Tour de France Drama

Otherwise known as: sports blogging about a sport you don't care about.

So I'm a Tour fangirl. My dad's a cyclist, and so we've watched the most highly publicized race in professional cycling since I was a young girl. The Tour de France takes place every year during the month of July and isn't strictly located in France, though much of the action does take place there. This week, there's been some flatter stages as we move out of the Alps and into the Pyrinees.

It's been a few good years for American cycling. This year, there are four American-run teams in the race. Team BMC is the one that George Hincapie, Marcus Burghardt, and Cadel Evans (who already spent a day in the maillot jaune - as race leader - during this tour) race for. Team Radio Shack is Lance Armstrong's team, and he's joined there by Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer, Sergio Paulinho, and Yaroslav Popovych.

But those aren't the two teams I'm going to be talking about today. There's Team HTC Columbia, whose members include Mark Cavendish, Adam Hansen, Tony Martin (who spent some time in the white jersey, signaling he's one of the best U25 riders), Mark Renshaw, and Michael Rogers. And then there's Team Garmin Transitions, and they have Julian Dean, Tyler Farrar, Robbie Hunter, and Christian Vande Velde. (The color coding is to help you when I start telling the story.)

So HTC Columbia and Garmin Transitions have not always been the best of friends. In fact, they're the closest thing the Tour has to rival teams. Last year, when George Hincapie was on HTC Columbia, the chase action by Garmin Transitions is what cost him a shot at the maillot jaune - by five seconds on the day. So there's some bad blood there. Basically, each team races first so that they'll win, and then when that doesn't happen, they'll race so that the other loses. And that's not good sportsmanship, especially for the Tour de France.

Of course, there was drama today - sprint finish, both teams have good sprinters. Julian Dean is the leadout man for Tyler Farrar, so Tyler will launch from Julian's back wheel as the line approaches in the hopes of winning the stage. Mark Renshaw is the leadout man for Mark Cavendish. They obviously both wanted to win the stage today, so it got a little heated out there. Julian Dean went from the center of the road and started drifting left, into Mark Renshaw's line. So what did Mark Renshaw do to keep his place intact? Headbutted him. He headbutted the guy five times. I mean, rule is, you can't take your hand from the handlebars within so many km of the finish, but still. Five times. (If you're not hearing that in Principal Rooney's voice, I didn't do my job right.)

So Mark Renshaw keeps his line, and he launches Mark Cavendish just like he's supposed to. Except after he launched his man, Mark Renshaw didn't keep his line. And I don't just mean that he drifted a little bit. You can clearly see on the tape that he looked behind him, saw the orange and blue jersey of Garmin Transitions on the shoulders of their sprinter Tyler Farrar, and aimed right for the guy. It looks like Renshaw was about to slam Tyler into the boards before Tyler put a hand out on his hip to tell him he was there.

For his actions today, Mark Renshaw was disqualified from this year's Tour de France.

This normally wouldn't be such a big deal, except for the fact that HTC Columbia and Garmin Transitions are huge rivals. The thinking is that the race officials wanted to cool down the rivalry and thoroughly punish one of the teams, because to tell the truth, there were other ways to penalize Mark Renshaw for what he did. Normal protocol would be that he'd lose his place in the sprint, get relegated to last place/last time, and his team would be fined. But to be DQed? This is also the first non-drug DQ. Ever. Ever. It just drives home that this was a Very Bad Thing.

Especially since this might be an issue that divides the whole peloton. Nobody's going to want to help HTC Columbia with anything now - they deserve no respect. But some riders may feel that the officials were too hard on Mark Renshaw, and that may turn the whole group into a grudgematch between HTC Columbia and Garmin Transitions - which is exactly what I think the officials may have been trying to avoid.

I'm thinking George Hincapie was right to jump ship and move teams before this got so heated...

Gettin' nostalgic

So this morning, I had my last tutorial in the Oxford system. I'm done with philosophy forever. I leave on Thursday for a family trip to Ireland, so this is my last few days in the country.

