I think I actually quite like autumn. I've been frankly alarmingly busy (such are the perils of new academic year and several freelance projects coinciding), but I'm feeling broadly good about it all. It also helps to finally be making some cold hard cash after a few lean months...
KJ loves 'street food'... (And it is now very much my job to try and stop her enjoying it, after her pancreatitis in the summer...)
My main job now is as lecturer on MA Design for Data Visualisation, but I still teach a little bit on BA UXD. I love teaching first year undergrads too much to entirely abandon that side of things. (They are sweet and chaotic and they don't know anything 🥹). Plus I have all the materials prepared, so why not eh. At the start of term, I was alarmed, however, to find myself faced with FORTY EIGHT new undergrads (in a room definitely designed for a maximum of like, 35 students)... I have been having to use my LOUD VOICE a lot more often.
Had what should have been a nice day out to Oxford to the Co-tech meetup with my Cookiewolf colleagues Katja and Stuart, but had some kind of insidious lurgy which left me feeling fatigued and achey, so left early afternoon. (Not until after delicious free lunch though, because you know Emma's never gonna miss out on that)
Stayed in bed ALL DAY the next day and that helped?!?!
Took it easy the next day as well. KJ is an inspiration when it comes to 'not doing much' (I mean I actually did a ton of work but I didn't move much)
Then, back at it! (These coloured blocks represent the many colours of my google calendar events)
One of my greatest ever visual diaries, I think (inspired by a conversation with fellow bean fans Dav and Davey)
Ran some meet n greet tutorials online with our new MA DDV students. The fun thing about MA level teaching and much smaller cohort is really having the oportunity to get to know our students and their interests in much more detail than we're able to with undergrads. Also theoretically as they're a bit older, their interests are more well formed (though with some of them it is still a little bit like trying to get blood from a stone...)
One of my undergrads gave me this adorable (but not at all vegan) moon cake. I regifted it, but did have a tiny bite, just so I could say I'd tried mooncake. I extremely did not like it, but I extremely DID like this students thoughtfulness and skill in a) handmaking it and b) bringing special bespoke mooncake packaging from China so she could give them out to all her friends and tutors.
I first went to the GP about my chronic throat issues in... 2021, I think!? Anyway, I have a tentative diagnosis of 'Laryngeal Hypersensitivity' which basically just means my throat is a little bitch which needs to chill out. (I have been prescribed some speech therapy, which is cool?! Also maybe a real sign that Emma talks too much, huh)
They put a camera down my nose to take a look-see, which I was expecting to be profoundly traumatic, but which was actually entirely painless and kinda cool. I got to see my larynx and let me tell you, it is an evil looking thing. I was mostly reminded of the eye of sauron.
My Quaker church hosted an art exhibition! I helped a bit with the organisation which was mostly stressful but kinda fun. I did enjoy having a quiet day sitting in the meeting house while it was actually open. (And a poet came to do poems about the art)
I was talking with a friend about my trademarked EMMA SYSTEM of determining whether someone deserves a second date. I developed this in my early 20s and frankly I still stand by it.
This is just based on some particularly elaborate and colourful sprayed markings left by roadworks people.
Went for dinner with one of my fav old school friends in which we both got excited about making stupid fan art. (I have still not yet sent him my fanfic because I am being far too much of a perfectionist about it)
Thinking about LAYOUT
Thing is right, I was convinced — yet again — that the lurgy was upon me. And my partner got REALLY bad flu over the subsequent days. But for me it never really progressed beyond that beginning 'I'm about to get sick' vibes. #blessed I guess, but I am still poised for the surely inevitable freshers flu to hit...
KJ had to have a little tiny tooth out and she dealt with it like a trooper. (Hurt me more tbh, £800, and not on insurance. Sob.)
Continued expecting to get sick, so lay very still on the sofa with my sick partner all day. Didn't make me feel good tbh, but resting may have been the secret sauce that helped me avoid getting any worse?! idk what's going on in my bod really
Continued to try and move very slowly and look after my partner, but did manage to do a bit of end-of-season garden tidying.
It's definitely possible to have too much of a good thing (lying on the sofa). Because my partner was so disgusting in the bed I also slept on the sofa. It's really comfy, so this is no hardship whatsoever, but it does feel kinda gross to spend all night on the sofa... and then also all day on the sofa...
Did a nice freelance job a few months ago where I illustrated a load of maps for this guy's travel book, and finally it was time for the launch party. Was quite a fancy affair, but also I was tired and awkward and didn't really feel like talking to anyone. Did enjoy the view across the Thames to Battersea Power Station, and also continuing to daydream about being able to travel as much as the guy who wrote the book has... (though ideally not by motorbike, like he did)
I'm really clocking up the hours teaching this month (it's very lucrative :), and enjoyed writing and teaching an 'introduction to illustrator' workshop. Found myself astonished by how low the students skill level was (did not expect 'draw a circle' to take over 10 minutes to get everyone in the room to the same place, tbh)
Always delighted when I have time to go play games with my pal V. Very much enjoyed (and would recommend) 'Perspectives', for fans of murder mysteries, escape rooms etc.
Much like my friend Kelly-Jessie, I also had to have a tooth extracted this month. I'd been really dreading it, but in the event it was... fine?! (I mean, touching wood that it is hopefully not infected or dry-socketed or anything like that). The tooth itself was totally fucked which made me feel like a real gremlin (but not my fault!!! My mouth is a bad shape!!!)
I made a very good dinner.
Feeling a fair bit of aesthetic self-loathing at the moment, so made a weird self portrait (it... helps?!)
For the last 500+ days I have been very slowly learning Mandarin Chinese on Duolingo. I am extremely not good at learning languages, but I now have enough small sentences that I can surprise and delight some of my students, in some very specific contexts. What I fail at in pace of learning (very slow), I make up for in apparently having quite good pronunciation (according to my students?!)
The pickings, they are... slim
Davey is here!!!! (briefly) from Montana. We love to see it. (this is a bad visual diary because I was too busy hanging out with Davey)
Ran a field trip to the Japan House Pictograms exhibition with my BA UX students. It all went very smoothly, which is good, because the night before the trip I was blighted by a succession of dreams about things going extremely wrong, which included me forgetting to take a register (minor), my students all being very naughty and stealing things from/trashing the exhibit (major), and, at its climax, all of my students (somehow, yes, all 48 of them), falling down the spiral staircase at Japan House and being seriously injured. I mean it's kind of hilarious, but I genuinely woke up in a cold sweat over it.
In all seriousness, I desperately need to find some way of incorporating exercise into my life again, but I have been roundly failing for basically the entirety of this year (and, my life, to be honest). (Eating less would also help but fuck that!)
Feeling a bit hopeless about it because I hate pretty much every exercise I've ever tried, and I have noooooo timmmmmmeeee. Any tips welcome. I'll probably reject them all but worth a try, hey.
Also to be clear, there's nothing wrong with being blobby, and some days I'm even able to look at my body and like having cute hips and a cute butt. But most of my weight seems to pile on my belly and that's the not-healthy bit, and the bit I dislike the most.
KJ's not exactly helping — I got a relatively big, high energy dog breed to force me out for brisk walks, but she's quite a slow, lazy girl, and because of her reactivity, the best walks for her are slow sniffy ones out of everyone's way. My smart watch doesn't even detect that I am doing a walk when I go out with her, sob.
Anyway, onwards now into the colder months. I hope you're all doing well through them!
