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.

We have it re-hashed

Jess on August 2, 2008

Moving out is going a little bit more quickly. I have my entire room basically packed, now I’m just cleaning it and actually throwing away the stuff in my drawers I decided I didn’t want (mostly trash anyway). Since Kyle and I finished the garage a few weeks ago, I just need to do the same in there, cleaning up and throwing things out and I have some other odds and ends to pack. Next is the major task of going through my book collection. I think my goal is to sort things in four piles:

1. books borrowed that should get returned which is a short stack.
2. books i’m going to sell which will mostly consist of books that are contemporary and not my absolute favorite that i’ve purchased and read and will not read again or feel the need to loan out. i’ll probably try to take these to lubbock with me and then liquidate them from there through some source or another, i’ve been thinking about bookmooch.com which would mean giving them away or maybe even half.com or trying to sell via normal used means like used bookstores, half.com and other places.
3. books i’m going to keep at my parent’s house which is a pretty large collection but mostly children’s books because i’d like to keep a lot of the one’s that i like and then some classics that i’ve already read.
4. books i’m going to take to lubbock and keep which is mostly contemporary books which i have purchased but not read and classics which have also not been read. and then of course my favorite authors books who i like to have around so i can loan them out. really, i should start loaning books out more

    My bachelorette party and bridal shower are next Saturday and I quit the cap-j next friday. Quitting the cap-j is leading to a period of terror as I have not been unemployed for a period greater than two weeks since I was just barely sixteen. So now I’m thinking that living in lubbock means I should look for a job, with or without going to grad school. I think I basically just have cold feet about going to grad school for something that wasn’t necessarily my first choice.

    The thing is, I think it is a great choice and a good option and after my internship which ended last week, I am really excited about the prospect of working in museums. I have just been a little hesitant due to some family issues in the last few weeks stemming from financial problems my cousin and his wife are having. Ack. Marriage is a scary institution that should not be entered lightly and I’m not sure that taking on so much debt for something I’m not positive I want is the best way to alleviate all that. Taking two years off and taking another shot at history might have me ending my life more fulfilled at whatever point that is, but then museum science offers so many wonderful possibilities as well. I chatted with Cara about all of this the other day and she had me more excited about museum science than I had been for the few days prior to the conversation so now I think i’m just going to investigate some part-time work in addition to grad school instead of full-time work in lieu of. But let’s be honest, I’m looking pretty heavily into both options and putting in some apps and places I think I would like to work.

    I’m very excited to get to Texas and have the wedding happen. Only 4 more weeks to the day! Eek!

    Pop culture has been happening

    Jess on April 30, 2008

    So I’m saying that I have a couple goals this summer and one is to read. A lot. I want to read more than I drive, basically, more than I watch tv that I don’t even like. I want to spend just one summer with no concern for what came before or what comes after it tearing through novels like I did when I was fifteen. So, keeping with the traditions of my fifteen-year-old self, it is time to craft a summer reading list. More will be added at will.

    Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
    Barbie’s Queer Accessories by Erica Rand
    Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman
    Why Marriages Succeed or Fail: And How You Can Make Yours Last by John Gottman
    … the other book about marriage that Jenny sent me
    Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran
    Million Little Pieces by James Frey
    Never Again by Flora Nwapa
    Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
    Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
    One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez
    Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez
    , et cetera

    Sleeping in for the wrong team

    Jess on April 8, 2008

    For some reason, I’m sort of exhausted.  Maybe because I played Smash Brothers most of yesterday and maybe because I spent like 9 hours this weekend finishing up my thesis, not bad for the last push on my thesis but still sort of exhausting.  And right now I’m at that place with a paper where I can’t look at what I did.  I just know I feel sorta like I wrecked my car.  I’m sure I’ll re-read it and it won’t be as bad as I think… and I’m sure I’ll get it mostly cleared up in the parts where it is bad, but still.  I’ve vowed not to think about it for the next day or so.

    WordPress changed the layout of the internal part of the site.  Here is a message to the people responsible for this change: I don’t like it.  It is silly.  And the first thing I am going to do is change it back if that’s possible and it probably is.

