Luke starts his 2 days per week preschool/Mother's Day Out tomorrow. We
practiced tonight with his backpack and lunch box. If you are offended
by character clothes/stuff, I apologize in advance! ;)
First: The "Teeth Smile" This picture cracks me up. :)
Luke's totally pumped and excited face!
I
am so happy we found a place to send him to school here. I really was
sad to leave his program in Bloomington. This new program is more
structured and fewer hours, and I think he'll learn a lot.
I spent Feb 23 to 26 in New York City with Hal!
We headed up to NYC for a sociology conference. My conference presentation went well (I presented the results of my facebook and mourning survey I did in late summer), with some of the best discussion after the panel presentations I have experienced at a conference. It was definitely worth the trip.
Also, I GOT TO SLEEP AS LATE AS I WANTED and we ate and saw shows and spent too much money but it was worth it. We saw Memphis and Sister Act -- we just bought discount tickets to whatever looked interesting/was available. We rode the on/off bus on Friday, which allowed us to see a lot of the hot spots of the city a lot quicker than my waddling would allow. We saw Balto in Central Park and we ate excellent Austrian food at a little place called Edi and the Wolf. We went to the top of the Empire State Building (it was scary!). Obviously, we were total tourists, but it was nice.
Luke spent the weekend at my parents' house and he had a blast by all accounts. He was apparently a perfect angel, too. He never cried "without a reason" even if "some of the reasons were stupid." Ha!
My PhD comprehensive exams start Wednesday with a lovely little 4-hour torture on theory. I AM SO TIRED OF READING! I can't wait for this to be over. I hope I have studied enough -- because God help me if I fail and have to take these things over again. OMG, I can't even think about it.
So I have Wednesday (theory), Friday (stigma) and the follow Wednesday (law) with an over-the-weekend take home on Methods. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Then, the verdict will come in November, when I meet with my committee to orally defend my answers. After the defense, they kick me out into the hall and decide if I passed or failed. In the meantime, I'll be puking in the hall! :)
I am recruiting facebook users to participate in a 10-minute survey about facebook use after a friend or loved one has died. If you are over 18 years old and interested in participating, please visit: https://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/553551/Digitial-life-after-death-An-examination-of-Facebook-and-mourning. Please repost!
I have a committee for my exams!
At the end of our coursework, we take our qualifying exams. If we pass our exams, we are considered "doctoral candidates" and allowed to do our dissertation. We have four exams -- one in theory, one in methods, and one in each of our concentration areas (for me this is health and media law). We also have an oral defense of our answers. I have had to find four professors to administer these exams, three from the journalism school and one from outside the journalism school. I had my last professor confirm this weekend, so I am ready to go this fall.
This fall.
Because I am DONE with classes in May!!!!!!! I may have said that on this blog before, I don't remember. This semester will one day come to an end and barring some sort of grade disaster, I will be finished.
All that is standing in my way of the end of course work is three classes with a full study each. I have been working on one tonight. I am hoping to get one done by April 1 for the AEJMC (conference) deadline. We'll see how that goes.
ONE paper left. I have minimal work to do on it. It's due at 5 p.m. (It's 11 a.m. now).
I. just. can't. do. it.
But it will get done, oh don't you worry.
This weekend was the conference in Oklahoma, where I presented two papers. The first was on sexual content, sexual themes, and sexual consequences in "Secret Life of the American Teenager."
The second was about faith healing testimonies on the internet.
(I also look really really short in this picture. I am short, of course, but I think I might even look shorter than I am.)
It was a really good conference and I am glad to get two more presentations under my belt!
Of course, it's the last two weeks of the semester before finals, so this is grad student time to SHINE! (Look at how positive I am. SHINE, I tell you. Not fail. Not cry. Not throw rotten tomatoes at professors—SHINE. Now, SHINE, darn it!)
