Timeline

It seems I have my work cut out for me.  I've ironed out a schedule for my thesis.  This means that from now on I'm going to ignore the "how's your thesis going?" questions or succinctly answer, "Fine".  No offense to those who love me and are asking out of genuine compassion, but I can't take it anymore.

I am the only one in my immediate family to get a 4 year degree (so far, my little sister is working on hers) let alone a post-graduate degree.  I am one of three that I can think of that have a higher education in my extended family.  I think my great-uncle went to graduate school for mathematics and one of my uncles, by marriage, went to MSOE.  My friends and family have every faith in me, but none of them know what this is.  They don't know what this is like mentally.  I'm at the computer stage in the comic above.  And my energy flux is as follows:

My favorite questions, now mostly coming from my seemingly senile grandfather, is "so what is she going to do with that degree?  Is she going to teach?"(Because as a woman, why else would I get a degree but to teach?).  He has asked this so many times that it has become a family joke.  I'm tempted to tell him that I got this much of an education to become a hooker, but that might scare his good ol' Baptist heart to death - sarcasm goes right by him.

I've started a new daily schedule to attempt to be productive.  At the moment I'm not being productive because my brain went into a temporary meltdown.  There were words and numbers on the computer screen but my brain ceased to be able to interpret them.  So, here I am, blogging and sipping tea.  I had a small snack and soon I'll go back to analysis.

Happy Monday all.

Sara Pezzini

I'm in serious need of strong female characters so I'm going to do a short series on some of my favorites.

     The first one is Detective Sara Pezzini from the live action 'Witchblade'.  I distinguish between live action and animated because this was originally a graphic novel series and then an animated series.  Of the three I much prefer the live action.  The main reason being that Sara isn't portrayed as a blatant sex object here.  In the comic (I found a cache of free online versions to read through) she is scantily clad and bursting out of what little she has on at the time.

In the live action version Sara Pezzini is portrayed more realistically.  She's a hard-ass cop, excellent boxer, good shot, motorcycle driver, and good looking.  Her mother died when she was young and her father was murdered when she was in her teens or early twenties.  When the series begins her best friend was just found murdered in a high end hotel room.  Sara is sure she knows who did it, a mobster who has it out for her, but has of yet been unable to find evidence to that end.  In pursuit of one of his associates Sara comes into contact with the Witchblade.

When introduced to the Witchblade she stays outwardly strong even though she is having to deal with visions, changes in her perception of time, and vivid dreams.  When going after the mobster, Gallo, a second time she and her partner are ambushed.  Gallo shoots her partner.  With the Witchblade she takes out several of his men.

A lot of people want to control her throughout the series.  Irons, a billionaire who owns a large portion of New York City, wants control of the Witchblade.  The Witchblade can only be wielded by a woman, so he knows he has to control her.  In the first few comics Sara seems a bit damsel in distress around Irons but in the live action show she figures him out pretty quickly.  Gallo wants Pezzini dead and a few of her fellow cops want her off the force.

Though she has lost so much she remains strong.  One aspect of her character that I particularly like is that she doesn't let other people control her and she catches on quickly when they try.  Any advice or ideas she gets she works through, tests its applicability, before integrating it.

Dreams

I sometimes bemoan the fact that we have one life to live, that we can't have one lifetime then pick ourselves up and transplant into another lifetime.  Books and movies let us have the illusion of the possibility.  Colin Firth can be a painter, a writer, an aristocrat, a pauper father, a king, a gay banker- the list goes on- he can seemingly be and do so many different things regardless of time.   In a movie the character can die, but the actor can show up somewhere else and continue.  If only reality worked this way.

(Design by: desexign)

In some ways I have something that not everyone does, memorable dreams.  It is as if I have two lives to live - one of consciousness and the other unconsciousness or subconscious.  My dreams are in color, vivid, and often full of sensations.  My unconscious brain recreates the five senses, though dormant in my sleeping body, in my dreams.  Not all my dreams are spectacular and not all have every sense, but I have another world in which to live.

Most of my dreams are pleasant, odd and confusing, but pleasant.  I have reoccurring dreams that have been both good and bad.  The first is tornados. Sometimes I face the tornado, I watch it come, knowing that it can't hurt me.  I've been in small broken down houses, skyscrapers, or out in the open when the tornado is bearing down.  I've seen deep green sod and trees seem to burst from the ground, like a bomb went off, as the tornado hits the earth.  I've also dreamt of trying to save people from tornados.  I run through the buildings screaming at people to seek shelter.  I've hunkered down in the basement while the house above begins to rattle.

The other reoccurring element in my dreams are elevators.  The elevators in my dreams never work like a traditional one should.  They never go up and down, at least not solely up and down, and they almost never go to the right place.  I am constantly riding elevators that twist and turn through the building.  I go sideways, backwards, forwards, up, down, in circles. Some have horizontal doors, others vertical.  There is only one dream that I can remember that had an elevator that worked like ones in reality.

