Bearshorty's musings

I put together the Peer review sheet for a research paper for Monday. I hope I remembered everything and perhaps it will be productive for them. But I’d rather do this than lecture at this point. Can’t wait for my break.

I also finished “Battlestar Galactica” again. I don’t know why people don’t like that finale. It is perfectly satisfying to me. I love the flashbacks and that battle is pretty intense. And it makes sense to me. (There are two episodes I didn’t watch in Season 1, but that is fine, I read their reviews).

This Thursday at least I was able to take it a bit easy. I should be grading more, I know, but I really needed a little break. I did catch up on the reading for the law class and put a Byzantine reading handout together for the Global class.

But I also started Season 4 of “Battlestar Galactica” rewatch and watched “Grey’s Anatomy” and went for a walk for a change. So, overall, a good day. Back to work and grading and teaching tomorrow.

I do love having the house to myself on a Saturday where I feel I can slow down. I read some fiction and Brundage for my law class (how I love him) and I went to the library to return a book for a 40 minute walk while listening to “Cabaret.” And I cleaned the bathroom and watched two “Battlestar Galactica” episodes to be read for next week’s Mark Watches recaps. All before 2pm. I like a quiet house.

Yesterday in my writing class I was preparing my students for their midterm reading and we had some interesting questions for pre-reading in the textbook. One of the questions was about if any of them have an online identity that is different from their real one and if they feel like different people. None of them thought they had a different online identity – they all use their real names. After some prodding a few did remember using a pseudonym for online gaming. Also, while most found the idea of texting a roommate in the next room to inform them of a visitor (as happened in an example in a story) over the top, a few actually found it perfectly normal. I do like seeing the difference in the current young generation.

( Doctor Who S6E13 )

Papa and I went to Brooklyn this morning to visit my grandparent. My grandmother always likes going down to the building yard/common area so she can show us off. After we got back home we went to the beach and I went rollerblading. So I had a very nice morning. The rest of the day wasn’t very exciting. I watched some “Battlestar Galactica” for next week’s Mark Watches posts and read.

( Ghost Story by Jim Butcher )

A few days ago Mama and my Aunt Vera, her sister, were talking on Skype (my Aunt lives in Minsk, Belarus where I was born). And my Aunt was telling us new information that she learned about Max, their grandfather. Max was first married to my great-grandmother and had one son, my grandfather. When my grandfather was young, before WWII, Max and my great-grandmother got divorced and then Max moved to Saratov in Russia while the rest of the family stayed in Minsk. In Saratov, he remarried and had another family with three other children. At the end of WWII, my grandfather went to Saratov to his father since all his family in Minsk was killed during the war. In Saratov, my grandfather met my grandmother Tanya who was evacuated there during the war and my Aunt and my mom were born there too. Only in 1960, did my grandparents and my Mom and my Aunt moved to Minsk where my grandfather always wanted to return. What my family didn’t really know was why Max moved to Saratov in the first place. It wasn’t easy to just pick up and move cities in Soviet Union. And why Saratov of all places? So it turns out that Max was a scribe and when someone from the synagogue in Minsk was moving to Saratov he needed to take a scribe with him and he offered Max a job as a scribe in a synagogue. I find this very interesting. My grandfather was a scribe during WWII too. I guess it runs in the family. Knowing languages too.

From Cracked article : “Purim is a Jewish holiday, and as such, it celebrates the same thing all Jewish holidays celebrate: narrowly escaping genocide.” Hee.

Agh, Amazon. Where is my “Ghost Story”? Papa pre-ordered it with his gift certificate and usually pre-ordering a book mean it arrives on the day it is published. But Amazon didn’t even ship it yet and it can arrive anytime from Aug 1 to Aug 15. That is ridiculous. I wrote an email to Amazon complaining about this. I don’t expect much of them – they will probably blame the shipping options but I was mad about this. We waited longer for this installment and I want to know what happens next and then give the book to Bear then Papa.

Battlestar Galactica Baltar is much more interesting the second time around, still sleezy but more interesting. This rewatch should be interesting.

Unpacking most morning; it is a pretty unremarkable day, just a bit cranky from missing my Bear – I usually get ‘Bear withdrawal’ after spending uninterrupted days with him. The cold weather isn’t helping.

On Christmas, when we went to visit Bear’s grandmother, there was a piano in a lounge where we gathered. While we were waiting for everyone to show up, I went up to it to play a bit. I learned to read music in fourth grade but I took piano in high school for a few years, not that I remember much at all. There are only two melodies that I could play without any notes “Greensleeves” and “Fur Elise.” But apparently now even muscle memory is fading, I could barely get through the first part. So when I got home I took out my keyboard piano and my old notes to try to remember it. It has been to long since I touched a keyboard, I always mean to learn again but then I never do.

