Sunday, April 30, 2006
chapters, magic erasers, brussels sprouts
I could have just called this "random bullets of crap" like everyone else...
- Chapters: Tonight/before dawn tomorrow I need to finish up and send the two remaining chapters for the 3rd ed. book I've been working on for fucking ever. Four months! I suck. I've messed up the editing process so much that I have these two brand new chapters to write while I also have PDFs to review of chapters that have already been through the five levels of editing and layout.
- Magic Erasers: On the phone with Mel today, she mentioned the dreamy product that is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It works. It is awesome. Ok, it falls apart a little too quickly for my taste, but it's cheap enough that it's not an issue. Of course, we are now both dreadfully concerned that the magic eraser is actually some planet-poisoning little white square. However, I proposed that if either of us find out such information, we keep it to ourselves. (I'm kidding about that. If it's tremendously bad for the earth, I'm sure we'll both stop using it.)
- Brussels Sprouts: I love the little buggers. According to the memes I see floating around the blogosphere, poor little guys are almost universally despised. Good! More for me! But seriously, I think there's a secret society of people who love brussels sprouts. I was talking to the owner/cook at a little restaurant I adore, which happens to have brussels sprouts as a side dish. Nearly every time I go there, I get that particular veggie and I look around and lo and behold plenty of other people have the same side dish on their table. I mentioned this to the fellow and he said that they are one of the most popular side dishes there, and he thought for a moment about taking them off the menu for the spring menu revamp but realized he'd have a revolt on his hands so better to keep them on the menu. I just had some—not from the restaurant but from my own kitchen—and I'm full and happy and feel all healthy because of it. So there.
I could have just called this "random bullets of crap" like everyone else...
- Chapters: Tonight/before dawn tomorrow I need to finish up and send the two remaining chapters for the 3rd ed. book I've been working on for fucking ever. Four months! I suck. I've messed up the editing process so much that I have these two brand new chapters to write while I also have PDFs to review of chapters that have already been through the five levels of editing and layout.
- Magic Erasers: On the phone with Mel today, she mentioned the dreamy product that is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It works. It is awesome. Ok, it falls apart a little too quickly for my taste, but it's cheap enough that it's not an issue. Of course, we are now both dreadfully concerned that the magic eraser is actually some planet-poisoning little white square. However, I proposed that if either of us find out such information, we keep it to ourselves. (I'm kidding about that. If it's tremendously bad for the earth, I'm sure we'll both stop using it.)
- Brussels Sprouts: I love the little buggers. According to the memes I see floating around the blogosphere, poor little guys are almost universally despised. Good! More for me! But seriously, I think there's a secret society of people who love brussels sprouts. I was talking to the owner/cook at a little restaurant I adore, which happens to have brussels sprouts as a side dish. Nearly every time I go there, I get that particular veggie and I look around and lo and behold plenty of other people have the same side dish on their table. I mentioned this to the fellow and he said that they are one of the most popular side dishes there, and he thought for a moment about taking them off the menu for the spring menu revamp but realized he'd have a revolt on his hands so better to keep them on the menu. I just had some—not from the restaurant but from my own kitchen—and I'm full and happy and feel all healthy because of it. So there.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
of paper-writing fairies and grading gnomes
I swear, someday soon I'll write about more than just school—probably on May 19th when I'll be done with everything for the semester. My last official class is May 11th, but for some reason the Romanticism prof has seen fit to actually use the "exam" day as a class day. Whatever. It's an extra week to work on the paper. I can honestly say I hate that class with every fiber of my being, which is unfortunate because I really like the poetry of the Romantic era. That's all I'm saying about that.
Back to the paper-writing fairy...I believe she paid a visit, or I just managed to get a draft done on my own. I vote for the former. Thanks to everyone in the comments who sent positive energy and good thoughts my way. That's always so nice!
Here's what actually happened: knowing that my brain was mushy on Tuesday night and no attempts at writing would actually produce anything, I took a nap. I got up at 1am and proceeded to dump words out of my brain until it was time to switch to work work (somewhere around 8am, I think). I already had the first page written, and eight more came out—including the all-important conclusion. Around page 7 I added a note: "here is where I will spend three pages talking about X, in the same way I just spent three pages talking about Y," knowing full well that my prof would be ok with that in this particular instance.
Through luck of the draw, I had my meeting with the prof to go over my draft the very next day. He gave me his marked-up copy and sent me along my way to fix some draft-y syntax here and there. That was it. Ok, it wasn't really it, as we used up the rest of the time to chat about smoothing out one particular statement, and then all the things I'll expand this essay to cover as it turns into my thesis next year. So there is some truth to my statement that when I finally get a moment to sit down and write, it comes out fully-formed. Let's hope I someday have a dissertation-size fully-formed chunk of stuff in my brain all ready to pop out. That would rock.
What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Just that I'll have one essay done two weeks early, so I can spend time on the other two. Whoo.
Now I hope the grading gnomes have visited Bardiac as desired!
I swear, someday soon I'll write about more than just school—probably on May 19th when I'll be done with everything for the semester. My last official class is May 11th, but for some reason the Romanticism prof has seen fit to actually use the "exam" day as a class day. Whatever. It's an extra week to work on the paper. I can honestly say I hate that class with every fiber of my being, which is unfortunate because I really like the poetry of the Romantic era. That's all I'm saying about that.
Back to the paper-writing fairy...I believe she paid a visit, or I just managed to get a draft done on my own. I vote for the former. Thanks to everyone in the comments who sent positive energy and good thoughts my way. That's always so nice!
Here's what actually happened: knowing that my brain was mushy on Tuesday night and no attempts at writing would actually produce anything, I took a nap. I got up at 1am and proceeded to dump words out of my brain until it was time to switch to work work (somewhere around 8am, I think). I already had the first page written, and eight more came out—including the all-important conclusion. Around page 7 I added a note: "here is where I will spend three pages talking about X, in the same way I just spent three pages talking about Y," knowing full well that my prof would be ok with that in this particular instance.
