2.28.2006

I decided my blog needed a little something extra, so I've designed this peacock to go to the top right of the page. I haven't decided which look is best. Let me know if you have a preference.

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I redesigned the blog yet again, and the one thing that has me stumped: if you resize the page, the header moves to stay in the center, whereas the posts and sidebar stay right where they are. I've cross-referenced the CSS of my blog with a similar blog, and I can't figure out what I need to do.

Like the lazyass I am, I missed the application deadline for the year-long study abroad program I want to do. I missed it by a month because I was too lazy to fill out the application. I e-mailed the graduate student in charge, and she told me that they still have a couple spaces open. All I need to do is turn in my application and get a couple advisors to write letters of recommendation, and I'm in. Year in Paris! P.S. One of my friends is currently doing the program I'm interested in, and you can read her blog about it, linked in the sidebar. ------>

2.27.2006

The other day, Talia and I went to Great Harvest, as we are wont to do, and like always they asked us if we would like a free sample from the bread board. Like always, they just asked without actually telling us what was on there. I hate that--pretty much all bread looks the same, and even if one bread has tiny green flecks, no one knows if it's oregano or basil or garlic or pesto or whatever the hell it is. I guess the guy working there agreed that all breads look alike, since he pointed to one loaf and called it Honey Whole Wheat. I thought Honey Whole Wheat would be a good ambassador for the chocolate butter, so I asked for that. After I got served (booya!), the guy left, this girl employee came up, and offered Talia a slice. Talia asked for the Cheddar Garlic, which happened to come from the very same loaf my Honey Whole Wheat had come from. I ate chocolate butter on Cheddar Garlic bread.

I ate chocolate butter on Cheddar Garlic bread.

Truth be told, it wasn't as horrifying as it sounds. The chocolate was overwhelming enough that I didn't really even taste the cheddar or garlic. But if you asked me to do it again, you'd have a hard time convincing me it would be tasty.

I redesigned my blog (obviously), but it looks like ass in IE. I'm trying to fix it.

ETA: Woo! A couple more hours, and I got it. Obviously, this layout is not my ideal layout; I'm limited by my gross ignorance of CSS. Part of the reason why I redo my blog every few months is certainly because I get bored of staring at the same old layout, but the other part I think is because I have a need to get better at CSS.

2.26.2006

Someone found my blog by searching for "transvestite working at Walgreens". Dear person: I love you.

2.22.2006

Dream:
     I was in high school again. Someone had put a hit list in my locker, so it was being investigated. I only knew one person on the list, and moreover it wasn't even my handwriting. I had to go through and prove I didn't know people, which is nearly impossible. I was angry that I was being held like this. I started pulling a narc's hair after she was bitchy to me. A jury that included my mom decided that I wasn't worthy of a trial, so they took me to prison.
     Totally different dream: Ryan Seacrest wanted to date me.


I used to really dislike Ryan Seacrest, but he gets awesomer with each consecutive season of AI. Also, he's attractive when he doesn't smile. Also, he's short (5'7"), which is always good for me. God, I'm so lame.

2.21.2006

Remember when I thought C+ was the worst grade I could possibly get on my Quebec lit paper? I did better than that: I got a B. Woo! He said that my thesis and my arguments were strong, but I just needed to make the paper longer. (I wrote 4.5 out of 6-7 pages, so I completely agree with him.) He also said I had a great understanding of the text, which...if I ever didn't deserve a compliment, that'd be it. I read the book at the last minute, and when I say I "read" it, I mean I read 3/4 of it.

I had such a great, relaxing weekend. I also dropped my grad-level lit class, cause let's face it, I'm stupid. I'm also somewhat stressed out. I feel like a bit of a failure, dropping the class, but...what're ya gonna do?

Time to update my knitblog and then read.

2.16.2006

So my paper is going crappily. It's almost 3 am, I have 2 of 5 pages written, and I don't have a whole lot else to say. I started reading articles from a course pack for my film theory course in an attempt to find things to say. It went...alright. I found two relevant quotations, one that was easy to integrate, and one that still hasn't been integrated yet. Outstanding features of this paper include footnotes (normally I do bibliographies and in-text citations, but I was feeling bold) and an appendix of hand-drawn images illustrating a specific point I wanted to make.

