when all else fails, an itemised list

[raven]

The first thing I remembered when waking up this morning: we're out of coffee. In retrospect, I should've known it might not shape up to be a good day.

...sigh. Anyway. That sort of day, so this sort of post. Things that are indeed good about life:

1. The fact that the Wednesday market stall that sells the industrial quantities of sugar is back, and the drawer next to my bed is actually, literally overflowing with sugar. Mmm, liquorice. Mmm, dark chocolate. Mmm, biscuts. Mmm, regression to primary school. You get the picture.

2. Nobody has actually ever had "Final Honours School" written in the appropriate box on a death certificate. (Also, I have never accidentally certified my own death. This is not the case for her, my mum reports.)

3. Philosophy is, indeed, an entirely useless degree. However, in my case it is masked by the wonderful, wonderful degree title of "Philosophy, Politics and Economics", despite my having done twelve weeks of economics in my first year and thrown a textbook down the attic stairs.

4. Very few graduates actually starve.

(However, am going to echo slasheuse in saying hi, my name is Raven, and the only way I could know less about my degree subject is if I were actually dead.)

5. Oxford is a stunningly beautiful city, and springtime cloaks it in blossoms and fluffy clouds and sunshine. Also enormous gaggles of American tourists and random bagpipers on Cornmarket, but you can't have everything in life.

6. For reasons I am not sure I can satisfactorily explain, everything in our freezer tastes of cider. I don't think this is a good or bad thing, exactly, but it certainly adds an interesting note to a stir-fry.

7. The now well-commented-on and well-documented Open-Source Boob Project, otherwise known as skeeviness-onna-stick. It's not a good thing, of course, but the comments and discussion have kept me amused for a couple of days, and I had a very nice chat with emily_shore today, in which I got all my ranting out of my system.

(I hadn't written about it here because, well, my life is becoming this xkcd at the moment. Seriously. It actually happened word-for-word a couple of days ago. I leave it as an exercise to the gentle reader to guess which side of the exchange I was on.)

(Yes more parenthesis what of it. Um. Why has there been such an outbreak of stupidity on the internet lately, anyway? Seems everywhere I go, someone is saying something grossly offensive about women, about queer people, or about us filthy ethnics. After many, many years - literally - I may, after Finals, finally bring myself to make a post about my experience, yes, me, me-as-person, not me-as-PPEist, of White Privilege and How I Don't Have It. This is entirely far too long a digression, but what the hell. I always resist this sort of post, because I'm a strong disbeliever in anecdotal evidence - citation needed, oh my god, and "it happened to me once" is not a reliable third-party source - but it seems the level of stupidity on the issue is reaching critical mass, at least for me. For fuck's sake, world. Stop being racist. It's Not Good.)

8. If all goes well, it's actually only about a month until I see the_acrobat again. I have had to sort of push back how excited I am about this to the back of my head, but, er. Much, much excitement.

9. I have awesome feminist friends.

10. I have lots of work to do.

No, that isn't a good thing. I am going to do it now watch me go yes.

Comments

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

Do you have the full Indelicates album?

Would you like it?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I would love it, thank you! I have a lot of the songs in their pre-album versions; I would really like to hear it properly.

Why everything in the freezer tastes of cider

[luminometrice.livejournal.com]

It is because a bottle of cider exploded in it, quite recently. This has nothing to do with me!

Re: Why everything in the freezer tastes of cider

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

...you're kidding. Oh, dear, oh dear.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Nobody has actually ever had "Final Honours School" written in the appropriate box on a death certificate.

There is a wonderful quote from the nineteenth century that goes something like this: "The Final Honour School and the Day of Judgment are two separate examinations, not one."

... I had a very nice chat with emily_shore today, in which I got all my ranting out of my system.

I thought that I did too, but I've developed more since. Apparently I have a neverending source of feminist rants bubbling within me. Ah well, it's not the worst thing to have.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

"The Final Honour School and the Day of Judgment are two separate examinations, not one."

That really is a most excellent quote :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh. Oh dear. I may have to print that one out and stick it on the wall.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

hi, my name is Raven, and the only way I could know less about my degree subject is if I were actually dead.

