hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
I've come down with a cold (for at least the second time this winter; I do not approve), was too tired to post an update entry last night but was planning to use as my Subject line: Greg: "I no longer support Daylight Savings Time."  Having to drag two grade schoolers out of bed?  Yeah.  I actually wasn't tired so much because of the DST switch, but still.

However, I'm feeling better, and the warmer&sunnier weather seems to have put everyone in better moods, which is nice.  [When I left work today, the tables outside Shay's were nearly full.]

Monday:
* I got an e-mail reply from mt, who is adorable as always.
* I learned that Eric has all 4 seasons of ALF on DVD.  I totally need to steal them at some point.
* After I handed in my Medieval Church paper a couple weeks ago and the prof actually talked about the material we'd written on, I felt like my paper was a total failure, but we got them back and I actually got a really good grade.
* The first slide the prof had up was a color map of Europe c. 700, with the Frankish Kingdoms in purple.  He talked for a while and then moved to one c. 800, commenting, "There are far fewer colors, and particularly the purple blob seems to have done quite well for itself."  Hee.

Tuesday:
* Hee, FormerUnitHead e-mailed me with Subject line "por favor"
* Emma, I thought of you -- I had two cups of lemon tea with honey this morning.
* I was talking to FormerUnitHead, and his younger daughter's going to Rice next year.  He was pre-emptively bemoaning empty nest, and I snarked that it's not like he sees her much now anyway.  Actually, "Hilary and I make dinner together most nights, while we wait for Lauren to get home."  Adorable.
* I'd called Terry on Saturday to say hi and was pouty that I got his voicemail.  He called me this afternoon while doing deliveries, said he'd actually had the day off on Saturday but had come down with a nasty bug that's going around.  Which is unfortunate, but I was pleased that there was a good reason.  Plus, yay for (albeit brief) phone call.
* I'd e-mailed Skarda, mentioning, "Reunion packet came in the mail recently, reminding  me of how horrible I've been at keeping in touch with professors from Smith.  I'm thrilled that you're doing a telling&retelling  "read with us" session -- though I'm not all that into Little Women, so I may well pass on that option." Her reply included: "You might be surprised at the resonance among LITTLE WOMEN, MARCH, and THE LITTLE WOMEN for Alumnae College in the spring.  It would be fun to have you back in class.  But let's try to have a meal together while you are here."
She's doing both sessions, so I could swap either mt's Kyrie or SVD's Alias Grace.  I don't think I will, but I haven't yet sent in my registration, so here's your opportunity to try to convince me otherwise.
BTW, are any other '05ers going to Reunion?  ([livejournal.com profile] thistlerose, 5-year is the weekend after, so if you go to that I won't see you on campus, but I'd love to get coffee or something when you're in Boston.)
* Cailin wants to get together to catch up since she's been MIA.  Of course, it's not like I've done anything in the past month, but she's sweet.
* I made dinner for myself tonight, so good on me for that.
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Had a reasonably productive day, at least in regards to what I'm actually getting paid to do. Accomplished some of my own stuff -- including finally e-mailing Skarda. God love that woman. Read more... )

Now off to procure dinner and find my way to this.
hermionesviolin: (big girl world)
I've gotta say, i really appreciate the validation of my post-graduation plans.  I get all stubborn independent "my life, therefore my opinion wins," but it's still comforting and strengthening to be affirmed, to have other people agree with me.  And Gillian and Briana both say i'll be the best date ever ;)

So anyway, Commencement Weekend.

Rehearsal Friday morning was lame.  It did give me a better idea of how the ceremony was gonna go, and Meg and i got to feel cool 'cause we know what "speech act" is [and it sounds so much like a marriage pronouncement, too -- "by the power vested in the Board of Trustees and delegated..."], and i enjoyed the projector images even though they were hard to see, but it wasn't tremendously helpful, and oh the stupid questions people asked.  There were i think 2 valid questions -- neither of which the woman was able to answer well (how early will the ITT be open if graduation is inside, and how are we supposed to do our graduation hoods).  Liked the German guy running things, though.  Afterward, we took the class picture on a steep grassy knoll, which was ever so much fun.  Lunch was good.  Danne gave me a rose.  I got a graduation card from a couple at First Churches whose faces i can't even think of to match with their names.

My parents arrived Friday evening and we went to see Six Characters in Search of an Author.  Well-acted.  Unsure how i feel about the play itself.  Interesting ideas about how no one else can really be you.  But characters in a play aren't actually existant persons, they're characters created to be performed by other people.  (As opposed to characters in books, who were created to exist within their own world and not to be embodied by other people.)  The immutable is more real?  Yes reality is always changing (as they say) but does that make the past an "illusion"?  Is saying "No, it's memory; that's different" a cop-out?

Ivy Day was Saturday morning.  Side-zipping dresses are a bitch, and i owe Poorn much love.  It was actually pretty.  (They should have told us the reason to arrive 45 minutes early was so that everyone could take pictures of us.  Have i mentioned how the Commencement/IvyDay rehearsal didn't actually include anything about Ivy Day?)  After all the processions, though, when we sat down and listened to people talk, i was cold and bored.  [When i said i wanted winter back, i didn't mean when i was sitting outside in a sleeveless dress.]  Reminiscent of Class Day.  The box lunch following was yum, and i first went home to change into real clothes, so sitting outside and eating was nice.

We went to SCMA next, and i abandoned my family partway through for the departmental reception to search for Jessie.  I hung out with Meredith, and Joan (whom i don't see enough), and saw Mary Barbara [Sherborn lady], and finally found Jessie.  Also Skarda -- who was giving out department pins for regalia, which apparently they've been getting rid of for at least 2 years.  I rather liked them, though i actually forgot to attach to my robe come Sunday.  After my family finished with SCMA, they went to Lyman and then found me.  They got a rather full Skarda experience.

Skarda suggested i write about massage in literature -- seedy and all.  I said it would be like my seminar paper -- fun to research but not so much to write.  She said she doesn't think of her massager as the brightest bulb.  And it's hard to get employ as the market is glutted -- but then, she pays one.

Skarda said only about 300 people (recent stat, probably from Atlantic Monthly) support themselves from their writing.  My father suspects this doesn't include, say, journalists.  He says i seem very comfortable with words -- very comfortable in front of a keyboard, using words.  So true.

Skarda told Joan's mom that she could always count on us to say smart things in Telling and Retelling.  Joan didn't remember speaking much at all in that class, and i'm inclined to agree (though i know i talked a lot) but whatever.  Reminded me a touch of Liz Carr's effusiveness, which was amusing.

Saw Prof. Kaminksy, who asked about my post-graduation plans.  I told him bartending and massage school.  "See, that's that look i was talking about."  No, actually, he was thinking about all that practice you have to do, and would i be local.  And he managed to not make it sound skeezy.  I mean, i know him, so i know it's not skeezy, but it's so the kind of thing that would have come out skeezy if i'd said it, so i was impressed.

We had dinner at Fresh Pasta, which was yum as usual.  And because our reservations were for 5pm we beat the dinner rush.

There was time to kill before Illumination Night, so i picked up my Zaleski final, since i'd been forgetting to that for days. cut for professorial commentage )

When i was finally hungry again we went to Burdick and i got a $4 hot chocolate.  Not the sex-in-a-cup i was recalling from Winter Weekend, but still good.

Illumination was one of the few graduation exercises i was kind of excited about, and it disappointed.  The lanterns looked like balloons (pink, yellow, yellow-green, blue) though they were less bad when one was close-up (they had shrubbery designs on them) or when they were illuminated.  The Senior Candle Lighting was kinda lame -- we all got white candles and the class president lit them and then it was like "okay, yay you, you can go wander the illuminated paths now."  I was expecting some sort of procession -- since that seems to be a theme this weekend, and a procession of people holding candles would be cool.

Sunday was Pentecost.  I did the Scripture Reading (Acts 2:1-21 and 1 Corinthians 12:4-13) and was also asked to do the Call to Worship, which i willingly did, though i'm not sure how i feel about it.  Read it if you're interested. )  (Googling, it's apparently a poem by R.S. Thomas -- a 20th-century Welsh poet.)

