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Status Reports
Status: General Culture (2024 - June)
(Text as at 11/07/2024 23:08:10)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
Rationale for this Project
- For years now I’ve hidden reading and writing on general cultural or political issues as so-called ‘Background Tasks’ appearing on reports for my Thesis1.
- While there are genuine background tasks in this respect, and these will remain reported as above, what will appear in this report will have no real connection in this regard, and so I will no longer overstate the time spent on my Thesis.
- Engagement with cultural and political issues is an important part of life so it’s worth recording and reflecting on what I do in this regard.
- I only intend to include items requiring active involvement, so nothing like passive news-watching.
- A particular focus is Aeon where the papers and videos are in no way related to my Thesis. However, because of time restrictions, these priority ‘unrelated’ items are rather rare these days.
Summary of Progress during April - June 2024
- I spent 37 hours in 24Q2 on this Project, or related work (155.5 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2023). That's 71% of the planned effort (99.4% YTD). Overall, 4.9% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 6.9% YTD) - as against 6.5% planned (6.8% YTD).
- Further details follow (for the latest Quarter: 24Q2):-
GeneralCulture (Total Hours = 48)
- 24Q1 Status Reports (1.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (1.5 hours)
- Blog - General - Review Coldplay2 (0.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - Blog - General" (0.5 hours)
- "Cambridge TAB - 3 Is The Magic Number: What do Zadie Smith, Hugh Laurie and WH Auden all have in common?" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Gopnik (Adam) - The Forgotten History of Hitler’s Establishment Enablers" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: 2019+" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- Interaction - Discussions with Julie, Pete & Caro (1 hour)
→ See "Interaction - Discussions with Pete" (1 hour)
- Interaction - Discussions with Mike, Sylvia & Julie (3.5 hours)
→ See "Interaction - Discussion with Mike" (3.5 hours)
- Investigating Death Watch Beetle (Read, 0.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (0.5 hours)
- "Jolin (Lucy) - My Room, Your Room: Zadie Smith - V6 Bodley’s Court, King’s" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Kaye (Joel) - Reimagining balance" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine" (Read, 6.75 hours)
- Nature - Nature Briefing (Read, 0.25 hours)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (0.25 hours)
- "Nature - Nature Briefing" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Oliver (Roland) & Fage (J.D.) - A Short History of Africa" (Read, 1 hour)
- Quiz - for Verity (4 hours)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (4 hours)
- "Ryback (Timoth W.) - Takeover" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Thucydides, Arnold (Thomas) - The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides: Vol. I - Books 1-3" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Thucydides, Arnold (Thomas) - The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides: Vol. II - Books 4-5" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Thucydides, Crawley (Richard), Warrington (John) - The History of the Peloponnesian War" (Read / Write, 11 hours)
- "Toner (Jerry) - How to Manage Your Slaves by Marcus Sidonius Falx" (Read / Write, 6.5 hours)
- I scheduled 4 hours / week for this project in 24Q2 and have carried this forward for the rest of the year.
- I actually spent only about 70% of this amount of time on a wide variety of things that cropped up together with items planned: I would have accounted for 90% but decided – on reflection – that "Thucydides, Crawley (Richard), Warrington (John) - The History of the Peloponnesian War" might be better categorised under my Thesis. I added "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine" to this project to encourage me to read it! I completed "Toner (Jerry) - How to Manage Your Slaves by Marcus Sidonius Falx".
- Progress (if any) in the current quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List3, and YTD in the current & future “automatic” editions of this report.
Plans for the Near Future:
- Continue / complete reading various books that have landed in my in-tray4:-
- "Bury (J.B.) & Meiggs (Russell) - A History of Greece: To the Death of Alexander the Great",
- "Doyle (Andrew) - The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World",
- "Ryback (Timoth W.) - Takeover",
- "Thucydides, Crawley (Richard), Warrington (John) - The History of the Peloponnesian War", and
- "Toner (Jerry) - A Grand Tour of the Roman Empire by Marcus Sidonius Falx",
- Aeon5
- Continue collecting, reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon & Psyche (and the occasional spin-off).
- In particular, complete write-ups for:-
→ "Neumeyer (Joy) - The discontent of Russia"
- Five Books ("FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere", Etc)
- Continue collecting, reading and reviewing relevant books.
- Coxes Farm: Read:-
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Timber-Framed Building Explained",
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Tudor Houses Explained",
- "Barratt (Nick) - Tracing the History of Your House: The Building, the People, the Past", and
- "Brunskill (R.W.) - Vernacular Architecture: An Illustrated Handbook"
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 4:
- This list had started to grow, so I've given it a severe pruning.
- I may add culled books back in as and when.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of the 2 Earlier Versions of this Note
Table of the 6 Later Versions of this Note
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 11/07/2024 23:08:10 |
1362 (Status: General Culture (2024 - June)) |
Status: Summary (2026 - March) |
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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026