Brahms Requiem

So I've been neglecting my blog, but for a good reason. I've spent every spare moment either 1) working 2) watching the Olympics or 3) practicing for my upcoming concert. Anyone in the area, come hear the Oratorio Society of Virginia sing the Brahms Requiem!

The Gospel According to Lance (our conductor):

Is salvation important? Well, if you want to be saved by me, you better sing that C-sharp.

You're going to be fine. I have faith in you. And I've always found that yelling loudly at sopranos helps.

That was beautiful people. All sixteen entrances.

No words! Pretend you're on American Idol.

Read my mind, people!

You're hitting it so hard you sound like Mimi coughing herself to death at the end of La Boheme.

We not only have staggered breathing, we have staggered diction!

Tenors – I know your notes are right because you're singing them a beat and a half after everyone else.

It's absolutely marvellous. Shocking. Surprising. But marvellous.

That was worth the drive, girls.

Don't you ever tell anyone that I used the word scrumptious.

That is the confidence of a choir. Write that down!

Mount Chipotle

There really are few words that can describe the hilarity that is Mount Chipotle. It has a blog! And check out the article in the Daily Progress.

It's going to snow again next week... twice.

On the bright side, I went to a conference today and gave an official "interpretation" of someone else's paper. So that's a nice experience (both personally and for my beloved CV - whether it was good for Heather... well, she was probably too jet-lagged from being snowed in for a week at her job interview to notice ;-) ).

I Can Has Funding?

Yes, this is a LOL cat picture.

I created it in celebration of my completing the latest fellowship application - and a chapter of my dissertation. Phew!

For anyone who's wondering... this is Curious Georgette (1991-2000).

Proof That I Really Should Be Graduating

My first semester at UVA, way back in 2003, saw the Dreaded Hurricane Isabel. (Yes, I did just link to Wikipedia. As I tell my students: it does have its uses, but paper citations is not one of them.) UVA closed, though not until the hurricane was already upon us. I vividly remember biking home through the hurricane - not an experience I'd care to repeat. My apartment was full of hurricane refugees from my undergrad institution of William and Mary, which lay close to the coast and got walloped - it was closed for over a week.

UVA hasn't closed since then... until today. The picture above comes from last week, when a "mere" 10" of snow fell (more than we usually get in any given year). As I type, a predicted 24-30" of snow is pouring down outside. After I finish typing, I'm off to dig out my car (again) in the vain hope that when the snow stops (predicted circa 10 P.M. tomorrow night) and they plow my complex, I might actually be able to get it out.

It would have been so cool to start and end my graduate career with UVA's rare closings.

Alas, that is not to be. And after I finish shoveling out my car, it's back to work on writing chapter 2 of said dissertation. Fingers crossed I don't lose power, but at least my laptop has a good 4 hour battery life. Maybe I should figure out where my flashlights ran off to....

Google and Amazon and MacMillan, oh my!

Yes, I admit it. I'm putting my cart before my horse. In fact, the cart is SO far in front of the horse that the poor beast is just standing there in the middle of the road, looking around in confusion and wondering, "Wasn't there supposed to be a cart somewhere?"

In other words, I've started trying to follow the news in the publishing world. And yes, I know I haven't finished writing my dissertation, much less gotten it into book form (hence the metaphor above).

Then again, given the insanity that seems to be the publishing world, maybe I got too late of a start and now I'll never understand....

On-going Example: The Google Book Settlement, in which

1) Google suddenly discovers it's okay to scan copyrighted books and post them online

2) Some authors decide to sue

3) Said authors decide to settle, not just for themselves but for all authors everywhere (yea, class action)

4) Other authors say WTF are you doing, you're not representative and we disagree with you anyway

5) Google allows that if you'd like, it will take your copyrighted material off the internet, though it reserves the right to break your copyright again in the future - but it's okay, you can still sue them

6) Foreign countries get involved

7) Legal insanity ensues (and is continuing to ensue)*

*My interpretation of the insanity might lack a complete understanding of all the legal wrangling and logistics. And I'm okay with that. Look it up for yourself if you're horrified/interested/thinking about becoming Google Junior.

New, Late-Breaking Example: The Amazon-MacMillan War, in which

1) Apple announces the iPad, a sorta halfway model between the iPod touch and a MacBook Air.

