randomness

While I love Idaho in many ways, I have found that I’m not so fond of snow as I remembered.

While I don’t love snow as much as I thought I did, I’m getting used to it.  And I still prefer it to heat.

As long as I’m on the weather–in many ways, I miss the great rain-storms in Texas.

I am more than curious to see how events will unfold after President Hinckley’s funeral (which I’m currently watching).  Who will serve as counselors to President Monson?  When will the announce the re-constitution of the Quorum of the First Presidency?  What will President Monson’s administration be like?  How will his General Conference talks change?

I’m frequently disturbed by the mis-representation of the quote that starts, “Anyone who imagines bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around and shouting that he has been robbed.”  While I love this quote, I’m frustrated that people don’t recognize that President Hinckley did not say this.  Rather,  he quoted it from an article in the Deseret News from 1973.  If you’d like to read the quote in full, take a look at the following article (just one of many in which President Hinckley used it): “A Conversation with Single Adults.”

I love teaching at BYU-Idaho.   I can expect so much more from my students than I could at a state university.  Plus, I don’t have to avert my eyes when talking to my students (because they all dress modestly); I can talk about the Gospel openly (which is nice, since it’s a strong vein in my thinking); and I actually feel like I’m a real member of the faculty (which I never really did at UNT).

I would be willing to teach full-time at BYU-Idaho, at least for a few years.  Especially if I could teach some linguistics-related classes, like History of the English Language.

If Sen. John McCain wins the nomination as the presidential candidate for President, disaster will soon follow in the Republican Party.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it caused a major party-shift.

If McCain wins the nomination, I refuse to vote for him.  I will write in Mitt Romney as my choice for President.

I’m on tenter-hooks, waiting to see how things come out in the many primaries and caucuses on “Super Tuesday” (Feb. 5).

I’m wonderfully grateful for the in-depth coverage that has been given to this presidential race.

Although I love my new PC laptop, I still wish I’d gotten a Mac.  *sigh*

While I appreciate the great love that members of the Church–and especially the youth–have had for President Hinckley, I don’t quite “get” the deep sadness at his passing.  I have no doubt that he is much happier now than he has been for some time.  Meanwhile, the Church will move on here on the earth, and can only progress.  What is there to be sad about?  (I don’t mean to trivialize the grief of so many, I am merely expressing my own feelings on this occasion.)

I didn’t realize until just recently that there was some lag-time between the passing of the President of the Church and the re-constitution of the Quorum of the First Presidency, even after Brigham Young had cleared up the succession problem.

One of the most destructive weapons against the productive use of our time is the invention of decent computer games.  I am currently obsessed with Jojo’s Fashion Show, and a few weeks ago was obsessed with Chocolatier.  Now I can hardly stand not being able to play Chocolatier 2.  And I am addicted to the 60-minute trial scheme.

I have been trying to work up the courage to leave the country for a few years as soon as I finish my doctoral degree.  I’d love to teach English abroad, perhaps in Mongolia or Jordan, perhaps through the Peace Corps or the BYU Kennedy Center for International Studies.  And I frequently think that I’d like to learn a “less-commonly-taught” language like Arabic, Hebrew, or Bengalese and then work as a contract linguist for the FBI and/or NVTC (National Virtual Translation Center).

The BYU-I English Department Secretary recently emailed all the faculty, asking for some help with a special project.  They are collecting favorite one-liner quotes from our favorite authors.  *chuckle*  I think I can do that.  My pick of my favorite favorite quotes ended up at about 2-1/2 pages.

I recently bought the actual album of Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations.  Not just the downloaded version, but the real-life CD, which I can now keep in my car and listen to whenever I want.  Oh, joy!

A few weeks ago, Mom and I watched the movie Dan in Real Life.  I loved it!  From the previews, I thought it was going to be a screwball comedy.  It wasn’t.  And it was so much better than I had expected.  Even if you’re not a Steve Carrell fan, I highly recommend it.  And if you are a Steve Carrell fan,  I still recommend it, as it’s an unusual example of his dramatic acting skills.

 

karate kid

I just finished watching The Karate Kid on TV.  I know I’m supposed to know this movie inside and out, and to have grown up thinking Daniel-san was adorable and Mr. Miyagi was beyond wise — but, to be honest, I never really cared for it.

