Something like a 3-oh...

Ahoy from Florida...it's a chipper 40 something.  I'm reading some Garrison Keillor fiction, and still utterly tired. I'm of a good mind to take the semester off to watch the spring come in on the beach.

That's no good though...

Forgive, I'm running a fever at the moment so my malaise is both dazing and exasperating.

Anyway, my last grade came in today (finally), and it's higher than I hoped.  The professor and I jerked each other around enough, I was just happy to be done with it.

Ballet and English Conference were both passes (P's), and as such don't count towards the GPA... :\
Western Theatre Traditions was a solid B
Advanced Acting Lab was a solid B
Arabia Imagined a B-

So, a 2.8680 ...call it a 2.9?  Which is something very close to a 3.0...right? Right?

Stats are updated, so is what's on deck.

Things really fell apart this semester...I fell apart this semester, and rallied but the damage may be done.

I wonder...

what the Drosselmeyer house was like the rest of the year? In every production of The Nutcracker I've ever seen, I cannot picture it in any thing other than a perpetual state of "Christmasness."

http://www.gofundme.com/48ovzo

The Hour Still Starts With 3, Yet the Sun Doth Kiss the Horizon

This is verily screwing with my internal clock...and I think I got a sunburn from sitting in the same spot. That's one reason to be happy the sun's gone down.

http://www.gofundme.com/48ovzo

Fear and (self) loathing in Las Cruces...

It's been...bumpy.

A mass of text hath passed mine eyes and to much dismay, little if any has stuck.

I was called in to my adviser after my professor emailed her. I severely underperformed on a paper proposal, handing in five pages of outline and bibliography, when, as it turns out, he wanted a short version of the actual paper. It was (ludicrously) graded, and I was given a provisional "D". He's expecting a rewrite, well, the TA is expecting a rewrite.

After another will-call mishap, and needing time to focus on my two papers, I'm taking a couple weeks off from work. At a point, it's just too much and these are too important, I think I had forgotten that a little bit. No matter what the denoument of the semester is, whether I get the money to stay, have to return to Tampa because I don't, or take of...I need to have a decent GPA coming out of this semester not matter what happens.

http://www.gofundme.com/48ovzo

Waiting...waiting...waiting...and with a surprising lack of change...more waiting...

So we got our Western Theatre papers back this morning...
Finally some hint at academic validation, my first real paper grade at Columbia...

W.B. handed it to me...lot's of comments...oo... Why did I leave that in?  I don't remember leaving that in. Not anachronistic, achronistic... ACHRONISTIC! damn auto correct. *le sigh* "Good Connection, but... *le sigh some more*  The TA is commenting a lot, W.B. isn't...why isn't he commenting? I...ugh...how is a Marx reference not obvious enough? How is the Locke reference not obvious enough? Everybody knows those theories. "Don't assume your reader knows anything."  But assume we do, eh? Ha. That wasn't that funny. Well...nah not that funny. Your citations are funny. Funny bad, not funny haha. Are citations ever funny haha?  Get to last page.

No grade.

Flip over. No grade. Class and Prof. long gone...
What's going on?
Where's my grade?

I...

Uh....what?


Dear God...
I was really tired. It was finished during an all-nighter, and every other sundry excuse ever used, by everyone, ever.

Was it that horrible? No, no-no. I mean he's not above just putting an F on a paper, right? Christ. Does he want me to rewrite? I'd love a rewrite.

*le sigh*

Emailed prof + TA. Waiting...patiently.

Oh, hey...look at that. This is my 100th post.

GoFundMe!

So, I have started a go fund me account for help with my tuition this semester.
I'm happy to say I got my first donation! An anonymous donor chipped in $1000!
I'm kind of in shock. I can't believe it....I'm stunned.

If you want to find out why I"m asking for money or would like to donate, visit:

http://www.gofundme.com/48ovzo

Oh hey, look, I'm at 13%!

or click the gofundme donate button in the upper right corner.

