operation crave

welcome to operation help anna's body crave fruits and vegetables (code name: operation crave). our task, as you might have guessed, is to see if we can't make me want to eat fruits and veggies. this isn't to say that i NEVER crave these things. i just more often than not crave icecream or hamburgers or tater tots (arguably, yes, a veggie--but for the purpose of operation habcfv we're striking it off the list). is this possible? i think so. i seem to remember randomly craving apples all the time at one point. a truly psychidelic moment in my life. i want to get back there. so, GO TEAM.

in pursuit of our goal, i'm working on baby carrots. we're bringing these to school and are not letting me buy anything to eat. this is a good place to start i think. carrots have that satisfying crunch and the weird orange color (weird being a good thing in this case--and good thing in most cases, i think). so far so good today. i ate carrots on my way back to class after swimming.

i'll keep you on top of any developments.

wildlife cont.

I totally saw a big wild turtle today crossing the road as I was driving to school. Did he walk all the way to the middle of a residential neighborhood? Talk about the incredible journey. CRAZY!

reasons to live

We have wild turtles here in SC!! Not even kidding. I was walking around my neighborhood the other day and there was a tiny turtle just chilling in the road. And my roommate, Aimee, says that sometimes she has to stop her car and move big ones out of the road so that she doesn't hit them. Who even knew wild turtles were an option?? How do they survive? Wild turtles!!! I knew that I was meant to come to SC.

the world

is out of control! upsidedown! gradschools aren't begging the MOST brilliant people to join their programs! a perfectly normal person who will remain unnamed is suddenly obssessive naziperson! michael johns got KICKED OFF of American Idol! Seriously, world? Seriously???

changes

This blog started as a place to post about my Wales SA trip (which was phenomenal). It has slowly evolved to be a place to think and write about all the silliness, anxiety and ridiculousness that comes with being in grad school and potentially facing up to life sometime. Which brings me to changes: because my blog has evolved, I started thinking that I ought to change my blog title from Cymru am Byth to something more appropriate. I even went to the settings place and stared at my title, poised to type something new and pithy. But it made me too sad (this seems to be a common theme with me and change). I love Welsh. And I love Wales. And it occurred to me that Wales Forever is totally appropriate. Wales is the underdog of the UK. But they're feisty. And they keep coming. And they're kind of random. They've got that great flag. Cymru am Byth it is.

Also, I couldn't come up with anything pithy.

cracks me up

So, I'm writing a paper (shocker) which I have saved in my computer as "dang paper." Every time that I save it the save bar on microsoft office says "word is saving dang paper" as the little work bar fills. It makes my computer sound crochety and cracks me up everytime I push "crtl s." Loving it!

critical theory

fills my soul with bitterness.

thoughts about grad school

To copy a previous post on Alexis's blog.

1. How does a person choose a secondary field? How do I know if I like a field because I like a field, or that I like a field because I like the professor who taught it?

2. What if gradschool/academics isn't my cup o' tea? Will that be clear at some point? Do I want to spend the rest of my life researching and teaching? If I don't, what do I want to do?

3. How does a person know if they want to teach at a research-ish school or a small liberal arts school? I've never been to a small liberal arts college. Maybe I would like it.

4. How does one go about publishing?

5. How are people so productive?

6. I like grad school. And I like the idea of studying and reading and writing all the time.

7. I love the south in the spring. Months of perfect 70-80 degree weather. Wow.

8. I'm happy. I also feel like I don't remember how to think or how to make arguments. I don't know the rules of the game anymore. What kind of arguments am I allowed to make? Or, what kind of arguments are makable? When did I forget that?

another miracle. and a really good time.

I managed to have a paper to present at pcaaca! And we had a phenomenal week. Brooke and I got there on Tuesday to eat sushi, make ourselves look dumb about coffee pots, watch American Idol, and write our papers. Sarah, Bethany and Kati joined us the next day. We had a great time walking around the city, getting blasted again for our papers, and hanging out with Cutchins and his adorable wife. Some photo highlighs:



Me, Brooke and Sarah at the Italian Restaurant for the BYU dinner.

San Fran in the park by the hotel. Gorgeous. We had beautiful weather the whole week.

a miracle

while unloading my groceries i managed to spray sprite zero all over my pants, the bushes and the side of my car. that takes something special.

teaching over the last week

We've been working on object analysis and things are going pretty well, actually. We started the paper on Wednesday and worked thesis statements on Friday. Friday's class went particularly well in my first period. We used one of the girls' object and observations of that object to come up with arguments about that object. I think they really began to see the social constructions behind things that they taked for granted. They really caught on to the idea of socially constructed gender norms. We talked about my brother being in Africa and the huge difference between what is "ok" in terms of physical affection between heterosexual people of the same gender in Africa and what is "ok" here. Anyhow, I'm happy with how that went. My 11:15 class was a little less into it and they're having a tough time getting beyond observations. We'll see how they do over the break.

Spring break here I come!

don't even worry

I have a plan. And it is to kick some USC trash! Go team.

This, of course, means changing some unproductive although gripping habits. No prob. Will do. Consider it kicked.

i feel like a failure

in so many ways. the great thing about this blog is that no one reads it. because i never post. so i can write whatever i want. my academic life is falling apart. i don't even know if it is what i want. or what i want. and i'm lazy. and i heard some great news today that made me feel absolutely worthless. i mean, what's wrong with me? what don't i have as a student? so depressing.

HP7

How far along is everyone? I know Joe and Mom have finished. Don and Amy? Rob and Ann? John (are you really going to wait?) and Wendy?

I'm about 100 from the end.