Exile On Green Street

iTunes Magic 8-Ball Meme

2007-01-20T19:32:00.000-05:00

Found this meme on Center of Gravitas and couldn't resist.

Simple directions: Open iTunes to your entire digital library (not just a playlist), then use the shuffle function on your music player and see what you come up with in answer to the following questions.

1. How does the world see you?
Ella Fitzgerald, "Anything Goes"
Though I'm not a great romancer, I know that I'm bound to answer when you propose...
I am a free spirit! I'm unpredictable and wild!

2.Will I have a happy life?
Laura Cantrell, "Khaki and Corduroy."
Late hours in the Spanish clubs with your arms around the one you love...
I take this to mean that I will have a life of poignent yet beautiful moments, which I will look back on nostalgically. Which seems to be the case so far.

3. What do my friends really think of me?
Eels, "Trouble With Dreams"
You don't need a thing from me, but I need something big from you, cause you know I've got an awful lot of big dreams...
I'm not sure whose point of view this is supposed to be from, but I do tend to need things from my friends. Putting up with large amounts of weirdness and petty drama is a must.

4. Do people secretly lust after me?
Magnetic Fields, "Papa Was A Rodeo"
Why don't you just get into my car, and I'll take you away, I'll take that kiss now...
Haha, they totally do.

5. How can I make myself happy?
Sprites, "Bionic Hands"
Now I only want to touch you one more time, feel your fingers laced in mine, but I have no feeling left in my bionic hands...
I need to be touched more.

6. What should I do with my life?
The Galactic Heroes, "Back in Love"
I'm not lying, it's so exciting to see you back in love again...
Yeah, probably true.

7. Will I ever have children?
Modest Mouse, "Paper Thin Walls"
These walls are paper thin and everyone hears every little sound...
Better not try until I move out of Smith housing, I guess.

8. What is some good advice for me?
Wir Sind Helden, "Mussen Nur Wollen"
Muss ich immer alles müssen was ich kann...
"We can create everything exactly like the mad trained ape" - That is so not helpful at all.

9. How will I be remembered?
Tegan and Sara, "Not Tonight"
Everything in my body says not tonight, everything in my body says no...
I really don't know what to make of this.

10. What is my signature dancing song?
Madeleine Peyroux
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in, lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove, dance me to the end of love...
Works for me. How do you dance to this? I hope it's foxtrot-compatible.

11. What do I think my current theme song is?
The Decemberists, "Eli the Barrow-Boy"
Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe, made of gold and silk Arabian thread, but she is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove, and I must push my barrow all the day...
And I had thought things were going so well.

12. What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
The White Stripes, "Hypnotize"
You're the kind of girl a guy like me could hypnotize...
This doesn't seem quite right, either. I'm really not a White Stripes type of girl. So angry!

13. What song will play at my funeral?
The Format, "Sore Thumb"
So please just leave, you don't mean that much to me...
That is so inappropriate!

14 What type of men do I like?
Ok Go, "Don't Ask Me"
Don't say it's been awhile, don't flash that stupid smile, don't ask me how I've been...
Angry men who hate me?

15. What is my day going to be like?
Magnetic Fields, "The Way You Say Goodnight"
The night birds start to sing their song, the moon begins to sing, you're beautiful...
That doesn't sound so bad.

Spellcheck

2006-11-28T19:09:00.000-05:00

I am a member of the spellcheck generation. I was astonished to learn over the weekend that "border" like between countries and "boarder" like someone who lives in a boarding house are spelled differently. When my father was a kid, he dreamed of a machine that would make learning to spell obsolete. He didn't anticipate arguing with it over the spelling of his last name every day. Anteater? Attributer? Maltreated? Attracter? Attested?

I am amused by the suggestions for Carnap (Canape, Catnap) and Frege (Free, Forage, Fringe). I always wish Frege hadn't been a Nazi; I'd like it if we could be friends.

Disney Princes

2006-11-09T20:54:00.000-05:00

In a group of girls (or are we women now?) my age, there are certain cultural phenomena that will get everyone talking. The Babysitters Club is one. Tonight we spent a good ten minutes arguing about whether Jo should have married Laurie (I say she's too good for him) and even more discussing who the hottest Disney princes are. Leaving aside my disturbing childhood crush on the parrot from Aladdin, I would suggest:

1. Shang (from Mulan): If there's anything hotter than a Chinese man, it's a Chinese man who's in love with (what he believes is) another Chinese man.

2. Aladdin (eponymous - one of my favorite words): Much more flair and personality than your average Disney hero

3. Robin Hood: Although his human hands creeped me out a little.

~~4. Flounder (The Little Mermaid)~~

(Actually I can't think of any others who do anything for me. Not John Smith, certainly.)

Okay, back to work.

2006-10-09T21:07:00.000-04:00

Human Anatomy for Artist: huge source of hi-res pose photos

2006-01-26T01:37:00.000-05:00

Lao Beijing

2006-01-26T01:35:00.000-05:00

Chaoyang

2006-01-26T01:34:00.000-05:00

Aijia, Shuyi, Jiani, and Lili having lunch at Lao Beijing

2006-01-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

My roommate (left) and me in our room in Beijing

2006-01-25T22:58:00.000-05:00

Me in my room in Beijing

SAT Time

2006-01-12T09:26:00.000-05:00

Here are some fun words. Try to use them in a sentence today.

blatteroon - A person who will not stop talking.
capernoited - Slightly intoxicated or tipsy.
cenatory Pertaining to dinner or supper.
eximious - Choice, select or excellent.
funambulist - A tightrope walker.
gargalesthia - The sensation caused by tickling.
lethologica - The inability to recall a precise word for something.
nostomania - Overwhelming homesickness.
quatrayle - One's great great great grandfather.
urticate - To beat with a whip.

News from the Home front

2006-01-11T09:43:00.000-05:00

I've been idling around, reading baby books ostensibly because I don't want to get sucked into anything I can't finish, doing some quilting and some laundry and tidying but not much. I've listened to all of They Might Be Giants' albums in chronological order, newest to oldest, excluding EPs, inspired by their magnificent show at Northsix on New Year's. Rarely have I seen John Linnell so animated- smiling and laughing and waving his arms. Many things have changed in my life since I was twelve, but it is still my belief that the man is utterly without flaw and may well have been sired by Apollo.

Since returning home I've talked to Katie Rose, Kendra, and Lisa, all of which was very nice as I've no wish to lose track of any of these pleasant people during my time away (and, in Kendra's case, her time away, and then my time away again...) I'm listening to the Garden State soundtrack, which comes pretty close to being the soundtrack for my sophomore year, hanging out every once in a while with Jess, Lisa, and so on.

I'm leaving for Beijing on Sunday. But, secretly, I don't think I'm going after all.

Nightmare

2005-12-20T15:07:00.000-05:00

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.

Touteng

2005-12-19T18:57:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-19T11:13:00.000-05:00

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.

My seminar paper

2005-12-17T17:27:00.000-05:00

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?

When they said sit down I stood up

2005-12-08T22:54:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-08T11:28:00.000-05:00

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.

Little Girl

2005-12-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

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.

Chicken Chicken!

2005-12-04T21:26:00.000-05:00

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:

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
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.
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.
A very sketchy but handsome Asian boy who smelled like cigarettes at a Quad party my first year. I still blush at the recollection.
Sketchy Guy Last Night #1
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.

The Logic Lecture

2005-12-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-01T15:21:00.000-05:00

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.

However:

2005-11-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

I've listened to Bruce Springsteen's "Growin' Up" twenty times today.

The girl who sits next to me in Philosophy of Language and who today whispered conspiratorally: "I love logic. I want to cuddle it" is totally my new friend.

2005-11-30T16:19:00.000-05:00

Please let me never reach the point where I take things that are supposed to be fun- logic, pop music, comic books- so seriously I can't enjoy them. I don't want to be a joyless indie pop snob who's too cool to dance or won't listen to a band that's on Elektra. I don't want to look down on anybody who reads X-Men and I don't want to freak out over a bent cover. I don't want to be that boy in my seminar who acts so weary of philosophy and so unkind towards philosophers I don't know why he bothers.

Here is a brilliant example of people actually having fun with the things they love. I wish I could have been there.

The home stretch

2005-11-27T13:12:00.000-05:00

Finally back in my own room after spending last night sleeping under my coat in a small room in 44 Green Street. It wasn't so bad, really- it had good scope for imagination and I gave myself a nice dinner to make up for it. I had extremely stressful dreams, though. I had hoped to sleep until Washburn was opened, but this proved impossible, so I went downtown instead and had a bagel. Then I came home and, to rid myself of four days' dirt and grime, I flossed, brushed my teeth, rinsed my mouth with Listerine, took a shower, cleaned my room, and brushed my teeth again. I now feel somewhat more human. The plan is to (any minute now) spend the rest of today doing homework, because I am now in the home stretch. There are just about four more weeks before winter break, so there's no putting anything off. I have to buckle down.

Wrapped Up In Books

2005-11-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned recently that it's my birthday on Friday? Well, if you can't be self-absorbed on your weblog, where can you, I say. Today I got a present from my paternal grandparents. I suspect it's a book, although it's a little on the small side. Hopefully it's not a pocket-size New Testament or something (although I have been wishing recently that I had a Bible). My grandparents have on several occasions given me books which I have absolutely resisted reading, and I've managed to hold out for years on some occasions... and then when I eventually do read them, they become my favorite books. I'm thinking in particular of I Capture the Castle, which I wouldn't read and wouldn't read and oh my goodness what a spectacular book it turned out to be in the end. Do I learn from these experiences? Of course not. I still have a book on the shelf in Lillian's room that Grandma and Grandpa gave me maybe three years ago which I have never opened. It's probably amazing.

