After a little heckling...

Woof, it's been a while, hasn't it. I have to stop doing this to myself.

Here's some news: No PhD for Meg next year. I'm trotting off into the world to see what I'm made of in a non-academic context. Last night I was at a party celebrating the recent graduation of two fellow MAers who are facing their first autumn without school in twenty straight years, and we all felt a little queasy about the prospect of kicking off these comforting blankets and groping for something new. (Wait, how did that bed metaphor sneak in there? I must be tired...) I don't know what next year will be, or where it will be, or what I'll do when I get there. Perhaps I'll have more time for blogging! Oh my! Also I may have to pawn all of my furniture to keep Tycho and I fed, but I'll be "living" - so they say, air quotes and all - so I hope it'll be worth the anxiety I'm feeling about it now. Another thing is that I can't bring myself to apply for any doctoral scholarships right now. I can't deny that this factor has played a major part in this quasi-decision. I'm going to apply for travel visas now, instead of for SSHRC grants!

Here's some other news: the latest lecture I've been putting together for my RA job is about the potato famine in nineteenth-Century Ireland, and while poking around for resources on the net I came across this disturbing little site. I mean... seriously? Cartoony perspectives of the famine narrated by a smiling, bouncy rubber ball? "Hey kids! Guess how many people died during the potato famine? Almost a million! Now let's play!" Ahhh!!! I don't even know where to begin! Then again, after a day of putting this presentation together, I was feeling a little .. well... overwhelmed by tragedy, and this site made me laugh sardonically - which still counts as laughing, right? But still... a bouncy rubber ball?? Really?

I am now two hundred pages into Ulysses! Only eight hundred more to go!!! And the best part is that I think I am more or less understanding more or less some of it... though as I read I have two reference books open around me. One is for Tycho to sleep on (wisdom by osmosis), the other is for consultation about every other sentence or so. I wish Jian Ghomeshi of CBC was still doing his Ulysses reading challenge on the air, but I've missed that by about a year. Now he's on to doing popstar interviews, INCLUDING interviews with famous-people-I-used-to-know. Well, there's only been one of those so far, but it was a good one - you can still download the podcast if you want to hear it! Just go here! her live performances are amazing. I knew Basia during my time at Western, though never well - she was a regular at CHRW while Jen and I were DJing there, and a fellow English student, and a generally adorable and friendly person who I would see at parties, though I can't really claim any connection to her now ... especially since she's become a sought-after musician! Go, Basia! I do remember once sitting on the ratty old couch in the CHRW office and talking to her about her plans to take the summer off and just focus on songwriting. That was maybe three years ago... and look what happened! Explosion! I hope she is the type to google herself so that she finds this (although by now she probably has staff to do that for her. Say hi to Basia for me, Staff!)

Speaking of great people, and also of Jen, guess who I talked to today from Africa! it was great to have some real-time Jen, all the way from the other side of the world. She's still busy saving people's vision and chasing the odd freakishly-large spider from her bed, but soon we'll have her back!

And finally, before I crash, an update on everyone's favourite little orange dude: Tycho has been patiently putting up with a serious diet plan these days. Same food, but a lot less of it. As long as I feed him at the same time every day - and it's impossible not to, because he starts campaigning well before the designated time - he doesn't seem to mind how MUCH I feed him. I've noticed that his middle section doesn't sway quite so much when he walks, so maybe it's having an effect. Look out for some tabloid-worthy Before and Afters soon. I've also been getting more and more courageous about letting him outside. When I first moved here, he was only allowed out on his leash. Then no leash, but me standing right next to him. Now? I open the kitchen door and let him scamper out while I do the dishes or something! Sometimes he pokes his head in and gives a little chirp, like, Are you coming? And whenever I go out, he runs up to me like he has some very important secret to tell me and he'll burst if he doesn't get to tell it in the next five seconds. The neighbours are amused. I noticed that they've asked what his name is - twice - without every having asked for mine. And I think it's wonderful!