Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Procrastinator
I should be writing my paper. I really should. Somehow, in all the panic of the weekend, I forgot I had a seven page paper due tomorrow. How does one forget to write an entire paper? I've started it. Three quarters of a page done. I keep looking at knitting patterns instead of researching the problems of genre in Shakespeare.
To be fair, some of the knitting patterns are pretty cool. I think maybe sleep deprivation, and a very poor diet (I'm eating, don't worry...it's just all the bad stuff) have made me a little loopy. I'm angry that I had to park in the Mt. Olivet parking lot again today, that when I got to the parking lot on campus, everyone driving a car decided to act like a complete moron.
EDIT. I removed some of what I posted earlier...because I was in a bad mood when I wrote that.
Hopefully I can get a ride to my car tonight, else I won't be getting home till 11pm or later because the shuttle only runs on half hour intervals, and when I'm getting out of class, it is just leaving campus. I just want to start my knitting class right now so I can have something in the week to look forward to besides homework or picking up my needles.
I barely even have the time for knitting, and that just annoys the hell out of me. I am mastering knitting and reading at the same time, but I can only do that with books I don't have to hold open, of which I have few for class. Still haven't found that happy place between school and life, and school keeps interrupting my damn zen.
I'm not going to break down or anything, I'm just worried about burning out at the end of this year. Maybe next semester or year I will find a job to hold down and take one less class per semester. This may seem like it might exasperate the problem, but having money rarely hurts me. Except for that one time.
Someone is paying me to knit them a scarf. It will be a gift for her mother, which means I'm going to have to do a fantastic job. Maybe I'll get some return business from it?
Enough procrastinating, time to finish my paper.
To be fair, some of the knitting patterns are pretty cool. I think maybe sleep deprivation, and a very poor diet (I'm eating, don't worry...it's just all the bad stuff) have made me a little loopy. I'm angry that I had to park in the Mt. Olivet parking lot again today, that when I got to the parking lot on campus, everyone driving a car decided to act like a complete moron.
EDIT. I removed some of what I posted earlier...because I was in a bad mood when I wrote that.
Hopefully I can get a ride to my car tonight, else I won't be getting home till 11pm or later because the shuttle only runs on half hour intervals, and when I'm getting out of class, it is just leaving campus. I just want to start my knitting class right now so I can have something in the week to look forward to besides homework or picking up my needles.
I barely even have the time for knitting, and that just annoys the hell out of me. I am mastering knitting and reading at the same time, but I can only do that with books I don't have to hold open, of which I have few for class. Still haven't found that happy place between school and life, and school keeps interrupting my damn zen.
I'm not going to break down or anything, I'm just worried about burning out at the end of this year. Maybe next semester or year I will find a job to hold down and take one less class per semester. This may seem like it might exasperate the problem, but having money rarely hurts me. Except for that one time.
Someone is paying me to knit them a scarf. It will be a gift for her mother, which means I'm going to have to do a fantastic job. Maybe I'll get some return business from it?
Enough procrastinating, time to finish my paper.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Yesterday
Yesterday was horrible. I don't really want to go into the specifics, but let's just say it involved my paycheck (and the lack of one). In the end, it is my fault, I made a mistake, and now I'm going to have to go through a lot of annoying stuff to get it fixed.
Over the next week and a half, you probably will not hear much from me. I have a pretty big paper, and a 20 minute presentation to prepare for in just one class. There are several hundred pages of reading in the other classes. I'm also pretty sure there is a midterm coming up in Syntax. Weee, sentence trees.
Also, my excitement about only having to see one performance live for Shakespeare fizzled out this week. The teacher announced in class she would really like us to see two. Sigh. I think everything seems a little bit worse this week because of yesterday. I'm going home on Saturday this weekend, and I hope I can relax a little bit.
I've decided I'm going to buy the Anemoi Mitten pattern, even though I'm not at the skill level to make it yet. I hope I will be sometime soon, I just want to have the pattern right now in case she decides to take down her website or her patterns.
She has some really fantastic patterns, and I'm going to hold this skill level up as my goal.
Need to start on some homework now, because I will lose Saturday for homework and I can't do work there.
Yar.