Through luck of the draw, I had my meeting with the prof to go over my draft the very next day. He gave me his marked-up copy and sent me along my way to fix some draft-y syntax here and there. That was it. Ok, it wasn't really it, as we used up the rest of the time to chat about smoothing out one particular statement, and then all the things I'll expand this essay to cover as it turns into my thesis next year. So there is some truth to my statement that when I finally get a moment to sit down and write, it comes out fully-formed. Let's hope I someday have a dissertation-size fully-formed chunk of stuff in my brain all ready to pop out. That would rock.
What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Just that I'll have one essay done two weeks early, so I can spend time on the other two. Whoo.
Now I hope the grading gnomes have visited Bardiac as desired!
Labels: gradschool
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
please visit me, paper-writing fairy!
...because that draft seminar paper due tomorrow at 4pm? Not happening. Well, it's not happening right this moment because I've been working all day. On work. Work that pays money. I hate work that pays money, much preferring work that doesn't pay money, but that's a different post for a different day.
All I know is that I have a fine opening page, plus an outline (in that I have notes to myself that say things like "write 3 pages about how Muir didn't dig on the 'commodity' part of Nature but Emerson dug him anyway") and a copious amount of notes typed and ready to use, but...no paper.
It's a short paper, one of the 10-12pp types, but still...it's going to be a long night.
So please, paper-writing fairy, visit me and tap me on the head with your magic wand, sometime around 5pm today. Thank you.
...because that draft seminar paper due tomorrow at 4pm? Not happening. Well, it's not happening right this moment because I've been working all day. On work. Work that pays money. I hate work that pays money, much preferring work that doesn't pay money, but that's a different post for a different day.
All I know is that I have a fine opening page, plus an outline (in that I have notes to myself that say things like "write 3 pages about how Muir didn't dig on the 'commodity' part of Nature but Emerson dug him anyway") and a copious amount of notes typed and ready to use, but...no paper.
It's a short paper, one of the 10-12pp types, but still...it's going to be a long night.
So please, paper-writing fairy, visit me and tap me on the head with your magic wand, sometime around 5pm today. Thank you.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
i'm amazed...
Last week I told my [extremely patient] set of editors at Sams that on Saturday I'd be working on all but three or so of the remaining chapters-to-be-edited for the 3rd edition of my PMA AiO book, and would dutifully send them along. This is after clearing out all the backlog of author review for files already processed, on Friday.
Amazingly enough, I actually did it. Huh. Now I only have three chapters to tackle this week: one is an edit but two are entirely new chapters. Yes, I left the most time-consuming stuff for last. So, that's 91% initial chapters done, and AR is 59% done. I guess we'll hit that B&N promotion after all!
Now I must do what I originally intended for today, which is to work on my AmLit seminar paper, thr rough draft of which is due on Wednesday. Downside: I've only completed 8% of that essay. Upside: when it is done, I can concentrate on the other two seminar papers for this semester, since editing a draft is a hell of a lot easier than writing a whole new paper! Duh, you say, but I'm one of those people whose papers—for better or worse—pop out almost fully formed, so a draft for me typically results in minor tweaks after the prof looks it over.
I think, though, that I will go to breakfast first...
Last week I told my [extremely patient] set of editors at Sams that on Saturday I'd be working on all but three or so of the remaining chapters-to-be-edited for the 3rd edition of my PMA AiO book, and would dutifully send them along. This is after clearing out all the backlog of author review for files already processed, on Friday.
Amazingly enough, I actually did it. Huh. Now I only have three chapters to tackle this week: one is an edit but two are entirely new chapters. Yes, I left the most time-consuming stuff for last. So, that's 91% initial chapters done, and AR is 59% done. I guess we'll hit that B&N promotion after all!
Now I must do what I originally intended for today, which is to work on my AmLit seminar paper, thr rough draft of which is due on Wednesday. Downside: I've only completed 8% of that essay. Upside: when it is done, I can concentrate on the other two seminar papers for this semester, since editing a draft is a hell of a lot easier than writing a whole new paper! Duh, you say, but I'm one of those people whose papers—for better or worse—pop out almost fully formed, so a draft for me typically results in minor tweaks after the prof looks it over.
I think, though, that I will go to breakfast first...
Labels: my books
Saturday, April 22, 2006
101 movies meme
Ok, here's a movie meme. It's the list of "movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies" and for the most part I think it's a good list.
Other bloggers are bolding the ones they've seen, so I shall do the same.
Although I score pretty low on the have-seen scale, my absolute all-time favorite movie is in this list. See if you can guess which one it is (people who actually know the answer are forbidden from ruining the fun!).
"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
"The 400 Blows" (1959) Francois Truffaut
"8 1/2" (1963) Federico Fellini
"Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972) Werner Herzog
"Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott
"All About Eve" (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
"Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
"Bambi" (1942) Disney
"Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) William Wyler
"The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller (Seen half of it.)
"The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica
"The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks
"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott (I know, isn't it interesting/sad that I've never seen this?)
"Blowup" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
"Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch
"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Arthur Penn
"Breathless" (1959) Jean-Luc Godard
"Bringing Up Baby" (1938) Howard Hawks
"Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
"Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
"Un Chien Andalou" (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
"Children of Paradise" / "Les Enfants du Paradis" (1945) Marcel Carne
"Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
"Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
"A Clockwork Orange" (1971) Stanley Kubrick
"The Crying Game" (1992) Neil Jordan
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) Robert Wise
"Days of Heaven" (1978) Terence Malick
"Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) Luis Bunuel
"Do the Right Thing" (1989) Spike Lee
"La Dolce Vita" (1960) Federico Fellini
"Double Indemnity" (1944) Billy Wilder
"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
"Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
"E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
"Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
"The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
"Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
"Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
"Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
"The General" (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
"The Godfather," "The Godfather, Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
"Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
"GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
"The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
"Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
"A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester
"Intolerance" (1916) D.W. Griffith
"It's A Gift" (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra
"Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
"The Lady Eve" (1941) Preston Sturges
"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
"M" (1931) Fritz Lang
"Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
"The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) John Frankenheimer
"Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang
"Modern Times" (1936) Charles Chaplin
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
"Nashville" (1975) Robert Altman
"The Night of the Hunter" (1955) Charles Laughton
"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
"North by Northwest" (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
"Nosferatu" (1922) F.W. Murnau
"On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Sergio Leone
"Out of the Past" (1947) Jacques Tournier
"Persona" (1966) Ingmar Bergman
"Pink Flamingos" (1972) John Waters (But I've seen every other John Waters film...)
"Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
"Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
"Rashomon" (1950) Akira Kurosawa
"Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
"Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Nicholas Ray
"Red River" (1948) Howard Hawks
"Repulsion" (1965) Roman Polanski
"Rules of the Game" (1939) Jean Renoir
"Scarface" (1932) Howard Hawks
"The Scarlet Empress" (1934) Josef von Sternberg
"Schindler's List" (1993) Steven Spielberg
"The Searchers" (1956) John Ford
"The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
"Singin' in the Rain" (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
"Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder
"A Star Is Born" (1954) George Cukor
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Elia Kazan
"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
"Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
"The Third Man" (1949) Carol Reed
"Tokyo Story" (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
"Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) John Huston
"Trouble in Paradise" (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
"Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
"West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
"The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming
go to main page
Ok, here's a movie meme. It's the list of "movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies" and for the most part I think it's a good list.
Other bloggers are bolding the ones they've seen, so I shall do the same.
Although I score pretty low on the have-seen scale, my absolute all-time favorite movie is in this list. See if you can guess which one it is (people who actually know the answer are forbidden from ruining the fun!).
"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
"The 400 Blows" (1959) Francois Truffaut
"8 1/2" (1963) Federico Fellini
"Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972) Werner Herzog
"Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott
"All About Eve" (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
"Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
"Bambi" (1942) Disney
"Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) William Wyler
"The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller (Seen half of it.)
"The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica
"The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks
"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott (I know, isn't it interesting/sad that I've never seen this?)
"Blowup" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
"Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch
"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Arthur Penn
"Breathless" (1959) Jean-Luc Godard
"Bringing Up Baby" (1938) Howard Hawks
"Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
"Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
"Un Chien Andalou" (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
"Children of Paradise" / "Les Enfants du Paradis" (1945) Marcel Carne
"Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
"Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
"A Clockwork Orange" (1971) Stanley Kubrick
"The Crying Game" (1992) Neil Jordan
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) Robert Wise
"Days of Heaven" (1978) Terence Malick
"Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) Luis Bunuel
"Do the Right Thing" (1989) Spike Lee
"La Dolce Vita" (1960) Federico Fellini
"Double Indemnity" (1944) Billy Wilder
"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
"Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
"E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
"Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
"The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
"Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
"Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
"Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
"The General" (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
"The Godfather," "The Godfather, Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
"Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
"GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
"The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
"Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
"A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester
"Intolerance" (1916) D.W. Griffith
"It's A Gift" (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra
"Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
"The Lady Eve" (1941) Preston Sturges
"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
"M" (1931) Fritz Lang
"Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
"The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) John Frankenheimer
"Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang
"Modern Times" (1936) Charles Chaplin
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
"Nashville" (1975) Robert Altman
"The Night of the Hunter" (1955) Charles Laughton
"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
"North by Northwest" (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
"Nosferatu" (1922) F.W. Murnau
"On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Sergio Leone
"Out of the Past" (1947) Jacques Tournier
"Persona" (1966) Ingmar Bergman
"Pink Flamingos" (1972) John Waters (But I've seen every other John Waters film...)
"Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
"Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
"Rashomon" (1950) Akira Kurosawa
"Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
"Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Nicholas Ray
"Red River" (1948) Howard Hawks
"Repulsion" (1965) Roman Polanski
"Rules of the Game" (1939) Jean Renoir
"Scarface" (1932) Howard Hawks
"The Scarlet Empress" (1934) Josef von Sternberg
"Schindler's List" (1993) Steven Spielberg
"The Searchers" (1956) John Ford
"The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
"Singin' in the Rain" (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
"Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder
"A Star Is Born" (1954) George Cukor
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Elia Kazan
"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
"Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
"The Third Man" (1949) Carol Reed
"Tokyo Story" (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
"Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) John Huston
"Trouble in Paradise" (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
"Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
"West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
"The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming
go to main page
Friday, April 21, 2006
recap (less sick)
Good news! I'm almost well. I still have the remnants of a gnarly cough, but what are you gonna do.
Did a bunch of stuff this week...also chose a bunch of stuff not to do. For instance: all the reading for my Romanticism seminar. Bad student, I know. But I prioritized, and it didn't rise to the top of the list.
Other things I did:
- thing 1: work (all week)
- thing 2: "interview"/chatty thing with "TA committee"...in quotations because the only people chatting with me were mentor profs 1 and 2. It was stress-free.
- thing 3: read for AmLit seminar (Hawthorne)
- thing 4: read for Victorian seminar (Brownings)
- thing 5: stressed out about AmLit seminar paper, the entire rough draft of which is due on Wednesday the 26th. It's a 12-ish page paper. I have one paragraph. Sure, it's a one-page paragraph but still, that's not a good ratio.
- thing 6: finished up a rough prototype of the steinbeck bibliography indexer/searcher thing. not only is it rough, it's not even in the correct programming language for the target server. But we have lot of things to work out still with regards to data, less about the way it'll work in general, but still—things to finalize. Once it's finalized, then I'll translate it to the language I have to use on the server. It's like writing an essay in English, then translating it to French.
