Life as an Extreme Sport

Category: …and everything else

Mostly everything else in a brain-academic way.

Hair today,…

...and everything else

…in absolutely nothing related to academia except for the request to keep things easy to style and able to look professional, I got my hair cut today. It’s the shortest it’s ever been, and I really quite like it. We’ll see how I like it after a few days of styling.

I have been thinking about the fact that my identity is so tied in to having had long hair. I’ve always had long hair, my first long-term boyfriend would regularly brag about its length and colour, and my ex-husband thought it was my best feature. For various reasons, largely pertaining to other people’s preferences, I’ve simply always kept it long. (I did change the colour once – I went to a sort of strawberry red, although the desire had been a vibrant red. It was okay, but I think I prefer blonde.)

When I went to the stylist today, I went from “I’m getting a trim” to “do whatever, I just want a change” – and I got that change.

There’s a weird mental shifting going on, as though my identity is morphing. (Well, point of fact, my identity has been under a constant, fluid shift for over a year, but this is a weird feeling of internal shifting happening in real time, as opposed to realizing a few months past that there’s been a change.) I have a powerful urge to reread Maalouf’s In the Name of Identity….

Post-lecture Blues

...and everything else, Autumn 05

It’s going to take some adjusting, this whole not really having a day off thing for this quarter. I’m tired this morning (okay, afternoon) – probably has to do with not getting to sleep until 3 or 4 am (hello, insomnia). So I’m feeling groggy and unmotivated, and not at all interested in going to work, doing schoolwork, or even seeing MirrorMask.

Beyond that, I think I’m suffering a bit of post-lecture letdown; I’m feeling pretty glum and isolated right now. Getting up and talking – even more than that, being friendly and cheerful and just… trying to knit together all the webs of connectivity and signification – seems to really tire me out. Which is in that ironic-sucks camp, as this really is what I’d like to spend my life doing. Phillip warned me about this a year ago, though, and still gets hit by it himself. I think the large difference between the two of us (aside from that whole PhD/experience thing) is that he has a better support network for it than I do. I’m still trying to figure out what I need for that support.

Whatever it is, I know I need to recharge my batteries before Monday.

Comcast Sucks

...and everything else, Autumn 05, CHID 390 - PF, The Revenge!

So, I got home to find Comcast prompting for installation of software, which I take issue with, having successfully used the service nearly two years now and not needing to do that. Of course, I couldn’t find any actual open number to call for help, so I’m sitting in Bauhaus catching up on paperwork, and trying to be committed to the idea of typing in this thing every evening. (Technically, I acknowledge I’ve already posted here today, but habit is habit.)

I’ve spent the last hour getting a message board together for 390, sending out information about the focus group, modifying the mailing list, and posting a few different items to said message board. I’m always surprised at how much additional work PFing* is; it’s not just doing the readings to the point that you can discuss them confidently, it’s the grading and the communicating and the… ohyeah, I’d wanted to create a smaller mailing list for “my” students. Gotta remember to do that before heading home.

But, oddly, I’m on top of things right now, which is an odd feeling. Then again, Phillip and I sat down today and knocked out a reading list for the next two quarters, and I have authors like Locke, Bentham, Mill, Spinoza, Deleuze, Hayles, Massumi, Serres, and so on starring at me. Being the glutton for punishment I am, I’m starting chronologically; this will be the quarter of philosophical backgrounds to autonomy. Thankfully, I can combine at least one reading with my intellectual history class, so that’ll be a small load off.

Where was I? Oh right. Comcast sucks. And because they suck, I don’t have my course reader for 390 with me, which means I won’t be posting my thoughts on Geertz, exoticization, eroticization, The Other and positionality. Perhaps tomorrow, when I’m tired of beating my head against a computer screen at work.

*PFing – shorthand for Peer Facillitating, which is basically an undergraduate student functioning as a teacher’s assistant. We create lesson plans, lead discussions, grade papers, and give feedback to the prof. It’s just that instead of being paid, we pay for the privilege. But it’s great experience; this is the third time I’ve done it, and I’m hoping for at least one more course this year. It’s weird, but it’s something I really and truly love to do.

time

...and everything else, life and living

I was walking to my office, back from the HUB. It’s a pleasant walk along a tree-lined path, and while walking I noticed that the trees are turning. This is my last fall at UW.

This is probably my last fall in Seattle.

Time has suddenly become so much more precious.