DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT OBSESSED WITH MY DOG.

Saturday, October 29, 2005


World of Warcraft orphan. Please help.

      >> 6:23 AM
 

Saturday, October 15, 2005

I just submitted a presentation propsal on World of Warcraft for the Cultural Studies Association conference. It's a presentation about social dynamics in the game as a reflection of or an alternative to democratic participation. It'd be so cool if the paper gets accepted, but I reallly doubt I made an argument that is actually interesting rather than simply revealing of myself as a WoW geek-fan. I particularly like the title I gave it: "Gnomes Rule!"

Obviously the next conference proposal I need to send out is one about dogs.

      >> 10:56 PM
 

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Whoah. I was apparenly exhausted yesterday. When I got back from dropping my friend off at the airport around 6:30, I pretty much fell asleep, fully clothed, will all the lights and tv on. I also ended up not doing any of the work I planned to do after dinner.

Which means today will be jam-packed full of fun and work!

Woo!

      >> 7:41 AM
 

Tuesday, October 11, 2005


Giles played with Xander at the dog park today.

      >> 6:24 PM
 

Holy argh.

I'm on my fifth version of a generic job letter. I haven't even gotten to the point of customizing the letter for each position. I can't quite get the thing to the point where I'm satisfied with what I say, though. I've literally re-written, in whole, this thing many times over. I think I'm finally getting some paragraphs right, though. The paragraph on "other research" (beyond the dissertation) and on teaching are still suck-tastic, though. I gotta get this stuff done, though, so I can start sending letters and other application material out tomorrow. I don't want to leave things off until the postmark deadline (October 15, in many cases).

I feel like I can see the end of the tunnel, though. Like, I might be able to get this letter to a satisfactory point tonight! And then it will just be a matter of making small changes for individual schools.

I made the mistake today of going over student evaluations for my courses again. Gosh, my students totally hate me. :( Well, they definitely hate me in the composition courses. They seem to like me in my literature and other courses. I guess that's at least somewhat heartening. But given that I've taught nine composition courses, seeing all those unhappy comments is still depressing.

I'll be very happy when October is over. That's when I'll have sent all this preliminary material out and will just be waiting, waiting, waiting for responses.

      >> 3:49 PM
 

Monday, October 10, 2005

/cry

      >> 12:51 PM
 

Sunday, October 09, 2005


Itch, itch, itch.



Ribbit-woof.

      >> 2:20 PM
 

Saturday, October 08, 2005





      >> 10:36 AM
 

Friday, October 07, 2005

The audience at my conference panel today got an unexpected treat of seeing Giles on screen. We were using my computer to project our slide presentations, and one panelist accidentally activated the Exposé feature, revealing my desktop picture of Giles. Yay!


      >> 4:26 PM
 

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Giles got to say hello to the mailman just now. It made them both very happy. The mailman always flags me down when he sees me walking Giles. I think I'm the only person in the entire apartment complex with an Asian last name.

      >> 11:42 AM
 

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Take a look at these [really cool trailers] of well-known movies.

      >> 5:55 PM
 

Bad dog owners suck.

Gargh!!! I wanted to kick this one dog so much at the dog park today. I wanted to kick the owner, too. For forty-five minutes, this dog kept following Giles around and mounting him, even though Giles kept snapping at him and wrestling him down. While sometimes dogs do like to wrestle, this was clearly NOT one of those times with Giles. He bared his teeth and everything. But the dog kept following him around and interrupting his play with other dogs. Meanwhile, the dog's owner never once did anything to stop, distract, or otherwise address the whole debacle. She didn't even notice, sitting at a bench telling her life story to some of the other dog owners.

I was so sad Giles didn't end up having much fun at the dog park. I always pull Giles off dogs or take him to a different part of the park when he is hounding another dog who doesn't want to play. And sometimes I have to pull him off a dog more than once, but at least I'm doing something. I mean, I understand the importance of letting dogs work things out themselves (the whole dog socialization thing), but sometimes you just have to mind what your dog is doing in the park. And some owners are just not as comfortable with having their dogs play rough or having them mounting other dogs. And really, you're supposed to respect that at the dog park. It is a public place, but it's not a free-for-all. I should totally kick the dog next time. Punt it across the park.

The other dog owners standing around actively paying attention to what their dogs were doing expressed some dismay at the whole situation. I mean, it was not pretty. Giles was clearly pissed off and not happy with the other dog. I kept wishing he would just lose it and fucking draw blood, though of course that would've been really bad.

Next time I'm at the park and the same thing happens with this stupid dog, who looks like a beagle beat with an ugly stick, I am so going to take off its tags and let it out of the park. The owner wouldn't notice until she got up to leave an hour later because she totally doesn't pay any attention to where her dog is and what it's doing. That's probably totally ethically and morally and every-which-way wrong, but I don't care. Grrrr.

      >> 5:25 PM
 

Part of my procrastination this weekend, I think, will include making a new banner for this web site:


Hmmm. This looks more like an octopus than a squid....

      >> 9:03 AM