lots of stuff

Once again, it's a beautiful day here in Lancaster. It started out pretty yucky, but by about noon, it had turned into a sunny, mild day. It's about 50 F outside, and I feel like I should be wearing shorts!

Last night we had FHE in Preston, and it was a blast. Before going on, I should probably explain that some of the YSAs from our ward go to the university in Preston (University of Central Lancashire), and they have a house down there that they share. Well, really only Nathan lives there, but the others have all lived there off and on before, and it's sort of their base when they're in Preston. Nathan and Alex have been coming to FHE with us lately, so we decided it was only fair that we should go to Preston, since they always come to Lancaster. I was uncharacteristically giddy during FHE, for my part. I think it was a combination of being somewhere other than Lancaster, not having to be in charge of anything for FHE, having funny guys around, and having eaten nothing but a Lion candy bar for dinner (I was starting on my dinner when I realized it was an hour later than I had thought, and I had to rush out the door without eating most of my meal). Anyway, I was very giggly and a bit irreverent for the first part. But luckily, I sobered up just enough to be respectable, and we had a fun time. We wrote to the lone missionary from the ward, who'll be back from Ireland in the summer, if I remember correctly. JoAnna had also brought fake, rub-on tattoos, and so we each did one of those. Mine is a feather. :)

Tonight we're feeding the missionaries, and I'm really excited about it. We're having chicken fajitas (the kind that aren't really fajitas, because they don't have fajita sauce on them, but they're a specialty of mine). We talked to the district leader on Sunday to make sure it was legit for three or four college-age girls to feed two Elders, but it's all OK. I've been wanting to feed them ever since I got here, and I just hadn't really taken the intiative to get it going.

This past weekend, both Sarah and Denise had gone home for the weekend, so JoAnna and I were the only ones there at church from the uni. JoAnna spoke in Sacrament Meeting, and it was really weird to not have her sitting next to me during the meeting. I kept wanting to poke her and tell her about something, but then I realized that Ruth Lisgo was next to me, not JoAnna. On the way home from church, she invited me to her place to have dinner with her, which was very nice. We had tacos, including yummy guacamole, and talked about a bunch of stuff. I've been really enjoying getting to know JoAnna a bit better, and I'm looking forward to going to London with her in three weeks for Phantom of the Opera.

I'm also really looking forward to having Katie Bills come out in two weeks! Today and tomorrow I plan to spend some serious time making firmer plans for when she's here, and figuring out how much things will cost and what-not. I've got to try and work out whether we'll be able to make it to Edinburgh or not. The north-south train lines are crazy-hectic these days, and while I'm not too worried about getting up to Edinburgh, I do worry a little about making it down to London in time to meet Scott and Elizabeth, who are coming over from Paris to spend the weekend with us. So, time to get down to some serious planning for all of this.

Well, I suppose it's time for me to get going, so here's the quote for the day:

"In a world where what we want is only what we want until it's ours." (10 points)

I'm still waiting for someone to get these as well, from earlier posts:

"You talk about him as if he had occasional bad manners." (upped to 30 points)

"Who put me in this bed? I'll bet his face is red. I call him down with every tear-drop that I shed." (upped to 30 points)

Erin's back, and she's gonna get you!

I hope that Paul didn't get too excited about being on top of the scoreboard for a few days there. I knew that as soon as Erin returned from her Florida vacation (SO jealous!) she would shoot back up again immediately. And indeed, when I came home today, there were 9 emails awaiting me, 7 of which were Erin racking up the points.

Lots to talk about today, but I'm very tired, and I need to call my parents, so it'll have to wait. Sorry.

"You talk about him as if he had occasional bad manners." (25 points)

"wouldn't it be loverly?"

Name that quote for 10 points.

I chose that for my title because of the bee-yutiful weather today here in Lancaster. It's partly cloudy, and the temperature's been around 46 F (8 C). Now, that may not sound so wonderful to most of you, but for here in cloudy, cold, windy Lancaster, this is gorgeous! In fact, it's just perfect for me. OK, so I wouldn't temperatures a little higher -- maybe up to about 60 F -- but this is just how I like things. Unfortunately, it's not supposed to stay too long. The next week is supposed to be relatively warm, but cloudy most days as well.

I'm feeling productive today, because I went to the library. I was probably there for a whole half hour, even! :) I photocopied some journal articles I've been planning to read, about Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). They're a series of critiques by non-CDA scholars, and the responses from CDA scholars. I've been wanting to see what other scholars have had to criticize about CDA, and it should be interesting reading.

I also got some books about Orson Welles from the library. The last few days, I've been working on transcribing an episode of the Jack Benny radio show, an episode with Orson Welles as guest star. It's been getting me interested in Welles again, and I also wanted to look at some biographies to make sure that some of the things I want to say about him are backed up. Orson Welles was a very interesting man, and I have quite mixed reactions to him. My very least favorite film adaptation of Jane Eyre is the one with Orson Welles as Mr. Rochester, from 1944. But I digress -- all of this Orson Welles stuff is for a different day, preferrably after I've looked over the two books I got.

But what I really am excited about is the DVD I got from the library, The Third Man, which Welles starred in in 1949. I remember this film from when I was very little. It's one of the few movies my Dad has ever bought, and I remember watching it as a family once when I was pretty young. I've always loved the theme music from it, especially the Anton Karas version, and I seem to remember enjoying the film too. It's been a long time, though, so I don't really remember it too well, but I'm looking forward to watching it. As soon as I'm finished with it, in a few days, I plan to get Citizen Kane, which I've never seen before -- I figure it's about time.

new OTR site

I just have to share this site with you all, and many thanks to Donovan for introducing me to it. It's called RadioLovers.com, and they have lots of Old Time Radio mp3's for free. They don't necessarily have a whole lot of episodes of each show, but they quite a wide selection of shows, and many that I had never heard of before. I plan to try out some shows like Harry Lime (a spin-off of the movie The Third Man), Witch's Hour, and The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen in the next several weeks (or months?). I also downloaded 22 more episodes of The Whistler, that I didn't have before. That makes me very happy!

Speaking of OTR, I got my website all ready to upload, and the silly department lab computer won't read my CD-RW! So, I'll have to try again sometime.

So, a quote. "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." This is a tricky one, and here's why: you get 10 points if you can give me the most recent movie this is in (the most recent that I'm aware of, that is), 20 points for the name of the song, and 50 points for the name of the movie it was first used in. Enjoy!

moles, alarms, and mice (or mouses?)

My Brother The Chiropractor recently sent me a little jar of C-4 Cream, which is a mixture of C-Herb and Replenishing Cream. C-Herb is an herbal product for removing cancerous or cancer-prone areas of skin, such as warts and moles. I have these two moles I've been wanting to get rid of, and after applying the cream for the last week or so, the first is starting to come off. It's pretty cool, actually. It just eats away at the weird skin and leaves the normal skin just as it is. I expect that it will be completely gone in about another week or two.

Recently, my alarm clock stopped working. I think I wrote about it last Sunday, when I was late for church because I slept through my alarm. Well, on further investigation, I learned that I hadn't slept through my alarm; rather, my alarm hadn't really gone off. I've been using a software application that I downloaded off the internet, and it's been great so far. I usually wake up to a nice mp3 from a list that I've selected, and it works like a charm. It worked great last Saturday, when I had to get up early to go to Chester. But Sunday, it suddenly stopped. The application still starts up, but the music doesn't play. I've tried everything I know of, and nothing has gotten it to work. I'm going to send an email to the company and see if they know what's giong on. In the meantime, I may have to rely on friends to give me a call on the mornings when I need to wake up early -- which luckily, is only Sundays for the next few weeks. And if anyone has any brilliant ideas for me to try out, I'm open to suggestions.

Just before Christmas, my computer mouse also quit working. One day, it just decided to not work with my computer. So for the last month or so, I've been doing without a mouse, only using the pad at the front of my laptop. It felt weird, after four weeks of this, to use the department computers and have to use a mouse again! Anyway, a few days ago, my mouse suddenly changed its mind again, and decided to start working. So I now have a mouse again. But now, I'm so accustomed to my mouse-pad on my laptop, that I don't like using the mouse for everything anymore -- just some of the more difficult things, like cropping photos ans such.

QUOTE: "The hardest thing I've ever done is keep believing there's someone in this crazy world for me." (15 points)

forgot

I was going to post something, but I forgot what it was I wanted to say. So, here's today's quote:

"Who put me in this bed? I'll bet his face is red."

20 points

a few HP memes

I gacked these from Jen -- thanks!

Hmm, not thrilled, but I can handle this. I actually quite like Percy, and I think he gets the shaft sometimes.




The Weasley Boy Marriage Quiz made by Sapphire.

OK, this one I don't get at all. I mean, *Cedric*? I've never been one for the athletic type. Although, come to think of it, Cedric does have a strong sense of right and wrong, and that's very important to me, so I can handle this one too.




The HP Boy Marriage Quiz made by Sapphire.

This is my favorite. What else can I say?




The HP Male Marriage Quiz made by Sapphire.

And one more quote, for 10 points again. "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think whether they should."

Ah, what the heck, another one from the same source, just because I love it so much -- even though it might give it away.
"God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth."

a post with no point

A little while ago, I had a brief online chat with Paul, one of my readers (wow, I have 'readers'!), who mentioned that he checks my blog about twice a day. He also checks twice a day all the blogs of everyone else he knows, basically, and I hope this sentence confuses you as much as it does me. Anyway, point is, I suddenly felt like I had to post something so that I wouldn't disappoint Paul too much. So here it is. There's not a lot to talk about right now, but you're getting a post anyway.