However, I am very much like Lillian in this respect, or rather, she is very much like me: neither of us will ever read a book we're told to read. Oh, we love reading, we consume books as though they were oxygen, but we're both terrifically lazy (sorry Lills) and don't like to read anything outside our normal realms. I've gotten better about this since coming to college, and I find it's helpful to turn it into one of my crazy rules: go to the library every fortnight and check out one Comfort/Fun read, one Required Reading, and one Wild Card. Left to our own devices, Lillian and I would just read the same couple of books ad infinitum long past the time when we'd memorized every word.

Let me try to make a list of the books I've read lately, in backwards chronological order:

Moab is My Washpot (unfinished)
Three Scientists and Their Gods (unfinished)
Beyond the Limits of Thought (unfinished)
The Liar
Everything is Illuminated
Middlesex (for the second time)

Oh bother. Further back I simply cannot remember although I'm always reading something. This gives a fair picture, though- I'm a chain reader (I like to read books that connect or lead into one another) and a repetitive reader. And I'm probably never going to finish Beyond the Limits of Thought (because it's well beyond my limits, I'm afraid) or Three Scientists and Their Gods (because it's dreadful).

Okay, well, I expect I'll be finishing Moab around Friday, and I hereby solemnly swear that if the little package from my grandparents is a book, I will have an earnest go at it. Unless it is, in fact, the Bible. Well, okay, even then.

The Liar

2005-11-15T18:48:00.000-05:00

Stephen Fry is a thief. Not only did he steal somebody's credit cards and the pocket change of all his public school classmates, he also stole an entire character (Psmith) from P.G. Wodehouse and entire scenes from my life. Stephen Fry, stop listening in at my window, writing down what you hear, changing all the pronouns, going back in time 15 years and putting it in a novel. It's definitely not on.

Keep on plagarizing P.G. Wodehouse, though - I'm emphatically okay with that.

By post

2005-11-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

One decided advantage to having Thanksgiving in New York this year is that, since I won't see most of my relatives until Christmas, they seem to have all sent me parcels in the mail. That, at least, is what I assume to be the explanation for the five package slips in my mailbox this afternoon. Two of them were marked as envelopes, and I was expecting a rather important envelope from my mother, so I turned those two in. Sure enough, one of them was the China info from my mum (including an exceptionally long letter, which was nice, as she normally confines herself to a sentence or two). The other was a big yellow envelope from my Aunt Carol and Uncle Bruce, which I have not opened because I am so very full of self restraint. *cough* Incidentally tonight at dinner Kendra was telling one of her long Kendra stories about her incredible hulklike rage and I was smiling and nodding and sipping my tea when out of nowhere I choked and spit a big mouthful of tea back into the mug- so unladylike. I think I may have to get myself a Sippy Cup, in accordance with a slight trend I've noticed among my housemates.

I also got a card from my Aunt Grace, which I also did not open, and the these communications are now between my records and my comic books (oh I am so cool) waiting for Friday. I think I'll pick up one package a day until then, because I've never had so many packages before and I am not likely to again- I ought to spread it out.

Thank you!

2005-11-11T15:43:00.000-05:00

Here are some thank yous:

Thank you, dining services, for having omelettes at breakfast this morning.
Thank you, Associated Colleges in China, for handling all the visa stuff for me. Because I don't even know what a visa is, to be honest.
Thank you, Chris H*rdin, for bringing your CD player and your speakers and your many, many wires, alligator clips, and mysterious circuitry items to class today to show us what happens when you take the derivative and the integral of John Coltrane.
Thank you, LunaFest film festival, for the free Luna Bars you're giving away in the campus center.
Thank you, Kendra, for reading Wittgenstein to me in German.
Thank you, girl working at the circulation desk of the Mt Holyoke library, for helping me figure out your architecturally complicated building with its many many floors.

The Mt Holyoke library is vastly overrated. Everyone says it's so much nicer than ours but on the inside they look pretty much the same. However, now I can satisfy my intense Stephen Fry craving and do research for my thesis this weekend, and what more could you ask for?

You Said It

2005-11-03T11:41:00.000-05:00

I've often said that you know things are bad when you listen to Steve Earle and really relate to every word he says, even though a lot of it is about heroin abuse. Today is one of those days. Other musicians to avoid relating to:

Elliott Smith
Elton John
Lucinda Williams
Kathleen Edwards
Freedy Johnston
Bob Dylan

Musicians I wish I could relate to for a change:

All Girl Summer Fun Band
Fred Astaire
Sprites
Anyone who sings about how life is not constantly THWARTING THEM.

Operators are Standing By

2005-10-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

You know something's wrong in your life when an evening of Calculus homework feels as decadent as eating cake in the bath while listening to the Box of Funk.

Actually, you know a couple of things are probably wrong.

But here we have a list of Things I Hate About Phoneathon:

Talking on the phone
Calling people during dinner
The sense of my own mortality brought on by the knowledge that I will receive these phonecalls every single year until my sheet goes in the DECEASED file (yes, I do have one in my cubicle, just in case)
The alumna yesterday who went on a five minute rant about how she's never going to give money to Smith again because of the presence of transgendered students (and you want Smith to do what exactly about this, rude intolerant lady?)
My grade on my calc quiz today was much lower than usual because I am behind (or was until about 15 minutes ago)
Having to ask people for one thousand eight hundred and seventy five dollars
... even people who have given $10 a year every year since 1957
I am going to miss most of the Washburn House Halloween party, an event I look forward to all year (but which tends to disturb my sangfroid so maybe it's for the best.)

However, there is one Thing I Love about Phoneathon:

Tonight is my night off.

Dance, Kurt, Dance!

2005-10-23T12:37:00.000-04:00

I'm really proud of myself because I just finished a rather amusing computer science programming assignment using graphics. The user chooses an avatar for herself (either an apple, an orange, or a banana) and for the computer (either Nightcrawler, Magneto, or Spiderman). Then the avatars move around, toss a ball back and forth, and "dance." It's quite fabulous. They do a twitchy little dance that's basically just moving in a small square on a counted loop, and they toss the ball, and all and all I'm very pleased with it. This is even better than when I set up my conversation program to talk like Bertie Wooster.

2005-10-21T22:21:00.000-04:00

Oh, when shall we ever be done growing up?

Crush crush crush

2005-10-20T16:06:00.000-04:00

It has long been my theory that it is okay to have a crush on a professor to the extent that it encourages you to excell in the class. So for instance all the girls in my high school who had crushes on Malcolm (does this set include me? At this point it's too long ago to remember exactly) would have wanted to do really well in English so they could impress him. This is sometimes consious and sometimes not. My crush on Jim, for instance, has always been purely a professor crush, since he's 40 years older than I am and could be my grandfather and is other people's grandfather. It's the sort of crush that makes me want to do well in Set Theory and go to his office and talk about infinite games and that sort of thing. It bears no resemblance to the crushes I get on my peers.

My crush on my calculus professor, on the other hand, is a much more insidious, much less benign sort of crush. It's the sort that makes me babble incoherently when I go to his office. It's the sort that makes me want to giggle a lot. I feel like I'm thirteen. I think I'm going to drop the class and become a Women's Studies major. Or Computer Science. Some department where the professors are less dreamy.

Sniffle

2005-10-19T21:33:00.000-04:00

I could be at the Iron Horse right now, seeing Stars with Spanish for Hitchhiking as the opening act- probably an amazing show. But I'm ill and exhausted and I had three hours of Phoneathon training so instead I'm in my pyjamas, having some tea, and going to bed early.

Received a box of apples from Uncle Bruce today, which pretty much made my day. Have to send a thankyou note tomorrow. I just had one and it was the best apple I've had in eons: crisp, sweet, not waxy.

Tomorrow I have Comp Sci and testing children. Thursdays are light days for me so I can coddle this cold a little bit and hopefully it won't linger. For now, I have Calculus to catch up on.

hearts

2005-10-18T17:26:00.000-04:00

Letter in the New York Times by that paragon of virtues, Jim.

My Life According to Jay

2005-10-14T18:34:00.000-04:00

Interesting chat with Jay today. Jay has a very specific vision for my future. I am going to go to the Peace Corps (this was virtually my only contribution but he's okay with it) and then graduate school. There are 9 schools he wants me to consider:

NYU
University of Pittsburgh
Indiana University
MIT
Berkeley
Stanford
Melbourne
Australian National University
University of Queensland

Note how the last three are in Australia. Jay loooves Australia. These 9 are, evidently, the best 9 schools for Logic in the whole, wide world, and if I don't get into one of them Jay doesn't want me to go to graduate school AT ALL. That's right, it's these or nothing. Applying anywhere else would basically just be a waste of everyone's time. My time for applying, his time for writing me a recommendation, everybody's time. So there's that.

Somewhat more cheerfully, Jay wants me to take something completely random and fun for my fourth class next fall. This is of course in addition to my thesis, German, and Chinese linguistics, but still. I don't know what I'm going to take, but I feel rather as though I've just been given a present.

I feel like I'm coming unglued, but it's okay, really. Things will be okay.

I'm a Human Head

2005-10-13T20:01:00.000-04:00

I'm filling out an application for a U.S. Study Abroad insurance policy and one of the things they want to know is "Benificiary (Accidental Death and Dismemberment)."

Dismemberment. Eugh.

