Today is your lucky day. I am about to make you privy to very rare and valuable information. Namely:
Nom de Plume's Surefire Way to Get the Bus to Stop Right in Front of You: Three Easy Steps
1) Standing on the curb. Your position on the curb relative to other people doesn't matter, but you have to be in the front (see step three).
2) Be the first person to signal for the bus. Or, if someone else signals before you can get to it, signal again forcefully and confidently. Channel the kid in class who knew they knew the answer, but wasn't the one waving their hand around thinking "Pick me pick me pick me!"
3) Dress attractively. This pretty much cinches the deal. Work attire works fine; we're not necessarily talking clubbing attire here, just something that makes you look good and feel powerful. It also helps to be twenty years younger than everyone else at the bus stop, if you can manage that.
If you can pull all this off, I guarantee the bus will stop in front of you. Now go forth and enjoy those good seats without having to run around people to get them.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
After two weeks of work I've finished the project that I was hired to do over the course of six weeks. Last summer this most certainly is not. But, never fear, I've still got plenty to do digitizing old study guides. It's still a lot of JSTOR searching but not a whole lot of pressure to make tons of progress.
In other news, tonight is Dad's last night in Paris. *sob* We're celebrating/mourning by going out to a restaurant Crazy Mr. F(Ph?) recommended last time. Yum!
In other news, tonight is Dad's last night in Paris. *sob* We're celebrating/mourning by going out to a restaurant Crazy Mr. F(Ph?) recommended last time. Yum!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
"What's working at the American Library like?" you way ask. Well, I'm here to tell you, as I sit here waiting for the lunch hour to roll around and giving myself a break from the database searching that makes up 95% of my day.
Ooops. I guess I spilled the beans. Yes, 95% of the work I do here at the American Library is of questionable legality. Essentially I am the conduit they use to assess scholarly articles through the many services Princeton subscribes to, which I can access through a proxy server. Now, I like searching JSTOR, ProjectMuse, ProQuest, and Wilson OmniFile as much as the next English nerd, but eight hours of it is a lot. Thus: this break I'm giving myself now.
When not ripping the University off, I make bibliographies of the books the Library has collected for the exam. Ah, the exam. I haven't explained about the exam.
The exam is the CAPES (which stands for Certificat d'Aptitude au Professorat de l'Enseignement du Second Degré), which all French people who want to be English teachers for middle school or above must take. My job is to get together study materials for three of the six new subjects on the test (of the twelve subjects, six are reused from the previous year and six are brand new). My subjects are: 1) Lolita: the Nabokov novel and the Kubrick film, 2) Endgame by Samuel Beckett, 3) The South after the Civil War from Reconstruction to re-segregation (1865-1896). Princetern F, my colleague, is in charge of Emily Dickinson, The Federalist Papers, and Roderick Ransom by Tobias Smollett.
I got to pick my topics first because I arrived a week before she did. I hope she never finds out. ;)
Apparently people studying for this exam come from all over France to see what we put together for them in the library, so it's a really interesting and important job; it's just too bad it can be so mind-numbingly dull.
My boss, the reference librarian, is really nice, and about a foot shorter than me. This was the case with BossLady last summer, too. It's really difficult when your boss is that much shorter than you, since whenever you walk up to them with a question it's as if you're imposing on them. Which is not the case at all.
Of the other people who work in the library (minus Princetern F who arrived yesterday and of whom I have yet to form an opinion), the other reference librarian scares me, even though I suspect he is a really nice old French man, and the circulation desk woman is awesome. She thought I was a librarian from the states on my first day, and I felt sad when I had to correct her and say, no, I'm just a rising Junior(!). We have a nice, smiling "Good morning!" and "See you tomorrow!" relationship.
As the summer progresses, I'll have more insight into whether I prefer this kind of work (not that hard, slow paced, straightforward, a little boring) to the work I did last summer (lots of little tasks which were fairly easy but had the potential to be confusing, sharp learning curve on the way things were run, overworked and underpaid, great experiences) or not.
For now let me just say: I'm never working somewhere this beautiful again. It is ridiculously depressing to sit inside for eight hours a day when I could be wandering around Paris.
