I have been in such a weird mood lately. I don't know if mood is the right term. Adjusting to my new life as a graduate student / TA has been tough. Combine it with all the hurricane weirdness, and money worries - it's just been odd. I constantly have at the back of my head, "Is academia the place for me? Is this what I want to do for five more years after I get my MA? Do I have anything special or unique to say about literature, and can I even teach a bunch of freshmen how to write? And why won't that annoying undergraduate girl shut up in my Romantic Lit class?"
Physically, as I have alluded to in previous boring posts, I have been not feeling 100%. My energy level is down, I have this intermittent sore throat - actually it's more like my lymph nodes get all funky.
Plus, the election. I think that must work at most everyone's psyche. Each side fears the other. I frankly don't trust that our votes really do count - been hearing about how both sides have been up to trickery of one or another sort - it's really disgusting. I have little faith in the system, a system that gives us too very similar (in many but not all aspects) choices.
So here I am, trying to make a new start and find a meaningful livelihood, trying to overcome the obstacles and issues from within and from without. I feel like a strong person, I think I've dealt with a lot of strange and painful things in my recent and distant past. And you're probably wondering, "what's her damn point?" That's an excellent question. I apologize for rambling. School is hard work, it's not just my TA duties, it's my duties as a student - such as having to write a 30 page research paper by the end of the semester, and having to make a presentation on my tentative results by around Thanksgiving. Which is now this month! So I think what I'm trying to say is, don't feel mad or bad if you don't hear from me much, either here or in person. It's not you, it's my new weird life and workload.
Oh, and I got a tattoo. Please don't tell Mum.
It's getting so a girl can't sit around in her unmentionables anymore! I need a new bathrobe!
"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
- George Orwell
"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." - Lenin
"The truth, of course, is that a billion falsehoods told a billion times by a billion people are still false." - Travis Walton
My Romantic Lit professor told the class, in the midst of a lecture the other day, that he doesn't like cows because they are "too big".
"Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind." -Nietzsche
Here's a book by a real journalist on the SCA. "A hands-on travelogue through the "Current Middle Ages" of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), the world's largest group of medieval enthusiasts." I like that - "medieval enthusiasts". It's more honest than "historic re-enactors" and less insulting than "weirdos".
WARNING! General Foods' Sugar Free, Caffeine Free "Suisse Mocha" International Coffee is sucktacular! It doesn't taste like coffee OR chocolate! While it's not horrible, like Pork Brains in Milk Gravy, it certainly does underwhelm the tastebuds.
I should have known better, I know. Usually I can handle sugar free stuff. Right now I am enjoying sugar free hot chocolate. Nummy! But when a product goes to the next level, that is, sugar free AND fat free, for example, well, it's goodbye, flavor.
Don't let this happen to you!
I have been grading papers for the past day and a half. Whew! Now I'm over the worst of the grading process. One dear knucklehead thought that three paragraphs would suffice when the assignment called for 6 - 8 pages. *le sigh* Their final project will be easy to slap a grade on, and they only have a few journal entries to complete before the end of the semester.
Which means now I have two papers to write. Don't be surprised if there's radio silence on my end of things for a little while, until I'm feeling not so overwhelmed.
*I finally have an inkling or two for my paper.
*Mint M&Ms are addictive. Beware!
*The weather has been sucky. I don't mean the overcast skies, which I enjoy (doesn't make me squint, and it makes the fall colors seem brighter) I mean the weird humid-sticky-kinda-hot part.
*Despite my mentioning it several times in class and posting it on the course web site, I wonder if any of my students forgot that I gave a homework assignment instead of holding class today.
*Conversely, I wonder how many of them will remember to do said homework assignment.
*I think I want a bread machine. I want to make Sally Lunn bread. I've never made bread before, so I think I need some new-fangled marvel to help me.
*Happy Thanksgiving!
Don't believe Rachael Ray, they do not have fresh bay leaves readily available in grocery stores. At least not down here. What am I going to do now, giggly girl? You and your "EVOO"! And you don't have to tell us every time that "EVOO" is extra virgin olive oil! We know already! (Recipe I'm referring to is here.)
I had a great idea for the introduction to my paper while I was in the shower this morning - but I can't get it back! Come back, idea!
Is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery? Or is it a form of stalking?
A couple of cool quotes from Jane Eyre:
"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last."
"If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should- so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again."
