Waiter, There’s a Quiz in My Soup.

The quick like a bunny quiz!

 

1.

Smack, crack, bushwhacked

Tie another one to the racks, baby

2.

I’m in a mood for you

For running away

Stars come down in you

And love...you can't give it away

Inside you the time moves

And she don't fade

3.

Who broke my heart?

You did, you did

Bow to the target

Blame cupid, cupid

You think you’re smart

Stupid, stupid

4.

Open fire on my burning heart

I've never been lucky in love

My defenses are down

A kiss or a frown

I can't survive on my own

5.

I'd lay in a pile of burning money that I've earned

and not even worry about getting burned

I'd climb the Empire State Building, fight Muhammad Ali

Just to have you baby close to me

6.

If you took all the girls I knew when I was single

And brought them all together for one night

I know they’d never match

My sweet imagination

7.

Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers

Turn around and say good morning to the night

For unless they see the sky

But they can’t and that is why

They know not if its dark outside or light

8.

Morning, just another day

Happy people pass my way

Looking in their eyes

I see a memory

I never realized

you made me so happy

9.

Anybody could be that guy

Night is young and the music’s high

With a bit of rock music, everything is fine

10.

Now I’m towing my car, there’s a hole in the roof

My possessions are causing me suspicion but there’s no proof

By The Power Of Greyskull…

Thanks for all the happy thoughts and congratulations everyone. You guys are so sweet to me.

It’s all over but the paperwork. I am a Master. By the way, don’t you think that ‘Master of X’ should be a higher degree than ‘Doctor of X?’ I mean, hey, if I’m a Master, why should I keep studying, right?

Thoughts from the commencement ceremony:

• I like the symbolism of the hooding ceremony for the PhDs. I think it’s important to show the world that after decades of study and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, that newly minted PhDs still need help getting dressed.
  
• There is more evidence of this in the way that the people dressed themselves. Ratty tennis shoes and frayed blue jeans? Flip-flops? I mean, c’mon now, at least try.
  
• When getting hooded, kneel or squat, do not bow! Plenty of people bowed – it only makes it harder for your hooder. Now, that’s fine by me, I had a great time making fun of everyone, but it might cause embarrassment for you. Another important lesson is to choose tall advisors.
  
• The quality and variety of robes was just wonderful. I think that the European schools had the best ones though. I swear one of the professors looked like he just stepped off the stage from a community theatre production of Merchant of Venice (Scrivener? Was that you?)
  
• Commencement speakers need to be able to speak well. This goes back to my firm belief that all potential educators need to take a public speaking class (or 3)
  
• On the other hand, I feel awful for the name-readers. Phonetic spellings can’t help you out of everything. Bonus points for all of them. Also full points for the hand-shakers – you just know that they’re going to come down with some kind of cold or something.
  
• Nobody tripped. Pity.
  

Right then. A return to grading!

It's Done.

A massive white-out of blog posts is ended with these words:

It's Done.

The masters thesis, warts and all, is filed and very soon I will be walking across the stage in my silly black dress and backwards necktie (MAs get hoods - who knew?).

I'm still not thinking very well, but I think I could use a nice long nap. 

I followed Jayfish's advice and got some ice cream - Mint Chocolate Chip, and it was so very very good.  Ah yes, did I mention that I still have ~50 essays and an equal number of finals to grade by next Tuesday?  No, I'm guessing I didn't.  Oh, yes,  then there's also the prep work and reader-building for two classes this summer that start the week after next.  So, there's not even time for a debauch trip to Vegas.  All for the best, I'm sure, but still.

My hopes are for quizzes and regularly scheduled blathering to be back up to speed by next week.

Oh, one last note of interest -  One of the 'things I do' is shoot sports.  I've been taking pictures for the athletics department here for the past couple of years, and, I've gotten a couple of good shots, if I do say so myself.  Anyhoo, the uni I'll be attending in the fall has a massive sports program.  They regularly compete and win playoffs of all sorts and flavors.  So, I chatted with the Media relations guy here, and, guess what?  He's got some connections over there.  He says he'll get me an introduction and figures that I should be able to shoot down there too.  Woohoo!  Fun fun!  Now I think I really may need that new lens :)

On The Trail Again

8.23km - 39'45"

Oh yeah,

The US Soccer Team makes me sad.  I mean, I never thought we would beat the Czechs badly, but I figured we wouldn't get blown out.  So sad...  And like we're going to do any better against Italy - Pheh.  I'll need to find another team to root for here in a couple of games.  England?  Mexico?  Korea?

Egg-Sauce-Ted

I think I'll I can handle are bullet points right now.

• Ok, yeah, no quiz this weekend.  No blogging at all. I've just been beat.  So very tired. 
• The upside is that I've gotten signature 2 of 3 on the thesis and the last one should be just a formality (watch - I've just jinxed it). Still plenty to be done - especially in the proofreading department, but closer and closer
  
• Here's a good way to not endear yourself to your TA:  If the exam is at 12, and you aren't going to go to the exam, then your TA should have the exam prompts in advance so that he or she can make copies so that the students can take the test.  It is a good idea not to breeze in at 11:45 and respond to the question, "Do you have the tests?" with a shrug or an "Oh, yeah," especially when you don't have the tests.  There is a chance however that your TA will have foreseen your not taking care of things and he or she will have pieced together a retyped version of the draft so that there will be something to give the students on time.  Seriously, I like this prof, but I don't see any excuses here.  I mean, a simple email would have saved a lot of stress and panic. 
  
• Last night was the official 'Goodbye Grads' party.  There was an obscene amount of food and booze.  I got home at around 3am, which ain't my usual thing.  I had many many many beers (and toasts of champagne) which is also not in my general habit.  Perhaps that's why I'm exhausted?  Many dark secrets were discovered after the professors went home and the booze flowed more freely.
• There's no way I'm running today.
• Exam proctoring results:
• 3.12% are left handed
  
• 5.22% wear hats
• 20% turned backward
• 20% turned sideways
• 40% trucker hats
• 2.08% wear hoodies with the hoods up
• 21.84% wear glasses
• 2.08% wear sunglasses on top of their heads
• 1.56% have beards
• 4.68% are long haired dudes
• 2.08% are short haired gals
• 2.08% have long braids
• 17.68% wear their hair in pony tails
• 7.28%  wore clothing with our university's name on it
• 1.04% wore clothing with the names of other universities.
  
• Beverage count
• 17.68% of students had a bottles of water
  
• 2.08% coffee
• 3.12% soda
• 3.12% sports drinks/juice
• Of the last 15 students taking the exam
• no lefties remained
• only one had curly hair
• 7 men 8 women
• notable shirts:
• "I hate myself and want to die"
• "Tennis 1994"
  

Rarbie

Rarbie
Originally uploaded by Overread.

My Thesis Will Go On (Sing It, You Know You Want To)

Well, what did I say?  That I was going to turn in version 1.5?  right?  Well, I think I just sent version 1.45 off to the chair of my committee.  There's still a bit of friction coming from my advisor in charge of the 'data.'  It's well-deserved friction, to be sure, but troublesome anyway.  Oh, yeah, she's gone out of the country too -yeesh.  In any case, I still say this with a bit of incredulity, but it looks like I'll be able to get it in - on time, even. 

I'm thinking I need to buy myself a treat.  What do you guys think?  Camera lens?  Video game system?  Wild weekend of debauchery in Vegas?  Spinning rims for my bike?  Scratch 'n Sniff stickers?

Round and Round I Go

8.20km -39'45"

I Couldn't Make This Stuff Up.

Stu:  Do I have to write the paper in English?

Overread:   [stunned silence]

Thesis? What Thesis?

8.18km - 39'20"

Because I Won't Respond This Way To Their Faces

To the dude in the gym:
    The public shower is not the place to practice your standing toe touch stretches.

To the student with my email on speed-dial (I know, I know, but you get it, right?):
    The answers to all of the questions you asked are on the syllabus, on the website, and on page 2 of the reader.  You lose 10% of your grade for being a twit.

To the guy behind me in line:
    Yeah, you probably should have waited for the tests to come back, because it sounds like she wasn't that umm... healthy.

Image is Nothing

Someone just dropped by to see if they could get into the full summer class I'm teaching. 

After the student left, I thought that perhaps leaving off shaving for the weekend, wearing a beat up shirt and ragged jeans (hey, I don't have class on Mondays - I have no class to begin with - har har har) and having a desk buried in crap doesn't present a particularly inspiring image to the world.  At least she called me "Mr. Overread" and not "Professor Overread" - That's already happened once and it freaked me out.

Just Another Form of Procrastination at This Point

Fri:
6.07km - 28'39"
Sat:
6.05km - 28'42"
Mon:
8.25km - 39'50"

Nose to the Quizstone

Ah yes… Thanks Camera Obscura. I did my best to drop off the face of the earth this weekend and didn’t post a quiz. Bad, bad Overread… (fun typo – I originally typed “drop off the farce of the earth.” Fits a little better if you ask me)

Old business:

#2 – Well, it is Tom Petty…it was… “Don’t Do Me Like That!”

#7 – “El Paso,” Marty Robbins – another one of those songs with a story – Ah, nice…

#10 I have no clue about who sung “Momma Told Me Not To Come” first, Three Dog Night or Tom Jones. I would guess Three Dog Night, but that’s just a guess.

Alrighty – here we go – some easy ones and a couple of hard ones mixed in!

1

She'll take a tumble on you

Roll you like you were dice

2 Super Bonus Geek Points for anyone who gets this one

The fools that think the worst is over

They won't live to be much older

Why do they remain, why do they remain

Everything is ready, everyone that's cominghas been safely brought on board

3

Like to tell ya about my baby

You know she comes around

She about five feet four

A-from her head to the ground

4

Baby, I think tonight

We can take what is wrong and make it right

Baby, it's all I know

That you're half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole

5

In my life there’s been heartache and pain

I don’t know if I can face it again

Can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far

To change this lonely life

6

Something’s happening

Happening to me

My friends say I’m acting peculiarly

7

I bought a ticket to the world

But now I’ve come back again

Why do I find it hard to write the next line?

8

I think I caught his spirit

Later that same year

I’m sure I heard his echo

In my baby’s new born tears

9

I want a doctor to take your picture

So I can look at you from inside as well

10 Yeah, yeah, ok, I had to add this one after #9 – Cheap laugh, I know :)

Neon on my naked skin, passing silhouettes

Of strange illuminated mannequins

Shall I stay here at the zoo

Or should I go and change my point of view

The Heat

It's sapping my will to live.  I deal very badly with heat, and we've had a very unseasonable heat wave the past couple days.  Yesterday I was sitting in the library (on the floor that doesn't get wireless access - Sometimes that helps me focus).  I wasn't moving.  Just sitting there at my laptop.  Sweating.  streams of sweat.  I couldn't even think.  I spent about 4 hours there and got nothing worthwhile done.  I went to the office.  Nothing.  I went home and went for a quick run.  The only upside to that was standing in the ice-cold shower after. 
I thought I might be able to get something done when the sun went down.  The sun went down, but it never cooled off. 
I remember when I was little, when it would get really hot at night I would get out of bed and put a sheet on the ground and just lay down on top of it with the fan turned on high blowing right on me.  I could never get to sleep on nights like that.  miserable miserable miserable.  It was almost that bad last night. 
This morning I figured I needed to get the blood flowing, so I went on a longish bike ride to a guilty pleasure spot for brunch.  I'd hit the cafe nearby to work.  When I got there I realized I left my wallet at home.  Ugh.  I had enough to eat, but not enough for anything else.  So.  long bike ride home to get the wallet and then short bike ride to the local Bucks o' Star to work.  That's where I am now.  Still hot.  Still unhappy.  Still not getting any work done.

Fly Away Little Thesis

First off, an apology to what few loyal readers I've got left for the lack of posts lately.  I've been doing the thesis tango with my advisors and a whole lotta caffeine.  That means I'm grumpy, tired and all sorts of not into writing blog posts.  However:

I've sent Thesis v1.25b to the advisors.  I think I'm going to end up turning in version 1.4 or so.  There is a mild danger that v1.25b will need to become v2.0 (Summer edition).  I'm not too distressed by that - it was my original intention to turn the blasted thing in in the summer, but it's still to be determined what will happen to my summer gig if I don't have MA in hand.

And a couple of notes to the students in my sections:

I'll help you, but I'm not going to do it for you.  (Seriously, I should get this stitched on a pillow.)

Yes, well, you should have noticed that you weren't enrolled in the class sometime before week 9.

Yes, perhaps it would have been a good idea to write that paper and turn it in instead of... not.

The Madness Continues

4th day in a row.  I think this is the only think keeping me from thesis-induced insanity
8.23km - 39'27"

Multimedia message

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by Overread.

Runlog Backlog

I felt like running a bit more this week - go figure

Monday - 6.06km - 28'17"
Tuesday - 6.02km - 28'29"
Today - 8.29km - 39'30"

Meme-orial Day

From Zerodoll
10 Favorites
Favorite Season: Fall
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Time: either late late night or early early morning
Favorite Food: Nachos
Favorite Drink: Hot chocolate
Favorite Ice Cream: Cherry Garcia
Favorite Place: Park Place – but only if I’ve got Boardwalk too.
Favorite Sport: I would say football, but it’s generally whatever’s going on at the time
Favorite Actor: (I should mention that I’m very fickle about actors and actresses. These opinions will probably change in a few minutes) Ben Kingsley
Favorite Actress: Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth in the BBC Pride & Prejudice)

9 Currents
Current Feeling: worn out
Current Drink: Diet Pepsi (I usually go with Diet Coke, but same thing, right? They’re both bad for me)
Current Time: 7:28 pm
Current Show on TV: Heat vs Pistons Game 4
Current Mobile used: Cingular
Current Windows 3 Microsoft Word (Beta testing the 2007 version – Woohoo!), 1 Yahoo Music Engine, 1 Firefox (9 tabs), 1 FeedDemon and a handful of widgets and a couple of field specific ones that I ain’t telling you about :)
Current Underwear: Um well, I just got out of the shower after a run, so… none. TMI? I know, I know, but I can’t lie on a meme, right?
Current Clothes: see above – none.
Current Thought: Why don’t I take more pictures anymore?

8 Firsts
First Nickname: The Fonz (first one I remember, anyway)
First Kiss: On stage: Katherine (I mention this because it happened well before anything more real). For reals: Catherine (For those who know me, you don’t know either one)
First Crush: Tracy (?)
First Best Friend: Chris
First Vehicle I Drove: My sister’s VW Bug – well before I should have been doing so legally :)
First Job: Sonic
First Date: Mexican
First Pet: Skeeter!

7 Lasts
Last Drink: Um… Diet Pepsi? Didn’t we already do this? Oh! Drink! Um… Margarita. Geeze, that was many weeks ago
Last Kiss: Right before the breakup. Nearly a year ago?
Last Meal: Turkey and bacon from the sketchy little sandwich shop right off campus
Last Web Site Visited: IMDB to look up Jennifer Ehle’s name.
Last Movie Watched: I’ll give two, because this is a really good insight into my psychoses: MST3K – The Wild World of Batwoman and The Seventh Seal
Last Phone Call: To my Mom (awww)
Last TV show Watched: actually watched? From beginning to end? Tough. Umm… Oh! I watched an episode of Airline yesterday or the day before– very entertaining.

6 Have You Ever...
Have You Ever Broken the Law: sure!
Have You Ever Been Drunk: yup
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: Are we talking ‘know’ in the biblical sense? No. er. Know.
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire: I had an AK-47 pointed at me in Moscow, but he didn’t fire. I was around a lot of gunfire in the army though
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: no
Have You Ever Broken Anyone's Heart: perhaps.

