post cards from academia
Apr. 19th, 2011 06:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tropiaveraAbout a week ago I decided to do 12/12 for April, despite being chained to the desk because it's two weeks from the end of the semester, because I like doing 12/12s and it's a fun (note: it is not fun) look at the terrible life of a graduate student, and why I have been only sporadically around for the last ever.
1 @ 8:00
This is how 90% of my days begin, though god willing they do not normally begin at that hour. I'm pretty sure I had about five hours of sleep from the night previous, if I slept at all, which I'm not actually positive I did anymore. Working clockwise from the left, you have various administrative tools, Bath & Body Works lotion and Advil bottle that I always keep on hand, day planner and journal of to-do lists, Shades of Grey and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, volume 4 of Nodame Cantabile and a vegetarian cookbook from the library, my school notebook and pencil case, the hat I'm currently knitting, and an empty juice glass. This is a pretty accurate picture of what my desk normally looks like, except normally I have a soda there instead of juice.
2 @ 11:19
I had to make a really scary phone call to a potential employer, and that is the entirely meaningless nonsense I wrote for the duration of the call. Also: close-up on the ribbing of the hat, my day planner, notes for a paper, and the fact that I moved on to drinking water out of a wine glass.
3 @ 11:45
Time to go running! I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but that shirt is actually massively too large by virtue of the fact that it isn't actually mine. I grabbed the wrong one, arranged this shot, and then got dressed before noticing. It even says the wrong thing (marathon versus half marathon) to be mine. That aside, this is basically what I wear every time to go running. The blue arm band is so that I can bring my keys and driver's license without having to hold them or affix them to my shoes.
4 @ 13:00
That was six miles in a little over an hour, if you're curious, and why wouldn't you be. I usually have a glass or two of orange juice immediately after running, I like it much better than water for that. The other glass is soy milk and whey protein powder, which I've started having on days when I exercise. What this picture doesn't adequately capture is the fact that no matter the amount of powder you add, there will always be some percentage of it that doesn't mix and remains in little globules in the milk. It's less gross than it sounds. And a multivitamin!
5 @ 13:50
Time to read some business, this time on the couch. Gender, Conflict, and Development, Half the Sky, and The Women, Gender, and Development Reader were the scheduled program for the afternoon. The first and last of that list are great; the middle one is a mess and I spend like every week in class critiquing it. Also, skinny jeans! And board games!
6 @ 18:30
Time to check the mail! It didn't quite make it into the shot, but there's a label on the slot door declaring that NICOLE FRANSOMETHING lives there, despite the fact that a) no she doesn't, and b) she was not the previous tenant, either. What's your deal, Nicole? That envelope is garbage, but there was also a package slip, which was exciting, because...
7 @ 18:45
It was a box from Amazon with the spice bottles I ordered! Now I can do something with all of those bags rather than just...what they are currently doing. It's turmeric, curry powder, cayenne pepper, and garam masala, meaning that I sneezed approximately eight million times while decanting. Also pictured: coffee cups, Captain Haddock supervising, and the final disc of season two of The Wire, which is still unwatched.
8 @ 19:00
It usually takes me a while to become hungry after running, and more so the longer I've run (completely the opposite of swimming, where if I could I would start eating while still in the shower). Here we can observe the complete lack of quick or easy snacks to make, which was unfortunate because by this point I was ravenous.
9 @ 19:10
Okay, yes, you caught me: the reason I was super hungry was because I took a nap between doing my reading and getting up to get the mail. If you don't sleep in a total cocoon I don't understand your lifestyle.
10 @ 20:30
In any case, this is what I eventually ended up making. Chickpeas with tomatoes, onions, and a hellton of spices. It was pretty good, even if cooking with chickpeas is a huge pain in the ass since I don't have a pressure cooker and they have to soak for aaaageeeeees, and I don't really plan out meals.
11 @ 21:00
Dinner having concluded, this is dessert and break time, by which I mean ice cream and Tumblr. Please note that I have repiled the books to make room for more written notes, an important architectural change for the desk, and the still-in-use to do list.
12 @ 22:00
And a final shot of the rest of the night/morning/week. Please note the NEON PINK sticky notes, which are my favorite. This is actually what the desk looks like most of the time, I would say, unless it's been cleared off for dinner. With bonus glam breakfast mug! Because I'm having coffee at night. Because my life is terrible.