Worklist week of 10/7

1. Read/Annotate for Response: Ibn Hisham (d. 833), “Muhammad’s Ordinance for Medina.” Trans. Norman A. Stillman, 1979. The Jews of Arab Lands, 115-18.
   (3 pages)
2. Read/Annotate for Response: Document of Protection (dhimma) Trans. N. Stillman, pp. 255-258.
   (3 pages)
3. Read/Annotate for Response:  Text: Maimonides (d. 1204), “Epistle to the Jews of Yemen.”       Trans. Norman Stillman, pp. 233-46. 
   (13 pages)
4. Read/Annotate for Response: Texts: divorce documents.  Trans. I. Hollander, “Ibrā’ in Highland Yemen: Two Jewish Divorce Settlements,” Islamic Law & Society 2(1)(1995):1-23.
   (23 pages)
5. Read/Annotate for Response: Anthropology: Jewish “saints” Kosansky, Oren. Tourism, Charity, and Profit: the Movement of Money in Moroccan Jewish Pilgrimage,” Cultural Anthropology 17(3)(2002), 359-400.
   (41 pages)
6. Due by 10/6, 10:00 PM - Write: 2 page Double Space Response with annotations on the above week 4 reading assignments
7. 10/6 - Read/Ready for discussion: Jackson, "Professing Performance" 
8. 10/6 - Read/Annotate for Response: Worthen, "Disciplines of the Text/Sites of Performance"
9. 10/7 - Skim/Ready for discussion:The Book of Margery Kempe pdf
10. 10/9 - Read/Ready for discussion: The York Cycle: Fall of the Angels, Fall of Man, Building of the Ark, The Flood, Herod and Magi, Slaughter of the Innocents, Christ before Herod through Last Judgment  
11. 10/9 - Skim/Ready for discussion: Beckwith, from Signifying God
12. 10/9 - Skim/Ready for discussion: Schechner, from "Collective Reflexivity: Restoration of Behavior" 
13. 10/9 - Review: Medieval Theatre Handout Online  
14. 10/9 - Skim/Ready for discussion Julian of Norwich pdf
15. Due by 10/10, 10:00 PM - Write: 2 page Double Space Response with annotations on week 3 readings for late sub
16. Due: by 10/14, 5:00 PM -  Write: 1200 word discussion essay for English Conference, any topic relevant to class discussion. 
17. By 10/14 - 5 page research outline/proposal for Arabia Imagined. 
18. 10/20 - Read/Annotate for Editing Assignment: Shakespeare, Hamlet Q1 1603 ASSIGNMENT  Quarto and Folio versions of scene 2 

Important/get done asap!

Not completed/due date passed

Completed/Done

*updated* Gender is changeable, Sex is not...well how about that?

So tired...
How is this only week 4? I'm suppose to hit my stride around this time right?

Ok, work list for my own sanity:

1. 9/24 - Be off book for: August: Osage County Scene
2. 9/28 - ReRead/Annotate/Transcribe Notes: Judith Butler, Performative Acts and Gender Constitution, ¶'s 11-24
   (5 pgs)
3. 9/28 - ReRead/Annotate/Transcribe Notes: Aristophanes' Lysistrata
   (7 pages)
4. 9/28 - Read/Annotate: Text: al-Misri, (d. 1367) “Pilgrimage” (sharīʿa law book chapter)  Trans. N. Keller, 1994. Reliance of the Traveler, 297-370.
   (73 pgs)
5. 9/28 - Read/Annotate: Malcolm X (with Alex Hayley), The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Ch. 17
   (9 pgs)
6. 9/28 - Read/Annotate: Hammoudi, Abdellah. 2006. “Narrative of a pilgrimage.” Trans. P. Ghazaleh. A Season in Mecca. Chs. 5 & 6, pp. 94-141.
   (47 pgs)
7. Due 9/29, 10:00 PM - Write: 2 page Double Space Response with annotations on the above three reading assignments
8. Due 9/30 10:00 AM - Write: WESTERN THEATRE PAPER - 5-6 PAGES "Create a dialogue between Judith Butler's treatise on Performative Acts and Gender Constitution and Aristophanes' Lysistrata"
9. 9/30 - Read/Annotate: The Tale of Sir Launcelot and Guinevere, pp. 403-467
   (64 pgs)
10. 9/30 - Read/Annotate: The Death of Arthur, pp. 468-527
    (59 pgs)
11. 9/30 - Read/Annotate: Explanatory Notes, pp. 556-565
    (9 pgs)
12. 10/1 - Read/Annotate: Foley, "Medea's Divided Self"
    (24 pgs)
13. 10/1 - Read/Annotate: Case, "Classic Drag"
    (5 pages)
14. 10/2 - Read/Annotate: Testament of Cresseid, pp. 2-47
    (45 pgs)