So tomorrow I have a project due and the presentation for the project. I chose to go tomorrow because, obviously, Dec. 2 is Britney Spears' birthday, and I cannot think of a better omen than that! I announced that to my class, of course, when we were discussing the dates on which to present, and they all think I'm crazy. In my defense, one of my dear friends' birthdays is Dec. 2, and so we always teased her in high school about having the same bday as popular-because-she-makes-suggestive-grunting-noises-in-songs Spears. I am half tempted to have Britney narrate my presentation. I also considered making cookies to bring in as a celebration. Alas, my presentation is on a class I have created called First Amendment and the Internet: An Introduction. Although Brit-Brit might have nary a thing to do with this topic, well, I'll make something up.
Sometime between now and next week, I have to watch NINE episodes of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. This seemed like a great idea when I was coming up with my topic for my qualitative class. However, it means I have to WATCH NINE HOURS OF SECRET LIFE. How can life get any better?! I daresay, it cannot. I will CONQUER those episodes. I swear.
I also have various and sundry things to tie up for my health class, including the dread group project. I loathe group projects. My group is pretty good for this project, but I still would rather do the whole darn thing on my own. That's a presentation due next Tuesday. Awesome.
And this weekend, JENNIE (my sister) comes to visit! It will be mayhem. It will be magic. It will be lots and lots of volleyball (her team is playing a tournament here). And pizza. Oh yes, there will be pizza.
Work all day, Thankgiving to play!
(Seriously, I have dug myself into a hole of procrastination and I've spent about eight hours trying to put a dent in it. I have done some substantial work. I still have A LOT more to do. I'm hoping to get enough done that I'll be able to relax during the break. Which means I'll be working pretty much constantly until we leave on Tuesday.)
One of my Korean classmates had a creature he had never seen before on his back porch.
Our Tanzanian student, who lives near the Korean student, saw the same creature. She thought he had a new pet. The creature stood there frozen, staring at her.
Both were mystified. The Korean student took a picture of the creature.
"Well, what does it look like?" we (another American student and I) asked them in the grad lounge today.
A thought occurred to me.
"Was it an opossum?" I asked.
They were both confused.
"Does it look like a big rat? With a tail that doesn't have any fur?" we asked.
"Yes!" They replied. "But it was big."
I spread out my hands on the table.
"Yes, about that big."
"A Possum!" We exclaimed.
They don't have possums/opossums in Korea.
You learn something new every day.
Lots of drama going on at school right now, but I'm not going to write about it here. Suffice to say, everyone (me included) has bad attitudes right now.
On happier notes, I am most addicted to a computer game. What kind of game, you may ask. Well, it's not anything cool like Myst or World of Warcraft or even Return to Zork (although I was highly addicted to Zork back in the day). It's not even Bejewelled or Farmville or Mafia Wars.
It's a facebook game called Typing Maniac.
What does it say about me that I am addicted to a game that scores you on how quickly and accurately you type?
I'm pretty sure it says "Major Dork."
I guess I'm used to this title by now. I can't help but play it. I'm currently the leader out of my friends, although I assume that's because they are all normal and got tired of it before they cared enough to get good at it.
And I should be good at it. I've typed since I was a young kid. I remember typing a 99-page story on the computer in 7th or 8th grade (not in one sitting, of course). I wish I still had it. I'm sure it was horrible. I worked and worked to learn how to type. We had computer class in grade school with Mavis Beakon, well, the class was with another teacher, but Mavis Beakon was the computer program typing instructor. My gut tells me that I loathed Mavis, but I cannot recall why. In high school, we had and entire year of typing when we were sophomores, and the first semester was ON A TYPEWRITER. Please, a typewriter? I'm happy to report that the students at my school now have one semester of typing, and it's in a computer lab. Not to mention the hours and hours I spent typing as a reporter, journalism major, and creative writing major. And now I'm in grad school, home of the gabillion-page paper.
Typing is my blood, man.
(I'm sounding more dorky by the minute.)
So anyway, I'm addicted to Typing Maniac. I play it often. It is a great way to relieve stress, which is very important right now (you see that? I brought it back around to school drama. I am so good!).
What games are you addicted to?
