Kate

antikate @ 2009-11-03T11:21:00

2009-11-03T16:23:05Z

One of my modern drama students sent me this, and it is officially the most awesome thing I have ever seen. It's too bad this is my last semester teaching modern drama, because I would totally use this in class again and again.

antikate @ 2009-08-28T23:02:00

2009-08-29T03:17:04Z

I can haz a new baby Foreman Grill! (Which, incidentally, Newton is currently trying to eat the box to.) It's so shiny! And it cooks my meat so nicely! Seriously, this is, like, the perfect tool for lazy carnivores, and I'm amazed I took this long to get one. Its inaugural meal was a marinated petite beef shoulder from Wegmans. I had to defrost it in the microwave since I hadn't planned ahead, but even with that it came out cooked perfectly medium rare. (I have had to tear Newton away from the box before he destroyed it entirely and have provided him with a more kitty-appropriate toy. Pye looks on, fascinated.) I have more beef in the freezer, as well as a pair of marinated chicken breats from Wegmans, and a tuna steak. My grill will be a well-loved grill.

Classes don't officially start until Monday, but I'm teaching a freshman seminar this year and those had their first meeting this morning. So bright-eyed! So bushy-tailed! They seem to be a lively bunch, and hopefully I can get them to stay that way. The afternoon was spent in advising, and I was wiped out at the end of it.

Anyway, it's raining and chilly because fall is coming to the frozen tundra, and the cats are somewhere between playing and trying to kill each other, and it's time for me to go to bed. G'night.

Public Service Announcement

2009-08-25T19:01:05Z

Kate would like you all to know that she is valiantly refraining from starting feminist snark-fests in other people's livejournals.

And, yes, I do think I deserve a cookie for this.

antikate @ 2009-01-21T23:13:00

2009-01-22T04:21:39Z

How is it that kitties know when you need them to act like big sillyballs while playing with a plastic milk ring or come lay on you until your arm falls asleep or make that little chirping noise in your general direction just to let you know they're there?

The first week of classes is always so much more tiring than a normal week - I'm not sure why. But I'm basically through with this one. Done with classes for the week (hooray for the Monday/Wednesday schedule), and tonight was the last night of auditions, so all I've got to get through is tomorrow's callbacks. It's also that time of the month, which doesn't help with the general tiredness.

My eyes, well, specifically my right eye has been getting dreadfully irritated if I wear my contacts too long, which never used to happen. I took a two week break from wearing contacts to see if that would help give it a chance to recover, but it's back to being red and sore tonight. I'll wear glasses for the foreseeable future and give my uncle the opthamologist a call and see what he has to say (which I expect will be, "wear your glasses").

In other news: President Obama.

antikate @ 2009-01-20T13:13:00

2009-01-20T18:15:15Z

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

President Barack Hussein Obama. That's not going to get old anytime soon.

Also, Rev. Lowery is my new favorite Reverend.

antikate @ 2008-11-03T20:49:00

2008-11-04T01:51:27Z

I ran FOUR MILES today! In 46 minutes! (On the treadmill, but still...)

Now dinner, rereading some Genet, and grading.

antikate @ 2008-09-15T17:06:00

2008-09-15T21:08:10Z

Can I have this embroidered on a pillow or something?

"You must be proud, bold, pleasant, resolute,
And now and then, stab, as occasion serves."

Oh Christopher Marlowe, how I love you.

antikate @ 2008-08-30T23:46:00

2008-08-31T04:00:07Z

A Kate, her cat, and her Kindle. Does an evening get any better than that?

The cat has been snuggled up half on me, half next to me for a couple of hours now, while I've been reading and internetting. For some reason, she much prefers snuggling with me on the chaise (where there's far less room) to snuggling on the couch, so when I actually clean off the chaise and make it sittable I get a lot more kitty time. This is something to remember. (Of course now that I have noticed this, cat rules demand an arbitrary change.)

Reading a novel on the Kindle this afternoon, I decided I wasn't taking full advantage of its awesome powers. I needed more books in my electronic library. So I put the complete works of Shakespeare on there (for $5). Also the complete works of Jane Austen (also $5). And a couple other novels. Now I feel more like I'm starting to have a library on it. And, yes, I've already realized how very, very deep in trouble I am.

