...except that house-elves don't go to movies or read C.S. Lewis or get their fingers measured for bowling ball holes. As far as I know.
But today I did go down to the Red Cross, get put in a big set-off kitcheny area underneath where people were eating, with mostly just one fellow worker for company, and, without pay (except a free lunch), got food ready for people who never saw me prepare anything. And I just tried to start learning to knit, though so far my knitting is, in Lily's words (about other things, not said knitting), t3h suck. So I'm feeling a little like Dobby, and technically my socks are even mismatched, though they are the same color (white). Where's the liberation front on my behalf, huh? :-P
All joking aside, it was fairly cool, and I spent my morning with a nice (but very quiet) fellow volunteer named Jamar, putting slices of bread and cheese (separately) into plastic baggies, then sealing them via a sort of pressure-sealer apparatus shaped kinda like a big stapler, and with a heating element in the middle. They didn't go directly to the people there for the meals, as far as I know, but back in the freezer. So I didn't really feed anybody yet, heehee.
I got lunch, as I said, which I expected to resemble what we'd been working with all morning, but instead we got heartier stuff, warmed up--ham (with lemon glaze; an odd notion, but it tasted fine), vegetables, something that I think was sweet potatoes and tasted good regardless. After that, we cleaned up the kitchen and called it a day. w00t.
I'm signed up to go back on January 11th and possibly (though improbably) the 13th. They don't really need me other than that. But that's okay.
Saw Walk the Line with my mom tonight. That was pretty good. Makes me want to listen to more Johnny Cash, anyway. I've always liked "Man in Black," "Singin' in Vietnam Talking Blues," and, heh, "A Boy Named Sue," but it'll be nicer to hear the big hits now that I have some background (even if it's fictional in some cases--I'll have to check) for them.
And, as mentioned, I tried to learn knitting, but, um, there's trying still to be done.
But not now, 'cause I think I'm going to bed. I'm beat these days.
-Laurel
12.28.2005
Eat at (Lily) Jo's
How did I forget to include Mellie Mae on my Christmas-wish list?
Well, here I am at my fabulous cousin's :-D, checking my e-mail and stuff while she takes a nap. I should probably take a nap as well. But I guess that's not happening, at least not now.
So I saw, oddly and nicely enough, both Tim and Zinni yesterday. Both of them let me know about 24 hours in advance that they were coming: Zinni 'cause she was making the drive from PA, and Tim because his family was helping some relatives move into their new house, and said new house happens, by fantastic coincidence, to be within ten minutes of my own. Who knew?
Tim, then, came over (Tom was apparently too cool for us :-P), and we watched Lord of the Beans, which's the VeggieTales parody of LotR. It was pretty good. They may even have made a gratuitous Tom Bombadil reference, which impressed the heck out of me (what I mean is, there's a really random character whom I think might actually be--vaguely--modeled after him). Right around the time the movie was ending, Zinni arrived, and eventually other home friends of mine, 'cause they wanted to see her and hang out at my house and stuff. Tim left partway through that, and pizza was eaten, DDR was played, old videos were watched, and Christmas gifts were exchanged.
Ooh, ooh! So I got a call back from the Red Cross. I guess they pushed my paperwork through, 'cause the perkiest lady, like, ever is in food service, and she called me and wants me to help. I start Friday, bright and pretty early, 7:30. Since I'm not being paid, I essentially get to set my own hours, which's cool.
Tonight is destination and adventure unknown with Lily Jo (well, if we decide to do anything besides her town's new coffee shop); tomorrow may be Great Northern with the home friends (there has to be a better term, but what? I've rejected "homies," "homesters," "homefries"...maybe "homestars", after H*R, since so many of us follow it?), but we'll see.
So, oh, oh, I got for Christmas, among other things, a bowling ball and a bunch of knitting stuff. So I'm gonna take up knitting, and do more bowling than usual. Lily Jo got me a knitting book and a book called Folk Dances of Latin America, which comes with a CD and everything. Gosh, how I love being a nerd.
That's really all for now. About that nap, maybe...
-Laurel
Well, here I am at my fabulous cousin's :-D, checking my e-mail and stuff while she takes a nap. I should probably take a nap as well. But I guess that's not happening, at least not now.
So I saw, oddly and nicely enough, both Tim and Zinni yesterday. Both of them let me know about 24 hours in advance that they were coming: Zinni 'cause she was making the drive from PA, and Tim because his family was helping some relatives move into their new house, and said new house happens, by fantastic coincidence, to be within ten minutes of my own. Who knew?
Tim, then, came over (Tom was apparently too cool for us :-P), and we watched Lord of the Beans, which's the VeggieTales parody of LotR. It was pretty good. They may even have made a gratuitous Tom Bombadil reference, which impressed the heck out of me (what I mean is, there's a really random character whom I think might actually be--vaguely--modeled after him). Right around the time the movie was ending, Zinni arrived, and eventually other home friends of mine, 'cause they wanted to see her and hang out at my house and stuff. Tim left partway through that, and pizza was eaten, DDR was played, old videos were watched, and Christmas gifts were exchanged.
Ooh, ooh! So I got a call back from the Red Cross. I guess they pushed my paperwork through, 'cause the perkiest lady, like, ever is in food service, and she called me and wants me to help. I start Friday, bright and pretty early, 7:30. Since I'm not being paid, I essentially get to set my own hours, which's cool.
Tonight is destination and adventure unknown with Lily Jo (well, if we decide to do anything besides her town's new coffee shop); tomorrow may be Great Northern with the home friends (there has to be a better term, but what? I've rejected "homies," "homesters," "homefries"...maybe "homestars", after H*R, since so many of us follow it?), but we'll see.
So, oh, oh, I got for Christmas, among other things, a bowling ball and a bunch of knitting stuff. So I'm gonna take up knitting, and do more bowling than usual. Lily Jo got me a knitting book and a book called Folk Dances of Latin America, which comes with a CD and everything. Gosh, how I love being a nerd.
That's really all for now. About that nap, maybe...
-Laurel
12.24.2005
"Fragile fingers sent to heal us..."
It's been quite a year for, well, pretty much everybody on the planet. It's a bit of a crossroads Christmas for me, too, in a couple of ways--the obvious one, the move, and then another one--and, talking to Joe, some people's are just being downright difficult. Of course.
It's as the first time I've done it from here upstairs (yay wireless router, last year's Christmas present), and as the last time I'll do it from this house, that I carry out one of this blog's only traditions: wishing happy holidays and singling out new friends from across the year, even though they tend not to have the blog address to know they've been thus favored, heehee. I'm surprised how many there are this year; clearly, it's been an eventful one, or else I'm just feeling particularly warm and fuzzy toward all the new people in my life. :-D
So a merry Christmas goes out to Joe, Lisa, Amy, Emily, Michael, Kat, Chelsea, Terri, both Daves, Todd, Liz, basically IV in general (come to think of it), Trevor, Abby, Nicole, Missie, Jon, Barbara, Jen, Conrado, Erica, Lydia, and Tara. A happy Chanukah to Jenn and a general "happy holidays" to Yakov, since I know his family is Jewish but he's non-practicing and therefore I don't know what he celebrates.