Any takers?

Children Suck at This: A Study On Language Acquisition

2005-10-11T13:51:00.000-04:00

I'm getting some rather weird results from my Quantifier study. Results that are leading me to suspect that children simply have no idea what "Every" means. This could be really bad. It could also be really useful, but being who I am I'm inclined to believe it will be really bad. Today at lunch I suggested a title for my paper: Children Suck at This. It could be the first of a whole series of papers and lectures on Why Children Are Stupid. "My experiment also showed that the majority of children were completely unable to make me an omelette."

Seriously, the studies I've read on children and quantifiers do not even begin to explain the data I'm getting. Cappy says this might mean I could get published; I'm more inclined to believe it means I'm doing something terribly wrong.

The Man in the Ceiling

2005-10-10T12:17:00.000-04:00

When I was in maybe fourth grade I read a book called The Man in the Ceiling, by Jules Feiffer. I only read it the one time and I've never seen another copy but I can honestly say it's one of the five books that changed my life the most. It reminds me a lot of some of Daniel Pinkwater's young adult novels, but it deals with things like artistic freedom and failure in ways you don't ever see in children's literature.

The other day I got a hankering to reread it so I ordered it online and it is every bit as good as I remembered. Feiffer's illustrations are marvelous, as you would expect if you've read The Phantom Tollbooth, and the ending is still so extraordinarily right. Read this book. Tell fourth-graders of your acquaintance to read this book. It's fantastic.

I'm going to China

2005-10-10T11:07:00.000-04:00

Oh my God.

Smile, Dammit.

2005-10-07T11:58:00.000-04:00

I'll be incommunicado for the next couple of days, in Holyoke building houses for the poor in case you're interested, and when I get back I don't want there to be any talk of the stupid thing I did yesterday and the irritating ramifications. I'm just going to grit my teeth and do my work and hum Holly Cole maniacally to myself as I walk down the street.

Smile, though your heart is breaking
Smile, even though it's aching
When there are clouds in the sky you'll get by
If you smile through your pain and sorrow
Smile, and maybe tomorrow
You'll find the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness
HIde every trace of sadness
Although a tear maybe ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use in crying
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you'll just smile

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use in crying
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you'll just smile

I've sold my soul to Phoneathon

2005-10-05T15:23:00.000-04:00

I got a terrifying email today.
It contains the "tentative schedule" for Phoneathon, which is a part-time job calling alumni and asking for money. I signed up, on a lark, because I am Silas Marner. Now I'm kind of horrified.
I'm scheduled to work for 50 hours in three weeks. That's 16.666666666 hours a week. That's more than twice the hours of my actual job (7 hours a week).
Of course, I'd be a lot more appalled if that didn't come out to be $356.50, which will certainly be nice to have, but still.

I'll have to think of something really extravagent to buy with a portion of the money. Like, I don't know, 50 HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK.

In other news, I taught my first class today: a section of Logic 100 with about twenty students. We went over local & global properties of wffs, buffalo buffalo buffalo, shortcut, and rebuttals. I think it went okay although I was trembling like a leaf the whole time and Jay sat in the front row giving me looks. The looks said: "Don't explain it that way." "What are you talking about?" "Ask if they're clear." Afterwards, he told me (using words now): "You did a good job. You're going to make a good logic teacher some day. Actually, you're a really good logic teacher now. But you'll be even better someday."
Which is the nicest complement I've had all day.

An infinite stack of books!

2005-10-03T13:19:00.000-04:00

Today I went to Jay's office to pick up some books he wants me to read in preparation for my thesis.

It's a lot of books. It's probably more than the assigned reading for all my other classes put together. I'm nervous about this.

But, on the bright side, I recently received my Class B Logician's License:

Yesterday a whole group of Washburnites tagged along with me to Quaker Meeting, which was pleasant, and afterwards there were pancakes for the 18-35 crowd. Then, that afternoon, I went to the Blessing of the Animals for St Francis' feast day. It was lovely. There were lots of dogs, a rat, some teeny tiny Siamese kittens, two ponies and a goat! I really wish my sisters could have been there because they would have enjoyed it. It was a lot of religion for one day but it was well worth it.

You know you're in middle school...

2005-09-27T19:52:00.000-04:00

...When you write in your journal every day about what a certain person said to you that afternoon and what could it mean and you are devastated when you realize they're on Facebook but they've not friended you and you don't want to watch Hugh Laurie (for example) on the television because that person will probably be there and they've already seen you today.

If there were such a thing as Facebook for middle schoolers, which there isn't. And if middle schoolers liked Hugh Laurie, which they probably mostly don't.

I love my professors

2005-09-23T20:28:00.000-04:00

Subject: Your R letter
Dear Aimei,

Your Recommendation Letter is placed in my mailbox and waiting for you to pick up!
Good luck for your application. You are the best, they better accept you.

Love,
Zhao laoshi

*

Subject: This is an outrage!
Math 111 Students,

I hope that some of you share my disgust at the president's decision not to hold Mountain Day on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. To compensate for this injustice, class will begin at 8:40am for the rest of the semester, starting tomorrow. (I might, however, ask you to show up *once* at 8:00am in November, depending on the format of the second test.)

Chr*s H*rdin

Mountain Day Mountain Day Happy Mountain Day!

2005-09-22T19:35:00.000-04:00

Tuesday night a bunch of Green Street residents (my money's on Tyler- it's the sort of thing they'd do) charged onto the quad demanding a Mountain Day riot. Mountain Day riot is a thing I kind of disapprove of but I suppose the Quadlings must have their fun. For about a week in advance they hoard food from meals, and then one night when they want Mountain Day they all charge over to Carol Christ's house screaming and yelling and throwing food at each other. The Quad is really quite disgusting for a long time after the riot. In theory, they're supposed to clean up afterwards, but as one girl in my Calc class remarked, "How do you get sausage out of grass?"

Because of the (in my view rather pathetic) Green Street Riot, we all kind of expected Mountain Day to be Wednesday, but I for one was relieved when it wasn't. Wednesdays are busy for me- I have Calc, Chinese, my Logic section which I have to attend and sort of help direct, and Philosophy of Language, which only meets once a week and so to miss one would be a disaster. Because I am a tool.

Carol Christ left this morning for Madrid, so we figured we wouldn't be able to have Mountain Day until after fall break, when she returns, but this morning I woke from a dream of Sherlock Holmes to the sound of bells. "It's Mountain Day," I thought hazily, and set my alarm clock forward ten minutes. Livin' la Vida Loca, I am.

Generally on Mountain Day the people who are up early run through the house pounding on doors and shouting "Mountain Day Mountain Day Happy Mountain Day!" but today this did not happen, and so I eventually decided I'd imagined the bells and got up to go to the gym. While I was brushing my teeth, I ran into a couple of people who said it wasn't Mountain Day, and I imagine they spent their mornings sitting around sadly in empty classrooms. It was Mountain Day, however, and so after the gym (I cut my workout short because I wanted to have energy for fun) I lingered over a muffin outside and read Hugh Laurie, then spent TWO HOURS working on my comic! It was amazing! I know you're supposed to be outdoorsy on Mtn Day but the prospect of guilt-free drawing time was too good to pass up. I joined my house for a picnic by the dock, and then Kep and Sarah and I hiked up to the Dangerous and Condemned State Mental Hospital, which you can no longer wander freely around. Then we split up and I went to the river for a swim and it was lovely. Cold, and a little crowded, but highly refreshing. Then I had a nap, because all that sunlight and fun and exercise really takes it out of you.

Tonight I have a Habitat meeting and our Head Resident is having a Suite Warming Party, where I might put in an appearance. I'm awfully sleepy, but it's been a lovely day.

Alternative career choice?

2005-09-13T20:10:00.000-04:00

This is my second year as Washburn House Librarian, and I really enjoy it. Only I could turn such a thing into an opportunity for violence and rage. First there was my very embarrassing campaign speech last spring, in which I shouted and punched my hand for emphasis and scared everybody else out of running, and things have not gotten any better.

Every year the house is allowed to order about a dozen books through the Tyler book fund. We don't pay for them, they just show up, like magic, and it's wonderful and we are so lucky to have it. Last year I ordered a whole bunch of lovely new books, and was pleased to see them vanish from the shelves. "Oh good," I thought. "People are using the wonderful house library."

Unfortunately, many of the books were never returned. On Sunday, at our house meeting, I delivered an empassioned address to the house, waving around an empty box from our Harry Potter box set for emphasis. "There's a signup list on my board for new house library books, and please add your suggestions, and they'll come and they'll be great and they'll have bookplates in them, which is what will distinguish them from books that belong to you!" I cried, my voice growing higher and higher and faster and faster.

So far there are only three suggestions, which worries me a little. I could certainly fill it up myself if need be, but if all we end up with is, say, Wittgenstein and P.G. Wodehouse, it's going to be a boo-hoo Christmas for a lot of people.

First week of classes- done!

2005-09-09T15:25:00.000-04:00

Classes started yesterday, but I don't really feel as though I've begun. It hasn't hit me yet. (Even though I've already finished two homework assignments.) Yesterday my only class was Computer Science, which seems all right. I think I should be able to handle it. Our homework was a little silly, but I suppose that as someone who contributed to Sweet Reason, I can't complain. I actually received my TA copy of S.R. the other day, and it is beautiful. It's huge and shiny and delightful and I want to carry it around and show it off. I'm so bringing it home when I'm in Buffalo next weekend.

