shameless self promotion, part 223 in a series
February 07, 2006
First, the shameless promo, a piece that I actually am quite pleased that I was able to do. Mary Roach has long been one of my favorite writers and I got to interview her for Bookslut. Woot.
Second, I love the Pandora thingy but it just put a song by Jewel into my lovely Fiona Apple station. Jewel? Really? WTF?
Third, I am happy to report that the message on my DVR is grammatically correct now. Stil no word on the fate of UPN, however.
Fourth, that thud you're about to hear will be my husband falling over.
Fifth, I cleaned out my filing cabinet this afternoon because I couldn't fit anything else in it. I now have one whole drawer that is empty. This is a minor miracle. I have plans for my empty drawer. Details to come.
Sixth, could someone go pick Scott up off of the floor now? Thanks.
Seventh, while cleaning I found some wacky stuff that I'd been saving form years and years. Most of it will still be saved, simply because it's so much fun to stumble across it. And there really isn't that much of it -- maybe a shoebox or so, which seems reasonable. I plan to pester you with bits of it. (and there may be a letter or two from frequent commentor PL. Heh.)
Like this bit of nonesense: my GRE scores from 1992, back when I thought I was destined for grad school (I wasn't, as it turns out, but it had nothing to do with my GRE scores)...
Verbal =670 (91 percentile)
Quantitative = 580 (53)
Analytical = 630 (74)
I post these merely to point out two things: 1) I know a lot of words and 2) I now have proof that I'm not good at math. I'd also like to mention that I thought my scores really sucked ass and that I was a stupid loser. Nothing like a dozen years to change one's perspective. I mean -- I still have my stupid loserish moments, but learned that test scores really don't tell you all that much about who you are. Weird, eh?
In other news, you'll note that there's a new button in the sidebar on the left. More on the Sew? I Knit group tomorrow...
Several things here...
1. Oddly, I came across my GRE scores recently, too. Back in '90 I fared as follows:
Verbal=550 (69)
Quantitative=730 (86)
Analytical=630 (76)
Fortunately, I chose to attend a grad school for which the theatre department didn't require GREs. Otherwise they might've thought, "No way can this girl write a thesis."
2. Something odd is happening with UPN all over. A perpetual message on my local station reads something to the effect of "If you have a satellite network, you may not receive UPN after thus-and-such a date." Whether or not said message is grammatically correct I know not. I have cable, not satellite, so I don't care too much. Call me apathetic.
3. Your writing style reminds me a bit of Mary Roach's. I was going to mention that at the sea urchin post. Take it as a compliment.
That is all. Thank you for your time.
Posted by: PL | February 07, 2006 at 10:37 PM
PL--I owe you email. I know. The problem is finding something interesting in my life that I haven't already exploited for the blog. I need to getout of the house more.
1. I think we should all air our GRE scores (or SAT scores or other standardized tests). It's cathartic in some weird way.
2. UPN and WB just announced that they were merging. I wonder how much that has to do with it? As far as I know, the message you quote is correct. Really, I'm not that good at grammar, but the whole it's v. its thing makes me insane, mostly because I read so much student writing. Seriously -- I'm developing a twitch about it.
3. I totally take it as a compliment. Roach is a much cleaner writer than I am, mostly because I seem compelled to cram as many words in as I possibly can because I enjoy dinking with structure, even though I am well aware that most readers don't give a rat's ass about structure and just want to know what happened. My editors have made me look good and I suspect that the blog could use someone with a blue pencil. Ah, well.
No, no. Thank you.
At some point, there will be email.
Posted by: Adrienne | February 08, 2006 at 09:33 AM
I have no idea if I even have that stuff anymore. I seem to recall that my scores were similar to yours, though the math was probably worse. I also remember that my analytical score was around 700, maybe over. I thought it strange that someone so oblivious would do well at analytics.
I'm just coming down off the Super Bowl high.
Posted by: matthew | February 11, 2006 at 01:08 AM