Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts

12 October 2012

Markov Chain Text Generator

Yesterday we finished making our Markov chain text generator. In other words, I now have a cool way to track patterns in texts and then create similar patterns.

Our first attempt was this with the text of Emma:

Harriet Smith!--It was a mat to step upon. I shall never forget her look around among my acquaintance, I tremble.

Shakespeare produced the following:

This more then Naturall, if Philosophie could finde it out. Character. Giue thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any vnproportion'd thoughts his Act: Be thou familiar; but by her. His friends, And in this world goes, is to be demanded of a fiery minde, A sauagenes in vnreclaim'd bloud of Man, That swift as Quick-siluer, it courses through The naturall Gates and Allies of the dead, not for euer with thy veyled lids Seeke for thy Betters, take thy Fortune, Thou find'st to be spilt. Vertue or my Plague, be it Hor. So Capitall a Calfe there. 

Harry Potter (can you guess which one?) produced this:

He alone knew exactly who we all want a house-elf called Dobby had been. A burning, prickling feeling in his trunk in the chamber off the beetle and looked over at the wizards on the arrangements for the third task. Followed Cedric at a number three around its neck And Harry heard the word "Firebolt" on each cheek (he felt his face screwed up his cauldron, saw Karkaroff lean forward at once what was coming, the third piece of toast into the kitchen, to me. Table, watching Harry struggle to remove the frog guts from under her wing, and Crookshanks was curled up on Sunday to send me back under the Imperius Curse, forced countless people to whom Harry was sure Cedric would want to work at the World Cup. For beating their team, Gryffindor, in the hospital wing. 

A mixture of Harry Potter and Shakespeare:
Gazed, nonplussed, at Dumbledore, then, in patience our proceeding be. Contents rattled as she fluttered down on a trapeze. Took Diggory much longer and heavier than usual lately. Hat, stretched out his children. Be ill?" said Hermione, looking impressed.

Finally, I took text from my last blog post and put it in to get this:
The good thing about Pair programming is that I picked up a bit of Ruby on Rails over the summer program--the first group ever--at Hackbright, but my foot problems made me need to take the time outside of the U.S., and we both love editing. Really helps you to have a good thing to do, here goes: I'm becoming a web developer in ten weeks, specializing in Python (if you don't know what that means, just call me someone who works with programming computers and internet stuff, and we'll leave it at that). Using the code I can read, I can't figure out how to fix, even after googling it. But when it comes time for me than focusing on the internet as well. Exactly how the spacing works or if I need quickly. Actually aren't that great at writing analytical essays, but you're really interested in computers. Re-do my blog design again--two times in one year, that's a record for me!). Place where I was raised. Way as well. You), but this article makes me see the possibilities for problems. The possibilities--I was in technology clubs all during school, I learned some Visual Basic 6 back in the middle of presentations or put "Meow" at the end of their code--seriously, check out Amazon.com's source code by right-clicking on their page!) So that's what I already know (maybe I will use my new skills to re-do my blog design again--two times in one year, that's a record for me!). To live to me to just up and write some using the code I can tell all the different kinds you can study how to make them do all sorts of cool things?" (Okay, maybe not that part about not being great at analytical essays, but you're really interested in computers. Work with a majority of men since I've had good experiences working with a majority of men since I've had good experiences working with people every minute of 40 hours a week. Right-clicking on their page!) So that's what I read it here). Well. So why encourage a woman to a field that is really hard.

And for my whole blog, this:
Considered Holy back then? Massive DenkmalOne might say that they went off every couple of years. Bracelets and balloon remainders laying around Leipzig, but the troubles with the same time as well. Her holiday be bright with the love between a zucchini and a half pounds of presents people sent with me as we...Thanks for the cake started disappearing and no energy to sustain conflict and lump groups into people as they pass;They are cold, Still, Waiting in the summertime and on and on and off the burnt parts. New look and look them up in an hour late, but this will become passionate about. To very few physical belongings, but I hear it's super hard, but if I should use, written lists of books that will effect others but not least, I just hope that you can to help. It's too bad that they were headed for the raffle at the Christmas celebrations), change[d] the sheets to warm up and drink some water, so after apologizing, I rode past people who aren't so clean or respectable on there. Maybe I could see. To Dave, Mike, Jeff, Sica, and your stomach is full of hardcore hayfever, the next two hours and 15 minutes after we left our stomachs 200 feet in it and made sure I agree with me, when I jump when someone tells me the things that seem normal when you sit in the saga of the moon.) <BR/><BR/>Hope that's stuck in it (hell). Youtube video your brother? Word which was bought out by drinking his Kern's drinks. Had invited her to, and I played in the first one to turn to, what is shown here, which led to an A-.

Maybe most entertaining was our instructor's mix of Kierkegaard and Kim Kardashian (this is worth zooming in on):

KimKierkegaardashian Markov Tweeting 

My favorites: "Bikini shoot from my youth, when a terrible melancholythrew me for a time into sin & debauchery I wanted to capture the blonde look."

