Monthly Archives: June 2015

And so I’m buggered

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Purely Academic

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Temporary setback….let me just state that upfront. Mostly to convince myself that it’s not so bad.

But it is pretty hectic.

I finally opened DUT’s reference guide (style guide), and their prescribed version of Harvard has page numbers with each in-text reference. So irony of irony, it resembles the Watkins style guide very closely – and everyone at DISE (the new folk) gawks about my Prof Watkins. In my mind’s eye I can actually see him smiling..knowingly. And I can even imagine him saying something like “Kan jy sien Liefie, jy moes maar net gemaak het soos wat ek vir jou geleer het“.

Anyhooooooo, it’s one of those situation where there is jack-sh*t I can do but go back and fix it. What this means is that for the 37 pages that I have written so far, I must go back to each reference, go find the original PDF (Thank Goodness and thanking my lucky stars that I’m in the habit of saving PDFs of everything I reference!), and find the page number of the section that I used. This wont be a quick simple task……but so it goes.

Without a style guide to start with I used the most commonly accepted version of Harvard, as prescribed by AOSIS journals. It was a calculated risk. And this time it didnt work out. But moving on. Aluta Continua

Business meetings at the the Organic Market

18 Thursday Jun 2015

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I haven’t touched my own proposal in three weeks, but I have been busy. The good news is since my last entry I’m an officially registered doctoral student at DUT! Hippity Hip Hooray, Student Number: 21557219

and then the great news is I take up a permanent academic post at CPUT from the 1st August! God is good. And this all means, I’m raising the bar. After doctorate, it’s aiming for Professor status

goals

“Si guarda al fine”

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in General, Purely Academic

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Thank you Bertrand van der Heyden. One thing I clearly remember from my Christian Brother College days. Machiavelli said “the end justifies the means” I think it was history class, but I think it had nothing to do with history. Bert was just really good with words and languages, part of his charm, and about a half dozen other stuff.

But for whatever reason I remember Si guarda al fine…and that was enough motivation for me to make a plan. It’s vrek cold. Winter has invaded Cape Town with unrelenting vengeance, and I had no choice but to turn my cupboard inside out, chucked all the clothes in it onto the floor – my room looks like a mess! All in search of my finger-less gloves.

Finger-less gloves are a winter essential for a student. Heck for everyone! I need to feel the keys on my keyboard (non-negotiable) and I need to work (another non-negotiable). My hands do not need to get cold while I’m working, so after my unsuccessful attempt mission to find any one of the pairs of three pairs of finger-less gloves I had in winter last year, I eventually settled for a new shower glove and a old solo navy blue woolen glove that I found stranded in the laundry basket with all the single socks. I snipped off the finger tips and Bob’s your Uncle! I have a trendy new pair of finger-less gloves! Pink and Blue, Loving it! The end justifies the means.

finger-less gloves

The day is saved. My work can continue…