Friday, February 26, 2010

I've got a lifetime of knowledge

Things that are easy:
-coming up with strange party ideas
-talking about things in the abstract
-the basic level of research
-making up things
-abstaining from bread (it's surprisingly easy)
-eating healthily

Things that are easier:
-procrastination, especially if justified
-listening to the album "Justified"
-eating poorly
-shopping
-coming up with new careers that don't require as much work

Things that are hard:
-intense, genuine research
-writing a paper in a normal amount of time
-abstaining from chocolate or sugar
-sleeping when stressed
-keeping a good manicure
-sticking to a strict schedule

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Itinerary of places I have been

Airports I have flown in to/out of:
-Ontario (CA)
-Long Beach
-John Wayne
-LAX
-CDG
-Newark
-Seattle
-Minneapolis
-Boston
-Rome
-San Jose

US States I have been to:
-California
-Washington
-Arizona
-Nevada
-Utah
-Pennsylvania
-Maryland
-Massachusetts

Countries I have been to:
-United States
-France
-Italy
-Belgium

Places I have lived:
-California
-Utah
-France

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan's Seven Rules for Food:
  1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
  2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
  3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
  4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
  5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
  6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
  7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Lenten Sacrifice

Sacrifice for Lent:
-commercial bread

Ways to Abstain:
-pasta
-homemade bread
-tortillas (?)
-Just plain abstinence

Count Down to Conference:
-three days

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Homework

Books/Articles I've read so far this semester:
-La Venus d'Ille by Prosper Merimee
-Rene by Chateaubriand
-Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal
-La Morte Amoureuse by Maupassant
-Discours sur la science et les arts by Rousseau
-Confessions (chapters 1-4) by Rousseau
-Candide by Voltaire
-Lettres Philosophiques (1-6, 8-10, 18, 23, 25) by Voltaire
-A bunch of stuff about Sophie Calle (funnest photographer... ever?)
-The Uncanny by Freud
-Something about La Venus d'Ille written by Cropper
-Extracts from Classes laborieuses, classes dangereuses by Louis Chevalier
-Extracts from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
-Les Imaginaires Sociaux from a dictionary by Alain Courbin
-La "Monarchie d'argot" entre le mythe et l'histoire by Roger Chartier
-A bunch of stuff about Walker Evans and the FSA
-Pieces of Introduction a la litterature francaise by Tzvetan Todorov
-Pieces of La litterature fantastique by Denis Mellier
-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
-An article about reference books for research on French literature
-Lots of random newspaper articles
-A few articles on photography