    Kyle and I did our engagement photos. Pictures are up in an album on Cari’s account and I’m probabaly gonna snipe them for flickr in a bit too.   i’m trying to hold off until they’ve been editted but at this point, meh, whatever, i’m just taking them.  i’ll edit them on photoshop express or something.  speaking of, i’ve been experimenting with seashore which is the gimp build for mac because it’s free and i like free things.  so far, i’m only fussy about how it does brushes (this is a big deal if you know anything about my design habits) but otherwise it’s good little software.  i also assume this is just part of the learning curve.  I also have been using Scribus which is an opensource desktop publisher.  it has a huge learning curve but now that i’m figuring out I probably like it about as much as InDesign.  Certainly when you consider the difference in price tag its way better… also because I don’t typeset.  I could see it maybe being a pain in the ass if you were working with lots and lots of content, but then, I think InDesign is that way on my laptop as it is…

    It’s so like me to try to update the world on wedding prep and instead get distracted with a conversation about opensource design software.  ack.  I mean, I guess it all relates cos we’re doing our own programs, invites, blah blah blah all of that.  so i sort of need the software for something semi-practical for once in my life.

    I also bought us a copy of “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work” by John M. Gottman, Ph. D.  I’m only a chapter+ in right now so I don’t feel like I can make a royally long critique of the book but so far I like it.  I like it cos I don’t like Active Listening even though I’ve been trained in it (I call it passive aggressive listening… ahem).  So Gottman criticizes it because he says that it’s really meant to be an individual therapist-to-patient method of listening and not really that applicable when all the “I statements” are criticizing the listener.  A good point.  And he mostly talks about how good he is at his job which is sorta sweet.  And he comes really highly recommended.

    Sorry I don’t have long treacherous reports about the ins and outs of my life these days.  I guess things are really good, or just kind of unknown.  I’m hoping to have some blanks filled in by the end of the month but there is no sense rushing a lack of information. On the right side, I have been updating you with far more poetry which is good for us both.  Another one is hopefully on the way soon.

    How many times can I be a loner, dottie?

    Jess on January 31, 2008

    Lately, I find myself lonely.  My sleep schedule is all crazy again because I really have nothing to do when I get off work at night and a lot of the time I have really no obligations until later in the day so I find myself up blogging at 3:34 a.m.  Instead, I fill my time with sort of meaningless things.  I just help out around the house and that’s about all that there is that I do.  I’m scheduling more things on campus because I think that’s important and it’s really nice to have the time to schedule those things.  I also have whole days open to do research which is pretty grand.

    “Come tomorrow. I’ll be on my way back home.  In the morning, call from a roadside telephone.  One night, doesn’t mean the rest of my life.  If I go it’s not impossible, but possible is probably wrong. So, let go because I’m afraid to try. I’ll keep my hands by my side. I won’t come back. I hope someday you’ll understand. I want to try and make it right, ut I don’t know if I can. Last night, everything was right and the rain was gone. One summer’s night’s the only time we know. Shut your eyes, when you wake up I’ll be gone.” ?? The Get Up Kids, I’m a Loner Dottie… A Rebel

    I want to write a novel.  Like maybe if this was fiction I could glamorize it all and it wouldn’t hurt quite so bad.  Or it wouldn’t hurt quite the same.  Maybe I’d finish the book and feel like this was a chapter that I could end.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  If I could look back on this as one semi-coherent piece of literature that has a clear opening (which it does) and the only literary climax i’ve ever lived through and if this falling action weren’t quite so limiting I bet I could do it.  And I bet I can still write pretty prose when I try.   I’ve been thinking about this a lot.  To the point that I’d probably even try it. I’ve been thinking about the parts of the story that I would change if I had the last three years to re-write.

    I’d experience you in a much sexier context than before.  You would not even be mentioned. And what is the possibility that when I recreate you, I would give you your real name because I don’t remember it.  Maybe it was Cody?  But that’s… so American.