sad professor fakeout

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 16:09:53 GMT

Is this about to become a Battlestar Galactica blog again? ( Possibly. )

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yuletide 2024: i wrote a thing

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 03:04:11 GMT

I wrote one thing for Yuletide this year, and it wasn't even my assignment:

So what happened was, I made an offer that was the "yeah sure what the hell" offer that I should not have been surprised to have been assigned. And I wasn't, I was like "yeah this might as well happen." It was Our Retired Explorer Dines With Michel Foucault, Paris 1962 by The Weakerthans. I know nothing about Michel Foucault and wasn't super keen to learn, so I wrote like 200 words of arctic academia and got stuck. Shocking. Even more shockingly I had an idea for a completely different thing that wouldn't leave me alone. On the recommendation of friends I defaulted, which turned out to be a great plan because it was a day before the default deadline. What I actually wrote was

Heaven (or someplace as nice) (3210 words) by izzybeth
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Decameron (TV), The Good Place (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Neifile (The Decameron 2024) & Panfilo (The Decameron 2024)
Characters: Panfilo (The Decameron 2024), Neifile (The Decameron 2024), Janet (The Good Place)
Additional Tags: Queerplatonic Relationships, Afterlife, No Character Death, Everyone's already dead
Summary: The beautiful, not-infected afterlife.

I watched The Decameron on Netflix and got kind of obsessed? Actually Good depiction of the late medieval period? Beautiful and accurate medieval interiors?? Catholicism as a part of everyday life??? Italy on the cusp of the Renaissance??!? And the occasional 1980s needle drop used to truly excellent effect. I'm not kidding, this is basically everything I wanted in the middle ages on a screen that I had no idea media was even capable of. And it is truly a fucking crime that it didn't hit on tumblr. You should watch it. I'll shill for it some more if you need more convincing.

And then I saw that a pinch hitter had made a Decameron request. I wasn't really expecting to get much feedback (yuletide fandoms already have limited audiences, and a crossover limits it even more), but a few people seem to have liked it! And the giftee was happy, so I am honestly delighted. yay

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it's that time again!

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 01:34:09 GMT

Hello Yuletide Author! Are you excited? I'm excited, I frickin love Yuletide. Please continue for Optional Notes, DNWs, and like... ramble, honestly.

( further up and further in )

Author, I am delighted than you and I are Completely Normal about the same tiny fandom, and I hope you have an amazing time writing, and I cannot wait to read what you write!

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yuletide 2023 + pentiment winter fest: what i wrote

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 19:10:03 GMT

It's well past time I should have done this, but I'm having trouble being excited about things and talking about myself with any amount of enthusiasm (or indeed without being self-deprecating), so I'm just gonna drop some links:

What I wrote for Yuletide: historia naturalis gentis anglorum, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum | Ecclesiastical History of the English People - Bede. Sparrows, nature, the Staffordshire Hoard is a character. One of the weirder things I've ever written but I really like it.

What I got for Yuletide: Things Janet Knows by AngstBlanket, The Good Place. This was sweet and fun and has a really fantastic textual rendering of a Janet reboot.

and Bei Wind und Wetter by azhdarchidaen, Pentiment. An alternate reality where Andreas and Caspar survive the fire. It's just lovely and wonderful.

What I wrote for Pentiment Winter Fest: A Missed Meal. Sister Zdena and Brother Guy gossip and are bitchy. This was fun.

What I got for Pentiment Winter Fest: A little artist get together by TryingToChill. Art! I got art! And it's so sweet! Adult Caspar, recovering Andreas, Ulrike and Little Andreas being very round. I love it.

So yeah, once again I wrote for fests and exchanges in 2023 ~~and for literally nothing else, surprising no one~~

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Yuletide 2023 Letter For Realsies

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 18:00:55 GMT

I am on vacation, but I thought I should get this show on the road so let's go:

Beloved Author! Happy Yuletimes! I am delighted that you have matched on one of my requests, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.

( OK here we go )

But mostly, I hope you have a great time writing, and that you write something you love. Because then I'll love it too <3

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yuletimes 2k22: reveals

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 20:46:05 GMT

My gift this year was delightful. It's both funny and a little bit tragic, and their Rosencrantz voice is absolutely perfect.

