Monday, May 14, 2007
new profile
i know that my use of "self-styled" in my profile is actually wrong. i just liked the way it sounded. not sure if that comes out sounding like i'm not a real literature graduate student, i just pretend to be. but really. i am a literature graduate student. i think.
daemons and sleeplessness
followed a friend's blog to the link for the new his dark materials movie, where you can find out the form of your daemon. i've loved those books since they first came out (and i can't believe emily's boss actually worked with philip pullman!) and while i feel a little weird about the fact that they're becoming movies, i had to go see what my daemon was. aaand. . . it's an ocelot! named alvin. i'm quite excited that it's an ocelot. ocelot's are cool. not so sure about "alvin." Maia and Alvin? Does that really work? I think they should've left out names like "Alvin" from the lists of possible names. But you know. Ocelot. Cool.
My eyelids are so puffy this morning I look kind of Asian. Not at all to insult Asian people. Actually it's funny, if you look at pictures of me as a baby I look a little Asian, something about the slant of my eyes (is someone going to attack me now for being totally racist?). What was really strange was when I was in Myrtle Beach for my Grandmother's service. All these people I didn't know were there, and one man was looking at the pictures around the house and saw one of my cousin Teresa, who is twelve and half Chinese (and you can definitely tell by looking at her that she's part Asian). "Is that you?" he asked me. I was baffled: do I look like I could have looked half Asian when I was about eight? Or was he just really unperceptive?
I have Rihanna's Umbrella song in my head now, and I'm kind of pissed off by the fact that itunes only offers it as a music video. Clearly it's a gimmick to get everyone to buy the song twice, once as a video and once as a song. that's a little crappy of itunes, if you ask me.
My eyelids are so puffy this morning I look kind of Asian. Not at all to insult Asian people. Actually it's funny, if you look at pictures of me as a baby I look a little Asian, something about the slant of my eyes (is someone going to attack me now for being totally racist?). What was really strange was when I was in Myrtle Beach for my Grandmother's service. All these people I didn't know were there, and one man was looking at the pictures around the house and saw one of my cousin Teresa, who is twelve and half Chinese (and you can definitely tell by looking at her that she's part Asian). "Is that you?" he asked me. I was baffled: do I look like I could have looked half Asian when I was about eight? Or was he just really unperceptive?
I have Rihanna's Umbrella song in my head now, and I'm kind of pissed off by the fact that itunes only offers it as a music video. Clearly it's a gimmick to get everyone to buy the song twice, once as a video and once as a song. that's a little crappy of itunes, if you ask me.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
a whole new level
totally the best way to procrastinate is to drink wine, bake, and shop online. or in stores works too, before they close. i bought some small stuffed sea creatures at the drugstore. i looked at all the shoes by seychelles i could find online. i found three to buy, two pumps and one pair of boots. i did not buy any of them. i was dismayed by the total lack of perfect flats to be found online: perfect flats would be pink. they would be scrunched up at the heel, the kind that look like they're already in feet when they sit on the shelf. when put on, they would show toe clevage. they would be sexy. they don't exist. i tried to figure out where i could buy a $900 hermes shopping bag (it would save the environment, right?). i decided that lily allen is totally awesome after listening to all her sample songs on itunes and bought "smile."
i marvel at the total lack of other people online.
i marvel at the total lack of other people online.
tedium
So, I'm coming close to the end of the paper. . . but it very definitely needs to be edited. And I wish I could like, send it out to be edited, but the thing is, I'd want to send it out to be edited by ME, because I don't trust anyone else. In effect I want to hire out my brain to myself to finish my paper without actually having to finish it. . . oh, I guess that's just always the story of paper writing.
Friday, May 11, 2007
procrastination 4
dammit. i should've bought some diet root beer yesterday. can't possibly finish paper without.
procrastination 3
may 11th?? seriously? how did it get to be may already?
i'm hungry. it would be fun to make pancakes.
i'm hungry. it would be fun to make pancakes.
procrastination 2
on cats.
cats should be made desk-size, and laptops should be made with an invisible cat-repellent forcefield around the keyboard.
cats should be made desk-size, and laptops should be made with an invisible cat-repellent forcefield around the keyboard.
procrastination
Step 1 of procrastination on Dickens paper: Log into partially-abandoned terrible blog, and make a contentless post!!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
my german homework
I'm supposed to be taking a reading German class, which attended once last week. I audited a German reading class at Stanford over the summer, where we used German For Reading Knowledge by Jannach and Korb, which as I understand has become a standard text for teaching German reading. In that book, you translate somewhat academic texts as you go along, like ones that teach you about Bach or German Universities or German history or the Romantic period.
My professor here teaches exclusively from the same book from which he has taught for about the past fifty years. It's not published anymore, and somehow this is not surprising, as I realized when I translated the first text.
Text B
John and Nancy
John sits next to Nancy. [here there is a footnote, which says "The names John and Nancy are used because the action takes place in America"]. Professor Jones says naturally not John and Nancy, he says Herr Miller and Fraulein Wells. But we say simply John and Nancy and report: John sits next to Nancy. They have "Abnormal Psychology." John understands not. No wonder, he is normal. He observes Nancy and thinks: "The girl understands all. Is she intelligent, or is she not normal?" Also Nancy understands nothing, but she shows it not. No wonder, she is a girl.
Then go Nancy and John to Professor Schmidt. They have German now and again sits John next to Nancy. "I hope, Germans is not so hard as Psychology," says John. "Hard?" asks Nancy. "How think you that? I find, Psychology is not hard." John says no more.
