Today's Piled Higher and Deeper comic is pretty much right on in expressing my own feelings as an alien in the U.S. during election week.
I was talking to a friend about the undecided voters and we were wondering why people were having a difficult time making up their minds since the candidates are so diametrically opposed on almost every point. Even I know who I would be voting for - and I can't even vote!
Friday, October 29, 2004
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
crazy busy crazy busy crazy busy
So much going on.
We're hosting a Halloween party this Saturday... well, actually two parties. I sent out invites to an evening party and realized that the people who weren't saying whether they were coming or not all had kids.
So my kids decided they would like to throw a party for the kids before the adult party.
Interesting how I've ended up with most of the preparation!
But it's fun to plan parties, so I'm not complaining... just busy.
We need costumes if we're hosting a party, so the sewing machine got pulled out and dusted off and now I'm struggling with yards of muslin - the angel and garden (yes, she's dressing as a garden) are done, the dead bride needs just some minor touches, the wench is almost complete, but the pirate still needs most of his costume... crazy.
My reading list is looming large. Bleak House took WAY longer to read than I estimated (well, it is 1000 pages long) and now I need to catch up... more busy.
To top it, the Red Sox are in a position to win their first World Series (don't get me started about the misnomer!) in 80 some years. Pretty much a 'must see'... crazy!
We're hosting a Halloween party this Saturday... well, actually two parties. I sent out invites to an evening party and realized that the people who weren't saying whether they were coming or not all had kids.
So my kids decided they would like to throw a party for the kids before the adult party.
Interesting how I've ended up with most of the preparation!
But it's fun to plan parties, so I'm not complaining... just busy.
We need costumes if we're hosting a party, so the sewing machine got pulled out and dusted off and now I'm struggling with yards of muslin - the angel and garden (yes, she's dressing as a garden) are done, the dead bride needs just some minor touches, the wench is almost complete, but the pirate still needs most of his costume... crazy.
My reading list is looming large. Bleak House took WAY longer to read than I estimated (well, it is 1000 pages long) and now I need to catch up... more busy.
To top it, the Red Sox are in a position to win their first World Series (don't get me started about the misnomer!) in 80 some years. Pretty much a 'must see'... crazy!
Friday, October 22, 2004
Reversal
Was it all a dream? Did this last year really happen?
I thought I saw the Red Sox win the ALS. Was I dreaming?
Michael Bérubé reports that the Yankees actually won the ALS.
And apparently the Astros won the NLS as well.
Amusing!
I thought I saw the Red Sox win the ALS. Was I dreaming?
Michael Bérubé reports that the Yankees actually won the ALS.
And apparently the Astros won the NLS as well.
Amusing!
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Guess who's going to San Diego?
Okay, so it's not for a while yet, but that's good, because that way I'll have time to write the paper that I've proposed to present at the 2005 PCA/ACA Conference. But I'm psyched anyway! It's always cool when you get a paper accepted, even when you know the competition wasn't that stiff.
This was the abstract I submitted:
Roland the Gungslinger’s Generic Transformation
In the Afterword of The Gunslinger, Stephen King describes how Robert Browning’s poem “Child Roland to the Dark Tower Came” was his inspiration for Roland the Gunslinger. In the Dark Tower series, King transposes Roland from this eighteenth-century Romantic poem to a twentieth-century dark fantasy. Across genres, the details of the story change as do Roland’s responses to those elements, and thus the character himself changes as he moves from one genre to the next. While the family resemblance may be indefinite at times, Roland is old; the knight Roland in the eleventh century French epic The Song of Roland is a stalwart knight, whose actions speak louder than his words. In Orlando Furioso in the fourteenth-century, he follows conventions of the Romance to become a chivalrous but love-stricken madman.
