I suddenly remembered last night that The Bright-Eyed Boy really needed his passport renewing before too long so, having a blank form to hand, I filled it in and got my neighbour to counter-sign it. Discovered I'd given her some duff gen which rendered it void, so I had to trail into town today to get a replacement form. Consequently, it was gone noon before I sat down at the computer. It's really muggy so I had the back doors open,but that let lots of irritating buzzy flies in. It's far to hot to have them shut though....and my nose is still stuffed up. Spent a couple of hours looking at the verb forms of ἐγειρω again, but without any great insights. Tomorrow I'm going to move onto ἀποθνῃσκω which I'm hoping will illuminate the uses of ἐγειρω.....I have a feeling it might well do!

*groan*

So I'm sitting at my computer with every intention of starting work in a few minutes, but unfortunately I feel distinctly unwell. I've had a dull earache on an off for a week or so and yesterday I woke up with what felt like the start of a cold....but nothing's really developed: I'm still a bit snuffly, but I've definitely got a temperature (uncomfortably hot and a spaced-out feeling). I woke up at 4.15am and couldn't get back to sleep again because my neck and hip were aching. I'm dosing up with ibruprofen and hot black coffee: hopefully that'll sort things out a bit and give me a few hours to get some stuff done.

A couple of days this week have been a complete write-off for reasons that I've blogged about elsewhere http://parablepsis.blogspot.com/2009/06/lumps-and-bumps-on-lifes-road.html, so today I attempted to get going with some data collection on various verbs connected with dying and rising in the Pauline Epistles (hereafter just 'Epistles'). I've been using a pretty good search engine that uses TLG and managed to generate a substantial list on the verb ἐγειρω - to raise. Things got a bit confusing when I realised that a lot of the clauses containing that particular verb also contain other verbs that I'm planning to examine as well, for example ἀποθνησκω or ζωοποειω. Do ignore these latter for the moment, or go off on a tangent to look at them straight away? After a bit of indecision I decided to plough on looking at the incidence of the focus-verb in question, rather than risk becoming embroiled in side issues. When I shift these other verbs into the spotlight, I'll do some cross-referencing, although I've learnt from past experience that cross-referencing is something to be done when pretty near the end of writing up: footnotes and examples get moved or deleted and you can end up in a terrible mess!

Also - dammit! - someone's recalled the Lampe's Patristic Greek Lexicon that is one of my mainstays - I'm not sure I can run to one of my own at the moment. However, I don't want to start on a game of 'recall ping-pong' (where as soon as I've returned it, I put in a request for it again...etc) so I might just have to bite the bullet. And my trusty Moleskine cahier is nearly full up: that, fortunately is cheaper to sort out.....I caught sight of a replacement in the local Borders branch today, and I think I've got a 20% off voucher somewhere....!

Good Day

Had a good day beetling through stuff yesterday. Actually, it was very helpful in preventing me from thinking about my hospital appointment today: talk about losing yourself in your work!
I actually managed to start analysing the verb-forms dealing with death, dying, living and rising, and had to admit a certain sense of awe when I considered the huge amount of that lies before me! It's a bit like doing my MA all over again...times ten!
Today I only managed to glance at my emails: hospital in the morning (all well, hooray!) and a funeral in the afternoon. Tomorrow I intend to spend the morning hard at it, and pop into town in the afternoon for a Starbucks with daughter no.2 and her gorgeous baby.

A Close Shave

Had a nasty moment this afternoon that made me break out into a cold sweat. I've been merrily chugging along over the past couple of days writing up some notes on my laptop that I put together on pseudepigraphical OT apocalyptic literature and its apparent impact on Paul's thinking and language. When I went out to pick the boy up from school, I put it into sleep mode and, on my return tried to start up Word again. Locked up, no response. Task manager availed nothing so I pressed the 'off' button. It went off all right, but wouldn't turn back on: not even a flicker. Nasty sweaty moment ensued followed by lots of hand-wringing (luckily I'd saved my work onto a USB key before I went out, but all my most useful stuff is on that computer). It was the boy who pointed out that it was actually on at the box, even though nothing was happening. I took out the battery, replaced it then held the on button down for some twenty or so seconds and - it turned OFF! So I then turned it back on and every thing went back to normal. Not sure if it's got something to do with the Windows updates that it took upon itself to install yesterday. I shall be monitoring things carefully, and may do a system restore if it plays up again. it's not the first time a vaunted improvement has caused havoc.

