Bit of Ivory

So, let’s see. Anything fun and interesting going on in my life?

I had a doctor’s appointment t’other day to determine if my lack-of-concentration thing is depression-related. I filled out one of those depression questionnaire thingies, and the doctor said I’m borderline, and there’s no real way to tell if I’m depressed or not except to give me medication and see if it helps. So, in true Dr. House style, I’m now taking a low dosage of Prozac. Joy. No real difference noticed so far. Hmm. At least the first 30 days were free.

At the same appointment, the doc ordered a blood test for thyroid and cholesterol. Thryoid checks out okay. Cholesterol, on the other hand, is a bit high. Diet and exercise for me. Double joy. It’s a good reason for me to get my butt into gear, though.

Today I got a letter from my credit union saying that an ATM — somewhere — had been hacked and debit card information may have been stolen, so they’re issuing me a new debit card. This SUX for numerous reasons, not the least of which is having to memorize a new number and a new PIN. Bah. I don’t use ATMs all that often– maybe twice a year at most– so it’s just my bad luck, I guess.

School-wise, we’ve finished up Edgeworth and have now moved on to Sir Walter “Why Use 2 Words When You Can Use 87?” Scott’s The Heart of Mid-Lothian. I am enduring, albiet impatiently. My family can attest to my loud complaining. However, as a reward for getting through this book, we’re reading Persuasion next. Whee!

In the meantime, we have research conferences to talk over our proposed semester paper topics. I have very little idea of what I want to write about, unless I can sell the idea of a paper on how Tolkien is actually a Romantic (it’s my PhD application justficiation as for why I wrote my thesis on Tolkien when I’m most interested in Romanticism) to my teacher. Do you think that’ll work? No? Well, there’s the fallback of absent parenthood in Austen and Edgeworth. Not that it hasn’t been done to death, I bet.

Speaking of school, it’s the dreaded BYUSA election time again. Once again, campus has been invaded by cookie-cutter candidates and their friends, playing “Celebrate Good Times” over and over again– unless they’re playing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”– holding loud-colored signs, and trying to get the student body to give a care. It’s all so meaningless, worse than student-body officers in high school, ’cause at least they planned dances and stuff. Around here, the BYUSA president and vice president have practically zero authority to do anything, and their campaign promises always end up being out of their jurisdiction. Sheesh. No wonder election turnout is low. I refuse to vote on two principles, the first being that I’m not going to be here next year *crosses fingers*, and the second that they all bug me, and make me walk out of my way to avoid them. So there.

I am a Very Bad Harry Potter Fan in that I didn’t buy the GoF DVD until today. In my defense, I didn’t feel good yesterday. Still, though. I bought PoA the first day it came out, and I don’t even really like PoA.

Oh, and speaking of Harry Potter, I heard back about those presentations and Lumos. They’ve got our Defense of Ginny panel scheduled as a poster session, which I understand is something akin to a junior high science fair. I don’t know why they think that our idea would work in that format, but we’re trying to be creative. My individual presentation on ideology and the Sorting Hat was put on a waiting list, which means they liked it, but not that much. So we’ll see if I actually get to present that paper or not. If not, I’ll still write it and submit it to a pop-culture conference, which will look better on my C.V. anyway.

How’s that for a real update, dad?