The Starfish Revolution

General Update

I just turned in my last final this morning, and I return triumphant!

Mostly. I still have to turn in the final version of my thesis, but I think I can afford an hour or so to update this thing. Here goes:

I've decided to make this blog a bit more anonymous, so I've removed all the information about the school that I am attending, my location, and any pictures of myself I've posted here. I honestly don't think that keeping this blog is going to significantly endanger my chances for employment, otherwise, I'd delete it altogether, since anonymity on the internet is largely illusory. Besides, I'm pretty sure my minor in women's and gender studies is enough to alert any and all potential employers to the fact that I'm a crazy pinko man-hating liberal, and any blog entries to the same effect would border on being redundant.

However, I'm not wild about stalkers and I might end up teaching, so some degree of anonymity (to the effect of: "You can't PROVE that's me!") is probably a good thing, especially after witnessing first-hand the hilarity that resulted from the time my friends and I uncovered the MySpace page of a housing official who liked to bust on us for violating university alcohol policy. Let's just say there are few things more amusing than proof that your most loathed disciplinarian is functionally illiterate and suffering from a terminal case of internet disease. I really don't want that to be me three years down the line, so I decided to delete my MySpace account altogether. I also broke down and deleted my infamous e-dating profiles, partly because that is also sketchy, and partly because I got a boyfriend (sigh, there goes my lesbian street cred) and therefore don't really need them anymore.

So, as of now, I am officially an almost-graduated (nine days!) student from Elite, Over-Priced University (yes, I am still bitter about my student loans) in a Southern city, where I'm planning on staying after I graduate. Sound good? I think so.

As far as my real life goes, it's been a rollercoaster of getting ready to graduate, frantically finishing my thesis, deciding not to go to grad school (and experiencing a major existential crisis accordingly), rushing through finals, and a virtual hurricane of personal drama that includes, but is by no means limited to, acquiring a boyfriend amidst midterms, dorm-related woes, and threats of severe bodily injury over LiveJournal. Things have mostly stabilized this week, though, and I'm hoping it continues.

My current trajectory is as follows: finish thesis -> graduate -> get a relatively lucrative job that will provide me with enough income to live off of and health insurance. The last step doesn't look like it's working out so well, which doesn't exactly surprise me, given my degree and lack of work experience outside of the food service industry.  So, I've decided that if it doesn't work out, I'm going to get a quasi-cruddy job that pays well enough to cover the bills and go back to school in the fall to obtain teaching licensure. If I like that, I'll keep with it; if not, I'll do something else.

That's about it. I'll write more later or tomorrow. I've missed this thing.

Sorry

I'm officially on hiatus until finals are over. May 2nd. I'll notify you when I get back.

Circles, circles, circles.

I have a million things due in between now and May 11th, when I graduate.

I'm going to try to update every day with something substantive, but I'm not sure if that will happen.

Don't unlink or stop reading, though; I'll be back to full-time this summer.

Ball of Happy

I just found out that I got into grad school! I haven't gotten my financial information yet and the details are still pretty up in the air, but I'm still beyond excited.

I'm still going to have to get a job. Oh well.

Still giddy.

Report from My Bed

I've been catching up on my sleep this week. It's been nice. Have I missed anything?

Normal people go to the beach for Spring Break

...but I will be spending most of the week in my dorm room working on my thesis and getting a head start on my work for the rest of the semester. Copious amounts of tomato soup will be consumed (since I have a freaking pallet of the stuff), much hair will be torn out and I'll make an honest and sincere effort to not re-enact The Shining.

Fun Fact: I am allergic to sunscreen. Which is why I generally avoid beaches and sunshine.

Today's goal is to get my room cleaned, organized, and ready for the week. To that end, I must:

1. Clean up everything off the floor.
2. Vacuum.
3. Take out the trash.
4. Do laundry. (Probably won't happen 'til tomorrow.)
5. Organize my desk.
6. Organize my shelves (including the yarn stash/knitting/crocheting supplies. Good grief).
7. Organize my closet.
8. Make a list of all the schoolwork I need to accomplish this week and work up a daily to-do list.
9. Make a list of all the knitting/crocheting things I'd like to do this week.
10. Make a list of all the non-school books I'd like to read this week.

