I am the techno-queen!
Nov. 17th, 2005 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
philenaMy microphone arrived yesterday in an enormous package completely
stuffed with brown paper, and a little itty-bitty microphone package in
the bottom. But aside from that bit of sketchiness, the thing is
fantastic! I plugged it into my computer, and all the technology of
which I am queen did the rest. Instantly I could record myself saying
stuff in praat, listen to what sounded like a very good-quality
recording of it, and look at the spectrograms which showed more
background noise than I would like, but certainly are good enough for
my purposes! How cool is that? Super cool. Yeah. Now I need to figure
out how to record the cat meowing without letting him into my room.
Other random things, in no particular order.
Things I'm liking at the moment. Subject to change with no advance notice.
My new microphone. (!!!)
The fact that it is insanely cold. I'm also liking coffee, and I especially like drinking coffee in class, which I have only just recently realized I treat like entertainment. This is not an issue of teachers who say funny things in class, most of which I will not reproduce here because they're just not as funny out of context, and generally consist of sentences that are so thoroughly ungrammatical that it requires a firm background in various aspects of linguistics to see exactly what is wrong with them. (Althought that is part of it.) Mainly it is that I have realized that my attitude towards class in relation towards the consumption of drugs or nourishment (that is, caffeine or breakfast) has the same distribution as my attitude towards consuming food at theatrical events. I don't eat my popcorn before the movie begins, and I don't start my nutella sandwich until the time has come to balance taking notes with licking chocolate off my pencil.
Radik. He's so cute! I've talked already (in bad Russian or good English, but I can't remember at the moment) about how excited he gets over grammar, how physical he is in his demonstrations of how exactly this idiom means "to be drunk," or "to be attracted by something." (For those who have forgotten, it involves jumping up and down and yelling about how a certain construction cannot be used to mean x or y in Russian, giving a very, very good imitation of drunk people (my value judgments of these imitations have improved dramatically since I got to college), and pretending to be pulled against his will all the way across the classroom until he smashed into the blackboard and fell down. I think he meant to do that last.) Nothing particularly new has happened, but he makes my life better, so he should be on the list.
Phoebe sent me another letter!
I've been giving tours to groups of local high school students (described in slightly more detail below), and while I was at first concerned, because normally local + high school groups = we don't really want to be here. But especially the most recent tour was involved, full of good questions, quiet for the most part, and generally only talked while I was talking because I surprised them by saying something in the middle of a scuttle from one warm building to the next.
Procrastinating.
Ways in which sex seems to be invading my life through no agency of my own
Every time I give a campus tour, we need to walk past the Barnes and Noble, which has proudly displayed in its window a desk calendar: 365 ways to put sex into your everyday life. This has been brought most strikingly to my attention because recently my tours have consisted of large numbers of high schoolers who are on school trips, woefully under-chaperoned, and many of them not serious about applying, and thus not serious about looking professional in front of me. But since the book is so silly I often end up looking unprofessional in front of them and giggling about it also. And then everyone is happy except for the chaperones. (And, presumably, the people who buy what I can't imagine is a very effective book, particularly for the sort of people who feel the need to buy it.)
Goma. Cat. Unfixed. Is very friendly with Sushu's blanket, which has become Goma's blanket until Goma departs.
Conversations with roommates, which for the innocence and dignity of everyone involved shall not be reproduced here. Plus, my parents are probably reading this.
In phonetics, we were speaking about minimal pairs. I, sick and tired of the canonical examples "pat" and "bat," suggested "insect" and "incest." (Okay, maybe a little agency here on my part.) Professor Jason, (almost) completely unfazed, agreed, "Yeah. Or 'tentacle' and 'testacle,'" with an intonation suggesting that this example is canonical for him. This is the same professor who posted links where we could listen to recordings of click-language speakers giving us the word for "baboon's arse." I like when professors pretend we are mature enough to put up with their immaturity, which they are mature enough to display in class under the (generally reasonable and accurate) pretext that this is all in the name of science. It lends a veneer of civilization to the the academics underneath who belong in seventh grade. *
As a continuation of this intellectual-minded side of the topic, the second most recent story we read in my Russian class was about a fellow named Marat (which is coincidentally the name of my Russian drill instructor), who has quite a few very, very kinky affairs. This led to a little bit of teasing during drill, and a lot of discussion during drill as to what exactly the snake-tamers python represents. The conclusion here was as follows: "Все здесь--фаллический символ." For those of you who can't read Russian, I'll be less kind than usual and simply transcribe the sentence from Cyrillic to Latin. I think you'll still get the gist: "Vsyo zdyes' fallicheskij simvol."
Things wot need to be done.
Word list and sentence list for BA. Recording appointment has already been made, however!
Word list for phonetics final project.
Goma to Anti-Cruelty Society.
Extension cord so I can use fabulous![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
summercomfort's wireless device, negating my need of the cable, and allowing everyone in the apartment use of internet.
Things I like that are not subject to change, no matter how much notice is given.
Daniel.