Ooops. I guess I spilled the beans. Yes, 95% of the work I do here at the American Library is of questionable legality. Essentially I am the conduit they use to assess scholarly articles through the many services Princeton subscribes to, which I can access through a proxy server. Now, I like searching JSTOR, ProjectMuse, ProQuest, and Wilson OmniFile as much as the next English nerd, but eight hours of it is a lot. Thus: this break I'm giving myself now.
When not ripping the University off, I make bibliographies of the books the Library has collected for the exam. Ah, the exam. I haven't explained about the exam.
The exam is the CAPES (which stands for Certificat d'Aptitude au Professorat de l'Enseignement du Second Degré), which all French people who want to be English teachers for middle school or above must take. My job is to get together study materials for three of the six new subjects on the test (of the twelve subjects, six are reused from the previous year and six are brand new). My subjects are: 1) Lolita: the Nabokov novel and the Kubrick film, 2) Endgame by Samuel Beckett, 3) The South after the Civil War from Reconstruction to re-segregation (1865-1896). Princetern F, my colleague, is in charge of Emily Dickinson, The Federalist Papers, and Roderick Ransom by Tobias Smollett.
I got to pick my topics first because I arrived a week before she did. I hope she never finds out. ;)
Apparently people studying for this exam come from all over France to see what we put together for them in the library, so it's a really interesting and important job; it's just too bad it can be so mind-numbingly dull.
My boss, the reference librarian, is really nice, and about a foot shorter than me. This was the case with BossLady last summer, too. It's really difficult when your boss is that much shorter than you, since whenever you walk up to them with a question it's as if you're imposing on them. Which is not the case at all.
Of the other people who work in the library (minus Princetern F who arrived yesterday and of whom I have yet to form an opinion), the other reference librarian scares me, even though I suspect he is a really nice old French man, and the circulation desk woman is awesome. She thought I was a librarian from the states on my first day, and I felt sad when I had to correct her and say, no, I'm just a rising Junior(!). We have a nice, smiling "Good morning!" and "See you tomorrow!" relationship.
As the summer progresses, I'll have more insight into whether I prefer this kind of work (not that hard, slow paced, straightforward, a little boring) to the work I did last summer (lots of little tasks which were fairly easy but had the potential to be confusing, sharp learning curve on the way things were run, overworked and underpaid, great experiences) or not.
For now let me just say: I'm never working somewhere this beautiful again. It is ridiculously depressing to sit inside for eight hours a day when I could be wandering around Paris.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
All right. This will have no value at all except to me, the aged Ps, and those among you who have been lucky enough to watch Homicide in its entirety. But what I have here is a publication house that requires no content and no editing so here goes: the Tim Bayliss haircut post.
The Many Haircuts of the Soulful Tim Bayliss
"Fair-Haired Choir Boy," Seasons 1-3
For three seasons of the Barry Levinson-produced NBC series Homicide, Detective Timothy Bayliss's nineties heartthrob haircut was a wonder to behold. Even when it became apparent that his heartthrob status was confined to the haircut (even his undoubted good looks marked him as "handsome" rather than "hot"), its shape helped Bayliss maintain the "fair-haired choir boy" image his partner Frank Pembleton imagines him to have created for himself. The image is maintained even after Bayliss is seen holding a suspect's head to a steam pipe, cruising the Block in Baltimore, and having sex in a coffin with the girl one of his colleagues likes. (Not to mention calling the colonel a "butthead," but in my opinion that reinforces the choirboy image rather than detracts from it.)
In any case, the haircut Tim Bayliss has in any given season reflects his state of mind, his inner turmoil or lack thereof, the condition of his soul. For the first three seasons, despite the defeat of the unsolved Adena Watson case (which would haunt Bayliss from the second episode to the end of the series), Bayliss was a young and optimistic detective, perky and clearly in awe of the master detective Frank Pembleton. That his hair more closely resembled that of one of the child actors in Honey I Shrunk the Kids than the no-nonsense cuts of the other detectives in the squad room only underlines my point. It may have been the nineties, but everyone else managed.
