buckets of rain

Despite the blatant fact that the New Hampshire seacoast was entirely under flood & wind watch, as we are currently having a hurricane despite the fact that it is February, I went to visit some friends in Dover tonight. This was, of course, a stupid idea.

To be fair: I didn't want to stay out very late, as I'm spending all of my weekend at a diversity awareness / social justice summit. Though some other friends of ours were driving there and staying the night, I didn't want to drive myself on the basis of definitely not feeling comfortable. So - apprehensively and definitely second-guessing myself the entire way there - I agreed to take a bus to Dover and to catch an early bus back to campus before the Drunk Biddie Bus is the only one I can take home.

G and I agreed to take a 10:40 bus from near my friends' apartment back to campus. This ride takes about 20 minutes total. Due to Hurricane Wrong-Season, we were anticipating some delays; our bus was about 10 minutes late. Even though I think the technical term for this much rain is "fucking monsoon", I don't especially mind rain.

Our usual 20 minute bus ride, featuring G and I as the only passengers, a trainee bus driver and a training bus driver, took us almost two hours. We encountered:
6 fallen trees
1 electrical fire
and
1 downed electrical wire we nearly drove into
leading to approximately six detours, including one where the driver almost overshot an exit onto a highway, sending G and I flying. It was so scary!

While waiting for any sort of police/fire departmental response via bus intercom, I took an awful camera-phone picture (the one time I brought my phone somewhere! more about that in the future) of the electrical fire and the cars deciding to be brave and drive around us. The electrical fire is on the left and the cars on right.

Eventually we gave up, joining in their bravado with a strong desire to not be stuck on the side of a road forever, ultimately losing most of the contact we had with UNH transit until three detours and a few more trees later. Eventually we gave up attempting to contact Transit on the basis that every emergency service was under severe delay. At one point G and I got out of the bus to move a tree out of the road simply because it was not possible for us to turn around again! Luckily the training bus driver knew multiple ways to get to campus from where we were and luckily we were very close to a major intersection, allowing us far more options than if we had been stuck on one of our earlier roads. (I can't make this stuff up. Really, this happened.)

Upon arriving home we discovered that all of campus had lost power. No kidding. Even walking across the street from the bus stop to my dorm was a disaster! I was worried that a tree might fall on me at that point... based upon the journey back it didn't seem out of the ordinary. (Side note: a tree fell into some kid's room across campus and when the UNH police came to check it out, another tree fell on his cruiser. Oh, I hope Franz is alright.) We just got it back maybe 20 minutes ago, which - to be fair - is a huge turnaround. There are people who are going to be out of power for a while! And, because we attend the University of No Hope, we can all look forward to classes tomorrow.


(EDIT: 02/26 Due to power outages (plural, please note) overnight, the university curtailed this morning as of 9 am. The University of No Holidays deems it unfair for students to risk their lives driving / being outside, good job guys! We definitely lost power a few more times for sure though; I had set alarms to wake up for class - which of course didn't go off - and based on the time my alarm clock was giving me I would have slept through it anyway, ahhh! But apparently my Diversity Conference is still on for this weekend.)

Let's talk about reproductive rights for a second.

As of last Thursday (2/19), THIS NEW LAW which would define any miscarriage in the state of Utah as a homicide is sitting on Governor Gary Herbert's desk. This means that this law has already passed through Utah's state legislature. Yes, you read that correctly.

To review:
- In Utah, you can be considered pregnant BEFORE you are biologically alerted
- If you are determined to be pregnant and then cease to be for whatever reason barring abortions (I'm not sure on Utah's stance on [il]legal abortions; therefore I refuse to discuss them at any length here) a woman must take full responsibility for a bundle of cells/(pre)fetus

which means...
YOU ARE A MURDERER THE END.

obviously.

Something like 2 out of 3 pregnancies are miscarriages*... many are miscarried before the woman is consciously aware of their pregnancy. There are defined no biological basis for miscarriages, and nobody can actively discern what would trigger this action. However, this means that tripping on the stairs could give you 25+ years in prison for passive homicide.

AWESOME. So ... about those reproductive rights. What's up, 1828?


*Somebody check this fact!

And while I'm on the topic of books

I present what will probably be the highlight of my summer.

From the publisher's website --
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters coauthor Ben H. Winters is back with an all-new collaborator, legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, and the result is Android Karenina: an enhanced edition of the classic love story set in a strange new world of robots, cyborgs, and interplanetary travel.

