I knew I wasn't alone. Alyssa Milano loves baseball, too (she's a huge Dodgers fan). And she has a baseball blog! I am in love.

http://alyssa.mlblogs.com/

Labels: alyssa milano, baseball, blue, los angeles dodgers, women

( 1comments )

at July 1, 2007 4:31 PM  jezebels said...

Oh no, did I forget to send you the new link. It's a variety of reasons, but I'm really just moving over to wordpress.

I remember, I left the message in the broken spoke.

It's at http://www.candycigarette.wordpress.com

 

I've had some pretty bad family stuff happen Friday and Saturday.

I don't know when I'll have the energy to post again.

Ye be warned.

Labels: family

( 1comments )

at June 11, 2007 5:35 AM  jezebelsriot said...

You hang in there. Everyone will keep checking back.

 

I am so tired of grad school. Or maybe I'm just tired of some of the personalities in the English department. Or maybe I just need a freakin' break from class. Probably a combination of all three.

The course I'm currently taking is truncated due to the summer scheduling. Thank goodness because I don't think I could stand being in there for more than six weeks. First of all, the class is huge. I haven't had a class so large since 501--and not even our 501 class was this big (for those of you who don't know, 501 is the only course English Ph.D. students are required to take so all first year Crits--the literature people--and CWs--the creative writers, both fiction and poetry--take that course their first semester). This class, though, is so big and generally it's only a couple people arguing, and the professor interacting with those people. The classroom dynamic is weird. The class shouldn't have been this large: it's too easy to wallflower. And some of my favorite people to listen to--who have good things to say, that is, non-repetitive things to say--don't talk nearly enough. Every day, it's hard to get the class going. It's a slow boil kind of thing. So when the professor asks a question I have, stupidly, tried to answer since no one else seems willing. Two days in a row I have been chastised for my observations being too obvious (on Tuesday, it was on more than one occasion). And I don't even get a chance to take the "obvious" one step further, because the class is so large, and I am thusly muscled out of the way by raised hands in a sort of: You Had Your Shot And Wasted It kind of deal.

Fuck it, dude.

I'm just not going to talk in class anymore. It will be my small form of protest.
And that may seem like a pissy response, but really it's for my own sanity and self-esteem. I just walked off a semester where I actually felt smart (for the first time in grad school) and felt like I was contributing to the classroom dynamic in both my fiction workshop and in the theory class I took. I am not going to let a weird class ruin that buzz.

In other weird grad school news... I got an e-mail two days ago from a former professor. It was asking me to babysit.

Um. I refused. I refused politely, blaming it on my schedule (freelance job + school + preparing my CAP and assignments for WRIT 140 next semester--oh, I got promoted to coordinator, so I'll be teaching and organizing the instructors who teach my social issues affiliation = busy). I then offered to try to find someone who would be available. But the reply was, "No worries," so I didn't have to ask anyone I knew a kind of weird question.

I feel a little perturbed annoyed at the whole situation. I felt so helpless at first because either way I analyzed it, I felt screwed. If I did it, I'd be miserable + poopy diapers + opening myself up for future exploitation + change the dynamic of my professional relationship, all the while feeling used and bitter. If I didn't do it, I'm possibly burning a bridge. I worried that it was a weird power thing. Or like a test from a fairytale to see if the heroine is as strong as she pretends to be. Like testing me to see if I'll do it because I'm a grad student? So, if I do it, does that mean I'm weak? If I don't, does that mean I'm an asshole?

I decided to take the road that would make me less miserable in the long run, and as my friend Lorie astutely observed, that meant the road with no diapers to change.

Labels: english department horror stories, grad school

( 2comments )

at June 8, 2007 9:31 AM  jezebelsriot said...

Unless there was ever some passing conversation that may have given the impression you were available for chasing after other people's children, then you are certainly not an asshole and it was slightly rude (maybe not rude, depending on the relationship with that professor) to ask you. You made the right decision though, and passed that fairy tale test in my opinion. In fairy tales you are rewarded with adventure and toads for friends, in this test you would have been rewarded with poo and frazzled hair. No one wants frazzled hair.

Grad school sounds much like I thought it would be. So are there moments when the pretentious and self-aggrandizing assholes in your courses make you feel inferior ever? And if there are how do you combat that? And if those moments never occur because you are secure completely in your intellect, was it always this way?

For everyone teaching with me in the fall, it's the students who make them cringe, but for me, it's the thought of listening to people who enjoy the sound of their breath in the air equally as much as they enjoy putting each other down.

