K'zoo

Cloning is the only answer.

No, wait, then each clone would need a badge.

Perhaps a device to bend time and space enabling me to be in several places at once. I'll just have to be careful not to run into myself less the space time continuum explode with lots of pretty colors and a rather loud popping noise. It's never a good thing when this happens and Doc Brown shows up to give you a rather firm talking too.

I could train my cats to...on second thought any thing involving training cats is a bad idea.

Tape recorders!

No wait, I hate tape recorders.

So, really the best option seems to be bending time and space. Or flagging down The Doctor (or failing this finding an archeologist with some sort of Gate of Stars).

What's that? Pick just one session?

That's impossible.

The bra post

I now have four bras that are truly the right size. Yes, a bra that fits well does make a difference. Also it seems my bra size is one of the hardest to find on the whole damn planet! I managed to find only six bras at Khols in my size. Are there really that few women wearing 34D out there? Or are is that there is just that many?

Would it kill stores to make it easier to find sizes? There is no reason you should have a rack mixed with 36c, 44DD, and 32A. I could see if oh the racks were divided into A, B etc or 32, 34 etc, but the randomness is boggling. You cannot blame it on other customers either even the volume and the fact that all the brands seem to have this problem.

There are days I wish I could wear my circular boned bodice, because the back support is lovely. Sadly, I do not work at Hot Topic or anywhere else that a bodice is appropriate work attire.

On a related shopping note I picked up a cute little half jacket and a skirt. All told I only spent 54 dollars at Khols, close to the amount I'd planed to pay for two decent bras.

Really this was my biggest accomplishment this weekend, other than the typical weekend cleaning chores.

I did pick up Casanova but I'm not sure that should be seen as a accomplishment per say.

Poetry Friday- The Countess of Dia, a Trobairtiz

The Countess of Dia- Estat ai en greu cossirier

I've been in great anguish
over a noble knight I once had,
and I want everyone to know, for all time,
that I loved him-too much!
Now I see I'm betrayed
because I didn't yield my love to him.
For that I've suffered greatly,
both in my bed and when I'm fully clad.

How I'd yearn to have my knight
in my naked arms for one night!
He would feel a frenzy of delight
only to have me for his pillow.
I'm more in love with him
than Blancheflor ever was with Floris.
To him I'd give my heart, my love,
my mind, my eyes, my life.

Beautiful, gracious, sweet friend,
when shall I hold you in my power?
If I could lie with you for one night,
and give you a kiss of love,
you can be sure I would desire greatly
to grant you a husband's place,
as long as you promised
to do everything I wished!

Numbers

No, not the show.

• Six days until K'zoo.
• Two weeks until I MUST have my application in to the university to be considered for scholarships.
• Two letters of recommendation asked for, and received.
• One past professor vanished from the fact of the earth
• One hundred and eighty dollars spent at the salon last night.
• Four transcripts order.
• One closet half way cleaned out.
• One more test in Texas politics.
• One bottle of wine left in the fridge.
• Five new children starting in my class on Monday.
• Zero days between me and the weekend.

Insight from panic

For those of you playing along at home, you might remember that I'm applying at a prestigious private school to finish my undergrad. I've been panicking faster than a speeding bullet over the said application lately. Most of the panic itself as little to do with a the application itself or even the application essay of doom(tm).

No, most of my panic, anxiety, and overall freaking out is over "what do I do if they don't accepted me?"

Do I continue on at the State U (not Texas State BTW) with no Medieval Studies department, and the long commute? Do I apply to a few other universities with medieval Studies programs even though this could mean a even longer commute then State U?

I don't have the 'what ifs' Uncle Shelby writers about so much as the "Do Is?".

Through all of this my dear friend who lives too many states, we'll call her English-Shrew, away as been calming me down and smacking me down with reason. For this I'm very grateful, since I really don't have the time for a mini panic attack right now. I also fell like a bit of a heel.

