Media Consumed 2023

I really like the format I used for 2022, so I'm just gonna continue on with that for now.

250 Books | Six Cities Visited | 48 Comics | Four Concerts and the Like | Five Conferences and Festivals | 107 Movies | Four Museums and Landmarks | Twelve Readings and Talks | 0 Sports Matches | Six Theatre Productions | 848 TV Episodes

LET'S. EFFIN. GO.

Could You Repeat That? CC

I feel like I should make note that this is my 200th edition of this! I have been doing "Could You Repeat That" since 2002, in the fairly early days of Regular People using the internet. How early was it? I actually received emails from two first-time authors who thanked me for including snippets from their books alongside more venerable names. (That does not happen anymore, obvs, though I do dig when I get a "like" from an author when I gush on Twitter.) And I know it might seem relentlessly fiddly to some, keeping track of favorite lines from every single book, but I don't know, man. I think it's kind of neat to see twenty years of books over time.

In case you're wondering: Not counting this post, I've read 2977 books since July 2002. (YMMV: I include cookbooks, books of poetry, graphic novels, plays, novellas, and novelettes. I also count re-reads, which I know some people do not.)

Anyway. On to the stuff!

Media Consumed 2022

What things have I kept count of this year?

316 Books | 21 Cities Visited | 27 Comics | Two Concerts (ish) | 6 Conferences and Festivals | 77 Movies | 21 Museums and Cultural/Historic Sites | 15 Readings and Talks | 1 Sports Match | 6 Theatre Productions | 801 TV Episodes

2019 by the Numbers

Books Read: 190
Weirdly, Goodreads said I read 200 books, so just as last year, this may remain a mystery.
I'm listing the authors, for a bit of brevity.
Mia Marshall, Charlie N Holmberg, Paul Krueger, Caitlin Doughty, Zoraoida Corova, Nicole Ponseca & Miguel Trinidad, Valeria Luiselli, Kevin Kwan, Robert Jordan, Seanan McGuire, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Nicola Griffith, Louise Penny, Elaine Castillo, Ling Ma, Ben H Winters, Megan Whalen Turner, Tommy Orange, Robin McKinley, Tana French, Carlo Sernaglia and Julia Turshen, Sarah J Maas, Suzanne Goin with Teri Gelber, Malka Older, Anita Lo, George RR Martin, Diane Morgan, Justina Ireland, Nafkote Tamirat, Jenn Lyons, Uzodinma Iweala, Tom Rachman, Anna Burns, Heidi Sopinka, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Esi Edugyan, Richard Powers, Deborah Harkness, Laurie R King, Genevieve Cogman, Emily XR Pan, Tomi Adeyemi, Kelly Thompson, Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett, Malinda Lo, Donna Leon, Curtis C Chen et al, Sarah Perry, Dhonielle Clayton, Hannu Rajaniemi, Zen Cho, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elisabeth Cohen, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Joseph Fink, Marcela Valladolid, Elizabeth George, Jeff Parker, Caitlin Starling, Anissa Helou, Bill Willingham, Elizabeth Acevedo, Yoon Ha Lee, Brian Switek, Faith Erin Hicks, Neil Gaiman, Adam Johnson, G Willow Wilson, Blake Crouch, Holly Black, Christopher Kimball, Elizabeth McCracken, Lonely Planet, Will Hill, Naomi Novik, Sarah Porter, Pat Barker, Daniel Jose Older, Jon Ronson, Thi Bui, NK Jemisin, Fareed Zakaria, Amin Maalouf, Gabriela Camara, Rachel Khoo, SA Chakraborty, Leigh Bardugo, Mira Grant, Elisa Goldstein et al, Fonda Lee, Rachel Caine, Alastair Reynolds, Joakim Pamkvist, VE Schwab, Sarah Gailey, Edna Lewis, Margaret Owen, Erin A Chang, Charles Soule, Struan Stevenson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Carla Lalli Music, Marie Lu, Susan Meissner, Michelle Ruiz Kell, Lisa A Nichols, Jennifer Nagel, Sady Doyle, Geraldine Brooks, Rebecca Traister, Maggie Stiefvater, Jennifer Givhan, Rakhee Yadav, Alana Kysar, Xuan Juliana Wang, LL McKinney, Philip Pullman, Harriet A Washington, Tom King et al, Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying, Mackenzi Lee, Becky Chambers, Sally Rooney, Namwali Serpell, Joseph Harris, Joel Spring Martin Morales, Neil Gaiman & P Craig Russell, Jenny Linford, VE Schwab, Laila Lalami, RF Kuang, Maria Gainza, Tea Obrecht, Claire Lombardo, Gail Simone, Rebecca Solnit, Paula Volksy, Elvia Wilk, Stacy M Perryman-Clark & Collin Lamont Craig, Sharon Kay Penman, Sally McKenny, Sue Burke, Joel Shepherd, Erik Larson, Anne Griffin, Amanda Cohen, Meghan Scott Molin.

You can read snippets from every book I've read this year here.

Cities Visited: 14
Memphis, TN
Pittsburgh, PA
Nashville, TN
Tampa, FL
East Lansing, MI
Bangkok, Thailand
Hong Kong
Baltimore, MD
Dallas, TX
Kansas City, MO
DeKalb, IL
Houston, TX
Lubbock, TX
Riverside, CA

Concerts/Performances Attended: 11
Kelly Clarkson, with Brynn Cartelli and Kelsea Ballerini supporting
Carrie Underwood, with Runaway Jane and Maddie & Tae supporting
Beale Street Music Festival (Everclear, Rodrigo y Gabriela, 6lack, Cardi B)
Amanda Palmer
Hannah Gadsby (comedy)
Hamilton (theatre)
Carly Rae Jepsen, with Phoebe Ryan supporting
Mary J Blige & Nas
Common, with Mumu Fresh supporting
Trevor Noah (comedy)
Switchfoot

Conferences Attended: 5
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing 2019 in Pittsburgh
Conference on College Composition and Communication 2019 in Pittsburgh
AP Language Reading in Tampa
Computers & Writing in East Lansing
Council of Writing Program Administrators in Baltimore

Festivals/Readings/Lectures: 5
Arkansas Literary Festival (Charles J Shields, Brantley Hargrove, Jericho Brown, Geffrey Davis, Elizabeth Minchilli, Dorie Greenspan, Arkady Martine, Marina Lostetter, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Maurice Carlos Ruffin)
Thi Bui reading @ HSU
Emily Roberson reading @ Wordsworth Books
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Hillary Clinton & Chelsea Clinton reading @ University of Houston