It's unbelievable. I can't believe I'm not coming back next year. This has only been a year-long study-abroad program, but somehow I feel like I belong here and that I ought to be coming back. I've done pretty well here academically - it fits my style of learning.

And this country has been good to me. I love England. I love walking around in the city here and taking in the sights. I've grown to love the food here. Everything here in Oxford is so charming - pubbing, ice cream, all the things I've been able to do here. It's unbelievable. I just can't believe I won't be back.

It's been charming living in The Future, but it'll all be over soon.

STICK A FORK IN ME, I'M DONE!

- Jen -

Dear Internet,

Last night I had the most awesome dream.

It was about Twilight, but it made Twilight seem about one hundred times cooler than it really is. I was Bella Swan, but I was actually kicking some major tail instead of relying on boys to do it for me. Also, somehow, this was supposed to be in the continuity of Eclipse but Bella-me was pregnant with a normal human baby... so apparently Edward was human? And they had sex before marriage? I don't know, I didn't ask many questions. All I know is, there was this awesome romantic walk around a lake that looked like the lake at the Columbus Zoo, and there were some cuddly lovey moments, and then we got to this lake house and there was a big vampire fight where I hurt people and delivered great justice, Black Widow-style, even though Bella-me was, like, two months pregnant.

Then I did some hanging out with Jacob? I think. It was snowing out but it didn't seem cold, because he had massive body heat that was creating some kind of bubble shield around us that melted the snow. I think. I don't remember. Then we went to some kind of picnic with other supernatural creatures and he left for a while.

I do remember this part, though: I met Nathan Fillion in my dream. I don't know what part he was supposed to be playing, but I remember asking him how old he was, and he said "Five thousand, three hundred and sixty-two." And I was pretty amazed by that. He wasn't a vampire, either. Might've been some kind of angel or demon. And then I asked him what ancient Egypt was like, and we had a few laughs over it, and then I was told that it was creepy that I was talking to him, because Bella-me was seventeen and this guy looked like he was in his forties.

Then I was hanging out with Alice, Rosalie, and Esme. We were sitting at some kind of special booth for the taping of a late-night show? Or something. Rihanna was featured because she was in a new superhero movie coming out and her costume was creating a bit of controversy (basically, the bottom of it was like a souped-up thong). But I got to watch Rihanna kick some tail Black Widow-style again. It was funny, too, because at every time where you'd think the mooks she was beating up would bleed, they'd just show this strip of hot pink fabric. I pointed it out to Alice and we just laughed our heads off.

Then I woke up and realized the whole thing was kind of creepy. Okay, a guy that looks forty-three hitting on a girl that is mortal and only seventeen is creepy enough. But in my dream, Nathan Fillion was over five thousand years old. That goes way beyond pedophilia/ephebophilia in my book. And it made me think twice about Edward, too. He's 109 years old in the books. And he's hitting on a seventeen-year-old that he wants to eat. How come this never set off red flags for people?

... I just wanted to brag that Nathan Fillion was in my dream last night. Carry on.

- Jen -

Sick.

So I've been really sick since Tuesday. I'm finally starting to feel better, thankfully, although 100% might not happen until tomorrow... but tomorrow the dining hall is serving spicy Indian food so we'll see how long that lasts. (I might just get some kind of takeout tomorrow. Why do they insist on serving food that makes me sick and giving me no other non-spicy option?)

I just realized today: my last tutorial is four weeks from tomorrow. I'm done with my final Third Week here as of tonight. I can't believe how fast the time has flown but at the same time it feels like I've been doing this forever. (Especially since I've been really sick twice now. Time goes by much more slowly when you're sick. I hate that.)

Kate was hosting a friend of ours, Ryan, this weekend. Last night we went to the Eagle and Child for dinner. For those of you who don't know, the Eagle and Child was where Tolkien hung out all the time, and one of the creative writing groups here, the Inklings, still meets there. It's kind of cool. I obviously didn't get to try any of their 'real' food since I just stuck to the vegetable soup, but it seemed like a nice enough place. At least I can say that I've been there.

That's all for me right now. I have to get back to work or I'm really going to regret having been ill.