English-Shrew has been applying to grad schools and dealing with all the stress there-in. Stress and panic which I haven't been the most supportive about. Suddenly I realize that 'it will all work out', and 'well you can try again in the spring' are about the least supportive things ever to leave my mouth.

Why she hasn't sent masked men to kill me in my sleep yet, is beyond me. I'm very thankful she hasn't and has given me the support I should have given her.

Though it is entirely possible that she is lulling me into a false sense of security and will soon have me tried for my abuse for the common coma.

And remember what ever you do, don't panic.

'Me' meme

Found around the blog-sphere.

Accent: Mix between East Coast and Texas
Booze: Australian chardonnay and Asian beer
Chore I Hate: Cleaning the cat box
Dog or Cat: Cats. They hunt me down.
Essential Electronics: Laptop/ipod
Favorite Cologne(s):BPAL's Doormouse
Gold or Silver: Silver.
Hometown: Small town in Texas.
Insomnia: All the damn time.
Job Title: Assistant transition teacher
Kids: None, and would people please stop asking me when I'm going to have some?
Living arrangements: A nice two bed, two bath condo in a nice up and comin area. Formal a run down 1 bed/1 bath apartment in a not so nice part of town.
Number of sexual partners: Right now? None. Less than four more than one.
Overnight hospital stays: Yes, when I was five.
Phobias: Spiders, utterly humiliating myself in public, running into stalker-ex.
Quote: Follow your bliss- Joseph Campbell.
Religion: Deist
Siblings: One brother, three step-brothers, two-step sisters.
Time I wake up: 6:30 am.
Unusual talent or skill: Bending my thumb backwards?
Vegetable I refuse to eat: Lima Beans.
Worst habit: Biting my nails
X-rays: Teeth, right knee, right arm and shoulder
Yummy foods I make: Seafood pasta, ginger-snaps
Zodiac sign: Virgo. Ascendant in Scorpio, Moon is in Aries.

Isabella: She wolf of France

Alison Weir's, Queen Isabella : Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England

I always enjoy Weir's books, and must admit that I own all of those that she's written to date. She has a bit of a thing for English Queens and I can't say that I blame her. This time around she takes a look at Isabella, 'the she wolf of France'. History has not been kind to her.

Yesterday I had a long review written out. Today we're going the bullet route.

Main thoughts on the book

• As always I liked that we are given contemporary events, instead of focusing just on the main subject.
• Use of contemporary sources, how I love seeing them used. I think most of us have read at least one book that refers to the sources written long after the subject (person, place, or thing) and have wondered why the contemporay sources were ignored.
• While Weir is biased towards Isabella in part, she keeps to the facts and contemporary sources for the most part.
• This brings up a point for another time, should historians attempt to suppose what their subject might have felt and thought or keep to what we know for sure?
• The debunking of the popular mode of death for Edward II, ala red hot poker, done in a way that made sense. I agree that Edward more than likely died by suffocation.
• I'm not sure how much validity the premise of Edward escaping and living as a hermit has but she did support her theory well.
• I was pleased to see that she did not come down on one side or the other of the death verse escape. Though she does lean heavily towards the escape theory.
• Yes, the escape theory very much appeals to my romantic literary side.
• I agree that it is rather doubtful Isabella would have agreed to killing Edward II. Killing a King, any king is a dangerous precedent to set and she would have been smart enough to be wary.
• Must find a book on Queen Philippa of Hainault, from what we see of her in this book she'd be a fascinating subject.
• Overall if Isabella is everything later histories say she is, one would thing the contemporary records would show more of this tone towards her.

Thoughts, criticism, debates?

This is a non-post

I had a nice long post about Alison Weir's 'Queen Isabella : Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England'. Which the gods of the internet decided should be sacrficed to them in their mercy.

In other words, the 'net ate it. I'll attempt to re-write the post tommorw.

Overworked and Overstressed

I hate being sick when I have so much on my plate. Though the reason I'm sick most likely is because I have so much on my plate.

Work has been nothing but stress for months now, and working until five now isn't helping. The teacher meeting we had today just reminded me how glad I'll be not to be here come next fall.

