Time doesn't fly. It evaporates.

There are 8 days left before finals, including today.

So, I probably won't be around much. Just a head's up. It's not that I don't love y'all, it's just that I don't want to fail my classes.

Anything I post will probably be related to class. Blegh.

I like to-do lists. A lot. They help me focus and stuff. And crossing things off makes me feel good. Sometimes I'll put something like "shower" just so I can cross it off. Lame, I know.

Here's my to-do list for the next 8 days:

1. 8-10 pages on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as an adaptation- deadline extension to Dec 14th!!! Nick Mason is a saint.

2. 8-10 pages on the relationship of Gibbon's Sunset Song to Scott's historical novels

3. Tweaking above paper to include more theory junk for 451

4. 4 pages on reader-centered criticism and the use of free indirect discourse in Emma

5. Statement of Intent.

6. Study for the GRE.

7. 10 more pages for my creative writing portfolio

8. Abstract/proposal for adaptation conference

Then finals.

And Christmas shopping needs to happen somewhere in there.

I can do this. I just won't be sleeping very much. I really regret not being more productive over break. Oh well.

I'll be crossing these things off the list as I go along, so check back if you're interested in my progress. *Bold= crossed off

And for the record, taking 12 credits of English was a not one of my more brilliant ideas. (Yes, Clancy. Brilliant.)

Art Post 1: Surrealist-esque

So, last night I decided that if I wasn't going to do any work, I'd have something to show for it.

I've reading a lot about Dali and other surrealists, so

this what I did.

First series. India Ink on gesso.

"Fate"

(an appropriately pretentious name for what are really just drips)

Second series

India ink on gesso (again)

"Un-entitled"

And this is just a bunch of nonsense.

India ink on nothing.

"M Theory"

There you go.

The Day After

An object at rest will remain at rest.

An object in motion will remain in motion.

I'm a victim of Newton's first.

I haven't done hardly anything.

Save me from the laws of physics.

On the bright side, I made biscotti.

I'm bringing some to work.

And to my Professor's office hours.

Just to remind everybody of how much they love me.

If anyone has more leftovers than they know what to with--

Bring them to me, I know what to do with them.

But now, I'm going to finish dipping my biscotti.

Semi Sweet Chocolate and Butterscotch.

And then I'm going to go read my books.

And type my papers.

Watch me defy the laws of physics.

Thanksgiving

Watching Food Network on Thanksgiving when you've got a stomach bug.

Exquisite Torture.

I'm grateful that television doesn't have the ability to transmit smells.

I'm so cultured (aka Euro-centric)

So, this is what I did with my Saturday.

Woke up at 2(pm).

Read Vol 1 of Jane Austen's Persuasion

Listened to Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (5 times)

Read up on Frederico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dali

Watched Little Ashes--film about Garcia Lorca and Dali

Made frittata.

Read about Lukacs and Sir Walter Scott

I have culture oozing from my fingertips.

I'm back: Stupid Tired Randomness Ep.2

Hello again. It's the wee hours of the morning and I'm using my blog as a last-ditch attempt to squeeze the last drips of work out of the ticking minutes. Again. This is becoming a really bad habit.

Anything you do between the hours of 3 and 6 am will either be absolute trash or absolute genius. Here's hoping for the latter.

Staff meetings should not be held at 8 am. Just sayin.'

Why am I still awake? So I can catch up. This weekend I made some poor school decisions and some good life decisions. I love how they don't always match up. So, I am making poor life decisions in order to make good school ones. It was totally worth it. But, by golly, I will be caught up. Or at the very least, be less behind than I am now. I am tired of drowning in work. More than I am tired of being awake. Time to get this over with. There's just no excuse for it.

I'm currently writing a 4-pager on some author-centered critics and applying it to Henry James' Washington Square. Lovely. In case you were wondering.

After that, some stuff about reader-centered critics and an application to the free indirect discourse in Jane Austen's Emma. Also a 4-pager. My plan is to turn the James one in no later than Devotional and the Austen one no later than dinner-time.

Also- writing poetry this early is a terrible idea. It makes for terrible poetry (see above...).

Blogs are the best way around writer's block. Thanks for reading.

Possible future posts: potatoes. dreams. death dreams. narcolepsy. sleep.

Engl 218R: Poetry Section

Sheep

Bare rumps and pink skin

Oily cotton piled high

Yan, Tan, Tethera.

Wendy

There once was a Peter, called Pan

Of kisses he was not a fan

So I got a button

Swiped from a Prussian

I see why he’ll never be a man

Revision

His hands were big & broad but soft & unlined

Turning leaves, sheaves of letters

In the saffron light on a bench the color of hummus.

How do you feel about icons?

“I like them just fine”

Mother Mary and her baby boy

Hide behind calligraphy’s

Curves and swirls.

And minarets form the periphery of

Iconography.

And he crosses out a line,

Deciding not to tell Mother Dearest

About the taste of the fogs in the mornings

Of damp silks and fresh yoghurt and

Mortar not quite dry.

The color of the sky

Prussian Blue. A mercenary color.

Cyan. Scientific. Subtractive.

Ultramarine. The expense of pharaohs.

Cadmium. Carcinogenic Mardis Gras.

Sky Blue. Hardly the right color at all.

Justice

Faces and houses in black and white

Left and right

Precedence etched in the skin

Crimes uncommitted written, a

Permanent punishment

Executed with needle and ink.

When I grow up

I want to grow up to be an old man.

Old men are cute. Old women are sad.

Old man clothes are cool. Old lady clothes are not.

Old men with canes are distinguished. Old women with canes are feeble.

Old men play chess and read newspapers. Old women knit and gossip.

Now, I realized I've constructed a false dichotomy based on stereotypes.

I know.

This is fallacious.

But I'd much rather be on the other side of this stereotype.

Especially today. In the yellow fall rain. In the cold and in my hat.

But old women get to be grandmas and make cookies and hot chocolate on cold days for squirmy dirty kids.

Gender roles.

I'd much rather do without them.

Stupid Tired Randomness

I've said it before, but I'll say it again:

Late policies need to be clearly stated in the syllabus. Just in case.

On a separate note, I'm obsessed with Katy Perry's Peacock. Offensive? Yes. Inappropriate? Yes. Irresistible? Absolutely. (Easily offended? then don't youtube this. don't say I didn't warn you)

My DrPepper tastes like soap. Or maybe my mouth tastes like soap before the DrP even gets there.

hmmm.

And I've decided to write my term paper on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Let's see how that flies.

I might shave my head. Or get an actual boy cut. Thoughts?

My other term paper is going to be about Walter Scott and Modernism. Yeah... the research for that is not going well. Apparently I'm the only person interested in Scott's reception and influence past 1850.

And I need a third one that focuses heavily on lit. theory. Suggestions? I'm thinking something Foucault-flavored. Which is like something grape-flavored, but in a more flamboyant gay french man who looks like Henry B Eyring's brother type of thing. BTW Foucault is not in my spell check. Go figure.

I'd go on, but I think I am sufficiently awake now to finish my research proposal. I hope you enjoyed what equates to drunk blogging.

Also-I have awesome family and friends. They rock so hard. I feel so loved :)