Good lord, what I won't do to procrastinate...

you are the "you suck, and that's sad"
happy bunny. your truthful, but can be a bit
brutal.


which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I love a night out...

Last night was a ton of fun. Becky and I went for sushi at Sushiro, a trendy little Japanese restaurant. I highly recommend the cobra maki and the spicy tuna maki... the unagi (roasted eel) was also really good.

After dinner and running around in a skirt in a freezing cold snowstorm (I know, I am not a practical dresser, but hey, I did look good) we went to the Spadina Freehouse. I love the feel of the place, it doesn't feel like a place that belongs in Saskatoon, much more uptown.

We drank Metros... a kind of raspberry-melony martini... very good stuff...

Strangely enough, I was getting tired before 10:30pm even hit... all I wanted to do was snuggle in warm fuzzie blankets and watch a movie.

Uh oh, I think I am becoming a homebody. Eeek!

Windfall and Extreme Jelly Bellying!

Yesterday was a good day. I got unexpected money... YAY! As it turns out, a travel bursery that I had been awarded in May 2003 had still not been claimed by me. I had assumed it was just put on my payroll cheque (I know... I didn't watch my money very carefully) so I went about my life without knowing I hadn't received the $300. I like found money! Though my mula will be going against my fake money that I have been using from my Visa card. ~sigh~

On another much more fun note... Becky and I did some extreme Jelly Belly eating last night and had some good laughs. I am not quite sure what possessed us, but we decided to try and combine the most disgusting jelly belly flavours just because we could.


Some of our nastiest concoctions included:
*Root Beer and Bubble Gum (anything with bubble gum is gross)
*Tutti Fruitti and Cappuccino (tutti fruitti is just like juicy fruit gum, again YUCK!)
*Buttered Popcorn and Green Apple (I didn't mind the buttered popcorn as much, but green apple makes me want to gag, and the combo was just nasty)
*Caramel Corn and Pear (neither of these is too bad on their own, but together it is just volatile)
*Tutti Fruitti and Buttered Popcorn (My feelings for tutti fruitti are already known, but it is doubly wrong with buttered popcorn)
*Chocolate and Red Apple (I am not sure what it is about these two together, but it tasted like a shot of really sweet and really icky liqueur... downright nasty)

I think both of us have pretty much vowed never to eat another Jelly Belly as long as we live.

Persian dance rocks!

Becky and I went to a Persian dance class last night. As it happens, after 4 months of dancing at our gym, we were invited to join another group in order to perform at a benefit for survivors of the earthquake in the Middle East. I forgot how much fun it is. I would love to learn all of the other dances too: belly dances, tribal dances, Egyptian dances, and such. They all look like so much fun, plus the costumes are incredible.
Aren't they pretty?

Alas, I must only do a little so I can keep plugging away at my thesis. I think, however, that once I am done my thesis, Persian dances of all sorts will be my new hobby.

Revisions are fun!

In the past couple of days, I have been quite productive. My apartment is bordering on clean and I have made some pretty big strides in my work. Today, I met with my supervisor and got 2 chapters back with lots and lots of revision notes on both of them. Plus, we worked through an outline of chapter 5. On top of all that, I spent last weekend sifting through the introduction to my thesis.

Next week, we are meeting and I will be giving her a fresh copy of chapter 2 with her changes in and at least a couple of full on revisions for my part. I want to make some of the changes to chapter 4 as well so I can get my talk underway for Feb 9th.

If I make lots and lots of progress in the next month, I can get away with going to Toronto nearly guilt free! Yay!

I got a new toy!!

Thanks in part to a generous gift certificate from my folks for Christmas, I was able to go out and buy a digital camera! Yay! Now I can also litter the internet with image after image of my cat!!!



That is Myrah on her favourite perch while I work and slave away. Ain't she just a doll? She's got a bit of an attitude. Expect many more pictures of her to come, among others.

