5/10: What I Accomplished Today

1. Graded three sets of papers and gave a final. One student I'm waiting to get me one last crummy little paper, and then this semester's grading is done.

Tomorrow is the assessment-a-thon. Last year, we did Comp I assessment one day, and Comp II assessment another day, and had other meetings on other days, and by the time everything was done, what was supposed to be three weeks off was never more than five days in a row off. Tomorrow, we're trying to assess Comp I & Comp II at the same time so we have this sucker done and can enjoy our time off. It may not work, and it'll be a hellish day whether it works or not, but I'd rather have a hellish day and 24 days to play than hellish morning, five days, hellish morning, five days, etc. Let's just do our hell in one fell swoop and get on with it.

2. Wrote various needful e-mails, including asking the Dean Arthur's status and submitting a draft of a draft of a draft of a Placement assessment model.

3. Tonight was one of the Fellas' birthdays; I was unable to go because I was giving the final, but it was apparently very fun.

4. Our neighbor was diagnosed with breast cancer. She always refers to herself as Your Nasty Neighbor; this is funny because she's just sweet as can be, very helpful and kind; she watches our house, we watch hers. The Co-Vivant is concerned because it sounds like she may have just worked through the pain of swollen lymph nodes and a lump for several months. Fingers crossed.

5. Got Pogo badges to at least 40%. Tonight was the first Playfest; we were supposed to play 50 games of Word Whomp. Of the 50, I got the golden word 41, so I have 41 entries in the drawing tomorrow.

I wish it had a badge.

6. Television. Co-Vivant showed me a few minutes of The Colbert Report that were funny; Jane Fonda was the guest, and she basically dominatrixed the entire interview. The way Colbert is structured, it's really difficult to wrest control from him (and that's necessary, since he's playing a character in a format that isn't always conducive to that), but she did it. She planted a big open-mouth kiss on him as he sat down, carried out the whole interview while sitting in his lap, and just answered the questions she felt like answering.

Interesting character, Jane Fonda. (Yes, I know she's real, but if she weren't, I suspect someone would have to invent her.) In classical feminist terms, her behavior was reprehensible; she used sexuality as a weapon, and for classical feminists, that's a no-no; neither sexuality nor gender should be used as weapons, whether good, bad, or neutral. (While I admire the mindset behind the theory, I think this is largely why this particular aspect of feminism has always drawn fire. You know how many feminists it takes to change a light bulb? "That's not funny.")


I have a Doonesbury on my wall in which Lacy (I think; to be honest, I've never acquired the skill for distinguishing Doonesbury characters, although I do have the sense to feel guilty about this) has a dream in which she bemoans to a mentor that young women don't call themselves "feminists" anymore, and her mentor says something like, "Well of course not, dear, just as your generation didn't call themselves suffragists or abolitionists; when a battle is largely won, its language loses power." I have not yet heaved my sigh of relief that the gender gap has been closed, but I do think that many of the original arguments of feminism have lost impetus (I have some students and colleagues who are quite conservative, but very, very people in 2007 disagree that women have the right to work outside the home and, when they do, they have a right to paid equal wages for equal work).

Don't get me wrong; I still consider myself a feminist, but this is such a blobby, meaningless word that it's a little like calling yourself an vertebrate; of course you are, even if you've never considered yourself one or given it a moment's thought. Like I said, most people do not disagree with essential, original feminism: Women have the right to work outside the home, women have the right to exist as legal entities, women have the right to equal wages for equal work. (Isn't that Mary Tyler Moore episode where Mary discusses her salary with Mr. Grant hysterically quaint now? That was only about 35 years ago, folks.) Most people don't have major problems with the infrastructure that supports this (although it's created a new ghetto, one I'll call "Crayola-collared," of child-care workers who are lucky to be paid minimum wage and get much in the way of benefits).

Abortion? To be honest, back in grad school during my "Look how gay I'm not!" phase, I thought I was pregnant for a few days, and I thought about this. And here's what I came up with: I, personally, wasn't going to have an abortion. I had had friends who had abortions, and in most of those cases, I thought they had done the right thing, but I wasn't going to do it. I do not think it should be illegal; a person's body isn't the government's business. (I particularly think it's funny that most people who want abortion to be outlawed want a smaller government. You can't have both of those.) Again, we don't have enough police to catch murderers and thieves, but we should use some to arrest medical professionals and frightened teenagers? Excellent use of resources.

