Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The End of the Beginning

...I'm done. All four are in, for better or worse. I am finished.

Wow.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Not enough Synonyms!

Words I used too much in my 824 paper: mask, masquerade, disguise, retreat, reveal

Words I used too much in my 727 paper: atrocity, trauma, horror, reveal

Words I used to much in my 700 paper: TA, course, class, program, demonstrate, frustration

Words I am using too much in my 723 paper: children, colonial, relationship, tension, reveal.

Argh.

Only In Dreams

15 pages down on 723. I'm nowhere near done according to my original outline, but I think I'm going to cut out a whole bullet point in order to A) keep the paper confined to one book and B) avoid another 727 situation where the paper stretched into infinity. Odds of finishing the paper tomorrow: 70%. Odds of being 93% done tomorrow: 93%.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Today, I am an Adult

I just unclogged a toilet all by myself for the first time. 

I feel so incredibly handy.

Friday, December 14, 2007

That Time

"You learned English?"

"Just in cases."

Watched Love Actually tonight while wrapping and writing cards. Still love that movie. 

Also, I smelled pine for the first time this season when entering Trader Joe's tonight, and it made me realize how important the holiday season is to me and how, in the future (and maybe also this year) I need to make a bigger effort to integrate it into my life. Because the smell of Christmas makes me feel so much happier.


Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Beep

You know how when women get pregnant they crave crazy, terribly unhealthy and sometimes even disgusting foods? Apparently when forced to produce 100 pages of text in three weeks, my brain craves horrible music. Things I haven't been able to get enough of lately (or get out of my head, for that matter) include "Beep" by the Pussycat Dolls, "Me N You" by Cassie, and "Two Become One" by the Spice Girls. To be fair, I'm also digging on Feist and the new Radiohead, but still. Come ON.

In less me-centered news, A) my beloved little brother turned 21 yesterday and B) Tom was accepted to Oriel for next year. Both these events make me 90% happy and 10% sad I'm not around to celebrate them properly (although Tom seems to have celebrated by continuing to write code - oh grad school). Ben's being 21 means we can go to bars together and drink around the house with getting that disappointed stare from our mother. It also begins years of squabbling about who has to drive...or rather, a year of squabbling. Then Kat can do it. Tom's still waiting to hear about his DPhil proposal, but after proofreading it for him (which was made difficult by the fact that I literally didn't understand one word in ten), I'm confident he'll be fine. After all, his proposal is so pretty.

In news that makes me regret not going to school in California, my car is snowed in again. It's not quite as bad as the previous time, but it's still going to take some effort since I *still* haven't gotten around to buying a shovel. At least this time I have an actual snow brush for the car itself and won't be reduced to using a doormat like the last few times.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Académie de Limoges, comme vous avez m'a déçu

As I'm researching ways of training TAs for teaching Freshman English, I can't help but think wistfully of how helpful some of these pedagogical techniques would have been for me about 15 months ago when I was first faced with 230 little French kids and no idea what to do with them.

Oh well. At least I learned strategies for hiding the constant rage I felt during classes that went poorly. From what I hear, those come in handy.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Two Down!

Granted, there are still two to go, but I feel like the worst is over. Comp will be like, 12 pages tops, and I have a good start on theory already. I am in good shape. 

*dances*

I saw Golden Compass last night with Alex (since Renee and Marissa couldn't make it at the last minute, sad) and was ultimately disappointed. I'm constantly annoyed by the way adults assume kids can only be interested in meticulously straightforward and painfully obvious plots. The 2 minutes of out-and-out voiceover exposition at the beginning were incredibly painful.

Still, I enjoyed it, if only for the art direction. All the choices they made were note perfect; even the things that looked different from what I see in my head, like Lee Scorsby, looked wonderful and totally fitting. Nicole was stunning, as was Eva Green, and I can see Daniel Craig being good if/when he gets more to do. And the scenes in Oxford...so, so cool. Since I was there so recently it was weird to see the camera panning down streets I was on mere weeks ago; it must be even weirder for J&T. And the way they tweaked the buildings just a tad was awesome.

