illuminating my lunacy

conor at work

2005-11-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

John: Is a potato a starch or a vegetable?
Conor: It's both, John.
J: How can it be both?
C: Why can't it be both?
J: But doesn't something have to be either a starch or a vegetable? Can you have a fruit that's a starch?
C: Starch is just another word for carbohydrate, it generally means a high concentration of carbs. It's not its own food group. You can have fruits, vegetables, and grains with starch.
J: Really?
C: Yes.
J: Huh.

I lectured

2005-11-10T13:17:00.000-05:00

c23859-7
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

Tuesday I gave my very first lecture. It was a bit nerve wracking, especially since it took 24 hours total to write the whole thing, and then I got this nasty cold that made me hock up disgusting things. But other than that I really wasn't that nervous and it ended up going pretty well. I used powerpoint. Powerpoint will always make you look smarter.

But the funny thing is that for my first lecture ever I talked about George H.W. Bush (or Bush 1, H.Dub., etc). I lectured about how his image and questionable region is what made fellow conservatives question his commitment to the Reagan Revolution and also sowed his domestic failures--leading to the 1992 election. He really could have helped unite the party because he brought moderate-business-conservatives into the coalition in 1980 with Reagan, but was unable to package his tax increase in the same way that Reagan had been able to. I ended up talking about Reagan a lot, but I did get to play a clip of Dana Carvey impersonating Bush ("a thousand points of light, stay the course"...). And I used the above picture. There was no scholarly reason for using it (unlike the dana carvey clip, which did actually have a heuristic purpose) I used it because I wanted to use a picture of Reagan having his horns up...I don't really know why I said that it's funny I lectured on Bush for the first time ever. I guess it's not really funny. I actually sort of liked lecturing about him. Or maybe I just liked lecturing. I'll probably have to do it again...wanting to be a professor and all...so it's a good thing I like it...

i've always wanted a blue bunny

2005-10-25T22:41:00.000-04:00

it's blue! i named it bobbie. it's really not that fun, but it's funner than grading midterms, that's for sure.

"people were pushing up and stuff"

2005-10-12T09:37:00.000-04:00

so despite having a sinus infection, no order to life, etc., a stroke of luck befell me this morning as i drove out of Alewife. Usually rating about a yellow on the driving-terror scale, Alewife Brook Pky this morning rated a fabulous red. (I dunno, there were lights, assholes, the usual suspects). But apparently it was just too much for the tiny antsy man behind me in a souped up Honda. As I patiently waited for an opportunity to merge into traffic (I was being semi-aggressive whilst smiling, it's my new tactic), a woman decided she was not in a mood to be generous and cut me off. I had plenty of time to slow to a stop and wait for the next opening. Little man behind me must have decided I needed to cut that woman off (though she was acting like a non-generous ho-bag with large plastic sunglasses, she did have the right of way by means of a GREEN LIGHT). Sooooo he gives me a nice gentle WHAM from behind.
I pitched a fit, took a deep breath (telling myself I would NOT blow a snot rocket on him), and made myself the picture of understanding as i pulled to the side and got out to greet him. I'll give him credit, I don't think he meant to hit me, but his reason for so rudely cracking my license plate frame (only damage, I hope--hence the luck), was "People kept pushing up and stuff."

...

What? the fact that traffic was getting bad BEHIND you made you decide give me a nice old shove with your car? Since there wasn't any damage, I didn't need to create a worse traffic situation by pitching a fit, so I just acted bubbly and said "GEE, it's really bad traffic today!! Don't worry, not much damage!!" You asshole.

I love my alma mater

2005-09-29T09:42:00.000-04:00

NEW YORK TIMES--Vanderbilt's chancellor, Gordon Gee, stood on a chair amid the celebration of a comeback victory at Wake Forest on Sept. 1 and gazed down at a changed team. "I must say that I could see in their eyes that they felt like they had crossed a Rubicon," Gee said in a telephone interview. By beating Mississippi on Sept. 17 and Richmond on Sept. 24, Vanderbilt is 4-0 for the first time since 1984. And what must make Gee most proud is that the players in his program can define “Rubicon.”

Apparently it's only been since 1984 that Vandy was 4-0...still, that's EONS in football time. It's not like they've had a winning season to make us feel better about that anyways.

