Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
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2:31 pm - <3
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I'm almost done with my big 25pager on Allied occupational military government control of the film industry in post-WWII Germany. Yipee. Perhaps less a trainwreck than anticipated.
My roommate said she wants to do a film noir marathon once classes are over. YES! Can you believe it? I didn't even suggest it. She said she'd taken a film noir class back in the day at Berkeley and really enjoyed what she saw. I said that I'd really like to watch some blaxploitation films too (haven't seen any), and she thought that was also a good idea. So, a film noir/blaxploitation fest to come to our apartment in the near future, yaaaay.
I love when my life is filled with interesting people who enjoy interesting things.
I, hopefully not erronously, volunteered myself to put together an volunteer program for the history grad association - a little speakers bureau to go out to local public schools and give (grade appropriate/curriculum linked) talks on topics they are experts on. A lot of the grad association folks are tutors and former teachers and the idea was received with enthusiasm, so I hope I can make the idea a reality!
On a not-as-cheerful note, I really miss Mr. H, who has been dating his work as of late. It's great to have all those hours to clock in (can you say $$$?), but I'm also looking forward to seeing him more often again.
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Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
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11:33 am - Bubbles.
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Write a few pages.
Watch a Tudors episode.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Week of craptastic failure craptastically continued, though I did have a great time at Cecilia's birthday. She was doused in champagne. Hilarious.
And I'm about 16 pages in to my 25 pager. Time to make magic happen this afternoon! I'm ready to get this sucker ready to go and printed for class tomorrow. And then on to the next essay.
I will enjoy writing more after I've had some ramen in a styrofoam (sry environment) cup. So off to boil some water.
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Thursday, November 19th, 2009
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8:28 pm - Pfffffft.
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Craptastic. Shiteriffic. Ah, yes, a large proportion of my day. Bonuses though that perked it up: Overland Cafe with #1, finally meeting with a financial person from school who says (though I don't entirely believe it) that stipend checks will be in the mail tomorrow, a good class in the evening, and an internship at the Autry in my future!
I suppose that actually sounds pretty Fantastic. Terrific. Now please erase my first Los Angeles parking ticket (priced at a $60 I will be paying with school loan money, as what I saved up from work is now officially kaput - and I was stressed over the $1.55 the vending machine ate on Tuesday, hah). And also please erase the health insurance confusion that is making me worried I will never get to solve the problem I have at the moment unless I pay full price.
There's hope on the health insurance confusion at least. Now time to bang out 10 pages for an essay due Monday (that will probably come to 25 or so when its finished). I do enjoy my life, I just need to stop pretending I have the finances of an employed person. I'm a terrible poor person. Can I be fired from unemployment?
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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11:55 am - Casualty 1900s
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OMGoodness. I have completely fallen in love with Casualty 1907. I am super bummed that I can't find Casualty 1906 or 1909 online anywhere. Hospital dramas are generally overplayed nowadays, but no one has really tackled a series surrounding a hospital set in the past before. I love that the characters and patients are based off of actual recorded cases from the London Hospital Archives. How neat is that?
All this new fangirling has reminded me how much I miss being a fangirl and how awesome British television is.
I actually finished a paper due today in a timely manner, and have even started on the paper due next Monday, so I think I'm going to take a break and watch some tv online.
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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12:47 pm - On Fashion.
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I'm trying (for the millionth time) to do one of those what-I-wore-today photo things. I have learned not to take pictures directly in front of the window, as this happens:
( More here )
One day I will smile. One day my hair won't be fresh from the shower wet. And one day my room will be cleaned and fully moved in.
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11:58 am - M. R. Beard.
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Mary Ritter Beard is my new hero. She went to college at the end of the 19th century, graduated from undergrad, got married, had a kid, *still* went to grad school after having a kid in 1901. None of that historical woman is awesome til' she gets kids and then gives up everything she's interested in to be "wife and mother." None of that bs. She co-authored history textbooks with her husband, but was also independently involved in the early 20th century women's suffrage movement and published several books in her own right on labor and women in history. She left grad school after two years as she was disillusioned with the way women were treated. She believed both men and women should be educated alike; that women should be given the same respect as men, but at the same time that women should not aspire to become just like men. She believed that both sexes are equally flawed. Women shouldn't be seen as victims and oppressed, but agents in their own right. Though she did also acknowledge that most women of her time did not have the self-confidence in themselves to believe that they were just as important agents of history and the present (and this is reflected in the failure of many of her projects to gain enough support to be sustained - a world center of archives on women, an encyclopedia of women, criticisms and recommendations regarding Encyclopaedia Britannica entries).