Through each change, Roland’s character is transformed. These changes as Roland is transposed from genre to genre reflect the demands and conventions of those genres, the expectations of their audiences across the centuries, and the changing values that the hero embodies in each culture. Heroes of stories are heroes because they embody particular characteristics and it is these characteristics that the culture relating the story values most. The hero of the story is a model and performs a pedagogical function in holding up a mirror of what that culture values. In Stephen King’s incarnation of Roland, the character reflects the values of contemporary Western culture, just as each Roland before has embodied his culture.
[This does however mean that I should read the last two novels in the series, The Talisman (which explains about the levels of the tower) and maybe even Black House before writing the paper. !!! ]
Not only am I presenting a paper, but because I'm presenting a paper, I can get funding to offset the cost of the trip. If I can get a hostel and crash as many 'hospitality' suites as possible, my only out of pocket expenses might be souveniers. Bonus!
The best part about doing this is that the paper will give me a venue to make a kind of trial run with some of the theories I've been reading this year in Narrative Theory (a study that I haven't really had much experience with before) - I'm hoping the paper will let me get my sea legs so to speak in this area. Particularly since I'm trying to revise a paper I wrote for a class last year, with narrative theory in mind, for publication - which is a far bigger challenge than presenting at a conference.
Either way, it's probably a good bet that the weather in California for that weekend in March will be nicer than in New England!
This was the abstract I submitted:
Roland the Gungslinger’s Generic Transformation
In the Afterword of The Gunslinger, Stephen King describes how Robert Browning’s poem “Child Roland to the Dark Tower Came” was his inspiration for Roland the Gunslinger. In the Dark Tower series, King transposes Roland from this eighteenth-century Romantic poem to a twentieth-century dark fantasy. Across genres, the details of the story change as do Roland’s responses to those elements, and thus the character himself changes as he moves from one genre to the next. While the family resemblance may be indefinite at times, Roland is old; the knight Roland in the eleventh century French epic The Song of Roland is a stalwart knight, whose actions speak louder than his words. In Orlando Furioso in the fourteenth-century, he follows conventions of the Romance to become a chivalrous but love-stricken madman.
Through each change, Roland’s character is transformed. These changes as Roland is transposed from genre to genre reflect the demands and conventions of those genres, the expectations of their audiences across the centuries, and the changing values that the hero embodies in each culture. Heroes of stories are heroes because they embody particular characteristics and it is these characteristics that the culture relating the story values most. The hero of the story is a model and performs a pedagogical function in holding up a mirror of what that culture values. In Stephen King’s incarnation of Roland, the character reflects the values of contemporary Western culture, just as each Roland before has embodied his culture.
[This does however mean that I should read the last two novels in the series, The Talisman (which explains about the levels of the tower) and maybe even Black House before writing the paper. !!! ]
Not only am I presenting a paper, but because I'm presenting a paper, I can get funding to offset the cost of the trip. If I can get a hostel and crash as many 'hospitality' suites as possible, my only out of pocket expenses might be souveniers. Bonus!
The best part about doing this is that the paper will give me a venue to make a kind of trial run with some of the theories I've been reading this year in Narrative Theory (a study that I haven't really had much experience with before) - I'm hoping the paper will let me get my sea legs so to speak in this area. Particularly since I'm trying to revise a paper I wrote for a class last year, with narrative theory in mind, for publication - which is a far bigger challenge than presenting at a conference.
Either way, it's probably a good bet that the weather in California for that weekend in March will be nicer than in New England!
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Word of the Day
maunder \MON-duhr\, intransitive verb:
1. To talk incoherently; to speak in a rambling manner.
2. To wander aimlessly or confusedly.
As in, it isn't the mumbling as much as the maundering that makes my teenage daughter's speech near impossible to understand.
1. To talk incoherently; to speak in a rambling manner.
2. To wander aimlessly or confusedly.
As in, it isn't the mumbling as much as the maundering that makes my teenage daughter's speech near impossible to understand.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Is that allowed?
Are you allowed to call someone a dick on national tv?
I was so disappointed last week when I tuned into the Daily Show (sometimes the most reliable source for news) and found that the episode was a rerun, from way, way back. I wondered where Jon Stewart was? Was he sick? Abducted by aliens? Recovering from being mugged?