On an entirely different note, it smelled like Band-Aids on Route 2 this morning. Odd.

things I saw on my commute this morning

2005-09-23T12:34:00.000-04:00

While nothing will ever beat the time a trasient almost projectile vomited on me while I walked merrily to work through Central Square, there are surprising things that can be observed during rush hour on I-93:

--a man reading the newspaper. I had heard this is a common occurence, but had never actually seen it in practice. he had it propped on the steering wheel of his gold lexus and toodled along.

--a lady with what appeared to be prosthetic lips applying a healthy slathering of ugly purple lipstick in a big circle while unadroitly maneuvering her white cadillac across four lanes of traffic

I would add more but i have to go to class. that wasn't very entertaining, was it? How about this? I have new windshield wipers and they are awesome. I am the height of boring.

Vanderbilt?

2005-09-20T13:10:00.000-04:00

Now, I will be the first to admit that when I was in college I was not so enamored of our football team. I played rugby, which meant I was pissed that the football players (who wear pads) got a whole gym to themselves, not to mention a hot tub and a locker room, while I had to resort to the painful McGill shower to relax and often was forced to hang my ass in the breeze to change before a game. The other reason I didn't like football was that the girls all wore prom dresses to Homecoming games like it was a frigging cotillion or something. Not my thing (I don't think I can even spell cotillion, which gives you the idea). I was, however, happy that they lost a lot, because so did my rugby team, which meant we were upholding a longstanding tradition of weeny intellectualism at one of the South's most prestigious colleges.

Now Vanderbilt is 3-0 and I couldn't be more excited. I almost ordered my first Vanderbilt shirt that didn't say rugby on it since I was 8 years old. For those unrehearsed in the Vanderbilt football tradition: Vandy hasn't had a winning record since the 1940s. I think the last time they were 3-0 was 1943. They were 2-0 sometime in the 1980s, but that's eons in football fan years. Every year we think the money will have been spent well, that they won't make the football players actually do their school work, and we might win a few. But since Gordon Gee has been Chancellor, he has been working on proving that you can actually have academically viable football players AND a winnng football team (not really a shocking proposition, if you really think about it...hasn't the low expectations for college atheletes gone on long enough? but I digress). So here we are, with a football team with a 94% graduation rate and a winning record, a record that might ONLY GET BETTER in the next few games. Of course, I fully expect that Vandy will revert back to its Red-Sox-esque ways and break our hearts in the end.

But it's a nice distraction from the reading I now have to go do on the Progressive Movement...all 800 pages of it by tomorrow morning...uh...

ADDENDUM:
while trying to find a picture of some dumbass girl at Vandy dressed up for a football game, I found this description of my illustrious alma mater from some dipshit vying for our school to be inducted into some asshole's list of best "party schools". (on the same page someone mentioned that all freshman girls have to walk up a big hill to a required class, making their legs really hot). i would cite the quote but i just lost the link:

' Now really. Vanderbilt University, as quoted by the NY Times: "The girls here are smart, and some of the most unbelievably beautiful and fashionable around. The guys reap the benefits. The fraternity and sorority scene rules and it is not uncommon for girls to drop out of school when they don't get into their top-choice sorority freshman year. Money oozes out of the student body (for the 2nd most expensive school in the country, what did you expect?)...so, we take shots before going out, but they are always Grey Goose and we use Peach Stoli to make screwdrivers. Pre-partying at some of the most posh and expensive bars around town is commonplace...getting obliterated at Boundary or P.F. Chang's ($8-&15 drinks) before going downtown on a Thursday is routine. Football games(although our team is perpetually awful) are formal affairs: guys wear ties and jackets, girls wear cocktail dresses and there is a tailgate at almost every frat house. Everyone is obliterated and dressed-to-impress...football games are a 'see and be seen' affair. Frat parties are unbelievable, they go entirely overboard on their themes: filling their entire house with sand and adding waterfalls off their porches for 'Tiki Parties.' hiring Vanilla Ice to come play for a Saturday night party, and having formals at New Orleans, Destin, The work-hard, party-hard attitude is prevalent and there is substantial pressure to predominate at both." All of this, plus a top-20 school, can you say "work hard, play hard."'

