well...i pulled my first work-related all-nighter of the year last night. i've had a few since august, but before they were just caused by an overload of diet coke and concern, not Work Stuff.
and i guess this might not be entirely true because i did sort of doze in and out for something like 45 minutes or so before my 80db demon-possessed-foghorn/alarm clock went off and my heart rate went from 50 bpm to 350 bpm faster than a bear goes from just hanging out to eating your legs. so sue me.
oh man, that was so 90s. i'm so "fresh prince of bel-air" today. or is it still yesterday?
anyway, i came up with my class plan for today at around 5am last night, so i'm thinking it will probably go perfectly smoothly and without a hitch.
see, this is the problem when i start working on grad applications. there are just so many little, frustrating details, and so many little, frustrating forms, that once i compile all the requirements for all the schools, i go completely OCD and have to really crazily spend like 40 straight hours getting a large portion of that list completed at the expense of everything else including eating and monitoring personal hygiene. otherwise i just sit and worry constantly that it's too much and it's going to overwhelm me.
well, i filled out five online applications yesterday, made arrangements for various letters of recommendation, mailed requests for most of my GRE score reports and transcripts, and did some other things i'm not proud of, but goddammit, i might actually be able to sleep soundly tonight. once i put in another 12 hours of work or so on the statements of goals and critical writing samples, that is.
this brings me, indirectly, to another point: KSU's flashline service. how the hell did KSU, of all places, manage to invent a student UI that is intuitive, actually helpful, and customizable? it baffles the mind. i've been using WSU's student UI for two years now, and let me tell you there are parts of it that are easy as pie, and there are parts of it that are easy as moldy pie, which is to say not easy at all. but here...i know my metaphors are a little crazy, so here's a solid example. yesterday i had to request a bunch of transcripts. so, i log on to flashline, click immediately on the "request official transcript" link under the really obvious "offical documents" (or something similar) tab, and there's a quick form to fill out addresses, names, etc...then you click on how many copies you want, hit "submit" and you're done. that's it. here's the comparable task using myWSU. first of all, you don't use myWSU at all. to even find the link to the transcript request pdf, you have to either spend 45 minutes surfing the entire WSU internet infrastructure, or if you're used to being forced to do this, you type "request official transcript" in the search box on the homepage. this, as mentioned, will bring you to a pdf. you save, the pdf, then have to find somewhere to print it out (in my case, the avery computer lab). you print out a copy for each transcript request you need, then fill them all out (the form itself is as byzantine as heavy cavalry and doesn't need to be explained in detail), envelope them all up, and mail them by campus mail or walk them the 20 minutes over to the graduate school. oh, and did i mention that each request form includes a space for your credit card number, since it costs 5 dollars for each copy of your transcript you send out? this is especially awesome if you're applying to five grad schools x 2 copies per school = 50 dollars. it was even better last year when i was applying to eight schools. this is merely a taste of handiness that is flashline. i may have many various gripes about KSU, but not in this regard. carry on, gentles.
oh man. i have to be at least slightly aware in 30 minutes in order to teach composition. that's a bad, bad thing. thank you for enduring my rant on college UIs. stay tuned later for another rant (most probably) on various department of english graduate school websites.
Nov 9, 2007
props to neil
so, i have a quote-of-the-day widget on my google homepage (doesn't everybody with a degree in english?)...and usually it sticks to the pretty dry, semi-pointless Cullen Hightoweresque i-have-a-subscription-to-reader's-digest drivel, though occasionally there are flashes of brilliance (douglas adams and kurt vonnegut, i'm looking in your collective direction, which i suppose is up, now...or down, but i prefer to think up). anyway, it just switched quotes since it's...ugh...2am...and today's quote is from neil gaiman, who is, in my opinion, just about the most versatile and interesting fiction writer writing today. here's the quote itself (from "sandman"):
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor."
not nearly his best quote, but cool to see it on there nonetheless.
listening to "yoshimi battles the pink robots" right now (the album, not the song) from the flaming lips. it's so good. those guys are sonic geniuses. of course i love "yoshimi", but "fight test" and "in the morning of the magicians" are both really good, and really lovely songs. soon i'll be ego tripping at the gates of hell.
god bless the few of you who will get that.
farewell for now.
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor."
not nearly his best quote, but cool to see it on there nonetheless.
listening to "yoshimi battles the pink robots" right now (the album, not the song) from the flaming lips. it's so good. those guys are sonic geniuses. of course i love "yoshimi", but "fight test" and "in the morning of the magicians" are both really good, and really lovely songs. soon i'll be ego tripping at the gates of hell.
god bless the few of you who will get that.
farewell for now.
