Indiana, Michigan, Indiana, Atlanta

Well, Jeff is moved. Mostly, anyway.

Last week-ish, Aaron drove down to Atlanta and help Jeff load up the U-haul. I was not, admittedly, helpful at this stage, mostly because I was sad. Also, I may have gotten very drunk playing poker with Jeff and Aaron, and I may also have stuck my finger in my steel-bladed fan.

D'oh!

The drive to Indiana was uneventful, although I was very impressed with the speeds Jeff managed to attain in the U-haul on the downgrades in Tennessee. We unloaded when we got to his apartment in Indiana, and it only took a couple of hours. Then we unpacked, went to Flint, and went back to Indiana. Now we are both in Atlanta while Jeff ties up some loose ends--he's planning to drive back up to Indiana on Tuesday.

His apartment is fabulous! The pics don't really do it justice (because unpacking and whatnot is still in progress), but here's what it looks like:








And here's what the building looks like:




That's Jeff in the balcony doorway.

I have realized that if I were to continue writing in narrative form, this post would take forever. Therefore, I will list some points of interest:

The Midwest is very, very flat.
There is lots and lots of corn. And possibly alfalfa.
On the drive from Indiana to Atlanta (10 1/2 hours) we counted 93 U-hauls, one limo, and one "re-modeled" ambulance hauling a piece of Bobcat construction equipment.
There is a brewery near Jeff's apt. where you can buy a Growler to go--a 64 oz. jug of (quite good) beer that costs $12 on the initial purchase. It is refillable. And on Tuesdays it is refillable for $6.
Ikea furniture construction generally goes more quickly if you look at the instructions.
It is possible to spend 40 minutes in Home Depot when buying nothing more than a dowel rod.
Flint, MI has deer. In Jeff's folks' backyard.
There are no Waffle Houses in the Midwest.
Or 7-11s, it seems.
And the single population of Flint make interesting fashion decisions.
Playing a game of HORSE with Jeff and his dad is a fantastic pre-dinner activity. And his mom makes a yummy chicken/rice casserole.
Michigan has an unbelievable amount of road construction. None of which seem to actually improve the roads.
Watching undergrads move in across the street, especially when they only pack the trunk of their car, is highly entertaining.
Purdue has a beautiful campus.
Jeff now has high-speed Internet. And a cell phone!
He has cable TV now, too!
Cigarettes are more expensive in the Midwest.
Jeff's Grateful Dead t-shirt received much comment and approval from the cable guy, who seemed startled to see someone wearing one.

And that's all I've got for now. I'm sure I'll think of more things tomorrow.

The Face of the Earth

So, I haven't actually fallen off the face of the earth. But I suck to intense degrees when it comes to updating this blog. What that really means, though, is when I update it, I have lots to write!

As of this moment, I have completed my first two years of my Ph.D. program. This has made me over-confident, it seems, because this Fall I am presenting at four conferences, publishing one book review, and taking my comps in my primary area (Literary Theory and Criticism). I am also teaching, and helping to organize a conference. Clearly, I have gone INSANE.

But I couldn't turn anything down!! I was sure I wasn't going to get into some of these conferences--apparently, I was wrong. So I am presenting at the New Voices Graduate Conference here in Atlanta (I'm also helping organize, but I was told that I would be shot if i didn't present this paper, so under penalty of death, I am presenting). I'm also presenting in Atlanta at SAMLA (the South Atlantic Modern Language Association). And the two I have to travel to are the Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the MAPACA (the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association) Conference in Philly. My papers concern the following topics: Ancient Roman Rhetoric, Pedagogy for Revising, Charmed (the TV series), and Punk Rock.

I do so very much love being an academic. =)

Also, I have a new pet. I think I'm going to name him Copernicus.



He's turning green more and more these days. Here's a slightly better photo.



He's already larger than when I first got him. And I've changed his terrarium a bit because he seemed to not like the skull too much. Here's what he looked like when he was mailed to me and I first put him in his terrarium.