I watched the show today simply out of a lack of anything more interesting to do.  I hadn’t watched it since I was eight, probably, at some girl’s sleepover.  Frankly, I was disappointed.  I expect that’s why I never cared for it when I was little.   The character of Mr. Miyagi is by far the most interesting thing in the whole show.  Nothing — not the characters, not the plot, not the relationships — is fully developed.  And that under-development carries over into the ending, which I found rather anti-climactic.

My apologies to anyone who grew up thinking this was the greatest movie in the world.  I never had an opinion about it until now, and I just had to share it.

 

high and dry

All right, so my two roommates both left this morning to go home for a little while. For that matter, so did two of my good friends, and others have already left … Clearly, it’s the beginning of the between-summer-and-fall break. I’ve been left high and dry. And I have mixed feelings about it.

I will be working full-time all next week, since the girl who was working the afternoon shift at work quit this past week. Beginning Tuesday, I’ll also be training the three newly-hired front desk workers. That should be fun.

I’ll be all alone in the apartment this week, which will be nice in some ways. I can use a little alone time and the quiet atmosphere for some much-needed pondering. On the other hand, though, it makes life very … well, quiet.

Did you know that John Hancock, before becoming a member of the Continental Congress, was a highly skilled smuggler? Yup. He took great pride in evading the British customs officers and helped to foster the all-important American spirit of insurrection. (I’m watching The History Channel right now, which is running a show called “Rumrunners, Moonshiners, and Bootleggers”.)

Last night we went to the local YSA dance, which was really a lot of fun. We ended up getting there right at the beginning, before anybody else had really arrived. We spent about 30 minutes playing “volleyball” with beach balls (the dance had a luau/beach theme going on …), and that was a blast! It reminded me a lot of the good days in Cinnamon Tree at BYU, when basically the whole ward would get together a big game of volleyball in the courtyard. I enjoyed that. I met several new people, including a girl who has just barely moved into our ward, and a couple of girls from one of the Dallas wards who were in the MTC together. And, most important of all — I got to watch Erin shake her booty. Along with Michelle, which was really quite entertaining; those two look like twins when they’re dancing. Oh yes, and I also found people to teach my classes during the two weeks when I’ll be gone.

I just found out yesterday that the tentative Spring 2007 UNT class schedules are available online, so I’ve been trying to figure out what I am planning to take. I was excited to see that they are offering a class on Medieval English literature, which I will probably take. I expect I’ll also take a class on American Lit. And maybe I can get started on getting permission for extra Special Problems courses and get going on metaphor, LDS literature, computer-based corpus linguistics, et cetera. For that matter, maybe I could take one or two of the computer classes and/or foreign language classes I’ve been looking into.

The last quote was from “Hello, Dolly!” Mr. Horace Vandergelder is really hilarious, and I’ve always liked Walter Matthau in that role. No points for you!!

Do you really wanna have fun, or are you just saying you wanna have fun?! (10 points)

 

the latest news

I haven’t been feeling at all well lately, for the past several weeks. So finally, last night, Erin and Margo managed to convince me that I really ought to go ahead and see someone at the Student Health Center to see if they can figure out what’s wrong. They had already convinced me to get a medical exam, but I had figured that I would see My Brother The Chiropractor when I go home in July. But it’s gotten to the point that I just decided I’d better see what they can say here. There was nothing that decisive, and we’re getting some lab work done to see if that will help us to a more conclusive diagnosis. But … it seems there’s a good chance that it might be diabetes and/or other metabolism- and insulin-related problems. I’m not too happy about that, but I can’t say that I would be too surprised, either. And, luckily, My Brother The Chiropractor has lots of great ideas for helping control diabetes without necessarily having to deal with the constant blood testing and insulin injections and such (depending, of course, on how severe the case is).

In the meantime, I’m still enjoying the graciously-lent Amelia Peabody books from Kimberly and generally feeling queasy, achy, and slightly feverish all the time. Oh yeah, and SUPER thirsty! And tired. Anyway… I’ll be sure to keep the blog updated as I find out more.

Oh, and we finally got our internet router to start working again. We’ve had plenty of problems with our internet connections during the last week or two. Our ISP finally fixed the connection, but then the router wasn’t working properly, so we could only access the internet from Erin’s computer. That was all right, since there wasn’t anything I particularly needed it for, and Erin has online classes she has to use the internet for. But today, finally, it’s back working again. We don’t even know why. It just decided it liked us again, I guess. Or that we’d suffered enough.

As many of you knew, the last quote was from “Kryptonite” by Three Doors Down.