5 Things
Things You Can Hear Right Now: the TV and the fan (the wind-making kind, I’m not that popular yet) and occasionally street noise
Things On Your Bed: Me. Various sheets and pillows
Things You Ate Today: We did this one before already too! Umm… Turkey & Bacon sandwich, Special K cereal bar thingie, pretzels, a bag o’ skittles and some tortilla chips (can you tell I’m on diet hiatus while I finish the thesis?)
Things You Can't Live Without: I’ll second Zerodoll’s ‘oxygen.’
Things You Do When You Are Bored: surf the web, read, play video games, watch tv

4 Places You Have Been Today
home
office
library
old running trail (it’s only ~7km, so I got off easy today!)

3 Things On Your Desk Right Now
mountains of papers
Sharpies in several rainbows worth of colors
2 hard-copy papers I forgot to grade

2 Choices
To omit or not to omit, that is the question
Can I last another day without doing laundry?

1 Place You Want To Visit
The Space Station

Thesis Blathering

I hope everyone had a loverly Memorial Day.

 

I actually had a minor breakthrough on the thesis front. Once again, to no surprise, it was thanks to my advisor. He suggested a reorganization that will give me legitimate reasons for changing some parts and ejecting some portions of the thing that were really dragging the thesis down. So, rather than presenting each piece of data and painstakingly analyzing it before moving on, I’m going to give a general overview of the problems, explain trends (with excerpts from the data) and then present all of the data at the end.

 

The problem was (and is) that I have a big teenage-hormone-crush on my data. It was really the reason I came to this field and this topic in the first place and I love it. It’s also really really hard and the main product of the thesis itself. Even though the analysis is useful and interesting, it’s very secondary in importance (in my mind).

 

I wanted to put the data up front and with big flashing lights to let everyone know – “HEY! I CAN DO THIS STUFF AND YOU CAN’T!” Err… or something like that.

 

Anyway, it just makes soooo much more sense to organize all of the data behind the discussion of the trends and such. Yea advisor!

 

At the risk of getting hit by a train, dare I say that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a smidge brighter?

 

Pages:     113

Words:    45,710

Lines:    3,057

 

Ok, I’m kinda proud of the poor, disorganized, rambling thing :)

A Long-Tailed Quiz in a Room Full Of Rocking Chairs

Oh, deary deary deary, I hope everyone was just as busy as I have been last week, otherwise, I’ll have to be disappointed in the quiz results :) Here are the one that didn’t get guessed:
1 – Be Good To Yourself – Journey
4 – Heaven – Psychedelic Furs (Jayfish! O! My! – I think that was on a mix tape you gave me! :P )
8 – Justify My Love – Madonna!
9 – The way you make me feel – Mikey Jackson!

Well, let’s put that unpleasantness behind us and get on to the goodies. I’ve finally finished grading, so I’ve got a tub of tunes to tickle the timorous tines of tiny… taupe…tuned-in…terriers? Ok, that didn’t go over well at all…

1 –

Turn on the light, babe
Are you someone else tonight?
Neighbor to neighbor, door to door
Don't ask questions, there's time for it all Oh yeah.

2 –

And you know you better watch your step or you’re gonna get hurt yourself.
Someone’s gonna tell you lies, hurt you down inside.

3 –

Body and beats I stain my sheets I don’t even know why
My girlfriend she’s at the end she is starting to cry

4 –

And then you sense a change
Nothin' feels the same
All your dreams are strange

5 –

His rival, it seems, had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy.
Her name was Magill and she called herself Lil,
But everyone knew her as Nancy.

6 –

Whoops its ringing and I rise,
Wipe the sleep out of my eyes.
My shaving razor’s cold and it stings.

7 –

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my side.
Though I am trying
To stay in the saddle,
I'm getting weary,
Unable to ride.

8 –

What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn’t the same
Living on reds, vitamin c, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is ain’t it a shame?

9 –

It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker

10 –

The radio is blastin'
Someone's knocking at the door
I'm lookin' at my girlfriend
She's passed out on the floor

11 –

No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation

12 –

Well, I can’t tell lies, cause they’re listening to me.
And when I fall asleep, bet they’re spying on me tonight, tonight.
cause they’re waiting for me.
They’re looking for me.
Every single night they’re driving me insane.
Those men inside my brain.

Grading Does Make Me Smile Sometimes

"Be bold in you hypostasis and careful in you proofs."

um... hypotheses?

Wha?

Who is in charge of the weather here?  Seriously, I plan on sending a very terse email!  So a few days ago, it was sunny, but nice and cool.  Then two days ago it rained like Noah was done building.  (Why yes, yes, I did decide to leave my rain gear at home and had to bike home in the monsoon, thanks for asking!).  Yesterday it looked like it was heading back to nice and cool.

Today?  THE SUN LANDED IN MY BACKYARD.  Hot hot hot hot dismally, energy-sucking, sidewalk-egg-boiling, wavy-lines-coming-off-the-ground-hot.

It gets worse.  Worse why?  Because I'm dumber than a box of rocks.  I didn't run on Monday because I was trying to catch up on some stuff, so I didn't want to miss today, but I could have run early or late to avoid solar incineration, yes?  Well, I could have, but I didn't.  1:30pm I roll out of the gym (slathered in sunblock, for what that's worth anyway) and jaunted off to my trail. 

Well, it's hardly worth mentioning that I ran very very slowly (40'13" for those playing at home), but I also seem to have run into a cleverly placed pollen-bomb somewhere out there.  Sweat, sunblock, red, itchy skin and red bloodshot eyes.  Oh the joy of it all. 

Adding insult to idiocy, both of the other MA folks graduating this spring are pretty much done with their theses.  Oh, how I hate them.  Hate hate hate, Hate that burns like a very hot burny thing.  Well, ok, it's not hate.  It's jealousy, but I've never been too good about telling one emotion from another.

Good Morning!

I'm still here, but only barely.  I thought I would try to knock out a few papers this morning before class, but I hit the most frustrating paper I've seen in a very long time.  This student seems to have misunderstood so many fundamental concepts that I'm not sure this isn't a joke.  This student cited class discussions (ugh!) when claiming something so patently absurd that I can't even really laugh at it.  And of course, on top of that, it's written in the style of a gifted 4 year old with a thesaurus.

Naturally, I can't take it as a joke.  I commented in depth and without kid gloves.  I hope that this student reads the comments - I know most don't, but I wonder if I won't have a more hostile student on my hands once the grades go back. 

So most of this morning was spent eyes-squinted, head at a 'His Master's Voice' angle trying to parse out what this student could possibly be meaning, then carefully forming responses. 

My friends tell me that I spend too much time on grading, and I know they're right - especially now when my priority must settle squarely on the thesis, but I haven't found it within myself to just stamp a crappy grade on a paper and hope the student figures out what was wrong all by their lonesome. 

Feh - another half day done.

Running in Place

Well, there you go. I got my first response from the main clump of thesis-dross from my advisor on Friday. He was, as usual, very kind and supportive, but pointed out that there were many 'discrepancies' in my... er... 'data.' Well, that's as clear as I'm able to be without blowing what's left of my blogland cover.

Anyway, the solution was to proof many many pages of very dense, troublesome clarity-resistant 'data.' So that's what I've done this weekend. I locked myself up in a little cabinet in the library. My only escape was for a few hours to try to grade a few papers - now that's relaxation! But I got it done.

So, I'm done with the proofing, and I do feel better, because it did bring to light some troubles that I'm now able to repair. These could have very easily slipped into the final draft and caused embarrassment if anyone ever goes to the trouble to read the blasted thing. The problem is that I had to put a lot on hold to take care of this. I was supposed to be at X, but now I'm at X-2 days. Feh.

I realize however, that this thing can be finished though, and that's a very nice thing to be able to say without crossing my fingers. I'm even almost ready to say I can finish it on time (and under budget!).

Again, this won't make sense to anyone except me, but my advisor also pointed out that I have two major themes that run through the paper. He suggested adding a third one, and while it might be a bit more work, I think it's a pretty good idea. The thrid topic includes a good chunk of material and research that I decided to toss out a while back, but the way he framed it, I think I can bring it back in avoiding the problems that led me to want to toss it while putting the work I did back into the thesis!

