Common themes
If I don't take a little break from copy-editing right now, I'm going to have seven kinds of nervous breakdown.
Life is boring but fine. There was a crazy snow storm this weekend - two or three months late for the first one of the season, but here nonetheless. It was beautiful and quiet to watch, as always. Now the snow is turning all slushy and dirty and it's rather sad. Also, the Jack Russell Terrier back home apparently murdered a poor little mole that was just trying to get all cozy and snuggled up somewhere, so of course he had to dig it out and kill it. I really, really wish he wouldn't do things like that. Once, years ago, he killed a luna moth. I was so angry with him... I know he can't help his instincts, but he's so appallingly lazy about absolutely everything else in life that I can't see why he'd bother hunting something he doesn't want to eat.
TA'ing and RA'ing are both fine, although it's a very busy period for both. Add that to Greek practice and thesis work and I'm sort of reaching the end of my tether. And it'll only get worse from here on out! I think the effects of a stress-increasing break are starting to catch up with me. Also, I need to get all my papers and files in order...
In terms of amusements, my current elliptical-trainer reading is Snow (Orhan Pamuk). I feel like it's going to be good, but I haven't really gotten into it yet. This is following the extremely short but really rather good The Legend of Ararat (Yaşar Kemal), a novelized (or almost novella-ized) Anatolian fairy tale. With horsies!
Shallower cultural notes, because TV-watching improves laundry-sorting: last week's episode of Heroes was probably one of the best hours of television ever produced. That's not me being hyperbolic, either - it was absolutely unbelievable. It just blew me out of the water in so many ways. This week's was a bit of a let-down after that, but although it wasn't one of their absolute best episodes, it wasn't bad in and of itself, and they're doing a superb job of building an equally superb bridge to the post-hiatus plot and character developments. I can't wait for April.
Meanwhile, Lost continues to suck, with last week's episode seriously tempting me to drive forks through my eyeballs. (I resisted, though.) Why do I continue to watch, you ask? Because I am a complete tool, that's why! Also, tonight's episode looks like it might actually manage not to suck, although I'm trying to keep my expectations low. Worst-case scenario, we still get to learn all about Sayid's beloved cat that he had in his pre-island life. And anything with a kitty in it gets my vote for sure. Actually, the surprise return of Vincent the dog was one of the few highlights of last week...
NAACP Image Awards: Always good to watch, and to get outraged that race-blind casting was not mandated for the entire broadcast industry 40 years ago. But I do think it's healthy, and necessary, on occasion to celebrate positive achievements that have occurred nonetheless. (And, hey, Heroes got nominated!) No dress mockery - even if I wanted too, there were so few hideous outfits that it wouldn't be worth the trouble.
Of course I loved Bono's speech, because Bono is my pope and certainly less problematic than Ratzinger and can do no wrong in my eyes because god dammit we are all allowed to hold on to a lifelong scrap of teenage fangirl idol worship and don't you dare try to take that away from me, damn you! (Just so we're clear.) Anyway, honestly, I loved it, although I am ashamed of myself for taking so long to realize that he does indeed talk exactly like a Black preacher when he's in speech mode. (I think the Dublin accent probably proves distracting in that respect.) Anyway, there are several dry academic articles there for anyone who's interested, and quite frankly everybody need the occasional break from going on about the pre-redacted variants of Q.
In other U2 news (shut up, shut up, shut up), Adam Clayton and his (Canadian!) girlfriend of eight years called off their engagement, supposedly amicably but they'd say that no matter what. Adam, darling: if you'd like a devoted, personality-possessing wife with more brains and stability than Naomi Campbell, someone who can probably clean up adequately well, to be your constant and never-scandalous companion, who would love living on the outskirts of Dublin and travelling the world in random and incessant ways... well, you've got connections and can probably find out who I am and how to locate me. Give it some thought!
Last night I had the most bizarre dream I've had in years. There were all these very adorable tiny black mice that had found their way into my apartment (which was nothing like my real-life apartment), and I woke up from a dream-within-a-dream to realize that the little darlings were running up and down my bed and nipping at me. So I had to go to Student Health (in a ridiculously posh, almost palatial, high-rise) to get a rabies shot, but before I did that I had to run a bunch of errands for various people around campus (which was so posh, summery, and golden-sunlit it was crazy even for a dream). Then my advisor and I were walking through this lovely, quiet little garden, and on some of the flowerbushes in it were giant luna moths. We had to whisper so as not to wake them.
That would be the second time luna moths have come up in this post, wouldn't it?
Also, according to this article http://www.slate.com/id/2160742/nav/tap1/ - apparently, a lot of people don't find lorises to be cute. That came as a surprise to me - I always sort of assumed they were one of those animals everyone thought were adorable, as were long-eared jerboas. But it seems that that's not the case.