Shall we submit? Are we but slaves? Love comes alike to high and low! (103 points, and an extra 20 if you can quote the next line)

 

the post with no title

So I’m sitting around watching the final episode of “Will & Grace,” just for kicks and giggles. And I thought I’d post something, just to let everyone know what I’ve been up to. I found a job for the summer, working as a receptionist at the Department of Management (in the College of Business Administration) on campus at UNT. It’ll be from 8:00 to 12:30 every morning (Monday through Friday, that is), so it’s about 22 hours a week, and it’s early. Oh well. Sometimes you just have to deal with an 8 am day.

In other news … well, there’s really not much else, actually.

I have been cooking the last few days. Tried a few new recipes, mostly from Alton Brown, which have been fabulous. [roasted veggie spread] [pocket pies]

I’ve watched a ton of television during the past week. Becoming a Regis and Kelly junky. *sigh*

I am ready to start scrap-booking again, but I first have to get some more cardstock pages and print some of my digital photos. Hoping to start on that next week.

Next week I’ll be flying home for Memorial Day, where I plan to spend a few days with my sister and then a few days at my parents’ house.

Erin and I wanted to watch Just My Luck today, but Kimberly couldn’t come, so we decided to put it off until we can all see it together.

New niece got born last week, May 9th. Her name is Chloe Elizabeth. Adorable, of course!

Been reading lots of books on Kimberly’s recommendation. She got me interested in Amelia Peabody mysteries, and now I’m anxiously awaiting the box from her mom in which she sent the rest of the series from their house (apparently there are 16 in all).

In the mean-time, I’m re-reading the 6th Harry Potter book, since I’ve only read it once since it came out last summer.

Hoping to be able to go to the Utah Shakespearean Festival this year with Jen and Emily, in late July. They’re doing some great plays, including Hamlet and — wonder of wonders! — HMS Pinafore!!

Longing for a cat. I really want a korat. *deep sigh* Can’t hardly wait until I have an apartment and a job to allow for that.

I’m always quite amazed at how much I can say even when there’s nothing to say.

The last quote was from Mary Poppins, although it’s quite obscure, so I’m not surprised no one has known it (or least, apparently no one has).

We Britons had at that time particularly settled that it was treasonable to doubt our having and our being the best of everything: otherwise, while I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty. (96 points)

 

5 weeks = not a month

I have been avoiding talking very much about Jim on my blog, because I don’t want you all to get sick of it. But I do have to let you know about something that happened recently.

A couple weeks ago, after some already frustrating occurrences, Jim came over. He came just for a walk around the block and to let me know, basically, that he wasn’t sure about our relationship and wanted out. It’s now been 5 weeks since things started spiralling. I count from the day he decided to go home and nap instead of coming over to my apartment after church … I guess since that was the first day he made me cry.

Take my word, the mockingbird will sing the saddest song of all — he knows things are wrong, and he’s right. (22 points)

 

a new update

spring break

Spring Break was lots of fun. Only Erin and I went, and we left on Saturday morning. Erin was fun to drive with. She always chooses a ‘guy’ — someone who’s driving just a little faster than her, or about the same speed, so that if there are any cops or there’s anything troublesome ahead, her ‘guy’ gets the brunt of it, and she’s been warned already. I never did that before, but I rather enjoyed the experience. We had lots of good conversation, too, and Erin is one of my favorite people to talk to, so that was great.

We didn’t really do anything in Missouri, we just hung around, did a little bit of homework, and ate lots. Erin’s mom is a great cook, and she had wonderful food for us, and they also took us out to eat a couple of times. My favorite part of the trip was when we went to Sikeston, Missouri, and ate at Lambert’s Café, “the only home of throwed rolls.” It was a little like eating at Tucano’s in Provo (mmmmm, Tucano’s … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … OK, I’m done zoning off and salivating now) — Right. It’s kind of like Tucano’s, since there was tons of food, I was super stuffed afterward, and they came around giving you free food if you wanted it. They had fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes, and fried okra, among other things. (By the way, I tried fried okra for the first time this trip, and I really enjoyed it.) And one of the other things they had were some fabulous, fresh, hot rolls, which they threw at you. So if you wanted a roll, you’d just stick your hands up in the air, and they would throw one at you, even from all the way across the room. It was great fun.

