Half a Year of Things Happening
Mar. 12th, 2022 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
corpsebrigadierSo... I haven't posted anything of substance here since October, apparently.
I seem to be a sort of sluggish creature during fall semesters, and most of the end of 2021 was me just gliding by trying to persist in academia. I wrote another chapter that was warmly received. I taught a class everybody hated, and I taught it as unhatefully as I could teach it. I made the possibly ill-advised decision to travel during the holidays, during which I was finally reunited with my brother. That, honestly, was the real highlight of last year. He's the sibling to which I will always be closest, and he managed to have the phenomenal luck to move to a different country for a new job in January of 2020. It was pretty momentous to finally see him again, and I'm so glad we got a chance to connect again after having been apart for so long.
This year has honestly been going incredibly well, devastating global events aside. I was given another year of funding to work on my dissertation, and I've actually been working on it consistently and will relative high spirits. It's honestly the first time that I've really felt enthusiastic about the project, as I've written the entire thing thus far under the shadow of COVID. I also finally finally finally got to teach a course in literature, which is such a massive breath of fresh air. It's so hard to feel confident and happy about teaching comp or technical writing or similar topics where I have competence but don't really feel like an expert, and I hadn't really understood this until I started getting to teach something where I know I can shine.
In the meantime, I wrote a few fics. I drew a few artworks. I did the entirety of Whumptober, made it through Yuletide and Multifandom Doodle, and wrote myself another self-indulgent Zalgraf fic for my birthday. I also made a whole new retro webshrine to Ruvelia Atkascha and learned to skin myself a WinAmp.
As is to be expected, I also baked a few weird cakes. I'm moving towards trying to use ganaches and molded chocolate instead of fondant, as well as trying to develop my own recipes such that things have a nicer overall flavor profile. The two most notable results have been an Addramelech goat cake (port and dark chocolate with rosemary) and a little replica of Orbonne Abbey (white chocolate, rosewater, and pistachio).
Overall, my life's gotten pretty chill.
I seem to be a sort of sluggish creature during fall semesters, and most of the end of 2021 was me just gliding by trying to persist in academia. I wrote another chapter that was warmly received. I taught a class everybody hated, and I taught it as unhatefully as I could teach it. I made the possibly ill-advised decision to travel during the holidays, during which I was finally reunited with my brother. That, honestly, was the real highlight of last year. He's the sibling to which I will always be closest, and he managed to have the phenomenal luck to move to a different country for a new job in January of 2020. It was pretty momentous to finally see him again, and I'm so glad we got a chance to connect again after having been apart for so long.
This year has honestly been going incredibly well, devastating global events aside. I was given another year of funding to work on my dissertation, and I've actually been working on it consistently and will relative high spirits. It's honestly the first time that I've really felt enthusiastic about the project, as I've written the entire thing thus far under the shadow of COVID. I also finally finally finally got to teach a course in literature, which is such a massive breath of fresh air. It's so hard to feel confident and happy about teaching comp or technical writing or similar topics where I have competence but don't really feel like an expert, and I hadn't really understood this until I started getting to teach something where I know I can shine.
In the meantime, I wrote a few fics. I drew a few artworks. I did the entirety of Whumptober, made it through Yuletide and Multifandom Doodle, and wrote myself another self-indulgent Zalgraf fic for my birthday. I also made a whole new retro webshrine to Ruvelia Atkascha and learned to skin myself a WinAmp.
As is to be expected, I also baked a few weird cakes. I'm moving towards trying to use ganaches and molded chocolate instead of fondant, as well as trying to develop my own recipes such that things have a nicer overall flavor profile. The two most notable results have been an Addramelech goat cake (port and dark chocolate with rosemary) and a little replica of Orbonne Abbey (white chocolate, rosewater, and pistachio).
Overall, my life's gotten pretty chill.
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Date: 2022-03-12 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-14 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-14 09:04 pm (UTC)