Bearshorty's musings

Grading day. I really should make a list of really stupid lines, but that would take too long and I don’t have time for it. I did get a “B+” which is really exciting for Paper 2. I think I will make all the students read it to see what a good paper looks like. If I have to write one more time that they need to be explicit in their connections between two authors and that they need transitions, I will go crazy. But really, the grades are pretty consistent so far with what Paper 2 usually brings.

I've been following "Mark reads Harry Potter" blog, which chronicles one man's adventure of reading Harry Potter for the first time, without many spoilers. He read "Twilight" before and was not expecting much of this series and then, of course, fell in love with the story. He blogs on chapter at a time and he is up to "Deathly Hollows". He is bravely trying to read only one chapter a day, which is driving him nuts. His reviews are a a mix of funny, thoughtful, silly and sometimes very personal. It is fun to read the perspective of someone who has really no idea what is ahead. Anyway, today, I just had to get my "Deathly Hollows" copy and read a few chapters. I really need to do a reread sometimes.

( Bones S6E4 )

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. I think its anxiety, which I know I need to curb unless I want my palpitations to get worse again. Since I couldn’t sleep I just got up and graded some papers.

The rest of the day was not as productive.

( Bones S6E2 )

Jet lag day where I just wanted to sit there and watch TV and not interact with anybody until about 5pm. I woke up at 4am at first and made myself sleep for a few more hours. But for me adjusting back is always worse than adjusting to time ahead, for some reason.

I started catching up on TV shows – “Community” and “Modern Family” finales in the morning and “Bones” and “HIMYM” in the afternoon.

( Bones S5E22 )

In the morning, I went to visit my grandparents and gave them their gifts and showed them postcards of Minsk. I was a bit tired and still sleepy for much interactions but I didn’t want to postpone a visit. After, Papa and I drove through a carwash – my first carwash visit, actually, and then we went to a food store.

I caught up on lots of stuff on the internet and just vegged most of the day. I finally ordered Bear’s birthday presents on line. I also found that the subscription to National Geographic was only $15 per year and I couldn’t resist it. I also uploaded the Minsk pictures from the DVD to my computer and watched them all. Botanic garden’s shot is now my desktop wallpaper.

The Kid came over in the evening. She and her brother were apparently checking every day to see when I would be back. I gave them their pencil cases, which they seemed to like. I went over to their house to talk to Laura, their Mom, and then I brought over stuff about Minsk to show them. I showed them my photos. And, on the globe, I showed them where Minsk was. That was a nice social interaction since I was feeling up for it. But still, I was too sleepy all day and tried to go to sleep early.

( Bones S5E20 )

A new study on Neanderthal genes that found that some humans are related to Neanderthals. One of my high school science teachers was crazy about Neanderthals – he had a special extra credit week about them and even showed us “Clan of the Cave Bear” to my discomfort – I was very young and that movie has some explicit scenes. I should probably rewatch that movie now that I won’t be embarrassed to watch it.

The flood in Nashville looks crazy.

Jon Stewart mocking political jargon and meaningless rhetorical phrases like “American people want” and even using a clip from X-men how “American People don’t want their children to be taught by mutants” is priceless.

The talk with editor of Newsweek made me think of the last time I bought print media. I read USA Today online every day and sometimes I would buy it for the train; but when I was in England I always looked forward to Sunday so I could get the Sunday Times and read their Art and Entertainment section. There were wonderful book reviews and movie review and I still remember an article on “Serenity” and an interview with Joss Whedon. I didn’t know anything about “Firefly” yet and only seen some random episodes of “Buffy” on TV (I only really watched “Buffy” consistently in the fall of 2005). I do miss that newspaper and the whole Sunday routine.

Following the British election tonight – what will happen with Hung Parliament is an interesting quesion. I was looking at map of Britain with Times Online Election Center . I looked up all Norfolk and London – both places where I used to live. And just as with milk cartoon colors, it is the opposite in UK – conservatives are blue there and labour is red, while in US conservatives are red. I was watching some results coming in live on BBC online as well – in the middle of the night in England. I don’t know why it is so fascinating but it is. It will be fascinating to see three party system at work.

English Department just emailed me to check if their scheduling for me for Fall semester will work. Nice of them of check, actually. This means that Fall Semester is set. Tuesdays and Fridays will be early to rise. Yay.

The prettiness of Buffy #36 cover, with Spike . They better fix the eyes to blue. And a second cover – a parody on Twilight movies.

“Dune.” I was all slowly getting into the story, ignoring all the gender implications, so I could just enjoy the story. I liked that the traitor had complex motivations and he was not just randomly corrupted and there were some interesting developments and action. And then I read that the Evil guy on top of being very Evil, is also homosexual which was not described as a flattering characteristic. It feels like the author wanted to emphasize the character’s Evilness so he decided to add this little detail. Just so you don’t start admiring the intelligence of the Evil character, note that he likes young men, preferably enslaved and drugged so they wouldn’t ‘wrestle’ when the Evil guy was just in the mood for gay rape. Congratulations, book, on more clichés and appalling characterization. I’m almost done reading the first part of the book, so I will keep reading it, but there is a reason why I’m reading it so slowly. At least I like Lady Jessica character, one of very few female characters so far.

