I'm Beginning to See a Pattern

Hat Tip: Evil Li-Brul Overlord

You're your own prince charming! You go girl! You
don't sit around and wait to be rescued, you
take charge of your own life! You are
officially an empowered and independent woman!
Rock on!

What fairytale archetype are you?
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This Just In:

Semester grades have been posted, and I have apparently survived the attacks of the roving band of feral PhDs that was released upon me just a few months ago. Yippee! The grades are not 4.0, obviously, or I wouldn't need that tiara ring to inspire me. However, they are good enough that I'll accept them. (By 'accept' I mean, of course, bowing-deeply-while-backing-slowly-away-from-the-professors-so-as-not-to startle-them-into-sudden-grade-changes.) I am hopeful that I will be able to implement a sort of Zen and the Art of Scholarship next semester, so I feel more in control of my world, and not quite so much like I'm just reacting to external stimuli. Or, I could drink. Definitely one of those.


(Cute penguin image appropriated from this fine Website)

Glædmód Crístesmæsse!!

Glædelig jul! Frohliche Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel! You get the point, I think.

Well, the shopping and wrapping are done, and my apartment is finally fully clean. Twice now, in fact. Once to get rid of research strewn carelessly about the place, and once to get rid of wrapping paper and tags in the same condition. I'm off to my sister's for Christmas, to put in some serious auntie time, play with all the cool toys I bought the midgets,* and binge on sweets.

Wherever you're spending the holidays, enjoy the company and feasting.




*Several of the midgets are now significantly taller than I, but I refuse to rename them for a technicality.


(The medieval feast art swiped from here )

Happy Solstice!

Whether you'll be building a stone alter to Bertha, goddess of domesticity, and lighting fir branches in hopes that she will appear and foretell your future, decorating and blessing apple trees, decorating and blessing pine trees, burning a yule log for no fewer than 12 hours while you get blasted on mead, kissing your new very best-friend-for-a-year under sacred mistletoe, consulting the urn of fate, tying holly to your doors and windows to ward off evil spirits, or just quietly recognizing the rebirth of the unconquered Sun, know that I wish you and your family the very best of the holiday.

Inspiration

Now that the first, extremely disorganized semester is behind me, I have come up with a way to motivate myself into a 4.0 average in the future. And you're looking at it. It looks like a little tiara, doesn't it? Perfect for a medievalist-in-training, I think. It may not be the dusting fairy who would make my apartment always tidy, clean, and smelling like cinnamon and vanilla, but it'll do.

And a Republican, Too!

Hats off to U.S. District Judge John E Jones III (shall we call him "Trip?") for being willing and able to make a ruling based on the facts of the case before him, the Constitution of the United States, and legal precedent. Against all odds as a Republican and a Bush appointee, Judge Jones ruled that the Board of the Dover School District did not have the right to compel educators to present Intelligent Design in science classes, what with its not being a science and all. Huzzah, philosophy recognized as such!

Kitzmiller. et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. <- The full 139-page case document is here.

The Highlights of Judge Jones' Ruling, as Reported by the AP:
"We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom, in violation of the Establishment Clause."
"Repeatedly in this trial, Plaintiffs' scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator."

"Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity* of the Board's decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has not been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources."(emphases mine)

"The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.**"(emphasis mine)

*Oh, how I love that phrase!
** Through the soft prejudice of lowered expectations, this Republican judge earns double points for recognition of both irony and hypocrisy.

Recovery

Well, I've handed in all my papers, such as they were, and I managed to get the students' grades in on time. I still feel like I've been bludgeoned half to death by a roving gang of feral PhDs, but things are starting to look up a bit.
1) I slept for 8 solid hours two nights in a row! I felt very guilty about it, but it was a good guilt. Like chocolate, or ... well, none of your business.
2) My legs are once more clean-shaven. And not a moment too soon, either.
3) A full 1/3 of my apartment is sparkling clean, and I have plans to do laundry tomorrow. No more tripping over research, or hiding a sleeveless cotton shirt underneath a wool blazer and calling it "eclectic personal style."

So, the first semester hasn't killed me. However, I do have to rethink my organization style before the next semester begins. I really don't like staying up for several days at a time and trying to come up with intelligent things to write while doing so. On the other hand, I've just shelved all the books I purchased and read in the past four months, and gathered up all those I borrowed for research, and, seriously, I rock.