have also cleaned the bathroom, put away all my laundry, alphabetised my books and done the dishes twice in two days.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
you know you're procrastinating when. . .
have also cleaned the bathroom, put away all my laundry, alphabetised my books and done the dishes twice in two days.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
due to popular demand
another episode in middle english! this one is smutty. if you think it's a dirty joke it probably is. a bit more chaucer - lines 583-626 of the wife of bath's prologue - and then a bonus reading of "let's get a pup!" by bob graham. which is not smutty. it cuts off kinda sudden at the end. i think the camera was unhappy.
enjoy!
enjoy!
Friday, March 16, 2007
apathetic
going through an apathy phase. i finally did a month's worth of laundry thismorning and now i will have clean socks. a major achievement. spending lots of time with the gang here, and also the virtual gang, so that's good.
i tried something a little experimental in my tutorials this week, and i think it worked. that was satisfying. we have moved to the complicated version of the name game, where one must introduce a random person round the room, then they introduce someone else, etc. always intereseting to see who's left til last. i got them to say what the last thing they'd watched on "you tube" was and got some funny answers. the young people actually seem to be using it as a way of connecting. they're watching bands of their friends back in ontario or whatever.
had a fascinating, challenging women's studies class on wednesday. first tears! (not mine). we were talking about _this bridge we call home_ and one of the women of colour was telling us about her personal, transformative response to the text (which was so lovely to hear) and i got grilled on mine as a white person. it was confronting but also kinda cool. we only have two (three?) weeks more of class, which is good cos i won't have to make lesson plans anymore, but i'm going to miss my own courses. 'cept every seminar nowadays starts with a reminder that our major essays are due in a month. don't wanna.
nice package from the parental unit, including a *signed* copy of susan's new book:
it is set in ballarat, which was very exciting, and is all time-travelly and cool.
i tried something a little experimental in my tutorials this week, and i think it worked. that was satisfying. we have moved to the complicated version of the name game, where one must introduce a random person round the room, then they introduce someone else, etc. always intereseting to see who's left til last. i got them to say what the last thing they'd watched on "you tube" was and got some funny answers. the young people actually seem to be using it as a way of connecting. they're watching bands of their friends back in ontario or whatever.
had a fascinating, challenging women's studies class on wednesday. first tears! (not mine). we were talking about _this bridge we call home_ and one of the women of colour was telling us about her personal, transformative response to the text (which was so lovely to hear) and i got grilled on mine as a white person. it was confronting but also kinda cool. we only have two (three?) weeks more of class, which is good cos i won't have to make lesson plans anymore, but i'm going to miss my own courses. 'cept every seminar nowadays starts with a reminder that our major essays are due in a month. don't wanna.
nice package from the parental unit, including a *signed* copy of susan's new book:
it is set in ballarat, which was very exciting, and is all time-travelly and cool.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
huh
now it's snowing again. this is a strange place to live.
had my last french test last night. it went well. though i got busted in the lift talking to j about how i don't can't tell the tenses apart. my french teacher was in the lift too. whoops. he opened the lesson with a recap of tenses. it didn't help much though, cos french has like sixteen million different tenses. they have different ones for something that happened a little while ago and something that happened ages ago. bah.
then he gave us all french newspapers to read, which is totally cool. mine has a picture of a nasal ornament on the front page.
have been at more marking parties and another birthday gathering (for the same birthday). a lot of reading to catch up on. i thought there was something else i wanted to write about, but it escapes me.
had my last french test last night. it went well. though i got busted in the lift talking to j about how i don't can't tell the tenses apart. my french teacher was in the lift too. whoops. he opened the lesson with a recap of tenses. it didn't help much though, cos french has like sixteen million different tenses. they have different ones for something that happened a little while ago and something that happened ages ago. bah.then he gave us all french newspapers to read, which is totally cool. mine has a picture of a nasal ornament on the front page.
have been at more marking parties and another birthday gathering (for the same birthday). a lot of reading to catch up on. i thought there was something else i wanted to write about, but it escapes me.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
randomness
i went to the potluck. it was fun. good food, nice wine, interesting people. lots of expats at these things, from all over the world, and lots of hippy alternative types. turns out it was a *with* electricity party, which was good cos it's cold, but had become a seed-swap instead. (i like these parties. i went to a birthday party come potluck come clothes swap a couple of weeks ago). i had to admit to a range of hardcore vegan organic vegie-garden owners that my gardening involves tending a spider plant and a cylcamen. *blushes*
still soggy and miserable outside. i'm going to stay inside today and have a bath.
i have rediscovered the joys of narrative. it's taken me this long to realise that i wasn't taking a course that requires reading a novel a week and this means i'm story starved. so in the last week i have read:
children of england - alison weir
city of glass (not strictly a narrative, but like one) - douglas coupland
diary of a provincial lady - e.m. delafield
anasi's boys - neil gaiman
dracula - bram stoker
it's allll goood.