- Jen -

Mother's Day

Today is US Mother's Day. (The one in the UK was back in March; I celebrated with Mom when I was last home.) So remember to call home, get in touch with the ladies in your lives that are mothers, and let them know how much they're appreciated.

I'm also remembering my grandmother today. It's our first Mother's Day without her, so it's going to be a little rough, but we'll make it.

On another note, I'm sad that I won't be home today. If I were at ND, today I would have been home by now. Actually, I would have been home whenever my finals got out. As it is, I have my last tutorial five weeks from tomorrow. Five weeks. It feels like it's going to be a long time, but five and a half weeks from now, my mom, dad, and brother are going to be visiting me and I'll get to show them Oxford for a few days before we go to Ireland. And that's going to be exciting.

So yeah. This is a blog entry to tell my mom that I'm thinking about her, and also to whine that I'm still in school right now. Oh, and that I keep breaking my right thumbnail (the one that hits the spacebar) because I'm internetting/creative writing way too hard. I swear, sometimes I'm the nerdiest nerd to have ever nerded.

If you're traveling home today from college, safe travels. If you're still in school with me, good luck.

- Jen -

Quickest post ever.

There are only two things I want right now, and I just may buy them for myself instead of waiting because my birthday is in, like, five months and I'm impatient.

This and this.

If you don't feel like clicking on the links, this is what they look like:





HINT HINT WINK WINK

- Jen -

ETA: Add in the Questionable Content "white text on a black shirt" shirt and I've got a Yahtzee.

Ben Folds and volcanoes

They really don't have anything to do with one another, but that's what I'm going to be talking about in this blog entry, so here goes.

Yesterday marked the day that Justin and I have been together for three and a half years. Isn't that nuts? I mean, we're only twenty and we've spent nearly twenty percent of our lives together. Math is awesome. I guess the concert yesterday was an indirect celebration of that, but we didn't really plan it that way.

I got my tax returns postmarked on my way up and saw some cops in some weird places (come on, it's totally not fair to jam your car up behind a bridge shoulder and then gun over said bridge shoulder, I can't even see your car), but nothing out of the ordinary. Justin and I grabbed some dinner, then it was onto the Healthline (the main bus line that runs up and down Euclid Avenue) to get to the House of Blues for the Ben Folds concert. It was me, Justin, another couple, and two of his other brothers (ugh I am so bad with names, hopefully post will be edited later to say who we actually went with).

We got there in time to get some pretty good spaces (not seats - this was standing room only) in the pit in front of the stage. Before the opening act went on, the other girl and I went up to get our merch. We ended up getting the same concert tee. It's pretty cool looking and I'm sure I'll be wearing it a lot. I wore it at the concert, which means it's filthy right now.

The opening act was really weird and kind of lame (as all opening acts are). Name was Matt Pool or something like that, but he couldn't play the guitar, so his friend was up there playing the guitar with him. His songs were good and I might have liked them if they had had a full band and slightly less cliche lyrics, but because it was just the two guys and they were an opening act, I was not impressed. Justin joked that he would have fallen asleep if we weren't standing up, but I did actually fall asleep on him at one point. (He was also referencing another concert we went to, where Grizzly Bear was opening for Radiohead and we actually did fall asleep in our chairs.)

Ben Fold was FANTASTIC. I can't even use enough sparkletext. We had singalongs to his songs, we clapped at all the right points, we danced and laughed. Ben even played the drums while he played Rock This Bitch, and he did some 'minimalist' renditions with a maraca against the mic in one hand and his other hand on the piano. I just - it was fantastic. And then for an encore he finished with 'Song for the Dumped Minor', which I didn't think he would play because that was a full-band arrangement. God, it was fantastic.

We didn't get back to campus until midnight, and boy are we ever glad that we got our swag before the concert instead of after. Justin and I were up kind of late talking and got to sleep in a little this morning, so that was nice. I still don't know when I'm going to see him again but I'm glad I got in a few hugs and kisses before I left again.

