Kait at Catz

A-ha moment

2009-11-09T23:02:00.003Z

So I'm working on a chapter of my thesis and I discovered a big note to myself: FIX REFERENCE. I look it up and discover that I originally cited an online version of Horace's The Art of Poetry as a placeholder and needed to go back and cite the hard copy instead, meaning I'd have to correct the wording to match my edition.

Here is the passage that I cited:

Poems in the main (I'm speaking to a father and his excellent sons)
are baffled by the outer form of what's right. I strive to be brief,
and become obscure; I try for smoothness, and instantly lose
muscle and spirit; to aim at grandeur invites inflation;
excessive caution or fear of the wind induces grovelling.
The man who brings in marvels to vary a simple theme
is painting a dolphin among trees, a boar in the billows.
Avoiding a fault will lead to error if art is missing.

-Horace, Ars Poetica, in The Satires of Horace and Perseus, trans. by Niall Rudd (London: Penguin Classics, 2005), ll. 24-31, p. 122.

Why do I find this blog-worthy? Because I think it's good advice for how I should approach my thesis. Sometimes I try too hard to meet certain style requirements (length, not citing too much, etc.) and I lose out on actually making a decent point. Style for style's sake doesn't work. It's important, but you also need an argument.

I *knew* I was reading this stuff for a reason!

I can't help but wonder (yes, another Betty post)

2009-10-19T11:21:00.002+01:00

If Matt just ended up taking a job from his father, doesn't that render the whole YETI thing pointless? Someone else probably lost that spot to him.
Do editors (directors, etc.) really take their assistants to awards ceremonies and let them dress up and sit there rather than hurry around the lobby fielding calls?
Why didn't Marc just go to that Vogue job?
Really, when you think about it, Betty's done a lot more in her time as assistant than Marc. She orchestrated a number of big deal events for Mode and Player, and wrote articles for Mode, Hot Flash and whatever that one was that Salma Hayek ran. What has Marc done other than cover for Wilhelmina?
I feel like Betty also has a hard time getting a clue. She's been told more than once that sometimes you have to sacrifice your personal life to get ahead. So why does she whine that no one at work respects her when she blows off important work things? And why doesn't she look to Claire as an ally?
And why didn't she just have Daniel come with her rather than stay at home with him? He might have been able to help.
Wilhelmina banging her shoe on the UN podium a la Khrushchev - totally predictable, but totally necessary. I'm surprised Betty didn't get more of a punishment for her shoot going so badly.
I'm also surprised that Hilda and Justin can get into the building so easily. They just wander in randomly - don't most big office buildings have you sign in at the front desk?
The whole thing with Wilhelmina's daughter is going to get interesting, I think.

I don't feel sorry for Kate Gosselin

2009-10-05T16:05:00.003+01:00

I was browsing through IMDb when I came across some trivia about Jon & Kate Plus 8. I know this is supposed to make you feel like, "Wow, it's a lot of work to have 8 kids," but none of these statistics seem particularly shocking. For example:

Altogether the family can eat up to two full boxes of cereal a day.

Umm, just wait until you have teenage boys, Kate. We have to hide the cereal in my house because my 16-year-old brother could polish off a box in a day, and still whine that he's hungry a few hours later.

The Gosselins average 2-3 loads of laundry per day.

Two loads of laundry? Whoa, Kate! I don't know how you find the time to do all of your other stuff, like sit on the driveway and whine about how you're completely alone and so exhausted but you're happy to have Jenna the "helper" there, who's not a babysitter, she just likes to come over and play with your kids. We easily average 2-3 loads per day, given that some days we don't do any and some days we might do 5 or 6.

In my parents' generation, everyone had 5+ kids. My dad had a neighbor who had 13 kids. And while you say it's not the same as having sextuplets, it's not exactly easy when you've got seven kids who are less than ten years apart. And they all made it out just fine.

Stop whining, Kate.

Year 5 at HogwartsOxford

2009-09-21T12:39:00.002+01:00

Whodathunk, when I signed up for this deal, that I'd be staying on for five years? I sure didn't. Well, here I am, back in Oxford for the fifth time around, and for the fourth and hopefully final year of my doctorate (*knocks on all available nearby wood*).

