Episode 1211: Nose, Grind, Yes?

Dissertation supervisor has come (virtually) knocking, so I have like a week to come up with something to discuss with him. Need to have a detailed outline by Week 7, which is definitely achievable, once I start regularly reading all the stuff I've accumulated and can figure out how I want to divide the chapters. I'm realising that my ideas up to this point regarding the dissertation have been (dis)comfortingly vague, in that they don't really focus the topic enough in a particular direction. Or to put it more charitably to myself, the way I've been thinking about the Merlion and Singaporean poetry so far isn't going to fit very well within the scope of 16000 words, which is exactly what it needs to do. What I have to do is set aside some time to see how all my thoughts about the Merlion relate to each other, in poetry, as a liminal figure, and as a commodified cultural symbol. Probably should read the anthology I'm looking at all over again too. At this rate, I need to read and review faster, if I'm going to juggle everything. It's either that or cut back on my non-academic writing altogether, which I'm reluctant to do because it's totally overkill, considering I really do have to be more organised about my work in general. That means starting to rewrite the children's story for my EN978 portfolio very soon, probably even this weekend.