But speaking of leaving, this is where the volcano comes in. I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now that a volcano went off in Iceland and is spewing ash everywhere, but now I don't know if I can get back to school for the next term. My flight is on Tuesday, so hopefully the ash clears a little and the blockade of UK airspace ends, but if it doesn't I really don't know what I'm going to do...

Ah well. I have grandparents over after tonight's performance of Oklahoma!, so more on the musical after both of the performances tomorrow.

- Jen -

My blag got lonely!

I haven't been updating it much since I got home, but this was kind of a big deal that has an impact on my future and stuff.

I registered for my first semester of my classes for senior year.

I mean, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but with a few numbers and a few clicks of the mouse I am now one step closer to actually graduating, and it's kind of scary. I did get most of what I wanted, though, so that's good. Fiction writing for majors was blocked to me for some reason (I have the sneaking suspicion that they require 'pre-registering', which I feel to be unfair to those who aren't studying on main campus and thus can't have meetings with their advisers like everyone else on main campus do). I did manage to get a pretty good second theo though (War, Peace, and Conscience - pretty awesome, if you ask me). So, here's how my schedule stands right now for Fall 2010:

Monday-Wednesday (no classes on Friday woohoo):
Narrative and Sexuality with Susan Cannon Harris (I heart her, this will be awesome)
3:00-4:15

Tuesday-Thursday (bad, bad days for me):
2nd Theo: War, Peace, and Conscience with Michael Baxter
9:30-10:45
Virtue, Sex [as in 'or gender', has little to do with fornication] and the Good Life with Margaret Doody
12:30-1:45
Contemporary British and Irish Fiction with Mary Smyth
2:00-3:15
Visits to Bedlam with Christopher Fox
3:30-4:45

So that's that, I suppose.

Oh, and over break I not only got my hair redone while I was home, but I also got new glasses! Pictures forthcoming, maybe. I haven't taken a lot of pictures recently.

I've now gone up twice to Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University to visit Justin, and I went up to Notre Dame once to visit all my friends there. All of these visits were really, really fun, but I have to say, some of the highlights were:

-Seeing Zombieland at Case and formulating zombie apocalypse plans with Justin afterward
-Going shooting with Greg and getting to shoot a P90 (check Facebook pics and vid for confirmation of this - it was completely and totally awesome)
-Going out to Olive Garden with, like, 12 of my new best friends (and riding along people's laps to get back to campus, woo was that an adventure)
-The Beta formal that just took place this weekend (I will have a new profile picture soon and it will be very pretty!)

That's pretty much all the time I have for right now, and that's the highlights from the last few weeks. I'm only in town for another week or so, and there's not much going on in that next week besides writing, the Ben Folds concert on Thursday night, and Oklahoma! this weekend... well, I guess there is a lot going on. I'll try to be better about my blogging, and I know it will be better once I get back to school. (Crap, I still have a term left of school!)

- Jen -

Best dinner ever.

So tonight, there was just going to be my mom and I for dinner, and we decided to clean out the fridge. It ended up that we created a bowl of the best pasta I've ever had.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup rotini (the corkscrew pasta noodles)
1/2 jar queso sauce (we used Taco Bell brand)
1/4 serving sloppy joe meat
1 tomato, diced

Boil pasta, warm queso, dice tomatoes, reheat leftover sloppy joes, mix together, eat and enjoy.

I also got new glasses ordered today. They have metal frames around the eyes and plastic frames back towards the ears, and best of all - they have magnetic sunglasses clips! I don't get them for another week but I'm quite excited.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm watching Oklahoma! and this is very important.

- Jen -

Wow it's been a little while.

I got kind of busy. Sorry, everyone, my life has been weird.

Today I had an eye exam! How exciting. I hadn't had an eye exam since, like, December 2007 (I remember getting my current glasses, the red frames, before Spring 2008 semester). And you know how they say with exams like that, you can never fail? Well, I did.

My exam took twice as long as expected, because I have apparently developed astigmatism in my left eye (non-dominant eye) since my last exam (which, yeah, 2+ years ago, but still). Since we didn't know about the astigmatism, we had to check my left eye with three different contacts, and three times with the lenses. I think we have the prescription down by now, but it's still weird that it took so long to determine what was wrong with my eye.

