Dum · spiro, · spero.

For all non-horsey folks, this part is ( boring )

In other news, I spent today trying to find the reputed Calontir equestrian practice, about which I've been in contact a couple of times with the woman who runs it. I only managed to drive around the hinterlands of the Flint Hills for nearly six hours, and finally arrive at her place with approximately ten minutes to introduce myself before leaving to get home for Mason's birthday dinner (at which point I got lost for the fourth time.) It's just as well the practice today was canceled for rain I suppose.

Also, being in Tucson for the wedding was wonderful, and also gave me the chance to finally consolidate all of my material possessions in one state for the first time in quite a while. When Trav arrived a little over a week ago, the move was pretty much complete. I live in KS now, on paper and in all practical senses, though it still feels very weird to say.

Work as a phone monkey continues to be spectacularly tedious and reach new heights of monotony, but I'm currently playing for all I'm worth at a promotion to the Client Relations department. They're desperately understaffed, and it would be a relatively huge pay increase (like on the order of 45%.) It's probably hellaciously stressful and would suck royally, but it would help financially, and it would look much better on a resume, so it's probably worthwhile. The only other real potential option right now is a position at KU that's opened up in the department run by a friend of Justin's. The problem with that one, though, is that it's roughly comparable pay (better benes), and is only a secretarial position, so doesn't really "advance" me much, unless it's just inherently better to be at KU.

Other than that, I'm still working a lot, but doing much better at balancing a realistic (50 hr/wk) schedule with the bliss of finally getting to ride again (Can you believe I hadn't been on a horse since mid-July?!?!) And of course, having my wonderful man around is phenomenal. I can't think of any way I'd rather have this set up, even if it might have been risky to move in with so little history, it's worked out better than I ever could have hoped.

but I wanted to jump on the 50 Book Challenge 09 Bandwagon, with avilina. I'm also feeling inspired by that rather droll, yet depressing article she posted a few days ago. In that light, I've finished my first book of 09, and hope to make a better showing than I did in 08 with my depressing dozen or so completed.

1) Age of Chivalry: Art and Society in Late Medieval England - Nigel Saul (ed.)

Currently working on some Robert Louis Stevenson stuff, and the Oxford Atlas of the Medieval World.

( Memes go under cuts )

On the whole, I'm not surprised, and I think the analysis paragraph is spot on, at least up through 'They enjoy learning'. However, I think it couldn't be much more wrong thereafter so... Huh....

Hey folks. Most of this won't interest anyone, and for the most part it was just an exercise to get me thinking more linearly and making the concrete connections between ideas that I'll have to have to be able to squeeze a paper from my random musings. However, if anyone has the time and the inclination, it would help me quite a bit to see if this particular description of what I want to do makes sense to anyone. In particular, I'm looking for input from people who haven't been reading the jargon all summer (like myself) to see if it's clearly presented, etc. It's only about 1100 words (a tenth of the final project,) if you're interested. It would help me. Thanks :)

( Dissertation directions atm )

I knew I'd put on weight. Like serious, shameful, nigh-on-disgusting, it's-only-been-8-months, that-takes-effort put on weight. Still didn't expect to split my favourite trousers. On the seat. Just walking around town. Damn my lack of discipline!

Your result for The Attachment Style Test...

The Cuddleslut

Take The Attachment Style Test at HelloQuizzy

I consider myself still pretty "fringe," and to top it off, I haven't played in a year or more.

The Queen's Champion

You scored 52% hardcore SCA!
You are really involved in the SCA. You probably have some really cool garb. You put a lot of work into playing the game and making sure its fun for others too. For a lot of folks an event wouldn't be the same without you. You probably have a tendancy to over do it sometimes. You may need help knowing when to say "No" or when to stop sewing and go to bed.

Quickly! Before the monkeys come: Take The hardcore SCA Test

Nonetheless, if the PhD falls through, I will be a force with which to be reckoned!!!

B6) Fallen Skies (Philippa Gregory) - 7/7/08

Really good book, couldn't put it down. Warning, *NOT* the thing to lift depression, and especially not depression caused by loneliness, separation, and loss/lack of love. Yeah, learned that the hard way. Gonna be a long night, methinks.

sounds overly optimistic at this point:

B4) American Gods (sometime in May)

B5) Chronicon Anonymi Cantuariensis (Mid-June)

Currently in progress: Chronica Maiora of Thomas of Walsingham, and Fallen Skies by Philippa Gregory.

This post is especially targeted at the folks in the B'more/Greater DC area:

Does anyone happen to know what happened to my climbing harness? It's a sky blue ladies' harness, I think by Petzl. More than likely, it has a GriGri and a couple of anchors on it, too. I know I had it with me in B'more last September because I went climbing with all y'all, but it never made it to St. Andrews with me. I've asked a couple folks but come up empty, so if anyone has any ideas, or might possibly have seen it lying around somewhere, I'd be eternally grateful for any news. I miss it and will need it when I get back. Thanks so much!

~A

( General Update - more or less the last email to my mom )

( An 'update' on men that turned into a rant )

I've also had a wave of inspiration this week. I've thought for years now that I didn't really have a certain "type" of guy for whom I usually went. I think this is untrue, now, and I believe I know what the defining characteristic of my "type" is. Long hair (well-groomed of course) is a given, but that's not really a "type," so much as an "aesthetic." Now I'm curious if I'm the last one to know, so if any of you has any comments on what you think my "type" is, I'd love to hear them. I'll post my theory in a few days when I've guaged the responses.

Also, very sad: I think I will miss the new X-Files film in cinemas in both countries, as I'm pretty sure I'll be heading stateside as it's heading this direction. Damn. DamnDamnDamn.

