Based on a conversation we had about YouTube last night, I learned that there's video of a cat owner encouraging her cat to get into a rather small goldfish bowl. So I went to go find it with "cat jar" as my search terms, and I found some other interesting video along the way.

The Original Video

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMGuk54xSqI">

A Cat in an Actual Jar

The "I Think It'll Fit" Guy -- it's kind of long, but totally worth it.

Labels: cat, YouTube

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at February 2, 2007 9:32 AM  Lindsi Dawn said...

I should put a fish bowl out and see what Satie does... I'm sure one day I'll catch her inside of it!

Those are all great!

 

I always wanted to participate in these, but I never found the motivation to do so. For some reason, this Friday is different.

If you want to respond to these yourself, that'd be cool. I troll around my friends blogs looking for stuff to read. Or you could post your response in the comments section even.

You've witnessed a hideous crime and have to be put into a witness protection programme so you'll have to create a whole new identity and life.

1. What will you choose as your new name? - first, second and last name?

First of all, it seems dangerous that I would disclose my secret identity name. But I think I'd change to Ofelia Dawn Butcher. I have always loved the name Ophelia, but the Spanish spelling is cooler.

2. What would you pick as your new job?

Mortician.

3. Where would you relocate to? Could be a new city, county, or country.

Edinburgh, Scotland.

4. What would you miss most about your current place?

The skyline.

5. What will you be looking forward to most in your new place?

Ghosts, ghost hunting, and finally living somewhere green again.

Labels: friday five

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You're having a group conference with your students covering thesis statements, and in explaining how to balance introducing subject matter, without giving too much away too soon, but it doesn't occur to you to say without giving too much away too soon, so you're sitting there struggling for a phrase and there's only one thing that is coming to mind, so you say it because when you hear the phrase you always think of the carnival game when you spray water into a clown's mouth until a it blows up a balloon and it pops, so you say, "You don't want to shoot your wad."

And they all start laughing hysterically, probably out of the weirdness of the situation.

Yeah... that's when you know you're screwed.

And probably very tired.

Labels: students, teaching, tired

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After you read this article about a mom extracting the sperm from her dead Israeli's soldier son's body and finding a woman to carry the embryo then you might understand the rest of the post. Don't worry, it's a short read.

While I don't entirely know my stance on the whole child issue, I'm pretty sure I have wondered to myself if something were to happen to B would I regret not having a child with him? Would a child somehow lessen the blow (whether that blow were death, coma, paralysis, vegetable, or otherwise)? I assume that most couples who are in love wonder this from time to time. It seems like a normal quandry. Last weekend, we had a health scare and while I'm sure this question had entered my mind at some point before last Saturday (at least I think it must have), I had never truly considered the full weight of an actual response.

My initial answer is yes, I'm pretty sure I would regret not having had a child if something were to happen to B. Yes, I would rather be a single mother than a singular grieving widow. I think having a living, breathing piece of the person I love and cherish most in the world would somehow make death (or coma, etc.) seem less horrendous because a piece of my husband would continue to live on.

But how awful would that be for the kid? The child would probably suffer the emotional burden of a grieving, mourning mother--probably regardless of whether or not that child was an adult or not. How awful would it be if the child didn't remind me anything of B at all?

However, how weird is it to go so far as to extract sperm for a dead spouse? How weird is it that a mother did it?

Pretty weird.

I know I would never do that (the extracting sperm from a dead body thing--heck, I wouldn't extract sperm from a comatose body, either). And I know it's a highly irrational reason to have a child simply because I'm scared of losing the person I love most in the world. But I can't say that I'm entirely immune to the irrational pull of such a concept. I'm not sure if I'm disgusted with myself for this level of honesty I have achieved, or if I'm ambivalent about the whole thing.

But I am sure of one thing... that what that mom did strikes me as insanely creepy. But hey, she found 200 willing participants and narrowed it down to one.

I can't help but wonder what the kid will think when she learns that her mom got pregnant four years after her father was killed?

Labels: biological will, news, parenthood, pregnancy

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So the first week of classes did not go as swimmingly as I had originally planned (hoped). I arrived at the Japanese Literature class early in order to continue reading a book on Japanese history (in order to familiarize myself with historical/literary periods). I, also, have been in close contact with the professor who is teaching the course. She even gave me a lot of resources for my women and manga paper last October. She's been very helpful and a delight to communicate with.

