The View From Kalamazoo

Ordered, received, watched the fucking hilarious Binder indie The Search for John Gissing.

Excellent reviews from important critic-types all agreeing that it is, indeed, fucking hilarious. In addition to people that matter, I can tell you I have not laughed that hard nor much in a long while (certainly not since the last time someone at the Institute started a sentence with ‘If you have time, could you…’) — as in had to stop drinking beverage for fear of…well, you know. Snerk. SRSLY.

Otherwise…I am (cue scary movie soundtrack) taking a few days of annual leave. If the earth stops spinning, please don’t call me! I mean it!. Not that it’s keeping me from having to go in tomorrow to enter payroll (mmmm…payyyyrollll. DOH!) Other good news: have not yet been talked into giving a paper again this Congress, I’m holding firm. Not. This. Year. I need to begin stalking participants for my session on blogging, however. Oh, and post links and respond to all of the blogs I’ve been following but not commenting in, and everything else a dewy-eyed independent whazzit should be doing. Er, yeah. Hey! This kiln load (as we were loading Tuesday and I still taste the wadding. ugh) we are using soda instead of salt – nod and smile, I promise to stop talking pottery now.

Finally! left B&N at 1:30 a.m. yesterday (after an 8:00 p.m. arrival, I’m not crazy!) with book and child.

Child looked adorable (I made her a butterbeer-cork necklace to go with her Quibbler prop) and very Luna-like. The girls were giggly and giddy and goofy. There were lines to stand in (and stand in, and how long have we been standing in this @#*&%! line?), lame (really lame) games for them to play, and once we were wrist-banded and numbered we (the girls and I and the other Mom and her Sis) cut it across the parking lot for Bilbo’s bread sticks and mixed drinks (and Sprite, obviously). And laptop showing Prisoner of Azkaban (we started in the B&N Starbucks, but it was crowded, loud, and neither girl reads well enough to watch the movie with subtitles alone). Around 11:00 p.m. we wandered back to the store, which was even more, unbelievably, packed than it had been when we left. Herded like cattle (moo), and ended up settling the girls under a display table to wait for midnight…they weren’t underfoot, could peer out at some of the costumes (some were really well done, others not so much. lots of muggles, of course…) and as we waited and waited some more for our number to come up (so we could stand in another line!) they lay their heads down and chilled out.

I waited to start reading (being old and needing sleep), and had many parenting-type interruptions (the kids wanted to be fed at regular intervals – can you believe it?!?), but managed to finish all 759 pages last night anyway. With a slight headache from eyestrain. LOL

No spoilers here. I’ve started commenting a bit on my lj because it has a cut feature, and have left them public entries, so if you’re looking for somewhere to chat about things (or if you’ve not read it but are desperate for spoilers for some nutty reason) you’re welcome to come visit.

[nerd] Yes, I did dress up – sort of. I went lazy and wore my MA graduation robes (with those ridiculous sleeves!) over jeans and a t-shirt I made for the occasion. Ink jet iron-on transfer paper and Photoshop are my friends. The design came from offhand online conversations with friends about our age and the presence of a lot of youth at the release parties (that eventually devolved into wicked comments I’ll not share here). So I pulled images from the web and made graphics of many of the adult characters for aforementioned friends, turning one into my Potterwear for the evening: a really fantastic photo of Rickman as Snape in a dark dungeon (very Diego Velazquez) over which I disclosed, in bright green print, that I am ‘Old enough to date Severus Snape’. Bwahahahaha. Lots of amused comments about it at the bookstore from other older-and-female Potter readers. [/nerd]

Did take Emma to OoTp. I won’t go all review on you, but WTF was up with the editing? Actors very good (given the strength of the adults alone, especially those playing the Hogwarts staffers, they could reenact an episode of Romper Room and get standing ovations, yea?), effects as much eye-candy as ever…but the editing was odd – choppy, seemed almost haphazard. Meh.

Emma’s best buddy is moving down to hurricane and ‘gator country in a few days.
Tonight is the last release party for the HP series. You know where I’m going with this.
So, yes, I will be taking two giggly girls to the bookstore tonight. Yes, I am certifiable, but I think that’s been demonstrated quite clearly before now.

This is last-minute. Again, lacking with the surprises, that is.
And it means….costumes. Do I seem like the dress-up type to you? No? Well, then, you’re paying attention.

