Category Archives: academia

There should be a kickstarter, but for dares

No, actually, there shouldn’t.

There absolutely should not exist such a thing.

But if such a thing did exist, it would be fantastic to be able to raise pledges to do things like watch the double=feature I saw on HBO’s schedule on May 3rd: Glitter and Wrath of the Titans.

Glitter.

And Wrath of the Titans.

They aren’t exactly a double feature, they’re just on back to back.

Technically, there’s something on between them so they aren’t exactly back to back. But that’s still close proximity.

Too close.

Have you seen those movies? Sweet Cheezits.

But now, I must return to my final exam week study-break viewing: Prometheus, which seems to require a minor amount of paying attention, if only because it looks cool.

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association 2013

Home again after the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, which was a 4 day whirlwind. Think I’m kidding about the whirlwind part? Here’s the pdf of the schedule – it’s 501 pages long.

(The conference is actually going on until 9:45 tonight but we attended 3 panels between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. and then our brains melted. Well, I can’t speak for Husband, but I can assure you mine did. While I’m writing this, I’m watching Project Runway and I’m having trouble following the plot. Yikes).

My conference paper on the TV show Supernatural was well-received and everyone else on the panel was fascinating so I was in great company:

horror (text, media, culture): television and New Media horror

“Translating tradition: domesticating seasonal horror through television.”
Derek Johnston (panel chair)

“Beyond salt and fire: the agency of human remains in the Supernatural Universe.”
Rebecca Stone Gordon

“Control is Being taken away from You”, Marble hornets and transmedia horror.
Ralph Beliveau and Amanda Kehrberg

I should probably edit the draft of my first TED DeExtinction post so I can get that online tomorrow. I intended to post about that last week and so it concludes with the delusional statement that I’d blog from the PCAACA conference. We can see how well that worked out.

Circus Arts

I (recently) discovered Circus Arts isn’t a normal part of most public school curricula.

Me, to Husband, horrified: “But, but, but…how do kids learn how to juggle? or walk on wires? or stand up on a moving horse?”

Husband: “They don’t. That’s dangerous.”

Me, bereft: “That’s so sad!”

I have no idea why this hadn’t struck me as anomalous before now. Or why I consider it so tragically sad, considering I ran away from the circus myself and never looked back.

I also see that Sailor Circus was transferred from the Sarasota County School Board to the Police Athletic League in 2004 and Circus Sarasota in 2011. One of my readers works with Circus Sarasota, perhaps she can let me know if students still get school credit for Circus Arts.

This is a draft that escaped facebook and ran over here when I was cleaning house.

For the following reasons I have not yet completed a satisfactory draft of this paper:

-When Husband goes to work he’ll be out of my hair
-This seems like a great morning for a 5 miler
-One more cup of coffee
-One more article, I just need to read one more article.
-What citation style are we supposed to use?
-Those christmas lights aren’t going to hang themselves!
-Did I leave a dress at the drycleaners?
–Sleepy kitten
-I have to go to the grocery store and buy a giant bag of baby carrots. Immediately.
–Save Greendale
-Inbox zero, bitches!
-Hey, the neighbors are home!
-Maybe neo-liberal theory is the best framework for this paper, after all…
-Hey, Charlie’s Angels is on and it’s the one where Farrah has to infiltrate the roller derby team! (aka Angels on Wheels).
-Hey, the other neighbors are home!
-Twitter!
-It’s happy hour somewhere!
-I’d better get coconut flakes in case I make cookies this weekend. I better do this right now.
-When did we get so many neighbors?
-Time to commiserate on facebook with everyone else who isn’t getting enough work done today.
-Hello, Jehova’s Witnesses, I’d love to hear more about the Watchtower!
-If I add coconut flakes to this oatmeal cookie recipe should I reduce the amount of flour? I’m omitting the walnuts. Maybe just reduce the sugar, I did get sweetened coconut flakes. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten the sweetened ones. Maybe I should go back to the store…
-Hey, Husband’s home and he’s making thai food for dinner! Maybe I’ve done enough homework for one day…

No time for a full episode of Charlie’s Angels? Here’s the 5 minute minisode courtesy of Crackle TV:

(I’ve got the world’s worst 32 page 1st draft done. Worst because, well, it’s badly written. Also because the assignment specifies a length of 15 pages. I can’t even procrastinate properly. Also, badly written. Bad. Bad. Bad).

I wish I was kidding. About any of this. Any of it at all. Or at least exaggerating for comic effect. But I can’t and I’m not.

even ghosts need to come out of the closet

My haunted closet door opens too slowly for me to stand there and shoot video, but I happened to be standing nearby when it started creaking tonight so I took some pictures. It opens a bit, waits a minutes, then opens some more. It’s creepy. The sequence of photos below were taken between 45 seconds and one minute apart.

I know, that’s only 6 minutes. I could stand there and shoot the video, but I’m lazy, ok? Lazy and tired. Who starts a 5 day archaeology conference at 8 a.m. every day?

I put a knitting needle through the hasp on the door earlier and when I returned to my room it was gone. I have a single room. Nothing else was touched that I noticed so I’m hoping I was just too tired and didn’t really “lock” it like I thought I did.

photo 1

photo 2

photo 3

photo 4

photo 5

photo 6

photo 7 (problem resolution)

meanlouise

rebecca stone gordon