Note to self:

List of organizations and things I’m doing this semester:

1. 9 credit hours of classes (including Foundations of Criminal Justice, Teaching Sociology, Classical Sociological Theory)
2. Teaching Assistant for Race and Ethnicity
3. Research Assistant for research on Bangalashi women
4. Graduate and Professional Student Council sociology representative
5. Secretary/Treasurer of GA United (GAU, the grad assistant union)
6. Illinois Education Association (IEA, the state-wide union GAU is affliated with) Higher Education Council member
7. Organizing a legislative platform for GAU and local lobbying efforts
8. Finishing my thesis on adult female video game players (seriously, if I haven’t talked to you yet about this and you want to do an interview, leave me a message)

…whoops.

Also, I slipped a disc in my back about two weeks ago. Which was fun. Physical therapy two times a week and prescription drugs. Go me.

What else is going on? Not much. What about you guys?

Too much travel.

Mostly so I can keep it straight myself, here’s a list of places I’m going to be through August:

June 30-July 7: Washington, DC
July 30-August 4: Boston, MA (with a trip on the 31st to MIT)
August 29-31: Seattle, WA

And I think I’m missing one in there somewhere.

It is the end of the semester. I have one of my seminar papers done, and am in good standing with finishing the other. Unfortunately, I sort of have to hold off on it, as it’s a quantitative paper, and we’re not learning the techniques I’m using until the last week of class. I can pick it up fast, but statistics and (quantitative) research methods are really something I have to be taught, I can’t just learn it by reading about them.

What else?

My gender and sport class is still torture. Earlier this month we actually made the instructor cry. So, instead of paying any attention at all, I’ve been writing bits and pieces in class. Maybe I’ll get around to typing it all up.

So, that’s really all I’ve got; except for the fact I’m on campus and really just… have no motivation to get work done. Not a whole lot of work to get done.

127.0.0.1 is the loneliest number.

I really would like this shirt, because it makes me laugh. However, I feel it would join my collection of geektastic shirts that alternately get me weird looks or people stopping me on campus pointing and jumping up and down and going “O.M.G. WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?” (This would actually be fairly cool if these random people didn’t actually spell out ‘O.M.G.’) The Han Shot First shirt is especially good for this reaction.

Anyway!

I’ve been insanely busy this week, between meetings and classes and my assistantship. But somehow I managed to write a 3500 word essay on video games, the perception of games as less, the violence/sexuality debate, and the deviance of adult female gamers. And how they aren’t really deviant, but society refuses to wake up and smell the next-gen consoles. I might post it at some point, if people are interested. It’s not anything really publishable, but it’s a memo for my thesis. For those who don’t actually do qualitative research, memoing is basically something you do throughout every step of the process. You write theory, you write observations, you write reactions, you write basically everything up. I love writing, but sometimes it’s enough to make me remember why positivism is so popular. (Not that I’m not doing a pretty heavy quantoid project this semester — ordered probit and trend analysis, anyone? — but…)

Oh, and I did a crapload of work for the union. Yep. Here at SIU we’ve got a graduate assistant union and just finished bargaining our first contract, but there’s still a lot of work to do to strengthen the union and truly create an environment of solidarity and just working conditions. I’m actually going on a retreat this weekend to plan and organize. I’m looking forward to it, it’ll be fun (and hey, it’s paid for, including free booze and food) but I’m also not sure I want to spend three days in close contact like that. Oh well! Too late to back out now, I’m a union officer (head of the stewards council), so it’s sort of part and parcel of leadership.

I’m sure you all don’t want to hear me babble about that.

In other, er, virtual news, the Devil May Cry 4 demo was fun but… same-old same-old. Rock Band drums are difficult; I just can’t get that foot pedal down. I’m fine with the pads but whenever I have to hit the pedal, whoops, there goes all my rhythm.

The Mighty Boosh is hilarious.