Hard Things
Sep. 6th, 2017 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithLife is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.
What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do?
What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do?
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-06 10:26 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2017-09-06 10:52 pm (UTC)It hasn't rained here in too long. We were supposed to get some the other day but didn't. :(
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-09-06 11:17 pm (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-09-06 11:19 pm (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-09-10 08:20 pm (UTC)Disorganized electronic files
Date: 2017-09-06 11:53 pm (UTC)I need, quite desperately, to create a filing system, open one file at a time, tear apart the notes and things that go to OTHER bits, and create an organized World Book for each universe, and probably half a dozen of them JUST for Polychrome stories.
I don't have time to do this, not if I need things like food and sleep and writing time.
Worse, I tend to mis-remember names like Tamson versus TamsEn, for example, which is a huge honking mess, and Winlock House versus Gutner House is MINOR in comparison. This, in turn, means I don't remember FILE names either.
Drowning, drowning in unidentified files that have actual started, incomplete stories, and becoming more depressed by the minute when trying to figure out how to do this.
Re: Disorganized electronic files
Date: 2017-09-07 12:19 am (UTC)That sucks. :(
I try to keep character sheets in one file. Even then, I lose some, because I tend to make them at the bottom of a poem first, and occasionally dropped into other places. But most of them are in one place.
The location notes long since got too big for one file, so now I have lots, which makes it hard to find stuff, but there's no getting around that.
Many of the general notes are in one file, but I've broken out large chunks like legal issues and food.
>>I need, quite desperately, to create a filing system, open one file at a time, tear apart the notes and things that go to OTHER bits, and create an organized World Book for each universe, and probably half a dozen of them JUST for Polychrome stories.<<
Yep.
>> I don't have time to do this, not if I need things like food and sleep and writing time. <<
That sucks. :(
>>Worse, I tend to mis-remember names like Tamson versus TamsEn, for example, which is a huge honking mess, and Winlock House versus Gutner House is MINOR in comparison. This, in turn, means I don't remember FILE names either.<<
Yeah, I'd never remember this stuff if I didn't make an effort to track it. In particular, I try to minimize duplication of names, because having lots of people with the same first or last name is pesky.
>>Drowning, drowning in unidentified files that have actual started, incomplete stories, and becoming more depressed by the minute when trying to figure out how to do this.<<
So then, one way to sort would be files of completed stories vs. files of incomplete stories. There are a lot of partials that I would love to see finished. Some are closer than others, so after dividing "done" from "not done" you could subdivide "almost done" and "nowhere near done." You had three big chunks of the first meeting between Ruggiero and Liborio, and could probably finish that one with one more installment. Contrast that with the tempting scene of Aidan confronting Faramundo, which is just a fragment.
In essence, look for things you can pull out of the pile. Detangling it all at once may be too much, but you can probably whittle it down.
Re: Disorganized electronic files
Date: 2017-09-07 04:16 am (UTC)This machine needs to be run through an industrial shredder, I swear!
Picking one thing out of the pile is going to be tough, but I'm trying, starting with Joshua's ex wife's CS, since I need it for the next story.
Re: Disorganized electronic files
Date: 2017-09-07 04:31 am (UTC)You can get the things one thing at a time. <3
Re: Disorganized electronic files
Date: 2017-09-07 04:39 am (UTC)That's a good idea. I'd like to have a copy when you find it.
Re: Disorganized electronic files
Date: 2017-09-08 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 03:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 04:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 02:22 am (UTC)Hard Thing I still need to do: Send in a novel re-write that the publisher asked for after rejecting it in the initial form.
Thoughts
Date: 2017-09-07 02:32 am (UTC)Go you!
I wrote a math class once. Yes, really.
>> Hard Thing I still need to do: Send in a novel re-write that the publisher asked for after rejecting it in the initial form.<<
Good luck with that.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-09-07 03:59 am (UTC)thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 03:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 03:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 04:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 03:01 am (UTC)I'm in three classrooms instead of one this year, each for part of the day, on a schedule that changes slightly but significantly every day of the week. It bother me because I'm not good with transitions or processing new social data so it is making my beloved job much harder and less fun for me.
And I don't necessarily agree with the theory that this will help kids form more/broader positive connections, because while it does provide that opportunity, it means that kids who need to *bond* with someone consistently *there* during the day only have the one full-time adult in kindergarten, instead of one classroom teacher and one educational assistant (aka a teacher with a lesser degree requirement (not necessarily a lesser degree though) who doesn't get paid like one, not that teachers are paid more than beans anyway, but it's fewer beans).
Swapping around might work for people assigned to work one on one, but when it means we have to get to know 3 times the kids in 1/3 the time, it means those connections are not being supported as much.
More, it is indicative of the brokenness of hierarchical divisions in teaching staff between 'classified' and 'certified', since there have been a lot of indicators of thinking of people with my job title as less real or important - like giving us an 'office space' that turned out to be a room that per fire code cannot have furniture in it, and like putting our breaks at transitions from room to room without building in any additional time for the actual transition of papers, materials, and self from room to room. And a lovely meeting in which I was reminded to speak up significantly less in meetings but participate, go home on time but nonetheless keep spaces spotless, ask for help but also be independent, apply self-care to manage stress but don't be stressed at work, and think of working on these things as professional development *eyeroll*. Not that classroom teachers don't get that BS too, but, WOW. In fact, I speak up in meetings *less* than quite a few people - I'm just a statistical outlier ***for my job title*** because I speak up *at all* - and the mathematical incorrectness of this subjective impression of my air time bothers the hell out of me because it's so clearly indicative of the hierarchy of racial, gender, and economic privilege existing besides and on top of the already problematic hierarchy of job descriptions.
And it highlights my own underemployment, given my paper and actual qualifications, that I feel stuck on fixing.
So it's quite crummy, the whole schedule thing.
I'm going to devote a few minutes tonight to working on job hunt related things or at least thinking about them without panicking, but in some ways, the most annoying part is that I really really like my school and my job - so they had to go and make it less of what I like.
But doing my very best work under the circumstances is challenging, even though there are lots of bright spots - like being able to be in immersion Spanish for math, which is *already* helping polish my language skills. Nonetheless, I will do my best for the kids.
Whether or not that's the best for admin, insofar as THAT is feasible. Sometimes I hate not being able to tell *how* squeaky of a squeaky wheel I'm being, since that makes it hard to calibrate to get a productive response. Sometimes I love being a prismatic peg in a cubical hole since that means I see things other people miss and may even have the chance to advocate for a student or family. Usually it is both.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 04:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 04:32 am (UTC)Edumacation marches on!
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-08 02:32 am (UTC)Being an adult
Date: 2017-09-07 08:51 am (UTC)Re: Being an adult
Date: 2017-09-07 08:56 am (UTC)On the other hand, perhaps if you get one, you will learn new skills that could be useful later.
Re: Being an adult
Date: 2017-09-08 03:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-07 02:32 pm (UTC)The hard thing that needs doing: I have to thing-a-day myself toward moving. Not yet, but the day is coming, and I'll know more about exactly when in a month or so.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-10 08:24 pm (UTC)