Then, of course, he had to measure the curvature of my eyes, and do the juvenile glaucoma test, which... blah, my least favorite. I do not like having air puffed onto my eye. But it's important, that I won't deny. Our high school principal's son has juvenile glaucoma so I try to raise my own awareness about it through word of mouth.

The rest of my day was taken up by buying bridal shower gifts, going to Taco Bell, doing knitting, looking for frames that I might like (need new glasses now if not sooner), doing a transposition of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for my brother, and watching Oklahoma! since my brother is Curly (the male lead) in the musical my high school is putting on this year. It's been a busy day, and I would go to sleep, but I'm still vaguely upset about things elsewhere on the Internet, so we'll see.

- Jen -

This post is a list because I said so.

1. I just got out of my Philosophy of Mind tutorial. This means that I only have three papers to write and three more tutorials for this term, woohoo! And I got out twenty minutes early. And I didn't metaphorically faceplant. This is a good day, folks.

2. It is also a good day because Kate and I went to the new candy shop that's around the corner from here, and I got red Italian liquorice. It was delicious. And the last few bites were the perfect after-tutorial treat.

3. I get to write an essay about Death of the Author tonight. I feel like I should get this particular credit-hour counted towards my English major back home, but enh, probably not gonna happen.

4. Apparently Jeph from Questionable Content has met the Rooster Teeth guys... apparently their booths were next to each other at ComicCon 2008. This is like dividing by zero, only successful. And more awesomer. Also, this only ups my desire for the 'Yaoi Zone' shirt from the QC store, should I go to ComicCon some year and see both the RT guys and Jeph. This is relevant to my interests, folks.

5. I will make it to London on Saturday. I will, I will. Because I deserve it, and also because I will go crazy with wanting to see the Tate Modern if I don't. Besides, I'm feeling much better and willing to take my academic work a little less seriously this next week. Because, hey, it's Eighth Week, and also because I said so. And because my life is better with less stress and less migraines.

6. YELLING BIRD IS IN MY HEAD. YOU HEAR THAT, YELLING BIRD? I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU AND YOUR [redacted] ALLCAPS WOULD JUST GET OUT OF MY [redacted] HEAD, YOU [redacted] [double redacted].

7. I knew I forgot something! So I went to the computer lab to print today, and... it appears that they've installed either Windows Vista or Windows 7 into their machines... barring that, they've actually installed Office 2007. Whatever they did, they had like, 6 of their 20 computers in the lab working (a new record!), and they booted quickly. Like, super-quickly. And I was pleased.

- Jen -

This deserved its own post.

I have written almost 45k of fiction between when NaNo ended and now. I'm very proud of myself, because this time last year, the count was 0.

Back to your regularly scheduled content when I actually have some, uh, content.

- Jen -

This is my 100th post!

And I'm using it to complain about malware. Typical me.

It sucks. I've had about eleventy panic attacks this afternoon because a malware program called Antimalware Doctor has decided to rove my computer rong time. At least I have internet back now after a System Restore that shouldn't have happened, and now I know to thoroughly Google the problem before I decide I can tackle it myself.

Major props to AJ and Kate, and especially Justin, for being dearhearts and helping me out today. Especially Kate, who lent me her computer. I owe you chocolate. <3 So, for the rest of the night, I'ma try not to panic and also get some work done. That sounds good. Yup.

- Jen -

PS. If anyone *coughcoughGREGcough* has any tips about how to get rid of this... I would gladly accept them. :)

ETA: At 9:55 GMT, our beloved Antimalware Doctor breathed its last as first its registry keys were deleted, then the .exe itself was deleted after a reboot to save mode. A moment of silence for our fallen friend malware.

*silence*

Now that that's over, WOOHOO! I learned that with a little Google-Fu and a lot of handholding, I can get through pretty much anything computer related. Maybe I'm not too dumb to use a Mac after all... And I did get a pretty awesome antispyware program out of the deal.

Wait, what?