Nov 8, 2007
"everything's a little bit spinny" or "whoa, dude. whoa".
sorry i never got back to finishing that blog yesterday (or tuesday? what day was that?) but a lot of little, meddling tasks sort of overwhelmed me and i forgot about it.
i also forgot to download house, which sort of scares me since it is, in fact, the most important thing in my life right now. it was sort of like the feeling you get when it's midnight and you're lonely and you realize you forgot to pick up your girlfriend for dinner at eight. not that i've ever done that.
andrea, you're not allowed to comment on this entry.
things are getting crazier by the minute; a combination of the end-of-the-semester madness and my own planning-the-future madness. i suppose i should be comforted by the fact that i'm choosing what to do next year from a bevy of good options, and not a dearth of options, which is something i've been through before. at the same time, there are certain things that have just, of late, become important to me, and i'm afraid in the midst of making another dramatic move/change/disappearance i'll forget about them and it'll take another five years to remember "oh yeah, that's pretty important, huh?" i guess beginning to apply to Ph.D programs as a travel writer is a bad time to decide you don't necessarily want to wander solitarily across the earth, responsible for nothing and having no attachment forever...
listening to "exile" for the first time in months tonight. actually on the third repetition right now. my last.fm is going to be fucked. what a beautiful cd. everybody knows how i feel about dylan, but i'd put "exile" up against "highway 61" any day; and that's saying something.
i saw "once" last night at the audian, and it was everything everyone has said it would be. it pretty much tore my heart out and threw it across the room, but in a good way. i've been trying so hard lately to underplay emotions (and especially ones of the romantic variety) because i'm not too sure about how to deal with them, and this movie was great for saying "hey fuckface, people have these feelings and you can't just ignore them. they probably won't go away if do, but then if they do actually go away, that's like ten times worse". actually, that's a line from the movie.
no, it's not.
there's a fine line for me between self-destruction and just plain self. that's a little meta, i guess, but it's fucking 12am and i still have 5 hours of work to do before work at 8am, so lay off. jerk. i think what i'm saying is in my new "revolution" of the last few weeks, i've sort of gotten it into my head that i should take better care of myself, that i should shape up and live up to my Potential. yeah...about that... i mean, sure, there are some things i do that are self-destructive, and i shouldn't do those things. but at the same time, i'm not all about obsessively making sure i sleep enough every night, that i eat perfectly correctly, that i'm not prone to occasional fits of beautiful or destructive madness. that's not my thing. micro-management isn't for me. there's a certain amount of just semi-unhinge-ed-ness that is part of my personality. i'm never going to be that completely straight-laced guy that gets along with everyone and everybody "gets"...not because i'm not capable of it, but because everytime i try i just get miserable. so fuck that shit, yo.
so i'm back to straddling the maniac fence, i guess :)
"once" is incredible. go see it. it's about love, but not as much as you'd think from the previews. not love in the boy-girl sense, though there's a little of that and it's awesome. just love in general. but. it's mostly about music and music translating into a social/emotional/personal experience. at least half the movie is just footage of glen hansard and the girl-whose-name-i-can't-spell either singing together, writing songs, or (and this was the best part) the long scene near the end when they get a band together and record an album over a weekend in a professional studio. that part, at one point when they were all totally into one of glen's songs, actually put a lump in my throat as i was sitting there just watching these five people rip into this number for the first time (and the movie is incredible at communicating that feeling, if you've ever played music with anyone you'll know what i mean) and i thought to myself (literally) "oh my god, that's what i want to do with my life. that's the only thing i really want to do"...it was a great moment in the film, and although i was obviously overreacting personally a bit, i can't really explain how just down-to-earth and simultaneously transcendent this film is. i came home and amazon'd it immediately after the film.
anyway, i should get back to work. i still have dreams of someday finishing this madden season. i'm sure you'll hear about it when it happens. and see about it. and neil gaiman is awesome.
i also forgot to download house, which sort of scares me since it is, in fact, the most important thing in my life right now. it was sort of like the feeling you get when it's midnight and you're lonely and you realize you forgot to pick up your girlfriend for dinner at eight. not that i've ever done that.
andrea, you're not allowed to comment on this entry.