I'm feeling ambivalent about the semester starting. (Technically at the moment I'm just feeling tired.) On the happier side, I am looking forward to classes starting. I'm excited about the classes I'm teaching this semester, and I'm really happy about the plays we'll be reading. On the not so happy side, the start of the semester means I can no longer put off a) getting back to work on the dissertation (which has been on hold during August due to a conference, a vacation, articles that I'm getting paid for, and syllabi writing) and b) starting the job hunt. Oh, how I loathe the job hunt. But I have one more day - even if that day is mostly taken up with photocopying syllabi, doing laundry, and the like - and then it will be back into the fray.

So for now I'll go back to enjoying my snuggly cat and shiny Kindle. G'night all!

antikate @ 2008-08-28T19:00:00

2008-08-28T23:07:41Z

I'm being all kinds of distracto-Kate tonight. I have syllabi that I really need to finish writing, but I can only manage to concentrate on them for short bursts of time and whenever I try to contemplate changing around assignments or creating new ones, my brain goes, "hey, look over there!" I think this is because I am in denial that the semester starts on Monday.

To be fair, I also have one other, extremely shiny kind of distraction. I GOT A KINDLE!!! It's so pretty and booklike and gadgety! And we don't have the wireless whispernet here in the frozen tundra, which is good, in that it prevents me spending all of my time and money on the magical instant gratification of Kindle books, and bad, in that I don't get the magical instant gratification. My gratification is delayed by at least 30 seconds - the time it takes me to download the book from Amazon onto my computer and put it onto the Kindle with a USB connection. I have exercised remarkable restraint and only bought three new books. I also sent off a document (a play that I'm teaching this fall that I have as a word doc) to be converted to a Kindle file and then downloaded it as well. My new toy is the best!

Anyway, I should probably eat something, as that may be contributing to the distraction, and maybe start setting up Blackboard pages for the classes that will need them.

antikate @ 2008-07-20T23:49:00

2008-07-21T04:06:03Z

I realize I'm probably far behind the curve on this one, but I only just this weekend discovered the extreme level of awesome that is Nellie McKay. (Through a post on I Blame the Patriarchy no less. [Note: this link is not for amateur blamers of the patriarchy.]) I can't describe her sound - some jazz, some folk, some of that classic mid-century sound, even some rap - and her lyrics are genius. The song that hooked me, of course, was the one linked on the post, "Mother of Pearl" which begins with the line "Feminists don't have a sense of humor." Now I've got her first (double cd) album, and I'm about to buy her latest (which actually has "Mother of Pearl" on it), and I'm annoyed that iTunes doesn't appear to have her second album.

It's been an iTunes kinda weekend, since I also downloaded Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog from there, after watching it online. (It might not be available online anymore - I forget how long it's staying up. But totally worth the $3.99 through iTunes. And later there will be a dvd with MUSICAL COMMENTARY. COMMENTARY THAT IS A MUSICAL.)

I'm in one of those weird moods this weekend, watching old favorite movies (Philadelphia Story and Dirty Dancing) and random episodes of new and old television and feeling oddly nostalgic for fictional lives I never had.

antikate @ 2008-06-24T23:24:00

2008-06-25T03:38:27Z

Word Count: 7986
Phrase I Like that Probably Won't Make it to the Final Draft: cross-species shenanigans
Important Note to Self: It's probably easier to write about the play if you, you know, have read it sometime recently.

Guess I better do that tomorrow before sitting down to write.

I feel less accomplish-ful than usual about today's word count. Obviously I made the daily goal, but I did that by stealing about half of it from myself. Which probably shouldn't make me feel guilty since I did write the stuff, and there's no reason to waste all the work that went into the earlier, now-abandoned draft. I don't think there's a whole lot left in there though that I can steal about this particular play.

I also did a bunch of living-in-the-world stuff, which led to me getting started late, which contributed to the whole not feeling on today. I called the vet to arrange to drop Pye off on Thursday morning on the way to the airport instead of tomorrow afternoon (my flight isn't quite as early as I thought it was). I managed to finagle a dentist appointment with the family dentist while I'll be down in VA in August, thus avoiding for another year the need to find a new dentist. I got at appointment with a nurse practitioner for the yearly gyn exam. I wrote up my ideas for the little set of articles I'm writing later this summer and got them to the editor. I looked up some stuff about scheduling at Disneyworld so we can work on making dining reservations. So all in all, it really was a rather accomplish-ful day.