And: "Every revelation you make is an illusion; so far, no one has succeeded in knowing you. Your white pumps literally go with any outfit."  How gorgeous! Term='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#comment'/><title type='text'>Well, yes it is sooooooo hard for those to grow a little unfair to the moon, no moon, moon, no moon pattern, but oh well). Paper letters are so many memories from Comparative Literature 2010.  <br></p> <p> <br></p> <p> We also figured out how to make these generated texts post to Twitter automatically . . . but the lovely woman I was programming with posted them on her account (and then promptly deleted them so as to not make her followers think she was crazy.</p> <p> <br></p> <p> My all-time favorite, though, is our teacher's new Twitter feed called "KimKierkegaardashian":</p> <p> <br></p> <p> <a class="twitter-timeline-link" data-blogger-escaped-data-pre-embedded="true" dir="ltr" href="http://t.co/hImiZlLw" style="background-color: white; color: #0084b4; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 28px; outline: 0px;">pic.twitter.com/hImiZlLw</a> </p>

10 March 2011

Guest Post at Literary Kicks

Yay! Levi over at litkicks.com allowed me to post an article interesting for lit lovers. If you like to find crazy things in old books, head on over. (I promise it's worth taking a look at.)

P.S. Check today's print version of Mormon Times to find a picture of me in the article about the Mormon Women Project. (The collage is not in the online version. And go Neylan!)

19 February 2011

Gertrude Stein's Ida

Some might criticize Gertrude Stein for her repetition and lack of imagery, but I enjoyed reading Ida. There is something real in the language and I felt I could relate to the paradoxes and life of Ida. Here are some favorite parts:

There are so many ways of earning a living and most of them are failures. She thought it was best to begin with one way which would be most easy to leave. So she tried photography and then she tried just talking. It is wonderful how easy it is to earn a living that way. To be sure sometimes everybody thinks you are starving you never are. Ida never starved

A dog has to have a name and he has to look at you. Sometimes it is kind of bothering to have them look at you.

Everybody began to miss something and it was not a kiss, you bet your life it was not a kiss that anybody began to miss. And yet perhaps it was.

02 August 2010

Bestsellers

A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.

- The Economist
True that. But you know, I wonder about books that will really go down in history. Will it be Bolaño's 2666 or will it be Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love? I know what I would vote for, but there is something to be said for a book that has at least gotten that person to read one book.

30 April 2010

April's Links to Love

Artsy:

Stanley the Giraffe photos.

Gorgeous American/Indian wedding
.

To/from Google Map envelopes! Wow! I want some!

Chalkboard piano. I wonder if the awesomeness of being able to write on your matted piano would overwhelm the dustiness.

50 Most Interesting Architectural Blogs (pretty sure I had to close this link so I didn't spend the rest of my life digging through the links).

It's so simple but so fabulous: the French Seam.

Ten craziest short films
.

Every painting in the MoMa in 2 minutes.

Tiny, tiny apartment in Hong Kong.

Real life pop-ups!




















ONCE MORE, WALLPAPER TO DIE FOR
!


Music:

Making a living off of YouTube song remakes.

Although the band name bugs me (I bet some of you can guess why), She & Him's music is enchanting.


Literary:

Nifty American libraries.

The Library of Congress will be archiving Twitter.

Words David Foster Wallace underlined in his dictionary.

Rejection letter reply.

J.K. Rowling's "The Single Mother's Manifesto."


Technology:


Another gender-predicting doohickey using URL history. (It said it was 100% sure I was female.)

Rating of churches online.

Join the earthquake-detecting team on your home computer! Of course it's from Stanford. Of course.

Nifty tool for deciding if you should rent or buy.

Social media addiction
. Yes, I'm addicted, and I see no problem with that.

20 Essential Social Media Resources.


Mormon:

An inspiring talk on patience by the German President Uchtdorf.


Random:

People seen at Walmart.

I want one of these.

Animals inside the womb/egg photos
. Fascinating.

Must make: cobbler in jars.

Online relationship/marriage classes. (Mormon perspective.)

The great white lily worm
.

30 March 2010

March's Links to Love

Artsy:

Simple cutesy John Klassen cards.

A wonderful tiny apartment
.

Linen wedding flowers.

What do you think about floor-to-ceiling windows? This is certainly a to-die-for use of them.

So I know this is a little girl's birthday party, but I really like the piñata her mom made.

Blue, white, black, brown interior. Wow. So peaceful.

Oh my beautiful liberty of london! I've been looking for a springy scarf. I love these floral patterns that are in right now.

Different photos of the same hill. Dreamy idea of Paul Octavious.

City, water, night.

Darling material.

Brilliant tablecloth idea. I'd choose something other than butterflies, though. Maybe stars? Maybe "Happy birthday"? Maybe "I love you"?


Literary:


Should everybody write? I was recently told by an older German that all Americans want to write a book. Hmmm.

Walking in an author's digital footsteps (awesome!).

Harriet the Spy turned blog wars.

How much money famous writers would be making by today's standards.

The intellectual girl's survival kit.

Alternative Russian classics (the eyes of that last guy are really creepy, no?).

The insides of David Foster Wallace's books.


Technology:

Reasons why Twitter might die. Will we laugh at this in 10-15 years, like I laugh at this 1995 internet piece?

Digital remains. I've often wondered what will happen to all the files I leave behind.

Google Buzz controls. What are you guys thinking of Buzz? I'm not sure where I stand yet.


Mormon:

The Church as a social network.


Random:

Ha ha ha. Online shopping in the U.K.

Crayola rockets.

Terminator asteroids are a reality.

Nifty fußball tables! Which do you like the best? I think I like the good vs. evil one the best. Or the coffee table (but it's kind of short to really get into, but maybe that's good for short people like me who can't always see over the edge . . . ). Double use!

How to make thin mints.

If you had 2000 descendants at the time of your death, where would the funeral be? And how sweet is the name Yitta?

Though I'm not the biggest coconut fan, just the picture of these cookies makes me want to try making them. And I looooove passion fruit.

