THE JANE DIARIES, #52

Without valor or dignity, I resume after 5.5. weeks on the field.

August 21, 2015

9:54 am: I’ve been on the field for five-and-a-half weeks, and I managed to red ink the hard copy of the manuscript over the week I taught my field course, and later during a few rain days. I managed to clear past the dentition, vertebrae, and ribs; presently I’m working my way through the hemal arches. After that are the gastralia and then the appendicular skeletons (pectoral and pelvic). I’m at hemal arch F; the sequence goes up to R. I’ve been home since the 17^th, and I’ve been working away at the ms since then.

The good part about the description of the postcranium is that it does not need the extensive additions that the skull and mandibular ramus require.

10:01 am: Hemal arch G reached!

10:10 am: Hemal arch H reached!

10:37 am: Hemal arch I reached!

10:43 am: Hemal arch J reached!

10:52 am: Hemal arch K reached!

11:07 am: Hemal arch L reached!

11:18 am: Hemal arch M reached!

11:35 am: An interruption comes.

4:09 pm: back to hemal arch M!

4:15 pm: Hemal arch N reached!

4:26 pm: Hemal arch O, the most erotically storied of the letters, is reached!

4:36 pm: Hemal arch P reached!

4:40 pm: Hemal arch Q reached!

4:46 pm: Reached the last hemal arch!

4:51 pm: Gastralia, lateral segments reached! Time for a short break.

5:02 pm: Break is over.

5:09 pm: Medial segments reached.

5:31 pm: Early dinner time.

9:07 pm: Following a late afternoon nap, dinner, and Night Train to Lisbon: gastralia (posterior flange, left side).

Music: Beethoven, symphonies 7 & 8.

9:22 pm: Done with the gastralia; now on to the appendicular skeleton, starting with the pectoral girdle!

9:28 pm: Just cleared past a relatively lean description for the scapula, which will have to be fleshed out later…

9:32 pm: Just finished with the coracoid, another brief description in need to expansion…

9:34 pm: I’ve reached the humerus, but my stomach is gnawing; time for a brief break.

Plate: French bread, white wine salami, fresh mozzarella, garlic-stuffed olives, grape leaf, Tsantali retsina.

9:50 pm: Reached the pelvic girdle!

10:10 pm: Done for the day. I stopped short of the acetabular region of the ilium.

Night thoughts among tyrannosaurs

The muse keeps her hand from mine

The labyrinth is one wall and one turn long

The serpent is two heads and one action long

(The art at times will keep its motive…)

August 22, 2015

9:12 pm: Late start after a full day; resuming with the ilium.

9:21 pm: Reached the pubis!

9:35 pm: Reached the ischium!

9:41 pm: Reached the femur! These sections (pectoral girdle and limb, pelvic girdle and limb) strike me as somewhat brief and need a little fleshing out.

9:55 pm: Reached the tibia!

9:57 pm: Hunger gnaws again.

Plate, Music: As before.

10:19 pm: Resuming the tibia.

10:39 pm: Done for the night.

August 23, 2015

2:59 pm: Resuming the tibia.

3:13 pm: Reached the fibula!

3:31 pm: Time to make some coffee with a few dashes of cinnamon.

3:44 pm: Coffee served – back to the fibula!

3:47 pm: Reached the proximal tarsals – starting with the astragalus!

4:06 pm: Time for more coffee!

4:12 pm: Coffee – back to the astragalus!

4:25 pm: Reached the calcaneum!

4:38 pm: Reached the distal tarsals!

4:47 pn: In the midst of distal tarsal 4; time for a nap.

5:47 pm: Nap over; back to distal tarsal 4.

6:01 pm: Reached the pes; time to stop.

8:37 pm: Back to it.

8:45 pm: Just got through an unacceptably brief description of the pes; this section will have to greatly expanded. I’ve reached the Ontogeny section!

8:52: Dinner break.

9:35 pm: Instead of forging ahead into the Ontogeny section, I’ll change gears and go back to revising the manuscript. This’ll take me back to the ectopterygoid. But first, food & wine…

Night thoughts among tyrannosaurs

But first

Food & wine;

The day rakes & talons

Pillar & pine

For the beautiful creatures to Night

For night to blood & beast & opuline;

For glutton lust ruled

To light the mind.

August 24, 2015

2:46 pm: Resuming the ectopterygoid.

5:05 pm: Time for a break.

8:55 pm: Resuming the ectopterygoid.

9:21 pm: Dammit - hunger again; back soon. I have felt fatigued all day & my insides feel like an old punching bag.

747 pages written; revising page 325.

August 25, 2015

9:23 am: Back to the ectopterygoid!

11:20 am: Holy crap – done with the ectopterygoid! Now; on to the epipterygoids.

11:34 am: Time for a brief break; reading for while I’m goofing off: The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (Gould), Evolutionary Biology (Futuyma).

11:42 am: Resuming the epipterygoid!

11:44 am: Unscheduled break.

12:16 pm: Back to work.

1:15 pm: Interruption; have to set this aside for a while.

9:44 pm: Night thoughts among tyrannosaurs

You will not feel what I feel

I will not feel what you feel

The night will build

The day will steal

August 26, 2015

~8:15 pm: Back to the epipterygoid!

8:44 pm: Done with the epipterygoid; now I’m positioned to backtrack to take care of loose threads in the section on the palatine. However, a headache is getting in the way; a short break…

~8:50 pm: Back to the palatine!

9:13 pm: Small break (concession to headache).

757 pages written; revising page 316.

August 27, 2015

5:15 pm: Back to the palatine!

6:10 pm: Good progress made, but hunger’s forcing me out.

6:22 pm: Back at it!

6:39 pm: Dinner break.

