Bearshorty's musings

For the first time in maybe half a year I actually watched Monday’s TV live. First “How I met Your Mother (HIMYM)” and then “House.”

I have been keeping up with “HIMYM” online but I was mostly bored with it and in the first half of this evening’s episode I switched to HBO and Harry Potter during the commercial and didn’t care to go back. The show seems to mostly stay in place and it is just not interesting anymore. I don’t think I’m coming back for it next season.

I need to catch up to about 4 episodes of ‘House’ and I don’t really care. I do like House and Wilson interaction in the latest storyline but that is about it – the rest, the patients just leave me indifferent. I will watch the finale, of course, and I will probably catch up to the episodes I missed by having them run in the background while I’m doing something else but I’m glad the show is ending. It used to be a must watch for me but I really stopped caring.

In fact, this TV season has the lowest number of shows that I follow or that I watch live. There are only three that I watch as they actually air and that I get excited about: Glee, Community and Grimm. I’m still surprised by how much I got into Glee this year after two years of indifference and occasional watching. Community is the funniest comedy around and Grimm is my favorite new show and I adore it to pieces and it just keeps getting better and better.

Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy are shows I like that I usually watch online after they air. HIMYM is the show I do watch online but reluctantly. And House I kind of watch online now, but not really. I gave up on Bones in April when I realized that I just didn’t care anymore and I don’t miss it at all. But that’s it.

At least summer is coming up with the crack that is True Blood, SYTYCD and Burn Notice. I’m done with Leverage and I don’t even remember other shows. I haven’t even finished last four episodes of Dexter Season 6. (And I will watch Borgias all at once on Demand probably).

I basically worked non-stop from 7am to 4pm and then I took a small break and worked from 4:30 to 6:15. I commented on 30 rough drafts and taught two classes. Overall it was a very productive day. But very tiring, especially as I had to get up at 6am and I didn’t sleep well.

I was listening to my iPod on shuffle pretty much all day as I was commenting. It was actually helping me concentrate for those hours of grading. I don't think I ever listened to music for that long at one time but it did engage parts of my brain.

I did watch “Grey’s Anatomy” in the evening to unwind.

Throat started feeling scratchy in late afternoon – no! I really hope it would go away.

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.

Since we had guests last night I did not have a chance to watch “Bones” which is probably a good thing since I would have been cross stitching. And this episode was actually really good, so I’m glad I watched it this morning.

( Bones S6E22 )

“Brothers and Sisters” is officially cancelled. I was checking the news every day and even though it was expected I’m still sad about it. I know it is just the TV show but I loved the characters.

I finished my semester today. I graded all the final exams and calculated the grades. I have a few students who did not turn in their final papers and I gave plenty of chances so those are the only D and Fs. The rest did pretty well, a nice curve. I was done by 2pm and took the rest of the day off. Yay, it is summer.

I watched “Grey’s Anatomy” and one “Avatar: TLA” episode and then I went outside and actually did something active.

I was showing the Kid and her brother how to rollerblade. It felt nice to get on the roller blades again, it really feels like summer now. I spent an hour outside.

Our guests are staying until next Thursday, I think. It is weird to have to be social every evening.

Cross-stitching: all purple is done, that’s Big Bear’s bow and middle bear’s suit. It is coming along, two more weeks if I keep up this pace.

Best line from one of my college papers I read today
“The Citadel has pros that make it look respected and it also has its cons that make it look like an asshole.”

Grading day again so I got up at 6am. 12 papers today but I got it all done. And today I got a fresh batch of papers so it never stops. I did write a new question based on articles by Leila Ahmed “On Becoming an Arab” and Gladwell’s “The Power of Context.” I’m asking them to consider “How does context influence identity?” And, of course, we spent a significant amount of time in class discussing what ‘context’ means (even if they just wrote a whole paper on Gladwell and ‘context’ is in his title. We also looked at the different types of context like environmental or political and what ‘identity’ means. I talked my question over with Emily, one of the other instructors. I do always like discussing my question with other instructors just to talk it out and make sure it would work. There is a lot to be said for collaboration.

Because Ahmed’s article assumes a general knowledge of history, geography and terminology which most students lack (and I’m always surprised at the lacunas in their history and geography knowledge) we went over some terms that popped in the essay. Like the difference between ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ and where Arabian Peninsula and even Egypt were on the map. (I brought my Historical Atlas for them to look at because they needed to know where Ottoman Empire was and explain what Ottoman Empire consisted off and many couldn’t even point to Egypt). We went over World War I, World War II, nationalism, Balfour Declaration, Zionism, propaganda and other terminology. One class asked me to talk about different types of Christianity because Copts were mentioned in the article. While a part of me thinks this type of article is hard for them because of all these terms another and stronger part says that this is the type of stuff they should read in college and that we must expect them to learn.

Every year, my friends and I get together during Passover (usually on a Saturday) and have a Passover Seder (which I run because I have the book and it matters most to me. I actually keep Passover, foodwise, unlike my friends). This Seder is one of my favorite traditions of the year and I always look forward to it because we all cook together and make this gigantic dinner. And it is really a multi-religious fest since the women are all Jewish and our partners are Christians and Muslim.

Since I’m the person who usually organizes things, and especially this event, I usually give out grocery lists and generally make sure this event happens. So today I sent out Seder Menu for general approval.

( Seder Menu )

In the evening, after all that grading I managed to watch some TV, including last night’s “Modern Family” on Hulu and "Community" and "Grey's Anatomy" on TV.

“Modern Family” I loved the table conversation. Two laugh outloud moments (I was watching the first half in my office at the end of my office hours since I was done with grading and needed a rest, and after one involuntary really loud laugh from me(Cam’s sarcastic line about getting another child from the Orient) I was glad it late enough for not many people to be hanging around the offices.

Ah, “Community”. You are such a nice fluffy show that understands the awesomeness of pop culture tv and movie references. No-no juice!

I had a minor panic over computer cord; I had to use a pen to move the inside where you connect the battery cord.

My jaw on the left side feels a bit stiff where it joins my skull. It’s annoying.

Today was a very long day.

I’m getting “sexy sick voice” which always makes me think of that episode of “Friends” where Phoebe loved her sick voice so much she tried to get sick again after she got better. I’m very glad I don’t have to lecture tomorrow since talking for more than 10-15 minutes makes my throat hurt.

Today, I started reading John Barrowman book for real and it is funny in many parts and sometimes suddenly surprisingly dirty. Good fun.

I started “Grey’s Anatomy” Season 3 too. “Brothers and Sisters” had a really good episode tonight too – better than it has been in a while.

In general, a day where I tried to relax, drink lots of tea and be annoyed at my throat.

I woke up at Yeva’s and made myself breakfast. Yeva was staying with her boyfriend at his place but she gave me a rundown of her fridge. Then I made my way to the bus and went home.

On the way I stopped by at a card story and finally bought Bear his Valentine’s Day card. The cards are so stupid. All the inane sayings inside. I bought the least offensive. Bear and I are postponing Valentine’s for a few weeks but we don’t generally do much, just exchange cards and he gets my one rose and we might go to dinner. We both feel this made up holiday is generally stupid. Well, at least I got amusement over some creepy stalkery type Valentine’s messages or messages were the sentiment is that what one most values in the other person is how happy the other person makes one feel about oneself. Yeah, very romantic.

Since I had a really busy week and did not have time to cross stitch I spent some significant time on it today while watching “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “Who Do You Think You Are” on demand on my TV.

I also discovered that Netflix put the whole of “Grey’s Anatomy” on instant so I can have that in the background while doing other things.

Cross-stitch: blue and pale blue for the book the animals are reading.

Happy Birthday, Katya!

I got the ingredients for my cranberry/orange muffin bread that I always make for Thanksgiving to bring to Bear’s house. I’m making it on Wednesday.

I always use TV to avoid doing things I should. Even when I know I’m being self-destructive. Instead of grading stuff I need I watched more old Grey’s Anatomy episodes. Well, tomorrow will be a full grading day again. I really don’t want to fall into depression again and it feels like I’m sinking into it. I really need to pull myself together next week – even with the holidays.

( Dexter S5E9 )