Ok, maybe not so much sanity...but mental organization.
That's 141 pages to read/annotate by next Tommorow night folks...
Right.

Important/get done asap!

Not completed/due date passed

Completed/Done

http://www.gofundme.com/48ovzo

What a beautiful Sund....

Writing my theatre paper.

Screen shot of the day: Trello

So, I was introduced to the very useful (and very free) Trello online listing program, by my new boss Rudy, who uses it to organize the tasks for the office. I signed up with my own account and it has been great. Y'all know of my obsequious obsession with being able to visualize what needs to be done. This program is an amazing organizational tool for anyone with multiple projects with many steps and parts to get through.  I highly recommend it!

Click to enlarge...the amazingness.

So yeah, https://trello.com . It's free to sign up. Enjoy.

PS. I think I will  *UPDATE* did start (yet another) Tumblr blog about the where to get the best food for under $5 in Morningside....as a public service.

It's called:

Clicky Clicky...

The Schedule: Redux/Recoil

Ok...NO SERIOUSLY...the schedule is final.

Greek is out.
Arabia imagined is in.

Here. Enjoy an apropos Degrassi gif.

 

Anyone selling the Rosetta Stone Spanish 1-2? Anyone?

 

This could be a problem... 

Those temp jobs that feel like selling out and returning to a miserable past life...suddenly don't look so bad.  Time to get to work.

Might have a paying gig in Atlanta next week, for a major cable show...

 

Well...crap.

There goes 30k out the window.  Not to be crass but, shit.

I GOT IN!

 
19 June 2010 8:56AM EST was my first post here.

The time you see on this post is the exact time I received my acceptance call.

17 April 2012 9:49AM EST.

1 year, 9 months, 29 days, 53 minutes, and the title of this blog is now true.

It is an oddly stark reflection and there is much yet to be done to finish with HCC.  It's all bit overwhelming. I'm forgetting things.  Miscommunication is rampant; I'm exhausted.  I've seen people just check out after they receive news like this.  Just let go and fuck the world, for lack of a better idiom.  I don't want to be one of these people. I've come so far to let things slip now because of complacent satisfaction.  It seems so easy though.

Let's face it though, when in the past two years, or the six since I started college, or the ten since I entered high school, flunked out, and went back, have I done what's easy?  A little horn tooting is not what I'm aiming for, but in this moment maybe I should.

I'm the second person in my family to go to college, the first to get in to an out of state school, never mind an Ivy.  I'm wrapping up a significant part of my life and actually have viable options for the next steps.

Work list Update 1... ♫Let's / get down / to busi / ness...♫

    Made it through the week.  That's a good thing. People on the CC boards who have called in are saying they've called the C:GS office and have been told that depending on when everything was submitted, applicant's may get acceptance notices through May 1st. I don't know if I can survive that sort of anxiety. Especially, since NYU and Barnard my be out of the picture because of lack of application money and the inability to navigate the non-trad independent unfriendly CSS Financial Aid Profile to gain a waiver.

