grad school word of the week #2/3

i forgot last week's. my bad.

#2
metonymy
Brit. /

mtnmi/, U.S. /mtnmi/

a. Rhetoric. (A figure of speech characterized by) the action of substituting for a word or phrase denoting an object, action, institution, etc., a word or phrase denoting a property or something associated with it; an instance of this.

b. In extended use: a thing used or regarded as a substitute for or symbol of something else. Also (esp. in Linguistics and Literary Theory): the process of semantic association involved in producing and understanding a metonymy.
Because the association involved in metonymy is typically by contiguity rather than similarity, metonymy is often contrasted with metaphor.

#3
toponymy
(tpnm)

1. The place-names of a country or district as a subject of study.

1876 W. K. SULLIVAN in Encycl. Brit. V. 306/2 The substitution of vague descriptions of dress and arms, and a vague toponomy, for the full and definite descriptions and precise toponomy of the primitive poems. 1887 Athenæum 20 Aug. 240/3 This book..does not deal at all with topography in the proper sense, but merely (if the word may be tolerated as English) with ‘toponymy’. 1893 Academy 22 July 72/3 These papers are of interest for Basque toponymy and language. 1900 DENNIKER Races of Man xiii. 557 The pre-Columbian aborigines of Porto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba were Arawaks, to judge from the toponymy of these islands.

Googer Urf strikes again!

well, it turns out that Atlantis isn't visible on Google Earth.

i have to say that i'm incredibly surprised. i thought for sure we'd be able to see it using satellite imagery. just like we found the secret base where the US army is keeping all its stolen UFO technology. shit like that is just all over the place on Google Earth.

oh wait, no it's not, because that's dumb.

this is still an interesting read, though, and there's lots of cool stuff to see using Google Earth Ocean. not to mention that it's just badass that stuff like this is becoming more and more readily available to more and more people (insert 7000-8000 word rant about space/place theory and classism here). also, i never realized the midatlantic ridge was part of a 60,000 km mountain range. insanity.

go, squid-faced, lovecraftian creator/destroyer god, go!

rock star?

with C's coming up in two weeks (gasp), i'm trying to put a panel proposal together for MLA '09. if the panel goes through, that would put me at (at least) C's, MLA, and PNASA all in one year. awesome.

1.something words per second

according to the internets, i type regularly at 80 wpm. pretty scary. i have no life. the end.

i have feelings about tv themes!

i thought i would share them with you.

so, i've noticed a potentially odd trend. though, considering my obsession with music in all shapes, sizes (?) and forms, maybe it's not so weird.

i have a tendency to have violent emotional reactions/intense memory recalls as a result of certain songs. it's a side effect of paying tons of attention to both my own life and music. but i've also noticed that i have a tendency of have violent etc. etc. to certain television themes. which is weird. i know. but, because of the way i watch TV, which generally involves me watching entire seasons of shows over a period of a week or two at a time, my TV-series-ingestion is very intense. and oddly, when the rest of my life is intense (which it generally has been for like three years)...well, 2+2 makes 4.

so here's the breakdown:

"24" doesn't so much have a theme, but the opening sequence is always still really evocative of the first semester is spent alone in my old apartment after my ex-girlfriend moved out. i watched insane amounts of this show over that semester, including 2 whole seasons i'd never seen before. this brings back memories of sitting on my really uncomfortable rug in the corner of my dingy-ass apartment, eating totino's pizza and wondering what the point of life was beyond jack bauer. eventually i found the answer to that question, but it took a few months.

the theme for "house", which i obsessively watched the fucking hell out of leading up to and following my MA graduation (three seasons in a row) still brings back a lot of memories of that time, which of course involves kind of intense confused and lonely feelings. this is probably the most intense memory-causing of all my memory-causing TV themes.

"dexter"'s AMAZING intro sequence reminds me most of last semester, when i ripped through all three seasons in about five weeks. in addition to the show itself being insanely intense, my semester was crazy...and though (unlike the above two themes) i don't associate the dexter theme with being lonely, i DO associate it with a strange sort of relief. as in, the time of the day i was watching dexter was the only time of the day when i wasn't working, and i finally had enough going on socially in my life that i actually appreciated being alone for that short time every day instead of being afraid of it.

now i'm plunging crazily into "the office", and my response to it is similar to, though more intense than my reaction to "dexter". i still have my "TV time" each night before sleeping (though i sometimes read, write, record, etc. instead if the mood strikes), and now it's just become a way of winding down after a crazy day. "the office" theme just makes me think of the freeing feeling of knowing that for at least 22 minutes i don't have worry about work or anything else i worry about...and hell, i might even laugh a lot.

