Finished, a semester and a book.

Jess on December 6, 2008

I finished class for a month.  So far I have one grade in for Preventive Conservation and it is an A+.  I am excited for the others to come in.  Overall, I feel confident.  I should have at least an A if not an A+ in collections management and I am expecting an A or an A- in Data Management but it’s hard to say as I have no way to figure out how Mei grades exactly.  It seems, to me… and the rest of us, that she grades based somewhat on how she feels the rest of the class did but I have yet to grasp what exactly she expects out of our writing.  I think she just likes everything to be articulated very clearly which is an important skill in data management and so I think that she’ll give us a good grade because our manual is very detailed.  Also, i was able to figure some things out about Filemaker Pro that can be implemented in the ethnology database and I think she’ll look fondly upon that.  It’s somewhat hard to say though.  I have As on all the other assignments but this is a huge part of our grade.

I’m also satisfied with our collections management plan for collections management.  I think our recommendations were apt and well-explained.  The test we had on Tuesday in that class was totally random as there was not a whole lot of material to test us on.  Usually, we have four sections, Multiple Choice/True False/Fill-in-the-Blank, Short Answer, Lists, and Essay.  This time, we had every section except short answer was somewhat in the first section and somewhat in the lists section.  There was less extra-credit available because there were less sections.  Generally, we answer 20 of 25 in the first section with the extra five worth 1 point each, 3 of 6 in the second with two points available for the each of the other three, 3 of 5 in the third section for two points and then the essay.  Instead, we answered 25 of 32 in the first section, 3 of 5 in the second section and the essay.  It should be fine, though.  I feel like I did well even though a lot of the true/false were crazy specific and not anything we had covered in class or the lab, or much in the readings for that matter.

I also finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova today.  My review from Goodreads.com:

Overall I thought the book was a little too campy. It was about what I was expecting and I was looking for a bit of a break from graduate school and it was enjoyable and a quick read, even at 642 pages. I’m willing to be a little lenient on it because I don’t think I was quite the target demographic and i wasn’t looking for something incredibly heavy or incredibly well-written. I wanted a book that was captivating and The Historian was certainly that.

Still, I find myself unable to get over certain aspects of the story. For one, I think the author fails to create a standalone voice for each story-teller in the book. I can attribute some of this to the preface which explains the narration is not meant to be from more than one perspective but the narrator is citing or quoting from four sources other than her own recall—her father’s stories and writing, Professor Rossi’s writing, and the Chronicle of Zacharias and accompanying explanation. Her father’s story is likely to fall into the voice of the narrator upon recall but the other sources should largely establish their own voice which does not even seem to be attempted. Stylistically, the author could have just not cited them as independent texts as she does, going so far as to dedicate an independent chapter to both the Chronicle and the letters from Professor Rossi. The failure to clearly define a voice for each independent narrator decreased the dynamism of each character.

Pseudo-spoiler begins here: Also, I thought the actual appearance of the character of Dracula diverged from the historical accounts of the man and merged with common folklore. I understand the importance of folklore in the construction of Dracula but felt Kostova had appropriately taken the character in the direction of the historical accounts of Vlad the Impaler. Her effort was largely undone by the appearance of Dracula in the end of the text, no longer the cruel military and political strategist who died in 1477 but instead a kind of protected academic serene and satisfied with his library and secret order of the dragon.

Today we are watching football and enjoying a little bit of being married without the pressure of grad school looming over us.  Mostly, though, we are watching football.

Devon has also been in town this week.  It’s been pretty awesome.  I miss having my brother around and I’m happy that he gets a chance to relax and enjoy Lubbock.  It’s funny how little he stresses us out, being here.  It’s mostly just great to have him around and get to spend some time with him.  I’m really glad my parents ultimately let him come back with us after Thanksgiving.

Seven Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 1)

Jess on November 28, 2008

I’ve decided to start participating in this seven quick takes Friday blog where i post 7 little things from throughout the week.  I really enjoy reading them and I hope others will too.