As in the original novel, our story follows two relationships: the tragic adulterous romance of Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky, and the much more hopeful marriage of Nikolai Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. These four, yearning for true love, live in a steampunk-inspired 19th century of mechanical butlers, extraterrestrial-worshiping cults, and airborne debutante balls. Their passions alone would be enough to consume them—but when a secret cabal of radical scientific revolutionaries launches an attack on Russian high society’s high-tech lifestyle, our heroes must fight back with all their courage, all their gadgets, and all the power of a sleek new cyborg model like nothing the world has ever seen.

I, FOR ONE, AM EXCITED
(especially as I just read the original over break)

Re: Twilight

The Twilight phenomenon never fails to utterly baffle me. How was this book/franchise SO POPULAR?!

Like most universities, UNH offers a second running of films from the last semester at supremely reduced rates.

It's a great system, and I don't go nearly as often as I would like to. But that's not the point.

I just returned from seeing the movie Precious (2009).

I had heard from many people that this movie was difficult to watch - a number of people had to leave halfway through it. I consider myself to be an extremely emotionally stable person, and I sat through all 110 minutes of it. The end killed me - I'm still a mess, half an hour later. I cried the whole way home. This movie should be required viewing for everyone over the age of 18. It's amazing, powerful, and beautifully presented.


The trailer doesn't even begin to do it justice. Just go see it.

Hello Seniors! If you are preparing to graduate...

DEAR UNH:
After a year of getting Fill Out Your Intent-to-Graduate Notifications, due to a surplus of credits, I have finally told you I am leaving your fine institution this May.
KTHANKS,
Heather

Dear my friend who managed to file his intent-to-graduate forms with the wrong major on it a few years ago,
How the hell did you manage this? This was the easiest form I have ever had to fill out in college.
Perplexedly,
Heather

Dear February,
How are you halfway over? Is it midterms season? What happened here?
Baffled,
Heather

Dear The Future,
You are rather imminent. I am so very lucky to have very concrete plans for next year!
Nervously,
Heather

Dear Birmingham,
Nice to finally hear from you! Sorry, but you were about a month too late for consideration.
Regretfully,
Heather

Dear Nottingham:
I DO NOT CARE ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING THIS WEEK IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT I AM NOT GOING TO YOUR SCHOOL
Fuck off.
Heather

Dear Strathclyde,
I'm looking forward to meeting you.
With anticipation,
Heather

Greetings from SNOWMAGGEDON 2010

I didn't own boots for my first three winters in NH. It was only last year I finally bought a pair... and now I don't know how I managed for so long!

Though I'm from the Northeast, I'm always amused at how much people freak out over snow up here. The joke is that we're always prepared for snow (unlike the rest of the US), but in reality a lot of New England freaks out and overreacts to snowfall every year. Like, really, it's going to be okay, everyone.

Valentine's Day: A Haiku

I can care less what you think (all
the single ladies, oh oh oh) - you
shoulda put a ring on it!

To all the single ladies:
if you liked it, then you shoulda put a
ring on it (put your hands up!)

The weekend of many concerts parades on

Tonight, along with every lesbian in the tri-state area, I'm seeing Tegan & Sara in Boston. Oh God.

RE: Thesising

Today I start writing my senior thesis. Sitting next to me is my thesis proposal and a cup of coffee. Time to start working! I took my first personal day of my collegiate career on Tuesday in preparation for this.

I kind of feel like I'm faking it. Like, how did I get here? How is this actually happening now?

The future freaks me out, a lot.

I wish there was a website to collect things that happen which simply don't make sense

For example: days like today, when you encounter a full steel drum band playing "Under The Sea" in the student union in the middle of February while it snows quietly outside.

caught in a bad romance!

I recieve approximately eight emails a day. For the past two weeks, approximately a third of these have been from various departments on campus trying to get me to register for an event.

I do things WITH the Women's & Queer Studies department but not am not actively IN it; as a Race/Culture/Power minor I am actually part of the "UNH Center For The Humanities". (Perhaps you should consider consolidating!) Though I take a lot of classes with the Women's Studies department, not-so-secretly wish I could triple-major in Women's Studies, and know a lot of the people involved with Women's studies, I AM NOT IN YOUR DEPARTMENT. Nice try.