    The stagecraft quiz was a bomb, there just wasn't enough time to study as well as I want to. grr... It'll prob be a low B or High C *ugh* I left class and campus crying, utterly disgusted that I know I can do better. The speech went well, supposedly I went over...I don't even want to guess how much, I didn't bother to ask this time.  All semester, my speeches have run long.  There is a competition on environmental speeches that prof is offering 10pt extra credit for participating in. *looks meekly at Gulf Hypoxia speech from last semester* hmmm...

    I also didn't get my entry in for the pinnacle scholarship for PTK.  *sigh* It sucks, and there really is just no other word for it, that I qualify for things like these "honor societies" and because I can't pay exorbitant membership fees I don't get the honor.  I'd be willing to bet I'm not the only one. Same thing is sort of happening with NSCS.  On one side, I suppose you could argue that it's all redundant accolades, who cares it's too late to really participate in anything with either org.  My answer to that is, well I've qualified for both for numerous semesters and every semester the price of the accolade my hard work has earned, seems to go up.

List with due dates, Blue=Big Deal, Green=Done, Strike=Didn't get done:

1. 4/3/12 - Reasons to be Pretty?
   5-8 Run rehearsal in Directors Absence
2. 4/3/12 - Public Speaking Field Trip
   Lara Logan talk at USF
3. 4/4/12 - Stagecraft Quiz 4
   Covers: Lighting design paper work, Scene shop hand tools, Scene shop hand and portable power, tools, Scene shop stationary power tools, Scenic materials, Fasteners and adhesives
4. 4/4/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
   5-8 Run rehearsal in Directors Absence
5. 4/5/12 - Public Speaking Major Speech 2
   Persuasive speech
   6 min; Speech portfolio: Purpose/thesis development, audience Connections, Works cited, Formal outline, Note cards
6. 4/5/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
   5-8 Run rehearsal in Directors Absence
7. 4/5/12 - PTK Pinnacle Scholarship Essay
   2 winners receive PTK Membership fee paid in full
   500 words
8. 4/6/12 - Straz Center Phone Interview
   7PM, for PT House Management position :)
   
   
9. 4/9/12 - Connections Essay 1
   A)Choose a decade in American history and view any film, which, in your view, epitomizes or represents that decade.  In essay form, answer some or all of the following questions. How does this film define the decade? (Consider all aspects of “mise-en-scene” if you wish.)  OR B)View a film that addresses a historical event in America. Briefly research that event and compare and contrast the historical facts with the film’s interpretation. 
   2-3 pages, 12pt double-spaced
10. 4/9/12 - Connections Essay 2
    Self-reflection - Think about all your general education courses. Discuss how one in particular has prepared you for subsequent academic courses and/or for your future career. Identify specific knowledge, skills, and abilities you gained, which will insure your future success.
    1-2 pages max, 12pt , double-spaced
11.  4/9/12 - Connections Movie 
    Produce a 1-3 minute film - Produce a documentary or mock-umentary (think Best in Show or Spinal Tap) addressing any aspect of life today. This may be done simply on a camera phone or may be done using a camcorder and editing software if you are so inclined. It is certainly OK to improvise with your phone. In the end, it should “say something.” Think about what you wish to shine a light on.  It may be a serious topic or be a humorous slant on some aspect of pop culture.  Have fun with this, but spend some time on it.  It is easy to spot the haphazard attempts.
    3 min. running time max.
12. 4/10/12 - Irish History Paper 2
    Custom topic: Comparing and Contrasting the Famine Era Irish Traveling Accounts of Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont from Peter Gray's The Irish Famine
    5-7 pages (10 max, excluding works cited), 12pt, double-spaced
13. 4/10/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
    5-8 Run rehearsal in Directors Absence
14. 4/11/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
    5-8 Run rehearsal in Directors Absence
15. 4/12/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
    5-8 Run rehearsal in Directors Absence
16. 4/13/12 - Student Excellence Awards7pm, Formal Dinner and Awards Presentation from Campus President
    
    
    