First, let me take care of the quote for the day, worth 10 points this time:
"By the way, why did you kiss me?"
"I don't know. I was about to be hanged, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

Ah, the memories! I remember the first time I went to see that movie. But not too well apparently, as I seem to remember seeing it with some high school friends, but it came out a few years after I had graduated from high school, and I don't recall having any contact with those friends during that particular year. I think I'm mixing it up with the first time I saw another classic film of the same type of genre, which may just end up being tomorrow's quote. We'll see.

Well, for all those who haven't yet heard, let me make you all aware that I have been called, sustained, and set apart to serve as the Enrichment Counsellor in the local Relief Society presidency. It will certainly be an interesting experience, and one that will stretch me. Our February Enrichment is next week, on February 2nd -- not much time. I'm starting to freak about it a little bit. In any case, I'm anxious to get some new people in as Enrichment Leader and Enrichment Teacher. The sisters who are there now are wonderful, but one of them is moving very soon, and I feel very strongly that it is important to get new people into those positions so that I can train them to do things how I think they should be done. The Enrichment activities in our ward have largely been just for entertainment, at least the ones since I got here, and I have very strong feelings about making Enrichment something that really addresses and fills the needs of the sisters in a spiritually uplifting way. I also have strong feelings about the division of responsibility in planning and executing Enrichment meetings. All of this, you understand, is within the bounds of what the Spirit dictates in particular circumstances -- I don't want anyone thinking that I'm trying to be dictatorial and impose my own ideas about how things should be, with no regard for what's going on in the ward and what the Lord wants.

Moving on, though ... I'm getting my data ready for my assignments of the semester. For one class, I'm analyzing linguistic variation (read: accents) in an episode of Jack Benny. That should be fun, and I've been working on the transcript for that particular show, which is always both enjoyable and tiring. For the other class, I think I'm going to do an analysis of some news articles about car accidents, and see whether they display a bias against SUVs. Lots of articles tend to personify SUVs and talk about them as though they have a mind of their own, and they go around purposely doing destructive things and killing people mercilessly. I'd like to see if that's a trend specifically linked with SUVs, or if it happens in reports about other cars as well, and the phenomenon occurs simply as a way to save words. Anyway, if you find any articles from the last 5 years or so about car accidents of any type, and specifically about SUVs, please let me know. Maybe drop me an email with a link.

Oh, and just one last note before I go. I'm working on updating my personal website, including a page with links to some of my favorite old time radio shows, so that you all understand what I'm raving about when I go on about Jack Benny, Phil Harris, and the Whistler. I'll be sure and let you all know when I have it uploaded.

Chester, soulmates, and coursework

Chester

On Saturday I went to Chester with a group that was organized by the Graduate College (kind of like when I went to Whitby in October). We stopped first at a factory outlet shopping center for 2-1/2 hours. I was done shopping after 1 hour. After that, I read for my CDA class -- that lasted about 20 minutes before I was so annoyed I couldn't take it any more -- and then I wandered around the complex for the next hour or so, reciting to myself the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, which I'm working on memorizing.

After that, we went to Chester. A lot of the students did more shopping there, as there are some great stores, and the sales are on big-time right now. I, however, went to the cathedral. I was highly impressed -- I've seen some great churches in my day (including Notre Dame de Paris and the York Minster), but this one blew them away, in my opinion. The outside wasn't that much to look at, although it was unusual, being made of sandstone. But the real kicker was inside -- the decorations were amazing. I kept taking pictures of the floor, because the tiling was so wonderful everywhere. Then there were the choir stalls, which are just always fascinating to me, and misericords. Good stuff. I will be sure to let you know when I've added those pictures to my website, and put some links in here.

I also tried to see the castle in Chester, and the moment I found it, I realized why the guidebook didn't really say anything about it. There has been a castle on the site since around 1070, but it has been so altered and dismantled down through the centuries, that by the time anyone was interested in preserving things like castles, there wasn't much left to preserve there anyway. I did, however, stop by at the Grosvenor Museum, which had a very interesting display about Roman Chester -- there was a Roman fortress at Chester by at least 76 AD, and many people think there was a Roman settlement much earlier, although there's no conclusive evidence of that. They had some interesting stuff in the display, including a Roman-style lock (fascinating!) and an abacus, with an explanation about how to add and subtract in Roman numerals. The main parts of the Roman fortress have left their mark in Chester, as the main streets of the fortress remain the main streets of the city now, and parts of the city wall mark the boundaries of the fortress as well.

Soulmates

Last night, "the girls" got together for dinner. (If you're not aware by now, "the girls" refers to JoAnna, Denise, and Sarah, all of whom are both students at Lancaster and members of the Church, and active ones -- there are other students in the ward, but they don't come to anything.) We had a sort of potluck meal together, and then we sat around doing silly girly games afterward. JoAnna taught us how to find out who our soulmate is (and I'm so planning to do it with lots of you!), and Denise taught us this numerology-type thing to find out if you're compatible with someone. Many of you will be pleased (and probably not surprised) to hear that my soulmate is Edward Fairfax Rochester. And if you don't know who that is, you can't be my friend anymore! :)

I had a great time, though! It was the sort of bonding experience that I really miss these days -- being able to sit around with girls who are not drinking, swearing, speaking a different language, or talking about who they want to shag, and just being silly and having fun together. Good times, good times.

I'm also very excited for FHE tonight. We're going to watch Napoleon Dynamite, with root beer floats, microwave popcorn, and rice crispy treats. Yum!! I'm so pumped for this movie -- I've heard tons about it, and I plan to like it. So I hope I'm not disappointed!

Coursework

I got my first piece of coursework back today, with my mark (read: grade) on it. I got 73%.

Wait, wait! Before you get all sad for me, I have to tell you that in the Social Sciences Faculty, anything above a 70% is a "distincion" mark. So, that means I did really well. REALLY well. So, yay! :) Elena put some really good comments in, and looking through it, I realized how badly I need an editor for things like this -- there were several mistakes, the natural consequence of doing 3 drafts and then revising all of them before turning one in.

So, big sigh of relief on that one! I was starting to get really nervous about it, so it's great to see that I did all right. That grade, of course, is subject to alteration when the external examiners review the work, but I hear that they rarely change the grades, except in unusual circumstances. That grade, though, also means that I'm on track (so far) to get an overall distinction for my degree, which would be really great. I'd also have to get over 70% on my dissertation in the summer, along with high marks on all of my other coursework. So, there's much left to do, but hey! it's still a possibility.

Quote

I've been trying to think of harder ones for y'all, as I keep thinking of the same books and movies. But, for today, I'll have to stick with a fairly easy one again.

"Only during thunderstorms, sir." (10 points)

Jack Benny link

I was checking out the website of the International Jack Benny Fan Club (of which I am a member!) today, and they had a link to Yuks television, where there are clips from four of the greatest classic comedians of American entertainment. For those of you who have never experienced the wonder of Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, or Groucho Marx, I highly recommend that you use this link. (Red Skelton is also in there in a classic role as Freddie the Freeloader, but not nearly as funny.)

Today's quote, for 10 points: "I would be quiet if he liked, and as to talking rationally, I flattered myself I was doing that now." And just for good measure, one more (from a different source), for 20 points: "What's a Chinese urn?" "Depends how long he works!"

Happy Inauguration Day!

Today is a good day in American politics, and I mean that whether you're Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, or whatever else. Inauguration Day is always historic, and I hope we pay attention to it. I've added one of my favorite quotes from Bush's Inauguration Speech on the sidebar. It was a great speech -- and I mean that if you're conservative. :) It was great because it reached beyond the bounds of President Bush himself, and stretched to the ambitious topics of freedom, God-given rights, and the founding and preservation of America. Weighty matter, that. If you didn't hear it, please read it. I promise you'll be better off for it. President George W. Bush's Second Inaugural Address

I also watched National Treasure today, and that in conjunction with the Inauguration today has made me ... pensive, I guess? I want to say that I'm reminiscent about the Declaration of Independence, but let me clarify that. It sounds like I'm saying that I was somehow involved in the drafting of the Declaration, which (of course) I was not. However, I have personally adopted the Declaration of Independence as a statement of personal belief, and that's what I've been reminiscing about. It's now on my desktop wallpaper. Unfortunately, I can't read it.

About the movie, though. It was good, not great. The writing was weak, and it had a plot that was bursting to the seams -- so much so, that you felt completely out of your depth by about 3 minutes into the film. There was no time to catch your breath before you were thrown into the middle of this huge plot. Action and conflict are important in plots, and you have to have it at the beginning to pull people in, but you need to allow your audience time to soak it in, as well. But enough on that.

Today's quote, worth 20 points: "One may have that condition by fits only."

weird dreams, and State of Fear

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. But I've separated everything, so you can pick and choose what you want to read.

Let me start with the QUOTE, so you don't have to scroll all the way down to find it. "I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me." (10 points)

weird dreams

I've been having really weird dreams lately. A few nights ago, I dreamt that I was at home and it was Christmas time. We all sat down for Christmas dinner, but the mood wasn't very bright. Soon, people from the family started drifting away from the table and didn't come back. There was also a little spat starting up between my brother and my mom. Eventually, everyone was gone except for me and my brother (not the one who was arguing with my mom). I could hear my mom in the kitchen, complaining about how she had to do all the work, and no one appreciated what she had to go through. And I started crying, and yelling about how Christmas in England was so much better, because they actually all stayed at the table and talked with each other and acted like a family. My brother was goading me on all the while, agreeing about how our family wasn't acting like a family. It was so intense that I actually had tears in my eyes when I woke up a few minutes later.