Argh. More evidence on how insurance companies suck .

I’ve been feeling a bit stupid lately, it took me forever to realize that “Doctor Who” first episode of season five called “The Eleventh Hour” is a pun on Eleventh Doctor. Yeah. I was slow. And now it just occurring to me that Harry Dresden’s favorite spell of “Fuego,” which I knew referred to fire, is actually “fire’ in Spanish. Granted I’ve never studied Spanish and my knowledge of it comes from TV and popular culture, but still.

Q and A with Jim Butcher . Lots of good questions and answers. And he does like to tease immensely. At least is already working on the next book. “Changes” is a really good book. I think it is my second favorite now, after “Death Beat” since that was just amazing. But for authors who want to reboot the series twelve books in and keep it exiting half way through the whole book series – “Changes” is how one does it.

( Bones S5E18 )

Pacific Part 6 Too much battle in this one. I like the in-between character moments. I do appreciate how this episode shows the insanity and absurdity of war and the horror and scariness of it but I do wish it had more character stuff than just crossing the airfield. I wanted to see more John Basilone at home, for example.

One of relatives called me last Sunday and left a message that she wanted to talk to me. I finally got in touch with her today, reluctantly, because I knew exactly what she wanted to talk about. This woman likes to give very unsolicited advice about life based on her experience. I don’t have the same ideas as her and same values and the whole thing was just very frustrating. I’m so frustrated with people trying to teach me about life. I know they do this because I’m an almost 30 year old unmarried woman, oh horror, but still. My relationship with Bear is not of their business. He is doing his computer animation and he has a right to try for a job and career he can be happy in; just because he doesn’t have a high paying job right now doesn’t mean I need to start looking elsewhere or that I want to. I value different things in a relationship than just financial stability, especially at this moment. I want to stand on my own two feet and work on my career rather than depend on another person. I need to get my shit together first, which is something many older relatives don’t understand, because I’m a girl even though women always work in Russia. All this social pressure aimed at us makes me want to scream, and most of is heavily gendered and old fashioned. As one person I know put it, it would have been easier for us if we were in a lesbian or gay relationship – that kind of social pressure isn’t there (of course, there would be other issues and pressures). But then no-one would constantly ask when we will be married or when Bear will get a high paying job (which they don’t always ask of me). It is not like I’m acting irrationally or rushing into anything. Bear and I have been together for more than eleven and a half years and we were always deliberate. We never rushed. And we know that love won’t feed us or anything; that is why we are not married yet and I won’t even think about it until one of us has a decent job. But I don’t want all my decisions be all about cold practicality either. And no, some relatives, I can’t just date other people, I can’t and don’t want to. ARGH. This relative was trying to teach me about life for more than an hour by talking about her own ‘life experience and life lessons.’ And about having a man that would provide a ‘proper’ role model for a male child – this is so maddening.

After three weeks of slow reading I finally finished “Norse Myths.” After weeks of putting it of, I knew I would run out of library renewal so I started reading a story or two in the mornings. I had to return it to the library today. It is not like I was bored or didn’t like the stories. On the contrary, this was a good edition and myths themselves were entertaining and fun. But for some reason my brain refused to just read the book for more than one story at a time. But at least now I feel like I have a nice knowledge of Norse gods and stories. In fact, Odin appears in “Changes” and it was fun to get the references.

I rarely watch “South Park” but sometimes it catches my attention. This is an episode that mocks Facebook and it is hilarious. My parents sit on the Russian social networking site (classmates caught on big time a few years ago) and it is funny how far they get into it. I refuse to be on those sites because, first of all, I don’t want my students to access it and, second, I really don’t need to waste time like that, I have enough timewasters. And most importantly I really don’t want my personal information out there anymore than it has to be.

( Buffy Season 8 Comic Book 34 )

( Bones S5E16 )

I stopped by the library and comic book store on the way to the beach to ride a bike (Mama has a bike, and when she rested, I was riding on it). I know I shouldn’t read in the car as I’ll get motion sickness but I couldn’t resist the new Buffy comic. So, as a consequence, I didn’t feel up to rollerblading by the time we got to the beach. So bike for me.

My parents got the “Belarus” guide book just for fun while they were looking for other guidebooks in the library. Hee. It was very amusing. And I discovered that there is now Indian food in Minsk! That is unexpected. Maybe I’ll get to try it.

My parents bought me this beautiful black dress from Ralph Lauren for my upcoming birthday. They decided that I had to try it on now to make sure it fits just in case they had to exchange it, so they had me try it on today. It is perfectly and looks all grown up and fancy. I won’t wear it until June but I am looking forward to showing it off.