Woohoo! Back to the grindstone!

Grading Gem

Not an exact quote - I changed it to protect the innocent incoherent:

The group which was led by Mr Man whose philosophies were based on the thoughts of Jesus Christ, that cut a swath of destruction throughout the entire region.

I think I get what Mr. student is getting at, but I just love the image of this maniacal 50 foot tall Jesus tearing through huge geographical areas.

While I'm on a mental hygiene break, I've got some good links, too.  I always forget to mark down where I got them, though.  Most probably Boing Boing, Kottke, or Stumbleupon:

(video) The trailer for the new reimagining of The Ten Commandments

(video) A talking head reveals a heroic mountain climber's disability

(video) Charleston dancers set to a new tune

The healing of a scar left by an old railroad line in San Francisco

umm...  ok, that's about it - I'll get back to work now :(

A Rabbi, A Priest and a Quiz Walk Into A Bar...

Should we all be happy that the one song that wasn't guessed last week was Could've Been by Tiffany? Probably so... I can't believe no one made any snarky comments about my 'Good girls don't quiz on the first date' title. I was so proud of myself for that one. Maybe I have to be more lewd :)

1.

Runnin' out of self-control
Gettin' close to an overload
Up against a no win situation
Shoulder to shoulder, push and shove

2.

At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
and a freight train running through the
middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire

3.

Get a shoe thrown at me from a mean old man
Get my dinner from a garbage can

4.

There's a song on the air
with a love-you line
and a face in a glass
and it looks like mine

5.

Come on and dance, come on and dance
We may not get another chance
You know the night is fallin'
And the music's callin'

6.

I don't know why nobody told you
how to unfold you love
I don't know how someone controlled you
they bought and sold you

7.

We are stardust, we are golden,
we caught in the devil's bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

8.

I don't wanna be your mother
I don't wanna be your sister either
I just wanna be your lover

9.

Hey pretty baby with the high heels on
You give me fever like I've never ever known

10.

Don't know what colour your eyes are, baby
But your hair is long and brown
Your legs are strong, and you're so, so long
And you don't come from this town

How Can You Not Appreciate Good Spam Poetry?

The email was entitled 'Your wealth., goat-horned'

Genius, no? I think I may use that for the title of my autobiography. There was the standard make a million in work at home scheme spiel. Ah, but then, then follows the muse-touched beauty:

faun-colored overflow bug kedani fever
cat-locks pressure governor candle paper
blink comparator peppermint stringbark crystal malt
well-behated mid-crowd ding-a-ling
sky-line pneumatico-hydraulic pseudo professor
gas-operated forward-bearing terror-breeding
pseudo marriage spring-raised wit-abused
pistol carbine muscle cell resonance wave coil

In all seriousness, there are some really interesting images in there. I really like 'gas-operated forward-bearing terror-breeding.' Such a powerful imagining of the industrial military world. Followed up with, 'pistol carbine muscle cell resonance wave coil,' which envisions the bullet from all weapons tearing through muscle and cells, and the ripple of impact waves through the body. And of course all this is started with the subtle danger hidden in natural beauty that has gone beyond nature - 'faun-colored overflow bug kedani fever'

Why yes, I should be grading and finishing my thesis, why do you ask?

Flash!

You know what'll wake you up quick-like?  How about getting up, getting dressed, showering, getting ready to TA your 8am section, and then picking up your watch that tells you it's 7:56am? 
I ran out the door and hopped on my bike.  The ride takes 15-20 minutes usually.  I was going to make record time. 
As I rode, I cursed and wailed about my taking too long in the shower heating my shoulder (still hurts! grrr).  Didn't I have plenty of time when I woke up? What would I say to the students waiting for me?  Surely some will have left already.  What should I do about this week's content?  I built a quiz for today, what do I do with that?

I made it to class in about ten minutes - Jogged up the stairs two at a time(third floor, natch).  No time to go to the office and print out my lesson plan, I'll just have to wing it.  Sweat pouring down my face, I swing open the door...

to silence.  darkness.  nothing. 

My watch was an hour fast.  I don't know why.  I don't know how.  It just was.  Anyway, I was 100%+  awake by then and had a nice 50 minutes to refine my lesson and come up with a good excuse for not having their papers graded yet. 

Woot!

New record for me!

8.23km - 38'16"

I earned that bag of Skittles I had with lunch! :)

Evil Library

Why, oh why do you have a book sale on the first floor that I much walk through to get to my 4th floor study pit?  Why must you taunt me with $1 HARDBACKS and $.50 paperbacks?  And why can't you provide shipping services to my home, because, let's face it, my backpack is already way too full.

We're So Dull

Why can't we have money that looks this cool any more?

That's Electricity in the center, with Jupiter on the left, Fame with the horn under Electricity and Peace over on the right. 

8.25km - 38'47"

Grrr.

Because the minutia of my life is of no doubt endlessly fascinating to you all, I slept on my shoulder wrong and it hurts like hell.

Sunday in the Park with Overread - Except It's Not in the Park. It's in the Library. But You Get the Picture.

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there!  I hope your day is full of happiness, quiet, love, chocolate, bubble baths, or whatever it is that you are in need of - Particularly if it's something made of butcher-paper and glitter, because we all know that's the bestest kind of gift for a mom, right?

Ok, anyway.  This is my blog so it's all about me me me me!  So, back to my whining about fears and inadequacy.

I sent off the biggest portion yet of the thesis to advisor in a foreign land.  I'm very very nervous.  I haven't showed much of it to anyone.  This is going to be a big turning point one way or the other. 

I've been told that if I don't get the thesis in on deadline, I can still probably teach this summer, but it'll require paperwork and begging.  Maybe roses and chocolate too.  That's at least a little comforting, but I want to finish this bad boy.  I want closure, damnit!

PS -  the drunk guy at the table next to mine (in the library) wants to make sure that everyone knows that it wasn't his mother he called, it was his stepmother.  So, I guess I figured that included you guys too.  Now you know.

PPS - Did I mention that in the middle of all this, I've just had ~50 papers to grade dumped on me?  No.  I don't think I have.  Do I have any motivation to grade them?  No.  I don't think I have.

Acting!

(byt the way, you have to read that title in a John Lovitz voice)
Scrivener has a nice post up about his opening night of Love's Labour's Lost.  I was going to write a reply over there, but my response in a little more personal, so I figured I'd do it over here.

I've mentioned before that in one of my earlier incarnations, I was an actor.  When I went to university the first time around, I majored in Theatre.  Some of the happiest times of my life have been on stage and his post really brought a lot of that back to me.

The first time I really knew I was going to be an actor was when I was in high school and was playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night.  I remember specifically that we never got very many people in the audience because the drama teacher and,  lets be honest, the entire group of drama geeks never wanted to produce anything but deep and meaningful theatre.  Twelfth Night was even a little light for us.  Anyway, I loved that play.  My epiphany came as I was on stage and I had a feeling of complete awareness.  I felt that I had control over my entire body - my voice, my movement - everything.  It was almost as if I were directing myself. 

After one of the performances, an older man came up to me at the gladhand line and told me that I had something special and I could teach the others about how to speak on stage.  I was floating.

All of that aside, now that I'm very far removed from the theatre world, I agree completely with something that Scrivener mentioned.  Some of the most valuable things that came out of my time there, especially dealing with Shakespeare, was learning how to read a text.  Shakespeare is hard, and there are still lines that I said hundreds of time that I'm not sure how to explain, but I learned how to dig into a text, read it out loud and try to get into the tempo of the words to tease out a subtle phrase.  Whatever skill I may have today comes directly from those days.

I also remember playing in a theatre in the park production of Cyrano de Bergerac (still one of my favorites - go with the Burgess translation, not the Hooker).  I missed a entrance cue because I was trying to flirt with a girl named Rose.  Ah... the misspent youth...