Since the literature class was on a Thursday, I decided that I wanted to consolidate my class schedule from four days on campus to three days, and possibly even two--and to keep the days I wasn't on campus for writing. Well, fiction workshop always seems to be on Mondays, and since I was assigned a teaching appointment on Tuesdays/Thursdays, then the two-day campus dream couldn't be achieved. Which isn't so bad because, still, I'm only teaching two days (easy!) and only on campus three days--and Monday barely counts since I'm only there for two-and-a-half hours and Tuesdays probably don't either since I'm done by 9:15 a.m.

I was also ecstatic that I wasn't going to have any night classes this semester, since both of my classes were from 2:00-4:30. I was so happy because if a class ends at 4:30, chances are it'll end on time, because every lit class I've ever had has been from 4:30-6:50 and every lit class I've ever had has never ended on time. The first day of class last term, the professor asked everyone to stay an extra ten minutes each class, so the class would really run from 4:30-7:00. Well, when students kept opening the door to our classroom at 6:50, since our room was being used after us, I was hopeful that we'd actually get out on time, but the professor moved us to a conference room instead, so we were a captive audience--also a cramped audience, the chairs were smashed up against each other, and it was awkward taking notes because the chairs didn't sit at the same height as the table. I started bringing my laptop because I couldn't focus on note-taking otherwise. Not that there was a lot of notes to be taken, since I didn't feel like we learned much, more like a retread of the same territory over and over for the last half of the semester.

But back to the Japanese lit class. As soon as the professor came in, she said she needed to change the day the class met from Thursday 2:00-4:30 to Friday 3:30-6:30.

My heart sank.

I could feel my three-day dream quickly evaporating. Everyone else (that is to say all three other students--one of which is only auditing the class and not actually registered) didn't find this idea disagreeable. I did. I told everyone that I have a freelance job that I do on the days I'm not on campus (true), but I didn't mention the fact that I can do this from home (perhaps devious). But it didn't matter. Since I was only taking the course because I wanted to learn (and because I'd like to tailor my dissertation around Japanese literature/pop culture), and not because I needed it to fulfill requirements, my opinion didn't count and the class was officially moved.

I'm not taking it. It's probably petty not to take it simply because I'm being rigid about my schedule, but my bus stops running at 6:30 (well, really, they stop picking people up around 6, and only do drop-offs, so it's even earlier), and I really don't want to wait alone for the metro bus anymore. After being called a bitch for not giving some guy my only metro token, also being propositioned, also being hit on--oh, and they moved the metro stop to the other corner of the street--which does not have a streetlamp--since this has happened, four people have been mugged on that corner. Coincidence? I think not. At this point, I just want a schedule where my use of public transportation remains unimpeded.

So I'm taking a feminist theory course instead on Tuesdays that ends at 5:50.

I thought I'd feel guilty about not taking the Japanese lit course, but I don't. Okay, well, I'm trying not to feel it. First and foremost, I'm a writer (trying), and I need to keep my writing time sacred. I already sanctioned Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays for writing, and Aimee Bender told me that it's okay to keep those days sacred. When people want to make plans on those days, it's okay to say that I have a previous commitment. I have to keep remembering this or else I'll lose what little backbone I already have.

Labels: grad school

( 2comments )

at January 15, 2007 11:31 AM  Lindsi Dawn said...

I have to say, I would have probably done the same thing if I were in your situation. Actually, I'm sure I have. Not with school, but with other things. I'm glad you considered the saftey factor in- you don't need to be on any dark corners in LA!

Will you be able to take the Japanese Literature class another semester?

Good luck with the femisnist theory course, that could probably go either way- good or crapy.

 

at January 15, 2007 3:33 PM  Princess Blogonoke said...

Don't feel guilty about changing your class. Waiting for the bus at night is scary, and the fact that people got mugged at the bus stop you would be waiting at is even scarier.

 

I am teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 a.m. -- and I am so excited! I've only taught MWF because they were only 50 minute sessions, and I thought, since I didn't really know what I was doing, that it'd be easier to fill 50 minutes than to fill an hour and 15 minutes. While I usually ran out of time on MWFs, yesterday's class felt so... roomy. It was awesome. Even more awesome? My students are actually awake and engaged at 8 a.m. I was duly impressed. I love them already. They have good sense of humors and were quick to giggle. Always a good sign.

But I lost a button on my new dress yesterday--and I asked the class to quickly look for it on the ground (it wasn't there)! I went to a sample sale on December 23rd with my mom, and I bought a couple dresses there (plus three shirts I had seen at Hot Topic 6 months ago and desperately wanted, but for which I wasn't willing to pay $22--$10 is so much better than $22). I am bummed because the dress (the one that lost the button) is a cool '60s Britain mod style that looks awesome with my new pirate boots and my new haircut.

