Finals, Finally
| Published on 11 May 2008 at 12:46 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under Books, College. |
It’s over! I slid my paper in minutes before the deadline and I’m now done until August. There’s nothing I can do about my grades now and so I am practicing not worrying about them. They will be what they will be. The first summer in three years that I’ve not had something dramatic happening. This will be exciting, but not too I hope. Maybe I can finally finish moving in, get my photo website up, take more pictures, sleep more, watch more movies and other stuff that hasn’t quite occurred to me yet. I have no immediate plans other than to nap and watch DVD’s, after I go to the grocery store. *grump* to the grocery store.
Oh, my paper was 9 pages comparing the effect that cross-dressing had on Silence, a character in the 12th-century French romantic poem Silence and Joan of Arc. Followed by two pages of annotated bibliography.
I loved the stuff about Joan of Arc and she is on my list of people to learn more about. The gender-bending poem Silence is fun to talk about but was a slog to read. There are at least three books from this class that didn’t get used, which upsets me greatly because that’s just money wasted. I wondered when the reading list came out if twelve books was just a bit ambitious. I may try to read some of them over the summer, just to see. Otherwise they will go in the out of the house box.
For now my reading plans tend toward John Grisham and Laurell K. Hamilton just to get the academics out.
Closer and Closer
| Published on 9 May 2008 at 11:30 pm.
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Filed under College. |
Sunday I have big plans. Really big plans. Plans to become really good friends with my new bed. There may be a marathon of some sort on the DVD player, but mostly it’s me sleeping in the bed.
I am now officially just one paper away from being done for the semester. It’s about halfway written and is due tomorrow night by 10. I feel pretty good about the whole thing, finally. There was a bunch of “in-class” work I didn’t get done and I hope that won’t count too harshly against my final grade. One woman I work with works full-time, goes to school full-time and has a family to look after. I don’t know how she does it because I am just beat all the time. I can only imagine how she must feel.
So off now to write more about Joan of Arc and her clothes.
History Does Repeat Itself
| Published on 8 May 2008 at 9:16 pm.
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Filed under College. |
Another end of the semester, another two days to get a paper written, another semester during which I’ve felt like I’m too burned out to do any good, another semester when I felt like packing it in a couple of months ago. Sound familiar?
I found this going through the archives from a year ago:
As the semester has worn on and I am staring at the hard deadline of tomorrow (12 May) for a revision paper I have completely lost my focus. I’ve missed a lot of work this semester trying to get a grip on all my assignments and figure out what is required of me. It hasn’t worked. Mostly I’m exhausted, frustrated and have been ready to just pack it in for a couple of months now.
And yet, I got good grades from those classes and managed to make it through without too much harm. I was working then, and taking time off to try to get it “together.” I did get through.
Overdid it
| Published on 3 May 2008 at 1:12 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under Health, Life in General. |
Last night I want to the playoff game with Matt. It was completely last minute, and the game was very tense and exciting. But I think I overdid the stairs or something because my right leg is in a lot of pain today. Was it worth it? IDK. (Hee, hee been waiting for a long time to use that since I swiped it from my nieces.) I’m not sorry I went because watching the Sharks come from behind to tie and then win in 1 min and 5 sec of overtime was nerve wracking but very exciting. And I always enjoy my time with Matt.
Muggles
| Published on 3 May 2008 at 11:54 am.
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Filed under Just 'Cause, Books. |
From William Howland Kenney’s Chicago Jazz: muggles was an early slang term for marijuana. (139). Gives a completely new interpretation to the muggles in Harry Potter’s world doesn’t it?
Unexpected Pleasures
| Published on 27 Apr 2008 at 10:47 am.
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Filed under Just 'Cause. |
I have become addicted to icanhascheezburger.com. Some of the pictures and captions have me laughing until I cry. And then I found this one and my heart swelled:
Because anyone that can put a cat and a watermelon in a picture and use a Greek mythology reference is more than all right with me.
Pithy Sayings
| Published on 26 Apr 2008 at 7:56 pm.
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Filed under Just 'Cause. |
I made all of these up:
- Saying isn’t doing
- Calories don’t determine character
- Just because you meant no harm doesn’t mean you didn’t do any
It Has Arrived!
| Published on 26 Apr 2008 at 1:37 pm.
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Filed under Life in General. |
There’s nothing like a major purchase to make feel like a grown up. And today’s delivery is even more exciting than the delivery of my refrigerator last summer. The new bed has arrived and is already made up. Just sitting on it feels great. I’m sure sleeping in it will be wonderful. I probably need to lock the wheels though or it might turn into a carnival ride. Yay!
In My Day, It Was Called Rule #8
| Published on 26 Apr 2008 at 1:08 am.
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Filed under Life in General, Advocacy. |
This and the comments here are one of the reasons I had to stop going to science fiction conventions.
The very thought that it’s okay to even try to create a space where asking to touch a woman’s breasts is okay creeps me out. Women were willing participants, so were men. They all had their little buttons that said it was okay to ask, or not. The point that seems to get missed is that while it is admirable to want to make things less mysterious and help each other be okay with their bodies and their sexuality, it gets out of control really quickly and when you mix in socially stunted people it just turns weird and creepy.
