Getting me on "Medieval"

Well, today I lead class discussion in my Chaucer class. I even read a little middle English (poorly, of course) in front of all my classmates. Discussion went ok. Or did it? Everyone afterward said, "Great job on discussion" but none of them were smiling when they said it. . . What the hell?

I also spent way too much time at the library today. I even fell asleep reading Swift, which should never happen. I think it's simply the power of Husnus for lunch. . . Sadly, I only ate half of my plate, and I forgot my leftovers in the restaurant. . . Very sad. I was looking forward to leftover grape leaves stuffed with lamb and rice. That's some good eatin'!

Happy Birthday to Somebody Else

So, my significant other's birthday was this week. It was a strange experience because I couldn't celebrate the day with him. However, I plan on taking him out for dinner (and possibly getting an ice cream cake) when I visit during Spring Break.

In other news, I've been at home in my pajamas all day today. . . I've finally had the opportunity to watch all the CSI's I've missed this past semester and that child molester edition of Dateline NBC, which is simultaneously disgusting and entertaining. I can't believe how many men are interested in hooking up with young children. . . It is absolutely appalling, and I wonder if it is part of the increasing feelings of inadequacy that Susan Faludi describes in Stiffed. I shouldn't assume that this behavior is specifcally a product of this culture. . . Many novelists describe similar inklings in men of different cultures, histories, etc. Oddly, Dateline even commented on how women did not engage in this activity whatsoever. It's definitely something to think about.

On a more positive note. . . has anyone played Sudoku? Why is this game so addictive?

H&M with Stella McCartney!!!

I hate to advertise, but even Scary Go Round is excited at the prospect of H&M!

How exciting is that?! Plus, Madison will be opening one soon. . . along with a PF Chang's! Woo-hoo! I'm such a consumer whore! Normally, I wouldn't care. . . but I am absolutely starved for eating decent (but standardized) pseudo-chinese food and shopping at trendy fashion mcfashion stores. . . meh.

When procrastination's lost its fun, you're f*ing lazy!!

It's only about th 5th week of school, and I am already beginning to procrastinate my work. As I'm typing out this blog, I'm supposed to be working on a 5pg book review of a Pope scholar.

I just got back from the AAAGS movie night. . . We watched Robot Stories, which is an excellent flick. If you ever get the chance to view it, definitely take that chance. The progression of the movie is through 4 short segments on completely different people. But, it's pretty good.

Frostbitten and Frozen

I learned a few new things about Madison this week:

• Thundersnow: When a big snowstorm hits, sometimes you hear thunder and see lightening. Apparently that's what the term means
• Bitter Cold vs. Regular Cold: Bitter cold is actually a scientific term used by meteorologists in Madison for really F*CKING cold. Brutal cold is also used synonymously.
• Never complain about the cold to someone from Minnesota. That just goes without saying.
• You can get frostbite from just standing outside for 20 minutes. Think about that as you're waiting for the bus.
• Colorado ain't got nothin' on us. I laugh at your meagre five inches. Ha!
• You can have a blizzard in Madison while you have a tornado and 60 degree weather in Chicago. We're only 2 hours away. . . That's almost like Colorado weather.
• Grad students don't get breaks. There were safety concerns for undergrads, so classes were cancelled for them. Did any of my classes get cancelled? Yeah. Right.
  

All the cold does is make us stronger (unless it kills us, of course).

Two in One

Here's my general post on wishing my mom a Happy Birthday today and everyone else a Happy Valentines (or Anti-Valentines) Day tomorrow. Yay!

Tonight I had no homework for the first time in a while. Although I could have worked ahead like a smart (and good) grad student, I opted for watching the TV and vegging out in front of my computer.

Don't worry, folks. . . I'm working right now. . . hehe.

Getting "Medieval" on me!