Young Man About Town, Season Four
Without Beard
Bayliss began the fourth season with a new, shorter haircut. He attempts to remain unaffected by the horrors he sees every day. (He also spends the majority of the fourth season with back trouble, which carries over into subsequent seasons. on of his colleagues theorizes that it's all in his head; I couldn't agree more.) He looks handsome and carefree and, above all, mature.
With Beard
Before the season is three quarters of the way done, Bayliss grows a beard to go with his new do. With it, he looks more tired and definitely older. His attempts to keep his job at arm's length have failed and he has decided to make do with what he has, which at this point seems to be a bottomless capacity for internalizing others' pain.
The beard also takes away any remaining hints of the fresh-faced-ness from his rookie days. There is the sense that he knows what he's doing on the job.
He also knows what he's doing while flirting with Kay Howard's sister at a weddings, whereas with Emma Zoole in the coffin it was clear that he was clueless.
Back to the Bare Facts, Season Five
Buzzcut
One of the more shocking moments of the fifth season comes when Bayliss, now clean shaven and sporting a buzzcut, tells Frank about the childhood abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle. Frank reaches out to touch Tim and he pulls away, ending their partnership (albeit, thankfully, temporarily). Buzzcut Bayliss is not warm, he is not self-pitying, he is not approachable. Buzzcut Bayliss is making one last attempt to jettison everything that might hurt. Ditching the extra inches of hair apparently goes hand-in-hand with ditching excess emotions.
Little Boy Haircut
Like most of Bayliss's preventative emotional forays into self-reliance, this one doesn't work very well. His hair grows out without much attention paid to it, giving him the rumpled look of a little boy who has just gotten out of bed. Backtracking, he reconnects with Frank. Backtracking even further, he goes to confront his abusive uncle only to find him an old and sick man, diminished. Bayliss brings him food and helps him out, despite everything. Frank doesn't understand, but whoever chose Tim's hair for those episodes clearly did.
Seasoned Hand Part One, Season Six
Along with the addition of a pair of glasses, the sixth season marks the return of Bayliss's confident fourth season haircut, with modifications. Instead of well-defined edges, this version of the haircut hangs more softly. Sixth Season Bayliss is doing pretty well. He and Frank's partnership is relatively solid, he begins to successfully navigate his sexuality, and he strikes up a friendship with fellow detective Laura Ballard (whose hair is as steady and reliable and pretty as she is). Things are good.
That is, until Bayliss gets shot and Frank quits, which brings us to:
Seasoned Hand Part Two, Season Seven
Season Seven Bayliss takes a back seat for the most part, as does his hair until the last episode when, slightly un-groomed and definitely in need of a haircut, Bayliss hunts down a serial murderer of women and kills him. Bayliss's hair at this point most closely resembles his first season haircut, a little long in the back, but he is so far from being a heartthrob that the haircut serves to harshly illuminate the ways the character's work in Homicide has changed him.
The Count of Monte Cristo, The Movie
In the first sight we get of Bayliss in Homicide" The Movie, he is standing in a creek wearing fishing gear. The setting is idyllic but even if we had not seen the last episode of the seventh season, we would only have to take one look at his hair to see all is not well. Hair shaggier than ever, plus the return of the season four Angst Beard (this time flecked with grey) signal that this is not a happy Bayliss. And sure enough, the movie proves us right. His final rooftop confrontation with Frank made me cry for half an hour, so I won't go over it again here, but his hair just makes it worse. By which I mean it makes it better.
So. What at first seem arbitrary and sometimes downright unfortunate decisions on the part of the folks in hair and makeup do in fact point us down a character's mental path. Relatively few of the other characters go through as many haircuts (in the series, Kay Howard and John Munch have some coloring done, Mike Kellerman loses his poufy initial haircut in favor of something harder, and Falsone attempts to rectify the grease mullet he is first saddled with), indicating that, as if this weren't obvious enough, Bayliss has as least as many life changes as he has haircuts and only about half of them are good.
