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[13 Oct 2005|11:58pm] |
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the (oxford english dictionary) word of the day is : whore.
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[28 Nov 2004|02:38am] |
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i received my new passport in the mail today. it's incredibly pretentious of me, but i adore the fact that the authority (ie. the place where the passport was issued) is labeled as "u.s. embassy paris". and i'd like to thank our honourable ambassador, howard h. leach, and his staff for rushing the renewal (london is monday!). i wonder if all new passports have 48 pages (my old one had only 24) or if they gave me a larger one since i was up to the last page on the old passport. it's so depressing having 48 pages, knowing that i'll never travel anywhere near as much. when i went last week to the consulate (talk about high security), there was some businessman/pilot/generic globetrotter who must have had at least 200 pages all filled. it was like one of those cute german universal-bibliothek paperbacks. sigh.
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| Ihre Bestellung bei Amazon.de |
[26 Nov 2004|10:47pm] |
yeah, i'm so happy - i made my first purchase (and probably last) at the german amazon.de!!!
i finally bit the bullet and bought (well, actually got hubby to buy me for my b-day) two classic etymological dictionaries of the french language which are hélas auf Deutsch (and relatively expensive). namely, the Etymologisches Woerterbuch der franzoesischen Sprache by E. Gamillscheg and then the Romanisches etymologisches Woerterbuch by W. Meyer-Luebke.
bizarrely enough, one of my first reactions to the re-selection of that person who shall not be named was to hit my german grammars and vocab books. i've been meaning to refresh my deutsch and become somewhat fluent for years now (cf. that sad attempt two years ago at the course given by the ville de paris), but now my logic is that if i'm ever going to apply for eu citizenship (which is one of my biggest dreams), another eu language under my belt could hardly hurt. and then god knows all the articles and dictionaries that i use constantly (albeit poorly, looking up every other word). all in all, my life would b much enriched by improving my absolute pathetic german.
but, oh, how schwierig it is :-( i forgot what a bitch it was learning a foreign language.
hopefully, my expensive french etymological wörterbücher will incite me somewhat. just hope there's no problem with the Lieferung. i don't really feel like attempting to write the a mail auf Deutsch.
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[23 Oct 2004|06:14pm] |
so good to be back. xp crashed (granted, it's the first time ever in two years so there's that), i had to scamper about trying to find someplace to recover all my thesis files off the hard drive (since, of course, i'd only been saving on the hard drive - lesson learned). had to buy an external hard drive for the recovery but hey, i needed more space anyway and 180 Gb will give me a lot of room for medieval manuscript facsimiles porn.
all in all, it's not a bad thing after all : with a complete reinstallation of windows everything seems to be going faster.
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[11 Oct 2004|07:57pm] |
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yes, the electoral process works ... so far. i got my ballot in the mail today. it might even be counted. whoopee. democracy at work in bush's (not for long) america.
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[09 Oct 2004|08:37pm] |
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derrida's dead, american graduate students in mourning everywhere.
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[08 Oct 2004|07:58pm] |
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i guess none of my two or three readers would know somewhere on the internet where i could watch tonight's presidential debate (for free)??? i find it so bizarre that it's not being webcast.
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[08 Oct 2004|07:46pm] |
where is my fucking ballot?!?!?!?
i sent off my request three friggin' months ago and one of my friends in deutschland (a fellow texan) received hers last week. if i don't get it by next week, i'm making some pretty-pissed-off calls to the states.
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| salopards d'informaticiens |
[23 Sep 2004|02:13pm] |
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it really is amazing the scorn with which computer programmers treat non computer programmers. more on this later. needless to say, i'm not going to learn perl or install source code (i don't even know what the hell this means) in order to use a computational linguistics tool. thought they'd make the programs user-friendly for linguists that are not computer programmers. BOY WAS I WRONG.
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[18 Sep 2004|05:08am] |
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i haven't left the apartment in a month and a half. and i've still got a work of month to finish my much-delayed school stuff. and all the time, i'm dreaming of a nocturnal visit to the national gallery. success or no, i WILL take a breather in london after this is all done.
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[22 Aug 2004|07:03am] |
currently : working like mad on thesis, taking in a bollywood film per day (tues: koi mil gaya, wed: gunaam, thurs: fiza, fri: asoka, sat: main hoon na, sun: asambhav; tues: hum tum).
missing london.