i hate [insert here]

2005-09-09T10:35:00.000-04:00

i'm taking a moment out of this hell week to complain:
we have begun taking the commuter raiol since we are homeless and living with friends in haverhill (we were scared by taking I-93, so got passes, even though they are more expensive than carpooling). this means we have to catch the 6:30 train. it's gross. so yesterday i decide to sleep until a miraculous 6:15 and take the 6:52 train. but i need coffee to function, so i go to store 24 on the way. my card won't go through. i had to scrounge for a $1.30 to get a damn cup, and am now late.

so what do i do? RUN to the rail, sploshing coffee all over myself in the process. I see what seems to be a trail through the woods that runs along the rail, so i take it. but instead of leading to the train that is waiting there for me, it goes to some creepy prostitute hangout with dirt and filth. so i ditch my coffee and bag over the fence and try to climb it. but it is not a climbable fence. so now i'm stuck on one side, my bag and train on the other. i RUN again around, a cop drives by and waves. i finally get my bag, but the train pulls away right as i approach. i considered doing a hobo-style jump, but figured with my luck that could be deadly. so i sit on ground and cry. it was perhaps the worst start to a day EVER.

i finally made it to school, but am seriously behind on the work i need to finish (from a summer job). we drove in this morning and discovered not only is I-93 not as bad as we thought, it takes FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LESS to get here than on the commuter rail. I'm about ready to have an honest to goodness shit fit.

I'm Back!! I think...

2005-09-01T16:00:00.000-04:00

well, after a summer filled with mishaps and unexpected roadblocks, my brain is finally returning to my body for another semester. though I'm awfully worried about my friend Dan and his wife--current but maybe not future residents of New Orleans--life continues. Like my blog posts, I have fallen down on the communication recently, so I have had no recent contact with DanK. But I've been stalking his friends and his parents in an attempt to get word on their condition/status/location.

So Conor and I are homeless for the Month of September. Our lovely wonderful friends in Haverhill are letting us bunk in their guestroom, which is amazing of them. In the meantime I have to finish a buttload of research for a professor and get my ass in gear for school to begin--which includes getting ahead on reading for the class I'm TFing. Yeargh!!!

Conor & Kate

2005-05-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

Conor & Kate
Originally uploaded by Clarendon Palace.

pretty in prom 2005--note conor's duckie-esque hair. mine was flat by this point, and the scary nails are not in the picture, unfortunately, but boy did we have a good time.

Frida Kahlo, Eddie Munster, and the Great Blackout

2005-05-29T21:51:00.000-04:00

Frida Kahlo, Eddie Munster, and the Great Blackout
Originally uploaded by Clarendon Palace.

okay, the only person in this photo i know is chris the great blackout, but i just have to point out that the frida kahlo costme is one of the best things i have ever seen.

summertime

2005-05-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

is it summer? no, my summer vacay has seemed to pass me by in a flash. i guess i will have another one come July and August, but that seems so ffaaaaaarrrrrrrr....whining in type is interesting. I'm now starting a directed reading course, and I am scarily enjoying the books on southern economic history. it's actually really fun stuff...
but alas, today it is rainy and I have to go to the dentist, so i have to put off reading Old South, New South for the moment.

i'm sooooo not interesting.

the end of a semester

2005-05-12T13:05:00.000-04:00

aaaah...the freedom.of course i have to get a job and take a directed study, but i have one week of complete blissful relaxation. i am going to go through my files and prepare them for orals...clean my house and watch soap operas. i have to work both days at the hawthorne inn, which will be hard since i'm not used to cleaning 12 hotel rooms in one day..but at least it's exercise :)

pg 59

2005-05-05T15:21:00.000-04:00

pg 59
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

from the 1971 boston university yearbook...for more go to my flickr page

my house

2005-05-02T08:39:00.000-04:00

my house
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

I am going to paste this picture to every credit card I have, since this is the house we are going to buy! it's in littleton, right around the corner from a lake, lots of sun, nice neighborhood, i love it!

zelda and greta

2005-04-29T15:48:00.000-04:00

zeldagreta
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

just to explain my love of bunnies--this is Greta, the best bunny in the world (RIP), and Zelda, my lovely dovey kitty cat.