Movies Watched: 129
Bird Box, Peppermint, Eight Grade, BelCanto, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, Split, Blockers, Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, Roma, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Vice, On the Basis of Sex, Mary Queen of Scots, Antiquities, The Wife, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Front Runner, At Eternity's Gate, The Hate U Give, Bad Times at the El Royale, Green Book, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Sorry to Bother You, Minding the Gap, Of Fathers and Sons, Nobody's Fool, Shoplifters, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Hale County This Morning This Evening, Robin Hood, Fighting with My Family, What Men Want, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Mortal Engines, Operation Finale, A Private War, Instant Family, Free Solo, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse AU, The Mercy, The Runaways, Second Act, Gloria Bell, Bumblebee, Shazam!, Welcome to Marwen, The Kid Who Would Be King, Glass, Against the Clock, Hellboy, Avengers: Infinity War, Justice League vs the Fatal Five, Avengers: Endgame, The Quake, Miss Bala, Little, Breakthrough, Long Shot, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Aladdin, Fighting with My Family, Paddington, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Five Feet Apart, Captive State, Late Night, Hotel Mumbai, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Spiderman: Far From Home, Alita Battle Angel, Mission: Impossible, Batman Returns, Twenty-fifth Hour, Grave of the Fireflies, The Best of Enemies, Fantastic Four, Ratatouille, Dreamgirls, Little Woods, Toy Story 4, Men in Black: International, Yesterday, The Farewell, Always Be My Maybe, Tolkien, The Sun is Also a Star, The Hustle, Crazy Rich Asians, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Rocketman, Booksmart, Amazing Grace, The Biggest Little Farm, Dark Phoenix, Hustlers, Ad Astra, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, Shaft, Downton Abbey, Judy, China Love, Varda by Agnes, Well Groomed, Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops, Nothing Fancy, Meeting Gorbachev, Pizza A Love Story, Made in Boise, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Terminator: Dark Fate, Harriet, Avengers: Endgame, Brian Banks, Charlie's Angels, Ford v Ferrari, Queen & Slim, Black Panther, Official Secrets, Blinded By the Light, Where'd You Go Bernadette?, The Goldfinch, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Don't Let Go (Relive), Wit, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Topkapi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

You can see all the mini-reviews here.

TV
So I once again forgot to keep count of all the episodes I watched this year, but I CAN tell you which TV shows I binged from beginning to end.

• Game of Thrones (to prep for the last season, SIGH)
• The Magicians
• Criminal Minds and its two spin-offs
• Supernatural

And I'm about four seasons into Cold Case right now. NOTHING CAN STOP ME.

So, those are the numbers for 2019. Here's to 2020!

Media Consumed in 2017

So I've had this sitting in a text file for two months. Oops.

Academic Conferences: 4
ATTW, CCCC, C&W, CWPA

Books: 194
Though my Goodreads count is only slightly over 125, so I'm giving this count a bit of sideeye. How is Goodreads measuring these things? Have I been meeting my reading challenges all along, but been misinformed by the system? Ah, well.

Comics: 90 individual issues (I count graphic novels under books)

Concerts: 8
The Lumineers, Leslie Odom Jr, George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, Shawn Mendes (w/ Charlie Puth supporting), Fall Out Boy (w/ Jaden Smith and Blackbear opening), Bruno Mars (w/ Jorja Smith opening), Regina Spektor, Lady Gaga

Cooking Classes/Demos: 21
Craft/Floral Classes: 8
I will miss Ames and Iowa State so much. So, so, so much.

Festivals: 2
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2017, Riverside Festival of Lights 2017

Lectures and Readings: 13
Chuck D, Kekla Magoon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Lee Mun Wah, Black Light Butterflies (entymology lecture), Keisha Blaine, John Darnielle, Curtis Chin, David Anthony Durham & Benjamin Percy, Taylor Broby, Anne Curzan, Toni Phinisey-Webber (re: Little Rock Central High School), Jon Ronson

Movies: 140
Last year I only watched 14 movies, so I vowed to watch more. And...yup. Totally did. Special shout-outs to AMC's annual Oscar nominee specials and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Museums & Landmarks: 13
Brunnier Art Gallery, Octagon Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Mazza Museum of Children's Literature, Living History Farms, Tennessee Riverboat Cruise (Knoxville), Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (Knoxville), Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville), ESSE Museum, Witt Stephens Jr Central Arkansas Nature Center, Arkansas Art Center, Saint Louis Art Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

New Restaurants: 53
Thanks to conferences (Portland, Findlay, Knoxville), a wedding reception (Chicagoland), a few concerts/road trips (Minneapolis, Nashville, St Louis, Kansas City, Dallas), moving to another state (Arkadelphia, Little Rock, Hot Springs), and a couple of extra-long visits to California!

Theatre: 26
Messiah on the Frigidaire, Akeelah and the Bee, The Vagina Monologues, Newsies, Allegiance, Our Antigone, The Bee's Tease, The Importance of Being Earnest, Good Night Desdemona Good Morning Juliet, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, Little Women, Annie, Fun Home, Other Desert Cities, Trashion Show, Tempest, Happy Days, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, HIR, Greater Tuna, I Am Emily Doe, Circle Mirror Transformation, Night of the Iguana, The Mousetrap, HSU Directing Class Showcase, Corona Dance Academy Winter 2017 recitals

TV Episodes: 632
This is the first year I've kept track of how many episodes of television I've watched. This is a big number, but it's also probably way less than I've watched in previous years--my shift to watching more movies meant, obviously, that TV was edged out a bit. Oh, and for the record, I also watched a ton of The Daily Show (I love Trevor Noah deeply), Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but since I generally skip the interview portions of the shows, I opted not to count those here.

And that's officially a wrap for 2017!

2016: By the Numbers

I've done quite a bit this year! My habit for the past few years has been to keep track of these things monthly, but somewhere in the middle of the summer, I lost track of things. This is about the best that I can do in reconstruction--I'll be a bit more organized in the year to come (I hope).

Academic Conferences Attended: 6
Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, Ames, IA (20160303-04)
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, Houston, TX (20160406)
Conference on College Composition and Communication, Houston, TX (20160407-09)
Computers and Writing, Rochester, NY (20160519-22)
Council of Writing Program Administrators, Raleigh, NC (20160714-17)
International Writing Centers Association, Denver, CO (20161013-16)

Books Read:
102, according to GoodReads. A good number, except that I ambitiously set my reading challenge to 200. LOL.

Comics Read: Not Enough
Princess Leia, Saga, Black Panther (not counting graphic novels)
I need to increase my consumption here--I've got batches of comics in my Marvel/Comixology/Dark Horse accounts. I just need to read and log them more consistently.

Concerts Attended: 6
Adele (St. Paul, MN, 20160705)
Nico & Vinz (Ames, IA, 21060825)
Switchfoot & Relient K (Clive, IA, 20160921)
Grace Potter (Des Moines, IA, 20160929)
Beyonce (Nashville, TN, 20161002)
Carrie Underwood (Des Moines, IA, 20161007)

Cooking Classes/Demos: 17
Quinoa (Cooks Emporium, 20160128)
Pressure Cookers (CE, 20160220)
A Taste of Egypt (CE, 20160227)
Turkey Roulades & Lemon Cupcakes (CE, 20160305)
Risotto Croquettes (Wheatsfield Co-op, 20160329)
Versatile Goat Cheese (WC, 20160426)
Chicken Mole (CE, 20160430)
Cooking with Cast Iron (Williams-Sonoma, 20160626)
Fermented Food & Kombucha (WC, 20160809)
Spiralizer Favorites (W-S, 20160821)
Natural Fermented Pickles (CE, 20160903)
Nordic Waffles (CE, 20161008)
Thanksgiving Side Dishes (CE, 20161112)
Paella (CE, 20161119)
Seven Cheese Gougere (CE, 20161126)
Holiday Cookies (CE, 20161203)
Holiday Savory Snacks (CE, 20161210)

Craft/Movement Classes: 23
Copper hoop earrings & pendant (The Workspace, 20160114)
Felted wool mittens (TW, 20160121 + 27)
Silver & copper rings (TW, 201602)
Resin Jewelry (TW, 20160224, 20160302)
Boho Wall Hanging (TW, 20160801)
Fused Glass Pendants (TW, 20160829)
Inked Coasters (TW, 20160831)
Knitting (TW, 201609)
Mat-cutting (TW, 20161006)
Dia de los Muertos Skulls (TW, 20161008)
Crochet (TW, 201610)
Sugar Skull Embroidery (TW, 20161020)
Silk Painting (TW, 20161029)
Delsarte: Body Language and the Artist (TW, 20161105)
Delsarte: And a Torso Even More So (TW, 20161105)
Delsarte: Standing Up for Your Art (TW, 20161105)
O'Keeffe Oil Painting (Reiman Gardens, 20161107)
Fused Glass Ornaments (TW, 20161109)
Frugal Florals (RG, 20161116)
Balloon Crafts (RG, 20161117)
Miniatures (RG, 20161120)
Wreath-Making (RG, 20161130)
Etched Glass Ornaments (TW, 20161207)