Apparently Pentecost is considered the birth of the church, so they did confirmation this Sunday.  In... South America i think Tessa said it was... they pour flame colored rose petals over heads as symbolic of the flames of the Pentecost story, so she had the little kids do that to the confirmands.

Peter's sermon was called "In Our Own Native Language," and he talked about the confirmation class kids' statements of faith and how we each have our own frames of reference and things that are particularly important to us and so on, so when we talk about our faith it's like we have our own individual language, but people are still able to understand us, and it is due to the Holy Spirit that we are able to bridge some of the more difficult gaps.  I was a little confuzzled because my interpretation of the Acts account was that the disciples -- who were all from approximately the same linguistic region -- spoke and all those gathered (who came from a multitude of linguistic regions) heard their words in their own native tongues, not that the disciples all spoke in their own native tongues and everyone present was somehow able to understand them.

During her statement of faith, Isabelle used the phrase "war-torn," and i want people to understand why God sometimes demands -- or is interpreted as demanding -- violence or other things that we perceive as not good.  I had a moment of intense contra-left-ness and wished for God to be full of wrath and vengeance and pro-killing-people.  More sanely, i want people to realize that it is not true that the Bible fully supports what they value and that they're opponents are just wrong and misinterpreting; i want them to realize that it is complicated.  (Gee, look at how that is always my desire.)

Back when Peter first asked i wanted to be involved in a graduation service, my mom suggested that i ask for "Here I Am, Lord" to be included.  I didn't, since there wasn't really an opening to do so.  However.  What was the closing hymn?  "I Danced in the Morning"  I learned that i don't dislike the tune -- though it doesn't feel quite right -- and it's so not as obnoxious as it sounds when F. sings it ;)

I got so many congratulations after the service.  MJ gave me a card with a Starbucks gift card -- because i so frequently do tea duty and she comes over and chats with my while she drinks her coffee.

They were having a luncheon thing, so we went back to campus for brunch.  My brother said that people should just pay off portions of his student loans instead of giving him physical gifts.  (He's gonna graduate RPI with way more loans than i have from Smith).  I like that idea :)  (2 graduation cards arrived for me on Saturday -- both containing checks :) )

Like Ivy Day, Graduation seemed to require arriving 45 minutes early in large part for the photo ops.  I was rather indifferent.  I did actually get excited when we started to process, though, feeling all official and proud, and the happy face.  I saw a whole lot of people i knew on the sidelines and had a good view of the faculty procession.  It was a bit chilly, but i had jeans and other appropriate clothes on under my robe, so i didn't mind much.  And the college had thoughtfully provided us with bottled water underneath our seats.

There were a few drops of rain at the beginning of the procession, but otherwise it was completely fine.  And i actually liked both speeches -- Lauren Wolfe (to whose election as my class president [insert "She's not my president" joke here] my near immediate reaction was dread of Commencement) and Shelly Lazarus -- and approved of the honorary degrees.  Lazarus, class of 1968, talked about expectations and about what things were like when she graduated.  She said the question now isn't whether you can have at all but whether you want it all.  She talked about a Manhattan waitress who loves her job, saying, "Don't judge!" [Edit: link to full speech]

The whole thing only took about two hours.  A half hour of procession, a half hour of speeches, 45 minutes graduating us, plus about 10 minutes for the masters candidates, and then we were done.  Except for the Diploma Circle.  It sounds like a neat tradition in theory, but we had like the most ineffective diploma circle evar.  You're supposed to pass diplomas in concentric circles, passing the diplomas you've already seen into new circles, but we just ended up passing the same diplomas, and sometimes we had stacks of them and sometimes our hands were empty, so we finally just made one big circle -- which feels to me like how it should work anyway -- and i got mine relatively quickly at that point.  Immediately post-Graduation is an impossible time to see people, and i was impressed by the speed at which i connected with my family, but i was lucky enough to see Layna at the CC (where i used up my remaining OneCard money on more drinks). And hopefully now that we're residing in the same vicinity i'll get to see more of her.

Summation of the weekend: Having events structured as meaningful moments, like, "You're going to do this, and it's going to be meaningful for you," is weird. [Edit: Last week, Stacey said something about me being a control-freak and i said i didn't usually use that phrase, though i definitely use a number of similar phrases/adjectives for myself, but the phrase kept recurring in my head this weekend, since i know i really like to be able to control what i'm doing and i was realizing that that was probably the reason behind a lot of my ragifying moments this weekend. The fact that i didn't know in advance exactly how things were gonna function, trying unsuccessfully to find people, etc. -- all that is the kind of stuff that drives me up a wall.]

P.S. My brother says he's been pleasantly surprised by senior ceremonies (his and mine) and we had similar thoughts about what was good and what wasn't. He was a good sport about being dragged around all weekend, regardless.

I have Palmer orientation this Thursday.  In the mail on Monday i got my Student ID.  Look, i'm officially a student again :)  I really do need to get myself an actual job.  And, um, bugger.  I didn't actually coordinate the transportation before registering for a Palmer class, so i didn't think about the fact that i'm dependent upon two commuter rails plus a subway and 10pm is perilously close to when commuter rails stop running in Boston.  So yeah, don't actually have a way home.  Ditto Sunday service for the first day of my bartending class.  Why do i suck?  My mom can drive me in to class on Memorial Day morning, though, so that's not a big deal.  Any volunteers to drive me home from North or South Station in the vicinity of midnight every Tuesday night?  Floors to crash on also appreciated.

I also need to get myself a real job.  Having class at Salem at 6pm makes this whole office job thing difficult, though.  Grr.  See above re: thinking ahead and "I suck."



I read "Homestead" by inlovewithnight.  A good solid story that reads like an episode of the show [Firefly].  The voice reminds me of the show i love so much and brings tears to my eyes.

[livejournal.com profile] marauderthesn asked for suggestions of "gay movies that are watchable with parents."  I am so a bad person to ask.  I mean, i watched Claire of the Moon with my mom.  (Horrible movie, btw.)  My favorite moment, though, was watching Jeffrey and the phone ringing and hitting pause right on the "sex" frame.

[livejournal.com profile] penknife says: "Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe trailer: looks very pretty, but who knows about the acting and the script. Good or not, will clearly be next year's shiny new fandom. I fear the badfic."  All this Narnia movie talk is bringing out my seething loathing of adapting books into movies (Really need to write up that manifesto i do.) but the idea of more Narnia fic is appealing -- but then again, the fic i have loved has dealt with one of the things i hate about The Last Battle, and i don't tend to remember the minor characters in non-LWW books well enough to feel right reading fanfic about them, and i'm not sure how much good fanfic could be created with only the knowledge of LWW -- though White Witch backstory could be really interesting, either as post-MN for those who know it (which reminds me that i want more Illyria fic, also ancient!Dawn, and should check out History Lesson) or as AU for those writing only with knowledge of LWW, and the theology geek in me would be really interested in seeing any of the LWW characters post-LWW back in their own world.

I finally got a feedback on "Osiris Serenity" over on Blood Sings.  Brought tears to my eyes.  Interestingly, rereading the fic, i am less satisfied with it than i used to be.
hermionesviolin: (big girl world)
Dear Lamonsters: Emma's been in a non-Internet mood, but she did reply to my e-mail and said "Miss you all, tell everyone I say hi."

When i tell people my post-graduation plans are bartending and massage schools, i get a lot of surprised reactions, and the kind of sorrowful "That's what you're doing with your degree from Smith?"  But really, while academia has cache, bartending and massage school have actual employable skills.  So instead of putting myself further into debt, qualified for a competitive niche market and perhaps overqualified for other things, and otherwise no different than i am now in terms of employability -- instead of all that, i'm gonna have actual skills i can use towards jobs i'm likely to actually get.  But graduates of prestigious colleges and universities are supposed to do the high-powered, or at least brainy, careers.  Le sigh.  I'm excited about what i'm trying to do, and in the end that's what really matters since it is my life.

So yeah.  I registered for bartender training -- DrinkMaster Boston because the location is uber-convenient, doing the one week (M-F 11am-3pm) program the week of May 30 -- and massage school -- Palmer Institute, summer session starts May 23, Massage I (foundational course) Tuesday 6-10pm for 12 weeks [May 24 - August 9].