Today I had Calculus and Chinese, as well as Logic 100, which I sat in on. My calculus professor reminds me of Chris Potenza, which is not a terrible thing. I just finished the homework, which was not incredibly easy but at least it didn't reduce me to tears. Chinese was fun, of course, and I like the new teacher, Wu laoshi, but the high points of the day were definitely sitting in on Logic 100, the most fun course taught at Smith, and chatting with K.M. afterwards. Because that never fails to make me happy.

I picked up an application for the Beijing program this afternoon, but it turns out to be last year's. No matter, I can probably print one out in the computer lab later on. Also last night I attended a meeting for students interested in applying for fellowships. I think I'm going to apply for one this year. M*rgaret Br*zelius says it's a good thing to do even if you don't think you'll get it, so why not? But don't let's tell my mum; she might start thinking I listen to her nudging.

Delayed Gratification

2005-09-06T11:43:00.000-04:00

I like to draw, but like a lot of things I like doing and ought to do, it's hard for me to get going. I like to run, but man, I hate to tie my running shoes on. There are two things I do to overcome my inertia in these matters: routine and bribery. The only way I can ever make it to the gym is if I put myself on a specific schedule, to which I must then adhere. The beauty is that if I'm supposed to run on the treadmill for half an hour on Thursdays, I will be consumed with a sense of wrongness if I don't. I have an almost obsessive-compulsive need to stick to schedules.

For drawing, I've been using bribery. Every time I finish a page of my comic, I am permitted to go to Forbes and borrow an episode of Jeeves & Wooster. (This has the added benefit of preventing me from plowing through the entire series too quickly.) Once I start drawing, I enjoy it, but sometimes it takes that extra incentive for me to begin.

I finished a page of my comic Sunday night, but yesterday was Labor Day so the library was closed, and today is Tuesday, so it doesn't open until 1. I hate having to wait all this extra time to reap my just reward. To tide me over, I'm listening to my era soundtrack, which includes "Sunny Disposish," "Minnie the Moocher," "47 Ginger-Headed Sailors," and a number of other things. Very nice.

Why I Should Have Learned to Drive

2005-09-05T19:12:00.000-04:00

Jay called me up the other day with an offer- he has to dash off to Rome - lala, dashing off to Rome- and he needed someone to stay with his daughter, who is, I believe, fifteen or sixteen, for the duration. Pick her up at soccer practice, hang around with her in the evenings, etc. Of course, I had to turn him down, because I can't drive. I could hardly carry the girl home from soccer on the handlebars of my bicycle. I'm very disappointed by this and I'm not sure why- babysitting someone so close to my age would be awkward (I prefer the two to six range), and spending a week living in Amherst would be inconvenient in the extreme. I don't think I'm merely being avaricious, although I daresay there's a bit of that. I think my disappointment is mainly due to my habit of saying yes to everything. Being forced to say no is a wrench, even when there is literally nothing to be done about it.

On the bright side, however, I guess Jay must hold me in pretty high esteem if he wants me to stay in his house and shuttle his daughter around, so that's nice.

Also very nice- today I was assisting at Conversations, which is when the professors all stand around in the ITT and talk to incoming students about their departments. During a lull, Jim asked me what I was taking this semester, and I told him, and said I was a bit nervous about calculus.

"Well, please feel free to stop by my office and talk to me about it any time," he said gravely. "I feel somewhat responsible for you." I don't even have him for Calc! That's pure milk of human kindness, that is. He went on to talk about how even people without strong math backgrounds can go on to become successful set theorists and so on, which was very encouraging. Set theorists, I'm given to understand, don't have to know how to drive.

Still Katrina

2005-09-02T14:49:00.000-04:00

Smith College Offers Fall Classes to Local Students Affected by Hurricane Katrina

In support of colleges and universities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, Smith College will offer undergraduates from western Massachusetts the opportunity to take fall semester classes at Smith on a space-available basis, President Carol T. Christ announced Friday.

Local women and men enrolled in one of the colleges or universities affected by the disaster along the Gulf Coast will not be charged for the courses.

*We offer our sympathy to everyone affected by Hurricane Katrina,* said Christ. *By opening our classrooms, we hope to lessen disruption in the lives of displaced students.*

Campus housing is full, so Smith is unable to offer housing to the additional students. The expectation is that the emergency program will serve students within commuting distance.

At the end of the fall semester, Smith will give students transcripts for the courses they complete. Each student will be asked to speak with a class dean before selecting courses to structure a plan that is tailored to their needs.

Katrina

2005-09-02T09:50:00.000-04:00

I'm always prepared to be proud of Americans when we do things right, so I'm gratified to see that people throughout the country are offering space in their houses to victims of the hurricane. It's very unfortunate that there's no effective way to communicate with the victims, who obviously don't have internet access at the moment, but I very much hope that word gets around and people are matched with places to stay. I think it's incredibly scary how the hurricane is inciting people to behave monstrously. Snipers preventing hospital evacuation! Children being raped and killed! Armed mobs roaming the streets! It's terrifying. But at least there are good people working hard to make things safer again. Good luck to them.

The campus is filling up

2005-09-01T11:49:00.000-04:00

Ran into J*m H*nle last evening. He's leading what sounds like an excellent new preorientation- Intellectual Inquiry. There's a painting in the gallery of Northampton a long time ago, before Paradise Pond was even there, I think, and they're going to look at it under an electron microscope and discuss it and go up in a hot air balloon to see what the valley looks like now. Trouble is, it's poured rain every day this week (presumably my fault for forgetting my rain coat) and so they haven't been able to go up in the balloon.

"Any breeze at all is too much breeze," Jim explained to me.

"Well, you might risk it. Maybe you'd be blown away like in The Twenty One Balloons," I suggested.

"I don't know that one," he said.

"Oh, you'd like it. It's this guy who's blown off course in his hot air balloon and winds up on an island that's built on a diamond mine where everybody has restaurants."

"Restaurants?"

"Yes," I said, warming to the theme. "They have so much money because their whole island is full of diamonds so they devote their lives to being excellent cooks and having fabulous houses and they all go round to a different person's restaurant every day."

"Sort of a modern fable," said Jim.

"Yes," I said.

There was a silence.

"Okay, well, see you later!"

"Goodbye!"

I wish they'd had that preorientation when I was a firstyear. Mine was fun, too, though- we canoed along the Connecticut River and camped out. Immediately afterwards virtually everyone I met there was vaporized- I haven't seen them since. So it wasn't a completely successful attempt at making new friends, but at least I learned how to paddle a canoe.

Back at school

2005-08-28T20:35:00.000-04:00

Will I ever be old enough to stop caring about being cool? At this point I think I'm no longer even dorky-cool, just dorky. (I'll bet you a nickle no one cool ever even uses the word "dorky.) But anyway I don't care (except that I do) because this is going to be the best semester ever. Here's why:

I'm taking Chinese, Computer Science, Calculus, Philosophy of Language, and a Special Studies on Child Logic
I'm a Logic 100 T.A.
I'm an SAA
I'm probably going to have a radio show
I have a comic in the Sophian
I have numerous interesting people to possibly be friends with, including Jess, Kep, Sarah, Kendra, and Claire, and many more pleasant people to smile at in the hallways.

I wish my classes were starting sooner. I don't especially want to have SAA training. I want to get going!

So wrong

2005-08-08T17:13:00.000-04:00

Worst advertisement blunder I've seen in awhile: a commercial for McDonald's during the X-Files episode about a cannabalistic fast-food chain.

Blech.

And, apropos of that, as I sit here with my heart pounding and my stomach churning, I am struck by two questions:

1. Why is it that my deepest fear since late childhood has been cannibalism? (I blame my sixth grade science teacher Mr Lawler, who liked to tell us about the various situations in which our parents would not hesitate to eat us.)

2. Why am I watching this episode, which I knew even before the theme song played would give me nightmares for weeks? Why do I peek in Sin City in the comic book store?

Why do people ride rollercoasters?

The Logician's Apprentice

2005-07-22T19:31:00.000-04:00

My job ended today. Never before have I been so utterly charmed, challenged, and amused by a job. Never before have I been paid to have this kind of fun. I am so proud of this book, which, as Jim put it, has our fingerprints all over it. Sweet Reason is clever; it's laugh-out-loud funny; it's rich and deep and long. It has history, it has mystery, it has ... logic.

I am besotted.

Tomorrow I'll be home, and I'm quite glad, as I've missed my family, but this was an experience not to be missed.

I highly recommend that you read the book. You won't regret it.

Hard at Work

2005-07-20T16:01:00.000-04:00

Today's duties included, among other things: Boolean algebra, relevance logic, and drawing a picture of Jim attempting to fly.

Dedeuce

2005-07-19T16:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the other apprentices and Jim and I invented a card game, Dedeuce. It's sort of like Clue meets Go Fish: each player gets four cards (only using hearts and spades) and the other players have to guess what they are. You win when you guess somebody's hand. The catch is that you can only ask questions that are logical formulas. For example, "9 arrows Jack," "Queen or King," etc. It is intense, heavy on the bookkeeping, and fun.

This is the third game we've made this summer, along with Sweet Reason Rummy and Predabble (a logical version of Scrabble). The first twelve chapters are in Australia even as we speak, where they will have their pilot run at the end of this month. Just three more days to go...

Outing

2005-07-17T19:40:00.000-04:00

Today Jim and his wife, Portia, took some of us apprentices on an outing. It was good fun. Our first stop was the Empty Set Project Space in Pittsfield.

Notice that the sign contains an error: that's actually not the empty set- it's the set containing the empty set.