Granted, she was born into a well off middle class family that enabled her to go to college during this period and to spend time writing and researching and planning. But she didn't have her head in the clouds. She was very involved in labor movements of the time and heavily criticized middle class reformers that invested time and money in teaching poor/working class women how they should raise their families without the reformers acknowledging the issues that working class women faced on a daily basis (poverty, hunger, long working hours) as the actual culprits, rather than some moral shortcoming.
Oh man, I could go on and on. Lovelovelove her.
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Monday, November 9th, 2009
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6:23 pm - Goodtimes.
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Does it make me a weirdo to enjoy dressing in a decade and then listening to the music from the decade? You know, 1950s dresses and 50s music? Or like this moment - 1970s ski attire and Linda Rondstadt. My roommate said: "Yes! Turn it up!" and also agreed it was a good idea to risk douchebagginess by wearing big gold sunglasses to our nighttime history association meeting. hah I'll save the shades for another day.
Our housewarming couldn't have gone better! I was really jazzed by everyone who showed up! So many people brought alcohol that the apartment is still swimming! And now, courtesy of Jason, the apartment is no longer bereft of super glue! I'm so pleased and happy with everyone and how things played out, that I think its impossible to not put an exclamation mark at the end of any sentence in this paragraph!
: D
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Friday, November 6th, 2009
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10:59 pm - Less W, More P.
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My new mission in life: less worry, more productivity.
I like my new abode.
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Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
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10:09 pm - Archive Papers.
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1 paper down (minus proofing/refining tomorrow morning). Now I need my second wind! Wind, where are you? Let's talk some more about archives.
I feel a renewed desire to study this week. I can feel the pull of the closing semester, so a renewal of motivation has good timing.
Now if only I could get this paper done. It doesn't require citations - it's an analysis/critique of an archive I toured. I found my groove for the first paper while listening to Pitbull Pandora radio. Writing this second archive critique seems to require something a little less clubby though.
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4:26 pm - Guilt.
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My 3rd roommate keeps watching me while I work, looking at me with (literal) puppy dog eyes. I can't handle the miserable look! It is crumbling me and making me feel guilty.
So I close the door.
Hopefully he doesn't have to go outside to poop anytime soon. It's a sticky position to be in. My roommate is gone a lot during the day at work, leaving me at home alone with Cujo. I know it's not his fault that he's stuck home, so I don't want to be mean to him and ignore him, but I've got stuff to get done! I don't have a dog for a reason - they require a lot of attention that I just can't provide at this point in my life. I played with him earlier, petted him occasionally. But I need to focus on two papers and not have the distraction of someone staring at me - T-minus 24 hours til' turn in time. 5-10 pages a pop, and I have my notes all typed up in the outline, so it's just connecting the dots at this point, but focus is still necessary.
Back to work (sorry Cujo).
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009
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11:45 pm - Happy.
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I'm at a good place in life. It feels nice to be happy.
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3:59 pm - So far so good. But tired.
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Well, I'm finally all moved in. There is a refrigerator in the living room, as my old apartment's fridge that Hector and his brothers brought up from the old apartment is too big to fit through the kitchen door frame. I hadn't even thought that would be an issue, though I suppose the place was probably built back in the icebox days and not constructed with doorways that are big enough for giant modern fridges to fit through. It looks like the fridge will fit with the doors taken off, but I've only managed 2 for 3 on screw removal, and 0 for 3 on bolt removal. I'd really like to get this done so I can cook and put leftovers in the fridge and have a cold drink now and then.
I've got two papers to finish by Thursday, though other than that I think I'm doing okay. Keeping down panic levels is good.
My room is still pretty messy though. The only furniture in my room is a 5-shelf bookshelf from IKEA, Hector's old twin mattress, and two bar stools that formerly belonged to my old college friend and roommate. I've got a desk coming though! Hopefully it'll get here sooner rather than later so I can start putting together the particle board special. I also need to put up curtains so I can stop being an exhibitionist. It's a work in progress.
Once I make some headway into school papers I think I can finally have a life outside of moving and academia, hooray!