Festivals Attended: 2
Define American Festival, Des Moines, IA
Festival of Cheese, Des Moines, IA (20160730)

Lectures and Readings Attended: 7
Alisha Gordon, "The Fierce Urgency of Now" (20160121)
Reshma Saujani, "Women Who Don't Wait in Line" (20160128)
Marion Blumenthal Lazan, "My Holocaust Story" (20160208)
Cheryl Strayed (20160915)
Jennifer Knox + Iowa Bird of Mouth (20160916)
Gloria Steinem (20161011)
Margaret Atwood (20161101)

Movies Watched: 14
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (DVD)
Jurassic World (DVD)
A Better Life (film festival)
Don't Tell Anyone (film festival)
The Muslims Are Coming! (film festival)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [theatre]
Cinderella (2015) [DVD]
The Grand Budapest Hotel [streaming]
Hector and the Search for Happiness (streaming)
Captain America: Civil War (theatre)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (streaming)
Edge of Tomorrow (DVD)
Loving (theatre)
Rogue One (theatre)

Museums & Landmarks Visited: 12
Chocolate Tour of Chicago (BestTours.com, 20160507)
Strong Museum of Play, Rochester, NY (20160522)
Design Exchange, Toronto, ON (20160524)
Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art, Toronto, ON (20160525)
Peel Art Gallery and Museum, Brampton, ON (20160527)
Niagara & Horseshoe Falls (20160528)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (20160529)
Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh (20160715)
Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines, IA (20160730)
Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Factory Tour, Nashville, TN (20161001)
Corsair Distillery tour, Nashville, TN (20161002)
Broad Contemporary Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (20161227)

New Restaurants Visited: 43
The Mission Inn (Riverside)
Ninfa's (Houston)
1600 Bar + Grille (Houston)
Calabash Island Eats (Houston)
Volare (Chicago)
Doc B's Fresh Kitchen (Chicago)
Quartino's (Chicago)
Yolk (Chicago)
The Owl House (Rochester)
Senbazuru Sushi Bar (Richmond Hill)
Sushi Inn (Toronto)
Bohemia (Barrie)
Anchor Bar (Buffalo)
Table 128 (Clive)
Blue Tomato Kitchen (Des Moines)
Bubba - Southern Comforts (Des Moines)
Prime (Des Moines)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Cleveland)
Fran's Restaurant (Toronto)
Spoon River (Minneapolis)
Izzy's (Minneapolis)
Birchwood Cafe (Minneapolis)
Hell's Kitchen (Minneapolis)
Bluestem Bar (Minneapolis)
Little Octopus (Nashville)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Nashville)
Biscuit Love (Nashville)
Las Paletas (Nashville)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Nashville farmers' market)
Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish (Nashville)
Five Daughters Bakery (Nashville)
Franklin Juice Company (Nashville)
Green Fine Salad Co. (Denver)
Guard and Grace (Denver)
Syrup (Denver)
Prospect's Urban Kitchen & Bar (Denver)
Range (Denver)
Goldfinch (Des Moines)
Thai Kitchen (Ames)
Porto's Bakery & Cafe (Glendale)
Komodo (Los Angeles)
Cascabel (Los Angeles)
Sam's Banh Thai (Riverside)

Road Trips Taken: 8
Lafayette, IN (20160312-18); Spring Break cooking
Chicago, IL (20160506-08); bachelorette weekend
Rochester, NY/Toronto, ON/Buffalo, NY (20160518-30); conference/visiting family/wedding
Pennsylvania & Cleveland, OH (20160701-03); wedding
Lafayette, IN (20160805-07)
Toronto, ON (20160909-11); wedding
Minneapolis, MN (20160924-25); theatre
Nashville, TN (20160930-1002); concert

Sports Attendance:
Rams vs. Forty-Niners (20161224)

Theatre Performances Attended: 10
Sweeney Todd, Minneapolis, MN (20160724)
[title of show], Ames, IA (20160923)
Lady and the Trump, Minneapolis, MN (20160924)
The 39 Steps, St. Cloud, MN (20160925)
Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Ames, IA (20161009)
Cabaret, Ames, IA (20161113)
Ugly Lies the Bone, Des Moines, IA (20161119)
November, Ames, IA (20161127)
Cirque Dreams: Holidaze, Ames, IA (20161201)
The King & I, Los Angeles, CA (20161228)

TV Watched:
A lot. (I meant to keep track of how many episodes I watched this year, but I lost track around June. But it's a lot.)

2015 By The Numbers

I used to keep better track of things, but for various reasons, it's been rather haphazard the past couple of years. Looking forward to a meticulous 2016!

• Books Read: 170
  
  
• Comic Books Read: 76
  
  
• Concerts Attended: 3
  
  
  1. Norah Jones (20151030)
     
  2. Katy Perry (20151024)
     
  3. k.flay, Des Moines, IA [20150701]
  
  
  
• Conferences/Conventions Attended: 11
  
  1. Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner (20151024)
     
  2. Iowa Hunger Summit (20151013)
     
  3. International Writing Centers Association Conference, Pittsburgh, PA (20151008-10)
     
  4. Womyn of Colour Network Retreat, Ogden, IA (9/18-9/19)
     
  5. Council of Writing Program Administrators, Boise, ID (7/15-7/19)
     
  6. AP Reading 2015, Kansas City, MO [20150611-15]
     
  7. Computers and Writing 2015, Menomonie, WI (5/28-5/31/15)
     
  8. Iowa Writing Center Consortium, March 27, 2015
  9. Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 19-21, 2015
     
  10. International Writing Centers Association Collaborative, March 18, 2015
      
  11. Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, March 5-6, 2015
      
  
  
  
• Lectures/Readings Attended: 10
  
  1. Kai Davis (20151110)
     
  2. Alison Bechdel (20150409)
     
  3. Dan Barber (20150408)
     
  4. Rachel Williams (20150408)
     
  5. Ava Chin (20150406)
     
  6. John McWhorter, "The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language" (20150305)
     
  7. Dan Fagin, "Connecting the Dots Between Toms River and Beyond" (20150303)
     
  8. "The Underground Girls of Kabul," Jenny Nordberg (20150206)
     
  9. Michelle Alexander, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" (20150129)
  10. Alison Hawthorne Deming, "Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit" (20150122)
      
  
  
• Movies Watched: 16
  21 Jump Street, Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bring It On, Drumline, Fast Five, The Fault in Our Stars, Furious 7, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, Hook, Iron Man 3, Mad Max: Fury Road, A Night at the Museum, Sisters, Spy, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
  
  
• Museums Visited/Landmarks Visited/Tours Taken: 10
  
  1. Des Moines Art Center (second visit, 20151101)
     
  2. Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh)
     
  3. Boise Art Museum
     
  4. Des Moines Art Center
     
  5. Taste of Louisville tour
     
  6. Henry Doorly Zoo (20150704)
     
  7. Joslyn Art Museum (20150703)
     
  8. Mall of America (20150601)
     
  9. The American Swedish Institute (20150531)
     
  10. Florida Aquarium (Tampa, FL)
      
  11. Tampa Bay History Center (Tampa, FL)
  
  
• Theatre Attended: 2
  
  1. Love and Information, Caryl Churchill (20151206)
     
  2. The Vagina Monologues (20150213)
  
  
• TV Episodes Watched: 722
  

At least I kept busy?