Then, the night before last, I dreamt that I had applied to the University of North Texas to do a Master's in Physics. They wrote me back with a rejection letter, stating that they were not accepting me, mainly due to the poor recommendation that one of my high school teachers had given me. I hadn't asked this teacher to recommend me anyway, and I couldn't help thinking that it sounded like they had gone specifically to this teacher to try and get some dirt on me. They quoted parts of his "recommendation" to me, saying things like that I was "hopelessly ignorant and dim-witted" and that my "presence in the classroom had caused disruption to the other students". Things that really didn't sound like me at all. But the thing that really annoyed me was that this particular teacher taught a math class, which I admittedly hadn't done well in, and they had purposely ignored my high grades in other math classes and in my high school and college Physics classes. The teacher who had slandered me was one that I never had in high school in real life, but the really weird thing is that I remembered him from another dream I had months ago. I had taken the first half of this math class already and done really well in it. But then I had him for the second half of the class, and for some reason, the two of us just couldn't stand each other. So I would sit at my desk in the back of his classroom and seethe with rage at him while I tried to work out my problems, and it was like everything I had learned in the previous semester had suddenly disappeared from my memory. So I didn't do well in that particular class, but all the rest of my grades had been very high. The dream ended with me writing back a letter to the UNT Physics department, accusing them of bias and cherry-picking, and outlining my argument for why I was qualified for a Master's in Physics.

State of Fear

I'm almost done reading State of Fear, by Michael Crichton. It's typical Crichton drivel and reads more like a film script than a novel. It's riddled with profanity and is much more overtly sexual than I appreciate, especially the first 100 pages or so. Its only redeeming quality is intriguing ideas.

The novel has had several reviews, many good and many bad. And while I haven't read most of them, the ones I have read seem to ignore an important part of the novel. Most of the reviews, from what I've read, focus on the idea of global warming and environmentalism. That's a big part of the novel, and a very intriguing one, as Crichton cites all kinds of commonly plugged evidence for and against global warming and other environmental 'catastrophes'. The heroes of the novel come out on the side against these issues, and I completely agree with their arguments. But there is a bigger issue at play in the novel. State of Fear is not really about global warming, any more than Amadeus is about Mozart. Both are about a wider and deeper issue, and the overt subject is merely a means to an end.

State of Fear is about just what it says it's about: the State of Fear. Its central theme is that modern society thrives on keeping its citizens in fear about something or other. People are very easy to manipulate when they are afraid, and our modern society illustrates that point as well as anything. There is, as Crichton calls it, a politico-legal-media organization (the PLM) that operates to keep people in fear so that they can control them. Modern universities feed the fear by 'discovering' new things to fear.

Now, while all this sounds a lot like a crack-pot vast conspiracy theory, I must say I agree with it on the whole. My one problem with Crichton's theory is that he doesn't seem to move beyond the Communist scare. Right now, he says, the fear is environmental catastrophe. Before that, it was the Cold War and nuclear threat. Before that, it was Communism. But before that ... ? He doesn't mention anything. Which raises the question for me, if the theory is correct, then what was the big fear before Communism, and before that, and so on? Which also raises the question, when did this 'rule by fear' begin? Can it be pinned down to a particular time period, a particular theory, or is he suggesting that it is perpetual - has always been around, and always will?

Crichton answers the first question, in part, in his appendix, where he discusses the theory of eugenics, which was highly influential at the beginning of the 20th century. But he still doesn't move beyond that. And, as far as I can tell, he doesn't answer the other questions (keeping in mind that I haven't quite finished it yet). But I would have to ask whether it isn't possible that this 'rule by fear' can be pegged down as arising around the time that Marxism came into favor?

random

So, I can't sleep. I have tried everything I know, including sleeping pills, but nothing is doing the trick tonight. I even put in Robin Hood, hoping it would soothe me to watch a familiar DVD, eventually lulling me to sleep. Didn't work.

There is no point whatsoever to this post. Sorry to disappoint you.

I suppose I ought to go try reading my CDA textbook now, that ought to make me sleep. On second thought, though, it might just end up making me so mad that I'll be up for another two hours.

"London ... now home of the world's greatest secret agent, who has his home in a smart red pillar box somewhere in Mayfair." (50 points -- get that one, Erin!)

more phantom-ness

Today's quote is one that I couldn't help thinking about when I watching The Phantom of the Opera yesterday. It wasn't quite appropriate at that point in the movie, and I had to stifle laughter. It happened during the reprise of All I Ask of You, when the Phantom realizes that Christine is in love with Raoul, and he's sitting there singing and crying. It's one of my favorite parts of the musical, actually. Anyway, I couldn't help but think, "Is that a tear? How do you people do it? Did you pinch yourself? Or are you thinking right now, 'My dog is dead.'" (20 points, just because it's so durn funny, and you deserve it if you know this quote)

I've also been ruminating on my attraction to the story of The Phantom of the Opera. It's such a dark story, but I truly love it. I'm not just talking about the musical -- that I love primarily because of the music. But the actual story, completely apart from the musical, I also just love. The novel manages to make me bawl like a baby every time I read it, and that's not too common for me. The story touches something in me that nothing else has ever managed to quite get at. What is that something? Any thoughts out there?

phantom of the opera ... again

Yeah, it's just as good the second time.

A friend of mine hadn't seen it yet, and I certainly raised no objections to accompanying her, despite having seen it once already. So we went tonight. It's just fantastic. Can I say that again? It's fantastic!!

Patrick Wilson is perfect as Raoul, Gerard Butler is perfect as the Phantom, and Emmy Rossum is perfect as Christine. Minnie Driver is hilarious as Carlotta (although she doesn't sing for herself -- surprise! -- which everyone else does). Honestly, my only complaints are these: First, Emmy Rossum doesn't quite do justice to the high notes on a few songs, notably "Think of Me" and "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again"; second, the chandelier falls in the wrong place -- plot-wise, not physically.

And I would also like to state here that I believe the height of men's fashion occurred right around 1850 - 1860. In my opinion, there is no fashion of any other time that is quite so becoming to a man. Similarly, there is nothing so sexy as a cloak or greatcoat in the hands (or, preferrably, around the shoulders) of a man who knows how to use it. However, let me also state quite plainly that, while I find these fashions most satisfactory in the proper context, that context is clearly not nowadays. Most people who try to get away with this stuff in the modern era are usually, well, kind of creepy. Or just plain weird.

OK, today's quote. Oh, and before I forget, I didn't assign a point value for yesterday's, so I'll have to say that it's the default of 10. As is today's.

"Why, you speak treason."
"Fluently!"

dvd-o-rama

So lately, I've been watching lots of DVDs. I didn't realize this until just today. But in the last week, I have watched several hours worth of Danger Mouse, 13 Going On 30, Emma, The Four Feathers, Zoolander (not worth it), and ... well, the last one I'm going to leave for my daily quote, so read on! And then today I got my Christmas package from the Pehrsons (thanks!), which included two DVDs of Jack Benny television programs. Yay! You know, for being such a fan of Jack Benny's, it might come as rather a shock that I have never, ever seen one of his TV shows. So thanks a ton, Paul and Christina, for this brand new experience! :D

Oh, and as if all this were not enough, I am planning to go watch Phantom of the Opera again with a friend who hasn't seen it yet. Movies galore.

On the academic side of life, things are getting better. I started reading my first CDA textbook today, and although I still think it's a woolly area, I'm more at ease with the idea of studying it for three months. Happily, after that, I can turn back to traditional stylistics (which I enjoy much more) and not worry about CDA ever again, if I don't want to. Although I suspect I will, but probably not for the reasons that Ruth Wodak would want me to.

All right, the 'daily' quote: "If there's one thing I know, it's not to mess with Mother Nature, mother-in-laws, or mother freakin' Ukrainians."

school frustrations

The new term started today, and I have to say that I'm quite annoyed with things. I'm starting to be truly disillusioned with academia. Mind, I've been aware for several years that modern academia is terribly biased, but I've always felt that my desire to teach outweighed that fact. Right now, though, I'm not so sure.

My two main classes this term are in Critical Discourse Analysis and Sociolinguistics. Now, I've been deeply interested in both of these topics (well, maybe not CDA, but discourse analysis in general), and I was excited to take the classes. Until about the last week or so of last term. That was when the CDA teacher taught our mandatory colloquium-like class. Maybe it's just her nationality ... you know, culture-related issues ... but I just can't get over the feeling that she sure thinks a lot of herself and is so excited to teach this course so that she can talk about how brilliant she is and how much she's done, while dropping names every five minutes. But besides all that, it seems that the whole philosophy of CDA is rather "woolly", as Hermione would say (5 points for the right book). It seems to me that it's very much based on intuition and previous bias, which is rather ironic, since it claims as one of its main tenets that the researcher should "question everything". And I get the same feeling about modern sociolinguistics, although I haven't been to that class yet. Now, I suppose that it's always possible to just move away into areas that are more interesting and dealable to me, but I'm disturbed at the trend that seems to taking place in modern academia, this trend toward the touchy-feely disguised as science. And now I'm wondering whether I really want to be pushing against that for the rest of my life. But on the other hand, I currently don't feel like I really have many marketable skills right now. Aargh. I hope I'm able to come to terms with this soon.