A Spirit Too Delicate (1291 words) by Roadsterguy
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead - Stoppard
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rosencrantz (Hamlet), Guildenstern (Hamlet), Hamlet (Hamlet), Polonius (Hamlet), Ophelia (Hamlet)
Additional Tags: Love Letters, Meta, Absurd, Norway (Country)
Summary: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are, as always, trying to figure out what's going on. Particularly, why does nobody seem to remember that Ophelia has interests beyond just dancing about and strewing flowers?

Things* what I wrote for Yuletide 2k22:

(love,) without retention or restraint (2235 words) by izzybeth
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Maria & Olivia (Twelfth Night), Maria & Sebastian (Twelfth Night)
Characters: Maria (Twelfth Night), Olivia (Twelfth Night), Sebastian (Twelfth Night)
Additional Tags: Framing Story, Flashbacks, Female Friendship, f/f if you squint
Summary: Sebastian needs to know Olivia, and so goes to the one who knows her best.

and

does dim arian gan ddreigiau (dragons don't have money) (287 words) by izzybeth
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Duolingo: Welsh
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Owen (Duolingo: Welsh), Dragon (Duolingo: Welsh)
Additional Tags: Agriculture, Parsnips, Gardens & Gardening
Summary: Owen just wants to sell his parsnips. The dragon doesn't help at all.

I feel like it's cheating to say the Duolingo fic is 287 words when chapter 2 is just the English translation of chapter 1, but oh well. (I feel doubly like it's cheating because the Duolingo kind of popped while the Twelfth Night didn't so much.)

*yes I wrote more than one thing, no no one is more surprised than me

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yuletimes letter v. 2k22

Sun, 16 Oct 2022 13:57:51 GMT

OK OK OK I'm finally doing the thing. My life has been completely mad for the last week and I need to do this NOW or I'll forget and then I'll cry.

Happy Yuletimes, Wonderful Author! I truly hope that the wall of text under the cut is helpful and not incredibly annoying. As always, Optional Details Are Optional, I just want to give you a sense of what I enjoy.

( dear author... )

Above all, author, please have fun writing! I am delighted that we share a tiny fandom, and I cannot wait to read what you write!

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yuletide 2k21: the reveal

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 00:53:56 GMT

I wrote a gift and a treat for yuletide, and Here They Are:

he hatz nere that he soght (he is close to what he sought), The Green Knight. Honestly I was a bit worried someone might catch me out on this one since I keep doing the thing where the title is in some sort of no-longer-spoken English, whoops. Contains skeletons, stolen dialogue, stolen poetry, a little bit of blood, and probably a lot of pretension.

as far as i know nothing's wrong, Empire Records. just a bit of post-movie fluff. Literally nothing happens (but the movie's also light on plot, so).

(I meant to post this a lot earlier but Nelle distracted me with Star Wars and some light day drinking, which is both simple and effective.)

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yuletide 2k21: the rec-oning

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 21:04:44 GMT

I received I can't, I won't, I shouldn't, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Somehow the author managed to make this extremely horny poem even hornier, truly an incredible feat.

( and now, the recs )

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yuletide letter: it's here now, yay

Sat, 16 Oct 2021 23:48:01 GMT

You can always tell it's yuletide season when a huge dude in head-to-toe green crashes your party and demands that someone play the most hardcore game of chicken ever. (And then some young idiot says "ok let's go bro" and you know that none of this is going to end well.) (In this scenario you are King Arthur.)

Happy yuletimes, author! I am so excited about my requests! And my offers! And everything! Gosh I just love yuletide. I am super excited to see what you, dear author, choose to write! I hope that my Optional Details are helpful (and not annoying, I did kinda go on for a while.) I will probably tweak this (nothing major!) until assignments go out, but then I'll stop.

( psst under here )

If you are in doubt about anything, please talk to shihadchick and/or lovelokest . These two know what I like. Also please see my tumblr to get a feel for what I like when I'm relentlessly on my bullshit. And thank you again, lovely author! I can't wait to read what you write!

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 04:10:24 GMT

I know, I'm very late. I keep forgetting, what with all the everything, I gesticulate wildly at the entire goddamn world.