Over the next week and a half, you probably will not hear much from me. I have a pretty big paper, and a 20 minute presentation to prepare for in just one class. There are several hundred pages of reading in the other classes. I'm also pretty sure there is a midterm coming up in Syntax. Weee, sentence trees.
Also, my excitement about only having to see one performance live for Shakespeare fizzled out this week. The teacher announced in class she would really like us to see two. Sigh. I think everything seems a little bit worse this week because of yesterday. I'm going home on Saturday this weekend, and I hope I can relax a little bit.
I've decided I'm going to buy the Anemoi Mitten pattern, even though I'm not at the skill level to make it yet. I hope I will be sometime soon, I just want to have the pattern right now in case she decides to take down her website or her patterns.
She has some really fantastic patterns, and I'm going to hold this skill level up as my goal.
Need to start on some homework now, because I will lose Saturday for homework and I can't do work there.
Yar.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Shirker!
Today I saw a sticker on the window of an orange Mustang, and it said:
Warning!
This vehicle is protected by a passive alarm system!
So I was thinking, should that say, "You are being warned!" Because if an orange Mustsang is going to start bandying bad grammar all about, I want to be duly notified. Not that passive voice is bad (and it really shouldn't be used as a weapon, Ford), but I can only listen to so much of it in one sentence before cringing.
Currently I am in the office I share at Marymount, shirking my responsibilites as a dutiful student, and postponing the inevitable research of the day. On the plus side, the wireless on my shiny laptop is so good, that I am picking it up from another building.
Booya!
I haven't been sleeping very well recently, and I really wish that this was Thursday, and the end of the week, and that this weekend wasn't going to be so busy. It is though, and I doubt I will actually have a day where I can sleep past 7:30 (because that really doesn't happen during the week). When I get home at 10pm, I'm dead tired, but in the process of getting ready for bed, preparing books for the next day, even eating the dinner I skipped earlier, I wake back up.
I need suggestions for speedy relaxation at night! (Not that more than one person will make a suggestion).
Knitting classes star in a week and a half, and I am extremely stoked (Like, tubular man). I hope that in the span of the class, I learn everything I am hoping to, and that it does not move at the pace of its slowest member (which could be me). I already know some of the basics like casting on, kniting, purling, and binding off. I even know how to do ribbing and the stockinette stich (which you can do if you know how to knit and purl).
I hope to learn how to:
1. Increase
2. Decrease
3. Cable
4. Seam
5. Tubular cast on and working with it
6. Work with multiple strands of yarn-just striping, or even something as complicated as fair isle, but I think that is a little too hopeful for a once a week for six weeks class.
I really like that linked mitten pattern, and I might buy it eventually. Probably have to sooner rather than later because she just moved her regular blog, and this one might not stay up forever. It's just a little expensive for a mitten pattern, and one that I won't be able to do right away. It also goes through the evil which is paypal, a system I have NEVER gotten to successfully work for me.
Decisions, decisions.
Well, I had better stop shirking and get down to actual work, I do have a 20-minute presentation in two weeks exactly to prepare for (and we all know how much I love to talk in front of an audience even for five minutes), and a paper due the same day.
Have I rambled enough? Probably more than I needed to.
Keep your eyes open for my knitular progress, starting in a week and a half. It will be documented photographically and with any amusing little bits I can think to add.
There, that was just enough ramble.
Warning!
This vehicle is protected by a passive alarm system!
So I was thinking, should that say, "You are being warned!" Because if an orange Mustsang is going to start bandying bad grammar all about, I want to be duly notified. Not that passive voice is bad (and it really shouldn't be used as a weapon, Ford), but I can only listen to so much of it in one sentence before cringing.
Currently I am in the office I share at Marymount, shirking my responsibilites as a dutiful student, and postponing the inevitable research of the day. On the plus side, the wireless on my shiny laptop is so good, that I am picking it up from another building.
Booya!
I haven't been sleeping very well recently, and I really wish that this was Thursday, and the end of the week, and that this weekend wasn't going to be so busy. It is though, and I doubt I will actually have a day where I can sleep past 7:30 (because that really doesn't happen during the week). When I get home at 10pm, I'm dead tired, but in the process of getting ready for bed, preparing books for the next day, even eating the dinner I skipped earlier, I wake back up.