I stayed until Thursday, and that morning I left and drove home. In fact, I got a tad lost on the way home. It was sunset, and I was driving west, so I missed the sign that indicated I was supposed to turn left to stay on Highway 380 going west, and thus ended up on Highway 69 going north. Before long, I figured out that I was on the wrong road, and I stopped at the next town and bought a map. The whole thing only took about 45 extra minutes, and I got home in one piece. And I had a fabulous time driving my rented Ford Escape. Happiness.

like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife …

Since the beginning of the semester, I have never yet had my British Lit professor commend me for anything I’ve written. On occasion, when something catches his eye that one of us has written about in our response papers, he’ll mention it in class and either ask us to tell the class about it, or if we don’t want to, he’ll tell them. But he’d never said anything about my stuff. Most of the time that doesn’t bother me, since I usually write a bunch of crap for that class, but every now and then I’d really spend time on it and give it some real effort, and I still got nothing.

The last day before class, which was also the last day that I posted here, I was agonizing over writing a response paper for “The Watsons” by Jane Austen. I finally forced myself to write something, which started out “I’ve had a really hard time appreciating ‘The Watsons’ …” And then I finished it up by writing about what a difference it makes in how you read when you’re internally motivated to read something versus when you are forced to read it for, say, a graduate class. The whole paper really said nothing at all about “The Watsons” itself, but I managed to squeeze out two pages of it.

And ironically enough, Scott (my professor) asked me to talk about it in class. He said he was surprised to hear me talking about this, since he feels like he doesn’t really force people to read. I think he may have missed much of my point. He told us to read as though we’re reading for fun — meaning that we don’t have to try to analyze while we’re reading, or try to find significance in things, or whatever else. And he did mention that he’s had several students over the years write about how they hated something so much that they didn’t even finish reading (which I’ve done more than once, though I haven’t written about it). But my point was that I wouldn’t even be reading half of this stuff on my own, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m in this class and he’s assigned it to us.

monday, monday …

Yesterday wasn’t such a great day. It was rather productive, so that was good. But other than that, it was pretty frustrating. My iPod, which I just sent in about two weeks ago to get a new battery, no longer works. I’m not sure that it’s still under warranty, so I don’t know if I can get it fixed again. And then, my internet is on the fritz. I’m worried that it may be a problem with my Ethernet card … *sigh* That means that I can’t rely on being able to check my email, or Google things, or IMDb them, or FTP stuff for my website, or chat with Jim, or … the list goes on. I tell you, you don’t realize just how much you rely on these things until they’re gone. It kind of reminds me of the time when I was so excited to get sheets after I first got to Lancaster.

the quotes

The last quote was from Toy Story. Gosh! I just got looking at that post again and realized just how long it’s been since I last posted. That seems like ages ago.

“I read where you were shot four times in the tabloids.”

“It’s not true — they never came near my tabloids.”

(83 points)

 

procrastinating … again

I should be writing a response paper to “The Watsons” today, and boy am I having trouble with that. I suppose I could write something about Zofloya instead … except that I haven’t even begun reading it yet.

I’m really excited for Spring Break, which is next week. It looks like Erin and I will leave Saturday, and we’re going to visit her family in Missouri. I’ve been looking forward to it for at least three months, so it’s nice that it’s finally so close. I’m not too picky on what we actually do there — it’s just the thought of being somewhere else, and not having to go to classes every day that makes me so happy.

I really, really, really don’t want to go to my class today. That’s largely because I don’t have a response paper yet, and little hope of having a well-written one by the time I get to class. I’m trying to really force myself to go, though, since I have already missed more days in that class than I should have. And because it’s good for me to be doing things I don’t want to do.

The last quote was from Key Largo, a great movie with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, and Edward G. Robinson. Classic. I expect most of you will know today’s quote, but I have to add that Jim is not allowed to score points on this one, since we were discussing it last night.

Farewell, my friends, I go to a better place! (13 points)

 

a whole month

It doesn’t seem like it has been that long, but really it has. One whole month since the last time I posted on my blog here. A lot of little, uninteresting things have happened during that month, but nothing worth talking about on here. Oh, except that I’m now 27. According to my friend Katie, that means I’m now old.

I’m not at all happy about school this semester. I just don’t feel like being here. Last year when this happened, I had a better social life to make up for my lack of scholastic enthusiasm. I hope something as good comes along today.

Tonight I’ve been feeling really annoyed. I’m tired as it is, and then when I went to Curves (which took great effort, as I really didn’t want to go), the bus was a half hour late, and for reasons I don’t want to take the time to explain right now, that meant that I couldn’t actually go to Curves. So I wasted an entire hour of my life. Very frustrating. It made me want to eat something sweet to compensate for my anger (I’m very much an emotional eater), but I’m on a diet right now, so I had to try some low-carb brownies. I haven’t actually tasted them yet, so we’ll see how that goes.

