Elisabeth Writes

I’m not pleased with the new WordPress dashboard. So I’m moving back to Blogger.

*Update* Blogger is so much easier to use! Sorry, WordPress.

In this post I would normally write about the 30 or so holidays the Internet made up for the month of May. I will post them daily on Twitter, because I think that’s where they belong. (Just so you know, May 1st is Law, Lei or May Day which is fun to say). But it really is a strange day today and I have to finish writing my three final papers. I might even miss 30 Rock to do it, so you can see how dedicated I am to my work. And I’m a ball of nerves waiting to hear about an internship that I really want. Is that my retroactive excuse for my general blog laziness? Yes, yes it is.

Also, I’m going to try to incorporate “Let’s build a space ship and find our own planet, I mean it” in at least one conversation this week.

A few times this week I thought “this would make a good blog post” or that I should write some poetry, since April is National Poetry Month. Then I realized I can condense whatever poem or thought or inside joke I had to 140 characters and send it to Twitter. This is the official Twitter is Awesome post for my blog. Seriously, Twitter is awesome.

**************************************

Music meme taken/adapted from Tara’s blog.

“The rules are simple: Hit shuffle on your iPod, then answer each question by hitting next. No cheating!”

Q: What does next year have in store for you?
A: I’m Still Talking to You – China Forbes

Q: What does your love life look like next year?
A: Everything I want to be – Save Ferris

Q: What do you say when life gets hard?
A: Hole in my Head – The Dixie Chicks

Q: Song that reminds you of good times?
A: That’s So You – The Rocket Summer

Q: What do you think when you get up in the morning?
A: Consider Yourself – Oliver!

Q: What song will you dance to at your wedding?
A: Credo in un Dio crudel (I believe in a cruel God) from Verdi’s Otello

Q: Song that reminds you of your first kiss?
A: All I Want is You - Barry Louis Polisar

Q: Your favorite saying?
A: I’m Sticking With You – The Velvet Underground

Q: Favorite place?
A: Voulez-vous – Mamma Mia

Q: Most Missed Memory?
A: Goodbye Mr A – The Hoosiers

Q: What song describes your best friend?
A: No Good Deed - Wicked

Q: Where would you go on a first date?
A: Partis Trop Tôt – Amel Bent. No idea, but I would get there on time.

Q: What song describes yourself?
A: Not the One – The Donnas

Q: What is the thing you like doing most?
A: Skies So Blue – The Rocket Summer

Q: The song that best describes the President?
A: A Well Respected Man – The Kinks

Q: The song that best describes the next President?
A: Popular - Wicked

Q: Where will you be in 10 years?
A: Sea of Love – Cat Power (I really have nothing on my computer except the Juno soundtrack and a lot of Broadway musicals.)

Q: Your love life right now?
A: I’m not that Girl – Wicked

Q: What is your state of mind like at the moment?
A: Under Attack – Mamma Mia

Q: How will you die?
A: Take a Chance on Me – Mamma Mia

My weekend usually begins around 11 am on Thursdays. This weekend I plan to write two rough drafts, a grant proposal, and look for a few more internships. Then on Saturday I’m going to get on a plane and fly to Utah to see both of my adorable nephews. One of them is at the age where even the slightest movement inspires “ohmygosh he’s so cute!!” The other is at the age where he still does cute things, but he’s also super fun and you can dress him up in funny hats, which is exactly what I’m going to do if I ever babysit him. He also likes silly songs (and who doesn’t) so he’s a good listener for me to test out my own songs. Once I started singing to him a line that went “You and Me and the Aegean Sea” and my sister thought I said DNC. So now I’m planning a longer song about Howard Dean and me and my nephew and all our adventures. We’re going to Tiny Town! And then we’re going to the Nixon museum! And then we’re going to Washington D.C. and take back the White House YEA-AAH!!!

Speaking of silly songs, I’m finally into ABBA.

It was inevitable, once I got into ABBA covers.

Two hundred years ago a young woman from a wealthy Scottish family married newly appointed British ambassador Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin. Shortly after their wedding the two set off to the heart of the Ottoman Empire. The journey, which would take them from Istanbul to Athens to France, would eventually bring countless treasures from ancient Greece to London. The young bride was Mary Nisbet, the subject of Susan Nagel’s biography Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin. This book is a rich and fascinating biography of a powerful woman with an infamous tie to nineteenth century art history. The name Elgin is the eponym for a collection of marbles in the British Museum and in this book Nagel recounts the events of the taking of 2,000 year old Greek sculptures from the perspective and letters of Lady Elgin.

Nagel’s book fleshes out the life of this extraordinary ambassadress who could be an intellectual peer of Dolley Madison and Abigail Adams. Many of the storied events in Lady Elgin’s life are described in Nagel’s well executed writing. When Mary was twenty-two years old she oversaw the delivery of vials of the smallpox vaccine to the Persian Gulf, Baghdad and India. She became a celebrity in both Europe and Asia and was credited for saving many lives through her unofficial medical diplomacy. She broke cultural barriers by disguising herself as a man to enter into ceremonies at the Turkish court.