This stems from a bad experience in a class last semester that was split between grad students and undergraduates.

 

at June 11, 2007 5:34 AM  jezebelsriot said...

Well, I definitely have to say thank you for the answer. My background is Sociology, and I have always been very comfortable in that arena. Conferences, my oral defense, I am completely at ease debating a thesis or particular theoretical perspective.

But my lack of experience in this new literary direction sometimes allows my barriers to crumble so the aggressive behavior of other students affects me differently.

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I suppose ultimately I am less worried about the trials with students (it's their grade :-) as I am about performing in grad school. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the second chance in creative writing since I threw myself into Soc for so long, but I feel this is sort of a new beginning, a make or break scenario.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to complain about the passport application process in the United States.

My husband and I are planning a trip to the UK (for which I prefer not to simply say England when I don’t mean only England). We were planning on going in May or June, but when a literature class that I was actually excited about taking was offered, we decided that we could go after the class ended, and travel in July instead. Even though I am on the Creative Writing track of the Ph.D. program, my literary side is a total Victorianist at heart. And this particular class has been the first Victorian class offered in the last two years. Although, I suppose this a minor exaggeration. There was one class was offered this past term, but it was taught by a professor who treated me poorly when I first came to USC. The strange thing is: I have heard really good things about this person, but I have never taken a class with this professor, so she didn't even know me enough to treat me like trash, but she did it anyway. I got the distinct impression that she didn't like the creative writing people, and I didn't feel like enduring the harshness for another semester. I've had enough personality conflicts dealing with professors in the English department.

And so that is why I am taking a Victorian literature class in the summer, because I have heard great things about this professor, too, and I actually love the subject--two things that rarely get paired up for me outside of fiction or poetry workshops.

So we were going to go to the UK in July, but then Comic-Con is at the end of July and I've been wanting to go for three years (well, more than that, but it wasn't really feasible when we lived in Maryland). And now, we have friends visiting both at the beginning and end of July. Now, we have decided to postpone our trip until December--when airline prices and hotel prices are somewhat cheaper, and we can save a little bit more.

It's a good thing we decided to go in December, and not June. Because we applied for our passports March 15, 2007. And we still don't have them.

At the beginning of the year, the website said 4-6 weeks for processing. Then on March 1, 2007, they updated the website to say 6-8 weeks. Two weeks ago, the website was updated again to say 10 weeks for processing. Today, I checked again: 10-12 weeks for processing. By their current time line, we should be receiving our passports on Thursday, because that will have been 12 weeks.

The biggest sham of all, though, is that you can "check the status of your application" online. But you have to wait four weeks before submitting your information: "Currently, it is taking up to 1 week for Expedited Applications and up to 4 weeks for Routine Applications to be tracked online. Please allow at least that time before checking the status of your application." I have attempted to check the status three times: April 15th, May 3rd, May 17th, and I kept getting told that my information wasn't even available to check on yet. Today, I input my information and this is what it says:

Thank you for submitting your passport application! It is currently being processed.

Your passport application locator number is --------.

Note: We have been experiencing a problem with the online status check system affecting only the application locator number. This does not affect the processing of your application. If the number above is 10 digits long and starts with 10000, please do not worry. If you need to contact the National Passport Information Center, you will have to provide at least your name and date of birth instead of the application locator number. Otherwise, please provide the locator number above.

When you applied, you requested Routine Service and Routine Delivery of your passport. Passport Agencies use Priority Mail.

You should receive your passport within 10 weeks from the date you applied. However, if you are traveling within 2 weeks and have not received your passport, please contact the National Passport Information Center.

There is no real update on the status. In fact, there is a big fat red herring: "You should receive your passport within 10 weeks from the date you applied." I suppose the word should is their Get Out of Updating Free Card. Because we should have received our passports, but we haven't.

All I have to say is thank goodness the Victorian class was offered and postponed our plan, because I would be really angry. But right now, I'm just mildly annoyed.

Labels: government, grad school, passport, politics, travel

( 0comments )

I meant to post this, like, a month ago? Whoops.

---

I feel offended by a recent MSNBC article called: Top 5 video game heroines: Move over boys. These leading ladies are taking care of business. They list the Top 5 as follows: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Samus Aran (Metroid), Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark), Princess Peach (Mario) and Ms. Pac-Man (duh).

Princess Peach and Ms. Pac-Man?

I can almost understand Princess Peach.

But Ms. Pac-Man?

Come on!

Is that, honestly, the best they could come up with? I feel offended as a woman and as a gamer.