Tomorrow's the last day of dissertating this week, since I'm off to a conference on Thursday. Yay! I want to have the draft of this chapter done no later than July 10, so I can go down to VA for D&C's party and Christine's show at the Fringe. So after San Diego it will be back to the slogging and making the word count. (Actually I think the hard part now is less about making word count than it is about making word count that's shaped around an argument. But it will work out somehow.)

antikate @ 2008-06-20T23:16:00

2008-06-21T03:25:42Z

Word Count: 5687
Favorite New Phrase: Visions of minotaurs ensue.

Apparently the kitteh heard me talking on the phone with the vet tech about switching her back to regular food because before I could try to do such a thing (which I was going to wait until I came back from San Diego for anyway) she decided to have some more intestinal issues. I'll call the doc tomorrow morning probably, though it can take a few months for kitty's tummies to settle. But it does seem likely that she has some sort of food allergy/sensitivity, so probably no more Fancy Feast in her future.

(This is one of the reasons why I probably shouldn't have children. I get all upset and worried when the cat has an upset stomach. I'd be a wreck if the kid got the flu.)

I ordered sushi as my reward for finishing a week of writing. (I'd thought about driving out to the *good* sushi place, but it was pouring and it looked like the storm was moving off in the direction I'd be driving. Plus I was tired.) Mmmm...sushi. And I watched the first episode of The Tudors, Season One. Shiny!

Now I have a whole weekend of Not-Writing! And the tyratae is going to come out to drink tea and hear music and have fun!

antikate @ 2008-06-19T23:43:00

2008-06-20T03:54:27Z

Word Count: 4489
Citations of the Journal Eighteenth Century Studies in a Dissertation about Twentieth Century Plays: 1 (so far)

I keep on keepin' on. I think I've only got one or two more days of writing before I get to talk about the actual plays. (Why yes, I *am* over 4000 words into the chapter without yet talking about the stuff I have an actual degree in, i.e. dramaturgy. In my defense, I have to explain a lot of stuff about the science and then about the cultural conceptions of the science because I don't expect the dramaturgy faculty spends a lot of time surfing Scienceblogs.) And tomorrow is Friday and then I get to take the weekend off from writing! Weekends are good. (I might have to do some reading. And I definitely have to do some brainstorming for a set of articles I'm writing later in the summer. But that's about Shakespeare, so it works a different part of the brain, right?)

I need to call the vet and see if I can start putting the cat back on regular food. She's been on special food for a while because she had colitis at the end of April, and the doc wanted to get her intestinal track all settled. And it's been settled for a while now, or at least there haven't been any symptoms for a long time. And I think she might be putting on too much weight with this food. (Of course I have to board her next week when I go to a conference and she gets nervous and doesn't eat a lot when she's boarded, so maybe a little extra padding is good.)

[/rambling]

antikate @ 2008-06-18T23:51:00

2008-06-19T03:58:29Z

Word Count: 3319
Amount of Today's Writing that's About CSI: All of it! (Okay, really just the first paragraph. But it all comes from that...)

You know, when I first started reading matociquala's journal, I thought the notes about miles to Lothlorien, etc. were some sort of analogy that went along with the wordcount for the day. You know, I wrote this much and I'm this much closer to the goal and it kinda felt like slogging along on foot through the wilderness. Turns out it's about actual walking, which is awesome too, but I still like my original interpretation.

Today the cat did not try to steal the chair. She might be plotting something.

antikate @ 2008-06-17T23:39:00

2008-06-18T03:46:41Z

Word Count: 2194
Things I Never Thought I'd Discuss in a Theater Dissertation: prophylactic mastectomies

I actually worked from home today, rather than going to the library for a couple of hours and then coming back here because the library is closed, the coffeeshop is closed, I can't be productive in my office unless it's for school stuff, and there's no place else to go. It is nice to be able to spread my books all over my desk and not have to worry about lugging books back and forth or not having the book I want to have to look something up.