But in the horrible moment when I thought that it had died permanently, I was so, so very glad that I'd had the presence of mind to back up my current document. Let that be a lesson to me.

Not Much Progress

I seem to be scuffling about a lot and the moment and not producing very much written stuff. This is starting to worry me a bit as it's less than a month until my next supervisory meeting and I haven't actually added to my word count at all in about six weeks! In my defence, I think I'm approaching it from the 'read first then write' angle, rather than the 'write on the hoof' one. I'm hoping to read and inwardly digest Albert Schweizer's Mysticism of Paul The Apostle and then weave some ideas into my work. It's a fascinating book. one of those that when you read it you think 'Ah! I can see how that works!' It is, however, an old work so I'll have to read up on his critics to get some balance into my arguments.
The most tricky thing about doctoral study is to get away from the 5000 word mindset - that is, imagine that I can read, sum up and dispose of an argument in a short space of time. The PhD timescale is so much longer and the thesis so much more complex and lengthy that it really does have to be approached one step at a time, working through the texts and not trying to have a result in mind before you've done the analysis: let the theory emerge from the evidence, not force the evidence to fit a preconceived notion! Very tricky!

Input v. Output

The problem with doing part-time doctoral work (which I am at the moment, hopefully I'll be moving to full-time in the autumn) is that it's quite hard to gauge whether you're working hard enough. With full-time study, like my research MA, it seemed easier to calibrate - every day for the core hours. Since I started last October, I've never quite decided if it's better to work for a while every day, or condense the effort into larger blocks. The problem with the former approach is that one is just getting into the swing of things when it's time to do something else. the drawback with the latter is that it's difficult to know when to stop. Consequently my research efforts tend to veer from all-out 9-5 (until I get tired, p*ssed off or confused) to days and days of consecutive idleness. Still, even that works out as part-time in its own way! I guess many dedicated doctoral students will furrow their brow and wonder why I don't want to devote every waking moment to it (and there are a lot of pretty humourless beard-strokers out there), but I believe it's all about pacing oneself, appropriate effort, a sense of proportion and having a life. Academia does take itself very seriously, but there again so does building services, or sanitation, or quantity surveying. The inward-turning eye cannot appreciate the magnitude (or otherwise) of the subjects in its field of vision. The objective eye finds the mote therein risibly small. Thus it is necessary to reassess one's output continually, rather than concentrate on the input effort. As my supervisor thinks that I have produced 'eminently' enough work for a student of part-time status, I must be getting it approximately right! Now that I know some potential funding is on the horizon, I have to say that I am now looking forward to going back to full-time study. I'm much better working under a bit of pressure: Less time for procrastination, which as we all know, is the thief of time.

Progress Reviews and Other Stuff

I really, really intended to get around to producing some written work this week. I'm acutely aware, and somewhat uneasy, that I've spent most of the time since my last supervisory meeting reading without getting anything concrete down. It's been fascinating stuff - the Jewish apocalyptic thought, how this mode of expectation appears in the words of JC, and how much Paul was thoroughly of this tradition. I'm hoping that it will give a framework into which Paul's use of language concerning death and resurrection will click nicely. However - best intentions and all that - I never actually got round to committing my thoughts to, I was going to say paper, laptop. The surprise news about my funding necessitated some time online filling in forms and phoning people about filling in forms. Then all of a sudden I received an email telling me that I had to fill a progress review form whose deadline was the next day! I'd previously understood that, as a part-time student I'd not have to bother with this this year as my timescale was double that of the full-time student. Apparently not. Another goodly amount of time form-filling, liasing with my supervisor, drawing up provisional programmes of study - something that hadn't even crossed my mind as I'd been bumbling along. Stuff like this always takes much longer than you think it's going to. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing of emails, it all got sorted in the nick of time. So, no actual work produced. Again. But I'm going to have to get cracking. I noticed that one of my supervisor's comments was that he wanted to see evidence that I was getting to grips with academic German. Ulp! I mean, I've found a website that might be useful, but that's about it at the moment....