1. I don’t know how I’m going to survive winter break.

I have been bouncing between Topeka and Blue Springs for the last few days and having only been back a whopping 60 hours, I’m already in a bad mood. I feel like I have no space either physically or just personally at either place and it drives me crazy to not have a car that’s just mine. Plus, we’re trying to balance seeing my friends and seeing his friends and seeing our families and it’s just such a headache. I’m hoping that when we’re here for a long winter break that we’ll settle into a routine and I’ll feel less rushed to see everyone, but as for right now I just want to call the holidays off.

2. I finally got the last of the wedding thank yous done this week.

Now, I just have to gripe at Kyle to get his done and then we’ll all be good. I can’t believe that took so long. It was just impossible trying to juggle getting some sanity in between tests and projects in graduate school and having to find a time when I could really get organized enough to do it. In the end, i regret not getting more done before the wedding so at least i was sort of caught up as it went on. In the even that you get married, I would take this advice. I also don’t know how to get Kyle motivated to do them. I was basically in a panic over the ones that had yet to go out toward the end and I guess he just doesn’t feel the same sense of urgency about them. Luckily, his parents also don’t call and yell at us about them like mine do.

3. Why don’t I see movies anymore?

I realized while reading conversiondiary.com today (where I got inspired for these seven quick takes a week) that I feel like Kyle and I are starting to watch movies less and less. It may not actually be true, but we rent less than we did before and we go to theaters less than we did. Perhaps this will change when we’re not both in school, or maybe it’s just that I’d rather socialize with people when I’m with them and watch movies when I’m hanging out by myself. Also, I think movie quality is sorely lacking these days. Maybe I’d see more movies in Lubbock had a better indie movie selection. I should just renew netflix.

4. I’m excited to have some time to read more over break.

I’m finishing up the Historian hopefully before we return to Lubbock and I think I’ve decided that Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is next. I’ve read her non-fiction Nine Parts of Desire before but I have yet to read any of her fiction. Carla recommends it, and I think she has good taste in books so I’m excited to start it.

5. I’m going to put together some sort of photo project over break.

Basically, I read itsnicethat.com regularly and found this photoproject called @600 where at 600 internet time on a certain day, ea bunch of photographers took photos. You can look at them at mus-mus.org/at600. Some were posed and others were more random than that.  My idea is to set up a twitter account that is the name of the project and then use twittertools on wordpress to set up a way that anyone can post tweets to that account.  then, throughout a 24-hour period, a group of us who were subscribed to the twitter feed of the account would take photos everytime we got a tweet to take a photo and then we could also send out tweet requests.  I think it would be fun because everyone would have the chance to play with the photo and we could create a sort of schizophrenic photodiary that captures multiple peoples days in multiple cities at the same time.    I’ll probably get it organized and try to do it sometime by the new year.  I think it could be a pretty sweet project idea and maybe could eventually be pretty widespread.

6. I don’t know about you all, but I’m cheering for Oklahoma State tomorrow night.

Kyle’s parents announced that they have two tickets for us to the Big 12 championship.  We expected them to do this, sort of, but it’s still a surprise and has me super excited for the game–presuming Tech gets in.  So let’s keep our fingers crossed that there’s an upset in Stillwater tomorrow.

7. I’m no longer angry at mass anymore.

I realized sometime last week that I’d sort of been avoiding mass or at least not making it as much of a priority.  Most of the reason for this is that I was angry about the time in October that the priest handed over the homily to the student center intern so instead of having a homily about the liturgy given by a priest we heard a homily about the second offering given by a lay person.  This is in violation of canon law and made me angry.  Kyle was with me at this particular mass and I think I felt like the Church was failing to provide its element of witness to potential new members that might be in attendance.  Further, I’m supposed to attend mass on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation.  What kind of obligation is there if the mass turns into a pitch for money that the church needs?  The homily, I realize, is not the most important part of the mass order… but how do I prepare to take communion when the homily is designed to only prepare me to hand over cash for the second offering?  We did give money to the offerings that day, but I think I left feeling that it was slightly pointless.  I know I’m a very conservative Catholic when it comes down to how I interpret canon law and how important I think it is that priests act in accordance with canon law, but I don’t think this is an issue on which I am too conservative.