17. 4/17/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
    5-8 Rehearsal Assistance
18. 4/18/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
    5-8 Rehearsal Assistance
19. 4/19 or 24th or 26th/12  - Public Speaking Group Symposium Presentation
    9 min part in 45 min speech
20. 4/19/12 - Reasons to be Pretty
    5-8 Rehearsal Assistance
21. 4/20/12 - District Student Activities Funding Meeting
    9AM, Ybor, District wants to cut all Extracurricular Performing/Visual Arts funding from Ybor Campus
22. 4/21/12 - RTBP Load-in
    
    
23. 4/22/12 - RTBP Lighting/Focusing
24. 4/24/12 - RTBP Tech Rehearsal
25. 4/25/12  RTBP Tech Rehearsal
    
26. 4/26/12 - Irish History Final
    Take home final due
    3, 2-page responses to given topics, 12pt double-spaced
27. 4/26/12 - RTBP Final Dress Rehearsal
28. 4/27/12 - RTBP  Performance6:30 Crew Call
    
29. 4/28/12 - RTBP  Performance6:30 Crew Call
    
    
30. 4/29/12 - RTBP Performance/Strike1:30 Crew Call 
31. 4/30/12 - Stagecraft Quiz 5
    Covers: Curtains and stage drapes, two-dimensional scenery, flat construction, Hardware/joints/knots, Dimensional scenery: platforms and wagons, Scenery: Windows and doors, Scenery: Stairs
32. 4/30/12  - Mod European History Final
    Take home essay based on info Covering Chaps 19:Empire Modernity and the Road to War-24:The New Globalism
    Assigned or due on the 30th?
33. 5/4/12 - Commencement
    2PM, 1:00 check-in
    
    
34. 5/7/12 - Stagecraft Final
    Semester Cumulative
35. ??/??/?? - Voice and Movement Final
    Memorized Performance final - "Comings and Goings" Excerpts

Semester of Craziness...Titles

Partners in the Parks
I applied for consideration for funding for the  Fire Island to Ellis Island excursion being run by Southern Utah Univeristy's Partners in the Parks program, run by Dr. Joan Digby. 
The programs description details: exploring "sites as varied as the rugged National Seashore on Long Island to National parks and National Historic landmarks in New York City. The Long Island segment will include hiking and camping on Fire Island, sailing aboard a 19th century oyster sloop, and a behind the scenes visit to Sagamore Hill, the summer home of President Theodore Roosevelt. The New York City segment will include several National Park System sites, among them Liberty and Ellis Islands, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Participants will visit America’s first public park, Central Park, and contrast it with NYC’s most recent park developments in Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Meatpacking District: Brooklyn Bridge Park and the High Line, respectively. An important focus will be the connection between New York City as a port and its complex history of immigration. This week long seminar will include workshops on field biology and photography, readings and discussions of literature and history. Participants can expect an evening on your own in the Big Apple."  I was instantly excited when I learned of this opportunity and can't wait to hear if I am selected.

RNC Internship
I've also been extended the opportunity to intern at the Republican National Convention being hosted here in Tampa.  The process involves writing on a chapter of my one true historical love, Alexis de Tocqueville, specifically Democracy in America.  I'm a little apprehensive of the prospect, as I am very distinctly liberal.  While I'm assured that the internship would be an honor for anyone despite political leanings, and that the work would mostly consist of paging and working with the marketing team.  I'm not entirely sure if I could endure, morally, promoting the interests of what is quickly becoming such an indoctrinated party.  My full viewpoints on the extremism of both sides and why I consider myself a socially liberal fiscal conservative could fill an entire post on its own.  So we shall see how selection goes.  The office politics of Honors itself could command a full discourse at the moment, too.

NSCS Induction
A couple of weeks ago, I was inducted into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars!  My grandmother and partner attended with me.