Kind of scared 'cause, meep, so much less money in my bank account.  But i mean, i paid in full 'cause i could.  'S not like i'm poor now.

I did my Direct Loan Exit Counseling.  Using the rough numbers Smith had given me, i was guessing paying off all of it in six and a half years.  The Standard Repayment Plan is 10 years however, and results in my paying back approximately 113%.  Who's gonna be overpaying her payments like whoa?  Yeah, me.

The heat on Tuesday made me feel lethargic.  Yes i like it being warm enough to walk around outside in short-sleeves, but i'm so not a fan of the humidity.  Hot and humid makes me crave my winter.

I checked my mail on Wednesday and among other things, i had my Skarda exam.  "Choose one of the following questions for an essay that contains as much precision and specificity of detail and idea as did the texts we considered this semester."  We had topics in advance, and i knew i was gonna do the "What difference (if any) does the gender of the author make on women characters' place in society, function in the household, narrative perspective, or plot of the story?  Be specific"  question.  I did like no preparation, though, so my essay was full of generalizations and i had visions of "What part of 'Be specific' don't you understand?  15 points out of 30; I expected better from you."  However, i only lost one point and got "I'm pleased to see that you haven't been blinded by feminism, Elizabeth."  Oh Skarda.  I knew i'd aced the rest of the exam, though, and i only lost a few points.  Amusing given that i'd written my final long paper on The Eyre Affair, i mistakenly identified a passage from it as being from the original Jane Eyre :)  "Fine exam, Elizabeth.  Stay in touch.  You've been a great pleasure to have in class even though you'll never find Wordsworth worthy.  Happy Graduation to you."

My dad came that evening and took stuff back.  He also briefed me various NHS alums [kids whom i still think of as upperclassmen].  NHS is doing Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead on alternating nights.  I approve.

Wednesday night: Went to Herrell's 'cause i wanted ice cream.  Saw Gillian on the way back.  Went with her to get caffeine.  Went back to her Friedman.  Hung with people.  Channel surfing 'cause some of us couldn't take any more of Good Eats, we stop at something and i say, "Is that Gina Gershon?" thinking, "And the horrible thing is, i only recognize her because of Showgirls."  What are we watching?  Showgirls of course.  On VH1 of all channels.  They start cleaning house and i go home.  P00rn wants me to drink with her some time before we graduate, so i go over to Chase with her to drink with [livejournal.com profile] aleksie.  I had 12-year-old Glenlivet (high quality Scotch i'm told) with Pepsi.  Definitely buzzed, and i didn't even drink it that fast ('cause, fucking strong).  3am-ish i left.  Came home and drank water.  In bed closer to 4.  Up at 8:30 'cause my body's crazy.  So i had breakfast for the first time in ages, which meant i wasn't hungry for lunch (and dude, it was fries and vegan nuggets, sadness).  Had the long-promised pool game with Stacey.  We played two rounds, though, so i have to come back for a tiebreaker at some point.

Skipped Baccalaureate.  I hear it was lovely and all, but since i so don't feel attached to most of my class, structured reminscence time seemed awkward.  Went to the senior bbq on Davis Lawn, though.  One booze per person.  Had a Smirnoff Twisted and then half of a friend's.  Crashed afterward, in part because i'd gotten so little sleep the night before.  Think it's gonna be an early to bed night.  Have to be up at a reasonable hour tomorrow morning for Commencement/IvyDay rehearsal.  Things are really nearing the end.  Kinda scary.  Finally really hitting me in the gut.

I was feeling a touch disappointed with the end of "Natural Born" (No Limits 13) but then i read "Crucible" (14) and things were good again -- in the sense of well-written and coherent, not happy of course.

In response to what was for me a rather short piece of feedback (i feedback like i LJ) on a different piece of fic i received the response "Thank you very, very much for your detailed and insightful feedback!"  Given how much (lengthy, detailed) feedback i've sent these past few months and heard no reply from, i think i was owed some karma.

Over on Blood Sings, my Hansel&Gretel fic has more than twice as many reads than my Simon/River, and there is still little love for Julia/Justine (though it is slowly accumulating reads).

Should Playboy thank MutantEnemy?  (And what's up with June?)  I bought Charisma issue last year and, um, might need to buy June.  [Bai Ling]  Okay, the uber exoticization is a problem (as [livejournal.com profile] viciouswishes points out) but still, hot.  She was in The Crow?  Clearly i need to rewatch.  And i played around and made icons from the photoshoot.
hermionesviolin: (pensive)
Last meeting of Skarda's class was a house party per usual.  I kept feeling like there should be alcohol because last time i was there was the Christmas party at the end of Romantics class.  And then lo there was orange grapefruit compote with triple sec.  Which of course i didn't eat, 'cause hello grapefruit, but still.

On Monday i told Kate the Bluebeard story because she had never heard it (and it's my seminar reading for this week) and realized just how much i have totally adopted her gestures and inflections for storytelling.  Then i actually read the Perrault story, and found it so caricatured.  NMB actually finds the Grimms' "Fitcher's Bird" a more poorly put together story.

The last time i read Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" i was really into the heroine's sexual development, her awakening to the pleasures of S&M, and i was much less convinced this time around, which might mean that i was in a particular headspace last time and this time around am more aware of the fact that Carter didn't intend that (after all, the piano-tuner seems pretty vanilla) but given how much Carter uses the theme of awakening the dark primal bestial sexuality beneath the surface, and uses it as a positive thing, it seems to me a potentially valid reading of the text.  I want fanfic in which Bluebeard isn't a murderer and in which they negotiate a really hot kinky sexlife.  Alternatively, kinky post-canon fic.

Candi's doing her final paper on folklore motifs in Tori Amos songs, focusing on sex and violence.

It was sinking in on my way home from class that the class-taking phase of my undergraduate career is now over forever.

Poll inspired by a real-life story from a friend:
So, you're on a date with a guy.  Somehow it comes up in conversation that he would like to make a porn film, "But not the cheesy hardcore kind. Something classier - geared to women and couples."
[Poll #484240][And for those of whom your immediate reaction is, "I'm on a date with a guy? wtf?" just play along.]

And from a completely different context, [livejournal.com profile] phineasjones says, "i can't believe anyone out there is like, 'i have breasts, so i already have all the breast experience i need.' i mean, come on! there is so much variety to be explored!"

Fortune cookie: "Don't be hasty, prosperity will knock on your door soon."
If this soon-to-be-graduate believed on fortune cookies, this would be quite comforting.  (Though what's up with the implication that i'm being hasty?)  Extra fun if one adds on the requisite "in bed"  :)
And speaking of jobs for graduates, my father sent me this, which excerpts from a piece in The Christian Science Monitor that says the job market is improving for this year's college graduates.  ("The expected salary range for bachelor's degrees in liberal arts today: $29,400 to $35,000, according to CollegeJournal.com."  Hotness.)

House meeting re: house closing procedures didn't actually inform us of what to do if one actually has damaged furniture.  ecox asked how the college notifies/bills you, and Patricia didn't know.  I had thought there was a sheet we got at the end of the year whereon you can mark any damage in your room, but maybe i'm conflating that with the sheet you get when you first move in.

My Inklings paper is so much academic bullshit in the vein of my Eyre Affair paper.  In a novel which i whine about being full of stock characters, i ended up arguing for subtlty and complexity of characterization.  Huh.  I still need to do my reading journal, but that's even easier than the paper and can be turned in next week.  I am so excited to finally be able to work on my seminar paper in earnest.  I thought i had read nearly all the modern English language LRRH variants in existence, but i just read an article in a 1982 issue of International Folklore Review which contains the following paragraph: "It should be noted that these three obscene versions did not appear in pornographic magazines but were printed in The Smith, a perfectly serious American literary publication.  There are, of course, sexual illustrations of Little Red Riding Hood along this line in hard-core sex magazines which are unsuitable for reproduction here, but it cannot be denied that sexual interpretations of fairy stories in all degrees from refinement to crudity have become a popular form of entertainment among adults."  They do reproduce a 1974 Playboy cartoon and a 1978 Punch one, though.  And the footnote to that paragraph might get used in my paper (whose topic is LRRH as a willing sexual participant): "An advertisement for sexual stimulators showed a picture of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf with a variety of such devices and the caption 'The better to please you with, my dear.' Hustler, April 1978, 20."