8:07 pm: Back to the maxillary process of the palatine!

9:06 pm: It’s been a surfeit of palatine – it’s a very interesting and informative bone, but it is also complex and exhausting to describe. Time for a brief break.

9:36 pm: Back to the palatine!

9:50 pm: Hmm – looks like the palatine is effectively done! Next is the pterygoid, which I’m not prepared to face tonight.

762 pages written; revising page 344.

THE JANE DIARIES, #51

Blooretyrannus; in honor and recognition of the artistic innovations of Ronald Langley Bloore (1925-2009), Canadian painter and art historian. View his works at ronbloore.ca.

June 28, 2015

10:00 am: Over breakfast I watched some of Salerno's J. D. Salinger biodoc, which is excellent. I am finally resuming the description of the vomer; yesterday and the previous evening went to my part in the Birthday Party program for Jane’s 10^th anniversary at the Burpee Museum. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. was also there to give a talk on the science in the film Jurassic World.

10:37 am: Done with the vomer for the moment; resuming the palatine.

10:46 am: Time for some more Café con leche with coconut creamer and half-and-half.

11:01 am: Back to the palatine!

Music: Beethoven’s 5^th et 6^th.

11:55 am: Stop for a shower. I spent much of Friday and Saturday drafting the Table of Contents in order to obtain an accurate (as possible) word count of the manuscript for the publisher.

9:33 pm: Hunger is already carving at my insides so I’m starting with a plate of fresh mozzarella, slices of Pinot Grigio salami, garlic-stuffed olives, and a 200 mL bottle of Sanpellegrino Chinotto.

Music: as earlier.

I stopped by the office earlier to photograph the rapid prototype cranium in ventral view.

10:23 pm: Stomach is tortured by hunger again; I’ll stifle it with retsina!

10:35 pm: I’m effectively done for the night.

740 pages reached; revising page 315.

Night thoughts among tyrannosaurs

Symbols dead

Signals born

Demon,

I drive you.

You’re just one world

O my kingdom for a door

To shut you out.

June 29, 2015

9:47 pm: Back to work on the palatine!

10:12 pm: Dammit – hunger gnaws again.

10:16 pm: Hopefully tortilla rounds and seltzer water will work.

Music: Beethoven’s 5^th et 6^th.

10:50 pm: Time for a glass of retsina. I worked on the hemal arch figures in photoshop earlier today, and I have worked on them intermittently over the past several weeks when the situation and time permits. I spent several hours today filing reprints away into the cabinets, and I’ve cleared out my work area of boxes.

I finally have elbow room and a space that I can work with, with three large tables: one to work at with a desktop computer and flatscreen monitor, with plenty of space for casts, lamps and reprints; a large coffee table for wireless tech, desktop CPU, CD player/radio, and printer/flatbed scanner; and a long and low coffee table for my notebooks, and stacks of books and journals that pertain to the projects I am currently working on.

Overall, it’s an ideal arrangement; there’s even enough space – and a chair – to receive a guest. It’s as much a parlor as a study, which is what I’ve aimed to make out of this room from the start. Regardless, there’s plenty of boxes to empty and many bookshelves to purchase and fill before that. Presently I’m backing up my latest work onto the external hard drive.

742 pages reached; revising page 316.

June 30, 2015

9:16 pm: Back to the manuscript after a day busy with preparations for the field, and a photo shoot for the book jacket. I now resume the palatine. It was an early start to the day, so I am powering myself with a cup of coffee.

10:04 pm: Fading fast, despite the coffee.

743 pages reached.

July 1, 2015

9:14 pm: Back to the palatine. Another day nearly completely erased that has left my mind slow and labored.

10:13 pm: Bloody Hell – my stamina’s flagging already.

745 pages reached; revising page 323.

Night thoughts among tyrannosaurs

Of the plume & languor:

A Gwendolyn kingfisher

In a Dickinson jar

& the cigarette dot

Swung across Night’s snowy occellations

By the fish hook lacquers

You're not ready now

but you will be later;

Thou shalt have no deities

Before you,

Thou shalt keep your heel

Upon the death’s head,

Thou shalt accept the Universe

Before your fantasies,

Thou shalt slay religion

Enter history

& murder thyself,

Daily.

July 2, 2015

9:48 pm – 10:48 pm: Red-inked the hard copy of the ms; in the midst of the dentary teeth.

July 3, 2015

Today was wiped out by preparations for the field; we leave for southeastern Montana on the 7^th. I am left exhausted. Sent off to sleep by the biodoc Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats.

July 4, 2015

8:54 pm: A relatively early start, but the day’s had an early beginning spent to prepare lectures and labs for the field course. I can feel that I’m flagging, so I’ll start with the red ink and bring the vomer closer to completion. A new month, so it’s time to save this as a new draft, for July 2015.

9:09 pm: Red ink done for the vomer; now that for the palatine.

9:41 pm: Making good headway through the palatine red ink revisions, but hunger strikes again.

10:00 pm: Hopefully tortilla rounds, olives, and lemon-lime seltzer water will hold me for a while.

10:08 pm: Just completed the last of the red ink for the palatine; although there are some loose threads in the description, I am too fatigued to face writing them tonight. I’m going to go upstairs to chill some water in the freezer in preparation for some La Fée (Absinthe Parisienne) later tonight. I’ll decide how to proceed once I return.

10:14 pm: The next bone in line is the ectopterygoid, but I don’t want to start revisions to it until I am completely done with the palatine. Ergo, I will continue with the red inking of the dentary teeth descriptions.

Music: Beethoven’s 2^nd and 4^th.

10:49 pm: Stopping at the 15^th dentary tooth; time for La Fée!

Night thoughts among tyrannosaurs

The poisoned cloak has burned me

To your bosom