---

I was just wondering, if we were to comprise a list, and I'm using the word "we" in the loosest sense of the word to encompass friends and random people, who would we include? Or rather what would your list entail?

I think mine would be:

1. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)


2. Chun-Li (Street Fighter)


3. April Ryan (The Longest Journey)


4. Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)


5. Yuna (Final Fantasy X, X-2) and Amateratsu (Okami)

I don't feel the need to explain my choices until provoked in comments. Heh.

Labels: girls that kick ass, news, strong women, video games, women

( 3comments )

at June 8, 2007 9:34 AM  jezebelsriot said...

My fingers are a lot like having potatoes jutting from the palms of my hands when I try to play video games, so I can't help make this list. Except to say that I have seen other people play Tomb Raider and Resident Evil, so both of those ladies get my vote. Also, I do think the Princess kicked much ass.

I like my video games in the simpler horizontal screen fashion. Give me Tetris and Super Mario Brothers 1-3 any day :-)

 

at June 8, 2007 1:16 PM  jillydreadful said...

If you're ever so inclined, I would suggest you play The Longest Journey (the original--not the one that came out in 2005). It's a pure adventure game--and you do not need a controller to play. You can (and should only) play with a mouse. There are no fancy Lightning Kicks to perform or people to shoot or enemies to sneak past. There are a few puzzles. But mostly it's just a really fabulous story. It's kind of old now (the first time I played it was 2000), so the graphics aren't AS impressive as they were seven years ago--but it's still a beautiful game. I've replayed the game 3 times and watched my husband play it through (I can only say that about Beyond Good & Evil--replayed once and watched my brother play it through--and The Sims/Sims 2--and the Sims don't really count in my opinion). It's like an interactive book. And the voice acting is exceptional, and I think it's pretty obvious that the story is pretty stellar as well.

It's the first real game I ever played all the way through--aside from Super Mario World.

 

at June 21, 2007 6:19 AM  charlie said...

Chun-Li was my fave.

 

I have nothing of interest or value to say. Not really. But I feel the need to make my first post on Wordpress. In real life news, I dropped the Television Theory class I was taking because I felt it was beneath me. It felt good to realize this. It felt better taking the initiative and dropping it. I have sort of been basking in the assertive glory that came with actively dropping the class for a reason other than the class meeting time changing. Plus, since it's summer and classes meet twice a week for four hours, I had already spent 12 hours with people I didn't really care about and wasn't really learning from--not the way I am/always do learn(ing) from my classmates in my Victorian class. In the Creative Writing track, I am only allowed to take two classes outside the English Dept (stupid). I took a Feminist Theory class last semester, which was offered by the Gender Studies Dept, but was taught by a professor in the English Dept, but it still counts as a course outside the department, and so, counts as one of my two classes (even stupider). I so did not want to waste my last chance to take a class outside the department with a Television Theory class I didn't enjoy and wasn't learning anything from. I gave the class 12 hours (not to mention all the hours of outside reading), so I think that was more than enough. I'm going to keep the course books, though, because they were reasonably priced and I think the reading will be useful as a source if I pursue television as an angle in my dissertation.

Speaking of beneath me... I feel sad about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I saw it today and I have one giant complaint: if I wanted political commentary, I would watch The Daily Show, not Pirates of the Caribbean.

I have a few personal, political beefs with the film. The sad thing is, though, I agree with everything that the movie is trying to beat into our heads (civil rights: good, giant-monopoly-companies: baaaaad). But somehow I resent the fact that these ideologies are being force fed to me through my favorite form: pirates (vampires and zombies being a close second and third--although I will maintain that zombies are a more ready vehicle for political commentary than pirates).

Pirate Perturbance No. 1: How about the fact that the only black female character was incarcerated and bound, and then when she went all godlike on everyone, all she did was grow really tall and erupt in a pile of crabs. Needless to say, her goddess powers were pretty under utilized. I felt like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons: Worst use of a goddess: ever. And I don't consider this a spoiler, considering that knowing this does not somehow ruin the entire movie.

But I'm going to give more of an opinion, with definite spoilers here... Probably. Basically, I want to talk about different aspects of the movie, but if you don't want to know anything, then stop here.