Unrelated: I'm in a passive-aggressive mood right now.

I'm seriously considering writing another page, going to bed, skipping my morning class, and finishing the paper then (it's due at 1). I feel really guilty missing class, and I like to have my paper done before I go to bed, but...I've reached my limit. I stayed up til 5am on Monday night writing. My knees are killing me from sitting for so long. I'm fatigued in general (see: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis). I have so much on my mind, and it seems like I'm mentally less and less capable of dealing with it. I just feel totally slowed down, like I've been drugged.

Dear Andre Bazin: Thank you for saving my paper.

I guess it might be pertinent to mention that my paper is a sequence analysis of René Clair's Le Million. I chose the scene when Antionio Sopranelli enters the pawn shop and buys the jacket. I'm hoping that name-dropping Bazin and using erudite film-dork terms like MacGuffin will earn me some extra points. My prof and classmates think I'm a legit film-dork, when in reality I'm just a film-dork poser. But I can use the terms and apply them, whereas my classmates are still trying to figure out how a jump cut differs from a straight cut, let alone recognize when the 180-degree rule has been broken (or things of that nature). The other day, my prof was talking about auteurs, and she said something like, "I know Kerry's got something to say on that subject!" That made me feel warm and fuzzy. And smart. And SMART!

I found my professor's doctoral thesis online, and I'm almost thinking of reading the relevant parts and quoting them back to her in my paper. Is that kosher? If it's kosher, is it totally lame? If it's kosher and totally lame, am I above it? ...Probably not.

Wish me luck.

2.15.2006

My knees are so incredibly sore, because all I do all day is sit. Gah. I'm all cramped up, and I have to continue to sit tonight to write my paper.

ETA: Plant progress



When Tom got me this flower for my birthday back in October, we had the following conversation:

me: So the instructions say to put the bulb in the fridge for 8 weeks, and then plant it, and then it'll bloom in 4-6 weeks. So... [calculates] [in a somewhat mocking tone] it'll bloom just in time for Valentine's Day! Tom, you sweetheart!
Tom: Uh, yeah... I planned it that way... on purpose... yeah.

Turns out it did bloom just in time for Valentine's Day, not that I really cared about that or anything. In true Kerry fashion, I was just happy about being right.

I'm writing my paper for my film seminar, and finding it a lot easier to analyze a film than a book. I've always known this. I'm thinking about going into French film. That'd be an interesting field.

Only this paper and 2 classes keep me from home.

I posted pictures of my dog to my knitblog, which prompted Talia to ask, "Why not to your other blog?" So here you go:





I'm excited because I get to see him this weekend. There is also talk of Talia coming to frolic with me. All I have to do is make it through 4 more classes and a paper.

Last night I stayed up til 5am to write that paper, and I woke up at 8:30 to finish it. I didn't nap today, which was a departure from my normal behavior. It's 12:25 and I'm not even really that tired. I bought a top at Target (which ended up being too small for my linebacker shoulders), and its colors have inspired me to change the colors of my blog. The change definitely won't happen until the weekend (or even afterward).

2.14.2006

I'm rethinking my previous stance on my paper. I only wrote 4.5 pages instead of the "suggested" 6-7, so who knows how I'll do. Ugh.

2.13.2006

I have a paper due tomorrow morning at 10:30, so obviously I'm procrastinating. I have about 1.5 pages of 6-7. Whoops. The topic is basically "make up your own topic on this book". I chose something that, while not so creative, is a central theme. I still feel like I have to BS a lot of it.

Jessie and Bob order pizza for dinner like 3 times a week. I don't know their normal lunch activity, but I did see them at the food court in the Union, so I wonder if that's what they normally do. I can't help but wonder how much healthier they'd be if they replaced those pizzas with some grilled chicken and a salad.

I'm so cold I can feel the goosebumps on my scalp. And when I say I can feel them, I don't mean I can perceive a texture difference when I put my hand on my scalp; I mean that just sitting here, I can tell by the way my scalp is pulling at itself that I have goosebumps. I just drank some tea and put the thermostat on 67 (it was at 62), so we'll see if I warm up at all.

