Links to Love

Literary stuff:

How interesting is Klingon?

Mad About English trailer:




I like this poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

How to save lit mags.

Insulting words to learn. I remember how I told someone they were "fundamental" in 4th grade because "mental" sounded bad. I secretly laughed because I had looked it up in the dictionary and knew it meant "basic."

I also like this post with a poem by Carol Lynn Pearson.


Random stuff:

Is this your luggage?

Nimble brain tips from NPR.

NPR forgot to mention that being short is also good for slipping between people in basketball.

I know my brother Jeff can jump rope, but can he do this?



Awesome acoustic music suggested by Dave Eschenfelder. (His favorite artists are Andy Mckee, Andrew White, Don Ross, and Mathew Santos.)

So this is why people don't like my short (but honest) answers (I don't feel like I have to explain anything when I know I'm telling the truth) and bad eye contact skills. They think I'm lying!


Artsy stuff:

Paintings of the presidents' girlfriends (did they really all wear red lipstick? I don't think so).

I love these constellations from thread.

Coverage of the Vocalis Choir in Salt Lake.

Cutesy video of a couple of photographers:

Meet the Brockintons from ashley brockinton on Vimeo.

I love this house of two skateboarders.

Apartment Therapy contest winners--worth checking out. I think this one's pretty funky (minus the antlers, thank you very much).

Red balloon homage video:




Stunning wedding pictures of a couple where the groom made the bride's dress. (I wish I could see more of the dress. It looks stunning. And I love his stubble!)

Cameron Moll prints are lovely (thanks, Melissa).

This photo essay of a bride who died 5 days later of cancer is heartbreaking.

This business card is brilliant.

Lovely artwork by Ryan McGinness.

I'm hearting this art blog.


Funny stuff:

Pre-chat video of man blowing a bubble using emoticons.

Cuban gynecologist car salesman commercial. Oh man.

Remember the awe of watching your hamster run through mazes? I should have tried this with a wok:



Google specials:

Tasks in calendar!

Inbox preview for slow connections (like mine).

Importing other email addresses! (I am swooning now!)

Automatic message translation! (Faint!)


Mormon Stuff:

Word stats of General Conference.

Funny young women memories of lessons.

The history and implications of theethouing in prayer.


And on a more personal note:

Kamakazi mode is sometimes the only reason I get work done on my master's thesis. (Thanks, Francy!)

This is the doctor I've been referred to for sinus surgery (it's been 11 years, about time I'd say).

This is the allergy medicine I've been rubbing into my elbow three times a day!

Do you have any links for me to love?

Catch-Up and Christmas Preparations

A little catch-up. If you don't want to read that, skip to the last two paragraphs.

Last Monday, I had a Thanksgiving dinner at the institute with a bunch of Americans (mostly missionaries) and Mike. I wished I'd made the stuffing, but just to have such a big dinner was awesome, and the apple pie was amazing! I can't believe all the work Sister Taylor must have done to turn a pumpkin into filling. (Good thing it was P-Day.)

That night, I went home with that feeling that means you're not going to be doing well the next day. I've been way sick for the last week, with crazy happenings in the sinus area, and a crazy cough that won't stop when I'm in quiet public places. At least I can sleep again. The first three days, I woke up at 3 AM because I couldn't breathe. Now I just don't have enough time to get the recuperative rest I need.

In the peak of my sickness, I hurriedly wrote a paper and sent it to my peers and a professor. Bad idea. When I re-read and then went to hear their opinions, I couldn't believe it myself. Luckily, I used my public disappointment in myself to fuel a lot of good, hard work that has turned it into a paper at least suitable.

I have been Struggling (yes, with a capital S) with formulating what I want to argue in my Master's thesis. Everything I come up with still seems to be descriptive instead of analytical. Help! And I don't feel like I know enough about related theories to really turn in a proposal on the 15th. Needless to say, I'm doing a lot of reading. I wish I'd been at this point several months ago, there's still a lot to learn.

