty.

Oh, and by the way, SURPRISE I REDID THE LAYOUT. Relaunched the main site on 13 May, too. YAY.

Tags: academic,authors,conference,fandom,maintenance,medieval
Categories: Academia, maintenance
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Looking back through this month, it’s apparently been one long thought process on academic influences, with a bit of knitting thrown in (and one entry on bellydance, goodness!). I guess that’s only to be expected, as I’ve been working on a new thesis chapter (which I will hopefully edit and submit tomorrow!).

That said, I’ve still been doing things to keep myself sane—as noted, mostly knitting. I’ve the missing skin and new callus to prove it. But I’ve also, since I’ve been well, started into getting a dance routine habit. I haven’t necessarily been able to dance every day, but I’ve been doing the most pertinent leg stretches as well as some strengthening exercises, with an intensive set last Sunday. I can still feel a bit of twinge when I sit down, and walking up and down stairs this week has been interesting. Surprisingly, I’ve found it easier to move my sore legs if I make myself jog, or at least walk faster than normal. I’m sure there’s a proper physiological explanation for this, but all that matters to me is that it’s made me more active!

And that’s April, folks. A lovely holiday, a bit of illness, a lot of knitting, and a return to research. Now comes May, with my first ever conference (yipes!), research in copyright libraries, visiting family, and (oh yeah) my birthday. Hopefully I’ll have a new site layout to reveal by mid-May, too.

But first, I need to survive this weekend. Beltane + film + ceilidh + who knows what else. It’s going to be MADNESS! In a good way.

So, Lysse-bird out… until May!

Tags: life
Categories: Academia, Arts
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So I should be going and having dinner as a reward for actually writing part of a chapter (2700 words!!), but instead I’m rewarding myself by writing a blog post. Yes, I’m rewarding writing with…writing. My ability to reward myself with the same thing that was my task never ceases to astonish me (seriously, I do this a lot).

That said, I thought I’d write a few notes on teaching. I received a couple e-mails from last semester’s students over the weekend (mostly panics about “will I violate exam rules if I do XYZ?” to which I tend to reply “better safe than sorry, so try not to do XYZ”), and I was surprised at how much this made me miss my students.

I really like teaching.

And I’ve started to have a few worries about whether I’m actually good at teaching. I haven’t looked at last semester’s student comments yet (I’m waiting until I rework my syllabus over the summer—I’d like some distance on the semester before I destroy my soul), but student comment sheets can only go so far. Mostly because people don’t know what makes a good teacher until either a) they’re teaching themselves, or b) they’ve been taught explicitly to do or learn something new. Unfortunately, most of the teaching I do is ephemeral critical thinking skills (that don’t involve a workbook like mine did in elementary school), which is a bit harder to measure. I remember the teachers that TOLD me that I needed to start using my brain (yes, this happened…twice), but I don’t remember how they TAUGHT me to. It just happened as we went along.

Which was why this weekend was really nice, because I got to teach something where both student and teacher could see results. A bunch of my country dance friends organized a knitting afternoon, and one friend asked me to teach her how to knit at said afternoon. By the end of the afternoon she was casting on exceptionally well (I wish my tension had been that good when I’d started!) and have several rows of knit-stitch finished. I kept having flashbacks when I taught a friend from home how to knit, and that she’d been successful in learning, too (I should ask her if she’s still knitting). And tonight, I’m going over to a third friend’s to watch Glee (DON’T JUDGE ME), and as she’s just recently gotten into knitting, I’ve been asked to show her how to increase and decrease stitches. And I’m really looking forward to it.

Goodness, knitting, teaching and friends—since when did I have a social life? You’re not supposed to have one of those when you’re writing chapters!

Ah well. Off to have that reward-dinner now. Lysse out!

Tags: academic,art vs. academia,knit,life
Categories: Academia, Arts, knit
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Apologies again for the radio silence; I was ill last week and not up to writing. Seems like I’ve been ill most of the academic year—which is pretty accurate; the only months that saw me completely well were February and March. But now with antibiotics and a lot of sleep, I’m feeling much better. I’ve also gotten much further along on my chess set, which I will write about later this week.

As I spend more time studying the use of clothing/costume in literature and art, I’m developing an increasingly greater urge—even need—to not simply study and record in text but to also create and recreate. This may simply be a throwback to my costuming/reenactment background, but after spending every day thinking about how medieval clothing went together, was made to hang and fit, were cut, recut and lined, I have the desire to work that out myself physically. Textiles are inherently tactile, made to be worn, touched, felt, experienced—not just examined from a distance. The sheer amount of labour and attention that went into the medieval items, the fine embroidery and ornamentation, only confirms this. Art involving textiles should be touched.

This is one reason I get annoyed by modern art. How dare they make such beautifully textured things that aren’t meant to be touched! Art that deprives me of a sense necessary to appreciate it is denying itself and the experience of it.