Hey, October

My birthday month has arrived, just as autumn has. I've enjoyed the long, long summer that graced Iowa these past few months, but I am glad for the cold. I mean, I hate being cold, but the fruit flies in my apartment are driving me nuts. Every time I think they're all gone, another wave will appear. Mysteriously, they usually greet me from my bathroom mirror. Their tiny bodies litter the shelf under my lamp in the living room. Do I ever see them in the kitchen, though? Maybe they've forgotten they're fruit flies.

Anyway. I told myself I would blog every day in October, and then I had a bad few days, and now the two things I meant to have ready today are not actually written. Things I like to talk about: movies that I aspire to watch, TV that I plan to devour, music that continues to soothe. And food. And life.

October. Crossing my fingers for a good one.

Long Weekend, Lost Weekend

Three-day weekends are exercises in indulgence. I can't number how many people, as I went from market to market to salon yesterday, asked me, "Any big plans for the weekend?" I told someone the other day that, now that I'm no longer in my twenties, I don't feel compelled to have something exciting to say--I can just say I'm going to spend all weekend in my pajamas, watching Netflix, and feel content. And, sometimes I do that. Except that was not really my plan. I mean, the pajamas thing is totally true. But with a long weekend and a stack of library books that would soon no longer be renewable to me, I knew that I was just going to spend Saturday on farmers' market and the salon and World of Warcraft.

Today happened pretty much like I expected: my days-off alarm went off at 7:45 AM and I shut it off and woke up at close to 11. I sort of wandered around of the apartment randomly, checking the weather, brushing my teeth. Setting coffee to brew. Stripping the bed of its sheets, because I have to do laundry sometime, but didn't manage it today. I put some chicken that had been marinating into the oven. I read the last forty pages of a romance novel on my Nook, and then the last fifty pages of a library book. I read an email, thought about deleting it, and then marked it as unread again. Made a peanut butter and honey sandwich. I picked up another library book and sat down, and read it straight-through. I mixed up a batch of cookies. I ate the salmon I baked last night. I mixed up some salad dressing. I read a graphic novel, and then chatted a bit with Jen.

I mixed up a salad. Rearranged the fridge's contents and scrubbed a bit of the kitchen floor. I roasted some asparagus and fried two eggs and watched an episode of Jane the Virgin. I am going to log on to World of Warcraft for a bit, just so I can get my fishing and cooking quests done, but that's it, because I also want to start reading another book. I will bake the cookie dough I've got in the fridge. I will probably rearrange my fridge again, and possibly brew some tea.

I actually did a lot today, but it's all stuff that doesn't really seem to count as "doing stuff," when I say that out loud, to people. I'm not unsatisfied, though. I'm just a person who is content with puttering around.

Tomorrow, who knows?

Half-year's Resolution?

This Nike commercial keeps popping up on Hulu, and I adore it.



I have a lot of mixed feelings about exercise. Like, I get that it's good and necessary, but I was also a indoor-oriented bookworm for pretty much all my young life. I never learned how to ride a bike (YES, I KNOW, OKAY), and my tiny short-person legs meant I was pretty much the worst at running. I could not do even one pull-up during those torturous Presidential Fitness exam things. I was pretty good at shooting hoops, as long as I could just stand in one place.

When I was an undergrad, I discovered I liked weights pretty well--it was part of my physical fitness requirement, and I had a couple of friends to be my gym buddies. Over the years, though, I fell out of practice.

While I was at Purdue, my friend Summer Cushman opened up her own yoga studio, Community Yoga, and I signed up for a class. It was pretty amazing. Summer's moved to Seattle since then, and I've moved out here to Iowa. I am, however, thrilled that Summer's now offering a weekly audio yoga class. I'm behind a couple of weeks, but I'm really digging it so far.

I actually joined a gym when I moved out here to Iowa, and they have a pretty decent yoga class, as well as a power yoga class. (There is one yoga substitute teacher I call Maroon 5 Yoga, and I actually quit going for a while because I could. Not. Stand it.) I joined, however, because back in Lafayette my friend Gracemarie made me her gym buddy so we could go to Body Pump at the YMCA. It was painful, and I loved it--weight-lifting combined with the cardio I so often avoid. Here in Ames, I started doing Group Power, which is parallel.



Because my work schedule is pretty much business hours, I tried a couple of other classes to see how I felt about them. Pilates was frustrating, because again, I have short limbs that just can't do some of the stuff. And since most others are taller than me, it is tough to gauge what modifications are appropriate, and yeah, I guess I could do the research, but I also do research ALL THE TIME. In any case, even then, I liked Pilates WAY WAY MORE than Pilates-yoga hybrids, mostly because I would rather just do yoga, if it comes down to it.

I also took a tai chi class, in short Yang-style form. In five weeks, I think we only got through half of the form, but I enjoyed it. I keep meaning to return to it--must become more disciplined.

Discipline, really, is my problem right now. I don't walk as much as I did in Lafayette (my part of town is a fair distance from the "nice place to walk" part of town), and I sort of hermitted during the winter. Driving in snow is terrifying! I did a bit of yoga and tai chi and bhangra dance workout in my apartment, but it is hard to stay motivated when I'm all by myself. SO. I will make this public, for whoever might happen to be reading this: I am going to seriously start going to the gym again. I am privileged to not have to worry too much about weight (my body/health equilibrium is pretty stable, plus or minus about fifteen pounds), as long as I'm eating otherwise healthily, but the endorphins from working out are pretty great.

My plan is this: Summer's audio yoga class mid-week and power yoga on Saturdays. Group Power class on Sundays. And once a week, tai chi and/or bhangra. If schedule precludes going to one of the classes, I commit myself to walking very fast on a treadmill for a while, cursing my luck. Because UGH. TREADMILLS. THEY ARE THE WORST.

TV I'm Watching: iZombie

Or, welcome to back Neptune, AKA Seattle.

So, I've just started watching iZombie, which you can watch on Hulu (though the full run isn't available). I knew, even back when talk of it started circulating, that I would give it a shot, because Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero were the showrunners. As in, the folks responsible for the spectacular Veronica Mars. So I had it on my queue and sort of knew I would get to it eventually, and then I read that David Anders was in it.

David Anders is on this show. Oh hey, here's a picture of me and David Anders, when we randomly ran into him outside a club in West Hollywood eight or so years ago:



...wait, what were we talking about again? OH. iZombie, yes. So I read that he was on the show, and I immediately brought the show up on Hulu and discovered the first episode was expired, so I bought it on Amazon Prime. I've just watched the fifth episode, "Flight of the Living Dead," and y'all. Y'ALL. This show is great. It was sort of all over the place for a few episodes--very Veronica Mars in tone, wry and morbidly funny, but not quite sure what it wanted to do. It is based on a comic book, though from what I understand, "inspired by" might be a better term.

The Concept: Liv Moore (GET IT), a young doctor, with everything in life going perfectly, goes to a party and gets turned into a zombie. She wakes up on the beach, undead. As she adapts, she quits her job as a surgeon and starts up as a medical examiner. She breaks up with her fiance, and also starts solving crime. Turns out, whenever she eats somebody's brains (with generous amounts of hot sauce, because zombie taste buds aren't delicate), she gets flashes of their memories, and also temporary infusions of a few of their personality quirks. She then convinces a homicide detective she's a psychic, because obviously that's what happens when zombies decide to fight crime.

