The Cambridge Chat Thread - it&#x27;s over 90,000!

OP

Original post by ukebert

Glad you enjoyed it :smile:

I think that it went quite well. Less convinced about my own role, apart from anything else I have project on my mind and haven't quite devoted enough time to it. Have to see what the reviews say and everyone else should come too!

It was really good! We did have various criticisms that I think only a Russianist would have, but I'm almost certain that the reviewer won't be a Russianist so they won't pop up :p:

It was really well staged, and the second act in particular was really excellent. I think it was actually more hampered by the Western audience than by itself, because sometimes people laughed where Russians wouldn't, and it must have been a huge challenge to try to convey the absolute devotion to the party without showing it to be a twisted devotion and somehow evil, bad or misguided. I think Russian sensibilities are very complex in that area, particularly when you start setting things in the era of the purges, and that's another undercurrent that the audience may not have appreciated in the same way that a Russian audience would.

Other than that and the mangled pronunciation ('segodnia' is actually pronounced 'sevodnia', for reasons unknown to all of us, and 'Sergei' has the stress on the second syllable) it was really good! The little girl was amazing too. I was surprised you weren't on stage more though, it needed more music!

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Zhen Lin

12

Original post by Zoedotdot

Other than that and the mangled pronunciation ('segodnia' is actually pronounced 'sevodnia', for reasons unknown to all of us, and 'Sergei' has the stress on the second syllable) it was really good! The little girl was amazing too. I was surprised you weren't on stage more though, it needed more music!

Isn't that because the first half "сего" comes from the genitive of "сей"? Of course, that doesn't explain why the genitive ending is pronounced as it is, but at least it fits into a pattern...

Original post by lp386

I'm just a little bit confused (if I'm reading my Google definitions correctly) as to why you can't just use pinnacle or high point? It just seems unnecessarily showy - not necessarily deliberate like one of my supervisors last year who would throw in a Latin phrase with a flourish every couple of sentences, but it doesn't seem that it would have any benefit to the sentence, and it seems to obscure rather than illuminate.

In my mind, "pinnacle" and "high point" are not synonyms of "apogee"...

Original post by around

Elision is definitely more common than elide; I prefer zenith over apogee.

Hah, if you think "elision" is more common than "elide" then you must be a linguist of some kind! (I usually encounter these words when people are writing about language...)

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OP

Original post by Zhen Lin

Isn't that because the first half "сего" comes from the genitive of "сей"? Of course, that doesn't explain why the genitive ending is pronounced as it is, but at least it fits into a pattern...

I would imagine so, yes. Unfortunately, I've not done any Russian linguistics and we're not taught in a particularly linguisticsy way so I don't really have much of a clue!

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ArchedEdge

15

Oh god my reading list is even worse than i feared - half of them are spelt wrong, and some of them actually irrelevant to the description of the module and the supervision questions they suggest.... :rolleyes:

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Months ago someone linked to some kind of site where you write a list of what you've done each day, and then look at it the next day to inspire you to get more done. Does anybody remember what it is?

Tortious

x

I think it might have been you who linked it, but I'm not sure :o:

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OP

Original post by Craghyrax

Months ago someone linked to some kind of site where you write a list of what you've done each day, and then look at it the next day to inspire you to get more done. Does anybody remember what it is?

I think it might have been you who linked it, but I'm not sure :o:

https://idonethis.com/

I have it as well, except that it emails every night to remind me that on the 30th January I did 'Essay, Play blurb and Rehearsal Scheduling'. I haven't filled it out since. I usually feel too upset by my lack of productivity to immortalise it in a list.

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Tortious

16

Original post by Craghyrax

Months ago someone linked to some kind of site where you write a list of what you've done each day, and then look at it the next day to inspire you to get more done. Does anybody remember what it is?

I think it might have been you who linked it, but I'm not sure :o:

Yep, it was me - and it's iDoneThis, as Zoe said. :smile:

Original post by Zoedotdot

https://idonethis.com/

I have it as well, except that it emails every night to remind me that on the 30th January I did 'Essay, Play blurb and Rehearsal Scheduling'. I haven't filled it out since. I usually feel too upset by my lack of productivity to immortalise it in a list.

Mmm, I had that feeling. I changed the time from 9pm to noon, partly because it makes the email easier to find in my inbox (!), but also to give me a reminder in the middle of the day that I should keep on task (and it's not too late if I haven't that morning!). :yep:

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Thanks guys. I also feel depressed which is why I've not used anything like that yet, but things are getting desperate. I want to get a PhD! :p:

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OP

Original post by Tortious

Mmm, I had that feeling. I changed the time from 9pm to noon, partly because it makes the email easier to find in my inbox (!), but also to give me a reminder in the middle of the day that I should keep on task (and it's not too late if I haven't that morning!). :yep:

Maybe I should start doing it again. I think it's just that I have high expectations of productivity. Like yesterday I copied out and edited a 12 page essay in Russian and went to two classes. Obviously that is actually a lot of work, but in my head the essay should only have taken an hour so I felt vaguely dissatisfied with myself at the end of the day. Getting the email does give me a little sting of guilt at the end of every day though.

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Tortious

16

Original post by Zoedotdot

Maybe I should start doing it again. I think it's just that I have high expectations of productivity. Like yesterday I copied out and edited a 12 page essay in Russian and went to two classes. Obviously that is actually a lot of work, but in my head the essay should only have taken an hour so I felt vaguely dissatisfied with myself at the end of the day. Getting the email does give me a little sting of guilt at the end of every day though.

I've started putting times on my entries so I can see how long I've spent actually working (e.g. today currently reads "Land revision session (120 mins), International lecture (55 mins)" and then whatever I get done this afternoon). Provided you're being productive when you sit down to edit your essay (which I'm sure you are, knowing you!), it might help you to see what's achievable. If the essay took you two and a half hours, you couldn't have done it in an hour anyway. :nah:

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Original post by Zoedotdot

Maybe I should start doing it again. I think it's just that I have high expectations of productivity. Like yesterday I copied out and edited a 12 page essay in Russian and went to two classes. Obviously that is actually a lot of work, but in my head the essay should only have taken an hour so I felt vaguely dissatisfied with myself at the end of the day. Getting the email does give me a little sting of guilt at the end of every day though.

For me this whole thing of guilt actually stops me from facing up to my levels of productivity and taking practical steps to slowly improve. I started having CBT recently to get some help with improving. Yesterday the psychologist said that you need to set very small targets for yourself and reward yourself or congratulate yourself if you manage some successes even if they're small. Then gradually you feel better about things and it gives you more confidence and motivation to try bigger challenges.
I also hate seeing how little I've done, but I think she's probably right that a lot of us have unrealistically high standards for ourselves in terms of productivity.

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