ANYWAY. I figure I should say what I wrote for yuletide, so here's what I wrote for yuletide:

please please please (let me get what i want), A Knight's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer/Wat. Five Times Geoff Tried To Win Wat's Heart, and One Time He Didn't Have To. It's the first time in my mumblety years in fandom that I've ever written a 5+1.

uhh... I don't know how to do this anymore? Self promotion, what is that; fic writing, what is that. Read it if you want to, I guess?

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yuletimes 2k20 recs

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 05:05:18 GMT

Arthurian Mythology, loose me when ye list, for i am bound, Gawain/Dame Ragnell. The prose is gorgeous and there are sources and I am in love. (if you want the paywalled article pls ask, I have access)

14th Century RPF, Sponsor, Edward III of England/Philippa of Hainault. I'll just steal the summary because: "Marrying the king of England is overwhelming; supporting him is surprisingly easy."

Enola Holmes, every vine climbing and blossoming, Enola/Tewksbury. Tewksbury is the target of an(other) assassination plot, but this time he has something up his sleeve (maybe not his sleeve exactly). CUTE.

The Good Place, Vicky has a bad idea. Does what it says on the tin. Demons behaving badly and inventing meetings.

The Good Place, The Three People, One Dog, and One Non-Human Non-Robot Not-a-Girl You Meet in Heaven, Janet/Jason. This is hilarious and feelsy at the same time and I'm totally not weepy at all, YOU are.

Hamlet, silver lining, strike me down, Hamlet/Horatio. Horatio clearly doesn't know why he likes this guy but is kinda thirsty anyway.

The Martian, Falling Slowly, Back to Earth. The crew of the Hermes are dedicated literary critics. Adorable.

The Perilous Gard, then march this heathen company. Oh Alicia NO. or, Alicia Gonna Alicia (no matter what Kate does).

The Secret Garden, Perennial. What if Mary's parents hadn't died of cholera in India, what if Martha was actually Mridula, and what if there still was a garden?

Twelfth Night, Love's Labours Lost, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Malvolio takes a walk through the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Who knew Malvolio could learn tact and discretion?

Untitled Goose Game, Among Us, Amon Goose, or Untitled Impostor Game. A perfect mashup of incredibly weird shit that is hilarious and horrific. Everything that yuletide should be.

The Yellow Wallpaper, Before the Yellow Wallpaper. holy shit this is creepy. aaah. the children especially. aaaaah.

probably more later

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yuletide 2k20: K-dramas, X-wings, and football (oh my)

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 04:04:43 GMT

I haven't done a yuletide since... uh... 2016? Uni ate all my time, and wtf am I going to do with this dumb double degree in English and history anyway? Obviously the answer is "write fic."

( optional details, wants, do not wants, etc )

I'm so excited to be doing this again! It's been so long! It's gonna be so fun! I can't wait to see what you come up with, dear author, and above all, have an amazing time writing!

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Wed, 01 Jan 2020 20:10:23 GMT

hey y'all here are some yuletide fics that I liked

( Read more... )

did I miss anything that an elizabeth might enjoy? drop your recs here!

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Tue, 19 Nov 2019 04:05:44 GMT

hmm. words.

See, I open the "post an entry" page and I realize how incredibly dull my life actually is, and that I'm 100% definitely using this as a stalling tactic when I should be writing a couple papers instead.

So let me catch you up on how truly boring I am by Talking About School. And I realize I haven't updated DW since January, which means spring semester got totally erased as well. Fine then.

( bad grades and shitty brain chemistry under the cut )

That was a lot. Um. Sorry? Have a poll?

View Poll: #22937

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Thu, 10 Jan 2019 03:54:05 GMT

(Multiple posts in a month! Don't expect this to last once the semester starts; I'll be up to my armpits in work again.)

OK, so as if I didn't whine enough in my last post:

I am BROKEN. I don't know what the hell I did, but my right calf muscle is all effed up. Sometime before the end of the semester (which is how I measure time now, so this would be early December for those of you measuring time normally), walking around suddenly produced this stretching pain in my right calf. I was like "huh." It went away, mostly. Then on New Years Eve, I was going downstairs at my dad's to get the box of red to make mulled wine, and I felt something *POP* in my calf. And it suddenly hurt a whole fucking lot. And kept hurting, but I stayed off of it and ignored it because that's what you do when you don't have health insurance. It went away, mostly. Then last Friday (Jan 4) I went errand running after work, and oh my GOD it hurt. Like fuck me sideways, OW. It went away, mostly.