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[11 Aug 2004|02:56am] |
Working on the thesis. Work Work Work. Good thing though. Otherwise I'd be tempted to splurge and go to London to see the Pet Shop Boys at a free concert in Trafalgar Square. They'll be performing a soundtrack they were commissioned to write for the Battleship Potemkin. Pet Shop Boys, Eisenstein, Trafalgar Square, Free, could anything be more beautiful? But no, i really can't get away. (Dammit)
P.S. - Surfing the net for Pet Shop Boys info. I didn't realise how old and, quite frankly, not terribly attractive, they've become. I thought gay men were supposed to age better. (sigh) (vainly worries about aging)
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[29 Jul 2004|12:56am] |
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i hate leaving people friends, lovers, fbies, etc. - i always feel like i should give people another chance. but when someone just keeps acting selfishly and en plus they don't seem to have any attirance for you, i mean what's the point. and finally being free of said person and having the courage to break is so refreshing.
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| LONDON!! |
[14 Jul 2004|03:45pm] |
the hubby and i just got back from a week in london (i know, we're not very adventurous or original when it comes to holidays). what a fascinating city london is, i never get tired of it (now's the time when i quote tha oh-too-quoted réplique of samuel johnson, "when a man is tired of london, he is tired of life".
the first few days were spent seeing friends who were in london for a few days only. friday we went to the bermondsey antiques market and then the national portrait gallery. saturday was spent entirely at the royal botanic gardens at kew, which i'd always heard of, but never imagined how incredibly beautiful they were - probably what i liked best of the entire visit.
sunday i went to my first anglican service, although my reasons were far from spiritual : the only way to see saint paul's without paying the outrageous 7 pounds is by attending a service. it was very beautiful even if the entire church is under restoration at the present moment. we went later in the day to the linley sambourne house, a most magnificent victorian house that was decorated and inhabited by a punch caricaturist. i do believe it was the first time i'd ever seen william morris wallpapers in their proper setting - the effect was amazing as is the house en général - unfortunately it's only open on saturdays and sundays, but the visit is given by an actrice portraying the sambourne's maid and is really rather humourous. later that night we learned that our ugc france ciné illimité cards work at ugc cinemas in london as well and went to go see a very beautiful and charming semi-documentary about camel herders in mongolia's gobi desert : the story of the weeping camel. i think i might even see it again when it comes out in france in octobre.
monday was spent in the charmante compagnie of an english friend who spends his time between oxford, london and paris (rien que ça). we 3 went to see the george III and the arts exhibit at the relatively new queen's gallery. very impressive, although i'm much less of an antiques fiend than my 2nd half, but i always enjoy the historical highlights. our last day was relatively calm as we were quite tired by then (manu kept saying "je suis rétamé!"). we did manage to go see apsley house (the duke of wellington's house at hyde park corner and spend a couple of hours at the national gallery. i also was FINALLY able to go to foyle's, which many consider to be london's finest bookstore. it is indeed impressive for the sheer scale, although superficial as i am, i was sadly disappointed by the déco. considering it's known as an independant bookstore, i was hoping for something a little more edgier or quaint, but as it is, it just reminds one of any old barnes and nobles/borders (which, by the horrible way, is just in front of foyle's). i shouldn't complain, though, as i found the most amazing affaire : the encyclopedia of lesbian and gay histories and cultures. it's a 2 volume set (volume 1 lesbian histories, volume 2 gay histories), but apparently they lost the first volume so they were selling the second volume at a discounted price of 20£ (35$). considering that the original set sells for 250$, i flew upon it and didn't let it out of my sight until i was at the till.
as usual, i had intended to see much much more (i missed the edward hopper exhibit dammit! and spencer house, we discovered monday, is only open on sundays). but we already spent twice more than we intended and, as it is, i'll need a week to recuperate from my "vacances".
happy 14 juillet to all.
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[06 Jul 2004|07:25pm] |
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the french, and french gays in particuliar, can be so false.
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[29 Jun 2004|08:40pm] |
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sent off my absentee vote request today. it's so much easier now, you can just download the form off the net (see www.overseasvote.com). gee, i wonder who i'll vote for. ;-)
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rouquinricain's journal