cool thoughts on the present situation

first ! christine, brooke, and i started our history blog, cool thoughts. the name is based on a document brooke and i saw at the benjamin franklin underground museum called cool thoughts on the present situation of our public affairs (authored by one benjamin franklin, alias mrs. silence dogood), and the blog is woefully located on tumblr because the name "cool thoughts" is literally taken everywhere else, and is mostly parked domains or blogs of like, "confucious say..." shit and doors quotes. alas ! anyway, the purpose of the blog is for us to post anything we are reading about or interested in throughout history, in any format, whenever we want. if you'd like to contribute something (anything !), please send it to coolthoughts@nervous.org.



one of my main goals here is to get comfortable talking about things i know about< without the crippling fear of being wrong or considered "not smart enough"- this is a problem many people have, i'm sure, but women specifically are made to feel intellectually inferior or like they have to apologize for or soften their opinions. it may not seem like i have a big problem with this if you know me, but it's something i struggle with every day- especially in regard to my lack of formal education.

what else ! i've been taking an ill-advised break from reading for the past few days because my brain needed a break, which means i'm going to have to really and sincerely bust ass all weekend to get everything done. i have a research proposal, a few essays, and a rough draft for my genocide paper due. i'm actually waiting for my professor's feedback for the rough draft- she's really awesome but can be a little slow with stuff over e-mail, and our class meeting is canceled this week. anyway, i've been mostly farting around watching simpsons dvds, and it's been... heavenly.


i only have seasons 5-9

i also ended up breaking down and buying cataclysm, the next world of warcraft expansion. i am waffling about whether or not i want to play- like, i just don't have time for wow anymore with school, and i have mixed feelings about the new 10 man raiding structure. like, i love the dudes (and two women) i play with, but i often found myself being the 11th man when 10 mans were forming up previously. i'm not the most amazing player, but i was better than some other people who were chosen, and that was because i had a lot of personality conflicts with some shitty random norms in the guild (like a handful of idiot privilege denyin' dudes who wanted to be able to call women bitches and stuff). luckily those dudes were sort of phased out or alienated (by me !) so there's a small chance things will be different now, but who knows? yesterday was a patch day, and the world was ripped apart and orgrimmar was redesigned, and everything honestly looks pretty cool. i also saved the name astralweeks for a goblin shaman. sigh. i really like this fucking game, who am i kidding.



what else ! oh ! nick and sandi are coming today ! sandi told me not to eat anything in anticipation of a family dinner? which is exciting and also easy to do because i'm only at work for 3 hours today and i forgot to bring lunch and also i have zero groceries that aren't thanksgiving ingredients (actually i have some trader joe's burritos i guess). i'm excited to see them because it's been figuratively forever. also i get to bro down with christina, who just got back from san francisco.

my plans for the break? cooking, hanging out, thanksgiving with jeanne and mike, reading, writing, agonizing, procrastinating, simpsons, history, internet. i gotta get some work done in my last 30 minutes at work, though, so.. ttyl. happy thanksgiving !

teenage cremation

hayyyyyy. so like ! yesterday i got my bill for my summer class from penn ($3300 for one 12 week summer class !), so i went to submit my tuition reimbursement stuff online and decided to check my class schedule- apparently, the class i registered for was canceled. thanks for telling me or indicating in any way that it had been canceled, guys ! so i registered for two online classes because i think i'm too chicken to go directly back to school.



these are the classes i registered for:

History of the United States to 1865
An analysis of American society from the founding of the Colonies to the outbreak of Civil War. Topics to be emphasized include: the interaction among European, Indian and African cultures in the New World; the shaping of the distinctive American character; the creation of an independent nation-state; and the crisis of the Union. Special attention will be given to biographical profiles of the men and women who helped shape American history during this period.

Elementary German I
Introduction to the basic elements of spoken and written German, with emphasis placed on the acquisition of communication skills. Readings and discussion focus on cultural differences.

since i plan to major in history i wanted to jump right in and take a bunch of history classes, but the online class options are limited. also, i haven't finished my fall application yet (for penn summer classes they write you a note like 'do u want 2 go here check yes or no' and if you check 'yes' you can register, but you have to apply for fall) and don't really have a "plan" as far as what classes i'll take. i assume i need a language and i already know german so this should be easy. or annoying, because i've heard online classes are annoying.


i tried to find a picture of a person in a mortarboard at a computer but came up emptyhanded

like, it's one thing to be jammed into a classroom with a bunch of idiots, but having to like.. post on a forum with them seems like it would be much worse, since people are a lot more brave on the internet. maybe since LPS focuses on working professionals and people over 21, the class will be full of like... grown-ups? but grown-ups are also stupid a lot of the time. please reassure me.

last night we raided, which was okay. we're kind of on auto pilot in ICC25. the new people in the guild are mostly okay, but two of them are dating and they are constantly flirting with each other and it's super fucking annoying. like, internet flirting in a way that indicates to me that they've probably never hung out in real life. their break-up is going to be hilarious. anyway, i can't wait until cataclysm comes out and i can just do ten mans with 9 people i like.


in the new expansion, i can also make a goblin dude !

today is a jeans day at work in honor of the phillies game tonight (i'm not going- they gave out free tickets this year but only for staff members. usually they let everyone have 4 tickets so you can bring friends !) and i don't own jeans so i'm wearing leggings and a skirt and a cruddy t-shirt. basically how i dress in real life, but i wore a t-shirt with the original neck instead of a gaping hole where i cut the neck off. FASHION.

i guess i'm going to go do a million works.