There's a lot I should make a point of scheduling in: academic German, more regular Greek reading, brush up on the measly amount of Hebrew that I do know, be more organised in my general reading and note-taking. In brief: Get Serious!

Maybe I should cut down on the blogging, but I not only find it cathartic, but it really does help my writing brain to limber up so that I can put words down more easily. And it is the end of the day now, teatime to be precise, and I have a few moments finally to myself.

Welcome to my new blog....

By an amazing coincidence I set up this blog (dedicated to plotting the vagaries of my ongoing PhD in New Testament Greek linguistics at the University of Birmingham) only a few hours before I received the amazing and most welcome news that my application for AHRC BGP funding had been successful! My supervisor had left a message on my mobile answerphone telling me to check my uni email and, even with the message from admin. open in front of me, I had to read it several times to make sure it really said what I thought it did: that I was finally going to receive funding to support my doctoral studies! I immediately phoned my supervisor back and he confirmed that I had indeed been successful and that, barring a few formalities, the money was as good as in the bank. I still daren't fully believe it. I've self-funded both my undergraduate and master's degree, and after failing to get financial support last year, I've been self-funding my PhD thus far on a part-time basis. And it has not been easy, as postings (moans) in my other blogs (parablepsis and more books than sense) testify. I am extremely lucky in that my husband has been behind me all the way, from my earliest studies with the Open University encouraging me and buoying me up when I've flagged along the way. I could not have done any of it without his unfailing love and support.

What can I tell you about myself?

Well, I came to academia relatively late in life. After the birth of my fourth child in 1999, I joined the OU. My first course was Reading Classical Greek, and I was hooked. The following year I signed up for Reading Classical Latin, then in subsequent years, Advanced Greek, then Homer: Poetry and Society. This gave me a Diploma in Classical Studies and 120 credits. In Autumn 2004, I cashed these in to enter the second year at Leeds University's Classics Department as a mature student 'with advanced standing'. I spent a very happy two years studing Greek and Greek Civilisation, made some good, enduring friendships and emerged with a First Class Honours degree. In my final undergraduate year I was lucky enough to study New Testament Greek Textual Criticism under Professor J. Keith Elliott. I enjoyed this immensely and decided that I wanted to pursue this with a Master's degree by research in that discipline. In 2007 I submitted my thesis, A Textual Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Galatians. This stood me in good stead to apply to my current institution where, under Dr Philip Burton and Prof David Parker (who was the external examiner for my MA viva), I am currently undertaking doctoral studies. The title of my thesis is Aspect and Discourse in the Pauline Epistles. During the first couple of months I was also finishing off the OU Advanced Latin course.

But I digress....this particular blog is not intended to be an academic blog: anything remotely 'intellectual' will be posted on my logois KAI ergois blog. This blog is dedicated to posts detailing the day-to-day feelings, reactions, problems and highlights of a doctoral student. My parablepsis blog contains posts on life in general, particularly family life, and more books than sense contains ongoing confessions to do with my inordinate bibliophilia.

And the title of this blog? 'Skolex medaminos' is (I hope!) koine (New Testament/Hellenistic) Greek for 'worthless worm', a name chosen because, ironically, yesterday I was feeling especially lowly and worthless, having spent the whole day grubbing about and burrowing through texts with few visible results. Little did I anticipate when formulating the name that by that very evening, someone would deem this particular worm to be indeed of some worth......!