the time seems to have changed again (what is with daylight savings?) so i'm an hour ahead. has australia changed too? i am so confused.
still soggy and miserable outside. i'm going to stay inside today and have a bath.
i have rediscovered the joys of narrative. it's taken me this long to realise that i wasn't taking a course that requires reading a novel a week and this means i'm story starved. so in the last week i have read:children of england - alison weir
city of glass (not strictly a narrative, but like one) - douglas coupland
diary of a provincial lady - e.m. delafield
anasi's boys - neil gaiman
dracula - bram stoker
it's allll goood.
the time seems to have changed again (what is with daylight savings?) so i'm an hour ahead. has australia changed too? i am so confused.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
over the weekend - a everyday photo essay
the weather is soggy and depressing today. i too am soggy and depressed. well, not depressed exactly, just a bit *blah*. so, after a nice skype to tuchfrau (get well soon, babe) i dodged the piles of marking and reading and laundry all looking reproachfully at me and went to the drive. it was bucketing down, which is unusual. this is one of my favourite quotes about the rain here:
"Today, the rain is steady, clinging to the buildings, tipping down the leaves of the trees. In Vancouver, there are many varieties of rain, but the most common, he believes, is the kind that tries to convince you it isn't there, the kind that is so thin it makes the windshield wipers squeak."
but today it was bucketing so i had a looooooong lunch in a nice thai place (hoping it would stop) and watched everybody walking by in raincoats and big hats and gumboots and plastic pants and small children in shrink-wrapped strollers. (the black box down the bottom is a newspaper vending machine thing - they're on most street corners):
then i did my grocery shopping in my favourite little funky alternative supermarket. it has lots of stuff in bulk and a good range of ethnic foodstuffs.
milk in nice square bottles:
entertaining bananas (quoc is the owner) and onions by the lb:
then, loaded up with good things, i staggered over to the skytrain station and went home. on the train:
now i am dry and caffeinated and will start studying soon. i'm supposed to be going to a no-electricity pot-luck tonight (bring a dish to share and a candle) but i'm not sure if i can be bothered braving the weather again. also i have been having a succession of bad hair days:
my new hair gunk is supposed to be water-resistant, but i don't think it's up to the job.
french homework. yes. and feminist pedagogy reader. maybe more chaucer. go!
"Today, the rain is steady, clinging to the buildings, tipping down the leaves of the trees. In Vancouver, there are many varieties of rain, but the most common, he believes, is the kind that tries to convince you it isn't there, the kind that is so thin it makes the windshield wipers squeak."
but today it was bucketing so i had a looooooong lunch in a nice thai place (hoping it would stop) and watched everybody walking by in raincoats and big hats and gumboots and plastic pants and small children in shrink-wrapped strollers. (the black box down the bottom is a newspaper vending machine thing - they're on most street corners):
then i did my grocery shopping in my favourite little funky alternative supermarket. it has lots of stuff in bulk and a good range of ethnic foodstuffs.
milk in nice square bottles:
entertaining bananas (quoc is the owner) and onions by the lb:
then, loaded up with good things, i staggered over to the skytrain station and went home. on the train:
now i am dry and caffeinated and will start studying soon. i'm supposed to be going to a no-electricity pot-luck tonight (bring a dish to share and a candle) but i'm not sure if i can be bothered braving the weather again. also i have been having a succession of bad hair days:
my new hair gunk is supposed to be water-resistant, but i don't think it's up to the job.
french homework. yes. and feminist pedagogy reader. maybe more chaucer. go!
Friday, March 09, 2007
wah
i just made all these nice new friends and now they're all *leaving*.
also do not want to move and make new friends all over again.
wah!
also do not want to move and make new friends all over again.
wah!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
miners' sing-a-long!
"Hard rock Miners' Sing-a-long!! - the boozy, ultra-fun, campfire-type sing-a-long you all know and love."
wheeeee! for m's b'day party last night we all went to the railway club to this sing-a-long. it was fantabulous. there was a little band (six guitars, a bango, a bass, a drum and a sax) and about sixteen million people crammed into the little bar. we all had books of words and everybody sang along with the band. it was intensely loud. it's like reverse karaoke, and a lot more fun. songs included "blister in the sun", lots of johnny cash (which reminded me of the time j and i played him at work to scare off the customers), some rolling stones, "summer nights" (from grease) and "these boots were made for walking".
the night was being filmed by cbc, so if i turn up on the telly waving a beer mug and belting out accadacca don't be surprised.
woke up a bit the worse for wear (probably shouldn't have stayed up til 2am reading colm toibin), which was not so good cos i had my teaching observation today, but i recycled a lesson plan from last semester and it actually went really well. i feel like i'm achieving stuff with my tuesday group, and they all *talk*, which is great.