Next we went to the Hancock Shaker Village, where we saw how the Shakers used water power and heard their Shaker song "Simple Gifts" roughly twenty times. Kep tried her hand at spinning wool, Juan learned how to use a loom, I milked a life size fiberglass replica of a cow, and Penka and I (at her suggestion) dressed up in Shaker clothes and had Jim take our picture.

Because you just haven't lived until your math teacher has seen you play dress-up.

At the Shaker village I also accosted Juan with questions about Chinese animal sounds. Chickens apparently go "ji ji," which I thought was funny since the word for chicken is "ji."
"So it's like they go around saying 'chicken chicken'!" I said.
"No," said Juan, looking a little confused. "Because it's a different character."
I asked Penka about Bulgarian animal sounds, but they were not too different from ours.

Our last stop was The Mount, Edith Warton's house. We took a tour, strolled the gardens, and had some tea.

Over tea, I asked whether everyone would rather be Shaker or Edith Warton-style wealthy. Juan and Kep chose Shaker. Jim and Portia chose Edith Warton. I can't decide. If I were Shaker, I wouldn't get to do any of the things I enjoy - reading, drawing, learning things - but I would have the certainty I was going to Heaven. I think that would be agreeable. Jim said that really neither option was ideal; that, in fact, the ideal would be more or less the life he had now. I found this quite cheering and actually I think it's true for me as well. In any case, any changes I might make would not be in the way of opulent wealth or religious fanaticism.

The clever pup learns with delight/ he has a chance to set things right.

2005-07-15T17:30:00.000-04:00

A common source of speculation in our house is Rupert Bear's feet. Rupert has human hands, but we never see his feet- are they bear feet or human feet? The Official Rupert Website has this to say:

...Rupert is really a small boy with a bear's head - although a furry back has been spotted whilst Rupert is having a bath. He has hands and feet - not paws. Only Edward Trunk- is cursed by real animal's feet ...

This is by far the most disturbing thing I've heard in a long time. A small boy with a bear's head? WHY? Is he some sort of mutant? And what does that make Edward Trunk? I like that the website acknowledges the tragedy of Edward's extremities- we've always felt bad for him.

Rupert... a small boy? No. This can't be true. There are actual small boys running around in Rupertland -where do they live? Nutwood? Something like that - and Rupert is nothing like them. He's clearly a bear. His LAST NAME is Bear! If that's not proof of species, I'd like to know what is.

A rant about Kavalier and Clay for no real reason

2005-07-14T22:31:00.000-04:00

One of my exercises in the book is a bunch of statements, and the reader has to write an argument for each. They range from "The United States should repeal the Second Amendment" to "Books should never be made into movies."

"Make it more specific," said Jim. "Can you think of any particular book that should never be made into a movie?"

I thought about it. "John Irving novels should never be made into movies," I volunteered.
"John Irving novels should never be made into novels," said Jim, echoing another of my favorite rants, which we'll leave it aside for now.

I have to say, although Wonder Boys was a good movie with good acting, despite a dubious casting decision in Tobey Maguire as James Leer, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is probably going to be a terrible movie. They're going to insert animated sequences, maybe (my mum thinks this is a good idea), and the casting is going to be all wrong. Here are some possible Sam Clays: Tobey Maguire and Ben Stiller. BEN STILLER? How OLD is Ben Stiller?! Am I not remembering who Ben Stiller is? Are they? Tobey Maguire? Please!

The nominations for Joe Kavalier are even worse. Jude Law? Jude Law is not Joe Kavalier!

If I may make a suggestion,
THIS is Joe Kavalier. He's absolutely perfect. A little old, yes, but he has such a fantastically large nose and sad eyes and he looks like an Eastern European Jew. Jude Law? Not an Eastern European Jew. Well, maybe he is, actually, I have no idea, Jude is a Hebrew name, but that doesn't change his appalling wrongness. And as for Ben Stiller- well, I would cry. But I have no better suggestion for Sammy. I'll have to keep looking.

This American Life

2005-07-11T21:39:00.000-04:00

(Three episodes of TAL tonight, working on my book stuff)

I really want a CD of all the This American Life background music, and I'd play it all the time- while making my bed, or folding laundry, but especially talking to people. And my life would seem so profound, and poignant.

The Hive

2005-07-10T21:05:00.000-04:00

Jim Henle has offered me the staggering opportunity to try my hand at drawing a cover for the book, as well as some comic strips to sprinkle throughout in places where there's extra white space. I have been working on these things most of the day today, listening to This American Life. I listened to six episodes today: Notes from Camp, Music Lessons, Babysitting, Act V of Hamlet performed by prisoners in a maximum security prison, and more.

This American Life is just one of several bees in my bonnet this summer, a glorious summer in which I spend all my time flitting from one obsession to the next. This summer has been devoted to logic, of course, but also cooking, P.G. Wodehouse, Sherlock Holmes, This American Life, Laura Cantrell (I listen to her new album about three times a day on average), and drawing, among other things. It's pleasurable but also tiring- at all times I am focussed like a laser on some pursuit, and I have trouble quieting my brain enough to let me sleep.

The Lap of Luxury

2005-07-03T16:15:00.000-04:00

I have been cutting loose a bit of late.

It started with the strawberries I got at the farmers' market last Saturday. Not just strawberries, but a whole tomato. They were gone in three days' time but the taste lingered. They tasted of luxury. I wanted more.

Yesterday, Kep and I took the bus to the Asian grocery on Route 9, next to the adult bookstore. It was marvelous! Exotic produce and candy and spices were everywhere you looked. I got a bag of steamed red bean buns, a can of coconut milk, and a moon cake (not to be confused with a moon pie), which I shared with Kep. I've only had moon cakes twice before because for one thing, they're rather hard to get, and for another, they're traditionally eaten on the Moon Festival in the fall. So that was a very special treat.

For dinner that evening Kep and I steamed some of our red bean buns and made some instant Thai noodles and some vegetables in coconut milk. The bean buns were very soft and puffy and sweet; the noodles were chewy and hot; the vegetables were smooth and rich. It was the finest meal I've had since Jim's house.

Today I went to Stop and Shop and purchased yeast, fresh mozzerella cheese, and 8 Kalamata olives. I am going to make a pizza.

I am being positively decadent. What has come over me?

Hopkins?

2005-06-29T09:32:00.000-04:00

I got into Hopkins this morning. I had to turn them down. I would have done it, on a lark, for next semester, but I'm Student Academic Advisor for Washburn and on the SAA steering committee and everything so it's really not an option. This is a little disappointing but also a relief. It looks like I'm in Washburn for good, then, because I wouldn't want to move out senior year and have to acclimate to a new house. I particularly wouldn't want a house like Hopkins, which is noisy and where you have to do time-consuming chores, while writing a thesis. It's hard to imagine writing a thesis in a co-op.

There's very little left for me in Washburn- all my close friends are gone. But I feel very comfortable there and the people are all right. I would want to walk with Washburn at graduation. I guess I'm glad I'm staying. Mostly.

Summer Day

2005-06-25T21:27:00.000-04:00

What a nice day I've had. I woke up early and read for awhile before breakfast, which was eggs and which I've been looking forward to all week. I don't know what it is with me and eggs lately; I just can't seem to get enough. Then I went downtown to the farmers' market where I bought (such luxury!) sugar snap peas, a tomato (the first tomato I've had in weeks and weeks), and a carton of strawberries. I went home, called my sister Floss for a recipe and then mixed up some banana bread, and while it was baking I went down to the river and had a little swim. The water was blissfully cool and pleasant. Back home, I showered and took a nap (after taking my bread out of the oven, of course). I had the nicest dinner I've had in ages- a black bean burger on fresh bread, mashed potatoes, snap peas, tomato, and lemonade. After dinner, I went to a party at Sara's boyfriend's house, where I talked to a young man in town for an activist conference. Very interesting. Now I'm home, eating cool, sweet strawberries. I am feeling good.

Friday was Laura Cantrell, who always puts on a good show, and last night was no exception. She played almost all new stuff, which was quite nice. I'd really like to hear her new album. Tomorrow I'm going to see the New Pornographers, which is exciting.

These are the sorts of things I'm looking forward to remembering some day.

Knights, Knaves, Klingons, and Elves

2005-06-25T13:23:00.000-04:00

Knights and Knaves is a puzzle invented by the logician Raymond Smullyan. The premise is simple: in the land of knights and knaves, knights speak only the truth, and knaves tell only lies. There are many variations on this puzzle, and it's a motif throughout Sweet Reason, the book I'm working on this summer. Here's an example of a knights and knaves puzzle: You come to a crossroads and see two people standing there. For some reason, you know that one is a knight and the other is a knave, but you don't know which is which. Can you, by asking one question, determine which road to take?

I'll pause while you think about it.

One solution is to ask either person, "If I asked this other guy which road to take, which one would he say?" Then you take the other one.

An important feature of this puzzle is that no one ever says he's a knave. A knight won't say it because it isn't true, and a knave won't say it because it is. This being the case, if someone says, "I'm a kgiagha," you know that he's claiming to be a knight.

Jim thought it would be a good idea to include a puzzle like that, using nonsense words. Except he didn't want nonsense words, he wanted Klingon and Elvish. In their special typefaces. This project took three people most of the morning.

Naturally, someone has figured out a way to use Klingon and Elvish script within a LaTeX environment. What's not so easy is figuring out how they did it. I kept telling Jim I could just do it as a picture, but it was important to him that we not do it that way. Finally, after a multitude of error messages, we gave up. Behold the Klingon term "de 'ngeb," meaning something along the lines of "untrue statement"

...and the Elvish "ilanwe quettar," which means something like "false speech."

