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Whew, what a relief. I'm now almost ABD, pending the results of the oral exam. In case you were wondering, yes, I am going to post my writtens, but I've needed some time to reflect on them, add html tags where necessary, etc. I'll be posting them here using Drupal's collaborative book module. The questions I ended up answering are already there.

Old photos of my grandparents (on my father's side) from...the early 1950s? I'm not sure. My mom found the negatives when I was in college; they were medium-format and made great prints. I made small prints of these and some others she found and made my dad a book for them. As you can see, I got a little carried away with the Marshall's paints (cringe). I still have the negatives and, if I ever have access to a darkroom again, will make better prints and leave them black and white.

On angryalien.com, you can see several famous films abridged to 30-second animated clips featuring bunnies: The Exorcist, The Shining, Titanic, and Alien. I wonder if they've gotten any cease-and-desist letters yet for these unlawful derivative works? :)

Here I am with my cousins and my great-grandmother on my dad's side, whom we all called Mother Myrtle (we called our grandparents on my dad's side Daddy Worth and Mama Rene, as their names are Worth and Irene). I'm sure you can guess which moppet I am:

I'm enjoying these precious couple of days of downtime before the semester starts, just walking around all calm and dreamy. It will be good to start the semester, though, because for the past few weeks, I've been experiencing intense moneylust. It's completely socially irresponsible, and I need something to take my mind off it. I think about money all the time, about having lots and lots of it, and what I'd do with it. I've been initiating discussions with friends, asking them what they'd do with a lot of money. If I were wealthy, I'd have:

A townhouse in New York City, not sure where exactly, but I'd have celebrities for neighbors, and an estate somewhere in the south (outskirts of Atlanta or Nashville, or somewhere in North Carolina). In each home, I'd have a darkroom with the best equipment, a photography studio with lots of windows for beautiful light, a big office, a $100,000 kitchen with an island in the middle and one of those ovens that bakes your cheesecake and then chills it. I'd have a huge room with art all over the walls, like 27 Rue de Fleurus. Edited to add: I'd also have track lighting in most of the rooms. My homes would be decorated in a minimalist sparse, simple (I don't want to throw around such a loaded term, I've decided) style with a few hipster kitschy touches, like, say, a Cookie Monster or Smurf cookie jar in the kitchen.

A top-of-the-line hybrid car, with customizations like a high-end stereo and extra-comfortable seats

Every new, small, fast, high-res, multiple-gig-storage techie gadget. I'd have the best PDA, cell phone, digital camera, iPod, laptop, desktop, etc. And TiVo. And a Bose stereo.

Massages several times a week, and manicures and pedicures

A personal trainer, personal chef, and personal assistant

Unlimited credit at Sephora, Saks, Bloomingdale's, Tiffany & Co., Cartier, and Neiman-Marcus for when I'm in the South.

Yeah, I know, I'm in the wrong line of work for this lifestyle.

I noticed I have a Gmail invitation; email me if you want it! culturecat at gmail dot com.

UPDATE: They gave me five more invitations, yours for the asking. :)

UPDATE 11 September: I'm out of invitations and have closed comments on this post.

Well, I'm back. Not thrilled about it, but there it is. As always, I had a wonderful time at home; I miss hearing people say "billfold" instead of "wallet," "bluejeans" instead of "jeans." Sigh. Now I have to get ready for the beginning of the semester, but I'm not feeling like engaging in anything right now. I'm easing into it. For the moment, some of the pictures I scanned (more to come) -- you've seen my mom, now here are pictures of my dad from back in his Navy days, roughly age 18-21:

Via Palmer.

Last Cigarette: January 1, 2002, but I wish I could say I've never had one at all
Last Car Ride: from the airport, with 2 friends
Last Kiss: long time ago...maybe I could tell you if you hypnotized me.
Last Good Cry: around June 8, 2004, but for the record, I never find cries to be good. I guess catharsis is necessary, but I don't like it.
Last Library Book: big stack I checked out for prelims, lovely offerings such as Survey Research Methods by Floyd Fowler
Last book bought: Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company, for one dollar, used. It's got the dust jacket and everything -- great photos of Picasso, Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein, Leo Stein, etc.
Last Book Read: See above
Last Movie Seen in Theatres: The Bourne Supremacy
Last Movie Rented: Bride of Chucky, Stir of Echoes, Picture Perfect
Last Cuss Word Uttered:
Last Beverage Drank: Fresca
Last Food Consumed: Almond butter