schmevil

WAT.

If not Vader, then perhaps John Barrowman is the cure for writer's block? Have a John Barrowan cover of Bryan Adams' Heaven. LOVE this ridiculous video to death, btw. Canada's graveliest heart throb serenading a concert hall full of tv screens? Epic lolarity.

Why writer's block?

I've managed to produce > 17,000 words of notes and commentary on Laclau and Ranciere. Did I mention this paper only needs to be 10 pages? You know when you're beyond ready to write a paper, but you can't seem to just sit the fuck down and write it? Yeah, that's me. I've probably overthought this thing. Arg!

1. My everyday headphones have died!

I'm left with my theft-proof-buds, running clip-ons and circumaural noise reducers. The first two are pretty terrible, being cheap, cheap buds. The last set actually provides decent sound quality, for all that there's a slight hiss when the NR is on. Because they're circumaural, they're incredibly muffling even without the NR, which means I don't notice the neighbors parties so much. And as a bonus, NR provides a crucial assist in my ongoing quest to ignore the industrial strength air conditioner of the high school out back. But they aren't the best phones for everyday use, being freaking gigantic and attention-getting.

Need a new set of everyday headphones. I kind of want Sennheiser's HD650 but they're so out of my price range right now. So the hunt begins.

2. Why is it that so few contemporary philosphers/political thinkers know how to write?

Even if I excuse some of the awkwardness as being a deliberate rhetorical strategy, there's still so much WTFbadness going on. A) Brevity is the soul of wit, bitches! Stop disclaiming, explaining and obfuscating, and make your goddamn point. B) No. No, you don't need two chapters to explain your rhetorical strategy. I can see your rhetorical strategy just fine.

Ok wait, three things.

3. I need a dirty cover of Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker, and I need it like burning. Why are so many of the covers so pedestrian? Anyone have a rec for me?

The Animals' version is fun: ( Read more... )
But Hooker's is so much hotter: ( Read more... )
But my favourite version is still this one. Hnn.

Preemptive war paper all but done. All I need to do is walk away from the computer for a bit, write a conclusion, and do one last edit. ALL GLORY TO THE GREAT GAZOO!

***

In my latest noscans_daily/Scans Daily 2.0 update, I included some policy changes.

Creator Rights

Scans Daily and No Scans Daily welcome the participation of comics creators. Creator participation is subject to the same basic rules that govern the behaviour of fans in the community. However, SD and NSD recognize creators prerogative to control the republication of their work.

1. Copyrighted material will be immediately removed at the request of creators and copyright owners.

Requests for removal of copyrighted material should be directed to the moderation team

2. Spoilers will be removed at the discretion of individual posters. It is not our policy to suppress discussion of comics.

Requests for removal of spoilers should be directed to the original poster.

Our stance on creator rights, combined with some forthcoming changes to scan posting rules, will I hope make it clear that we have no intent to harm creators, or the industry as a whole.

Psuedonymity and Internet Identity

Given the recent creator-fan conflicts over the 'realness' of internet identity, in both in our community and science fiction fandom, I thought it would be a good idea to clarify our position. SD and NSD respect our members' rights to privacy and control over their online identities. As far as we're concerned you are your pseud.

Trolling and attempts to dismiss other posters on the basis of their 'hiding behind a fake name' will not be tolerated.

Unauthorized public release of a fellow member's contact information will result in immediate banning.

All of a sudden this has become a hot issue again. It blows my mind how uphill a battle this has been for everyone trying to assert a right to privacy on the internet.

Other things I'm working on for the comms:
- finding us a permanent home
- modifying the posting rules to be as TOS proof and fair use friendly as possible
- writing up our rationale for moderating the comms as as woman-friendly, LGBT-friendly, anti-ableist, anti-racist and so forth, and what that means for members

***

I've decided that when school and the comms are settled, I'm going to work on revamping and expanding Essential Ms. Marvel, with a lot more reviews and essays. Probably many of them mine. *g* I'm still torn between a closed membership comm, or a blog. Another advantage of a comm that just occurred to me, is that I can invite 'guest' posters, to add Carol content with their existing accounts.

And speaking of Ms. Marvel, I've been meaning to talk about how utterly creepy I find Osborn's gift of Carol's identity to Moonstone. And how he calls Moonstone my Ms. Marvel. Emphasis in the book. Implying that she exists only to fill a role, the same one that Carol filled for Tony: attack bitch and field leader, when Tony/Norman have more important things to do. Expect much rambling on this subject.

My epic Henry V essay in nine words: pay no attention to the nations behind the curtain.



By the way, I'm freaking DONE. \o/

Elections are essential viewing in my program, and this one particularly. All my profs are allowing grace time for the distraction from school work. Because "we need to be more attentive to the requirements of being transformative agents in our communities."

Booyah!

In terms of degree requirements, I've got my ducks in a row. Now I'm just waiting for the results of my petitions to remove the Mystery Grades, and I'll be ready to start thinking about grad school.

Question! I'm currently retaking a class I dropped too late to avoid receiving a bad mark. Pretty sure the new grade will be an A, and in keeping with school policy, will override the original mark. Should I apply to grad school before or after I've finished the class and my transcript is updated?

Complicating things, I have a failing grade on my transcript, also from dropping too late (during the year of madness), that I can't get removed or overridden. It drags down my GPA but even with it, I'm in the B+ - A. Assuming I do well this year, it gets closer to the A range, and just one A+ would put me solidly in the As. Looking at the senior classes individually, I've got one B, one E and some As and A+s. I'm not worried about my abilities to keep up that trend this year. I think it should be fairly clear that the E is an aberration in an otherwise good transcript.

Anyone with some insight into the grad school applications process, with some advice for me?

* Yes, I am booking official advising appointments as well.

ETA: I forgot the thing that originally made me want to update. The department of Women's Studies sent me a letter suggesting that I change my major (at this late date?!), declare a minor, or just take more Women's Studies classes. Is this something departments commonly do? It seems kind of a bizarre recruitment move. I mean, poaching?