Anyway, I have triumphantly returned to making mass a priority and I feel a lot better about it.  Now, if I can only resucceed in getting Kyle to view it as important.  I feel like my prioritizing it low was bad because it sets an example that actually you can set catholic obligations on the back burner, and I don’t believe that that’s true.  I was just frustrated and angry and i think I lost a little view of the point of it all myself.  It’s times like this that I know I would really benefit from having a spouse that has the same religious convictions that I do.  I think he’s coming around and certainly we view things far more similarly than we used to.

Why is TV so much more interesting than school?

Jess on November 18, 2008

I figured out that problem with the limited posts appearing on my blog. It’s a result of the Twitter Tools plugin creating posts and then those posts being filtered out of the Loop on account of their being under the Twitter category instead of Journal, Prose, or Poetry. All of which would appear on my regular blog. I also didn’t mean to activate the Twitter Tools digest feature, but I guess I thought about it and then forgot to change it back. Also, it works miserably. Mis-er-a-bly. It creates I think one blog post for every twitter post when it is only scheduled to post once a week. To hell with it.

I am completely and utterly overwhelmed with school. But the worst should be over tonight or tomorrow. Or Saturday. We will wait to see.

Test, complete.

Jess on November 13, 2008

I finished my third test in Collections Management.  I feel somewhere between confidence levels of the first and the last, which means that I should get an A.  I also need to remember that most of that which frustrated me were extra credit questions anyway.  So hopefully all will go well.  

Tonight we’re celebrating by going out, possibly to Fox and Hound and possibly to somewhere else.  I’ve been on a crazy Fat Tire kick lately so that’s probably my preference.  But I need not be out too late because I have to work tomorrow at 9 a.m. and I have so much writing and such to get done this weekend.  Oh well.  At least the school week is over in a matter of hours and then I have days to relax and work on writing things as needed.

She saved the world a lot.

Jess on November 10, 2008

I watched Season 5 of Buffy in 36 hours. It was good and I feel like I should write a poem, not about that, but about something else that’s on my mind. I just don’t really know what there is that I should say about it. I mean, obviously nothing here. But I’ve been dwelling on it or dwelling on my not saying anything. I guess this is why I have a written journal. But my written journal is just a series of escapades on the same subject. Also, my written journal is so fleeting. It’s constantly disappearing and the most inaccurate record of my history ever. What are my children going to think?

I’m currently watching How I Met Your Mother which is a really mediocre sitcom but I’m still fixated on Allyson Hannigan and it’s not terrible-terrible. It’s just watchable and bad. You know what other show I don’t like? Friends. Why was it ever good? Why did people ever like it? Why did they make so much money for it? Goodness. I hope no show is ever like that again. I’m glad that most Hollywood writers these days seem to self-destruct after four or so seasons.

I take pride in the fact that my home state has more electoral votes than Hawaii. I, however, recognize that’s because a lot of people get stuck there rather than more people choosing to live there than the other state. I escaped to Lubbock, Texas. A bittersweet victory.

Days go by

Jess on November 9, 2008

Yesterday was slightly less productive than I had hoped, but I have the database almost completely finished.  Or actually, it is completely finished it just has yet to be described.  I’m excited to have it done.  And to get the project finished.  It’s been such a long journey and I’m probably closest to finished on that project.

I also watched the game with Jenni which was fun.  And Tech pretty well hammered OSU.  If Tech is in the Big 12 Championship, I want to go so badly.  It would be so fun!  But I think Kyle has to stay to administer finals and things so even though we may have tickets its unlikely that we would be able to go.  Plus, my brother is coming down after Thanksgiving to spend a few weeks with us so I’m sure we’ll be busy and having plenty of fun here.