Well, on to today's real quote of the day (the last one was just an hors-d'ouevre -- I think that's how you spell it!). This one's worth ... 35 points, I'd say. "The impertinence lies, sir, with those who would seek to influence a man to deny his beliefs!"

sigh of relief

So, I'm done. All assignments completely finished. The only thing I have left to do is to print one more copy of each, as I forgot that we're required to hand in two copies of all our coursework. So I'll go do that in the morning, before my first class of the new term at 11:00.

Also, I want to make it clear that you can still grab points for quotes even if someone else has already left a comment with the correct answer. We're operating on the honor system here, and if you say you knew it without looking, then I trust you. "And remember -- this is for posterity, so be honest." (15 points)

I'm now off to read some more Harry Potter before the term starts for real, and then to bed, to bed! I've had some really late nights recently, so it will be nice to get to bed at a decent time finally. :)

pocket-knife found, eyebrows tweezed ... ah, what a relief!

For the last few weeks, I've been unable to find my pocket-knife, which was quite disconcerting, partly because I just really like my pocket-knife, and partly because I always use those tweezers to clean up my eyebrows. All other tweezers are just so hard for me to deal with. Anyway, I've been trying to use these silly tweezers that I got from a Christmas cracker on Boxing Day, and they were terrible. But today, I found my pocket-knife again! I had accidentally put it in a different place in my backpack than I normally do, and it was hidden quite effectively so that I couldn't find it. So, I tweezed my eyebrows again today, and boy do I feel better!

I've been forcing myself to write this paper for corpus linguistics, and I just hate forcing myself to write. I'm sure this is going to be one of my least favorite papers ever, but you have to do what you have to do, huh?

OK, and now for today's quote of the day. This one's worth ... let's say 20 points. "You shall walk up the pyramids of Egypt!"

making the switch

So, I'm planning to get an iPod in the next month or so, and in preparation I'm trying to actually get used to iTunes. I've had iTunes on my computer for some time now, but I haven't really used it that much (I mostly downloaded it so I could use the feature on the music store that lets you look at the playlists from radio stations -- I love that!). But, I'm starting to think I'd better make the switch from Windows Media Player. For one thing, we all know that anything from Apple is better than anything from Microsoft. Secondly, I like that iTunes uses standard file formats (like mp3 and AAC), since that makes it easier to work with the files in other programs, many of which don't support wma format. And, besides all that, if I'm going to have an iPod, then I'd like to actually know how to use iTunes so that all my music is in it when I want to synch.

The biggest problem I've had is that I've downloaded a lot of music from Walmart.com, which downloads as protected wma files -- which, of course, iTunes can't convert. So, for all of those, I'm having to write them to CDs first and then re-insert the CD so that iTunes will be able to rip the files. Sheesh! What a pain! But, I expect it to all be worthwhile in the end.

the plague of the boring titles

So, tonight I really truly finished my pragmatics assignment. And I suppose I ought to happy that my biggest problem these days seems to be finding interesting titles. I used to give my papers cool titles like "Did you say 'beets' or 'beats'?" and "From ignorance to expertise". Now those are intersting titles. But no, right now all I can come up with is the boring stuff that really ought to be in the subtitle. So for now, at least, my pragmatics paper has no better title than "Pragmatics and humor in an extract from The Jack Benny Program". How boring is that?! Doesn't exactly jump out at you and make you want to read it, huh? Sounds like "chloroform in print", to quote a famous American humorist (let's say ... 20 points for the person who said it, and another 10 for what they were referring to).

So, any ideas? Let me know. I'm getting desperate about this. Especially as I don't want to send two papers to UNT with my grad school application that have practically the same title.

two down, one to go

Congratulate me! Tonight I finished my second assignment, this one for pragmatics. (Well, I'm almost done, that is -- I still have to look up a few references in the library and tweak my conclusion.) That means I only have one more to write, about corpus linguistics. I'm really dreading that one, as I feel like I have very little to say. However, these past two papers have made me feel like 5,000 words was very little, so maybe it won't be so bad.

So, yay!! I'm feeling rather accomplished now.

Oh, and one more quick quote for you. This one is worth 50 points, as I doubt that any of you will know it, but we'll see ... OK, here goes: "I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak."

another year older ...

... and deeper in debt. (Once again, 10 points will be awarded to anyone who can tell me what song those lyrics are from , which are unfortunately true for me this year! An extra 5 points go to anyone who can name one movie the song is in. And I plan to actually start a score-board on my sidebar, so this is serious!)

So while I was showering this morning, I suddenly realized: I'm now 26. Weird.

Happy Birthday to me!!

Anyway ... I'm not really doing much today. I've been reading lots of Harry Potter, and I'm now feeling like I've wasted sufficient amounts of time this vacation that I now have to get back to work. So today I will be forcing myself to actually write things for my two papers that are due at the start of next term. And in between, I'll be working on some other productive things, like adding photos to my website, or updating parts of the Linguistics Lexicon I've been trying to build. Should be good.

I'll probably end up hanging out with some of the YSAs from the ward tonight. One of them called last night, saying that he was trying to find out if anyone was doing something interesting. I told him I wasn't -- at least not yet -- and asked him to call me back if he found anything going on. He has an old mission companion visiting, and he said if nothing else, I could come hang out with them.

Oh, and tomorrow I have plans to spend the day with one of the families in the ward. On reflection, I'm not too excited about that. It's an older couple, somewhere in their late 60s or (more likely) mid-70s, and they have a 30-something son who lives with them (and is an absolute bore, in the most polite terms I can think of), and they are all very ... proper. As one of the YSAs put it, "The Queen would be proud." Hmm. I hope this doesn't last too long tomorrow. I've been before, and it wasn't that bad ... but I did have help then, with one of the other university students being there with me. I also hope I don't sound too terrible here ... Honestly, they're a very nice family. Just not the kind of people I would normally choose to hang out with.

Well, best get going. Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas and moons

I had a really fun Christmas. On Christmas Day I spent the day with a family in the ward. We had Christmas dinner and Christmas pudding, and then we played some games. I had a great time with the younger girls (aged 15 and 17), which was a little odd, since I already knew the older kids quite well -- they're all Young Single Adults in the ward, and I have talked to them several times and hung out with them and stuff. But, I guess it's because the younger girls were willing to play games, and most everyone else wanted to sit around and watch TV or nap.

Yesterday was Boxing Day, and again I spent the day with a family from the ward. They were way nice! I have known them since I got here and always liked them, but I had never been to their home yet. It's very nice -- quite roomy, and very elegant. We again had Christmas dinner and Christmas pudding, then we went for a walk down by the canal (where I got my shoes all muddy -- not to worry, though, I cleaned them when I got home), and then went back home and watched TV for hours on end. It was very relaxing, and I had a great time. I felt very comfortable with them, more so than with the other family, which is kind of odd, since I've done a lot more with the others. Anyway, they brought me home around 11:00, and I called Katie and had a super conversation with her.

I've become very interested in the moon lately. I don't know exactly why that is, but it's suddenly quite fascinating to me. So I found this little HTML application to add to my blog, which gives the current phase of the moon. Kind of cool. It's very easy to use if you want to check it out. Just click the moon in the picture, and it links to the website where it's hosted. You can get the HTML code from there. I also found out today that the day I was born, the moon was barely into the waxing crescent phase, by about two days (which would make it ... about 4% of full).

some stuff

Two Commercials

I was just looking at Paul's blog, as it's been a while since I hung out over there, and he has two recent posts with commercials in them. Take a look at both of them. They're pretty great.

IKEA: The Lamp. You may have to watch it twice to catch what the guy says at the end, as he's got this little (presumably) Swedish accent. Hilarious, though!
Honda: When everything works. Absolutely amazing. Be sure to check out the article from Snopes.com that Paul linked here.

Harry Potter Update

In case some of you don't know yet, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is now finished and will be published 16 July 2005. You can pre-order it now from Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com, and I'm sure you can order a copy at most any bookstore near you as well, if you want to be there for midnight madness and mayhem.

If anyone wants me to pre-order British editions over here, let me know and I'd be glad to do so. (You can either email me or just post a comment to this entry.)

Also, if you'd like a little more info on this, check out JKRowling.com, specifically the Rumour section and the News section. And if the Do Not Disturb door is still openable, you can find instructions on Mugglenet about how to get the clues. (I haven't been able to get it to work, personally, but be sure to give it a try.)

Fair Tax articles

I haven't heard much about the Fair Tax Initiative (House Resolution No. 25), but I read two great articles about it today. If any of you don't know anything about it yet, be sure to check out the official website, which you can get to from here, or by clicking the banner at the bottom of my sidebar. And then, if you're interested in hearing some more about it, check out these articles.

Walter E. Williams - National Sales Tax. Williams is an economics professor at George Mason University (if I remember correctly), and I've learned much more economics from him than I ever did in High School. He makes the point that while a national sales tax like HR 25 proposes might be a step in the right direction, there is still a much larger issue at stake that will not be solved by any kind of tax system.

Matt Towery - The 'Fair' Tax. Matt Towery supports the Fair Tax Initiative, and in this article he laments that it's creator and main advocate doesn't get the respect he deserves in Congress.

one more meme ... please help

Everybody, please help me find out what kind of pirate I am! I desperately need to know! :D

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

lots of memes

What's a meme, you may ask? Well, it's basically something in your blog that's about ... yourself. :) And it often refers to all those silly-yet-somehow-so-entertaining quizzes that tell you which character you are and stuff. Which is what it refers to here. I found several that I really liked, and was quite pleased with the results, so here you are.


