Dude.

I just found two gray hairs on my head. Two! Two!!!!!!!

Aren't I a little young for this?

Bring in da noise

Gah!

My neighbors on either side of me are blasting bad music.

I'm planning my own counterattack with some real lovelies from my collection:

1.) "If You Wanna Be Happy," Trini Lopez
2.) "Islands in the Stream," Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton
3.) "Cielito Lindo," Pedro Infante
4.) "Gangsta's Paradise," Coolio
5.) "Schöner fremder Mann," Connie Francis
6.) "I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General," from "The Pirates of Penzance," D'Oyly Carte Opera Company And Orchestra
7.) "Tiny Dancer," Elton John
8.) "MmmmBop," Hanson
9.) "Amor, Amor, Amor," Julio Iglesias
10.) "Rubber Ducky German Techno Dance Remix" by some German DJ

Anyone have anything else to contribute???

>>Update, 12:49 a.m., 11/8/05: Oh Gah! One of them is playing 98°! I have now launched my counterstrike, beginning with some Julio Iglesias. G'night!

Cervantes Day (a dorky post)

Since I am actually here for academic reasons, and not just visiting Harry Potter colleges and going to parties, I thought I would change gears for a bit with an academic post of sorts.

Yesterday, I went to the Cervantes Day conference in honor of 100 years of Spanish at Oxford and the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote part I. It was a great event. I love the Quixote. It was the first thing I studied when I started Spanish as an undergraduate, and it was what got me into doing a major in Spanish.

The first part of the day functioned like any conference, with a presentation of papers by four different faculty members. The first two presented papers on other works by Cervantes, and the second two presented on the Quixote. It was amazing to be in the room with all of these Hispanists and Cervantistas, and to have a presenter cite something and have the author of what he just cited sitting in the second row right in front of him. It was also awesome to hear people jump back and forth from Spanish to English throughout a single conversation. (It was a little intimidating as well, considering that 98% of the Hispanists and Cervantistas in the room were older white men.)

The presentations plus the standard coffee and lunch breaks lasted from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. At that time, we moved from Exeter College to the Taylorian Institution to hear Francisco Rico from the Real Academia Española give a presentation. Francisco Rico is one of the really "big guys" in Cervantine studies, and has edited what is called the best edition of the Quixote that is out there today.

Afterward, we headed back to Exeter for drinks at the Rector's Lodge and a fancy dinner. Jenni and I spent a long time chatting with the Spanish cultural attaché (oooh!) who was surprisingly easy to talk to considering that he was so important and we were in the demographic minority.

The dinner was quite nice (now I've been in 7 colleges and have eaten in 4), and someone was smart enough to seat me next to my undergraduate advisor, who I had not seen in a month and was looking forward to catching up with her, so it was nice. Afterward I slid down the table to talk to my current supervisor, who is very nice and very funny. A good time was had by all.

After the dinner I managed to gather the postgrads for a photo with the cultural attaché, Professor Rico and Professor Williamson, who organized the event. The lady who was taking pictures kept taking pictures of all the retired scholars who were present--but managed to neglect the students. You would think we weren't there! So that's why I thought it was important to get our photo. Unfortunately, it didn't come out, but I think the people who posed with us were impressed by the gesture.

After we left the dining hall, we headed over to the Exeter College bar for post-dinner drinks, which was fun. The bar was just about to close, but Professor Williamson made things happen by convincing the bartender that the cultural attaché should have a drink. It was really funny, and we all had a great time. After we were kicked out of the bar (they actually pass out plastic cups so you can take your drink with you), we considered crashing the bop that was taking place nearby, but we were all tired (it was 11:30 p.m. and we had been there since 10 a.m.) and gave up on that pretty quickly. So we all packed up and went home.

I actually enjoy these scholarly events. There's a great camraderie among these people who study Spanish literature. And it was amazing to be with these people who are the "superstars" in the field.

Well, that was a dorktacular post, but I enjoyed writing it. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Muacks,
Me

Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!! (a bitchy post)

&*%)*$(&%)*$*)#$*)&%)!!!!!!!

I'm pissed off. (I know that "pissed" means "drunk" in Britspeak, but you know what I mean.)

My &%$*%&(*# cheap-@$$ phone stopped working today. I brought it to the Carphone Warehouse, where I bought it, and they wouldn't replace it. They said it got wet, which wasn't covered under the warranty. They asked me if I had the phone in "a damp environment." Umm, hello, this whole COUNTRY is a damp environment!!!! (Yes, I did get it a teensy bit wet maybe two weeks ago, but should it stop working this long after???)

They said they could send it out to get repaired, but that would take two weeks. WTF did they think I would do...walk around with no phone for two weeks??? So I asked how much it would cost to buy a new one. £49.99. And this is a craptacularly cheap phone, the kind you got free with a phone plan maybe 5 years ago. I grumbled and bitched and complained but eventually gave in, because I couldn't do without a phone, and I sure as hell wasn't going to pay 99 cents a minute for roaming charges on my American phone.

Motorolas suck!!!!! I've had Nokias of far lower quality that lasted far longer than this piece of rubbish.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Much love,
Me

When on earth did I become nocturnal?

It's 2:36 a.m. I'm wide awake.

Tomorrow, I'll want to sleep all day. I should go to sleep now, but what am I doing? Writing cento poems.

For those of you who haven't been reading since my teaching blog, my cento poems are written by taking lines from other people's blogs. This is my third cento poem, and I think it came out pretty good. Since I have this massive blogroll now, I have lots of options!

So here we go:

Today’s bliss is…a box full!

Forging, unifying!
That’s all I really know.
We never found out who they were from.
And it wouldn’t have been fun without him.
Who would have thought I'd miss his Macedonian charm quite so much?

You are not really supposed to hear the birds sing at this time of the morning…
This has never felt quite right to me.
But, hell, I'm gonna whine here.
Tomorrow marks the end of weeks of speculation.
Is it too early to start pining for spring?

Hmmm, I think I'm tired now. Yay! G'night.

Cheers,

Kait

PS: Hey Greg! Did you get my postcard?