A guilty pleasure that Brandon and I both share is watching bad movies, courtesy of MST3K and Rifftrax. I’m talking movies like Manos: The Hands of Fate, or Birdemic. One of the more recent offerings we watched was Kiss of the Tarantula, a 1976 movie about a young woman and her special arachnid friends. This… Continue reading B Movie Reflections: Women and Spiders
Category: Reflection
Taking Charge of My Schedule
I don’t know about anyone else out there is academia, but this semester has felt particularly busy to me so far. Even though I’m technically taking two classes instead of three, and am working on campus rather than driving to Newport News twice a week for my assistantship, I still feel like my days are… Continue reading Taking Charge of My Schedule
Imposter Syndrome and How to Ignore It (or at least not let it inhibit you)
A peculiar conundrum that often accompanies highly successful people is the fear that they do not deserve their achievement. They doubt their intellect or skills and believe that their success is a charade. They tell themselves that they’re really not that smart or talented, but that they’ve merely managed to fool everyone into thinking they… Continue reading Imposter Syndrome and How to Ignore It (or at least not let it inhibit you)
Ongoing Art Project: Colors of Summer
As we head into autumn, I thought I’d show you some highlights from the summer edition of my daily abstractions project. In some ways, summer has been the most challenging season for me to paint so far. After the rapid and dramatic transformations of the spring, with new leaves and flowers appearing practically every day,… Continue reading Ongoing Art Project: Colors of Summer
Life in Virginia: One Year Later
It was a little more than a year ago that Brandon and I left our jobs in Roswell to start a new life in Virginia. So has it been for us so far? It’s definitely been an eventful year. We’ve lived in two different places, with our most recent move happening in July. Brandon’s held… Continue reading Life in Virginia: One Year Later
A Space of One’s Own, Part Three
Last week I told you about the personal issues I worked through while getting a new desk. Today I’ll show you what the finished study looks like. The first thing I did was get the bookshelves set up. It took me several hours and three car trips, even after weeding out 1/3 of my books,… Continue reading A Space of One’s Own, Part Three
A Space of One’s Own, Part Two
Last week I started talking about our recent move to New Town, and the decision to turn one of the bedrooms into a study for myself. Today I’ll talk about the process of setting up that space, and the personal challenges I had to reconcile along the way. It all started when Brandon’s mother kindly… Continue reading A Space of One’s Own, Part Two
A Space of One’s Own, Part One
Brandon and I recently moved into a new place here in Williamsburg. While our old apartment at City Lofts had an unbeatable location in terms of convenience, being about a mile from campus and within walking distance of grocery stores and restaurants, it was a little small for our needs. Also, being primarily an undergraduate-populated… Continue reading A Space of One’s Own, Part One
Downsizing My Library
There’s a wonderful little essay by Walter Benjamin called “Unpacking My Library.” Scholars tend to cite The Arcades Project or “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” when it comes to Benjamin, but the library essay is another gem. Written in 1931, Benjamin’s essay basically concerns his life as a collector, and… Continue reading Downsizing My Library
A Maine (and New Hampshire and Vermont) Adventure
Brandon and I recently took a vacation up to New England to visit friends and family. It had been about two years since I’d last visited, so I was due for an excursion. As for Brandon, he’d never been to this region aside from a quick work trip to Connecticut, he’d never been to this… Continue reading A Maine (and New Hampshire and Vermont) Adventure