some things I've been thinking about:
1. Hinder sucks, right? Their song is beyond ridiculous, right??
Why is everyone loving them? I thought it was just Dallas, but I come back to Houston, and the radio is talking about their sold out shows, etc.
Any song that starts with "honey, why you calling me...so late?" is doomed for suckage.
2. Things on my list that I am having a hard time finding:
-puzzle
-sugar free oreos
3. Thomas Harris and Hannibal Lecter.
The forward that Thomas Harris writes for Red Dragon is pretty amazing. He describes trying to write the book while living in a house in the middle of a cotton field in the Mississippi Delta.
"Sometimes at night I would leave the lights on in my little house and walk across the flat fields. When I looked back from a distance, the house looked like a boat at sea, and all around me the vast Delta night.
I soon became acquainted with the semi-feral dogs who roamed free across the fields in what was more or less a pack. In the hard winter months with the ground frozen and dry, I started giving them dog food and soon they were going through fifty pounds of dog food a week. Thye followed me around, and they were a lot of company--tall dogs, short ones, relatively friendly dogs and big rough dogs you could not touch. They walked with me in the fields at night and when I couldn't see them, I could hear them all around me, breathing and snuffling along in the dark. When I was working in the cabin, they waited on the front porch, and when the moon was full they would sing."
That's the life I would be leading in a parallel universe.
Also, why did Starling and Hannibal Lector end up together? And she ate brains.
4. A wedding that I might have to go to by myself. umm...not my own.
5. Elissa is leaving to go to MN soon and I will not get to see her before she leaves bc of some terrible traffic near Waco.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Thursday, December 7, 2006
I just went to the bathroom here at school, and someone followed me in.
There was a long period of quiet as we were both sitting in our respective stalls, and I desperately wanted to say into the silence,
"Listen...your presence is making me really uncomfortable, and I'm sure mine is making you uncomfortable. So I'm just going to go for it, as I think you should as well, and afterwards, we'll never mention or think about this again."
I really wanted to.
And if she had been, like, "Ok," I would know she was a kindred spirit...
In the end, though, I chickened, and just went for it anyway. I think she decided to hold it till I left.
This is a gross start out, but I hope you can relate.
Last night, I went with Aaron back to his office to study while he finished up some work. In truth, I just wanted to see his cubicle (no shortening it to 'cube,' hipsters who don't want to admit they are 9-5ers!), and needed somewhere to study and so forced him to do some work that could've waited till the morning. It was cool because the security guard didn't think we looked legit enough to be there so late at night, and so was very suspicious of us.
It was so quiet, and sorta creepy. At around midnight, we went to look out the window (he works on the 20th floor) and the streets downtown were so empty I felt like I was in a zombie takeover.
Oh, and this blog post made my day. Read it. Laugh.
There was a long period of quiet as we were both sitting in our respective stalls, and I desperately wanted to say into the silence,
"Listen...your presence is making me really uncomfortable, and I'm sure mine is making you uncomfortable. So I'm just going to go for it, as I think you should as well, and afterwards, we'll never mention or think about this again."
I really wanted to.
And if she had been, like, "Ok," I would know she was a kindred spirit...
In the end, though, I chickened, and just went for it anyway. I think she decided to hold it till I left.
This is a gross start out, but I hope you can relate.
Last night, I went with Aaron back to his office to study while he finished up some work. In truth, I just wanted to see his cubicle (no shortening it to 'cube,' hipsters who don't want to admit they are 9-5ers!), and needed somewhere to study and so forced him to do some work that could've waited till the morning. It was cool because the security guard didn't think we looked legit enough to be there so late at night, and so was very suspicious of us.
It was so quiet, and sorta creepy. At around midnight, we went to look out the window (he works on the 20th floor) and the streets downtown were so empty I felt like I was in a zombie takeover.
Oh, and this blog post made my day. Read it. Laugh.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
(This was just going to be a comment, but it was too difficult to write all of it in the little comments box, I kept having to scroll, etc. So it's now a full post.)
Yes! pros and cons lists are awesome.
Especially this one. Here are my responses to each pro/con.
1. Yes, this is true. For most. Except, I had to go pick up some checks for Aaron at the temp agency he was working at for a while and his recruiter couldn't pronounce his last name if her life depended on it..."Jarbru? Yarbrat?" And she knew it was wrong too...her confused look was priceless.
