Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Nightmare

Last night I had a scary nightmare in which I was trapped in some sort of game where I could only speak Chinese, and there were all these people with cell phones who kept trying to talk, only their mouths had been sewn shut.

Honestly, it's like my subconscious has been reading Anxiety Dreams for Dummies.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Touteng

If my favorite thing about Chinese is that chickens say "chicken chicken," the fact that the character for "to love dearly" is the second character in "headache" is a very close second.

Exam week

Last night was primal scream, when we all stand on the porch and scream until our voices give out. It's always pretty great. Last night also I watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 with Kate and Andrea, which was also highly enjoyable, and then I went and got coffee and ate pop tarts and practiced Chinese characters until 2 o'clock in the morning.

Yes, that's right, I had pop tarts. What's more, I'm having more pop tarts right now as I'm typing this. It's pretty appalling. But they probably don't even have pop tarts in China, because I think sugar is rationed there. Come to think of it, eight months of cabbage and rice is probably an excellent post-exam post-holiday detox. If only I'd taken Japanese instead, that would be even better, but this'll do.

It's highly tempting to just sleep and read comic books all day so that tomorrow will come quicker and I can take my exams and be done with them, but this would probably be what's known as a Bad Idea.

Home. Soon. And Christmas. And China.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

My seminar paper

Manson's article "What does language tell us about consciousness" raises many very complicated questions that I cannot even begin to understand. In this paper, I will attempt to write twelve pages. While I have your attention, can I have a recommendation for graduate schools?

Thursday, December 08, 2005

When they said sit down I stood up

One of the hardest things about growing up for me is that I often feel like I am doing such a good job! I did not throw a big public tantrum! I did not push that girl who was in my way! I did not say anything rude to the pretentious boy in my seminar! I am holding it together! I am being brave and making conversation with people with whom conversation is very difficult, i.e. almost everybody in the whole world! What a good job I am doing; I win at life! But- and this is the difficult part - I do not get a medal. No one ever says to me, "Nice job not kicking me in the shin more often!" Nor should they. But what no one gets is, for all the bad, childish things I do, there are ever so many more I'm holding back, and shouldn't I get some sort of prize for that?

So even though I did not manage to hold it together 100% this evening when life thwarted me yet again, I held it together much better than I could have. So I treated myself to a cup of chai. Way to go, EGA. You are doing a good job.

More of the rage

Can I just reiterate how much I hate it when People Who Can Sing insist on doing so, all the time, in either their American Idol warble or Opera Diva extreme high pitch- walking down the hall at 11 o'clock at night, at the dinner table, JUST STOP IT. I don't want to hear it.

People who can't sing but do so anyway are another story. They do not seem to expect everyone in the whole world to want to hear them. They are singing for their own pleasure. To these people: carry on. Just keep it down.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Little Girl

Tonight at dinner we were discussing elementary school, and Caitlin said "I don't actually remember learning to read."
"I do," I said. "I remember reading Bears on Wheels all by myself, and I went to go tell my mom and she said, 'Oh, I don't care, I don't love you anymore, I only love your new baby sister.'"
"I doubt those are the words she used," said Kate.
"But it came through loud and clear."

Then I said that I'd listened to the same song like thirty five times in two days, and Kate wanted to know which song, and I wouldn't tell her, and then she looked at her watch and smirked, and I didn't want to ask her why, figuring she was probably counting down until her next public display of affection with her girlfriend or something, and who needs to hear about that, but in fact she was timing how long it would take for me to get tired of keeping a secret and tell her the song.

It took 30 seconds.

I really wish I could go back in time and run my experiment on my 5-year old self. I'd like to know how I'd do. I bet I'd make a bunch of Type C errors, because that's what all the cool kids do, but probably I'd've just been a yes-bias-er, because I still kind of am. "Every mouse has a cookie? Totally!" "Would I like a cigarette? Absolutely!"

Talked to Jim today, which was kind of nice. I now have three professors with extremely specific ideas of what I should write my thesis on, none of which is what I actually want to write my thesis on, but he did say that I didn't need to worry too much about getting into one of the Garfield 9, which is kind of a relief.