My back hurts too much to knit more than a few rows at a time. According to my schedule, I'm supposed to have the back piece of the sweater done today. It might be possible to do that if I stay up late. Which I'll inevitably end up doing, since I took a nap this afternoon (bad idea--it started out originally as me laying down to stretch out my back, and then I thought I might as well put my electric blanket over myself to warm up, and...you know how it is).

I'll be so glad to have this stupid paper done.

ETA: Still up, still working on the paper, at 3:36am. 4 pages done. Why do I do this to myself? I had a 3-day-weekend (like every weekend of mine, mwahaha)--why didn't I do this paper then? In my defense, I felt like I did a lot of homework then, and in reality, I did. I just need to plan stuff out better. I had an Americano at around 11:30, and that's kept me going for the past couple hours, but now I'm starting to crash and burn. I just need to BS some stuff so I can get a little bit of sleep before tomorrow. If I'm being completely honest, I don't think I'll get lower than a C+ on this paper, and even a C+ would be pushing it. Also, I figure as long as I write 5.5 pages, I'll be okay.

Dream:
     I was in my high school orchestra. We sightread Beethoven's 7th, which we seriously sightread every semester. We also sightread Brahms' Academic Festival Overture. Allie's viola fell on the floor. I went to get an orange Italian soda, right before we were about to play.
     Then I had fallen asleep in a lit class. The girl next to me woke me up. One girl asked if we could distribute the workload, meaning have more people participate than normally do. The professor started at one end of the room and asked everyone to share one interesting thing about the book. When it was my turn, I talked about
Rumpole of the Bailey and the British judicial system.
     Rob's dad, my brother, and I were in a book store, and Rob's dad asked me to explain "line theory" to my brother.

2.12.2006

Here's a much-needed reprisal of something I "borrowed" from an "acquaintance" back in my freshman year of college.

Overrated

  • Blaming the majority for the sins of a minority
  • Slacker culture
  • Cheap, frat-boy beers
  • Ice cream (non-soft-serve)
  • DVD commentaries
  • Wearing sweatshirts to bed
  • Electric guitars
  • Acknowledging Valentine's day, either by buying/receiving gifts or by being bitter

Underrated
  • Compassion, understanding, tolerance
  • Getting work done without complaining to anyone
  • Gourmet beer
  • Milkshakes
  • Reading
  • Electric blankets
  • String sections and vibraphones
  • Ignoring Valentine's day


Edited at 8:12pm to add the italicized items

2.10.2006

Knitting Olympics.

So far this weekend, I've watched La Pianiste, Jacob's Ladder, the commentary on Napoleon Dynamite, and the commentary on I Heart Huckabees. The commentary on ND was so terrible. It was basically Jared Hess saying, "This is from real life. I really went to scout camp, and we made boondoggles! It's so real." Uh, yeah. Everyone went to scout camp and made boondoggles. Boring. And the whole thing was like that.

I also watched the 2-hour finale of Arrested Development. So many good cameos--William Hung, Richard Belzer (as Munch, no less), Jeff Garlin, Ed Begley Jr., Ron Howard. It was hilarious.

Soemthing that bugs me: In Fiona Apple's "Extraordinary Machine", she pronounces "curious" two different ways: once the normal way, and the second time she says curry-us. That bothers me.

So I guess Pandora needs a connection speed of at least 500 Kbps to work, and my internet company starts rate-limiting people if they use 500 Mb per 24 hours. I don't know math at all, but it means I can listen to Pandora for a few hours before my connection gets dial-up slow for the next day and a half. Boo. I liked going through and saying whether I liked stuff or didn't like stuff, and seeing why they picked stuff for me (apparently, I like music with major key tonality and minor key tonality--WHO KNEW?).

The Knitting Olympics starts today. I also have so much work to be doing for school in the next few weeks, not to mention having to go home for 4.5 days to babysit the dog. I guess that's the spirit of the games--getting this thing done despite the obstacles. However, when I signed up, I wasn't really anticipating all this crap. Stupid me, I signed up before class even started, so I had no idea what my workload would be like. Anyyyyyyyyway, check out my knitblog sometime in the next two weeks if you care.

