Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in bibliomancer7's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, March 26th, 2009
12:41 pm	So, I was without internet over spring break and then had to go through about 3 rounds of revisions on my thesis with the result that I have not yet congratulated Emily on her acceptance to grad school, so, my belated but sincere congratulations to her. In relatednews...the three rounds of revisions were not enough, and I won't be defending my thesis tomorrow as originally planned.  Apparently I can still defend it at some point, but it can't be in time for this semester's submission and I  can only assume it will have to be for the summer.  So I'm not graduating, the trip to Japan is probably off, I doubt I'm getting a summer assistantship, and it's possible that the department here won't accept me for the PhD either.  I won't have any details until I meet with my advisor tomorrow, so everything except "I'm not defending tomorrow" is somewhat speculative, but...yeah.  I'm pretty crushed.  (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 10th, 2008
7:16 pm	Almost the whole semester later... Sorry about the lack of updates; teaching + TAing + classes + thesis = busy.  I don't have more work than I did last semester, but I do have more tasks.  And less free time.  Days are no longer mostly free due to teaching/TA/office hours.  But getting paid is fantastic.  I can actually buy stuff!  And not feel horribly guilty!  And am actually enjoying teaching, most of the time.  Sometimes it's frustrating (for example, sometimes I feel like my students either know the case of a noun or the syntactical function, but never both) and some days  I just seem to make mistakes left and right, but mostly it's enjoyable.   My classes have been (thankfully) low stress; at least my planning worked out well in that respect.  I did luck out on the thesis advisor; I asked the professor I'm working with on the recommendation of the guy I originally asked, and he has been immensely helpful and encouraging; especially with things like organization and deadlines.  Anyone who knows me knows that that is help I desperately need. In non-academic news, I will finally be getting my learner's permit (again) soon.  Changes in the bus schedule and my schedule have made not-driving ever more difficult.  Also, I would like to stop being accosted by weirdos while sitting at bus stops.  Yesterday I spent an hour being importuned for a date by a guy old enough to be my dad.  Who kept assuring me he would never hit me.  I mean, he did seem like a basically nice guy, but....where is he getting the idea that asking out women half his age by telling her he won't abuse her is either a. not creepy or b. likely to be successful?  And a couple weeks before that I had a guy tell me about his sex life and incarceration history, as well as offering me to show the porn he apparently bought earlier. (The Frodo of porn strikes again.)  I always think that having my nose in a book will get people to leave me alone, but it does not seem to work. I haven't gotten to go to the anime  club this semester; it meets Thursday nights and I have class Thursday night so it doesn't really work out.  Next semester the same.  I can't say I'm devastated, as I didn't seem to fit too well into the club anyway.  I've had a bit more socializing with the other grad students, since I'm required to hang around the TA office three hours a week.  Things looked promising for being friends with the new roommate at the beginning of the semester, but then it turned out that she could not stand me being clumsy and occasionally using the snooze button, and I could not stand being accused of deliberately and unbearably selfish and inconsiderate over same.  I moved, and while the new roommate is very friendly, and never here, so it all works out. Anyway, things are overall going well; I'm not having anything remotely like the level of stress/depression/burnout I did last semester, although I regard the last chunk of the year with trepidation.  And now I must go pay my library fine and start researching my paper for lyric poetry. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
8:56 pm	I have one fantastic announcement:  I HAVE FUNDING FOR NEXT  YEAR!!!1!11!1 HAHA NO MORE OUT OF STATE TUITION FOR ME!!!!! Ahem.  Yeah, I'm  very pleased.  Next year I'll be teaching and getting paid for it and that will be awesome.  Of course, next year I'll also be writing my thesis and I have to have a committee by next week, and that's kind of weird, but...funding.  It's just such a giant relief. Now I have to go study for my Thudydides test/Euripides class/Euripides paper/Juvenal paper.  I'm still really busy but I think I'm doing better about getting overwhelmed.  We'll see about that when I've got tons of writing to do next week, but it seems okay for now.  Oh, and the one comics panel I got to go to was very interesting. A very nice break from all of my regular stuff. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
