A Goodly Count, Count Comfect

countcomfect @ 2009-12-24T22:21:00

2009-12-25T06:21:54Z

Home sweet home in Seattle.

Known schedule:
Sunday (27th) - DnD, 6-10pm
Thursday (31st) - Compleat Wrks, Rachel's housewarming (all evening, between 'em).
Saturday (2nd) - Harvard v. Seattle U basketball (1:30-4)
Sunday (3rd) - fly home to Chicago.

Help me fill the time!

countcomfect @ 2009-12-20T11:12:00

2009-12-20T16:12:35Z

So ready to be back in Seattle.

But 4 more days here in Fort Lauderdale it is.

One Bar Internet

2009-12-18T18:38:56Z

No, I'm not in a bar. I'm lucky enough to have irregular, one-bar wireless from next door here at my grandparents in Florida, so I'm taking the opportunity to say hello world. The quarter ended beautifully, both in terms of my happiness, my quality of work, and seemingly my grades. In order of importance ;).

Also, I have started watching Doctor Who (new series). This is a Good Thing.

Back in Seattle, December 24. Back in Chicago, January 3.

countcomfect @ 2009-12-09T22:31:00

2009-12-10T04:31:50Z

The papers are turned in. (1)
Therefore, the work for the quarter is done. (2)
Therefore, I am free. (3)
Therefore, I have too much time on my hands. (4)

On the plus side, I think I might have made some friends outside of my department. Of course, they're all seniors rather than grad students, but I blame that on the fact that I met them all in my cross-listed undergrad/grad class. And hey, people to talk to! Which, given (4) above, is probably a good thing.

In other news, I am definitely in need of another pair of eyes to look at my epic poem and see whether I'm deluding myself about it.

In other other news, it has been snowing and freezing here. It's beautiful, if painful.

countcomfect @ 2009-12-06T15:48:00

2009-12-06T21:48:56Z

So besides being done with 2 classes (yay! Although I kinda miss them both already...) and almost-done with the other, I've still found time to edit the 286 page behemoth of a poem I wrote this summer. And, miracle of miracles, I still like it.

When did life get so relaxing?

countcomfect @ 2009-12-04T11:27:00

2009-12-04T17:27:31Z

Huh. I found my old camera and just offloaded the pictures. They happen to be from my Rome trip and then my Martha's Vinyard trip with Amelia - probably the last time we were both fully happy. It's strange: looking at the pictures, I feel a real tug of nostalgia, but at the same time an overwhelming sense that I am happy now not to be in that relationship. At the same time, I now realize that those trips were better than I've been remembering them; perhaps that was some sort of defense or repression mechanism, but they've been paled over with grey for the last year or so. Strange to revisit them out of the blue, but a good thing I think.

And dammit, now I want to go back to Italy. Which makes the list of places to REvisit (let alone the ones I haven't visited yet):

London (again)
Oxford (again)
Israel
Paris
Yucatan
Italy
Martha's Vinyard
Montreal
Toronto
Vancouver
The Bay Area
Alaska
Tillamook
Dublin
Wales
Edinburgh
Kent
DC
New York
Utah
...pretty much everywhere else in the US I went on my family trips where I was 6 and 12, which is basically the whole US.

Thought for the Day

2009-11-23T01:44:26Z

Why do I always position myself so that my professors have to fundamentally reorganize their understandings of our text in order to accept my essays?

UPDATE: Well, one A down. Let's see the other...

Ongoing

2009-10-09T05:16:48Z

Life is pretty good. I have been on a bit of a Michael Cera kick recently, which is interesting since I cannot rightly say why I always seem to identify with his characters. In other news, classes continue well. I feel like so far knock on wood and don't upset the applecart I have grad school under control. We'll see how accurate that is come actual paper-time, but it's a good feeling to be in given that I have guests for most of the next two weeks and therefore would be absolutely screwed if it weren't true. Looking forward to that though!