I'm going to go read as much as I can in the two hours before the KO start.

2.08.2006

Plant update. You know what this means: more shitty pictures.



I kind of like doing this, because I don't really see any progress in the plant until I compare the weekly pictures.

ETA: I really hope Rob reads my blog, because he's one of the few people who would enjoy this, and he's not online right now. In the Wikipedia article on agglunitave language, there's a sign that says it has been suggested that that article should be combined with the article on agglunation.

In my animation class, we were talking about racism in cartoons. Bosco was brought up as an example, and we watched a few cartoons, one of which clearly identified him as a racial stereotype, and one in which he acted no different from any other cartoon character. I watched Bosco cartoons when I was little, and I had no idea he was supposed to be a black person. Until today, I would have told you he was a ripoff of Mickey Mouse, but a monkey.

2.07.2006

Last night I bought an issue of Rolling Stone, cause I get bored in between classes and I wanted something to read. There was an article about a website called Pandora. You tell your musical tastes, and they create a radio station based on your preferences toward "light rhythmic syncopation", "minor key tonality", "nasal vocals", etc. It's amazing. Everything a music-nerd-hopeful could ever want.

I have really nothing to say except I'm so exhausted. The week hasn't really even started and I'm exhausted. The only reason I got out of bed this morning is because I have to give a short, informal presentation in class this morning. I feel like I've been drugged, or like I'm living underwater, or something. There will definitely be a nap happening when I get home at 3.

2.06.2006

Dream:
     I got a pet turtle, two fish, and a bird. My dad wanted to go canoeing.


My score was 88.5. Let me know if you do better than me.

2.05.2006

I just went through and wrote out all the important dates (papers, tests, etc). Gah. March is hell--I have a major thing due every other day until spring break. It's manageable after spring break. I don't know how I'll make it that far. The flood starts on Feb 14: that's when my first paper is due. I calculated by the end of the semester I will have written 88 pages.

Also: I went and looked at the scheduled final exam times, and I have one 7-10pm on May 9. I think that's when Talia's recital is scheduled. I'll be really pissed if I have to miss her recital. Gnah.

Talia and I went to the local mall. I hadn't been there in probably 10 years or so. The minute I stepped foot inside, I remembered hanging out there with my parents, my cousin, and my aunt and uncle. It's mostly dead in there; there were 2 decent stores, and then there were a bunch of antique vendors. It was interesting to be there again.

2.04.2006

I went to see Andrew Bird. It was a great show. The first opener was a generic acoustic girly indie act. The second one was pretty cool; he would play a rhythm and loop it, and then add layers of synthesizer, drums, and random other stuff. Andrew Bird came out in the middle of his set, and then it turned out that guy accompanied AB through the latter's set. He played my two favorites, A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left and Fake Palindromes. I got a couple pictures on my phone, but they're as crappy as you would expect.

2.03.2006

Last night I watched Fargo. Today I watched Dogville. Compared to Dancer in the Dark, Dogville had a damn happy ending.

Tonight my brother, his friend, and I are going to see Andrew Bird.

2.01.2006

Plant progress day:


Look at my little baby! I'm so proud of it.

For Valentine's Day, Talia and I are going to the Chinese buffet. Keeping the lesbian rumors alive, folks.

Watched Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin in one of my classes.

Here's an awkward situation I had today:
     I was sitting in the classroom for my animation class about 30 minutes before it began. There were a couple other people. This one guy comes in, and he asks us if we wouldn't mind looking at his portfolio. I guess he just recently decided he wanted to get into advertising, so he made up a bunch of fliers to pitch to a local tattoo parlor. The guy turned him down.
     And I can see why: the fliers were terrible. And I couldn't tell him that, because he had gone on bragging about how he had a knack for advertising, and how he was one of 5 people out of "like 700" to be selected to present his advertising project in a previous class. He was staring at me with a dumb, hopeful grin on his face. I gave him some bullshit compliment, because I can't be mean to someone's face. I can't even be honest to someone's face.
     It was stuff like babies giving the middle finger, and "Your tattoo won't look like [big picture of upside-down shit]", and Michael Jackson. Just utter shit. Jeez, it was as depressing as anything.

Back pain.

I didn't nap today.