Today the college closed as of 1pm.

Clearly i never check the weather, so it's the e-mails about snow emergencies (and the smell of molasses) which alert me to predictions of snow.

It was weird to walk to class this morning through the snow not just in the snow, as the past few storms have ended during the night so plowing could occur.

I was telling Allie the other day that even i have begun to get tired of the cold as January was persistently cold, unlike the past decade or so when throughout the winter temperatures would fluctuate greatly even within the space of a week. I think the large amounts of snow are also why the snow has ceased to emotionally affect me. I don't dislike it, i'm just rather indifferent, which is an odd feeling for me and snow.

(Right now it looks like the snow has actually stopped, but i hear icy rain or something similarly nasty is predicted for this evening.)

I want a nap.

Cate's e-mail totally made me bounce around my room quite literally as i am (figuratively) 5.

Clearly this whole "write something when you're not really focused and it's kinda last minute and you definitely think it's sub-par; then hand it in" works well for me.

good to see that you're back and writing for op/ed. that's fabulous!

i'm glad you wrote on this piece. it seems like you are very passionate about queer/lbta politics, which is great, because we don't have anyone in op/ed who's specialized in that area.

well, if i have feedback, i'll give it to you soon. otherwise i'm printing as-is.

update

Thursday we did “the misread poem of the 20th-century” in Michael’s class: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” I never really thought about the poem that much, always thought of it in the Dead Poets Society interpretation we have all been trained in. When i actually read it for Michael’s class, though, i noticed that parts of it don’t really fit. ( text of poem and discussion thereof )

Michael took suggestions for band names for AMS. One of the ones they have come up with is “The Endowed Chairs.” I like that a lot. A lot of people mentioned names of bands they or their friends had in high school. One person mentioned “grassroots fascism.” “Also known as Reaganism,” Michael quipped. Is it bad that my first thought was, “Also known as Smith College”? I’m really loving the phrase, though.

I recently learned that the Dresden Dolls' name originated with the Flowers in the Attic children. Creepy. One of these days i really must read those books.

Why is econ my favorite class?

Both of my fairy tale classes don’t feel like i’m learning much new, in part because i have so much background. Also, in my UMass class the lectures haven’t really gotten to the tales themselves yet, and the lectures in Betsey’s class have mostly been better explaining the readings, which has value, but y’know, i have the syllabus and could just read them on my own.

I like Doug a lot, but the 18th-century novel is not my favorite thing, no matter how well it is taught, and i’m not madly in love with how he’s teaching it, though certainly it’s good enough. I have no unusual complaints about Michael’s class, but i’m certainly not in love with it.

In econ i’m reinforcing the stuff i learned last semester in intro micro (i’m taking intro macro this semester, for those not keeping up) and learning new stuff. I’m totally loving learning how economics works.

I am SUCH a bad English major. I am really interested in interrogating texts, just not literary ones. I have inherited from my father a passion for consistency, and we could say that i have an English major’s passion for character motivation. Picking apart people and what they say and do and believe and rearticulating it as a coherent “narrative,” only i do it with my real people rather than with fictional characters.

“a well-lived life is a constant act of literary criticism”
-Doug, on the attitude of Puritans like John Bunyan

“We must be well read in the story of our own lives.”
-John Bunyan, Grace Abounding

I was telling Sam i decided not to write a thesis, in part because it would have to be within my department of major. One day, i swear i will have a nonfiction book published. But 50 pages on literature, who are you kidding?

I had this long thing written following up on the brief conversation Allie and i had about Shakespeare, but i realized i was being horribly unfair to the Bard and ended up taking back pretty much everything i had said. But it will be “interesting” when i take both semesters of Shakespeare next year.

There are a bunch of interesting lectures and such coming up at 4pm or 4:30 Tuesdays or Thursdays, and i can’t go ‘cause i have UMass class. One might think UMass classes would be infinitely missable, but we have in-class writing assignments. However, we can hand in responses within a week of when they are given, just write our names on a piece of paper with a response to the material covered in class so far [the in-class writing prompts are given midway through each class period] if we are in attendance but have not done the reading. ghostintheshell, you used to be a TA, so i can ask you. Could i, multiple times throughout the semester, skip class and hand in the response in the next class without my grade suffering? (I feel like they're practically begging us not to come to class, putting everything online and stuff. *sighs*)

Thursday’s session of the UMass class was about 18th- and 19th-century discipline and child-rearing. We ended with an illustrated story of a boy who always sucked his thumb, and then this giant monstrous tailor runs in and cuts off his thumbs and i jerked my arms in front of my face when that picture came up on the transparency. I’m vaguely familiar with the story but had forgotten how it ends, and hello “Damage” i’m a bit sensitive. I must have looked like such a freak squicking at a children’s book illustration, but i don’t really care.

I enjoy that Betsey can say “My friend Jane Yolen... my friend Lauren Berlant....”

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This is hot. "Truth and Law": Spike/Lindsey, set during S1 Angel. And there is plot, yo. [I also enjoy the far lighter prequel.]

Oh, and i've been reading anniesj's apocaspander because i read everything she writes, but the latest intallment has me hooked.

returning once again to fandom

Sarah says she doesn’t need to think about Angel because i do it for her. mutant_allies definitely helps me in that department a lot.

After reading a number of postings about "You're Welcome," i decided it was an episode to be basked in rather than analyzed like "Sould Purpose" and "Damage" (in part because so much looks contrived in this episode when looked at closely), though dlgood said interesting things about Cordy-as-meta. I was shown to be wrong.

scrollgirl has a post on The Powers That Be, the Senior Partners, and Destiny. (Will my father join the discussion? And yes, we all know he needs an LJ. Username suggestions, anyone?) She links to a post-"You're Welcome" post by shadowkat67 on "The House Always Wins" and its recurrence in "You're Welcome."

And naomichana talks about The Powers That Be and balance.

There have also been a lot of posts making valid criticisms of the episode, but personally i’d rather not dwell on them.

Though soundingsea ( says some interesting things )

And lasair criticizes the inconsistencies in "You're Welcome," particularly of two of the characters.

[P.S. The “card-carrying castrating bitch” icon i mentioned having seen belongs to nzraya. was made by dherblay for rahael who opened it up for sharing (and i then saw it used by nzraya).]

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( a quick bit on Soul Purpose )

myrtleneunice on Buffy and romance and being a prize (post only implies current Angel events, but comments include more specific mentions of aired episodes) Comments include interesting thoughts on Spike and "girl as purpose"
imation23 elaborates on how Buffy-as-prize is demeaning to Spike and Angel as well. (No real specific mentions of current Angel events in either post or comments.)

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In a post-"Damage" post, ascian3 talks about redemption, reform, Spike and Angel and their differences in those areas, revenge (The comment thread includes the best comment i have ever seen on Spike's decision to get a soul -- incidentally, what is up with everyone talking about Angel getting his soul back but Spike getting a soul?)

on forgiveness

ascian3’s post-"Damage" post included some really interesting thoughts on forgiveness. I lifted pieces of the conversation, mostly for my own reference. ( You can read it if you're interested. )