I’m gradually chiselling away at the mountain of work. Main project is the investigative feature piece which is getting interesting – I don’t know what I’m eventually going to discover, which I guess could be a definition of investigative.
Flipping through the course notes I also discovered I’m supposed to write an obituary! Know anyone who’s died recently? Then there’s the piece on Will Oldham for Lucid magazine, organizing the trip down south, trying to find a summer job to come back to, a couple more stories to do for the Kapiti Observer (which I said I’d do and shouldn’t weasel out of if I want to work for them over the summer), work experience obligations at the Regional Council, and various minor tasks getting my portfolio in order. Oh, and don’t forget shorthand. As if I could. That one’s the killer – I know I can get the other stuff done, but shorthand I’m not entirely sure of passing even with effort & homework. If I don’t pass that I don’t pass the course. There should be an option of doing a private shorthand course over summer and getting it accredited – the tutors say there aren’t any. Smells like bullshit.
I’m feeling slightly more relaxed than a few days ago, I guess since I’ve got a couple of pieces of work out of the way in that time. The piece I was asked to write for the Happy newsletter ‘Secret City’ on the Meatwaters Festival – see previous entry – got rejected though for being too ‘lightweight’ and ‘not putting the music into a critical context’. That’s fine, I’m even inclined to agree, though if I’d gone deeper into analysis I don’t think I would have found room to mention all the bands who played. But if they want analysis – which I can do – they should ask for it at the start rather than just saying ‘Dave, can you write us something on Meatwaters, 600-1000 words, no other restrictions?’ and then complaining that it’s not what they wanted. I thought I was doing a review. Anyway I’m not going to rewrite it – sorry guys, too busy.
Two weeks to go, it's kind of scary. I really hope this hair loss doesn't continue. And the weather down south better be good for tramping. I feel an urge to go bush for a while.
Oh yeah, and it's the Spring equinox today...
http://fiffdimension.tripod.com
I want to learn shorthand, I thought it would be incredibly useful for all sorts of things.
Posted by: suraya at September 23, 2004 10:41 PM