Hilarious maps.

IKEA Heights: a series secretly filmed in IKEA
!

Breathable chocolate might be my cure (or my end).

For all you list-makers out there.

Beautiful bride, hilarious Freudian slip:



Heavy Heart by Jeffrey Lewis:

21 March 2010

Michelle? A Giveaway?

I bet a lot of you have read the story "The Yellow Wallpaper." If not, you definitely should read it (you can find it online here). If so, I bet most of you haven't read other stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. So, as an apology for not posting very interesting things very often, and as a way to get a lucky person to read more of Gilman's works, I'm giving away this book:


Charlotte Perkins Gilman Stories


There are three requirements:

  • Comment by Friday, March 26th.
  • In your comment, tell me who your favorite feminist or female writer is.
  • After you have read the book, pass it along to someone else!

08 March 2010

Passages from Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude

I love the flow of novels that have been translated from Spanish into English. And I love the repeating familial patterns and feisty women and myths.

Here are only a few passages I like. You should read the whole book.

José Arcadio felt himself lifted up into the air toward a state of seraphic inspiration, where his heart burst forth with an outpouring of tender obscenities that entered the girl through her ears and came out of her mouth translated into her language. It was Thursday. (34)

The house became full of love. Aureliano expressed it in poetry that had no beginning or end. He would write it on the harsh pieces of parchment that Melquíades gave him, on the bathroom walls, on the skin of his arms, and in all of it Remedios would appear transfigured: Remedios in the soporific air of two in the afternoon, Remedios in the soft breath of the roses, Remedios in the water-clock secrets of the moths, Remedios in the steaming morning bread, Remedios everywhere and Remedios forever. (68)

Only he knew at that time that his confused heart was condemned to uncertainty forever. (167)

It was then that he decided that no human being, not even Úrsula, could come closer to him than ten feet. In the center of the chalk circle that his aides would draw wherever he stopped, and which only he could enter, he would decide with brief orders that had no appeal the fate of the world. (169)

"You can't come in, colonel," she told him. "You may be in command of your war, but I'm in command of my house." (169)

He was bothered by the people who cheered him in neighboring villages, and he imagined that they were the same cheers they gav e the enemy. Everywhere he met adolescents who looked at him with his own eyes, who spoke to him with his own voice, who greeted him with the same mistrust with which he greeted them, and who said they were his sons. He felt scattered about, multiplied, and more solitary than ever . . . "The best friend a person has," he would say at that time, "is one who has just died." He was weary of the uncertainty, of the vicious circle of that eternal war that always found him in the same place, but always older, always wearier, even more int he position of not knowing why, or how, or even when. There was always someone outside of the chalk circle. Someone who needed money, someone who had a son with whopping couch, or someone who wanted to go off and sleep forever because he could not stand the shi* taste of the war in his mouth and who, nevertheless, stood at attention to inform him: "Everything normal, colonel." And normality was precisely the most fearful part of that infinite war: nothing ever happened. (171)

"They're important papers," she said. "Nothing of the sort," the colonel said. "They're things that a person writes to himself." "In that case," she said, "you burn them, colonel." (179)

28 February 2010

February's Links to Love

Artsy:

This blog just brings out one of those sighs of loveliness admitted.

Cute garbage bags!?!

I think this is the most beautiful homepage I have ever seen. I want to frame it and put it on my wall (it's already set to be my computer background):



















Book-displaying ideas. (I like the side table idea. And the backwards books.)


I want a grey striped wall in my living room some day.

Rachael Smith interiors.

Some people can pull off lots of white in their homes. Somehow I've never been able to do that.

Would you dare sand your counters and spray paint them? Yikes. But it looks great!

Justin Hackworth's "First Year of Marriage" project makes me wish I were getting married . . . hee.

Holy bajoly. The clothing at eShakti is beautiful and not too expensive, and guess what? You can have them change things! Like longer sleeves! Or not-so-scarily-deep neck lines.

And Makie clothing is even more beautiful, but 500 billion times more expensive ($625 for a dress? Ouch!).

Would you take pictures of everything you have? I swear there's gotta be more.

A curtain made of negatives.

One of my peers in my master's program came to school one day with the most beautiful tea canister I had ever seen. I and all the other girls remarked on it, upon which he said his girlfriend had gotten it somewhere. I randomly found it in a magazine that my health insurance sounds now and then and here it is online. Dude, if it weren't 23 honking Euros I'd buy it now just so I could look at it.

I love these sleek book shelves, but I'm all about red, black, white, and simplicity in interior design.

Literature:

I wish I had the time and funds to read the books on the POC's reading challenge list.

Great writers--did they write standing up or laying down or sitting?

I can't wait til I'm a published author so I can totally blow off interviewers and do whatever I want. (Or do I do that already? I guess I don't have to wait until then . . . )

Library wordles (oh no, more books for my reading list! Actually, endless joy!)
.

Mesmerizing Sappho poem tidbits
.

Weird book room. This made me think of a book my dad found at the library's used book sale when I was 13 or so. It was so funny. I leant it to a friend and never saw it again. Now I can't remember exactly what it was called, but I remember learning it was out of print. Something about a Chinese laundry?

75 vampire novels and vampire morality
.

Techy:

U.S. Facebook regions (and the Mormonia area especially interests me--I've often thought that Mormons are huge advocates of Facebook because of all that "Mormon connection" that is built through missionarywork. Do you think a similar map of Europe would have a Catholica?).

Google Buzz. What do you think? 5 Tips. 5 more tips. (Gmail mittens. Awesome!)

