There are no words

Ordinarily I reserve the right to be a curmudgeon on Valentine's Day. This trumps any holiday.

The fourth school shooting this week and the most lethal. Why?

Is the "school shooter" phenomenon spreading virally i.e. one incident sets off the next and the next (think Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point)?

If this bozo (who by now has been identified as a former student of NIU, now at Illinois Champaign-Urbana) felt the need to exterminate himself, why kill people he didn't know? Why? None of them did a damn thing to him. What irritates me most is that shooters like these take the coward's way out, taking no responsibility for their actions.

Incidents like these weigh heavily on me because I would like to return to school and eventually end up as a professor. Will I need to always be on my guard in case a student, disgruntled by the lack of an "A," comes to my office with a weapon? Will I need to carry one myself? Will I have to lock my classroom doors once I begin teaching a class? Will we all need to swipe our ID badges to gain access to buildings and classrooms? Will I need to be schooled in psychological profiling to identify students in need? It is mind boggling. I am not an advocate of having more weapons because that really won't solve the problem. In nearly every school shooting as of late, the attacks were a surprise, none of them were previously suspected by school officials, security officers, or the shooters' friends. Even if a member of the class had a gun, a high powered weapon can spew dozens of bullets in just a few seconds, enough to kill or severely injure many people before that class member could procure his/her weapon.

There is no easy answer.

May the family members of the victims find peace and solace in one another. God bless.

Ravelry?

So I'd been hearing about this Ravelry site. And then there was an article in the new issue of Interweave Knits magazine (pretty much my most favorite knitting rag, ever - I even caught my boss snooping through my knitting bag looking for it) that had some shots of Eunny Jang's page. At least I think it's hers. So I went to check this site out.

And holy crap. From what little I can see of the site it is awesome. So awesome that there's a waiting list of almost 7,000 people waiting to join (!!!!!!!).

Which includes me now, so I must be patient. I would go knit something but I must go to bed. I'll read my magazine instead. Stupid work that requires me to sleep so I can function in the morning.

I guess this is an honorary Darwin Award

While the whole episode is unfortunate, and the man is hospitalized, he got frostbite on the wrong parts of his anatomy to qualify for a true Darwin.

Student loses fingers, toes after passing out in alley
Did I mention that it was about minus 9 degrees at 6am this morning?

I had a dream last night

I dreamt I was chased by all of my books and the ones that I haven't finished were in the lead!!!!

I guess this is a sign that I have too many unfinished (and perhaps I shouldn't buy anymore) or maybe I shouldn't read Walt Whitman before bed.

Oh, and there's a new addition to the "current" updates - I tend to play the same album over and over, days at a time sometimes. Thought I'd share.

Current book-in-progress: Well, since I don't have enough brains to finish anything I'm reading the Northanger Abbey chapter from The Historical Austen and I almost tried to start Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds and Joyce's Ulysses; what is wrong with me?
Current knitted item: blue socks! One sock is looking suspiciously more finished.
Current movie obsession: Northanger Abbey (2007 ITV adaptation); I finished Ratatouille - OK but didn't hold my attention quite like Monsters, Inc. did
Current iTunes loop: Sara Bareilles "Little Voice"

KTC? Anyone?

So, does anyone know what happened to the "Knitting the Classics" blog? Here on Blogger? I just pulled up the the URL one day and it was gone.

Methinks I'm losing my mind

People are crazy. Therefore they drive me nuts.

And they do stupid things. Therefore they piss me off.

I need to visit one of my subordinate chapters because there is some bad ju-ju that can only be fixed by a series of face to face meetings. Email and IM only do so much.

I am really starting to miss regular television. Too much reality TV. So thank you to the studios for finally putting together a reasonable contract for the writers. On the other hand, I've been making great use of my Netflix account.

I've been diagnosed with chronic tendinitis in one ankle. This means it hurts all the time especially when I would like to exercise or take ballet class. Problematic also in that I really, really need to not gain any more weight and make some progress on getting back in shape.

I have the mid-February blahs. Must be Valentine's day soon.

