I’ve kept a blog since 2005 or so, drifting about from Blogger, to Wordpress, even Xanga and liveJournal. (I think I just dated myself.) This one is a tale of my relocation from Pasadena, California to Norwich, England, my grapples with mental health, my thesis work, and fandom blather.
Just a note on the mental health part: I find it important to write about my experiences because I don’t often speak about them, unless it’s to a counselor or a handful of lovely friends. I realize that some people might question the ‘professionalism’ or prudence of doing so on a blog where I identify myself pretty explicitly without giving out my address and social security number. That mentality reinforces not only the taboos we have in our culture about mental illness— that simultaneously exist alongside a weird glorification of being depressed, bipolar, anxious, or socially awkward— but it also makes me feel guilty for being a high functioning, extremely capable person.
I don't want people seeing my intellectual work exclusively through this lens, but it is (I feel) necessary to address only because so many people don't, and it eats away at them. (Really, I didn't plan on grand-standing in my 'About' page, but there it is and there it goes. This isn't a LOOK AT MY DISORDER blog.)
Anyway. My MA is in cultural studies. I spend a lot of time deconstructing and probing concepts like art history and history as disciplines, and my time period is roughly between 1870 - 1920. I’m effectively a modernist rather than a postmodernist. In my thesis, I am dealing with some serious gaps in the cultural memory and visual representation of New Orleans. I’m a happy bedfellow of postmodernist theory because of that, though. I don't think I could do my projects if that was not the case. (And lest we forget, Foucault was a historian... throwing that out there to anyone who feels uncomfortable with these ideas. Not that Foucault is actually my favorite theorist, but he does crop up everywhere.)
I dart from facet to facet of my favored themes and areas, and I rarely have an individual thought about something. It's more like clusters or rhizomes. In fact, if you're familiar with the concept of Mind Mapping, that's a very native way for me to think. Linear often eludes me. I'm far better with lateral thinking, but I also tend to make lateral thinking look linear (or 'natural') if I explain myself properly.
I like me. You can too, if you want.
If you’re wondering what I do for fun— since none of this sounds that fun— I write fan-fiction (and sometimes novels), paint with watercolors, go for long walks, and sit in bars by myself. I'm a Slytherin, a Pisces on the cusp of Aquarius, I love elaborate tattoos, and my favorite food is vegan pho with exotic mushrooms.
Just a note on the mental health part: I find it important to write about my experiences because I don’t often speak about them, unless it’s to a counselor or a handful of lovely friends. I realize that some people might question the ‘professionalism’ or prudence of doing so on a blog where I identify myself pretty explicitly without giving out my address and social security number. That mentality reinforces not only the taboos we have in our culture about mental illness— that simultaneously exist alongside a weird glorification of being depressed, bipolar, anxious, or socially awkward— but it also makes me feel guilty for being a high functioning, extremely capable person.
I don't want people seeing my intellectual work exclusively through this lens, but it is (I feel) necessary to address only because so many people don't, and it eats away at them. (Really, I didn't plan on grand-standing in my 'About' page, but there it is and there it goes. This isn't a LOOK AT MY DISORDER blog.)
Anyway. My MA is in cultural studies. I spend a lot of time deconstructing and probing concepts like art history and history as disciplines, and my time period is roughly between 1870 - 1920. I’m effectively a modernist rather than a postmodernist. In my thesis, I am dealing with some serious gaps in the cultural memory and visual representation of New Orleans. I’m a happy bedfellow of postmodernist theory because of that, though. I don't think I could do my projects if that was not the case. (And lest we forget, Foucault was a historian... throwing that out there to anyone who feels uncomfortable with these ideas. Not that Foucault is actually my favorite theorist, but he does crop up everywhere.)
I dart from facet to facet of my favored themes and areas, and I rarely have an individual thought about something. It's more like clusters or rhizomes. In fact, if you're familiar with the concept of Mind Mapping, that's a very native way for me to think. Linear often eludes me. I'm far better with lateral thinking, but I also tend to make lateral thinking look linear (or 'natural') if I explain myself properly.
I like me. You can too, if you want.
If you’re wondering what I do for fun— since none of this sounds that fun— I write fan-fiction (and sometimes novels), paint with watercolors, go for long walks, and sit in bars by myself. I'm a Slytherin, a Pisces on the cusp of Aquarius, I love elaborate tattoos, and my favorite food is vegan pho with exotic mushrooms.
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