I bring this up because today is the last day to apply for the MLK Leadership Summit, which is essentially a weekend of Social Justice, Activism and Our Campus. Because I just can't get enough when it comes to applications, I was planning to apply anyway.

I got an e-mail from the Women's Studies department recently which was titled "Looking for GLBTQAI+ students to attend the MLK student leadership summit" and reads "NO queer-identified students had applied to attend the summit. It would be a shame to not have GLBTQAI+ voices in this summit related to justice for all groups on campus, so please consider going!". Presumably everyone who was on this email, all 11 of us instead of the usual large-scale departmental email, is LGBTQ+/-/Square Root of 7, Divided by 3, etc identified.

Okay... I know that because I'm gay I am qualified to attend. But really? Do you have to single us out because of our identity and then demand that we apply because of this? I've been talking to a bunch of people about how LGBTQ issues are less of an issue on this campus than it has been in the past. Even if they are still relevant issues, it's not on the forefront of everyone's agenda.

Maybe I don't see the point here, but I'm kind of discouraged by the fact an entire department seemingly devoted to equal treatment as a human being - rather than a figure of something arbitrarily based on any number of other factors - diminished me to my sexuality in hopes of getting me to participate in something. And maybe I'm just grumpy and bitter about having to read the same email, worded a little bit differently each time for two weeks in a row. But I like to think I'm more interesting and doing more than just being A Gay Student On This Campus.

I didn't like orange juice until very recently.

But now I couldn't be more thrilled that I can buy it in superfluous blendings by the handle.


(gratuitous picture of you monday)

I felt so inspired by what my teacher said, said I'd either be dead or be a reefer head

FUN FACT: Martin Luther King Jr Day was not celebrated in New Hampshire until 1999. Prior to that, New Hampshire celebrated "Civil Rights Day". NH is the last state in the union to have a holiday celebrating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As a result of going to a large public university, my campus has Diversity Initiatives and Diversity Events and they are sponsored largely by offices with titles like "Affirmative Action and Equity Office", "Center for the Humanities", "The College of Liberal Arts", "Diversity Initiatives Office", "President's Commission on the Status of Women" "President's Commission on the Status of People of Color" "Office of Multicultural Student Affairs", etc. As a result of going to a large public university in NEW HAMPSHIRE, the number of students who fall under the category of NOT-white is supremely low. Conveniently, the UNH community celebrates Martin Luther King Jr in the first week of February, as part of Black History Month.

A major pet peeve of mine is when people complain about how undiverse my campus is. Sorry, but you chose to go here -- I'm fairly certain you knew what you were signing up for when you agreed to attend UNH. Yes, I realize that not everyone has their choice of (undergraduate)programs and colleges, etc. But really, if you wanted a bit more diversity, then the University of New Hampshire is not the place to be.

That said: I attend as many of the Diversity Events that I can. Diversity Events are fun and enriching and overwhelmingly positive experiences. (And, I'm willing to bet, the largest contact most of my classmates might get with People Who Are Not Like Them. I would now like to direct you to Stuff White People Like #7, Diversity, in regards to this paragraph as a whole).

Last year Angela Davis came to campus; this year Nikki Giovanni was our speaker. Apparently this was the 20th Anniversary of the MLK Celebration week. All I can say is that I hope that in the next 20 years people will get to see Jay-Z, Beyonce and Kanye West, our modern-day Black poets and activists.

meta-research

I just stumbled upon AN ARTICLE ABOUT MY RESEARCH.

To quote:
"[Laurie Bauer] with two other leading international linguists [Rochelle Lieber and Ingo Plag], will be putting together a book on English morphology – how words are constructed."

I've been doing this research with Shelly Lieber since June 2009. (In fact, as I write this, I SHOULD be researching.) I'm actually working on a portion of this book: prefixes in regards to location and temporality native to English and adopted in from Greek/Latin. I have been in contact with this guy! My mind = BLOWN.

in which my obscure interests ARE ACTUALLY OF MODERATE USE.

I was alarmed too.

Given my well-documented love of all things Anglo-Saxon/Medieval England (I'm only partially kidding) and the Internet, I (of course) was very pleased when the Bayoux Tapestry meme came to be in existence. The other day I was hitting the stumbleupon button while researching and came across this page. I left this page alone for a few days, too mentally fried to deal with it at the time. Research is taxing. Today, upon further review, I realized this page contains a link to a Make-Your-Own tapestry page.

So, naturally, this is all I have done today:









MAKE YOUR OWN HERE