Assuming I survive the summer.

I caught a stomach bug at some point and would have really liked to stay in bed most of yesterday and today. My sun-burn from yesterday is a little better but I now have red splotches all around my eyes. I'm operating under four hours of sleep and insomina is the name of the game.

I've tried working on my application essay but keep having the urge to burn the thing. Which is difficult considering it's on a hard drive.

In the next week I have way to much to do. So much so that I'd have a breakdown if I tried to list it all.

So for now I'm going to curl up in my dark cool bedroom with my cat and take another nap.

Baaa

Movie meme found over at Dr. Virago's.

Bold the ones you've seen; star the ones you love.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
"The 400 Blows" (1959) Francois Truffaut
"8 1/2" (1963) Federico Fellini
"Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972) Werner Herzog
"Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott*
"All About Eve" (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
"Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
"Bambi" (1942) Disney
"Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) William Wyler
"The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller
"The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica
"The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks*
"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott*
"Blowup" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
"Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch
"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) Arthur Penn
"Breathless" (1959) Jean-Luc Godard
"Bringing Up Baby" (1938) Howard Hawks*
"Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
"Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
"Un Chien Andalou" (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
"Children of Paradise" / "Les Enfants du Paradis" (1945) Marcel Carne
"Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
"Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles*
"A Clockwork Orange" (1971) Stanley Kubrick*
"The Crying Game" (1992) Neil Jordan
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) Robert Wise"Days of Heaven" (1978) Terence Malick
"Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) Luis Bunuel
"Do the Right Thing" (1989) Spike Lee
"La Dolce Vita" (1960) Federico Fellini
"Double Indemnity" (1944) Billy Wilder
"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) Stanley Kubrick*
"Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
"E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
"Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner*
"The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
"Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen*
"Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
"Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
"The General" (1927) Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
"The Godfather," "The Godfather, Part II" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
"Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
"GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
"The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
"Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
"A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester*
"Intolerance" (1916) D.W. Griffith
"It's A Gift" (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra
"Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg*
"The Lady Eve" (1941) Preston Sturges
"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean*
"M" (1931) Fritz Lang
"Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
"The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) John Frankenheimer
"Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang*
"Modern Times" (1936) Charles Chaplin
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam*
"Nashville" (1975) Robert Altman
"The Night of the Hunter" (1955) Charles Laughton
"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
"North by Northwest" (1959) Alfred Hitchcock*
"Nosferatu" (1922) F.W. Murnau
"On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Sergio Leone
"Out of the Past" (1947) Jacques Tournier
"Persona" (1966) Ingmar Bergman
"Pink Flamingos" (1972) John Waters
"Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
"Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
"Rashomon" (1950) Akira Kurosawa
"Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
"Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Nicholas Ray
"Red River" (1948) Howard Hawks
"Repulsion" (1965) Roman Polanski
"Rules of the Game" (1939) Jean Renoir
"Scarface" (1932) Howard Hawks
"The Scarlet Empress" (1934) Josef von Sternberg
"Schindler's List" (1993) Steven Spielberg
"The Searchers" (1956) John Ford
"The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
"Singin' in the Rain" (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly*
"Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder*
"A Star Is Born" (1954) George Cukor
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Elia Kazan
"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
"Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
"The Third Man" (1949) Carol Reed
"Tokyo Story" (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
"Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) John Huston
"Trouble in Paradise" (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
"Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
"West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise
"The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming

Spring festivals

My school's Spring festival went off without a problem.

The kids and parents seemed to have a good time and it was marked improvement over the Fall festival. This time we rented a bounce house, a popcorn machine, and a bubble machine.

The kids LOVED the bounce house. There were still children in it when the company came to take it down.

The face-painting booth Primary 1 ran proved popular. My classes cake walk wound up giving away most of the cakes in a raffle since the children were more interested in the bounce house and face painting.

Since we had it from 10-12 we avoided the afternoon heat and left us teachers with our afternoon free. Which we enjoyed by headed over to the local sports bar.