Otherwise this was a pretty unremarkable day

“Battlestar Galactica: The Plan” finally came after a long wait and Papa and I watched it. ( Battlestar Galactica: The Plan )

This was a long and tiring day. I actually woke up by myself at 6:30 and felt I had the energy for the day. I knew I still had eight papers to finish and I might not have to time to give them back but I thought I could do all that and still make it to a medieval lecture at 5pm on main campus. I got to school around 7:30 and graded three or four papers by 9 something and prepared for my class when one of my students showed up for office hours. It was actually during office hours that I started feeling really tired. Ever since I had vertigo or whatever that was year and a half ago, when I get really tired I feel a slight lack of balance like the ground is not steady under my feet and I can just collapse at any moment. I generally learned to ignore that feeling when I teach and just get on with it but it is a bit hard, I feel like I just have to be on all the time. But, of course, I just went teaching. I gave each class three sample paragraphs and by accident I chose good ones, some even with great grammar teaching moments. I thought as usual the first class went better than the second. I still wasn’t done with five papers from the first sections so I made those students show up at 4:30. I basically got it done in the afternoon with my head literally lying on my arm because I felt if I held my head up by itself I might fall down of something. I was just very tired from the trip, flying and grading and I recognized that as my tiredness response. I also recognized that I won’t be able to go to the lecture because I won’t be able to concentrate or stand for much longer really. And much as I wanted to go even if just to be social, I just knew I should go home and rest. At least I finished grading. (Well I still have to do two papers as soon as those students actually email them to me.) I was just happy I got done as much as I could.

I couldn’t go to sleep right way when I home, it was too early so I distracted myself by lying down on the couch and watching TV. Papa and I watched ( Battlestar Galactica )

( House S5E7 )

I haven’t posted in two days because I saw them as pretty much lost days since I got obsessed with a new awesome fanfic site I found on Tuesday. It is all about Adama/Roslin, my new mushy obsession. (It doesn’t help that they are the cutest thing ever) Argh! This is why it is so dangerous for me to read fanfic, I let it take over my world because it is so nice and comfy. And I can’t just read for an hour or two, I need to devour and skim as much as possible. I recognize a pattern in myself. Since last Saturday when I had my headache/blood pressure spike and then followed by a week of heavy palpitations, I get down and depressed and fanfic is like comfort food. So I binge. Which then feeds the depression and it makes me feel terrible and fogs my head. And I recognize this but I still have a hard time stopping myself. I need to really tell myself, enough, go cold turkey again and clear my head. I had such a nice 38 days and it felt good to have focus, I need to remember this. I’m cutting myself off, again. This needs to stick. I feel like I need to come up with a reward system, perhaps, of some kind. And not resort to comfort reading when my palpitations get bad.

I did finally feel well enough (and it wasn’t raining) to go for a nice walk yesterday and today. Yesterday was Halloween (and Change of Time day, so it was an extra hour, it felt like). I saw a lot of little kids in cute costumes and some adults too. And we didn’t have many visitors for candy so we have lots of candy left over. Yay. Halloween has always been a fun holiday. I have three clear memories of Halloween in my sixteen years in America. (not to mention other Halloween’s like visiting College for the first time on Halloween) My first Halloween was when I was thirteen years old and had no idea what it was about. It was a Sunday and my ten year old friend, Vera, who lived on my block told me all about it and persuaded her parents to let us go trick-or-treating in the afternoon. Her parents, figuring I was older, let us do that, although her grandfather did trail us a half a block away. I didn’t have much money, much less money to buy a costume, so I made my own. I had these bright orange stockings, and a puffy white jacket. I made a cone hat and painted by cheeks red - I guess I was going for a silly clown. Vera got dressed as a gypsy. It was pretty cold but we had lots of fun and went door to door and got lots and lots of candy. It was pretty amazing for an introduction to this weird holiday. (when I was little we wore costumes for New Year kid parties only) The next clear Halloween memory was when I was fifteen and boyfriend and I went trick-and-treating in the evening. I don’t think I wore a costume, just my leather jacket and but he wore a Klingon mask. He was at least six feet tall at the time too, so I imagine the people who opened to door for us weren’t exactly comfortable. That added to our teenage amusement. The third Halloween memory is of couple of years ago. Bear picked me up for a Halloween themed weekend in LI. We met up with his friends and went to a pumpkin museum, which had lots and lots of unusual carvings and displays and the weather was nice and cool and very Octobery, and rainy. It was great. We then went to a haunted firehouse which was amazing. Not too scary, just one guy lunging with a chainsaw made me jump. We had to wait more than an hour to get in, but it was so worth it. The rooms were very elaborate and fancy. The next day Bear and I got pumpkins at this farm place and went back to his house to carve them. It was the first time (and only time) I carved a pumpkin. It was great, although his pumpkin was scarier than mine. But then Bear is an artist and has hand/eye coordination. That was a great Halloween weekend. Oh, I’m just remembering another amazing Halloween a year before. First, I got tickets to the original “Halloween” movie screening, it was one night only, and I knew how much Bear loves that movie. So Bear picked me up after teaching and off we went. We had Chinese food in the car and then saw it in the full movie theater of fans. (“Halloween” is actually the first movie we saw together, a few days before we were officially dating. I came over to his dorm room and he introduced me to it) The next day we had a Halloween party at my friend’s house. I was a sexy witch and Bear was Darth Vader. Tons of fun.