Nagel successfully integrates the life of this complex woman with the well known accounts of how treasures of ancient Athens made their way into the British Museum. After returning to England Lord Elgin began pursuing a divorce from Lady Elgin, not because she had been having an affair, but because she refused to have more children. Nagel praises this as just one of her progressive stances in the early history of women’s rights. When the two divorced the loss of his wife’s wealth forced Lord Elgin to sell his collection to the trustees to the British Museum. Mistress of the Elgin Marbles presents the story of a notable woman, and enriches the history of one of the most controversial collections of art in world history.

-The UK’s hottest new fitness shoe is called the Fit Flop. It helps you exercise while wearing flip flops because, according to the saleslady, “it makes you walk funny.” $50 dollars for some weird shoes that might not do anything? What a deal!

-30 Rock is way better than The Office. To clarify, I love them both.

-What group I will be in for the next two semesters for my school’s alternative to a master’s thesis. It is called The Reason I Might Not Be Blogging After September.

-I should not randomly apply an unknown powder to my face in the middle of a poorly lit Bath & Body Works. Especially with my glasses on. It will be the last time I ever use bronzer. I looked like a first to second degree burn victim.

-Which 30 Rock Character Are You?

More on 30 Rock. Created by BuddyTV

Since all the cool kids are doing it, I’m going to write my own “I love” post.

I love…my family. They’re pretty great, and they like me too, even though they’ve read my blog. I have a mom that has always been patient with me, a dad that makes me laugh, three sisters to look up to, two cute nephews, and two little brothers who let me play their video games and have life size photos of them at my wedding if I’m married before they get back from Washington in two years.

I love…typewriters and the sound of typing. I want to have my own typewriter, but for now I’ll settle for the sound my own computer makes as I type. “Yay! I sound so productive” I think to myself. And I do.

I love…the voices on National Public Radio. I listen to “Morning Edition” as I drive to school. I listen to “All Things Considered” when I drive home. I never miss “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” and I usually catch the “This American Life” podcast, because it never seems to air here. Every voice is unique. Every voice is familiar. Carl Kasell’s voice is how I sometimes read my textbooks. Any affirmations I need are spoken by Steve Inskeep (STEVE-INSKI). “You’re doing great! You’ll pass this exam! And I’m Melissa Block!” The voice of Terry Gross is just auditory comfort food. And then there’s Ira Glass. I love his voice in an unhealthy way. I want to take his voice to a remote cabin in the woods and break its ankles so it won’t run away and keep it there until it realizes that it loves me to. And that’s where that stops (that combined with my last post=scare away everyone).

I love…animals. I’m not a crazy animal rights person, I don’t think they should be allowed to vote or anything, but I like them. I don’t believe in animals in circuses. I believe in humane animal treatment. I believe this freerice.com imitator should be a lot easier so more animals can be helped.

I love…reading about the Elgin/Parthenon marbles. I love going to museums. I love when people compliment my hair. I love overcoats. I love Sam Gamgee. I love a good scarf. I love finding a good book and having time to read for fun. I love reading about ethics and policy and fundraising techniques. I love television. I love cross stitching. I love collecting interesting print ads and putting them in a notebook. I love writing in my journal and I love getting pretty journals as presents. I love giving presents. I love crossing everything off my to-do list. I love most every dog and most every person I met in France.

What do you love? 

If you’re new, the story starts here.

Or you’re from here, having chosen Path B.

*Edit-Even I think my ending is way sadder than it should have been.*

Continue Reading »

Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? It was a children’s book where if you picked one path in the story you found the pirate’s treasure, but if you picked the other, you GOT EATEN BY A LION. TOO BAD. They were ridiculous and they were awesome. On Friday morning I will be posting the ending to one of the story lines in the Choose Your Own Blogventure. I will post the link to the first story to get started, but hide the rest of the story after the jump. I think this will be an interesting collaboration from a lot of different bloggers. I hope you choose my end of the story, because it’s going to be terrifically violent. Or whatever I’m in the mood for. Probably terrific violence.

***********

Dear Internet,

I switched to WordPress from Blogger around the end of last year and it had been going smoothly for awhile. Recently, when I edit a post after publishing, the spaces disappear and they end up like the Answers post. I’ve added < p > and < li > and whatever else I could remember from ninth grade computer class, but that hasn’t solved what I’ve been calling post squishing. Whoever has any advice on this will definitely be considered for a Long Squirrel Run Blogging Award…of Excellence.

Sincerely,

Tired of the Squishing in Texas

*UPDATE* All fixed!

************

That is all. I’m working on getting a summer internship. *Fingers crossed*

Happy One Week Until 30 Rock Thursday, Interweb!