I need suggestions for speedy relaxation at night! (Not that more than one person will make a suggestion).
Knitting classes star in a week and a half, and I am extremely stoked (Like, tubular man). I hope that in the span of the class, I learn everything I am hoping to, and that it does not move at the pace of its slowest member (which could be me). I already know some of the basics like casting on, kniting, purling, and binding off. I even know how to do ribbing and the stockinette stich (which you can do if you know how to knit and purl).
I hope to learn how to:
1. Increase
2. Decrease
3. Cable
4. Seam
5. Tubular cast on and working with it
6. Work with multiple strands of yarn-just striping, or even something as complicated as fair isle, but I think that is a little too hopeful for a once a week for six weeks class.
I really like that linked mitten pattern, and I might buy it eventually. Probably have to sooner rather than later because she just moved her regular blog, and this one might not stay up forever. It's just a little expensive for a mitten pattern, and one that I won't be able to do right away. It also goes through the evil which is paypal, a system I have NEVER gotten to successfully work for me.
Decisions, decisions.
Well, I had better stop shirking and get down to actual work, I do have a 20-minute presentation in two weeks exactly to prepare for (and we all know how much I love to talk in front of an audience even for five minutes), and a paper due the same day.
Have I rambled enough? Probably more than I needed to.
Keep your eyes open for my knitular progress, starting in a week and a half. It will be documented photographically and with any amusing little bits I can think to add.
There, that was just enough ramble.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Knutters
I am super tired, but I feel obligated to update the blog. I have worked on a few knitting projects since I last posted, so I wanted to show everyone.
First, finished green scarf (my very first finished knitting project):
Second, scarf started out of the same kind of yarn and same amount of stitches:
Next, I finished a glove, and it was my first attempt at purling, and I did okay, but messed up the rows. I restarted on my freakin awesome bamboo needles:
Finally, a small portion of my yarn stash. The reddish....stuff will be my mom's Christmas gift eventually, and the charcoal cotton will be gloves, I hope. It will be my first time working with cotton, so I'm not sure if I will need to take any special precautions, like wearing headgear and goggles, to work with it.
I might just wear goggles for fun.
Classes are going okay, I'm just extremely busy reading. In fact, I have a few hundred pages to get done today. I'll go to the grocery store and get some required supplies (ice cream, bubble bath, coffee, SPIDER KILLER, etc.), and then start in on the reading.
Woohoo!
This is how we roll.
First, finished green scarf (my very first finished knitting project):
Second, scarf started out of the same kind of yarn and same amount of stitches:
Next, I finished a glove, and it was my first attempt at purling, and I did okay, but messed up the rows. I restarted on my freakin awesome bamboo needles:
Finally, a small portion of my yarn stash. The reddish....stuff will be my mom's Christmas gift eventually, and the charcoal cotton will be gloves, I hope. It will be my first time working with cotton, so I'm not sure if I will need to take any special precautions, like wearing headgear and goggles, to work with it.
I might just wear goggles for fun.
Classes are going okay, I'm just extremely busy reading. In fact, I have a few hundred pages to get done today. I'll go to the grocery store and get some required supplies (ice cream, bubble bath, coffee, SPIDER KILLER, etc.), and then start in on the reading.
Woohoo!
This is how we roll.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Narf
I had a good day. Wednesdays are always good. There are no regular classes in the day hours, so there is always parking on campus, and I have Shakespeare, which I always enjoy. However, the end of the day has left a little to be desired.
Class lets out about ten minutes late. Okay, no big deal, in a three hour class, what is ten minutes? Time is a curvy, not linear, right? I can justify that. Well, as I walked out to my car, I realized how desperately I needed to pee. Instead of walking all the way back to a building, I decided to tough out the 40 minutes it would take to drive home so I could luxuriate with my Charmin.
Forty minutes later, I sat in the Mixing Bowl, contemplating how difficult it would be to get a stain out of these jeans, or, if people would be completely perplexed if I opened my door and walked to the curb from the middle and...well, you can figure it out.
Twenty minutes later, I tried to distract myself from extreme discomfort to figure out why it was that a five-lane highway, in which everyone is trying to get on 95, and get to the other side of the road than the side they are on, why exactly it was they decided to close the two left lanes in the same place that the right lane was ending. I did not have time to wonder however, because finally, I was free, have traversed those two excruciating miles.