Afterwards I went home and napped for a few hours. Now I'm nursing my sun burn and catching up on my reading.

Poetry Friday-the Uncle Shelby edition

I spent many happy hours with Uncle Shelby.

Uncle Shelby might more well know to some of you as Shel Silverstein.

Here are four poems from three of his books.

'Prayer of the selfish child' from A Light In the Attic
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my toys to break.
So none of the other kids can use 'em...
Amen.

'The lost Cat' from the same book. (Fellow cat owners, we all know we've said something similar at least once)
We can't find the cat,
We don't know where she's at,
Oh where did she go?
Does anyone know?
Let's ask this walking hat.

'The Voice' from Falling Up
There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
"I feel that this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong."
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What's right for you-just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.

'The Battle' from Where the Sidewalk Ends
Would you like to hear
Of the terrible night
When I bravely fought the-
No?
All right.

Shel Silverstien died in 1999.

Historical accurate movies=boring?

Edit: It came to my attenion that my draft posted instead of my final. Here's the final verison of my rant.

I re-watched Emma the other day and had a minor rant attack over historical inaccuracies in the movie. Afterwards I started to think, what was the last historical accurate movie which gained any sort of interest.

All the recent movies like Troy, Alexander, King Arthur, and even the recent version of P&P, have historical inaccuracies large enough to drive trucks through. Does a story/time period need to be skewed or changed to make an interesting story? I'd like to think the answer is no.

It's almost as if Hollywood and the general have ingrained in their brains that if it's truly historical it's boring. I've heard the "people don't see movies to learn" argument before, but why can they learn and be entertained at the same time?

And hey Hollywood do you think we could at least TRY to get the costumes right half the time? While the accuracies of costumes in movies such as Ever After (and perhaps Pirate of the Caribbean, though ironical though weren't too off basis from what my limited knowledge of that time period)and, A Knight's Tale can be forgiven somewhat I dislike seeing things such as plate armor on knights in a time only chain-mail was avaible.

Or how about artifacts pieces in the right places? I can't have been the only person who gaped at the sight of the Lion's Gate in a throne room in Tory.

Please let's not even started on changing stories to 'suit' modern audiences. It's a frustrating trend that seems to tie into the sanitized of myths and fairy/folk tales. (Remind me to do a rant on the loss of understanding of the importance of the storyteller in the telling of fairy/folk tales and how this ties into the before said sanitization.)

Does anyone else become frustated with this?

Strangely enough though, I have no problem with A Lion in Winter.

Work, applications, and K'zoo

Three months until our contracts are up and still we haven't heard anything. Granted keeping me at the school would take raising my salary to somewhere near industry standards and allowing me to leave early two to three days for classes. The healthcare issue is pretty much a non-issue since we were promised this before Christmas. This is something we're all going to demand.

I'd rather not leave since my fellow teachers are also my friends. The director, a good deal of the parents, and the partners? I'd be happy never to see again. I'm working until five now since we've been over ratio in afterschool, more for the benefit of co-workers and my bank account than my director.

On to school related news. I still hate Texas politics. I just hate it even more now. My application essay might be the death me.

I'm not kidding here.

On a K'zoo note: I'm counting the days. Plus if you're going to K'zoo check out: K'zoo meet-up plans via Dr. V and Ancrene Wiseass(who has one of the best blog names going).

Blog Carnival updates

The Carnival Of Education is up over at The education wonk.

The Carnival of Feminists XIII is up at I See Invisible People

Teaching Carnival #8 is now hosted at A Delicate Boy.

The REALLY Dead Women Writers Meme

Bardiac has posted the master list of the REALLY Dead Women Writers Meme.

Misogyny, stupidity, or both?

I feel like I should write something witty, intelligent and stimulating. Instead I'll bitch about the idiot DJ I heard this morning.

I listen to a radio morning shows on my way to work every morning. Normally the dj's are interesting and funny. Today one of them had me screaming at my radio.

The whole thing started with the ring one of the Desperate Housewives is selling on eBay. One of the DJs said he knew why know one would buy the ring. In fact, he had two ways to tell if your marriage would fail.