USF Acceptance
I was accepted to USF provisionally.  Obviously, I have yet to return confirmation paperwork. This is the image I shared with my best friend B. :

She wants Hampshire, New College, and UMass, the rest are mine. We've both been provisionally accepted to USF, and I've just gotten notice in the last few days that I have received the Transfer Student Achievement Scholarship from the USF endowment.  It's a $1000 per semester, so not great, but good news.


Pam Iorio
I also had the honor of attending an appearance by former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.  The Honors Institute was gracious enough to give out copies of her book Straight Forward: Ways to Live and Lead.  It was a decent read and as the title suggests, it was straight forward about the five tenets of leadership she has come to embrace in her many turns in local Tampa politics.


Reasons To Be Pretty
A few weeks into the semester I started collaborating with a friend on a student run production.  We settled on Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty.  We set out a budget with approval from  the club adviser and secured funding from Student Government.  Thus I became a "Producer".  I helped run auditions and became "Director's Assistant." When the Director friend ended up having conflicts because of another show he's acting in, I was designated to run rehearsals while he's gone and thus became "Assistant Director."  When he started to loose faith in the SM he has, he secretly designated me the real "Stage Manager."  He's got his head on straight, I promise.  This project has been like our baby this semester, you know if the parents hated each other or I was a just a good friend who is his surrogate, carrying it for him to raise on his own.  I don't mind, with the right opportunity and his sheer will, I think the Tampa theatre scene could see a large impact from him in a few years.

Sound Board Op for Vanities/Cocaine 
In other personal theatre news, I successfully completed my run as sound board op for Vanities/Cocaine, which included working the grid cleanup/lighting load in for the show.  Load in was by far the best work out I have had in a while, everything hurt, there was bruising!  Kinda want to do it again, though, felt good to just be in the theatre working for hours.  I manages 30.5 of them actually just over double the 15 required for stagecraft class.


Passing of Jesse Karns/Leadership Project is back on
About a week ago we received word that our friend and leadership project member Jesse Karns died.  I cried for a good bit when I found out, but then, Jesse was the sort of guy worth crying over.  At 27 he knew how to live.  Full throttle on adventure, he sky-dived, went deep water fishing, camped out.  He was extremely well read and philosophize with the better minds of the day given the chance, I'm sure of it.  Never mind the fact that he did all this from his powered wheel-chair.  He had been injured in a training exercise in the military that left him paralyzed from the neck down in his early 20's.  But obviously that didn't matter.  He was killed in a car accident coming back from an out of state trip with a friend.
On that note, the defunct 5k we had tried to plan to benefit Haiti, the 5k that was essentially the brainchild of Jesse, Dani M., Sarah Ashley B., and myself, the 5k he never got to see though completion...is back on. Renamed: The Jesse Karns Memorial 5k, proceeds will be split between the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and The Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  Dani, Sarah Ashley, and I are looking at a December running.  "But you will be in NEW YORK?!," you wonder....

I think I'm set on deferring
I don't know for sure, but financially it's a good plan.  Stay here for a year with out school, work a lot hopefully in a theatre venue. Save up some money, which there is none of now despite best efforts.
I was actually quietly let go from Ruth Eckerd nearly a two months ago, after the manager came to the conclusion that my school/EC schedule required too much time off. Luckily I had some money: Financial Aid and Tax refund...that dwindled slowly but was ample for the past two months as I didn't bother with looking right away but focused on my classes and obligations.
With a little more than a month left in the semester I've started looking again.  I'm also pondering taking a throw away summer class, post commencement for the boost of a last refund. Something easy, Intro to music, perhaps. Columbia does require a Music Hum survey to graduate...

Lightning Strikes Twice for HCC Honors

At least two HCC Honor's Institute members have been accepted to Columbia this year. I can't help to think this is boding well, with a little less than a year until my transfer and just months until my application is due, this is a real boost that two women with similar educational backgrounds have achieved the same goal I have set for myself.  Congratulations to both Loren and Stephanie, I look up up to both of you immensely and hope that soon I too will be a fellow Lion.