Quote of the Day

"Well, but isn't this project basically working to destroy Western thought?" A certain professor, in an extremely offended voice, during the Q&A after the fascinating and lovely keynote speech about sense memory at our conference. He sounded confused about the difference between terrorism destroying Western civilization and critical, scholarly exploration of the way we think, and attacked our speaker as if she were participating in the former. He is officially my nemesis.

Quote of the Day

A new feature here, since I'm starting to feel like my entire life is good news/bad news (mostly the later, these days). Hopefully it will give you a better idea of how I spend my days. Just because it's called Quote of the Day doesn't mean I'm going to do it every day, though. Quotes are all real and unedited.
Quote of the Day: "Why they all gotta be hoes?" A perennial question on the #16 bus, as yet unanswered.

Good News, Bad News: Retail Therapy

Good News: I, unlike celebrities, the wives of dictators, and women in film and television, do not engage in the stereotypical feminine retail therapy of buying shoes I can't afford.
Bad News: I might have an equally serious problem in the form of retail therapy buying plane tickets I can't afford. And this not even a week after I seriously considered drastic changes in my life designed to eliminate the need for air travel....

Good News, Bad News: Berlin

Good News: I took a vacation! I visited friends in Berlin this week.
Bad News: Berlin wasn't really warm enough to be a spring break destination. And although it was promisingly warm in Minnesota when I left, we've gotten 6 inches of snow since I got back.
Good News: Berlin is great, even in the snow.
Bad News: Berlin is great, even in the snow, except when the public transit workers are on strike. This leads to a deadly combination of really cranky city-dwellers, picket lines, overcrowded Ersatz-transport, and lots of people driving (on slick roads) for the first time in years.
Good News: There are a lot of Berliners who think "it's annoying that they're striking, because it takes me an hour and a half to get to work, but I think it's good, and I support them, because they probably do deserve higher pay." Oh, those Europeans....
Bad News: I am not nearly as understanding, since I too am underpaid but still have to pay for a taxi to get home after 10pm.
Good News: Other than that minor glitch, it was a nice vacation. I recovered from the mutant super-virus that ruined the first half of March for me soon after arriving in the city. I got to meet baby Mathilde, who is very sweet, and reconnect with Inga, Sandra, Patrick, and Leo, as well as kebab, Turkish honey, and currywurst.
Bad News: I did not do homework. This could arguably be listed as Good News, but since I now have a week's worth of reading and writing to do, and only two days in which to do it, it feels much more like Bad News at the moment.
Good News: I did relax in Berlin. I even read a book for fun (The Master Butcher's Singing Club, by Louise Erdrich, which I definitely recommend).
Bad News: I'm having serious bakery fantasies again. Having relaxed makes the oncoming stress of school, the conference (coming up this Friday), the lack of summer plans, and the general anxiety about my future really unappealing.
Good News: It's almost April. So the semester is almost over.
Bad News: It's almost April. Every passing day chants "there's not enough time, there's not enough time," and it's getting louder. It's probably Worse News, though, that my calendar is speaking to me....

No, really. Timing is everything.

Regarding my the-world-is-against-me-waah-waah-waah post below: it wasn't until later that I realized today is Daylight Savings. Why couldn't this silliness have happened on a weekend without midterms?

Good News, Bad News: Timing is everything

Good News: I'm trying to be more patient with the world and not let little things ruin my day (week, month).
Bad News: This is really hard when I feel like a physical manifestation of Murphy's law. It's not usually that big a deal when my bus is ten minutes late, but ten minutes is much longer when I'm at the bus stop at 6:30am and it's 20 below (not an exaggeration). It's not that big a deal when I'm sick, but when I'm sick at the same time Rob is sick at the same time I have midterms, it definitely darkens my mood. It's not that big a deal when strange computer techs come to my office to fix the department computers, but when they are loud, it's early, I'm sick and trying to study, I'm tempted to fix the computers myself. With a hammer.
Good News: I may not have much patience at the moment, but I also don't have a hammer.
Update: The techs keep announcing "security breach!" in weird Trekie voices. I would go work in our quiet study room, but I found out that that's where their "base of operations" (i.e. lots of techs with donuts) is. I might start carrying a hammer.