The Face of the Earth

So, I haven't actually fallen off the face of the earth. But I suck to intense degrees when it comes to updating this blog. What that really means, though, is when I update it, I have lots to write!

As of this moment, I have completed my first two years of my Ph.D. program. This has made me over-confident, it seems, because this Fall I am presenting at four conferences, publishing one book review, and taking my comps in my primary area (Literary Theory and Criticism). I am also teaching, and helping to organize a conference. Clearly, I have gone INSANE.

But I couldn't turn anything down!! I was sure I wasn't going to get into some of these conferences--apparently, I was wrong. So I am presenting at the New Voices Graduate Conference here in Atlanta (I'm also helping organize, but I was told that I would be shot if i didn't present this paper, so under penalty of death, I am presenting). I'm also presenting in Atlanta at SAMLA (the South Atlantic Modern Language Association). And the two I have to travel to are the Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the MAPACA (the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association) Conference in Philly. My papers concern the following topics: Ancient Roman Rhetoric, Pedagogy for Revising, Charmed (the TV series), and Punk Rock.

I do so very much love being an academic. =)

Also, I have a new pet. I think I'm going to name him Copernicus.



He's turning green more and more these days. Here's a slightly better photo.



He's already larger than when I first got him. And I've changed his terrarium a bit because he seemed to not like the skull too much. Here's what he looked like when he was mailed to me and I first put him in his terrarium.



As you can see, he has a new stick in his terrarium, which he likes to sit on (while turning green!), and he's getting to be a pretty big guy. His mouth was looking a little brown last night (brown spots are on it), so I held him in my hand and examined him to see if he was sick. And he stayed green while sitting in my hand! It was so cool.

And he's not sick, I don't think, although I'm going to clean his terrarium today to make sure his mouth doesn't get infected. What appears to be the problem is that he's so zealous about chasing his crickets that he tends to hit the glass with his snouth.

Here are the crickets he loves to eat:



The crickets live in their "cricket keeper" on one of my bookshelves for my comps (hence all the Hegel and Plato and whatnot). The crickets get little dishes of food and gel (the gel is their water--they're a little dumb, and will drown in actual water), and they hide in the black tubes. When I need to feed Copernicus (it sounds like a good name for him, doesn't it?) I pull out a black tube, and shake some crickets into the Cricket Shaker, where I cover them with vitamin and calcium dust.

And then dinner is served. Cool, eh? He's a complete glutton, too.

In other news, Jeff is moving to Indiana next week to start his Ph.D. program at PURDUE. Yes, PURDUE. How cool is that?? He's going to be continuing in Rhetoric and Composition, and that is certainly the place to do it. Although I sincerely believe that Purdue should look into relocating to say, ATLANTA. And while I am really happy that he's going to be going to Purdue, I am also very sad that he's going to be moving 10 hours away. We're working on a plan to take turns visiting each other every two weeks--that way, neither of us will go broke or fail out of our programs.

It's all still very surreal. It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that next Thursday, we will be driving to Indiana to move him into his new apartment. I keep trying not to think about that part too much. =)

And I think that brings us up to speed. Hopefully, more with be forthcoming. I'm going to make myself a note to update this blog more. We'll see how that turns out.