So what does this rather academic rant have to do with my art? Well, I’m considering investing in a sewing machine—I have one, but it lives in the States with my parents, and it’s become obnoxious over the years to go on holiday and spend my time sewing instead of being social. Otherwise, I’ll keep knitting and thinking on textiles. And I might (re)take up needlework—I used to needlepoint, and have thought of cross-stitching. But really, as I put together my doctorate, I just want to piece fabric together.

Tags: art vs. academia,costuming
Categories: Academia, Arts
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Here’s a hint: if you think about a blog post so long that you’re sure you’ve written it and posted it by the time you go to bed, double-check. You may very well be wrong.

Anyway, to continue from Friday! When I applied to colleges I found one that had a medieval reenactment group. Due to one thing and another, it’s also the college I attended. I almost didn’t join the group, though—I had second thoughts before signing up, and only attended my first meeting because I heard some of my friends were going. I was quickly sucked into both costuming and combat. Fast-forward four years, and I’d served in four of the ten positions on the committee (in order: tech, historian, chessboard, publicity).

That group was That Medieval Thing.

A banner I made in my last year, during a chessboard rehearsal, after our nice one was stolen.

Combined with my fabulous classes in medieval literature and culture, and I’d been hit—I needed to continue in my medieval studies. If it weren’t for TMT, I wouldn’t be in Scotland. It’s amazing that it took me until starting my PhD to realise what I wanted to write on. The late Middle Ages in England and France had been my focus the whole time I was in TMT—I’d convinced the committee more than once to set our festival or feasts there. The day-in-day-out of TMT revolved around costume and combat—if you went to one of those, you’d be sure to know everyone. Now my whole PhD is on costume, and one of my chapters is specifically on arms, armour and heraldry. How did it take me this long?

I’d thought I’d write more than this, but I find it difficult to write on something that held such meaning for me. I honestly don’t think I gave the group the best I could have, but I certainly got the best out of it (my career).

Yesterday was their twenty-fourth Medieval Festival, and it’s the second I’ve missed. I hope they did fabulously. Since I wasn’t able to visit, I wandered my Scottish home, into museums and other important places, reminding myself through artefacts what it was all about.

I ended up here.

A tourist spot now, but once it was alive, active, used for the purpose it was built for. Because it’s not about the objects. It’s about the people.

TMT 2007

Tags: art vs. academia,festival,life,reenactment
Categories: Academia, Arts
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Oh man, am I looking forward to April! The semester ends this week, which means in April I will be free from classes, from marking, from extra reading. It means I can actually spend most of my days doing research! I am ridiculously excited about this, and plan on spending several good days in libraries, reading to my heart’s (and brain’s) content, faffing about doing some free-writing, producing another chapter, and getting PROPER sleep while doing it all! Yes!

Other fabulous reasons that I’m excited for April include that that my weekly country dance time will be full-on social dancing instead of classes. It’s also Script Frenzy, NaNoWriMo’s sister project, which I am going to partake in very casually. I have a goal, though, and I’m hoping to fulfill it. But the emphasis is on casual. I need a month of chillness, and will not guilt myself if I don’t finish.

Also, near the end of April / beginning of May, some of my bellydance sisters are getting together for what we’re calling a mini-hafla: a close group of folks and uber-supportive ultra-chill environment where people can have a wee boogie, try out new solos, or give their first try at an improv or choreo.

April also means that I’m not too far from heading home for summer. It won’t be a proper holiday, as I need to do research, reading, and writing while I’m home. Plus, I plan on picking up my dance sword (SQUEE!!) and practicing on my parents’ lawn. And making my mum my yoga-buddy, as she’s recently discovered yoga and quite likes it!

However, what does April really mean? It means reprioritizing. I have far too much going on in my life, and though some responsibilities will be over (forever—thank goodness!), there’s ones waiting for me in September, when the new academic year begins. Certain things I simply CAN’T give up, like my academics (duh), my teaching (duh times 2), other academic duties (they need doing and I need the experience), and bellydance (one of the few things that’s keeping me sane—and anyway, I’m fully addicted at this point). Other things won’t be given up because they’re not time-sucks. For example, knitting/crochet/drawing all fill up empty bits of time instead of taking it over, as long as I don’t commit to any large projects with deadlines—and at this point, I refuse to. I’ll finish my mum’s nativity, and after that it’s slow going only. But there’s other things that I’m committed to that are time-sucks and that I’m just not feeling that passionate about, and haven’t been feeling it for a while. So, I’ll be sorting through life-bits in April—putting the better and different parts of things on “shuffle”, as it were—and figuring out where importance truly lies.

Summer’s for reprioritizing. In summer, we shall see. By autumn, we shall know.

Tags: academic,bellydance,folk dance,life,NaNoWriMo,Script Frenzy
Categories: Academia, Arts
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