No, he was on Crossfire and challenging the integrity of that 'news' show. The transcript of the program as well as audio and/or video clips are available here. Jon attempts to ask some serious questions, even as he gets the laughs, and they just evade, evade, evade. It's an amazing display of journalistic maneouvering.
I especially like the part where he calls his host a dick. Classic!
I was so disappointed last week when I tuned into the Daily Show (sometimes the most reliable source for news) and found that the episode was a rerun, from way, way back. I wondered where Jon Stewart was? Was he sick? Abducted by aliens? Recovering from being mugged?
No, he was on Crossfire and challenging the integrity of that 'news' show. The transcript of the program as well as audio and/or video clips are available here. Jon attempts to ask some serious questions, even as he gets the laughs, and they just evade, evade, evade. It's an amazing display of journalistic maneouvering.
I especially like the part where he calls his host a dick. Classic!
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Ball drop
Watertown, MA (AP UNR*)
Tragically this week, the balls were dropped in Michele's Fabulous High Flying Juggling Act.
While attempting to juggle work, school, and family life, a trick the Marvelous Michele has performed effortlessly over the past few years, Michele seemed to lose control of the situation when the fourth ball was thrown into the mix. It was as if she somehow had not expected to have to juggle four balls and was totally unprepared for it.
Consequently, Michele not only dropped the fourth ball, but the previous three as well, leaving her running across the stage floor trying to recapture the balls.
This reporter would like to remind everyone that this incident underscores the importance of only allowing highly trained jugglers to handle more than three balls at a time. Safety while juggling is of paramount importance.
*unimportant news release
Tragically this week, the balls were dropped in Michele's Fabulous High Flying Juggling Act.
While attempting to juggle work, school, and family life, a trick the Marvelous Michele has performed effortlessly over the past few years, Michele seemed to lose control of the situation when the fourth ball was thrown into the mix. It was as if she somehow had not expected to have to juggle four balls and was totally unprepared for it.
Consequently, Michele not only dropped the fourth ball, but the previous three as well, leaving her running across the stage floor trying to recapture the balls.
This reporter would like to remind everyone that this incident underscores the importance of only allowing highly trained jugglers to handle more than three balls at a time. Safety while juggling is of paramount importance.
*unimportant news release
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
We spent a really, really nice weekend with my parents, who had come down from their month long tour of the Maritimes to visit us.
We had turkey for a Canadian thanksgiving and we did all kinds of touristy things, including taking in the history of the Freedom Trail, a ferry boat ride (a first for the girls) and a Duck Tour (which is far less tacky and a lot more fun than it sounds).
But now I have even more work to catch up on!
We had turkey for a Canadian thanksgiving and we did all kinds of touristy things, including taking in the history of the Freedom Trail, a ferry boat ride (a first for the girls) and a Duck Tour (which is far less tacky and a lot more fun than it sounds).
But now I have even more work to catch up on!
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
The latest micro trend
Seems to be that blogging about the monthlies is a hot topic of late. I can empathize having just been down that road myself.
My friend Allie describes her own Over-Reaction-Day every month. And this rant is absolutely superb!
I have to say, I really have mixed feelings about the whole business. Part of me understands the frustration of having your emotions messed up every month by something that is so powerful, its damn near impossible to control. But that just pisses me off more, 'cause I know that the next time I'm truly and righteously angry, there's a good chance that some guy's gonna dismiss it as 'she's on the rag' which of course just verifies that he was a douchebag to cause my righteous anger in the first place!
It's hard to keep on top of PMS and not let it absolutely ruin your day (and that of everyone around you). I used to know that the time to bleed was right around the corner when I would inexplicably feel like throwing the salt shaker across the dinner table at my husband while he was talking.
Then I started running and that feeling came less and less often. So I suppose it is true that exercise helps - just don't ask me to give up my caffeine - far nastier things than PMS would happen if Michele doesn't have caffeine.