I'm ready to buckle down and finish this thing. I can't wait to have a job. But I also can't wait to see what year 5 has in store - hopefully more travel, as I haven't done nearly enough since I've been here, and meeting even more interesting people.

I had my Confirmation of Status exam on Thursday (the second major assessment before the final defense), and it seemed to go well. They had a lot of concerns as usual, but I'd rather they tell me these things now than wait until I'm done.

The term officially starts about two weeks from now, but I had to get here early for the aforementioned exam. For the first time ever, I arrived at night in Terminal 4, so I booked a room at the Yotel in the terminal so I wouldn't have to worry about potentially missing the last train/bus if the plane arrived late! If you haven't heard of it before, the Yotel is a "capsule" hotel modeled on the Japanese capsule hotels and the type of amenities you'd find in first class. The rooms are teeny (actually, they're not terrible if you book a premium room, but I couldn't afford that), and they overlap so alternating rooms have a lower or upper bed. There are no closets, just a single hanger for hanging suits and a rack for storing luggage. I couldn't use the fold-down desk because my luggage was in the way, and the bathroom was pretty much a long narrow shower with a sink and toilet all in one. The room was about the length of the bed, that's it. But it was a fun experience, the room service was good and the people were nice, and I felt a bit more relaxed than I would have if I had gone straight to Oxford the night before.

In addition to the usual academic work, the start of term brings the usual Junior Deaning tasks: coordinating talks, meeting freshers and the like. The next few weeks are going to be very busy!

Hopefully I'll get some time to post a bit more this year, and I hope everyone's term is going well. xxx

Eight Years Later

2009-09-12T02:03:00.003+01:00

I could say something about 9/11 today, but so many people said it much more eloquently already, so I'll share a post about the day that I thought was very moving. Head on over to jo(e)'s page and read about her sister's memorial of the day.

"Señor de los espacios infinitos, tú que tienes la paz entre las manos, derrámala Señor te lo suplico, y enséñales a amar a mis hermanos..." (A. Sanz, "Todo es de color")

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

2009-08-31T04:30:00.003+01:00

Gosh, it's been ages since I've posted here. I can't really say it's due to lack of time, but perhaps lack of motivation for composing long and thoughtful posts. But I'm sure most of you have been keeping up with the Flickr and the Twitter and the Facebook, and if that's too much for you to check, you can catch it all (including this post!) at the Tumblr.

So anyway. You probably want to know what I've been doing all this time. As tomorrow is the First Day of School for the young'uns in my family, I thought I'd present you with that timeless Back-To-School composition theme, What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

First and foremost, I watched people get married. In June I went to San Francisco to see Chrissie and Collin tie the knot:

This was a wonderful experience for many reasons. First, I got to go back to San Francisco, which was great fun. (I went there last year for the first time.) I also got to reconnect with many old friends from my first two years of Oxford, as well as meet some cool new people. If finances can withstand it, I'd love to make a yearly trip to San Francisco.

In July, my cousin Ryan got married:

Ryan's new wife is Trish, and they met when Ryan was living in Boston. The really cool thing about their wedding is that Ryan designed a lot of things for it: the invitations and save the dates, the programs, the place cards and table numbers, and even the favors - hand-illustrated cookbooks of their favorite recipes. Unfortunately, their weather was crap (as was expected - it rained 90% of the time this summer), but the location was beautiful and we all had a great time.

And in August, longtime family friend Amanda married Bryan on my mother's birthday:

Amanda was exceptionally lucky to have gorgeous weather, especially since she had her wedding outdoors on a lovely mountainside, which led to some fabulous photos.

And my wedding attendance schedule was on the light side this summer: my parents also attended my cousin Emmy's wedding the week before my cousin Ryan's wedding, and my sister Kelly is attending roughly 837 additional weddings between now and November.

When we were not attending weddings, we attended wedding-related events, such as bachelorette parties (that's "hen nights" to all you Brits out there)...

...rehearsal dinners...

...and Jack-and-Jill showers. Whew!

(The couple for this one was Casey and Paul. Casey has been Kelly's best friend since middle school. She's getting married in October, and alas, I cannot go.)