Also, I have finished at least the first draft of my science-fiction story over at goldpaint, and I am debating whether to a) try [and probably fail, because I'm shit at dialogue] to sketch out one of my two extant play ideas (screwball comedy and Inverted Prince Charming) or b) edit Lechi Lach. Either way, there is still the flow of poetry, which has picked up recently. Any advice (or comments on any of the works over there) would be more than welcome.

Salvaged the hard drive of my desktop into an external drive, so now I have Office 2007 back, as well as my old documents (phew).

I want to play board games.

Why I Do, What I Do

2009-10-06T06:18:28Z

So I don't know how many of y'all are interested, but I submitted my Javits today, and I found the process very useful in attempting to determine what I want to do in English, and why I want to do it. I've put the final version of my statement below. God only knows if it'll get me the money I'm asking for, but I do know that it helps explain "why I do what I do," in the words of the song that is going through my head, "far from the home I love."

In other news, I held my own in Theory class today; we'll see how long that lasts. I also had a massive, massive hassle actually turning in the fellowship. One of my recommenders is at Sussex, in England, and he had to DHL me the recommendation or it wouldn't come in time. So DHL shows up when I'm not home, and they not only don't leave it, they can't even read his handwriting as to what my last name is, so they think that my name isn't on the list of people in my apartment (since my last name is Goldfarb, not Goldfiris [don't ask how they got that out of Goldfarb]). But at least they leave a note saying so. I call their helpline, and it doesn't get answered; rings for minutes on end without picking up. So I call the number on their contact us page, and they answer, and tell me that usually you can't get a package the same day it was undelivered, since the driver's route is so long that it doesn't get back to the warehouse during open hours. But I got the lady to at least put in a request so if it did come back before 9 (when the DHL warehouse closes) they'd call me and I could go pick it up. I frantically look up how to get there - need a car, look up Zipcars - and whether there is a USPS open that late, since I still need to MAIL the application packet after getting this letter. Thank God, it says there is one downtown open 'til 9, with automated post office open 'til midnight, meaning I can probably get it out; goodness knows if it'll be postmarked correctly, but a receipt from that day is also a proof for the USDE, even if the postmark is wrong. So I wait by the phone. And wait. Four hours later, I get the call I'm waiting for: I can come pick it up. But it's 7:30. I need to A) get to the Zipcar, B) drive to O'Hare (which is where the DHL office is), C) get the letter, D) drive back downtown to the post office and E) mail it before 9 (or at least get to DHL before 9, when they close, but I really want that postmark). I run to the Zipcar, speed to the DHL office, and get there at 8:30. Get the letter, rip open the DHL packaging and find...an unsigned envelope, which is bad since the envelope has to be signed, according to the fellowship rules. I take a chance and rip that open: signed enveloped underneath. Whew. Stick it in the packet, speed to the post office...fail to find the post office. Google Maps thinks it's on the left...it turns out to be on the right, as I find after wandering around for about 5 minutes and abortively calling my parents to check th address. Sprint into the post office going "I'm late I'm late I'm late" only to find out that they are open full-service to midnight. Mail it. Done. It's in. Whew.

Anyway, fellowship statement of purpose.