Today I was doing my radio show and some guy called in and said mine was the best show, that it was just awesome, beginning to end. I'm glad he likes it, since I definitely play the exact same songs every week. Kep of course lost no time in pointing out that he probably calls everybody and tells them that, but this is because she is a killjoy.

p.s. Mum & Kep- no hard feelings. I'm over the Bears on Wheels thing and the radio fan thing, really I am.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Chicken Chicken!

Remember how in China, chickens go "chicken chicken"? Well, it's totally true, and in fact my fellow Logic T.A. Julia claims that's how they got the name in the first place. This was discussed at the logic dinner. We tried to think of English examples of the same thing, but could only come up with birds - whippoorwills, whooping cranes, and something called kik-a-rik-kee, but I don't know what that is. On Friday in Chinese we watched a film called, apparently, Tadpoles Searching for Mother. It was, without a doubt, one of the cutest things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was done in the style of Chinese brush painting, and it was these teeny tiny tadpoles searching for their mother and they kept going up to other pond creatures like goldfish and crying "Hao mama hao mama!" and it was adorable. They made friends with some baby chicks (xiao ji) who went "ji ji ji" ("chicken chicken chicken!") and I totally thought the chicks were going to eat the tadpoles but they didn't. And I was so excited about the baby chicks going "ji ji ji."

This weekend was Winter Weekend and there was much dancing and carousing, but no drinking. I did dance with TWO sketchy guys at the campus center, which brings my total of Guys I Have Properly Danced With to I think six. Let's make a list:
  1. The absurdly high-voiced boy at the Canisius dance in 1999, who put his hands on my hips and I put my hands on his shoulders and then I had to confess to my journal and I felt all harloty
  2. Two boys, Alex and Joshua, at the Sem Date Dance sophomore year. They were Jillian's and Erica's dates, respectively. Alex was about five foot two and a male soprano, and I swayed with him and looked over the top of his head and was bored.
  3. Josh was a little taller than me, sort of stocky, and in my opinion the absolute ultimate in dreaminess. The dance he gave me as a courtesy resulted in a hopeless crush and much more rather ridiculous journaling.
  4. A very sketchy but handsome Asian boy who smelled like cigarettes at a Quad party my first year. I still blush at the recollection.
  5. Sketchy Guy Last Night #1
  6. Sketchy Guy Last Night #2
Now that Winter Weekend is over, we are really really in the home stretch. I always feel guilty at this time of year for being so much less stressed than everybody else. Exams never seem to bother me. They will be got through. Papers will be written. In less than 20 days I'll be back in the Queen City of the Lakes, watching Jeeves & Wooster and having my parents cook for me. I could wish that my relationship with K. didn't have to come to such a complete and total stop in such a short time, but that's life, I suppose, and it's better to be glad of having nice things while you have them than to be upset that nice things don't last forever.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Logic Lecture

My account of last year's lecture

Tonight was the annual Alice Ambrose/Tom Tymoczko Logic Lecture, given by Barbara Partee, a very well-known semanticist. It was really great. First we had hors d'oeuvres and mingling in the Dewey Common Room, and I was not the only student this year, which was kind of a relief but also a little disappointing. I felt so special last year. Two other TAs were there and they're both very nice and one of them is from China, so we talked about that, and Professor Partee talked to us and so did John Connolly, who is really super cool. Then we all went into dinner and Jay offered us wine and Julia burst out with, "REALLY?" Yes, really. We each got two inches of white wine in plastic cups just like big girls. Jay was at our table, as was Barbara Partee, and so we got to talk to her, which was nice.

This was the first year I really understood the lecture, which was about negation and intentionality in Russian and English. Because of the Russian aspect, Kendra came, and I hope she was able to get some enjoyment from it because I certainly did. It touched on so many things we've discussed this year in my seminar, and there was also a lot of talk about quantifiers which is, of course, what I've been working on all semester with these goshdarn children and teachers who refuse to let them out of the classroom for five minutes and don't seem to understand that that's why we have a campus school. Ahem.

This was just the sort of thing I needed, because at this point in the semester I'm finding myself growing increasingly apathetic about everything, and now I'm all excited about negation and all I want to do is study logic and be Barbara Partee when I grow up.

Technological Innovations

Last night I finally got my laptop set up to play DVDs and for the first time realized that you can totally use a laptop while lying in bed. So, basically, there is no need for me to ever leave my room or sit upright ever again.

Except for classes, and maybe meals, and definitely the logic lecture tonight.