Again, my wedding-related event schedule was only the tip of the iceberg. My parents and my sister will be attending weddings pretty much every single weekend in October. But even so, I now declare myself the official expert on weddings and can advise on pretty much any aspect of wedding planning. If this whole doctorate thing doesn't work out, I know I'll still have a career. ;)

When I wasn't attending weddings, I was teaching faculty at the University of Hartford how to use Blackboard.

(This is a very old and very bad picture of me, but I was doing the same job two years ago. I don't have any photos of me doing the job this summer...)

The university upgraded its version of Blackboard this summer, so I spent my time in FCLD doing what I usually do with them: developing and updating documentation, testing new features, and training faculty. I absolutely love educational technology and hope I can continue with it in some way once I'm done with my doctorate.

What's up next? Lots of work this year. I'm looking to finish about a year from now, so it requires lots and lots of work. If all goes well *knock on wood*, I'll submit in July and defend in Octoberish, and make my way towards the real working world. I can't wait. :D

Wishing you all, whether you're tenured faculty or sending your kids off to preschool, a happy and productive back to school season - Kx

Hello techie people! Coding advice please

2009-07-09T21:44:00.003+01:00

Let me explain this vision I have, and someone please tell me if it's possible.

I'm consulting on a website project that has a number of "interview" pages - students giving their perspectives on what it's like to study here. I thought it would be interesting on the main page of the site to have a little box with an image of one of the students and a block quote, and when you click on the box it links to that particular interview.

Now here's where it gets tricky. I'd like to make a different picture box for each student interview and have a different one appear each time you load/refresh the page. That is, the first time you visit the page you may see Sally Student's photo and quote, but when you go back the next time you see Steve Student's photo and quote.

Can this be done without a lot of hassle? Any tips you may have would be much appreciated.

Keeping in touch

2009-06-18T02:33:00.003+01:00

I got a call today from my undergraduate university to update my details for their new alumni directory. They wanted all this stuff about the degrees I did, the year I graduated, my address (didn't give it to them), what I'm doing now, etc. Then they offered to sell me a lovely hardbound edition and a CD-rom for the low price of two payments of $44.95.

I declined, of course. I also declined the softcover edition and the abridged CD, which cost somewhere in the upper twenties. It led me to wonder: who would want these things, other than telemarketers? I keep up with the people I want to keep up with via Facebook. It's also helped me to catch up with people I haven't talked to in ten years, from high school and such.

I'm always impressed with how useful the Internet can be. Why bother digging through a phone book when you can Google someone's number or pop it into 411.com? Why bother paying for a premium edition of Classmates.com when you can be Facebook friends for free?

Really, there are so many better options out there.

A source is a source of course of course

2009-06-01T17:27:00.003+01:00

I'm in the middle of compiling my list of sources for my Confirmation of Status paper. Instead of doing a Works Cited, my examiners really want to see a list of pretty much everything I've read.

I hate compiling lists of sources. I start with every intention to be well-organized, and it just doesn't happen - I get sources scribbled on Post-Its, written in my notebook, saved to my email, etc. I wouldn't mind using one of those source compiling programs like EndNote, but I've heard they're expensive and complicated, plus they don't have the style guide used by my faculty (MHRA, which is damn complicated).

But really, the hard thing for me is deciding which of the sources I have read but not cited should go on the list. Do I really cite everything I've looked at, including the ones where I've glanced at the first paragraph and said "No way," or is there some sort of threshold at which I can say it should go in the Bibliography? I don't want it to look like I'm trying to pad it, putting in sources I didn't even look at.

Any tips, fellow Humanities folks?

How well do you know Kaitlin?

2009-05-28T14:57:00.002+01:00

If you've been an avid reader of this here blog and are friends with me on Facebook, I'd be interested to see how you do on my "How well do you know me?" quiz. I've mentioned most of the answers on here at one point or another, so with a little sleuthing (or a good memory) you could end up with a decent score.

Not sure how to post it here, but you can find it on my wall somewhere.