- thing 7: did a demonstration of aforementioned prototype indexer/searcher thing for steinbeck center board of directors. they said things like "very impressive" even though it's just a prototype and isn't really all that impressive by my standards. but hey, anytime a board says positive things about something, the boss is always happy, which makes the employees happy.
- thing 8: turned in all of author review chapters for the 3rd ed of the book I'm working on. So, 19 chapters have made it fully through my edits, dev edits, copy edits, tech edits and my final review/edits. That'd be great except I still owe them 11 freshly edited chapters...which I absolutely must do this weekend. You know, when I should be writing the rough draft of my AmLit seminar paper. Hmm. AmLit seminar paper doesn't have a barnes & noble buy-in on a specific day like the book does (meaning it damn well better be ready by then), but there is a grade attached to it.
- thing 9: found out a ton of people from the department are going to the Cal State conference. Me, three undergrads, and (that I know of) three other grad students...something like 20% of the presenters are from our little school. Way to represent!
- thing 10: got back some grades for things; mentor prof 1 is one of those fellows who writes things like "it was a pleasure to read" on little 2-page essays that go with presentations and handouts, and every time he does that I just want to hug him. That's the kind of guy you want on your side of things. Other prof handed back comments and grades for our presentations on Middlemarch and on my 8.5x11 sheet of paper he just wrote the one line, "good job, as usual". Ok! You could have just patted me on the head and not wasted the paper. Ha ha. Then I got back my presentation/essay grade from weeks and weeks ago, in Romanticism, and again—none of the crappy things I walked away feeling were represented on the grade sheet. I almost wondered what the hell presentation she heard, but I went with it...guess I'm not doing as terribly in that class as I assumed.
- thing 11: went out for diner food after classes last night, as usual, with some school chums. There was pie! I love pie.
- thing 12: got the email saying I'm officially a TA next year. I think the fact that I told them I prefer the 7:30am class really put me over the top.
Up next:
- a weekend full of work! included, but not limited to, book chapters, draft essay, presentation/essay on Hawthorne, reading for three classes. Whoo. and a hoo. and my bestest bud's birthday dinner on Sunday!
Good news! I'm almost well. I still have the remnants of a gnarly cough, but what are you gonna do.
Did a bunch of stuff this week...also chose a bunch of stuff not to do. For instance: all the reading for my Romanticism seminar. Bad student, I know. But I prioritized, and it didn't rise to the top of the list.
Other things I did:
- thing 1: work (all week)
- thing 2: "interview"/chatty thing with "TA committee"...in quotations because the only people chatting with me were mentor profs 1 and 2. It was stress-free.
- thing 3: read for AmLit seminar (Hawthorne)
- thing 4: read for Victorian seminar (Brownings)
- thing 5: stressed out about AmLit seminar paper, the entire rough draft of which is due on Wednesday the 26th. It's a 12-ish page paper. I have one paragraph. Sure, it's a one-page paragraph but still, that's not a good ratio.
- thing 6: finished up a rough prototype of the steinbeck bibliography indexer/searcher thing. not only is it rough, it's not even in the correct programming language for the target server. But we have lot of things to work out still with regards to data, less about the way it'll work in general, but still—things to finalize. Once it's finalized, then I'll translate it to the language I have to use on the server. It's like writing an essay in English, then translating it to French.
- thing 7: did a demonstration of aforementioned prototype indexer/searcher thing for steinbeck center board of directors. they said things like "very impressive" even though it's just a prototype and isn't really all that impressive by my standards. but hey, anytime a board says positive things about something, the boss is always happy, which makes the employees happy.
- thing 8: turned in all of author review chapters for the 3rd ed of the book I'm working on. So, 19 chapters have made it fully through my edits, dev edits, copy edits, tech edits and my final review/edits. That'd be great except I still owe them 11 freshly edited chapters...which I absolutely must do this weekend. You know, when I should be writing the rough draft of my AmLit seminar paper. Hmm. AmLit seminar paper doesn't have a barnes & noble buy-in on a specific day like the book does (meaning it damn well better be ready by then), but there is a grade attached to it.
- thing 9: found out a ton of people from the department are going to the Cal State conference. Me, three undergrads, and (that I know of) three other grad students...something like 20% of the presenters are from our little school. Way to represent!
- thing 10: got back some grades for things; mentor prof 1 is one of those fellows who writes things like "it was a pleasure to read" on little 2-page essays that go with presentations and handouts, and every time he does that I just want to hug him. That's the kind of guy you want on your side of things. Other prof handed back comments and grades for our presentations on Middlemarch and on my 8.5x11 sheet of paper he just wrote the one line, "good job, as usual". Ok! You could have just patted me on the head and not wasted the paper. Ha ha. Then I got back my presentation/essay grade from weeks and weeks ago, in Romanticism, and again—none of the crappy things I walked away feeling were represented on the grade sheet. I almost wondered what the hell presentation she heard, but I went with it...guess I'm not doing as terribly in that class as I assumed.
- thing 11: went out for diner food after classes last night, as usual, with some school chums. There was pie! I love pie.
- thing 12: got the email saying I'm officially a TA next year. I think the fact that I told them I prefer the 7:30am class really put me over the top.
Up next:
- a weekend full of work! included, but not limited to, book chapters, draft essay, presentation/essay on Hawthorne, reading for three classes. Whoo. and a hoo. and my bestest bud's birthday dinner on Sunday!
Labels: gradschool
Saturday, April 15, 2006
sickly
Sometime around last Wednesday, I came down with some sort of crud. Really achy, feverish, coughing, the whole deal. It sucked. Still sucks. But I went to class on Wednesday because I had a presentation and wasn't really feverish yet. By the time Thursday rolled around, I knew I wouldn't be going to classes that day...but I had to go to campus for a brief meeting, so at least I could put the essay due that day in my prof's box. I made a lame joke about not being able to go to either the Romanticism or Victorian seminars that day because I was consumptive. No, I don't have consumption but that's how crappy I feel and I thought it made for a good chuckle.