Another merry Christmas to Samweli, Sunil, and the soldiers; the third year running I've wished that. Dona nobis pacem.
And one to my old friends and my best-beloveds.
-Laurel
It's as the first time I've done it from here upstairs (yay wireless router, last year's Christmas present), and as the last time I'll do it from this house, that I carry out one of this blog's only traditions: wishing happy holidays and singling out new friends from across the year, even though they tend not to have the blog address to know they've been thus favored, heehee. I'm surprised how many there are this year; clearly, it's been an eventful one, or else I'm just feeling particularly warm and fuzzy toward all the new people in my life. :-D
So a merry Christmas goes out to Joe, Lisa, Amy, Emily, Michael, Kat, Chelsea, Terri, both Daves, Todd, Liz, basically IV in general (come to think of it), Trevor, Abby, Nicole, Missie, Jon, Barbara, Jen, Conrado, Erica, Lydia, and Tara. A happy Chanukah to Jenn and a general "happy holidays" to Yakov, since I know his family is Jewish but he's non-practicing and therefore I don't know what he celebrates.
Another merry Christmas to Samweli, Sunil, and the soldiers; the third year running I've wished that. Dona nobis pacem.
And one to my old friends and my best-beloveds.
-Laurel
12.23.2005
Update.
I love how my brain totally had no problem with my going to bed at 9:30, since I felt tired, but how once I got in bed my body was all like, um, you didn't get up 'til ten. What makes you think you can go to bed before that?
And that's why I'm awake right now.
Today was pretty boring, honestly. Tomorrow doesn't look to be much more interesting until at least 7 pm. We're probably going to church on Christmas Day, actually, since it's a Sunday. Did I mention that?
I read the scripts for The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Trial by Jury. Arthur Sullivan said that he was screaming with laughter the whole time he first read Trial by Jury, which is why I read that as well. ...I wasn't laughing really at all, honestly. I had no idea how formulaic Gilbert and Sullivan were. And I'm hoping it's supposed to be a weird joke at the end of Pinafore, the way the math doesn't work, where the captain and the sailor might well be similar ages, but one is marrying the other's daughter, even though I thought it was implied that the daughter and the sailor's ages were really close, and the wet nurse is marrying one of her former, well, charges...odd, very.
Mostly-unrelated thought: I suppose it's not, but could the opposite of "stereotypical" be "stereoatypical"?
That's really all I have to say about any of that. Twenty-three or twenty-four days left 'til school. C'mooon, Red Cross. I'm getting bored as all get-out over here, and that makes me freak out about things. Jeesh, who knew keeping myself busy was a service to humanity in general?
-Laurel
And that's why I'm awake right now.
Today was pretty boring, honestly. Tomorrow doesn't look to be much more interesting until at least 7 pm. We're probably going to church on Christmas Day, actually, since it's a Sunday. Did I mention that?
I read the scripts for The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Trial by Jury. Arthur Sullivan said that he was screaming with laughter the whole time he first read Trial by Jury, which is why I read that as well. ...I wasn't laughing really at all, honestly. I had no idea how formulaic Gilbert and Sullivan were. And I'm hoping it's supposed to be a weird joke at the end of Pinafore, the way the math doesn't work, where the captain and the sailor might well be similar ages, but one is marrying the other's daughter, even though I thought it was implied that the daughter and the sailor's ages were really close, and the wet nurse is marrying one of her former, well, charges...odd, very.
Mostly-unrelated thought: I suppose it's not, but could the opposite of "stereotypical" be "stereoatypical"?
That's really all I have to say about any of that. Twenty-three or twenty-four days left 'til school. C'mooon, Red Cross. I'm getting bored as all get-out over here, and that makes me freak out about things. Jeesh, who knew keeping myself busy was a service to humanity in general?
-Laurel
If anyone wants to play...
Swiped, as usual:
1. Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love of at some time in your life [though not necessarily anymore].
2. Have your friends guess your favorite character/person from each item. [As people get it right, I'll put it up here with the correct guesser's name.]
* * * * *
In no particular order...
1. MarioKart (original or N64 version, whatever)
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Whose Line is it Anyway?
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
5. The Monkees
6. The Baby-Sitters Club
7. Winnie the Pooh
8. M*A*S*H
9. Muppet Babies
10. The Indian in the Cupboard (whole series, whatever)
11. Backyard Soccer [computer game]
12. Fiddler on the Roof
13. The Chronicles of Narnia
14. A Midsummer Night's Dream
15. Newsboys [who is going to know this? ah well, guess anyway]
16. Darkwing Duck
17. VeggieTales
18. Harry Potter
And I'm gonna stop there, because I've had quite a few obsessions in my time, but there really aren't enough significant characters for the guessing to really mean anything (like, who in Cyrano de Bergerac is worth favoritizing besides Cyrano himself? Maybe Ragueneau, but...). Plus, it's getting hard to think of stuff. Some of these are not really obsessive-fannish, though you'd be surprised at some of them that really were.
Happy guessing. Most of these are probably easy, especially if you went to high school with me, or are Lily Jo.
-Laurel
1. Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love of at some time in your life [though not necessarily anymore].
2. Have your friends guess your favorite character/person from each item. [As people get it right, I'll put it up here with the correct guesser's name.]
* * * * *
In no particular order...
1. MarioKart (original or N64 version, whatever)
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Whose Line is it Anyway?
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
5. The Monkees
6. The Baby-Sitters Club
7. Winnie the Pooh
8. M*A*S*H
9. Muppet Babies
10. The Indian in the Cupboard (whole series, whatever)
11. Backyard Soccer [computer game]
12. Fiddler on the Roof
13. The Chronicles of Narnia
14. A Midsummer Night's Dream
15. Newsboys [who is going to know this? ah well, guess anyway]
16. Darkwing Duck
17. VeggieTales
18. Harry Potter
And I'm gonna stop there, because I've had quite a few obsessions in my time, but there really aren't enough significant characters for the guessing to really mean anything (like, who in Cyrano de Bergerac is worth favoritizing besides Cyrano himself? Maybe Ragueneau, but...). Plus, it's getting hard to think of stuff. Some of these are not really obsessive-fannish, though you'd be surprised at some of them that really were.
Happy guessing. Most of these are probably easy, especially if you went to high school with me, or are Lily Jo.
-Laurel
12.21.2005
Dap dap dap dap dau wau wau wau...
So I don't know for certain when my Haloscan comments reset--probably after I changed the layout here and then messed with the comment template on the site--but everyone's from before that disappeared, and that makes me sad.