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Sunday, October 25th, 2009
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12:42 am - Yaaaaaaaaawn.
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CCPH Conference = success.
I'm alive, yaaaaaay.
Now I'm going to sleep, yaaaaaay.
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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
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7:55 pm - Rain....bow.
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Smithsonian American History Museum, Washington D.C.
Gee, I feel like a real person!
A real tired person, but overall, a real person.
Vintage 1930s-1940s-era apartment. Me. Roommate. Lease. Signing. Tomorrow. YES.
I can't wait to decorate. Effective immediately (provided nothing happens last minute) I will stop talking about finding an apartment and start talking about decor. YES.
I'm hoping once November comes I can stop being such a crazy shut-in, and actually socialize beyond facebook exchanges on a regular basis again.
I want more gold in my wardrobe.
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Monday, October 19th, 2009
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8:00 pm - Whoosh - that is the sound of time flying by.
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The whirlwind of October continues! So much to do for school I shouldn't even open livejournal or facebook (I've gotta vent somewhere though!).
The Archives Bazaar on Saturday at USC was great. I really loved a talk I listened to on finding unusual clues in old photographs to help with identification. The panel on histories of minority communities in LA was a little disappointing, but by no means bad either. I recognized quite a few faces at the event, which was great - I'm getting to know the LA Archival community!
Looks like I may be living in a 2 bed/2 bath with one of my CSUN classmates! Very exciting - I really hope it works out. We're going to look for apartments this week (my fingers are crossed big time! If I can get a place secured this week I think I can finally relax a bit. Less than two weeks until move-out day now, yikes.) As we're both history graduate students I already envision that combined we'll have the best history library of books, haha. <----- (proudly) revealing my nerddom
Aside from that, I may be presenting at a conference in Houston, TX in March. Gotta get the details ironed out for my American film censorship in Germany 1945-1949 paper. I'm going to the Academy's Margaret Herrick library next week for some more research - I'm interested to see what turns up. I used the library for my undergrad thesis, though this time I'll be using manuscripts from the special collections in addition to microfilm resources.
Monterey on Friday and Saturday. I'm looking forward to relaxing and focusing on paper writing in November! I love all the travel and archive/conference visiting, but I think it's time for me to get down to writing business (in sweat pants, at home, with warm drink in hand - ahhhh, yes).
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Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
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9:16 pm - Yeehaw.
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I hope the ride can last. If not, it's been a fun one.
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Monday, October 12th, 2009
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8:06 pm - Woodley Park/Adams Morgan makes me swoon.
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My body needs a tune up. (/lots of doctor trips, not in the get-fit sense) I have too many broken and not properly functioning things for my age.
I saw another rat in DC today (in the touristy Capitol area)! I get excited about things like this. I also fell in love with the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan area. I want to live here when I grow up, hah.
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Sunday, October 11th, 2009
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10:43 pm - Day 1.5
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Must go to sleep....almost 2am.....but looking up classes for next semester! Must get add codes before they run out......zzzzzzzzz.
Going to a history museum with history people is pretty awesome. Seriously, a trip highlight only trumped by the AWESOME AMAZING miles long gay rights parade I watched and then joined. It is super powerful to march in such a huge positive crowd all the way to the Capitol building. Warm fuzzies for sure. Pictures forthcoming (I left my camera->laptop cable at home).
Now the business starts early tomorrow morning. Library of Congress, here I come!
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Saturday, October 10th, 2009
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6:17 pm - DC.
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DC. DCDCDC. Made it. Now on a somewhat weak internet signal. Going out for some drinkin' in a little bit. Gotta get ready. DCDC!
There are a lot of trees over here. Flying in for the landing gave a gooooorgeous view of tree lined parcels of land surrounded by forests. The highway was bordered by trees. There is the beauuuutiful Potomac River. I love East Coast rivers. Windy strands of blue-green-brown ribbon. Sigh. Happy sigh.
I have tomorrow until 7pm to cavort around, and then the business starts. Let's get busy!
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Friday, October 9th, 2009
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8:39 pm - Trip.
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Eeeeee! Scrambling around and packing and last minute research and reading. Realizing the things I've forgotten to do. Exciting! Nervous! In general loving it all.
Be back in a few days.
Love love love you, you know who you are. : D
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historicmouse's journal