i'm in love with the office

how have i never watched this show before? i've torn through the first 2 1/2 seasons in like 2-3 weeks (which is actually sort of slow for me, but whatever i've been busy with real life). it's awesome, and the only thing that is making not being able to sleep like a human tolerable.

i am obsessed with getting the theme song for my ringtone even though it's totally such a 2005 thing to do and i know nothing about how to get a ringtone from the internet to my phone. any help would be appreciated/repaid with a high five.

more sad songs about lame shit

will be on the way shortly. i recorded two songs that may or may not end up on a benefit cd for a local kent press (details forthcoming), but as i am wont to do i recorded like nine other songs in the process. mostly all old stuff, a few new covers...but anyway, i'll post it in the next few days sometime. whatever.

insomniowned!!

From Other and Posts

FUCK TIME.

From Other and Posts

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=

From Other and Posts

i shall return!

i'm going to put a mixtape together for this month. somehow i will find time. and then you will SUFFER! or REJOICE!!!

the choice is yours.

more z stuff

From winter 08

From winter 08

the yawning gap between me and apathy

this post will not (surprisingly perhaps) be about sex.

one of my students commented today on the fact that she's "just going to school so she can get a job" and "she wouldn't be here otherwise" and it really got me thinking about how much of a gap in perspective there is between someone like me (i.e. most professors/instructors who teach esp. humanities-type classes) and the typical students they teach in those classes. specifically, in the types of classes i teach (introduction to college writing and 200-level research writing), the vast majority of students in the class are taking it as a general learning requirement class so that they can graduate; it generally has nothing to do with their major or anything they might work on later in life. sure, we give them a lot of bullshit about how they'll always use good writing skills in the real world, but judging by how specialized the types of jobs people do in this country are getting, and how shittily people articulate themselves on the internet, people often don't take clarity in communication as seriously as they take the result of said communication.

i guess i just feel conflicted sometimes. i see a student sleeping in my class, or, better yet, doing their math homework under their book (the book we're supposed to be reading). as their english instructor, i'm sort of obligated to yell at them. to get them engaged in the class their actually sitting in, and to make them understand that there are grade-related consequences if they dont' listen to me (because, as much as we hate to admit it, for most students, the grade is the only real collateral you have to make them do what you want). but, it's complicated. because i've been there. i know what it's like to take 21 credit hours of undergrad classes in one semester, or to work and be a student at the same time. i know how hard it is, and i know that when you're in a 100-level course where the teacher is babbling inanely about MLA citation and you're invested in solving differential equations (whether because you're more interested in them or because you're just more afraid of your math teacher than your english teacher), you do what you need to do to get the job done (i.e. scribble your math homework while hiding it from your english teacher).

so it's hard for me to get down on these kids. even worse, it's also hard for me to get down on the "i'm just here to get a job" kids. they don't care. they want a C so they get their degree. that's all. so who am i to try to instill some new, philosophical purpose in them? honestly, i like the "good will hunting" idea. the idea that if you teach your students just well enough, they'll suddenly realize their life goal is to be an artist and then fireworks will go off and everyone will rejoice. but. how often does that actually happen? well, it's happened with my students twice in four years, and, not to brag, but according to my evals, etc. i'm a pretty good teacher. so, it doesn't happen often. and the fact is, with the workload they give us as TAs i am (and i strongly believe rightfully so) so freaking exhausted most of the time that inspiring anyone to do anything except fall asleep is generally beyond me.

so what do i do with the kids sneaking the crossword puzzle in the back of the room? i don't know, still, but i like to turn this over and over in my head now and again, to consider new perspectives i didn't have before if nothing else. that is, after all, before anything else, my actual job.

oh, the humanities!

a good article about humanities funding...something that's becoming more and more of a personal issue as i'm starting to seriously considering grants and research proposals and such...

it is pretty important, though difficult, for humanities and its subdisciplines to be able to speak the language of bureaucracy. i wish it was the other way around, i really wish it was, but that's not the reality of things and the humanities need to adapt to the reality at hand if they/we don't want to just get brushed aside. and i really do believe, despite protestations to the contrary, that the humanities are responsible for developing a lot of concrete research which has led to innovations and developments that we wouldn't have otherwise. not to mention the fact that (if i can make a broad generalization about a broad disciplinary field) it raises awareness about topics cultural and otherwise that just don't come up in the sciences. empiricism is good, but you have to know what you're looking for before you starting piling up statistics and studies, and i think there's always going to need to be this uneasy marriage between theory and experiment if we're going to keep learning...unfortunately the theory side, the humanities/cultural studies/english side, is the side that can't easily throw spreadsheets of data or video recordings of test subjects at a committee to prove what they've been doing. the kind of work "theory people" do is no less important, but isn't nearly as well suited to the kinds of people who want concrete results before spending money, unfortunately.