Good Girls Don't Quiz On The First Date

Number nine gave everyone sadness! Bwahahaa!

What have I done, what have I done, what have I done to deserve this?  hehe Got it now?  Pet Shop Boys, doncha know?

Numbers 1 & 3 were Roundabout by Yes & All the Young Dudes by Mott The Hopple (yeah, I guess that one was a stretch)

Right then.  On to new and improved quizzing!  (well, new, anyway)

1.

The sweet words you whispered
Didn’t mean a thing
I guess our song is over
As we begin to sing

2.

I need some information first.
Just the basic facts.
Can you show me where it hurts?

3.

Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move,
gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.

4.

Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about

5.

She just can’t be chained
To a life where nothing’s gained
And nothing’s lost
At such a cost

6.

Fantasy will set you free
Close your eyes girl
Look inside girl
Let the sound take you away

7.

Welcome to this one man show
Just take a seat, they’re always free
No surprise, no mystery
In this theatre that I call my soul
I always play the starring role

8.

They showed you a statue and told you to pray
They built you a temple and locked you away
But they never told you the price that you pay
For things that you might have done...

9.

I've been singing with my band
Across the wire, across the land,
I seen ev'ry blue eyed floozy on the way

10.

When I was a little boy
And the Devil would call my name
I'd say "now who do ...
Who do you think you're fooling?"

Pedometers

Sheepish asked about how accurate the pedometer is.  Honestly, I don't know.  To be embarrassingly honest, I've never even calibrated the darn thing.  When I say I'm running 8km, maybe I'm actually running a block and a half.  I can say it's fairly consistent - Here are the last few distances on my most common run:

8.36km
8.27
8.27
8.32
8.28
8.20
8.17
8.14
8.28
8.22
8.28
8.22

8.14 is the shortest and 8.36 is the longest.  I'm not doing rocket science here, so factoring in all the changes in the way I run each time, a .24km gap doesn't seem that bad.

I should say that I'm using the Triax Elite, and I'm happy with everything about it except the software, which is pretty pathetic really.  For the longest time, I figured that they must be working on a new program, but I guess not.  They're just happy with the old sad thing.  The watch itself is fine, and nice enough to wear during the day if you don't mind looking like a huge geek (not a problem for me).  The little foot pod (I call it my little UFO) is very light - I never even feel it - and very sturdy.  I've run through puddles and tall grass and up and down rocky hills and all sorts of places, and it's stayed together. 

Duuuude...

So like, I know the paper's due Thursday before lecture, and I know it's 3am Thursday morning, but could you look over my thesis statement?

Different duuuude (approaching as I get ready to walk over to the lecture hall):

DD: Hey Overread!  Can you take a look at my paper?

OR:  Well, you'll be turning it in in a couple of minutes, right?  I'll look at it then.
DD:  Yeah, I know, but I'm still working on it.  Do I need a Works Cited page?
OR:  Umm.. Yes.
DD:  Oh...  I'm short of the page requirements too.  I hope that's ok.
OR <bangs head on door jamb>
DD:  So, I'd better go finish this!

The cooler thing is that it looks like half of DD's paper is Wikipedia and the other half is oddly transcribed bits from the lectures and chats with me.  He's a cool duuuuude, but it looks like he's going to crash and burn on this paper.  I should have seen the warning signs when he started angling for grades the day before the paper was due...

Oh, did I mention I'm finishing my thesis?  Yes?  I did? Oh, well.  Did I mention that I have no time to grade papers or plan for tomorrow's lecture either?  Can I just have them read quietly at their desks?

Oh #2.  I just reformatted my thesis to university guidelines and it looks like I'm going to be waaaaay over minimum.  That's good, I guess.  I've still got a heap of editing (and writing!) to do though.

sigh.  Poor me!

8.?? - 38'42"

The battery died in my pedometer so I don't know the exact distance, but it's the exact same run I always do.  So predictable I am :(

Found Treasure

I loves me some found treasure

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by Overread.

The Evolution of Dance

via Boing Boing

Rationalizing in the Procrasti-Nation

hehe - I'm bad. 

You know it's really bad when you get really excited when a student emails you with a paper problem that you can answer really well and in depth.  Well, I guess it's only really bad when it's a question you could answer in one line, but because you should be writing thesis you happily decide to write a monograph on the history of the problem the student raised and your personal take on all the sides of the argument. 

and, um.  Replace 'you' with 'I.'

Hey!  I was helping a student!  I was facilitating education!  The wisdom-ifying of our nation's future!  It wasn't procrastination at at all!

A Long Walk and a Short Pier

I've never really cared much for the 'walk across the stage and get your diploma' thing.  I did it in high school because it wasn't really an option, but I've been able to avoid it ever since even though I've had a few opportunities.  The thing is, it just seems like another manufactured celebration designed less to express pride in hard-earned accomplishments and more to stroke egos and siphon cash.  In this line, see class rings, yearbooks, most student government, etc. etc...

Reason I bring this up is that I think I'm being kidnapped and forced at diploma-point to walk for my MA.  My fellow grads told me I had to.  The admin folks demanded that I had to, and most difficult to duck, the department chair, who I really like, asked me to.

feh.  renting a gown is how much?  My funding didn't cover wardrobe. 

8.22km - 39'07"

Crunched Time

So I've got this thesis thing.  I imagine this seems normal to all you academic folk out there, but I've never dealt with a long-term project lie this before.  The deadline is approaching in a most unfriendly fashion, and although I've got enough ego for several folks, I'm beginning to realize that I don't know what the hell I'm doing.  I'm terrified of sending pages to my advisor because he's going to realize what a vapid hunk of crap they are, revoke my recommendation letter and get me kicked out of PhDland before I even get to go.  Then of course they won't let me teach the summer course (and let's face it, that may be better for all involved).  In a month and a half I'll be asking strangers if they want fries with that.

The funny thing is that I'm used to reading about how many academics have the whole 'what is the world discovers I'm a compete fraud?' complex, but for some reason, I didn't think I would get that.  But now that there are more things riding on my performance, I see myself feeling exactly that. 

I always thought the trick was never to give anyone the impression that I thought I was anything more than I am.  That way no one would ever be surprised to realize that I don't know jack and I haven't read Foucault.  I guess that plan didn't work out so well.

sigh.  7 hours is enough work on this beast today.  I'm going home. 

Shhh...

IMG_2220
Originally uploaded by Overread.

Don't tell anyone I snuck out to shoot a baseball game yesterday. I may even do it again.

Mental health vacation, doncha know?

Cinqo de Quizo

Oh Sadness!!  A9.com was my search engine o' choice for lots of reasons - You could set it up where you got regular website results and images on the same page for every search, and, which is more pertinent to this post, they would tell you when you've already been to a site.  So... That was the only way I knew if I had already used a lyric!  Now they've switched over to using Windows Live instead of Google, and alas, all is sad and not as good as it was. 

Long story short - expect to start seeing duplicates on ye olde lyrics quiz :(  I'll try to keep it to a minimum though.

So last time all went well except for no one knowing 'You Sexy Thing' by Hot Chocolate.  Maybe that's all for the good anyway.  Oh and there was mild disagreement on #10.  Sorry, New Kid, 'Babe' was indeed by Styx, not Air Supply.  See!  That why you don't have to be embarrassed about recognizing them! :)

Also, a special 'howdy' to Gary.  Good to see you 'round.

Alrighty then - now that all that's out of the way, let's get quzzin'!


1.

The music dance and sing
They make the children really ring
I'll spend the day your way
Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley

2.

It's not in the words that you told me
It's not in the way you say you're mine
It's not in the way that you came back to me
It's not in the way that your love set me free

3. This one should be worth 2 points. :)

But we can love oh yes we can love
And my brother’s back at home with his beatles and his stones
We never got it off on that revolution stuff
What a drag too many snags

4.

And the county judge, who held a grudge
Will search for evermore

5.

But I ain’t forgetting that you were once mine
But I blew it without even tryin’
Now I’m eatin’ my heart out
Tryin’ to get a letter through

6.