The Many Haircuts of the Soulful Tim Bayliss
"Fair-Haired Choir Boy," Seasons 1-3
For three seasons of the Barry Levinson-produced NBC series Homicide, Detective Timothy Bayliss's nineties heartthrob haircut was a wonder to behold. Even when it became apparent that his heartthrob status was confined to the haircut (even his undoubted good looks marked him as "handsome" rather than "hot"), its shape helped Bayliss maintain the "fair-haired choir boy" image his partner Frank Pembleton imagines him to have created for himself. The image is maintained even after Bayliss is seen holding a suspect's head to a steam pipe, cruising the Block in Baltimore, and having sex in a coffin with the girl one of his colleagues likes. (Not to mention calling the colonel a "butthead," but in my opinion that reinforces the choirboy image rather than detracts from it.)
In any case, the haircut Tim Bayliss has in any given season reflects his state of mind, his inner turmoil or lack thereof, the condition of his soul. For the first three seasons, despite the defeat of the unsolved Adena Watson case (which would haunt Bayliss from the second episode to the end of the series), Bayliss was a young and optimistic detective, perky and clearly in awe of the master detective Frank Pembleton. That his hair more closely resembled that of one of the child actors in Honey I Shrunk the Kids than the no-nonsense cuts of the other detectives in the squad room only underlines my point. It may have been the nineties, but everyone else managed.
Young Man About Town, Season Four
Without Beard
Bayliss began the fourth season with a new, shorter haircut. He attempts to remain unaffected by the horrors he sees every day. (He also spends the majority of the fourth season with back trouble, which carries over into subsequent seasons. on of his colleagues theorizes that it's all in his head; I couldn't agree more.) He looks handsome and carefree and, above all, mature.
With Beard
Before the season is three quarters of the way done, Bayliss grows a beard to go with his new do. With it, he looks more tired and definitely older. His attempts to keep his job at arm's length have failed and he has decided to make do with what he has, which at this point seems to be a bottomless capacity for internalizing others' pain.
The beard also takes away any remaining hints of the fresh-faced-ness from his rookie days. There is the sense that he knows what he's doing on the job.
He also knows what he's doing while flirting with Kay Howard's sister at a weddings, whereas with Emma Zoole in the coffin it was clear that he was clueless.
Back to the Bare Facts, Season Five
Buzzcut
One of the more shocking moments of the fifth season comes when Bayliss, now clean shaven and sporting a buzzcut, tells Frank about the childhood abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle. Frank reaches out to touch Tim and he pulls away, ending their partnership (albeit, thankfully, temporarily). Buzzcut Bayliss is not warm, he is not self-pitying, he is not approachable. Buzzcut Bayliss is making one last attempt to jettison everything that might hurt. Ditching the extra inches of hair apparently goes hand-in-hand with ditching excess emotions.
Little Boy Haircut
Like most of Bayliss's preventative emotional forays into self-reliance, this one doesn't work very well. His hair grows out without much attention paid to it, giving him the rumpled look of a little boy who has just gotten out of bed. Backtracking, he reconnects with Frank. Backtracking even further, he goes to confront his abusive uncle only to find him an old and sick man, diminished. Bayliss brings him food and helps him out, despite everything. Frank doesn't understand, but whoever chose Tim's hair for those episodes clearly did.
Seasoned Hand Part One, Season Six
Along with the addition of a pair of glasses, the sixth season marks the return of Bayliss's confident fourth season haircut, with modifications. Instead of well-defined edges, this version of the haircut hangs more softly. Sixth Season Bayliss is doing pretty well. He and Frank's partnership is relatively solid, he begins to successfully navigate his sexuality, and he strikes up a friendship with fellow detective Laura Ballard (whose hair is as steady and reliable and pretty as she is). Things are good.
That is, until Bayliss gets shot and Frank quits, which brings us to:
Seasoned Hand Part Two, Season Seven
Season Seven Bayliss takes a back seat for the most part, as does his hair until the last episode when, slightly un-groomed and definitely in need of a haircut, Bayliss hunts down a serial murderer of women and kills him. Bayliss's hair at this point most closely resembles his first season haircut, a little long in the back, but he is so far from being a heartthrob that the haircut serves to harshly illuminate the ways the character's work in Homicide has changed him.
