I really do try to write here before 1:30 am. Anyway, today I did some reading then talked to some undergrads about the presentations we are giving at the end of the week. I then came home and did some Old Irish. Let me talk about that for a few. I got my new Old Irish on Friday and it was pretty simple. There were words I had not encountered before but it was not until tonight that I really started to understand the horror that is DIL aka The Dictionary of The Irish Languages Mainly from Old and Middle Irish Sources. Now I am looking up a word. I actually find it. That is the first miracle. The DIL is famous for leaving out or referring to entries that do not actually exist in DIL. I look at the entry. It is full of cryptic symbology. I then find the actual definition and it sends me back to the section in the story that I am trying to find. Yes folks. No definition. No help at all. Just a reference back to where I started the investigation. This often occurs after I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find it in other resources before I start on DIL. So often forty-five minutes go by before I even start looking in DIL.
Anyway, I also spent time on my presentation. I had a friend of mine sit there and have me go over it a couple of times. The first time I only took seven minutes out of the twenty, which did not make me feel any better about this whole thing. I think I will be spending most of my scholarly career trying desperately to avoid these things. The second time around and I was about right on. I probably need to add about three minutes but we are going to do this again tomorrow (this is on top of hell Tuesday). I also have to lug in my laptop to make sure it works with the equipment before hand and I have to help everyone else out with their powerpoint presentations. So I really should go to bed.
posted by Chris #12:57 AM | 0 comments |