Creative 404 Error Pages.

GMail labs graduation and retirement.

Random:

Cupcakes are out, macaroons are in. Yum! (The only cupcakes I ever liked anyway were my mom's cream-filled chocolate cupcakes.) And there's a recipe in the article, too. Sica, I dare you!

Would you pay 25% of a third normal ticket to cuddle with your sweety in an airplane?

One hundred free classic online movies you should see (I've already watched The Count of Monte Cristo and Nineteen Eighty-Four). Very important note: Nosferatu is included!

Dangerous roads
. I particularly like the road that doesn't permit any mistakes.

Thirty dumb inventions listed by LIFE.

Vancouver Olympic Village aerial image
.

A great things-that-make-me-smile list (I especially laughed at the big dog one).

Feisty daughters of presidents.

Did you watch the Olympics? Pretty sure I watched a healthy four-minute dose of ski jumping at a friend's house. But I saw someone post this commercial and liked it:



Hilarious re-dos of pictures when younger.

31 January 2010

January's Links to Love

Literary:

Podcast classes from Oxford are free!

Play with this map of authors. That's an order. Similarly, here you can type in your favorite authors and get some suggestions for some authors you might enjoy. (Like you don't already have a list of 300 books to read.)

Writer as social butterfly article. Do you break down people when you meet them? Do you want to write about them? I do.

George Orwell's diaries.

Translate any word into Parseltongue
.

The decade in books
.

Artsy:

Vintage Kate Spade catalogs.

Maia Ramishvili art.

Another lovely outdoor wedding
.

Helvetica cookie cutters
.

The youngest fashion designer ever. (I think my little sister Heidi could do some awesome stuff, too.)

Stolen Monet finally found.

Astounding artworks out of paper.



Between the Folds movie:



I like the idea of a wallpapered dumpster.

Anderson Ink always finds cool stuff. And I like this video she posted of Ramona Falls.

I like this style on guys.

I want to make some valentines like these for the 14th. If only I were romantically involved and someone were romantically involved with me (it's better if it goes both ways, don't you agree?) . . .

35 free fonts
.

What type/font are you? test
. (The password is "character.")

I will always find scherenschnitte beautiful. And here is some animated scherenschnitte:



I thought I found the German version of J. Crew, but it turns out it's a British company. I love the bright colors in their spring catalog, but it doesn't look like anything ever goes on sale into my price range, so I will probably never buy anything there. Here's the American site. Two of their dresses that I love:














Music:


I'm liking The Last Shadow Puppets:



Be Still My Soul, one of my favorite hymns:


I just barely heard about literal versions of music videos. Ha ha. Like James Blunt's "You're Beautiful":


MCQ's albums of the year list (with included YouTube videos).

Some great MTV music videos
.

Techy:

I want a Nexus One! But you knew that. More info.

Google and China via NY Times. And via NPR.

Cool web trend map made by a cool-looking Japanese company:

The Web Trend Map Interview from GaijinPot on Vimeo.



If I had a phone that could take apps, I would totally have foursquare, especially for when I travel.

Via Forbes: "Friendships in the Digital Age."

Have you ever seen funny wifi names? I have. Here are two that are passive agressive.

About Facebook from an employee.

If people send you a question that they just as easily could have answered themselves, and you're the very sarcastic type, send them this link:

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/



Mormon:

Mormon Scholars Testify website.

Random:

Tanya on sex slavery and New York. Yikes.

The guy who made up Gumby died.

Isn't this disease, Huntington's, tragic?

I'm thinking of juicing to get myself to eat more vegetables and digest some more enzymes. Thoughts?

Modern dating map
(though we all know I'm not a modern dater because of the abstinence thing).

Bamboo bikes.

100 skills everyone should master.

I want to swim to the edge of Victoria Falls, too
!

Martin Luther King (at Home) Photo Essay.

Amusing accent imitation video (not sure I think the German one is that great for a modern-day 25-year-old):



Chocolate and churros
!

I'm not a big fan of hearts (as a shape for design), but these hearts seem like a good style for Valentine's Day.

And I liked these valentines.

26 December 2009

December's Links to Love

Artsy:

Who knew jellyfish were so colorful and pretty?

When you push the button for the elevator, are you touching the finger of God? (I guess this goes against those cool musical stairs that get people to use the stairs.)

Get some help picturing different colors in your design efforts.

Create your own fonts online (Mom, this would be perfect for you I think).

Too bad it's not Halloween. This movie is creepy!!!


Kitchen Sink \ Alison Maclean [1989] from veana on Vimeo.


Technology:

An internet visionary in 1944.

Online voice training (if only this could help me--the voice doctor prescribed more voice therapy for me, who knows if I'll ever sing again?).

Can't travel to see it? Better-than-live view of The Last Supper here.


Mormons:

Mormon Singles Ward Twilight:


Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.


After the Hannukah song that Orrin Hatch wrote, a dude on O'Brien's show wrote a song for the Mormons. Mormons, Mormons, Mormons!



Literary:

Writing a novel in Excel.

Browse bookshelves online
.

A digitized German manuscript
.

Social language learning at livemocha.com.

American dialects (not sure I agree with what is written about the Rocky Mountain dialect).

Most abusively blurbed authors
.

Danteworlds
.

Pride and Prejudice in emoticons
.

Do you like Louisa May Alcott? Here's an interesting article about her and her father. And there will be an awesome documentary on the 28th on PBS.

Can you guess if these words indicate cheese or fonts?


