Bearshorty's musings

Because of the ice storm the Local College opened later and I went to school later too. So I decided to sleep in an extra hour – not that it helped much, my head is still stuffy. Then I wrote out the first In Class Exercise for my students for this afternoon. I’m asking them about the similarities in how four earliest civilizations – Mesopotamia, Egypt, India China – viewed the legitimacy of kingship and political authority. And I just know that many won’t really understand what legitimacy means. So I did define in on the assignment sheet. It is a little sad.

Then I finally took care of some paperwork that has been piling up. I’m finally mailing in my Uni teaching contract, National Geographic renewal check, and extra co-pay for all the doctor’s test I did in the last month. Then I cleaned my bathroom both because it needed it and because as much as I need to start on rough drafts I was not looking forward to that.

Outside today it was not raining but it felt like it if you were around trees. The world looked very white with the fog and the icy trees. It was a bit surreal and a little scary walking under the trees.

The lecture on Ancient China went well. I gave them their in class exercise so I only had to lecture for an hour. Next week, just have to get to Confucius, teach them how to write a paper and give a lecture on Ancient Greece, which I wrote a long time ago for a different class.

This evening I commented on rough drafts. Some do summary and I think tomorrow I will make them work on topic sentence to try to avoid all summary paper, since summary is automatic non pass. I have to do a lot more rough draft. I really need to comment less but I can’t help it.

Yeva told me today that she broke up with her boyfriend. I really wish I could cheer her up a bit. We are going to dinner next week, so I will try then.

Exercise: 30 minutes on the wii
Cross stitch: yellow and purple for the letter cube.

When I woke up this morning I really did not expect all that think blizzardy snow. The forecast was for Wednesday night so I was not expecting anything in the morning. I thought I would work from home in the morning, read the primary sources for my Egypt lecture and then go up to campus after noon. But one look outside and I knew I needed to not risk the snow blocking the roads completely. So Mama, who luckily had a day off from work today drove me after breakfast. It took us maybe 40 minutes instead of usual twenty and in part and on hills we were going very slowly. The roads were pretty bad. And if we came to a stop, and the snow kept falling, the car did not want to always move or at least wanted to try to skid. But slowly we were driving in. The last part of the drive to Local College is up a fairly steep hill and Mama knew there was no way she could drive up there in these conditions. So she dropped me off on the bottom of the hill and I walked uphill, in the snow with think white flakes completely covering my coat and my hat. It was really beautiful, all the white snow, but also messy and not the best commute to work. But it was definitely winter. I knew there was no way Mama should drive to pick me up after work, so I took the bus back in the evening. The bus option was much better in this weather.

For lunch I got vegetable minestrone soup and small French fries, maybe because didn’t want to wait too long for them to make it and also because it was the soup type weather. And it was a good meal. The small French fries were actually a ridiculously huge portion.

My Egypt lecture went ok. It was not my best probably because I’m not that comfortable with the subject. Once we get to Greece it will be much better. The discussion of the primary and one secondary source reading (about status of women in Ancient Egypt) went over much better because shockingly many actually read them and brought the print outs to class.

I get so tired around 7pm now but brain needs a bit more sleep than I’ve been giving it lately.

I’m actually hoping University will cancel classes tomorrow, it is not like tomorrows class that is basically a review of what a paper looks like is that important.

Exercise: 15 minute walk uphill in the snow and 18 minutes on the Wii
Cross stitch: pink.

49 out of 50 states have snow. That’s the whole South. And some people don’t want to see that the weather is changing. We got a good amount of snow but now as much as in post-Christmas blizzard. Since we aren’t actually blocked in our house, it is a plus.

‘Got Medieval’ has a great response to Palin’s use of ‘blood libel’ and the subsequent Jewish WTF response to that.

I turned on TV at 9pm (while still doing the free stepping thing in Wii – I do like the option of watching tv while technically exercising) to see “Modern Family” and ended up watching Obama’s speech from Arizona memorial service. It was a good speech. I really liked the part that we should aim our government to be like the little girl saw it. It was a bit unsettling to go to “Modern Family” comedy right after that for a few minutes. Good show, though, as usual.

I had my sonogram at the urologist’s office today. Everything looks fine so I’m happy with that. I really liked the sonogram technician. She kept up fun dialogue and generally made it fun. One more test on Friday.

