Friday, June 27, 2008

a mindless meme

Rules:

A. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
B. Pick an image, using only the first page.
C. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

These are the questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Mine:


(Follow the link to see where the photos came from)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

you may worship me now

Not only did I find out today that I got two A-pluses and an A last quarter, but I also got my research paper back from the professor who I kind of sort of idolize — and she said only good things about it. Like, unbelievably good things. Like that my paper is "an excellent, insightful, & very well written analysis," that I did "impressive, detailed work with the text," I am "a very patient unfolder of evidence, finding excellently telling passages," and that "it is such a pleasure at the end of a quarter to read such an inspiring [!!] & thoughtful paper." She even thanked me. But even more mind-blowing than that is that she said (a certain portion of) my paper constitutes "a new contribution" to criticism on a book (Frankenstein) that has been written about millions of times by everyone under the sun. I could die happy right now, if it weren't for the hormone deficiency.

Labels:

Monday, June 16, 2008

wooooooo!!!

I have to say, today it feels pretty damn good to be a Californian.

Also:


Now we just need to get out and vote down that idiotic proposition (or whatever it is) undoing gay marriage that's going to be on the ballot in November. But I'm not too worried. This time I'm pretty sure the fruits are going to beat the nuts.

Labels:

Friday, June 13, 2008

a marvelous quote

"[They are] like a church lit but without a congregation to distract you, with every light and line focused on the high altar. And on the altar, very reverently placed, intensely there, is a dead kitten, an egg-shell, a bit of string. . . ."
-H.G. Wells, on the novels of Henry James

Thursday, June 12, 2008

learnings from my knowledge-hole

This:is Chinnamasta. The one who has cut off her own head and is feeding the two yoginis — as well as her own severed head — with the streams of blood coming from her neck. She is kneeling on Kama, the god of sexual desire, and his wife Rati, who are supposed to be getting it on, though I don't see how the position in this image could possibly work. (Rati should be on top, too, by the way.) All of this is going on in a cremation ground, and they are surrounded by jackals (inauspicious animals), a cow (a sacred animal), and a tiger (symbolic of the power of the material world). And everyone is totally naked. And the yoginis appear to be holding begging-bowls made of scalps.

In other words, my friends, Chinnamasta is Bad. Ass. Apparently she's mainly worshiped by Tantric sadhus hoping to achieve siddhis (supernatural powers which, according to Tantric belief, one obtains once one has achieved liberation/enlightenment) by heroically facing her and the terrifying realities which she embodies in order to harness the power of death so that they can transcend it. This is probably done by meditating on her in the middle of the night in a cremation ground and trying not to shit their pants.

Kali is pretty awesome, too.
She's the great devourer, who eats demons, demands blood sacrifices (devotees have occasionally sacrificed themselves by cutting off their own heads), and at the end of each cycle of creation consumes the entire cosmos. Not quite as hardcore as cutting off your own head and drinking the blood spurting from your own neck, but still — not too shabby.

So. What I learned this quarter: Hinduism is generally kind of bitchin'. If it wasn't for all the woman-hating*, it is one religion I might actually be able to get down with.

* * *

Completely unrelated: OMFG baby lion cam!!!!!!


----
*and the believing in god(s) thing

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

oops

-19

As a 1930s wife, I am
Very Poor (Failure)

Take the test!


Shocking, right?

Okay, enough dicking around. I have a final in 3 1/2 hours and have to get back to studying. Internet, why do you keep holding me up? So rude.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

best evening ever

Not only did I get to have a lovely dinner last night with the lovely Shosh and the lovely David (and the lovely Idler), but I came home to find that I'd received the copy of Melmoth the Wanderer I'd bookmooched a few days ago. And inside it was this postcard:

I can't even begin to explain how appropriate this is or how happy it makes me. I'm just going to consider it a well-deserved reward for all my hard work this quarter.

Labels:

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

an interesting change from the Doctor Who dreams i keep having

I had a dream this morning that a dalmatian dog I knew decided to join a pod of dolphins who were spotted like he was. Some time later, he swam up with his pod to the edge of the water where the Idler and I were standing. He split off from his pod, came up to us, and made a very, very sad face, from which I intuited that he regretted joining the dolphin pod but was afraid to leave them for some reason. (Possibly they were gangster dolphins.) He swam away with the dolphins, and the Idler and I walked on, trying to think of a way to extricate him. But we didn't come up with anything.

Some time after that, the Idler bought me a 30th birthday party package at a donut shop. They had special "30+" party packages, to which you could bring your own music, and which featured various events/games throughout the day. One of the events was different for women's birthday parties than for men's. I don't remember what either event was, but the women's one was rondo. The woman running the donut shop said I could have the men's event, but I might not want to, because it "could get pretty rough." Ha. Unsurprisingly, I opted for it anyway.*

Then four or five people showed up, hours early, and started complaining that the party was stupid because nothing was going on. I brought them donuts. Then I woke up.


*Can you guess where the whole gender-segregated event thing probably came from, Shosh?


Labels:

Monday, June 02, 2008

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

I am officially the most miserable person ever to have walked the face of the earth. I hate this paper so much I'm considering quitting school because I can't get the last 4 pages out.

That is all.

Labels: