Monday, October 30, 2006
Waahhhhh....
So the Decemberists are coming to Pontiac, which is not that far away. Does anyone want to buy a downtrodden grad student a ticket, or better yet, come with her?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Happy Haaaalloooweeeeennn
Beat ya this year, Em :-)
A close-up of my exquisitely tasteful dead-person makeup scheme.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Librarian Fetish Video
Emma shared this with me. Neither of us find it lyrically or musically remarkable, but the setting is an example of the sexy librarian phenomenon.
Yes Emma, there are a few cute guys in my department, but then I don't have much with which to compare them ....
And, yes, the disordering of the card catalog was painful. We still have one at Special Collections, and I have occasionally have to file the new cards in the shelf list. Strangest was the complete absence of technology (except for, apparently, a disco ball). Where are the laptops??!!
My geekiness is now official--Today I received an invitation from the new Google branch in Ann Arbor to come play pinball with them. I didn't accept--No corporate leash for me, thank you very much. Academia and six weeks paid vacation all the way!
Yes Emma, there are a few cute guys in my department, but then I don't have much with which to compare them ....
And, yes, the disordering of the card catalog was painful. We still have one at Special Collections, and I have occasionally have to file the new cards in the shelf list. Strangest was the complete absence of technology (except for, apparently, a disco ball). Where are the laptops??!!
My geekiness is now official--Today I received an invitation from the new Google branch in Ann Arbor to come play pinball with them. I didn't accept--No corporate leash for me, thank you very much. Academia and six weeks paid vacation all the way!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Another Video of Peter Sellers..um...George Bush
Not so much verbal as physical blunders this time.
Just remember, "you can't take the high horse and claim the low road."
Just remember, "you can't take the high horse and claim the low road."
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Good guys and bad guys
Ann and I went to see a movie which, honestly, was so gross that I didn't enjoy it at all -- The Black Dahlia. I am NOT recommending it to anyone. Post facto, I wanted to see what Plugged In would say about it. Overall, I agreed with the review, but I didn't understand this remark:
Um... excuse me but isn't it...um...TRUE....that many officials are corrupt? The hero/villian distinction makes movies like Spiderman and The Matrix unrealistic, thereby giving viewers a skewed perception of the world. Film Noir's realism, even if it is not enjoyable, is at least truthful. That's not a negative element. While I don't think there is a need for graphic sex and violence, portraying all people as sinful is...dare I say it...BIBLICAL?
Other Negative Elements
As is the norm with noir thrillers, several police detectives are revealed to be corrupt and/or compromised, muddying the lines between the good guys and the bad guys...
Um... excuse me but isn't it...um...TRUE....that many officials are corrupt? The hero/villian distinction makes movies like Spiderman and The Matrix unrealistic, thereby giving viewers a skewed perception of the world. Film Noir's realism, even if it is not enjoyable, is at least truthful. That's not a negative element. While I don't think there is a need for graphic sex and violence, portraying all people as sinful is...dare I say it...BIBLICAL?
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Literary Apparel
Ann and I are mature adults. BUT . . . we like children's literature. We saw hoodies in the jr. department the other day that had pictures of Whos on them and said "a person's a person, no matter how small." But being the jr. dept., we discovered we were too BIG to wear the who shirts. We thought that was ironic.
With children's literature apparel on our mind, we ransacked Amazon. Here are some of our findings. Which shall I buy next time I get my rewards certificate?
With children's literature apparel on our mind, we ransacked Amazon. Here are some of our findings. Which shall I buy next time I get my rewards certificate?
Monday, October 16, 2006
Ann's Here!