'Tis a great mystery, but somehow you have come to
belong in Jane Eyre; a random world of love,
kindness, madness, bad luck and lunatic
ex-wives. There really isn't much to say about
the place you belong in. It's your place, and
though it seems far from reality largly due to
how random the events are, you seem to enjoy
it. You belong in a world where not too many
people understand you, and where you can be
somewhat of a recluse.


Which Classic Novel do You Belong In?
brought to you by Quizilla


Woo-hoo!! I belong in Jane Eyre!! :D


Hey, you're not OOC at all! You are... Canon
Snape! You have the dubious honor of being the
ugly, sarcastic, greasy git so many of us know
and love. Regardless of whether you're in a
het, slash, or gen fic, you are the
detention-giving bastard who would never even
dream of cuddling a fluffy bunny rabbit or
wearing purple leather. Even if you do
something that seems OOC, your writer is good
enough to explain it so that it seems
believable. Unfortunately, it's fairly rare to
find you in fanfiction, but for those authors
who write you... Ten points to Slytherin!


What Wildly Out-of-Character Fanfic Snape Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Warning: If you decide to take this quiz yourself (which I doubt most of you will, knowing you all as I do), be aware that it's PG-13, in my opinion, because of all the ridiculously out-of-character Snapes out there who apparently think about little other than sex. Happily, I've never read any of those fanfics.

My very British name is Amelia Garside.
Take The Very British Name Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

And last, but not least ...


Congratulations! You're a preposition! preposition
(prp-zshn)
n. Abbr. prep.
A word or phrase placed typically before a
substantive and indicating the relation of that
substantive to a verb, an adjective, or another
substantive, as English at, by, with, from, and
in regard to. HELL YEAH!


What Part of Speech are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

LOL! I thought the idea of finding out what part of speech you are was hilarious! And hey, I'm a preposition, how cool is that? You know, you can do lots of things with prepositions.

new quote

You may have noticed my new quote on the sidebar. If not, you should read it now. It's by Lemony Snicket, the author of the Series of Unfortunate Events. I just read the first book of the series yesterday and today, and I really enjoyed it. He has a fun style, and despite the mild plot and simple language, I had a great time with it. So I decided to see what more I could find about Lemony Snicket on the internet, and I came across an interview he did with Reading Is Fundamental (RIF). RIF asked him what activities he thought would encourage children to read more, and I loved his response. Not particularly funny, according to normal Snicket standards, but still a great quote.

Tonight was our second Stake Choir Christmas Concert, down in Chorley. It went quite well -- the tenors even remembered their entrance on For Unto Us a Child is Born! The local MP (Member of Parliament) was there as well, so that was kind of special.

I called Margo after getting home from there tonight, and we had a good 2-hour long, Nirvana-like conversation. It was wonderful talking to her, hearing her voice again, and discussing all of our issues and grievances, as well as good times. Though I think we did a lot more of grievances tonight, but it was quite cathartic. :)

Happy Birthday, Emma Jane!

I was wakened this morning around 6:30 by a phone call from my sister, informing me that she had had her baby! Emma Jane was, if I remember right, 7 pounds 2 ounces, and around 19 inches. That makes her the smallest of Wendy's children at birth, which rather surprised us, since she was almost a week overdue, and we rather thought she'd be quite a bit bigger than the others. Wendy said she has a very fair complexion, and doesn't look much like the other kids at all at this point. It'll be fun to watch her grow up!

Congratulations, Wendy and Bruce!!

Oh, and Bruce gets a second congrats for his college graduation that will take place this weekend. Way to go!

some exciting things

Exciting thing #1: I finally sent out Christmas packages. While I was unable to send them to absolutely _everyone_ I know and love, those of you who are expecting something (or have been told to expect something) can now look eagerly in your mailboxes. Well, I'd wait a week or so, actually, before getting too eager, but you get the drift.

Exciting thing #2: A few days ago I got an email informing me that my parents had signed me up for Rush Limbaugh 24/7, as a Christmas present. Yay! *small happy dance* That means I can now finally listen to Rush again, and it's been grand. The computer network I'm on over here doesn't allow me to live-stream audio or video, or I would sure have been listening avidly to him for the last few months. But with 24/7, I can download the audio and listen to it whenever I want. Exciting.

Exciting thing #3: Tonight I went to watch the movie "Phantom of the Opera". Wonderful! I've never seen it on stage, but I felt like the movie was perfectly done to match the music and the general tone of the story. Wow. JoAnna and I are still planning to go see it on the stage in London, though, probably sometime in January.

Exciting thing #4: Well, there isn't one, really. But here's something ... odd, I guess. Last night I had the strangest craving for a traditional English breakfast: dry toast, baked beans, sausage, and all. Strange, I know. But I went ahead and bought some beans and sausage today anyway. Hope it tastes good in the morning. :)

why do I do this to myself?

I'm not too sure what I was thinking, but I decided to go ahead and rent Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban tonight. I honestly don't know why I do this to myself. I guess there was some hope that I might not find it as revolting this time -- that maybe it would grow on me. It didn't. It did the same thing it's done every time before. Namely, it made me mad and annoyed. Do either David Thewlis (Lupin) or Gary Oldman (Sirius) have any idea what it means to talk in a low voice? I don't believe they do. Either that, or Alfonso Cuaron thinks we're all deaf out here, and the only way to hear anything is for people on screen to shout it. Or -- which I consider most likely -- they don't understand that sometimes our emotions are better portrayed as we try to hide them, and that sometimes, hiding our emotions may be the best way to cope with them. Stan Shunpike was wonderful, of course, but that was it, really. And everything just feels so rushed!

Sorry to be ranting about this again -- I know most of you have heard it ten times over already. Once again, my conclusion is that I have to go read the book again. I can handle that. ;)

chopsticks pro, right here!

So tonight was our Linguistics Department Christmas Social, and we had Chinese food at one of the restaurants on campus. Ironic though it seems, the majority of the students there were Chinese ... Gotta love it! I'm constantly amazed at how they all seem to know me, especially the girls. Some of them who I honestly don't even remember meeting before know me by name. It's a bit weird, but nice in a way too.

Anyway, when I sat down with my food, I was surprised to see most of them using spoons to eat with, and they teasingly asked if I was going to use chopsticks. To which I replied that yes, I certainly was -- at least, I was going to try. The chopsticks were a lot longer than I'm used to, and they were plastic and didn't stick quite as well as the wooden ones I'm used to using in the States. And of course, the rice wasn't nearly sticky enough, but that's nothing that unusual for what I'm used to at home. Anyway, about halfway through our meal, one of the girls said that I use my chopsticks 'professionally'. ;D And they all were impressed that I done as well as I did with them. So there you are, you didn't even know it, most of you, but you are all acquainted with a professional chopstick user!

Many thanks to Sara, who used to eat Chinese with me all the time during our sophopmore year at Ricks College, where we used to have competitions to see who could make it the longest using only chopsticks!

friends are the greatest

Wow. I am so amazed. And humbled. And almost a little bit ashamed.

This evening I was sitting around in my room, reading random articles on the Harry Potter Lexicon (since I'm finished with my first assignment, I've decided to take some down time now), when my phone rang.

It was Sarah Hockley, one of 'the girls' -- meaning, one of the other on-campus students in Lancaster Ward. "We're at your door, and we have something for you," she informed me.

I made a brief attempt to clean up my room a little (it's been getting really terrible lately!), and then went down the corridor to open the flat door for them. Sarah and JoAnna stood there (Denise already went home, earlier today), and there they stood with a large, green-wrapping-papered Christmas present and a home-made stocking for me, along with a medium-ish brown envelope with my name written on it in red and green markers.

Apparently they did all of this on Sunday night, without telling me anything about it. They almost let it slip several times during Family Home Evening on Monday, they said -- especially with all that sugar in them, from eating brownies and pumpkin cookies and chocolate chip cookies at JoAnna's while making up my packages, repeated the next night as we baked holiday cookies for our activity.

They asked about my paper, and Sarah offered to let me use her printer if I was still having trouble with the labs the next morning. We chatted for a few minutes, and they said they couldn't stay because they had to go someplace. Just as they were leaving, I looked a little more closely at the stocking they had decorated for me and noticed that it had a potato-angel on top of the tree, singing at the top of its lungs (which I assume is a reference to fact that I like to sing, as they all know well). When they had left, I examined the stocking a little more closely and found that they had wrapped up several little presents to stuff inside it, along with the usual candy.

Earlier today, I had stopped by Denise's room to borrow her 3-foot Christmas tree. She had offered, even before it got here, to let me use it during the holidays, to lend some holiday cheer to my room. I had been intending all day to decorate it with the ornaments and tinsel she handed over with it, but I hadn't gotten to it yet -- maybe I just wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit yet.

But now, I will go decorate it right away and turn on the lights, so that I can put my stocking and other presents under it (including those that have arrived already from my sister). Good friends really are a wonderful thing to have.

nothing special

I don't have anything that special to talk about, but I thought I'd write a brief update and relieve you all from the dreaded thoughts of having to read my rants about Wuthering Heights and unreliable narrators.

I finished my first assignment tonight. That means that tomorrow I can take it to the computer lab and get it printed out, and maybe even hand it in that day. That would mean I'd have all Friday to just play! Happy, joy joy! (I will be posting the paper on my website, for those of you who might be interested in it.)