Actually, buying the camera was a bit of an adventure in itself. I went into Sears after getting my nails done and stood in front of the digital camera counter for about 15 minutes staring blankly at the mediocre selection before a lady came to help me. She knew what she was talking about (though I had no clue) and once I told her my price range and wanting as many pixels as that range could buy (my knowledge here is laughable) she showed me two that were pretty good. One was a Cannon ($30 cheaper than normal) and the other was a Sony ($80 more than the other model), but it had Optical Zoom and Digital Zoom, which I am still not sure I understand. After playing around with the two for a bit, I decided that I was going to go with the Cannon, as I didn't get the Optical Zoom thingy and didn't think it would make much difference in my amateur photos any how. Well, at least not $80 worth of difference. So I paid and left, but something didn't feel right.

I got the thing home and looked at the receipt (why I didn't look in the store, I have no idea) and saw that she didn't charge me the sales price. I called to make sure I had not been mistaken and that it was worth the extra trip to go down to the store, and indeed I had been over charged $30. So I packed up the camera and my gym bag (Persian dance class!!), drove to the mall, and parked in the expensive heated underground parking. As I went to grab everything and get out of the car I realized that I had forgotten my purse at home.

Mild panic rose within me as I envisioned not getting my refund without my VISA card, and being stuck in the parkade with no cash to get out. I decided to just try and get the $30 in cash (which most places are reluctant to do if you pay in another form) then use the cash to get out of the lot.

I went back up to Sears and stood behind the same desk as every single person working in that department walked right by me without so much as a nod or a "Some one will be with you in a moment." Grrr. After about 10 minutes of standing there the girl who helped me before came and talked to me. I told her my predicament and she was hesitant to comply because I didn't have my VISA card, as I had originally thought. So she asked another lady behind the desk if she could do what I asked for, and they started to have a conversation about me as if I wasn't even there. After being ignored for several minutes already, this was just about enough to make me want to take the whole thing back for a full refund and go elsewhere.

Luckily, they decided that giving me the $30 in cash wasn't too inconvenient for them and they sent me on my way. So, it all worked out well for me, as things usually do. Now I can take a bazillion pictures of my adventures to paste here. Yippee!

Procrastinating or purposeful?

Last night, after The Apprentice of course, I got on a cleaning kick. I did up all my dishes (there was quite a pile), took out the trash, swept and mopped the floors, and started to tackle the nasty pile of paper that keeps multiplying on my floor. I find it easier to think if my apartment is clean, but so difficult to stay on top of the cleaning when I am only home for short bursts of time. I leave at 7am and usually don't wander back in until 6 or 7pm. The housecleaning thing is a struggle for me. I have a hard time justifying the time spent on it when I could be doing thesis work, yet I hate living in a sty.

Things like laundry and dishes pile up so quickly when they aren't done right away. And the paper mess... it multiplies constantly. I have a designated paper pile in the corner that I get a handle on once every 6 months and the rest of the time compete with Myrah, who treats it like a beast that needs to be ripped to shreds.

What I would really love is a new apartment complete with a washer, dryer, and dishwasher. A one bedroom, or dare I dream... a two bedroom apartment with a little balcony for some potted plants and fresh air, and an air conditioner. I live in a cute little bachelorette suite, with huge windows, a/c, and a galley kitchen with a mirrored backsplash. It is cute and functional, but I would love to have a separate room for my bed and a small living area for the rest of the time. If I had a second bedroom... I would have an office. A place for my books, desks, and computer. That isn't totally necessary though.

I don't really think I will move soon. Maybe if money is there and my future is shaping into a clearer picture, I will move in the summer. Who knows? I just like thinking about the possibilities.

Money, money, money

This is a penny-pinching month for me, as I am sure it is for everyone else out there after the Christmas and New Years frivolities. I have an upcoming trip to Toronto I wish to have some spending money for, plus a trip to Cranbrook that came out of this month's earnings. So groceries are coming out of my Visa. I am not starving or anything, just racking up debt by the minute and not sure how or when I am going to get out of it. I got a lovely reminder of this debt when Student Loans sent me another Confirmation of Data letter... ie. Are you lying to us? ~sigh~

I guess I shouldn't really be spending all that much money when it comes down to it... I should be sitting behind my computer day in and day out plugging away at my thesis rather than spending. Though saving money takes time, packing a lunch and making my own breakfast takes time, getting things back late costs money, getting to and from my office takes money, a place to sleep at night costs money. Everything one needs to live requires money.

