copyright law is totes interesting

I guess. Watching videos of lectures is so much harder than going to the actual lecture. I am not a fan of online courses so far. I don't really know what's going on, and it's summer, so it's a lot harder to care about school. I'm so far behind on reading for my independent study, or at least I feel so far behind where I'd like to be. I'm supposed to hand in an outline on Monday, and while I have oodles of half-formed notions of possibly interesting topics, I haven't really figured out what to focus on or how to organize my thoughts. And I have to write 20-25 pages by August 15th! Fuck dude, I need to work harder. Or smarter--I read a book called Work Smarter, Not Harder while I was in high school. It was all about how to get more out of your study time, or something. Yes, I bought the book for myself; yes, I was a gigantic nerd. I also bought The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers. I didn't just read that, I highlighted it and made notes. And I wondered why I was so unpopular.

Uh, sorry, tangent. I have been doing all my studying at Kinni Lounge (best coffee place ever!), so there is a slight chance I've been drinking too much coffee.

quickly

I'm in New York, it's awesome, details forthcoming. For now, it is important that you know that I got all my grades back, and I got straight As, and I have a 4.0 for the first time ever, and I am so very awesome.

new york, new york

Hey, guess where I'll be next Wednesday?



I didn't actually think about the timing when I bought my ticket, but what an awesome reward for getting through my first semester of grad school. There's a chance I might even get through my first semester with straight As. Not that I care about grades! I am in grad school to learn. Seriously.

Anyway. I started writing a list of things I'm going to do while I'm in the city, but it devolved into complaining about NYU within two bullet-point items. I may still have some unresolved issues there. It's okay though, my plans basically involve hanging out with Kira and also sending out a mass "I'm going to be in the city" email sometime this weekend. I will definitely have plenty to do, assuming anyone remembers me.

In conclusion, today I finished this. You can't tell, but there's another orange stripe thing on the back.

dispatch from Louisville

There was an earthquake this morning! I slept through it, but my hotel roommates both woke up. There were aftershocks during a workshop on archiving emails & websites (way more complicated than you would think). They weren't strong at all, but it is so weird to feel the entire room shake.

orientalism

1. So I'm writing this paper for my Colonialism seminar. I have to talk about a bunch of different readings, mostly related to education and architecture and display in the later imperial period. That part isn't necessarily difficult--I did all the reading and I basically understand what all the authors are trying to say--but we also have to make a larger argument, and I just have nothing interesting to say. I don't know, I may have figured out an approach, but it's so difficult to write this paper because I just do not have anything interesting to add.

2. I'm going to New York in May. I think I may have already mentioned that, but I bought my ticket today. I'm leaving the week after finals, and I'm staying for eight days. It will be awesome.

3. I'm going to Kentucky on Thursday, for the Midwest Archives Conference Annual Meeting. I'm sort of not sure why I'm going, as it will cost money and I have not even taken any archives classes, and I'm seriously not going to have any background knowledge when I get there. But on the other hand, I'll get to go to Kentucky (which I probably would not ever have done otherwise), and it's not actually that expensive, and I'll probably learn something, and it's always good to make contacts or whatever. Right? I don't know, I'm just hoping I'll be able to buy some quality bourbon while I'm there.

4. I made a really awesome bag this weekend. After much consideration, I've decided to list it on Etsy, because much as I want to keep it for myself, I also want to keep having money to buy food, and that's going to be difficult since I keep going on trips I can't afford. I'll post a photo of the bag tonight or probably tomorrow, after I list it on Etsy.

5. I can barely write a coherent sentence. That does not bode well for the paper I've been working on for the past three hours!

smarty

I went to a symposium today, scheduled in conjunction with the Foto exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The papers presented at the symposium were interesting, and the exhibition was amazing. I'm going to go again soon, and I have renewed my commitment to saving money so I can go to Prague soon. The exhibition is about Central European photography, you see.

I would write more, but I was starving after the symposium and somehow ended up buying lasagna and pinot noir for dinner, so I am going to go lay down and wait for the two glasses of wine to wear off. I am über classy.

half awake

1. I have class on Thursdays at 9:30. Our professor is out of town this week, so we had to take the quiz online, so I woke up at 8, made coffee, drank coffee, studied, downloaded the quiz at 9:30, uploaded the answers at 9:50 or so, and now... I am awake. And I don't have to do anything all day, or at least until this afternoon. Lame.

2. Ugh, that story was not as interesting as I thought it would be.

3. My room is so messy! I'm not even going to upload a picture, it would be too shocking. Unless you know me; then it would be too expected, and you'd be all "oh, Marina, your room is messy again, HAHAHA LIKE ALWAYS." Which is true, but still, I am sick of people making fun of me for my mess. I have made my bed every day this year, thank you very much.

4. Oh, I am cranky!

5. I finished an awesome bag last night. It is adorable, and I'm going to list it on Etsy even though the seams are not very straight because it is awesome and lined with a multi-colored polka dot fabric. Adorable! Pictures later, I should do the listing today.

