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.

The Dreaded H1N1

Yup, that's right - swine flu.

It officially sucks. And has killed my productivity for the past week. I am only now starting to feel like a human being again. With an emphasis on starting. Grrr...

Work accomplished this past week and a half:

1) Finished my fellowship application.

2) Lots and lots of sleep.

XXX

No, XXX is not referring the movie. XXX is actually my Triple-Ex-Roommate Kim (as opposed to my Ex-Roommate Margaret and my Double-Ex Roommate Eleanor - have I mentioned I move around a lot?)

XXX is awesome. She lets me crash in her spare bedroom and play with her puppy every time I visit Charlottesville. She also occasionally even lets me get a math-fix by helping her write logic tests and quizzes.

If you are a dwarf, then you are an Old Narnian.

If you are an Old Narnian, then you are a dwarf.

Converse, inverse or contrapositive? Anyone?

Work accomplished today:

1) Began debating modifications to my dissertation chapter outline. Not like it's due in two days or anything...

Pillows and Packing

This is a special 3-day edition of my blog! (Yesterday, today and tomorrow).

A few weeks ago, I was talking with one of the other fellows here at the Cassatt house and mentioned I'd brought my own pillow with me to PA.

She allowed as how it was lucky I drove, so I could bring a pillow.

I laughed and said the pillow fits into my suitcase. Not only has this pillow been to Philly, it's also spent 3 months in California, 1 month in Illinois and 6 months in the UK. It's been further away from home than a lot of US citizens! Before you think I'm crazy (yes, I know, too late) let me add that this is a foam pillow and, once you've become a foam pillow convert, you'd rather sleep without one than use one of those hard lumps or soft fluffy allergen-filled things everyone else seems to think is a pillow.

Pillow snobbery over.

The point is, when you pack, no matter how long you're going for or how much junk you just have to bring with you, you can make it all fit. And keep it under the weight limit. (50.0 and 49.5 lbs flying out of LAX, and I could still carry my backpack and computer case - though it was close, seeing as how my combined luggage weighed more than I did).

Power to the packers!

Work accomplished yesterday:

1) Wrote some of my dissertation chapter.

Organization In 21st Century America

So I was reading a book on Benjamin Franklin's book collection yesterday, and his attempts to organize it. This made me realize 1) my book collection is completely uncataloged (and, since it is currently in boxes, very unorganized) and 2) I really ought to consider making up a finding aide for my dissertation research notes.

In other news, my friends at the APS let me go up into the rare book vault and browse the shelves that have all the books I've been requesting, in case I missed something in the catalogue. It makes me realize how much, when I'm in open stacks, I like to do shelf browsing around the books I request. The difference between the online organization and the physical organization is pretty incredible. And I find it much easier to scan a shelf of books than to scan a list of books by shelf number. Of course, I also find it easier to scan/read a book in its original than flip electronic pages. Does this make me the electronic-age version of a dinosaur?

Research accomplished yesterday and today:

1) Read a bunch of political pamphlets.

2) Read through a couple of algebra and Latin arithmetic textbooks

3) Discovered the London Gazette online (thnx Taylor!)

Now I'm taking off researching early to go dissertate. A week to the ACLS deadline and counting!

This Union Doesn't Want Your Vote

So today, one of the SEPTA - the Philadelphia public transport system - unions went on strike.

Today is also Election Day.

Now, I'm not going to go over the top and declare that this particular union has orchestrated a massive conspiracy to deny hard-working Americans their right to vote. That would be just crazy. But for anyone dependent upon public transportation, this union's poor judgment has made exercising their Constitutional rights that much more difficult.

I have zero sympathy for this kind of a shenanigan. Luckily for them, I don't get a vote.

Probability, Fortifications and Some Moving Math

So this weekend I was proud to field a phone call from my baby brother (I have to add the baby part because he's like six feet tall so I can't call him my little brother anymore, and he looks older than me, so I want to make sure no one's in any doubt that I am the big sister here). He had some questions about probability.

Now, it's been probably eight years since I had much to do with probability, and it was never my favorite subject. In fact, I seem to remember calling a certain course "Probability and Sadistics." Nevertheless, I actually knew what he was talking about! And sorta helped him out! I'm so glad to know that I can still legitimately call myself a mathematician.

