Brushing a dead cat

No, it’s not as gross as it sounds.  Apparently that gray fuzzy thing that goes over the boom mike is called a dead cat.  And I was told to brush it so all the bristles stand out if I need to record something outside and it’s windy.

So . . . yeah.  I spent my evening learning about wireless receivers and Marantz sound recorders and boom mikes and XLR cables and dead cats.  Whooo.

And what is that thing called?  That black and white clappy board thing?  The strike board?  So you can sync up the audio and visual later?  Well we totally don’t have one of those.  So, yeah.  And for this weekend we have the same crappy little camera we had last weekend but at LEAST this time we have good recording equipment.  And since I’m on sound, that’s all I care about.

Viva le documentaria!

Been a while

Updates . . . where should I start?

I’m going to church on Sunday.  Don’t get excited, it’s for a project.  My crew will be taping two Episcopal services on Sunday, the 9 am and the 5 pm.  My classes are going well, in general, but my GOD there is a lot of work.  No matter, I’m having a good time.

My Hughes research for the conference is going well.  I downloaded a music notation program and put two of the four poems to a beat so that I could compare the rhythmic timing of the syllables.  So far, my theory is working out.

I just got home from seeing Burn After Reading, the new Coen Brothers film.  I thought it was great, though it bears a second viewing.  I want to put all the pieces together again without being surprised during the film.  Great ending, very meta (yeah, I’m THAT person).

The other blog hasn’t been updated in a little bit and I know that it’s partly due to my own lack of cooking lately.  Bum ankles make it hard to go grocery shopping and C is too busy to go.  That last bit isn’t even snarky—she’s always at work or in class or studying at home at a breakneck pace.  So the stress level is high here, but at least we’re being productive in one area.

I’m sure I have a funny story in my head somewhere, but I’m too damn tired to type it.

I can’t believe it

After a really fun night at G and K’s, I head home.  I park on the street because our parking lot is blocked off due to the fact that all the carports are being replaced with things that look like glorified bus stops.  This has been going on for almost 2 weeks, this construction.  I step from the street onto the grass to make my way through the buildings and to my door.  It’s not well lit.  I step in a hole and sprain my left ankle, mildly twist my right ankle, and fall down.  There are people sitting not 20 feet away from me on a porch.  I sit there for 10 minutes before I’m able to get up, gather my things, and hobble home.  There is some laughter, an exclamation of “holy shit!”  I hate people, I really do.

My ankle(s) hurt so much.  How much right do I have to bitch at our apartment complex for making us walk though poorly lit, dog shit ridden grass while their construction crews take their sweet time?  I don’t know.  I am in such a bad mood now.

Hork if you’re tired

So H evacuated Slidell and went north to Ruston.  I asked her how the process went, how her family’s doing, and how the cat, Mina, handled the evacuation.

Here is her story as told by H (and recreated as faithfully as possible by me):

Well, we had to board up both houses and we were trying to leave ahead of contra-flow.  But Mina had decided to hide in the depths of the house, you know, like she does when I really need her to be out.  And I realized I hadn’t seen her in hours and then I noticed the front door was open and I’m like “Oh my god, what if she got out.”  But I figured she was just hiding from noise and dogs and such.  So we went to my house because the renters didn’t do ANYTHING before leaving and, oh!  Did I tell you about the spiders?  So it’s late at night and we’re putting up a board and there’s a HUGE spider and I make Casey kill it by stomping on it but THEN there are like a gajillion spider babies exploding everywhere.  That’s when I say “screw this! We really have to get going like RIGHT NOW because of, um, contraflow!  That’s it!  Off we go!”

So we go back to the house and find Mina THANK GOD and pack her, the two dogs, and all the stuff into the car.  Also, I couldn’t find either of the cat carriers that I know are somewhere so I had to make one out of a box with tons of holes punched in it and tape.  So we put the box on top of all the stuff and Mina starts the pathetic “Oh god you hate me, I want to die” noises that she makes even when you pick her up so we don’t take her all that seriously.  After 30 minutes she stops scratching.  An hour later, I look back and her entire head is poking out of the box.  She had nommed one of the holes until it was wide enough for her head to poke through.  A few minutes after that I hear this weird noise, look back, and Mina has lugged her body through the nomming hole.  And now she insists on riding up front in someone’s lap, preferably whoever is driving.  So . . . yeah.

We FINALLY make it to Ruston and stop at my mom’s house.  And you know how during Katrina, even, Mina wouldn’t eat or anything on the trip?  Well, same thing this time.  And so we finally leave my mom’s house on our way to my grandmother’s and you know all those hills?  Well Mina freaks out and starts drooling all crazy and there’s like these clear threads coming out of her mouth and then it turns into bubbles and then I guess she’s trying to throw up from motion sickness but she hasn’t eaten so all this weird gooey shit keeps coming out until me, Casey, and the entire front of the car are covered in kitty hork and it’s just so bad.  Casey’s all like “Damn, I took a shower so I could be clean and non-smelly to meet your grandmother and now I’m covered in kitty goo, so . . .whatever.”

At this point, I was laughing too hard to hear any more story.  Because “kitty hork” is just too good at making me giggle.  Mina is fine, H is fine, the houses are fine.  And yes, it’s a sad story of a sick cat.  But it’s also funny as hell.

New semester

It has started. And so far it’s going smashingly. Three classes, though one doesn’t count. It’s the first part of the thesis block and basically just gives you time to do research. The other two are going really well. The first is Tools for Linguistic Description which gives us practice in extracting the relevant data from a large sample. The second is falling under the English in Texas project. The point of the class is that we produce a 5-10 minute documentary about, you guessed in, English in Texas. The class has been divided into film crews and we’re trying to figure out a focus.

Tonight we had our first film tutorial on equipment and it was intense. The only, ONLY drawback to this class is how late it goes. Every Wednesday night, 6-9. With the shuttles running the way they are, I didn’t even get to where I was parked until 9:50, and didn’t get home until 10:15. So it was a loooong night and I was starving by the time I rolled in.

But I’m still having fun.

New food blog is up!

Molly and I finally got off our asses and started our collaborative food blog.  Go check us out!!

Fixin’ to Eat