I’m working on things more today and watching Buffy which Jess brought by yesterday before heading to Skooners to watch the game.  I love Buffy so much!  I also really like Marie Antoinette the movie.  I’m watching the end of it now while I have my breakfast (of gnocci, because I’m out of milk and leftovers seem more appealing plus I already had an omelet yesterday).  I think I just like the music and how beautiful it all is.  And it’s such a beautiful study in revolution  from an different perspective.  Mostly, I think I just like the music and all of the fanfare.  And possibly Jason Schwartzmann.

I miss humidity.

Jess on November 8, 2008

It’s really cold in the mornings here, starting yesterday, which sucks because Kyle is in California so usually I would just steal his warmth for a while but instead I have to layer up the blankets at night in preparation.  And then I sit around sort of cold in hoodies and sweats waiting for the apartment to reach an acceptable temperature.  I’m sure that when he returns to this climate, he’ll just turn the heat on which is fine and maybe I should do, but it seems like such a waste when the afternoons are so pleasant.  It’s 37 degrees right now but should be up to 68/70 later in the day.

My plan today is to watch a lot of football, read some, write a bunch of thank you notes and database, database, database and then describe the database in writing form for quite a while.  Oh and make notecards for studying in Dr. Johnson’s class.  Ugh.  So much to do!  Despite of all of that, I still feel pretty ahead of the game in my classes and that is a pretty good sign.  We should have most of our group projects in their last stages by the end of next week and that’s a great feeling.  It’s rough having so many group projects, especially when the groups are comprised of different arrangements of the same 16 or so people.  I am finding that it’s at least beneficial that everyone is in over their heads in projects so we’re more understanding about when we have to meet.

Nicky asked me to participate in a panel at the Texas Association of Museums in El Paso this year and I think I am going to take the opportunity.  I’m pretty excited to have even been asked and I think I have a topic picked out even.  Woo.

I’m off to make eggs.  For some reason, I’ve been craving them.  Probably protein issues.  I need to start paying more attention to what I eat to make sure I’m balancing my diet properly.  I feel like I just forage and am constantly on the verge of losing it.

Can I get a little R&R?

Jess on November 6, 2008

I added a new blog to my RSS feed which is pretty significant for several reasons. For one, it was recommended to me by Joe who is in law school and I have a theory that the reason he largely recommends boring things to me is because much of his life is spent reading things unimaginably boring so he can trudge through things i won’t touch. For two, I very rarely add foreign blogs to my rss feeds. My feed list, as you know, is all culture/art/exhibit things and the blogs of my friends. Therefore, it is quite significant to add something new written by someone I don’t know that was recommended to me by a law student. Without further ado, I’ll recommend it to everyone else too.

Conversion Diary

It’s good, it’s Catholic. It’s written by a former atheist and it is not boring.

In other news, I am in significant need of the break I am taking tonight. I feel like every night this week I’ve been running-running-running and that I haven’t had much time to just relax. Kyle is gone this weekend with debate (in California!) and I am here. But Sunday we had people over for our HBO true blood/entourage rotation and some dinner. And then Monday we went out after his class and that was somewhat of a disaster as I didn’t really want to go but sucked it up in an attempt to be life-giving and he drank too much and didn’t pay attention to my needs to go home and get a good night of sleep before going to class at 8:15 and then Tuesday was the election and Mary’s election party so we were out late. Last night we spent watching West Wing after going to dinner but around dinner we had to deal with his cell phone being broken which took far longer than it should have and then dinner made me sorta sick to my stomach so it was not as relaxing as it should have been.

The date was really nice though. We’ve been pretty nitpicky lately. Partially from spending most of our time together and I think we’re just pretty stressed about things. I’m not sure that our primary mode of relaxation is terribly compatible either. He’s more of a go-out-have-fun relaxer and I’m more of a stay-in-and-relax kind of girl. But that’s okay. I think that we’ll reach a good middle point, and I think I’ll reach a good point in which I’m fine letting him be out when I’m in. We just enjoy each other’s company so much right now that I want to spend all of my time with him. I’m sure this weekend will be good at reminding each other of that.