Can I join this support group too? *siiiiiighs*

I would be really interested to read your thoughts on White Privilege and you-as-person--but survive your Finals first! Please.

Re: 8: JEALOUS.

(PS, I still owe you Remix feedback. I promise, I do know which one you are! :D)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You do know about your degree subject. See, you can use words and everything! :P

I shall survive my Finals - yes, yes I shall - and then, indeed, such a post will be forthcoming.

Re: 8 - you SHOULD BE HERE OMG. STUPID OCEAN. It is 1.41am and I am a little hysterical. BUT STILL.

(Heeeee! I'm enormously gleeful about this.)

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

the only way I could know less about my degree subject is if I were actually dead.
Count me in, too. Yesterday I accidentally signed up for a graduate seminar at HU and in a couple of weeks, have to talk coherently about Adorno, among others, IN GERMAN. Aaaauuuuughh...
8. Leigh, you should BE HERE.

[http://users.livejournal.com/selina_/]

hi, my name is Raven, and the only way I could know less about my degree subject is if I were actually dead

I desperately need to join something like this. You get to the point that you've crammed your brain so full that when people ask me what my degree is I do this face: 0_____o

[amchau.livejournal.com]

(Is it wrong that I'm dying to know how your mother managed to accidentally certify her own death?)

Re. 4. Aww, dammit. I was hoping to be a starving poet in an attic!
(I'm on the way. I'm a hungry student in an attic conversion.)

Good luck with the work.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*laughs* She was in A&E, and just wrote her name in the wrong box. There's a M*A*S*H episode with the same plot.

Thank you! Hopefully starving will not be in order. Hopefully.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

It does sound familiar, yes. It seems worryingly easy to do.

Oh, I'm sure you won't starve. I've just decided to plan to, so that if it happens, I can just go, 'oh, this is what I meant to do'.

[mrkgnao.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure to what it's extent an Oxford Myth but aren't there statutes for what happens should somebody die mid-final?

Mrkgnao: bringing finalists cheer.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*siiiigsh* If it's not "immediate posthumous granting of first-class honours" I will be very upset.

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

Damn Open Source Boob Project.
I was trying to find a video that we had in sex ed in sixth or seventh grade, which is about five minutes of various people singing, "Mon corps, c'est mon corps, ce n'est pas le tien. Tu as ton corps, alors laisses-moi le mien!" Basically, "My body is my body. It isn't yours. You have your body, so leave mine alone." The weird educational videos I want *never* turn up on YouTube. Sob, sob.
I would dismiss the project as dumb, badly informed, a mistake or whatever and not think much of it beyond periodic ranting, but the way that guy keeps trying to defend himself, with stupid, stupid patronizing arguments and so on, makes me want to stab him in the eye with a fork.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

That is adorable. We should sing that at people. And THEN we should stab them in the eye with a fork. *g*

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

We could translate it into LOTS of languages and spread the glory to the whole world! WITH FORKS.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

"Mon corps, c'est mon corps, ce n'est pas le tien. Tu as ton corps, alors laisses-moi le mien!"
that sounds like the BEST THING EVER.

Then, I have had four hours sleep, so possibly my judgements on the BEST THINGS EVER are a little skewed.

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

Well, people sang it on the playground for months afterward, and SIX MILLION (two hundred) ACADIAN PRETEENS CAN'T BE WRONG... (or can they?)

[lizzip.livejournal.com]

I just came across this (http://synecdochic.livejournal.com/213567.html) rather fantastic treatment (as far as I can tell - I've only skimmed so far, but it came highly recommended by jedusor) of the OSBP thing, that's a lot more about being sex-positive and what that means than about the OSBP itself.

(Also: hi, I know Shim in meatspace and chiasmata via the Intertubez and I only bite if asked nicely.)

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

I love the internet - I was reading out snippets from that post to a tolerent loneraven last night. *g*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh! I thought it sounded familiar. :) That's how we got onto sex-positivity.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Aha, synecdochic! Thank you for that; I should have a decent read of it when I'm not a crazy finalist. (I was having bits of it read out to me last night!)

And, hello. Nice to meet you. There shall be no biting on my part either, hurrah. :)