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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Lawrence has sunk into a gray drizzly pseudo-freeze, and midterms/fall break are next week, which means I've been feeling the nesting urge. Since I have to be inside, of course I want things to be clean and welcoming--something both of our schedules rarely allow us to maintain. But! We have made a resolution! Our house will stay looking like a house, and not like a dorm (read=trash pit)!

I have a lovely little computer desk I pulled off the student-moving-out-trash from the back alley when I moved in the house, and although it's in sturdy condition, the paint is definitely worse for wear. It's white, which makes it doubly susceptible to dirt that's easy to see. I bought the prettiest shade of Krylon to paint it with, and I meant to get it done today, but it's too cold out for the paint to adhere well :/ Here is the color on said desk:

Michael's was having a sale on scrapbook frames yesterday, so I picked one up for five bucks and switched the three LOs over my loveseat into a square, which everyone readily agrees looks better, although I'm not sure why; I thought the other way looked fine. (The vaguely crooked pictures are a result of trying to match plastic hooks with the frame holders, not my general inability to do anything neatly).

We also replaced the shower curtains, which were just liners and in a state of putridity, with fresh, mold-proof liners. I decided the bathroom needed a little color and bought the most adorable shower curtain and hooks from Target:

I found a psychedelic little piece of fabric mounted on a frame at a yardsale, and although I bought impulsively, I didn't know what to do with it, and it just hung out awkwardly in the library. I decided to hang it on the library wall next to my desk, and use it as an inspiration display, where I mainly just hang things I like. I stapled some twine to the frame (tenuously; I need better securers) and then used tiny craft clothespins to hang some cool old pics I've had forever and my favorite recents LOs.

Finally, I bought a few Halloween decorations to make my mantle and front door festive. I then discovered how very much Halloween decorations were and cut my purchase in half, sadly :( (Sorry for the blurriness; we lost our real camera at the Renn Faire a couple weeks ago and have to rely on the iphone for right now)

So, that's decorating.

I went to a Gwar/Lamb of God show with my officemate Jennifer Thursday night--you don't know how long I've been waiting to have a friend who would want to go to crap like this with me--and, although we missed Gwar and thus didn't get shot full of blood, LoG put on a great show.

I shoved lots of big guys around and screamed my head off and had a generally good time. I did get caught in a wall of death (which was AWESOME), and Jennifer's head slammed into mine, bending my glasses and giving me a brvtal, tiny bruise on my eyebrow. Can't wait to scrapbook my metal bruises, ha!

Ok, back to Sybil and modal auxiliaries. Hopefully I'll be able to do some new Studio Calico LOs this weekend--I just ordered my first kit, whee! Raphael says bye :)

Labels: concert, home decor

Posted by stochastic :: 1:19 PM :: 3 Comments:

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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Hi again

Ok, regular posting again. And this time, I extra mean it.

I'm in the midst of my last year getting my master's degree (al! freaking! ready!) and lately it's been weighing on my mind. It's not as if I'll have difficulty finding a job that pays more than I make for the year I'm taking off while Nick finishes his degree--frankly, working full time at Burger King, I noticed, makes more than I do as a GTA--but, that after that year, I don't have the direction that I ordinarily have had. I'm stuck, ya'll. As I see it, I have three options:

1. Get my PhD in literature. Honestly, this one is last on the list right now. I at first disowned the idea after my first year of grad school ended in some seminars I really struggled with, but since then, I've felt distanced from academia and all of the ridiculous hoops I'd have to jump through to get a job. My friends, who are largely in their PhD programs, are all panicking about what they need to do to get hired--at least, I think they are, since they're buried up to their necks in Henry James so they can "have a wider teaching load." I understand the economy is not being very polite to its citizenry at this point, but frankly, I think the tenure system is sort of an outmoded thing and I'd rather not have to bust people's heads and ignore my husband and hypothetical children to keep a job.

2. Get my PhD in Library Science (or MLIS, if I can't get into schools because of my English MA). This one feels the most likely, and my experience in libraries has really made me feel at home here. Plus, my insatiable desire for books has been quelled a bit since I've started working in them; after all, those are my libraries now, aren't they? There are lots of job opportunities that fascinate me that I feel I'm more than qualified for, but unfortunately opportunity 3 has made me rethink this choice, and that is...

3. ...to give day jobs the bird and really dedicate myself to my writing. Obviously one can both have a day job and a writing career, particularly when one is starting out, but this doesn't help me practically make decisions at this point. There is a thriving SF community here in Lawrence, and I've made a ton of friends, and my writing output has shot up exponentially since I've joined such a supportive group, both in terms of sheer word output and in terms of quality. Hell, a week ago, I just spent all night talking to China Mieville, one of my favorite writers, all night long at a bar! With jokes! And hugs! And email addresses! I could be a part of this! But what a gamble it is. I've not been out of school for a very, very long time, and aligning myself with the SF community--which I've received numerous invitations to do--is, for the most part, not scholarly. Potentially I could get my PhD with an emphasis in SF, like my friend Chris and Nate have, but James Gunn, the professor/grandmaster of SF that works here, is only 2396512056 years old, so I don't know if there'll even be an opportunity to do it, should I want to.

Oh, well. Anyone who reads this blog will likely have heard me talk about it before, but I just wanted to get it out there.

Dream Theater's Black Clouds and Silver Linings, which I had put away since its release in June, is back on my playlist with a vengeance--my God this thing is so much better than I first thought. Also, Redemption's new album has made me relisten to The Origins of Ruin more closely, and I'm so head over heels from them. I saw them live, but they opened for DT, and I essentially wanted them to play their silly setlist so I could see Petrucci's arms in real life. I have an aural crush on them now, and not just because Ray Alder sort of looks like a young Admiral Adama :)

Oh, here are a couple blurry pictures of Mr. Clean--er, China Mieville--himself, for the 0000 people who are curious. I didn't get any pictures of us hanging out because I wanted to act totally cool around him, sadly. So here he is doing a reading from his new book The City & the City.

Labels: life choices

Posted by stochastic :: 1:18 PM :: 3 Comments:

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