I got up to wash my face
When I come back to bed
Someone’s taken my place

7.

Then your innocent distractions
Hit me so hard
My emotional reaction
Caught me off guard

8.

Wherever you go, I’ll be with you.
Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.
Whenever you need someone to lay your heart and head upon.

9.

At night, the people come and go
They talk too fast, and walk too slow

10.

and now we're six months older
And everything you want and everything you see
Is out of reach
not good enough.

Multimedia message

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by Overread.

8.14km - 38'40

under 39 minutes!  Woot woot!  (personal record for this trail is 38'30" - ugh!  I'm... al...most... there...)

Multimedia message

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by Overread.

Genius

80 random people + blue polo shirts and khakis + plans to politely hang out at the local Best Buy = Hilarious

8.22km - 39'08"

Almost under 39' again! :)

I Have Not I Have Not I Have NOT!

I have not wasted most of today already!  Why do I feel like I haven't done anything

• I did that stupid survey that explained how no one earning what I earn can afford to live here. 
• I answered all of those emails (including the student who had a really good question, but wasn't my student). 
• I read a nasty (but useful) article in a language that I read really slowly.
• I mapped out a bunch of things I'll need to get corralled for the summer class. (scary scary scary)
  
• I did a bit of hunting around for materials for the summer class (I think this is where I feel like I didn't get anything done because most of what I did was discover that all those sources just wont work).
• I even blogged

and the day isn't done yet.  I'm breaking for a run, then I get back to work.  Maybe I'll feel like I've accomplished something later.

Oh, and the Black Adder DVD that Netflix sent me was cracked.  Poo.

Because I Know You Were Worried,

Now the sneezing.  So.  Allergies it is. 

I've taken the antihistamine, but the true question is:  Will the cafe people throw me out because of me sneezing every 30 seconds before the medicine kicks in, or will I pound my head open on the metal table first?

Why does my body not work right!?

Sniffle

Grrr...  This is absolutely no fair.  I've been surrounded by people hacking and coughing up their individual plagues for weeks now, and I've survived.  Now, just as most everyone else is recovering (except for one colleague who I seriously think is ill on a serious scale - naturally she refuses to go to the clinic: 'They'll only give me medicine, and I won't take it.'), I start to sniffle.  I hope it's only allergies.  If this is a real illness, I'm going to... um... drink fluids and rest?  Feh...  Even my threats are pretty sickly.

A Stitch in Time Saves a Quiz

Weird stuff afoot!

I thought I was going to get Camera Obscura on the #1 question, but Bozz Skaggs and Rita Coolidge use the exact same phrase:

Outside the rain begins and it may never end
So cry no more, on the shore dream
Will take us out to the sea
Forever more, forever more

Same basic song, but different titles and the endings are different! So, I doff my hat to you Oh, most obscura of cameras!

The only one that caused grief was #10. It was Get Out the Map, by the Indigo Girls, but then you knew that already, didn’t you, you naughty googlers :)

Oh, yes, #9 – it was the Mamas and the Papas, Creeque Alley – “ain’t no body getting fat, but Mama Cass,” dontcha know?

So, on to the new tunes! um... I got carried away. There's 15 this time around. I know I should have saved some for next time, but, um... I'm an 'instant gratification' kind of guy. So... 15. Enjoy. :)

1

But you know
I'm never really sure
If you're just kissing to be clever

2

Nine a.m. on the hour hand
and she's waiting for the bell
and she's looking real pretty
just wait for her clientele

3

How I dearly wish I was not here
In the seaside town
that they forgot to bomb

4.

He got a Custom Continental
He got an El Dorado too
He got a 32 gun in his pocket for fun
He got a razor in his shoe

5

Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass,
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past

6

Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore

7

See the smile a-waitin' in the kitchen,
food cookin' and the plates for two.
See the arms that reach out to hold me,
in the evening when the day is through.

8

With a little push, we could set it off.
We can send it rocketing skywards.
With a little love, we could shake it up.
Don’t you feel the comet exploding?

9

Only yesterday I was on my own
Just another day later my mind was blown
You sexy thing come into my life
Forever and a day it feels so right

10

But I’ll be lonely without you
And I’ll need your love to see me through
Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
And I’ll be missing you

11

Sit down, take a look at yourself
Don't you want to be somebody
Someday somebody's gonna see inside
You have to face up, you can't run and hide

12

’cause the free wind is blowin’ through your hair
And the days surround your daylight there
Seasons crying no despair
Alligator lizards in the air, in the air

13

She gets up and pours herself a strong one
And stares out at the stars up in the sky
Another night, it's gonna be a long one
She draws the shade and hangs her head to cry

14

Still looking for that blue jean, baby queen
Prettiest girl I ever seen
See her shake on the movie screen, Jimmy Dean

15

Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun,
And the first one said to the second one there I hope you’re having fun.

Good News, Too

There was a post here
A naughty leak of secrets
even comments gone

Sorry to deletees corndog and zerodoll :)

Lecture Hall Cop

So the professor is ending the lecture, but there's still time left and he's still giving out information.  He's not just chatting or anything.  There are ~100 students in the class and once they figure class is wrapping up, a whole lot of students rumble around packing up and talk amongst themselves.  I look back (I'm the TA), and see one of my students in particular joking loudly to the person next to him.  Grrr... Overread gets ticked.  The professor has been having a hard time holding their interest throughout the class anyway, but we're not even halfway through the term, and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse.

So.  After class is over, I go over to the students that I saw talking and tell them that they need to be quiet while the professor is speaking.  They protested their innocence.  I was probably a bit forceful, but I don't think I was particularly nasty.  I made it clear that they were disrupting the class, and this was unacceptable. 

I know this seems minor, but it was a pretty big thing for me.  I really don't like doing that sort of thing, especially with a big audience (all of their classmates were around).

Maybe I'm just too paranoid, but I'm wondering:

• Did I see it wrong?  Were they the ones that were talking? (I'm 99% sure they were, but the 1% is killing me)
• Am I placing my frustrations with the way the class is being taught on the students? (The professor doesn't have the most powerful stage presence, and many students were rumbling and chatting.  Both of these things frustrate me.)
• Do I need to make an announcement in my sections (Yes, I do.  But what exactly will I say?)

8.28km - 39'36"

For Weak Women

Mother's Little Helper?

Wait a Minute Mr Postman

Well, joy.  I've found out that I do need my thesis committee chair's signature physically on a special piece o' paper (no faxing allowed) contrary to previous assumptions.  He's in...  Well, let's just say he's far away in a place where reliable mail service is a little less than the standard (it was suggested that I mail off three copies so that one might make it there).  The practical effect is that I'll need to have that thesis done about a week or two earlier than I had thought.  Poop.

On the plus side, just for kicks, I put all of my thesis files into one big one to see where I'm standing length wise, 'cause - hey, it beats actually writing, and it looks like, if things go well, I'll hit right around the length that I was aiming for.  It's a bit weird to see it all together though.  It's almost as if it's a single thing now.  Spooky.

On a topic-related note, a few of the amazon packages are arriving today.  What are the odds that I won't go home early and giddily rip open boxes?

Found card

IMG_1763
Originally uploaded by Overread.

Amazonian Conquest

I feel like I need to confess.  When I went to the conference a couple weeks ago, I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any books that I absolutely didn't need.  So I didn't.  I waited til I got home and I bought them all on Amazon.  Why! Oh cruel cruel dark mistress Amazon! Why must you taunt me with your universal purchasing options. 

Seriously.  So far they've broken it up into five packages.

Easy as 1-2-3

Accent: Hmmm… Well, I grew up in an accent heavy place (a bit southern-ish), and I spent a lot of time in theatre classes trying to keep a ‘mid-American standard,’ but truth be told, my accent depends on who I’m talking to. I think this happens with a lot of folks in my family. Oh, you should hear my mom talk to my grandpa – fun fun fun :)

Booze: Not much, really. I had my drinking phase (theatre world, again), but it never was that big a deal. That being said I was dragged off to two parties last weekend, which is unheard of for a hermit like myself. I took advantage of the two for one happy hour special and had way too many margaritas. Frankly though, I don’t like tequila unless it’s in a margarita or another froo froo drink. I usually go for vodka.