2./3. It's McMillan that's Scottish. Yarbrough is just plain...white? But these two make me regret even more (bc I had already thought of it) that I can't change the name to McMillan and claim Scottishness.
4. Actually, I never thought I would mind, but this is one of the things I worry about. For the rest of my life, I will have to depend on my skin color to determine my race.
Cons: Hilarious. I can deal with 1./2. because Y isn't that far from T.
And, I have this theory that many people's lives have changed due to the placement of their last name alphabetically--all my close friends have last names in the R-Z part of the alphabet, all due to homeroom placements in middle school. Sometimes, I wonder about all the people I would've been amazing friends with in the A-R range of the alphabet, but other times, I surmise that A-R people are wholly and entirely different from myself and therefore I wouldn't have got along with them anyways.
In any case, the point is, according to this theory, Y isn't far enough from T that I won't still be in the same alphabet bracket and therefore I will not change my fate too much in changing it.
3. Yes! This would be sort of annoying. Some of the tests I take now are barcoded with my identity though, so that will make this an easier transition.
4. This one is a doozy. If either of us gets famous for writing a Great American Novel or some such, we must be sure to mention the other on an Oprah interview, so the relation is made known. Just throw it in there casually, as such:
"Well, Oprah, you know my sister (her last name is Yarbrough now, but she IS my blood relation) was really at least 80% of my inspiration when I wrote this book that you are now recommending for your book club. As a side note, I am so honored to be a part of this elite group of authors that includes Gabriel Garcia Marquez!"
Mr. J- I agree with you about the hyphenated last names. It feels sort of unforgiving, and overly inconvenient--now, not only do both parties have to change their last name, they both have ridiculously long ones to sign. And then, in addition to just being a last name, the hyphenateds become sort of too significant...somehow stating a political/societal stance as well as just being a name. Too much work for just a little hyphen.
Elissa- If you could've chosen, what would you have liked to change your name to? As I said before, I think McMillan sounds quite distinguished. Would it have been British? Kensington, perhaps. Or maybe a distinctive Indian name. Guntapalli?? Ok that was a joke. You remember Bharath, right? Lol. I sure dodged a bullet on that one.
I think it could've been worse though. Your Aaron's last name could've been Tittsworth, or Dickey, or...a whole other slew of possibilities. But! you have to promise to own up to it, pronounce it clearly and succinctly as you shake the other party's hand: "Hello, my name is Ellissa Ball-MAN!" No slurring, or un-emphasizing it. : )
In any case, yesterday I started practicing signatures in response to your comment, Rachel, while I was studying and felt like I had effectively regressed 12 years in age.
It will be quite wierd to change it. I wonder if credit card places will really even notice if I just sign keep signing my original messy signature despite the fact that the actual name has changed. Probably not. Actually, they probably wouldn't even notice if I started scrawling an 'X' in place of a signature.
So, to bring closure to this discussion, I'm definitely going to change my name, I guess I was just feeling a bit nostalgic about mine. I like it, it has served me well, and it will continue to serve me well as a middle name (I don't have one now, so I will keep my last as my middle, the way my mom did it).
Yes! pros and cons lists are awesome.
Especially this one. Here are my responses to each pro/con.
1. Yes, this is true. For most. Except, I had to go pick up some checks for Aaron at the temp agency he was working at for a while and his recruiter couldn't pronounce his last name if her life depended on it..."Jarbru? Yarbrat?" And she knew it was wrong too...her confused look was priceless.
2./3. It's McMillan that's Scottish. Yarbrough is just plain...white? But these two make me regret even more (bc I had already thought of it) that I can't change the name to McMillan and claim Scottishness.
4. Actually, I never thought I would mind, but this is one of the things I worry about. For the rest of my life, I will have to depend on my skin color to determine my race.
Cons: Hilarious. I can deal with 1./2. because Y isn't that far from T.
And, I have this theory that many people's lives have changed due to the placement of their last name alphabetically--all my close friends have last names in the R-Z part of the alphabet, all due to homeroom placements in middle school. Sometimes, I wonder about all the people I would've been amazing friends with in the A-R range of the alphabet, but other times, I surmise that A-R people are wholly and entirely different from myself and therefore I wouldn't have got along with them anyways.
In any case, the point is, according to this theory, Y isn't far enough from T that I won't still be in the same alphabet bracket and therefore I will not change my fate too much in changing it.
3. Yes! This would be sort of annoying. Some of the tests I take now are barcoded with my identity though, so that will make this an easier transition.
