Joel Watch 2008

Big day today.  Managed to finally track down a committee member that has been AWOL for about 17 months or so.  He had my dissertation open to page 4 when I arrived.  I thought about asking for his opinion on the surprise ending ("she's my sister!  she's my daughter!") but then decided that if I wanted to continue to use his office's superfast copier-scanner-printer thing (I like to call it The Magnum) without good reason (other than that its free and superfast and called The Magnum) that I should be nice.  So I instead told him about the changes the rest of my committee wanted and he said that he agreed with them but was also happy to sign off on the stupid thing.  So I have my first signature!

And, in other PhD-related news, I measured my head today.  

23 inches.  On the regalia-purchasing website this means I require a cap size of S.  On the regalia-renting website I apparently require a cap size of L.  Now, I'm a little self-conscious that my head is weirdly large (I'm also a little self-conscious that people notice me counting stairs to myself but that's unrelated) and well, I know that grad students are very aware of how intelligent they sound when talking about, y'know, la theorie.  So I'm wondering, well, if some sort of vanity-sizing thing is occurring with head circumference.  And, if so, are people desiring smaller or larger heads?  Mine for one, really can't get any bigger or I won't be able to get t-shirts on.  But if it were any smaller, where would I keep all my knowledge and cognitive functions?  In a pocket?  (Latour would be the first to go, and that pesky fight-or-flight response)

I cut my hair today.  I'm quite pleased with my bang situation now.

And speaking of hair (see, its all connecting), I had my students watch part of Pelleas et Melisande (for those of you not in the know, hair is a big part of the incest scene - yeah now you're interested in french opera) today as a reward for their hard work for the first two hours of discussion.  I need to brag about how kickass they were today.  I made them read Schoenberg's wild blatherings on his 12-tone/atonal music AND Bohr's discussion of incommensurability and how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle can be extended from light to life.  And my little lambs did such a good job.  They were fearless.  I'd like to think I was there fearless leader but I honestly had no clue how I was going to connect the readings.

Fearless leader segueway to... what the crap is going on in West Virginia?  

And, the people have spoken, the title remains.

And Eric is a killjoy.

And boy, do my bangs look good.

And le Peu here, snoring and with her stinky dog head on my pillow, would never survive in the wild methinks.  And least not a wilderness without pillows.

Ah, a sunny glade of big fluffy pillows.  I would dream of such things if I ever slept...