Another Quick Update

The PhD is continuing apace, hence not much in the way of updates here. My paper diary has fallen by the wayside as well as I seem to have run out of both time and energy. I sort of regret that, and I plan to pick it back up again in the new year as I have been finding it a really valuable tool and record of what I have accomplished, as well as helping me see where things have not gone so well and deciding what to do about them.

 

Since Paris it has felt pretty much non-stop. I did have a short rest at the end of October for the not-spouse-creatures’ birthday (his 30th no less); we went to the zoo and had dinner together and didn’t talk about archaeology or soil at all.

 

I handed in a substantial (but still pretty rough) first draft this time last week, and I’m waiting for comments. I have some experiments to finish and then I need to finish off the write-up to include them, and try to pull something coherent together. I’ve written it all in such a piecemeal fashion (as it really is the only way to do something this big) that I can’t see the thread to hang it all together with. I need to take a step back a bit to re-examine the big picture, but I’m running out of time.

 

Christmas is shaping up to not be a lot of fun, as my final deadline is the first week in January, but hey, this is the last time EVER that christmas/birthdays and other important life stuff will be buried under uni coursework.

 

There are some days that I love it, and on most days I look at what I’ve done and I feel proud, but today has been a frustrating day so I’ll be quiet about the PhD now, lest I say something I regret.  I can see light at the end of the tunnel, and I have to keep reminding myself that it really is almost there. I just have to not fall at the last few hurdles and all will be well, but just don’t ask me how the PhD is going for a wee while, unless you really want to know :-s

 

Neko out

Just a leetle update

Me at the Louvre

I went to Paris last week to talk about my PhD at the big bi-annual archaeology and geophysics conference, which went OK. I met some great people and some idols of mine, and they listened to my paper, which was pretty mind blowing. Paris was also kinda awesome: pictures are here. I’ve not had time to go and add descriptions etc to them all yet, but I will at some point.

I’m crazy busy at the moment, and don’t have time to write properly: I have just about finished all of the practical work and I’m frantically writing up to get a draft to my supervisors by the end of October.

If you are really interested in the daily panic and woe this causes, you can read my tweets!

Probably won’t be able to write for a wee while. I’ll try to think of something better to say by then.

Summer Days

Looking out of my window, here in Southampton, I’m not entirely sure it is summer, but my dairy says it’s August, and tomorrow I’m off to take part in an (almost) annual summer tradition: Living History

Some of the Gentry conversing at a previous event

This entry isn’t an ad per se but I’m going to be at Northcourt Manor, at Shorwell on the Isle of Wight doing a Living History gig set in 1642 as the English Civil War is about to kick off.

// commence plug//

The group I ‘re-enact’ with get together once a year to run an awesome Living History (as opposed to a battle recreation) on the Isle of Wight and we are called ‘Church State and Household‘. I reckon we put on a great event, suitable for any age, where you can learn about everything from life in the military to how food was prepared. We also try to explain to people the different perceptions of the politics of the time. There is a lot of social history communicated as well.

The day is a lot like taking part in a murder mystery event: guests are immersed into a day in the life of a 17th Century working manor (in this case, the estate of the Governer of the Isle of Wight). However, the King and his Parliament have not been getting on, and the whole country is poised on the brink of war… Given the Governor is a staunch Parliamentarian,  visitors are likely to become embroiled in plots and schemes and witness history unfolding. As well as the threat of Civil War looming, there other things afoot: smugglers, disputed wills… Every day there is a mystery for you to solve!

We take historical personae and events from what we already know about Northcourt- it was indeed owned by the Leigh’s, the governing family at this time, and build a more detailed story around what the history books record that you can come and take part it. We never say that the story we tell is exactly what did happen, but promise you that it could have!

I’ve been doing this since I was 14 and I can assure you all of a good fun educational day out, and the weather over the weekend looks great! If you are on the Island or able to come over, why not come and see us? There is a map above, or you can get the No. 7 bus from Newport

The event starts on the 8th August and gates are open to the public from 1o.30am to 5pm each day. It’s £7 for adults and £4 for kids, under fives are free!

// here ends the plug//

I have passed my final annual review thingy and according to my supervisors am set to complete as planned. Lot and lots of work to do, so me and Matt had a week off for his Sister’s wedding (congratulations Rosie and Ed!) last week to give me a rest before the epic write up. It’s also why I am only doing the first two days (Saturday and Sunday) of the event. I’m a bit daunted but I know in my heart of hearts that it will all be OK. Then I just have to work out what to do with myself afterwards…

Much to report?