Though come to think of it, I also left my husband, so maybe it wasn't all PMS doing the talkin' when I had those homicidal urges...
My friend Allie describes her own Over-Reaction-Day every month. And this rant is absolutely superb!
I have to say, I really have mixed feelings about the whole business. Part of me understands the frustration of having your emotions messed up every month by something that is so powerful, its damn near impossible to control. But that just pisses me off more, 'cause I know that the next time I'm truly and righteously angry, there's a good chance that some guy's gonna dismiss it as 'she's on the rag' which of course just verifies that he was a douchebag to cause my righteous anger in the first place!
It's hard to keep on top of PMS and not let it absolutely ruin your day (and that of everyone around you). I used to know that the time to bleed was right around the corner when I would inexplicably feel like throwing the salt shaker across the dinner table at my husband while he was talking.
Then I started running and that feeling came less and less often. So I suppose it is true that exercise helps - just don't ask me to give up my caffeine - far nastier things than PMS would happen if Michele doesn't have caffeine.
Though come to think of it, I also left my husband, so maybe it wasn't all PMS doing the talkin' when I had those homicidal urges...
Monday, October 04, 2004
Electronic mail from beyond
Now you can send email when you're dead.
This strikes me as just a little bit eerie. Can you imagine how it would feel to receive an email from someone who has just died?
Or even sending email to people when you die is just plain odd. Why send a death email? Why not tell people what you think right now? What purpose could delaying saying something serve? What would you need to say at your death that you wouldn't say before? Confess a crime, a passion, a sin that you couldn't bear to tell while alive?
Obviously, I can't see any need to sign up for this service, but I'm very curious about how people might use it. I'd love to know what people who set up the service are thinking when they sign up for it (and what they write about to whom) and how it feels to people who receive those emails. I'd love to be an electronic fly on the wall of that email server!
This strikes me as just a little bit eerie. Can you imagine how it would feel to receive an email from someone who has just died?
Or even sending email to people when you die is just plain odd. Why send a death email? Why not tell people what you think right now? What purpose could delaying saying something serve? What would you need to say at your death that you wouldn't say before? Confess a crime, a passion, a sin that you couldn't bear to tell while alive?
Obviously, I can't see any need to sign up for this service, but I'm very curious about how people might use it. I'd love to know what people who set up the service are thinking when they sign up for it (and what they write about to whom) and how it feels to people who receive those emails. I'd love to be an electronic fly on the wall of that email server!
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Never thought the muppets would make me think
... but I guess I'm more of an egg head than I thought....
You are Dr. Bunson Honeydew.You love to analyse things and further the cause of
science, even if you do tend to blow things up
more often than not.
HOBBIES:Scientific inquiry, Looking through microscopes,
Recombining DNA to create decorative art.QUOTE:"Now, Beakie, we'll just flip this switch and
60,000 refreshing volts of electricity will
surge through your body. Ready?"
FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTIST:John Cougar Melonhead
LAST BOOK READ:"Quantum Physics: 101 Easy Microwave
Recipes"
NEVER LEAVES HOME WITHOUT:An atom smasher and plenty of extra atoms.
What Muppet are you?
Or maybe this quizilla stuff is just arbitrary (but highly amusing) fluff as I've frequently suspected.
You are Dr. Bunson Honeydew.You love to analyse things and further the cause of
science, even if you do tend to blow things up
more often than not.
HOBBIES:Scientific inquiry, Looking through microscopes,
Recombining DNA to create decorative art.QUOTE:"Now, Beakie, we'll just flip this switch and
60,000 refreshing volts of electricity will
surge through your body. Ready?"
FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTIST:John Cougar Melonhead
LAST BOOK READ:"Quantum Physics: 101 Easy Microwave
Recipes"
NEVER LEAVES HOME WITHOUT:An atom smasher and plenty of extra atoms.
What Muppet are you?
Or maybe this quizilla stuff is just arbitrary (but highly amusing) fluff as I've frequently suspected.
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