Well, today's the day and I feel... odd.  It's a strange combination of feeling totally unprepared, totally overprepared, and not sure whether I care either way.  Of course I'm feeling nervous and anxious - that pit-of-the-stomach gurgle never goes away - but after reading through my opening remarks again this morning, I feel pretty confident that ( Read more... )

In dream, I
cut paper snowflakes
imagine new addictions
While my family moves to Morocco
Counting
Their
Shoes.
I erupt
In an arid fog of coughing
And nothing that surrounds me
Reminds me of home.

Made my deadline!  Emailed the chapter to my adviser Friday afternoon.  I'm not thrilled with it, and I'm sure she's going to find lots to complain about, but since she's traveling this month it will be a few weeks before I hear anything more about it, and possibly longer than that.  To celebrate, I went to a local winery called Sweet Cheeks with ( Read more... )

The immediate result of my previous entry - a realization about how comparatively little time I have left in this program and how much I have to do during the short year that remains - was near paralysis.  Since my meeting with my adviser, I have had one-and-a-half productive writing sessions, two or three shit writing sessions, and two near panic ( Read more... )

Alive and kicking, albeit in a strange disconnected, dissertation-y kind of way.  I write this morning before I turn to the section of Chapter 3 I must get through today to share a terrifying calendar of the next year of my life ( Read more... )

As Seamus Heaney translates it, "Hwaet" is "so."  I have sometimes felt irked by this, because the Old English word "Hwaet" seems to connote something heavier - more weighty.  "Listen" might be more appropriate.  But as I thought about how I would start this entry, as I considered the proper word to use for the tone I wish to convey, the first word ( Read more... )

Anyone else find this amusing? 
When I first address the LJ webpage, it advertises itself as "LiveJournal: A Global Community of Friends Who Share Your Unique Passions and Interests."

Dictionary.com (I know, not the most authoritative, but give me a break here) defines "unique" as "1.) existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; ( Read more... )

Today is Day Two, Week One, of Fall term.  A ten week term ( Read more... )

By Friday, to meet my goals for the week/summer, I must complete, correctly format, and submit a 1300-1500 word "essay" on women and memory for consideration in a journal about Early Modern Women.  I'm not an early modern scholar, and I don't have a prepared essay, per se, about women and memory ( Read more... )

Judith Butler does a decent job explaining why personhood is important, and suggesting, though not detailing, the horrors and alienation of being denied personhood as a result of gender identification.  The situation is Precarious.  But, as Cary Wolfe points out, one of Butler's problems is that she stops at humans.  Yes, our lives and rights are ( Read more... )