With this great world comes some bad experiences.  Usually I don't encounter bad dreams, but after reading 'The Cabinet of Curiosities' I found myself at the mercy of a serial killer.  That dream was tactile and very unpleasant.  I hadn't been expecting it since I'd already moved on to several other books, but I guess the image of what that killer did stuck in my subconscious.  I've also had vivid dreams of my then lover dying.  I hadn't heard from him in weeks and somehow my subconscious translated it as his death.  Once I spoke with him again, the dreams stopped.  So I guess they're not always two separate worlds, but in my dreams I can face feelings I squash in my conscious life.

I have a cache of memories from both realities and both keep me going.  I may not get more that one lifetime, but perhaps I can do as much as possible in my two worlds.

Pendergast

Awhile ago, must have been at around 1999, there was an excerpt from a book in Readers Digest.  My mom read it and then I did and we both thought it sounded really good.  A bit later my mom got her hands on a copy of the book, 'Thunderhead' by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  Let me just say I LOVE that book.  I've read it multiple times.  Their writing style just brings me into the world they are writing about.


The other day I was wandering around in the bookstore.  I went there to get this book:

I read about 'Incognito' on one of the book websites that I frequent.  It sounded very interesting and I needed something to read besides articles on Bythotrephes. I always look at the bargain books at B&N because once in a great while they will have one that I really want for a great price - and in hardcover.  I saw a book by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and read the description on the inside cover.  The characters from 'Thunderhead' were both in it and something horrible had happened.  I had to buy it.  Unbeknownst to me this was the 9th book in the Pendergast series.  I read it and eventually realized there was much that had happened prior to this book.  In the back the authors had listed their books in order and I decided that I had to read them.

I got a copy of 'Relic' and started to read.  'Relic' is also a movie and as I read I realized it was based on this book.  Even though I knew the basic premise of the story the book was so much better than the movie.  I love Agent Pendergast.  I got my hands on the next two books and I will guiltily admit that much of Monday and Tuesday was spend reading.  I read in the lab, I read while walking, I read while eating.  If I could read in my sleep I would have.  I couldn't put them down.  I ended up staying up until 2 in the morning multiple days in a row.  I hadn't meant to get sucked into the 'Cabinet of Curiosities' but while I was waiting for my coffee to brew I read the first few pages and....I was stuck.  I'm not letting myself start #4 in the series, 'Still Life with Crows' until this weekend.  I'm interested to see if there is a return of a stock character that has popped up in all four of the Pendergast books I've read so far - there is always one arrogant s.o.b. that thinks he knows best, that everyone else is a screwup, and they always seem to get their comeuppance.  There are some similarities in the books so far, but they've managed to make me want to check the locks on my windows and doors and inspect the closet and under the bed for boogie monsters with each story. :)

I'm in the middle of two other books right now: 'Incognito' and 'The Dead Deceiver', the first a pop-science book and the second a Loon Lake mystery book.  The Pendergast series grabbed my attention so fully that I've only been back to 'Incognito' and only after I had read the first three books.  The Loon Lake series is good, but it doesn't have the intensity that I've been looking for.  I'll finish it eventually.

Now I have to make up for lost time on my thesis.  I've been making okay time, but now I want to put my foot on the gas. :)

English

I was informed by a friend that I have a 'thing' for older British men.

I will admit that I absolutely love Colin Firth (né 1960).
There are a slew of his movies that I have yet to see, including 'The King's Speech'.  Last Friday I watched 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' (Scarlett Johansson was gorgeous as well) and 'Valmont' (an earlier version of 'Cruel Intentions') for the first time.  I also rewatched 'Easy Virtue' (especially for the tango between Firth and Jessica Biel) and parts of 'Love Actually'.



It seems, however, that I have a great love of Scottish actors as well.


 I fell in love with David Tennant (né 1971) as the tenth Doctor Who.  When I have a bit more time I plan to follow his other works, especially 'Hamlet' and the upcoming 'Much Ado About Nothing' with Catherine Tate.

Along a similar vein I also love John Barrowman (né 1967).  He was born in Scotland and moved to the U.S. when he was eight.  I discovered him in 'Torchwood' (a new season is coming soon!) but then discovered that he can sing.  Boy can he ever sing.  I also love his personality- energetic, loving, and outgoing.  I wish I could be friends with him. :)

And then there is Tony Curran (né 1969) whom I'd seen in 'Underworld: Evolution' and then he appeared as Vincent van Gogh in Season 5 of Doctor Who.  I have since seen him in several tv shows in smaller roles (ex/ 'The Mentalist') The other night when I finally watched 'Ondine' I found him again.








I don't know if it's a 'thing' per-se, I just love watching them act.  :)

I really must get working so that I'm ready for tomorrow.