"Fraulein Wells," asks Professor Schmidt, "how says you 'i'?"
"I, i, i," says Nancy.
"Now make your mouth round and say again "i, I."
"U, u, u," says Nancy now. John laughs, but then says he also "i" and "u." "Hm," thinks he, "I say 'i' and it sounds like 'u'. I am not normal."
All say "i" and "u." John hears it not, he observes again Nancy. "The girl is pretty," thinks he. "I hope, i am as old as she."
"How old are you?" writes he on a piece of paper.
"I am 18," writes Nancy.
"That is good," writes John, "I am also 18."
Aside from the obvious sexual dynamics, I think the weirdest thing about this whole passage is the strange preoccupation with what is "normal." Who goes to class and sits around and wonders if they are "normal"? If i didn't understand a class, mostly I would wonder if I was stupid, not if I were normal. I also think it's really funny that the authors require a footnote to explain to us that it's okay that the characters are called John and Nancy, as if we're going to call them up and object to the realism of the text because the names aren't German.
Anyway, just some oddness for the day. . .
My professor here teaches exclusively from the same book from which he has taught for about the past fifty years. It's not published anymore, and somehow this is not surprising, as I realized when I translated the first text.
Text B
John and Nancy
John sits next to Nancy. [here there is a footnote, which says "The names John and Nancy are used because the action takes place in America"]. Professor Jones says naturally not John and Nancy, he says Herr Miller and Fraulein Wells. But we say simply John and Nancy and report: John sits next to Nancy. They have "Abnormal Psychology." John understands not. No wonder, he is normal. He observes Nancy and thinks: "The girl understands all. Is she intelligent, or is she not normal?" Also Nancy understands nothing, but she shows it not. No wonder, she is a girl.
Then go Nancy and John to Professor Schmidt. They have German now and again sits John next to Nancy. "I hope, Germans is not so hard as Psychology," says John. "Hard?" asks Nancy. "How think you that? I find, Psychology is not hard." John says no more.
"Fraulein Wells," asks Professor Schmidt, "how says you 'i'?"
"I, i, i," says Nancy.
"Now make your mouth round and say again "i, I."
"U, u, u," says Nancy now. John laughs, but then says he also "i" and "u." "Hm," thinks he, "I say 'i' and it sounds like 'u'. I am not normal."
All say "i" and "u." John hears it not, he observes again Nancy. "The girl is pretty," thinks he. "I hope, i am as old as she."
"How old are you?" writes he on a piece of paper.
"I am 18," writes Nancy.
"That is good," writes John, "I am also 18."
Aside from the obvious sexual dynamics, I think the weirdest thing about this whole passage is the strange preoccupation with what is "normal." Who goes to class and sits around and wonders if they are "normal"? If i didn't understand a class, mostly I would wonder if I was stupid, not if I were normal. I also think it's really funny that the authors require a footnote to explain to us that it's okay that the characters are called John and Nancy, as if we're going to call them up and object to the realism of the text because the names aren't German.
Anyway, just some oddness for the day. . .
Monday, January 08, 2007
weather
I swear I am living in a parallel universe.
I haven't liked summer mornings since I was twelve, when I was on a swim team and had to get up and get into a cold pool every morning it was sunny. Some people like a cold pool in the morning, but not me. I'm a terrible swimmer. I don't know why I didn't quit--I told my mom this years later, how much I hated being on swim team, and she asked me, "why did you go, then?" and I can't say. What I would do is watch the weather channel every evening, praying for some rain in the next week or so, because that would mean swim practice would be cancelled. Also, maybe I would have liked swim team more if my best friend had done it with me as planned, but instead she went to England for a month with her parents.
What this all means now is that 1) I want to move to England (and have been envious of people from or visiting England since then) and 2) I don't like summer mornings.
I just got this adorable new MacBook over break, and those of you who know Macs know it has this feature, the Dashboard, where you can set up odd useful things to be handy, like a calculator or a notepad, flight tracker, calendar, etc. Or weather reports.
It's currently 82 degrees in Irvine.
59 degrees in Menlo Park. Ok, makes sense. . . 41 and raining in Edmonds.
82 degrees???? It's fucking JANUARY. I like being warm. . . but seriously? This is kind of not okay. As I said. I'm living in a parallel universe.
Oh, my goodness.
I haven't liked summer mornings since I was twelve, when I was on a swim team and had to get up and get into a cold pool every morning it was sunny. Some people like a cold pool in the morning, but not me. I'm a terrible swimmer. I don't know why I didn't quit--I told my mom this years later, how much I hated being on swim team, and she asked me, "why did you go, then?" and I can't say. What I would do is watch the weather channel every evening, praying for some rain in the next week or so, because that would mean swim practice would be cancelled. Also, maybe I would have liked swim team more if my best friend had done it with me as planned, but instead she went to England for a month with her parents.
What this all means now is that 1) I want to move to England (and have been envious of people from or visiting England since then) and 2) I don't like summer mornings.
I just got this adorable new MacBook over break, and those of you who know Macs know it has this feature, the Dashboard, where you can set up odd useful things to be handy, like a calculator or a notepad, flight tracker, calendar, etc. Or weather reports.
It's currently 82 degrees in Irvine.
59 degrees in Menlo Park. Ok, makes sense. . . 41 and raining in Edmonds.
82 degrees???? It's fucking JANUARY. I like being warm. . . but seriously? This is kind of not okay. As I said. I'm living in a parallel universe.
Oh, my goodness.
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