SPOILERS for up to the fifth aired episode, FYI.



I still have five episodes to watch, so I'm working from a limited standpoint. That said, here are four things that I dig about the show:

1. 
   
   I mentioned David Anders is in this right? And he's having a marvelous time. Think, say, Sark as an entrepreneurial zombie instead of a spy. His name is Blaine, and he is remarkably pale and bleached blond. Think of him as charming and devious, an effortless liar, who manipulates everybody around him so that they answer to him, and only him. Think of him as a zombie that hires a chef to make brain-eating an elegant pursuit. This might, perhaps, be Anders's ur-role. It is what he is meant to be.
   
   
2. 
   
   The delightful gentleman on the left is Ravi, Liv's boss/partner in the medical examiner's office. He grokked onto her zombie nature before she told him--one of the very earliest scenes was him catching her eating brains and not being surprised. Instead, he's delightfully scientific about it--he runs all sorts of tests to see how the whole undead thing works, but not in a mad scientist way. He's genuinely excited and curious, and also is pretty much Liv's best friend and only non-zombie confidante. They are great. Also, he's the new roommate of Liv's ex, Major, but I have yet to see that side plot come to any interesting fruition. But, yes. Ravi! He's awesome.
   
   
3. 
   
   Detective Clive Babineaux, beleaguered homicide detective. While his whole, "yes, I totally believe in your psychic powers, suspiciously pale woman" deserves some side-eye, Clive's already got way more depth than we usually see in TV detectives. For one, there's a clear sense that he's good at his job, but awful at politics. He was deep undercover in Vice for a long time, which leads others to treat him with suspicion. He's rightly frustrated when Liv pops in, wide-eyed, and pokes and pokes him until he investigates one of her "visions." And he's got a good heart. The fifth episode has Major come in (for the second time, but the first time without Liv around) and ask for Clive's help following up on a missing teenager. It's the best, and possibly ONLY, character depth we've seen in Major so far. And following up is a scene where Clive walks into a skate park, gets clocked as five-0, and corners a kid with his prickly stare. Which leads to the kid nodding him over to a board plastered with missing persons flyers. It's excellent work--the conversations have a believable cadence, and the non-verbal cues lend the interactions a lot of depth. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this--a show where the non-Liv characters have lives beyond Liv will be a good one.
   
   (I will note--Liv's roommate and supposedly best friend Peyton has had almost zero development. Liv's parents were pretty one-note in the premiere, and Liv's brother in a previous episode was a creep who kept creeping in Peyton's bedroom. So it's not ALL great character work so far.)
   
   
4. 
   
   The fifth episode also introduced Lowell, a gorgeous rock star who starts as a murder suspect. When he first sees Liv at the crime scene, he stares at her, almost shocked. In the next scene, he flirts with her to the extent that I thought, hey, maybe he's guilty. And in their third scene together--in one of the most spectacularly-constructed scenes I've ever watched--he offers to make Liv a drink while they chat about the case. Instead of doing vague drink-making-like gestures, the camera frames him so we can see exactly what he's doing: swiping lime wedges around the edge of two glasses, then twisting the rims with cayenne. Pouring the tequila and the tomato juice, and then quickly adding glugs of hot sauce. Carefully slicing two bright red jalapeno peppers to garnish the drink, and when he presents it to Liv, she notes, "This is hot." And that, friends, is how Lowell reveals he knows Liv is a zombie. Because hey, he is, too.
   
   I have no idea where this love interest thing will go, but in a universe of TV shows that constantly have actors flailing around empty coffee cups, this scene will remain glorious in my memory.

So, yeah. iZombie. It's worth a watch, folks.



I realize I mostly talked about handsome gentlemen in this post, which is sort of missing a major thing: Liv. Liv is delightful. She sort of sad and messed up, as new zombies are wont to be, but she's also caring and intelligent and wry. It's hard for me to talk about her, because her voice is so very Veronica Mars, but I dig her. I'm hoping she'll get more to develop beside "I hate murderers" and "I am sad I am a zombie, mostly because I can't make out with my ex." Anyway, I'm off to the sixth episode now.

Art, Unabstracted

One of my favorite things about Iowa State is The Workspace. While I've usually enjoyed arts-and-crafty stuff, it's never been something I pursued. But last summer, while picking up buttons for my writing center, I noticed a "Craft of the Month" posted: clipboard art. I asked if I could buy it, like a kit, but they said it was meant to be done in the Workspace itself. Basically, each month, you can walk in during open hours, pay a small fee, and they'll set you up with a how-to and a box full of supplies. It is addictive. Since then, I've done most of the crafts-of-the-month, and most of the walk-in one-time things like scarf dyeing or bracelet making. And I've done a few classes, too: tai chi, sea-glass jewelry, Zen doodling, miniature book-making, and watercolors. (In addition to accommodating a wide variety of arts, The Workspace also coordinates movement classes, including tai chi, some theatre-oriented stuff, and dance.) I've been posting my crafts over on Instagram as I've done them, and I feel really proud. Like, I've taken a hammer to copper tubing and made my own bracelets! It's pretty awesome.

As for painting, I shared a photo of the octopus I painted a couple of weeks ago, which remains my favorite thing, color-wise. I don't think I really have a good grasp on the medium of watercolor yet--I crave saturated colors and nubbly textures, which are not really things watercolors do.


Above, you'll see everything I painted in watercolors class, to varying degrees of success. The least abstract ones--the lilac-like branches and the pine tree--were imitated from the models we got in class. In contrast, you can see where I just kept fiddling and adding and daubing on. For a couple of the most vivid ones, rather than wetting the paper and mixing water in with the paints, I worked with dry paper and an almost entirely dry brush. Not an incredibly efficient use of paint, but satisfying to my eye.

Our watercolor instructor, Molly Nagel, emphasized two things about using these paints:

1. Watercolors will teach you patience. To get a good sense of what your painting will look like, you have to let the paint dry before you start adding more. Watercolors will mix, and bleed, and fade. Watercolors will teach you how to wait.
   
   
2. Watercolors will always wake up. No matter how long you let paint crack and dry on your palette, or how many days you let your canvas (or in my case, heavy-weight cold-press paper) sit, a few drops of water will bring it all to life again, and you can keep on dabbing and dabbling.

There's something really satisfying about both those principles, regardless of whether I keep on with watercolors. A few weeks ago, I went to the crafts store and bought a pad of watercolor paper, a set of brushes, and a set of paints. So far, I've only done the aforementioned octopus. I've also been trying to work more slowly.



I've worked on the tree painting on four different days. On the first, all I did was the background--a wash of green. On the second day, I used burnt sienna to outline the branches, trunk, and root. About a week later, I did the green leaves. And tonight, I muddled together some white, crimson, and ultramarine to get the purple for the blossoms. I haven't decided if I will do anything more with it. I'll let it sit for a few days. I'll mull.

An Inventory of My Purse

The Every Day, Everywhere Bag in Plum, from ModCloth.com

I assume none of this will be a surprise to people who have actually met me in person. I'm sort of surprised I didn't have any little books or magazines this time around, but otherwise. Yeah.