Random:

Gingerbread man on the loose and in the news.

This guy hosts a dinner for anyone visiting Paris. I think maybe I've posted about him before.



What I hope to do with my old hubby some day:





Snowflakes have six
sides, Mom.

Find lovely music on German MTV here.


30 November 2009

November's Links to Love

Artsy:

Cutest wedding ever.

New York Skyline by an autistic artist.

Cute postcards (I like the blue the best).

"Hey Jude" flowchart
.

I love these dots sewed on paper.

This woman made her own book 35 times. That's a lot of work.

Beautiful Sharpie-d walls.

Beautiful art project paper castle
.

Origami money faces with hats.

Have you ever gotten a beautifully-folded love letter? I can only think of those awful notes we passed in junior high. Oh man.

Lady Gaga before she was scary and when she was more Nora Jones-ish (yeah, I didn't know who she was anyway until I looked her up):



Blue Skies:



Drew Danburry Loves Lynette:




Random:

The oldest dog in the world, Otto
!

Tips for families on how to be TV owners (when TVs were still novel). My advice: don't own a TV.

Not my body. Blech to the veggies.

Do you know how much sugar is in what you eat? These sugar cubes show you.

List of odd motherhoods.

Slideshow of life behind the Berlin Wall.

Look at this sight gag from No Caption Needed. It maps out the seven deadly sins in America.


Mormon:

Temple Square panoramas
.

What Latter-day Saint Men Should Know (1914).


My Love for Technology:

Footage of Anne Frank is now on YouTube.

This website, Still Tasty, tells you all about knowing if your food is still good or not.

Google four times in one window: http://googlegooglegooglegoogle.com/

Online therapy--with that once again repeating theme that writing is therapeutic.

Google Parisian Love:




Literary:

Did you know Ayn Rand's editors asked her to cut the long John Galt speech, and she said, "Would you cut the Bible?"

Kerouac's writing tips.

A favorite short story of mine, by Flannery O'Connor: Good Country People.

East German jokes explained.

Allen Ginsberg's mind-writing slogans.

25 November 2009

Auerbachs Keller

Goethe wrote:

„Wer nach Leipzig zur Messe gereist,
Ohne auf Auerbachs Hof zu gehen,
Der schweige still, denn das beweist:
Er hat Leipzig nicht gesehn.“

a.k.a.

"He who travels to the trade markets
of Leipzig without visiting
Auerbach's Yard must hold his peace.
It proves: He has not seen Leipzig."

In other words, if you haven't been to Auerbachs Keller you haven't really seen Leipzig. As a alcohol-loving, womanizing student in Leipzig, Goethe frequented Auerbachs Keller and wrote it into Faust.

Well, I've finally been there.

This is what it looks like:


























And the food was so great I forgot to take a picture to entice you to visit. We had roasted apples, goose, potato dumplings, red cabbage . . . We scarfed all the German classics (excepting Rouladen).

Thanks, Mike.

23 October 2009

September's October's Links to Love

Well, this was supposed to be for September, but I forgot to post it before the month was over. So, welcome to October's list of links to love.

Literary:

Modern versions of famous books' titles.

Depression and writing
.

Being a writer and a parent.

Bookshelves.

NPR's interview with Maurice Sendak about Where the Wild Things Are.

Beautiful poems for a wedding.

Learn about yourself by writing a story about a picture here.


Mormon:

The Office theme song played by famous Mormon artists.

Predicting the next prophet. (I would guess Bednar, Uchtdorf, Nelson, and Scott.)

Fob Bible.

I trust the Lord will help me, but if not . . .

My Son the Mormon (article by a mom of a son who was baptized).


Music:

Crazy Alice in Wonderland mix (I keep trying to figure out what she's saying):




These are the musicians at the Songwriters concert I went to two weeks ago:

Mowat (from Chile)

My Sister Grenadine

Noiserv

Kitty Solaris

Here is Max Mutzke's "Weg von Hier" (thanks, Francy):




Grocery store musical improv. You've gotta marvel at the guts of those people, especially the guy who starts the singing:




Silent Hallelujah chorus.


Technology:

Piano stairs--this makes me think of how when I was little, I sang sounds as I walked across the white lines at crosswalks. More of the fun theory can be found here.



Virtual autopsy.

Finland and broadband internet!

Barnes and Nobles' version of the Kindle, the Nook, allows users to share books! Now I just need to find a rich friend who buys every book possible . . .


Miscellaneous:


A friend of mine has opened a new etsy craft store.

Women would sacrifice anything but chocolate for blogging!

In parenthood, sometimes a blog is born.

Gemsweater.com. Exactly what its name says and good for some chuckles. (Thanks, Melissa.)

Yogurt love.

Michelle Obama's family heritage.

Three situations
that will tell you a lot about people.

Would you live now like it was the 1930s?

Ellis Island Tour.

I guess I'm funemployed.

This makes me miss summer:



If I had enough money, I would open an offshore account.

My cute nephew and niece trying on their Halloween costumes:

24 September 2009

Sitting in the Crotch of a Fig Tree

There were days in my young life when I would go to the library once a week and check out seven books so I could read one each day. I remember putting them in order so that the ones I was most excited about were last in the pile. Opening each book was like Christmas--I was breathlessly excited for whatever awaited me.

Like those days, I went to the library this week and checked out five books on hold for me. Every one is a book I've been meaning to read for a long time. And the first one I popped open engulfed me, so much so that I thought, "Wow, interesting how this author didn't split the book up into chapters" shortly before turning the page and discovering chapter 8. Just like old times, I was so glad to be reading and every moment I wasn't, I wished I were, until there were no more pages and I mourned their loss. Books can have such a marvelous effect on me. I delve into the characters and learn new things about myself through them. This last book especially did that and I hope the next will, too.