Well, despite the arguments on Daf's blog, which I didn't read until afterwards (but which, in any case, I've heard from a kid at school who seemed to be boycotting the blood drive), I saw my way clear to sign up tonight as a Red Cross volunteer. It was my idea, actually; I'm looking for something nice to do over break, and volunteering was one obvious option. I chose the Red Cross in large part because their office, while in the city, is in the good part of the city--only half a mile, actually, from Writers & Books. My mom brought me there, but stayed out of curiosity. We both went through the training session; I went on to fill out paperwork, have the quick interview, and all that. w00t.
It didn't work out quite as well as I expected because the paperwork usually takes a couple of weeks to be processed, and that'll be exacerbated by the holiday break, so by the time I'm registered to help, there might not be time for me to do anything. But the lady I interviewed with said that she'd try to get the process sped up because I'm not here long and my availability hours are so good: Mom's office doesn't have much for me to do these days, so I probably won't be working. I put down M-F, 8 AM - 5 PM as free time for volunteering. As you might imagine, the Red Cross likes the idea.
If it works out, I might be helping out with blood drives, check-in and canteen and stuff, just like with APO, but other things I might do are help with office work or the food service program. Turns out that the Red Cross is in charge of at least a lot, if not all (I couldn't tell) of the Meals on Wheels stuff around here. I wouldn't be hauling the chow, but I'd help serve meals on-site and/or package ones to be driven other places.
After Albert's explanation this summer, I also had a moment of pleased recognition when I discovered that the puppet program they run in elementary schools is actually Kids on the Block (check it). I can't do anything with that--it takes too long.
So we'll see if anything happens with all of that.
In the meantime, turns out we're moving earlier than I thought we were, and I don't have the whole summer; Dad has to start working July 1st. So he'll probably commute(?!) for the first week or whatever, but that'll be it, unless the house doesn't sell, in which case he'll commute indefinitely, I guess, until it does (good gracious). This means that I'm going to have to start cleaning my room out now, in case my parents can't wait until I finish out junior year to start packing things up. This also means that, and this is simultaneously good news and bad, I have no need to run a job search, because my job prospects are pretty much limited to...Mom's office, if they want me. 'Cause they're going to be the only ones easygoing enough to have me part-time and part-summer. Or I hope they'll have me, anyway.
It was kind of going to be miserable enough to lose all my senior friends without also losing my house, but okay then...I hear the folk dancing is good in Syracuse...and they should have plenty of volunteer places, too.
-Laurel
Well, despite the arguments on Daf's blog, which I didn't read until afterwards (but which, in any case, I've heard from a kid at school who seemed to be boycotting the blood drive), I saw my way clear to sign up tonight as a Red Cross volunteer. It was my idea, actually; I'm looking for something nice to do over break, and volunteering was one obvious option. I chose the Red Cross in large part because their office, while in the city, is in the good part of the city--only half a mile, actually, from Writers & Books. My mom brought me there, but stayed out of curiosity. We both went through the training session; I went on to fill out paperwork, have the quick interview, and all that. w00t.
It didn't work out quite as well as I expected because the paperwork usually takes a couple of weeks to be processed, and that'll be exacerbated by the holiday break, so by the time I'm registered to help, there might not be time for me to do anything. But the lady I interviewed with said that she'd try to get the process sped up because I'm not here long and my availability hours are so good: Mom's office doesn't have much for me to do these days, so I probably won't be working. I put down M-F, 8 AM - 5 PM as free time for volunteering. As you might imagine, the Red Cross likes the idea.
If it works out, I might be helping out with blood drives, check-in and canteen and stuff, just like with APO, but other things I might do are help with office work or the food service program. Turns out that the Red Cross is in charge of at least a lot, if not all (I couldn't tell) of the Meals on Wheels stuff around here. I wouldn't be hauling the chow, but I'd help serve meals on-site and/or package ones to be driven other places.
After Albert's explanation this summer, I also had a moment of pleased recognition when I discovered that the puppet program they run in elementary schools is actually Kids on the Block (check it). I can't do anything with that--it takes too long.
So we'll see if anything happens with all of that.
In the meantime, turns out we're moving earlier than I thought we were, and I don't have the whole summer; Dad has to start working July 1st. So he'll probably commute(?!) for the first week or whatever, but that'll be it, unless the house doesn't sell, in which case he'll commute indefinitely, I guess, until it does (good gracious). This means that I'm going to have to start cleaning my room out now, in case my parents can't wait until I finish out junior year to start packing things up. This also means that, and this is simultaneously good news and bad, I have no need to run a job search, because my job prospects are pretty much limited to...Mom's office, if they want me. 'Cause they're going to be the only ones easygoing enough to have me part-time and part-summer. Or I hope they'll have me, anyway.
It was kind of going to be miserable enough to lose all my senior friends without also losing my house, but okay then...I hear the folk dancing is good in Syracuse...and they should have plenty of volunteer places, too.
-Laurel
12.19.2005
school-ness already. shuttup.
So environmental science effectively ended my hopes for my first 4.0; I got a B-plus. That's predictable and all, but not very satisfying; it always sounds like sour grapes to bash the course thereafter, but I really think the class wasn't set up that well. A 101 should be much more basic, much more organized, and should have a TA (or whomever) that doesn't scribble comments like "NOT a good ending" on my essays (thanks, Mary Sunshine! By the way, I disagree).
...Tolhurst I respect, and appreciate all of the insight into my writing that I got. Getting an A in her course is a rewarding moment for me.
The irony here is, the B-plus may well end up unnecessary. At least I hope it does, because, as I believe I've mentioned, they finally ran oceanography, which was my second choice for non-lab science courses (can you believe enviro-sci was my first? I want Mr. B back), and because I was about 25% of the student effort involved in getting it, I'm taking it next semester, even though enviro-sci just fulfilled that non-lab science credit. With Otto teaching, no less. So I hope I get better than a B-plus, but Otto's tests may well make Dr. H's look merciful, so we'll see.
I also hope that its being a lecture-format intro course, like ENS-101 was, doesn't automatically mean it's wretched. Clearly, we won't be taking any group field trips, but hopefully hanging with Matt, Kathy, Amy, and Rachel will be fun, plus Tim when he decides to show, if he's an audit. (Audit, ha. So, basically, all three times he decides to show.) Otto says the textbook is good, though, and if he's right, that's a really good thing.
We'll see if things get weird in my head when suddenly I'm buzz-step-swinging on Tuesdays with someone who controls my GPA on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Speaking of swinging, hopefully I can get my act together and join Swing Society next semester, now that my classes should actually end at 5:10 instead of 5:30 and I won't have been in them for four-and-a-half consecutive hours (that's brain-deadness right there).
That's right, home dudes: I'm going to be in THREE dance-related thingies next semester, between folk dancing, swing, and Fundamentals of Dance (subtitle: yeah for gym credit). Why not? My room's a little small for DDR these days.
-Laurel
...Tolhurst I respect, and appreciate all of the insight into my writing that I got. Getting an A in her course is a rewarding moment for me.