I was listening to the local talk radio station take callers opinions about whether or not they would accept paying more municipal taxes to pay for programs. Not surprisingly the answer was 100% against raising the taxes, but no one wants to cut spending to programs. I am not a mathematician, but that doesn't add up to me. No one wants to lose anymore money to taxes, but they don't want to lose the services that those taxes pay for.

One can't just opt out of paying taxes. Nor does one really even own anything they have paid for. Try not paying your taxes for a while and see how much you own in a few years... no house, no car, not even your freedom. They couldn't put Capone away for organized crime, but they could take away all of his possessions and freedom for tax evasion... though that is in the United States, the same can happen in Canada.

What is the solution to being owned by the government? Have enough money that the government relies upon you rather than the other way around. You provide jobs, capital, resources, services, donations etc... and the government gives you tax breaks and exemptions to keep your economy driving corporation going. Be an entrepreneur. Contribute to the economy on such a grand scale that the government depends on you. A massive amount of money is the apparent solution.

So with this reliance on money in mind, I turned on the TV last night and watched an intriguing new show The Apprentice. Basically Donald Trump is using a television to help him in an extensive job interview process with 16 applicants. The job at the end of the competition is as president of one of Trumps companies, including a six-figure salary. I am drawn to this show, as I teach a communications class that has a job application component in it. I am also repulsed by the show because Trump is probably making enough money in this venture to fix any potential screw ups that may ensue from hiring someone in this process. I am also repulsed at the measuring of the contestants' worth (and the worth of any person's success) as being boiled down to a dollar value.

This show is just another piece of "evidence" that an individuals worth in society is their paycheque. There are so many things wrong with this scale, it is crazy, yet I find myself caught up in it. I have to have a good job so I can afford to do the things I want to and feel a measure of belonging in society. I wish I could turn off my brain from these measures of worth and focus on things that I love and that fulfill me, but it all cycles back to money. How can one have an education without money? How can one have a healthy family without money? How can one be accepted by your peers without a similar level of money? The only way to not worry about money is to have piles of it. The rest have to struggle daily to get enough money in order to afford to live.

I wish society recognized people on some other level, but it is just too easy to attach dollar values to things than measure a person's true worth. I guess there will always come a time when one should leave their seat of contemplation and deal with the world as it is, to actually try to make the world as they think it should be.

Why my cat is weird...

I feel like my brain has gone through the wringer after a 3 hour class. There was lots of good discussion, which is always good. Unfortunately, my body also feels like it has gone through the wringer too after yesterday's workout. So tonight I sat in a super hot bath with Epsom salts for a good half hour. As I sat there, my cat Myrah sat on the edge of the tub fascinated by the tub water. Now, I don't know if she didn't notice it or if she didn't care, but as she sat there, Myrah's tail was half-submerged in the tub water. You see, I thought cats hated water, but there is my cat sitting on the edge of the tub letting her tail soak. She sat there letting it soak until I got out and drained the tub. Then she looked at her tail as if she wondered how the hell it got wet and sauntered of mildly peeved. My cat is strange.

Oh, but its a good tired...

I went to the gym tonight with Becky for the first time in a month. We decided to get right back into it full on with Darcy's class. Little did we know that it was a 90 minute class this time instead of a 60 minute one. So that meant 60 minutes of cardio and weight pumping intervals, plus 30 minutes of targeting the core and stretching. All I can say now is "owie"... I am going to soak in a nice hot bath filled with Epsom salts and sink into my jersey knit sheets for a long sleep. Mmmm... all I need now is a snuggle buddy ;o)

I guess Myrah will have to do for now...

Yay, Blog improvements!!

Thanks to my darling, Becky my blog is looking better! You can leave me messages and make comments and all sorts of cool stuff. I will probably toy with it some more as time goes on...

Though the day was fairly mellow, my night was quite fun. We went and saw a group called The Pinch playing at the campus bar. They were quite fun. And I drank Sourpuss and 7Up, yummy!

The opening band was, um, bad. They would have been alright if they sang on key, and the lead singer could forget about losing his toque or his guitar picks. They were a wee bit of a disaster. They got a bit carried away with their thrashing around on stage and the lead singer fell over once. It was kind of funny.