Chore I Hate: Um… anything! I’m a lazy lazy guy, doncha know? I did just do massive amounts of laundry and get a haircut, all in the same week, so maybe I’m getting better.

Dog or Cat: Cat cat cat cat and cat and then cat. See the thing is that I love all sorts of pets, and I grew up with a menagerie befitting my living in the countryside (seriously, at one point, we had a sheep. Lamb? Sheep. Maybe. We also had multicolored ducks and I spraypainted chicken poop fluorescent orange once, but those are other stories for other days). So the thing is I love dogs and cats, but I really really want a cat. A furry little purr-ball like the ones of Cute Overload. Yes. Of course I realize this doesn’t jibe well with my chore hating, but hey - I am large, I contain multitudes. Thanks Walt.

Essential Electronics: Yes. All of them. I should also say though, that it is refreshing to go screenless for brief stretches.

Favorite Cologne(s): I’m another in the anti-cologne camp. In junior high (?), I once saved up a huge amount of money to buy a bottle of White Linen for a birthday present the ultimate-love-of-my-life-who-I-couldn’t-be-without-and-my world-would-come crashing-down-if-she-ever-left-me-even-though-she-was-dating-that-other-guy-and-routinely-crushed-my-spirit. I was so proud of myself for casually finding out what she wore early enough that it wouldn’t seem obvious. So I gave it to her, she seemed happy and while we were talking in her bedroom (in her bedroom! Oh bliss upon bliss), I saw that she had received another bottle of the perfume from her grandmother. “She gives me a bottle every year.” Thank you. And I don’t like perfume.

Gold or Silver: Eh… Silver? I’m not really passionate either way

Hometown: Small city near a bigger city in a state that is unassuming enough that I have to regularly explain it’s location to foreigners. And some Americans, too.

Insomnia: Nope (knock wood)

Job Title: Teaching Assistant (“Lecturer” come this summer!) – Oh yeah, and all that ‘grad student’ stuff, too.

Kids: I hope so, but it seems I’m a little behind the game on that one.

Living arrangements: Uck. Small room in an awkward house under the flight path of low-flying airplanes and the rumbling tracks of the railway. It is a good biking distance from campus though.

Most admirable trait: I think my most admirable trait is to not answer certain questions.

Number of sexual partners: See above :)

Overnight hospital stays: None (still knocking on that wood. Plywood counts, right?)

Phobias: I do get vertigo, but it’s kind of attractive vertigo. I’m a bit like those little yappy dogs who run up to the bigger dog, bark and then run away, only to do it again. Each time I’ve been on the Eiffel Tower I force myself to go to the edge and then I run back and try not to notice the swaying of the whole friggin’ tower. Then I go look again.

Quote: What? I just quoted Whitman, for crying out loud! Aren’t you even paying attention?

Religion: None, although I do like the FSM

Siblings: One sister, one brother, both older. You guys probably know ‘em too :)

Time I wake up: Not as consistently as I should. Recently it’s been about 7 or so.

Unusual talent or skill: I can juggle, but only 3 items. I actually had to learn for a part in a play in college (Major Barbara). I had to juggle on stage as part of a sight-gag. Fun, but nerve-wracking.

Vegetable I refuse to eat: None! Gimme veggies! Gimme veggies! I even love brussel Sprouts and beets and oh… I’m ok with mushrooms, but it’s taken me a while to get on good terms with them...

Worst habit: Not finishing what I start. Finishing the MA while applying and negotiating the PhD thing has been a huge test of that.

X-rays: No, but I always wanted to buy the eyeglasses.

Yummy foods I make: (first of all, that was a stretch to get something that started with a 'Y') I used to make a kick-ass turkey chili, but I haven’t cooked in so long…

Zodiac sign: Leo, Ox

8.13km 39'29"

I Love The Internet

Ever wanted to argue about when to use diacritical marks?

Or hunt for a word that means "the feeling of sorrow one experiences upon finishing a really good book?"

The Ask Metafilter language tags section is the place for you!  Seriously, check Ask Metafilter's main section out too, it's a wonderfully crazy spot.

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Quiz

Quiz postmortem!

Very well done to all, even though you were out of practice, you came through with stellar results! Extra credit for Lyrical Liz and Corndog for above and beyond the call quizzing.

(oh, and it was Gary Wright who did Dream Weaver – I really thought it would be a more recognizable name. Did he do anything else?)

Now, on to the fresh meat:

1.

Outside the rain begins
And it may never end
So cry no more
On the shore, a dream
Will take us out to sea
Forever more forever more

2.

If I'm laden at all, I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another

3.

And Mr. Baker, can you tell us why your secretary had to leave this town?
And shouldn't widow Jones be told to keep her window shades all pulled completely down?

4.

She’s got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine

5.

Well I tried to make it sunday, but I got so damn depressed
That I set my sights on monday and I got myself undressed
I ain’t ready for the altar but I do agree there’s times
When a woman sure can be a friend of mine

6.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they’d have made whitefish bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her.

7.

Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin’ to find a woman who’s never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.

8.

If you wanted the moon I would
try to make a start.
But I would rather you let me give my heart

9.

In a coffee house Sebastian sat
And after every number they'd pass the hat
McGuinn and McGuire just a-gettin' higher
In L.A., you know where that's at

10.

Suzanne calls from Boston the coffee's hot the corn is high
And that same sun that warms your heart will suck the good earth dry

Cinextatic

Ok, a whirlwind of posting here, but there's more to come :)

This is Roger Ebert's 101 movies you must see before you die. I've meme-ified it to bold the ones I've seen. I'm at 38/101. It's pretty humiliating and more than enough evidence that I need to see more movies :)

Feel free to steal the meme if you are so inclined. And if you are so inclined, either lie down or sit up straight. No one likes an incliner. A recliner, sure, a barco-lounger, sure, but never an incliner.

"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

"The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica

"The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks

"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott

"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

"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

Today's Mission

Haircut

Result:  Nearly bald.

I Annoy Even Myself

I really hate people who wine about good fortune, but I'm going to do so.  I just got an email from a uni that I'm 99% sure I'm not going to attend (To be brutally honest, they're a very good school, but not in the same league as the #1 on my list).  The email offered a pretty generous fellowship for the entirety of the PhD program.  See, here's the thing.  I'm really excited, because that's not that common, and it's very cool to be selected (even if I imagine at this date, I'm probably not the first person to be offered this fellowship).

I haven't sent out the 'thanks but no' emails yet because I haven't gotten the final acceptance letter from #1, so I'm delaying on the reply to the fellowship email.  I wonder if there's a way to explain how grateful I am while saying I'm not going there. 

See - even in the midst of great good news, I can still be fretful :)

Oh yes, and I'm not running today.  I'm going out to eat and heading off to a birthday party tonight and another one tomorrow.  Look at me being all social and stuff.

If I had my druthers, I'd probably stay home. :)

8.17km - 39'54"

Guess how far I've run this year?

256km! Thats about 159 miles! yea me!

Sigh

If I hand you a list of names folded over with the names on the back side crossed out in pen and say two times, "Don't do x with the people on the back of the paper. We need to talk to them first," It'd be cool if you didn't do x with them until we could talk to them.

But here's the fun. I did explain it, but I feel guilty for the crapfest that's going to come down. It's not even going to lead to any trouble on my end. It's going to be all falling on the guy who didn't listen. But I feel guilty still. Maybe I should have marked the names off with a sharpie. Maybe I should have shooed him away and done it myself. Maybe I didn't explain things clearly.

ugh. I'm going home.

