It’s a dreary, gray day and I can’t seem to make myself do the things I should be doing. Often, writing a blog post helps me to get started. Today, though, I’ve been staring at this blank, text-less space for longer than I care to admit. There’s a dumpster outside one of the houses I [...]
Archive for the ‘academic’ Category
Text(less)
Posted in academic, things on April 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
shame
Posted in academic, food, things on April 17, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Um. I should probably post about my trip—I have some pictures of New Orleans and of College Station, though not many— but this just arrived in the mail. And I think that I am ashamed. It’s like the grad student version of that silver card that the George Clooney character in Up in the Air [...]
the world unseen
Posted in academic, homeownership on February 21, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I’ve been reorganizing my writing space lately. When I came to Madison, my grandmother’s 19th century French secretary came with me. It’s a beautiful desk, but it’s not the best writing spot. I bought a small desk at Ikea and put it under the window–much better for hours of blank stares. And then, of course, [...]
(un)finished things
Posted in academic, homeownership on February 18, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I have a hint for all the homeowners out there: if you really need to finish some of those nagging, incomplete projects around the house, all you really need to do is try to write a dissertation. Better yet, try to write a dissertation proposal, which is even more nebulous. This is just to say…that [...]
from The Heydey of Natural History, 1820-1870 (1980)
Posted in academic on January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »
One of the last, and one of the greatest, was the shell collection amassed by the English conchologist Hugh Cuming (1791-1865)….No sooner had the collection been moved to the British Museum than Mrs J.E. Gray, wife of the Keeper of Zoology, carried the open drawers of shells across a courtyard in a howling gale and [...]
from Lives of the Founders of the British Museum (1884)
Posted in academic on January 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In the instance of Dr. Leach, certain peculiar eccentricities and crotchets were mixed up in close union with undoubted learning and skill. In not a few eminent naturalists a tendency to undervalue the achievements of past days, and to exaggerate those of the day that is passing, has often been noted. Leach evinced this tendency [...]
Finals=Cookies
Posted in academic, food on December 12, 2009 | 8 Comments »
It’s that time again—the time when I start baking like a maniac in order to avoid writing my final papers. Last year, I went nuts and baked dozens of perfect little gingerbread men, all identically iced with buttons and faces. The decorating, I think, really shows my commitment to bakecrastination. This year, my workload is [...]
day 30: at last
Posted in academic, things on November 30, 2009 | 7 Comments »
I realized tonight that it’s probably been ten years since I decorated a Christmas tree. I have the most ridiculous ornaments, amassed over the last four years from the post-season sales at Anthropologie and Pottery Barn. Like almost all of the art on my walls, most of my ornaments represent some type of animal. A [...]
day 20: classes were taught
Posted in academic on November 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
What about wearing things that are the same color as your t.v. cabinet? and your walls? and just about everything else in your house? I’ve had this sweater longer than I’ve had this house. Maybe this was beginning. Friday is a long day. I go to class in the morning—today, a lecture on waistcoats, cotton [...]
day 17: clouds and columns
Posted in academic, food on November 17, 2009 | 2 Comments »
After lecture this morning, I walked up State Street to meet some lovely women for crepes. Then I snapped some pictures of clouds and columns and spent the afternoon working on a revision in the shadow of the Capitol. I came home and made soup for dinner. This recipe comes highly recommended from my friend [...]
