Random Rant

Hi everyone. I've been busy (I had a great trip to San Diego, and I hope to write about it someday), but I just saw something from Conan O'Brien that I needed to address. It's one of those meme images where he says the following: "Over the weekend Lebron James got married.... He was set to marry his high school sweetheart in Cleveland, but then he got a better offer from a girl in Miami."
Not funny.
First of all, he did marry his high school sweetheart (we'll put aside the fact that this was 9 years and one child later). Secondly, he married her in San Diego (why?). Finally, it's just old and tired. People have tried to move past this whole thing and it's just not funny. Now if Conan did not say this, I will say that whoever attributed this to him did this in poor taste. If Conan did say it, then there's nothing else to say. It's just not cool.

The Fundraising Continues...

Hi everyone. I'm back again to talk about my fundraiser to help me get to San Diego in a couple of weeks (yikes!), but I have something new: An interview I did with Jen of Think Jen, Think. In the interview, I talk about my studies and why I think looking at onomatopoeics is worthwhile. I especially love the fact that the image she used of me is the picture I took with Peter S. Beagle (he wrote The Last Unicorn, a book I love and one of my favorite film adaptations of all time). I recommend that people check out the interview and consider contributing $5 to my fundraiser. If you cannot donate (or online donations aren't your thing), you can spread the word to others. You can even send donations offline if you aren't comfortable with the whole online thing (contact me through the GoFundMe webpage).

I'll try to keep people posted about the fundraiser and my success. I'll even post a follow-up after it's all over. Thank you for your support.

Trying to Get to San Diego

Hi everyone. I am doing a fundraiser to help me get to San Deigo. I have been given the opportunity to present a paper at the Comics Arts Conference, which is part of the San Deigo Comic-con. For those of you who remember, I am a PhD student who is studying comics. As time has gone on, I have honed in my focus on sound effects in Japanese manga and American comics. This presentation is, essentially, an opportunity to try out my dissertation at a huge event. I am going to do whatever it takes to get there, and I've set up a fundraiser webpage to ask for money. Any help that I can get will be greatly appreciated, so check out the link below.

Most people know that being a graduate student is costly; I've got a four-year-old to take care of and a whole family to support on a meager salary. I am going to this conference because this is important to my career; here is a chance for me to meet people who can help me get to the next level in my research. This is also my first time going to Comic-con and, I'm not going to lie, I'd really love to go at least once. I had to give up two other conferences this year because of the need to do my candidacy exams, so the paper is incorporating resources from my exams so that my research is doing double-duty to get me ready for this. If you have even a dollar that you can donate, that would be very helpful. Please do what you can.

Also, if you happen to be attending Comic-con, look for me at my panel. It should be on the website eventually (the link is on the fundraising site). If you're curious, GoFundMe is kind of like Kickstarter for individuals. Let's see how successful I can be. I'll keep you posted as things come in.

My Fundraising Page

Just Some Thoughts...

Hi everyone. It's been awhile, and since I am usually a bit verbose or wordy with my posts, I'll try to keep it short. It's really late and I should be asleep, but that has been hard to come by of late. I am currently getting through my reading list for my candidacy exams, and I'm battling self-doubt. When the fall semester begins, I'll be in my sixth year of graduate school (wow!). It's been a wild ride, but I have to keep myself focused in order to finish my PhD.

As for D, she's is such a vibrant, smart, and tall little girl. I'll have to find the time to put up a picture of her, because she's grown so much over the years. She just finished preschool and she will be in kindergarten in the fall. Thinking about her caused me to think of something that may make me stand out as a bit weird. Most people (parents, mostly) tell people who are having their first child to treasure the moments with them because they grow up so fast. Some people lament missing big milestones in the child's life. I didn't, and I still don't. Yes, I missed a milestone or two with D when she was a baby because I was in school, but it didn't bother me all that much because everything, and I mean everything that I've experienced with her has made me excited for what will happen next in her life. I'm very excited to see her grow up, but I'm not as hung up on when she was a baby and all that. I think this may make me a bit different from other moms, but that's just how it is for me. I don't really miss those days of when she was a baby. I'm just looking ahead & looking forward to seeing what she will become. I think it's weird for me simply because I desperately want to hold onto the things from my past (despite my inability to do so), so I'm not sure what that says about me. I think it's just a different way of seeing things; I didn't really get hung up on my wedding because I thought that the rest of the marriage was far more important and interesting, and I don't get sentimental about when my little girl was born.

Now if I can carry that attitude into my studies, I'd probably be in great shape.

I miss writing this blog, and as much as I'd love to resume my former posting pace, that's probably not going to happen. I say I'll try to post more regularly, but we see how that goes. Let's just keep it casual and see how it goes.

Oh, before I forget: My paper proposal was accepted for the Comic Arts Conference at San Diego's Comic-con! I'm going to have a chance to try out my dissertation topic in front of an audience, so I'm really excited about this. I gave up two conferences this year in order to focus on my studies, so I am not passing this up. However, my big hurdle is that I've got to raise funds in order to go. If I do opt for an online fundraising site, I'll link to it here as well.

I'm going to stop writing before I get into updates about relatives I'd rather forget about. If you are familiar with what I've said in the past, you have an idea to whom I am referring.

...and what is the deal with the spam? I just had to clear out ~200 posts that were just nonsense. And they need to stop saying that I should link my posts to Google+. Are they crazy?! I leave names out on purpose so that people won't find me. Wow.