Fun with Science

2005-06-22T09:20:00.000-04:00

Sooner or later, my beginner's luck in the kitchen was bound to run out, and sure enough this week has been characterized by culinary mishaps of Anne of Green Gables proportions. On Sunday, after Quaker Meeting, I decided to bake some bread, as I've been doing all summer. I tried a new recipe from my Mennonite cookbook- Easy French Bread. Disaster! The bread was solid, with none of the little bubbles one likes to see in bread. Also, even after twice the advised length of time in the oven, the bread was raw in the middle. (Presumably because it was a solid lump of undifferentiated goo.) It was inedible and had to be thrown away.

The following day, since I had the day off, I decided to try Easy French Bread again and to make up a batch of black bean soup to eat for lunches. I was very careful with the bread- I had identified several places where I might have gone wrong the day before- proofing the yeast too far in advance, not letting the water cool long enough, not preheating the oven adequately. The bread came out beautifully- my best to date. The soup, though... yesterday for lunch I heated up a bowl of it and took a sip. Vile! I almost spit it out. Seems I'd been a little too liberal with the vinegar.

But I'm no fool. I took high school Honors Chemistry. What's the opposite of sour? Bitter! Sour is acid; bitter is base. I'd simply neutralize the acid of the vinegar with, say, a tablespoon of baking soda, and my problem would be solved.

Um, yeah. We won't dwell on the mess or the horrible smell or the sinister, foaming concoction that looked like a witches' brew. Nor will we dwell on the fact that, despite all that, I tried it anyway, because I am a moron. Suffice it to say that this week it'll be peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, on my admirable Easy French Bread.

Induction Stove

2005-06-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

We have an induction stove in Hopkins, consisting of two raised black squares on the counter. It's very mysterious and I haven't yet used it. It works with some pots but not others; you put a pot on the burner and if it is the right kind of pot a little light comes on and you can turn the stove on. Darned if I know how it works. This morning at breakfast Susie said, "I just discovered the induction stove! That's so cool! And it's so nice to have two extra burners at mealtimes."
"Yes," I said. "It's very mysterious, though. Do you know how it works?"
"Not really," she said.
"I think it works by mathematical induction: you put the first pot on and it works, and then you prove that if it works for any arbitrary pot, it will work for the pot after that."
She's a math major, but she looked at me like I was crazy. "I don't think that's how it works."

Oh. Hm. Well, it was funny to me.

2005-06-18T16:08:00.001-04:00

Hobos are going to come and steal my pie.

2005-06-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

Who took my chair pie?!

2005-06-18T15:56:00.000-04:00

Dinner with the Profs. deVilliers last Friday, which is always very nice, and especially so since they insisted on sending me home with a collection of herbs from their garden as well as several stalks of rhubarb. I'd never eaten rhubarb before, let alone cooked with it, and my Mennonite cookbook proved uncharacteristically unhelpful. The internet, however, yielded a staggering array of recipes, and so it was with one of these that I baked my first, slightly peculiar, rhubarb pie.

[What have I been reading? What has happened to my syntax? Good heavens!]

The oddness of the pie was due to several things. One, someone put whole wheat flour in the white flour bin and I didn't notice until it was too late, which is not the way to make a light and flaky pie crust; two, the pie consisted of a layer of goopy eggy rhubarb substance topped with a thick layer of sugary sludge- um, better than it sounds though, really- and three, that rhubarb pie, in my opinion, is a strange concept. The pie was actually rather tasty, however, the moral being that all pie, by virtue of its pieness, is pretty much all right with me.

I had enough pastry dough leftover to make a whole additional pie, which I did this afternoon. I didn't know what to put in it, but we have numerous jars of peach-apricot preserves up on the top shelf in the kitchen, so I figured why not. I glopped a jar of preserves into the pie shell. Looking at it, it struck me there was probably a reason you don't often hear of people filling pies with jam, and that this pie would be appallingly sweet and gooey. Going through the kitchen with an eye to remedying this problem, I found a number of apples in the crisper. Well, better I should have found them sooner, but it wasn't too late. I plopped the apples down amidst the jam and tossed the concoction in the oven.

Haven't tried it yet, but I posed it for a couple pictures. It's the Schillaci in me, I guess.

Adventures are scary.

2005-06-10T16:22:00.000-04:00

Off to New York tomorrow for MoCCA. This event triggers panic attacks from "What if I'm eaten by an enormous rat in the subway?" to "What if I'm a hack and die a failure, flies buzzing around my eyes?" to "What if my red dress makes me look like I'm trying too hard?"

I'm a little nervous.

But, as my dad points out, I'm always kind of nervous, even when the situation doesn't involve subway rides and Capybaras.

Oh, dear. You'd better send good thoughts my way. I'm something of a wreck.

I Can Nap and You Can't

2005-06-08T10:54:00.000-04:00

There's a sign on Jim's office door which says that if the door is shut, not to knock- he's either not there or he's asleep. I always thought that was a joke, but it's not- he really does nap in his office daily, much to the amusement of my fellow logicians' apprentices and me. Today Jim, wearing his yellow Chapter 8 party hat, explained to us the science of the ten-minute nap. You stretch out, and close your eyes, and relax every muscle in your body. This, he says, is sometimes difficult. If you have an itch you can scratch it. "What if you have a lot of itches?" asked Sally. "You can take care of that, too," Jim assured her.

After about ten minutes, you will feel yourself transitioning from a heavy state of sleep to a lighter state. Prolong this moment: it is a very restful thirty seconds, even though you are conscious. Then you wake up.

"It seems like it would require a lot of willpower," said Caroline. "I think I'd just go on sleeping."

"I don't think of it as involving willpower," said Jim. "I want to get up. There are things I want to do."

"You should write a book," said Sally.

"Well, not if this technique is non-transferable. It might only work for me," said Jim.

"You could call it `I Can Nap and You Can't,'" I suggested.

"We should all try it out for you," said Caroline.

"Go ahead," said Jim. "That's why I'm telling you. You've all been yawning all morning."

2005-05-30T23:26:00.000-04:00

Mmm, scrambled eggs in the dead of night.

All I ever post about is food

2005-05-29T13:02:00.000-04:00

I think it's safe to say that I've been eating a very healthy diet here in Hopkins. Kidney beans and brown rice, black bean soup, whole wheat bread, rotini with tomato sauce, and, of course, copious amounts of spinach. But of course, when Jim brings us coffee cake, it would be both rude and foolish to decline. Living alone, if there's flan, I can have as much as I like, so perhaps I can be excused for enjoying it with every meal for two days. And sometimes, like today, the only thing one wants for lunch is hot buttered toast and cafe au lait. And that's okay, too.

2005-05-28T13:05:00.000-04:00

...and it glows in the dark.

2005-05-28T13:04:00.000-04:00

Contradiction

2005-05-28T13:03:00.000-04:00

Kep models the helmet

Solitude is Bliss

2005-05-28T12:40:00.000-04:00

I absolutely love this new lifestyle of mine. I can stay up until midnight with a friend, eating flan and decorating a bike helmet with mathematical symbols and watching Wittgenstein; I can get up early and go to the farmers' market; I can bake bread and quilt and eat lunch with my housemates. This afternoon this girl from Tibet is going to show everybody how to make Tibetan dumplings. So, yes. Everything is good.

2005-05-22T14:10:00.001-04:00

So true.

2005-05-22T14:10:00.000-04:00

Hopkins House kitchen

2005-05-21T16:36:00.001-04:00

Plant-sitting for Sara Katz

2005-05-21T16:36:00.000-04:00

Laura Ingalls Wilder would be proud.

The sugar issue

2005-05-20T20:53:00.000-04:00

So I've decided to stop eating so much sugar. At Smith a common complaint is that the meals are lousy and the desserts are fabulous, and it's certainly true that they tend to sugar us up, particularly around exams. When I'm in Buffalo, we rarely have desserts, but there are always cookies and things lying around and so whenever I'm home I just hoover them up, because I am a grazer and because I am always hungry. This summer, however, I am on my own. Now, I'm not going to buy cookies or anything because it's a needless expense and I am a cheapskate, and I'm not really inclined to sit down and bake a cake of an evening, so I figured my sugar intake would be dramatically reduced this summer. And perhaps it has gone down somewhat, but it's not as low as I expected. On the first day of work, Jim brought in a tin of raspberry bars. They were small, about 1" x 2" x .75", but I probably ate one or two of them a day for as long as they lasted. ("You should eat these," said Jim. "Even if they're not very good- because they'll be even less good tomorrow.") On Tuesday Kep came over and offered to make custard, and I love custard, so she made me some. Yesterday someone made Rice Crispy Treats to share, so I had one of those, and then another half of one after lunch today. Also today Susie, one of my fellow summer Hopkids, offered me a slice of leftover birthday cake, so I had a tiny piece, and then a couple of hours later Lauren offered me a cookie, so I had a cookie. I've actually had a ton of sugar today.

Also today I made tomato sauce, which was good, for dinner and for lunch I had the last of my red beans and rice, spinach, and a piece of bread and cheese. For breakfast I had bran flakes and a banana. Most days when I'm hankering something sweet, usually after dinner, I have a slice of bread and jam, which seems to get the job done, and I like to think it's healthier than other things. Tomorrow I'm planning to make bread. Now I'm going to work on my quilt, and it will all be very Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Wild Nights in the Queen City of the Lakes

2005-05-18T21:28:00.000-04:00

The alternative version of this story can be found here.

