Budapest Toilet

I'm fascinated by toilets of other regions. Truly, this may be my favorite thing about travel. Toilets are more or less the same, right, but there are slight differences in toilets wherever you go. Like when you go and help your sister move back to the States from Budapest, this is the toilet you use.

To clarify, that isn't water you see reflecting - it's the "continental shelf," the porcelin bottom of the the bowl, which is only a few inches below where your ass sits. A strong spray of water whooshes everything down (very efficiently, I might add), but to put it frankly, you poop on the porcelin.

Fascinating!

With this toilet post, I announce my return to blogging. I'm back, but not for long because I'm off to Minnesota soon to deal with the still ongoing legal proceedings which you understand I cannot discuss.

But you should know I finished my second chapter and am making revisions on it as you read, ready to jump into the next chapter as soon as I clean up my argument regarding American Girl. I'm also working on a project for ATHE with Lisa that is VERY EXCITING. More on that later.

All this to say to my (one or two) dear readers, hang in there. I promise to post, especially once I'm finally settled in LA again!

The Intrepid Grad Student Labors Under the Watchful Eye of Percy Grey

Still writing. In a moment of procrastination, of which there are many, I decided to show the world my new do.

Write Write Write!

Percy, Josefina, and Addy say keep writing, Karen! I'm pleased to report that I'm now on page 44 of 61, which means a few long days and I can send this draft off to the powers that be. Today has proven to be a slow day, just a few paragraphs down and a lot of notes to go through to write the next few pages. I've sort of given up on eloquence and now just write the first thing that comes to mind, assuring myself that I can spruce up the grammar, organization, and all the rest when the revisions come around. Given that I haven't even opened the word tracking comments from Sonja, my diligent advisor, for the El Vez chapter that I received months ago, it's safe to say that the American Girl revisions will be a long time coming.

Joanne, thanks for the comments on my new do. I'll post a picture just as soon as Percy can figure out how to work the camera...

New Do, New Mood

Good Lord, it's the end of August! I've been way behind in blogging, and I chock it up to the blah mood I've been living with the past few weeks. Don't know what was going on, but nothing seemed interesting or exciting or worthy of mention. It's a phase, I know, and I think I'm on my way out of it, thanks in no small part to MY NEW SHORT HAIRDO! I finally got fed up enough with the long hair to chop it all off. So now I'm short and spiky, and I even blonded it up a bit. Thanks to Lewis, the coolest barber at Rudy's, who, after slicing off all that length in one quick clip of the scissors, gave me a great razor cut for the low low price of $26 Thank you punk rock haircut place!

In other news, I'm off to Yosemite this weekend for a little Labor Day adventure. I plan to see Sequoias and other natural wonders and attend a little street fair, maybe even toss some dried cow dung, as is the local custom, I'm told. Then two days later I hop on over to BudaPest to help my sister move back to the US. Do you know what that means? That I have to finish my American Girl chapter this week. I have 50 pages right now, and have reworked my way through page 30, so it's time to step it up and crank it out. I'll accept all the good diss writing energy the world can muster - send it my way!

Oh, and my jackass neighbor who likes to talk loudly on his cell phone just outside my window, calling all his friends in succession so that I get to hear the same story over and over, is having some problem with some DVDs and is "about to hop on a fucking flight to Taipei myself, dude." Godspeed, good sir.

Buckethead

Tam_LA02.jpg,
originally uploaded by misskarenjean.

Hi. Playing with Flickr.

Here's Ellie, AKA Buckethead, future heavy metal guitarist.