Tuesday 3 August 2010

Therapy

After I remembered that I had a blog I spent a number of days trying to remember what it was called and where on the internet it was located. Then, aha!, I found it. Right here. All just as it used to be: the 750 posts, the Bali-bellynese colour scheme Fyodor was so insulting about, the Howard-era joke that I really meant in the header image, and which now prompts me to say that the dawning prospect of a too precipitate return to a Liberal government made up of the dregs of the old one, only crueller, madder, and more evil, is one of many reasons I feel the need of a place to vent.

I stopped blogging partly because I didn't have a lot to say, and (illogically) partly because I thought the best way of avoiding blurts that might somehow weaken my always tenuous grip on my academic job would be to shut up altogether. However, I no longer understand this thinking. I don't see why I shouldn't say whatever I like, it can't possibly make any difference at all, and oh golly, I have a six month backlog of unwritten blog posts to clear, of cat videos, confused sarcastic remarks, ideas for television shows, and passionate complaints about tiny and obscure issues of interest to very few people alive, dead, or yet to be born, which, because I have not blogged them out in the normal way, are churning turgidly in my innards like the eleven servings of bone marrow and saffron risotto which Matt Preston is reported (by Woman's Day) to have consumed in a single sitting.

Indeed, I think you can actually see the effect that not blogging has had upon my brain:



It looks pretty bad in there!!1 but the specialist's letter that came with the scans was reassuring. I quote:
The pituitary fossa is of normal size with normal posterior pituitary bright spot. No pituitary mass lesion is seen and there is no microadenoma. The suprasellar cistern, optic chiasm, infundibulum and cavernous sinus are within normal limits. No abnormality is demonstrated in the remaining brain apart from prominent neurovascular spaces in the right basal ganglia of no significance. There is minor mucosal thickening seen in the floor of the left maxillary antrum.

The left maxillary antrum is the part of the brain which deals with long division, so no great loss there if it's full of mucus, I guess.

As well as having my brain scanned, for no actual reason as it turned out, over the last half year I have done many great and mighty feats such as:
  1. in the name of research, endured another Jane Austen fest in the nation's capital; well, I got through most of it although I did wag half a day and spent that with Zoe and Caren and at the Lifeline Book Fair which is even better than the Canberrans make it sound, and they always sound as if they are bullshitting about how good it is. Back to Jane. Here I am, in April in Canberra, sporting the fruits of the 1.5 hour Regency turban-tying workshop: Ahem, just remember this is a SCHOLAR doing SCHOLARLY RESEARCH. It turns out that turban tying is pretty much what you would think it is - flop a bit of material around your head a few times, stick a few feathers or a brooch in if you're wearing your turban somewhere fancy.
  2. hung out a lot with my mate Basil who doesn't know much about art but he knows what he likes, and isn't afraid to do whatever makes him feel good.
  3. I got an iPad. I may have played my way through a zillion levels of Plants vs. Zombies but on the other hand I also wrote a 24 page essay about what it's like reading Mansfield Park in electronic editions, so there you go (if you want to know what it is like I'm afraid you'll just have to buy the book.)
  4. Number 4 I shall blog about tomorrow, because this post is long enough already.


11 comments:

cristy said...

Hurrah!

Good to see you back online.

Zoe said...

I am just all sighing with happiness.

The doorbitch is "bedness", which I thought should be shared too.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Excellent.

Liam said...

That's a great Wile E. Coyote impression that Basil's doing. Watch out for the massive boulder, Basil!
What a good cat.

lucy tartan said...

Best cat ever, in point of fact.

librarygirl said...

I have been missing your blog.
Glad you're back.

Tim said...

Yay!

I might kickstart my blog again. There are many things I would like to complain about too.

GS said...

Welcome back. I missed you (and Basil of course)

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

So glad your suprasellar cistern is in order. It shows.

MC said...

Hm, I think we may have been going through some similar things if I read this right. I totally came to the same conclusion about returning to blog/vent! Let's keep each other company!

Ampersand Duck said...

W00T!1!

HAppy happy joy joy!