There have been a lot of good comments about why this was such a bad idea and while the initial intent may have been “honourable,” the potential for it to run amok was too high. The cons I attended years and years ago had this sort of behaviour too and the same arguments were made for and against then as well. And the for argument always revolved around striking a blow for healthier body issues or demystifying sex (or whatever) which almost always devolved into the belief that if, for some insane reason, you had chosen not to participate there was something wrong with you. You were downright prudish and not a true “fan.”
But see, implying that someone is prudish for not wanting to play in your little social experiment causes almost as much damage as the pressure, intended or not, someone might feel to participate. If you want to touch each other’s breasts, go for it, in the privacy of your own private room. And do not think that telling me I can opt out, even after I have opted in, makes me feel like I’m not being pressured to participate. You may think you are only trying to live up to the standards for behaviour set by Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson but here’s something you forgot, they write (wrote) fiction! They made up an idealized world that had no relation to the non-fictional real world we all live in which is messy and difficult.
In my con-going days, there was a “movement” afoot called, “I Break Rule 8.” This was in reaction to the written code of conduct published by a long-forgotten convention ruling body that basically said, “No public displays of affection, which can include hugging.” Both sides were well-intentioned. The ruling body was trying to codify something that shouldn’t have to be codified when dealing with people who understand boundaries and the necessity for them.
Not all con-goers are socially inept but a number of them are and they do not understand the concept of inappropriate touching because all the computer games and all the books they’ve read have touted this concept of a life unburdened with personal boundaries where everyone is okay with being touched by people they don’t know. The Rule 8 crowd thought they were being clever by thumbing their noses at the ruling body, but their reaction became overblown too.
And in the context of a convention which attracts people who are socially inept, many attendees are not emotionally healthy enough to understand they do not have to go with the herd and that some things are just not emotionally healthy. Part of going to a con is what’s called freaking out the “mundanes,” or people who are not science fiction/fantasy/anime/whathaveyou fans. Outlandish behaviour prevails in this mode, and it gets more outrageous from day to day and con to con. It’s considered de rigueur to see how outrageous one can be simply to get reactions from Mr. and Mrs. Smith and all the little Smiths from Kansas who just checked in for the weekend to go to Aunt Maisie’s 50th birthday party. Fans love to get the Smiths all freaked out and saying things like, “Oh dear lord, did you see that couple? He was all dressed in leather chaps and she was wearing a bikini and letting him lead her around on a leash! These people are just freaks I tell you.” At which point, said couple will stop and begin to kiss each other deeply with tongue and then she will get on all fours and continue to follow him on her leash. When they get around the corner, they will laugh hysterically.
The reason I mention the mundanes is because I am one of those oddities; too mundane for the fans and too freaky for the mundanes. But thank goodness for the Rule 8 crowd, they did more to help me understand that I was not as socially inept as I thought, that it was okay to be told I was a prude (which is just another version of, “You need to lighten up!”), and I could choose to not participate in whatever social experiment was happening at the time. After a few years, it just got to be more trouble than it was worth. The reason I went to cons was to hang out with friends, and I started to realize that I didn’t need a convention to hang out with my friends. And by that time that realization sank in, I also realized that I had begun to change the group of people I hung out with.
I like the world I live in now. It’s one where nobody tries to hug me and convince me that hugging everyone I encounter is striking a blow for equality and sticking it to the “man.” Plus I get to read whatever the heck I want and don’t get judged because I think both Heinlein and Robinson are hacks.
Ben Update
| Published on 23 Apr 2008 at 9:56 pm.
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Filed under Emotional Roller Coaster, Advocacy. |
Saw the new Ben after work yesterday. He and Dr. Ben had not had a chance to talk in depth about what had happened with the old Ben so I filled new Ben in. I was blunt and told him it was not okay to just assume that because I was asking for one thing to assume I was really asking for something else, and run with it without asking me directly first.
“Here’s a free piece of advice to you. Be sure to answer the question your patient is asking, not the one you think they are asking.” In other words, take everything at face value unless presented with other evidence, and even then, clarify.
So on the whole what to take for lunch discussion, Ben was right on board and helpful. He asked if I would be interested in having help to go on a diet and I told him “no.” Then I explained why. People seem to think that fat people willfully avoid doing healthy things, that we are fat willfully and stubbornly and if only we would be less so we would be some more societally acceptable body size.
My reasons are fairly straightforward and were outlined in a previous post. For the sake of brevity, I will only say again that there are genetics, childhood traumas, and health issues (not necessarily related to the weight). Also, I am really self-conscious when someone wants to talk to me about my diet. I would rather watch Britney Spears videos than talk about my diet. This is not to imply that it is all fatty and sugary, it isn’t. Plus, this is a deeply shame-based issue and it’s only been in the past six months or so that I’ve even been able to admit how self-conscious I am about discussing my diet.
Dr. Ben and I conversed on the phone today about my chat with new Ben and hoped this acceptance would continue to be the norm. Dr. Ben is so frustrated by his students some times, I can tell he just wants to throw in the towel, climb on the back of his Harley and disappear into the sunset. I think what keeps him going is his firm commitment to his patients and to doing all he can to ensure that his students will be good healers. He sighed deeply today and said, “All they have to do is read your chart.”
Some things are not up for discussion and not necessarily for the reason you think. Also, calories don’t measure character.
