Academia

Last week I presented a paper at my first academic conference. For some reason, in the academic world, this is a "big deal." The building itself was very imposing; lots of dark wood, chandeliers, and this:
I attended one session on advertising, which included one paper on alcohol print advertisements in Thailand, and another on teen fashion magazines. Who would have thought that the subject of semiotics would come up so often? Truly, when it came time for questions, I fell asleep with my eyes open under the giant moose. (This was right after I noticed that the fashion magazine girl was significantly shorter than I am.) The highlight of this particular session was when clearly American people started pronouncing "advertisements" with a British accent: ad-VERT-is-ments. Instead of making them sound more intelligent, it only made them sound like an American actor in a Shakespeare movie from the 1940s.

After eating a stale cookie, I went across the hall to my presentation room, which was considerably less impressive than the wood paneled room with the moose. So I decided to have my picture taken in the moose room instead. Its much more exciting.


I read my paper first, and then two other girls presented before questions were asked. My session had some ridiculous title like "Building's building /rebuilding." (That wasn't it, but it definately used the word "building" more than necessary and didn't make sense.) I didn't really understand the other papers, or how they related to mine. One was on surrealist collage novels and had something to do with a bullet and a phone book, and the other was on a frontispiece in a book about architecture. Unfortunatly for the reader, she printed her pages wrong and ended up reading only half her paper - I'll assume that's why I didn't understand. At the end of the session, people continued to think too hard and attempted to relate the surrealist bullet in the phone book to a cannon ball puncturing the 18th Century farm house I wrote about. That's sort of like saying that cows and cheetahs are actually related because they both start with a "C."

Anyway, in the end I considered myself a "winner" because I had at least 5 laughs during my reading. Wether those laughs were directed at me or my writing I do not know, but in either case I have won another battle against seriousness. Maybe next time I'll wear a funny hat.

Camera Case

Here's a quick little case for a digital camera done in Gedifra California Color, color 3173 on size 5 dpns. I love how the sherbet colors melt into each other - although the yarn was so stiff it actually made my hands hurt to knit with. I certainly wouldn't use it for anything bigger than this. The body was knit in the round, then I bound off half the stitches for the flap - just made it up as I went!

Life is Funny

Remember the time grad school tried to suck your soul away? Yeah, me too. That was funny.

I am embarking on a campaign to disrupt this epidemic of seriousness. Examples of late have included taking a hot pink pillow to class (result: people think you're sick) and randomly getting onto the floor to demostrate a particularly difficult yoga pose (result: people think you're sick.)

Today, I have decided to reply to the spam and internet scams which constantly come to my email. I received an email telling me that I have won 2 million pounds (British Currency) through some non-existant "random drawing of foreign email addresses." In order to claim my winnings, I was to contact Mr. Norman King. And contact him I did!

Dear Mr. Norman King,

Wow, you can imagine my surprise when I opened my email and saw that I
had won millions of pounds! But then I started to think about it, and
I realized that I do not want millions of pounds. You see, I already
weigh about 425 pounds, and I feel that more pounds would be a
horrible burden. I find it difficult to get out of bed in the
morning, as moving my massive bulk takes more than the feeble strength
I can muster. My children are embarassed to bring their friends over
to play and my husband has long since moved into the spare bedroom.
Wait, were you making fun of me?? How can you offer to give me MORE
pounds? I am already teetering on the edge of depression and think
constantly of ending my miserable, miserable existence. And now, you
threaten to push me over. How dare you, Mr. King, how dare you. You
bastard.

Sincerely,
Ms. Winner

Dr. Suess Socks

My brother referred to these socks as "Dr. Seuss socks" as I was knitting them, and they do appear rather cartonish. But, I love them and have been wearing them all over. The yarn is Knitpicks Parade knit on size 3 needles. I haven't put them in the washing machine yet, but so far I'm very happy with this yarn - and its cheap!

Foggy Morning

The other morning, I stepped out of my front door, locked it, turned around and saw this. I thought, "I should go get my camera." Then, I decided not to and walked toward the car. I looked again, then changed my mind, went inside and got the camera. Good decision, I think.