The irony here is, the B-plus may well end up unnecessary. At least I hope it does, because, as I believe I've mentioned, they finally ran oceanography, which was my second choice for non-lab science courses (can you believe enviro-sci was my first? I want Mr. B back), and because I was about 25% of the student effort involved in getting it, I'm taking it next semester, even though enviro-sci just fulfilled that non-lab science credit. With Otto teaching, no less. So I hope I get better than a B-plus, but Otto's tests may well make Dr. H's look merciful, so we'll see.
I also hope that its being a lecture-format intro course, like ENS-101 was, doesn't automatically mean it's wretched. Clearly, we won't be taking any group field trips, but hopefully hanging with Matt, Kathy, Amy, and Rachel will be fun, plus Tim when he decides to show, if he's an audit. (Audit, ha. So, basically, all three times he decides to show.) Otto says the textbook is good, though, and if he's right, that's a really good thing.
We'll see if things get weird in my head when suddenly I'm buzz-step-swinging on Tuesdays with someone who controls my GPA on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Speaking of swinging, hopefully I can get my act together and join Swing Society next semester, now that my classes should actually end at 5:10 instead of 5:30 and I won't have been in them for four-and-a-half consecutive hours (that's brain-deadness right there).
That's right, home dudes: I'm going to be in THREE dance-related thingies next semester, between folk dancing, swing, and Fundamentals of Dance (subtitle: yeah for gym credit). Why not? My room's a little small for DDR these days.
-Laurel
Dang, but it's cold in here.
Hurrah for random Jitters-and-Tim-Hortons outings with home friends.
So I guess I can say, now that I've told as many home friends face-to-face that I could gather 'round me, that my family's moving to the Syracuse area, late summer or early fall '06. Should be interesting, exciting, depressing, the works.
Gotta love how 'Nanda and I had the whole internet to play around with, but somehow still managed to go on the same site and get Daf the same Christmas present. ::giggles::
Shamelessly swiped from someone who links her LJ in her profile and therefore should not be surprised that I'm reading it, unless she doesn't know I have her AIM name, in which case she shouldn't post it on Facebook (this is how all my cyberspying begins...):
Take the first line(/sentence) of the first post from each month this past year.
January: Being with Tim and Tom was wonderful.
February: Ha to the above, ha.
March: Part of the problem I have been having, I think, is something in psych that gets called emotional loneliness--when you have a lot of friends, but few really special people.
April: Tonight's tip: before opening and heating the canned spaghetti-and-meatballs that you bought at the dollar store for seventy-five cents, read the label to make sure that you aren't consuming 104% of your Daily Value of sodium (no, they weren't that blatant: they divided the whole can into two small "servings").
May: My birthday (which was Monday) went pretty well, except for the weather.
June: Great Northern Gathering, June '05: simply amazing.
July: Well, this was a whirlwind weekend and no mistake.
August: I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around
September: There seem to be more drunks than usual this first weekend after classes.
October: [from a quiz] You are a: duckling!
November: Here's how I know I've been completely remiss in my cleaning for far too long: I've encountered two moldy dishes today, an additional one nearing that point, and the spoiled dregs (or so they must be, being four days or so past the due date) of a carton of milk, not to mention all the caked-on applesauce remains from who knows how long ago, though thank goodness homemade applesauce is apparently not good microbe food (they appear, however, to like ramen and German potato salad).
December: I've just found a pretty clear outline of what people have against the Narnia books, after my confusion over Phillip Pullman's charges.
Everything set up even remotely like that makes me read my archives a lot. I've noticed that most of my entries sound better when they've sat around for a couple of months than they did at the time or a day or two later.
-Laurel
So I guess I can say, now that I've told as many home friends face-to-face that I could gather 'round me, that my family's moving to the Syracuse area, late summer or early fall '06. Should be interesting, exciting, depressing, the works.
Gotta love how 'Nanda and I had the whole internet to play around with, but somehow still managed to go on the same site and get Daf the same Christmas present. ::giggles::
Shamelessly swiped from someone who links her LJ in her profile and therefore should not be surprised that I'm reading it, unless she doesn't know I have her AIM name, in which case she shouldn't post it on Facebook (this is how all my cyberspying begins...):
Take the first line(/sentence) of the first post from each month this past year.
January: Being with Tim and Tom was wonderful.
February: Ha to the above, ha.
March: Part of the problem I have been having, I think, is something in psych that gets called emotional loneliness--when you have a lot of friends, but few really special people.
April: Tonight's tip: before opening and heating the canned spaghetti-and-meatballs that you bought at the dollar store for seventy-five cents, read the label to make sure that you aren't consuming 104% of your Daily Value of sodium (no, they weren't that blatant: they divided the whole can into two small "servings").
May: My birthday (which was Monday) went pretty well, except for the weather.
June: Great Northern Gathering, June '05: simply amazing.
July: Well, this was a whirlwind weekend and no mistake.
August: I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around
September: There seem to be more drunks than usual this first weekend after classes.
October: [from a quiz] You are a: duckling!
November: Here's how I know I've been completely remiss in my cleaning for far too long: I've encountered two moldy dishes today, an additional one nearing that point, and the spoiled dregs (or so they must be, being four days or so past the due date) of a carton of milk, not to mention all the caked-on applesauce remains from who knows how long ago, though thank goodness homemade applesauce is apparently not good microbe food (they appear, however, to like ramen and German potato salad).
December: I've just found a pretty clear outline of what people have against the Narnia books, after my confusion over Phillip Pullman's charges.
Everything set up even remotely like that makes me read my archives a lot. I've noticed that most of my entries sound better when they've sat around for a couple of months than they did at the time or a day or two later.
-Laurel
12.18.2005
In which the emetophobe gets a stomach virus
Best crazy news story in a long time: right here.
So, as the title states, I definitely spent very-early-Saturday sick. It was bad, but not so bad. All I need now is for someone else to be sick in my presence, and maybe I can hack it in Rescue Squad after all, not to mention be unofficially qualified to someday have a kid. ::giggles::
I don't really have anything else to say.
-Laurel
So, as the title states, I definitely spent very-early-Saturday sick. It was bad, but not so bad. All I need now is for someone else to be sick in my presence, and maybe I can hack it in Rescue Squad after all, not to mention be unofficially qualified to someday have a kid. ::giggles::
I don't really have anything else to say.
-Laurel
12.16.2005
oh no oh no oh no
So the petition.
The director of residence life asked a few days ago if I'd meet with her to discuss my petition. Which I hadn't handed in yet. A bit odd. The e-mail said to contact her secretary to schedule a meeting.
So I did. She e-mailed me back times that Brenda was free, and because of finals and leaving campus, I had to e-mail back with my regrets, saying none of those were good for me.
Brenda arranged a meeting with Tom, since he's my RA. By the time they met today, I'd handed in the petition.