As you can see, he has a new stick in his terrarium, which he likes to sit on (while turning green!), and he's getting to be a pretty big guy. His mouth was looking a little brown last night (brown spots are on it), so I held him in my hand and examined him to see if he was sick. And he stayed green while sitting in my hand! It was so cool.

And he's not sick, I don't think, although I'm going to clean his terrarium today to make sure his mouth doesn't get infected. What appears to be the problem is that he's so zealous about chasing his crickets that he tends to hit the glass with his snouth.

Here are the crickets he loves to eat:



The crickets live in their "cricket keeper" on one of my bookshelves for my comps (hence all the Hegel and Plato and whatnot). The crickets get little dishes of food and gel (the gel is their water--they're a little dumb, and will drown in actual water), and they hide in the black tubes. When I need to feed Copernicus (it sounds like a good name for him, doesn't it?) I pull out a black tube, and shake some crickets into the Cricket Shaker, where I cover them with vitamin and calcium dust.

And then dinner is served. Cool, eh? He's a complete glutton, too.

In other news, Jeff is moving to Indiana next week to start his Ph.D. program at PURDUE. Yes, PURDUE. How cool is that?? He's going to be continuing in Rhetoric and Composition, and that is certainly the place to do it. Although I sincerely believe that Purdue should look into relocating to say, ATLANTA. And while I am really happy that he's going to be going to Purdue, I am also very sad that he's going to be moving 10 hours away. We're working on a plan to take turns visiting each other every two weeks--that way, neither of us will go broke or fail out of our programs.

It's all still very surreal. It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that next Thursday, we will be driving to Indiana to move him into his new apartment. I keep trying not to think about that part too much. =)

And I think that brings us up to speed. Hopefully, more with be forthcoming. I'm going to make myself a note to update this blog more. We'll see how that turns out.

Hello hello

So, today was the first day back at school. It looks like it's going to be a pretty good semester. Break rocked--lots of Buffy and Angel, I learned to play Magic (I really did), there was beer involved, and we won an iPod shuffle and a Samsonite camera case on New Year's (we being me and Jeff). 

But I promised pictures a long time ago, and here they are: 

The first two are the puppy (Stella) and Jeff, and the last one is a bunch of Georgia State people at Damien's (the fellow on the left) graduating/going away party. 

So, this semester I'm taking Ancient Roman Rhetoric, and Research Methods. Both look pretty cool (even though I don't really need a class in research methods at this point, I don't think, but still. I think it'll have some good stuff in it.). And I'm teaching 1102 and a Regents' class, which should be interesting. Regents' is a literacy test that is required in Georgia in order to graduate from college. I've never taught it before, but it looks like it's going to be a light class, so that's good by me.

I've been knitting up a storm, so there will hopefully be some knitting photos up soon, either here or on knitorious. It may take me a few months, but I promise knit pics one day in the future.

Photo No Go

For whatever reason, now that I have my computer back, I am unable to make my photo loading thingy work. I will need to investigate this further, because I have a fabulous fabulous photo to post. Mwah ha ha. Beware of letting me and Jeff petsit for your puppies is all I have to say.

Things I have done since my last post.