Reason 1: If the ring came from a pawn shop.
Reason 2: If the woman asks the man.

Take a guess which reason provoked a response from me?

The other two DJs disagreed with him on the second reason too, thankful. Still the guy kept going on about how it was just wrong for a woman to ask a man. If he didn't ask, the DJ said, then he wasn't ready.

I'll spare you the wild horse and saddle analogy he made over and over again.

To make matters worse, they took callers. Most of the women that called agreed with him!

Am I alone in boggling over this? I'm not even sure if he knew how he sounded, but I almost expected him to say women belong in the kitchen next.

I won't be listening to that morning show anymore.

Margery Kempe, crazy like a fox

Dr. Virago has a interesting post on Margery of Kempe up on her blog.

I find much irony in this since I've been re-reading 'Memoirs of a medieval woman;: The life and times of Margery Kempe' by Louise Collis

I commented to the post but I'd like to expand on it slightly.

When I first read Kempe I thought she was a fascinating woman with a hell of a lot of self-confidence. I also felt a bit sorry for her husband, but he must have loved her dearly. He must have to stayed by her side through everything.

Margery couldn't have been a easy woman to be around for many people. Even today we're embarrassed by those who are 'overly devout'. Holy or crazy? The text demands response of some sort.

Some of Dr. Virago's students called her a freak and crazy.

She might be a 'freak', but she's a interesting one. And if she's crazy, she crazy like a fox. Whether or not she had her visions due to mental illness, a imaginative mind, or true visions from God, she seems to have believed in them. She was also smart enough to know what she had to do, ie cultivate the right friendships, made the right pilgrimages; making sure that if she's ever called into question by the Bishop or others that she has the right people on her side.

Consciously or unconsciously she probably knew she needed to persecuted to be a saint.

I think she rather liked it too.

Now whether my opinions on her hold up to a second reading of her book and Collis remains to be seen. I'll post again when I've completed them again.

Is it summer break yet?

I'm an assistant Montessori teacher in the two and half to three year old class. For those of you know that know montessori you already know there is something wrong with that sentence.

The school I work at is...interesting to say the least. It's more monte-something than montessori. The school is located in a very expensive area. Nothing illustrates this better than the mind-set of many of our parents.

Today one of our parents asked when their child would be writing and oh yes when could the expect to start seeing addition and subtraction worksheets sent home?

It took everything in my power from telling this parent exactly what was on my mind. If this was a isolated incident, I could handle it much better. Sadly most of the parents only see montessori as a way of having a prodigy as a child. They want little programmed robots to show off to their friends and family.

I'll be leaving at the end the summer to go back to school.

I'm not going to miss this next fall. I won't miss parents that seem to think their kids are akin to a designer bag. I won't miss having to fight tooth and nail for things like sick days, vacation, and health insurance.

I will miss the seventeen little face smiling up at me in the morning. I'll miss the hugs and hearing my name called out in delight.

For six years I've worked with small children, but I think it's time to move on.

I'll sit this dance out

Since it is Easter, it is also Geek calls her father day. Every holiday we have a dance we do and it's not set to music. Unless you count the imperial march.

I called him, and as expected he did not pick up. I left a message and I will email him later. If he follows his usual MO he will not call me back. Sometime in the next week I'll receive a email from him.

This email will contain him asking why I didn't call him a second time. Most likely he will mention my lack of degree. There is a 50-50 chance he will ask me if I have a 'real job yet'.

If I'm truly lucky he'll compare me to my brother and complain how I never call him.

We do this dance every holiday. I'm tired of the dance, in fact I'm ready to throw in the towel.

This makes me angry more than I can put into words. I love my father. He's not my biological father but for most of my life he was my dad.

I want a relationship with him, a good relationship with him. Visits with him leave me stressed, frustrated, and exhausted. I'll have a least one mini-breakdown per visit.

It has to stop, but other than cutting him out of my life I have no clue how.

I miss my daddy.