She proceeded to, from what I can tell, more or less yell at him.
I didn't respond to her e-mails, she said. (Luckily Tom knew I'd gone through the secretary, and defended me on that--but why didn't she know that herself?) I was misinformed, she said. I should have talked to her before I petitioned, she said. RAs elsewhere make even less.
Tom did some checking and says that he's submitted a chart of his findings as to comparable RA rates. Ours don't make more.
At the time, he told her that the hours were making scheduling difficult. She told him to quit if he didn't like it. She made it clear that she was angry and nothing was going to change. Though she said that my cover letter "softened" things a bit; I'd pointed out that the RAs hadn't asked me to petition and that I'd limited it as much as possible so as not to be aggressive. I'm not sure what she thinks was harsh, the situation or the words.
Please believe me, I did everything I could to be diplomatic except for consulting her first, and honestly, that didn't even cross my mind. Who asks for permission to start a petition, or discusses an issue on threat of one? I only petitioned for two days, and with no publicity except the announcement in Student Senate. Sixty-eight signatures, out of a student body of about 2500. That's less than 3% of the population. I doubt as many as 5% of the student body heard about it, no matter how you slice it or if some people told other people. The vast majority of campus doesn't even know that anything happened. How can she be this angry?
Gosh darn, I didn't do anything. I read the petition and had RAs read it to make sure it was okay. I wrote and rewrote everything, trying to sound courteous. I stopped petitioning once classes ended so I wasn't making a scene during testing. I didn't publicize it over e-mail, with a table, a sign, or anything. It went in my backpack. I only asked two of my classes, the Poder Latino kids, some Powell diners one night, and Student Senate. Almost everybody agreed; almost everybody signed. I didn't have to do much talking; most people were already ready for action. I told myself, because I was frightened of what I was doing, that if I did everything as respectfully and honestly as possible, she would have to respect that, she couldn't get angry, she couldn't be belligerent. Not to me, and certainly not to the RAs.
Well, I was wrong.
I'm not meeting with her now. Not in January, not ever. It would only make me cry, and I'm not doing that with her there. I told Abby I was so grateful when Senate applauded; she told me everyone's been angry about it, but I was the only one who'd tried to do something. If Brenda thinks I'm wrong, then if she finds statistics backing it up, I'm wrong. I'm okay with that. But it should be facts, not vitriol, and she should attack my document instead of me. I implied that she was being unreasonable, not that she was a bad person.
I hope I didn't screw it up for good for the RAs, most of whom didn't ask for my help, most of whom don't know I even tried.
-Laurel
The director of residence life asked a few days ago if I'd meet with her to discuss my petition. Which I hadn't handed in yet. A bit odd. The e-mail said to contact her secretary to schedule a meeting.
So I did. She e-mailed me back times that Brenda was free, and because of finals and leaving campus, I had to e-mail back with my regrets, saying none of those were good for me.
Brenda arranged a meeting with Tom, since he's my RA. By the time they met today, I'd handed in the petition.
She proceeded to, from what I can tell, more or less yell at him.
I didn't respond to her e-mails, she said. (Luckily Tom knew I'd gone through the secretary, and defended me on that--but why didn't she know that herself?) I was misinformed, she said. I should have talked to her before I petitioned, she said. RAs elsewhere make even less.
Tom did some checking and says that he's submitted a chart of his findings as to comparable RA rates. Ours don't make more.
At the time, he told her that the hours were making scheduling difficult. She told him to quit if he didn't like it. She made it clear that she was angry and nothing was going to change. Though she said that my cover letter "softened" things a bit; I'd pointed out that the RAs hadn't asked me to petition and that I'd limited it as much as possible so as not to be aggressive. I'm not sure what she thinks was harsh, the situation or the words.
Please believe me, I did everything I could to be diplomatic except for consulting her first, and honestly, that didn't even cross my mind. Who asks for permission to start a petition, or discusses an issue on threat of one? I only petitioned for two days, and with no publicity except the announcement in Student Senate. Sixty-eight signatures, out of a student body of about 2500. That's less than 3% of the population. I doubt as many as 5% of the student body heard about it, no matter how you slice it or if some people told other people. The vast majority of campus doesn't even know that anything happened. How can she be this angry?
Gosh darn, I didn't do anything. I read the petition and had RAs read it to make sure it was okay. I wrote and rewrote everything, trying to sound courteous. I stopped petitioning once classes ended so I wasn't making a scene during testing. I didn't publicize it over e-mail, with a table, a sign, or anything. It went in my backpack. I only asked two of my classes, the Poder Latino kids, some Powell diners one night, and Student Senate. Almost everybody agreed; almost everybody signed. I didn't have to do much talking; most people were already ready for action. I told myself, because I was frightened of what I was doing, that if I did everything as respectfully and honestly as possible, she would have to respect that, she couldn't get angry, she couldn't be belligerent. Not to me, and certainly not to the RAs.
Well, I was wrong.
I'm not meeting with her now. Not in January, not ever. It would only make me cry, and I'm not doing that with her there. I told Abby I was so grateful when Senate applauded; she told me everyone's been angry about it, but I was the only one who'd tried to do something. If Brenda thinks I'm wrong, then if she finds statistics backing it up, I'm wrong. I'm okay with that. But it should be facts, not vitriol, and she should attack my document instead of me. I implied that she was being unreasonable, not that she was a bad person.
I hope I didn't screw it up for good for the RAs, most of whom didn't ask for my help, most of whom don't know I even tried.
-Laurel
::squ-eeee!::
Twenty folk dances.
That's how many I know well enough to teach, or at least to do automatically, with little to no brainpower at all. And even more where I'm on the threshold.
Last year at this time it was, like, eight. Things have really come together for me since then. I remember being so giddy spring semester, feeling the lightbulb come on.
And today I got two lovely mail-related surprises: 1) Tim's birthday present came here and on time, when I thought it was going to come late and to my house, so I got to give it to him while we were still here after all. 2) Packages received over Christmas break are not returned to sender; they simply sit in the mailroom. So should something come to my mailbox Saturday instead of tomorrow that I ordered (luckily it wasn't for a present to anyone), I don't have to worry about where it will end up.
So hurrah!
-Laurel
That's how many I know well enough to teach, or at least to do automatically, with little to no brainpower at all. And even more where I'm on the threshold.
Last year at this time it was, like, eight. Things have really come together for me since then. I remember being so giddy spring semester, feeling the lightbulb come on.
And today I got two lovely mail-related surprises: 1) Tim's birthday present came here and on time, when I thought it was going to come late and to my house, so I got to give it to him while we were still here after all. 2) Packages received over Christmas break are not returned to sender; they simply sit in the mailroom. So should something come to my mailbox Saturday instead of tomorrow that I ordered (luckily it wasn't for a present to anyone), I don't have to worry about where it will end up.
So hurrah!