things are getting crazier by the minute; a combination of the end-of-the-semester madness and my own planning-the-future madness. i suppose i should be comforted by the fact that i'm choosing what to do next year from a bevy of good options, and not a dearth of options, which is something i've been through before. at the same time, there are certain things that have just, of late, become important to me, and i'm afraid in the midst of making another dramatic move/change/disappearance i'll forget about them and it'll take another five years to remember "oh yeah, that's pretty important, huh?" i guess beginning to apply to Ph.D programs as a travel writer is a bad time to decide you don't necessarily want to wander solitarily across the earth, responsible for nothing and having no attachment forever...
listening to "exile" for the first time in months tonight. actually on the third repetition right now. my last.fm is going to be fucked. what a beautiful cd. everybody knows how i feel about dylan, but i'd put "exile" up against "highway 61" any day; and that's saying something.
i saw "once" last night at the audian, and it was everything everyone has said it would be. it pretty much tore my heart out and threw it across the room, but in a good way. i've been trying so hard lately to underplay emotions (and especially ones of the romantic variety) because i'm not too sure about how to deal with them, and this movie was great for saying "hey fuckface, people have these feelings and you can't just ignore them. they probably won't go away if do, but then if they do actually go away, that's like ten times worse". actually, that's a line from the movie.
no, it's not.
there's a fine line for me between self-destruction and just plain self. that's a little meta, i guess, but it's fucking 12am and i still have 5 hours of work to do before work at 8am, so lay off. jerk. i think what i'm saying is in my new "revolution" of the last few weeks, i've sort of gotten it into my head that i should take better care of myself, that i should shape up and live up to my Potential. yeah...about that... i mean, sure, there are some things i do that are self-destructive, and i shouldn't do those things. but at the same time, i'm not all about obsessively making sure i sleep enough every night, that i eat perfectly correctly, that i'm not prone to occasional fits of beautiful or destructive madness. that's not my thing. micro-management isn't for me. there's a certain amount of just semi-unhinge-ed-ness that is part of my personality. i'm never going to be that completely straight-laced guy that gets along with everyone and everybody "gets"...not because i'm not capable of it, but because everytime i try i just get miserable. so fuck that shit, yo.
so i'm back to straddling the maniac fence, i guess :)
"once" is incredible. go see it. it's about love, but not as much as you'd think from the previews. not love in the boy-girl sense, though there's a little of that and it's awesome. just love in general. but. it's mostly about music and music translating into a social/emotional/personal experience. at least half the movie is just footage of glen hansard and the girl-whose-name-i-can't-spell either singing together, writing songs, or (and this was the best part) the long scene near the end when they get a band together and record an album over a weekend in a professional studio. that part, at one point when they were all totally into one of glen's songs, actually put a lump in my throat as i was sitting there just watching these five people rip into this number for the first time (and the movie is incredible at communicating that feeling, if you've ever played music with anyone you'll know what i mean) and i thought to myself (literally) "oh my god, that's what i want to do with my life. that's the only thing i really want to do"...it was a great moment in the film, and although i was obviously overreacting personally a bit, i can't really explain how just down-to-earth and simultaneously transcendent this film is. i came home and amazon'd it immediately after the film.
anyway, i should get back to work. i still have dreams of someday finishing this madden season. i'm sure you'll hear about it when it happens. and see about it. and neil gaiman is awesome.
Nov 7, 2007
pre-class thoughts
well, i have ten minutes to grace you with my internet-y presence, so here goes.
lately i haven't been blogging much, partially because of a lack of madden and partially because i'm in a world of shit. shit of my own making, no doubt, but shit nonetheless. just within the last few days it's become painfully obvious that winter is coming around again (as it often does this time of year), and now that it's getting mighty close to the infamous 3:30pm Pullman sunset, bits of cheer are coming around as seldomly and as awkwardly as bits of chicken stuck between your teeth.
that was a horrible metaphor. i'm sorry.
anyway, i love winter. it's my favorite season with the possible exception of autumn. it's cold, and there's snow, and it pretty much kicks ass. however, unlike a lot of the rest of the year, which i generally equate with doing bizarre things, spending long stretches of time on the road with myself, and generally doing things that may or may not involve other people, i've always associated winter with socializing, communitizing, hanging out in tightly knit groups of people all huddled around a huge pile of food or perhaps a game of Perfection, and (if i'm really lucky) being all warm and cuddly with someone (usually not multiple someones). i don't know where i got this association, but as useful as it's been in the past, it hasn't served me terribly well in the last three years. last year wasn't as bad, for various reasons including the fact that i had some great friends around here and my christmas break was particularly excellent...but this year i'm a little worried.
oh shit. time to go to class...i'll have to finish this later...