Zombie Jesus day

Happy Zombie Jesus (otherwise known as yay!chocolate) day, or whatever you happen to celebrate.

My day consisted of buying plants and having Easter dinner at my mother's house. The dinner consisted of shrimp and pasta, a very informal meal. The only sign of Easter in the house were the cadbury eggs my mother gave me.

The grocery shopping I'd planed was not accomplished but I'll survive until tomorrow.

How a single girl spends her weekend

I recently had someone ask what a city living single twenty something does with her weekend. I'm sure they were hoping for something out of Sex in the City.

My weekend?

Let's see here, I woke up at eight to wait on the A/C repair man. My A/C was giving off hot air which will not cut it for Texas summer, let alone Texas spring. Fortunately it was a simple wiring problem. Since I moved in just after Christmas I've had my heater and a/c worked on. The home warranty was the best money I ever spent.

Next I went to a few garage/estate sales. I found a chair perfect for my living room. It had a bit of damage, but for five dollars the chair was a good deal. I knew the damage would be an easy enough fix with a bit of wood glue. Then it was on to meet my mom and step dad for lunch at an Italian restaurant with the best pizza in the city.

I went to half-price books and picked a few books. 'The writings of Medieval Women: A anthology', 'Early Medieval' written by George Henderson, The fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople by Jonathan Phillips (Cantor gave it a favorable review), and 'The Fourth Estate: A history of women in the middle ages' written by Shulamith Shahar. As half-price was giving away tote bags, I managed to snag two.

To wrap up my exciting day, I napped for two hours before making a very simple chicken and pasta dish. I enjoyed it with a glass of Blachardonnayhardonay while watching Emma.

Tomorrow? Grocery shopping!

Will the whirl wind never cease?

If you can't read this, your teacher hated you.

"I have read a number of studies that suggest gay men is a sickness caused by exposure to chemicals when they were pregnant."

Or maybe they just found some really bad fanfiction.

I blame no one but their English teachers. Instead of Bitch Ph.D

>you read blog

Remember those pure text based computer games of old?

Scott does and gives us a brand new adventure ala Zork.

work on dissertation
You spend two hours searching the OED for the usage history of the word devolve.
> work on dissertation
You spend three hours reading five articles which have nothing to do with the dissertation.
> work on dissertation
You spend twenty minutes online reading about baseball.
> tear out hair
Taken. You find the Elvish sword.
> in my hair?


Keyboards protectors on!

Red pen time

The following is from a university on-line application.

See if you can spot the error (s).

[ PERSONAL ESSAY ] Required
The two main reasons for the essay assignment are to get to know you and to evaluate your writing skills. In reviewing your essay, we will consider the quality of thought and clarity of your writing. This essay is not only a factor in admission but a significant factor in the awarding of merit scholarships.

We invite you to select one of the following essay choices.

What sets you apart from everyone else?
Topic of your own choosing. This essay is comletedly open-ended and can be about any topic as long as it fulfills the objectives mentioned above.

"Maybe you're not cut out for college"

"Maybe you're not cut out for college. Settle down and have some babies."

Two years ago I had an well meaning 'advisor', really just someone the school hired to help with the crunch of fall enrollment, say those words to me at the community college I was attending. (Hey, the tuition was cheap.) The reason had nothing to do with my grades or my outlook. Apparently taking classes as I could afford them and when work would allow made me an undecided student.

I was twenty three and I had this woman in her fifties telling me to give it up. What I really wanted according to her was to raised children; after all I worked in child-care.

In her eyes, I think I'd blown my chance at college.

After all it must say something when one goes from a private university to a community college. Which it did, but what was being spoken had more to do with money and certain rules the University enforced. Well, it was a bit more than that but I'll save that for another post.

I bawled my eyes out in the women bathroom before I went back and demanded a new advisor. I received the classes I'd wanted (History of Women in American, a 2000 level class).

Last year I transferred over to a state university. I'm currently applying to another private university with an excellent Medieval Studies department. I'm going back to school full time and I can't wait.