I learned that Jane St. Clair wrote Voyager fic, including TNG crossover.  I, of course, refuse to read Voyager fic until i've watched all 7 seasons through.  I told Emma about the argument Cat and i had about TNG Q!sex given the Voyager canon, and she pointed out that if Q+human can have sex the Q way, shouldn't they also be able to the human way? ::hearts her::  I really need to rewatch that episode (preferably as part of a full canon tour, though).

Am considering hitting up the MFA Dance Concert on Friday and then leaving early to go to the One-Acts.  (The lack of Christopher Durang in the latter makes me sad.  But it's in the TV Studio rather than HF, which makes me think it's a different set of one-acts than usual.)

[livejournal.com profile] atpolittlebit points out a quote from "Life of the Party" (Angel 5.05) that could be seen to refer to Firefly.
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Oh skimming 400 pages.  At the beginning i kept getting sucked into reading the story and having to stop myself.  I read the trilogy for the first (and up until now) time the summer after the first movie came out (of course i still haven't seen the movies and probably never will) and during this half of the semester felt like i might appreciate it more reading it after this class, but it's bloody long.  And i was rather bored the first time and don't foresee my enjoyment increasing any considerable measure.  But it means so much to so many of my friends.  However, skimming Fellowship for my paper (I totally didn't read it for class earlier this semester when we were actually assigned it.) has confirmed for me that really i don't ever need to read it again.  Proof that i am a sap however, i cried at spoiler? and no, it's not at all what you think it'll be, because my sappiness is so random sometimes )

I'm done taking notes and am off to sleep shortly.  This paper will so get done for Friday.  w00t.  (She said we could hand them in next week if we needed to, but i have a seminar paper and an exam, plus i have to do reading journal for this entire second half of the semester, so i really wanna get the paper done for the original deadline of this Friday.)  P.S. I'm sorry, but i totally channeled Ethan&Giles during the Saruman-of-Many-Colours scene.

This, oddly, was the most striking -- to me -- of all the Gandalf bits i read. )

My seminar paper is only 15-20 pages?  Damn.  That's so much less imposing than the 20-30 page range i thought the assignment fell in.

I was the only person who wrote on The Eyre Affair.  Skarda read mine as a break from all the Mary Reilly papers and said something about it being a pleasure to read a well-written paper :)

Got the invoice for the Eng. Dept. t-shirts.  One of the screens was free?  Yay us.  (And they totally didn't charge us for the typesetting fee.)  These are gonna be like the cheapest shirts ever.  (Dunno if we'll get the same awesome deal for cheap shirts when they reorder in the fall, but as i won't actually be involved, i'm less than concerned.  Though i really do hope they do preorders.  I'm totally gonna be checking in ‘cause i'm a bitch like that.)  It makes me sad that the Classics Dept. changed their t-shirts from their old "More fun than an Atreid family reunion" slogan.

My flist exploded when the Serenity trailer came out.  [livejournal.com profile] wisdomeagle and i can spend the next 4 months being the only unspoiled Firefly fans.  Yay us.  (Elektra Barbie reminds me of Inara.)
hermionesviolin: (train)
Thursday

Who knew the sun was up at 7:30(a.m.)?  I mean, other than my dad of course.  [Okay, SunriseSunset.com tells me the sun actually rose on my coast at 6:08am.  When did sunrise get that early?]  Mmm... temps in the 40s.  Bracing cold that made me close all the windows and reminds me that warm showers are the love of my life.

Being up so early meant i actually went to class with dry hair, which hasn't happened in ages.  And i saw Zia at breakfast, which was nice.

Presentation went reasonably well.  I am such a text girl, so more interested in close-reading the text than in doing biographical research (not that i'm not interested in that and in sociohistorical context -- i mean, we talked about the 4 ways of reading a text, and Skarda singled me out as a contextual criticism girl).  Triggered by one of the presenters, we discussed briefly the difference between talent and genius.  I decided not to profer my ever so unhelpful "Simon is talented; River is a genius," but now i have the Murmurs song stuck in my head.  (EmilyF offered the classic distinction that normal people get from points A to D via points B and C, but geniuses can go direct.)

Meg (and her boy) took me out to lunch at Haymarket -- which neither of them had ever been to, surprisingly.  Meg ordered a Spanking (because really, what else would she order?) and it is indeed yummy.  Stew was weirded out by the mayo in my grilled cheese, said the smooshiness would have been too much for him.  I attempted to validate his concern, but couldn't come up with an appropriate adjective.  "Aesthetic" would be more along the lines of "Your smoothie looks like tar; I don't think I could eat it."  "Textural" sounds like "textual" which would be confusing for this English major.  Stew suggested "sensual," but that had too much erotic implication for me.  (I pointed out that a sensual concern would be more like "But the crumbs..." :) )

In seminar we talked about Angela Carter's "Beauty and the Beast" stories -- "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride."  The former is in my opinion one of Carter's weaker stories and really doesn't grab me much.  We talked about them as companion pieces and i appreciated it a bit more than i had.
Becca referred to the end of "The Tiger's Bride" as them freeing each other and also about the beneath the skin, neither of which i had thought of before.  The latter was a particularly good analogy for what Carter does.  Liz talked about folktale as skeleton -- Shakespeare for example takes some bones, but Cater fleshes it out.  Becca used an extended coversong analogy (folklore as jazz, bits and pieces of tale as sampling) which i thought was great.
I got talk about getting in touch with the primal via dark sex.  Class discussion included such professional academic phrases as "extra layer of awesomeness" :)
In discussing Carter, someone mentioned pulling out latent elements, and i thought "fanfic!"  April used the term "plotbunny," and [livejournal.com profile] e_clare mentioned the sex that brings the house down ["The Tiger's Bride"].
Multiple people mentioned how after reading Carter, the story is never the same.  I don't particularly disagree, but i find it problematic to single out Carter like that.  I have read/seen so many fairytale reworkings (as well as discussions thereon and discussions about the original tales) that there's a lot influencing my readings of the originals.
Some people were upset at having their childhood stories ruined, which kinda threw me 'cause i like dark&twisted, plus i wasn't attached to these stories to begin with.

I went to the first batch of Eng. Dept. thesis presentations immediately afterward and thus missed tea, slideshow, and the beginning of Banquet itself, which i'm okay with.  Banquet went until 10 (and HP!Emily finally just decided to will the rest of her stuff later -- really there has got to be a more efficient way to do the willing).  I had forgotten how much i enjoy Nicole&Carrie.  (Carrie: "If I'd known how gay this house was gonna get, I might have stayed.")  Prophecies were the usual mix of boring and raunchy, obscure in-jokes and accessible in-jokes.  I was last.  [Being late meant i didn't get to choose a seat, so i ended up at the end with all the drunken seniors.  Kate later told me i looked "small and awkward," which is not entirely inaccurate.]  Emma, Felicia, and Cat did a skit.  Including props from my room.  There had been prior mention of stealing stuff from my room, but i didn't believe them enough to actually lock my door.  Clearly i underestimated them.  And while i'm not sure most people there got any of it, a number of such people said it was entertaining, which was the important part as it came at the end of nigh on three hours of Prophesying and Willing.  And i laughed a lot.  Oh the in-jokes.  And i didn't even have to make plans to kill anyone in their sleep afterward.

Kate got my Black Death: European Tour t-shirt, and i didn't will anything else.  Partly because i haven't had time to think, but mostly because i try not to hang onto stuff i don't want.  (The problem, of course, is that i want lots of the stuff i have.)  I don't expect to take my posters with me, save maybe a few (though really, if i decide i need posters for my apartment or something, it's not like they're super-expensive), and i also have a bunch that aren't even up on my walls currently.  And i have novels from classes that i'm never gonna read again.  And if you think i have something you might want, let me know.  And no, i haven't forgotten the people i've already promised stuff to.

P.S. Thanks to Laura for sharing the Godiva Cocoa Annie willed to her.

I found myself wishing i had opted to do my paper in Mr. Dalloway instead of The Eyre Affair.  However, it ended up the appropriate length, as i went along, i sort of found rich themes in the book.  (The entire exercise, of course, inspired in me further suspicion of lit crit, as i was taking a book i had found merely enjoyable and arguing for serious literary merit in it.)  My essay feels so casual, though.  Eh, whatever.
Oh how i turn into background music girl as a way of not doing my work.  Though it's nice to be reminded that i have so much music that i like.

