I watched the debates last night while researching Jane Austen (and no, "researching Jane Austen" is not a euphemism...though I might turn it into one...)--where was I? Ah yes, the debate. Can I get a Good Citizen award or something for making through the whole 90 minutes? Considering the polarized state of politics today, I was kind of hoping there'd be a fist fight. That might be one way to settle things. Sorry, Mum, but Dubya didn't come across that well. He stammered and stuttered, and if that doesn't sound indecisive, I don't know what does.
And let's talk about the "flip flop" issue - if you make a decision, and then get more/better information, why is it not okay to change your course of action? For example - let's say you fall in love with someone, and it turns out that person is an alcoholic. Do you stay with that person and waste the rest of your life? Or do you cut your losses at some point? (I guess a "Christian" would tell me that it's one's moral duty to stay married...maybe that proves my point...)
"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind." ~ Willilam Blake
This blog entry was brought to you by ... ellipsis!
"So, if I dream I have you, I have you,
For all our joys are but fantastical." ~ John Donne
I think the poem is about his dead wife or something. Still, I'm such a daydreamer that the sentiment is appealing.
P.S. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is out on dvd - if you haven't seen this movie already, grab it now! Ponder this with me: If you could erase someone whom you once loved dearly but broke your heart, would you? Is it worth it to give up the good memories as well as the bad ones?
I've been trying to avoid quizzes, but this one is...something...Did you ever look at an old cookbook and notice how disgusting the food looks? It's like the colors from the printing process got all fouled up, but not only that - the food was quite weird. Maybe in 20 years we'll look through a Martha Stewart cookbook and think the same thing.
P.S. - I checked, and they don't have the fondue recipe card from the "Body Movin" video on that quiz.
P.P.S. - I found this over at AngAnon's place.
I'm led to believe that this image is an Internet classic, but it's new to me - and it had me in stitches:
I should hasten to add that this would not have amused 10-year-old me, because I had pony fever back then, my friends. Do little girls still go through the pony phase, or do they cut straight to the boy bands?
There is a tiny desiccated frog under the cat food bowl this morning.
"Trying to write something fresh about Jane Austen is like tiptoeing through a ploughed field in the hope of finding virgin soil, only to discover that much of the earth has already been turned." Audrey Hawkridge, Jane and Her Gentlemen.
And all I need to do is squeeze out a tiny paper on Sense and Sensibility. Jane was pretty caustic, she snuck in a zinger every now and then, but the pace of her novels is a bit slow for us modern readers. And English society in her day was so boring! Geez, no wonder you could assume that if you talked with a gentleman in a drawing room after tea or waltzing that he might want to marry you, because your life was so damn dull!
Anyway, I'm making slight progress, I hope to have a draft of the thing finished by tonight. I'm making steak with blue cheese and baked potatoes for dinner, sounds yummy, huh?
Gee, you'd think the head of the grad department would know that us undesireable lit majors are forbidden to take Article and Essay Workshop (now renamed with the clever moniker "Narrative Non-Fiction"). You'd think he could have said something when I went in to get some advice for my schedule for spring. Gawd forbid we try to get a little cross-pollination going between the programs, not to mention, THEY COULD STATE THAT IT WAS FOR MAJORS ONLY ON THE COURSE DESCRIPTION WEBSITE LIKE EVERY OTHER CREATIVE WRITING CLASS DOES! WAY TO GET MY HOPES UP FOR NOTHING, PEOPLE!!! Here I was, blissfully thinking that I could get my writing mojo going, but, NOOOOO!!! (This is probably where Lucy Lunchmeat should stop reading, or else she might start hating me.) It's bad enough that non-creative writing majors are treated like the proverbial red-headed stepchildren around here, plus they even nuked the major I really wanted, but to tease me into thinking that I could take a damn class of theirs is really just too mean! Other English departments actually WANT you to take courses in the other majors, but not this one. Can't let those lit people think they can try something new, just go back to your dusty books in the library, half of which are in deep storage in an undisclosed location and it takes three or more days to get them.
Speaking of the library...in the "Adding Insult to Injury" Department, it took me a half hour just to log into the registration system, only to find that there was a financial hold on my registration. Wanna know the amount? Because you'd think it would have to be pretty hefty to hold up a student's registration ability. It was...$1.50. Yeah, the damn school was about to go broke without that $1.50 library fee, I guess they don't tell you that at the library anymore, you just go through life, checking out books, joyfully unaware that there's the spectre of $1.50 owed to the university hanging over your head. I go to the web site to pay the $1.50 (which magically morphs into $3.50 with the $2.00 "convenience fee" tacked on...grrrrr.....) and, for some reason I can't pay under the Opera web browser (which works fine for EVERY SINGLE OTHER SCHOOL WEB APPLICATION, I MIGHT ADD), so I have to open up Internet Exploder, log in AGAIN, and then get reamed an extra $2.00 for "convenience" sake...Only to find out, that I can't take the damn writing class that I was so excited about. Fuck. Well, I know my place, so I'll just put those highfalutin' creative writing notions all out of my head, yessir.
I have a friend here who wants to transfer to another school, and I this morning I can understand his attitude.
I quickly got over my anger from the last post. Too much angry is bad for your complexion! I figure, if I still want to take the "Narrative Non-Fiction" class, maybe I can have a chat with the prof and see about duping talking him into letting me sign up. After all, that seems to work for this incredibly annoying undergraduate girl who keeps showing up in graduate-level classes around here. (But she will be the topic of a separate post one day.) Anyhoo, next semester I'm taking a course in "line editing", which promises to be full of grammar and computer geekery goodness. So if this school thing doesn't work out, I can always go and be an editor, just like Elaine from Seinfeld, who I try to emulate in all things (except dancing).
My birthday passed in low key splendor. Godfrey gifted me with two pairs of lovely earrings (the boy has good taste in jewelry - or else he is able to predict what I will like with uncanny accuracy, because I may not have good taste as I love sparkly things and they may be tacky, but I do like what he gives me), a book, "The Sounds of Science" and some dvds. We dined at The Melting Pot, where we overindulged in white chocolate amaretto fondue. Yum! Then Simon the Good came over for a brief visit, bearing Italian cream cake and another dvd. The multimedia goddess has smiled on me!
Late last night I finished Project: Brief Paper on Jane Austen. I am currently trying to decide if I should leave my parenthetical remark on "Mons Veneris" in the introduction. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to try to be clever, or at the very least dirty-minded, in upper level English lit papers, so perhaps it will stay.
Lucy Lunchmeat took her students to the old cemetary near campus for a cool writing exercise. Damn the technology that chains me to the classroom! I open the windows whenever I can. Still, I may steal that idea of hers one day.
Not feeling too well. We are having a delightful cold snap, it was so nice and cool yesterday - I think it was, everyone else looked chilly, but I was burning up! Since I'm too young to be going through The Change, I'm guessing I "have something". If only this town had a Panera Bread, so I could obtain some healing French onion soup, alas, I shall have to seek elsewhere for that panacea!
Consider this in honor of the Boys performing in Tampa tomorrow...and me having to miss them...grumble...
Having to give a presentation, and observe another TA teach a class, and having to write a proposal for a research paper, all while feeling barftacular, is the pits. Oh yeah, did I mention there are still adorable Freshman essays to grade? All to do between now and tomorrow at noon. Sorry, Frosh, your papers will have to wait.
Stupid TMJ. I know that is the main reason I feel so bad. My jaw hurts so bad (and, in turn, my head, which, by the way, is emitting a high-pitched sound) that I'm nauseous.
I'll spare you the details - but this is not what I need today, of all days.