*Another proof of this fact is the well-received paper regarding "Homeric ma-infixation." The "ma" here is found in words like "edumacation" and "saxamaphone." "Homeric," of course, refers to Homer Simpson.
Other random things, in no particular order.
Things I'm liking at the moment. Subject to change with no advance notice.
My new microphone. (!!!)
The fact that it is insanely cold. I'm also liking coffee, and I especially like drinking coffee in class, which I have only just recently realized I treat like entertainment. This is not an issue of teachers who say funny things in class, most of which I will not reproduce here because they're just not as funny out of context, and generally consist of sentences that are so thoroughly ungrammatical that it requires a firm background in various aspects of linguistics to see exactly what is wrong with them. (Althought that is part of it.) Mainly it is that I have realized that my attitude towards class in relation towards the consumption of drugs or nourishment (that is, caffeine or breakfast) has the same distribution as my attitude towards consuming food at theatrical events. I don't eat my popcorn before the movie begins, and I don't start my nutella sandwich until the time has come to balance taking notes with licking chocolate off my pencil.
Radik. He's so cute! I've talked already (in bad Russian or good English, but I can't remember at the moment) about how excited he gets over grammar, how physical he is in his demonstrations of how exactly this idiom means "to be drunk," or "to be attracted by something." (For those who have forgotten, it involves jumping up and down and yelling about how a certain construction cannot be used to mean x or y in Russian, giving a very, very good imitation of drunk people (my value judgments of these imitations have improved dramatically since I got to college), and pretending to be pulled against his will all the way across the classroom until he smashed into the blackboard and fell down. I think he meant to do that last.) Nothing particularly new has happened, but he makes my life better, so he should be on the list.
Phoebe sent me another letter!
I've been giving tours to groups of local high school students (described in slightly more detail below), and while I was at first concerned, because normally local + high school groups = we don't really want to be here. But especially the most recent tour was involved, full of good questions, quiet for the most part, and generally only talked while I was talking because I surprised them by saying something in the middle of a scuttle from one warm building to the next.
Procrastinating.
Ways in which sex seems to be invading my life through no agency of my own
Every time I give a campus tour, we need to walk past the Barnes and Noble, which has proudly displayed in its window a desk calendar: 365 ways to put sex into your everyday life. This has been brought most strikingly to my attention because recently my tours have consisted of large numbers of high schoolers who are on school trips, woefully under-chaperoned, and many of them not serious about applying, and thus not serious about looking professional in front of me. But since the book is so silly I often end up looking unprofessional in front of them and giggling about it also. And then everyone is happy except for the chaperones. (And, presumably, the people who buy what I can't imagine is a very effective book, particularly for the sort of people who feel the need to buy it.)
Goma. Cat. Unfixed. Is very friendly with Sushu's blanket, which has become Goma's blanket until Goma departs.
Conversations with roommates, which for the innocence and dignity of everyone involved shall not be reproduced here. Plus, my parents are probably reading this.
In phonetics, we were speaking about minimal pairs. I, sick and tired of the canonical examples "pat" and "bat," suggested "insect" and "incest." (Okay, maybe a little agency here on my part.) Professor Jason, (almost) completely unfazed, agreed, "Yeah. Or 'tentacle' and 'testacle,'" with an intonation suggesting that this example is canonical for him. This is the same professor who posted links where we could listen to recordings of click-language speakers giving us the word for "baboon's arse." I like when professors pretend we are mature enough to put up with their immaturity, which they are mature enough to display in class under the (generally reasonable and accurate) pretext that this is all in the name of science. It lends a veneer of civilization to the the academics underneath who belong in seventh grade. *
As a continuation of this intellectual-minded side of the topic, the second most recent story we read in my Russian class was about a fellow named Marat (which is coincidentally the name of my Russian drill instructor), who has quite a few very, very kinky affairs. This led to a little bit of teasing during drill, and a lot of discussion during drill as to what exactly the snake-tamers python represents. The conclusion here was as follows: "Все здесь--фаллический символ." For those of you who can't read Russian, I'll be less kind than usual and simply transcribe the sentence from Cyrillic to Latin. I think you'll still get the gist: "Vsyo zdyes' fallicheskij simvol."
Things wot need to be done.
Word list and sentence list for BA. Recording appointment has already been made, however!
Word list for phonetics final project.
Goma to Anti-Cruelty Society.
Extension cord so I can use fabulous
summercomfort's wireless device, negating my need of the cable, and allowing everyone in the apartment use of internet.Things I like that are not subject to change, no matter how much notice is given.
Daniel.
*Another proof of this fact is the well-received paper regarding "Homeric ma-infixation." The "ma" here is found in words like "edumacation" and "saxamaphone." "Homeric," of course, refers to Homer Simpson.
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Re: Your userinfo
Date: 2005-11-18 02:06 am (UTC)Re: Your userinfo
Date: 2005-11-18 04:43 pm (UTC)Re: Your userinfo
Date: 2005-11-18 09:03 pm (UTC)