It started raining when i handed in the paper Friday after dinner. (yay!)  I came back, intending to read fanfic and maybe do some for-class reading as well.  I ended up having an orgy in the hallway for about six hours.  Cat's friend's Julie's mom's friend made cake in a boobies-shaped pan, so cake=sex.  (The other bakery option was eventually decided to be eclairs, and Laura pointed out the obvious pie to get all the parts covered.)  Cat gave me speed hickeys on my arm, i groped her a lot, stressed-out Felicia got gayer as the night went on, Laura=Oz, and Emma is easily traumatized though she will dress Felicia up in a dominatrix outfit for me in exchange for dinner.  Oh, and Maria returned my stereo, Anna shared leftover Easter candy that was still yum, and i decided that Devon is the Blaise of Whedonverse fandom.  Clearly this was more fun than Senior Ball could have been.
[Cat, this is the Phin quote i was trying to think of: "Even when we're not having sex, i could just, theoretically, put my hand on her breast. Hee. Four breasts to choose from! Now that's america."]

I had sent Skarda the YSI link to the aforementioned Murmurs song.  Her response: "Thanks for the song--freaky, kinda weird, she's a genius.  Just for fun, Smith's new SPAM collector got to it first.  I guess we're not supposed to give one another pleasure these days."

Have been crap about commenting on the flist, though i am reading.  Need to put together a curriculum unit this weekend, so i don't foreseee this situation improving.  Le sigh.  Two more weeks.

If i were Pope, my name would be... )
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Skarda, to Emily F., who was absent all last week: "We missed your body."
Jaime: "And your mind."

3 more Inklings classes.
3 more Skarda classes.
2 more seminar meetings.
1 more MAT class session.
3 final papers, 1 final exam, 1 final project.
26 more days of residence.

You'd think i could motivate myself to do work then?  But no, after lunch i sat down and stared at my paper for Skarda's class (due Friday at sunset).  I hadn't read fanfic in days, so i decided to go through the stuff i had bookmarked and send feedback and write up recs.  At least that way i was vaguely virtuous.

On the plus-side, work was not so overly air-conditioned as it was yesterday.

Jayne Mercier called about something and asked to whom she was speaking.  "Elizabeth Sweeny, one of the student assistants to Ann Johnson," i answered, figuring she was probably more interested in how likely i was to be able to answer her question than in my actual name.  So of course she responded with "Hello Elizabeth Sweeney, one of the student assistants to Ann Johnson," and joked that my title was about as long as hers would be if she ever wrote it all out.  I like her.

Also, i got my first wedding invitation addressed to me rather than than to me as part of my family. And really, Best Wedding Invitation Ever, so what better to my first very own wedding invitation?

After the first entry on the subject i was already sick of heairng about the new Pope having been part of Hitler Youth.

From TimesOnlineUK: "He joined the Hitler Youth aged 14, shortly after membership was made compulsory in 1941.  He quickly won a dispensation on account of his training at a seminary. 'Ratzinger was only briefly a member of the Hitler Youth and not an enthusiastic one,' concluded John Allen, his biographer."  It says also that "Two years later Ratzinger was enrolled in an anti-aircraft unit that protected a BMW factory making aircraft engines. The workforce included slaves from Dachau concentration camp," and talks about how he maintains that he never actually shot anyone.  The BBC says, "Schooled in the Nazis' power of rhetoric during his childhood in Bavaria, the Pope later deserted the German Army during World War II, only to be sent to a POW camp when the Allies reached his hometown."  I'm sure arguments can be made on both sides about how much Ratzinger cooperated with the Nazis and how much he should have been expected to resist and so on and so forth, but really, he was a teenager back then, and the people God chooses as leaders in the Bible often have less than pristine pasts.  I'm far more interested in discussion about how much influence the Pope has in the Church and in the world and stuff like that rather than cheap shots.  Does his previous involvement in Hitler Youth a stumbling block for improving Judeo-Christian relations?  Of course.  Is a preponderance of cheap shots about the matter helping anything?  No.

Other news: ancient papyrus documents being read for the first time thanks to multi-spectral imaging techniques.
hermionesviolin: (train)
Oh yeah, Patriots Day is for the whole state.  Being as it is Marathon Day, i was conflating it with Evacuation Day (which only affects select Boston enclaves) and was thus confused at Forbes Library being closed for the occasion.

Cat didn't come to my Beloved class, but she went with Fefe to see The Hours and thus met Skarda, who was not scary because she was wearing floral print pants.

I was discussing with Emma earlier about how the (Buffyverse) pairings she reads are ones that don't particularly interest me, which is something of an achievement given the amount of pairings that interest me.  Talking to Kate later, our pairing interests don't much overlap either.  As per usual, the three of us manage to have three different sets of taste.  And thinking back over what i've liked, i'm big on the darkness/angst, which neither of them is so into.  (Also: i so need to steal [livejournal.com profile] doyle_sb4's setup for my recs page.  Will be a while before i have the time to do all that coding, though.)  Talking to Kate also reminded me how nigh on unsquickable i am, and listening to her talk about the bad fic she's read makes me so grateful for what i've read.  I sometimes think i have really low standards on what i rec, and at other times find myself reading such not-great fic and wonder if i just have unfairly high standards.  But listening to her renditions of so much of the stuff she's seen, i clearly habitate the mediocre-great section of the fandom.  Oh, and while Kate and Emma both read a lot of serial fic, i read almost none, both because i don't tend to run across it and because i like to finish stories in a single sitting (not to mention how unfinished works drive me batty unless i absolutely know they're being updated regularly).

It is starting to sink in that when i leave on May 15, i'm not coming back.  (Save visits, of course.)  At least a couple non-seniors are staying at least a couple days past the end of exams, though, and some Smithies return to the Boston area in the offseason.  'Twill be interesting to see what happens to my Smith friendships after graduation.
hermionesviolin: animated icon of a book open on a desk, with text magically appearing on it, with text "tell me a story" framing it (tell me a story [lizzieb])
NMB asked us to read the Grimms' "Snow White" and think about the symbols and what they meant to us and then read Gilbert and Gubar's article. I knew i had already read both and written a short paper applying the article to the Sigourney Weaver Snow White: A Tale of Terror, but i figured i could compartmentalize. What i hadn't expected (though i should have) was how much i was reminded of other tale variants as i read. Not that i conflated fanon and canon, but i was reminded of them -- like how certain Biblical passages or ideas remind me of Joel's class last semester. As i read the very opening of the story i thought of Angela Carter's "The Snow Child." At the introduction of the huntsman i thought of The Tenth Kingdom. And by this point i was well aware that i was aware of variants and i began to recall the assorted variants i had seen or read and the different presentations of the scenes flitted through my mind as i read the scenes. I also realized that i had forgotten the "Goldilocks"-esque quality of some of it. Also: the story is problematic in a multiplicity of ways that i hadn't caught last time (primarily in narrative integrity, 'cause i'm Consistency Bitch).

I want Snow White/huntsman fic.
From the point of view of the mad, self-assertive Queen, conventional female arts kill. But from the point of view of the docile and selfless princess, such arts, even while they kill, confer the only measure of power available to a woman in a patriarchal culture.

-page 295 in Maria Tatar's The Classic Fairy Tales
That was one of my favorite sections of the Gilbert and Gubar piece. (Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, "Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother" from The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, 1979)

I got to be smart in class. I used other texts as avenues into the Grimms' "Snow White" (not just saying "Let me tell you about all these interesting variants i've seen/read") and focused on imagery and made good arguments and yay. I talked about connecting the mother figures, and the creepiness of the opening scene (influenced by Angela Carter's "The Snow Child" and the Sigourney Weaver Snow White: A Tale of Terror) and the initiation into adulthood (helped by some poem i read and now cannot find -- oops, actually 10th Kingdom; IMDb quotage gives me: "Why did I let her in? Didn't I know she was bad? Yes, I did. But I also knew I couldn't keep the door closed all my life just because it was dangerous. Just because there was a chance I might get hurt."). Later in the class NMB actually handed out Angela Carter's "The Snow Child" and talked about it, and Becca came up with the great phrases "necropedophelia incest" and "adulterous affair with strange construct" in discussing the story.