6. I sold more of the strange little face beads on Etsy, to someone in the Netherlands, which is pretty cool. I still have some left, so check out my etsy shop if you're into buying things that are really awesome.

funny funny!

You know how yesterday I said that I finally felt like a grad student? Today, I was offered a position as a TA in the History department. Tuition remission, health benefits, and a (generous!) stipend. Excellent.

library time is my favorite kind of time

Oh, you guys. I really do love spending the afternoon in the library. Especially when it involves editing a paper that's due in two days instead of writing a paper that's due in two days. Papers are so much more fun to work on when they're not due in six hours. Of course, now that I've given myself time to edit it, I have to actually edit it, which is nerve-wracking. Making sense is hard! Still, I'm excited about this whole thing where I have time to edit my papers so that I'm actually developing an argument. I feel like I'm getting closer to writing academic papers, rather than just writing papers for class. I feel like a real grad student.

And yes, I realize that I am a gigantic nerd, but I would like to take this opportunity to point out that I went out drinking with friends (I have them!) last Thursday, and I stayed out until bar close, and then I went to Oakland Gyros and got food (with friends!) and listened to a very drunk girl drunk-talking to her far less drunk date. (I need a thesaurus!) She was completely ridiculous, but she was also sort of me when I was twenty. So much has changed in three years! (By which I mean I stopped drinking whiskey, so my drunk talking is far less ridiculous.)

Okay, break over, back to the paper.

all hope is lost

Guess who's retiring?. The next few seasons are going to be tough.

In other less-depressing news, I met with my professor this morning to talk about my paper because I thought I had no idea what I was doing. After I explained what I wanted to write about, he gave me a few suggestions but said that I'm basically on the right track. Awesome! Now I just need to write it.

monday again!

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole week!

I am terribly busy and will be until March 15 at 3pm, but I felt that I needed to take time out from my busy, important schedule to tell you that I got my first paper back today, my first paper of grad school, and there are comments and suggestions a plenty, but I got an A-! I've been feeling overwhelmed by this whole grad school thing, so it is nice to know that I actually know what I'm doing. Basically.

Also, I know you don't care, and I would totally be bored and/or nauseated by this if I were you, but I went home this past weekend, and I got to spend oodles of time with Nathan, and it was our six-month anniversary (six monthiversary?), and we went out to dinner, and I will stop myself before I get too gross and sentimental, but I had a really good weekend.

sometimes i can't shut up

First class of grad school was today.

Things started to go wrong even before class started. I knew the building and floor where the class was meeting, but I did not know the room number. Something was up with the UWM servers today, so for about 20 minutes all three sites where I could get course information were down. One of them finally started working about 20 minutes before class started, so I didn't have to wander around the ninth floor of Curtin, looking for people talking about colonialism and culture. I did not, however, have time to eat dinner. That, combined with my year and half break from anything academic or in any way mentally stimulating, meant that I had no real ability to think clearly or make a coherent argument. Of course, that did not stop me from talking constantly. I just couldn't stop; we were talking about colonialism in India and in France, and I had anthro classes about both countries, and no one else was talking, and I really honestly had something to contribute, and I could not stop myself from spouting off every two minutes, even though I knew I was making absolutely no sense.

So... yes. Mixed feelings, I guess. I was not shy about participating, which is good. And, um, I guess I'm cautiously optimistic that if I do the reading and go to class prepared (and fed) next week, I will not make an ass of myself again.

borders

The Packers lost to the Giants today. They didn't seem to care much about winning, so I guess I shouldn't bother being pissed that they lost.

School starts in two days. I'm not going to lie--I'm super excited. I just finished my reading for my Wednesday class (Foundations of Library and Information Science--so fascinating, right?), and I'm going to do my first readings for my history class (colloquia in Colonialism & Culture, nearly guaranteed to be amazing) tomorrow. They aren't even really due until next Tuesday, but I am just so fucking excited!

Also, I'm unemployed, so I don't really have anything else to do. Related--I put together the three bookshelves I bought on Thursday. I also put all my books on them, cleaned my room for a few hours (I can see my floor!), figured out a makeshift sewing table (um, my desk), used my new (thrifted) iron & (fold out) ironing board while working on (another) set of coasters, and I need to stop because why all the parentheses?

I'll have pictures of all these things soon, but I will leave you with my favorite line from my readings for Wednesday--"one should not assume that it is the kids watching the TV" (Rubin, Foundations of Library and Information Science 13). Remember that.

crap

This internship that I tried to get right after graduation? That involved doing research for a historian? That I didn't actually do because I had scheduling issues (probably caused by going home for a month and then coming back and working two jobs and doing research for another historian because omg I am so important look at me)? Also, though, he started ignoring me so it totally was not completely my fault although possibly he ignored me because who wants an intern who is too busy to do any work?

Whatever. That historian wrote the textbook for one of the courses I might take this spring. UGH MISSED NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY FUCK.

You guys, I am so into my new career that I am sincerely interested in networking so as to further said career.

omg time to choose classes

UWM has Serbo-Croatian and Ukrainian BUT NOT CZECH. Or Slovak, for that matter.

I CALL DISCRIMINATION.