Re-runs
In an effort to get back into the swing of blogging, I read through some of my previous posts. I think these two posts about Rizzoli and Isles deserve a re-run. I will re-post them over the next couple of days.
As a fan of Tess Gerritsen’s books, when I learned TNT was giving two of Gerritsen’s central characters a show of their own, I was excited, and set my dvr accordingly. Then, I set about waiting to see who had been cast in the titular roles. Don’t ask, it never really occurs to me that I could, you know, use the internet to find out stuff like that in advance. It was obvious from the first commercials I saw that whatever TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles was going to be, it wasn’t going to be too much like the books. For about 7 books I’d imagined Rizzoli, as she is described, with a mop of unruly dark curls, and as good looking, but in a unconventional way; Dr. Isles was, as she is often described, the queen of the dead, a little goth, with red lipstick and straight black hair cut in a bob with straight bangs – which is, as it turns out, how Ms. Gerritsen looks (well, not exactly goth, but you get the idea). While there was never any doubt in my mind these women would be beautiful in their own ways, um … Angie Harmon and Sasha Anderson were not exactly the faces that lept into my mind as I read these books.
To paraphrase Mr. Gump, casting is as casting does. It was silly to have any hopes that these women might be cast differently. This is a review of the show not the books, so this is the last comparison I will make between the two. One of the most compelling aspects of these characters as written are their insecurities, and Jane Rizzoli’s insecurities are tied to her place in a male profession, and what she sees as her inability to meet feminine standards of beauty; it is impossible to make those insecurities play when the woman playing Rizzoli is Angie Harmon.
Like I said, although I’d initially hoped for something a little different, this review isn’t about comparing the television show to the books. The characters, stories, and tone of each is distinct enough that a real comparison is impossible. The books are detective fiction, pure and simple. The television show walks the genre lines between serious police procedural and comedy. It is almost as if the producers really wanted an hour long comedy, and knew stretching a sit com that long would grow tedious, so they decided to incorporate a police procedural to bump up the story. I’ve never seen an episode of Nash Bridges, so I could be wrong, but Rizzoli & Isles makes me think it is like a female version of that show.
It might surprise you, but the light nature of the show is not really what bothers me. A lot of police procedurals err in the opposite way, taking themselves too seriously. What bothers me about Rizzoli & Isles is that the light tone is achieved at the expense of the title characters. At every turn the show undermines the power of two strong women working together, and becoming friends by making every second conversation between the two about getting, or having, a relationship, every third conversation about the case – as if their jobs are an afterthought, and the remaining conversations about clothes and shoes. There has to be some sort of heterosexual romance for at least one of the women in nearly every episode because the writers are working overtime to ensure that it is clear Rizzoli & Isles are not lesbians. (Well, except for those episodes where they pretend to be lesbians – you know, for laughs. Because apparently that is funny.) As a viewer it is impossible to take either Rizzoli or Isles seriously because at every turn we are reminded that Rizzoli can’t get a man because she is not feminine enough, and that despite looking like a fashion plate Isles can’t function socially because she is just too smart.
I keep watching, hoping, for that moment when instead of going for the obvious – undermining women stereotype or joke, the writers will surprise me, but it never comes.
Change of Pace
I am still working more at night, but it has been a little bit of a trade off. The more I work at night, the less likely I am to get up in the morning. Since I’ve been good about writing on my lunch break at work, and I’ve gotten at least two hours of work in each night, I’m okay with that.
I’m still getting up a little early, which is good because then if I need to switch back to the 5 am writing it won’t be so tough. The problem, however, is that I’m usually left with about 15 minutes between the time I’m ready and the time I need to catch the bus. In the summer, I might just head down to the bus stop and use the time to get in some extra reading. It is too cold to spend any extra time at the bust stop right now. And, while I am a master at writing in small chunks here or there, 15 minutes isn’t really the best at this point in the morning. The answer: morning blog posts?
Maybe, but you’ll probably have forgive some missing words and grammatical errors, since I won’t have much time for revision. Just chalk it all up to stroke-brain, and we’ll get along just fine.
The Evening Stand
I’ll be over reporting in about the standing business soon, I promise. For now, it is really all I have to write about.
One of my hopes when creating this standing space was that it would motivate me to move away from the couch/television, and get some work done in the evening. Having spent 8 hours at work sitting in front of a computer screen, the last thing I want to do is come home to sit in front of yet another computer screen. For some reason the television is different. I think it has something to do with those pretty moving pictures. 😉 My thinking was that being in a different position in front of a computer screen might help.