8:49 pm	Comics conference This is mostly a question for Brent.  There's an academic conference on comics being held at Florida this weekend,  and somebody's going to be doing a paper on Ouran.  Naturally, I want to go to that panel.  How appropriate is it for me, a grad student from a totally unrelated department, to do so?  The other conference I considered crashing had an "open to the public" note on their website; I can't find anything one way or another on this one.  I found out about it through a poster in the hallway, which would seem odd if they don't want people there, but I just don't know the etiquette.  Help please? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
5:12 am	Spring break I'm taking a break from writing paper to let my second can of red bull kick in, so I figured I'd let anyone who cares know that my spring break is next week, and I'll be coming home Saturday and staying until Thursday or Friday, and I'd like to see people if possible.  I realize that Sunday is not alot of weekend, so I perfectly understand if it's not possible, but that's how my transportation + homework issues work out. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
9:54 pm	Not dead yet I have not updated in quite some time, it seems like.  Right now I am procrastinating somewhat on writing a paper, so it seemed like a good opportunity.  (It's due at five tomorrow, but it's only 3-5 pages.  Delay is unwise but not disastrous. )  Christmas break was great; just to see my family and to see you guys is fantastic, and I received much new reading material for the holiday, which always makes me happy.  We also went to see the Louvre and the Ancient World exhibit at the High Museum, which was awesome in and of itself, and provided an opportunity to show my parents that my education has indeed educated me.  It was fun, and the exhibit is highly recommended; it's got all kinds of really impressive and interesting stuff, mostly Greco-Roman but some neat Egyptian and Mesopotamian as well. The semester looks like it's going to very good for me, but also very hard work.  All of the crack-the-whip professors seem to be teaching this term, and two of them have a particular focus on writing.  No doubt this will be very good for me, as my writing needs serious work, but it's also going to be hard.  They all seem like really good teachers, though, so I'm not unhappy with the semester, just a little intimidated.  I'm sure I'll manage somehow. I'm getting my comeuppance for scoffing at the Florida winter; the heat is  broken on my hall, and it will take about $15000 to fix.  This means it will not be getting fixed soon, and it was quite chilly this weekend.  I still don't think 50 is that cold for outdoors in winter, but it's pretty cold for indoors.  I don't customarily sit outdoors for hours doing my homework, after all.  Happily it is warming back up again, at least for the rest of this week. I'm having my wisdom teeth out Friday, as they were causing me pretty severe pain last week, much worse than has previously been the case.  They need to be pulled, and I'm looking forward to having my mouth not hurt anymore, but I'm still kind of freaked out about the extraction itself.  My usual phobia of non-trivial medical stuff rears its ugly head, I suppose.  They're not impacted, so it shouldn't be too bad as such things go, but...yeah.  Stress.  Do not surprised if you receive a phone call from me looking for moral support/distraction on Thursday.  I should do homework that day to make up for the fact that I may or may not be in any state to do it for most of the weekend, but we'll see.  I will also need to run some errands and such. Anyway, if the current paper does not get started it will not get finished, and that would be bad.  (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 14th, 2007
5:58 pm	As of yesterday, I am done with the semester!  The epigraphy exam was my last thing, and was very hard but is now done.  I even think I did pretty well, provided he doesn't grade the transcription harshly; I know I aced the translation section. I will be coming back into town on Sunday; staying and working turned out not to be possible; they don't have the hours available to make it profitable for me.  i would like more more, but would not really like hanging around here that much, so I'm not exactly upset. Anyway, that's the important stuff.  Now I am going to clean my room, as I have been putting off doing so tomorrow I can to the art museum.  Looking forward to seeing you all soon. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