And then today. O, Today. So whatever is up with this dumb muscle, it doesn't appreciate the cold. Today was colder than it's been so far this winter. I wore my Actual Winter Coat for the first time. So I got off the bus to walk a damn block to my job, and the whole calf just like seized up or something, and I was noticeably limping as I went around the corner. Charter Street goes up a hill, and I don't even have to go up the whole thing, and by the time I got to the building where I work I was puffing and swearing and in a whole lot of pain. I sat at my job for a whole! two! hours! trying to decide what to do, and finally was like "look, I'm going to the clinic now" (I can go to the student clinic and get seen without insurance which is nice). And my job was like "you should do that." So I did, and the doctor was very nice and pushed at pulled and prodded at me a bit and said "yeah you probably tore it a little, why don't you come back tomorrow and see the athletic PT people, they can give you some exercises and good stuff." Which is what I'm doing.

Nelle the blessed housemate is lending me her crutches from when she sprained her ankle, and has made me promise to use them. She also bought me a heating pad which is unbelievably nice feeling, and I took anti-inflammatories and am resting it. Ugh, I just wish I knew what I DID. It's just so STUPID, why is this HAPPENING.

Also they cancelled one of my spring semester classes. Women and Gender in the US to 1870, we hardly knew ye. And now I have to fuckin find something to replace it in like a week and a half. That has enough credits, counts toward one of my degrees, and fits into both my existing class and work schedules. Cool. cool cool cool cool cool.

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Tue, 08 Jan 2019 04:02:10 GMT

Oh, it's 2019, is it? Christ. I feel like 2016 has definitely been the worst year this decade, but every year after it has just been an endless slog through its putrifying remains. And more to come!

(It's my journal, I will be as defeatist and depressing as I want. The great thing about DW is that you don't have to read me.)

I have one single resolution for 2019, which is 100% more resolutions than I normally make, and it is to start buying more environmentally friendly menstrual products (that are not the Diva Cup because no, ow). I prefer tampons, and I plan to do some research on the topic while it's still winter break, but if anyone has a product they prefer, please let me know.

Speaking of while it's still winter break: I made myself a to do list for break, and looking at it just feels like Things I Need To Do instead of 'things that could be fun'. Like catch up on The Good Place, Doctor Who, and The Expanse, work on vids, write some fic, knit a thing. And they just feel like chores. I did watch the new season of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel which was delightful, I love that show, but mostly I just want to get in bed, pile on the blankets, and pretend nothing exists.

[insert butterfly boy meme here: is this depression?]

I definitely need to download my flickr shit, I am NOT losing my Italy photos, or my Ireland photos, or all my U2 photos, yes I will crawl out from the blankets for that. (Psst download your flickr shit, they start deleting in early February.)

Also I kind of want to redo ALL my DW icons. Because that's a good use of my time. (But I want new ones!) What I really ought to do is look at my final grades for last semester, but I think I probably need to have several drinks first. And possibly someone to hold my hand. And bring me more drinks when I see how poorly I did (and whether I'm on academic probation, god last semester was bad).

One good thing, elizabeth, you can think of one goddamn good thing. OK. I can.

Oh! I got a book today! Which I ordered probably a month or so ago and it just came, so yay! It is Citadel of the Saxons: The Rise of Early London by Rory Naismith, and it is about London between the Roman abandonment and resettlement by Anglo-Saxons. Got it at a new release discount (which, as I am Midwestern, I am obliged to tell you), and I've been looking forward to it a lot. YAY PHYSICAL READING MATERIAL. YAY EARLY MEDIEVAL AWESOMENESS. izzy's back on her bullshit guys

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Thu, 27 Dec 2018 02:27:30 GMT

This Yuletide has been awfully nice, in that I did not sign up (small sigh) but then there were All These Stories just Magically Made Available For Me yesterday? Here, have some (extremely on-brand) recs:

( psst under here )

I have not yet read the four (FOUR!!!) fics for the Voynich Manuscript (THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT!!! what the fuck fandom), but I'll get there.