-Laurel
12.15.2005
-Consumer plug-
Anyone looking for fun things with eyeballs on them should check out Mad Martian, because I ordered something off of the site recently, and there were two problems with the order (one totally my fault, one mostly their fault), but Mike Shkolnik, who runs the site (or at least does all the e-mail stuff, if there's anyone else helping), was unflaggingly patient, not to mention really prompt with e-mail.
So this is a grateful plug for him. His website's kind of slow to load, but patience will be rewarded, so if you're curious, go and see.
-Laurel
So this is a grateful plug for him. His website's kind of slow to load, but patience will be rewarded, so if you're curious, go and see.
-Laurel
12.14.2005
-only a ten-minute break, honest-
My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God's sight.
-James 1:19-20, NLT
...Heed, drat you my tongue and typing fingers, heed. ::sigh::
Okay, so I've had one "final"--really a unit test, for Judaism/Islam. Went rather well on the whole, and I was out by 8:15, which gave me a glorious two-and-a-half hours (I think; we ran late) of folk dancing, the last meeting of the semester.
I have new folk dancing music, and that makes me all kinds'a happy.
I discovered that I actually like Sam's Club Southwest Black Bean and White Corn salsa (though its "mild" label is less true than I would like), which Sandra happily was looking to get rid of, and Todd graciously offered me his scoop-shaped tortilla chips, and Tom gave me the rest of the bottle of Pepsi he brought, and I have another bottle in my fridge (though the soda itself is flat as a pancake; I think it's been there since late October). So I am certainly fortified for the last three pages (six, seven, and eight) that I have to write of my research paper.
It's coming, slowly but surely. It helps that I put the ones that required a fair amount of research while writing first, because now I'm done with those and can focus on just one sentence-worth of history or biography and fly from there.
Still, it's nearly two-thirty, and at my normal research-paper rate of a page per hour, I'm not going to get too much sleep. Off to keep at it.
-Laurel
-James 1:19-20, NLT
...Heed, drat you my tongue and typing fingers, heed. ::sigh::
Okay, so I've had one "final"--really a unit test, for Judaism/Islam. Went rather well on the whole, and I was out by 8:15, which gave me a glorious two-and-a-half hours (I think; we ran late) of folk dancing, the last meeting of the semester.
I have new folk dancing music, and that makes me all kinds'a happy.
I discovered that I actually like Sam's Club Southwest Black Bean and White Corn salsa (though its "mild" label is less true than I would like), which Sandra happily was looking to get rid of, and Todd graciously offered me his scoop-shaped tortilla chips, and Tom gave me the rest of the bottle of Pepsi he brought, and I have another bottle in my fridge (though the soda itself is flat as a pancake; I think it's been there since late October). So I am certainly fortified for the last three pages (six, seven, and eight) that I have to write of my research paper.
It's coming, slowly but surely. It helps that I put the ones that required a fair amount of research while writing first, because now I'm done with those and can focus on just one sentence-worth of history or biography and fly from there.
Still, it's nearly two-thirty, and at my normal research-paper rate of a page per hour, I'm not going to get too much sleep. Off to keep at it.
-Laurel
12.13.2005
Given the raspberry...slushie...
Besides Tim wearing flip-flops there, the following brief scene is my official Moment of this semester's Midnight Breakfast:
[Laurel, attempting to show Albert how thick the fruit slushes are that they've gotten from Dan, holds the cup nearly perpendicular to her mouth.]
Laurel: See?
Albert: Hmm. It's kind of like Heinz ketchup...
[Just as this sentence is finished, gravity finally catches up with Laurel's slushie, and, in a very ketchup-like fashion, two-thirds of it slides out of the cup all at once. Part lands in wide-open mouth, but a majority ends up all over her face and tray, though somehow very little winds up on her clothing.]
I got slushied. Admittedly, it was pretty funny.
Okay, back to work.
-Laurel
[Laurel, attempting to show Albert how thick the fruit slushes are that they've gotten from Dan, holds the cup nearly perpendicular to her mouth.]
Laurel: See?
Albert: Hmm. It's kind of like Heinz ketchup...
[Just as this sentence is finished, gravity finally catches up with Laurel's slushie, and, in a very ketchup-like fashion, two-thirds of it slides out of the cup all at once. Part lands in wide-open mouth, but a majority ends up all over her face and tray, though somehow very little winds up on her clothing.]
I got slushied. Admittedly, it was pretty funny.
Okay, back to work.
-Laurel
12.08.2005
-boom-
My enviro-sci homework took, no kidding, until 3:30 this morning. I think I started it at ten-something. Maybe eleven-something.
So I'm going to bed now, so I can get up at like six, so I can do my annotated bibliography due at 2:20 tomorrow. Yes, this means that I actually have to pick a topic tomorrow before the library opens, then go and get the books and read them enough to outline the project by 2:20. I don't want to talk about how doomed I am right now.
And I only got three petition signatures today because things just weren't working out with the asking. I only have, like, sixty-two signatures, which isn't nearly enough to be taken seriously (that's not even 5% of the school's population), but I refuse to spoil my Midnight Breakfast on Monday by having to play rebel. It's not going there, at least not with me on the other end. So what I'm going to do, I'm not entirely sure.
Except, you know, go to bed.
-Laurel
So I'm going to bed now, so I can get up at like six, so I can do my annotated bibliography due at 2:20 tomorrow. Yes, this means that I actually have to pick a topic tomorrow before the library opens, then go and get the books and read them enough to outline the project by 2:20. I don't want to talk about how doomed I am right now.
And I only got three petition signatures today because things just weren't working out with the asking. I only have, like, sixty-two signatures, which isn't nearly enough to be taken seriously (that's not even 5% of the school's population), but I refuse to spoil my Midnight Breakfast on Monday by having to play rebel. It's not going there, at least not with me on the other end. So what I'm going to do, I'm not entirely sure.
Except, you know, go to bed.
-Laurel
12.07.2005
Sea of Faces
So I started a petition.
The resident assistants here, to make this long story just a little bit shorter, have had a fairly big increase this year in what's expected of them, and the practical upshot is that they're working an average of 13 hours more per week, but without any form of compensation whatsoever. This's been going on all semester, but I had no idea just how unfair this was until this weekend, talking to Tom about all they do now, and it tripped my injustice alarm enough to get me to promise him to write a letter to the Residence Life director about it.
The process was slowish, but after showing it to two RAs and Albert (once in a while we edit each other's work), today I started collecting signatures.
Fifty-nine. Pretty good for not even twelve hours' work.
About twenty of these came from Student Senate; I actually presented the document to the group at large tonight. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing; I hadn't planned on going even that public with the letter, 'cause totally the last thing anybody needs right now is to make Res-Life angry, so I'm trying to be super-respectful (they deserve that anyway, of course) and as low-key as possible. So no, I'm not mass-emailing campus about it, nor setting up a table. Just a grassroots kind of petition. ...Honestly, I don't need more than that; most people are indignant enough with the whole mess to sign it without my having to explain all the arguments I've made.
