Excuses, Excuses...

Okay, I know I've been even more lax than normal this week. In my defence, by November 24 I need to have read, processed, marked and provided detailed feedback for:

1 x 100,000 word Doctoral Thesis
3 x 30,000 word honours thesis
66 x 3-5000 word creative writing portfolios
66 x 1500 (ish) word reflective discussion posts.

Plus, any day now, the final revisions for Daywards are going to land in my letterbox, and these need to be back no later than two weeks from now in order to actually get the book out on time.

So yes, I'm a bad blogger.

For what it's worth, here's what's been on my mind lately:

• Picturebooks. I like these. I have a MSS for one tucked away on my hard drive where it's been sitting for the last six years. I really should do something with it. It's called Brightwing. It's about a bird.
  
  
• Parenting. I'll be honest and admit that the entire Jessica Watson sailing around the world thing has been bothering me a little. Not that I don't believe she's capable of doing it, or that 16 year olds aren't capable of turning their hand to pretty much anything - hell, just look at what Steph Bowe's achieving at the moment - she's just doing awsomely. And I know a lot of other teens who are just as brave, adventurous, talented and skilled, that's not an issue for me, either. I'm just not sold on the whole concept of parents sending their little girl out into what (and I know this from personal experience) is a shit-scarey and very dangerous ocean, for the most part completely out of reach of assistance (Both physical and emotional). It doesn't sit well with me for a number of reasons, which I won't go in to. I hope she acheives everything she set out to, though - don't get me wrong about that - and that she comes home safely.
  
  
• UFO's. This is another shameless plug for Imogen's Blog
  
  
• Christmas. We've booked a house for the week of Christmas at my current favourite-place-on-the-entire-planet: Tathra and I am just *hanging out* to get down there, surf for a couple of hours every day, read all the books that I'm not getting read at the moment, and (hopefully) start writing my next project, about which I'm rather excited, but won't say any more about at the moment.
  

All right. That's that. Now I have to go and teach my final class for the year, and then I'm going home.

Have a nice day everyone.

Nerves and Pimping

2 Things currently making me *very* nervous:

1. Job Interview. You might remember a while back I was in the process of responding to selection criteria. Well, with a bit of help from my friends, I obviously got them right, because next wednesday morning I have a job interview. For a real job. Here at the University. Full time. For at least seven years.

I'll be honest; I'm crapping myself.

The last time I sat a job interview was in 1994. That consisted of a ten minute chat with the principal of the school I'd applied to, a firm handshake, and a tour of the college. This one'll consist of a 'panel' of persons unknown. God knows what they'll ask me. Hopefully they'll ask about my current research, because that bring us to...

2. The research 'Work In Progress' paper I have to deliver to the faculty here next Thursday Afternoon. That's right. The day after my interview. It's on the research I've been doing into Y.A fiction, specifically the reconception of adolescence in the Australian YA marketplace. I've got the research all done, no worries, but have to pull it into some sort of coherent form, and then present it for an hour or so. I've never done this sort of thing before and, frankly, I'm terrified. So I keep putting it off. (Don't ask - that's just how I work, for some reason.)

Pimping: If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me mention my Wife's brand new blog I'm very jealous of this idea, as it's something nobody else seems to have done, and I think she's going to have a *lot* of fun with it. She's into magazines, is Imogen, but has decided to diversify her reading somewhat for the next 12 months or so. It's off to a really fun start, I think, and she's got some great ideas in mind.

Why am I blogging? I should be writing my paper, or reviewing the University's operations policies. AAAAAARGH