Emma…I think I can pull off a quick Luna for her. Artsy, mismatched clothing? Check. Some bizarre jewelry choices? I can manage something. Quibbler? I have located a pdf online of a ‘cover’ and will be printing it to affix to a mag for some fancy prop action. Long blonde hair? Yep (although it would have been even better had I not gotten her a trim recently, as it was rather unkempt-looking). Vacant look? Already present, at least most of the time. *sigh* The wand tucked behind the ear, tho…have to think on that one. Gah.

Me? See the comment above about not playing dress-up. I can, grudgingly, probably come up with enough bohemian schlock to manage Trelawney, complete with divination class props. Or maybe I’ll just pull out graduation robes and go path-of-least-resistance since I think I’ll get The Look from our little group should I go 100% muggle. The things I get myself into…but hey, it’s not as bad as agreeing to giving yet another paper during a year I know very flipping well I haven’t the time to do that and produce all necessary miracles for the Congress!

Speaking of Congress – I need to slip the Dj some Primus, Kalamazoo has gotta make an appearance. Seriously.

I want to go see OOTP. Now.
As in, taking the afternoon off work sounds like a fine idea. *grumblesnarl*

Helped loan kiln last night. Nothing of mine in, tho, as I still need to dremel the last two pieces, since they (like nearly everything in the last load) suffered when so much of the wadding exploded and they have chunks stuck in the glaze. Bring the temp up slowly kiddies, candle that sucker for a while and don’t be impatient.
gah.
I have 6 mugs and a couple of porcelain pieces to glaze. And Thursday is the last day for fresh clay, so I should, really, spend my lunch tomorrow at a wheel.

And clearly I’m not blogging much. I’ve been reading others and thinking about a lot of things, but I’ve really not moved to jump into the discussions. Yet. Or not.

I do not like Thomas Hardy.

I had BritLit.

I had to read The Mayor of Casterbridge…there is a reason why I’m a medievalist. 19th cen. Naturalists don’t do it for me anywhere near like a lovely set of kennings. Really. (Yes, I know, I should have been an Anglo-Saxonist – I’ve heard it before..sod off)

I must, must own this audiobook.

One voice in the world sends my eyes rolling back in my head as I swoon.

One.

OMFG.

In other news, I have discovered that listening to the Squirrel Nut Zippers at work makes me file like a maniac. Anything that can make filing happen is a good thing, this place is like a paper Hell’s Maw yawning, open and ready to swallow me in one gulp.

You know, it occurred to me that I never posted about the blogging session this year. Bad me.

It was, by design, a mix of different opinions of using blogging (and, in addition, course management software with blogging-like bits since online teaching is growing more common) in teaching and from different levels of experience. This meant that it was a pretty large panel, but it went well, there were many very interesting things discussed, and the idea for next year’s blogging session was one of the topics that threaded through the session.

And so, next year. The thought I had, and tossed at my most excellent co-organizer (the unflappable Shana Worthen), was that this could consist of short presentations with a lot of time for jackjawing and questions (a departure from the roundtable, but without missing the best benefits of the discussion). I need to begin contacting folks – if you have names to suggest or you fit the bill please contact me, I don’t assume to know everything out there and who is doing it (really, even if the retired Director called me Madame Lisa Who Knows All – I don’t. I promise.)

Weblogs and the Academy: Professional and Community Outreach through Internet Presence

The blogger meetup was an enjoyable way to start a morning (seriously, as if I would have anything good to say about the early morning!) and there was so many people that we were scrambling for space. Another hearty Yay – I don’t network with any skill whatsoever, so I really enjoy these relaxed events.

Otherwise – I have a lot to say about the fun of interim years and searches, but I won’t. I would have to take some Tylenol just thinking about it, actually.

I’m considering adding ‘the long suffering’ to my business cards…

So I’m back working in the studio – loading the salt kiln, unloading, bitching about exploding wadding, dremeling out the crap that ended up fused to the glaze in my bowls when wadding went ka-blooey in the too-quickly-brought-up kiln, and then putting the pieces in again. Wash, rinse, repeat. And I call this my ‘sane time’…I’m certifiable, clearly.

Saner still was leaving the madness behind for a near-week and wandering my way down to visit a friend, road trip with her to attend the wedding of another medievalist, visit my sister and fam, and generally attempt relaxing around adults and the random and often amusing discussion that goes with that. Nice change from my regular role as harridan. Good beer, good friends, good conversation, good food…even decent weather through most of it. A thing of beauty to behold. I think eventually my shoulders relaxed despite the many, many hours car-bound. They’re re-knotting, now, but I swear they did relax.

And now…back to the chore of digging-out the desk.