Drifting along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds

2009-05-14T22:59:00.003+01:00

So I've started using Tumblr, and while I'm not totally sure how it works yet, I find it kind of interesting. I don't make posts directly on Tumblr, but my page is a sort of catchall for my blog posts, Twitter updates, and shared links from Facebook. (It may also have my Flickr photos, but I haven't done any in a while, so I don't remember.)

It doesn't go all the way back to the beginning of each, but I like it because not all sites are the best for doing all things and this is a good way to have the best of everything all together. Go have a look should you feel so inclined. Enjoy!

Cambio de alimentación

2009-05-05T09:33:00.003+01:00

Anniverary

2009-05-03T19:58:00.003+01:00

I'm always reaching this point where I could write a post about any one of six million things, but for some reason I never get around to writing about any of them. I guess you could keep up with my happenings via Twitter or Facebook, though, so maybe you're not *too* far out of the loop. ;)

Today is my parents' wedding anniversary, and it's one of the big-deal ones. (Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day they met, which was a year before they got married.) I wish I could have been there to help celebrate.

We got them tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld's show at Foxwoods. A long time ago they were supposed to go see him at the Bushnell on New Year's Eve, but my sister Maggie (who was probably less than a year old at the time) got sick and they couldn't go. So we knew this was something they would have wanted and I'm sure it's going to be a great show. :)

The picture of them in this post is from my sister Kelly's wedding. I liked this shot because they too are K + J.

I know that they read this, so I will say now: Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love you!

xxx

Back that thang up

2009-04-20T19:44:00.003+01:00

My laptops have a nice tendency to crash when I need them most, causing me to lose important files on my hard drive. So, after burning through three laptops in four years (actually, the first one was stolen), I decided to invest in an external hard drive to back up my stuff.

I've been backing up my thesis documents and my iTunes files there semi-regularly. And this week, I moved all my photos off of my laptop's hard drive and onto the external drive. (I also have them on Flickr, so I consider that a second backup.) But even after all this, I find my laptop's space running out fairly quickly. Moving the photos cleared out 8GB, but I'd like to clean it up a little more. Any tips on how to find files/programs on a PC that could easily be deleted or moved and not be missed?

On another note, i'm trying to import my posts into Tumblr. I was really hoping it would back up all my old posts, but I think it's only doing the ones from when I started the site. This is my first blog post since then, so we'll see what happens.

Back to...gulp...work now! xxx

Because bunnies and chicks are so last year.

2009-04-14T22:02:00.002+01:00

One of my best egg creations yet: the Spiderman egg. Hope y'all had a fabulous Easter.

Things I've been thinking about lately

2009-04-08T19:15:00.004+01:00

It is really hard to get motivated enough to finish this chapter.
The whole job searching process is freaking me out. I've started now because I don't want to reach a point where my loans are due and I'm unemployed.
I miss Ugly Betty. It comes back on in May.
Do you know how hard it is to find appropriate music for someone's 90th birthday slideshow? Everything is either mega-weepy or perfect with the exception of one line. An example of the latter: my grandfather loves Frank Sinatra's "My Way," but it starts with "And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain..." Not a great message to send out there.
I can't believe the Gosselins got not one, but two dogs. Based on the parents' reactions when they were getting ready to get the dogs, it seems like the producers told them to get dogs as a way to boost ratings. How can a woman who is so obsessed with neatness and order and has eight kids who scream and hit manage two dogs?

This just in: as I was Googling the link to the J&K+8 website, I came across a link that says that they no longer have the dogs. They claim that one of the kids was allergic, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was because one of the dogs ate some furniture or something.

I saw a commercial for a police impound auction and it fascinated me. I'd love to end up with a decent car for a low price, but I always wonder what exactly led those cars to be impounded in the first place.
I want to go out for dim sum, but I have no idea how to order it. I used to go with my Chinese/Hong Kong friends who would do all the ordering in Chinese, so I don't know what anything is called. "Do you have those noodley things with the shrimp in them?"
If you ever need to make a photo slideshow and you own a Wii, try the "Photo Channel" option. It's so easy.
People wonder why I pack so much. Well, if you look at the weather reports from when I've been home, we've had 70-degree weather and we've had 39-degree weather. I've worn sandals while I've been home and I've heard people in other parts of the state say they've got snow. That's Connecticut for you.
I really should get back to writing that chapter now.