Gotten all kinds of enamoured.
Helped my enamouree move to the building next to me.
Placed an empty bottle of Guinness on the roof of a strip mall.
Heard the following comment from a student: "I was going to study for my speech test tomorrow, but then I was like, I talk."
Began a thematic project on Chaucer's Knight's Tale, which will read the Tale from a psychoanalytic/queer perspective in order to reformulate the ego formation triangle.
Graded some papers.
Climbed on discarded furniture.
Kicked two kegs of Guinness in a week at the Sidebar (with the aid of the enamouree, whose name, by the way, is Jeff).
Met Lee Edelman, and got him to autograph his book No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive.
Went to a Sherlock Holmes themed party that was fabulous.
Attended Melanie and Paula (and Govind's!) birthday party, where there was furniture in the yard (and pink flamingoes).
Watched Jeff stand on his dry erase board, proclaiming "I have never done this before!"
Been acosted (with Jeff) by a man throwing trash cans and a man who declared that we hated Jesus.
Bought some really good CDs.
Drank lots of coffee.
Dreamed about arguing about binaries.
Ran (running still in progress) for GEA Treasurer.
Mourned the death of my computer's ethernet port due to a storm (and am still waiting to get my computer back).
Coveted the new iPod shuffle (the really really tiny one).
Gave a presentation on Henry Abelove's Deep Gossip.
Chaired a session of the New Voices Conference (and was also a committee member).
Went to Maggie's (my former downstairs neighbor) wedding.
Read a lot of Greek Rhetoric, Queer Theory, and Chaucer.
Went dancing with Jeff, who is a really good dancer.
Smoked a few cigarettes.
Obsessively used the word "interpellate."
Bought some books.
Been visited by Thaddeus.
Bought a new watch.
Participated in various other sondry things which I cannot remember right now.
Knit nothing.
Became sleep deprived.

Happy Belated Birthday, Hegel

So, yesterday was Georg Hegel's birthday (born 1770), and in tribute, I will blog theory (or rather, the meanderings of my brain which I'm going to pass off as theory).

So blogging. We were talking tonight in Queer Theory about Foucault, and the confessional imperative came up, as did the act of blogging. But is blogging truly confessional? Most blogs I see seem to be narrations--we seem more engaged in storytelling than in confessing. But isn't telling the stories of our lives a form of confessing? Are we all giving accounts of ourselves via the blogsphere? Or are we creating daily autobiographies, with all the implications of narrative reconstruction inherent in the autobiographical form? Why are we even compelled to blog in the first place?

I remember that in the late 80s and early 90s, before there were "blogs," people would post on discussion boards. Now, the interesting thing is that in some of the discussion board communities, not only were there threads about actual topics, but also fairly random, and fairly regular, posts that people would put up about their days--much like a blog entry. And rather then make comments, we would all just add to that particular thread.

And even though most of these bulletin board communities were fairly small, they were still public. All the boards would be listed, and anyone with a 2400 bps modem (like, oh my god! That's sooooooo 1989!) could access them.

So why do we blog? And what's at stake in our blogging? Although I'm sure there are blogs out there that are confessional, where the writers spill out all the spicy details of their lives (spicy? to whom?!), I see more blogs that seem to be "genuine" (back to this in a moment) people telling the stories of their days.

And in these stories there aren't really any secrets that are told, or any "trangressions" that are confessed to. No one seems to have been interpellated into a role that calls them to confess. No one seems to be giving accounts. Everyone seems to be "real" people--"genuine" people. On the Internet, of course, a person can be anyone. I could write a blog with any assumed identity of my choice, and no one would know any better.

But again, why is that different from "real" life? Because we can sustain the charade longer? When I meet someone for the first time, they have no idea who I "am." I can "pretend" to be really stupid, or outgoing, or funny. I can "pretend" that I am an office cube worker, or a truck driver, or a secret shopper.

But in "real" life, it's much harder to pretend to be a man, or to pretend to be Asian. And when we say that someone's identity online could be anyone, what we mean is that someone's gender and color online could be anything. Someone's age could be anything. It's interesting to see how heavily we establish identity with the body.

(Of course, in "real" life, people pass as___________ all the time. Successfully. Billy Tipton passed as a man for 60 years and had four wives--after Tipton's death in '89, an autopsy revealed that Tipton was female.)

What I'm saying, or trying to, is that "identity" doesn't seem to be an issue in most blogs. People don't "hide," it seems, unless they hide their name, or use a pseudonym, really. And in the audience of readers, there ARE people who know who that person "is." I don't think questions concering identity bring us back to why so many people feel the need to blog. And because I don't think identity is what's at stake, I don't think that blogs are necessarily confessions. After all, when we confess, aren't we compelled to confess something about ourselves, a trait, a behavior, that is a "PART" of us?