I don’t have time to write a huge post now, but just a leetle update:

I moved home at the end of June (rather than living in Bournemouth part-time) as our housemate of the last four years has finally flown the nest! We decided that we are really OK with not sharing anymore, but this means that we now pay the whole rent, so I can’t live away during the week.

I’m (almost) into the writing up stages so it should all work out pretty well as our ’spare’ room is now my study; the PhD stuff has already taken over it’s own corner!

I ran away to the Isle of Wight with the Prehistoric Society for a weekend: photo’s are here . I want to write it all up as a post at some point, if I have time, as I learned a lot. I tweeted the main points though so you may already be sick of it!

As a result of all the moving we’ve been without internet (eek!) but are now finally back online.

I’ve been massively occupied with lab-stuff following the Somerset dig, mainly involving dissolving soil in boiling acid to blast the moelcules apart so I can vaporise them in plasma and work out what elements are present. This is less fun than it sounds.

More soon,

Neko x

On Silence

Lifting the first turves at the Sweet Track Excavation

Hello Internets,

I didn’t blog in May, at all, so that is one of my resolutions I’m not doing so well on, In fact, compared to last year they are not going so well in general, which might explain why I’ve not been blogging- it gets a little depressing contemplating telling you all the things I haven’t managed to do quite yet…

… but that doesn’t mean I’ve been silent- I think in part the reason I’ve not been posting at length is also Twitter; I’ve been using it a lot lately and I have some (badly composed) thoughts on the use of it. I use it primarily as a microblogging tool. I’m not interested in gaining followers by ‘offering them something’ such as news or links or pithy wit. I follow people that are either friends or talk about stuff I find interesting, and I indulge a wee bit of geeky stalking: Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith (Authors/ Comic book writers/ Artists) reduce me to fits of giggles on a regular basis, and Stephen Fry is just lovely. I don’t expect anyone to follow me, and I’m always a bit surprised when people do (One person I asked why answered with ‘because (someone) promised me you talk about archaeology, dinosaurs and cake’- which is great as far as I’m concerned!). But it does serve as my primary vehicle for letting people know what I’m up to; which was the original purpose of this blog.

As I’ve said before, I’m not sure what this should become instead: I don’t feel confident enough yet about my academic voice to blog any strong archaeological discourse much beyond my very narrow field, and I’m at that stage in my PhD (7 months to go and counting) that I’m a little wary of upsetting future employers, or sticking my feet well and truly in it!

So, for those of you that don’t do the Twitter/Facebook thing, or those wanting a summary, in May I did the following things:

• Ran an excavation at the Sweet Track, in the Somerset Levels. I’ve talked about this site before. Running the dig was pretty nerve wrecking if I’m honest as some serious experts had to be on site with me, the archaeology was that important, and I had to have government permission to do the work in the first place. It was pretty successful, despite some glitches with the dGPS (for those who followed my anxious tweets: I’ve just had the data back today and the trench was pretty well in the right place, and caught all of the anomalies we were interested in). I’m still making sense of it- there are issues around just how accurately the position of an anomalous response in the radar can located on the ground, for example, but I think we detected the track, or some associated wood with geophysical survey, which is the whole point of my PhD. I now have a month in the lab to look at the soil chemistry on the site to try to work out exactly how the trackway is causing the responses. Watch this space!
• I invigilated a lot of exams, which was boring but I get paid!
• I had a few driving lessons, one of which involved a slightly scary moment on a roundabout, but I’m getting better, slowly. I still have stopping issues though, so my instructor will only let me go forwards at the moment…
• I tried to see Counting Crows on the 18th, the gig was cancelled and I eventually saw them on the 30th. They were very, very good and mostly played tracks from ‘August and Everything After‘ with mad mid song diversions into Beatles tracks, and one inspired Fairport Convention cover (Meet on the Ledge).
• I saw the Chinese State Circus on one Bank Holiday and spent the other one watching Coraline in 3D, which was also highly awesome.
• I got to see the amazing Cas, but still haven’t been to Oxford to see her.
• In uni I wrote reports and did horrible things to soil in order to determine particle size distributions.
• I read a LOT of Tamora Pierce- this always happens when I get my hands on a new book of hers; I want to go and re-read everything she has written. Her novels are like old friends. I also read the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and hated it much less than my friend Cat did, and Pride and Prejudice which I hated a lot less than I though I would. Cas gave me all of the Princess Diaries and I devoured them; my guilty pleasure for the month, though they are actually a lot smarter and much more wholesome than the (not very faithful) film adaptations would have you beleive.
• I loved Star Trek. Matt has been to see it twice.

I don’t have a lot else to report! My dad has started a blog, mainly about poetry and writing so we’ve been having some exchanges there which has been good.