Outer Pocket #1
Halls sugar-free cough drops, yellow wrapper (7)
Halls sugar-free cough drop, blue wrapper (1)
Empty cough drop wrappers (6)

Outer Pocket #2
U-Haul padlock, painted with teal nail polish (1)
Cryselle packet (1)
Business cards (5)
Cranberry shimmer lip balm from The Body Shop (1)
Aveda Stress-fix body lotion, .85 fl oz (1)
Keys to house in California, with Full Metal Alchemist keychain (2)
Car key fob in red casing (1)

Inner Pocket #1
Packets of cramp tabs (2)
Packet of ibuprofen (1)
Moist towellete, in wrapper (1)
Ticket stub to Avengers: Age of Ultron, 11:30 PM showing on 4/30/15 (1)
Purple Uni-ball Signo pen (1)
Game of Thrones direwolf thumb drive (1)
Aveda lip-saver balm (1)
Empty mint wrapper (1)

Inner Pocket #2
Sandisk Sansa MP3 player, but no earbuds (1)
Pomegranate Citrus body lotion from Bath & Body Works, 2 fl oz (1)
Almay clear complexion concealer (1)
Maxi-pad (1)
Serviettes, brown (7)
Serviettes, white (1)

Primary Compartment
Wallet containing ID cards, credit cards, cash, appointment cards (1)
Owl pencil case (1) containing:

1. Rubber bands (3)
2. Highlighters (1 green, 1 yellow)
3. Fine-point markers (1 blue, 1 green)
4. Orange Sharpie (1)
5. Blue Bic (1)
6. Teal Pilot Precise V5 pen (1)

Travel wallet (1) containing:

1. Canadian passport
2. Credit cards
3. Foreign currency (USA, Canada, Poland, European Union, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Japan, the Philippines)
4. Invoice from Avengers: Age of Ultron online ticket purchase (1)
5. Boarding passes, shuttle confirmation, & itinerary from conference in Tampa
6. Receipt for equity payment to Wheatsfield Cooperative (1)
7. Thank you card from Girl Scouts for buying cookies (1)

Reusable vegetable bag from Wheatsfield Cooperative (1)
Receipt for co-pay from last doctor's visit (1)
Key tags with 2015 Cyclone Football schedule (2)
Checkbook holder (1) containing:

1. Checks
2. Half-used book of stamps (1)
3. Two concert ticket stubs (1 Anna Nalick, 1 Meiko)
4. Sam's Club card (1)

Umbrella, black (1)
Mini-notebook and attached pen (1)
Receipts, various (9)
Serviettes, brown (2)
Serviettes, white (1)
Gold elastic band for gift-wrapping (1)
Crumpled black swizzle straw (1)
Vanilla Blueberry KIND granola bar (1)
Maple Pumpkin Seeds KIND granola bar (1)
My Little Pony comb for a My Little Pony (1)
Purple Nikon digital camera in an Olympus digital camera bag (1)
Sunglasses case (1) containing:

1. Sunglasses
2. Lenscloth

Conclusion
Things I am prepared to do at a moment's notice:

• Sneeze
• Flee the country
• Fiercely defend my second-row seat at a popular conference panel, then immediately follow up with a business casual nerd meet-up in a hotel lobby
• Buy pears
• Groom tiny pony action figures

Wardrobing Function

I was going to talk about budget today, but then I started to think about ways my spending has changed significantly since I finished grad school and once again entered the grown-up world. And for the past ten months, I've got to say, clothing is one of the biggest changes. So let's talk about clothes!

Honestly, when I was in high school, I sort of tried to avoid thinking about clothes, in the same way I rejected lots of other gendering constructions. Early on, I remember just wearing leggings and baggy T-shirts a lot, or layering T-shirts over bike shorts and denim skirts. I also remember girls in high school looking at me and telling me all the ways I dressed wrong, and I remember boys laughing at me at vespers because I didn't care about what I was wearing.

High school is awful, y'all. I continue to be boggled by people who said they loved it.

Anyway, by the end of high school, I was wearing all black, and people started calling me "the feminist." I hated make-up (still do, mostly), and despised wearing any shoes outside of sandals or sneakers. And I know I changed once I got to college, but I don't know exactly how or why I changed. Maybe because around that time, my siblings and I were mobile, had part-time jobs, and could go to the mall whenever we wanted. My sister and I shopped at Forever 21 a lot, I remember. Quick, cheap clothing, with enough variety that I didn't feel like I was conforming. (And yeah, fast fashion conforms as well, but not in the way a small, church-centered community does. So.) I think that was pretty much the next ten years for me: Forever 21, or at least variations thereof. I started wearing boots with stacked, square heels, because I liked being taller sometimes. I sort of loosened my animosity towards heels, but only if they were appropriately stompy.

People still called me "the feminist," though. In hindsight, WEIRD. I mean, I am. But I couldn't have been the only one, right?

Anyway, I moved to Poland for a year, when I was 26. 27? Anyway, I sort of let go of the fast fashion and stuck to durable, layerable clothing. No time for fanciness! And then I moved to Purdue, and had to figure out my clothing ethos yet again. (I remember wandering around downtown Lafayette with my sister, and how we realized that wow, our California couture looked way out of place: Slightly shiny fabrics, sandals meant to emphasize pedicures, and, well, anything that wasn't jean shorts and a T-shirt, really.)

I meant to have more pictures of my outfits, but I actually hate taking pictures. (I am not shy, but I don't feel like I look like myself.) Also, uh, I'm not on Facebook right now, so don't have access to other people's pictures of me. In any case, my wardrobe as a grad student/young professional split into two halves: geeky grad student (jeans, T-shirts, and the occasional blazer) and fancy grad student (dresses, patterned tights, and an affection for contrasting materials). Both versions wear boots, and always will. Both versions usually wear statement jewelry. And here is the closest I can find of my usual outfit (try not to be distracted by my adorable, adorable niece):


Jeans. Boat-neck sleeveless tee from Threadless.


Statement jewelry: a snake-vertebrae bracelet from the Philippines, and an octopus bracelet that friend Emily gave to me.


GO BROWNS. I MEAN, IF YOU WANT. NOT THIS YEAR? OH. OKAY.

On my fourth day of working at my new job at Iowa State, my director very sheepishly and kindly told me that, as staff members, we're not supposed to wear jeans. OOPS. Like, I had never even thought about it. So, an entirely new wardrobe was in order. And I won't lie: the basics of my wardrobe now, the skirts and trousers and cardigans, are all from Kohl's, JC Penney, or Target. The first two are places my parents like to shop (and, thus, where parent-sponsored shopping trips happen), and they also have some good sales on comfortable-yet-office-appropriate. Plus, I was not about to spend a billion dollars on jackets and sheath dresses that I would only be wearing once every couple of years. Though I do look good in them:


This was one of my interview outfits. I'm at Macy's in this photo, for the record.
Style-wise, I think I've found a good balance. I'm never really going to wear tons of suits--my height and build don't really allow for it, budget-wise--and I'm probably not going to go back to wearing T-shirts and jeans. I do want to recommend three particular places which have consumed a healthy slice of my budget this year. They aren't cheap, but they also are fairly reasonable, as I've thought about clothing I would need to last for the next two or three years, at least.

1. Betabrand Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Super-comfortable yoga-stretchy pants, tailored to look like dress pants. I have a pair in every color offered, mostly in boot-cut. I think I have one straight-leg (possibly the taupe), because it wasn't offered in boot-cut when I ordered. Again, these aren't cheap--$88 isn't exactly pocket change--but I wear them pretty much every day of the week. (If I'm behind on laundry, trousers-wise, I'll wear Worthington petite curvy-fit pants, which are from Kohl's, and also marvelous.) The quality overall is great, though I think with one pair I'm having that weird problem where the elastic in the waistband is getting folded up. Irritating, but manageable. Overall, though, these are splendid.
   
