Below are the most recent 23 friends' journal entries.

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
trollcatz	12:39p	0.o He's eating pink lumpy sugar that smells like fish. They do not PAY me enough to sit in this office. Current Mood: sick Current Music: cronch. cronch. cronch. (24 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 9th, 2009
ace_cub_reportr	11:01p	It was twenty years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play. Nov. 9, 1989. "Visas will be granted immediately by police stations all over the country." Twenty years ago today I was a rookie field agent drinking schnapps in a bar in Cleveland with a woman in her late seventies who was telling stories in a German accent about what really happened when the Russians rolled into Berlin. She had gray hair stylishly cut, and was full of schnapps and also coyly-worded hints about secret marriages and clandestine escapes to South America*. In return, I told her about meeting Gyula Horn in Budapest in 1977**, some time after he went to work for the Hungarian foreign affairs department (and long after he spent a couple of long weekends crushing anti-Soviet revolution) but long before he posed with Alois Mock and a couple pairs of pruning shears along the fences at the Austro-Hungarian border. Heady times. I work with people who were in grade school when that happened. Ten years from now, wherever I am, I'll probably work with people who weren't born. Unless I'm--horrors!--retired by then. ~~~ *I'm pretty sure she wasn't actually Eva Braun. But she did have big, beautiful light-brown eyes and the remnants of a redhead complexion. And they were awfully good stories.*** **It was in the line of duty. For both of us. ***She said the dress was blue. If you were still wondering.**** ****My stories, of course, were all completely true. Current Mood: nostalgic (22 Comments |Comment on this)
trollcatz	8:54p	Peace Out Witches For Darwin! Current Mood: bitchy Current Music: Roger Waters - What God Wants (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
eilonwy	11:14p	Project Runway Wow. I thought I posted this on, y'know, Thursday when it was relevant. But I opened up Semagic to post an update about my weekend and found it. So, um, here? ( Make it work ) Current Mood: embarrassed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
ace_cub_reportr	9:56a	Mighty Mouse "She's a real good cop." I'll say! Current Mood: melancholy (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
eilonwy	9:23p	SPN Thoughts ( Post Recap Thoughts ) Current Mood: amused Current Music: Frasier (Comment on this)
eilonwy	8:59p	SPN 5.08 Man, VD is interminable. Is it 8pm yet? Blah blah blah. I have to kill him. He follows me. You were right to leave me. Blah blah. wait, I have to kill him, now I'll spare him? Bah. ( Changing Channels ) Blah blah blah Ninja. Blah blah blah Olive Garden. 7-Up. Blah. Target. Gossip Girl, blah blah, 2.5Men. Ariba Mexican Grill. Blah. blah. have I mentioned blah? Toyota. Cox. Gods, are these commercials ever going to end? That 70s Show. Ooo! Baby Beatrice is a Castiel!Girl! (She was sniffing ami!Castiel) First kitty who didn't go for ami!Sam. ( Change the Channel ) Avatar: Furries meet mechs? And gunships. A sci-fi movie for every hardcover nerd? (As opposed to the other Avatar movie that is total Race Fail?) ( Change again ) Aaaand, that's the end of this recap. I'm going to watch the "stay tuned," but I shall not share them. Spoiler Phobes may thank me. :) I'll actually comment on this episode at ... some other time. Current Mood: amused Current Music: commericals (3 Comments |Comment on this)
eilonwy	12:53p	Ew. ew ew ew ew ew. Also? ew. The TA office (well, my TA office-- there are *lots* of TA offices in this building alone) smells awful. We're pretty sure the smell is emanating from the fridge, but one of the other TAs and I looked through it and found nothing that might be the cause. And of course, now that I've been in the office for a while, the smell, while still noticeable, has made my nose confused, so I'm unable to tell where the smell is worst. (This is probably universal payback for my explorations into smell as a stage effect, isn't it?) I bought lunch on the way into the building, but now I've lost my appetite. UGH. (Also? I really enjoy that I have an appropriate icon for this post!) Current Mood: dirty (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
ace_cub_reportr	1:08p	Cancer is caused by bad thoughts, didn't you know? I get so tired of the outrage.*  I wonder what's going on in this guy's neighborhood that he has absolutely no clue he hasn't figured out? How many rapes, spousal abuse cases, child molestations? Basement meth labs? Elder abuse or neglect cases? Yeah. It couldn't happen to us, could it? We wouldn't make those mistakes. Those people it happened to, they somehow deserved it. Us? We're doing everything right. We follow the rules and drink our green tea and always pay our insurance premiums on time. We're safe. No monsters under our beds. Jimuny crickets. I wish I could bring these people to work with me for just one goddamned day. *(context) Current Mood: tired. really, really tired. Current Music: Tom Waits - What's He Building? (27 Comments |Comment on this)