2) MacMillan (one of the 6 major publishing companies in the U.S.) brokers a new eBook deal with Apple

3) MacMillan tells Amazon that they can either match the deal with Apple, or continue under the old terms of sale with significant windowing (aka the eBook will not be available until several months after the hardback comes out).

4) Amazon decides to stop selling every book, print or electronic, published by MacMillan (this late Friday/early Saturday)

5) Everyone in publishing says WTF just happened?

6) The Amazon Kindle team declares Amazon will cave with the most hilariously stupid statement I've read in a long time, but as of yet Amazon.com has not reinstated the buy buttons for MacMillan books, so far as I can tell.*

*N.B.: to my knowledge everything Amazon has done is completely legal. Whether you think they're justified or idiots is up to you to decide.

Publishing. It's like a soap opera. You know you shouldn't watch it - switch off the daytime TV and get back to writing your dissertation! - but you just can't help it....

The New iPad

Ahhh, to have disposable income! www.apple.com

Then again, it is such an unfortunate name. I think I will call mine the iTablet (iTab or maybe Tabby for short). My mythical iTab will be coming soon to somebody else's house, not mine. Unless I get funding for next year, that is. Hmm... maybe I should stop blogging and get back to work.

Progress to date:

1) Completed pretty much everything but the chapter for my fellowship applications

List Mania

So at the start of a new semester, I always find myself making lists. Most of them are to-do lists: what do I need to do to get ready for classes, what do I need to do for each class, what do I need to do with respect to fellowship applications and, of course, what else do I need to do that's somehow incredibly important but doesn't fall on those other lists.

Then there's the occasional update to one of my Top Ten Lists. My newest addition squeaked in at #10 on my list of

Top Ten Things My Life Would Have Been Complete Without

#10. Attempting to accelerate up to the speed limit on an interstate in a car whose transmission was "slipping" (AKA it wouldn't shift gears).

#9. Under-rotating a front tuck off the high beam.

#8. Flying a plane with the door open.

#7. Skiing. Or perhaps, more specifically, falling while skiing.

#6. Having a tree (or part thereof) fall upon any structure in which I am currently residing, especially when I am in charge of Girl Scouts also residing in that structure.

#5. Hydroplaning, skidding on ice, or any other vehicular loss of control (especially in a bus). Bonus points if the brakes give out while you're at it.

#4. Shattering glass all over myself.

#3. Having a trailer come unhitched from the back of the SUV at 65mph in rush hour traffic out of Norfolk (note: said trailer was still chained to the back of the SUV).

#2. Grading midterms at a funeral and final papers in an ICU waiting room, all in the same semester. And throw in studying for comprehensive exams, just in case that's not enough.

#1. Having an asthma attack, especially those that result in visits to my friends at the ER.

Back To The Daily Grind

Another semester is upon us! Well, upon me, maybe not upon you.

This semester I'm teaching a 400-level class on my dissertation subject (more or less) - Popular Science in Early Modern England. It's one of the cool opportunities my department makes available for its graduate students, and I'm very much looking forward to it. My syllabus is written, my readings are either on reserve at the undergraduate library or winging their way across campus to said library, and I've even lesson planned.

Now I've just got to go on Grounds tomorrow, figure out where my department has moved to (we have a brand new building - it's not even on the website maps of UVA yet) and hope my students find the classroom, too!

Why I Drive An SUV

Yeah, it's been a long time. First there was the H1N1. Then there were the holidays. Then I moved back to good ol' Virginia.

On the way, I had an object lesson/reminder of why I drive an SUV instead of some little fuel-efficient zippy car.

The scene: at about 6pm (after dark) on a little, windy, one-lane road through the woods (aka the major state highway route 33), surrounded by two-foot snowbanks.

The participants: my father; one GMC Yukon, going about 50 mph (aka below the speed limit) and towing a trailer; also one deer.

The incident: head on collision, followed by jack-knifing the trailer and losing it off into a snowbank before the hydraulic brakes kicked in and leveled everything out.

The carnage: transmission fluid everywhere (see picture - it shot all the way up over the car and coated the trailer too - had to use the windshield wipers to see enough to limp into the 7-11 parking lot), plus a little bit of damage to the car grill and one headlight. Oh, and a dead deer that everyone and their brother fought over who got to take home. Injuries to the people in the car - none.

And that, folks, is what my dad calls "The Law of Gross Mass Tonnage" which, roughly translated, means the honkin' big SUV wins.