The rest is really a blur as headlights in my rearview mirror as I raced my way home, finally reaching it, an hour and a half after I left Marymount.
Sweet, sweet Charmin.
Class lets out about ten minutes late. Okay, no big deal, in a three hour class, what is ten minutes? Time is a curvy, not linear, right? I can justify that. Well, as I walked out to my car, I realized how desperately I needed to pee. Instead of walking all the way back to a building, I decided to tough out the 40 minutes it would take to drive home so I could luxuriate with my Charmin.
Forty minutes later, I sat in the Mixing Bowl, contemplating how difficult it would be to get a stain out of these jeans, or, if people would be completely perplexed if I opened my door and walked to the curb from the middle and...well, you can figure it out.
Twenty minutes later, I tried to distract myself from extreme discomfort to figure out why it was that a five-lane highway, in which everyone is trying to get on 95, and get to the other side of the road than the side they are on, why exactly it was they decided to close the two left lanes in the same place that the right lane was ending. I did not have time to wonder however, because finally, I was free, have traversed those two excruciating miles.
The rest is really a blur as headlights in my rearview mirror as I raced my way home, finally reaching it, an hour and a half after I left Marymount.
Sweet, sweet Charmin.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Minime
It's decided. When I am filthy rich and working at some fantastic job where I can afford a new car, I'm getting a Mini.
Some of you may scoff, but dammit, I'm just tired of not fitting into parking spaces. Or better yet, fitting in the space, but having to crawl out via my sunroof. The Mini can weave in and out of traffic, occasionally known to even take flight.
So watch out in the future my fellow drivers. I will be that one in the apparently full parking lot, when suddenly, you say a gap, speeding to pull in, only to realize it is a Mini, pulled up too far.
My Mini desire stems from having to spend twenty minutes looking for a parking space on campus today, before giving up, driving to their separate lot two miles away, and then being passed TWICE for pick up by the university shuttle. I went in early (an hour) today to get some extra time reading. By the time I got to campus, I was late.
Yarny images coming soon. I figured out how to cast off and finished that scarf. Hallooh, hallay. Also solved the problem of the theater performances. Professor was super cool. Said only one would have to be live, the rest can be movie form.
Sweet.
Sometimes, as part of the graduate experience, I guess you have no choice but to feel that anything you ever thought before and think now, is absolutely foolish, and be told so.
Some of you may scoff, but dammit, I'm just tired of not fitting into parking spaces. Or better yet, fitting in the space, but having to crawl out via my sunroof. The Mini can weave in and out of traffic, occasionally known to even take flight.
So watch out in the future my fellow drivers. I will be that one in the apparently full parking lot, when suddenly, you say a gap, speeding to pull in, only to realize it is a Mini, pulled up too far.
My Mini desire stems from having to spend twenty minutes looking for a parking space on campus today, before giving up, driving to their separate lot two miles away, and then being passed TWICE for pick up by the university shuttle. I went in early (an hour) today to get some extra time reading. By the time I got to campus, I was late.
Yarny images coming soon. I figured out how to cast off and finished that scarf. Hallooh, hallay. Also solved the problem of the theater performances. Professor was super cool. Said only one would have to be live, the rest can be movie form.
Sweet.
Sometimes, as part of the graduate experience, I guess you have no choice but to feel that anything you ever thought before and think now, is absolutely foolish, and be told so.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Databases are henceforth banned.
Whew, am I tired. I need to set up some new sort of reading schedule, because there is no way I can get all of this stuff done in one day (not that I was trying...before you start to scold). There are just two dozen things to keep up with at once. I have my assistantship work (and individually entering names into a database which I had to build is extremely tedious and time-consuming PLUS working on the Department website PLUS the Arts and Sciences College Comp Journal).
This on top of homework, in addition to wondering how I am going to swing the $50 ticket each to go see three live Shakespeare performances is a little nerve wracking. I know my parents will give me the money if I ask, but it seems a little outrageous that the professor expects us to do this. I guess she expects we all live in Arlington and don't have to commute 50 minutes to get there and into D.C. (not that I would drive into D.C., I haven't gone off the deep end yet). That we can get to small local theaters easier than the Folger one. Fortunately some of my fellow assistants have offered to go with me, so that will help.
