I just discovered RSS feeds

...so clearly, no work on my senior essay is getting done. I have, however, managed to drink over a liter of diet Coke and chew through two packs of Orbit, and it's not even 2:00 yet.

Ooh, gotta go, two new posts on Lifehacker...

Oh, my head.

In the pursuit of knowledge and graduation, I just spent a good hour of my life subjecting myself to articles from the dread bile that is the National Review. For my senior essay I'm writing about Nancy Pelosi's accession to the speakership and women as civilly legitimate actors, and oh, the sheer gendered venom is astounding. (Really, how much bearing does one's jewelry or clothes or hairstyle have on your ability to lead?) And for good measure they usually throw in some non sequitur comment about how feminists are trying to push women away from their natural roles as feminine pretty things blah blah blah. Lexis-Nexis, thou hast forsaken me.

In order to cheer (?) myself up, I went and reread Katha Pollitt's great blog post on International Women's Day here. Not cheer, exactly, as more than anything it articulates just how much women's issues around the world demand more than one day a year of deliberate attention, but at least it's well written, in contrast with the other stuff I've spent time on today.

And here's a non sequitur of my own: how much do I love that there's a board game that's actually called "Fact or Crap"? They could have just called it "True or False," but lord knows the entertainment value would have been diminished to almost nothing.

Suburban consumerism, ahoy.

I went to a mall today for the first time since maybe last May; in terms of mockery potential, it was all I dreamed it could be, but I suppose that was facilitated by the company I was with as much as by any innate ridiculousness of things seen.

The clear zenith of the experience was in front of a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory franchise (has anyone ever heard of these before? I sure hadn't), where shoppers were confronted with a massive, despondent-looking stuffed bear slumped over on its side such that it nearly blocked the store entrance. Yes, I did take a picture with it. Yes, in it we both look like we're sleeping off a bender.

Boy, if that don't put you in the mood for some milk chocolate pecan Bears (™, apparently), I don't know what will...

Spring Break (?)

Two sweet weeks of senior-essay-writing, although the "writing" part remains an abstraction at this point. I have, however, made extensive use of Preview's oval annotation tool on the three essays on the politics of recognition that I've managed to read so far. I finished the second and third ones today, and gave myself a not-entirely-intentional two and a half hour nap as a reward. I guess the semester has worn me out more than I'd imagined.

I've been more productive on non-academic fronts, if "productive" is understood to mean doing something, ANYTHING, that does not consist of my constantly refreshing my e-mail and then not responding to things I really should respond to. Example: I spent much of yesterday downloading a bunch of Mac software recommended by this guy. No particular reason, save that I am extremely suggestible. Oh, and I finally made use of the Adobe Photoshop and InDesign that a friend burned for me awhile ago. Photoshop scared me away pretty quick, but in InDesign I made text type out onto a curvy line! It was exhilarating.

I hate having a weak constitution.

On the plus side, I don't have pneumonia, and the fact that the doctor from SOS Médecins wrote "bronchitis" (or rather, "bronchite") on my housecall receipt should with any luck secure a 66-euro reimbursement from my university's health services. On the minus side, from my room's open window I can hear the cheering and thumping bass and intermittent airhorn blast waft in from Parisian gay pride while I'm stuck here with my fatigue and wheezing and trash bag full of used tea sachets and phlegm (tasty!). Also on the minus side: the housekeeper that my renters employ seems today to be taking great pleasure in rattling around and being as thorough as fucking possible in his weekly visit, thereby disallowing me the opportunity to slink unnoticed into the kitchen to microwave myself some more water. Scrub the goddamn bathroom tile a little more meticulously, why don't you buddy? I have to pee, and I wants my hot water.

As far as the tea goes, at least having to decide between vanilla, caramel and peach-blackcurrant makes my life a little more interesting. Until I can get back in there I suppose I'll have another dose of Advil. Mmm, coating.

...Ooo, they're playing a dance remix of What a Feeling! Irene Cara always cheers me up...

The "Recover Username" feature is a beautiful thing.

First comment: my new year's resolution was a spectacular failure, but given that I'd forgotten about it probably somewhere around mid-January and haven't thought about it for more than 2 minutes cumulative since then, there hasn't been much emotional fallout.

Greetings from Paris, which I haven't taken much advantage of since I got here on May 28th. I think it's because I spent 5 weeks here last summer and the ennui has set in. That, and I lost my monthlong metro card on a trip to Amsterdam/Brussels a few weeks ago, but since I live in the 6th arrondissement and it's easy to walk to the pretty, stereotypically "Paris" things, it's mostly the ennui. Also, the fact that I'm doing actual work for my fellowship! 8 senators and 3 National Assembly deputies have agreed to speak with me about their experience of gender in campaigning and in the French government. Those poor, poor fools. I've been trying to get my French up to snuff by taking the following measures:

- setting the default language to French on my webmail, Mozilla, and Windows (as much as it allows me without buying new language packs, at any rate)
- changing my home page from nytimes.com to lemonde.fr
- listening to Radio France, when I remember to
- when I'm walking around town, making a concerted effort to listen to the French mélodies and Jacques Brel songs on my iPod, rather than the American Idol mp3s that I spent an entire day downloading
- considering a subscription to Glowria, the French equivalent of Netflix (the first month only costs 1 euro!)

Additional suggestions are welcome. Back to reading some Kundera in the original...


PS, if any of you (the legions that read this) want postcards from sundry European places, drop me a line with a summer address.

A Modest Resolution.

In 2006, I will actually read my page-a-day desktop calendar, every day.

Last year both origami and Edward Gorey failed to hold my attention, the Gorey moreso because the pages of the various books were all out of order, but this year I hope that Forgotten English will be enough to do the trick.

By the way, words for the first three days of the New Year:

January 1st:
scurryfunge - A hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a neighbor and the time she knocks on the door.

January 2nd:
pulpatoon - A dish made of rabbits, fowl, etc., in a crust of forced [stuffed] meat.
From Latin pulpamentum, tidbits.
To make a pulpatoon of pigeons . . . half roast six or eight pigeons, and lay them in a crust of forc'd-meat. . . . Scrape a pound of veal, and two pounds of marrow, and beat it together in a stone mortar.

January 3rd:
in Queen Street - "The joskin lives in Queen Street," the fool is governed by his wife.

And no, I didn't read those all at once just now. We're off to a good start.

But I'm probably still setting myself up for failure, seeing as how I never use my desk...