burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

The April Fool's issue of The Sophian is often crap, but this year it was rather brilliant.

I got Grab&Go lunch (tabbouli veggie wrap!) and on my way back to my house went to the CC to pick up my mail (yay Easter basket!). I saw Cate there and ended up spending more time with her today than i think i have the entire time i've known her all total. Yayness.

I maintain that Ring Pops are bad date food because they tire out your jaw. (Yes, this was a topic of discussion tonight.)

Thurston's Hell class is Thursdays from 3-4:50. Clearly i need to take Thursdays off from whatever job i get and commute -- assuming UPenn rejects me, of course.

Sleep now.

CZ's lecture on Chesterton did not improve my feelings on him. Especially since she talked about the Inklings as a continuation of Romanticism. Yeah, way to not sell me on something. She did say that Chesterton was often best friends with his enemies, in a way that reminded me of I was reminded of Tammy Bruce talking about Dr. Laura, so that was heartful. I sat quietly through the lecture and then bitched quickly at the end and stayed after briefly. She basically admitted that his analogies are overstated and his arguments don't hold up to close scrutiny. And yet, somehow this isn't a problem. 'Cause he's not actually wrong. Or something. Oh please let Mere Christianity be better.

Lunch was grilled cheese, though, so that was happifying.

Work followed. Oh Tryon Trip, how you are the bane of everybody's existence. Participant lists make my eyes bleed.

Pride and Prejudice in tonight's MAT class. Marina did the presentation, which surprised me. (Oh me and my tendency to project.) I totally didn't even take the time to refresh myself on the book but managed to contribute to class discussion anyhow. I think i might kill myself if i had to teach that book, though. (Yes, i know, i shouldn't joke about that. Speaking of, really should call SheOfTheManyUserNames.) We watched the dance scene wherein we first meet Darcy (actually starting with the preceding scene wherein Mrs. B. frets about convincing Mr. B. to visit Bingley) in 3 film versions (BBC, A&E, Laurence Olivier) and i was struck by how identical some of the actors/actresses were across versions. The dance was quite different in each one, though, and of course each version kept in slightly different things.

On The Commonly Confused Words Test, i scored:

English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 77% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

I have no idea what those percentages mean (and it would be nice if they told you the correct answers at the end) but yay being a genius.

Who thinks Kate (diadeloro) is cut out to be a soccer mom? Has somebody been spiking the water or something? Babe, just wear the pearls and start handing out death warrants. I totally volunteer to hit people with large sticks.

I updated my site. (And on the page it suddenly looks like a big update. I'm kind of impressed.)
Dear vidders: Please include title and artist of the song used as well as your own personal contact information in each vid.
Dear midnight-tempest.com: Why are you dead?

People sent me nice response e-mails about the feedback i sent. Yay for being appreciated. And yay for making people's days.

I am refraining from commenting on the "storm" until the morn. I will say that i don't particularly want a snowday, though.

This cold-and-snow-at-night, warm-and-sunny-day thing is kind of amusing. New England's schizophrenia is worsening. Ruhi, of course, is worried about global warming while i'm sad about the lack of winter. Though really, the weather today was gorgeous, so it was hard to complain.

Skarda said she'd missed us and shared plenty of anecdotes -- which she said are the reason kids take her classes; so true :) I got my Blackboard post back with minimal markage. I can't read one word, but i think the final comment is "Lovely."

The new replacement shredder arrived at work. It's less defective than the previous one, but it still doesn't work. So after doing a big ole copy job for Stacey, i called Fellowes tech support again. The lines were all busy so i left a voicemail and went and did filing. I rather suspect i'll be dealing with the shredder again when i come in tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon.

I inhaled my food (Dear Smith College: No matter how good Soul Food is, it is not Mediterranean.) and bussed it to UMass for The Naked I. Oh, feeling ill from being on the bus right after inhaling food how i don't miss that being a weekly routine. Oh, stupid UMass kids how i don't miss you. You get on the PVTA (not the UMass campus shuttle) at the Big Y to go to Southwest and have neither your school ID nor a dollar on you?

There was a ginormous crowd for the performance. Apparently it was on a list of events one could attend and write about for some class [edit: a kind Jolter informs me it was Intro WST] -- i didn't ask any of the people i overheard what the class was, though i should have, which discomfited me, but once it began i was reminded of how amazing it is and could feel the reactions of some of the people around me and thinking that kids who might not otherwise might be getting it watching this really made me happy. (And definitely about half the audience left during intermission, so it was a much more intimate setting with what i couldn't help but feel were the "real" audience.)

So amazing. So worth missing my org meeting and the fellowship meeting. I don't particularly remember crying when i saw this the first time, but i was crying or teary at so many points during it this time. Starting at the end of "Nothing" (the "Tell me about..." one) and continuing in earnest in "A Trans Woman's Vagina Monologue" and then intermittent throughout the rest of the night. (I'd forgotten how painful some of them are.) The mom in "Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome" was played a little too cheesy over-the-top especially at the end of the scene, but otherwise the performances were all stellar. (And Das Tyle was way hotter in this production, though i loved him in the last production as well.) A number of moments made me crave Eddie Izzard 'cause the presentation was just so Dress to Kill. I had forgotten how kinky so much of The Naked I is.

Speaking of, V-Day anecdote i forgot last entry:
During the fondue segment of the night, Laura detached her keys from her Swiss Army Knife so that she wouldn't do anything bad like drag her keys through the chocolate. Cat said something about chocolate and metal not being a good combination, and i said, in a leering manner of course, that it depended on the context.

Note to self: Go to Neilson Browsing Room after seminar next week for the Judith Halberstam lecture(Queer Forgetting: Inter-generational dialogue and the productive potential of "forgetting.")&reception.

The LotR vid to "The Mountain" actually makes me wanna reread the trilogy. What's up with that? I was really quite content with it being a Quest Narrative i had no interest in revisiting (i read the trilogy a few summers ago) and then a fanvid (recced all over the place, hence my watching it despite lack of familiarity with the source text) makes me all interested in the story.

From Emma's history book, talking about the 1460s or thereabouts, about the Pope getting control back from the Council after the Schism:
"It proved a temporary pacification. Luther was born in 1483."