And discussing sexual themes in children's lit and how much goes over children's heads, Heather said, "They're not watching porn like the rest of us." (Equally amusing was seeing the shocked faces of some classmates who clearly don't watch porn on a regular basis. Personally, i'll take Candi and her "eroticised childhood.")

Discussing "Snow White" and the G&G article, NMB mentioned Marina Warner's reading of the wicked mother figure in many fairy tales as a mother-in-law, which i'm fairly certain i read while taking Betsey's class, but which i had forgotten about. Becca pointed out that in French, "stepmother" and "mother-in-law" are the same word -- again with the me having forgotten from Betsey's class.
NMB talked about the daughter-in-law as teller of the story and the safe cottage as fantasy and said lots of things which made sense and maybe this time they'll actually stick in my brain so as to inform my future readings of Grimms' tales.

She also handed around the announcement of the department honors thesis presentations, and AJ said i can leave work early to attend the Monday one. I imagine at some point all majors will get the announcement e-mailed out to them, but for now here's the list.

Thursday April 21, 5pm - Candi (Nabokov) and Gillian (Doris Lessing)
Monday, April 25, 4pm - Victoria Whom I Don't Know (Auden's Spiritual Calendar), Liz In My Seminar (Lewis' Space Trilogy), Jessica (first creative writing thesis ever allowed by the Smith College English Department)

In Telling&Retelling, Skarda said that Mary Krull (The Hours) made her think of me because gender studies, people actually attend her lectures, and piercings. Um, cultural studies prof... i'm only vaguely seeing the connection here. I actually liked Robin Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway, and she said i could do my final paper on that if i wanted, which was nice, though i'm gonna stick with defending The Eyre Affair.

Skarda says they're gonna phase 199 into being optional, that you're gonna be required to take 2 of the following 4: 199, 200, 201, and the AmLit-1865 survey. Oh so much love.

In other news: apparently we're recycling a quote from a 2000 Jane interview. ("I'm the person most likely to sleep with my female fans.") I don't think i'd realized that she's said for years that she's bisexual.
from a 2000 Elle interview: "Honestly, I like everything. Boyish girls, girlish boys, the heavy and the skinny. Which is a problem when I’m walking down the street." and "I need someone physically stronger than me. I am always on top. It's really unfortunate. I am begging for the man that can put me on the bottom. Or the woman. Anybody that can take me down."
Who wants to write rps?

I had a nonsexual date with Cat (and Haven!Laura) tonight to go to the Senior Dance Concert. Johnna's was definitely my favorite. The fluid motions and the cool-color-end-of-the-spectrum outfits of tank tops and swishy pants that flowed into each other, and ShavedHeadGirl looked like she was enjoying herself so much, and the second part i was less fond of, but it grew on me, and part of the issue was just that the artistic vision of the song that Johnna was enacting was not how i would choreograph that song were i ever to. And yes okay it helped that i already knew and loved the music. (It was Ani's "Swan Dive" for the ensemble piece and then a solo to "Joyful Girl.")

ShavedHeadGirl reminded me somewhat of Bryn and at certain moments of [livejournal.com profile] paper_crystals. She's an '07, so there are only 3 semesters of classes i could have had with her, and recalling all those classes i can't particularly see her in any of them. It's possible that she just reminds me of Abigail in my Telling&Retelling class, but i feel like the memory goes back further.

"Marty the used car salesman" is from First Wives Club (Brenda's husband) -- for anyone who was there during that dinner conversation.

Cuthbert and Floris now grace my door.

I like David Brooks. (And Thomas Friedman.)
hermionesviolin: (one girl in all the world)
Look at me and the lack of updating. I feel like i've been in liminal space recently -- sleeping in, waking up and wondering what day it is, lacking specific deadlines for schoolwork and thus being very lackadaisical in getting any of it done. I have gotten some work done this weekend, though. I find i like The Hours less than i did the first time around, which is sad. So anyway, updatey things.

"Fuckin' Rhinos." Oh, Skarda, how i will miss you.
Also: "Smith: where binary oppositions aren't all that opposed." (Though really, that's mostly only true of the gender binary.)

"You're writing and thinking well here." -Skarda on my Mary Reilly response paper

I think i've decided on my topic for my final Skarda paper (more pressing than most of my final projects as it's due April 22 at sunset) -- defending The Eyre Affair. This is not a huge surprise, since it was one of my favorites of the books we read in that class and she keeps saying it's not a very good book.

Dude, my "I'm done with ficathons for real now" fic? Has gotten praise from the recipient and other people. ::hearts:: (And i quite like the fic written for me.)

During Thursday night's poetry reading, Jane Hirshfield (the reading poet), noted that it was warm and extended her universal permission: that it's okay to nap at a poetry reading -- you just rest up and come back and there is another poem and eventually you get home and have insomnia. Ironically, hers was the first poetry reading in ages that i didn't doze off in.
Her reading kicked off the Women Practicing Buddhism weekend, but her poetry wasn't explicitly about Buddhist practice, which i appreciated.
I really liked the vast majority of the poems she read, though some of them were very powerful and moving at the time and then problematic upon reflection. Her poetry is very bare and evocative, and she uses interesting and compelling imagery and talks a lot about persevering through the pain of life.
She read us a haiku she had translated (i forget the original author) which she said changed her life. Basically it was: the wind blows terribly here, but the moonlight also leaks through the slats of the roof into this ruined house. (The idea that what lets the pain in also lets the beauty/joy in, and that some beauty/joy can't come in without some pain. And she also mentioned that the moon is frequently an image of Buddhist Enlightenment.)
In one of her poems she talked about washing one's face with cold water in the morning to practice making the unwanted wanted. In another she wrote, "The world asks only the strength we have. And we give it. And then it asks more. And we give it."
I forget if it was from her intro or from something she read, but she has a line about how "knowledge is erotic" because it inspires the desire to know more (intimately).
Commentary between poems: "People don't take up Buddhist practice because they're good at non-attachment."
In "Memories/Rwanda" she talks about how the river carries with decorum what it is given but then thet the river is sickened (continuing the multi-level meanings) and then the poem talks about being at a dinner table about to say something but deciding not to because it would be impolite and after she finished she said, "That poem is my penance for not having spoken at that dinner table."
In "The Poet" she asks that the poet have enough paper to make mistakes and go on. I really really liked that metaphor.
In "Milk" she talks about how wind without a hall howls in silence, and she talked about in times of tension, some things flare up and others dig down for the long haul (using the imagery of a volcano, i think). And concluding the poem -- i think it was her talking after she had finished the poem -- she said, "Every single glass of milk is suffering. I still drink milk."
"Tree" talks about a redwood growing next to a house and includes the great line: "soflty, calmly, immensity taps at your life."

At dinner one night last week, Ruhi talked about the Temple and Jesus, how Jewish practice is centered on the Temple and Christian practice is centered on Jesus, and how both include the idea the focal point coming again (the rebuilding of the Temple, the Second Coming of Christ) and it was an interesting conversation.

The Catholic Church already has married priests?

I'm tempted to do stuff like okcupid when i go back to Boston just to find people to talk to and hang out with. I suddenly understand the appeal of book clubs -- having a built-in group of people who have all read the same book and with whom you can talk about it.

[livejournal.com profile] firynze wrote: "Lastly, learn to spell (hell, just learn some English) before I answer your ad solely to find you and kill you in an inventive manner involving a typewriter." I am totally posting that in any online dating profile i ever make.

UPenn graduate admissions doesn't have voicemail. I did eventually get a real person, though. Decisions started to go out March 22. I haven't yet received one in my mailbox. I said i didn't mind knowing over the phone, and lo i am 0 for 6. So my brother and i did manage to each get rejected from our top choices.

I've been having a like-hate relationship with my hair all week. It was at that awkward hitting my shoulders stage, so obviously a trim was in order. However, short hair is not as wash-and-wear as long hair, though admittedly it takes less time to wash. Unless, that is, it's really short hair. So i've been feeling like Allie all week (which is disconcerting and wrongness) having moments of desperately wanting to hack off all my hair. I got it cut on Friday and it's longer than i had envisioned, so i'm still deciding how i feel about it. I hacked at the bangs some myself, which was obviously a bad idea, but it actually looks pretty decent. And i got a bunch of unsolicited compliments on it, which was nice.