(PS I sort of regret not signing up this year, but it is obviously not the end of the world and perhaps next year I'll have worked out what this Time Management thing is (ha ha ha) and I'll get to sign up again.)

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Sun, 09 Dec 2018 01:49:56 GMT

My god am I bad at using this thing. But tumblr's collapsing under the weight of corporate greed and incompetency, so here I am. (Not that I actually interacted with people on tumblr but whatever.)

It is the end of the semester, my dudes. (AAAAAHHHH.) Did I mention anywhere but twitter that I'm double-majoring now? Because I am. (Double major, all the way. Let's see how many memes I can reference in one post.) Finishing the history major in spring, then one more year in which it'll be all English all the time. Not that it hasn't been some English some of the time already, and my history advisor may have asked me if I was actually planning on finishing the history degree (yes, Scott, just let me live please). So that'll be cool. I'm just trying to think about things that are not Right Now because Right Now is horrible. Let me explain. No, there is too much; let me sum up.

1) Final project for Old English which consists of a. translating an OE poem/prose piece into Modern English (I have chosen The Ruin), b. translating a song/poem from ME into OE (I have chosen Florence + The Machine, Sky Full Of Song), and c. an accompanying explanation for b of why you made the translation choices you did.
2) Latin final
3) Islamic Law final
4) Medieval lit final
5) Medieval lit final paper (I'm writing about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and liminal spaces; if anyone's got any good scholarship on liminality, please please hook me up) (because scholarship on liminality is totally a thing normal people have)

So right now I really should be reading this article about the forest in medieval romances, and I will, I promise, I just wanted to say hey I am alive and here and I obviously can't talk about anything but school because my life consists of nothing else and Wisconsin politics is too depressing at the moment.

I need winter break to happen. (let death come and soon)

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the absolute state of it

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 02:02:08 GMT

(it, of course, being me)

So hey, yeah, hi, I guess we're doing this? I shall give it a try. I'm typing horizontally because summer break is almost over (we'll discuss this in a moment), a bunch of my city is mildly underwater, and I just took a selfie and it was horrible. So I'm lying down to get over it.

I don't know and I don't care to know how long it's been since I've written anything in here, so I'm not going to try to update from the last post whenever that was. I shall just say that the spring semester went better than I expected (an A in the grad level seminar, ABs in the other three classes: transgender in history, Intro to East Asian Civ, and all-Divine-Comedy-all-the-time). Still not on the dean's list though? Which, fine, my fancypants university has a higher GPA standard for the dean's list than my community college, but still I'm slightly put out.

I was supposed to take two classes this summer, both three credits, one four weeks and one eight weeks. I dropped the four week one because my dad had to go to the hospital in June for some heart-related shit. He is fine and all fixed, but being out of commission for three days out of a three credit four week class basically did me in there, so I had to drop it. The other one was Neural Basis of Communication (aka The Awful Brain Class, you may have seen me bitch about it on twitter), which apparently I needed because I was missing a bio science requirement. STORYTIME: Back in September 2016, I had a meeting with UW-Madison's history department advisor, who told me that the bio science class I had taken at Madison College was totally cool and transferred and filled that requirement. Fast forward to November 2017. I was trying to pick classes for spring, and I hadn't properly declared my major yet so I went to see the general Letters and Science advisors who told me "NOPE that class doesn't count, you need a bio science! Here's a list of bio science classes that may appeal to non-STEM majors!" And I said "ugh great thanks I guess," which is how I ended up taking Brain Class this summer. And it was hell, friends. It was an online class, and I hate online classes. The professor chose to assume everyone in the class was a neuroscience major, and therefore she decided she didn't have to explain some kind of basic and therefore necessary concepts and ideas. Also I didn't mention this on twitter (what happens on DW stays on DW, guys), but she also accused me of academic misconduct, by which I mean she thought I cheated on a test. It turns out Canvas (which is an online thing like Blackboard) can tell when you have other tabs open in a window where you're taking a test. I was nervous about the test and I forgot to close my tabs, and the prof gave me a zero. The lowest test score was dropped and I ended up getting a C, which is honestly what I expected and wanted, but I lost some sleep over that. I PASSED, IT'S DONE, NO MORE MATH OR SCIENCE EVER.

