I'm alive. It's just, writing a paper really isn't as interesting to blog about as knitting. Partly that's because I can't snap photos of my work in progress to show you all. (Even if I could, it's only about three pages long right now, which would be equivalent to posting a photo of a sweater that has only had the first couple inches of ribbing knit.)
On the other hand, there's no end of things to keep me amused. Like endnotes. My word processor* makes the little number clickable, and when you click on it, it jumps down to the note. And if you click there, it'll jump back to the spot in the text. I can do this for ages, which is not good for my productivity at all.
Also, it amuses me to be able to type--in all academic seriousness--things like, "On the likelyhood of the disease inflicted on the Athenian men being a perpetual erec-ti0n, see Sourvinou-Inwood, pg 77." I mean, seriously--I actually had to censor that in order to post it on my blog because you KNOW the kind of spam I'd end up getting, but I can use it in a paper? Some days being a scholar is fun.
Of course, then there's the actual paper writing, which is stressful and fiddly, and makes me suddenly remember all sorts of other things to do. I am the world's biggest procrastinator. And I do mean that. That three pages I mentioned? I've been writing since Monday. The writing process goes something like this:
Think about writing. Check e-mail. Check LiveJournal. Open word processor. Minimize it. Read a few blogs. Trim fingernails. Vacuum floor. Check e-mail. Maximize word processor. Get a snack. Stare at word processor. Check e-mail. Repeat as needed.
Oh, and if any of you are curious, the title of my paper is, "Masks of Madness: Contextualizing Euripides' Bacchae." If by some offchance I manage to write a particularly snappy passage, I'll post an excerpt here, but don't hold your breath.
*I use OpenOffice.org, because I'm sort of a software vegan. I like my software free and as unbloated as possible. And open source, which I admit is a little ridiculous, because, given that I don't know the first thing about coding, I'll never be able to use the open source part. Even so, the only reason I don't use Linux is compatability issues. It's bad enough trying to survive at college without a copy of Microsoft Word--can you imagine if I was trying to get by without Windows? (Or, well, you know, a Mac. But I don't do Macs.)