On Friday, we watched the first disc of Firefly, whose episodes i haven't seen since they first aired (though i've seen all the other episodes 2-3 times). I forgot how all the dynamics are established from the very first episode, and how "The Train Job" despite being written in a weekend gets all the exposition out effectively in the first few scenes and also establishes all the dynamics. I think i have a soft spot for it because it was my intro. Other notes: (1) Joss continues to have masterful segue (2) wow the echoing themes, both within episodes and throughout the series (3) as on his other shows, everyone can be shipped with everyone else (4) Joss reuses his people like whoa, but we already knew that. Loves the show we does.

Saturday we watched disc 2, followed by a couple episodes of Wonderfalls because disc 3 of Firefly is all dark episodes (well, the first 3, so then we would have had to watch the 4th). We watched the runaway nun episode because Emma hadn't seen it before and then we watched the deportation episode and the Fat Pat episode. When i watched the episodes when they were airing (all 4 of them) i remember being surprised after each episode at the fact that i had liked it, because they always seemed from the ads unappealling. Watching this time 'round i seem to have less tolerance for Jaye, and her sister is actually growing me.

vaguely spoilerish notes on Firefly with reference to some BtVS/Angel episodes, mostly spoilers for Safe )

Neil Gaiman )
hermionesviolin: (moon house)
"Whee! I'm sinking into the depths of sin. Whee!" -Skarda, on "slippery slope"

She asked if i'd heard from places yet and i said, "I've gotten rejected from everywhere except UPenn, which i haven't heard from yet. Way to go me." Cheery voice and everything. Her response was very matter-of-fact, take it in stride, which was so comforting, because my anxiety has totally been about having to disappoint people.

There are white and purple crocuses on the patch of grass by the JMG crossroads. First time i've seen flowers growing since i was in Virginia. (Though the museum keeps getting lovely floral displays.)

So many sirens today. "The pedestrians are getting frisky," said Megan (who really meant "uppity").

The Commencement schedule came out.

Oh, and the Buddhism thing turns out to be next weeekend rather than this weekend, and bell hooks is giving a lecture ("Buddhism Beyond Gender") in JMG at 8pm Friday April 8 [edited to correct the date]. Just in case anyone cares.

Instead of going to Finding Neverland (which Kate owns on DVD now), i went to the Spring Dance Concert, which was really very good. I think i need more dance in my life. Who wants to come to the Senior Dance Concert with me Thursday April 14?

[livejournal.com profile] doyle_sb4 polled her friends about which fandoms they're a part of. I basically consider myself part of a fandom if i know all the source text and care to engage in meta&fic re: said source text. My instinct is to just say Whedonverse when asked which fandoms i'm part of, so it was interesting to really think about what else i would consider myself part of fandom for (and some of it sounds so weird to call fandom).

This tells me i am 48% Femme and 52% Butch. Somehow we are not surprised.

Room Draw is over. The floor dynamics in my house next year are gonna be weird.

Yay for good discussion about politics, books, and (post-)college plans. Also: ♥ Cat.

P.S. 3 years ago today my LJ was born, thanks to [livejournal.com profile] athene. This will be entry #1932. Look at me go.

I really don't do the April Fool's thing. However, in honor of the recently deceased Mitch Hedberg, [livejournal.com profile] offbalance posted a list (from [livejournal.com profile] lizzola) of examples of his humor. I laughed out loud multiple times.
hermionesviolin: (anime night)
I appreciated being able to have a latenight snack last night, but the whole leaving breakfast food out in case of blizzard seemed a bit excessive. They did it last time, too. Both times Smith declared a Snow Emergency, predicted 6-12 inches, and we ultimately got a few inches.

Coming home from my Monday night class around 9pm the snow was just starting, small flakes, all blowing from one direction, and i was reminded of that line in The Wizard of Oz "I think there's a storm brewing." The snow kept going until about that same time tonight -- mostly larger flakes that were less pleasant to be walking around in.

It's funny, earlier this winter i was saying that the schizophrenia of the weather might be one reason i wasn't sick of winter yet -- because we got reprieves from the bitter weather -- but now the schizophrenia is making it harder for me to be in love with the winter weather; because we keep getting snatches of spring it starts to feel like it should be spring. But i have a rep to maintain as winter-loving. And i really do enjoy the snow. And seeing everything all coated in white, trees and all, was really lovely.

I was amused that on the day people were talking about wishing we had the day off i actually managed to haul myself out of bed in time to actually eat breakfast.

I used the phrase "narrative integrity" in my Eyre Affair Blackboard posting and Skarda was a big fan. Apparently she'd never heard the phrase before. I totally didn't invent it but hey, academics are thieves. Learned that "Snow in the night is like a gift" is from The Horizontal Man.
Guest name (Guest) wrote:
how would we know if classes tomorrow are cancelled?

velcrogerbil wrote:
If you look out your window and it looks like one of the scenes from "Day After Tomorrow." Then you'd stand a chance.

-DailyJolt
March 1 is Self-Injury Awareness Day. Last year, [livejournal.com profile] fox1013 posted a rant. This year she posted a story. meep.

SheOfTheManyUserNames is not dead. And lo there was much rejoicing.

And, in conclusion: I need to lock myself in my room for the next week and a half to get all my work done. (I think i need to make myself another to-do list.)
Lots of snow and passive-agressive whining does not a snow day make

Smith College: We only close for the apocalypse.

-leftoverture
hermionesviolin: animated icon of a book open on a desk, with text magically appearing on it, with text "tell me a story" framing it (tell me a story [lizzieb])
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."
hermionesviolin: (pensive)
Nothing like an unintentional all-nighter to knock my sleep schedule back into whack.

7am: pale purples and blues, the shining moon above the buildings.

Mmm, Hubbard has yummy (pea)nut butters again. And Smith plowed liek whoa.

Filling out Skarda's "Student Introduction" form was fun. Read more... )

Class with Skarda continues to rawk. She was late to class and there was much banter, and then we actually started on Ourika and she said something like "Didn't you find it haunting?" and i said "No" and she said something like, "You can always count on Elizabeth [surname] to not like a book," and i said, "I'm a bad English major, what can i say?" and she said, "No, you're a good English major, that's the problem." I didn't actually participate much in the discussion, but much fun was had.

Meg and i finally got together and now have a standing lunch date for Tuesday/Thursday for the rest of the semester -- because what is a Tuesday/Thursday lunch without an off-campus Smithie? though of course no one could replace my darling.

And Moriah-from-NHS is coming to visit next Friday. Yay for people.

All week i've been saying that my seminar is the one class that isn't allowed to suck (because it's the one thing i can't drop/fail) and lo, i think it's my least favorite of all my classes. A whole lot of the Chaucer kids seem to have just migarated into the seminar, and the class is maxed out. Not that this is a bad thing, just a note. Something about the prof kinda bugs me, but i can't put my finger on it. I really think this course is gonna be my lightest reading load, even with the course reader, which is weird since it's a seminar. Though all of my classes seem to have really easy workloads in terms of papers/projects/exams, which makes the Booklists of Doom so totally doable. I have visions of a semester full of Been There Done That as far as the seminar goes, but we shall see.

For leading discussion, my first choice would have been
Fairy Tale to Contemporary Short Story I: Beauty and the Beast. Versions in Tatar, pp. 25-73, with special attention to Angela Carter's "The Tyger's Bride" (also in The Bloody Chamber) and "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon," The Bloody Chamber, pp. 41-51.
Instead i got
Folktale in Elizabethan Tragedy, contginued. King Lear III-V and "Cinderella in Maria Tatar, ed., The Classic Fairy Tales, 101-37
which upon reflection might in fact be a better one.

Serenity appears about 16 minutes into the Battlestar Galactica premiere episode.
Countdown 'til crossover fic, anyone?

Question for Firefly fans:

[Poll #426399]
I'm not looking for official statements about the character's ages but rather am curious as to what your impression of the age gap is as a viewer (feel free to tell me a range).
hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Grilled cheese! Second time in a week, 4th time in less than a month. And better grilled cheese than usual it seemed to me.

