Eventyr

Extending Deadlines

"By the next morning the Pirate Captain had hit a bit of a wall. He'd spend half the night on his major work, but it wasn't really coming together. It didn't help that every time he got to a tricky bit, he'd play a couple of hands of solitaire or waste half an hour trying on hats. He'd had the boat sailing in circles for a while now, to give himself more time to finish, and he really didn't know how much longer he could keep it up before Marx suspected something."
-- From 'The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists' by Gideon Defoe.

This resonated with me today, as I work on paperwork to extend the deadline for my PhD work, after a lot of time sailing in circles and too many games of solitaire.

Home

I'm not homeless, I'm just restless
I get itchy feet and reckless
I've been travelling so long, cracking
I don't really know what is happening
Here is there is anywhere and home is my ass on a chair
Then I wish I was gone and then I wish I was home
Then I wish I was gone (AWOL) then I wish I was home (AWOL)
AWOL, AWOL
Then I wish I was gone (AWOL) then I wish I was home (AWOL)
Hello home...
--- 'Home' by PWEI

A Dance on the Hills

Give me your hand and give me your love,
give me your hand and dance with me.
A single flower, and nothing more,
a single flower is all we'll be.

Keeping time in the dance together,
you'll be singing the song with me.
Grass in the wind, and nothing more,
grass in the wind is all we'll be.

I'm called Hope and you're called Rose:
but losing our names we'll both go free,
a dance on the hills, and nothing more,
a dance on the hills is all we'll be.

-- Give Me Your Hand by Gabriela Mistral (Translated by Ursula Le Guin)

Informing Myself

• Phase 1: Read PhD comics and note the similarity.
• Phase 2: Realise that (although you tell other people to use information radiators or, more generally, ensure they have an informative workspace) you do not practice what you preach.
• Phase 3: Clean the shared office whiteboard, only to realise it is still inconvenient for your purpose.
• Phase 4: Locate where you left your mobile whiteboard, and move it to the right office.
• Phase 5: Lose time struggling to re-assemble it single-handed.
• Phase 6: Create a system so you can see the work you have planned for the next week/fortnight/iteration
• Phase 7: Hit your head on the desk repeatedly now you can see how you over-planned.

Well, that was my day anyway. 

My Future

In a fickle moment
I was stolen by my future
that casual, random structure.
I shall build it up more beautiful,
as I had thought it at first.
I shall build it on the firm ground
    that is my will.
I shall raise it on the tall pillars
    that are my ideals.
I shall give it a secret passage
    that is my soul.
I shall build it with a high tower
    that is my solitude.

-- Edith Södergran - 'My Future'