An inside joke. Don't ask.
June 18, 2006
June 16, 2006
paper writing
One of the unforeseen benefits of not passing my oral exam the first time around was that writing my first of two final papers seemed like an escape from the gaping jaws of madness of preparing for the do-over. Now on my second paper, I am floundering, taking refuge in a constant flight of reading and note-taking. Not that this isn't productive activity. The problem is that the more material accumulated the greater the strain to assimilate all of the parts. So, I am trying to focus my mental energy, decide on what is necessary and superfluous. One cheering thing is that page minimum is only 14 pages. I keep thinking, "If I can write four pages on Lefebvre, that means I'll only have 10 more to go!" Everything is psychological warfare in grad school.
June 13, 2006
Tatum on Youtube
I am kind of addicted to Youtube. You can find this video and another one of Tatum there.
June 12, 2006
"I would prefer not to"
I just emailed my first of two final papers. This means that I have one more final paper to write then I'll be done writing seminar papers. I added up that through the course of 4.5 of graduate courses, I've written at least 24 of these papers. The frigthening thing is that I wrote this paper will relatively little difficulty. In other news, I've been tweaking the look of my blogs. Mainly just inserting new graphics and new colors (or lack of color).
June 10, 2006
June 08, 2006
Anti-Freeze
The coffee shop where I spend most of my coffee shop-time at installed countertops along the windows that face Main St recently. At first I felt ambivalent about this development. Now I like it. The countertop allows one to spread out a bit more. I say this as set-up for what follows.
I was studying for my oral exam "do-over" tomorrow when a taxi cab pulled up alongside the coffee shop. The little Hobbit gentleman named George who comes in ever so often got out of the cab and began plodding his way inside. Meanwhile the taxi cab starts steaming and a river of bright green, highly toxic anti-freeze is streaming from underneath the car. Obviously the radiator is busted. I watch in horror as the rills of green death stream towards the gutter, towards the storm drain, and towards the water supply. I become increasingly agitated as I imagine any one of the countless dogs that bounce along with their owners dipping an unsuspecting paw in the glop. I pictured people tracking it home and toxifying their homes. Yet I am utterly paralyzed.
The irony is that I have been wearing an old boy scout t-shirt. Now despite all the bad things about Scouting (let me count the ways), it is meant to prepare you for moments like this (see the Oath and Motto to understand this little guilt-making machine). Again, I just sat there, agitated, disturbed but passive.
The driver pushed his car over and the useless junk store owner across the street dug out a watering can. They were trying to add water to the radiator (but of course it was just passing right through and onto the street). The anti-freeze was beginning to evaporate. I shrugged off my desire to leave immediately and began studying again.
The prelude to this story occurred when I first arrived. A woman (who is always toting around a musical instrument of some description) yelled at the guy cleaning the windows for spraying window cleaner "around people who are eating."
I was studying for my oral exam "do-over" tomorrow when a taxi cab pulled up alongside the coffee shop. The little Hobbit gentleman named George who comes in ever so often got out of the cab and began plodding his way inside. Meanwhile the taxi cab starts steaming and a river of bright green, highly toxic anti-freeze is streaming from underneath the car. Obviously the radiator is busted. I watch in horror as the rills of green death stream towards the gutter, towards the storm drain, and towards the water supply. I become increasingly agitated as I imagine any one of the countless dogs that bounce along with their owners dipping an unsuspecting paw in the glop. I pictured people tracking it home and toxifying their homes. Yet I am utterly paralyzed.
The irony is that I have been wearing an old boy scout t-shirt. Now despite all the bad things about Scouting (let me count the ways), it is meant to prepare you for moments like this (see the Oath and Motto to understand this little guilt-making machine). Again, I just sat there, agitated, disturbed but passive.
The driver pushed his car over and the useless junk store owner across the street dug out a watering can. They were trying to add water to the radiator (but of course it was just passing right through and onto the street). The anti-freeze was beginning to evaporate. I shrugged off my desire to leave immediately and began studying again.
The prelude to this story occurred when I first arrived. A woman (who is always toting around a musical instrument of some description) yelled at the guy cleaning the windows for spraying window cleaner "around people who are eating."
June 05, 2006
Avoidance
I've really been avoiding studying for my exam "do-over." I recently watched "The Satanic Rites of Dracula," a cheap Hammer Studios horror film that I picked up at Walgreen a while back. The draw however was Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (who starred in many Hammer horror films). It was actually quite entertaining! I bring this up because I found myself reading the message boards on IMDB about the film. I suddenly realized that I was finding every way possible to avoid studying.
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