Here's another sign from Japan. I called it "Don't run or your leg will fall off". I honestly have no idea what it's trying to say. Don't step off the tracks? It's in a subway station... Claire? Stephanie? 

Chinese New Year

I went to Birmingham's China Town for the Chinese New Year celebration. My flatmate was surprised that only about a fourth of the people there appeared to be Chinese. I wasn't really... It was fun, if amazingly crowded. You get a sense from these pictures, but keep in mind that I only took pictures when I could get my camera out in the crowd. We had lunch at a sushi restaurent -- all the Chinese restaurents were either closed or packed. But they had an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet for six pounds. Which made me happy. And probably made me gain six pounds. But hey. Convery belts.... sushi... reminds me of Japan. Except the sushi there was better. But this wasn't bad for the price.

In other news, I'm trying to strike that fine balance between getting my work done and not stressing too much. Trying is the operative word. And I'm missing Andy a lot. Silly boy. Why can't he be five time zones closer? Also missing assorted other friends... on a rotating basis! When will be your turn?

The Arcadian Center in Birmingham, packed for the Chinese New Year. 

Another dragon! 

Dragon! 

Dragon dance 

La stresse est morte; vive la stresse

Unless it should be "le stress." Oh well.

So I finished my exam, which went... ok. Hard to tell. But I felt as if it was up to my usual standards, so that's ok.

But now I have to start figuring out how to approach my projects for this term (slowly, carrying a big stick).

Wimsical

I have to hand in my exam portfolio tomorrow, so clearly I need to be making desktop collages. This one is of a bunch of images whose only connection is that they're from films I like. I thought there was a small liklihood that someone other than me might find this cool, so I posted it.

I love blogging. Allows one to be so self-indulgent.

Beautiful day in this neighbourhood...

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, my flatmate is speaking Greek on the phone, and the sun is beginning to set (never mind that it's not even 4pm). And I just had tea and a piece of bread with Nutella, and I'm sitting down to read "The Brontes and their Books." I found a wonderful piece of information on Thackeray last night in the library, may have got my wireless fixed, and am feeling ok about this exam on Wednesday. Although I'm still a bit confused by the whole we'll-show-you-the-questions-beforehand-and-you-can-bring-something-in-that-has-to-be-approved-by-a-lecturer
thing. Trying to walk the line between preparing adequately and not writing the whole essay beforehand, which I feel would not be in keeping with the spirit.

Thackeray is cool. As are the Brontes. I've been working through Gaskell's Life over breakfast, marking the passages that have to do with reading... Poor Gaskell. Trying so hard to keep everyone happy.

Just wanted to let you all know that God is in fact in his heaven, and all seems to be more or less right with the proverbial.

Now I suppose I should do my work.

Disco Party

I have just confirmed my flat complex's receptionist's opinion that I am a total looney.

She still knows me by name from the infamous Silence Button Episode, and her tone towards me always seems like she's a bit wary that I'm going to do something wild and unpredictable, or maybe just winge a lot (did I spell that right?).

Well, today I entered a repair request form with the following text (approximately; this is a reconstruction):

The light in our toilet is broken. It is flashing. We had a similar problem last month, which was addressed, and the situation improved, but now it has worsened. It is primarily dark, with a few flashes of light. Rather nice strobe effect, but not what one wants in a light. Thanks.

Renee will remember the effect--it's similar to when she came. We can have a disco party! But no....

So, yeah. I think the pressure of adjusting to the time change/culture plus preparing (revising!) for an exam, plus trying to get myself organized for my two papers and dissertation has strained my too-sensetive nerves.

Or I just like having fun with words and it's dangerous to give me a pen, a form and a blank space.

Probably the latter; I'm actually not too worried about my work.


Hah.

But it'll be fine.

Signs

The Wales "At Any Time" sign reminded me of some funny English translations on signs in Japan, which I'm now going to share.

I should preface this with a disclaimer stating that I don't mean this to make fun of the Japanese. I mean, how many signs in American have any attempt at Japanese translations? Not many. But it's still kind of funny.

I mean, I understand what they mean, but the phrasing's... oh, you'll see.

President

Look, Vassar girls and boys! We have a new president!
http://www.vassar.edu/10thpresident/

Of course, most of you know this already; I for one just got the email. No more Fran. :( But this new prez looks promising. We'll have to see... Current students, keep me posted. :)

Meanwhile, the rain is fading and it's brightening here in Merrie Olde. I'm trying to get over my jet-lag grumpiness, which is making me not a morning person. Which is annoying, because I'm normally a morning person. So I'm not an afternoon or evening person, which basically means I'm cranky all the time. Grr. I don't like being cranky. I'm going to be cranky about it.

