veggies, writing, housing

Today I finally started writing that paper that I should have made my first crack at last Wednesday. It sucks. I am not looking forward to having it ripped apart tomorrow, in my first tutorial. With my supervisor. Who may decide that I just totally suck after all.

I think it must be something about crossing the historian with the engineer, that I live in fear of making unsupportable statements, or speaking too generally, or trying to make a point but not having what I feel is sufficient documentation to back it up. (Like, today I wanted to make the stronger point that Zosimus' attitude looks to me like it is Romanitas for the post-Roman. The sort of thing that Prof. Lendon tried to beat into our brains. But where am I going to find sources for the Roman ethos as described by Prof. Lendon? Or even a good definition of Romanitas?) (And yeah, I bet you could help me, ukelele, but it's a bit late now. That's what I get for starting the paper today.) Also, I think I'm incapable of just writing, without immediately trying to revise. This makes me procrastinate terribly, and I don't think it makes my writing any better.

Moving on. One of the other grad students found out that I don't like vegetables, so dragged me up to her place with a few others for a stir-fry. I asked her to please leave the peppers out, so she did, and it wasn't too bad. I even ate most of it. (And really I have no objection to water chestnuts, which figured heavily in the stir-fry.) And then there was a lot of wine and a lot of chatting, which I was mostly on the periphery of as usual, feeling boring but unable to get a word in edgewise, and there were backrubs exchanged that I didn't get in on. Watching other people getting their shoulders rubbed was almost physically painful.

But the main reason I was dragged up there is because I'm considering a room swap. Univ has a site up on Staverton Road, where the rooms are bigger, the floors are even, there's just about enough shelf space for my books, the kitchens are nice, and the bathrooms aren't so cramped, but it's a 10 minute bike ride from the center of town, and very residential. The student who has the room is really annoyed that she didn't get housed on the main site, and would like to be a lot closer to everything.

So now I have to decide whether it's worth giving up location for space. As ever, I'll ask for the wisdom of the Internet.
(EDIT: In the other room, I'd have space for a double bed even.)

[Poll #194212]

academia.

Today I had my first tutorial. It didn't go too badly (since I'd been having nightmare visions of disappointment in the quality of my work, and ripping my shoddy arguments to shreds). I am still not happy with the quality of my writing or my arguments though.

And then I stopped by Carphone Warehouse to see whether the estimate for my phone repair was still two weeks (as opposed to longer), and my phone had been returned that very day. So yay! I have a working phone again.

This week's topic is Procopius. The only English copies of Procopius that can be taken out of a library here are in the libraries of colleges that aren't mine, which means I can't take them out. This is really unfortunate, as it means spending a really long time in the library to get through as much of the 7 books as I can.

So I am trying to decide whether it is worth 7 * £14.50 to have my very own copy of the Loeb editions. Kind of steep, but a worthwhile addition to the library of any Byzantinist.