Oh, the *joys* of research.

Today, I've spent quite a lot of my free time dedicated to writing my Abstract Bibliography for my Master's class term paper. By this, I mean I take all of the sources, write 75 words deeming what they're basically trying to say, write their citation as it will be on the bibliography, and turn it in. Sooo easy, right?

Well, now it's not. I've been having this question of whether to include two certain sources in my bib. While the paper is basically a giant Rhetorical Analysis, these papers were quoted in at least 3 of my critical sources. My term paper is on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and specifically, dualism in the two. What I'm looking at is different sources that say what that dualism is. I have one that talks about the Double Brain Theory and one that talks about the nature/civilization duality, one that brings Neitzche's antithesis/synthesis into dualism...you get where I'm going.

Well, in at least 3/8 critical sources, they make quite a big deal about this psychologist dude named Frederic Myers and these two people with multiple personalities he reported on called Felida X and Louis V. Felida X was this one chick who had a dominant personality (1st p.) that would occasionally go into this other personality (2nd p.) Myers specifically states that 2nd p was "better" than 1st p because 1st p was melancholy and sickly, and 2nd p was "gay and lively, almost noisy" which I think is hilarious. Eventually, 2nd p became the dominant of Felida's personalities, only occasionally interrupted by 1st p. Her case can be found in Myers' book "Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death." The Louis V case was a little harder to find. It was published in 1886 in a book called "The Nineteenth Century, Vol 20" Do you know how many DIFFERENT, USELESS things you get when you type that into Google?! But alas, eventually, I found it. It was on Google Books. But I think citing Google Books in your MASTERS RESEARCH TERM PAPER WORTH 65% OF YOUR GRADE is a wee bit tacky, so I had to find this rare study from another place...30 minutes later, I found it (PDF) off of some random university's website.

SO ANYWAY.

I'm having trouble deciding whether they should go in my annotated bibliography since they're not critical studies of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but many critics reference them as the starting place for the duality of the story. I could possibly use them to prove the critics crazy or legit...but that's not REALLY my job: my job is to point out the critics weaknesses and strengths of their arguments.

Ermmm, maybe I should just include them anyway and ask my teacher if I can put them in there. I really won't even know until I write the paper, anyway.

Erm, yeah, and my basil still hasn't grown. Not that I'm obsessively checking. :P

Plants and Knits and Rants, OH MY!

Ah, the Blog family!

Okay...Blog neighbors-who-don't-say-hi-regularly. This is Blog-writer-who-doesn't-write-regularly. Which is why I'm not a super-famous blogger by now like Kristin from Going Country.

I wish I was really obsessive about writing a blog every day. Maybe then I could have that awesome false sense of accomplishment that sucks so many teenagers into contests of how many friends they have on Facebook. But, alas, I really don't have that much to say.

Erm, wrote my Reality Television paper this week. It was...fun. I mean, as fun as a paper can be when I don't get to bash researcher's ideas. That's always a little bit gratifying...to tell people they're wrong and such. Who cares if they have a PhD and an impressive CV? Well, I'm on year 6 of a Bachelor's degree, PUNKS! lol.

And on the work note, I still crazy love tutoring kids. They are the best (best kids, not best writers...obviously). Monday was kinda tough...I had and watched some really depressing appointments...only to be saved by a nervous girl who thought she was a horrible writer...I would have turned in her paper to my senior-level profs and got an A. So I'm going to start a count: Kids Who Come In Complaining They Suck At Writing But Are Acutally Freakin' Awesome: I think it's up to 7 now. Well, if it's not, we'll start at 7.

On the plant note (as if this blog wasn't already full of incredibly useless information) my first basil plant (and when I mean plant, I mean one seedling that grew maybe a couple of centimeters) died, only to then be replaced by another little seedling that grew to the same hieght and then promptly STOPPED GROWING no matter what I've done to it. I learned about 2 weeks ago that basil isn't supposed to be watered everyday, like I was doing, so I've watered it only every 2 days and it's still crazy short. Like, hasn't grown in over 3 weeks. It's not brown or discolored in any way...just a midget. :( On the other hand, my cilantro has still grown the best, they're almost to the point of being able to see them above the rim of the pot, and my parsley has also stopped growing somewhere in the middle of the two. Apparently, once the temperature stops dipping below 50 at night, I won't be able to wrangle in any of my plants, but for now, I feel like a Plant Nurse in the ICU...with no experience. *cringe* Sorry you have to listen to my ranting...Hubby has no patience with plant talk and won't listen.

In other news, one of my BFFs is moving 2,000 miles away! To Washington! Why would anyone want to live THERE?! Okay, okay, so her husband got a really well-paying job...but...WASHINGTON IS NOT TEXAS! NO FAIR. I won't be able to bring her my knitting and ask her to figure out what's wrong with it!

And on that note, I finally learned how to make the heel of a sock! And then I promptly screwed up the first actual sock I've tried to knit--the calf part is 2 inches too long. Now, I could make some crack about how Literature majors shouldn't be trusted with numbers, but I'll let you make your own joke. Actually, I read the directions wrong and didn't realize until it was too freakin' late. "Alicia," you say, "Why not just match the mistake on the other sock?" Well, my yarn ball says explicitly that it makes TWO SOCKS and I'm using their pattern to make darn sure I get TWO SOCKS out of that one ball of yarn. And therefore, I'm really hoping they allowed me an extra 4 inches of sock yarn. Pwease pwease pwease. There's literally no way to tell until I knit the whole things out. Epic reading fail on my part.

Mkay, I'm done, I swear.

Much e-love.

Alicia

Updates!

Today I applied for graduation. I tried applying online on Friday night, but it wouldn't let me, so I dragged into the academic advising office this morning and under the "Why are you here" question, I wrote: "WHY CAN'T I GRADUATE?! :( "

Bottom line, they said the internet lied and I can graduate. So I paid the fee (What the hell?! A FEE so I can take Master's classes and pay MORE?!) And then I bought my cap and gown. No invitations or frames--I can get those cheaper. I'm also ordering my graduation cords for both NSLS and Sigma Tau Delta so I can look all smart on the day I walk.

I also trying to think of the clever wording for my invitations. :) Since I am graduating with a degree in Lit, I want it to be all in verse.

Today I went grocery shopping and, while I was bringing in the last of the bags, I left the bag containing the carrots on the floor and Kitty acted really, really weird. Thank goodness the carrots were in a bag, because the cat proceeded to rub her face all up on the carrots. It was really funny, but kinda gross. And then the Kitty proceeded to DEMAND I pet her for the next hour.

On a good note, I saved $27 with my Kroger Plus Card. LOL.

And now, when I'm supposed to be writing my paper for Advanced Writing that's due next week, I'm checking emails, buying grad supplies, and watching The Office.

Also, I've been tutoring for about a month now, and I completely LOVE it.

And, in plant news, my Basil plants hate me but my Cilantro plants are thriving.