Before I start the next book, though, I wanted to share a passage with you.

From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out.

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.(85-86)
Without using some online search tool, who can tell me what book the passage comes from?

29 August 2009

The Story of My Master's Thesis

Even before I started really thinking about my Master's thesis, I knew I wanted to write about Mormon mommy blogs. I'd been collecting posts from mommy blogs for two years already (I ended up with a 600-page document). The genre/fad is so fascinating to me because this group of (relatively) conservative women seem to really take to writing about their lives intellectually, humorously, thoughtfully, and one can see the way they love the roles they have chosen. This satisfaction would not be something many feminists (ahem, Betty Friedan) would expect because of the limited community and intellectual stimulation that can come with being a stay-at-home mom.

But after writing my abstract and tweaking it several times, my peers told me I was too close to the Mormon theme and needed to broaden to other mommy blogs. I tried to work it out anyway and finally decided I would try again some day in the future after submitting a horrible version to a conference and feeling completely ashamed that my name was published on something so bad. (Yes, I tried to make it up by giving a fabulous presentation. It worked in some ways--all but one of the follow-up questions were aimed at me. I hoped that no one thought to read the article until I was far, far away.)

So I broadened the theme and turned to a lot of autobiographical studies. I was amazed to find that the blogging form was so perfectly what autobiography scholars had said was needed for women's autobiographical writing. The patterns between men's and women's autobiographical writing were so different. Men wrote of their adventurous public lives chronologically and didn't include a lot about family (except for parents). Sometimes lifelong wives were never even mentioned. Women, on the other hand, wrote about their private lives, even if they had very active public lives (Margaret Mead, for example, skips the twenty years of her life when she did her famous sociological work.) Their subjects were more eclectic. They also wrote based more on subject than on time, included a lot about relationships, and described personal spiritual journeys.

Then I read a lot of narrative theory about how people are their stories and identity comes from the narratives they create. Sometimes I would spend time trying to decide how to design my future layout (I wanted to include some century gothic and some dots, both of which turned out very nicely). After a loooot of preparatory reading, I would sit in the train and stare at my notes and try to make outlines. I wondered about the patterns I saw and what they meant, and thus was my argument born. The writing process refined it until it basically and finally turned into this:
Mommy blogs show a satisfaction that stay-at-home mothers want to share and that would not have been expected by Betty Friedan's research (published in The Feminine Mystique in 1963) because they fulfill the centuries-long need for a women's fitting autobiographical genre, provide a varied and broad community from within the home, and are whiteboards for identity formulation.
Early in the process, I made this list to remind me of why I should be motivated:


Motivation Minute!!!

I got the brunt of the work done (with the chapters on The Feminine Mystique and the history of autobiographical writing and women's writing patterns) while I was in Switzerland (thanks to the Lochers for letting me stay at their house and for being progress-monitors). I was lucky to get another wrist brace for my carpal tunnel and a student gave me a mouse so I wouldn't have to use the finger pad all the time.

Getting those last chapters with the heavy stuff done was the hardest and if I were to be given another year to complete my thesis, I think I'd focus mainly on those. I spent hours and hours sitting at the desk trying to get a few pages done, and then hours and hours laying on the couch until my computer ran out of battery still trying. Sometimes I'd try out writing in the kitchen, but I felt bad about my stuff being everywhere.

Each evening, I thought, "Tomorrow I can easily get five or ten pages done," but the process was much slower than I thought. I had foreseen that it would be hard to have motivation, but the problem turned out to be time. There were so many distractions and interruptions--church activities, doctor visits, meals, emails, and work. Not to mention that while trying to focus, I had the best ideas come to me for completely separate projects, it was like I was suddenly a genious in every other category. I tried to get rid of as many distractions as possible, meaning I turned over some church responsibilities, put off working on my health, rejected most calls asking me to fill in, and even turning on my email's automatic reply function (which ended disastrously because my mom thought I was dead or something and then when she wrote she got this reply and thought I was mad at her for some reason and was really upset. Sorry, mom, and Sica, thanks for the SMS that let me know.).

I aimed to get done by the end of June so I could take another two weeks and revise, but I was getting extremely stressed out because my Grandpa was really sick and I was so far away. I finally decided to book a ticket to go see him and spent all the money I've earned in my job since it started. I booked the ticket a week in advance which was already pretty tight timing, but unfortunately he died before I left.

While in Utah, I really tried to work on my thesis because I didn't want to have to worry about it during EFY and during the YSA conference. However, one doesn't pay that much money to go write their thesis somewhere else while surrounded by family for the first time in a year, so my professors nicely allowed me to have an extension until the end of August.

After being an EFY counselor and attending the YSA conference, I set out to clean up the last two chapters and include some more close readings. At this point I ended up with some hardcore health problems all at the same time, including carpal tunnel in both wrists. Ow. My physical therapist suggested I get an extension on my thesis, but I said no way and asked what else I could do. So I ended up wearing braces at all times, doing stretches often, and icing both wrists every couple of hours. I also started sitting on two books, resting my feet on my art box, and wearing the most supportive shoes I have around the apartment.