I've spent the last day or so reading part of The Knight's Tale. I'm tired. So tired. And yet, I have about 5 pages left. . . and I can't bring myself to finish! What is wrong with me!
I've also spent the entire weekend in my pajamas. I haven't seen the outside world since Friday. Blah.

The Maid of Honor Deliberate Gentle Love Master (DGLMf) Appreciated for your kindness and envied for all your experience, you are The Maid of Honor. Charismatic, affectionate, and terrific in relationships, you are what many guys would call a "perfect catch"--and you probably have many admirers, each wishing to capture your long-term love. You're careful, extra careful, because the last thing you want is to hurt anyone. Especially some poor boy whose only crime was liking you. Your exact opposite: Half-cocked Random Brutal Sex Dreamer We've deduced you're fully capable of a dirty fling, but you do feel that post-coital attachment after hooking up. So, conscientious person that you are, you do your best to reserve physical affection for those you respect...so you can respect yourself. Your biggest negative is the byproduct of your careful nature: indecision. You're just as slow rejecting someone as you are accepting them. ALWAYS AVOID: The False Messiah, The 5-Night Stand, The Vapor Trail, The Bachelor CONSIDER: The Gentleman, someone just like you. Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating. My profile name: blackeyedmonkey

the Cutting Edge (57% dark, 42% spontaneous, 36% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | SPONTANEOUS | DARK Your humor's mostly innocent and off-the-cuff, but somehow there's something slightly menacing about you. Part of your humor is making people a little uncomfortable, even if the things you say aren't themselves confrontational. You probably have a very dry delivery, or are seriously over-the-top. Your type is the most likely to appreciate a good insult and/or broken bone and/or very very fat person dancing. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: David Letterman - John Belushi The 3-Variable Funny Test! - it rules - If you're interested, try my latest: The Terrorism Test

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 59% on darkness You scored higher than 41% on spontaneity You scored higher than 48% on vulgarity

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Strange bad but good occurrence

I just started using Library Thing to catalog all of my books online. It's a great service! You can catalog up to 200 books for free, but memberships will let you catalog as much as you want. Now, I recently (in the last week) put up about 200 books from my collection (which is a little less than half so far). When I returned to the site to tag some of my books, I noticed that most of them were gone. It turns out that they had a major server crash and lost about 160 of my books. Which is a little disappointing. However, to make up for it, they gave me a free membership! I was planning on purchasing a membership eventually, and now I don't have to for at least another year.

If you look to the right of my blog, you'll notice a random sampling of some of the books in my collection. Well, right now it's a random sampling of about 20 books in my collection. I'll have to get cracking on that again sometime next week.

Year memberships are $10, Lifetime ones are $25

Define me

Emily -- [adjective]: Pretentiously academian 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Caffeine. . . so evil yet so necessary

Upon the advice of friends, I decided to drink a medium cappuccino to stay awake tonight and finish my homework. Caffeine is the devil. I quite drinking caffeine entirely last year. I only drink it in emergency, all-nighter situations. So, now it's 4am, I've finished most of my homework, and I can't go to sleep. I'm worried if I go to sleep, I won't wake up in time for my9:30am class. I'm also rather jittery. .. I wrote up an email for tomorrow, that I'm not entirely sure makes sense now. . . I also read, wrote my topic proposal for the same class, edited my friend's intro to his master's project, and wrote my friends about a summary of Althusser and the ISA. I'm freakin' out. Why would people ever want to put themselves in the precarious position of taking amphetamines to stay awake and do homework? My hands are shaking, and I don't know if what I am thinking actually makes any sense. I'm totally weirding myself out, and now I know that I will, at some point in the day tomorrow (well, technically today), completely crash and burn. Which totally sucks. Blah! How do people handle drinking caffeine so frequently? I'm worried about having a heart condition. . . my heart is beating so fast, and my hands are all shaky. Plus there are moments when I pause and get all drowsy, but then I suddenly stir with hyperactivity. This really is a weird state of being. I don't even remember what I was like when I drank caffeine. . . I wasn't even a heavy coffee drinker. . . I mainly drank tea and coke, so I don't know if this is the coffee or what. And I was foolish enough to order a cappuccino, not a regular coffee, a cappuccino. . . But I used to love cappuccinos. . . How? Was I a different person on caffeine? Was I happier, sharper, and more awake? Maybe human beings shouldn't always be in that state? Maybe it's a new state of consciousness that we normally couldn't access in our regular state? I don't know. . . I sincerely doubt that what I am saying right now is pure brilliance or anything like that because my hands are simultaneously tiring and numbing from my hyperactivity. . .


