Bearshorty's musings

Before my classes this morning, I looked at the collections of essays in the Expos book, which I will probably teach from next semester. I haven’t taught Expos in a while; I’ve been doing Basic Comp lately since I like it more, but I can’t be picky. Since I’ve taught it last, a new edition of the book came out. So as I was browsing it I discovered to my delight this article:

Henry Jenkins, 'Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars"

This is the official description of it:
"Young people are immersed in technology, texting friends, chatting online, wandering virtual realities, and surfing the Web. Does this immersion work against literacy, or does it redefine what it means to be literate in the twenty-first century"

This article is basically about the Harry Potter fandom and how that works with the old media. And a big part of the article is about fan fiction and how it affects writing and how it can teach children to write better. There is a discussion of beta readers too. The article is about the conversion culture of old media that is dependent on hierarchy and a new more egalitarian media of the internet. And the article also has a large section on censorship attempts and how some Christians are actually using the books in the positive way to advance their values. (This was published in 2006)

I am so teaching this article next semester. Harry Potter was my first internet fandom, it is what really introduced me to fan fiction so this would be fun for me to teach and see what 18 year old think of it (they did after all read the books at a very different age than me. I was 21-27 through the series and I read for adult characters more than for the kids.)


In class today, the students turned in their Paper 3 and did some proofreading and then we did some close reading of the next article by Lenore Look. I was thinking of doing more grammar but we actually got into the first section of the essay well. The class went really well. They do have hard time picking out themes from the paragraphs they read; they get a small detail but not big picture.


Since this was Halloween weekend I was spending it with Bear at his house (Both of us love this holiday). So I took two trains for a very long ride to his place. By the time I got to his house I was falling asleep. I did get into some conversation with other people on the train, mostly because I finished one book and pulled out the second one, which was read half-way. The old gentleman across from me, who was also reading, found it amusing.

I finished “Theatre” by W. Somerset Maugham that Papa gave me for my birthday. I give it four out of five. The prose style is excellent; the man can write. And I especially enjoyed the last third of the book, since the subtle ironic humor was really strong here. The story is about a middle age actress Julia who has an affair with a young man and the repercussions on her emotional well being and her ability to act. She has an affable husband with whom she started a theatre where she works and one son, but she is actress first and foremost. She acts not just in the theater but in her life as well. I really didn’t like Tom, the young man who had an affair with Julia, mostly because he is using her to advance in society, but I wasn’t sure if he was actually self aware about that. Or maybe the perception of him changes with Julia’s views of him. I did rather liked Michael, Julia’s husband, they had a nice real marriage and partnership that wasn’t really about sex and they were certainly best of friends. But Julia not knowing what is real or not was fun. The more I think about the book the more I like it, but I certainly did not felt anxious to finish it or to pick it up like I just had to know what happened. So 4 out of 5.

Bear and I had dinner with his parents and sister and then we had a Halloween TV night – rewatch of “Community” and “Modern Family” Halloween episodes and then “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I got Bear into “Community” – he doesn’t watch TV that much, but he watches TV with me when I show him something. He certainly watched all my favorite “Buffy” episodes without actually having the sense of the show narrative. He does like ‘Community” a lot. This was also the first time Bear saw “Rocky Horror” and he had this look on this face like he couldn’t believe anything can be that campy and weird. But it was certainly perfect for Halloween and the start of the Halloween weekend.

I’m feeling ridiculously lazy today. Like not wanting to get out of bed lazy. I did get up eventually but I just want to be in my own world, read something or just be on the internet and I was not really up to interacting with anyone. I didn’t even go to visit my grandparents today. I just feel tired and sluggish.

“Love Happens” I watched this movie with my late breakfast. I do like having OnDemand HBO. The trailer really didn’t know how to advertize this movie properly. It was not really a love story as such. The characters really felt like real people and acted like normal people without any romance clichés. Aaron Eckhart plays a man who lost his wife three years ago and instead of really dealing with his grief, he wrote a book and helps others to deal with their pain. He sort of becomes a self-help guru while ignoring his own teachings. He comes back to Seattle for the first time since his wife’s death to teach another seminar and being in his former home town forces him to deal. He also meets Jennifer Aniston’s character who owns a flower shop and doesn’t really put up with bullshit. He is interested and she is sort of too, but their interactions are very grown up and are not about grand romance. They like each other and they like to hang out and she is coming out of a relationship and he is trying to live for the first time in three years. And relationship tension comes not from movie cliché misunderstandings but from their organic story. I really was not expecting this – romance is not really a center of this movie at all – dealing with grief and learning to live again is. Jennifer Aniston’s character is very well rounded too, she feels like a real person and quite different than the usual silly comedies she plays in. I really liked this movie.

“Hawaii 5-0” is no go for me. The second episode was a pretty ordinary cop show. Looks like no new shows for me this tv season – not that I don’t have too many as it is to watch.

( Highlander S6E4 )

Ok, now I’m going to get off the internet and go read an actual book. I’m still reading “Theatre” by W. Somerset Maugham. I like the story and I like the prose but I’m not compelled to pick it up to see what happens that much. We’ll see how the story progresses. I do love its Britishness.