joecarnahan	1:03a	Ah, Comcast, the ability of your representatives to contradict each other never ceases to amaze me. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
eilonwy	1:17p	The Continuing Adventures of Miss Meier & the Mailman (and also, I feel yucky) Not much has developed in their relationship over the past few chapters. The only big new I haven't shared is that his father doesn't approve of her. And that they canceled a date (although I use the term loosely) to the zoo because of a difference in world views. I'm unclear on this last bit. Chapter 27, however, has a few tidbits you might like to know (as I struggle with translating the "overloaded adjective construction.") The book asks, Is the mailman a man persecuted by fate? A cockroach jumping high in the air frightened Miss Meier, while she sat with the mailman. The mailman saw in the plucky hippo newly escaped from the zoo a symbol of the craving for freedom of people and animals. (The book also informs us, in English, for no apparent reason, that the hippo's name was Bubbles.) So there you go. (I have more homework for the week, but I need to do other work for now.) I'll share more about the adventures of Miss Meier and her mailman as I learn them. (In unrelated news, my tummy really hurts. Hence the icon. I thought I was just dehydrated, but water hasn't helped. I've not eaten anything unusual-- my usual cream cheese and English muffin for breakfast, and now a large salad for lunch. No change. My abdomen feels sort of achey all over, but with some more acute (but not steady) pain right in the middle. Is not fun.) Current Mood: sick (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
eilonwy	12:21p	ACK It's already after noon and I've accomplished nothing. :( (Well, I've had breakfast, I've fed the cats, I've figured out some more of the plot of the romance novel that I'm not writing, got some ideas as to home remedies for laundry, read a few more chapters of What Angels Fear and obsessively checked tracking sites to see where my book is (Birmingham AL) and where my new harddrive is (Louisville, KY). So while I suppose I can't truthfully say I've done nothing, I also haven't done any of the many things I need to do.) Fail! Current Mood: annoyed (at self) (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
eilonwy	11:30p	Throat Advice... & other news (of the daily minutiae type) Since you guys rocked at the whole Finding Eilonwy an External Hard Drive thing, wanna help with more stuff? Here's the thing: I suck at projecting. My voice doesn't carry very well, and I'm not very good at being loud. When I need to be loud, or when I just plain need to talk a lot, I end up with a sore throat. Every time. If I go to an amusement park, I know that the next time my throat will hurt 'cause I'll shriek once or twice on a roller coaster and my throat is done for. If I go to a club, I know that the next day I'll have a sore throat and less voice because I'll be trying to be heard over/under the music. Saturday, while still in VA, I went to the Blackfriars Conference Banquet and talked a lot in a room full of people. Then, I went to a very very very crowded bar and talked a lot. The next day? Sore throat. It was almost gone by Wednesday, but that morning I gave a lecture. I used a microphone, but I was still talking for 50 minutes straight, and afterward, had a sore throat. It was almost better by today, but I taught and then had rehearsal, and now? Sore throat. I can rest my voice all day tomorrow, 'til evening, but I have a play rehearsal on Sunday, too. And the play I'm rehearsing for is going to be performed on an outdoor stage with no help for directing acoustics. So, I put to you two things: 1. What can I do to make my throat feel better now that it already hurts. (I have been drinking lots of hot tea, but other than that?) 2. How do I learn to project without hurting myself?? In other news... I spent a lot of money today. Bad Eilonwy. I ordered my external harddrive. But then Wyrding Studios is having a sale... bad, bad. And I went grocery shopping. (That part's not so bad 'cause I had to get cat food or risk the wrath of Widget. Though she be little, she is fierce.) Renaissance Colloquium went well, even though I wasn't really anticipating having to open it. Oops. And my chairperson volunteered me to help today's presenter dig up more information because I'm the only person who has theatre experience and can guide the presenter in what questions to ask various places as he seeks information on The Othello Project (an adaptation of Othello set in Mississipi