But now it's Saturday and I still feel crappy and I still have a ton of things to do. Guess what? They're not going to get done. Oh well.
------------------------------------------
When my dad gets a cold or the flu, he always takes that opportunity to eat whatever he wants. For instance, once he had some sort of bug and he took that opportunity to eat a bag of potato chips. When asked what he was doing, he (innocently) said something along the lines of, "What? They're for my throat." Of course, that makes no sense because if you have a sore throat the last thing you want to eat is a handful of sharp crunchy things, but in my family it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
So yesterday when I went to the store to get kleenex and toilet paper and orange juice and so on, I also picked up some cream cheese brownies. What? They're for my throat.
------------------------------------------
Thanks to the folks who patted my head and also relayed stories about their first conference experiences, in the comments to this post. I talked to someone in my AmLit seminar who presented at this conference last year, and she said it was really stress-free and a lot of fun. So that's cool. Plus, it turns out there are no less than five of us going this year. Three undergrads proposed a panel that was accepted, and another grad student (also in my AmLit seminar) was accepted too, so there will likely be car-pooling. Rob, the other grad student, has the same goals I do: read my paper without passing out from nervousness, and hope to god no one asks any questions. So we can bond on that, even if his paper is something Shakespearean and mine is all 19thC AmLit. The undergrads are doing something medieval, I think. I don't recall. I just hope that our things aren't scheduled at the same time, so I can be all supportive for them. Go team!
------------------------------------------
I'm going back to my couch now. Everyone celebrating a holiday of some sort, have a nice one. I should have picked up some Peeps when I was at the store, but I forgot. Have you seen the Peep Research site? Funny stuff.
Sometime around last Wednesday, I came down with some sort of crud. Really achy, feverish, coughing, the whole deal. It sucked. Still sucks. But I went to class on Wednesday because I had a presentation and wasn't really feverish yet. By the time Thursday rolled around, I knew I wouldn't be going to classes that day...but I had to go to campus for a brief meeting, so at least I could put the essay due that day in my prof's box. I made a lame joke about not being able to go to either the Romanticism or Victorian seminars that day because I was consumptive. No, I don't have consumption but that's how crappy I feel and I thought it made for a good chuckle.
But now it's Saturday and I still feel crappy and I still have a ton of things to do. Guess what? They're not going to get done. Oh well.
------------------------------------------
When my dad gets a cold or the flu, he always takes that opportunity to eat whatever he wants. For instance, once he had some sort of bug and he took that opportunity to eat a bag of potato chips. When asked what he was doing, he (innocently) said something along the lines of, "What? They're for my throat." Of course, that makes no sense because if you have a sore throat the last thing you want to eat is a handful of sharp crunchy things, but in my family it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
So yesterday when I went to the store to get kleenex and toilet paper and orange juice and so on, I also picked up some cream cheese brownies. What? They're for my throat.
------------------------------------------
Thanks to the folks who patted my head and also relayed stories about their first conference experiences, in the comments to this post. I talked to someone in my AmLit seminar who presented at this conference last year, and she said it was really stress-free and a lot of fun. So that's cool. Plus, it turns out there are no less than five of us going this year. Three undergrads proposed a panel that was accepted, and another grad student (also in my AmLit seminar) was accepted too, so there will likely be car-pooling. Rob, the other grad student, has the same goals I do: read my paper without passing out from nervousness, and hope to god no one asks any questions. So we can bond on that, even if his paper is something Shakespearean and mine is all 19thC AmLit. The undergrads are doing something medieval, I think. I don't recall. I just hope that our things aren't scheduled at the same time, so I can be all supportive for them. Go team!
------------------------------------------
I'm going back to my couch now. Everyone celebrating a holiday of some sort, have a nice one. I should have picked up some Peeps when I was at the store, but I forgot. Have you seen the Peep Research site? Funny stuff.
Labels: life
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
presenting at a conference
Here's where all of you can pat me on the head and say things like "oh, how cute!" and I won't even get mad about it—Profgrrrrl did the other day in the car on the way to super-duper-sushi.
So I'm a-going to a conference. Presenting, even. It's a grad student conference for the CSU system, so of all the conferences to go to for my first time, I think this is a good one—everyone is in an MA-only program because that's all the CSU system offers.
Downside, it's in LA. I'm not a fan of LA. I have to get my cruise control fixed before I make the drive.
Upside, the paper is already written and just needs some tweaking before it goes into print, also the spoken version will need some tweaking to ensure I don't trip over stuffy words. It's under control, though. I have Mel on speed-dial for things like that.
So, any tips would be great, or anecdotes about your first conference experience...that would be fun to hear. :)
Here's where all of you can pat me on the head and say things like "oh, how cute!" and I won't even get mad about it—Profgrrrrl did the other day in the car on the way to super-duper-sushi.
So I'm a-going to a conference. Presenting, even. It's a grad student conference for the CSU system, so of all the conferences to go to for my first time, I think this is a good one—everyone is in an MA-only program because that's all the CSU system offers.
Downside, it's in LA. I'm not a fan of LA. I have to get my cruise control fixed before I make the drive.
Upside, the paper is already written and just needs some tweaking before it goes into print, also the spoken version will need some tweaking to ensure I don't trip over stuffy words. It's under control, though. I have Mel on speed-dial for things like that.
So, any tips would be great, or anecdotes about your first conference experience...that would be fun to hear. :)
Labels: conferencing, gradschool
Monday, April 10, 2006
categorizations (and why folksonomies work for me)
[This is stream-of-consciousness ranting. Don't look for a well-formed thesis, supporting evidence, or a conclusion of any type.]
I don't usually get bent out of shape about these things, but I've been in a pretty bent out of shape frame of mind for the last couple of weeks because of some stupid not-my-drama crap that I'm not blogging about.