We've been running around corn mazes, amusement parks, and malls. Quite exhausted. Too much exposure to the vulgus. While malls can hardly be avoided, I have made a firm resolution for the third time to NEVER GO TO CEDAR POINT AGAIN. Let me tell you, 10 minutes of ecstasy is not worth 5 hours of standing around like a Soviet in a bread line. Next time I'm getting my transcendent experience in pill form.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
"Why, Grouchy"
It's been a taciturn week. I've been ducking behind bushes when I see acquaintances and wearing a truly terrible scowl. I'm always particularly unsocial in the morning. Now, there are two sorts of people, those who take this personally and those who don't. I've always been blessed with at least some people who are of the later type, and who even share my disposition. Ann and Emily, for example, were all lovely grunts and mutters in the morning. Occasionally we would speak, but in a language resembling cling-on. Brianna never took offense, and even curbed her native cheerfulness on our behalf.
I think there is a rational basis for disliking "good mornings," particularly when accompanied by "how are you?" On its own, "good morning" is akin to two dogs walking up and sniffing each other--"are we going to get into a fight today, or can we exist peaceably?" I refuse to enter into such dealings with my friends. I prefer the cat method: we eat from the same foodbowl, we groom each other, and we sleep in the same bed, so why do we need to re-establish our relationship every morning? How tedious. And "how are you?" is completely unanswerable: either (1) I am doing the same as I was doing last night or (2) I feel worse. Save the pleasantries for those trying to sell something. If you have something substantive to say, say it--or better yet write it for me to read at my convenience. Otherwise, SHUT UP!
Another observation--grad students don't necessarily entertain themselves in a wholesome or serious way. You would be surprised at the number of my colleagues who are frequent consumers of cute animal blogs, tetris, solitaire, beer, more beer, and the Disney channel. It's my contention that (1) we don't have regular schedules for normal human recreation, like owning a pet or raising a child, and (2) we want mindless entertainment as a respite. Come to think of it, movies made during wars were vapid in order to provide an escape from reality. It's a similar thing.
Speaking of vapidity, I'm in much closer contact with Geek culture than I've ever been before. In fact, you could say I'm acquiring Geek skills myself. But I refuse to become a full-fledged Geek because in my opinion it's really quite sad. They take what are essentially a set of tools and turn them into a lifestyle. Because they spend all their time programming, and because they don't feel connected to a larger social group, they lack true content in their lives. Lorem ipsum, if you know what I mean. They fill this gap in their souls with . . . hamster dances. (Actually, I believe there have been books written about this).
So there, I've now alienated 1) techies, 2) fellow graduate students and 3) people who say "good morning." Not bad for one post, eh?
I think there is a rational basis for disliking "good mornings," particularly when accompanied by "how are you?" On its own, "good morning" is akin to two dogs walking up and sniffing each other--"are we going to get into a fight today, or can we exist peaceably?" I refuse to enter into such dealings with my friends. I prefer the cat method: we eat from the same foodbowl, we groom each other, and we sleep in the same bed, so why do we need to re-establish our relationship every morning? How tedious. And "how are you?" is completely unanswerable: either (1) I am doing the same as I was doing last night or (2) I feel worse. Save the pleasantries for those trying to sell something. If you have something substantive to say, say it--or better yet write it for me to read at my convenience. Otherwise, SHUT UP!
Another observation--grad students don't necessarily entertain themselves in a wholesome or serious way. You would be surprised at the number of my colleagues who are frequent consumers of cute animal blogs, tetris, solitaire, beer, more beer, and the Disney channel. It's my contention that (1) we don't have regular schedules for normal human recreation, like owning a pet or raising a child, and (2) we want mindless entertainment as a respite. Come to think of it, movies made during wars were vapid in order to provide an escape from reality. It's a similar thing.
Speaking of vapidity, I'm in much closer contact with Geek culture than I've ever been before. In fact, you could say I'm acquiring Geek skills myself. But I refuse to become a full-fledged Geek because in my opinion it's really quite sad. They take what are essentially a set of tools and turn them into a lifestyle. Because they spend all their time programming, and because they don't feel connected to a larger social group, they lack true content in their lives. Lorem ipsum, if you know what I mean. They fill this gap in their souls with . . . hamster dances. (Actually, I believe there have been books written about this).
So there, I've now alienated 1) techies, 2) fellow graduate students and 3) people who say "good morning." Not bad for one post, eh?