I don't meant to rant. She's a good teacher. If it was maybe two performances instead of three, I wouldn't have such problems. In any case, life outside of class is okay. I'm almost done knitting the green scarf, just need to figure out how to cast off. I'd post a picture, but I'm just not feeling up to it.
I start tutoring Latin on Thursday, for money. I get to work with something I enjoy, and my student is this really great woman.
I guess I will finish writing my response paper now. Then-sleep.
RIP Luciano Pavarotti, the world was your opera.
This on top of homework, in addition to wondering how I am going to swing the $50 ticket each to go see three live Shakespeare performances is a little nerve wracking. I know my parents will give me the money if I ask, but it seems a little outrageous that the professor expects us to do this. I guess she expects we all live in Arlington and don't have to commute 50 minutes to get there and into D.C. (not that I would drive into D.C., I haven't gone off the deep end yet). That we can get to small local theaters easier than the Folger one. Fortunately some of my fellow assistants have offered to go with me, so that will help.
I don't meant to rant. She's a good teacher. If it was maybe two performances instead of three, I wouldn't have such problems. In any case, life outside of class is okay. I'm almost done knitting the green scarf, just need to figure out how to cast off. I'd post a picture, but I'm just not feeling up to it.
I start tutoring Latin on Thursday, for money. I get to work with something I enjoy, and my student is this really great woman.
I guess I will finish writing my response paper now. Then-sleep.
RIP Luciano Pavarotti, the world was your opera.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Macbeth knits in a grammatical sort of way.
I have been working through some homework today, and although I'm not finished, I feel like I've gotten a lot done. One Phillip Roth book finished, halfway through Macbeth, and a chapter and a half from a Syntax textbook complete. I even mapped out some ideas for my response to Macbeth.
I'm having some trouble evaluating Macbeth's hamartia because even though most classes teach it as a tragic flaw, it really isn't translated that way. And I think that what the character of a tragedy suffers from isn't really a tragic flaw in most cases. Hamlet especially. Macbeth is a bit trickier. His ambitions are a flaw, but is it really more of an "ethical fault or infirmity of character" like Bywater indicates? Is what Macbeth does truly deliberate? Is there free will involved, or is it "fated" that he murders Duncan? Such is the life of a graduate student I suppose, facing those "big" questions of life.
Phillip Roth didn't leave me with many questions except for maybe how he might be focusing more on an everyman than on the Jewish part of that character. Syntax is...well, about as exciting to read as it sounds. I'm looking forward to being able to take some Phonology classes.
Onward though! I took some time to break back into knitting today when I needed some time to contemplate Macbeth and the result was this:
It's a nice shade of green, but I don't think you can really tell in the picture. I was surprised how easily it came back to me. I still don't know how to finish a knit project, but I'll worry about that when I come to it. Also, it is kinda cool that my knitting needles could double for small swords.
Anyway, still have more reading to do, and I wanted to write up my Macbeth response tonight, so I'm off!
I'm having some trouble evaluating Macbeth's hamartia because even though most classes teach it as a tragic flaw, it really isn't translated that way. And I think that what the character of a tragedy suffers from isn't really a tragic flaw in most cases. Hamlet especially. Macbeth is a bit trickier. His ambitions are a flaw, but is it really more of an "ethical fault or infirmity of character" like Bywater indicates? Is what Macbeth does truly deliberate? Is there free will involved, or is it "fated" that he murders Duncan? Such is the life of a graduate student I suppose, facing those "big" questions of life.
Phillip Roth didn't leave me with many questions except for maybe how he might be focusing more on an everyman than on the Jewish part of that character. Syntax is...well, about as exciting to read as it sounds. I'm looking forward to being able to take some Phonology classes.
Onward though! I took some time to break back into knitting today when I needed some time to contemplate Macbeth and the result was this:
It's a nice shade of green, but I don't think you can really tell in the picture. I was surprised how easily it came back to me. I still don't know how to finish a knit project, but I'll worry about that when I come to it. Also, it is kinda cool that my knitting needles could double for small swords.
Anyway, still have more reading to do, and I wanted to write up my Macbeth response tonight, so I'm off!
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