I was out on Elmwood last week when I ran into an old friend from high school (which is practically an oxymoron) who's at school in New Orleans. We chatted a little bit and then she asked me if I wanted to go out that night. "I don't know anybody in Buffalo so we can't go to parties or anything but we could see what's happening on Chippewa," she said.
"Well, okay, but I don't have any ID," I hedged.
"No problem, I'll fix you up before we leave," she replied breezily.

"Oh my god Caroline what'm I going to do?" I cried when I got home.
"You're going to go out on Chippewa and have fun," she replied.
"But I'm too young to go to bars! What if I get arrested! Think of the scandal!"
"I don't think it would be that much of a scandal," said Caroline.

That evening, my mum did my makeup while I stood around and wrung my hands. "What if we're killed in a DWI accident?"
"Do try not to let that happen," said my mother placidly. My friend came by in her dad's car to pick me up and we went to her house where we had a glass of Merlot as she used my Smith ID to make a very fake looking fake ID using some laminate she just had lying around.

I have to say, although since puberty I have looked forward to the time when I can go out on Chippewa, the bar scene in Buffalo on a Thursday night is pretty grim. "There are no guys here," my friend lamented. "Hey, we're not from around here," she drawled to some older men. "Where's kickin' tonight?" No place was. I didn't have anything to drink, largely because I was painfully aware of how young and out-of-place I looked. "I should really not let you get away with this," said the bouncer when he saw my ID, "But just for tonight."

We ended up chatting with some guys at the Crocodile Lounge and my friend invited them to go shoot some pool at another bar. They got increasingly drunk and as this happened, one grew boistrous and the other gloomy. My friend flirted with the rowdy one all through the game of pool and subsequent beer pong while the other lugubriously told me about his divorce, his collection of Johnny Cash mp3s, and how much he loves being a chiropracter. (Oh my god, so much.)

It was an interesting sociological experiment and all that, but I was just as glad when my friend decided it was time to go home.

"Of course we're not shocked- we assumed you'd be going to a bar," said my dad when I told him about my evening.
"I assumed you were just going to sit around in her house and smoke pot," my mother chipped in.

This is why I never really had any adolescent rebellion.

2005-05-17T21:28:00.000-04:00

My room in Hopkins

2005-05-17T20:26:00.000-04:00

My room in Hopkins

Red beans and ricely yours

2005-05-17T19:52:00.000-04:00

Today was my second day as what Jim Henle referred to as a "logic wizard" and I'm really enjoying it. Last night Kendra, Deyvi, Hillary and I all went to Jess's new apartment for dinner, which made us all (Jess particularly I suspect) feel terribly grown up, eating lasagne and drinking white wine in our friend's apartment. The apartment is lovely and very near campus, so hopefully I won't loose track of Jess now that she's graduated.

As for my job, it's going rather well. I'm learning how to work in Linex and use a program called Latex, which is difficult, but already I'm making fewer mistakes and the pages look beautiful. I've written arguments and exercises and typed a great deal of old stuff up verbatim. Here are some of my arguments. Can you tell whether they are valid?

If Condolezza Rice goes to the ball then if the prince is there she will dance with him.
The prince is at the ball.
Therefore Condolezza will dance with him.

If everyone reads the book then everyone will get a good grade.
If everyone gets a good grade then the teacher will be happy.
If the teacher is happy then she will bring us cupcakes.
Joe does not read the book.
Therefore the teacher will not bring us cupcakes.

And my favorite: A valid argument is one in which the premises and the conclusion are true.
The premises of this argument are true.
Therefore this is a valid argument.

One kind of tricky thing about this job, however, is that I need to know the answers to all the exercises I write, which means I have to do what amounts to a great deal of logic homework. Of course, I enjoy doing logic homework, but it's tough when I have to write exercises in Polish Sentential, say, which was the only thing I really never got right when I took Logic 100. I know this is good, though, because it will strengthen my understanding of important foundational concepts.

Tonight I made Carribbean red beans and rice, which was all right although completely unlike the red beans and rice we have at home. I made an enormous amount, so if anyone is in town and is hungry, come on over.

Action Girl

2005-05-12T09:56:00.000-04:00

From the Action Girl Manifesto:
RULE 9: MOST THINGS SUCK. That pretty much sums it up. Become a more discriminating person. While you're breaking down and admitting you can appreciate a really good movie or a major label album, also try to realize that not everything that is independent is good. Anyone who seriously likes every album put about by "cool label X" or every comic put out by "cool company Y" is either a relative or has no taste. Nothing is good all the time. Don't "like" something just because it's in the genre you support. Most stuff is lame, period, no matter who puts it out. Don't waste time on things that aren't worth it, and you'll have way more time to spend doing something fun!

This is all well and good, but I am having my doubts. The other day Floss said, "You know, I really just like most things. Even bad things- like, I'll see a movie like Tuck Everlasting that's really not very good, but I'll enjoy watching it. And when people don't like something- like [Friend A] didn't like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I'm just like, what's wrong with you?" I think this is true of me as well- I, too, enjoyed Tuck Everlasting. Most movies and books have something to like- even if I don't love a book, I'm generally inclined to see it through to the end. And I get really upset and annoyed by people who are never pleased by things. These people are frustrating. Similarly, I get very irritated with people who pursue indie pop and comic books as though these things had some intrinsic value apart from the enjoyment you get from them. IT'S JUST POP MUSIC. THEY'RE JUST COMIC BOOKS.

Does this mean that Floss and I are not discerning? I don't know. But it seems to me that our way is, at least, more pleasant for us than the other way would be, because we get to do enjoyable things more often. There's still the fact that we're wasting time on Tuck Everlasting when we could be, say, at a Pavement concert or something, though. So I'm not sure. What's the way to be? I guess as a compromise we'll take another cue from Action Girl:

RULE 6: DON'T WASTE TIME BEING NEGATIVE. Life's much too short. Don't waste time bitching about assholes and asshole behavior. If you can do something about it, go ahead, but otherwise just go on and forget it. If someone's a complete jerk, no amount of your time and energy is going to change them, so why work yourself up? Spend that time doing something you enjoy. If you hate someone, fine, but don't make it your career.

(Actually, the Action Girl series itself, despite some occasional gems, consisted largely of rather insipid stuff. But I love Action Girl anyway, because of the gems and because it's a neat concept, and as a result I'm trying to live up to its manifesto and it's all a little recursive.)

Capitulation

2005-05-02T12:08:00.000-04:00

I want to get contacts. [I just accidentally typed "comics"- that would be good, too.] I am sick of being blind when there's weather, I'm sick of having to constantly wipe them off. Sick of dust specks, sick of smudges. I've had enough.
I want to get a cell phone. If I had a cell phone I could use it to make phone calls. I could call into radio shows and talk to Carl Castle or Katie Skelly. I could call my mum who never gets my emails because of her spam filter. [I want to say the phrase "spam filter" to someone in the 1950s and see the look of disgust and confusion on her face. Like a coffee filter that makes your coffee taste like spiced ham. Mmmmm!]
I want a husband like J_m H_nle, only my age. I like everything about him except his unsafe bike riding habits.
I have developed a wrinkle between my eyebrows- a vertical line maybe a centimeter long. I want the cell phone mentioned above to be the kind that takes pictures because then I would take a picture of my wrinkle and show it to you. My skin is very dry so I guess it wrinkles easily, but still! I'm nineteen years old!

It sounds like I may be growing up. As Girl says, "That's it? I don't get a trial?"

A Kristi Moment

2005-04-29T12:08:00.000-04:00

There's this girl in my house named Kristi who must have been very sheltered before coming to college because she has never heard of anything and it's kind of a running joke in the house. (Not a mean joke, I don't think- she seems to have a sense of humor about it.) Last year somebody mentioned the phrase "blow job" and Kristi had to go look it up in the dictionary. Then she had to go look up the words used to define it. And then she was horrified.
I had a Kristi moment yesterday in my Wittgenstein seminar. Jay was telling us about how Wittgenstein was basically run out of town by the villagers due to his "transgression of certain social norms."
"Like what?" asked Mary.
"Well, Wittgenstein was gay," Jay said. "And he was very into rough trade, which did not sit well with the people of this particular Austrian village at the time."
"What's rough trade?" I wanted to know. (Why didn't I just write it down and look it up later? I didn't think of it. Jay is very insistant that when he uses a word I don't know I should always ask, and I have learned many very good words that way, like weltanschauung and indexical and exegesis. So I did it this time out of habit, not to be impish.)
"You don't know what rough trade means?" my classmates chortled smugly, and I blushed and tried to say never mind, but Jay, bless him, stood by his policy.
"Rough trade is a term used in certain sexual subcultures to refer to a sexual act in which harm is done to one or both of the sex partners..." he went ON AND ON, and really, I would have been okay if he had stopped right after the first instance of the word sexual.
"I'm too prudish to continue any further in this explanation," he finally concluded, and that was A OK with me. Good heavens, I can think of two letters that would have done me fine, but presumably he was afraid I wouldn't know what those meant either and the nightmare would have never ended.

Good intentions

2005-04-28T11:17:00.000-04:00

I always have these good ideas of things I ought to do to become a better comic drawing person, like making faces in the mirror and drawing them in increasingly stripped-down or stylized manners, or practicing drawing hands, or this new one I just thought of to help with the fact that all my people wander merrily through blank white emptiness. I should go through all my photographs and just draw the backgrounds, not the people. This might help with the fact that my people are nowhere. I could get all profound and try to draw a connection between my inability to draw places and scenery and my inability to ever know where the heck I am, but I think that would be pushing it.