My one source of income at the moment, editing for doctoral students, happens to be on a tight deadline. Yikes. Why now?

PhD apps are coming along, but the troubles with my Master's thesis are making me doubt that I could accomplish such a feat, or they at least make me wonder if I want to try.

On Sunday, I made two awesome loaves of banana bread. I've share several pieces with people and all the rest has been my breakfast and lunch every day. Yummmmy!

One of my favorite sisters left to go home. I was sad to see her go.

Sigh.

Another Christmas without my immediate family. I think about this time of year, we'd be cutting out snowflakes. At least I can do that virtually.

However, I have good news: I will be spending Christmas with my Swiss rellies. I was afraid to ask, but I finally did and they said yes! Also, they live conveniently near where the young single adult get-together for New Years is. Happy birthday to Matt and Kota.

Modern Reading

This guy wrote an article for The Atlantic about us being used to skipping from page to page and skimming articles on the internet, so when we go to read long texts, we have a hard time concentrating. That is exactly my problem today, I even skimmed towards the end of his article, although I found most of it interesting.
However, I think the problem is more that we have so much information to process that we are used to choosing what interests us the most. Let's just say that "The New Penology" is not even the slightest bit interesting to me. You know it's bad when you have to look up word after word in your own language (like "recidivism") and it takes you an hour and a half to read twenty pages. The writer of the Atlantic article said that he and others can't delve into deep reading anymore. I don't have that problem at all. When I allow myself to focus on the reading for my literature classes (after the boring, grueling work is done), I can read and analyze one of those things like there wasn't anything else in the world.
It's way too late to say anything this semester, for which I am very sorry. Next semester, I'm going to see what I can do about adjusting classes to fit my program. It makes no sense for me to be here studying something that is not in my area of specialty! Maybe in a bachelor's program, but not later. I can't possibly imagine that I will some day willingly utilize the things I've learned about criminology today. And now I'm supposed to come up with a presentation linking it to differences between German and American popular culture for the Governing Deviance block seminar that starts on Monday.

I think I may just link it to "the Other" and "savage" in literary theory just so I can bring in something, anything to interest myself. However, I don't know much anything about German government or German popular culture.

As a minuscule sample of things I've read today, take a look at these (and yes, I did get homework done today as well).

Elephant intelligence.
100 Best Novels.
Microwave for Sale.
Germany/English Missionary Dictionary.
BBC Week in Pictures.
Science of Sound.
Baptist Book of Mormon Believer.
History of Blacks Members of the Church.

Reading a Sentence with Gender Theory

I read this on a website the other day:

Ask your hubby/boyfriend to buy a "punch" at a better hardware store...one that has good metal-working tools.

This is what I love about literary theory: so few words have so much meaning in them. This sentence implies several things--that women can't/won't go to hardware stores, that women are supposed to ask men to do things for them, and that women have hubbies or boyfriends. What else?

Animals in America Course

Today I went to the first of a short series of classes being given by a guest professor, Paula Lee. Since she came late in the semester, the class was scheduled for Fridays from 1-4, killer for weekend plans and bad for the highest, warmest room in the building. I have to admit, I had some major doubts. Three hours? Yeah right.

However, I was completely blown away. The woman is brilliant. I immensely enjoyed every minute and every thought. We went from the characteristics we learn to identify with different animals (lions are courageous), to the marginalization of man from animal, to display of wealth through animals that don't need to be eaten, modern-day pets, animals too big to be pets being mass-produced to support post-industrial habits, etc. It is no wonder that she's working for Harvard. And I thought Scott would like to hear that she studied in Chicago. During class, I was typing a million miles an hour and processing every thought because she led to each higher conclusion quite nicely and with good examples--a perfect combination of literary theory, application to art, and real-life stories. I realized that if I had simply typed every word she said, I would have had a well-organized essay. I wish every professor could have such good ideas and talk about them so engagingly. I wish I could do that. Some day.

Here's some info about her at the Leipzig American Studies page.