I think I'll be going to the movies this weekend. I really want to see "Phantom of the Opera", and I just learned today that it will be at our theater on Saturday! I didn't expect it to get here until after Christmas, really.

The last week or so I've been Harry Potter obsessing again. Yeah, I know ... I just may have to start re-reading the books from the library over Christmas vacation. I also am planning to send in an abstract for a possile presentation at the 2005 Harry Potter conference, which will take place in the UK this year. I know, it's pretty geeky, huh? Kind of like going to a Star Trek convention. But I don't plan on dressing up like anyone (although probably several others will), and I would be doing a presentation on a real, academic subject -- not just debating whether Hermione loves Ron or Harry! :) (BTW, my paper would be on characterisation in Harry Potter, particularly of James and Lily, since they get very little characterisation except through other characters.)

Welll, I guess that's it. I hope everyone is doing GREAT out there! I am almost ready to send out my Christmas packages, so be ready!

rambling post about Wuthering Heights

During the last week or so I read Wuthering Heights online. It's been quite an interesting read. I couldn't help but remember some comments I'd read earlier, explaining how many critics for several years claimed that WH must have been written by Branwell Bronte, as they couldn't conceive of a woman -- especially one who had been so secluded most of her life -- could possibly have written such a passtionate book. One even claimed that Emily, if she did write it, must have been an 'unsexed female' to be capable of something like this. At the time, I laughed to myself and thought, "Silly people, thinking that women are uncapable of passion! Little do they know ..." Well, when I read the book, I almost agreed with them! It wasn't the passion necessarily that surprised me, but the violence (which, in her day and age would have been referred to as passion). Wow.

And then, the whole way through the novel, I kept asking myself, "What the heck is wrong with these people? They've got major issues!" It wasn't just Heathcliff, but everyone else too: Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar and Isabella Linton, Hindley ... they all had such issues, and I just couldn't help but wonder what kind of freaks they were and how they got that way. Certainly, a lot of it has to do with the society they grew up in and the circumstances imposed on them: Catherine was spoiled from childhood, which makes her temper more virulent; Heathcliff usurps Mr Earnshaw's love from Hindley, which makes Hindley more jealous and cruel. But it seems that all of their flaws existed in each character before these external forces were inflicted on them -- what makes Catherine passionately tempermental in the first place? what disposes Hindley to jealousy and cruelty to begin with?

But one of the things that has really bothered me more than anything is the classification of Lockwood as an unreliable narrator. This really irks me, and I'll tell you why: it's because all the assertions of Lockwood's unreliability seem to rest on faulty reasoning.

One paper claimed that "Since both narrators [Lockwood and Mrs Dean] speak from their own, subjective point of view, they are necessarily unreliable." This is just plain absurd. This would mean that literally any first-person narrator is automatically unreliable, which is not the case. And we can even extend it to claim that any third-person narrator is also automatically unreliable. Of course, there's always an amount of unreliability in any narration -- narration is itself a subjective activity, and merely by choosing to tell us a particular story, or to tell us certain things about a certain character, or to note an otherwise un-noteworthy event, is a reflection of any narrator's subjectivity. But unreliability in a narrator is more than just subjectivity -- it is a question of whether or not the things presented in the text are believed by the reader to have actually happened, and to have happened as the narrator presents them. The narrator of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is not unreliable merely because he is a first-person narrator (and thus, speaks subjectively), but because the reader learns that he has intentionally obscured facts from the reader. Furthermore, unreliability must depend on the actual text of the narration to create this doubt in the reader's mind. It is entirely conceivable that a reader might conclude that Jane, the first-person narrator of Jane Eyre, is deranged or delusional, and that nothing in the text ever really happened to her, but that she is in reality a warped, embittered old maid living by herself in her old age and pretending that all these things really happened to her. That's any reader's right to make such conclusions. But because such a doubt is not introduced in the text itself, Jane is not considered an unreliable narrator. There is no textual evidence to make the reader question the truth of what Jane tells us, although we know that it is all told from her 'own, subjective point of view'.

One commentary (by Cliffsnotes, even!) claims that Lockwood is unreliable because:

he mentions twice that Heathcliff does not extend a hand to him, yet Lockwood still considers Heathcliff a gentleman.

But, in these times (which by the way, are not Victorian times, but Enlightenment times, although they certainly reflect on Emily Bronte's Victorian society) a person's status as a gentleman really had nothing to do with their manners. It was a social position, determined mainly by the criterion of ownership: if you owned land, and especially if you owned lots of money, you were necessarily a gentleman (or a lady). Certainly, gentlemen and ladies were expected to behave in a more refined manner than other people, but that wasn't the main criterion. You could be the worst, rudest person in the world, and everyone around you could hate you, but they would still refer to you as a gentleman. So, Lockwood's conception of Heathcliff as a gentleman is entirely accurate, despite Heathcliff's obvious lack of courtesy.

The next point annoys me even more, since it is entirely text-based (as opposed to the last, which is based more on schemata and semantics). Cliffsnotes goes on to claim Lockwood's unreliability because:

Lockwood also notices that “grass grows up between the flags, and cattle are the only hedgecutters” but erroneously assumes that Heathcliff has a “whole establishment of domestics.”

But this is not at all what Lockwood has assumed. Look at the actual extract, from Chapter 1 of WH:

[Heathcliff] sullenly preceded me up the causeway, calling, as we entered the court, - 'Joseph, take Mr. Lockwood's horse; and bring up some wine.'

'Here we have the whole establishment of domestics, I suppose,' was the reflection suggested by this compound order. 'No wonder the grass grows up between the flags, and cattle are the only hedge-cutters.'

In other words, Lockwood has inferred, from Heathcliff's compound order, that Joseph is the only servant, 'the whole establishment of domestics'. This is a perfectly natural assumption for Lockwood to make, since if there were a whole score of servants at the Heights, Heathcliff would presumably order one servant to take care of the horse, and another to get the wine. Come on, Cliffsnotes! -- you're a published and respected establishment, please at least make an effort to get it right once in a while!

(NB: I should point out here the possible argument that Lockwood still seems to believe there is a score of servants at the Heights, since in Chapter 2 he repeatedly asks whether he could get a 'lad' to take him home to the Grange, and then send him back the next day. However, this is also a natural assumption for Lockwood. Since his conjecture about Joseph being the only servant, no one has explicitly told him how many servants there are -- indeed, it would be rather odd if someone did tell him. And, in addition to this lack of explicit knowledge, he has now seen Zillah (the 'lusty dame' in Chapter 1), and her presence there obviously contradicts Lockwood's previous assumption that Joseph is the only servant. Also, when he returns to the Heights in Chapter 2, Lockwood is introduced to Hareton Earnshaw, and he conjectures that the lad might be another servant, though he can't decide this for sure. All of this evidence seems to support what would no doubt be Lockwood's default assumption about the servants: namely, that a place as large as Wuthering Heights, with a master as rich as Mr Heathcliff, probably would have several servants.)

Again in the Cliffsnotes commentary, Lockwood's reliability is questioned on the basis of several of his actions, including the following:

[I]n an attempt to make polite conversation, Lockwood misidentifies a heap of rabbit pelts as pets and misidentifies the woman as Heathcliff’s wife. After being corrected by Heathcliff, Lockwood then mistakes Hareton as Heathcliff’s son. Lockwood’s inability to read people and situations make his narration suspect.

Once again, however, these misidentifications are not an indication that Lockwood is unreliable: there is no textual evidence that these things did not really happen, and merely being mistaken about someone or something does not mean that you are necessarily unreliable, no matter how many times you are mistaken. Rather, to me, Lockwood's mistakes in this chapter are an indication, not that he is unreliable, but that Wuthering Heights is an utterly incomprehensible place to him, as are its occupants. These blunders are not so much a reflection on Lockwood's character as they are on the character of Wuthering Heights and all who live there. This seems, to me at least, to be precisely what Emily Bronte was going for in the opening of her novel: she sets up a place and its inhabitants as being completely incomprehensible, and then proceeds to tell us their history so that at the end we do comprehend why they act in this strange way.

Of the two main narrators, I consider Ellen 'Nelly' Dean to be far less reliable than Lockwood. It is clear, for instance, that she wants Lockwood to marry Cathy Linton Heathcliff and take her away from Wuthering Heights. This desire may well drive her to present characters less reliably, in order to make Lockwood think that Cathy would be a desirable wife. The very fact that she does desire it, though, also seems to contribute to her unreliability as a narrator: I would expect, after all she has seen of the people at the Heights, that Nelly would know that such a marriage is hardly likely, considering Heathcliff's calculated plans for revenge, and his deceitful and powerful manipulation of so many others. If Lockwood ever did try to start up a courtship of the girl, Heathcliff would immediately be aware of it, and would never allow the marriage to take place (although he might possibly encourage the courtship, as a means to drive Hareton more passionately in love with Cathy in the face of jealousy, in the same way the he used Linton). Nelly's inability to foresee the consequences of her desire makes me wonder what other things she has had difficulty connecting. Is it possible that she is completely unaware that many of her own actions have encouraged some of these terrible events to proceed, or that Heathcliff had a calculated design in taking over Wuthering Heights, or that Cathy would inevitably fall in love with Linton purely on the basis of her not being allowed to see him? If she fails to see these connections, then it is entirely possible that she has drawn false assumptions about the causes and effects of events in the narration.

