Year in Review!

Last January I made a list of all of the unfinished projects I had. On my computer I found: two writing projects (not including poems); 5 art projects; 2 academic projects; a few music projects; and then there was the dissertation. My theme for 2010 was "gettin' 'er done" and the associated resolution was to not start any new projects until I had worked through the backlog of things left unfinished. This more or less worked, and made 2010 a pretty fabulous year.

PhDone
Most significant, of course, was finishing the PhD. Writing a dissertation is like the Pyrenees section of the Tour de France in the its a steep steep learning curve of things you've never done before. It is also lonely and isolating, at least it was for me, and can make one insufferable to be around. Luckily, I have an amazing supportive collection of friends and family and had a wonderful committee who pressured me in the right ways while giving me the freedom to work the way I needed to.

Preparing to defend was maybe the most intense thing I have ever done, psychologically speaking, as the dissertation became a kind of magnifying fulcrum for all of my anxieties and insecurities. Amazingly, it also helped to resolve said anxieties and insecurities. The great thing about all of these being brought to your awareness is that while each individually seems a warranted fear, they cannot all simultaneously be true. If they were I would never have finished elementary school, would have no friends, and would be living as a pariah in a gutter of social ineptitude. As it was, the defense went really well and then visiting Professor Derek Matravers (Prince Derek to my friends) hosted a post-defense party including a parade with a Balkan brass band along Kits beach. Here is a picture of that.

I firmly believe that defending your dissertation is a parade-worthy event. Graduating is awesome too, but it tends to come many months later and by then you're used to being done and it isn't exceptional any more. So if you are reading this and are working on a dissertation, take some time to befriend a brass band. It isn't procrastination, its investing in future joy.


Piece de Resistance

I broke my New Years resolution from last year by starting a company making cocktail hats and fascinators with my friend Tasha. In my constant attempt to balance between scholarly pursuits and visual art, the greatest challenge has been bridging the cerebral and the material. I love the weight, sensuality, grittiness etc... of ceramics but it isn't very convenient when you are poor as a rock and live in Vancouver. I love painting, drawing, and more performative/ conceptual work; but none of these have the same sense of material and making something with your hands. So, hats. Material, creative, lovely, glamorous, kind of conceptual hats. Check out www.piecederesistance.ca to see what we are up to. Tasha and I will also, eventually, be doing some blogging about culture on our blog there.

Job Season = getting amazing at MS Paint!
Many people have asked me if my life lacked direction after finishing. The answer is no. After I finished I went to England to the British Society of Aesthetics annual conference (and to hang around in the Cotswalds with my friend Jill). It was great, I won a prize. I spent hours and hours in galleries (free!). When I came home I immediately had to rehearse with one of my sisters for the first ever performance of a musico-comedy thing we have been working on. Then I started a hat company. I have not, in any way, felt directionless.

For those not in academe, fall (at least in philosophy) is job season. I am 'on the market' which means that I have spent my fall applying for jobs for next fall. This takes a lot of time. It's uncertain and exciting and a little scary to not know where you'll be living, or if you'll have a job. It's also pretty great since I've tried to not have any real geographical boundaries. I'll happily move where ever I get a job. I've also been working on papers for publication, so that's quite good. I remain cautiously optimistic about the whole job thing. 

An unexpected benefit of job season has been that I have been spending a lot of time in front of my computer trying to write cover letters, write postdoc proposals, or finish editing papers. Since I nearly divested myself of wasteful procrastination habits while dissertating, I took up productive procrastination in the form of getting awesome at doing drawings in MS Paint. My family has pressured me into blogging more because they want more MS Paint drawings then just what I periodically post on Facebook. How productive!

This actually started when I tried to tell my friend Joshua a story, and he told me to write it in the style of Hyperbole and a Half with illustrations. I, of course, did just that. I will post that story later. I'll never be as funny as Allie because she rules, but I have been doing lots of fun things with MS Paint. Here, for example, is a survey of life during Job Season. Enjoy.

Later the same night...

My friend Joshua and I wrote the greatest children's story ever over the Christmas holidays, then I had to go back to finishing applications for jobs. That felt like this:

But then all it took was a lot of work, and I had successfully crammed a lot of philosophy into the fall so that I had it off my plate for January and February. The end of the year went like this:

So now it is art January! It will be all about hats, art, and music. I have an upcoming performance with my friend Rina, a super fun MS Paint project with my friend Brendan, a lot of accordion playing, and only a few more philosophy things to do. I do still have to get a job.
Hearts,
Nola