The Pinch was fantastic. They played Weezer, Ben Folds Five, a block of Sublime, Billy Joel, as well as some great original stuff. They even got a bit of a mosh pit going, which scared me. Once upon a time, I got stuck in a mosh pit at an Our Lady Peace concert... my feet weren't even touching the floor... so even the beginnings of a mosh pit gets me a tad nervous. So anytime the crazy guys started bashing into each other too close to my vicinity, Becky and I ran to the far corner of the dance floor and danced by ourselves. I felt much safer that way :o) And then we were also far away from one la-hoo-zer who decided he belonged on stage with the band, thankfully security escorted him out. Apparently the guys name was Nick... and as the lead singer of the band said after the incident... "Don't be a Nick!"

Finished draft, frillies, Big Fish, and Burke

Well, that chapter I was working on until the wee hours is handed in for inspection. That was a relief. After a good sleep in the morning, I had a long and heavenly shower... I felt like a new woman. I so rarely feel a sense of completion anymore that these little ends are comforting. That chapter still has a lot of work left on it, but that stage is now over. Now it is revision after revision, and time to start Ch 5.

Anyhow, waking up on such a happy note carried me through the whole day in a good mood. My Burke class started today; this is going to be one great semester.

I can never quite get over how generous B is. She brought me back some more "souveniers" from her trip home. I gotta love this girl... after hearing about my collection of colourful unmentionables, she can't go into Victoria's Secret or Fredericks of Hollywood without picking me up something cute. What a thoughtful friend, thanks again doll ;)

Went to see Big Fish tonight, the new Tim Burton movie. It was magical. I kept thinking of Burkean theory at the end (even through my teary eyes). Without going into too much detail, I will say that the movie speaks of the power of words and stories to carry a person on long after they are gone. Narrative is a powerful thing. The movie also reflected my understanding of Burkean termanistic screens and one man's choices to shape reality through his stories. It brings up in my mind the question of truth versus perception, and which is most important. I don't think it offers an answer, but it is a thoughtful story.

Wow, if I am applying Burke to a movie after one class, I am going to be driving people nuts over the next 4 months. I am such a rhetoric geek :o)

On a mental roll...

I am working on that Ch 4 of my thesis right now and only in the past couple of hours has my brain really engaged with the task. I have sat at my desk for days trying to see into the analysis and I think the peices are finally coming together. It is kind of late, but things are clicking into place.

Whenever I do an analysis or a paper, I have that moment when what was once a muddy lake of unknown depth and proportion becomes crystal clear to me. It is an amazing moment. From that point on, everything that had question marks beside it have answers and I know just what to do with the thing.

This paper took me a very long time to get to that moment. Nothing seemed to come together right. There will still be a whole lot of work to be done on the paper, but now I know the terrain I need to travel. I was so lost and frustrated up until a couple of hours ago. I have been working on this paper since late November.

On a completely unrelated happy note... B brought me back GRITS! I had the cheese grits tonight for dinner at the office... they were fantastic! Thanks again grrrl!

It is a happy afternoon right now...

In the midst of an already stressful term, it is funny how little things can change one's entire perspective: a good CD made by a friend, a darling book from another, happy smelling soaps from yet another, a whole schwack of cards and warm notes from wonderful people all over the continent, and the safe return home of another dear friend. On days like today, a tiny little apartment seems a whole lot less lonely. Thank you everyone.

Back to chapter 4...

First Day of Class

For me, teaching-wise, it was the first day back with a new group of students. They look like a good bunch. Class went quite well. It must have been because I was so rested from the night before...

Last night I got home and felt strangely exhausted from a relatively uneventful day. Vowing lay down for "only a minute" at 7:30 pm, I slept like only an exhausted grad student can until the phone rang at 11:30 pm. I am very glad I was disturbed as it allowed me the opportunity to put my pjs on, take my glasses off, and SET MY ALARM. That could have been a nightmare this morning. Then again, I am sure Myrah would licked my face until I woke up; she is a weird weird cat.

I am such a pop culture freak, I swear. I am finding that I am obsessively watching episodes of Sex and the City (fun show) and can't wait until Survivor (addicted) and American Idol (Oh so addicted) start up again. 24 (like heroine) starts again tonight. Hmm... I wonder why I am not moving on my thesis as quick as I would like to be.