in 1964, and perfumed in 1995 in Toronto and 1998 in FL and nothing since...) Fun! (Actually it will hopefully be fun, but I don't really need/want more to do!) Rehearsal for Pyramus & Thisbe also went well. It helps that I have such enthusiastic students playing Thisbe and Pyramus and to a slightly lesser extent Wall and Lion. Their enthusiasm is infectious, too, so everyone gets into it. 221 was fine-- but we didn't really get to look very closely at Midsummer 'cause I took questions, and they asked questions, and I answered, and it was all about early modern English history and staging, and I can talk about those for hours and hours and hours, which is partly why I now have trouble with my voice, and definitely why we didn't get to the play very much. I finished rereading Where Serpents Sleep last night, and since I have at least 3 days before the newest Sebastian St. Cyr arrives (thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you to pyrite who mailed it today-- priority no less!!) I started rereading the first book-- What Angels Fear. This is interesting (to me) on two levels. One, going backwards from the most recent ('til next week) book to the first really highlights what has changed, both in terms of the narrative and also in terms of what the author chooses/chose to highlight. I really don't remember anything in Serpents that particularly referenced Sebastian's more unusual abilities, whereas it's emphasized (not overly, but clearly) several times in the first few chapters that his eyesight and hearing are unusually adept. Also, the reread has given me a new perspective on Kat. I've always liked her as a character, but have never liked her as a romantic interest for Sebastian. I'm finding that I'm more forgiving of that relationship this time around. At the bus stop this morning there was a random (older, married, English-as-a-second-language) guy who kept trying to get me to talk with him. He could not take a hint even though I had a book open. >.< I was polite, mostly. But I wanted to read!! I mean, I walked up to the bus stop with an open book! (when I'm not in a hurry I'll read while walking). I sat down with an open book! I kept turning to my open book! Dood, I don't want to hear about your friend who teaches English in Japan. On campus today, I went to the MU for lunch. Alas, when I went to purchase sushi and asked for more soy sauce, they told me no. So I left that shop without buying anything and went and bought an egg salad sandwich. So there. But anyway, on the way out of the MU to join flurije and to read the paper I needed to comment on in time for Renaissance Colloquium, there were a bunch of religious prosleytizers with signs. One of them said something along the lines of REPENT YOUR SINS JESUS. Admittedly, "JESUS" was in a different color, but still, I felt that a judicious application of punctuation might really have helped this man's point. Then again, no one seems to have a clue as to how to write anymore. And I don't just mean my students. I received a sign on my door a few days ago that read as follows: Dear Resident' (s) On Thursday October 29, 2009 between the hours of 9am and 12pm the water Will be turned off for repairs. We apologize for any inconvenience and if you Have any questions feel free to call the office staff. Would it really have taken them more than 30 seconds to fix the formatting and extraneous capital letters? And what in the freakin' world is with the random apostrophe in the greeting? OH! I forgot to mention that I almost caught the feral kitten today. He* was eating with some of the adults when I came downstairs (I'd been on my deck taking pictures of Walsingham who was up a tree when I heard Mad Mabel pour out their dinner. When she does that, all the cats come running, so I went inside and put on clothes-that-weren't-pajamas (I'd planned on a nap) and went out to take pictures and go to the store.) All the cats dashed away from me, but the kitten was uncertain, somewhat trapped between me and the stairs on one side, Mad Mabel and some guy on the other side (and the other side far from his comfort zone of the drainage tunnels and where the other cats were.) I blocked his path with my sweater as best as I could and scooted down under the stairs, but at the last moment he escaped around my sweater. Next time I'll just throw the sweater at him. I'll try to get a chance to post pictures (and a blog post at Project-Cat) tomorrow. I got an email from the head of PFF who was all clueless as to why I would want to leave and telling me how the next two seminars will have English faculty on them and therefore are useful. I didn't bother responding, and I gave the homework I'd done for today to another PFF person so that he could have it-- I'd spent hours on it and wanted someone to use it, and he'd forgotten to do his. I took a long nap post-grocery store, but am still quite tired. I played Puzzle Pirates for a while with flurije, but now 'tis bedtime. Zzzzz.... --- *I have no idea as to the kitty's gender, but until I do, he's a "he" and his name is Sebastian. Heh. If he's a girl, I'll perhaps name her Bast instead. Current Mood: curious Current Music: "Origin of Love" (from the Hedwig Soundtrack, but it's only playing in my head atm) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