Oh yeah, I chopped off my hair. (I had a picture up here, but I decided to take it down--in order to keep the mystique, but mostly to keep the weirdo stalkers at bay--because I have no idea if that weird "psychiatrist" is obsessed with my blog to the point of coming to L.A. to kill me. Can't be too careful. Too paranoid, yes. Too careful, nah.)

I love my haircut. When the hair stylist went to make the first cut she said, "I'm cutting off like 6-8 inches here." And I said, "Don't worry. I'm not gonna cry. There will be no tears here." I've been wanting to cut my hair short for about ten years, but my mom convinced me that I wouldn't look good with short hair. But there was a point when I had hair past my butt, and when any person's hair starts getting stuck in car doors when they go to sit down and close the door--their hair is too long, 'mkay?

I'm thinking that if I finally had the courage to chop off my hair, and I ended up insanely happy with the product, then maybe it's time for the tattoo that I've been wanting for the last 8 years...

In other academic news, I sent in an abstract to a CFP (call for papers) and I am presenting my paper on women and manga (more specifically on Blue by Kiriko Nananan) at the AEGS Text/ure conference. I have never gone to a conference before, let alone presented. So I'm really nervous, but in a good way.

And I'm actually excited about my literature class this semester (Japanese literature)--because it's something I want to learn about, as opposed to selecting the lesser of all evils in terms of literature courses, which is usually how I feel about classes (which is a shame because when I was an undergrad, I couldn't get enough literature classes--I loved them all, but the undergrad courses were content/lecture based and I felt like I was learning, the graduate lit courses are more discussion based, and I don't feel like I learn as much). But then again, I was excited about my Women & Popular Culture class last term, too, and that turned out to be a bust. The only good thing that came out of that class was meeting cool people in the English department. Well, and I guess I did write the first draft of the paper that got accepted for the AEGS conference in that class, which is a subject I probably wouldn't have explored otherwise... so maybe two good things.

Anyway, the semester is off to a good start. Here's hoping.

Labels: aegs, conference, schedule, teaching

( 2comments )

at January 10, 2007 9:36 PM  Anonymous said...

Well, I hope this semester goes better for you!

.... and for those of you reading this comment, her hair ROCKS!

 

at January 14, 2007 9:47 AM  Anonymous said...

I agree! Her hair rocks!

(My hair rocks too. We had a girl date and got our hair cut on the same day.)

 

Blog post #300 in 2 years. Not too shabby. That's an average of 2.8 posts a week. I didn't realize I was so active. I think it warrants my $11.40 a year I spend on webhosting.

It's a Buy a Friend a Book Week.

The rules are simple

Just get yourself to a real-life or virtual book store during Buy a Friend a Book Week (the first weeks of January, April, July, and October) and, well, buy a friend a book (or e-book)! But here's the fun part: you can't buy your friend a book because it's their birthday or they just graduated or got engaged or had a baby or anything else. You have to give them a book for no good reason. In fact, this present out of the blue from you should shock the pants off of whomever you decide to give it to. And it'll make them happy. And that's the point: promote reading, promote friendships. Just make sure to let them know about Buy a Friend a Book Week. (How? Order a BAFAB card from Zazzle.com to get your message across, or print out this explanation and include it in your gift book. Or, if you're not giving your friend the book in person, just point them to the explanation's URL.)

What's in it for you?

Apart from the joy inherent in giving, you get to slap a sticker on your web site to advertise your beneficence: select from these possibilities. (If you don't have a web site, stick with that joy in giving thing.) Spread the word by blogging about your choice of book and book recipient. Look at me, you'll be saying to your site's visitors, I am the sort of person who buys gifts for my friends for no good reason. Befriend me! Love me! Read me.

I paricularly like the "love me, read me" message behind BAFAB week.

I wonder who I'll buy for...

Labels: books

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This movie is the most beautiful and wonderful movie ever. It skyrocketed to my favorite movie of all time last night.

Labels: movies

( 2comments )

at January 10, 2007 9:38 AM  Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see this. It wasn't playing at the local theater so I saw Children of Men instead, excellent. I'm heading out to the independent theater this weekend to see Pan's Labrynth.

 

at January 14, 2007 9:47 AM  Anonymous said...

I saw both Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men. Both are excellent movies. Although it takes place in the future, the realism of the uprising scene in Children of Men is very intense. Just go see it. You'll like it.