I propose a revolution in English literary studies. More exactly, I propose a half-revolution, a turn in focus. I believe that much modern literary criticism, particularly in the Renaissance, uses the right techniques to answer the wrong questions.
In recent years, much scholarship in English literature has been focused on analysis of the historical and cultural circumstances in which that literature was produced. It is now quite common to examine the religious, political, economic, and social conditions under which a given work, or body of work, was composed, published, and read. This form of analysis is particularly common in the study of the literature of the Renaissance in England. Indeed, it sometimes seems that no analysis of Shakespeare’s plays is complete without some reference to the preservation of traditional religious customs in the rural counties or the intrigues of the Elizabethan Privy Council.
I am deeply sympathetic to this mode of analysis. I believe that a full and deep understanding of both the culture and the history of the period is necessary to the investigation of literature. However, too often the flow of scholarship is in the opposite direction: mining the literature of a period in order to explain the politics, religion, or society in which it was produced. While this is a worthy endeavor, I believe that there is too little analysis that tends in the other direction, using historical and cultural sources to answer literary questions, and what analysis there is frequently informed by older historical scholarship. It is my desire and intention to apply historical and cultural knowledge about the English Renaissance to answer questions of a distinctly literary nature: to use my understanding of that society to discover the meanings within the works its citizens produced. This time stands between two significant periods of unrest–the Reformation and the English Civil War–and it saw a flowering of English literature that has never been equaled. My work will attempt to use the circumstances surrounding the former to understand the latter. In particular, I intend to study the interactions between religion and politics in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, and the effect of our understanding of that interaction on the interpretation of Shakespeare and his contemporary dramatists.
Of course, such analysis must remain grounded in a careful and detailed consideration of both the formal elements of literary composition and the available historical evidence regarding the society itself. It is no more useful to make claims regarding a work of literature without regard to the particular details of its own construction than it is to make claims about the society based solely on dry historical records. It is crucial to this project that it be equally concerned with the accuracy and depth of the historical and the literary analysis; indeed, the two can hardly be separated. Only through a thorough concern with both angles of analysis can a proper synthesis emerge which can produce insight; only by coming to understand both the religious politics and the drama of the period can I hope to use the one to examine the other.
It is my intention to pursue this synthesis. The English Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago, in which I am currently enrolled, is the perfect vehicle for this pursuit. The university’s dedication to interdisciplinary work will permit me to immerse myself in the history and literature of the Renaissance, as well as in the points at which the study of each intersects the other. There are few universities that can provide similar opportunities for interdisciplinary study, much less the chance to study with faculty, inside and outside of the English department, who are similarly dedicated to interdisciplinary work in the Renaissance. Both before and after the field examination, the program at the University of Chicago not only provides opportunities for work that crosses traditional field boundaries, it actively encourages such work.
I believe that in the course of earning my doctorate in English at the University of Chicago, I will be able to advance significantly towards the synthesis that I desire to achieve. For the first two years, only one of which would be covered by the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, I will take classes in and around my period, both in the English department and others, including History, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and possibly Political Science. During my third year, the second of the fellowship, I will take my oral field examination and begin my dissertation proposal, and in the fourth and fifth years, the third and fourth years of the fellowship, I will write my dissertation. It is in this final dissertation, rooted in the preceding study, that I hope to achieve, or at least begin to achieve, a synthesis between historical and literary analysis that will illuminate the issues of religion, politics, and drama in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This overall course of study will give me both the resources and the opportunities to establish the understanding of both the culture and the literature of Renaissance England necessary for my analysis.

Irregularities

2009-10-05T05:47:18Z

So...the fellowship I'm applying for has one, teensie, tinsie, weenie problem. I don't know how many copies to send in, because some of the pages say 2 and some say 3. Bah. I don't really have 3 copies of some of the things, in addition to the originals...of course, all moot if my rec from England doesn't get here tomorrow, when the app is due.

In other news, theory makes my brain hurt, Notre Dame-Washington was disappointing and wet, but seeing Basl was good and I feel confident in my Milton class.

On to the first day of Theory class tomorrow!

First Day of Classes

2009-09-30T06:04:33Z

The Good:
Had my first class, History of Drama I. I think I'm the only grad student in it, and although that may mean higher expectations, it also looks like it should be pretty easy and basic. And focused on performance-oriented interpretations instead of just text-based ones. So yay.

I'm applying to a fellowship due this coming Monday (the Jerome Javits Fellowship from the US Dep't of Education; basically an extra 10,000 dollars a year for the next four years) and although I found out about it on a very short deadline (or rather, realized it was due Oct 5 not Jan 1 on a very short deadline) I have 2/3 of my recommendations already in hand, and the other is being written. Oh, if anyone wants to help edit a statement of purpose...