So now I'm pretty much just killing the last few weeks until the fall semester starts on the 5th. I am super excited about my classes though. I have Intro to Islamic Law, a medieval lit class on monsters and other cool shit, Elementary Latin, and Old English (two languages because they're only offered in the fall semester and this is my last fall semester and I hate myself and I'm going to die). The same prof is teaching Old English and the lit class, and he is a medieval scholar of some prominence, so I'm gonna try not to be too annoying. As I said to a friend at work, either he's gonna get super sick of me or we're gonna be besties. Hoping for the latter, especially wrt grad school. ugh ugh I have no idea what I'm doing about that yet don't ask me idk idk. I'm working myself up to spending $$$ on books, and now I feel like I should plug my ko.fi or venmo or whatever. I don't have any of those things. I have a poor is what I have.

Also I've been painting my nails a lot. Which is fun, and unlike makeup that you put on your face, if you fuck it up no one notices. Standards are low and I appreciate that. I have been using a lot of sparkly shit, which I have decided I like. However, it's fake holo and I need some real holo. (The difference is that in the stuff I have, each individual sparkle is just one color. Proper holo sparkles shift through the spectrum. Fuckin cheap ass Sally Hansen.)

And that's it. What I really should do now is start clipping for the Good Place vid I've been wanting to make since like March? I know I told Claire about it when she was here and it was cold and not May. do it izzyyyyy

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yuletide? yuletide. ::nod::

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 00:42:15 GMT

wtf, how the eff is it Yuletide ALREADY?

No, I do not say that every freaking year.

Anyway, this is a placeholder for when I get my shit together.

[some days later] Look at me, I'm getting my shit together!

I know I said this in the signup, but: Author, you do NOT need to include all the characters I requested! I will be happy with one, or some, or all, if you wish! Also, if you desire to do so, please include characters that I did not ask for or were not nominated. This goes for all of my requests.

( Optional Details That Are Totally Optional )

Dear Author, I am super excited that we are both nerdy about the same tiny fandom, and even though I'm sure I will thank you to an embarrassing degree later, I just wanted to say THANK YOU right now for writing a story for me. <3

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Mon, 02 Oct 2017 02:07:55 GMT

I haven't posted since JULY ok let's see how much I can get out in half an hour (I am sick and really should be in bed lights off no later than 9:30 because I have an 8AM lecture that I would very much like to go to):

SCHOOL. oh god. It's kicking my ass? I guess, kind of? It's making me have second thoughts about my major, will say that much. I am taking one 100-level class and two-soon-three 200-level classes (the third is online and starts on the 16th), and I'm supposed to have junior standing? I should be taking all upper level shit right now (especially since a thing I will explain in a bit), and I should not feel like this course load is too much. This should be fine, I should be fine, this is what I wanted, right?, and instead I feel like these 19-year-olds are a million percent more prepared and on top of their shit and just generally smarter than me.

I just. ugh. I like my classes, or at least two out of the current three, and hopefully I'll like the online one too, but I am so far Not At All Enjoying the University Experience. I feel like I'm constantly running to catch up, and being sick since Thursday didn't help at all (especially since I missed a bunch of explanatory shit in one of my classes that day) and I'm just demoralized and I don't know any people and I'm tired.

(And I went to the student organization fair in the hopes of finding some nice people to hang out with but this stupid school is really not even remotely set up to accommodate grownass women who live seven miles from campus on the other side of a lake and who take the bus and work a number of evenings. So that didn't go well, is what I'm saying. Relatedly, of the approximately FORTY THREE THOUSAND students [under, grad, and post] on this campus, guess how many are nontraditional/returning adults. Go on, guess. OK, I'll tell you. It's about two thousand. And they're all grad students. I haven't met a single other one of me.)

OK, the thing I said I'd explain (see above): Apparently not only do I have junior standing, after this semester I'll be a SENIOR? WTF WTF WTF NO. I'm sorry, nobody got time to finish a major in ONE FUCKING YEAR. (Unless they do and I just have no idea about ANYTHING which is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE APPARENTLY.)