I've finished a number of books. I've also started more than I've finished. Sounds about right.

Current book-in-progress: I'm about halfway through Bloom's The Western Canon; also on the burner is Cancer Ward, The Millenium Problems (because for some reason I've become obsessed with math theory - I'm sure it will pass), The Shakespeare Wars, Candy Girl, The Historical Austen, and Searching for Jane Austen (because Northanger Abbey is the February BNBC book for "Literature by Women") and there are probably more but I forget
Current knitted item: blue socks (i'm not feeling up to another Eeyore even though I really need to get them finished)
Current movie obsession: Northanger Abbey (2007 ITV adaptation); I'm also working on seeing as many Oscar nominated films as possible before the show this month (not going terribly well)

Addendum

I spent 40 minutes on hold with the pharmacy to check on a refill. 40 minutes!!!!!!!

Then I got pissed and hung up.

Rediculous-ness

It is incredibly ironic in that I have to double my workload just to decrease my workload. I'm training two RAs to take over some of my research responsibilities so I can actually get stuff accomplished (like consenting patients, very important). So I have to spend twice as much time on each task just to get them trained....strange. Maybe we should hire people who actually have research epidemiology backgrounds, ne pas?

We'll skip over the whole new year thing for now.

Current book-in-progress: Middlemarch (STILL!!!!!), also The Name of the Rose and Cancer Ward
Current knitted item: blue socks
Current movie obsession: Numb3rs seasons 1 and 3 (season 2 is on order)

First lines

Some first lines are very well known, i.e.

"It is a truth universally acknowledge that young man in posession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife." - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

"Call me Ishmael." - Moby Dick, Herman Melville

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." - Mrs. Dalloway (duh), Virginia Woolf

And so on.

I'd never ran across this one:

"On top of everything, the cancer wing was Number 13." - Cancer Ward, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

Apologies if I mucked up any quotes; the only one I checked was from Cancer Ward.

Current book-in-progress: Middlemarch (still, I recently heard this described as a soap opera and I agree; however, characters have yet to come back from the dead - played by a completely different actor)
Current knitted item: Guess I'm back to blue socks
Current movie obsession: The Muppet Show season 2!!!! Oh yeah baby!

If I went crazy no one would blame me.

And if you do, I'll kick your butt. I mean it, I'll be crazy.

Insurance adjusters (particularly the one I'm dealing with) are scum. This one also happens to be stupid. And selectively vision-challenged. And rude. And not particularly interested in maintaining good relations with clients. AAA is going to get an earful.

I'm about to be screwed 110 different ways over this car accident (and also, by extension, my parents as well because they are nice people who try to help out thier kids). I love it. I get plowed into at a red light and I'm the one who's going to take it up the rear, if you get my drift.

IRB is officially pissing me off. Usually it's only informal irritation.

I watched some movies this weekend because that's all I could concentrate on. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix released so yay. Watched a 1982 production of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon starring Jennifer Penny and Anthony Dowell (now Sir Anthony). Manon is not generally a ballet that I like, there's far too much exposition between the major points of action, but the redeeming quality of this performance is to watch Anthony Dowell dance; he has the most beautiful ballet line, Royal Ballet trained all the way, and such beautiful control in the adagio. Unfortunately, he's been retired for the last 20 years, so I have to watch on DVD. Sigh. I also slogged through The Squid and the Whale which is a short movie, but absolutely excruciating in the way that the film is so truthful. Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels are excellent and the actors playing the kids are very good as well. A well-made movie.

Current book-in-progress: Middlemarch
Current knitted item: Christmas sock #2 is mostly done
Current movie obsession: Harry Potter #5

STRESS!!!!!!

Anymore these days, when I get really stressed out it all goes to my stomach. It gets upset, doesn't want to digest anything, etc. etc. The worst part is that it will growl for food then pretend there's no room for food because of all the acid reflux. Prevacid is wonderful.