But not anymore, because I finished that project and the semester is almost over, heeeeey.
This concludes your photographic tour through my life, please tip the hostess.
1 @ 8:00
This is how 90% of my days begin, though god willing they do not normally begin at that hour. I'm pretty sure I had about five hours of sleep from the night previous, if I slept at all, which I'm not actually positive I did anymore. Working clockwise from the left, you have various administrative tools, Bath & Body Works lotion and Advil bottle that I always keep on hand, day planner and journal of to-do lists, Shades of Grey and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, volume 4 of Nodame Cantabile and a vegetarian cookbook from the library, my school notebook and pencil case, the hat I'm currently knitting, and an empty juice glass. This is a pretty accurate picture of what my desk normally looks like, except normally I have a soda there instead of juice.
2 @ 11:19
I had to make a really scary phone call to a potential employer, and that is the entirely meaningless nonsense I wrote for the duration of the call. Also: close-up on the ribbing of the hat, my day planner, notes for a paper, and the fact that I moved on to drinking water out of a wine glass.
3 @ 11:45
Time to go running! I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but that shirt is actually massively too large by virtue of the fact that it isn't actually mine. I grabbed the wrong one, arranged this shot, and then got dressed before noticing. It even says the wrong thing (marathon versus half marathon) to be mine. That aside, this is basically what I wear every time to go running. The blue arm band is so that I can bring my keys and driver's license without having to hold them or affix them to my shoes.
4 @ 13:00
That was six miles in a little over an hour, if you're curious, and why wouldn't you be. I usually have a glass or two of orange juice immediately after running, I like it much better than water for that. The other glass is soy milk and whey protein powder, which I've started having on days when I exercise. What this picture doesn't adequately capture is the fact that no matter the amount of powder you add, there will always be some percentage of it that doesn't mix and remains in little globules in the milk. It's less gross than it sounds. And a multivitamin!
5 @ 13:50
Time to read some business, this time on the couch. Gender, Conflict, and Development, Half the Sky, and The Women, Gender, and Development Reader were the scheduled program for the afternoon. The first and last of that list are great; the middle one is a mess and I spend like every week in class critiquing it. Also, skinny jeans! And board games!
6 @ 18:30
Time to check the mail! It didn't quite make it into the shot, but there's a label on the slot door declaring that NICOLE FRANSOMETHING lives there, despite the fact that a) no she doesn't, and b) she was not the previous tenant, either. What's your deal, Nicole? That envelope is garbage, but there was also a package slip, which was exciting, because...
7 @ 18:45
It was a box from Amazon with the spice bottles I ordered! Now I can do something with all of those bags rather than just...what they are currently doing. It's turmeric, curry powder, cayenne pepper, and garam masala, meaning that I sneezed approximately eight million times while decanting. Also pictured: coffee cups, Captain Haddock supervising, and the final disc of season two of The Wire, which is still unwatched.
8 @ 19:00
It usually takes me a while to become hungry after running, and more so the longer I've run (completely the opposite of swimming, where if I could I would start eating while still in the shower). Here we can observe the complete lack of quick or easy snacks to make, which was unfortunate because by this point I was ravenous.
9 @ 19:10
Okay, yes, you caught me: the reason I was super hungry was because I took a nap between doing my reading and getting up to get the mail. If you don't sleep in a total cocoon I don't understand your lifestyle.
10 @ 20:30
In any case, this is what I eventually ended up making. Chickpeas with tomatoes, onions, and a hellton of spices. It was pretty good, even if cooking with chickpeas is a huge pain in the ass since I don't have a pressure cooker and they have to soak for aaaageeeeees, and I don't really plan out meals.
11 @ 21:00
Dinner having concluded, this is dessert and break time, by which I mean ice cream and Tumblr. Please note that I have repiled the books to make room for more written notes, an important architectural change for the desk, and the still-in-use to do list.
12 @ 22:00
And a final shot of the rest of the night/morning/week. Please note the NEON PINK sticky notes, which are my favorite. This is actually what the desk looks like most of the time, I would say, unless it's been cleared off for dinner. With bonus glam breakfast mug! Because I'm having coffee at night. Because my life is terrible.
But not anymore, because I finished that project and the semester is almost over, heeeeey.
This concludes your photographic tour through my life, please tip the hostess.