For Carolyn

This one's for Carolyn, whom I received a beautiful card from yesterday. Thanks for the encouragement and sweet words, my friend! I really am going to try much harder to keep my blog up to date, though I can't promise exciting stories or content:)

Very tired tonight after working Saturday and Sunday. The students are much more self-directed on the weekends so the nature of the work I do changes. It is always a good opportunity to get some of my own projects done (or at least attempt it) which is a nice change, too!

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Globe Theatre. It is a beautiful little space, a round theatre with great seats no matter where you are. I saw "The Melville Boys" and it was really well done. Funny, and sad (yes, I did shed a few tears), and very well acted. I will most certainly be making a return trip. It also felt good to be out on a weekeend! Something I also did last night when I met up with a few people for dinner and then desert at the Hotel Saskatchewan, downtown. Tonight the Gemini Awards are being held here so we saw lots of TV and film looking people, including some actors from Corner Gas. It was pretty neat.

Awfully tired tonight so will leave it at that, but I do hope you are all doing well. Will post some photos soon.

Theorizing The Boss

Check out this amazing Call For Proposals that Mandy just sent me. Man, oh man, I adore academia sometimes!

CFP [American]: Theorizing the Boss (01/07/08; collection)

Theorizing the Boss: Critical Readings of the Songs of Bruce Springsteen

We invite chapter proposals for an edited volume of critical theoretical essays on Bruce Springsteen's work. We encourage a wide range of approaches, particularly literary and cultural studies, but chapters should be written in a style accessible to a non-academic audience.

Chapters might use any number of theoretical approaches to consider relevant themes in Springsteen's oeuvre. Here are a few possiblethemes:
* Readings of genre, including the dramatic monologue
* American voices: the American dream, Manifest Destiny, or American * Ideals versus American Reality
* Prophecy and visionary voices
* Narratives of the immigrant and oppressed
* The nuclear family and conservatism
* Considerations of violence
* Springsteen as Catholic apologist/liturgist

We are especially eager for readings of Springsteen's work alongside the work of those writers and musicians who have most influenced him,including, but not limited to, Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan.

Please send a 500-word proposal and full vita to Roxanne Harde(rharde@augustana.ca) and Irwin Streight (streight-i@rmc.ca) by 7 January 2008. Upon acceptance, articles of around 8000 words will bedue 1 June 2008. Please feel free to get in touch with any questions.

What's going on in Germany & Italy?

Sex, Nazi, burrito and marijuana
Reuters

October 17, 2007 at 11:59 AM EDT

BERLIN — Internet users in Egypt, India and Turkey are the world's most frequent searchers for websites using the keyword "sex" on Google search engines, according to statistics provided by Google Inc.

Germany, Mexico and Austria were world's top three searchers of the word "Hitler" while "Nazi" scored the most hits in Chile, Australia and the United Kingdom, data from 2004 to the present retrievable on the "Google Trends" Web site showed.

Chile also came in first place searching for the word "gay," followed by Mexico and Colombia.

The top searchers for other keywords were as follows (in order from first to third place):
"Jihad" — Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan

"Terrorism" — Pakistan, Philippines, Australia

"Hangover" — Ireland, United Kingdom, United States

"Burrito" — United States, Argentina, Canada

"Iraq" — United States, Australia, Canada

"Taliban" — Pakistan, Australia, Canada

"Tom Cruise" — Canada, United States, Australia

"Britney Spears" — Mexico, Venezuela, Canada

"Homosexual" — Philippines, Chile, Venezuela

"Love" — Philippines, Australia, United States

"Botox" — Australia, United States, United Kingdom

"Viagra" — Italy, United Kingdom, Germany

"David Beckham" — Venezuela, United Kingdom, Mexico

"Kate Moss" — Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden

"Dolly Buster" — Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia

"Car bomb" — Australia, United States, Canada

"Marijuana" — Canada, United States, Australia

"IAEA" — Austria, Pakistan, Iran

Good Day

Overall, a good day. I headed north of Regina to teach a class at a Regional College where I spent some time with a group of welders before the other class arrived. There were only 5 students, but they did a good job of staying interested in the midst of lots of database and research skills chat. It is a beautiful day outside, all pretty and October-like, so that's also boosted my mood.

Great trip home...yes, I said home! I was nervous about how I'd feel coming back here, as I had such a great time in my other home but it felt good getting back to the west. I even had a pleasant experience on Air Canada, shockingly. I had a row to myself which always makes flying worthwhile. There was also a television which aided me in catching up on some movie-watching. I heartily enjoyed the new Nancy Drew movie. I'd read mixed reviews, but I found it absolutely delightful. Clever and sweet and goofy and lovely.

Tomorrow I'm off to Saskatoon and the rest of the week will be fairly busy. I want to do something fun this weekend so I'll have to start doing some research about what's going on around town. I know the Leonard Cohen movie is playing at the RPL Film Theatre this weekend...and yes, I count that as a fun activity.

Oh yes, the new Jill Scott album truly is as amazing as I'd hoped for. There are so many songs on it that make my heart jump out of my chest. My favourites are "Crown Royal" and "My Love". So, so, good.

Eat good vegetables

Dr. Quinn's Love Line

This is the cutest, and probably best love advice, one could ever read.

Maybe eating good vegetables really is the key to a good relationship.

Back again...

Surprise! I'm back with a brief update to the blog. A few comments from well-meaning friends along with feelings of guilt have spurred me to an update. (You wouldn't think I'm an honourary Catholic from all that King's College time, would you?!)

September flew by in a flash. There were a lot of times when I felt as if I'd never been so tired in my life. It was a good tired most of the time. Knowing that my classes were going well, that I was helping people, and that I was learning so much that grad school did not prepare me for. Trying to balance work with my "regular" life remains a struggle. Particularly when I don't have the excuses in the west that I do at home to take a break and socialize. I have been going out a lot to different events; a Chinese opera, some concerts, Run For The Cure, road tripping, etc. But after coming home for Thanksgiving it was again confirmed how much I miss having good friends to spend time with. I'm hopeful that this will change with patience and effort on my part but the absence of friends in the west has been much harder to deal with than I anticipated with this move.

Thanksgiving was excellent. Saw the Patricia Street girls, along with Elisha's growing baby belly! Two nights of music with Becca, coffee with Sasha, my Public Historians, a wonderful lunch with Maria and Lora, Marie and Kate's mini-bday celebration, even a night with the WCI gang. I had to get while the getting was good in terms of socializing. It was really nice to be with people who know me and love me just as is. I really needed that.