nickelmountain

I can't believe I keep forgetting to do this! Thank you to brynspikess for the lovely shiny v-gift!

I only have one class on Tuesdays, so I wanted to spend today avoiding my homework by recording the fic I chose for chromatic_podfic. That's due March 2nd, and if I wait much longer it'll get crowded out by the 40 page paper that's due later that week. Which I haven't started writing yet. Which totally isn't my fault. Which I actually had to have a meeting about with people at my school, and they agreed it wasn't my fault. SO THERE.

*ahem* Anyway. IN ADDITION to an un-started 40 page paper, a short presentation, and two midterms in the next two weeks, I'm working on my chromatic_podfic, a podfic for crinklysolution for scarleteenfans, and my podficbigbang. In addition to three or four other podfics in various stages of planning and/or completion.

And! Hey! You can still win my podficcing services in support of Planned Parenthood at fandom_helps! Bidding is open until 11:30 EST TONIGHT! And despite the dubious state of affairs described in the last paragraph, I actually have a pretty fast turnaround time on podfics won in charity auctions. Two weeks to a month, usually. (Just, um, not the next two weeks. Probably.)

I also still have a podfic up for auction at fund_jcollins. That auction closes on March 7th.

Also, I talked about The Walking Dead in my last post, and then watched the most recent episode...I really can't endorse that show. It has such an incredible look to it, but the content is pretty fucking misogynistic. And not in an intelligent, meta-textual, commenting-on-human-nature kind of way. It's not that humanity collapses and the survivors revert to base primate behavior...it's just dumb. The amount of time I can forestall disappointment in a bad show is directly proportional to how excited I was about it before it aired, and The Walking Dead finally crossed that line for me. It's been too dumb for too long.

Oh hey, I realized I started a thought like five paragraphs ago and never finished it. I was going to record podfic today. But instead I'm drinking hot tea and Emergen-C and downing cold medicine that makes me do loopy things like get distracted mid-paragraph and wander into a monologue about zombies apropos of completely nothing (as you do)...

I think I'd better get out of this post while I still can. TL;DR: I have a cold. That's all I really meant to say. That, and thank you to brynspikess, whose v gift was a pleasant and welcome surprise last week.

 ( Thoughts on Boston, Lollapalooza, and my cat. )

A belated happy birthday to tsuki_no_bara , and happy birthday in advance to twasadark . Perhaps this is cheating, but my well wishes are sincere, and the volume of homework I've been dealing with (and will continue to deal with for the next two weeks) is seriously cramping my already limited LJ style. Anyway. tsuki_no_bara , I hope you had an excellent birthday. twasadark , I hope yours is everything you want it to be.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American flisties, and well wishes to Canadian (or any non-American) readers who already celebrated/don't celebrate. I'm grateful for my husband, our health, our cats, and the continued well-being of our endlessly frustrating families. The last 2-3 years have presented us with a number of serious challenges, and I didn't always know how to keep on keepin' on. But we've been lucky this year, and I'm grateful for all the good fortune in our lives. I'm also grateful for everyone I've met through fandom. I am so glad I came out of lurkdom and started participating. You all are amazing.

I have a couple of quick stories.

( This one is kind of funny: )
( This one is in the spirit of the season: )

Sigh. Nickelhusband is half-heartedly watching the Beyonce special on TV, waiting me to finish my (ahem) homework so we can enjoy the holiday evening together. We've already stuffed ourselves with field roast, root vegetables, and pie, and it's time to pop the top button of our pants and engage in the time-honored American tradition of reclining in a stupor before the gentle glow of the television screen.

Reading Erikson's "Identity and the Life Cycle" for my Psychology of Lifespan class, I've learned the following:

1) Americans have warmer relationships with their young children than any other culture in the world. That's right, the WHOLE WORLD.

2) African Americans (excuse me, "Negroes") are only sort of American. Same goes, ironically, for Native Americans.

3) Boys are commonly challenged in their attempts to identify with authority figures of their own gender because so many teachers are women.

4) Every young girl struggles with a sense of inferiority when she realizes she lacks a penis. She understands from at least age 4 that her clitoris is not an adequate substitute.

Also, if you, as an adult, tell a little boy that he's "a queer," guess what he'll grow up to be? Just guess.

We're reading this because Erikson is a crucial figure in stage theory. He expanded on Freud's ideas about the stages of childhood development, and introduced the idea that adults also go through stages. Still, I expect a lot of angry ranting about this article in class on Tuesday.

If no one else rants, I sure as fuck will.

Unless, that is, I'm too hung up on the inherent inferiority of my poor, tiny clitoris.

 The store meeting yesterday involved a rap. Seriously. Seven in the morning, and some white dude from Prep Foods rapping about our company's core values into a microphone. Four hundred and sixty half-asleep coworkers watching, dumbfounded, uncertain if this awkward flashback to 1986 is meant to be ironic or sincere. I half-expected a follow-up verse about the times tables, or the importance of staying in school. It was that kind of rap. 

And when I say, "a rap," picture the way your mother would say it. The slightly bewildered tone in her voice, as if she's not sure she's using the right vocabulary. As though her experience with rap is young white men in brightly colored, baggy sweatsuits performing good-naturedly at the senior center. It was that kind of rap.

It came from a good place (I think) and I don't mean to mock (sort of), but seriously. Wow.