joecarnahan	12:03a	Walking past Uptown Espresso reminds me of the one thing I miss about academia: Being able to take my work to a coffee shop whenever I want. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
ace_cub_reportr	11:36a	New Scientist photo gallery on the history of mental asylums. Of course, now the old ones are being repurposed for all sorts of things, including a puppetry museum. Current Mood: pensive (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
eilonwy	9:00p	IT'S THURSDAY!! VD-- Little Brother Character: Everybody dies! Flurije: That's what happens when you fall in love with a skank! Eilonwy: They turn into vampires and die? Flurije: Yes. Eilonwy: Harsh. SPN-- Bobby: Yeah, I'm weeping in my Haagen Dasz. Flurije: No dolls? Eilonwy: ... no. I forgot. :( Oh gods, you're holding a knife. Flurije: I'm weeping in my pumpkin. ( SPN ) Commercial for New Moon. Flurije: I'm gonna see that. :: Looks at Eilonwy, big grin on her face:: Eilonwy: Not a chance. Not. A. Chance. Flurije: ::keeps grinning hopefully:: Eilonwy: You'd have to pay for my ticket and my popcorn. Flurije: Ok! Eilonwy: Fuuuuuck. ( More SPN ) Flurije: DIE PUMPKIN!! ( Yet More SPN ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
eilonwy	5:44p	More on External Hard Drives While I've not had time to respond to your comments on the last entry, I have read them and have been very much appreciating them. I'm currently leaning towards this model. Thoughts, those of you who know? And I am now signing off 'til SPN time so as not to be further spoiled for this week (and to finish rereading Where Serpents Sleep. I didn't realize how quickly I read fun fiction as compared to renaissance lit and lit crit. Geez. Clearly I'll have time to reread at least one other in the series before getting the newest book in ze mail.) Current Mood: curious (2 Comments |Comment on this)
eilonwy	12:59p	Wow, that was ... useless I just received a phone-call from Verizon with a "Free calling plan evaluation"-- theoretically to be sure that my plan is the one that best fits me. I decided that I'd listen. They informed me that I have a credit towards a new phone (the new every 2 thing) which I already knew about. Then the guy looked at the number of minutes I purchase each month, the number I use on average and informed me that everything looked "right." Um. Thanks. That's very helpful. I am, in fact, fairly capable of looking at how many minutes I use each month and choosing a plan just above that. Thank you for using 2 of my minutes, for that matter. Bastard. But it was 2 minutes (plus the 2 spent typing this) that I wasn't doing German. (Don't wanna do more German. May have hit my German limit for the day, as I took a quiz this morning. But I am nowhere near where I need to be, so back to the German-mines.) (Also note that I'm not actually as cranky as my mood and icon would make me seem. I just really haven't had a chance to use this icon lately.) Current Mood: bitchy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
eilonwy	11:01a	Advice? I know nothing! I need help! Eeek! Help me, LJ-Genie! You're my only hope! I want to purchase an external harddrive. I need something compatible with my Dell Latitude D820. It should be super easy to set up and use. I don't need it to be something that travels-- it can live on my desk (plugged into my docking station.) It does not need to be huge memory-wise (it has taken me 3 years to fill up my 80gig harddrive, and that only really happened once I started downloading episodes of SPN), although when the sad day comes that I get a new laptop, I assume it'll be useful then, too. I'd like the price range to be about $100 (less would be great for I am poor, slightly more would be okay if necessary.) I want to be able to order it online from a reputable place (I have no time for real life shopping!!) Any suggestions? Any brands I should avoid? Any brands I should gravitate towards? Particular models you've had success with? Please to be helping the girl who has no time to help herself. :) (Speaking of time and stress, I no longer have the 221 lecture hanging over me-- it was yesterday and seemed to go well. And while I have not yet withdrawn from PFF, I'm pretty sure I'm about to. And while I'm not entirely caught up with my German homework (I need to do 7 chapters by the end of the weekend... eek-- but I have 'til 3pm today to work on it for starters) I have at least taken the make-up quiz and am pretty sure I did just fine.) (ALSO! Firefox just upgraded without asking me, and CLOSED ALL MY FREAKIN' TABS, so if I owe you a comment, I'll try to find and remember it, but open tabs are my (apparently not great) system, and thus I don't know where all the comments I meant to respond to are...) Current Mood: curious (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