Pirate Perturbance No. 2: The movie just felt heavy handed as a whole, beginning with the beginning. Can anyone else say Liberal Agenda? Now, I am a liberal myself, but the blatantness of the propaganda felt cheap. I mean, this is just supposed to be a good, fun, popcorn, swashbuckling, I-Turn-This-On-While-Cleaning-My-Apartment/Sleeping/Doing-Homework movie. If I want political commentary, I don't watch Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl or Dead Man's Chest (that's what Jon Stewart, moon goddess, is for). But the marching of the prisoners whose civil rights were being expunged was just... bleh. Especially the supposed lack of sympathy for the child associated with pirates being hung alongside the adults, and, as the prisoners' trap doors open, One Piece of the Nine Pieces of Eight (convoluted, no?) falls to the floor. The title then fades onto the screen: At World's End. The death symbolism was so not subtle that I actually giggled to myself. And no, not because a child got hung. Geez.

Pirate Perturbance No. 3: When Beckett (the guy who is evil for the sake of being evil, the guy who works for the East India Trading Company) finally bites it, his body (I assume that we're supposed to assume it's his body anyway) falls onto the company's flag, on top of it's symbol, into the water. The symbol happens to resemble a broken cross. Beckett's body happens to resemble a crucified-type pose. Beckett's last words? "It's nothing personal. It's just good business." Ka-BOOM! The last image we are left with of the East India Trading Company/Evil Empire is the ship, conveniently named Endeavor, completely decimated. I found it highly entertaining the the East India Trading Company was painted in such a harsh light. I find it even more entertaining that the message here is that: HUGE corporations are a bad thing. This message brought to you by Disney.

Pirate Perturbance No. 4: It's kind of cool that prim and proper Elizabeth Swan, with a fetish for pirates, becomes not only a captain, but Pirate King. But after she's elected King, a couple heavy handed things happen. 1) She's an elected king. Sure, there is, perhaps, comedic value in the contradiction (haha! isn't it funny that pirates are stoopid?) but 2) After she becomes King, she declares war. By herself. Without a group vote. Without the support of the, well, for lack of a better word, the U.N. of pirates. I could go on and on about the allusions to systems of voting as arbitrary, leaders/dictators, etc. But I think you get the idea.

Pirate Perturbance No. 5: Happy family ending. It's okay that Will is bound to the Flying Dutchman for all eternity because at least he had son! Just more of the pro-natalist narrative around which our current society gravitates.

I'm sure there's more. But now I am sleepy.

Labels: grad school, movies, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, political commentary, politics, real life

( 4comments )

at June 2, 2007 7:48 PM  Lorie said...

"It’s okay that Will is bound to the Flying Dutchman for all eternity because at least he had son!"

Wait...I feel like I missed something. Did the movie say that she was pregnant (which I completely didn't notice), or are you just saying that since they had sex, she'll possibly get pregnant?

 

at June 3, 2007 12:14 PM  jillydreadful said...

Did you stay until after the credits rolled? Because the after they did, they had a short scene in which the tag line appeared, "Ten years later," and Elizabeth Swan and a boy--approximately 10 years old--came walking towards the cliff and Will on the Dutchman was making its way towards shore.

Which leads me to another question? Did Will have to be the captain of the Dutchman for eternity or was his obliged to only give ten years since doing it saved his life? I was a little fuzzy on this.

 

at June 8, 2007 9:38 AM  jezebelsriot said...

Okay Okay, I agree with most of what you're saying, even though it pains me! It pains me! I really love the series, so in the tradition of ignorance is bliss, I must suspend not only my disbelief but also my intellect so that I may continue loving this trilogy. Yes, even the third one.

I did not stay for after the credits!!!!! I had no idea. But I am going to assume that since, as a generalized audience, we demand at least semi-happy endings, Will was probably bound for ten years....but who would be his replacement?

You so know a fourth will be coming eventually.

 

at June 8, 2007 1:08 PM  jillydreadful said...

Oh, yes. I expect a fourth movie at some point. I hope it's a Barbossa movie, though. Geoffrey Rush was so hot as Barbossa. I could stand for a Jack Sparrow movie too, because it goes without saying that Johnny Depp is hot. But I'd rather Will and Elizabeth stay out of any forthcoming sequels. Unless it's a movie about Will ferrying dead souls. Because that could be awesome... I guess what I'm trying to say is that the romance part of the movie was not my favorite (it worked in the first one, but not really in the others), and I'd rather see other characters take the forefront.

But even with all my personal beefs with the film, it doesn't mean I didn't like it. I still liked it. I just didn't like it AS much as Dead Man's Chest, and I certainly didn't like it as much as Curse of the Black Pearl. But I still liked it.

I totally want Elizabeth's outfit when she became Captain of Chow Yon Fat's ship.