So...yes. Next movie choice? Not sure...hopefully something before then, but it might be Sweeny Todd. That shit is going to be badass.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Saturday Morning

Today for the first time in weeks, I didn't feel depressed when I woke up. This is due not so much to anything inherently positive about today but more to my sweet-ass dreams (in which, among other things, I beat the shit out of a girl who was making fun of one of my friends), but regardless, it was a nice feeling

But Oh, It Gives Me Thrills To Wind You Up

Today was the best Friday in ages. Class was fine, I came home and wrote 9 pages of MBD, I ran the errand I needed to, I hung out with Marissa, I drank pinot and I chatted with Jessie and Kevin, then just Jessie. It was the perfect mix of productive, enjoyable and informative.

You know, I like my life here a lot. Despite my bitching, I really do fit here, and that's a good feeling.


Friday, December 7, 2007

Apartment Snapshot

Marissa: Hey, can I borrow Homo Saccer?

Me: Sure. It's right there on the bottom shelf, between Douglas Adams and Harry Potter.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Paper to Pen, Spell Out Eliza

What a difference between writing a paper whose topic I chose out of panic and one whose topic I actually put time and work into. The moral is obvious. The last two are split, but the shorter one is the one I didn't find an interesting topic for in time, so hopefully it won't be too bad. I plan on going to see Golden Compass this weekend, both to reward myself for finishing MBD and as "research" for theory.

I love going to the gym. While I know I need to start adding running back into my routine soon, I still love it. I went to an abs class for the first time in weeks yesterday and was reminded that, while doing them myself is all well and good, class is best. So we'll be back tomorrow.

I'm really into music while writing this semester. Sometimes I don't like it, but it's been working really well. It also gives me a chance to dig out old favorites I don't listen to much. I've had this strange urge to share music I love with people lately, so if anyone's down for a mix CD swap I'd be in. I'm in the market for new stuff as well.

And you can bet your ass "Church of John Coltrane" will be on there. It's like, my indie ace-in-the-hole. So indie I don't even know if it's possible to get their CD, let alone how.

I'm looking forward to classes ending; I'm fed up with them getting in the way of my marathon library visits.  I'm also really looking forward to having time to go shopping, despite my continued lack of cash. Call me crazy, but I love the mall at Christmas time, particularly if I don't really *need* to buy anything. It's always decorated festively, there's Christmas music, there's beautiful things everywhere (hey, I'm a little materialistic, sue me), and you're surrounded by people who are buying things for people they love. I like it. Since I usually finish 90% of my shopping November I don't get frazzled, and so I usually manage to avoid the cynicism/blind rage that so often accompany a trip to the mall in December. 

I have been suffering from "tip of the tongue" syndrome ALL day. I couldn't think of the word "geographically" earlier and had to get help from my 16-year-old sister. I've also been using Thesaurus.com an ungodly amount, because my brain simply cannot find the words it wants.

I just came home after 10 hours in Memorial and immediately spent 20 minutes trying to get my car out. I succeeded in clearly the windshields of ice, but not in removing the ice wall surrounding the vehicle itself. That will be tomorrow's task, when I've hunted up a shovel. Teach me not to drive when it snows...good grief.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Wow.

Am I the last one to know that Salman Rushdie has a ridiculously hot wife?

Monday, December 3, 2007

"I Wish I Had A Million Bucks...Hot Dog!"

I need to hurry up and finish my work so I can watch "It's a Wonderful Life."

Also, I just had the sweetest paper writing experience in a long time. I was finishing up a close reading, and thinking that I really wanted this paper to be done, but I couldn't justify ending with just the passages I'd examined. And then I saw a thread connecting all the readings I'd done that can't be demonstrated in anything I *hadn't* yet discussed, and which will only require like, 20 minutes of editing to incorporate into my thesis and other readings, and which will actually make my argument *better*.

How often does something that makes your paper better also make it shorter? I'm so pleased. Maybe I will be home by ten after all.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Let Your Diamond Bracelet Fall

I'm listening to "Ice Age" by Pete Yorn for the first time in ages, and it reminds me so strongly of last year. No particular moment (except maybe walking through the arbor in the Jardins de l'Eveche that one fall day), but...I love this song. Pete Yorn is underrated.

Work now.