NO! I don't know what I want to do with my life.
NO! I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
NO! I don't know where I'll be in ten years' time.
NO! I don't know what I'm doing next year.
NO! I don't know what I will do with my degree.
NO! I don't know which side of the Atlantic on which I will reside in three months' time.
NO! I haven't applied for any jobs or PhDs yet at all.
NO! I don't need your wisdom and insight regarding my timetable.

I'm dealing with it. Not well, but I'm coping.

Furthermore:

NO! I don't know what my dissertation is about.
NO! I don't even have a basic idea beyond "Ritual" and Fourteenth Century."
NO! I'm not doing horses anymore. Pay attention.
NO! I haven't come up with a PhD proposal.
NO! I don't know what that will be about either.
NO! I really don't need to be reminded of my timetable.

Hey all!

The time has finally come for me to come back and visit Tucson for a short while. I'll be flying back into town the evening of the Monday before UA Graduation, so I can watch my mom walk for her Master's the following weekend. Therefore, I'll be landing around 8 pm on the 12th, and will not be available (parental claiming will occur.) However, she will be working all day Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll have some small amount of time to visit with people.

Have no fear, I've already secured permission to go to Fighter Practice and Chuy's that Tuesday night, so I expect much hilarity to ensue! The rest of the week that I'm in Tucson is sort of up in the air right now, as graduation-adjacent activities will probably take precedence to a degree. This does not, of course, mean that we can't try to plan something then too if that's when you're free. Let me know!

I can't wait to see you all!
~Axxxxx

x-posted to Facebook

I've just returned from the most bizarre Rocky Horror experience of my life. Yes. That's saying something.

Several of us Americans have been actively seeking a Rocky Horror Picture Show Live Production in Britain (*anywhere* in Britain) for several months, in order to initiate our stuffy British friends into the true joy and revelry that is unabashed mocking, sarcasm and depravity at the top of your lungs. Unsurprisingly, most Brits cower under a rock at this proposal, but still, we thought we'd try, for the good of the country. Deus volt, God save the Queen, and all that rubbish.

Last night, at about 11 pm, we discovered that the local tiny little cinema was playing the Rocky Horror Picture Show as their weekly "Late Film" tonight at 11 pm. Done and Done!!! We are so there!! Mad flurry of organizing emails and puppy dog eyes, entirely too much time diverted from legitimate pursuits, and a day chock full of antici........................................................................................pation ensued.

The moment came, and it ended up being a Scottish couple who had seen the film before, at least, though no live show, four experienced Americans, quite willing to be as loud and offensive as possible, (it's the American way after all,) and one of the American guys' Chinese girlfriend, over here for her first year in Britain, and, from what I can tell, absolutely keen to go.

Round about the beginning of the wedding scene, the usher asks me to be quiet. Huh? Uh...ok.... I start speaking in a normal projecting voice rather than shouting. The audience continues laughing as before. The Time Warp, of course, is a loud, proud-stepping occasion and about 20% of the audience joined me in the aisles and had a blast. I thought people were opening up. Directly following this, the usher informs me that I'm having too much fun and have to be quiet. I nod, and blow him off. At this point, I settle for sitting nicely in my chair for most of the film and limiting myself to the best callbacks: the dirtiest ones, the most offensive ones, and the wittiest ones. I feel very accomplished for paring it down from the double running dialogue in my head from which I usually have to choose my comments, and even then feel rushed. Call Me Daddy, after all, was a brilliant director, and of course I owe most of my Rocky upbringing to my dear Atomic Punani and to Down Boy. Nonetheless, I am unable to refrain from dancing to the Sword of Damocles, Hot Patootie, and the dinner table scene, but I tried to do so discreetly in a side aisle, and only speaking the callbacks, rather than shouting them. I was, at this point, still getting a ripple of appreciative laughter at most of them.

Despite this, some mentally underprivileged individual shushed me sometime following the Rocky Horror Roll Call, and I started to get annoyed. At this point Jason, Kassie, and a couple high school kids in full dress in the front row got equally annoyed and we all just started belting it out again, and dancing at the front of the room. You can't be a rebar-up-your-ass prude *and* a 19-yr-old at the Late Show of Rocky Horror. It would be an abomination of the worst kind and Hell would swallow up all of existence.

As if that weren't enough, after the show some intellectually unfortunate girl actually got in line behind my congratulators and well-wishers, and waited her turn to speak to me. When she did, she actually told me that it was inappropriate to do anything other than sit sedately in the chair and watch the film respectfully for its own value. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?!?!?!?! You actually *WANTED* to *WATCH* the film? I don't believe you. She and one or two others brought up the point that people who had never seen it before (traditionally known as virgins) might not understand what was going on. To that I have three answers.

1) If you want to know the story, you should be able to figure out to watch it on your own, either before or after the live screening.

2) The movie has no plot, so it's not like it would have made more sense if the room had been quiet. The only thing worth understanding about the Rocky Horror Picture Show is the way it speaks to people, the way it teaches us to laugh at ourselves the way Richard O'Brien clearly laughs at himself, and the way it shatters the barriers of social taboo. None of this is conveyed better by a sedate and well-behaved viewing than by jumping head-first into the Science Fiction Double Feature World. The lessons Rocky Horror has to teach are learned by partaking, not by watching.

3) You will find no sympathy in me for a Slow Start Method. I would just like to remind everyone that the first time I actually got to see the whole thing through, I was *ON* stage, *IN* a costume, *IN* a spotlight, *LIVING* it. Don't even try to talk to me about any other way. You came to a *LATE SHOWING* of the *ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW* so *WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU EXPECT?!*

A real update will follow sometime...maybe soon.

However, now books:

B2) "Riders" - Jilly Cooper, pp. 919 (sometime in January, 2008)

B3) "Darwin's Children" - Greg Bear, pp. 458 (Mar. 23, 2008)