lately i haven't been blogging much, partially because of a lack of madden and partially because i'm in a world of shit. shit of my own making, no doubt, but shit nonetheless. just within the last few days it's become painfully obvious that winter is coming around again (as it often does this time of year), and now that it's getting mighty close to the infamous 3:30pm Pullman sunset, bits of cheer are coming around as seldomly and as awkwardly as bits of chicken stuck between your teeth.
that was a horrible metaphor. i'm sorry.
anyway, i love winter. it's my favorite season with the possible exception of autumn. it's cold, and there's snow, and it pretty much kicks ass. however, unlike a lot of the rest of the year, which i generally equate with doing bizarre things, spending long stretches of time on the road with myself, and generally doing things that may or may not involve other people, i've always associated winter with socializing, communitizing, hanging out in tightly knit groups of people all huddled around a huge pile of food or perhaps a game of Perfection, and (if i'm really lucky) being all warm and cuddly with someone (usually not multiple someones). i don't know where i got this association, but as useful as it's been in the past, it hasn't served me terribly well in the last three years. last year wasn't as bad, for various reasons including the fact that i had some great friends around here and my christmas break was particularly excellent...but this year i'm a little worried.
oh shit. time to go to class...i'll have to finish this later...
Nov 3, 2007
video football makes me want to punch real people in the face
i was reminded again this weekend that nothing makes me as angry as madden does. ever. i even threw an entire bag of candy across the room AWAY FROM ME at one point. now that's serious anger.
regardless, after the embarassing-ass loss to the titans, the niners came back and smashed a highly ranked colts team 35-14; both of the colts' touchdowns were on special teams or defense and peyton manning went home with one of his fingers in multiple pieces. even our quarterback had 50 yards rushing in this game, including this very unquarterback-like play on third and goal:
last night's game was against the panthers, and turned out to be another of the craziest madden games EVAR. we were trailing 24-0 at halftime, getting totally dominated by the usually shitty panthers. the second half opened with a 54 yard pass to prewett, but we ended up only getting a field goal out of it. fortunately, jason webster made one of two clutch interceptions, running this one back 92 yards for a touchdown. we managed to close to 24-17 before bunting fumbled in panther territory, setting up another panther touchdown. then, on the ensuing kickoff, we fumbled AGAIN, and suddenly it was 38-17. somehow, partially as a result of a few ridiculous offensive plays and another webster pick we closed to 41-31, then the panthers scored another field goal to seemingly put the game out of reach with eight minutes left (yes, both teams totalled 48 points in the third quarter and the first half of the fourth). somehow, though, we managed to get two scores one right after another to make it 44-41. we got the ball back one last time with 2 minutes or so left, fifty yards away from the end zone. thinking originally to just shoot for a field goal to tie it up, i ended up being a nonissue when bowes ran twice for 15 and 20 yards and then a minute or so later prewett caught his second TD pass of the game to make it 48-44, just before time ran out.
the decorations in panther stadium make kicking field goals scary:
jason webster singlehandedly winning the game (sort of):
regardless, after the embarassing-ass loss to the titans, the niners came back and smashed a highly ranked colts team 35-14; both of the colts' touchdowns were on special teams or defense and peyton manning went home with one of his fingers in multiple pieces. even our quarterback had 50 yards rushing in this game, including this very unquarterback-like play on third and goal:
last night's game was against the panthers, and turned out to be another of the craziest madden games EVAR. we were trailing 24-0 at halftime, getting totally dominated by the usually shitty panthers. the second half opened with a 54 yard pass to prewett, but we ended up only getting a field goal out of it. fortunately, jason webster made one of two clutch interceptions, running this one back 92 yards for a touchdown. we managed to close to 24-17 before bunting fumbled in panther territory, setting up another panther touchdown. then, on the ensuing kickoff, we fumbled AGAIN, and suddenly it was 38-17. somehow, partially as a result of a few ridiculous offensive plays and another webster pick we closed to 41-31, then the panthers scored another field goal to seemingly put the game out of reach with eight minutes left (yes, both teams totalled 48 points in the third quarter and the first half of the fourth). somehow, though, we managed to get two scores one right after another to make it 44-41. we got the ball back one last time with 2 minutes or so left, fifty yards away from the end zone. thinking originally to just shoot for a field goal to tie it up, i ended up being a nonissue when bowes ran twice for 15 and 20 yards and then a minute or so later prewett caught his second TD pass of the game to make it 48-44, just before time ran out.
the decorations in panther stadium make kicking field goals scary:
jason webster singlehandedly winning the game (sort of):
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