I have always operated like this. I'll let my room get into a completely wretched state, have a freakout, and then spend an entire day cleaning it until it's spotless. Entropy creeps in and the cycle repeats itself. I'd call myself ridiculously Type A, but I don't really have enough free-floating hostility (it's more specific now that I've aged and mellowed out somewhat) to qualify these days.

To the end of accomplishing my cleaning spree, I have purchased a Curve CD in hopes that the fast-paced electronica will make me motivated. We'll see how that works out.

Pizza: Why I'll never be vegan.

I love pizza. Last night, my pizza consisted of:

Roasted Garlic
Broccoli
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Mushrooms

Which was tasty and the addition of broccoli and garlic ensured that nobody else would eat it. It's not my ideal pizza, though, because it had regular sauce on it, which I don't particularly care for (despite my passionate love of tomatoes). My ideal pizza:

Thin crust
Either olive oil or pesto for sauce
Lots of funky white cheeses instead of just mozzarella
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Mushrooms
[Roasted Garlic
Spinach if olive oil is used]

Back when I still ate meat, I'd add chicken to either of the above. I think removing it made the pizza as a whole taste better, but then, I never much cared for the way chicken (doesn't) taste.

I have also determined that broccoli and red-sauce pizzas don't mix well.

Commenting Policy

Last night, I got my first troll. I used to think getting trolled was a blogger's rite of passage- until I had a horde of vicious anti-choicers gang up on me on my LiveJournal, an attack that was replete with all manner of verbal abuse and, of course, porn spam. I've since changed my tune. I don't tolerate trolling, ever.

My definition of trolling, by the way:

Trolling is the act of deliberately antagonizing other people on the internet. It is not meant to elicit thoughtful responses, rather, it provokes people into unproductive arguments and flamewars.

I don't tolerate it. If someone wants to disagree with my opinions respectfully, that's fine. Deliberately inciting riots in my comments page, however, is unacceptable.

My definitions of respectful behavior:

People who are respectful:

1. Are interested in actually listening to what the other side has to say.
2. Are aware of their own biases and privileges, try to overcome them, and are open to constructive criticism about the same. This means avoiding -isms, essentially: sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, etc.
3. Do not deliberately marginalize or belittle people with different opinions from theirs.
4. Do not resort to abusive language or behavior to "win" arguments (in other words, harass the person they're fighting with into silence).

So, my commenting rules are:

1. Be respectful.
2. Don't troll.
3. Don't get on my nerves.

Failing to follow these rules will result in me banning your I.P. address (which TypePad conveniently logs) and possibly reporting your behavior to your I.S.P. So, before you decide to be a jerk here, ask yourself: do I really want to explain to my employer, educational institution, or family that I got my internet suspended for harassing a college student on her blog?

I need blog friends.

Hey, everyone who's visiting!

I'm in need of blogs to read/link to, so if you have any recommendations (or would like for me to link to your site in my sidebar, provided I'm okay with your content), leave me a comment here or e-mail me.

Have a good night!

The Obligatory First Post

Greetings, and welcome to my brrrrand-new blog. This isn't my first; I've had several ill-fated public blogs in the past on Blogger and Vox that I updated a lot at first but then allowed to fall into disuse out of boredom, lack of interest, and general laziness. The only blogging service I've used consistently is LiveJournal, and I pay for that (because you can't have enough 100 x 100 pixel representations of yourself). Since that stays friendslocked (lord knows my family doesn't need the gory details of my life) and LiveJournal isn't very outside-user-friendly, I do not have a public blog, which is something I've always wanted to do. It seems that I can only use a service if I pay for it, so a few forms and $90 later, I am now the proud new owner of a TypePad account. This will be my Official Blog That My Family Reads, so I'll mostly be posting commentary (because I have a strong opinion about everything) and general life updates. Anything more personal goes on the LiveJournal.

Once I finish tweaking the layout, I will be starting another blog that I'll use to organize my various crafting endeavors. I just need to think of a clever name for it.

I've decided that if I use this thing once a day by the time that May rolls around, I'll divert some of my graduation funds to buying my own domain, which I've wanted to do for ages but have lacked the critical combination of funds and technical skill. I can teach myself skill once I have free time finish my thesis and graduate.