Well, I have absolutely nothing else to say about anything (or at least not something that anyone cares to hear about), so I’ll go ahead and go.

The last quote was from The Rocketeer.

I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours. (3 points, I expect most of you to know it)

And to make up for that easy quote, here’s another.

I’m afraid after we’re married a while, a beautiful young girl will come along and you’ll forget all about me.

Don’t be silly! I’ll write you twice a week. (73 points, with half points for Margo, since she watched the movie with me recently, though I don’t think she’ll get this right away)

 

Travelling to Texas

I am here sitting in our hotel room in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Dad’s on the phone with Mom, who claims to have been sitting by the phone waiting for our call, though we don’t quite believe her. Last night we stayed in Blanding, Utah, and this morning we went to church there. That means we got a later start today, and then we went to both Four Corners monument and Monument Valley. Dad was pretty excited about the latter of these, as there were apparently some great westerns filmed there. His favorite of those is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, a John Ford film starring John Wayne. We stopped several times to take pictures. We were hoping to make it to Tucumcari, New Mexico, tonight, but with our late start, we decided that was just a bit too far. Tomorrow we will be going through Amarillo on our way to Denton, where I will be installed in a hotel for the rest of the week to wait for Erin and Margo to show up. On Friday we will then move into our new apartment. I just hope I don’t get bored to death waiting for that day.

My dissertation

I haven’t written much during the summer, as I’ve mostly been very busy with other things. I sent off my dissertation last Thursday, which was a great feeling. I felt like there should be someone there taking my picture at the post office while I handed it over.

I had the devil of a time of it getting my dissertation printed in the first place, actually. I had forgotten until Thursday morning that it had to be printed and handed in on A4 paper. A4 is the standard letter-size paper throughout Europe, but we don’t use it here in the States. I knew before I left England that it would have to be printed on A4 paper, but I didn’t think it would be a big deal. And, unfortunately, I had forgotten about that detail until Thursday. I called around to a few places to find out if anyone sold A4 (which they don’t), and got hold of someone at Falls Printing who suggested that I print it on 11×14 paper and then cut it down the right size (A4 is about 8.3 by 11.7 inches). When I got to the place, though, I talked to someone completely different who said it was really odd to want 11×14 paper, which it is. She cut some paper for me, though, probably close to 1,000 sheets of it, and gave it to me for free, referring me to Zip Print a few streets over to get it printed. Zip Print was unable to print it, though they tried diligently, and it was there that I had the inspiration to use a standard legal size paper, 85.x14, and then cut *that* down. The folks at Zip Print sent to someone at a place called Beta Graphics, telling me that he could do it if anyone could. So I tried him. His office was supposed to be just a few streets over again, but when I got there I found that he had moved. So I found his new location, clear on the other side of town. But no one was there. So I sat on the curb and called his number on Mom’s cell phone. I got him fairly easily, but it turned out that he was on vacation in Reno, Nevada, until Tuesday. Of course, I needed the job done by the next day at the latest. He suggested I try Eagle Press, so I headed over there. Happily, the folks at Eagle Press were able to get it taken care of for me. Sheesh, though! I sure wish I had thought about that particular complication much earlier. Although I guess I’m mostly just glad that I remembered it at all, and didn’t try sending it on 8.5×11 paper — that would have been a much bigger mess in the end.

Going to storage

The only other terribly important thing that happened since coming home from England actually happened during the first week. I went down to the family storage unit to get some things out of there and found that my big metal trunk, which was stuffed with my possessions, had been leaked into and several of my things were both water-logged and mildewy. I had to throw away several of my books, including my Holladay lexicon of the Hebrew Bible, my Hebrew grammar, and my cherished American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. I was seriously bummed! In fact, I was so upset about my American Heritage that I almost cried about it if I thought too long. A large part of my attachment to that particular dictionary was that it was a gift from my parents when I graduated from high school, so there will never really be another like it. Luckily, though, most of my other books were just fine, including my actual Hebrew Bible — I’d much rather have to replace my lexicon and grammar than the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.

Well, I suppose that’s about it for now. Dad and I are watching an old western on TV, and I’m feeling pretty tired, so I’d better go to sleep now. In any case, it’s certainly time to get dressed for bed. I’ll let you all know when I get to Denton … provided, that is, that there is wireless internet access in that hotel.