On another note, yesterday I was also randomly looking up something re: the US Navy on wikipedia and followed a few links to discover some guy called Vauban, who I'd never heard of before but was a French fortifications expert in the 17th century. Cool.

Then I went into the APS today, pulled the first of my manuscript sources, and discovered it was on Vauban. Creepy, bizarre, coincidence?

At work today, I got to talking with another fellow today about moving. A few quick calculations lead to some very frightening results. I think I need a job. And to not move for a few years. Because here's my current track record:

In the past 18 months I have lived in 8 different cities. Not counting all the moves of the past 18 months, I have still moved 14 times and had 13 different roommates in the past 10 years. (So that all took place in a 8.5 year time frame, for those who are counting.)

Research accomplished this weekend and today:

1) Wrote up more stuff for my current fellowship application.

2) Outlined a chapter of my dissertation.

3) Read a couple of manuscript sources.

4) FINISHED the almanacs at the APS.

Whew!

Mummy!

So this morning I took the day off from APS and went to the Library Company of Philadelphia to do research. It was a strange commute. I've spent three hours on a train and walked for forty-five minutes to get to libraries. I've biked for half an hour to get to libraries. I've walked five minutes down the road (2 minutes spent at stoplights) to get to libraries. I've even had days where I just walked into the other room and got books from my own personal library.

Somehow, talking the exactly 12 steps (yes, I counted) from the Cassatt House to the Library Company of Philadelphia was far stranger than any of these. I felt like I was going somewhere. But I wasn't.

To make the day even more surreal, the lady who was also working at the same table as me requested - and was brought - the hand of an Egyptian mummy. By a librarian who (for Halloween) had red plastic devil horns on her headband.

I took the afternoon off to finish my proposal statement for the fellowship I'm applying for. One paragraph left. Only the hardest one, of course.

Research accomplished today:

1) Pulled copy-specific information out of 7 arithmetic textbooks.

2) Found all sorts of cool provenance information about the LCP.

3) Had a fun discussion with one of the librarians about whether or not a dog's claws could have caused the damage on one of my arithmetic books. Isn't history great??

Phillies

Apparently, even B.F. is a fan of baseball...

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock

If you've ever watched the Big Bang Theory, you know exactly what the title of this post refers to. If you haven't, check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iapcKVn7DdY

You can take the girl out of the math department, but you can't take the dork out of the girl!

Research accomplished today:

1) Read a lot of almanacs, including several that exist nowhere else in the world and one that ESTC doesn't believe exists!

2) Promised my advisor both a revised dissertation proposal and a chapter of said dissertation.

Um, I think I might be blogging a bit less in the upcoming weeks!

Creature of Habit?

So when I went into the Wawa this morning to grab lunch on my way to the library, the lady behind the sandwich counter just left my sandwich for me to grab when I was done going through the line. Considering that every other time I've been in the Wawa, they've held my sandwiches hostage until I turned over the little slip, I have a sneaking suspicion they've come to recognize my ordering habits. At least no one's offered to let me be president of their fan club, or started lecturing me on how to manipulate the Icee machine to cancel the defrost cycles, but still...

Deciding that perhaps I've been too much of a creature of habit lately, I went to Olive Garden for dinner instead of Potbelly's. (I know, the extravagance!) This led to the unfortunate discover of a Border's, a mere 2.5 blocks from my house. No good deed goes unpunished!!

Research accomplished today:

1) Read through the last of the 1682 almanacs.

2) Started reading the 1697 almanacs. 28 of them! In one book! For comparison, most of these compilations have no more than 15-20 in one book, and at 20 they're already becoming too unwieldy to read easily. So imagine 28... holy cow...

Filthy Lucre

So I realized today that I've got a little over two weeks to write a chapter of my dissertation in time to submit for a dissertation-writing fellowship. Maybe I should spend a little more time dissertating and a little less time blogging if I want to bring home the filthy lucre....

In other news, my newest house-mate is also working at the APS with me. Yea - I'm no longer the only one!

Research accomplished today:

1) Read another half dozen almanacks.

2) Got started on my Folger homework assignment: figure out some primary source of mine that might me useful for my assigned partner's own dissertation. Hmm... anyone want to read some fun account books??