The point of all this? I'm on the tail end twenty-five and still an undergrad.

A junior (finally) after this semester.

To some people (my father), this makes me a failure. I've heard more lectures that start with "All your peers are..." and end with something that isn't the word failure but close enough for government work.

Sometimes I believe it myself.

Mostly, I know that twenty five isn't too old to be an undergrad and that twenty seven isn't too old to start grad school. I'm sticking at it and finding my own way.

In the ten years since I graduated from High school I've at four jobs, two fiancés, and a lot of groping around in the dark for myself. I also had a romance with an older man, I own my home outright, and I've got some friends that love me almost as much as they'll kick the shit out of me for bad grammar.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Reset Buttons

When my dryer over-heats one must press the reset button. Where is the reset button you might ask?

On the back of the dryer. The stackable dryer, which is in a very small space. I still have no idea how I managed to fit most of my arm back there but I groped around until I found the button.

I kept imagining I was going to grab something like a bug or some mutant dust bunny. Thankfully, I didn't and the dryer finally stayed on.

This means I have clean and DRY sheets now. I'll be ordering a second pair of sheets from overstock.com if there is money for it in my budget this month.

I just wanted clean sheets

I decided this evening to wash my sheets. This being all well and good until I placed them in the dryer.

A dyer that refuses to stay on.

Maybe this is the universe's way of telling me I need more than one set of sheets.

Really Dead Women Writers Meme

Bardiac has started a Really dead women writers meme

This all stemmed from the female author meme. Apparently there were few women listed that wrote before Jane Austen (who herself wrote before 1800).

I've had great fun reading the lists my fellow bloggers have complied. My Amazon wish list is really started to bulge.

The rules? The women must be writers before 1800. Try to list at least five.

Ready to play? Then go at it.

My list:
Dhuoda - Manual For her son
Leonor Lopez -Autobiography
The Stonor Letters
Plumpton Letters

Edit: Seems someone else has listed Dhuoda. So instead:

St. Bridget

I don't think any of the others have been mentioned. Please let me know if they have been.


Other lists: Amanda at Household Opera, Bitch Ph.D, Dr. Virago, Medieval Woman, and La Lecturess.

"Greedy liars"

Republican Leadership Tolerating Forced Abortions Under U.S. Flag?

Saipan, "a shining example of a free-market success”, my ass.

Link via Bitch Ph.D

They gave me a F in flirting

How does an open-minded feminist find a 'truly nice guy'?

Subliminal mind control? Chemicals in the water? Neon signs? Tarot Cards?
Looking in guys grocery baskets?

Really help me out here people!

Of course finding one probably won't help me.

I'm terrible at flirting.

The last guy that supposedly flirted with me was a gentleman in his thirties that I met at the bookstore. We talked for about a half-hour before I went to meet a friend waiting at the cafe in the bookstore. She wanted to know if I'd gotten his number.

"Whose number?" I asked cluelessly.
She smacked me with her text book. Something no biology major should ever be allowed to do, I should note.

Now, really the gentleman in question could have just been interested in the topic on hand (Alison Weir's latest book). I certainly didn't 'ping' with him.

He was a nice, intelligent guy and someone I'd consider a candidate as a friend. I invented him to come have some coffee with my friend and I, but he declined.

Notice he didn't offer me his number, and frankly I don't offer mine very often because I usually can't remember the damn thing.

Still, my friend insists he was flirting with me and a co-worker upon hearing the story agree. I find if odd than it is 2006 but if a guy spends more than five minutes talking to you? He must be flirting.

Sparked by Bitch Ph.D's post on flirting among other things. Newsflash: Flirting is fun.

Why I love working with kids

Today one of the three year olds was talking about her 'two daddies'.

Another three year old told her that you couldn't have two daddies. Before I could say anything or even think of anything to say a five year old said matter of factly "You can have as many daddies as mommy wants".

Nothing to see here, move along.

Look for falling rants and rambles about medieval history/research, school, Montessori, sex, and life as a new home owner.