A little list of my own, or…
… why there is no Links for the weekend today.
Each Sunday’s Links… (go here for the most recent) takes some three or four hours to draw together. I tend to collect things that interest me during the week using Twitter and Digg and then on Sunday morning I also check round a bunch of sites that often offer something new and different. Pulling this into shape is a pleasurable task from which I also learn a lot, and it is great then to see that the posts seem to have interest and value for visitors. But it all takes time, and this weekend time is something I have not got.
For why?
I’ll tell you why…
1. On Wednesday I am giving a keynote presentation at the Spaces of Television conference at the University of Reading. I am honoured and flattered by the invitation, and deeply worried that I will never draw my thoughts, my slides and my clips together in time. The rest of the programme, however, looks terrific.
2. Tomorrow I am filming at the rehearsals of Richard II for the continuing series of production diaries (for which I need to do a bit of prep), and I also have to complete a blog post about the past week’s developments on the production. Oh, and in around eight weeks I have to deliver a live broadcast of the production to more than 200 cinemas in the country, not to mention at least as many around the world.
3. My MacBook Pro has been sickly for some time, and on Thursday I finally took it to Genius Bar at the Applestore in Bromley. I saw a very nice young man who diagnosed its various problems, confirmed – thrillingly – that it was still in warranty, and then whisked it away for lots of tlc – leaving me having to beg and borrow access to a motley mess of other machines for the next 7-10 days.
4. My elder son Nick delivered his MSc dissertation this week and got a great job offer two days ago. His brother Ben is doing the research for his BA thesis. And their sister Kate is on the round of university open days trying to decide where she would be happiest doing Theatre Studies. To each I am endeavouring to offer a little help and support.
5. I have a list of e-mails that need answering that is as long as the arm of the Jolly Green Giant.
I also have a To Do list that is as long as his other arm.
6. Added to which, I have been asked to come up with a plan to prevent a massive asteroid crashing into the Earth in the next 7-10 days. And I need to send off a first sketch of that by tonight.
Actually, I made up the last one. No meteor is going to crash into the Earth before next Sunday. As far as I know.
Do I protest too much? Indubitably, but it has been immensely therapeutic scribbling this down – and I no longer feel quite so guilty about failing today to produce a Links…
Image: Walker Evans, A Bench in the Bronx on Sunday (detail), 1933, Gelatin silver print, 84.XM.956.493. Reproduced courtesy of the truly wonderful Open Content Program of The J. Paul Getty Trust.
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