The Bad:
I woke up really late because I couldn't get to sleep until 4 am last night (Yom Kippur the previous day + nerves I think). So I was in a total rush to get there.

The Ugly:
In this rush, I cut my finger while trying to slice a bagel. It bled like crazy, even though it's not a deep cut. Fortunately, it has now clotted and all that, and scabbed over, but it was uuuuuuuugly for a couple hours.

You know, overall, that still counts as a "good" day.

Grad School Beginneth

2009-09-24T18:23:39Z

So I just got internet here in the last couple days, and I started orientation at the same time. I have registered for:
Milton with Victoria Kahn (visiting from Berkeley)
History of Drama I (Greeks to Jacobeans) with David Bevington (emeritus)
First-year PhD Colloquium with Leela Gandhi

This should be a good term, although a lot hinges on how theory-intensive and post-colonialist Leela Gandhi's (required) colloquium is. I'm sure it will be good, but it may be more work for me than for the others.

In other news, I have realized that a deadline I thought was January 1 is October 5 for a fellowship and I just sent out 3 supplicatory emails to my recommenders for grad school to update them for me, since I need 3 letters of rec. Worst of all, I have to compile them with my application, so they have to send them (sealed) to me BEFORE the 5th so I can send them all out ON the 5th. Eep. Oh well.

countcomfect @ 2009-09-08T13:31:00

2009-09-08T18:35:01Z

Still don't have internet, but I now have my UChicago ID and thus access to the library (when it's open) which is a much more comfortable space to use UC's internet than the hallways I had been haunting before. Also a lot easier to get a plug-in for my laptop.

Oh yes, my desktop died when I tried to upgrade its RAM and my backup hard drive that I had it backed up on seems to perhaps have died too...I am not too happy about this.

On a lighter note, I was watching my DVDs of the British Whose Line Is It Anyway (seasons 1-2) and I came across, in a compilation-of-deleted-scenes episode, one of the most brilliant improvised songs I have ever heard. Starring Mike McShane and Josie Lawrence, it was deleted from original broadcast because, well, it had to do with knitting pubic wigs (merkins) (hi Elsa!) and apparently that was too risque. But it is hilarious, and it made my Sunday.

In Chicago, No Internet

2009-09-03T03:04:58Z

I am now in Chicago (yay!) but without Internet except when I go back to the campus (boo!). I am in a debate with AT&T about whether they serve my apartment; or rather, the AT&T staff and I are both wondering why apartments 1001 and 603 appear to be able to get AT&T service but not 808. Since AT&T is less than half of Comcast's price, and I'm not sure I have a cable hookup in my room (but I definitely have a phone jack) this is key information.

Otherwise, the massive drive Boston-Chicago was a success, I'm moved in and about half unpacked, and I miss everyone in Seattle.

countcomfect @ 2009-08-23T22:53:00

2009-08-24T05:58:17Z

So I'm back from Alaska (the land of no internet) and, in bullet-style, I have now:
-Been on a zipline
-Walked on a glacier
-Visited 48 states
-Gone on a cruise
-Done an improv workshop with Second City
-Finished a (draft of a) 100,000 word poem
-Survived 7 days in a cramped cabin with my parents
-Sung to the stars on a moving boat
-Seen an orca in the wild

It was a good week.

But now I have only 5 days left in Seattle, so I need to see people as much as possible before I go. Talk to me!

Also, I saw As You Like It at the Bathhouse on Saturday, and while it was not as good as the professional show I saw at the Globe nor (I flatter myself) as well-prepared as the version I dramaturged in (my god) 2004 at the Bathhouse, it was very good. You should see it, not least because I believe it offers conclusive proof of my theory that Celia is secretly the biggest scene-stealer in all of Shakespeare.

Going off the Grid

2009-08-15T09:08:19Z

Going to Alaska for the next week. Will be fairly (pretty much completely) incommunicado until NEXT Saturday. See you on the flip side!