So apparently it's the last day of February. What?

The last part of my week last week did not go so well. Fail ranged from completely bombing my tutorial, having no self-esteem to continue my essay, not falling asleep until 3:30 (and learning that, apparently, I should be able to control all sources of bad stress in my life), getting the "You all right?" "Yeah." "No, really, are you okay?" conversation four times on Friday (tutor, till worker at sandwich shop, and librarians at both the Philosophy library and the New College library), being so tired at Guest Dinner that I'm sure everyone was convinced I was drunk, wanting to sleep on Friday night yet having the world conspire against me OMG, etc.

Yesterday was a bit of a turn-around for my luck, though. Kate and I went to the International Festival at the exam schools across the street for lunch, which was fun. We got coupons for a fiver and I spent mine on a huge plate of fried rice and a cup of chai. Kate also tried Turkish Delight for the first time and is probably now convinced that England is Narnia. Kate also showed me to a new library, the Radcliffe Science Library. I like it in there, and even though I'm no scientist, I may go study in the room she showed me, because I think it is awesome.

Also, apparently gypped is a racist term. I feel bad for not knowing that before (and also not knowing that that's how you spell it, thus my complete ignorance). Sorry, world :(

Today I'm trying to get my reading done pretty quickly, as the Failed Novelists (my writing group here) are going out on another pubbing adventure across Port Meadow tonight. I'm not sure where we're eating dinner but I can guarantee that wherever it is, it'll look like Middle Earth, and for that I am excited. To celebrate, I am wearing my "I'm an English major: you do the math" shirt, which also makes me excited. I'm also doing relatively well on my reading for this week, all things considered, and today I slept in, so that was also good.

Tomorrow I may or may not be going to London; it all depends on how I feel. If I don't get enough done today, I may pass London off until next week (I keep putting it off but I just want a few hours at the Tate Modern so badly...). Anyways, must get back to work, this Internet break has lasted about 15 minutes too long.

- Jen -

ETA: Also, I only have about 550 pages of reading this week. Which doesn't sound all that good until you realize that probably 150 pages of it is re-reading from last week because, durr, I had no comprehension skills, and the other 400 pages is all English-type reading about literary criticism that reminds me of my most favorite poem ever, T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'. So, I think this is a win-win.

Also, I saw snowdrops when I was at Balliol for my tute on Thursday. Apparently in this country that means it's spring already. I love it here! Especially since, for the past two days, it's been mostly sunny (only occasionally rainy) and I haven't had to wear a coat as much. I'm going to hate going back home to Ohio where there's apparently 3 feet of snow on the ground.

Best Week Ever

is such a funny show, am I right?

Well, as it turns out, I got 700+ pages of reading finished in four days (Saturday-Tuesday), and I got all of my Aesthetics reading done in one day (Tuesday). Even with the Migraine from Hell. So, I'm kind of proud of myself.

This also means that it's noon on Wednesday and I'm already 20% done with my Philosophy of Mind paper, which isn't due for another 20 hours. This is truly a joyous day. I don't think I've ever started a paper this early since I came to Oxford - this is going to be hard to top. Too bad it took me until Sixth Week to learn how to balance my schedule... oops.

I'm also making plans for when I go home over break! I was invited to a bridal shower, which is yay. I'm trying to make plans to celebrate [UK] Mother's Day with my mom. I'm figuring out when I can and can't go to Cleveland, and I'm setting up what might be the best ND weekend I've had in a long time (Thursday-Sunday: this'll be fun!).

So, basically, today is a day to kick back and relax about not having to write a paper in four hours. This is... wow. This is relaxing and, dare I say it, fun?

I also found a band that's like a cross between Franz Ferdinand (in the general feel sense) and Spinal Tap (in the way they are a parody of pretty much every kind of rock out there, and in how their lyrics are completely hysterical). It greatly amuses me when I write papers on Aesthetics to music that most people would not find aesthetically pleasing.

- Jen -

Sixth Week Blues

That should totally be a song title.