11:57 pm	I tried to post the meme, but neither the coding nor the cut worked, so screw it. See Brent's journal, I'm the same type, INFP's what I've always gotten before. The Briggs-Meyers things really can be scarily accurate. Still in finals hell, but I'm almost done. I have one tomorrow and one next week. Thus far I feel I have done well enough, although no better than that. After tomorrow I can relax a little, which'll be nice. Finals + job = worn out. My roommate is kind of driving me nuts lately. She's taken to calling her fiance at six o'clock in the morning, which, let me tell you, I find really charming after having been up till three working on a paper. I've asked her to quiet down or leave, but all that gets me is a slightly softer voice and that's not enough for me to sleep through it. It's not the only time she can call him and it's not like she has anything important to divulge. (The first time she was freaking out because she woke up with a stuffy nose and sore throat due to allergies. As someone who has been waking up with a stuffy nose and a sore throat since middle school, I was not impressed.) She's going to study abroad next spring, and I'm kind of happy about that. Anyway, bed now, test tomorrow. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
4:55 pm	Finals My paper writing is not going nearly as well as I had hoped/planned.  I'm going to go to the library now and hope that that will help my self-discipline.  I'm in no real danger of being able to get  everything done, but I feel like I've forgotten how to write a proper paper, somehow.  I also am avoiding like the plague the last minute all-nighter because I have a final the same day my last paper is due.  Argh. Oh, and one of the books I am reading (for a paper) has that annoying feature where the author feels that it is necessary to justify his work by its Contemporary Relevance.  I can draw whatever parallels to current events I feel are appropriate all by myself, thank you.  Bringing up Sept. 11 does not automatically make "Euripides and the Poetics of Nostalgia" a hot-button issue.  Art and history do not need to be propped up by such means anway.  Besides which,  the analogies are over-broad.   Is there any period of history that was *not* "a time of great change?"  Seriously.  I can't think of a singe one I have not seen this claimed for.  As Solon (and Euripides, come to think of it) inform us, change is the only constant of human existence, and therefore bringing up as a specific and special commonality is meaningless in the extreme.   Not to mention kind of tiresome. Okay, done.  I had to put that here so it would not crop up in my paper. Edit: almost forgot, people might want to check lj_biz about the new adult content flagging/reporting system.  I don't have the time to go into it right now, beyond that you should change your settings if you don't want safe search on; it's the new default.  Additional info can also be found on metafandom, for those so inclined.  (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
3:22 pm	OMG the Pit Dragon trilogy is getting continued!!1! I read those in middle school and they were fantastic, and now there's going to be a new one. The way the last book left off was a bit unsatisfying, so this is really cool. I never thought there'd be any more, but I was reading Locus at the comic shop today and they had a notice about it. Did anybody else even read these? It's a YA trilogy by Jane Yolen, and it's really good. That series was actually the first one that took me out of the children's section at the library; they shelved the first one in the kid's section and the second and third in YA. Come to think of it, I think one of my first excursions to the adult fiction section was her Dales trilogy (also excellent and highly recommended). Anyway, just wanted to squeal, and I have no one to do that at in person... Astrology says: Lets101 - Free Online Dating Not really that accurate. Astrology always tells me I am a flirt, despite all evidence to the contrary. Edit: just found out apparently Afterschool Nightmare is almost finished in Japan and will be 10 volumes total. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 16th, 2007
3:38 pm	Beowulf So, the new movie adaptation of Beowulf came out today, and so I was reading the reviews. This line stuck out at me from the one the AJC has: "The Beowulf of the poem is a hero who (like most heroes) is humbled, secretive, selfless and chaste." Admittedly, I have not read Beowulf in its entirety (and I am properly ashamed of myself for this), but, um, WHAT? My recollection of the Beowulf may be fragmented, but attempting to apply that string of adjective to other ancient epic heroes (Gilgamesh, Achilles, etc.) makes my brain hurt. I know I shouldn't expect much from random movie reviews, but, really, that's just *weird.*  The picture with the NYT review of the movie also gave me a WTFARRGH reaction, with a side of feminist irritation.  It shows Grendel's mother, who in this version is apparently Angelina Jolie, naked and seemingly made of gold (sort of like Alex Mack, if anyone else remembers that show).  Naked, that is, *except for her high heels.*    Yes, that's right, even monsters  living in swamps in  ancient Denmark wear stiletto heels.  Does this strike anybody else as completely stupid or is it just me?  I don't really expect logic or accuracy out of Hollywood, but...I don't know, this one really gets me somehow.  Perhaps because I do so hate high heels.  To put the icing on the cake, the gold effect makes the shoes look like they're a part of her body, which is just kinda creepy/weird, especially on a feminist level.   Anyway, don't bother to tell me I'm overreacting/reading to much into it/what did I expect from a movie.  I know it's not that important, just wanted to share the WTF. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