I looked out over Student Senate and tried to emphasize that I wasn't trying to pick a fight with Res-Life, but I wanted to show that a lot of people were concerned, and I encouraged everyone to read it all the way through and not feel pressured to sign.
I knew that I was probably giving up any element of surprise I would have had with Res-Life, and any claim to mega-low-keyness (since the minutes of Senate go out to all the clubs/orgs and several administrative-type groups), but I really wanted that chance at moral support, since I've been feeling more insecure about it than I expected. At the end of my address on the Senate floor, I realized my voice was quivering a bit (I was nervous), and, honestly, so was the rest of me.
But when I finished talking, the room broke into applause.
About twenty signatures I got, and a lot of comments and questions. Some of them were from Res-Life's Senate rep. I didn't know they had one. She said that she was responsible for reporting Senate goings-on to Res-Life, so she was going to have to tell them that there was a petition coming. But she'd be vague, she said: she hadn't read it, didn't know what was in it, hadn't signed it, that sort of thing.
Confused, I looked down at the paper. "Isn't this your signature here?"
"Yeah," she said, not batting an eye.
I decided to leave that one alone.
I'm glad that so far I haven't gotten any RAs telling me I'm overreacting, though I did have one look at me like he thought the CIA would come after him if he signed it. So far no actual RA has. An SA has, and a former RA or two. I've had RAs tell me they think I'm doing a good thing. But you can see why there hasn't been a petition from them by now. They draw paychecks from Res-Life and don't really feel comfortable with tangling with them. Plus Tom won't sign it because he doesn't want to dilute all the power of fifty-something non-RAs signing something on behalf of the RAs.
What also meant a whole lot was Amy's signature, since she's so quiet, deliberate, moral, and a lot of similar things. I have a lot of respect for her, and didn't want to come off looking hotheaded. She read the whole letter through very carefully, and then signed. Looks like a mark of success to me.
I do have one amendment that I'll have to attach before I hand it in; I made an argument that had to do with the number of alcohol-related Rescue Squad calls going up instead of down; the Squadians looked over their paperwork today and informed me that, to their own surprise as well, the number of alcohol calls has actually stayed the same. So that statement is inaccurate. But they haven't gone down, which's the important part of the point. So it's not a total concession.
Strange that a few people are looking at me like they're proud of me. It's not so profound to start a petition. I mean, I'm hoping I'm not pointed to as the ringleader and put in charge of talking to Res-Life, but if anyone has to deal with them personally, I know very well it's going to be me. It's not like this is going to make or break my reputation with the school in any way, nor the student body.
It's an odd experience, much more uncomfortable than exhilarating. I keep wishing it could end, that I could stop pestering everyone I see, like I'm some annoying salesman for what I see as justice. Clearly, I don't have the relish for politics that, say, Bono does. Though one petition is not to be blown out of proportion: this is Student Senate, not the U.S. Senate.
More to be chronicled as it unfolds, but here's one of the most interesting things in my life right now.
-Laurel
The resident assistants here, to make this long story just a little bit shorter, have had a fairly big increase this year in what's expected of them, and the practical upshot is that they're working an average of 13 hours more per week, but without any form of compensation whatsoever. This's been going on all semester, but I had no idea just how unfair this was until this weekend, talking to Tom about all they do now, and it tripped my injustice alarm enough to get me to promise him to write a letter to the Residence Life director about it.
The process was slowish, but after showing it to two RAs and Albert (once in a while we edit each other's work), today I started collecting signatures.
Fifty-nine. Pretty good for not even twelve hours' work.
About twenty of these came from Student Senate; I actually presented the document to the group at large tonight. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing; I hadn't planned on going even that public with the letter, 'cause totally the last thing anybody needs right now is to make Res-Life angry, so I'm trying to be super-respectful (they deserve that anyway, of course) and as low-key as possible. So no, I'm not mass-emailing campus about it, nor setting up a table. Just a grassroots kind of petition. ...Honestly, I don't need more than that; most people are indignant enough with the whole mess to sign it without my having to explain all the arguments I've made.
I looked out over Student Senate and tried to emphasize that I wasn't trying to pick a fight with Res-Life, but I wanted to show that a lot of people were concerned, and I encouraged everyone to read it all the way through and not feel pressured to sign.
I knew that I was probably giving up any element of surprise I would have had with Res-Life, and any claim to mega-low-keyness (since the minutes of Senate go out to all the clubs/orgs and several administrative-type groups), but I really wanted that chance at moral support, since I've been feeling more insecure about it than I expected. At the end of my address on the Senate floor, I realized my voice was quivering a bit (I was nervous), and, honestly, so was the rest of me.
But when I finished talking, the room broke into applause.
About twenty signatures I got, and a lot of comments and questions. Some of them were from Res-Life's Senate rep. I didn't know they had one. She said that she was responsible for reporting Senate goings-on to Res-Life, so she was going to have to tell them that there was a petition coming. But she'd be vague, she said: she hadn't read it, didn't know what was in it, hadn't signed it, that sort of thing.
Confused, I looked down at the paper. "Isn't this your signature here?"
"Yeah," she said, not batting an eye.
I decided to leave that one alone.
I'm glad that so far I haven't gotten any RAs telling me I'm overreacting, though I did have one look at me like he thought the CIA would come after him if he signed it. So far no actual RA has. An SA has, and a former RA or two. I've had RAs tell me they think I'm doing a good thing. But you can see why there hasn't been a petition from them by now. They draw paychecks from Res-Life and don't really feel comfortable with tangling with them. Plus Tom won't sign it because he doesn't want to dilute all the power of fifty-something non-RAs signing something on behalf of the RAs.
What also meant a whole lot was Amy's signature, since she's so quiet, deliberate, moral, and a lot of similar things. I have a lot of respect for her, and didn't want to come off looking hotheaded. She read the whole letter through very carefully, and then signed. Looks like a mark of success to me.
I do have one amendment that I'll have to attach before I hand it in; I made an argument that had to do with the number of alcohol-related Rescue Squad calls going up instead of down; the Squadians looked over their paperwork today and informed me that, to their own surprise as well, the number of alcohol calls has actually stayed the same. So that statement is inaccurate. But they haven't gone down, which's the important part of the point. So it's not a total concession.
Strange that a few people are looking at me like they're proud of me. It's not so profound to start a petition. I mean, I'm hoping I'm not pointed to as the ringleader and put in charge of talking to Res-Life, but if anyone has to deal with them personally, I know very well it's going to be me. It's not like this is going to make or break my reputation with the school in any way, nor the student body.
It's an odd experience, much more uncomfortable than exhilarating. I keep wishing it could end, that I could stop pestering everyone I see, like I'm some annoying salesman for what I see as justice. Clearly, I don't have the relish for politics that, say, Bono does. Though one petition is not to be blown out of proportion: this is Student Senate, not the U.S. Senate.