it was balmy and warm today, which kinda threw me. i'd forgotten. when i say "warm" i mean 10-12 degrees, but there was this lovely little breeze and ooo, it might be spring.
about **** time.
wheeeee! for m's b'day party last night we all went to the railway club to this sing-a-long. it was fantabulous. there was a little band (six guitars, a bango, a bass, a drum and a sax) and about sixteen million people crammed into the little bar. we all had books of words and everybody sang along with the band. it was intensely loud. it's like reverse karaoke, and a lot more fun. songs included "blister in the sun", lots of johnny cash (which reminded me of the time j and i played him at work to scare off the customers), some rolling stones, "summer nights" (from grease) and "these boots were made for walking".
the night was being filmed by cbc, so if i turn up on the telly waving a beer mug and belting out accadacca don't be surprised.
woke up a bit the worse for wear (probably shouldn't have stayed up til 2am reading colm toibin), which was not so good cos i had my teaching observation today, but i recycled a lesson plan from last semester and it actually went really well. i feel like i'm achieving stuff with my tuesday group, and they all *talk*, which is great.
it was balmy and warm today, which kinda threw me. i'd forgotten. when i say "warm" i mean 10-12 degrees, but there was this lovely little breeze and ooo, it might be spring.
about **** time.
Monday, March 05, 2007
i am a bit dull really
i have been at marking parties, which is when a bunch of friends sit quietly in a room together and mark or read or write, and consume a lot of chocolate and coffee. it's fun, in a geeky kind of way, and we can compare university offers/plans in between essays. then we watched a lot of buffy.
i have no other news. i seem to be on top of my work. a discomforting feeling, cos i'm sure that means i've missed something. i've done most of my medieval reading for wed, i've done most of my feminist theory reading even though we don't have class this week, i've done half of my marking, i've done all my study for french this evening, i have almost finished my progress report due today, and i've made forays into the other stuff i'm working on: research re. phds, gre prep, knee rehabilation, chasing up that article i sent out, planning final essays, lesson plan for tuesday. hmmm. i'm sure something is waiting to bite me on the bum.
i have no other news. i seem to be on top of my work. a discomforting feeling, cos i'm sure that means i've missed something. i've done most of my medieval reading for wed, i've done most of my feminist theory reading even though we don't have class this week, i've done half of my marking, i've done all my study for french this evening, i have almost finished my progress report due today, and i've made forays into the other stuff i'm working on: research re. phds, gre prep, knee rehabilation, chasing up that article i sent out, planning final essays, lesson plan for tuesday. hmmm. i'm sure something is waiting to bite me on the bum.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
my chaucer voice
it's been two years since i last read middle english, so i make no guarantees about my pronunciation, but here is a reading of lines 285-308 of the general prologue to the canterbury tales. enjoy!
my inner gimp
i have embraced my inner gimp, and bonded with the other grad gimps. we're cranky cos we have injuries caused by too much sitting still and reading, which is not an thrilling story to impress people. i did aqua-therapy the other day - put on a float belt thing and strolled up and down the diving pool, very regally, watching the snow drift down outside. i am much improved and can walk n stuff.
had a touching moment with a student with whom i have been having conflict, which has made me all "the children are our future!" i have also been reading slabs of "the chronicle of higher education", which always makes one feel better about teaching and marking and department politics. also been researching lots of different universities. i've found some very exciting english/women's studies phd programs in michigan, minnesota, vancouver and california. where *do* i want to live?
why, yes, i have been procrastinating like a demon. how did you know?
we have been discussing masculinity in my feminist theory class, which has been interesting. the prof kept asking us why we were so indifferent and we kept saying "meh".
the snow has gone away, and we're back to fog and rain, but it's not so cold anymore. i think that was probably winter's last gasp. thirteenth month of autumn/winter and counting!
had a touching moment with a student with whom i have been having conflict, which has made me all "the children are our future!" i have also been reading slabs of "the chronicle of higher education", which always makes one feel better about teaching and marking and department politics. also been researching lots of different universities. i've found some very exciting english/women's studies phd programs in michigan, minnesota, vancouver and california. where *do* i want to live?
why, yes, i have been procrastinating like a demon. how did you know?
we have been discussing masculinity in my feminist theory class, which has been interesting. the prof kept asking us why we were so indifferent and we kept saying "meh".
the snow has gone away, and we're back to fog and rain, but it's not so cold anymore. i think that was probably winter's last gasp. thirteenth month of autumn/winter and counting!
Friday, March 02, 2007
neat
"Currently -2 degrees on campus with light snow. Please use caution while driving and walking as roadways, parking lots and walkways have areas that are wet with possible icy patches. Also be cautious when driving on roads leading up to the campus as there may be some icy patches due to the low temperatures."
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