This is too cute.

( Battlestar Galactica )

( Battlestar Galactica )

I finally looked up the lyrics to “All Along the Watchtower” since it will play such a large role in “Battlestar Galactica” from the end of Season three. It is a damn hard poem to understand. Wikipedia gave a link to a useful website that breaks it down. The explanation actually helped me to see how perfect the song was for the themes of the show: the question of worthiness of human life, the repetition of history and patterns, opposing forces of establishment and change and other themes.

Grading today; I have folder review on Monday. I’m spending too much time on each paper; I need to be more efficient and not spend more than half an hour on each paper. I think tomorrow I will just need to stick to a schedule and grade lots and lots with little breaks.

I did start Chapter 5 of the Hebrew: Feminine Nouns and Verbs. Also learning “from” and “and.” I read much faster now and some basic sentences are fun. For example: ‘David listened to a girl from Egypt’. There is a lot of nuance, I just have to not let it overwhelm me and just take one chapter at a time. Guttural letters just cause so many exceptions. Still I can read most prayers easily now. I do need to learn more words to understand them. I did half the exercises for the chapter today, I’ll finish the rest tomorrow if I get the time with all the grading. I do like that in Hebrew letters serve as numbers: first letter of the alphabet is 1, second letter is 2, etc.

Numbers WTF moment of the day: chapters 6 to 10 are about making a special vow of separation, offerings at the tabernacle dedication, setting up the lamps and again emphasizing the special nature of Levites, celebrating Passover and then, finally, leaving Sinai Desert. Much feels like repetition again. The action was described previously and now people are doing it. In the modern storytelling it would just be redundant. Each tribe is also giving identical offerings yet the Bible has to list each, one after another twelve times. And then a summary of all the offerings. I realize this used to be important but it is really boring to read and even write about. At least I learned that everyone can celebrate Passover even those ceremonially unclean from touching a dead body or traveling. And aliens who want to celebrate Passover have to follow the same regulations. This is pretty much how every Passover Seder I’ve ever hosted or participated in went (the aliens part not touching the dead body part, unless dead chicken counts). Sometimes I had more Catholics/atheists at my Seder than actual Jews. I also learned from these chapters that to make a special vow one can’t have anything made from grapes, let his or her hair grow out, can’t go near a dead body even those of family, and in the end have to shave the head completely. It is also kind of fun that the Israelites are pretty much following a cloud around and letting it dictate when they move on.

Today was a pretty mellow day, not much going on. I was watching more “Battlestar Gallactica” with Papa. I like watching it all at once; I think the show benefits from uninterrupted viewing since the episodes occur one right after the other. And I like all the characters, which is rare in a show. It is not my favorite show ever but it is entertaining.

Genesis WTF moment of the day: I can’t believe I’m almost done with Genesis, tonight I will read the last five chapters (I read them late at night). I think sticking to a plan of five chapters a day and looking for a crazy moment to write about helped me to stick to it. Last night’s reading was not that crazy but still some moments stood out. I did like some realistic touches like when pharaoh gets Joseph out of prison after two years, he gives him time to shave and change his clothes, since I’m sure he was stinky. And when Joseph leaves the room to cry for a thousand’s time after he interacts with his brothers – who sold him in the slavery in the first place – he takes time to wash his face before going back into the room. Joseph tries to be a bit of a bastard and play his brothers since he wants for them to bring his youngest brother Benjamin into Egypt. Then he tries to set it up so Benjamin would remain in Egypt by having his men conceal a cup in Benjamin’s bag, not really counting on his brother Judah try to trade himself for Benjamin’s freedom. For all his scheming it seems Joseph’s heart is not really into it because he confesses to his brothers about who is he pretty quickly (since they did not recognize him). He also cries a lot and doesn’t blame his brothers for selling him into slavery that much. Well at least he grew rich. It just the whole story with his brothers not recognizing him, and traveling back and forth from Canaan to Egypt and hiding the cup, turned out pretty pointless since they still got all “happily ever after” ending.