Category: Daily updates

Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph

Autumn 2015

On the day of the equinox, it seems worth considering what the next few months will involve. I still need to find an apartment: a task which will feed into the academic work which is urgently due, but hard to achieve without a base of operations, thesis books and files outside of boxes, and access to my main computer systems. Finding a PhD supervisor will also be important.

By mid-December, the ad hoc committee at the University of Toronto are meant to make a recommendation about fossil fuel divestment. Also, my first term on the Toronto350.org board will end with the scheduled elections at the beginning of that month.

Otherwise, I will have tutorials to teach, photographic projects to undertake, and whatever surprises the weeks ahead bring.

Housing situation getting worrisome

I need to be out of Innis College by the 29th, and so far haven’t found anything close to an affordable and acceptable replacement. All the on-campus residences that take grad students seem to be full, and all efforts through Craigslist, Kijiji, and Padmapper have been failures so far.

Alongside the development of my formal PhD proposal, finding housing needs to be my top priority for the rest of August.

Structurelessness

Princeton established the Institute for Advanced Study in 1930 as a place where some of the world’s greatest minds could pursue their research without distractions like teaching and administrative tasks. Richard Feynman famously criticized the idea, saying:

When I was at Princeton in the 1940s I could see what happened to those great minds at the Institute for Advanced Study, who had been specially selected for their tremendous brains and were now given this opportunity to sit in this lovely house by the woods there, with no classes to teach, with no obligations whatsoever. These poor bastards could now sit and think clearly all by themselves, OK? So they don’t get any ideas for a while: They have every opportunity to do something, and they’re not getting any ideas. I believe that in a situation like this a kind of guilt or depression worms inside of you, and you begin to worry about not getting any ideas. And nothing happens. Still no ideas come. Nothing happens because there’s not enough real activity and challenge: You’re not in contact with the experimental guys. You don’t have to think how to answer questions from the students. Nothing!

Something a bit similar happens to me during the summers, especially when I don’t have a regular job. Whole days are open in the calendar – and there is always endless work to do on my PhD and on climate change – but it can be extremely hard to become and remain motivated. The framework of classes, teaching, and Massey College events during the year helps make the blocks of open time seem valuable, and helps force you to get specific things done in them.

PhD work needs to be pretty much wholly self-motivated, so I am definitely going to need to develop habits and a mindset to support that over the next three years.

Off to Ottawa

From Sunday to next Saturday, I will be in Ottawa for the Canadian Political Science Association conference, and to visit my excellent friends Andrea and Mehrzad.

Before I go, I need to submit the final term paper for my Markets, Justice, and the Human Good course. Perhaps predictably, I am writing about economic inequality and environmental sustainability as policy objectives that are not always in alignment. I am hoping that once I get comments back and discuss it with Dr. Carens, it may be something I can rework and submit for publication.

Despite having two commercial photography gigs in the last two weeks, this summer without a normally scheduled job is taking a toll. I had to borrow from my PhD fund to pay the summer rent (though I hope to pay myself back with photo work) and am currently sitting with $26.17 in my chequing account. Hopefully, there will be a lot of free food at the conference (though they were notably stingy last year at Brock University).

The clear calendar illusion

By now, I should intuitively understand that the open-looking weeks three or four weeks away in my calendar won’t be an oasis of productivity for major projects. Inevitably, Toronto350.org-related obligations, alongside photography and PhD work, will end up eating much of the open space before it is actually reached.

Thankfully, a totally open schedule isn’t necessary to progress on major projects. It can even be an impediment, as it can encourage the worst sort of diversion activity: the not-at-all-urgent project which is presently more appealing than what really needs to get done.

My priority projects for the moment:

  1. Write the final term paper for my markets and justice course
  2. Write a substantially longer and more sophisticated PhD research proposal
  3. Get my wedding photography business fully up and running

In addition to the normal Tuesday planning meeting, I am chairing a Toronto350.org board meeting tonight and must proofread the bylaws. There is also a divestment meeting tomorrow. Additionally, I have been hired to photograph a Canadian foreign policy conference between tonight and Friday, which unfortunately precludes participation in tomorrow’s Graduate Student Colloquium on Canadian Politics and Public Policy. Indeed, I need to get photos of the panellist at tonight’s 6:45pm event, before dashing off to chair the board meeting at 7:00pm.

Paying summer bills

I have applied for four TA positions at U of T: three in the School of the Environment and one with a methods course.

I am also looking to shoot weddings commercially over the summer. I am working on setting up a website. Since it will mostly be people looking for a last-minute photographer who won’t already have plans for the summer, I will mostly advertise on Craiglist and Kijiji.

I got a second (used) dSLR body, so now I have the basic gear required to book weddings commercially. I also got a robust traveling bag to carry the two 5Ds.

18 days left in Massey

I have applied to live in the Innis College residence from May 9th to Saturday, August 29th. This is the maximum range they allow.

Rather than go back to Morrison Hall, which has individual dorm-style rooms and no stoves, I am trying a residence where 4-5 people share a suite and kitchen facilities are more complete.

I need to have myself and all my things out of Massey by May 1st, so this will involve another span of PhD-student-homelessness, to accompany the two such spans from the summer of 2013.

April

During the next few days, I need to grade all of my students’ essays and final exams from this term.

On Friday, we are formally presenting our argument to the fossil fuel divestment ad hoc committee.

Then, I have a paper to write for my markets and justice course for the 21st.

Finally, I need to find somewhere to live as of April 1st. With so little time to search, I may just move into a small room in a cheaper on-campus residence for the summer.