   
2. Stitch Fix, which friend Kristen first suggested to me. (That link is a referral link, btw--I get credit if anybody signs up based on my rec.) Stitch Fix is the most wonderful and dangerous thing there is. You create a style profile for yourself, and every cycle (as frequently as two weeks, or as infrequently as two months) a stylist sends you five pieces of clothing. You keep what you like, and return the rest, postage-pre-paid. I LOVE THIS SERVICE. It lends some individuality, of a sort, to my wardrobe. Much as I dig Kohl's, or the Merona line at Target, I also like not wearing the same thing many other people are wearing. Stitch Fix, by sending only five pieces, also forces me to try on things that I wouldn't normally pick off a shelf--color-wise, material-wise, or, yes, price-wise. Many times, I've been pleasantly surprised. And I have received compliments on every single thing from Stitch Fix that I have worn. Every single one. This dress, for example:
   
   
   
   And also this brown leather jacket.
   
   
   
   The necklace, however, is from ModCloth.
   
   
3. Punjammies, by Sudara. Friend Priya led me to these, and hilariously, we both bought the same pair first. These are sort of pajama style, but pretty great if you're in a warm and/or humid climate. Again, not cheap at $44 a pop, but they're particularly made by women in India who have escaped human trafficking, which is great. Karma-wise, also, after spending so many years wearing almost-definitely-made-in-sweatshops clothes from Forever 21, H&M, etc., well. The universe and I are finding a balance.
   
   
   PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE DISASTER AREA BEHIND ME.

Anyway, I think after this slow, slow acquisition of clothing, I'm finally at a place where I don't feel I need to constantly replace things in my wardrobe. So, yay! A thing I can mostly cut out of my budget! I still don't know what to do with all these T-shirts, though. Hm.

Liminal Spaces

For the past year, while my writing center has been director-less, I've been semi-officially squatting in the director's office. Since I've been running most things in the interim, it made a lot of sense: it's directly across from our administrative staff office, and two minutes closer, walking-wise, to the center itself. Plus, we didn't want to lose the office if The Powers That Be decided to do some reallocation during our transition year. I was slightly sad to leave my original office, since it had more bookshelves (BOOOOOKS), but hey: window.

The view out the window (WINDOW) of my new office.

A photo posted by Patti P (@voleuseck) on May 13, 2015 at 5:37pm PDT

One hour of snowfall.

A photo posted by Patti P (@voleuseck) on May 13, 2015 at 5:37pm PDT

I'd dig this snowiness so much more if I didn't have to drive in it.

A photo posted by Patti P (@voleuseck) on May 13, 2015 at 5:37pm PDT

It's not as warm as I'd like, but what a gorgeous day. #nofilter #IowaState

A photo posted by Patti P (@voleuseck) on May 13, 2015 at 5:37pm PDT

Well, this thunderstorm escalated quickly. #IowaState

A photo posted by Patti P (@voleuseck) on May 13, 2015 at 5:37pm PDT

So I moved all my stuff into my new/old office today. Our new director doesn't come in for another month, but I figured it would be easier to do all the rearranging while there was nobody on campus. No more postcard-framed pictures of the campanile! I will miss you, window. And I'll keep y'all apprised on my art choices for the new/old office.

Handy GIFs I have bookmarked, at the ready.

ACT LIKE THIS IS COMPLETELY NORMAL. [Jane the Virgin]


CAKE DROP. [New Girl]


My emotions. MY EMOTIONS. [Community]


feeeeeeeels [Spirited Away]


*FLAIL* [The Muppet Show]


COME AT ME BRO


Don't even start with me. [Iron Man 2]


UGH. [The Good Wife]


Cannot. Even. [Guardians of the Galaxy]


Look, you did this to yourself. [Fresh Off the Boat]

2014 in Numbers

So in 2014, lots of important stuff happened. The top three: I finished my dissertation and successfully defended it, I moved to Iowa State to begin as Assistant Director of the Writing and Media Center, and I was awarded my Ph.D. in English: Rhetoric and Composition. Along the way, I survived the job market gauntlet, had lots of emotions, and did some crazy traveling.

I also consumed a lot of media, which is detailed below. As mentioned in my previous post, I read 101 books. I usually keep track of comics I've read, games I've played, and TV I've watched, too, but that sort of got away from me this summer. Ah, well. Let's just say it was a lot and leave it at that.

Concerts: 9

• HEAVning of Whimsy (talent show) [03 April 2014]
• Buddy [19 September 2014]
• Meiko [19 September 2014]
• Butch Walker [18 October 2014]
• Ryan Adams [18 October 2014]
• Jenny Scheinman [21 October 2014]
• Ani DiFranco [21 October 2014]
• Leslie DiNicola [14 November 2014]
• Anna Nalick [14 November 2014]

Conferences and Conventions: 7

• 129th Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago [9-12 January 2014]
• Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, Indianapolis [19 March 2014]
• Conference on College Composition and Communication, Indianapolis [20-23 March 2014]
• Advance Placement Scoring in Louisville, KY [9-15 June 2014]
• Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Normal, IL [17-19 July 2014]
• International Writing Centers Association/National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, Orlando, FL [30 October - 01 November, 2014]
• National Council of Teachers of English 2014, Washington, DC [20-23 November 2014]

Festivals: 1

• International Food & Wine Festival @ Epcot Center [01 November 2014]

Lectures and Readings: 9

• Laverne Cox, hosted by Purdue's LGBTQ Center [26 March 2014]
• Zadie Smith at Purdue's Literary Awards [17 April 2014]
• Kelsey Timmerman, "WHERE Am I Wearing?" [02 September 2014]
• Michio Kaku, "How Science Will Revolutionize Business, Medicine, Jobs, and Life" [19 September 2014]
• "The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala," Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery [23 September 2014]
• Juan Battle, "Closets are for Clothes: Being LGBT in Black America" [29 September 2014]
• Jane Smiley, "Writing About Iowa: A Conversation with Jane Smiley" [06 October 2014]
• Sanjaya Rajaram, "In the Footsteps of Normal Borlaug: The Golden Years of Wheat Production" [13 October 2014]
• Sam Taylor, "Politically Engaged Poetry for the 21st Century" [06 November 2014]

MOOCs Completed: 2

• Moralities of Everyday Life, Paul Bloom, Yale, Coursera
• The Art of Poetry, Robert Pinsky, Boston University, EdX

Movies: 28

• Pacific Rim (DVD)
• Her (theatre)
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (theatre)
• Vampire Academy (theatre)
• Much Ado About Nothing (DVD)
• Veronica Mars (streaming & theatre)
• Captain America 2: Winter Soldier (theatre)
• Edge of Tomorrow (theatre)
• Divergent (theatre, twice)
• Megashark vs. Octopus (DVD)
• Frozen (DVD)
• Godzilla (theatre)
• X-Men: Days of the Future Past (theatre, twice)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (theatre, thrice)
• Don Jon (streaming)
• The LEGO Movie (streaming)
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (DVD)
• Lucy (theatre)
• The Giver (theatre)
• Snowpiercer (streaming)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (theatre, twice)
• Annie (theatre)

Theatre: 4

• Hamlet, The Acting Company [29 March 2014]
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, The Acting Company [30 March 2014]
• West Side Story, Troika Entertainment [24 April 2014]
• "An Evening with Colin and Brad," Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood [26 October 2014]

Not a bad year.

