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fear of doing some serious brain
Oct. 20th, 2007 10:48 amYep - not on the road yet. Check in isn't until 3 and it's only an hour and a half drive.
So, I decided to continue typing up more of the Spanish-language costume photocopies I made back in January (!) (triumph: I've learned to set language by document in Word so it plugs in all the accents/doesn't flag every single word as misspelled). Progress goes smoothly and I think I'm starting to understand some words, if only out of pattern recognition and context (ejemplo - example; otra = other) and so I find myself falling into a contemplative mode:
I sometimes call my intense history/costume hobby "research" because I've been and gone far past casual interest at this point, but I know people more "hardcore" than myself, who go back to primary sources and extant examples, so I really ought to call what I do "reading a lot". Until recently I didn't have the cash or knowhow to pursue primary sources and now that I do I'm too intimidated. The more I read the more I discover what I don't know, and reckon that even if I did get a hold of a nice juicy ship's manifest, will, or whatever I wouldn't have the background to comprehend the value (or lack thereof) of what I'm looking at.
My lack of serious academic cred is another - I'm vain enough to want to avoid coming off as a tedious dilettante while I scale the massive learning curve.
I was asked this year "when" I'm going to present something at the Medieval Congress. This was flattering and encouraging, but I'm so not there yet!
Yeah, yeah, I may not be as clever as I'd like but I'm not as stupid as I fear so get over it, bite bullet, etc.
Workin' on it, workin' on it. Forcing some order on all this would be a huge fat help!
So, I decided to continue typing up more of the Spanish-language costume photocopies I made back in January (!) (triumph: I've learned to set language by document in Word so it plugs in all the accents/doesn't flag every single word as misspelled). Progress goes smoothly and I think I'm starting to understand some words, if only out of pattern recognition and context (ejemplo - example; otra = other) and so I find myself falling into a contemplative mode:
I sometimes call my intense history/costume hobby "research" because I've been and gone far past casual interest at this point, but I know people more "hardcore" than myself, who go back to primary sources and extant examples, so I really ought to call what I do "reading a lot". Until recently I didn't have the cash or knowhow to pursue primary sources and now that I do I'm too intimidated. The more I read the more I discover what I don't know, and reckon that even if I did get a hold of a nice juicy ship's manifest, will, or whatever I wouldn't have the background to comprehend the value (or lack thereof) of what I'm looking at.
My lack of serious academic cred is another - I'm vain enough to want to avoid coming off as a tedious dilettante while I scale the massive learning curve.
I was asked this year "when" I'm going to present something at the Medieval Congress. This was flattering and encouraging, but I'm so not there yet!
Yeah, yeah, I may not be as clever as I'd like but I'm not as stupid as I fear so get over it, bite bullet, etc.
Workin' on it, workin' on it. Forcing some order on all this would be a huge fat help!