The revising and finishing-up part went relatively fast and I even thought I would be able to turn in the thesis a week early, but what I didn't anticipate were all the formatting problems. Let's just say that Word and I are not on speaking terms. Well, actually, I want to tell you the details because they're crazy. First, one of the four images I had in the document kept moving to a different page without its caption, and I'd have to track it down. But every time I moved it back, it would snap to the top of the page, no matter what setting I tried. I spent a whole afternoon and evening working on the problem and no suggestions I found on the internet or from facebook friends helped. Everyone said I should have done the whole thing in Open Office, but it seemed a little late to change at that point. The next day, I cried out in frustration and my roommate suggested I put the image in a text box. Voila.

Then the page numbers kept changing to different fonts and starting over with each section. Once I got that fixed by scrolling through a billion times and making changes, I realized that the headings I had spent hours getting to switch between "The Mommy Blog" and "Michelle Glauser" had changed to only one of them in the page-number process. I could get them to go back to every other page, but they kept appearing at the start of the document where the title page was and such. Ack!!!

I finally figured it all out, but what should then appear as I scrolled through? Three weird places where there was no text, just a white space. I thought there was a paragraph break or something and tried to delete the empty space, but nothing helped. I finally realized the problem was that the heading on these three pages had made itself huge somehow. So I should have been able to just drag it back into place, right? No! That changed every other page to have weird formatting and words on top of each other. Nice. This time, however, no amount of time fixed the problem. I spent a whole day wanting to pound my fists on the desk or break something and another day waiting for someone to answer my emails for help (I'd sent an S.O.S. to all the computer-savvy people I know). You have to laugh in bitter frustration when someone who works at Microsoft says they've never seen that before and don't know what can be done.

Finally, I did the inevitable. I imported the entire document into Open Office, which messed up the heading and page numbers again. Amazingly, though, Open Office learned from my actions. After I made a change twice, it made the rest automatically. Hallelujah, success. Then I just had to change the Table of Contents because the pages were somehow a bit different.

But the one problematic picture turned out really unclear and pasting it or importing it again only made it about as big as three lines of text. Stretching it obviously didn't help. I finally got it to be fairly clear, saved the whole thing as a PDF, and leapt into the air for joy, clapping my hands and declaring I would print it the next day.

You knew there had to be more complications, didn't you? That night, while I was laying in bed, I thought of some things I would like to change, so I got up really early the next morning. I added one, I repeat, one sentence to the document. The page numbers changed. The problematic image leapt to a completely different section and took another image with it. The headings went bonkers, and this time, Open Office didn't learn a single thing from me. I had to teach myself how to make different page styles for even and odd pages, and even then it didn't work for every section. I could have gotten rid of that one sentence. But actually I couldn't.

I got to the copy shop about an hour and a half later than I said I would be there. Somehow, even though I had saved every document in the A4 format, when they opened the thesis on their computer, it was in American letter format. We decided it looked okay printed like that and stuck with it. However, when they printed out the color pages, I knew something would need to be done about that problematic image. It was simply too unclear. So, I tried to duplicate that one page in Word, but the headings were different in Word and I couldn't stand for one page looking different. I finally faked it and played with spacing until it looked fairly normal, but the 1,5 spacing wouldn't cooperate and I ended up typing out the whole page again. Luckily they were patient. Right as I finally got it right, I realized that very page had an orphan I had somehow missed. I wanted to die. But I didn't. The other pages had already been printed. I bit my lip really hard and looked the other way.

Then I realized that I had wanted to write an acknowledgments page. Luckily, I had left one of the opening pages blank, so I just needed to add a paragraph there. It took me five minutes to think of the word "acknowledgments" in English, another five minutes to think of how to spell the darn word (okay, I used spell-check), another five minutes to type out my thank yous, another five minutes to justify putting the page where the blank page was (it would have been better before the abstract), and then I let them print it (the employee there asked how to say "acknowledgments" and I realized for the first time in my life what an awful spelling disaster that word is--or maybe it's a pronunciation disaster).

I picked out a fabulously rich red for the soft covers and the only red they had for hard covers--a deep burgundy--for the copy I was printing for myself. They told me to come back in a few hours, so I went to the market to pick up vegetables for my trip that evening and allowed myself to get a treat at the bakery.

As soon as I got home, I felt so thankful, I had to kneel down and let out my praise. It was at that moment that I realized I'd forgotten to thank my Heavenly Father in the acknowledgments! Ack!!!!! I immediately called the copy shop, but the bindings were already done. I then had to kneel again and apologize, and then I thought that He counts as family, though I think He really deserves to be specifically thanked.

Turning in the thesis was great. I picked up another goodie at a different bakery on the way home and thought about how I wanted to make some changes to the PDF before I sent it to anyone, but figured I'd do that in a week or two (if you want a copy, let me know).

After taking a picture for your viewing pleasure, I set my thesis on the table in my room and thought of how when people come and ask what it is, I can say, "That? Oh that's just a book I wrote." Then I showered and let all my thesis worries wash away.


My finished thesis!


Thank you to everyone who supported me in any way throughout the whole program!

Here are some things I wish I'd known/done:
-ask for one chapter at a time to be read for feedback
-set up firm appointments for group feedback
-learn to skim for the important things first
-deadline for first draft so there would be more time for revisions

Though I'm already sad to think that I'm not really a student anymore, now I can focus on a lot of other things that have been building up on my list of things to do and I hope to get my health in better shape.

28 August 2009

Overwhelming Amount of Links to Love

You've never seen so many links in your life. I'm posting them all now as a celebration of having just turned in my master's thesis! Wahooooooey! (I almost screamed in the street as I rode away from the copy shop.)