10:32 pm	Books and Bookstores I was hired at the school bookstore to work in the textbook section! It only pays minimum, but that's $6.70 around here; not half bad. It'll be easy on my schedule, and it will be retail/bookstore experience. Only temporary for the moment, but from the way the manager talks, a permanent position is within the realm of the possible for those so desiring. Also, I get 25% on the regular books, and it will be hard to restrain myself when I go up there for final paperwork tomorrow; they have the new Fruits Basket, and the new Loveless, and this really cool-looking book on hetairai in Athenaos, and I could get a Japanese dictionary... In less-personal good news, Amazon informs me that Lynn Flewelling's next book is scheduled for June 24 of next year! (fangirl squeal goes here) Title: Shadows Return. I am so marking my calendar. There is a nice little bookstore down the street that is also trying to put a hole in my wallet. Skimming over the sci-fi section gives me the feeling that somebody there actually reads fantasy and has pretty good taste. They have all the usual suspects, but they also have some obscure stuff, and some from small publishers. Not stuff they wouldn't ever have a Border's, but things I'd only even bother looking seriously for if the section were really good in general. And in a tiny little place with one shelf of for the genre, that seems to me to say that there is somebody who actually reads this stuff picking it out. It's a very nice surprise I also managed to locate a comic shop with a subscription service I'll be using. There are two in town, but they both have jack squat for manga. The employees at the second one I checked out seem friendly enough, and the I get a 10% discount for subscribing. Not too bad, but points out how spoiled I was by Tyche's. The local Waldenbooks is decent. I'm starting to gear up for the end of the year academically. I think I can handle it, though. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 29th, 2007
5:40 pm	First off, FloridaCon was fantastic. It is truly wonderful just to see you guys, and doing all kinds of fun stuff at the same time it a very nice bonus. Much gratitude to Joey for organizing it. Second, the second CLAMP in Wonderland video is out and is extremely amusing. (I just burst out laughing at a couple of points.) Also, in the Tsubasa segment, everyone is wearing the dragon costumes from the illustration with Sakura enthroned, which was pretty cool. I seem to remember much drooling over that particular piece of artwork. Here's the link to download it: http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=4702 I said this on David's journal already, but I'll say it here as well. I watched the first episode of the new Noitanima show, Moyashimon, and it is highly entertaining. The main character has the ability to see microbes without any sort of equipment, and to him they look like those giant microbe plushies. He's just starting college at an agricultural school. I wasn't sure what to make of the concept, but the show is certainly unique and very funny in its bizarre way. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
8:31 pm	Sorry it's been so long since I've posted; I've hit a really busy patch. Last weekend the department had a conference, which turned out to be about prostitutes and St. Paul not being as horribly sexist as I'd thought. It was very interesting and fun. It was also library booksale weekend, so I picked up some neat-looking books very cheap. Last week we also had the foremost American epigrapher come lecture in our class on the subject, with accompanying hospitality. This week I have three midterms and a presentation, and I just got back from another (fascinating) guest lecture. So...yeah. Lots going on. Currently one midterm and the presentation down. The midterm went pretty well, I think. The presentation somewhat less so, but it's not quite as important. I think I am going to be able to handle the other two tests, it's just that I can't ever relax this week, and I'm really tired already. All this at once is also just pretty stressful; I've been nerve-jangly and kind of nauseous. I don't know what happened to my ability to be calm about this sort of thing, but it has quite failed me. I am seriously looking forward to this weekend; I will have earned some time off. I can't wait to see you guys; I have some funny stories with which to regale you that I meant to post earlier, but now I think I'll just wait. For now, I must go clean the bathroom, then decide if it will be possible to study Sallust, or if I should just go to bed. On a related note, Microsoft Word is aware of Marius, Sulla, and the Gracchi but has no idea who Catiline is. Firefox knows all of those except the Gracchi. I think I need sleep before I go see if this computer has a dinosaur cursor... edit: okay, I had to check the dinosaur cursor issue, and it does have one. I find this funny but not hysterical, so I guess I'm not that bad yet. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 1st, 2007