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Stupidity
So I came to the Duderstadt Center--the sterile wasteland 24/7 shopping mall computer library to minimize my ability to distract myself. But someone just opened the "fire alarm" door and . . . . . set off the fire alarm about five minutes ago (WHY should the fire alarm go off if someone opens a door?). This reinforces my belief that many college students actually can't read--even big signs like "fire alarm will sound."
Friday, October 06, 2006
My Misfortune and the Royal Shakespeare Company
Last Saturday my rooomates and I got up at 6:30 AM and stood in line waiting for the student tickets to the three plays the Royal Shakespeare Company is performing in November. It was cold, it was raining, and four hours later, they sold out 10 people ahead of us. We were 200th in a line of 700.
It was depressing, but on the bright side I amazingly didn't get sick and I even more amazingly didn't get (the wrong kind of) ticket for being illegally parked. And I enlightened some business majors about Austrian economics.
It was depressing, but on the bright side I amazingly didn't get sick and I even more amazingly didn't get (the wrong kind of) ticket for being illegally parked. And I enlightened some business majors about Austrian economics.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
The Ascent from Purgatory, or the Seussical Derrida
I admit, I'm just writing this post because the last post was a blatant expression of befuddlement, and I don't like being befuddled. At least Emily is befuddled, too.
Hell week is over! Yay! Our web design professor explained that he intended the homework from last week to be the hardest assignment of the semester, and that our final project would no doubt be easier, since no one would actually try to lay out a newspaper front page with CSS! It was an object lesson. A BLOODY 14 HOUR OBJECT LESSON. Rather, excuse me, I take issue with his pedagogical methods....
In my now-prodigious amount of spare time, I watched the original Stepford Wives from the late 70s. Unlike the new one, it's intended to be serious. I found it a bit slow except for the wardrobe. Anyone who thinks society is disintegrating needs to go watch movies from the 1970s, or even the 1930s (I LOVED the Big Sleep). Miniskirts and belly-baring have been around since, well, Egypt. Not to mention that because of women's lib...oh never mind.
Well, I must be getting back to Maurice Halbwachs and Jacques Derrida (Archive Fever) for my Collective Memory class. Derrida never made much sense to me before, but I'm now realizing that he reasons etymologically rather than linearly. So I've kept the OED and a Greek dictionary pulled up on my computer. I have to say, though, that even with a slight knowledge of Greek, some of his word constructions baffle me. Such as, for example, anarchivic, archiviolithic, aneconomy and hypomnema -- all from two pages! Try looking THOSE up in the OED.
Hell week is over! Yay! Our web design professor explained that he intended the homework from last week to be the hardest assignment of the semester, and that our final project would no doubt be easier, since no one would actually try to lay out a newspaper front page with CSS! It was an object lesson. A BLOODY 14 HOUR OBJECT LESSON. Rather, excuse me, I take issue with his pedagogical methods....
In my now-prodigious amount of spare time, I watched the original Stepford Wives from the late 70s. Unlike the new one, it's intended to be serious. I found it a bit slow except for the wardrobe. Anyone who thinks society is disintegrating needs to go watch movies from the 1970s, or even the 1930s (I LOVED the Big Sleep). Miniskirts and belly-baring have been around since, well, Egypt. Not to mention that because of women's lib...oh never mind.
Well, I must be getting back to Maurice Halbwachs and Jacques Derrida (Archive Fever) for my Collective Memory class. Derrida never made much sense to me before, but I'm now realizing that he reasons etymologically rather than linearly. So I've kept the OED and a Greek dictionary pulled up on my computer. I have to say, though, that even with a slight knowledge of Greek, some of his word constructions baffle me. Such as, for example, anarchivic, archiviolithic, aneconomy and hypomnema -- all from two pages! Try looking THOSE up in the OED.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
That's Funny...
My counter (see below) shot up over 10,000 hits. I think it was in the low 8000's last I checked. If I hadn't spent 14 hours this week working with CSS/HTML/programming languages, I'd try to fix it.
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