Today, shockingly, I did the work I had set out to do! I did my homework for tomorrow and the work for my meeting tomorrow by 3:30, which is unheard of. I did laundry and dishes (until I cut my finger on a knife and had to stop). This is in addition to my class and my 8:30 a.m. meeting this morning.
I helped Hal make pizza for dinner (whole wheat crust, mushrooms, shallot, bacon, garlic, sauce and cheese) and then watched UK claw its way back for a victory over a feisty Miami (OH) team. I explained why I disliked "Twilight" on a friend's facebook status.
I even posted a facebook status trumpeting my work ethic today. My mother asked, "What did you do with the Stacie I know and love?" My friend Megan O. said in response to my mom, "Haha, Paula. I was wondering where the procrastination went!"
I apparently have a problem with procrastination.
Well, I DO have a problem with procrastination. I prefer to think of it, rather, as "performing really well under deadline." I was a journalist after all. My friend and old roommate Anne told me this weekend that she couldn't figure out how I wrote papers at 3 a.m. when we were in college -- it was because I HAD to. And I worked better in the middle of the night rather than getting up early to produce (plus, one semester, I didn't have class until 2 p.m.!).
I'm procrastinating right now, actually. This NaBloPoMo is such a procrastination too. I HAVE to upload my blog. I have to also do all this work for school. But the BLOG! It MUST get done! In fact, I procrastinate this blog, because it's 10:10 and instead of having done this hours ago (and probably produced something less crappy), I had a glass of wine and watched the basketball game (wine and I have made up after our fight on Saturday morning).
It's that time of the semester, of course. The time where everything is coming to a head, and there seems to be so much that it's almost debilitating. Sigh.
If only I had gotten a head start.
Oh, wait. That's against my nature.
I'll get it all done tomorrow.
As I've tried to go to sleep this week, it has hit me.
My brain has been whirring.
I don't really know how to describe it. When I can gesture, I spin my finger around like the "she's crazy" gesture that is so common. I make a noise that sounds like the whirr. (Come to think of it, I bet I look totally nuts.)
It's like I lay down to sleep and all of my brain synapses start to fire on an accelerated scale.
It's that time in the semester, folks.
What's the state of affairs?
My pedagogy class has two major projects due. My qualitative class has a major project. My health class has a project as well, along with written homework, which makes up a little bit for the lack of major-ness of the project. I have an experiment to get off the ground. And my research assistant job is constant work.
I love doing projects. I love doing research. I am simply too busy and too fired up about it all to sleep.
So when I try, it starts. The whirring.
My brain working overdrive.
So I stumble out of bed and do some work. It's silly to toss and turn when I could get some stuff done, right?
The whirr is slated to be relieved in the middle of December. It won't stop a moment too soon. I am a person who likes her sleep.
Tomorrow I have a literature review, intro, and method section due for my qualitative methods class. This has resulted in quite the mushy brain.
I am working on a paper about "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," analyzing the sexual content in the show, especially as it relates to risk, responsibility, and consequences. To do the literature review, I have been working on compiling information about sex on TV. As you can imagine, there is a lot of sex on TV.
Also, and those of you who watch Secret Life will love this, the show won a Gracie Award this year, which (I kid you not) "strives to encourage the realistic and faceted portrayal of women in entertainment, commercials, news, features, and other programs" (gracies.org).Realistic is not the word I would necessarily use (not all the time, for sure).
(As I have been typing this, it came to mind what types of characters will come to this blog through what strange and wonderful google searches. Sex. Teenagers. TV. Oh Dear.)
On a completely different note (kind of), those of you who are interested in chick lit (as well as DAWSON'S CREEK!) and different funny themes (in this case -- college life), check out Sadako's post today. It's excellent and mindful.
Swine flu is attacking the university like crazy. Tonight it was reported at church that we will not have the cup this week because of the swine flu. Apparently cases on campus TRIPLED in the last week, and health services advised church that this week it might be better to forgo the "everybody drinks out of one cup" thing.