- Migraine. 'Nuff said. I'm looking at my monitor on the dimmest setting, the only light in my room from behind me, and it's still too bright and my keys sound too loud. Also my head hurts. /redundant
- Too much reading... Though I finally finished my Philosophy of Mind reading today, it didn't come without some pain and/or suffering. I nearly threw a book out the window. Yeah, that bad.
- Completely derailed from doing anything productive in order to respond to an e-mail from a friend. This kid knows I'm pro-our current gun laws, I know he's pro-ban guns forever, and he decided to e-mail me this morning and basically start a fight instigate a reasonable and well thought out discussion. I'm going to go ahead and postulate that it was this that pushed my headache over the edge into becoming a migraine.
- Miss home, ready to go back now.
- Practically incapacitated for the night due to pounding head.
- This is actually a better day than the last two days, if that says anything.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next three hours besides read things on the Internet - I can't do any reading for class like this. Today sucks.

- Jen -

Just a few little things.

I'm doing all right on my reading - my goal is 140 pages on the day so that I'm 20% done with my reading, and I'm almost there.

I had Oreos and Diet Cherry Coke for lunch. Best lunch ever.

I'm missing out on Junior Parents' Weekend! I think we get to hang out with next year's juniors if we want our parents to do it, but really... I'm kind of jealous that I'm missing out on all the fun activities. And I didn't even realize/recognize it was this weekend until last night, so... um... yeah.

But the main reason for the blog post is this bit of news:

NEW SEASON OF RED VS BLUE AIRS 1 APRIL! Excuse me while I go glee some more.

- Jen -

MST3K trivia!

Did you know that... there are 88 'Cabot's said by the cast of the movie "Outlaw"? (That are able to be heard through the riffing, anyhow, and I'm not including the several 'Cabot's by Mike and the 'bots. Be very careful if you do a drinking game to this word.) Yes, I just went through and counted them all. Next time I'll be counting references to buffalo shots.

It's been a good week, and this next week looks to be just as great... if only I can get some work done tonight. D'oh! Keep getting distracted by the Internet...

- Jen -

ETA: You probably actually want to know something about my life, right? Well, get this - more statistics for you. I have at least 436 pages of reading to do... and that's just for Philosophy of Mind. And currently I have 55 pages' worth of PDFs for Aesthetics, and that's just the non-required reading for this week. All the books I need for my required reading are either stolen or otherwise missing from the philosophy library, which means a trip to the Bodleian later this week... If I were to give a guesstimate, I probably have 700 pages of reading to do. Oh, joy of joys...

It's always something different.

I'm talking, of course, about the one thing that academically grates on my nerves every week. Last week, it was references to Duchamp's 'Fountain'. (I still swear that if I see another reference to it in my reading for Aesthetics, the shotgun's coming out.)

This week, it's two things.
1. Journals and anthologies published with two columns of text on the page. What do you think you are, the Bible? It just makes things so much harder for me to read, especially if I'm reading the article electronically and I can't remember if I need to scroll up or scroll down once I hit the bottom of the page. This should be simple, folks.
2. 'Phlogiston' and 'caloric'. If I see another reference to either of those in Philosophy of Mind, once again, shotgun.

This is a short post because I still have reading to do to prep for my tutorial tomorrow morning, so ta for now and expect better entries this weekend.

- Jen -

Please pass the Brain Bleach...

You know, today was going to be a good day, until two things happened.

1) I saw a story I liked by someone in my fandom. So I followed this person to their personal journal, hoping that they would have back-posted some of their other stories so I could enjoy them. Instead, I found a bunch of random memes (which is fine, that's what personal journals are for). What's not fine is that this person uses one of these memes for the sole purpose of bashing people who came into the fandom after a certain date (2008, in case you're wondering), saying they 'can't stand their writing' and that, in fact, the only people they can stand are the ones they were already friends with.

Um, no. Way to not give me a chance. I consider myself to be an okay writer - certainly worse than some of the Big Name Fans in our fandom (of which this person is not one), but I try, and people seem to genuinely enjoy the things I write. And you know, really I write for me, and I just lap up the comments I get - that's the only reason why I publicly post, really. But to say that I'm automatically not any good at canon or style because I joined this fandom two years after you think I should have? Nuh-uh, logic fail. Besides, I'm one of the few people I know that actually a) was around/watched during the first season and b) came back later just to get into the fandom specifically.