11:24 pm	Okay, I (and some of the rest of you) have been disappointed in the past by the lack of good Honey and Clover videos. I was going through the AWA winners today and discovered that the winner for best sentimental was a Honey and Clover video. It's very good. Not "awesomest video ever," I don't want to hype it like that, but it's good, and it's about that "group of friends" dynamic that made H&C hit so close to home for me, and for some of you. I suppose I'm in a bit of a sentimental mood myself, but...it was effective. Anyway, here's the link: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?vid_id=148023 Take a look, if you like. My cold is better, I still haven't quit, and classes are going fine. AWA was fantastic, mostly, again because of getting to see all my friends, but I also had fun with my costume, and walking around. The dealer's room worked out pretty well for me--I've been waiting for a Tsubasa artbook, and the Gakuen Alice one is just cute beyond words. The yaoi panel is still a big highlight of the weekend, especially since I was able to show off my trivia knowledge to a game. I'm still kind of embarrassed that I basically admitted to having seen Sensitive Pornograph in front of a large number of people. It's going to take me a while to get over that. Also wonder if I should just give up and call myself a yaoi fangirl already. I've already got perfect strangers thinking I *must* own all of Level C. :) For whatever reason, I also feel like the con reminded me how much I like anime, and like belonging to the subculture. Just being part of the collective enthusiasm can do that, I suppose. Anyway, it is later than I have stayed up in quite some time and must go to bed. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
3:36 pm	Okay, I *had* to do this meme. ( results and stuff ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 17th, 2007
11:06 pm	More rational Thanks for the encouragement after the last entry. Things have been improving since then, and I was also just feeling really down that day, for no good reason. Well, other than that it's kind of an empty day for me, so I guess I didn't have enough other things to think about and started worrying. I think I've been a bit overemotional lately anyway; maybe it's stress or trouble adjusting or something. I'm also kind of lonely down here, despite making some efforts, so the idea of not seeing you guys was not cheerful. And after all that, I probably am going to be able to come to AWA. I spoke with the president of the anime club here and she says she thinks some people may be leaving very late. If that's so, it's what I'll do, although I hate to miss Friday of the con. If it's not, I think I will ask Dr. Wagman; he didn't mention the test in class last week to speak of, but he didn't seem upset or anything, and since I am no longer in such a funk the idea of asking does not seem so very impossible. Today I bought supplies for a second attempt at Utena's epaulettes, and got started. I'm pleased so far; I did give in, insofar as they are circular rather than elliptical, but this time I'm using a Christmas ornament I found as a base, and they look go so far. Hopefully the painting will go well. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 13th, 2007
7:37 pm	Okay, I've been meaning to update since I got back from Dragoncon (I did get 11th-hour lucky) and here it is. Dragoncon was really great, but I strongly suspect, now, that it used up every iota of luck from the rest of the week, because it sucked hugely. I had sleep deprivation, not enough homework done, financial aid issues, a new job that mostly sucked, and an exam I did not realize I had and did not study for. It was not over material covered in class, and I know for a fact I did really, really badly. (This means I have now lived one of my father's recurring nightmares, which is an odd thought.) Good news is that even people who did study feel much the same way, so hopefully it will be curved or something and I won't just plain flunk out of grad school on account of this thing. Okay, that's probably not a likely outcome, but it definitely crossed my mind. I suppose I'm mostly just frustrated with myself for doing something so stupid; I didn't look very carefully at the syllabus because of everything else. I want so badly to do well, and I make idiotic mistakes like this. The really rotten upshot is that I may not be able to go to AWA; this exam was for the Friday 4-7 class. I'm not sure I can face that professor and ask to miss class after such a moronic failure to meet basic expectations. I'm very sorry and very upset at the mere thought, but I don't know what to do. I'll see how that class goes tomorrow. If I can overcome my cringing shame enough to ask about it, I will. I miss you guys so much, and I want to go so badly, but...I just don't know. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 18th, 2007