eilonwy	10:44p	Books. And bedtime. But mostly books. It's really early, but I'm quite sleepy and have a bit of a headache. (These despite the nap I took... huh.) Mind you, I'm not actually planning to sleep immediately-- I've begun rereading the most recent ('til next week) Sebastian St. Cyr mystery (Where Serpents Sleep, by C.S. Harris. I've read it before (hence rereading...) but it's my favorite of the series (I love them all so much!) and since the new comes out soooooon I wanted to remind myself what happened in this one. (If I had the freetime I'd reread them ALL.) (I pre-ordered the newest one on Amazon. It has a release date of 3 November. But then I talked to pyrite who works in a bookstore and she said that they already have copies. And she is putting one in the mail for me on FRIDAY, which is the 29th of October, which means I'll probably get it Monday, the 2nd of November, and therefore probably faster than had I ordered from Amazon or gone to a big ol' chain bookstore. (And I'd not have had the time to do the latter anyway.) So, YAAAY. The newest one will soon be in my hot little hands!!) I adore these books. I'm sad that they're not at all recognized as they should be. And I read C.S.Harris's blog, so I've heard that there's even been some marketing kerfluffle in which the newest book got all forgotten by the publisher. Suck! If you like regencies, if you like mysteries, if you like some-what broken anti-heroes, GO BUY THESE BOOKS. (The first one is What Angels Fear.) I'm not actually much of a mystery reader, personally, but I love these. A regular mystery reader would have to tell you how they stand up to other mysteries. But as a reader, and one who reads lots about the regency and who just loves great characterization, I say they're fantastic. (Also, I love love love love love the uneasy partnership between two of the characters in Where Serpents Sleep which will, evidently, be continued in the newest book, What Remains of Heaven. The character in question has been around since book one, but circumstances in the third book, Why Mermaids Sing, cleared the way for this partnership, which gets created through necessity in Where Serpents Sleep. I don't know what will happen in the next one, but have seen a reviewer blurb which suggests that I will be pleased. ) If the above sounds like something you (or someone you love) would like, go buy: What Angels Fear When Gods Die Why Mermaids Sing Where Serpents Sleep What Remains of Heaven (C.S. Harris writes under other names as well. She wrote (pretty sure quite past tense) romances as Candice Proctor, for example. I've read two of them and they were okay... but they don't grab me the way the Sebastian St. Cyr books do. She also writes political thrillers (I think? But with a supernatural edge, maybe?) as C. S. Graham. I haven't tried these yet. I think they might be written with her husband? They're certainly written by a team, I just am not certain if/how they're related.) Support her (them) so that there can be more Sebastian books. Do it for me, please? OH!! SPEAKING OF BOOKS AND BUYING THINGS... Someone bought me a year's subscription to Entertainment Weekly. As my subscription had run out about two months ago, I am deeply appreciative. The first one showed up on Monday. Amazon told me someone bought it, but doesn't tell me who. So, thank you anonymous benefactor-- you totally rock. (I read EW for many reasons: 1. I enjoy it, obviously. 2. it keeps me up to date with my students (or at least somewhat!!) 3. it provides both articles and advertisements for use in the composition classroom and 4. it makes the time on the treadmill/elliptical go by faster. It is a very useful thing to have in my life.) All right. Bedtime now. Seriously. I have shamelessly shilled for books and thanked an anonymous for magazines. (I have also translated some German and made flashcards for an early morning quiz tomorrow). My work here is done. G'night. Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
eilonwy	10:03p	German I find it really amusing that the word "Akt" translates from German as any of the following (depending, one assumes, on context): 1. act 2. ceremony 3. nude Current Mood: amused (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
joecarnahan	12:03a	I just got my first-ever (seasonal) flu shot. For someone who's as bad with needles and doctors as I am, that went pretty well. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
joecarnahan	12:02a	You know, subscribing to Netflix has given me totally unrealistic expectations about how quickly things can be shipped to me. (Comment on this)