Oh, what are the "these things"? Categorizations. I hate them. I hate them because I've never fit into any one category of anything, and when people put me into one category or another, it nullifies my membership in other categories and that pisses me off. [Note: when I say "me" I really am just speaking for myself, but I also hate it when people categorize other things just one way or another and nullify their talents in other areas as well...but I don't know if that bothers others like it does me, so I won't use other people as examples.]
This is why folksonomies are awesome. Roll your own! Tag yourself/your content/whatever in ways that are descriptive and meaningful and if tags overlap then people can see that hey, this defies categoriziation as one thing or another.
What got me riled up this time? Well—and really, if you know me, you'll be surprised that I give a flying fuck at all about this, but it's been a crappy couple of weeks so go with it—in the BlogHer blogrolls this blog was originally in the "personal" and "technology & web" and "academia" categories (ugh, categories) and now apparently I'm just a personal blogger.
Now, I realize that in the last few weeks I've been all about the cats and the recipes and the miscellanous slices of life or whatever, but I'm the freaking technical director of an interactive media company. I write technical books (and am trying desperately to finish off the 3rd edition of one of them), including one on blogging. I have a sidebar full of how-to posts for bloggers and users of Firefox [there's your technology]. Oh yeah, and I am a grad student, not just for kicks but because I'm trying to transition back into academia. I'll even be one of the cool kids (next month) as I'll be presenting a paper at a conference [there's your academia].
But because I write about all these things equally as often, which is to say not one thing predominantly, I'm just a personal blogger. This is a "life" blog. I would be absolutely fine with that, if it didn't apparently preclude me from being anything else. Yes, I could submit the little form that says "hey, I'm miscategorized" but really, I think if I was once three things and now I'm just one, there's a reason for it (to them).
But in category-land, as opposed to say, tag-land, you can only be one thing.
I would say this holds true for "mommybloggers" which is a label I hate because a hell of a lot of the "I blog about life and things and I happen to be a mother and talk about my kids a lot, too" bloggers actually blog on innumberable topics, but as soon as they mention their kids, they're a "mommyblogger" which does have negative connotations in the blogosphere. [Not at all to me! I'm a huge fan of people and their kids! I mean the same people who always ask "where are the female bloggers" and answer it with "they're off blogging about their kids" which is just so incredibly not true.]
[This is stream-of-consciousness ranting. Don't look for a well-formed thesis, supporting evidence, or a conclusion of any type.]
I don't usually get bent out of shape about these things, but I've been in a pretty bent out of shape frame of mind for the last couple of weeks because of some stupid not-my-drama crap that I'm not blogging about.
Oh, what are the "these things"? Categorizations. I hate them. I hate them because I've never fit into any one category of anything, and when people put me into one category or another, it nullifies my membership in other categories and that pisses me off. [Note: when I say "me" I really am just speaking for myself, but I also hate it when people categorize other things just one way or another and nullify their talents in other areas as well...but I don't know if that bothers others like it does me, so I won't use other people as examples.]
This is why folksonomies are awesome. Roll your own! Tag yourself/your content/whatever in ways that are descriptive and meaningful and if tags overlap then people can see that hey, this defies categoriziation as one thing or another.
What got me riled up this time? Well—and really, if you know me, you'll be surprised that I give a flying fuck at all about this, but it's been a crappy couple of weeks so go with it—in the BlogHer blogrolls this blog was originally in the "personal" and "technology & web" and "academia" categories (ugh, categories) and now apparently I'm just a personal blogger.
Now, I realize that in the last few weeks I've been all about the cats and the recipes and the miscellanous slices of life or whatever, but I'm the freaking technical director of an interactive media company. I write technical books (and am trying desperately to finish off the 3rd edition of one of them), including one on blogging. I have a sidebar full of how-to posts for bloggers and users of Firefox [there's your technology]. Oh yeah, and I am a grad student, not just for kicks but because I'm trying to transition back into academia. I'll even be one of the cool kids (next month) as I'll be presenting a paper at a conference [there's your academia].
But because I write about all these things equally as often, which is to say not one thing predominantly, I'm just a personal blogger. This is a "life" blog. I would be absolutely fine with that, if it didn't apparently preclude me from being anything else. Yes, I could submit the little form that says "hey, I'm miscategorized" but really, I think if I was once three things and now I'm just one, there's a reason for it (to them).
But in category-land, as opposed to say, tag-land, you can only be one thing.
I would say this holds true for "mommybloggers" which is a label I hate because a hell of a lot of the "I blog about life and things and I happen to be a mother and talk about my kids a lot, too" bloggers actually blog on innumberable topics, but as soon as they mention their kids, they're a "mommyblogger" which does have negative connotations in the blogosphere. [Not at all to me! I'm a huge fan of people and their kids! I mean the same people who always ask "where are the female bloggers" and answer it with "they're off blogging about their kids" which is just so incredibly not true.]
Labels: blogging
Friday, April 07, 2006
starbucks breakfast sandwiches: two thumbs up
I dig 'em. There are four types at the store I frequent: sausage-egg-cheddar, ham-egg-cheese, low-fat turkey bacon-egg-cheese, and eggs florentine (egg, spinach, havarti). I've had the sausage-egg-cheddar and the eggs florentine. I love love love the eggs florentine sandwich, and the sausage-egg-cheddar is really good too.
Here's some caloric info for the three sandwiches with meat in them. As the post says, "it's not as bad as it could be." The calories/fat/etc numbers are all less than McDonald's, while the sandwiches are (eyeball estimate) a good 20-25% larger...and tastier!
Here's an article:
Starbucks: It's not just for lattes anymore - Food Inc. - MSNBC.com
technorati tags: starbucks, breakfast
I dig 'em. There are four types at the store I frequent: sausage-egg-cheddar, ham-egg-cheese, low-fat turkey bacon-egg-cheese, and eggs florentine (egg, spinach, havarti). I've had the sausage-egg-cheddar and the eggs florentine. I love love love the eggs florentine sandwich, and the sausage-egg-cheddar is really good too.