friends < free whopper, obviously.

even though i can't eat them anymore, i love me the whoppers. or, more correctly, i once did. i love that burger king did this.

i also love this whole unfriending thing. and the whole "relationship status" controversy on social networking sites. things that, deep down, we feel like we should feel like they don't matter. but they do matter. i think the more a site forces you to define some sort of online version of your identity, the more likely you are to feel bad when you're doing things like unfriending people. it's the only explanation that makes sense in answer to the question of how a person can log onto youtube one minute and leave "OMFG UR SO FUKKING GAY I HOPE YOU GET KILED, U FAGGOT" and the next minute wring their hands over whether or not they should unfriend they guy who skipped out on their party the weekend before.

various new art by z

#3 still scares me a little.

From winter 08

From winter 08

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martin's new performance piece

he calls it "postmodern sheeps"

From winter 08

new door decoration

printed by a student of mine. colored by me when i should have been writing instead.

From winter 08

once, again, cracked straddles the line between hilarious and shockingly informative. especially if you follow the links. fascinating stuffs.

http://www.cracked.com/article_17061_5-things-you-think-will-make-you-happy-but-wont.html

that said, this looks awesome.

i may have already posted this. sorry, if so.

another reason why i'm going to miss the cardinals

#43,002:

they can play a song like this one night:

and play it like this the next night:

it's not that that's an amazing technical show of musicianship, but just the fact that they're interested in mixing it up so much puts them so far above pretty much every other band for me. yes, even my rebound band-love wilco. i'm getting more and more into them lately, but they're still no cardinals.

creepy purchases and wilco purchases

for some reason, i bought a cheap LED flashlight and a monocular. because i like to sneak into places i'm not supposed to be in and i'm a freaky weirdo.

i also bought a bunch of wilco stuff today because they were having an awesome sale in which you got free shipping, a free concert lithograph/poster and 15 percent off if you spent 60 bucks. i've been looking for an excuse to buy legit copies of all my wilco CDs and such because i listen to them so much and i feel bad for pirating their shit. so i got 4 CDs, 2 DVDs, a few stickers and a really nice, huge poster for 61 dollars. seemed like a good deal.

it was a little depressing to get 1200 bucks for my tax return and immediately put it all into my credit card, so it was nice to feel like i was getting some kind of small self-present. now it's back to noodles and torrenting until next tax season!

le concorde-like sonic boom of fuck

something's been weird for the last 2 days or so. i'm not sure what it is. i can't really seem to get anything going, or get anything done. i've been talking with a few of my friends off and on about some pretty heavy stuff and my brain seems to work okay in that regard. i'm not necessarily depressed or anything. but when it comes to the type of thinking i have to do for work, i just shut down. i tried to start a paper that's due wednesday for 6 hours today (and pretty earnestly tried for most of those 6 hours) and all i have to show are 2 shitty paragraphs. that's not like me at all. and considering the train wreck of work i have piling up due to my debauchery on saturday i'm honestly getting worried about finishing it all. then there's C's in san francisco and PNASA in lincoln city in april...cripes, being an academic rock star is hard. i'm glad i have great friends.

i'm just concerned because usually when i do take a day or two off, something starts to feel odd after awhile, and when i come back to work i do so reenergized and excited...this time i just feel like shit and don't want to do anything. the only thing motivating me to go back was fear of failure.

two lessons:
1) as sad as it is, i just CANNOT take entire days off from work during the semester, even on weekends. parts of days, yes, but there just isn't any time when i'm taking 9 seminar credits and teaching to dick around as much as i have been lately. maybe a bit during spring break, but not otherwise. i'm just feeling the cumulative wear-and-tear of last semester and possibly the roughest christmas break evar, combined with jumping right back into the ph.d course load this semester...my consolation i guess is that it's only 10 weeks from having an entire summer off. i mean, i should be doing the selway wilderness thing/teaching 101 this summer, but that should still be a light load compared to nowadays.

2) i don't remember what this one was.

i mean, i'm still doing okay, happy-wise. i'm usually also sad when i'm stressed, but i'm not necessarily this time. i'm not depressed at all, oddly, just really concerned that i'm going to flounder at some point.

oh, now i remember #2. one thing at a time. one thing. at a. time.

whew.

pam, doing her impression of me between the hours of 7am and 12pm.

From Other and Posts

uh-oh

i definitely had a multi-drink pile-up between the drinmks and my face.