Just a quick note

2009-08-03T18:08:14Z

My itinerary:
Depart BOS 6:00 pm
Arrive ORD 7:50
Depart ORD 8:50
Arrive SEA 11:08

Onward

2009-08-01T05:06:21Z

Today was my last day of work at EDC. I enjoyed working there, but I'm ecstatic to be heading on to the next phase of my life (which is flying into Seattle Monday night for a month there, then going to Chicago by September 1) and I'm looking forward to grad school with an intense passion. I had a very nice goodbye lunch, handed everything over to everyone, and then left at 5. Then I was supposed to see the second half of CWS, but it didn't happen, and I ended up seeing a choral concert instead (which I enjoyed) then coming home to this home in Boston. But even if it wasn't a blow-out night, I'm so happy it's here. And I'm looking forward to going home and then going on to Chicago.

My Lechi Lach poem that I'm posting in installments on Facebook is now apparently up to 9000 lines and 70,000 words. I didn't really realize that. I may end up doing some chapter compression as I edit, but I'm not nearly done yet, so this is good. Should not have trouble (other than my dedication) making it to 10000 lines, which was the goal.

In other news, my mind was on this, so I thought I'd compile my top Seattle sports memories, both good and bad. Top in terms of the depth of my emotional reaction to them.

10. 1998 NBA playoffs: As the Sonics clinch winning the first round of the playoffs, the crowd starts yelling "Beat LA," the next opponent. Kevin Calabro says "I think they're saying "Bring LA."" To which my 12-year-old self smiled and said "No, no, they know what they want to do." Unfortunately, they didn't. It's still ingrained on my memory.
9. "Don't run on Ichiro." The Throw. Terrence Long gets immortalized for not quite realizing how good the arm is on this new Japanese player the Mariners have signed.
8. Sitting in the stands for a Mariner's ALCS game in 1995, after never thinking it would happen. Orel Hershiser beat us, but at least I got to go to one.
7. Ken Griffey, Jr. breaking his wrist, 1995. This would rank higher if the other two 1995 moments hadn't made it a wee bit less crucial.
6. Carlos Guillen's bunt single in 2000 to clinch going to the ALCS. I walked into the house, turned on the TV...and Guillen was at bat. Wonderful timing.
5. Dikembe Mutumbo clutching a basketball and celebrating the first upset of a #1 seed in the first round of the NBA playoffs by a #8 seed. That #1 seed being the Sonics. 1994.
4. "Randy looks to the sky!" after Luis Sojo stood over the fallen body of Mark Langston in the play-off to get into the ALDS, 1995.
3. Super Bowl XL. Especially Darrell Jackson extending his arm and getting whistled for pass interference. @$#!.
2. The day the Sonics left. That was an absolute gut punch. Well, more the day they announced they were going to leave...it was a long sickening process, but that was the worst day.
1. "Here comes Junior, flying around third...AND THE MARINERS ARE GOING TO PLAY FOR THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP." ALDS, Game 5, 1995. I still tear up even thinking these words. I think I might love the Mariners a bit...

An Update

2009-07-24T03:32:17Z

Housing situation seems to be resolved. I called again and this time I got to speak to the building manager, who said I couldn't move into the room I was assigned on the date I wanted because it would not actually be vacant yet, but offered me another (slightly larger, slightly more expensive) room a floor above (there is an elevator). I accepted. So assuming that the switch goes smoothly within the bureaucracy, it looks like I'll be in when I wanted to be, with a little less money in my pocket, but a little more space in my apartment. So y'all should visit me in my copious space.

Also, the back strain I had yesterday has cleared up, so that's good.

I saw Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (except Hamlet) today. Because it was in an outdoor theater, and it was raining all day long. They tried to persevere, but by intermission it was just too much and they cut it short. It was still hilarious. And it made me miss my fellow actors from Seattle.