Why I love and hate travel

2009-03-25T18:24:00.002Z

I'm back. It's good to be home. I always reach a point in Oxford where I get tired of the usual stuff and look forward to going home. It's a nice change of pace.

I realized that I have a very love/hate relationship with travel. There are some things about it that I love, and there are some things that I hate, but I don't think the result is completely balanced. It all depends on the trip. Some bullets:

Things I love about travel

I love train stations and airports. (There are some minor exceptions, but I definitely fall in the "love" category for this.) I feel like train stations are kind of a step back in time - they're very old-fashioned, but they get the job done. I also think airports are a good way to get a taste-test of a particular culture. You want to know what a city/state/country is known for? Look in its airport gift shops and restaurants. I honestly don't mind having long stopovers in airports because you can look around, shop, eat, go on the Internet and people-watch.
I love that travel has advanced to the point where you can be in three countries in one day. (I know this is not a big deal for Europeans, but in the US it's not so easy.) Yesterday I started my day in the UK, spent about 4 hours in Canada and ended in the US. In many ways it doesn't feel that different (they all speak English) but there are enough subtle differences to make it cool.
Side note: I think I can finally hear the difference between Canadian and American accents. I mean, this is obvious when the person is a native French speaker, but primarily English-speaking Canadians do sound a bit different from Americans.
I love going through customs when it's not busy. It kind of feels like I'm on some secret government mission. And getting the stamp in the passport is always cool.
Side note: It's kind of weird how if you're traveling to the US from Europe, etc. and you have a connection in Canada, you go through US customs in Canada - not Canadian customs. It actually makes things kind of easy, because you go to collect your luggage from a special area only for people connecting to the US.
I love having three different currencies in my wallet - except when I'm trying to find change. Once I had to lend my sister some money and told her she could take it from my wallet, and it drove her crazy to have to sort through the "weird octagon-shaped coins" to get what she wanted!
I love it that I am now at a point where I am something of a plane/airport "expert," and I can explain to people where something is or which form you need or why people sitting next to each other may not be boarded at the same time (some airlines board windows and middles first, then aisle).
I love how technology has advanced to a point where you can call anywhere in the world on your cell phone to let people know that your plane will be late, or how easily you can track your flight or someone else's using the phone, email or airline website.
I love getting to where I need to go. This doesn't involve the traveling part, but the reaching the destination part.

Things I hate about travel

I hate hate hate the actual traveling part. I get motion sickness very easily and am very claustrophobic, so eight hours on an airplane or train is not fun for me. Even worse are the little puddlejumpers that go from New York/Philadelphia/Toronto to Connecticut - you really have no room.
I hate packing. I'm terrible at it. I always bring too much stuff. I also can't tell you how many times I've broken suitcases - sometimes my fault, sometimes the airline's fault.
I hate having screaming kids on a flight. I know it's not always the kids' fault or the parents' fault, but there are some times when the kid is just being a brat and I don't know what to say/do because I'm stuck in the vehicle with the kid and parent for the next 7+ hours.
I hate how expensive the whole deal is. Even if you save money on a really cheap flight, you make up for it by having to travel out of your way to the cheaper airport, buying expensive food, and dealing with all kinds of expenses that don't come in the ticket cost (like checked-baggage charges).
I hate how inefficient the whole deal is. I especially hate it when the line to check in is massive and you see a group of flight attendants chatting rather than checking people in. Also, getting on and off a plane is just ridiculous. I'm not sure how it could be made any better, but it's annoying.

My birthday approacheth

2009-03-20T00:22:00.005Z

Tonight I received a delightful birthday surprise:

These are from my lovely friends Justin and Darcy. As they knew I was going home for my birthday, they wanted me to have these early so I could enjoy them :)

The photos don't do them justice. It is a gorgeous bouquet. And it's sitting next to my desk, so I can enjoy it while I write. Yay!

Hello MAC

2009-03-19T22:37:00.002Z

I can forgive MAC for Dame Edna because of this.