In other news of my life, I decided to succumb to the dark forces of the media and subscribe to the local paper. I want to get involved a bit more in local things, so getting the paper will keep me on top of the fun upcoming events, I figure. I have sworn off of excessive news consumption after the Year of Stress that was my time as an editor of a small paper; however, I think I may be able to temper it now with a bit of local fodder as a three month experiment. Strangely enough the first two papers I get announce a certain pop princess getting married and annulled, respectively. Needless to say, this does not bode well for the rest of the experiment.

Okay, I have a chapter around here somewhere that needs writing.

As if being behind already wasn't enough...

...Now it has to be served with a steaming dish of panic. Not half an hour after my original post for the day, did an email cheerily pop into my inbox: My committee chair wants to have my progress meeting this month. This month! They are expecting that I will be done my entire thesis and I am no where near done it. One word pops to mind... eek!

I am working my butt off today then I am going to do yoga tonight, followed by a hot bath with epsom salts... otherwise there will be a crazy stressball where I used to be. I must remember to do my work ~and~ take care of myself this term.

The Thesis Plan

I feel like I should have the Mission Impossible theme song running in the background now.

Here is the plan... 6 chapters to write, 2 seasons yet to watch, 2 videos to compile, 1 defence, 1 up-coming conference, 1 scholarly report to peers, 5 months (well, give or take anyhow), 1 grad class taking, 1 undergrad class teaching (Oh, my students should not be reading this. If you are a student of mine and reading this, stop, get out your textbook and read Bitzer and Booth again, you can never read those articles too many times). Okay, that really isn't much of a plan, more like a jumble of things I need to get done.

How about I limit this just to the thesis before I overwhelm myself. Where am I now?
Ch 1 (Intro) - rough rough draft, about 12 pages total, needs a heavy overhaul
Ch 2 (Lit Survey) - been overhauled quite a bit, 12 pages?, still work to do but closer to done than most
Ch 3 (T2Ams) - written and presented at a conference, 18 pages, too long and needs to be honed once Ch 1 & 2 are done
Ch 4 (Connie) - working on right now as a part of a course, 8 pages right now, will be well underway soon
Ch 5 (Misc Themes) - not even started, no outline, no nothing... but I want it to be the paper for this term's grad class
Ch 6 (Conc) - same vacuous hole that is Ch 5... not gonna think about until the rest of the thesis is in much better shape

Where do I want to be? I guess by the end of today, I want to have Ch 4 nearly on 12 pages and a whole lot less rough than it is now. Ideally I want it finished for Tuesday for supervisor perusal (well, actually ideally would have been along time ago now, but we are working in the realm of the realistic).

While Ch 4 is waiting for feedback and approval, I want to go back to Ch 2 and finish that one up and get things ready to start writing Ch 5.

So my dates might look like this:

Ch 1 - 1 revision -- Jan 31
Ch 2 - 2 revisions -- Jan 31
Ch 3 - look at in Feb
Ch 4 - draft done -- this week
Ch 5 - outline and 2 pages written -- Jan 31
Ch 6 - start in March

Is this too lofty? Not lofty enough? I guess I will just go with it and see.

Hi :o)

This is my first blog post, dear readers, and welcome to my life. I was inspired to do this by a fellow rhetorician and longtime blogger, Becky -- love ya babe ;o) Once I figure out how to link to her blog I will likely do that, frequently even.

I guess I should say a wee bit about myself for those who really don't know me and a few people who may stumble across me and my site along the way. I am a grad student at the University of Saskatchewan studying rhetoric and culture in an independant program. I am in the midst of the throes of my thesis (eek!) and struggling to get it done. I want to be defended by the end of 2004, I could care less about the official convocation date.

In any case, there is me and my cat, Myrah (shh, don't tell my landlord) and a whole host of fun characters that pop in and out of my life. I hope to get a digital camera sometime soon in order to add some fun visual aids here.

I think I may even get daring and add my resolutions for this year also. I have to meditate on that one a wee bit more though. No rush though, I have all year ;o)

I will have to invite some very special people to take a snoop here soon. In the meantime, I have a chapter to write.

Toodles,

Laura :o)