So now I'm going to try to subdue the crankitude and A) get some work done (concept!) and/or B) order Endnote. Which I couldn't do online, but I can do via phone, I just shouldn't be cranky while I do.

Vagaries of spelling

I before E excpet after C or when sounded like "A" as in "neighbor" and "weigh"

Or in Bodleian.

Because it's the Bodley, or the Bodleian library

But still.

As if spelling wasn't difficult enough for me.

I've been compiling my to-do list for the semester, in happy little columns: Donne paper, Marginalia paper, Bronte paper, Materials and Methods, Textual Editing, and Cultural Inquiry. The purpose of the exercise is to make me less stressed, not more, because then whenever I sit down (as I often do) and think, now I know there's stuff I need to do: what is it? I can look at my list. And when I think (as I often do), now I musn't forget I need to do this, I can write it down. Hopefully this will prove more successful than my thesis to-do list, which often made me so stressed I didn't look at it and thus didn't do lots of the things on it. But my goal is to make this in little pieces, and then I'll be able to toggle between things. Like my PhD applications chart.

In theory.

We'll see. I'd been planning to go to the library early today and spend the whole day there and get lots done. (or Donne?) But I've actually done some good work this morning--I'm going through Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte and transcribing the passages that have to do with reading. Somewhat tedious, somewhat nerve-wracking because there's so much other info on the Brontes, and I keep thinking, should I write this down? What if it's important later and I can't remember where it came from? But I think the basic fact of research is that that's GOING to happen, and better to have it happen than to waste time writing down extraneous stuff and thereby making my notes totally illegible for the purpose they're meant to serve, AND getting buried in the task.

I need to get Endnote. Perhaps today.

Ok, and I need to stop blogging and get to work.

Sorry if this post is unforgivably dull.

I shall liven it up with a bon mot.


uh....

Pneu.
Ca, c'est un bon mot.

My computer doesn't do accents.

And that was a horrible pun. If you don't speak French, feel thankful.

Caroline lent me Cosmo in French. All sorts of slang.... and stuff they don't teach you in school...
Ok I'm really going now.

Oh, jet lag

So now I'm back in Bham, and I've decided that it's ok not to do anything productive today (besides being careful not to split infinitives). Because I'm jet-lagged. Although I'm actually better now than I was in the early afternoon. I think the nap and the tea helped. It's actually dark outside, and I feel awake! Oh, it's also 2:30 body time. Don't think about that too closely. It's 5:30, ok? It's 5:30. Then why is it all dark outside? In NC, it wasn't this dark till past 6. Blah.

But it's nice to be back in the UK, and I'm looking forward to hitting the library tomorrow (thwack!) and doing more research into my projects... upon which I will now briefly expand.

Maeve, a LONG while back, asked me what courtship marginalia was, and I was too freaked out about PhD aps to answer. Sorry. Basically, my Materials and Methods of Literary Research project will be on 18th-c marginalia. I'm hoping to find a book that was annotated as part of a courtship, probably from a man to his intended. I know at least one such book exists, and I might just play with that. Or I might write a paper about trying to find books with 18th-c marginalia. We'll see.

Second project: for Textual Editing: editing Donne. Probably a short poem... we'll see which. Have been trying to find Donne papers online through such sophisticated research methods as Google. And the Bod catalogue. And Archives Hub, whatever that is. Have decided best recourse is to look for a recent critical ed. of Donne and see what their sources are. Why reinvent the wheel.

Third project: dissertation. MA dissertation. They have funky terms for things over here. I need to run this by my advisor, but my current thinking is a project on the Brontes as readers. Finding out as much as I can about the reading habits of the family. I've already found some stuff from secondary sources in NC, thanks to my research assistant/mom. :) Sometimes I love being in an academic family.

Also, my applications are off! Aaaaand they're off! We'll see who wins the race. Hope it will be me.

Hmm, what to do? I think I am right in thinking I don't have enough thinkpower to think clearly today (and this sentence proves it), so I shan't do work that I might mess up... maybe I'll read the Scarlet Pimpernel. Just finished The Master by Colin Toibin, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I can never spell that word with ease.

Ooh, maybe I'll actually reread Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte and make notes! That's not too taxing... right?