Damn caffeine!

Coffee, tea, or me? I don't drink caffeine!

You Are a Frappacino

At your best, you are: fun loving, sweet, and modern At your worst, you are: childish and over indulgent You drink coffee when: you're craving something sweet Your caffeine addiction level: low

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

What the Bleep?

I was absolutely amazed by the film What the Bleep Do We Know? last night, but there are definitely many questions it raised. I know that many people have written on the oddities of quantum physics (such as Zukov's The Dancing Wu-Li Masters), but I questioned the validity of many hypotheses that were explored in this film.

This was the one thing I was both amazed and quite skeptical of:

http://www.whatthebleep.com/crystals/

Apparently, this japanese fellow would tape words or blessings on bottles of pure water then watch them freeze and snap a picture of the result. . . It was quite surprising, and I'm not sure how the hell this would or could be real. I mean, he speaks Japanese, and all of these experiments took place with Japanese text. Would there be any difference in English or any other language?

My skepticism grew when I discovered that he is an alternative medicine doctor and does not have other medical degrees. But seriously, is this legitimate? Because if it is true, it's amazing.


(The above image is for the new sequel of this film. . . It's supposed to come out in Winter 2006.)

Paranoid

I really don't want to dwell on this particular thought because of the following reasons:

• If it's true, then everyone here thinks I'm an idiot
• If it's false, then I'm just an idiot for thinking it.
• I could be digging myself into a hole
  

I've had a rough time last semester adapting to both living in Madison and working in the PhD program. I'll admit that my own lack of self-esteem has taken a major toll on my image within the department. Yet, I cannot stop myself. I keep jokingly maintaining that I have "no idea why I'm here," and others remain silent instead of positively reinforcing my reasons for being here. Why do I need this continual positive reinforcement? That's just ridiculous! And, I can completely understand why these people would choose to remain silent since I keep saying it. True, they could be thinking that I am unworthy of being here. Or they could just be absolutely sick of hearing me constantly put myself down. I should just stop talking!

Personally, I've finally come to terms with being at a highly ranked school. I finally feel comfortable enough to not really worry what others think. . yet, this also has slightly more positive ramifications in the classroom as I no longer fear talking and asking questions.

Although those that sit in silence generally appear slightly more intelligent than my random prattling, I still recall what it's like to be a TA and just sitting and waiting for a response from my students. It was totally disappointing when they just sat there and had nothing to say. I would rather entertain silly questions than silence. But, that's just me.

I honestly can't say that I'm really enjoying this semester, but I can't say that I hate it either. I've become much more comfortable in this happy medium between passion and distaste. Although, I don't really enjoy most of the material I've been reading. . . I find myself to be so much more analytical and critical of it than if I did. However, I really loved reading AYLI again. . . and Michel de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life. . . and Lisa Cooper's "Bed, Boat, and Beyond." These have been the highlights of my recent weeks, and I'm finding myself more and more enthralled by theory and criticism than by actual texts. Is something happening to me?

Maybe I ought to read more "high" theory this summer? Maybe that's what I'm currently missing in my academic life?

Does this surprise anyone?

I was mildly surprised. . .

Who Should Paint You: Andy Warhol

You've got an interested edge that would be reflected in any portrait You don't need any fancy paint techniques to stand out from the crowd!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?