So if we don't blog under the confessional imperative, then why are we still writing? I would rather make the argument that we blog under an imperative that is primary to the confessional imperative, and that is the narrational imperative--that we are compelled to narrate, told to narrate, forced to narrate. And I would make the argument that this imperative to narrate stems from our immersion and birth in discourse, our entry into the Symbolic, the writing of language on our bodies. And I further would say that the imperative comes from language itself, the logos of language, where logos means both word and reason. The glue that holds together the signifier and signified creates the narrational imperative. We cannot make reason without words, we cannot make words without reason, and we cannot MAKE MEANING without logos, without signs. And we cannot make the signs mean without stringing them together. And we cannot make the world around us mean without stringing signs together.

And we cannot make meaning, or create anything, without also, and firstly, destroying the meaning or thing that was previously there.

And I had more I was going to say, but my brain just totally turned off. I will attempt to actually make the arguments I'm proposing to make in another post. But I am pretty certain that I'm about to stop making sense, assuming, of course, that I was making sense in the first place.

What do y'all think? Why do we blog?

Kitsch-en.

I am, it seems, decorating my kitchen. And although it's not TRULY kitsch, I have no doubt that I will, at some point, incorporate something pretty kitschy into my kitchen. After all, it's too good of a pun to go to waste. 

But my kitchen is very small. I have a sink, with counterspace on either side. One side is taken up by my microwave, the other side used to be take up by my dish drainer. However, since I must now cook, the dish drainer is now actually IN my sink, so that I now have a small rectangle on which to do cooking things. I have a stove, and some cabinets (plus a whole row I have issues reaching, even with a step-stool--shut up you laughing people!! =P ). And I have a refridgerator and a window sill.

For those of you who saw the kitchen in my apt. on Franklin Street, this one is admittedly bigger, by say, a foot. There is no cool back door onto the roof, however. And even though this kitchen is bigger, and the cabinets do not tilt scarily towards me, I kinda miss the old one. Something about the light. 

Anyway, since I have never been much of a cook, I have had to go buy several cooking implements, and am rapidly running out of space in my little kitchen with the cabinets I can't quite make full use of. So the other day, when I was waiting for Blizzard to pick up the phone (yes, you will get that story), I picked up a hammer and nailed a number of kitchen utensils to the wall. That has turned out to be one of my better ideas. 

 

What particularly pleases me is the hanging of the cookie cutters, which makes the entire collection of utensils magical (I think it does, anyway), and that makes cooking more fun!

But hanging up all that stuff has cleaned out a drawer, which now holds my pasta press (okay, yes, I can't cook, but I can make pasta. I have no idea what that is). The former home of the pasta press now holds a bunch of pans. And this is getting more detailed than you really need, suffice to say that my kitchen is rearranged and fabulous.

 

Look at all the food creation stuffs I have!

 

More utensils! And knives! That are pastel colours!

 

Sweet potatoes!! Clementines!! Notice my lunch bag on the top? Pretty! Also, that bottle on the top is my really expensive vanilla, and it was worth every penny. My lavender cookies rule!

Shelve above my sink. I could probably use this space for something else, but I like my teapots and dried flowers, dammit!

So, I mentioned that I was on the phone with Blizzard, and that would be because I decided, in a moment where I was clearly crazed, to temporarily renew my World of Warcraft subscription. There are many reasons for this. I actually have free time (and it's so weird!) And gaming is fun (unless the people around you game for 36 hours straight and refuse to work so that you end up paying all the bills and they promise to pay you back but never do. Oh, wait, I'm not bitter.). And I've never seen it on my Mac. AND I craved it really bad after receiving an email that recieved the word "w00t" (you know who you are, with your l337 h4x0r skillz. ha ha Do you even read my blog? I'm curious.), which occured around the same time my students had a huge discussion about WoW, and when Jenny and I started IMing each other ridiculous things about being l337. 

I won't be able to play for much longer, what with the semester starting, and my attempt to take three work intensive classes while teaching two sections of 1102. But playing again a little bit IS really fun.

And damn does WoW look pretty on my Mac.