More to be chronicled as it unfolds, but here's one of the most interesting things in my life right now.
-Laurel
12.04.2005
More on the previous
So for those interested in something more biographical:
non-argumentative C.S. Lewis stuff
For those interested in the argument over whether the Narnia books are supposed to be Christian allegory or just happen to have a possible Christ-figure in them (not the same thing, if you think about it):
as allegory
as non-allegory (not to mention that this's quite a contradiction of the most well-known Lewis biography [since SBJ is autobiography], which I've read, and am glad to hear that it may well exaggerate)
The other thing that's interesting is that I've been trying to follow the writings leading up to the movies, and so far the people most decidedly judgmental toward C.S. Lewis are his fellow British; the Americans seem far less scornful. I mean, they mention a lot of the same things, but draw different conclusions from them.
Or maybe more Americans have yet to write; we'll see.
I know this may be less interesting to some of my audience, but C.S. Lewis is one of my biggest heroes, so I'm fairly fascinated. Also, it's my blog. :-P
It's been a nice weekend; I did soooo much yesterday, holy cow. Attended many different events. But I'm still behind like whoa on all my reading, so I'm out.
-Laurel
non-argumentative C.S. Lewis stuff
For those interested in the argument over whether the Narnia books are supposed to be Christian allegory or just happen to have a possible Christ-figure in them (not the same thing, if you think about it):
as allegory
as non-allegory (not to mention that this's quite a contradiction of the most well-known Lewis biography [since SBJ is autobiography], which I've read, and am glad to hear that it may well exaggerate)
The other thing that's interesting is that I've been trying to follow the writings leading up to the movies, and so far the people most decidedly judgmental toward C.S. Lewis are his fellow British; the Americans seem far less scornful. I mean, they mention a lot of the same things, but draw different conclusions from them.
Or maybe more Americans have yet to write; we'll see.
I know this may be less interesting to some of my audience, but C.S. Lewis is one of my biggest heroes, so I'm fairly fascinated. Also, it's my blog. :-P
It's been a nice weekend; I did soooo much yesterday, holy cow. Attended many different events. But I'm still behind like whoa on all my reading, so I'm out.
-Laurel
12.02.2005
::glances at floor:: Gosh, but my room is a mess.
I've just found a pretty clear outline of what people have against the Narnia books, after my confusion over Phillip Pullman's charges. You can read it here if you'd like.
Most of what they say isn't exactly unfair, but I think a little overpanicky. There's no evidence I've found in Lewis's real life of his being racist, and I've read a majority of his nonfiction, plus a fairly critical biography that didn't give any evidence of that that I could find. His opinion comes through clearly that we should think the best of people that we can, and I assume he would recognize that kind of incongruity.
As for the feminist criticism, they perhaps have more grounds for an argument, but I don't buy that it's either clear or intentional. I think that in Four Loves he underestimates female ability to have intelligent conversation with men, but you've got to give him this: it was, like, 1940 and 1950. If he made a mistake, it was a common one, and one, as the article points out, where he didn't have a lot on the other side to argue the point, having grown up in an all-male family for most of his life, going to an all-boys' school, working in a university where all the professors were men.
Anyway, I think everyone's underestimating Lucy, who is given several adventures of her own throughout the course of the books. Not to mention Joy in real life, whom I think once they were together would have caught him eagle-eyed at any misogyny and ridiculed it out of him, frankly. ::giggles::
And gracious, before this year I never heard of anyone getting angry over Susan's expulsion from Narnia, and all of a sudden J.K. Rowling and everyone else are taking it as a personal insult. ...After all, it is an allegory of Christianity. Sometimes the people we're closest to leave the faith; if you're trying to express that to a child, how do you do it? I don't think it was such a bad choice: if you're a kid, fully and innocently, and your big sister leaves you to go be pretty, of course that's going to mess with your world. ...Like, it never occurred to me to think it harsh that they didn't try to go and win her back, but I didn't interpret it as being shut out of heaven, good gracious.
I mean, I read all the books in ninth grade, old enough to pick faults in them, and I never felt slighted. Perhaps this's because I tend to assume males and females are equal unless given blatant cause to think otherwise: I've never been a good feminist reader because I don't remember having it any harder because I was a girl. Sure, cutting your hair short is not always the wisest move, but I got the same criticism that long-haired boys used to get: accusation of looking like the other sex. They don't scold boys because it's an insult to look like a girl, do they? Looks to me like the scorn comes from violating the norm, confusing the gender roles, period. If there were a third gender, I don't think people would be any more comfortable with anybody looking like anybody else.
Anyway, that's my rant, and I'm late for my APO thingy.
-Laurel
Most of what they say isn't exactly unfair, but I think a little overpanicky. There's no evidence I've found in Lewis's real life of his being racist, and I've read a majority of his nonfiction, plus a fairly critical biography that didn't give any evidence of that that I could find. His opinion comes through clearly that we should think the best of people that we can, and I assume he would recognize that kind of incongruity.
As for the feminist criticism, they perhaps have more grounds for an argument, but I don't buy that it's either clear or intentional. I think that in Four Loves he underestimates female ability to have intelligent conversation with men, but you've got to give him this: it was, like, 1940 and 1950. If he made a mistake, it was a common one, and one, as the article points out, where he didn't have a lot on the other side to argue the point, having grown up in an all-male family for most of his life, going to an all-boys' school, working in a university where all the professors were men.
Anyway, I think everyone's underestimating Lucy, who is given several adventures of her own throughout the course of the books. Not to mention Joy in real life, whom I think once they were together would have caught him eagle-eyed at any misogyny and ridiculed it out of him, frankly. ::giggles::
And gracious, before this year I never heard of anyone getting angry over Susan's expulsion from Narnia, and all of a sudden J.K. Rowling and everyone else are taking it as a personal insult. ...After all, it is an allegory of Christianity. Sometimes the people we're closest to leave the faith; if you're trying to express that to a child, how do you do it? I don't think it was such a bad choice: if you're a kid, fully and innocently, and your big sister leaves you to go be pretty, of course that's going to mess with your world. ...Like, it never occurred to me to think it harsh that they didn't try to go and win her back, but I didn't interpret it as being shut out of heaven, good gracious.
I mean, I read all the books in ninth grade, old enough to pick faults in them, and I never felt slighted. Perhaps this's because I tend to assume males and females are equal unless given blatant cause to think otherwise: I've never been a good feminist reader because I don't remember having it any harder because I was a girl. Sure, cutting your hair short is not always the wisest move, but I got the same criticism that long-haired boys used to get: accusation of looking like the other sex. They don't scold boys because it's an insult to look like a girl, do they? Looks to me like the scorn comes from violating the norm, confusing the gender roles, period. If there were a third gender, I don't think people would be any more comfortable with anybody looking like anybody else.
Anyway, that's my rant, and I'm late for my APO thingy.
-Laurel