Win some, lose some

[faustus]

I had an appraisal back in the midst of May, and got a report from it on Thursday. This is a step above the previous two, which never led to a report. Anyway, I have to respond by Monday. Screw that.

Apparently I've agreed to submit an article to an international peer-reviewed journal. Either we decided to put down something I'd do anyway or something got screwed up. I do submit to IPRJs. And I want training in managing. H'mm. Not sure I do.

Meanwhile, I've not only person handled three IKEA shelving units into place solo, but also the books have, moreorless, gone back onto them, and I have gaps which I can fill with DVDs as I buy them. However, there are three Hitchcock Boxsets, four seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm and The League of Gentlemen, two seasons of The Office, one season of The Shield and Seinfeld and the Complete and Utter Monty Python that need watching soon. This afternoon. I decided that five of the seven shelves on the shorter unit needed raising by one hole. I managed to do this without removing everything. My back may disagree.

There's also the matter of getting the old narrow bookcase and the Bookcases of Dr Kaligari upstairs where there may be filled with a) parts of the unread pile, b) the book debris of the middle room and/or c) some category of book that would be hived off into a case of its own. I'm running out of journal space, but I like turning around to touch them. I have fiction A-Z, children's fiction and over size downstairs, sf criticism, theory, poetry and Elizabethan, film, Australia and a tip of 1970s stuff upstairs. The Doctor Who novels will fit on the bottom shelf of one of the tall cases. Graphic novels? That may suit the taller shelves of the narrow case. One of the Bookcases of Dr Kaligari is destined for the alcove in the bedroom, which is currently where the unread hardbacks lie. I'm not sure whether the curved shelves can take all the weight though. They curved after being asked to support videos. Within 24 hours. Unread paperbacks and move hardbacks to where the paperbacks were?

The reshelving involves putting back the Terry Pratchetts into the alphabetical sequence for the first time since about 1998. Not that I've yet had my comps of The Unofficial Companion. There is a definite gap in front of me now, although the Pocket Essentials remain.

I'm planning to have lunch with my publisher (!) this Friday - and there are apparently ideas for further projects. I confess to one of my own, which would fill the shelf again, with 46 novels and five volumes of short stories. Finding it difficult to squeeze the idea into 160,000 words, mind.

An email from a student:

Hello again. I apologize for not responding these days. Well it will work if they call you and if you would tell them about my attendance and my marks. It would be great in fact. Can you give me your phone number because if they accept me I'm sure that they will call you. Thank you!

P.S.: Finding a job is very important. The rent is HUGE:((

Uh? Excuse me? Who is this? A signature would be nice, although I could have spent ten minutes using their user name to track them down. At first I thought this was spam, but eventually I worked out the context.

Ah well, five days to go before we break for Xmas - well, until I need to do all this marking... Off to do something with brussel sprouts.