The worst part was, after the review I left (which was generally positive), this person decided to take an attitude with pretty much everyone, including taking shots at people's ships and demanding that they take shots at writing pairings they're not comfortable with. Also, in the reply to my review, this person insinuated that their character interpretation is the only right one, ever. I didn't want to cause wank because this is an insanely tiny fandom and, without the gender-neutral pronouns, it would be painfully obvious who this person was. But... really?

You're going to judge me because you think I write the 'wrong' pairings, have no justification for my pairings, and I came into the fandom after an arbitrary date that you set? You know, we all pretty much get along; don't like, don't read, and all that. That being said, the canon itself is pretty much crack - it's one of the few series I know where you can literally get away with things that don't seem physically possible, including gruesome deaths and male pregnancy. So the fact that I took the entire length of a 9500-word fic, actually using canon scenes, to justify my characterization instead of making it cracky should mean something to them, even though they don't like my conclusion. And since this person's being a wanker, I'm not even going to go into how I think they're wrong about their characterization. Yes, they wrote a pairing I enjoy, and the story was good, but it soured completely once I realized that they had a high and mighty attitude.

2) This video. I don't know what possessed Justin to share this with me, but oh my god I have been crying for the last twenty minutes.

So, thanks. Thanks, life, for giving me two DO NOT WANTs in one day. NEDM is going to save this. I'm just going to go, you know, cry in a corner for the next forty-five minutes.

- Jen -

ETA: Apparently this entry needs its own lexicon, so here we go.
wank: specifically in the context of fandom, an argument that gets completely out of control. See additional and more specific use in the term 'grudgewank'.
wanker: generally a British term, original use meaning someone who wanks; just replace 'wank' with the previous definition.
canon: original production of a work. For instance, all seven Harry Potter books are canon. All released Harry Potter movies are also canon - a different canon. This is as opposed to fanon, which is never explicitly stated in the original work but picked up by fans of the work and presented as factually present in canon. Note spelling: canon is not a cannon, though I do wish I could shoot people with it sometimes. Compare use in religious senses: canonical books of the Bible.
fic: short for fanfiction - a piece of derivative fiction based off of an original work.
fandom: the legion of fans collected together for a certain canon. These fans generally have interaction with one another at some level - after all, these people both produce and read derivative work. Some fandoms are small, some are large, and the proportion may have nothing to do with the critical acclaim of the show. If you are just a fan, you are not necessarily a part of the fandom; fandom members actually participate in derivative works, whether that's through searching them out/reading them or producing them themselves.
meme: in this context, any sort of post that is picked up from a friend, posted on one's own personal Internet space, and then passed on to other friends. Somewhat like a virus in that respect. Compare Facebook notes where the instructions include 'tag 10 friends lol'.
ship: short for relationship. In fandom, used as a verb indicating that the poster prefers to see works with the given relationship in them. Example usage: "I ship Ron/Hermione lol so canon guys." Also used as a noun, as in someone sails on the Good Ship Harmonian. [If anyone gets the joke in this definition, I will bake you a dozen cookies of your choice, reedemable within the next year.]
pairing: what you ship. Traditionally posted with a / or x between the names, though portmanteaus are not unheard of. See also OTP, short for One True Pairing, which is the preferred ship for a fandom member, and OT3, short for, well, One True Three.
cracky: anything that is crack. Crack is generally a label for pairings that seem impossible in canon for characterization reasons (note that spatiotemporal difficulties never seem to factor into this). The 'crack' label is not equivalent to the 'OOC' (out of character) label. Given a legitimate enough argument, though, pairings can move out of the crack category, though most fandoms agree that certain pairings will always be crack. An example of a crack pairing would be Hogwarts Castle/Giant Squid. [Yes, this actually exists. Oh, the horror of the Internet.]
You happy now, AJ?