A far better sight when walking down the street each day! :)

Obvious Solutions (another Betty post)

2009-03-14T13:36:00.002Z

So on Ugly Betty, the Meade Company is suffering because Connor (their CFO) took all their money. Daniel and Wilhelmina are now selling all their stuff and paying for things out of pocket to keep the company afloat.

Couldn't this be somewhat easily solved by selling off some of Meade's titles? Alternatively, couldn't Betty's filthy rich boyfriend Matt buy up some part of the company? On that same note, if Matt is filthy rich, why doesn't he buy a magazine company instead of trying to YETI his way to the top?

Sweet dreams are made of these

2009-03-12T21:46:00.003Z

I've been having a lot of really weird dreams lately. I know that they say that dreams come from stuff you've been thinking about before you go to sleep, but I've never had them be such a blatantly obvious combination of things I've been thinking about before.

For example, I'm helping my mom do invitations for my grandfather's 90th birthday party. My grandfather had 12 siblings (he and his youngest sister are the only ones left), so my mom has a lot of cousins. We've spent a lot of time lately talking about which cousins belong to which siblings. One night I had a very weird dream in which they all kept showing up. It was present day and I knew quite well that these people were no longer alive, but they were there.

I had another dream that involved the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, an evacuation, my brother, a kid in a football uniform and someone hiding in a washing machine. And yes, I was thinking of or saw pictures of all these things earlier that day.

My mom thinks it's stress as these dreams all had very stressful undertones to them. But I just found it SO weird that as soon as I woke up from these dreams, I knew exactly why that combination of things took place in the dream.

Old Kids on the Block

2009-03-02T01:30:00.003Z

I forgot to tell y'all a funny story yesterday.

My sister Maggie, who is half my age, heard some New Kids on the Block songs for the first time recently. She asked me about them, and I told her how they were popular when I was a bit younger than her (maybe 11 or 12). I don't know if she heard the old school stuff or their comeback stuff, but she really liked them.

She was out with my mom this weekend to see the new Jonas Brothers' 3D Concert Movie and she started asking my mom about concerts Kelly (my other sister) and I went to when we were her age. My mom told her about Boyz II Men, which was our first concert, and that reminded Maggie about New Kids on the Block. (I think the "Boyz" part made her think of the "Kids.") She couldn't remember their name and her description wasn't triggering anything for my mom, so she called me.

I finally figured out what she was talking about, and when she asked my mom if she knew about NKOTB, she said yes. And after further investigation, I knew why my mom couldn't figure it out from Maggie's description: Maggie thought the New Kids on the Block were a band from the fifties.

Kids do indeed say the darnedest things. :)

Betty

2009-03-02T00:05:00.003Z

It's a shame that Ugly Betty didn't come out sooner. It might've convinced me to do a doctorate in Communication, as it would have made an awesome dissertation topic. It has everything a media critic could want: representation of men, women, minorities (especially Latinos), homosexuality, consumerism, beauty. If I were ~~crazy~~ rich and had time to spare, I'd totally consider it.

These are the kinds of crazy thoughts that one gets while writing a dissertation chapter on a book that is so dull that critics debate not only when it was written, but also how knowing when it was written can tell us why it's such a dull book. I kid you not.

I *so* heart the Persiles, if you haven't guessed already. ;)

disposing of old iPods

2009-02-20T17:20:00.002Z

I come seeking the wisdom of teh Internets.

My old iPod Nano from 2 generations ago (roughly 3 years old) has pretty much keeled over and called it quits. It was skipping songs, freezing up, the hold button wasn't working, etc. Today it froze in the middle of a song and I can't turn it off, despite pressing every button and plugging it in several times.

I decided to splurge and upgrade to an iPod Touch. But now I wonder: what do I do with the old Nano? Can I chuck it? Sell it for parts? It's well past its warranty date.

Your advice would be much appreciated.

Speaking of getting it wrong...

2009-02-20T01:16:00.003Z

Check this out.

I cannot help but wonder if this actually happened or is an urban legend. I don't know a lot about the Welsh language (I do know some Welsh girls who speak it), so I don't know how the language works in Wales - whether they keep it up for tradition or if people speak it out of necessity.