Here's some caloric info for the three sandwiches with meat in them. As the post says, "it's not as bad as it could be." The calories/fat/etc numbers are all less than McDonald's, while the sandwiches are (eyeball estimate) a good 20-25% larger...and tastier!
Here's an article:
Starbucks: It's not just for lattes anymore - Food Inc. - MSNBC.com
technorati tags: starbucks, breakfast
Labels: food
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
what day is it?
I think I've asked myself and others that question probably six or eight times. I'm concerned I'll miss class tomorrow, it being the first class back after break. It's an irrational fear, but it's there. I think it has something to do with making headway on some things previously stuck, but also having a bunch of school stuff to do this week; basically, I'm worried the week will slip away from me and it'll be Friday and I'll have missed classes or meetings or something.
Wow, none of that made any sense. At least I know what I mean.
I think I've asked myself and others that question probably six or eight times. I'm concerned I'll miss class tomorrow, it being the first class back after break. It's an irrational fear, but it's there. I think it has something to do with making headway on some things previously stuck, but also having a bunch of school stuff to do this week; basically, I'm worried the week will slip away from me and it'll be Friday and I'll have missed classes or meetings or something.
Wow, none of that made any sense. At least I know what I mean.
Monday, April 03, 2006
recipe: pasta with fresh fava beans, ricotta, and shredded mint
Those of you who read Cooking Light will recognize this from the April 2006 issue, although it's called "Orecchiette with [etc]" in the magazine, and it comes with a much better photo than my cameraphone photo.
This pasta is awesome. BIG! SPRING! FLAVORS!
[recipe follows]
Pasta with Fresh Fava Beans, Ricotta, and Shredded Mint
2 pounds unshelled fava beans (about 1 cup shelled) [use lima beans or peas if you don't have fava beans; I used fava and I think the flavor is better, but boy are they a pain in the butt to deal with]
1 pound uncooked orecchiette ("little ears") pasta [the photo isn't orecchiette, it's conchiglie,]
1 teaspoon extravirgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese [vegans, whip up some tofu]
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese [vegans, do whatever it is you do instead of Parmesan]
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint [I recommend 3/4c because it really brings out the flavors]
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Mint sprigs (optional)
Remove fava beans from pods; discard pods. Cook beans in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove beans with a slotted spoon. Plunge beans into ice water; drain. Remove tough outer skins from beans; discard skins. Set beans aside.
Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup pasta water. Place pasta in a large bowl; add oil and salt. Toss well.
Combine the 1 cup reserved pasta water, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, chopped mint, and pepper. Add beans and cheese mixture to pasta mixture; toss to combine. Garnish with mint sprigs, if desired.
Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)
NUTRITION PER SERVING: CALORIES 507(16% from fat); FAT 8.8g (sat 4.1g,mono 2.5g,poly 1.3g); PROTEIN 29.2g; CHOLESTEROL 25mg; CALCIUM 255mg; SODIUM 540mg; FIBER 4.7g; IRON 6.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 85.5g
technorati tag: recipes
go to main page
Those of you who read Cooking Light will recognize this from the April 2006 issue, although it's called "Orecchiette with [etc]" in the magazine, and it comes with a much better photo than my cameraphone photo.
This pasta is awesome. BIG! SPRING! FLAVORS!
[recipe follows]
Pasta with Fresh Fava Beans, Ricotta, and Shredded Mint
2 pounds unshelled fava beans (about 1 cup shelled) [use lima beans or peas if you don't have fava beans; I used fava and I think the flavor is better, but boy are they a pain in the butt to deal with]
1 pound uncooked orecchiette ("little ears") pasta [the photo isn't orecchiette, it's conchiglie,]
1 teaspoon extravirgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese [vegans, whip up some tofu]
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese [vegans, do whatever it is you do instead of Parmesan]
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint [I recommend 3/4c because it really brings out the flavors]
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Mint sprigs (optional)
Remove fava beans from pods; discard pods. Cook beans in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove beans with a slotted spoon. Plunge beans into ice water; drain. Remove tough outer skins from beans; discard skins. Set beans aside.
Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup pasta water. Place pasta in a large bowl; add oil and salt. Toss well.
Combine the 1 cup reserved pasta water, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, chopped mint, and pepper. Add beans and cheese mixture to pasta mixture; toss to combine. Garnish with mint sprigs, if desired.
Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)
NUTRITION PER SERVING: CALORIES 507(16% from fat); FAT 8.8g (sat 4.1g,mono 2.5g,poly 1.3g); PROTEIN 29.2g; CHOLESTEROL 25mg; CALCIUM 255mg; SODIUM 540mg; FIBER 4.7g; IRON 6.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 85.5g
technorati tag: recipes
go to main page
Labels: food
spring break is over
I did very little related to schoolwork over the break. I didn't get ahead on my reading, and I didn't work on any papers. Well, the first weekend had some school-related things in it: prof didn't approve my paper topic, then didn't approve another one, and finally approved a third idea for which I still have to go back and write an official thing about (sure wasn't going to take the time to do it like I did for the first idea, until the one-line version was approved!).
But I did put little color-coded sticky flags in my Norton edition of Poe...does that count?
I also worked on that WP plugin, and made some good progress on a piece of the Steinbeck project puzzle, but I didn't get any chapters of my book done. Oh, and there was that stupid GRE subject test.
Ok, so I guess there were more school-related things than I thought. But I am still terribly behind on things...and there's still work work to be done. I even kept my 2:17am alarm on all week (that's my normal alarm time, although I usually don't get up til 3 or so).
Can I get a do-over??
I did very little related to schoolwork over the break. I didn't get ahead on my reading, and I didn't work on any papers. Well, the first weekend had some school-related things in it: prof didn't approve my paper topic, then didn't approve another one, and finally approved a third idea for which I still have to go back and write an official thing about (sure wasn't going to take the time to do it like I did for the first idea, until the one-line version was approved!).