CDC site visit tomorrow for work. We'll see how that goes. 6 days left!

Two weeks

2009-07-18T03:19:01Z

It's like a mantra, or rather like "half a league" in Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade. Two weeks. Two weeks and onward. Two more weeks on my job. 17 days until I'm back in Seattle. 45 until I'm moving to Chicago. Two weeks.

In other news, not that much other news exists regarding me. I somehow scratched my glasses and am now wearing my backup pair, which translates to the pair I wore at the end of high school, which oddly makes me nostalgic. But I don't really like how they look on me; at least they let me look at other people, things, computers, basically anything more than a foot from my face.

I wish I had a consistent social life. But at least I have a social life at all. (A girlfriend would also be nice. Spent the weekend hosting a couple friends from Harvard who are in a committed relationship. Made me jealous. But ah well, one cannot have everything).

Wherein Life Occasionally Happens

2009-07-01T02:30:38Z

So I'm back from England. It was mahvellous, simply mahvellous. The highlights being St. Pauls with my cousin and As You Like It at the Globe Theater (OMGsogood). The latter of which also reminded me (besides how much I miss theater) of how excited I am to be heading back into the world of Shakespeare academia, where my opinion of how the Seven Ages of Man speech can matter again ;). (For the record: like you were coming up with it on the spot, but not so slow it's milking the fame for applause).

On which point: Last day of work is July 31. LAST MONTH as of tomorrow.
More importantly: I return to Seattle on August 3, 2009 at approximately 11pm local time. I am there until August 14, then after the 21st until the 29th (cruise with the parents to Alaska). In those days, I want to see all of you. As much as possible. My parents get 7 days of intense seeing me. So honestly, I'm hyperavailable then. Please see me. I miss you all.

In other Boston news, work is winding down (hey, I got to design and write a booklet on food safety, so that's new). Poetry is ramping up (43,000 words into my epic poem...). Humidity is unfortunately also rising. Ah well.

One month and change to Seattle! Two months to Chicago! Three months to classes!

countcomfect @ 2009-06-11T13:42:00

2009-06-11T17:43:43Z

Well, I'm better from the slight scalding. Change of clothes and a night of rest will do wonders.

But I'm off to England, um, tomorrow. For a week. Which is both exciting and kinda scary, since it's really snuck up on me. I think having a real job will do that to you - too many day-to-day trees to notice the "I'm going away" forest. But I'm very excited!

In further news, my last day at work is July 31. Woohoo.

countcomfect @ 2009-06-08T22:40:00

2009-06-09T02:40:44Z

I just poured near-boiling water all down my front. OW.

As usual, it's been a while

2009-06-08T18:57:06Z

So I've put off updating this because every time I want to, it looks like something else is just over the horizon. Now, with England just over the horizon, seems a necessary time. So in the past three weeks I have:
- visited my ex-roommate Dave at Stanford
- moved from Cambridge to Boston
- finished up a major project at work that we've been working on for 9 months
- attended Harvard graduation
- been visited by Alex, probably my best friend from high school
- gotten my UChicago ID#
- lost my Harvard ID# privileges
- written thousands of lines of poetry

Whew. A few things have happened. I don't feel a real incentive to go into that much detail about any of those, other than that this graduation (after which I'm actually leaving Cambridge for Chicago) was much more bittersweet than my actual graduation last year, oddly enough. Also, I'm incredibly glad that we finished the 30,000 student MetroWest survey and its associated reports. It's a huge load off of my mind and my plate. ZEUGMA LIVES!

Triumph!

2009-05-15T04:21:37Z

'Tis the 15th. The 30 sonnets are in the bag at goldpaint and the month of marking expenses is done! Although I may keep doing that - this hasn't been the most representative month (ie I bought tickets for two trips...which I don't plan on doing next year). Still, it's good discipline.

In other news - I hate having a sore throat. Especially in springtime.*

*Even for Hitler and Germany. Unless it is also winter for Poland and France.