Sex and the City 2 trailer

( Bones S5E14 )

I finished “Dead as a Doornail.” With each book in the series, the author is getting better at making stuff actually happen and sustaining the mysteries. In this book, she was juggling three mysteries – who is shooting the shifters, the secret hit man and contest for werewolf packmaster. The threads actually came together pretty well. Sookie didn’t get really beaten up in this one but she got shot, her house burned for a bit, and she got hit in the ribs. One thing that I just found silly is that all supernatural creatures just love Sookie. She was very Mary Sue with six different men – two vampires, a werewolf, a were-panther, a shifter and a were-tiger were all just in love with her and wanted a serious relationship. Well, her future tiger boyfriend is just introduced in this book (and I found him condescending so far with calling her “babe” – he just met her!) but already he is just fascinated with her specialness. The other five kiss her at some point in the book. Granted Sookie is not that interested in the panther ,but still, it is just too much and a bit silly. (And yes there will be an explanation for why supernatural creatures find her so irresistible but still for a woman who never had a boyfriend until she was twenty-five and met a vampire, she has too much interest from guys in a space of one year.) Still, the books are getting better and they are a nice silly beach-type reading. I’m getting the next book in the library because, for some reason, my order for Book 6 came in really quickly – usually I have to wait a few month.

Happy 30th Birthday, Sveta!

I got the phone card on Saturday to call her and I was happy to wish her a happy birthday today. But now I just miss her. I really wish we could talk more.

( Bones S5E12 )

I listened to Chapter One of Neil Gaiman’s “Graveyard Book” online. I actually think this book would be more fun to listen to than read, especially because of all the voices Gaiman is doing and the jokes he is hitting. So far it is a good start to the story and I’m enjoying all the humor and the darkness too, as the story starts with an assassin who just kills the whole family and wants to kill a baby too. The baby stumbles into a graveyard where ghosts protect him and decide to raise him in the graveyard.

“Burn Notice” is so summer fun, especially as it is set in always sunny Miami, that it is weird to see it in the winter. But this show is fun and it grew on me, even if I started watching it just for Bruce Campbell and because Papa made a deal with me to check it out if he would watch one of my shows.

Today was the last official day of classes. Not that I had to do anything; it was the second day of their final exam. At least by the second class of the day I could grade some finals of the first class. The finals are Pass or Fail but I am taking notes to help me with the decision about their grade for the semester. My folder review and giving grades is on Tuesday, so I will be extra busy until then.

On Wii today I tried setting my own routine. I picked all Yoga plus one snowball fight.

I started Chapter 7 of Hebrew book – complete perfect tense with all pronouns not just ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘they’ but ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘you’ I all its forms. It is sort of learning backwards but it works. Pronouns and verb endings rhyme nicely which I appreciate for easy learning. I’m so used to conjugating verbs that the learning comes easier than learning nouns and conjunctions. I finished three exercises out of eleven for the chapter. Now that the semester is winding up I will try to pick up the pace a bit. I did look at my Chanukah candle blessing today in my Jewish holiday book in preparation for tomorrow night. That book just has transliterations and English. I then took my prayer book with Hebrew and English prayers (with no transliterations) and read the prayers in Hebrew and then compared to see if I was pronouncing it right. I was and I could follow the prayers and read them in Hebrew! Which is the whole point of me wanting to study the language! This made me happy. Tomorrow when I will read the Chanukah blessings I will read in actual Hebrew.

( Bones S5E10 )

A former student mine came to see me this morning about her senior thesis. She took my “Development of Europe I” class as a freshman and found that she liked medieval period. She also took “England in the Middle Ages” class as a sophomore. She is a bit too eager sometimes but I do like helping her, her ideas as a senior are certainly more sophisticated than before, it is good to see that.

I also had a current student actually show up at office hours and talk about the reading more. I was pleasantly surprised by their Rough Drafts 5. In my first class they seem to have ideas about their thesis they could work with, even if they might not get all the intricacies of the reading and even if they complained how hard it was. Maybe this reading will work after all. It probably won’t work for the second section, though. Only half the class showed up to peer review and half of them didn’t have their drafts with them. And this is the class that had the most trouble. I just have to not care too much and just let them make whatever low grade they want to get. For some reason, by the time I get to the second class I usually get a headache. Whether it is the class or lack of sleep and getting up at 6:30 catching up with me, I don’t know; but the headache certainly fits this class sometimes.

When I was in Kentucky, one historian and I had breakfast one morning and talked about sci-fi books and movies. She mentioned a book called “Into the Forest” by Jean Hegland. She was in California visiting friends and wanted a book by a local author. The neighboring bookstore recommended this book about two adolescent sisters having to survive in a local forest in post-apocalyptic California. After I got back from Kentucky, I got an email from the historian asking for my address so she could send me the book. I figure she might have an extra copy or something. But today I get a package from Amazon with a brand new book. I know that both her and her husband are big professor who can easily afford a small book to sent someone, but I’m shocked that she would bother. I thought at most she would send me the reference for the book, not actually buy it for me. I’ll read it as soon as I will finish with Carsac book (which is more interesting as I read but also frustrating at the same time.)

( Bones S5E8 )