Exercise: 36 min on Wii. I really like the advance bicycle course and I think I got over the virtual dog running after me. (I have a phobia for real dogs; I’m usually ok with dogs in pictures and such but first time I did the bike game when the virtual dog started running after me I got very uncomfortable. But my brain is back to seeing it as not a real dog.)

Cross stitch: tan on the little bear’s face and paws and some light brown for his ears.

Not going on the internet until 6pm except for work stuff is a really useful resolution. Go work! I need to keep maintaining this. I had a good productive day alternating my own writing with my Global class prep.

This morning, I called Professor S. who is teaching the other section of Global class since I needed to see if the books had come in already. And they have. So I went to Local College and got my books in addition to other books I could scan online. In the next two weeks I need to read the Silk Road book (it is short so I will read a chapter a day and finish it on Saturday) and I will read Marco Polo once I finish my second Riverworld book. I already read the first chapter of Silk Road book and I like it. Prof. S. doesn’t want to make students buy the whole book, but I think I will include some chapters in PDF on their online site for them to read. I was working on the class plan for my first class today and I think I will actually use that ‘town meeting scene’ from “Nightmare Before Christmas” to introduce the concept of how we all view things from with our own cultural baggage before I will bring up one primary source that we could discuss. Bear promised to burn that scene for me off my DVD so I can put it into Powerpoint for easy access.

Anthony Grafton, “History Under Attack” Perspectives on History , January 2011 - a really great article that defends why history and history teaching and research is relevant in our society and in academia. The link only works if you are a member of American Historical Association so I will copy it here because it was such a great article.

( Grafton article )


Exercise: 30 minutes Yoga on Wii (I have a 30 minutes routine set, which I haven’t done in a long time. It was a nice change of pace. I miss my Yoga class.)

Cross-stitch: all eyes and noses in satin stitch are done.

Really warm day again. This will be a really nice week with summer weather. I love summer and the heat, so it always cheers me up.

I went to the bank this morning and the interest rates are so low now it is ridiculous.

We finally got Netflix to work on Wii properly by updating the internet connection and the system. No more pauses to retrieve data. It is nice to watch Instant Play on Netflix on the flatscreen TV. This should be fun. I loaded the first episode of “Angel” for Papa (he’s seen “Buffy,” “Angel Season 5,” “Firefly” and “Dollhouse.” What he focused on is trying to see where he knew Christian Kane from. I had to remind him that he is on “Leverage” now.

Palpitations were really bad today, so I am not in a greatest mood. I’m tired and a bit jumpy and anxious. After another lazy morning where I read more “American Gods” and the newspaper and made myself breakfast while Bear worked out, I sort of just hung out until lunch and tried to distract myself. We left after two in the afternoon and were stuck in the horrendous traffic again. We passed at least two accidents on the way and it was generally a long drive. But at least we could hang out in the car together. We drove by the comic book store near my house where I picked up “Willow” one shot and the second part of an “Angel” comic. Both were good.

Bear tried out Wii when we got to my house. It is funny how Wii Fit considers him overweight when his weight is all muscle. It even helpfully suggested that he should work out his abs to help get rid of all the flabbiness from his six-pack stomach. Hee.

Today is my grandmother’s 80th birthday and I wished her happy birthday over the phone. She sounds much better now and will start rehab tomorrow to recuperate from surgery.

I finally called payroll personally. I really don’t like calling on the phone and dealing with people. I get a bit anxious at it, like I shouldn’t ask for things. Unless, of course, I feel really frustrated about a situation, like I am now. Payroll tells me that they don’t have the forms for the second class and only the department can turn that in. I also sent another email to the person in charge of English payroll; she should be back on Friday. I will be on campus on Tuesday so I hope to bug them even more and in person. I kind of need to pay tuition for next semester. I also gave a call to my union; they said they would pass my info to someone who might help. I’ll just wait and see.

I discovered how much I like “Obstacle course” in the Wii fit plus. It is just fun to jump and run and avoid giant pendulums and logs. And I get quite a workout from it too. I don’t want to over do it but it is a really fun game.

“Julie and Julia” came from Netflix today. I wanted to see it since I saw the trailer for the first time last year. Meryl Streep was amazing as Julia Child and Amy Adams was good too. Someone at work had some negative gossip about the real person Amy Adams played but I will just treat it as gossip. The movie was about love of food and finding yourself and all that, but my favorite part of their portrayal of marriage and loving relationships. It is nice to see that love between people who support each other and fit well together. Overall verdict: liked the movie a lot.