For tonight at least, I was right. Once I’d sat down to eat my dinner it was difficult to get back up. However, once I stood here for a while working on the dissertation, I felt a lot better. True, that might have more to do with making progress on the dissertation than standing, but I do think my change in latitude had a little to do with it.
I got quite a bit of work done tonight, which will hopefully help me sleep a little better.
Standing Day 1
This morning was the first time I tried working from a standing position. It will probably take a little adjustment, but I think that I will like it. To get everything at the right height, I bought three, two shelf closet organizers from Target. Two are 31inches long, and one is 24, and I left the top shelf off of one of each. It gave me just enough room to stack up some books to get the right height for the monitor and keyboard.
What I noticed working today was that having the ability to fidget just that little bit actually helped me to stay a little bit more focused than typically. There are two things I do not really like about this set up. First, I have to keep my laptop shut and tucked away on a shelf to make room for the keyboard and monitor. This means I lose the two monitor set up, I’d grown to really like. Second, I no longer have enough room to keep a document holder set up to easily see the papers I’m working with. I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually, and if I keep this up for three months or more then I’ll spring to make a real set up with stuff from Ikea. When I do that I think I’ll get back some of the space that I’ve lost.
Here is a picture of the current set up. Ignore the rest of the mess.
New Year
I may have dropped off the grid a bit in November, but this year will eventually see more consistent posting from me. I am not sure when, but eventually.
Right now I’m trying out a standing desk hack. The way I have it right now will work for tomorrow morning, but I think I’ll need to make a couple of adjustments for long term use. When I have it really workable, I will post pictures.
Salvage
Once again, this is a weekend in which not enough will happen. Sure, it is quite early on a Sunday to making such a declaration, but enough chores need to be done that I know dissertation writing will fall by the wayside. Well, it will at least not get the full 15 hours of attention it needs to make up for the last week. However, instead of beating myself up about this, I’m trying to take some of the advice I’ve been dole-ling out to everyone else this week. I’m trying to give myself permission to do my chores and to NOT feel bad about the lack of writing.
In order to help myself in this process, I decided to salvage what I could of this train wreck of a process. Today, instead of the incessant whining about the dissertation, I give you some bullets of any good that had come from working on my dissertation.
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Never thought I’d be writing this …
Seriously, all in all you’d be hard pressed to find something I care less about. Admittedly, I read one Twilight book. In my defense, I bought it in a moment of homesickness, because really how often do you get to read about the Olympic Peninsula in a novel? At least I made it through that first book, then I read the second. Even after traumatic brain injury I could see how insipid that book was. The only thing that I am less excited about than the Twilight books, would be the Twilight movies, and any media story about those movies.
That said, I don’t live in a cave, so I do inadvertently know more about Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson than I care to. Funny, though, it is still not enough to ensure I’ve purposefully seen any movie they’ve been in. Before I knew who Kristen Stewart was, I watched “Speak” on Lifetime.
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On Developing Community
Of the work in my field what has been most influential to me most recently, are the calls to create communities of practice within our centers. As you might imagine, this idea resonates deeply with me. Drawing on the work of sociologists Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave, theorists have argued promoting communities of practice in the center encourages the consultants to learn from one another, and to develop knowledge together. I see this work as a natural foundation for the argument I make to use hospitality as a frame for the work of the center because building communities of practice in the center provides the consultant a space from which to welcome the writer.
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Slow and Steady
Well. I got up at 5 am this morning. I wrote 66 new words and revised 4 paragraphs.
Not exactly off to the races, but it is something. I’d do more tonight, but since I plan to write here more I thought I should give the place a little face lift. Plus, the DH is home, and I don’t often get to see him these days, so I figure I should take advantage of it — when I am done here.
An interesting thing is happening at work. There is a consultant who wants to work in the field. She has submitted to a local conference and been accepted, so now I am trying to mentor her through this process. What I am experiencing, is I guess what every new professor experiences, it’s just taken a little more on the job time for me to get there. Anyway, about that experience …
It is really weird to hear your own ideas spoken back to you. Well, it’s not exactly my ideas, she has her own views, but I can see the influence her training with my program has had on her ideas. Generally, I don’t think of myself as someone with a lot of influence, so it took me by surprise to have that realization during our meeting today.
Daily word total: 284
D5 Creation