PTSD

Genealogy of a blog, part eight

So this is it, the last of the intro posts...although we'll probably use the email posting idea again, since that's where the complaints about the phd experience seems to come up the most often.

P: first of all, name of blog: the first name you suggested which is now in the other email since i have decided (unilateral decision on my part) to start a new one. so there. want to blog! invite me!!

then, thanks again for the camera and i will pay you back when i get there. will will will. i will keep an eye (well, both eyes) out for it too.

E: don't worry about it, Patient Husband got a very good deal.

P: can't remember what else was on that email now...hmm. i have something to write about...the trend in denmark where young people seem to have animals around their necks. at first, i saw this young blonde woman with what looked like a ferret around her neck, get on the bus last week. i was rather amused at her having a pet then i realised the animal was DEAD and its glassy eyes, from around the woman's neck, were staring at me and it even had its legs still attached (and dangling on the woman's chest). of course i am all for not wasting any animal that has been needlessly killed (i hope she ate its meat too)

E: probably mink (and I'd say no on the eating--they taste terrible)

P: but it was just rather astonishing. after that, i have come across other (mostly young) people wearing dead animals around their necks. apparently it's a fur stole, whatever that is.

E: yes. often painted on by PETA members and chewed on by pet dogs.

P: can't remember what else was there. oh, thanks, in advance for the northern ireland stuff which i shall plough through when i am back in the US. i think my sister might be coming with me which means both of us will be homeless. a prospect devoutly not to be wished.

E: you can crash with us until you find something. just read an article that housing prices are supposed to be coming down again, so we'll see what happens.

P: yes, you have to tell me what the H2G2 movie is like and i really really hope it will still be on when i get back, somewhere. feel rather annoyed at the danes for having the bad taste to show awful stuff like national treasure and meet the fockers instead of useful stuff like H2G2.

can't think of any academia-related things to write about right now. off to danish class where i shall wow the others (and the teacher) with my lack of danish proficiency.

E: woohoo.

P: so, blog? eh? and love the idea of a comic strip where we discuss "theory" ... how does one put up comics online, eh? i want to find that out but have no time right now...

E: you can post them as pictures.

P: i will write a more coherent email next time, all going well.

******
P: here i go again...

got a rather strange forwarded message supposedly from IntLaw. i think. not too sure because it was all about him having a blog of international organisations and law.

E: From me--I thought it had the stuff about Shannon Elizabeth's divorce attached.

P: no, there was nothing attached, from what i remember. though i found that funny after i realised what yous were on about! also, IntLaw seemed rather stressed from what i could gather from my rudimentary textual exegesis of his email.

E: didn't do any exegesis, but still thought he sounded stressed. If I hadn't given up scheduling for lent, I'd suggest taking him out for drinks.

P: international orgs and law?? that is prob why. we should post on his blog too

which makes me feel frivolous and useless, esp as i spent the past hour reading all sorts of rubbish unrelated to uni at all. the last article i read was an interview with johnny depp where he said his film company was called infinitum nihil and when people asked him what it meant he could say absolutely nothing. even actors can have (pretentious but...) funny names for their companies, websites, whatever. how about that, eh?

E: so you're saying that we need a funny name for the website? We really need to stick with something...

P: no no no! i like the one you said first. in your original email. let's have that and blog away!

E: okay. now I just have to go back and look it up. Invitation to follow.

P: did some "othering" w/r/t to pubs since some danish people were also with us when my colleagues and I went out on Friday (no idea who they were since they suddenly appeared at our table) and were drinking cider at a pub which had over 50 draught beers. i kept on thinking if this were australia, the cider drinkers would have been laughed at out of the pub.

E: and rightly so. please tell me it was at least hard cider (not that cloudy apple juice stuff served at hayrides).

P: also, most of the people in the other tables were playing backgammon. and, surprisingly, i have seen this often in the pubs in denmark. i don't know if that means they really don't talk much or if the lure of the board games are so strong that they need to play them everywhere. most pubs have board games (usually backgammon) to borrow. weird that.

E: bc board games and alcohol are such a great combination. haven't they ever heard of cards? you're supposed to play poker and drink, not checkers or any similar game involving easy-to-choke-on pieces.

P: going back home now. turns out it snowed fairly heavily last night and there are still flurries. prob the first time i have had a b'day when it snowed. after all, thailand, australia (and even nepal) aren't big on snow in mid march!!
have a fun weekend...and yes, let's blog!!! blogggggg....
am avoiding working on my prospective proposal so i can send it off to WeberMan…

pps: am regretting not bringing my copy of Genealogy… (by Super N) since the german guy here (who is discouraged and depressed with his PhD and wants to take it out on others) thinks the big N was a fascist sympathiser.

E: and how, exactly, does one sympathize with a political ideology that hasn't yet been invented?

P: And I am still working on the F as a structuralist response...btw, WeberMan told me I should read Harre (Rom, whose work I have read) but also said Aronson and Way and I didn't want to expose my ignorance and ask who Way was. Do you know? What is his first name? Help!

E: Probably Eileen Way. Gets lumped together with them a lot.

I'm starting Posner's Overcoming Law--v excited bc he has an introduction in which he spends a great deal of time talking about how pragmatism is not social constructivism, and how it can be justified as legitimate theoretical standpoint. Planning to go in and laugh in WeberMan’s direction. Won’t actually do it, since he’d prob agree, but still.

P: Enjoy the weekend. I am sure it is not snowing and windy there in Washington!

E: It was, in fact, snowing and windy. Made worse by the fact that my parents were in, and we spent the weekend hiking about battlefields in the cold (Gettysburg, Antietam, South Mountain) and getting very lost in Baltimore, where we took many busses and got to see parts of town not recommended for tourists. But it was fun.

P: I miss pub quiz! I have decided we should be pub quiz regulars when I get back, with or without Mara and her mates (oh, she has a job now so is really busy and quite happy. It just makes me feel even more useless!)

E: Job. Ugh. Don't remind me.

P: Have yous (our cohort…well, some of them at least) met up? I heard from Anomie that she thought Hawaii was like Miami (since I have not been to either place, I can't comment on the similarities!)

E: been to Miami, but not Hawaii, so I'm no help. As for getting together, see above re: lenten promise.

P: PPPPS: have you started working on writing a proposal for the dissertation? am i the only person falling further and further behind? hmm. i do want to write a really basic one by the end of this week and can i send it to you and can you tell me if it makes any sense before i send it to WeberMan? i am a bit scared of WeberMan really since he doesn't like my writing.

E: Fine with me. I've started, but still have WHO article of doom hanging over my head, so keep wandering off to clean my room.

posted by Elizabeth @ 2:13 PM