SYTYCD. Since I missed the performance show on Tuesday I watched some clips in the morning to catch up on some dancing and then I watched the results show in the evening. Ashleigh didn’t dance because of injury but she was still voted into final six (the finale this year will have six, instead of four). Mollee and Legacy went home. I actually liked these choices and I like everyone in the final six. I think I want either Jacob or Kathryn or maybe Eleanore to win the whole thing, but I will enjoy all the dancers. Nothing particularly stood out in the clips I saw online this week, so I was not even remotely sorry for missing the show. I am, however, looking forward to the finale.

My cold actually made me feel low on energy today mostly because of palpitations. I stayed on my couch most of the day, but I did squeezed in 30 minutes of Wii exercise. I like the one where I have to flap my arms and fly like a bird on the screen. And step aerobics too.

( Dollhouse S2 E5-6 )

Happy Birthday, Medusa!

I was so happy that I rested enough the day before and that my sore throat was manageable to go into the city to celebrate Medusa’s b-day! I was looking forward to that and really didn’t want my allergy/cold to stop me. And it didn’t. I think I’m just used to functioning on a weak/tired level that it is just my normal now. And I take everything day by day anyway. And I felt pretty good once I got to Manhattan. It was a total SoHo outing since Spring Street is a really fabulous street with lots and lots of fun store that I got to discover even more of. I got there a bit early so I wandered about to do some store browsing and, of course, ended up Christmas shopping. First I stopped by at L’Occitan and the salesgirl convinced me that hand-cream would work nicely as a present for Bear’s Mom. So after short deliberation I just bought that. Then I stopped by at another store that combined various creams with green products and healthy stuff and found a classical CD made especially for relaxing and distressing, so I got that for Mama’s birthday and as my sales person was wrapping that up it was time for Indian food for lunch.

We discovered this Indian food place quite by accident several years ago (I think it was years, I don’t remember exact timeline. I think I was still living in NJ at the time). It was the best Indian food ever and it didn’t disappoint. They had lunch specials and I got chicken curry and appetizer and naan and desert and it was all very delicious. After stuffing ourselves we headed to a fancy Chocolate place where she picked out truffles for birthday present. (Made it easy for me to shop too  ). The store also has samples, which confirmed that I don’t like chocolate that is too dark.

After wandering about a bit we also patronized a coffee shop with nice comfy chairs that felt all European and then Medusa introduced me to a rice pudding shop that had so much in its tasty portion of chocolate chip pudding with cranberry fruit topping that I, who loves sweets of all kinds, couldn’t finish it and had to take the rest home for Papa to finish. Overall it was a great outing and it was great to celebrate her birthday in person. Although we communicate in some shape or form practically every day, we don’t get to see each other in person too much lately with all dissertation writing. December should be better.

I got on the bus home about four in the afternoon to head home, after actually having to think about where on Canal street the express bus would cross and knowing the in addition to W. Broadway there is an actual Broadway. Still having to think about directions in the city I lived in more than half my life is sort of fun. By the time I was getting on the bus I felt the start of a headache. It was going to rain and I used to get headaches after day trips into central London too. It was actually nice to feel a familiar pain. I had to take an aspirin and later advil to head of the migraine but I welcomed the familiarity of it. My migraines have actually been better and I take relief in knowing that even as palpitations become really noticeable since migraines pulsate kind of loud and follow the pattern of the heartbeat, it wasn’t freaking me out. Yeah!

At home, once Papa got home, we set up Wii Fit and did the basic weight measuring and fitness test. I actually stand pretty centrally, not leaning on either side, I was 49% to the left. Mama leans right and Papa leans left. And my BMI is 22.6 with optimum being 22. I love that I’m kind of almost smack normal since I’m not a tiny woman and I wear size 10. My balance coordination is a bit weak, though, according to Wii Fit and that will be something to work on.

SYTYCD. Noelle and Nathan went home, which was the best possible outcome. I liked the guest dancers LXD and Snoop Dog’s performance too. Overall, not a bad show. Although why is the finale in two weeks? Will they have six person finale or eliminate two dancers next time?

I started “Into the Forest” this morning (the book a historian sent me). I just read ten pages but so far pretty interesting.