Written on April 30, 2008 by cynthia and e.
“By removing social variation from the system of language, formal linguists have reencoded the very prescriptive norms they claim to reject.” – Rusty Barrett in “The ‘Homo-genius’ Speech Community” in the book i’m reading for language&gender. doesn’t that sound like a joke name? rusty barrett?
anyway, this is highly interesting, and maybe i don’t know how to do blog entries, but the quote was just a tiny bit too long to put in a tweet. it’s a very interesting idea and i think that linguists could probably learn a lot from third-wave feminists. i am amused by my reaction to reading this though – a rush of indrawn breath, with some kid in my head saying, “ooooh!” in the same tone as could be followed by “i’m telling!” or if we were part of a different speech community, “oh no you di|n’t!” (| for a glottal stop, yes i am very very silly.)
everything still sucks. i’m doing some reading because like a jerk (a la idiolect of ej) i can’t concentrate to do anything more, even though i am So behind in statistics.
i wonder what it would mean to let myself have a blog, rather than a journal… would it mean posts like this?
ps: it’s really a very good article.
Written on April 14, 2008 by e.
well, i don’t know that i’ve ever worked so hard on a one-week homework before in my life, but i finished! i think it took me about 20 hours – i didn’t do anything else this weekend except the few moments of resting and trying to get rid of my recurring headache so i could do more work. but i did it! and it may not be perfect – in fact, i know i calculated the maximum likelihood estimation wrong because it should have equaled the method of moments estimation. and i really did not know what to plot exactly on one of the graphs, but i did my best, and this damn homework is supposed to be graded on effort. by and large, i feel like i actually got it. aeron said in 390 (the one for engineers) he didn’t have to do nearly as much math. dammit.
i think the moral of the story here is matt does not get to skip this class, ever. and boy, am i glad that i only have two classes this quarter. i have to get to my reading that i haven’t had time to do, for language and gender, but that’s practically recreational reading.
still, that was a scary experience so close to the beginning of the quarter. and i don’t have time to rest. there’s a lot of writing for my other class, and i really need to get to the dishes, and etc. but i’m ok. for now, i’m still ok.
Written on April 13, 2008 by e.
in response to my note about disability accommodations, my statistics prof said this: “I am not quite familiar with formal definitions of this disability (though by your short description I might have some form of it myself 
”
i also love how his smiley did double duty as a closing parenthesis.
Written on January 8, 2008 by e and matt.
well, the first day of school happened yesterday, and i didn’t actually die. but oh, my goodness, i am overwhelmed. it’s a damn good thing i only have to go in twice a week. i just feel so bewildered, i have been dropped into this program with no real guidance. the director told me what classes to sign up for, and i’m taking them, but i certainly do feel deep underwater. for example, i need an account with a specific server in order to do my first homework, which is due friday, and nobody told me before that all compling students have that. i just… wow, am i in over my head.
Continue reading ‘way over my head’
Written on September 18, 2006 by beth and e.
well, lately has sucked. we haven’t been able to stop crying. there’s a kind of depression that blocks absolutely everything. and there’s a lot stirred up – memories, feelings, memories of feelings… i can’t describe how awful it was to be in the place that we were yesterday.
i’m proud of how we dealt with it, though. not that it’s all gone, but there’s a world of difference this morning. the biggest feeling, i think, is this stupid loneliness we can’t get over. i mean, that’s the deeper aspect of feeling. we’ve also been very, very overwhelmed, and obviously in despair. but i think maybe the stupid loneliness is causing all of that. aeron is offended, because somehow we can never take enough comfort in his simple presence.
Continue reading ‘and it is… till it’s not’
i was afraid the summer wouldn’t be long enough to rejuvenate me so that i would be ready again for school, but the most fun part of my day anymore is when i do my flashcards. and i’ve started going through the latin book. there is a section of “self-tutorial” exercises, with a key, and i’ve been doing all of those. it’s very satisfying. between the spanish and greek that we’ve had, i think latin will be very straightforward. it’s so exciting to think of doing it with aeron, working out the puzzles of translation sentences together, making him & me flashcards together.
Continue reading ‘caged up in the middle’
Written on January 19, 2004 by e.
language engineering is so amazingly awesome. i could imagine a life where we did this kind of work. i’ve coded all the morning – it’s always so satisfying to code and get somewhere, like crunching down into real food, not just air.
so, even with our difficulties this weekend, we’ve managed to get our spanish and syntax all done and get a big chunk of the language engineering done even before our team members are coming over (supposed to get here at 3) to work on it with us.
if only we could count on keeping up this kind of pace!
Written on November 16, 2003 by e.
my shoulders are tight and hunched from hours of greek, but i’m satiated and happy. aeron’s tooth is not bothering them as much anymore, and they played computer games more or less happily all day.
this morning i made myself a schedule
bleh i don’t want to write
Written on November 15, 2003 by e.
it’s a strange morning. the rain and clouds have been a constant of this month, and while they are not unwelcome, they add in some way to the strange greyness of living.
we are in for a very difficult weekend, because aeron is in terrible pain, and the swelling is just bad enough to keep us constantly wondering if we need to take them to the emergency room; the dentist said to do so if the swelling got worse. well, it did get worse last night, but this morning it is slightly down. it is so hard for this system when people around us are in pain. i think there might be a lot of triggers tied in with it. we are thrown into a battle between wanting to be compassionate, and needing to divorce ourselves mentally from the pain so that we do not collapse.
Continue reading ‘strange morning’