4. This one is a doozy. If either of us gets famous for writing a Great American Novel or some such, we must be sure to mention the other on an Oprah interview, so the relation is made known. Just throw it in there casually, as such:
"Well, Oprah, you know my sister (her last name is Yarbrough now, but she IS my blood relation) was really at least 80% of my inspiration when I wrote this book that you are now recommending for your book club. As a side note, I am so honored to be a part of this elite group of authors that includes Gabriel Garcia Marquez!"
Mr. J- I agree with you about the hyphenated last names. It feels sort of unforgiving, and overly inconvenient--now, not only do both parties have to change their last name, they both have ridiculously long ones to sign. And then, in addition to just being a last name, the hyphenateds become sort of too significant...somehow stating a political/societal stance as well as just being a name. Too much work for just a little hyphen.
Elissa- If you could've chosen, what would you have liked to change your name to? As I said before, I think McMillan sounds quite distinguished. Would it have been British? Kensington, perhaps. Or maybe a distinctive Indian name. Guntapalli?? Ok that was a joke. You remember Bharath, right? Lol. I sure dodged a bullet on that one.
I think it could've been worse though. Your Aaron's last name could've been Tittsworth, or Dickey, or...a whole other slew of possibilities. But! you have to promise to own up to it, pronounce it clearly and succinctly as you shake the other party's hand: "Hello, my name is Ellissa Ball-MAN!" No slurring, or un-emphasizing it. : )
In any case, yesterday I started practicing signatures in response to your comment, Rachel, while I was studying and felt like I had effectively regressed 12 years in age.
It will be quite wierd to change it. I wonder if credit card places will really even notice if I just sign keep signing my original messy signature despite the fact that the actual name has changed. Probably not. Actually, they probably wouldn't even notice if I started scrawling an 'X' in place of a signature.
So, to bring closure to this discussion, I'm definitely going to change my name, I guess I was just feeling a bit nostalgic about mine. I like it, it has served me well, and it will continue to serve me well as a middle name (I don't have one now, so I will keep my last as my middle, the way my mom did it).
Saturday, December 2, 2006
So...one of the people in my lab group at school asked me if I was going to change my last name after I got married.
The answer is yes, but the question itself got me to thinking about the whole "tradition" of the woman changing her name and why answering that question always makes me feel a little prickly.
I guess the way I feel about it is that it's a tradition with unpleasant historical connotations, but that I can acknowledge that without having to make some politically correct statement by hyphenating or keeping my own name.
Almost every symbol surrounding marriage stems from America's paternalistic, and sometimes chauvinistic roots, anyway...
1. Mrs. vs. Miss. vs. Ms. whereas guys just have the anonymous Mr.
2. The fact that (at least in the South) only women wear an engagement ring.
All of these things (in addition to the name-changing thing) require a woman to announce her relationship status as a part of her identity. Under this system, women always have at least one more symbol than men informing the world of her relationship status than men.
The implication being that a woman's identity depends far more on whether she has a significant other or not than a man's.
I think nowadays most of these things have either turned into unthinking tradition, or obsolete, i.e. the whole Mrs./Miss thing.
But it's interesting to think about.
The wierd thing is, someone mentioned that in Asian cultures, last names don't change after marriage at all. And from my experience, gender relations are much more static in Asian cultures than American.
What do you think about all this?
The answer is yes, but the question itself got me to thinking about the whole "tradition" of the woman changing her name and why answering that question always makes me feel a little prickly.
I guess the way I feel about it is that it's a tradition with unpleasant historical connotations, but that I can acknowledge that without having to make some politically correct statement by hyphenating or keeping my own name.
Almost every symbol surrounding marriage stems from America's paternalistic, and sometimes chauvinistic roots, anyway...
1. Mrs. vs. Miss. vs. Ms. whereas guys just have the anonymous Mr.
2. The fact that (at least in the South) only women wear an engagement ring.
All of these things (in addition to the name-changing thing) require a woman to announce her relationship status as a part of her identity. Under this system, women always have at least one more symbol than men informing the world of her relationship status than men.
The implication being that a woman's identity depends far more on whether she has a significant other or not than a man's.
I think nowadays most of these things have either turned into unthinking tradition, or obsolete, i.e. the whole Mrs./Miss thing.
But it's interesting to think about.
The wierd thing is, someone mentioned that in Asian cultures, last names don't change after marriage at all. And from my experience, gender relations are much more static in Asian cultures than American.
What do you think about all this?
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