The cat's not quite sure what to do with me being home all day. One thing she *is* sure about, though, is that whatever I'm doing here, I'm doing it in her chair. (This despite the fact that I bought this new desk chair in January and that there's still a perfectly good old desk chair sitting in the corner of the room for her to snuggle in.) Somewhere around 3 this afternoon I went into the kitchen to microwave some leftovers. I was out of the chair for a minute and a half. When I came back with my food, there was the cat, curled up in myHER chair, blinking innocently up at me. Some people's cats.

Not much else going on. (I think there will be a lot of that phrase this summer.) I got The Tudors out on Netflix, but they just arrived today and I finished the wordcount too late to try and put an episode on. Instead I relaxed with last night's Daily Show and The Office on TBS.

Tomorrow I need to figure out what's happening with the cat while I'm in San Diego. Also, dissertating.

antikate @ 2008-06-16T23:08:00

2008-06-17T03:17:48Z

Surprise!

It's that time again. Time to keep track of the dissertation progress - maybe I'll even find one of those word count bars and figure out how to use it.

Word Count: 1050

I'm basically starting over again. Not that that's a huge loss since I hadn't gotten very far in this chapter last time I tried to write it anyway. But I finally have the chapter organized in my head and know basically what I'm arguing. (Or close enough to be able to figure out the rest as I go along.) I'd like to get at least a chapter and a half, maybe two chapters written this summer. Considering I have a conference paper to write next month and a set of articles for OSF the following that don't really fit into those chapters, it might not happen. But it's a good goal.

Anyway. It's summer, and I'm enjoying the slow pace and the many, many hours of light. It rained on and off today, cooling things down considerably, which is lovely. I've taken up jogging in the mornings three times a week. (Not morning-morning - I haven't become one of those morning people. No, I get out around 10:30 am. I like to ease into the day.) It's a very slooooow jog, but it's a jog, so that's something. And the school pool has finally opened up again, so I might go in there a couple days and splash around. Not much else going on. I've got a conference coming up at the end of next week - no paper or presentation at that one, so I can just go and enjoy. And that's about it!

antikate @ 2008-02-11T17:33:00

2008-02-11T22:35:28Z

You know, I've actually come to enjoy reading theater theory for the most part and teaching it, too. But right now?

Reading Hegel makes me want to kill. With fire.

Just thought I'd share.

antikate @ 2008-01-17T21:04:00

2008-01-18T02:10:37Z

The future is here!

These are straight out of any number of novels (the one I've read most recently being matociquala's Hammered).

Alternatively,

News link via skreidle

antikate @ 2008-01-14T11:51:00

2008-01-14T17:00:09Z

Whew. I went back and rewrote that thoughtful recommendation letter (this time both saving and copying and pasting elsewhere as I went) and got that sent out. 1 thing down, 865 more to go.

It's snowing, and I love sitting in my living room watching it fall. I'm about to put on some water for hot chocolate. The only problem is going to be getting myself motivated to head out to the gym. It's so much nicer to sit in here and look out at the pretty.

I think I'm not going to make it in to NYC this week. Too much effort with no guaranteed success, since the main show I'd be going in to see is sold out, and I'd be on one of those waitlists. Instead, I'll be productive (you hear that self - BE PRODUCTIVE!) and maybe reward myself for that productivity with a trip to a nearby day spa. Mmm...spa. (They have a whole chocolate-themed package: a chocolate facial, pedicure, and a MINT-chocolate massage! Yum.) That would be a lovely way to kick off the new semester.

Maybe while I'm drinking my hot chocolate I'll put together a nice to-do list for today -- actually breaking down the bigger tasks instead of just listing them as I usually do, so I can get the feeling of accomplishment when I cross things off. It's the little things, ya know.

antikate @ 2008-01-11T16:54:00

2008-01-11T21:55:21Z

I just spent 45 minutes crafting a very thoughtful recommendation email for a student and clicked send, only to discover that the email thingy had logged me off and the auto-draft-save thingy had save only a blank form.

I'm taking my extremely slow movement exercises and going home.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T20:01:54Z

*tweetles a little horn and throws confetti*

I'm going to have to buck the general trend of LJ and say that 2007 was an AWESOME year for me. I got to work at OSF and visit Powell's in Portland. I got a wonderful new job and a wonderful new apartment and the cutest kitten in the world. I won my first Nanowrimo. I've made new friends and gotten closer to old ones. I saw my first Cirque show in Vegas. I read 121 books (fun reading, not work stuff) and took dance lessons and got a Tivo. And 2008 is going to rock even more.

So Happy New Year, World! Let's get this party started!

TA-DA!

2007-11-30T22:56:57Z

I DID IT!!!

For a month I have been ~~slavering~~ slaving away on a Nano Novel! For most of the month the only person who knew was the splendiferous babushek, who was the most awesome cheerleader (and occasional bitch-slapper) EVER. She sent me roses! Seriously!

Then over the Thanksgiving break I let the cat out of the bag to several more people, including the parents. So now all who knew and all who didn't know can celebrate with me -- YAY!! I DID IT!

antikate @ 2007-11-29T11:55:00

2007-11-29T17:03:38Z

From a review of the new Amazon Kindle:

As I calculate it, if you add in the $400 cost of the device, you'll need to buy at least 40 e-books at $9.99 each to get an average per-book price lower than $20, roughly the cost of a standard bookstore hardcover.

If you're sure you can read at least 40 books over the life of your Kindle -- let's say five years, so eight books a year -- then sure, go ahead and buy one. You'll save money in the long run, not to mention 40 books' worth of shelf space.

If you're not a book fanatic, though, there seems no point to this device.

So if reading 8 books a year makes you a "book fanatic," what exactly does that make me? (According to the record I keep in my calendar, I've read 112 books so far this year. Which does not count plays or books I read for work, either teaching or dissertating.) A biblioholic? A bibliopsychotic? A book fanatic times 14?

(Yes, I realize that I'm crazy and spend far more time reading than the "average person," whoever that is, but still - 8 books? That's it?)

antikate @ 2007-11-07T12:59:00

2007-11-07T18:00:43Z

OH NOES! IT'S SNOWING!

Winter in Central NY has begun.

antikate @ 2007-10-07T22:57:00

2007-10-08T03:08:35Z

Whose idea was it for me to teach Beckett again? We should do another week of Brecht instead. Brecht week was fun. Brecht week involved me pounding my fist on the table and shouting about revolution.

On Friday I had a minor mental crisis, thinking about the classes for next semester. I'd gone to a "teaching table" at lunch, where a more senior faculty member talked to us new kids on the block about "balancing teaching and research." (Plus there was free food.) And so I mentioned that I was going to be teaching three classes I'd never taught before and was concerned about keeping part of my brain working on the research - you know, that dissertation thingy? The response was about six parts sympathy, three parts horror, and one part somewhat useful advice. Going back to my office after that, I realized that it wasn't so much three new classes that was bothering me (although I know they will), but it was one class in particular, which has an incredibly vague description in the catalog, a completely unhelpful title, and no syllabi on record. And all the ideas I'd come up with for the class so far had involved entirely too much prep, as they would be things far, far, far outside my areas of specialty. (Too much prep for this particular semester. If I were teaching two sections of Intro plus this course, no problem. Anywho.)

So I called up Adrian to see if he had some time to talk about it. And we talked and Adrian just kept throwing ideas at me in the hopes that something might stick and finally something clicked. We kept playing with that idea for a while and came up with a really cool course that I'm all kinds of excited about. I'm calling it "Five Greek Women," and the idea is that we read Greek plays about five different characters - Antigone, Medea, Phaedra, Electra, and Iphigenia - and read different versions of those stories in plays by other writers through time - Goethe, Racine, Brecht, Anouilh, Giradoux, and all kinds of others. Just think about all the ideas that can bounce off of each other when you throw all the Antigone plays together! Yeah, I'm very happy about this class, and the other two are going to be fun too. Go team Kate!

In non-work-related news, well, it's not so much news as hanging out at home, spending time with the kitty, watching some TiVo and some Netflix, reading, going to dance class, and having a generally good time. I went to a farm this weekend to pick out my pumpkin, which is even now sitting on my front porch, waiting to be carved. And next weekend is the mini-conference at Amherst, followed by a weekend at the MD Renn Fest - yay Mediaeval Baebes!

On a completely random note, I gave my standard Elizabethan drama lecture last week to the Intro class and mentioned Shakespeare in Love. In passing, I asked how many of the kids had seen it. NONE. How is that possible? Let's see...the movie came out in 1998. That would make my students...oh. Right. Nevermind. Sigh.