Who knew?
Life is boring but fine. There was a crazy snow storm this weekend - two or three months late for the first one of the season, but here nonetheless. It was beautiful and quiet to watch, as always. Now the snow is turning all slushy and dirty and it's rather sad. Also, the Jack Russell Terrier back home apparently murdered a poor little mole that was just trying to get all cozy and snuggled up somewhere, so of course he had to dig it out and kill it. I really, really wish he wouldn't do things like that. Once, years ago, he killed a luna moth. I was so angry with him... I know he can't help his instincts, but he's so appallingly lazy about absolutely everything else in life that I can't see why he'd bother hunting something he doesn't want to eat.
TA'ing and RA'ing are both fine, although it's a very busy period for both. Add that to Greek practice and thesis work and I'm sort of reaching the end of my tether. And it'll only get worse from here on out! I think the effects of a stress-increasing break are starting to catch up with me. Also, I need to get all my papers and files in order...
In terms of amusements, my current elliptical-trainer reading is Snow (Orhan Pamuk). I feel like it's going to be good, but I haven't really gotten into it yet. This is following the extremely short but really rather good The Legend of Ararat (Yaşar Kemal), a novelized (or almost novella-ized) Anatolian fairy tale. With horsies!
Shallower cultural notes, because TV-watching improves laundry-sorting: last week's episode of Heroes was probably one of the best hours of television ever produced. That's not me being hyperbolic, either - it was absolutely unbelievable. It just blew me out of the water in so many ways. This week's was a bit of a let-down after that, but although it wasn't one of their absolute best episodes, it wasn't bad in and of itself, and they're doing a superb job of building an equally superb bridge to the post-hiatus plot and character developments. I can't wait for April.
Meanwhile, Lost continues to suck, with last week's episode seriously tempting me to drive forks through my eyeballs. (I resisted, though.) Why do I continue to watch, you ask? Because I am a complete tool, that's why! Also, tonight's episode looks like it might actually manage not to suck, although I'm trying to keep my expectations low. Worst-case scenario, we still get to learn all about Sayid's beloved cat that he had in his pre-island life. And anything with a kitty in it gets my vote for sure. Actually, the surprise return of Vincent the dog was one of the few highlights of last week...
NAACP Image Awards: Always good to watch, and to get outraged that race-blind casting was not mandated for the entire broadcast industry 40 years ago. But I do think it's healthy, and necessary, on occasion to celebrate positive achievements that have occurred nonetheless. (And, hey, Heroes got nominated!) No dress mockery - even if I wanted too, there were so few hideous outfits that it wouldn't be worth the trouble.
Of course I loved Bono's speech, because Bono is my pope and certainly less problematic than Ratzinger and can do no wrong in my eyes because god dammit we are all allowed to hold on to a lifelong scrap of teenage fangirl idol worship and don't you dare try to take that away from me, damn you! (Just so we're clear.) Anyway, honestly, I loved it, although I am ashamed of myself for taking so long to realize that he does indeed talk exactly like a Black preacher when he's in speech mode. (I think the Dublin accent probably proves distracting in that respect.) Anyway, there are several dry academic articles there for anyone who's interested, and quite frankly everybody need the occasional break from going on about the pre-redacted variants of Q.
In other U2 news (shut up, shut up, shut up), Adam Clayton and his (Canadian!) girlfriend of eight years called off their engagement, supposedly amicably but they'd say that no matter what. Adam, darling: if you'd like a devoted, personality-possessing wife with more brains and stability than Naomi Campbell, someone who can probably clean up adequately well, to be your constant and never-scandalous companion, who would love living on the outskirts of Dublin and travelling the world in random and incessant ways... well, you've got connections and can probably find out who I am and how to locate me. Give it some thought!
Last night I had the most bizarre dream I've had in years. There were all these very adorable tiny black mice that had found their way into my apartment (which was nothing like my real-life apartment), and I woke up from a dream-within-a-dream to realize that the little darlings were running up and down my bed and nipping at me. So I had to go to Student Health (in a ridiculously posh, almost palatial, high-rise) to get a rabies shot, but before I did that I had to run a bunch of errands for various people around campus (which was so posh, summery, and golden-sunlit it was crazy even for a dream). Then my advisor and I were walking through this lovely, quiet little garden, and on some of the flowerbushes in it were giant luna moths. We had to whisper so as not to wake them.
That would be the second time luna moths have come up in this post, wouldn't it?
Also, according to this article http://www.slate.com/id/2160742/nav/tap1/ - apparently, a lot of people don't find lorises to be cute. That came as a surprise to me - I always sort of assumed they were one of those animals everyone thought were adorable, as were long-eared jerboas. But it seems that that's not the case.
Who knew?