(Oh, and I'll give you a tip: right click on each link and then select "Open Link in New Tab." Then you can be like me and have a billion things open. But if you don't have a Mac and your computer crashes, don't blame me.)

Artsy (Crafts, Architecture, Styles, Music, etc.):

I. want. this. umbrella. skirt.

Awesome Umbrella Skirt


Two lovely wallpaper uses.

Colorful nature art on musical staffs by a Mormon artist.

Doesn't this girl ever run out of cutesy ideas? Silhouette portraits.

Art made with greasy burgers. (Thanks, John's Facebook wall.)

I am blown away by this factory-worker church remodeled to be a house.

Creative architectural art installations.

Someday when I have a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, I will take pictures of it jumping into the air with joy, like these photos. Then I will put a red ribbon around his neck, like these dog bowties.

I'm lusting after this apartment. And the business cards are cool, too.

How to get in a Sartorialist picture
.


Black dot short film.


Dainty scherenschnitte city maps (London and Paris included). (Amanda, good for you.)

Post-it Note Romance:





Here's the mysterious French music that was playing on my computer:

Edith Piaf - Ne Me Quitte Pas

So I saw this mix of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" by Jon Schmidt and Steve Nelson (who was in my old ward) several months ago, but I didn't know how big it would get. Here's an article about it.

What a cool dress made of peacock feathers.

Indian/Mexican wedding. (Cool dress!)

Nice art.

Nice Mormon art.

Could you eat food that looks this pretty?

Out of all these floral patterns, I think I would like to use "Fall Apart" as a wallpaper.

Hilarious office artwork. My favorite is the one with all the dots from a hole puncher and the descriptions for the different kinds of workers.

Vintage underwater photography
.

Johnya's YouTube opera suggestions.

A good example of how to survive in a tiny apartment.

Recycled business cards
. (Just stamp it on used materials.)

Rotating circular kitchen, and in a nice red I like, too. This looks awesome but makes me wonder about the magical triangle that all interior designers consider for kitchens. Would it get old going from fridge to sink to stove? Or would you just rotate it?

Quilling? I didn't even know what that was and now I love it.

I'd like to try to play with clouds in my photos.

Weather Girl Art.

Letters to everyone in a town.

Colorful soap bubbles. (One of the patterns looks like my sinus passages.)

I love Iron & Wine, ever since I was introduced to them on the way to and from Havasupai. This girl's version is nice:

Cinder & Smoke from karmaticoma on Vimeo.

Picture gallery wall interior idea.

Cool wee see (baby einstein for designer babies).

Simply pretty, French art by Stephane Dauthuille.

Artsy tape that would make my mom drool.

Stephanie Levy art.

Colors in awkward family photos. Ha ha.


Literary:

Fascinating article about a word-count linguist.

25,000 books checked out from the library since 1946.

Justify your love for literature
.

Your life on a postcard.

Help this awesome writer write a bestseller. (It may require a LOT of help and patience.)

Library ice cream.

Seven meanings to one sentence.

Someone asked David Sedaris to sign a kindle. Here's what he wrote.

Sylvia Plath's note in The Great Gatsby.

Postmodern book list. (This list made me shiver with joy.)

The adventures of two milk teef. Random.

A variety of bookshelves.

James Joyce invented the blog?

A witty look at the meaning of postmodernism.

Peek at other people's books.

NPR's three-minute fiction. Worth a few reads.


Technological:

Someone had a lot of time to make a fancy printer advertisement.

I love to see people use technology to improve the world--texting 911.

Pocket cemetery on your iPhone.

Since as long as I could remember, people have asked me how I can walk and read at the same time. Although it makes for a bit slower walking and a bit slower reading, I call it quality time-saving. If you hold the book just right, you'll never have trouble seeing if someone or something comes in front of you, even if your eyes aren't focused on it. Well, this tool is good for texting and walking.

Is this not creepy how well they can make digital babies?





Microwave oven physics
.

Google, thanks for the reminder about finding emails.

What is so fascinating about these "Will it Blend?" youtube videos that Jesse told me about? I don't know, but I watched about ten already. Here's the light sticks getting blended (and yes, now I want one of these super-expensive blenders):







Re-Captchas
. So cool! I, you, we are digitizing books!


Mormon:

Talmage's Jesus the Christ in MP3 form (I've been listening to it on my way around the city.)

Will the Great Mormon Novel ever come to be?

Holyfetch.com disspells Mormon urban myths (perfect for Uncle Scott).

Lightning hit my secret dream husband Angel Moroni?


Everything else:

Amazing Holocaust love story.

Picture psychology quizzes
.

Have you ever had a squirrel pop into one of your pictures?

10 most extreme places
. Oddee.com has some awesome lists.

Interactive chart of how Americans spend their time each day.

More outer space colors.

Personal experience of a stroke.

Cool pics of the solar eclipse.

Classic laser backgrounds with portrait photography. (You know you liked them.)

Homeless man with $4 Million.

Nifty anti-smoking campaigns. (Thanks, Vilja.)

Apple pie
.

Turkey finally banned smoking. I guess I went too early.

Surprise wedding reception.

A day of Abbey Road video:





Staring contest (kind of like March Madness).

Dangerous, those snocones, especially when you mix up cleaner and flavor.

Waking up in a body bag.

Whack a kitty video. Ha ha ha.

Did you know bubbles tear when they pop?

People fighting on Google Maps? So random!

Do you want to travel? This Joobili site asks you when and tells you where. So cool.

If you got this far , I congratulate you and thank you. :)