I'm going to stop being a gushing moron now, but I couldn't resist.

letigreUS72

2005-04-28T20:09:00.000-04:00

letigreUS72
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

okay, normally I hate PETA, because I think they are crazy and shrill, and I eat meat and don't feel bad about it. But I think fur is stupid, and I have a little brown bunny named Claudette (Greta died...). So I think this new Le Tigre is the cutest fucking thing I've seen in a long time.

dad and grandpa

2005-04-28T19:56:00.000-04:00

dad and grandpa
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

this is my dad and my grandpa in 1971, as my dad is leaving for Boston, where he would then become a preacher, meet my mom, marry her, have me...and become an expatriot southerner. i really like his pants, too.

do i piss people off?

2005-04-26T15:15:00.000-04:00

Do you ever get the feeling you are making people uncomfortable? Sometimes I think that because I was raised to be unapologetically "myself" it causes problems. Like this whole tendency I have to bother the shit out of people when they really don't want to be bothered, but I'm bored and want them to pay attention to me. Now, I understand that I crave recognition, and have learned to accept that about myself and try and mitigate it...but sometimes I think my hyper-enthusiasm, or maybe just hyper-activity, can be off putting. But my mother taught me that we all have our faults and it is pointless to be endlessly worrying what others think...but I can't help but wonder...sometimes...

On another note, I have a cold, and last night at about 4:10 am our cat decided he had to puke. In our bed. He didn't puke on me, but got Conor's side of the bed pretty good, so Conor had to sleep on the couch. Being sick, I felt perfectly at home in the barf-bed.

students

2005-04-25T12:57:00.000-04:00

From ratemyprofessors.com "TF makes or breaks the entire thing, as mine graded everybody with the same grade and same comments." About the class I am grading. Now what kind of comment is that? same grade and same comments? Sure, we end up writing similar things because students make similar stupid mistakes, but wtf? I'm just agitated and looking for something to complaint about...

piss.

2005-04-23T21:40:00.000-04:00

Somehow I accidentally deleted the file with most of my notes from my trip to Tennessee. It pretty much makes me want to puke. About 12 hours of painstaking data entry at the Tennessee State Library and Archives down the toilet, and another friggin delay on getting the article ready for publication. Not only can I not write, but apparently I'm a fucking moron to boot.

--kicking herself mightily

can't write

2005-04-22T12:16:00.000-04:00

it's that time of year again...when the insecurity sets in, along with acid reflux. i can't write for shit. i'm so overwhelmed by the fact that the words coming off the ends of my fingers neither go together or make valid, thoughtful points about things in the past. but i did manage to fill out a survey detaling what my life was like senior year of high school.

These questions apply to your SENIOR year in high school. After you're done reading your friends answers, erase them, fill in your own, and re-post.

During senior year:

1. What School did you attend?
Springfield High, Springfield, Vermont. Go Cosmos.

2. What year was it?
1996-97

3. What were your favorite band(s) or artist(s)?
I was definitely into Lynyrd Skynyrd. Beastie Boys, I think, was probably the most played. Weezer too.

4. What was your favorite outfit?
I think I looked like a refugee most of the time.

5. What was up with your hair?
Badly cut layers.

6. Who was/were your best friend(s)?
Kristen Miller, Sarah Bastille, Alice Peale, Brishen Welsh, Steffi Meins (from Germany), Matt Swenson, Seth Lauritsen

7. What did you do after school?
Tennis in spring, cross country skiing in winter, fall mountain biking...but really that's in my rosy memory. I think I mostly watched General Hospital and MTV and got yelled by my Mom at for being a lazy ass. I do know there was a time when Love Boat reruns were on, and I think I saw all the episodes--even the ones where they went to China and crap.

8. Where did you work?
Okemo Mountain. Kristen and I were lift attendants and we were bad ass. Up at 5:30 each morning on the weekends, worked 9 hour days...with some of the craziest people I have ever met. For example, the man that worked the top of my lift was called "Doggy." I picked up some choice phrases there, too.

9. Did you take the bus?
No, I drove the Big White Beast. --1989 Ford Taurus station wagon. It had a V6, screechy brakes, and sat 8 comfortably.