So Bummed

The "free massages for grad students" notice neglected to say that they only had 2 masseuses. By the time I got there, there was a sad dazed line of folks sitting out on the patch of grass. The last woman in line told me that she was about an hour away from the front of the line. I've got class in just a little bit, so no massage for Overread. :(

There was another table set up giving out coupons to grad folks, though, so I got a coupon at least. Funny thing was that the woman at the coupon table offered coupons to the folks in line - "come on over and I'll give some coupons!" Three people in line said almost in chorus, "I can't leave the line" in a kind of desperate drugged voice.

Grad students, part of the second best job in the whole world! By the by, I wonder if they factored the salary of TAs into their rosy picture

If It Were A Quiz, It Would've Bit You

Wow, I'm not even sure I remember how to do this :)

Thanks to Zerodoll (although I was really hoping she would drunk blog too) and Jayfish for kicking me in the tush and making me start this up again :)

1.

Lotta places I've been, lotta names, lotta words
No one compares to my real gone girl
Lighten up baby, I'm in love with you

2.

I call you on the telephone my
voice too rough with cigarettes.
I sometimes feel I should just go home
but I'm dealing with a memory that never forgets

3.

I felt a rush like a rolling bolt of thunder
Spinnin' my head around and taking my body under.

4.

You talk, talk, you talk to me
Your eyes touch me physically
Stay with me, we'll take the night
As passion takes another bite

5.

How many times must I tell you babe,
How many bridges I’ve got to cross?
How many times must I explain myself
Before I can talk to the boss,

6.

Fly me high through the starry skies
Maybe to an astral plane
Cross the highways of fantasy
Help me to forget todays pain

7.

Know it sounds funny
But I just can't stand the pain
Girl I'm leaving you tomorrow
Seems to me girl
You know I've done all I can

8.

Oh my love you’re so good
Treating me so cruel
There you go with your fancy lies
Leavin’ me lookin’ like a dumbstruck fool

9.

He’s tearin’ you apart
Every day, every day
He’s tearin’ you apart
Oh girl what can you say?

10.

Listen to the wind blow
Watch the sun rise
Run in the shadows
Damn your love
Damn your lies

Where'd They All Go?

Also, in case you're wondering where all the Eastern Orthodox, or maybe the Unitarians are, you can check here. What can I say, I'm a sucker for maps.

I'm Appreciated!

The department took out the office folk and the grad folk out to eat tonight for some kind of appreciation week. Tomorrow, we get free 10-minute massages and 'frozen treats' from the university. Good times, good times...

Cool thing was that for dinner, I got a plantain sandwich. That's a sandwich that uses fried plantain as the 'bread.' I chose falafel as the innards. Extraordinarily yummy. Oh yes, and sweet potato french fries. num num. I'd never been to that restaurant as it's a bit out of my regular biking circle, but I think I'll have to go back.

And it's all good, because I went on a run today too!

8.20km - 39'36" (getting closer to my pre-conference lazy days time :) )

Originally uploaded by Overread.

State of the Overread

I'm feeling a bit distanced from my thesis right now, which is not a good thing, to be sure. Crunch time has begun and I really need to be churning out some pages, but I can't seem to get back into it. The last few months have been so busy that I've lost the habit of writing often. That seems to be the key. When I'm writing often, even if I end up deleting a lot (which I do), at least my brain is tumbling around in the general area of where it should be. I'm going to try to ease myself back into writing a bit today by starting with a dip into the readings for the class I'm TAing. The readings are tangentially related, so I'm hoping that I might get a bit of a click.

Also, because this seems to work for Profgrrrrl, has anyone seen that book? You know, the one I was looking at maybe using for the summer class? Um... 'cause I can't find it. Did I lend it out? Anyway, if you see it, just stamp 'Overread' on it and drop it in a mailbox. Thanks.

The Simpsons - Cultural Phenomenon or Linguistic Puzzle?

Why not both?

The Jabberwocky Of Authors

Pure genius

I wonder if I could fit "he kiplinged in his joy" into casual conversation?

I'm Not In Kansas Anymore

Who would have thought that not running for two and a half (help) weeks and then going on a 8km run would have a downside? Well, I'm sore. I was sore yesterday, but I thought it would be better today. Not so.

I have an 8am class of Fridays and I wasn't entirely prepared, so I woke up at 5:30. When I stood up - woooo the things were still a' burnin'. So I trundle outside to get on my bike and get to the office, and oh. It's raining. Really really raining. So, on with the rain gear and off I go. The rain gets heavier. The wind picks up. By the time I get to campus I'm seeing branches blow across the street - branches that were very recently on trees. Of course, when class started the wind died and the rain dropped to a drizzle.

Anyway, the lesson I'm taking is that the world doesn't want me to really work today. The rain's picked up again, so I'm not going to run (maybe tomorrow). I've finished my 'must do today' work, and so I'm going home. I've got a brand spanking new desk copy book that I can curl up with (up with which I can curl?), and the pattering rain on the window will sound so nice.

The downside is that I've got to bike through all that again to get home :(

Sidewalk After a Rainy Day

My firewall is popping up all sorts of worm attack attempts. Someone must be after me...

Originally uploaded by Overread.

Running In the Sunning

Wow, Don't run for 2 and a help weeks and you get slower. Will wonders never cease?

8.23km - 41'02"

Stomach Gone Twisty

Ok. Hold on, this may take a bit.

I didn't want to talk directly about this before I knew more, but I did mention I got to talk to two of my potential PhD advisors at the Conference of Doom last weekend. One was from a school I did get in and one was from a school I got waitlisted for. Here's the breakdown:

Old School School (OSS?):

• I would have to reread a lot of pre-PhD classes - would probably add 2 years on to the PhD trail
• Very strict - don't graduate until you get it place. 10 years? no problem.
• Funding very tight
  
• Up and coming department in a very well-respected university
• Really good sub-field of Gruub studies folks to work with
• My subfield of Gruub studies is solid there, but in the process of building (up and coming, don't you know)
  
• Advisor is good, youngish and also up and coming
• Gorgeous location

Famous Urban Uni (FUU?):

• My MA would be very well received there so I could go straight into the PhD
• timetable oriented. They want you on track and headed toward graduation. This is good and bad, really. I'm an older grad for my field, and I'd like to get the PhD and get out there soonish, but I'm not sure if I would feel rushed.
• Hugely well-known, world famous uni
• My sub-field of Gruub studies is very strong there, but the sub-field that I need to work on might be a bit weaker than OSS
  
• Advisor is very well established, has written books that I've got on my shelf and dig. His reputation is quite strong (I'm already thinking recommendation letters, how mercenary is that?)
• Very urban location - lots of opportunities, but all the ick that comes with big sprawl (can you guess it yet?)

So here's the kicker. I talked to the FUU advisor last weekend and he seemed very encouraging. My writing sample wasn't exactly what they were looking for and so they placed me lower on their lists (hence the waitlist), but I explained why the writing sample was a bit unconventional, and he seemed to understand. We chatted for a while and seemed to get along well. He said he was really glad we got a chance to talk and that he'd go back and double check on my application.

I got an email today.

acceptance with guaranteed first year TAship.

So...

I'm really excited, but I'm not sure what to do with myself.

(read in a stunned voice) I think I'm going to FUU (need a better acronym though).

The funny thing is that when I talked to the OSS potential advisor, he asked what my other options were and I mentioned FUU and the advisor there. OSS advisor said, "Wow. If I were a grad student again, I'd go there and work with him."

Home Again Home Again, Jiggidy Jig

I made it back from conference-land with only a minimum flight delay (Also, by flight was listed as taking me to Dallas instead of home. I didn't want to go to Dallas.)

In any case, I've been running around like crazy lately, so I haven't had time to really digest everything I saw and did, but all in all I think things went well. I got to meet with two potential advisors from different schools, catch up with a couple people I haven't seen in a while (have I even been in this field long enough to have 'I haven't seen you in a while' people?). And I was even recognized by a prof who I took a class from a couple of years ago - he's at Hoity Toity Ivy now. He even deigned to chat a little.

Ah, more to come. I've got class paperwork that's calling and it's gonna be a loooong day.

"Burritos"

Originally uploaded by Overread.