Places I visited maps (I found this on someone’s blog and it is fun to see):

World:
visited 22 states (9.77%)
Create your own visited map of The World

US:
visited 20 states (40%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Happy Birthday to me!

It is my birthday – my favorite day of the year. And it was truly a very happy birthday. I couldn’t fall asleep last night since palpitations decided to make themselves known and, I guess, I was a bit worried for today, but they were manageable again by morning and it all turned out well. And the weather started out rainy and by 11am for all blue skies and sunny and about 28C (82F) and very hot, just my kind of weather.

I woke up and read a bit until my parents woke up, pulled my ears and gave me lots of presents. Mama got me a pearl necklace from Novica, the same type as I got Sveta only in my stone. Papa got me a Russian biography of Catherine the Great and printouts of the presents waiting for me at home including a Soviet Moscow Olympics coin for the year of my birth, W. Somerset Maugham’s “Theatre,” soundtrack to “(500) Days of Summer,” and Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution Cookbook” (Uncle Tolya mentioned that he is on TV in Belarus too). I also opened Bear’s card, that he gave me before I left, and it was perfect: he found one with a polar bear holding flowers with a big heart and inside Bear wrote a mushy message.

In the kitchen were three white-pink roses with a card and diamond-shaped pendant with a blue stone from my Aunt’s whole family. I wore it today with my violet summer shirt.

( picture of my roses )

After a breakfast of omelet, we left under umbrella’s for Katya’s to pick them up to go to Park Gorkogo or Gorky Park. That part has lots of amusement rides for kids and it was always a favorite of mine. Not to mention the trees and woods are pretty too. So I saved the excursion there until my birthday. And that was loads of fun. We walked to it along the river back first and through another leafy park. Rain stopped by the then and it was a lovely walk with not a lot of people around. We got to Gorky Park right after 10:30, walked toward the rides and waited until 11 for the rides to open (you pay per ride). This is what we did:

• Bumper cars – I was going pretty fast there. Papa skipped this time. Still this one is always fun
• Ferris Wheel – not as scary as it used to be since the cabins are now fully closed. Well, one can go in one where you are just strapped in and your feet dangle but that is too scary for me. I’m not great with certain heights. Was still a bit scary going up even in a closed cabin, not as much going down. The view was amazing, though. Mama skipped this one.
• Swan ride – Mama and Lenya went on this one. A circular ride and you control how high the swan goes.
• Helicopter ride – Katya and Lenya this time. Same principle as the swan but smaller.
• Shooting range – Mama, I, Katya and Lenya all shot from this shooting rifle. We all had five shots, Mama a bit more. I missed all. Mama hit at least three targets, Lenya hit one and came close a few times (and that is with his not brilliant vision).
• Toilet – fun ride into Soviet times with a hole in the ground design and the privilege of paying for it.
• Fun house – Katya, Lenya and I went in a small room filled with fun mirrors. We had an awesome time. I liked the abstract mirror and skinny mirror.
• Soap bubbles – I used to love it as a kid so naturally I got me and Lenya some. We both had loads of fun with it. I got big bubbles out of it and we would try to catch some too.
• Lunch – pancake with mushrooms – a light lunch because of the café later and anticipation of tons of food.
• Boat ride – Mama wanted to go so we all went. Saw baby ducks and some views.

( view on the river )

At the end, around 2pm, we stopped by the tall Victory Memorial with the eternal flame outside the park and were trying to figure out how many hero-cities there actually are. We were counting too many on the display. ( I just looked it up – there are 12 plus Brest has a title of Hero-Fortress.) Then we all caught the metro home. Papa and I got out a stop early to exchange money and I stopped by “Thumbelina,” my childhood toy store. Then we walked home lamenting the heat.

I checked my email – Bear sent me an e-card as well with flowers, hug, cake and love and with a bear in it. I also chatted with Tjamke on Skype, which was fun.

Then I had to take a shower and get ready for the café and my party. My black dress that my parents gave me earlier is just awesome and very pretty. I wore my hair in a sort of low tail and put on my new pearl flower necklace, tan, stockings and heels. We left for the café a little early to find parking and we walked around the area a bit.

All guests arrived rather promptly at seven, which was surprising. We had ten adults and three kids. Tanya and Misha gave me a glass flower and an awesome book on history of Minsk. (The kids and I were examining it later – Lenya and I have love of books on common and it was great to relate to him looking at the book). Sveta gave me another beautiful set – a silver tray with a milk and sugar bowls, which I opened later at home.

The café itself was very nice. The food was very good - I got a steak – the music was perfect in that it wasn’t loud and we could have conversations, and our waiter Julia was lovely. I played with Lika a little. We took lots of pictures and stayed there for four hours. Misha sang for me and Lenya played a song for me on the piano. I has a really excellent day. If Bear were here it would have been perfect.

Oh, and something I didn’t anticipate: instead of marriage questions, I got all sorts of wishes to procreate and give me parents some grandchildren. (which would also solve their hovering problem, according to Katya). They all skipped the wedding part. Maybe I should have had a game about that.

Two more days here, I’m ready to go home. I think packing starts tomorrow. This is turning out into a really good vacation but I’m ready to go home to my life.