10. Who did you have a crush on?
Oh good god. I cringe to think. Really, though, by senior year...shit. I'm blanking.

11. Did you have a girlfriend/boyfriend and who?
Did I? I think I dated some gross dude from New York. I was bored. Dated Dan Knox the summer before senior year, and that was a self-esteem disaster.

12. Did you fight with your parents?
Mother - yes.

13. Did you ever get detention?
In French. She didn't like me a whole lot. And I got kicked out of Senior English because Kristen made me laugh. Or I made her laugh and then she made me laugh...it was a viscous circle.

14. Favorite Subjects?
History and English (mr. paul, mr. janiszyn, mr. carbonetti)

16. Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?
Guy Pierce, but i thought he was gay because he was so convincing in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Maybe that's why I'm a fag hag now? (kristen--wasn't there someone we were retarded over? who was it?!?!)

17. Did you smoke cigarettes?
No

18. Where was your Senior Prom held?
At the Hartness House Inn.

19. Did you have a "Max" (hangout) like Zach, Kelly & slater?
people often hung out in the parking lot in front of the grand union grocery store.
i rarely did. mostly i drove around in my car.

20. Admit it, were you popular?
Good God no. I got along with most people though.

21. Who did you want to be just like?
Like, an idol? I really wanted to be like Steffi, the German exchange student.

22. What did you want to be when you grew up?
A doctor. I actually maintained delusions of being good at math and science.

23. Where did you think you'd be at the age you are now?
In Boston living on Beacon Hill and going to med school or something. Really, I though 25/26 was friggin ANCIENT.

oh, the guilt!

2005-04-21T15:05:00.000-04:00

I hate having to give bad grades to students. I know they have to learn...but really, what am i doing but grading them against each other, in a totally subjective process? i mean, i have a rubric, i know what they argument should address, but in the end, i just hate the whole grading process, because it's just so uneven. one person might not get the point of the question, but tries really hard, and gets a worse grade than someone who is old hand at writing historical arguments, and writes the damn thing in just a few hours. i guess it goes to show that there are no As for effort in college...

classicfm

2005-04-17T20:27:00.000-04:00

This is what I listen to while I work. There is something very soothing about British people. They have some pretty freaky commercials though. Around 10-1 EST they play a show where every once in a while they have a woman in very breathy voice say "Relaax, it's classicfm." Aah ClassicFM

Ser Humano

2005-04-16T17:01:00.000-04:00

Ser Humano I've been blogged! That is such an awesome verb. I'm going to have to steal some photos and return the favor!

i know nothing

2005-04-16T16:52:00.000-04:00

I had the experience of feeling totally and utterly ignorant today. It happens a lot in this profession I've chosen--there are too many books for one person to ever read. So i'm writing a paper on Armenian Americans and political activity, not really my field, but it's interesting. While interviewing a member of a local political organization, he asked if I knew about the schism in the Armenian church. Clearly, I had no idea. Turns out the whole thing entirely counters the point I was going to make. Hm. Guess I'll rethink that paper a bit.

www.armenstock2004.org

Ser Humano

2005-04-08T17:20:00.000-04:00

Ser Humano
My friend Marcelo has a blog too!!!

ugh

2005-04-08T12:35:00.000-04:00

i'm a slackfuck. i now have 76 papers to grade and two very large papers to write, including research...my life is less than exciting at the moment.

i have decided that i need a scandal, gossip, or something extremely entertaining to make my life more dazzlingly interesting. are all grad students this dour and depressing?

CIA

2005-03-05T19:39:00.000-05:00

I went to my brother in law's graduation from the Culinary Institute of America yesterday. It was interesting...they wore hats and medals, and then they fed us a four course dinner at 10:30 in the morning, complete with 2 kinds of wine and dessert. needless to say, we all went back and passed out for a while...that is, except for me, since naps don't seem to be in my constitution recently.

so i farted around and read emails and thought about how i don't get enough, and how people think i'm probably nuts for responding 5 minutes after they send one, so I'm trying to abstain from writing back instantaneously.

now we're in Somerset, NJ. It's new jersey. why am i here again?

my new project

2005-02-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

the email i recently sent out, results to be posted here:

After years on the radio, recording themed mix tapes for rugby
parties, running, and road trips, and with the advent of the
miraculous ipod, I have made a discovery. I have lost my appreciation
for the artistic merit of the rock album. Rather than looking for the
list of perfect songs, I have decided to instigate a search for the
list of "perfect" albums. This search is driven not by a quest for
"representational" albums of a time or place, but to compile a list of
records that stand as complete works of art. Remember the album you
could listen to end to end, and wouldn't sound as good unless the
songs were in that particular order? Where any song played on the
radio felt empty unless followed by its successor? And each record
could have a different meaning: the sustained debauchery of Appetite
for Destruction, the perfect completeness of Weezer's blue album, the
range of madness on Tom Waits' Raindogs, or the perfect party in
Beck's Midnite Vultures...all examples.

I know it's a High Fidelity-esque music nerd kind of thing to do, but
I'm surveying all my friends to find their favorite "perfect"
albums--a top 5 will suffice. I'll compile the list...and go from
there.

70th birthday

2005-02-26T10:42:00.000-05:00

today is my mimi's 70th birthday...she had my mom when she was 20 (after having 2 kids), and then had four more. If I were living her life I would have six children right now. my mom had me when she was 23. yikes.

electrocution

2005-02-25T12:41:00.000-05:00

I think my ipod just tried to electrocute me while I was searching for books on Armenia in the library. what is it today?

The Avalanche

2005-02-25T10:17:00.000-05:00

Email I sent this morning:

I nicely went over to the history department to see what time nthe seminar is at today, like a good, responsible student. Now, it had snowed a good 5 inches or so, and everything is all bright and pretty..

So as I'm leaving the department, I turn the corner, and right under my adviser's window, a huge clob of snow lands--BOOF--right on my fucking head. And it wasn't a small clob of snow, it was a good shovelful, falling off a window sill or something. The secretary of the department was walking by and saw the whole thing.

I think it's symbolic.

nose whistler

2005-02-22T12:25:00.000-05:00

I just sat through a three hour class throughout which the nose of the guy sitting next to me WHISTLED. Now, I have a high tolerance for all things disgusting, but three hours of nose whistling almost put me over the edge. BLOW YOUR GODDAMN NOSE!!! And he sorta smells, too. Is it required that once accepted to graduate school, one must develop habits that are not only disgusting, but offensive and disturbing to those in your surrounding? ARGHH!!!!!!!

patriot's fan

2005-02-21T17:35:00.000-05:00

patriot's fan
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

Kristen got that shirt when we went to Boston sometime in ninth grade...I finally discovered this picture in an old box. Now why don't they make team gear like this anymore? What happened to that 1993 style?

white gorilla

2005-02-21T12:40:00.000-05:00

white gorilla
Originally uploaded by katisjewell.

It's name is Snowflake. Visit Nature at pbs.org for more info. Fucking amazing. I want one for a pet.

hs thompson

2005-02-21T12:19:00.000-05:00

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2723492,00.html

I taught Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 this semester...should I have a vigil? The man was a fruitcake, and the fact he shot himself doesn't really surprise me. That sounds crass...I'll have to practice my sensitivity a bit more.

Sheala

2005-02-21T02:09:00.000-05:00

http://speedingvan.blogspot.com

i'm a copycat

2005-02-21T01:05:00.000-05:00

Good ole sis started a blog, and i thought i'd start one too because i don't really have anything important to say...except that i'm very good at procrastinating and i don't get enough email to keep me busy.

Reasons to start a blog:
1.) i used to work in an office and got over 100 emails a day. now i'm a graduate student and i feel terribly negected without a message every 2 minutes, even if the ones i used to get were just stupid office forwards or instructions for me to print out an email and file it.

2.) i have to write a paper and i have writer's block, and it's supposedly good to write drivel until it clears. again, reference lack of email comment.

3.) i've run out of people to look for on friendster. i have spied on all the people i hated in high school, the people i was envious of in college, and i actually get email from the people i like.

I'm watching "Island at War" on PBS. I think it may be the most boring movie about World War Two. The characters confuse me. So far all i've got are two main groups: deluded and slightly moral Germans, first, then deluded and slightly moral English people, second.