I want to work on my comic idea that I had months ago that I still like, but I know I'd be better served working on, say, my set theory final. Kate and I got our 24 Hour Comics back yesterday and I was very much pleased by how much mine made her and Kep laugh. Some of my worries about things I should have left unsaid in the comic were confirmed, but on the whole I feel it was a decent effort.

Mission Acomplished

2005-04-24T13:35:00.000-04:00

24 Hour Comic Day was incredible, in the literal sense that it defied credulity. I sat in a chair from twelve noon until nine the following day and produced 24 pages of sequential art, which I think makes The Best of All Possible Worlds the longest work I have ever done- Neon Moon and Contradiction were probably both about sixteen pages.
At first I was really not into it: I thought my artwork was terrible, which it probably was, and the many many hours looming ahead of me were discouraging. It seemed like an impossible task. Round about the fouth hour, however, I started hitting a groove. I giggled at my own jokes and listened to music on my headphones. I felt like I had a shot. I was also moving very quickly- by seven, I had picked up an extra hour, some of which I used to eat the really delicious spinach pizza the comic book guys ordered us.
There were probably twelve people when we started, counting me and Kate, but as the hours stretched on I think we lost a couple. There wasn't much talking among the artists, but Kate and I whispered back and forth from time to time, checking the spelling of different words and cracking jokes.
Around 9 I wrote in my notebook, "What are we doing here? This is INSANE!" But I kept going. Towards the wee hours of the morning my ideas got stranger and my plot- yes, it actually has a plot, this one- started to wander a little. By four I was feeling like I had been born in the comic book store, and I wasn't bored or tired because drawing comics was what I had been born doing. There was nothing else one might do. All was comics.
At six they brought in bagels and orange juice. At around nine I finished my comic and packed up my stuff. I left it there so they could make a copy to send to Scott McCloud, and now I feel bereaved. I feel like I gave birth and they took the baby off to the nursery and I can't see it. I wish I'd read the whole thing straight through. Probably when I get it back I won't like it anymore.

I think it's fair to say that I met the 24 Hour Comics Challenge, because the words of the challenge are "To create a complete 24 page comic book in 24 continuous hours." It doesn't say "or less," [or fewer?] but I think it's okay, because it's primarily a challenge about comic book creating, not a challenge about doing yourself neurological damage. I stayed up for just about 23 hours all together- I went to bed until one once I got home- and that's a long time, so I'm okay with my results.

Worry

2005-04-22T20:05:00.000-04:00

One caveat: it seems likely that over the course of the 24 hours I may need to go to the bathroom. I don't want Kate to know that I sometimes go to the bathroom. When we were in New York, she and I were in the same hotel room (!!!), and I deliberately did not use the bathroom at all until she had left in the morning. Except to brush my teeth, an activity of which I would like her to be aware. (As aware as possible, in fact. The more aware the better.) I'm concerned. Maybe I'd better stop talking now.

24-Hour Comics Eve

2005-04-22T19:34:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is 24-Hour Comics Day, which is very exciting. I'm nervous- will I be able to make it the full 24 this year? I just reread last year's effort, and I'm struck by how poorly drawn it is. (Of course, it was a year ago, so hopefully I'm capable of doing better now.) I'm going to be continuing the same storyline, in the hopes of maybe completing a trilogy at some point. This year it's going to be largely other worlds and so on, with a special appearance by Wittgenstein's duck rabbit (although not Ludwig himself). Zombieology, maybe. Transworld Heirlines.
I'll be doing it with Kate, which makes me happy- I've talked to her more in the last two weeks then in the rest of this year put together. She and I lingered over dinner and brainstormed ideas for her, one of which she might end up using. The Habitat Sleep-Out, sadly, was cancelled, but I must say I'm secretly a tiny bit relieved. This means I'll get to sleep in a bed, for a proper length of time, before tomorrow's marathon of creativity.
I need to assemble my materials: pencils, pens, ink, brushes, paper. I need to remember to bring the notebooks containing cryptic ideas:
"B. Russell tries to pick up J. in a bar"
"someone sitting around checking 2+2 over & over just to make sure"
"Theta hanging around w/out anybody having it" [what could I have meant by that?]
"the duck rabbit is my friend."

Eeeeeeeeeee I'm so excited. Wish me luck!

Two Amusing Links

2005-04-20T17:53:00.000-04:00

Wittgenstein & Martha Stewart

Professor Xavier's School

Summer

2005-04-20T15:17:00.000-04:00

Of course, this logic book is the most exciting thing to happen in awhile, but there are a couple of other reasons why I'm looking forward to this summer more than any other since I entered the workforce at 14: going to North Carolina with Lillian, maybe a trip to DC with Nina, an exciting adventure at MoCCA in June, and I just got word that JJF, my favorite teacher in high school, would be delighted to have me help get things ready for the opening of her new school. Score.

To New York this past weekend with the House. I had a very nice time, particularly in light of the fact that I got to talk to Kate Marvin, a rare treat. We went to Chinatown and SoHo, then to NYU for Indian food. I had naan bread, coconut soup, and vegetable vindaloo so spicy it had me sweating.
"I recently realized that I raise my eyebrows a lot," said Kate at one point. This is an understatement- she raises her eyebrows constantly, to the point that last year Kanak and I nicknamed her miemao, which is Chinese for "eyebrow." I've been calling Kate Miemao ever since, and I would never tell her what it meant. I decided this was as good a time as any.
"Miemao means 'eyebrow,'" I told her.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Yup."
"...You've been calling me Eyebrow for the past year?!"
"You see now why I never told you."

Here are some pictures of the trip:

Alyson, Jen, Deyvi and Holly on the subway

Carly, Roxanne, and Jen on the streets of NY

Jen, Roxanne, Deyvi, and Holly in the lobby of our hotel

From left: Elisabeth, Kate, Me, Jackie, and Holly

At the Indian Restaurant

Not the Spring Weekend, but a Spring Weekend

2005-04-10T18:52:00.000-04:00

Quite a nice weekend, though short, of course. On Friday I had dinner with Leah, Nina, Stina, and Claire. (Note to parents: thanks for not naming me anything that ends in A.) Afterwards Claire and I went downtown to Pleasant Street and rented Big Fish, which I'd wanted to see for a long time. It was lovely- so sweet and Steve Buscemi was in it and I don't know why, but I absolutely love Steve Buscemi- every time he came on screen I could have squealed with delight, were I the squealing sort.
Saturday night Leah and Katie Rose and I went to Rhythm Nations, which is a wonderful dance and music performance sponsored, I think, by the International Students Organization. The highlights included Korean hip hop dancers and Vietnamese fan dancers and a wonderful Indian dance. Afterwards Leah and I put in an appearance at Jackie Kim's birthday party. Jackie is a DJ and she owns her own strobe light, which strikes me as a very odd thing to have. I was up much later than I should have been considering that this morning I woke up at 4:30 to go on a sunrise hike up a mountain. Although it was very cold and I was very sleepy, the hike was most enjoyable. When we got to the top we had chocolate croissants and Clifford the Big Red Dog juice boxes and spent some time in quiet meditation. From the top of the mountain we could see all five colleges and even as far as New Hampshire.
Tonight Leah and I are going to watch our favorite parts of Rushmore as a reward for finishing our homework. Assuming that happens. Which it will. Cha!

More on my Health

2005-04-05T21:37:00.000-04:00

Dad: So are you feeling better then?
Me: Yeah, mostly. Went to the doctor today, they said probably no ear infection.
Dad: Pinkeye, ear infection, what are you, a BABY?
Me: Yeah, really. Don't forget the spitting up.
Dad: Eeeeeewwww.

I've been giggling about that all day.

Exile On Green Street

iTunes Magic 8-Ball Meme

Spellcheck

Disney Princes

SAT Time

News from the Home front

Nightmare

Touteng

Exam week

My seminar paper

When they said sit down I stood up

More of the rage

Little Girl

Chicken Chicken!

The Logic Lecture

Technological Innovations

However:

The home stretch

Wrapped Up In Books

The Liar

By post

Thank you!

You Said It

Operators are Standing By

Dance, Kurt, Dance!

Crush crush crush

Sniffle

*hearts*

My Life According to Jay

I'm a Human Head

Children Suck at This: A Study On Language Acquisition

The Man in the Ceiling

I'm going to China

Smile, Dammit.

I've sold my soul to Phoneathon

An infinite stack of books!

You know you're in middle school...

I love my professors

Mountain Day Mountain Day Happy Mountain Day!

Alternative career choice?

First week of classes- done!

Delayed Gratification

Why I Should Have Learned to Drive

Still Katrina

Katrina

The campus is filling up

Back at school

So wrong

The Logician's Apprentice

Hard at Work

Dedeuce

Outing

The clever pup learns with delight/ he has a chance to set things right.

A rant about Kavalier and Clay for no real reason

This American Life

The Hive

The Lap of Luxury

Hopkins?

Summer Day

Knights, Knaves, Klingons, and Elves

Fun with Science

Induction Stove

Adventures are scary.

I Can Nap and You Can't

All I ever post about is food

Solitude is Bliss

The sugar issue

Wild Nights in the Queen City of the Lakes

Red beans and ricely yours

Action Girl

Capitulation

A Kristi Moment

Good intentions

Mission Acomplished

Worry

24-Hour Comics Eve

Two Amusing Links

Summer

Not the Spring Weekend, but a Spring Weekend

More on my Health

hearts