Here at the End of All Things

So I was writing up the acknowledgements portion of my dissertation, and it occurred to me that most of the people I'm thanking are folks that might never know they're being thanked. I mean, with a thesis/dissertation, we send copies to our committee members, then print out a couple of copies for the archives and then...that's it. Weird, right? So I figured I'd post the acknowledgements and prologue out here, for all the world to see. (Given the way these documents get processed, I might be violating some sort of copyright? We'll find out. YOU CANNOT COPYRIGHT MY GRATITUDE, FACELESS EDUCORPORATIONS.)

Anyway. Here:

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgement pages are tricky beasts, and I’m not ashamed to admit that this will always feel incomplete. But hey, if you're reading this: I am thankful for you. You have made an impact in my life, and that is reflected in the work that follows.

In the summer of 2013, I received a Purdue Graduate School Summer Research Grant, which allowed me to spend a good amount of time gnawing on books and articles and ideas. Because of a funny sequence of events, Professor Michael Salvo graciously signed my grant application form at the last minute, and I'm grateful.

As I've held administrative positions in ICaP and the Writing Lab, Linda Haynes and Tammy Conard-Salvo have been superb guides and role models. Joy Kane, as well, has been a great ally and sounding board.

I was lucky enough to participate in the early years of WPA-GO, a collection of colleagues and peer mentors who helped me talk through my project, in various iterations, at every conference. The support of @womeninTC and #getafterit scholars was incredibly helpful in these past few months, as well.

I've had productive conversations with Libby Miles and Amy Ferdinandt Stolley, at very different times, but being able to bounce ideas off them kept me going when I wasn't sure I was on the right track. Kyle Vealey and I have had several long conversations about mêtis and infrastructure, and I always came out of them with a better idea of what I thought. A couple of Writing Lab tutors, including Marc Dziak, helped me fine-tune early presentations of this project, which is probably why it's as coherent as it is. During an Assessment seminar in Fall 2011, Professor Richard Johnson-Sheehan coached me through an article that is now a large chunk of Chapter Five.

When I started at Purdue, I wasn't quite sure what this whole "rhetoric" thing was about. I'm thankful for Kristen Moore, Jen Talbot, Megan Schoen, Cris Elder, and Laurie Pinkert, all of whom mentored me in different ways. It took me a while to find my feet, but they were always there to keep me steady.

My cohort has been a weird and wonderful group, and I've been glad to have them for support, as well as productive disagreement. I am especially grateful for Emily Legg and Adam Strantz. While I might have been the only avowed WPA in our group, I've learned a ton from working with them.

Without Mary McCall, Gracemarie Mike, Jeff Gerding, and Jennifer Justice, I would not have survived this year. There are no words that can express how much I am thankful for their love and support.

Professor Samantha Blackmon, Professor Linda Bergmann, and Professor Jenny Bay have been tremendous mentors and teachers. They helped me grow.

On one of my very lowest days, Professor Patricia Sullivan sat with me, and she said, "Let's start a writing group." Her generosity is astounding; her mentorship is a blessing.

Professor Thomas Rickert has been an endlessly encouraging and patient chair. His questions and, yes, puns, have helped me relearn how to think on paper. In my very first semester, I took his Institutional Rhetoric seminar; I've been writing with that class in mind ever since.

My family has been lovely and supportive, even when I didn't make very much sense to them. Christopher, Andrea, Alexandra, and Mom and Dad, I hope I keep making you proud. And, finally, to my departed grandparents, Eliseo and Mercedes, Pablo and Paz--I am a scholar because you gave me books. Thank you, always.

Prologue

In my first year of doctoral work, I took a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) seminar with Professor Linda Bergmann. On our first day of class, as she began to define WAC, she stopped and sighed. "It's impossible," she said. There were too many variables to account for, when trying to establish and build an interdisciplinary program. In addition to reconciling what "evidence," "organized," and even "writing" meant to an array of disciplines that approached learning in a multiplicity of ways, in addition to the unwieldy task of articulating what students want, being a coordinator of a WAC program involved the delicate political negotiation of making a large group of faculty do extra work. "It's impossible," she continued on, "but we try anyway."

And I was a lowly first-year, stuck in with, primarily, a group of advanced graduate students who had been acting as scholars and program-builders in complete (it seemed to me) confidence. That class, in many ways, was my first introduction to the discipline of writing program administration, both as a concept and in comportment. Honestly, it was terrifying, but I kept my head down and pressed on.

So, five years later, we come to this, a deeply personal story written in a key I'm still learning how to play. I'm attempting to reconcile a lot of ideas and identities and stuff, and not a single one of them plays nicely with the others. On most days, I've been pretty sure completion of this whole thing wasn't possible, but, well. I'm told we only deal with the impossible, here.

Thanks, Linda. 

In Medias Anno Mundi

RESTART THE CLOCK.
Yesterday was my birthday. My friend Jeremy calls the upcoming year, "the Jesus year," but really, all I want to do is watch this clip of Battlestar Galactica over and over again:

HOPEFULLY THIS YEAR IS JUST AS AWESOME, BUT LESS TERRIFYING.

I once showed this clip to a film class I was co-teaching, to jump-start a discussion of in media res. What's happening? Even if you'd already seen the mini-series preceding the series, there are all sorts of things we have to infer, plot-wise, character-wise, mood-wise. What are we supposed to know, and what do we have to guess? What do we need to figure out? What connections do we find essential? What are we willing to lose, in order to keep on going?

It's dissertation year, and job market year, and my last year at Purdue, and these are all the entangled things I came upon when thinking of my birthday. That, and steak. I planned to have steak, and ordered a fancy burger instead. I don't know what that says about my resolve.

Or maybe it's like The Truman Show?

So this morning I was leisurely walking down the hallway in my apartment and noticed there's a smoke detector installed on the wall.


It's about a foot above eye level, right outside the bathroom.

A number of questions ran through my mind at that point. Has that always been there? The casing is cracked--does it even work? How do I know it's a smoke detector and not, like, an NSA monitoring device? Or a Cylon plot device? (It says something about the state of cyber-paranoia nowadays that my first leap was to the NSA, rather than Cylons. WHO AM I?) But, yeah. A smoke detector, hanging out, and I'd never seen it in two years!

Except, false. Of course I'd seen it. I've lived here for two years; I have walked down the hallway innumerable times. I have seen that smoke detector every time and just never thought about it.

Huh.

There are lots of things that could be said about the things seen that go unseen, the invisibility of the everyday, the--sorry in advance--the always already there. I'm a writer and a scholar--these sorts of observations are the entirety of my wheelhouse.

We could talk about infrastructures we take for granted until we look at them, and they break. Think about calling 911, and all that goes into the organization of it. Think about the eerie, horrifying beauty of tornado sirens. Think about walking down a busy road and coming to a block that doesn't have a sidewalk.

We could talk about the assumptions we carry around, unchallenged until it's apparent that they can be harmful, or limiting, or wrong. Think about that hazy, reflexive mental picture you have when you read or hear the word doctor, or gamer, or friend. Or suspect. Think about your epistemology, the way you recognize that something you know is something knowable. Think about the last time you said something was "common sense," or claimed that "everybody knows that." Think about the last time you hurt someone's feelings.

We could talk about losing places, or things, or people that we need, and how we tried not to think about it beforehand. Think about the stages of grief. Think about friends we've spent the past four years with, the ones who are moving away, and how that changes the way we consider all our relationships with everybody, ever.

(Obvs, when I say "we," I mean, "I.")

What I'm going to think about for the rest of the morning, however, is why I didn't think to check for smoke detectors when I first moved in. I remember checking for a fire extinguisher, but not a smoke detector. Inefficient.