amusements.
I start laughing whenever I think about The Marmoset Song:
And baby ocelots may be the absolute cutest thing ever in the world:
my hair. it is long.
It is usually like this: 
…because lately it is much too hot for this:
…plus I shed everywhere incessantly. I don’t know how one loses as much hair as I do without going bald.
the weather.
I just snapped this from wunderground.com:
I think someone’s temperature sensor is badly positioned. Or something. Because I have the windows open and I’m not dead.
lists.
social things recently:
- Farmers market with Suki and then hanging out after on Wednesday
- Dinner with Maria last night at Glasshalfull
- Catching up with Byron on the phone last night.
(aside)
I would likely be better about making phone calls regularly if they didn’t end up being 80 minute affairs.
I don’t have 80 minutes during my prime productive work time (evening/early night, when everyone else is off work) to be social on a regular basis. I need to get my work done.
Learning to set phone limits and get off the phone gracefully is a goal I need to work on if I’m going to stay in touch with people better.
things i like:
- When I’m meditating in shavasana and Cuchulain sits beside me purring loudly and then curls up to sleep with his back touching my arm
- Maria noting that Cuchulain looks healthier than two weeks ago
- Printmaking. I’ve been working on another print slowly over the past several months, more since I got back on the scheduling kick and started scheduling it. I really really want a real press. Maybe I just need different, better ink to get better results with my little hand press. but I don’t get that great embossing effect I love. Sigh. I am also now obsessed with solarplate etching and hectography.
random update.
Wunderground currently says it is 93.7°F. I don’t have the air conditioning on. I have fans in the windows and ceiling fans on. I really don’t need to do anything but sit at my computer and type. I’m not uncomfortable. It is odd.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On June 16, my friend Simon and I went to see The Cure play in Charlotte. The home-printed front row tickets we accidentally bought from StubHub worked. (Well, we didn’t accidentally buy the tickets, but we didn’t know they were buy-online, print-at-home tickets.
I was standing to the just to the right of the bouncer whose head is prominent in this video. I wrote to the woman who posted this video on YouTube and apologized for constantly waving my arms in her shots.
It was the best Cure show I have ever seen, and I have seen a few. They played for three hours. I really like the new material. Robert seemed downright giddy (watch the first 30 seconds of this video of Push… who gave him Wellbutrin?!). And Simon (the one on stage) is still my RockStar Boyfriend #1.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On the way to Charlotte we passed a big 18 wheel, flatbed trailer military truck of some kind. Heavily strapped to the center of the trailer was a wooden crate. The crate’s largest dimension was maybe 4.5 feet.
And that is all that the truck carried.
It was highly bizarre and slightly creepy.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I’m working on my dissertation proposal.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My cats are now being fed a raw meat diet. I decided it was worth the time and (subsidized) funds, since I’d rather mix up cat food than clean up vomit constantly.
And lo, in over a week and a half I’ve only had to clean up a couple of hairballs and the big mess made when I fed them ground beef. They don’t tolerate ground beef. I was feeding them chicken I cut off the leg quarters and ground in my food processer, but I can’t tolerate that. This morning we tried ground turkey. It’s as cheap as ground beef and they kept it down.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
At the beginning June, just after completing my written comprehensive exams, I spent a week on Ocracoke with my partnerincrime. It was lovely. I like outdoor showers and swimming in the ocean.
And I think that is just about all to report for now.
oh hai.
via Ugly Overload:Crocodiles Communicate Even Before Hatching
I still exist. Working on figuring out how to post more often…
oh hai.
via Ugly Overload:Crocodiles Communicate Even Before Hatching
I still exist. Working on figuring out how to post more often…
what’s kept me out of trouble lately.
Finishing the literature review (lit review) I have to do in preparation for my comprehensive exams (comps). I finished it last week. The final product is 171 pages, and I cite 663 unique sources (articles, books, etc.) No wonder it took forever…
For anyone playing along at home, this was my first major hoop to get through on this degree process. My advisor and the 4 other people on my committee are currently reading the Lit Review. Its purpose is to show that I know the background stuff I need to know in order to be let loose to work on a dissertation. Each committee member is formulating a question to ask me in the comprehensive exam. In a few weeks, I’ll take that exam. Each day for five days I will be emailed one question about my Lit Review. I will have four hours from the time the email was sent to write a response and send it back.
Then, my response to each question is read by the person who formulated that question and one other committee member. They think of further comments/questions to ask at my comps defense, which will be held a few weeks later (target: 23 June). I get to explain my answers and further discuss things with the committee, and as long as I demonstrate I know what I’m talking about, I will pass.
I’m combining the comps defense and the proposal defense into one meeting (that’s the current plan, anyway.) The proposal is a document in which I lay out my plan of exactly what I want to do in my dissertation study. Who I will study, how I will gather data, how I will analyze that data, the theoretical framework, etc. I’m writing this document now. I’ll provide it to the committee before the defense so they can read it. At the defense I’ll also give a presentation about my plan. They will ask questions, challenge parts of it, and make suggestions. Hopefully, there will be few enough things to change that they will approve it.
I hope to be able to submit an approved proposal to several award competitions for doctoral research, and the deadlines are July 1. If huge changes need to be made, it will be very difficult if not impossible to make them and get the thing approved in time to enter the competitions. Fingers crossed!
And now I’m off to a meeting with my advisor about my initial outline for my proposal.
nouveau
Trying once again the idea of a public personal blog in which to share news and random stuff with family, friends not in my various social networks, and the random Google searcher, who I’m sure will find my life fascinating.
Until next time…