Glynnis Ritchie

"New York City Transit’s unintended agenda notwithstanding, e-mail messages and text-messaging may..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:40:19 -0500

“New York City Transit’s unintended agenda notwithstanding, e-mail messages and text-messaging may jeopardize the last vestiges of semicolons. They still live on, though, in emoticons, those graphic emblems of our grins, grimaces and other facial expressions. The semicolon, befittingly, symbolizes a wink.”

- Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location - NYTimes.com

A whole article on semicolons. Bless you, NYTimes. It should be noted that I found this article while searching NYTimes for sources to use in a linguistics paper.

Looks like a visit to Greensboro, AL’s PieLab will soon be...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:24:20 -0500

Looks like a visit to Greensboro, AL’s PieLab will soon be in order. They had their grand opening this past weekend.

Baker, sometimes it’s hard to express how much I miss your...

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:18:30 -0500

Baker, sometimes it’s hard to express how much I miss your silly antics. (Baker = dancing deer guy.)

(via blindslug & sweatshirtstudio)

(via blindslug)

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:09:05 -0500

(via blindslug)

Nalini Cheriel « PICDIT (via blindslug &...

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:08:46 -0500

Nalini Cheriel « PICDIT

(via blindslug & hollisbrownthornton)

(via anjalouise & wornjournal)

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:03:08 -0500

(via anjalouise & wornjournal)

Three women, 1940. (garconniere, anjalouise & nitescence)

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:02:36 -0500

Three women, 1940.

(garconniere, anjalouise & nitescence)

Nazroo, a mahout (elephant driver), poses for a portrait while...

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:59:38 -0500

Nazroo, a mahout (elephant driver), poses for a portrait while taking his elephant, Rajan, out for a swim in front of Radha Nagar Beach in Havelock, Andaman Islands.

(Cesare Naldi in National Geographic International Photography Contest, feat. on Big Picture, via sblack)

Standardized tests are the devil. What do analogies and...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:30:06 -0500

Standardized tests are the devil. What do analogies and antonyms have to do with MAs or PhDs? I have a rather large soap box to stand on regarding this aspect of our education system.

Bio-Diversity - Abstract City Blog - NYTimes.com (via cbk)

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:56:19 -0500

Bio-Diversity - Abstract City Blog - NYTimes.com

(via cbk)

It all seems so straight forward, but I keep having flashbacks...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:33:00 -0500

It all seems so straight forward, but I keep having flashbacks to math lab my sophomore year. Eep! Good thing it’ll be over by lunch time tomorrow.

Hope everyone ate some delicious turkey in my honor. I certainly did my share of stuffing and sweet potato casserole, even if I couldn’t eat any bird myself.

Erin really does look pregnant! To me, anyway. I guess the rest of you would just think she’s gained a little weight. I got to feel the baby moving last night.

I hope you have all seen this already. It goes without saying...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:53:24 -0500

I hope you have all seen this already. It goes without saying that the Muppets are one of the most delightful things to come out of the television industry in America.

GPOYW, Hong Kong edition. The second of a two-part...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:08:00 -0500

GPOYW, Hong Kong edition.

The second of a two-part necklace/birthday parcel arrived today. Turns out post from Hong Kong gets to the U.S. much faster than post from Chengdu. Merci! C’était un petit cadeau d’un voyageur du monde.

"You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:48:37 -0500

“You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it.”

- This semester has been a total whirlwind, for so many reasons: moving back to the States; working to get the appropriate transfer credit applied to my degree (hello, meeting with the dean!); moving out of a house two months later because of carcinogenic mold; covering myself legally throughout that process to avoid getting sued for breaking a lease; moving into a new apartment — my fifth residence in less than a year; repairing my sixth-month-old car twice in a two-month period because it was parked and hit, then because I had routine maintenance done and they put a huge gash in my door; finding out that I’m going to have a nephew in April; figuring out that I will, in fact, graduate on time; getting a degree audit, naming my degree, and outlining my senior thesis for the interdisciplinary program through which I’m seeking said degree; discovering that I can double-major in French with a few more courses; flying to Charlottesville, VA, to see a dear friend I met in Paris. These are just a few of the things I can list here, which may indicate some of what I have experienced, but simultaneously define very little about my personal life and the side of it that I choose not to share here very often.

Anyway. All of that is to say (perhaps very abstractly) that there is a total craziness to life lately that, at the end of it all, has amounted to something positive. This has been one of the most difficult semesters I’ve experienced for a number of reasons, but within the hectic rhythm, there has been an underlying pulse of something very vibrant and exciting. And mostly it just boils down to this: today is beautiful, and it is good to be alive. And if I’m willing to give up certain beliefs and refuse to submit to fear — even if it is just the fear of what’s “outside the box” — then I can have anything I want. That is simultaneously liberating and the scariest thing I could possibly imagine.

I am reminded of something I wrote when I was living in Paris. These days it’s less about which countries I can get to, and more about what lies ahead, when undergrad is over. I can say with some authority that it is grad school, but don’t know yet where that will be or what it entails. Whatever it is, it’s exciting. But I will say that, even though today is beautiful, it sucks to have even more deadlines looming ahead (and all of the sudden, at that), and to be taking the GRE the weekend of Thanksgiving break (and all of the sudden, at that). A GRE that, you know, still needs to be studied for. Good thing today in linguistics we talked about how standardized tests are the devil, and how they use prescriptive grammar and language myths to keep certain speakers or populations out of higher education. And that was before I knew that I would be taking the GRE or applying to schools with rapidly approaching deadlines.

It’s funny how some days take everything and turn it upside down. They’re exciting days, but even in all the excitement, turning upside down can be a bit nauseating.