Classes. I am taking History 115: Medieval Europe 410-1500 (my jam, I love this class), French Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century (so far also my jam but we've moved out of the Middle Ages already so less my jam than History 115), and History 201: The Historian's Craft (please god help me I am DYING). That one is all about How To Write A Big Damn Academic Paper, and I'm lying sort of, I'm not really dying, I got a 94 on the one graded assignment we've had so far and the professor is really really nice and enthusiastic and willing to help, but I feel alternately out of my depth and Really Stupid, and then 'yeah I know how to find and cite a source, thanks'. It doesn't help that the section that fit best with my schedule was the section that is using early modern European exploration of the Americas as its topic, because a) hey have some genocide twice a week and twice more in discussion group! and b) god I Do Not Care about the early modern period I just don't I don't I don't. Who knows what my final paper's gonna be on, I'm thinking pirates. Because why the hell not. The online class that's coming up is about Vikings, so hopefully that will be more my jam. I worry about time, though, considering how I feel now.

WORK. Is kind of an island of peace amongst my raeg? I'm working at the UW Survey Center. I make phone calls for the CDC and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. I make (or try to make) people take a survey about their health over the phone. Most of the time I fail, but sometimes I get someone who's willing, or even happy to do it, or is so fed up with us calling over and over that they do it just to make us stop. I don't really mind it, it's sort of like I don't have to be me for 16 hours a week. Though I was at 24 hours a week and I had to cut my hours because I just didn't have enough TIME argh time and now I have another class coming up and ARGH

So yeah. This all sort of makes me want to quit the fucking humanities and go grow corn or measure fish or something. Fucking fancypants prestigious school that makes you do shit, ugh.

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Sat, 08 Jul 2017 19:26:56 GMT

I'm supposed to post my trope_bingo card, I guess?

( ok here it is )

There are a few things there that I'm not entirely pleased about (secret twins, may december romance, fewer au choices than I wanted) (and it's my own fault since I only opted out of two prompts), but MOSTLY what I'm irritated with is that this was supposed to be a good asskick to get me back into writing, but clearly my brain disagrees. I am not happy. What are ideas. What are ideas that are mine, not other people's. All the ideas I'm having are coming from fic I've read already. I'm just... yeah, I dunno what to do about this. ugh brain why do you hate me

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Mon, 26 Jun 2017 21:38:05 GMT

Oh hey there, apparently I haven't been around here since uh well before Wiscon, which means that if you didn't see me lose my shit on twitter, I GOT ACCEPTED TO UW-MADISON.

I just. I am so happy. And relieved. Lots of relieved, because this means I don't have to do an entire semester online at UW-Milwaukee (because fuck if I'm moving to Milwaukee) and apply to Madison again over winter break. I GET TO FINISH MY DEGREE HERE. Even though Bad Things are happening at the university because the state legislature is made up of fucksticks who hate education so my Feelings are Mixed, sigh.

Orientation and registration is in about a month. I want it now, I wanna pick classes! (I don't want everything I want to be full!) Patience, Elizabeth.

What else. Summer classes again: right now is Classical Mythology which is Great (except for how I need to read Oedipus Rex tonight) (again) (this is probably my third time reading it), and in a couple weeks my polisci class will start (American National Government, which will I'm sure be interesting and depressing and interesting), and then I'll have an associate's degree! An Actual Degree! I mean, I won't have the actual Thing until fall semester graduation, but whatever.

What else. My entire existence is political, so Happy Pride, I still don't have health insurance, and my brain decided to take a nosedive into a what-if cancer scenario at five fucking a.m. today, so that was cool.

We had a fairestcat for like three weeks post-Wiscon, which was delightful and I miss her face and I keep finding her dyed neon pink hair which obviously means I should vacuum. We went to APT and saw Midsummer Night's Dream on the NEW STAGE which was lovely and hilarious and fun (though later I watched the newish BBC production and wow did APT take some inspiration from that). We saw Wonder Woman twice which was good because there may have been some happy weeping the first time (and the second). And oh right, Cat and I went down to Chicago and saw those U2 guys as well. Which was, yknow, fine. (!!!!!!!) (ugh oh god it was so good I don't have words just random untypeable noises sry)

That's pretty much all I can think of. I should probably read about that Greek dude who made bad life choices now. (which one, I know.)

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Thu, 08 Jun 2017 22:48:52 GMT

( wiscon 41 panel notes )

this took a long time and I had to handcode all the fucking ul and li tags because the rich text entry option is weird

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