And I should be plenty busy too. I have thank you after thank you to finish and I have three group assignments to do some writing about. I’ll be happy when the semester is over. I’ve realized that when I sit down to blog about it, I’m a lot harder on the program than I should be. Really, I like it. Most of my professors are great and next semester we get into much more interesting topics, a lot of things that are more interpretive and less collections-oriented. I’ll feel better when that happens.

I’ve also thought about doing one of those stupid grad-student cliché blogs where i extrapolate on the questions which arise in my head during graduate classes in blog form. I’m not sure that I’m quite ready to be that girl yet. I would like to start doing a more topical approach to blogging and not always have it be just a steady journal. A little politics. Some religion. Some museums. Just a bit more activity on my part. We’ll see though.

Every one loves an upset.

Jess on November 2, 2008

I apparently am going to have to blog more regularly as this layout seems to only show my posts written from within the last two weeks. I looked at the PHP and tried to change it but I can’t figure out where the setting is that is set that way. The PHP appears to just call all of the posts in the loop and the settings on my actual wordpress are set to show my most recent 10 posts. Hrm. Oh well, I’ll keep investigating it.

I really have a lot of updates anyway. I had a great time at the MPMA conference in Kansas City. It was totally bad ass getting to be back home. I went out for drinks on Monday with the Cap-J sports department and had the most fun I think I’ve ever had going out with them. I don’t know if it was because we were drinking for longer or because they didn’t have to be more guarded around me since I don’t work there anymore. I also got to see a bunch of people when I was back. I spent Monday and Friday night with my parents and got to eat Mezcal! Woo! I spent Wednesday night with Emily and Jeanine in Blue Springs and Thursday with Joe (somehow, I cannot manage to avoid them even though we both now live in cities that are not Kansas City), Tom, and Roger and then ReAnne, Brandon, Jenny and later Stephanie joined us at the Foundry. Delicious! I had a Dynamite Roll. Probably bound to be a future staple of my visiting Kansas City diet.

The conference was also pretty great. I sat on three or so sessions that I felt were particularly beneficial. One was about how to advocate for your museum politically and another was about blockbuster exhibits. I also went to a how-to on resumes and cover letters in the museum business that will probably help me out a lot in the future. The conference was good and theoretical which I appreciate as I feel that sometimes Tech’s program is lacking in that level. I came back pretty excited about continuing with museums but also unsure of how good a superficial study of current museum practices and procedures is. I just think the program and students would benefit from a theoretical exploration of the things that happen in museums so that if policies and procedures begin to change we’ll understand the reason for those changes when they happen and be able to argue at a theoretical level that goes beyond “this is what we have done since period x.” I’m very excited to get going on correlative courses next semester to say the least. I did get a 102 out of 100 on my last collections management exam which really balances out that 84 I had on the first one. Woot.

Things with Kyle have been very good. We celebrated our two-month anniversary Thursday by getting too drunk at Double Dave’s on 95 cent pints. Friday we really celebrated by going to Dinner at Abuelos as I have been looking for higher quality Mexican here. And then we went and saw the Mountain Goats. Oh em gosh. First, Kaki King opened and she is totally hot and talented like whoa at guitar-playing. You should probably check her out. Second, the Mountain Goats are awesome live. Really, they’re one of those bands like The Decemberists who totally transform their studio set when they play live. They amped it to a whole different level and there was slam dancing and jumping all around. I’ll definitely look forward to the next time they come through West Texas.

Yesterday, we had people over for a barbeque and I made pasta salad and potato casserole and we got a keg and watched Texas Tech beat Texas. It was the most fun I’ve had in quite a while. Probably since our wedding. It was totally brilliant. And Tech won which was even more awesome. We had quite the group. Tuesday, we’re doing it all again at Mary’s for election night coverage. My goal is to take a shot of beer for every state that comes in. But we’ll see. Maybe that’s not my greatest idea.

Next weekend is First Fridays. Woo. And then we might go to the Revival Tour.