12:37 pm	Settling in I've been meaning to make this post for the past few days, it just kept getting crowded out by all the other stuff. So, I am here and moved in and giddily pleased about just about everything, at the moment. The longer I am here the more it hits me that I really am a grad student now, I'm back at school. I've been looking forward to it for so long, but now it's actually happening. I had only one last serious hitch, and that was when I called the department Wednesday to find out if there was a departmental orientation, and the answer I got was "who are you? Are you sure you're supposed to be coming here?" and about 15 minutes on hold while they figured out what was going on, and I freaked out wondering if I wasn't going to be able to go after all due to some mix-up in the paperwork. It was not the most terrifying 15 minutes of my life, but it was surely in the top ten. Turns out I didn't need to notify the department directly because the Graduate School was supposed to do that, and they didn't. To add to the confusion, the graduate coordinator and the department secretary both changed in the meantime, so they were full of "I don't really know what's going on yet" which was not exactly reassuring to me, as I'm sure you can imagine. Still, it's all sorted out now. I was advised and signed up for classes Thursday. I'll be taking four classes since I'm not teaching: Sallust, Lucian, epigraphy and the prose seminar. Looking forward to all of them, of course. The schedule is going to be really different from what I'm accustomed to; they don't have split-level classes here. Grad classes are held in the evening (mostly) once a week for three hours. Not sure how I feel about that yet, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Last night there was a party for factulty and grad students, which was all grad students after about the first hour. There are 23 grad students, counting me, and many of them went out of their way to be nice to the new person who even missed the department orientation (it was Monday, it turns out). I found out several things about professors and how the department works that should be quite useful. One of my fellow students is likely to be a particular friend. She's an anime fan, but she's only seen or had access to really mainstream popular stuff (Bebop, Champloo, Hellsing), and seems very interested in seeing more. She also has very much wanted to go to a con, but never had anyone to go with, and she'd really like to cosplay. I suppose I needn't say what sort of ideas I have at this point? She has comps Tuesday, so I invited her to come over afterward and check out my collection. It should be fun. In general, as I said, I had a good time, and people were very welcoming. I'm also very pleased with my room at the co-op. It's much bigger than I expected; at least the size of a Mary Lyndon main hall room, possibly bigger, It's also not nearly as institutional as I would have thought. The walls are a very pretty shade of turquoise, and except for the beds the furniture is not really very dorm-like. I had room for one of my bookshelves pretty easily, and there's some shelving above the desk as well. I'm not quite sure what to make of my roommate yet; I've seen her about twice and briefly both times. She's a second year law student, and does not seem overly friendly, but certainly not anything like hostile. I'll have to get to know her better, I think. That's enough for now, I really need to get going on the job hunt; it would appear that there are few on-campus opportunities if you're not work-study, so I need to get to work on that. Current Mood: giddy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 10th, 2007
8:02 pm	Plans Okay, sorry for kind of dropping off the face of the earth for a while; as I noted in my comments to Brent's post, I wasn't sure of my plans and didn't want to start talking about commitments until I knew what the heck was up. I was having trouble making decisions, and then there was how all that interacted with my parents' plans, et cetera. So, it has come about that I will now be leaving for Florida on Wednesday. I'll be able to see Emily at least a little, and I can hang out this weekend. I would very much like to hang out this weekend, since, well, I'll be leaving pretty soon. I might also be going to the High Museum with my parents at some point this weekend; I'd hate to miss the Louvre exhibit. (Comment on this)