I have had one professor cancel class because HE had the flu. Poor guy, he was advised not to teach, so we had a free day on Wednesday morning (for the record, Layla and I chose to spend the time sleeping). I also have a health class where the professor brings cleansing wipes and hand sanitizer if we have to handle papers or we want to use it before class --- but she also made us put our heads on our desks to vote for something two weeks ago (don't get me started on that, suffice to say that aside from being childish, it seems like putting your head on a college classroom desk is akin to just licking a doorknob). Riding the bus is starting to feel like roulette, where you just hope no one sneezes on the back of your head or touches you by accident (although, to be honest, who doesn't live in fear that someone will touch them on the bus (on the bust?)). I saw one bus driver wearing a mask, although he wasn't driving my bus.
It's getting ugly over here, people. So far (knock on non-contaminated wood), I have felt fine. I've even eaten a lot of bacon. Hopefully this will pass without incident in the J household.
For a class project my pedagogy class is working, we met with a man who does corporate communications for Google. In fact, he was one of the first 100 people hired by Google. Aside from having a big brain, the man was very nice and knowledgeable.
And he convinced me to join Twitter.
He talked over and over again about the impending importance of Twitter. I have been holding out. I had been reluctant to join.
I broke down. I figured, if I might need to know how to use it one day as a journalism professor, I better just get used to it now.
So I'm Twitter-ed. If you, feel free to follow me at staciemei
Yesterday in class I was giving a mini-presentation about a book I was assigned to read. I was supposed to be saying "scientific psychology" but I kept saying "scientology."
I would not have realized it except one of my classmates kindly stopped me to say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Scientology?" Then everyone burst out laughing. Including me. What a fail.
I turned in my last final paper today, so this semester is officially over.
I can now relax for ... about 2 and a half weeks. I am taking two summer classes this year! I have never take a summer class, save for a film class I took at Xavier before my senior year of high school (I am SUCH a nerd).
Also going on is that tomorrow we have someone from a moving company coming out to give us an estimate. Hal and I are moving to a rental house in June, and we want someone to move our furniture for us, especially the CHINA CABINET OF DOOM. We bought said Doom from a little old lady. It's a beautiful piece, but it's huge. And heavy. And doesn't fit into our current dining room, so it shares the living room with us. Anyway, I'm considering putting a big sheet over the Doom so the moving man doesn't see it and gives us a lower estimate. ("Under the big sheet? Oh, now, that's an art project. We don't need that moved. What is it? Oh, um, well, it's a sculptural interpretation of DOOM.")
Regardless, I'm embarrassed for the moving man to come because our house is a disaster -- too much work for both of us lately, our cleaning is behind. It looks as though a research paper factory exploded in my living room -- the dregs of two final papers and a take home final. I will be picking research out of my carpet for weeks! I will do what I do best -- stack. I am a master of stacking. I can stack things with the best of them. I will stack all of these papers and put them in the office, where there are currently other stacks, stacks from previous semesters, stacks of books, stacks of church music (Hal's), stacks of pictures, stacks of all sorts of various and sundry things.
But! I have to take the moving man into the office! He has to see the two desks he will need to move. Crud.
Well, I guess I'll beg forgiveness. I will tell him that we are sorting things for packing preparation (which should be true, but isn't quite true yet).
Perhaps he won't be able to see the China Cabinet of Doom because of the mess. Maybe this will work for me after all.
It was like I had gotten to my 200th post and so I never needed to write again! :)
This is not the case. The truth is, it is finals week, and while I have only one final, I also have two final papers. I've been working a lot on these. The bulk will be done tomorrow (one paper due and one final takes place), and the final paper is due on Friday.
I did something out of character this weekend. I spent a lot of money on shoes. Usually I try to buy cheap shoes. However, since I am heading to Italy here in one week, I decided I should probably grab some new shoes so my feet don't hurt as much as they did when I was in London in March. I also wanted some brown shoes to hide my American-ness a little more. (Because the clothes, the blondish hair, the accent, and the fat won't give me away!) ;) Women's comfortable brown shoes are not easy to find.
I wound up at Dick's and bought a pair of Merrell's. These, in fact. I've been breaking them in all weekend. They're pretty nice! Hopefully they work for the cobblestone adventure we have ahead of us.