The Count of Monte Cristo, The Movie
In the first sight we get of Bayliss in Homicide" The Movie, he is standing in a creek wearing fishing gear. The setting is idyllic but even if we had not seen the last episode of the seventh season, we would only have to take one look at his hair to see all is not well. Hair shaggier than ever, plus the return of the season four Angst Beard (this time flecked with grey) signal that this is not a happy Bayliss. And sure enough, the movie proves us right. His final rooftop confrontation with Frank made me cry for half an hour, so I won't go over it again here, but his hair just makes it worse. By which I mean it makes it better.
So. What at first seem arbitrary and sometimes downright unfortunate decisions on the part of the folks in hair and makeup do in fact point us down a character's mental path. Relatively few of the other characters go through as many haircuts (in the series, Kay Howard and John Munch have some coloring done, Mike Kellerman loses his poufy initial haircut in favor of something harder, and Falsone attempts to rectify the grease mullet he is first saddled with), indicating that, as if this weren't obvious enough, Bayliss has as least as many life changes as he has haircuts and only about half of them are good.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
I have survived not one, not two, but three days on the job. For the most part I search databases all day long from ten until seven. But I get Sunday and Monday off, and a half day on Saturday, so life is good. I also eat my lunch at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
I feel like taking photos every day I turn the corner and see it looming over the library, but the camera kind of ruins the French Worker aesthetic I've got going on here. I've got dress pants and everything and I feel really awesome on the bus going to and from work, and the other day an American lady stopped me and asked me for directions. Sadly, physically I don't resemble the French much (only Americans ask me for directions because French people know I'm not French), so instead of suave & bossy & chic I'm going for clean & competent & chic. It suits me better anyway. ;)
I feel like taking photos every day I turn the corner and see it looming over the library, but the camera kind of ruins the French Worker aesthetic I've got going on here. I've got dress pants and everything and I feel really awesome on the bus going to and from work, and the other day an American lady stopped me and asked me for directions. Sadly, physically I don't resemble the French much (only Americans ask me for directions because French people know I'm not French), so instead of suave & bossy & chic I'm going for clean & competent & chic. It suits me better anyway. ;)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
In approximately four hours I start my summer internship at the American Library. My nervousness has reached epic proportions, and I have been dressed and ready for two hours. Since my boss doesn't work Tuesday mornings I'm headed in at 3:30. The library closes at 7:00, so my first day will likely be very short, which is fine by me. Last summer in Florida BossLady gave me the grand tour and then let me go, and I bet the same will happen at the library today.
I'm very curious to see what my work environment will be like, how long my hours will be, and what exactly I'll be doing. All I know is that I'll have Sundays and Mondays off, when the library is closed. While I don't expect to be worked as hard as last summer, I'm marginally more nervous because I'm still not 100% sure what language I'll speak at work. English and French are both fine, of course, but it's the principle of the thing. :)
In other news, our family trip to the south of France last week was great. It was really nice to get back to Breil, since the last time we left I was convinced I would never get the chance to go back again.
Our Parisian apartment is definitely my favorite. It's very small (especially compared to the one two summers ago that could fit me, Subcontinent, Mom, Dad, and the Grand Ps with no one sleeping on the floor), but its decorations are really cool and both the bed and the couch are comfortable so when Mom and I trade off no one will be uncomfortable. Also the living room is the biggest room and the kitchen is the smallest, so everything is as it should be.
More on work and the joys of Paris later!
I'm very curious to see what my work environment will be like, how long my hours will be, and what exactly I'll be doing. All I know is that I'll have Sundays and Mondays off, when the library is closed. While I don't expect to be worked as hard as last summer, I'm marginally more nervous because I'm still not 100% sure what language I'll speak at work. English and French are both fine, of course, but it's the principle of the thing. :)
In other news, our family trip to the south of France last week was great. It was really nice to get back to Breil, since the last time we left I was convinced I would never get the chance to go back again.
Our Parisian apartment is definitely my favorite. It's very small (especially compared to the one two summers ago that could fit me, Subcontinent, Mom, Dad, and the Grand Ps with no one sleeping on the floor), but its decorations are really cool and both the bed and the couch are comfortable so when Mom and I trade off no one will be uncomfortable. Also the living room is the biggest room and the kitchen is the smallest, so everything is as it should be.
More on work and the joys of Paris later!
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