Furthermore, Nelly displays major hypocrisy throughout the narrative: she hates Heathcliff when he first comes to Wuthering Heights, then she begins to like him in comparison with Edgar Linton, then she prefers Edgar and despises Heathcliff when he returns after his three-year absence, then she seems to like him again at the end of the story when she is again housekeeper at the Heights; she first helps Cathy Linton to be naughty, allowing her to go out riding (where she first encounters the Heights) when her orders were to keep by her at all times, then she betrays Cathy's secrets by telling Edgar of her love letters to Linton and her visits to the Heights. This kind of inconsistent action on Nelly's part appears again and again througout the story. First she claims that it is not her place to meddle with anyone's affairs, and then she turns around and meddles with them all! This inconsistency may partly be due to a desire to make herself look good in Lockwood's eyes (after all, she is his housekeeper), or it may simply be due a terribly dual nature that makes her unable to decide where she stands, or to stand there when she has decided. In any case, though, it leads the reader (or at least it did me) to wonder whether she might not be displaying similar inconsistencies in her narration: maybe she's being more harsh to Catherine Earnshaw after her death than she was during Catherine's life; maybe she's being nicer about Linton in retrospect than she would have been in the present. Who knows? There is no absolute, definite point at which Nelly's narration is called into question (as there is, for example, in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), but you still have to wonder whether everything she tells us is really how it all happened in the first place.

announcement

It's official. I'm staying here.

That is to say, I've decided to stay at Lancaster for my PhD, as long as things work out like I hope they will. I am still applying at UNT, and there is still a possibility that I will end up there. But, Lancaster is now my top choice for a PhD.

My supervisor, Elena, also happens to be the Research Student Director (or something like that), and she has been amazing. Sometime in about Week 2 of the term, I asked her whether it was possible for research students to teach here, as I was considering staying for my PhD but wanted to be sure to get some teaching experience as well. She informed me that the possibility does exist, but that it would yeild much less financial aid than a teaching assistantship in the US was likely to. She also mentioned some other possibilities.

Well, then a few weeks ago I asked her if she might be willing to write me a letter of recommendation for UNT -- which I was really worried about, since I felt that the faculty here didn't really know me that well yet, and have had no assignments or anything yet by which they could assess my abilities. She said that she would be happy to, though, and even asked another of my teachers (who happens to be her husband) if he would as well.

Today, she gave me my letter of recommendation and then sat me down and had a long (well, 10-minute) talk with me about PhD options, and basically said that she and Jonathan would both be willing to do whatever they could to help me get funding if I wanted to stay here. Specifically, she mentioned a few research projects that they are each working on where they would be willing to take me on as a research assistant, and Elena also said that she will be teaching the undergrad stylistics course next year and would need someone to help out with the seminars for that. "And we have very few research students here who would be qualified to teach a stylistics course," she added (thereby implying, through flouting the maxims of relation and quantity, that I would be one of those few people).

Anyway, I guess the point is, that if Elena, Jonathan, and Marj (the linguistics postgrad secretary) are willing to put that much effort into helping me find a way to stay here for my PhD, and since this really is where I would most like to be for a PhD, I am also willing to publicly state my determination to stay at Lancaster for my PhD if it is in any way possible. Just wanted you all to know.

(Sorry Margo!)

Oh, and Thanksgiving was very nice. We had a great meal, and lots of fun with all our American, British, and Chinese friends.

The Gobbledygook Generator: LOL!

I just had to pass this on to you all. I found the Gobbledygook Generator on the Plain Englisn Campaign website. Quite an interesting campaign, with lots of implications and concerns for linguists and others interested in language use. Anyway, my favorite sentence from the Gobbledygook Generator was this one:

I can make a window to discuss your deconstructed strategic paradigm shifts.

LOL! Too funny!! Check it out for yourself. And while you're there, take a look at the Plain English translations page.

trip to Haworth

So yesterday was my trip to Haworth. It was wonderful! The village is absolutely beautiful, very quaint, and the walks were good. I didn't do much walking, as it IS November, after all, and the gound out there was covered with snow, which partially melted during the day and left the dirt trails quite muddy and yucky. But now that I have boots again, I would like to go back sometime and take a REAL walk, out to Top Withens, or Bronte Falls, or even Wycoller Hall (supposedly the real-life model for Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre - read about its ghosts).

The village's claim to fame really is the Bronte family -- there's not much else that's ever happened there of interest to anyone outside the village itself -- and they show it! I was so amused by the constant references to the family and their works that I even wrote down a list of them.

• Rochester House


• Bronte Cottage


• Withens Cottage


• Bronte House


• Eyres 'N' Graces (one of my favorites - it was a shop)


• Villette Coffee House


• Ye Olde Bronte Tea Rooms


• Ye Olde Bronte Confectionery and Stationery Shop

There were probably several others that I didn't recognize, as I've never read any of their works outside of Jane Eyre -- a deficiency that I've always intended to remedy and never have yet.

I also was highly entertained by one of the shops on the Main Street (which looks very much as it must have 150 years ago): it was called "The Piano's Not for Sale", and outside the shop was a sign reading:

Dignified Haggling and Virtuoso Piano Playing Allowed

I ate a Yorkshire parkin, a local baked speciality, which was delicious. It was rather like a large, round piece of gingerbread. It filled me up quite nicely, and I was never hungry again until dinner time.

The Bronte Parsonage Museum was also wonderful. It is the original building that the Bronte family lived in while their father was the parson for Haworth parish. Much of the furniture in the house was original, with only a few large items having been reproduced from sketches by the children. This year is the 150th anniversary of Charlotte's marriage to her father's curate, a man named Arthuer Bell Nicholls, and there was a large display in Charlotte's room about their marriage. I hadn't realized until just the last few weeks that she was ever married. I was very interested in their story, and one of my next books will probably be "The Life of Charlotte Bronte" by Elizabeth Gaskell, who was a close friend of Charlotte's during the last few years before Charlotte died. In fact, if I remember rightly, it seems the Gaskell was the one who undertook a bit of match-making with the couple -- but that was after Arthur had already proposed once. It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell it another time.

I took a little walk around the village, about a mile or so to Penistone Hill, and then wandered quite a bit trying to get the right pictures with my camera. It was quite a task -- like chasing the horizon. I kept looking out and thinking, "Oh, that would be a lovely picture, if I could just get in the right position for it." So I would walk a little way trying to find the right position, and by that time it had disappeared -- or rather, shifted, so that I now thought that the scene over there would be a nice photo, and would walk around to try and shoot it. All in all, I had quite a job of it trying to capture the West Yorkshire scenery. I did get one or two good shots, though, which I'll add to my website as soon as I have a little time.

On re-reading this entry, I realize that it sounds unnaturally like Charlotte Bronte's style of writing. I suppose that's what I get for being so preoccupied with her lately -- I just finished Jane Eyre today, yesterday I of course thought a lot about her, and then I've also decided to use an extract from Jane Eyre for one of my papers (the stylistics one, and it's been quite entertaining so far -- have I menetioned before how much I love stylistics?).

i'm off ...

Well, this morning I'm off to Haworth, home of the Brontes. A friend of mine was going to come with me, but she called me early this morning to say that she's not feeling well and hasn't been able to sleep for the last few days (apparently she's a chronic insomniac), and so she wasn't going to come. So I'm by myself again today. But that's all right -- I like myself! :)

Right now I'm just waiting for the right time so that I can go down and meet my taxi. I've got about 15 minutes before I need to leave for that. Ho-hum.

Well, I will be sure to write later today, or tomorrow, and share my experiences of Haworth.

happy happy day

Well, today was about the best day I've had since I've been here, I think. I did loads of laundry, which was good (especially since I'd run out of underwear!), and then I went into town to do a little shopping. I looked a little at some shoes and at some coats, bought some socks in Next (my favorite British clothing store, I've decided), and then went out to ASDA, the WalMart affiliate.

A while ago, on my first trip to ASDA, I realized that part of the reason I wasn't doing any cooking was that I didn't have the necessary utensils -- bowls, spoons, spatulas, etc. So I decided that I would go back to ASDA and buy some of those things, along with some more food, and that I would somehow find room for it all and I would start cooking no matter what! Well, that was today's trip. While there I got a few things for the family for Christmas as well, which I'm really excited about. And I finally found some adorable things for my newest niece, who will be born in a few weeks probably -- that had been a long and arduous search, so it was great to finally find some things! I got my cooking utensils, and was disappointed to find that they didn't have any big plastic bowls or the like -- that was rather frustrating. But JoAnna, an American student in my ward, is going shopping Monday or Tuesday for some things like that, and I might go with her and see if we can find something for it. I also found some Orangina at ASDA, which was very exciting -- the problem was that they only had it in a 2-liter size, so I had to get one of those! Oh well, maybe we can use it for FHE or Thanksgiving next week. :)

On my return home, I realized that I felt very content. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun had set while I was in ASDA, and the moon had risen as well. It was a very pretty half-moon, and it looked nice against the darkening blue sky with the bare tree branches between me and it. And I just felt happy -- a deep, heart-felt contentment that I'm where I should be and doing what I should be doing. There's no greater feeling on earth.

When I got home, I took all my things into the kitchen to put them away, and when I opened the cupboard where my one shelf is, I found the shelf beneath it empty. Luckily, one of the girls was in the kitchen, so I asked her if she knew whose shelf it was, and she replied that it had belonged to the girl next to her, but that she had moved upstairs sometime during the week, and I was welcome to take that space. Oh, joy of all joys!!! I could not have been happier! I had felt so long like I couldn't do anything in the kitchen because I had no space, but now with TWO shelves ... wow! I can do anything. I promptly moved all my dishes from my room into the kitchen, and it feels great to have that space back for my books and things again. I tell you, it's the little things in life -- you really don't realize how much things like bed sheets and shelf-space mean to you until you have to be without them!