I'm stressed because we're starting a new clinical trial Monday. And I have to consent every admit to both units because the trial is at the unit level, but the patients have to consent so we can access their medical record. And I have to keep all the product stocked on both units. And answer all the questions. And do all the ICU unit surveillance (which really ought to be done by the medical staff). And do whatever random crap the boss asks for. Sigh. It really stinks because there are three RAs and I feel like everything gets dumped on me because the other two have a tendency to mess stuff up (which brings up the other question of why they're still working for us, but don't get me started). The clinical trial really is a good thing because we're trying to do good things for patients but it is very labor intensive. All my labor. No one else's.

And...I'm stressed because I got rear-ended two days ago, right when we were finishing the inservices for the clinical trial. If you haven't heard this story, truth can be stranger than fiction. The guy who rear-ended me was driving a big, old pickup, so lots of damage to my car, minimal damage to his, and he plowed into me at a red light. I couldn't even accelerate to get out of the way. The cop was going to cite him and let him go until I pointed out the guy had been driving about 20mph in a 40mph zone without headlights before he hit me (this was about 6pm, so it was dark out). So the cop asked me to wait in my car and went to talk to him again. Then another cop showed up and they gave the guy a sobriety test. Then an ambulance showed up and took the guy to the hospital (I was thinking, "Damn, that guy got wasted pretty fast").

This is when it starts getting really weird.

I realized that both cops left in the ambulance with the two paramedics. WTF? Then this other woman got out of the front seat of the second squad car - she had witnessed the guy side-swiping a vehicle up the road and the cops brought her down to my accident to identify the offending vehicle. So the cops left us there at the scene of an accident. By ourselves. After about 5 minutes a third cop showed up to sort us out. Then he realized that my ID, registration, and insurance had gone off to the hospital with my responding officer and the guy's paperwork was left in the squad car (brilliant). So I got sent on my way (1 hour late for my shift at the bookstore) with assurances that my paperwork would be returned to me shortly.

Ha.

At 9:30pm I had to call dispatch and remind them to send my identification (I mean, what the hell was going on?). So my responding officer showed up right before we closed. Turns out the guy who hit me had a stroke while the cops were administering the sobriety test - holy crap. When I pointed out that he had left two women alone at an accident scene with two empty squad cars (one unlocked and running), he was completely dismissive of my concerns that something could have happened - we had adequate warmth and he didn't think it was neccessary to tell us both officers were leaving and another squad car was on the way. So long story short, I got really pissed off and compained to his watch commander. Now, Sgt. Clarahan was understanding of my concerns, which mostly centered around his having abandonded the victim and witness of an accident scene with no information whatsoever and then being rude when compained to; so we worked that out without having to go up the food chain.

So...gah! My car, the new car I've only had for maybe six months (that we got a really great deal on), has about $3000 damage. Luckily, none to the frame. I'll let the insurance companies duke it out.

Current book-in-progress: I finished Why We Read What We Read so just Middlemarch and Idylls of the King
Current knitted item: I went back to the blue sock because I don't have to concentrate on it (I turned the heel last night).
Current movie obsession: Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead

Hi, my name is...

...and I might have an addiction to books.

Employee Appreciation Days is here at the bookstore and I bought a ton of books. Nevermind that it's Christmas - I bought gifts, too, so I'm not a total book hog. I'd been coveting The Knitter's Book of Yarn so that went in the bag as well as a couple of other knitting books (Son of Stitch 'n Bitch, Sensual Knits, and The Best of Interweave Knits); also bought The Pillars of the Earth in a non-Oprah format, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, Ian McEwan's Atonement, Raintree County (thanks to Ilana for bringing that one to my attention), the 80th anniversary edition of The House at Pooh Corner, and Artist to Artist (a book that collects samples of art from children's book illustrators - and a letter from each artist - explaning their art to children, but I think it's good for adults, too; besides, the proceeds benefit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art).

Oh, and presents. My nieces are spoiled.

I might have a problem.

Current book-in-progress: I'm almost done with Why We Read What We Read, still working on Middlemarch
Current knitted item: Christmas stocking
Current movie obsession: Angels in America is so awesome