I had forgotten how much i enjoy having Skarda as a prof. Talking about the group presentations, she said, "You could do them in costume. You could do them naked. Though when the prospective student are visiting it would be a bad idea." I think i know 5 people out of the 40+ class. And it seems that if i were taking Milton or Gender and Sexuality in Greco-Roman Culture i would know quite a few students in those as well. It's unfortunate that i have MAT class when she's showing the films.

The Rec Council movie listing is mostly underwhelming, per usual, though i'm excited about Finding Neverland. Do i wanna see the Ray Charles movie? Other potentials are Closer and Saw.

I'm not particularly excited about any of the poetry readings this semester, though i suppose i should go to them.

The last day to return books to the bookstore is this coming Monday. Irksome. (Though apparently if you drop a class and bring in the add-drop slip they'll let you return your books.)

"Pease and Gay Funeral and Cremation Service of Northampton is in charge of the arrangements."
I'm sorry, that just sounds like such a bizarre name.

Note to self: go through recs page and pull out stuff for [livejournal.com profile] futureverse.

Spuffy kinkathon. Dude, the possibility of my not signing up for this is nil. This brings my current total up to what, 3? Someone stop me from signing up for the What If...? ficathon.

I'm offended -- though really, given the spammy nature of this entry... )
hermionesviolin: (prophecy girl)
singing: this'll be the day that I die...

Wednesday i slept later than i had intended, showered, dressed, hustled to the edge-of-town post office and back again to mail my UPenn app, and actually got back with plenty of time to eat lunch before leaving for work. I did feel rather like i was going to pass out, though.

Work was insane. AJ gave me a pile of stuff and LM left me something to copy and then i had to deal with something else and i had to tell SA i wasn't going to have time to be able to do anything for her and i felt like, "Why am i everybody's bitch today?" I went to an hour and a quarter long training for the new phone system and didn't touch the filing all afternoon except to add more papers to the file (andi don't think i got more than a few sheets - if that - filed on Monday) and AJ figured out how to give me Banner access and i'm getting trained to do a whole load of stuff for when she is on vacation in January and i have visions of being overwhelmed and fucking up and yeah.

I got some nice stuff in my campus box and both good and bad in my e-box, the best being this reply from my UMass prof re: the e-mail to which was attached my final paper.
Elizabeth,

A fine essay. You know, you can really write. You make it look easy, which is a sign of real power. But you're way beyond college prowess already. It's a great gift.

Your appreciative Palanese panorama is splendidly organized and presented. One quibble: while you're right that hypnosis appears to be wilfull inattention, in fact it demands a special kind of attention. Self-hypnosis in particular requires a bifurcation of the mind into a part that gives suggestions and a part that receives them. This can't be done haphazardly or inattentively.

It's been a real pleasure having you in section this term. You're one of the people who woke up early and saved the section from the abyss over which it was tottering for the first week or three. I'm delighted to give you the nice big A you deserve. Best wishes for the holidays and break.....

David Lenson
I also came home to a note on my board (from Cat) informing me that the Smith bookstore is in fact once again selling the "Smith College: A Tradition of Women in Exciting Positions" t-shirts, so i went down on Thursday and got myself one.

It occurred to me before i went to bed Wednesday night that there was probably an end-of-semester RCFOS meeting, but i had definitely completely forgotten that it was a Wednesday-and-thus-RCFOS night. I did have a good night, though. I hung out chatting with people after dinner and then studied Bible with KLS, E, and R; followed by a viewing of Eddie Izzard: Definite Article in Emma's room. Dress to Kill is exponentially better, and i keep wanting to say that Definite Article was bad, except that i was cracking up laughing so much throughout.

Thursday i slept all morning and attemped to do work in the afternoon. I also e-mailed Skarda to check in about my letters of rec and got in reply: "I put them in the mail last Saturday. I hope you can walk on water because my letters said you could. Let me know where you land. Merry Christmas!" w00t

Oh, because i was procrastinating and had mentioned it to someone recently: the 2004 and 2005 French men's rugby team calendars (black and white, male nudity but no penises).

So yeah, i decided to stay home and do work this afternoon instead of going to the mall and yet somehow it's after 4 in the afternoon and i have accomplished nothing. So now i'm thinking i'll catch up on LJ, work on Secret Slasha, and then maybe my brain will be ready to go back to my Shakespeare paper.

it's a long way down
to the place where we started from


What Latin Noun Case Are You??? by TigerBotEdge
username
How many times a month do you post?
Your Latin Noun CaseYou are the Accusative Case. You're popular. People like you...after all, once we see you we know exactly where our sentence is headed.
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hermionesviolin: black and white photo of Emma Watson as Hermione, with text "hermionesviolin" (hermione by oatmilk)
Reading more Brueggemann is bad for my blood pressure. We're starting prophecy on Monday in Joel's class, so i'm really tempted to ask him what his take on Brueggemann is, because my impression thus far from Brueggemann's book is that he and Joel have very different interpretations of, oh, everything.

In one of her e-mails during our correspondence re: the Brueggemann lecture, e.carr mentioned "Brueggemann's focus on mystery and the immensity of God" and wrote:
What I did like about Brueggemann's talk was his focus on the "thick text or narrative," as well as on the words of the liturgy; and urging us to truly enter into them, take them seriously, and let them transform and embolden us and our world. What I also like about his book PROPHETIC IMAGINATION is his focusing on suffering and his belief that God weeps (I agree) and his lamenting the fact that we as a culture do far too little weeping over suffering and injustice. Perhaps we can't even weep. Along that line, I like the essay "The Courage to Pray" by German theologian Johannes Metz. In it, Metz talks about the need for us to bring our honest feelings to prayer, be they feelings of anger, rage, sorrow, or whatever passion. This essay is found in a little book with the same name, and contains two essays: this one and one by Karl Rahner, entitled I believe, "Why Pray to the Saints?"
I like those ideas (and given my issues with intercessors, i'm interested to read the Rahner essay) but i'm not seeing them in the book so far, and what i am seeing is a lot of reading stuff out of context and also some bad Marxism. But maybe that's just me.

Work today was even slower than work on Monday. I got much praise, nonetheless.

Illinois' most recent e-mail was still less than helpful, but i filled out the forms anyway so i could finally drop off packets with my recommenders. Skarda was actually in her office, so i ended up there for 45 minutes. I had forgotten how defensive/inferior she can make me feel. But she's writing me letters of recommendation and they will be solid ones.

Bugger UCSD. "E-mails requesting online letters of recommendation will be sent to your recommenders when you submit the application." That makes me wanna finish their application first, though it actually has the latest of the deadlines -- February 18. UC-Davis and U-Iowa are due Dec. 1, so i really should do those first. UPenn and Rochester are Dec. 15, so given the hell that will be my life after Thanksgiving what with final papers and all, i would really like to get those apps done before Thanksgiving as well.

In news of no consequence: Ouch! )
hermionesviolin: photoshoot image of Emma Caulfield (who plays Anya), looking to the right and smiling, with text "I do it for the joy it brings" (i do it for the joy it brings)
I went to lunch at Davis because meals yesterday were really poor and i needed actual food. I saw [livejournal.com profile] lilithchilde, whom i hadn't seen in a month. We got to chat briefly before she had to go back to work. "We should have tea sometime." Honey, you really are such a Smithie. :)

And then when i got back to my room, i saw the following e-mail from the professor i had e-mailed asking for a letter of recommendation for the Oxford summer program.

Dear Elizabeth,
Which program are you going to go on? Most prefer letters of
recommendation to be sent directly to them. Write me a "horn-tooter"
letter specifying which program and why and listing other splendors of
your academic achievement, and I will sing of symphony of praise. You
did pass Romantic poetry with flying colors.

In the cause,
Pat Skarda
hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (Default)
Dear Elizabeth, Here is your horoscope for Wednesday, September 18:
Stress breeds a special kind of creativity. Personalizing a conflict can be productive, but internalizing it goes too far. Your private life should be miles away from what you do professionally.



Continuing with the asides, why does Pat Skarda sign her e-mails "In the cause," ?

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hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (Default)
Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

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