But I did put little color-coded sticky flags in my Norton edition of Poe...does that count?
I also worked on that WP plugin, and made some good progress on a piece of the Steinbeck project puzzle, but I didn't get any chapters of my book done. Oh, and there was that stupid GRE subject test.
Ok, so I guess there were more school-related things than I thought. But I am still terribly behind on things...and there's still work work to be done. I even kept my 2:17am alarm on all week (that's my normal alarm time, although I usually don't get up til 3 or so).
Can I get a do-over??
Saturday, April 01, 2006
test -- over
Yes. Over. At least it's over. It's true I know a heck of a lot more than I did 15 years ago (the last time I took it), I don't know how much that increased knowledge helped me. Because, you see, everything after Chaucer and before the Romantics is all a big blur to me. I'm ok enough with the basics of Shakespeare, so pull that out of the blur. But all those poets? Can't keep them straight in my head. Such is life.
My good deeds for the day included keeping an eye out for people carrying campus maps at 7:45am and bringing them along to the building. I only met one, a girl from UCDavis who was taking the chemistry test; she mentioned that she only scored in something like the 5th percentile on the practice tests and was freaked out about it all, but then her TA in a chem class (a grad student) told her he did similarly poorly on the test and there he was at UCDavis. Interesting. I was just happy to see a girl taking the chemistry test.
The room in which I took the test also contained people taking the biology, physics, and computer science tests. There were two people taking the CS test—both guys. There were perhaps fifteen people taking the physics test—probably 12/15 were guys. The physics folks were by far the most unkempt, smelly, self-absorbed people in the room, and were also the ones who had the most trouble filling out the basic identification part of the form. Make of that what you will. The largest group of people were the ones taking the biology test—probably twenty of them, and the majority were women.
Two people were taking the literature test—myself and another girl who was really freaked out about it. I passed on the wisdom I learned from others: "if it's about a whale, Melville is the answer."
I finished the test in approx 2 hours. This does not mean I did spectacularly on it, it just means I read quickly, I know what I know, if I don't know it I know I'm not going to know it by sitting and thinking harder so I do process of elimination and hope for the best.
I'm thinking I did poorly. Luckily, of the seven schools to which I am applying, four don't require this score! yay!
Yes. Over. At least it's over. It's true I know a heck of a lot more than I did 15 years ago (the last time I took it), I don't know how much that increased knowledge helped me. Because, you see, everything after Chaucer and before the Romantics is all a big blur to me. I'm ok enough with the basics of Shakespeare, so pull that out of the blur. But all those poets? Can't keep them straight in my head. Such is life.
My good deeds for the day included keeping an eye out for people carrying campus maps at 7:45am and bringing them along to the building. I only met one, a girl from UCDavis who was taking the chemistry test; she mentioned that she only scored in something like the 5th percentile on the practice tests and was freaked out about it all, but then her TA in a chem class (a grad student) told her he did similarly poorly on the test and there he was at UCDavis. Interesting. I was just happy to see a girl taking the chemistry test.
The room in which I took the test also contained people taking the biology, physics, and computer science tests. There were two people taking the CS test—both guys. There were perhaps fifteen people taking the physics test—probably 12/15 were guys. The physics folks were by far the most unkempt, smelly, self-absorbed people in the room, and were also the ones who had the most trouble filling out the basic identification part of the form. Make of that what you will. The largest group of people were the ones taking the biology test—probably twenty of them, and the majority were women.
Two people were taking the literature test—myself and another girl who was really freaked out about it. I passed on the wisdom I learned from others: "if it's about a whale, Melville is the answer."
I finished the test in approx 2 hours. This does not mean I did spectacularly on it, it just means I read quickly, I know what I know, if I don't know it I know I'm not going to know it by sitting and thinking harder so I do process of elimination and hope for the best.
I'm thinking I did poorly. Luckily, of the seven schools to which I am applying, four don't require this score! yay!
ah yes, april 1st...
...the day in which I assume EVERYTHING NEW POSTED ON THE INTERNET IS FALSE (except this).
Really, I tend not even to read anything online today.
Luckily, I have the crappy GRE subject test a little over three hours from now, and I'm turning the computer off in a few minutes anyway, so there's seven hours or so...then maybe I'll read some books or work on my chapters or do some language lessons...either way, I declare this my day off from the Internet. It won't last. I'm sure I'll be back online tonight.
If you'll excuse me, I need to go now and review terms in poetry (not my thing) because I don't know jack about that stuff and it doesn't stay in my brain for very long when I do re-learn it.
But I do know the most important thing to know about the test (plus, I've taken it before)—if the passage is about a whale, the answer IS Moby Dick.
...the day in which I assume EVERYTHING NEW POSTED ON THE INTERNET IS FALSE (except this).
Really, I tend not even to read anything online today.
Luckily, I have the crappy GRE subject test a little over three hours from now, and I'm turning the computer off in a few minutes anyway, so there's seven hours or so...then maybe I'll read some books or work on my chapters or do some language lessons...either way, I declare this my day off from the Internet. It won't last. I'm sure I'll be back online tonight.
If you'll excuse me, I need to go now and review terms in poetry (not my thing) because I don't know jack about that stuff and it doesn't stay in my brain for very long when I do re-learn it.
But I do know the most important thing to know about the test (plus, I've taken it before)—if the passage is about a whale, the answer IS Moby Dick.
04/04 · 05/04 · 06/04 · 07/04 · 08/04 · 09/04 · 10/04 · 11/04 · 12/04 · 01/05 · 02/05 · 03/05 · 04/05 · 05/05 · 06/05 · 07/05 · 08/05 · 09/05 · 10/05 · 11/05 · 12/05 · 01/06 · 02/06 · 03/06 · 04/06 · 05/06 · 06/06 · 07/06 · 08/06 · 09/06 · 10/06 · 11/06 · 12/06 · ???