UH-OH.

on the upside, i can hear my uber-classy neighbors downstairs constantly throwing up in the their toilet (hopefully). it's groesee.

i'm goiung to drink a bunch of dihydrogen oxide and watch the office!!

PAM IS SO CUTE.

KEEP PUKING NEIGHTBORS. ,BMAYBE IT'LL LERAN YOU SOMETHING.

hypocrite'd!!!

my mom is awesome!

the best thing i've gotten on valentine's day since i stopped believing in the valentine's day bunny.

From winter 08

now this is cool.

this, i mean.

no richard gere, i will not make out with you no matter how hard you choke me.

From winter 08

doing good, thanks

From winter 08

look up

From winter 08

the perfect place for a picnic

From winter 08

pics by zero

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moe's future home.

From winter 08

valentine's day, schmalentine's schmay!

i don't want to do anything, so here's a few previous yearly posts from valentine's day.

shred your documents in this bin of stupid

i tried to take a picture, but class was letting out and i was made slightly self-conscious by the idea that my students might see that their instructor had some serious crazy.

anyway, there's a huge bin outside the classroom that i teach in, right next to the bins for "recycle white paper", "recycle color paper", etc. that is labelled "destroy confidential documents here".

it might as well say "identity thieves, reach into this bin for a free bonus!"

i want to eat a cheeseburger.

heaven help us all.

i can't get the audio to sync quite right, but it doesn't bear any more work that i've already put into it. just sit back and enjoy the wtf-ness.

bleh

not sure why i'm even posting this

technologies like youtube have their detractors (and fittingly), but i love it for giving anyone with internet access to things like this that would otherwise be a hell of a lot harder to find nowadays.

old poem #3

starts in with the familiar rhythm
popular heartbeat, lifeblood
a dark citadel in the distance
atop the parapet is a man
a man intent on shouting his silence
below, the wolves begin to gather

backup, back out, back to looking
down at the stars
and those among them; living near them and swimming
in the dark between them
grasping for each other and missing
and in the stars, I see also
the wolf's eyes, diamond-hard; watching

below, the wind whistles through the cracked
stone of the castle, playing nature's dirge
portcullis hanging like a broken jaw, finally defeated
by the most unrelenting of enemies, Father Time

old poem #2

i don't really like this one, but the premise is awesomely creepy.

Friday twilight, car pushing a semicircle of headlight through falling darkness.
Road spools out like concrete ribbon underneath spinning wheels.
Empty green, rolling countryside in all directions
Save for a second concrete ribbon, and a white triangle’s worth of building off to the side.
Around the building, young children play, jumping and shouting.
Many stand, watching the sun fall the rest of the way out of the sky.
Strangely, all dressed in matching white, as they play in patches here and there.
I follow the thread of road on and away from the playground.

Sunday morning, road stretching in the opposite direction, the car and I following.
We approach again the white triangle and children.
This time, in the sunlight, the identity of the children is given away.
I now understand why they stood so still.
The children are made of granite, backs to the rising sun.
At each of their feet lies a skeleton, and atop the building, a crucifix.
These children haven’t jumped or shouted for years; never will again.
I leave them behind, following the thread towards the rising sun they can never see.

old poem #1

Standing in a white world
Watching flakes like shattered crystal
Build blankets around my feet

Standing in a glass-sphere idyll
Shaken up by a mischevious child
With powder-white wings

MIXTAPE - daytrotter #1

finally back in the mixtape groove; sort of. this tape clocks in at around 57 minutes, a bit short compared to previous outings. however, the entirety of the tape comes from daytrotter.com, a great site that hosts almost-daily live sessions and has already helped me discover a few great bands i wouldn't have discovered otherwise. so if you like what you hear (or even if you don't), check their site out.

here's the list de traques:
01. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant
02. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Paris
03. The Thermals - Returning to the Fold
04. Tilly and the Wall - Rainbow in the Dark
05. Tapes N Tapes - George Michael
06. Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You
07. Spoon - The Ghost of You Lingers
08. Tyler Ramsey - A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea
09. Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos - Love Song For a Schuba's Bartender
10. The National - Slow Show
11. Maritime - Tearing Up the Oxygen
12. Sondre Lerche - Say It All
13. Langhorne Slim - Collette
14. Joseph Arthur - Temporary People

here the downloades click-time!

okay, this one's my favorite

From winter 08

time travel

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variations on a theme

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oh christ, seriously, look out behind you

From winter 08

SD, paddington, and a little of martin (look closely)

From winter 08

glasses are already getting crooked, damn my gigantic face to hell

From winter 08

one is more than enough, however

From winter 08