I think, in some ways, Americans treat rights like coupons. Whenever I go to the store, I seem to be the lucky person who gets behind the Coupon Couple; they used every blessed coupon in the newspaper, even though many of those products are of no use to them. Geriatric couples buy diapers; gay couples buy tampons; lesbians buy condoms--sure sign of Coupon Sickness. It's in the paper, available to me, so I have to use it, even if I'm actually wasting money buying something useless to me instead of saving money by using a coupon.

Some people seem to think rights work like that. "Abortion? Oh, that's a coupon I would never use, and I don't think anyone else should use it, either, so that shouldn't be in the paper." "I don't want to marry someone of the same gender; it's not natural to me. That coupon shouldn't be in the paper." (I've tried it your way, honey, and it was unnatural to me, but I guess it's your "nature" that gets to publish the paper. I think one paper these people are utterly unfamiliar with would be the Federalist Papers' discussion of Tyranny of the Majority.) "Marijuana for sick people? Well that's a coupon I'd never redeem, so nobody should get to redeem it." Dumb, dumb, dumb. You know what? I know many people will never believe me, but I've never smoked, snorted, or injected anything. I could sell my pee if I wanted; it's that squeaky-clean. Drug use is just not a coupon I've ever found at all interesting (or even comprehensible). I have also never gone to prostitutes. This is another coupon I have no interest in redeeming. But you know what? I get angry at how many policemen are being wasted on enforcing Drug War laws and Religious Taboos. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Let the coupons be in the paper, for heaven's sake. Just because a coupon is in the paper doesn't mean you, personally, have to redeem it; if you feel it does, then you're telling us you're a poor shopper.

7. Now will be my extremely fascinating account of the day's events with my Level 20 Night Elf Hunter. I started by confirming she was current on her training and pet training. I went to the Darnassus Weapons Trainer and bought Fist, Staves, and Thrown. (I hadn't trained any of her other weapons.) Flew to Auberdine, sailed to Menethil, turned in the Absent-Minded Prospector and picked up the next link in that chain, with the raptors. Flew to Ironforge, bought Axe, 2-handed Axe, Gun, and Crossbow. Picked up Speak with Shoni, took the Tram, turned in Speak with Shoni. Went to the Stormwind Weapons Trainer and bought 1- & 2-handed swords and polearms. I believe she has now purchased training in all the weapons for which she is eligible.

Then I went to Westfall and picked up the 1st Defias Brotherhood quest. Equipped darts and a two-handed sword my blacksmith had made and ran across Westfall, Elwynn, and Redridge to turn this in, picking up Encroaching Gnolls on the way. I also grinded (ground?) tarantulas and great goretusks, and when I logged off, my 2-handed sword skill was in the 80s and my thrown was in the 40's.

I turned in Encroaching Gnolls (2 free silver for going somewhere I needed to go anyway) and picked up the flight path. Accepted Price of Shoes, Hilary's Necklace, Murloc Poachers, Free Lunch. Turned in the Defias quest, Poachers, and Necklace. Cooked some boar stuff and got my cooking to 34 (I haven't focused on this, but I'm going to need to keep my owl Woodsy fed.) Meant to pick up the run-around cycle at the town hall but forgot; I'll do that tomorrow after the Messenger & Traitor.

Ran back and turned in Free Lunch, getting Visit the Herbalist. Turned in Price of Shoes; got Return to Verner. Went through the Defias chain until I got the messenger.

(This is the 8th character I've run through this part; since, when she turns 25, I expect her to do the Dead Mines, she needs to have done the backstory so she can get the right quests.)

No deaths. It's been so long since I played with this character that accomplishing all of this (which, granted, involved relatively few creatures that were at least yellow to me) didn't take me out of Rested.

I would have been perfectly happy to continue, but I have to be up 8ish tomorrow, so I had to stop playing. This was a significant pisser.

8. Doesn't look like BigFishGames has a new game up yet tonight, and now I have to go to bed even though I am not particularly tired.

9. Cleaned the trap in the shower. Put away my new packages of Bubble-Gum Foamy Soap (yes, this took me a day longer than it should have). Emptied the ice cube trays into the bin and put a new water dispenser on the counter so she can refill the trays. (For some reason I've never quite understood, things run more smoothly if I don't fill the ice cube trays. I've forgotten why; either I make the cubes too small, or I spill too much water on the floor, but one way or the other, I apparently don't make ice cubes properly.