And, to complete my happiness, I have to say thanks to my brother-in-law and sister for my little Thanksgiving package -- it made me feel very loved! :D

back from my trip

Well, I'm back! I had a marvellous, though exhausting, three days in the north of England, saw some great things, and took some nice pictures. So I guess that means that it was all a success. Let me elaborate below. (NOTE: the links don't work yet, except for the Sutcliffe ones, but they will soon.)

Monday I left campus (via taxi, as the buses don't run that early) at 6:45 am to catch my train to York. I had to change in Leeds, and the train I was on was amazingly cold. In fact, I found that I was rather cold on all the trains during the entire trip -- except the last one (of course) from Carlisle to Lancaster.

Anyway, I first went to York. There I looked around at the Minster (cathedral), which was phenomenal. I would say I preferred it even to Notre Dame, although in different ways. I never knew it before, but apparently Constantine was declared emporor of the Roman Empire in York, at the site of the Minster. I don't know if that was the only place ... I would assume that he was proclaimed emporor in many different places ... but in any case, there's a statue of him in front of the Minster, which was quite nice. The Minster itself is just indescribable. The choir was especially intriguing to me, with its intricate and detailed wood-work. I also walked around much of the medieval wall that still surrounds York. Parts of it have been torn down, but by far the majority of the wall is still intact today, and in good repair. It makes for quite a nice stroll. I also went to see Clifford's Tower, the only remaining part of the castle that used to be in York. It was first a typical motte-and-bailey wooden fortress built by the Normans, although I think there may have been something there before that, too. That wasn't the most wonderful thing I've ever seen, but interesting nonetheless. Mostly York is just a pretty town, with a nice quayside and a woderfully well-preserved old town that still looks much as it must have 500 or 600 years ago.

I then went on to Whitby, found my room for the night, and slept soundly. The next day I spent almost entirely there in Whitby. Ever since going out there Halloween weekend of this year, I'd thought that I would like to go back there, and that really was the impetus for this whole trip. Whitby was lovely! Even in November. Unfortunately, two of the things I really wanted to do I couldn't. I'd been wanting to tour the abbey ruins and then see the Captain Cook museum. The Abbey is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the winter, and the Captain Cook museum is closed entirely during the winter. *sigh!* Oh well, I guess that means I'll just have to go back there again some time! ;) But the rest of the town was still wonderful. I wandered out for a stroll along the west pier, where I watched the locals fishing; I spent a good hour or so in the churchyard of St. Mary's, taking ominous-looking pictures of the graves and the abbey beyond them; and I toured the Grand Turk, a 1997-built replica of an 18th-century man-o-war, and the main ship used for the Hornblower series. That was quite nice, and I was glad that I had read up about ships in the age of sail ... although I wished that I had read something a little more recently, as I got the mizzen-mast and the fore-mast mixed up. How embarrassing!

Wandering around St. Mary's Church yard, I took several pictures of the graves. They're so fascinating to me -- the epitome of sinister Halloween-type gravestones, the kind that you see in cardboard on somebody's lawn at the end of October and think to yourself, "Yeah, right! That's so fake! Graves never look like that. There's no way they could stand up like that!" But they do. And they also get that great coloring, where it looks like the whole gravestone was dipped in white paint, and then somebody else came along and artfully poured a bucket of black paint across the top. As I wandered among them, I occasionally got a whiff of some foul, rank, pungent, smell, and I thought that must be what old, damp graves smell like after 100 years in the North Yorkshire mists. But then as I started back down the 199 steps, I realized that it was probably the goats that were grazing behind the wall on the other side of the steps from the church!

I also took the time to go eat fish and chips at the "world renowned" Magpie Cafe. It has a reputation for the best fish and chips in England ("and consequently in the whole world!" -- movie quote, 10 points), and deservedly so. I kept wondering how good fish and chips could actually be. But I asked the guy at my B&B the night before, and he assured me that, although he had been skeptical at first, he also had found the fish and chips at the Magpie to be worth the price and the wait. Luckily I went early enough that was no queue, and the fish and chips really was delicious! Much better than anything else I'd ever had before, definitely.

Also while in Whitby I learned of the famous Frank M. Sutcliffe, who was a local photographer and revolutionized the photography industry with his techniques. He has some really stunning photographs, and I bought postcards of a few of them, which I'm linking here for your enlightenment, edification, and enjoyment. Toy Boats| St. Hilda's Abbey, Whitby | High Seas on Whitby's West Pier (my personal favorite)

That night I went on to Newcastle, where I again found my hotel and immediately went to a nice, sound sleep. The next morning I got up bright and early and went to wander around in Newcastle's city centre. The problem was, I got up a little too early. When I got there, nothing was open, and the only people around were those going to work. But I found my way to the quayside there, too (which was a feat in itself), and got to see the famous Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Quite facsinating -- unfortunately I didn't get to see it in operation, I'm sure it's quite a sight! I popped over to the Laing Art Gallery for a minute, mostly to see the "Blue Carpet", which was not at all what I had been expecting. I wandered along in the shopping area and was pleased to find a high-class department store with a huge display in the windows telling the story of the Nativity. It's not often you see that sort of thing, at least not in the States anymore, so I thought that was great. I then went down to the Discovery Museum, a free-entry, family-oriented museum. It was fun, but a little skimpy on details -- that is, until you got to the 20th century, which I thought was funny. There they had absolutely every decade in its own little section, with tons more information about each decade than you could possibly want. I skipped that part. Partly because I had to catch a train ... but not entirely.

After Newcastle, I hopped a train to Carlisle, where I did a tour of the castle and met some fellow Americans (from Lancaster, Pennsylvania), and then looked through the shopping centre before heading back home again. By the time I got to Carlisle, I was so tired and exhausted I didn't have the energy to do half of what there was to do. I just wanted to get home, to my own bed, and massage my poor little (ha!) feet, and go to sleep in my own little bed. Which I did. It might sound like I didn't like Carlisle that much, but that's not true. Besides Whitby, it was actually my favorite place that I visited, and I would love to go back sometime soon, maybe to do some shopping (as they had some great stores there that, as far as I know, we don't have here in Lancaster), and to see the cathedral. It was a lovely town, and it is built mainly with sandstone, which is prevalent in the area.

So all in all, I had a great time, but was really glad to get home again. I gave myself a little pedicure last night, which felt great, and then I read parts of Jane Eyre before going to sleep (which I haven't read for years, literally), and fell in love with Mr. Rochester all over again. :)

Oh yeah, when I went out to do some errands this morning (including getting a much-needed book from the library, yay!!), I decided to wear my flip-flops, as my feet are so swollen and sore that I didn't want to put them back in shoes again. But I hadn't quite even gotten to the main campus yet when the right one broke! The little strap that goes between your big toe and ... the next toe (?) ... broke, and so I couldn't walk at all in any way that would keep it on. So I had to take it off, and walk part-barefoot back to my room to put some shoes on. LOL!

"things are looking up..."

"... it's a great little world we live in!" (Once again, 10 points to anyone who knows that quote!)

Things have been going very well this week. My money is closer than ever to being here where I can actually use it. I found a great new skirt the other day in town. I found the ASDA store -- owned by the Wal*Mart family, and I'm a fan! I got a couple of books from the library today that I've been trying to get hold of for some time now. I've pretty well decided on what to do for my assessment essays. And I have partially finalized plans to travel next week, during my reading week.

I'm for sure going to York, Whitby, Newcastle, and Carlisle. I didn't realize it until just last night, but it turns out that the railway line from Newcastle to Carlisle follows Hadrian's Wall pretty closely for most of the way. So maybe I can get a decent picture or two from the train. I'm so excited to go to Whitby again. I've fallen in love with the town. I'm just sad that I can't stay in the youth hostel there. It's on the East Cliff, right by the Abbey ruins, but they're currently only open on Fridays and Saturdays.

I downloaded my photos from last week's trip and added an England page to my website, which will go live tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and I get to attend the Pasty meeting this week (Pragmatics and Stylistics resarch group). Last time I had something else I had to do at the same time, so didn't get to attend. But this time I will be there, and the topic is about mind style in Middlemarch, and I'll also get to meet Mick Short in person (presumably).

So all in all, I'm quite happy today.

quick update

Last weekend I went to Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby, as you know by now. I have been wanting to tell you all about it, but I don't have time as yet. I also took quite a few pictures, and haven't yet had time to get those up on my website. I guess I just wanted you to know, though, that I had a great time and have come back safely. And I made a lot of new friends in the process, too. (The Chinese girls that came with Fu Pei and me now all are a lot more chummy with me. I just feel bad because I have such a hard time remembering all their names!) So, I'll get that stuff taken care of as soon as I possibly can.

Next week is a reading week, so I don't have any classes. I'm toying with the idea of making a big loopy trip, from Lancaster to Leeds, then York, Whitby, Newcastle (upon Tyne, that is), Carlisle, and then back home. Mostly because there were so many things to do in Whitby that I didn't have time for, but it takes to darn long to get there on the train that I thought it would be as well to stop at a few places and see more of the country. I guess I'm mostly worried about the expense and the logistics of it all. Anyway ... will let you know when I figure out what I'm doing. I suppose there's always the possibilty of staying here and reading ...