Mid-Semester Update
I'm Surviving?
School Updates
Classes have ramped up. So often I go to class and come out of it thinking I processed 15% of what was actually lectured on. The 400-level class is still a breeze, thankfully, but it’s hardly reassurance for the other two classes. Literally this is what my brain sounds like when I leave syntax class each week. I really enjoy that professor and he’s very kind and helpful, but sometimes it feels like he’s speaking at a totally different frequency.
I picked an advisor, who is the only semanticist in the department, but he’s also super friendly, so it’s not like I’m trapped by circumstance. There isn’t much for us to talk about/decide on since it’s so early in my academic program, but we work well together. I already attend his lab (the semantics lab), so I see him every week anyway, and next semester I’ll be taking one of his courses.
I’ve also done a little early course research and I think I’ll be taking a logic and language course in the philosophy department. One of my seniors in semantics took the course and she highly recommended it.
On another note, and in great news, my proposal for teaching a summer gen-ed course was accepted by the program which employs me as a TA (not Linguistics). As long as students enroll, I’ll be teaching a course on Fan Communities and Internet Culture. This will be the first time I’m teaching using my undergrad BA in Cyberculture Studies, which is fun. There are a LOT more academic resources available than there were in 2015, so I’ll have to wade through some research in preparation for it. But overall, I’m excited. It’ll be an online, asynchronous class as well. Also it comes with a nice paycheck, haha.
Life Updates
I’m still putting together my apartment slowly. I think I’ve mostly got the kitchen all set, but I’m not sure I’m fully satisfied:
The baker’s rack, the spice rack, and the butcher block prep table are new. Without them, I would have NO counterspace or room to work. I still have to store things in weird places. I also discovered that expo markers work on white fridges (erases with plain water) and that has been a life-changer for meal planning and reducing food waste.
As much as I liked to cook, and was good at it, I always felt like I made too much food waste. It was a combination of depression, laziness, ADHD, food fatigue, and poor planning, all of which I had some element of control over. Being able to start over in Lansing has given me the opportunity to make sure I can start off on the right foot again. I’m trying to do better.
I’ve made some very good friends here at MSU, but I’m also trying to make friends outside of the university. That bit is going slower, but it’s going, at least. It seems like folks in my department are pretty introverted, so I volunteered to host a Friendsgiving. I’m hoping that goes well. I’ll post an update after.
There’s a Halloween party coming up and our costumes need to be linguistics related, so I’ll be going as an “Island Constraint,” which is a fiddly little syntax concept. Suffice it to say I’ll be wearing a tacky Hawaiian shirt and a harness. Again, I’ll write an update after that as well.
A Nice Soup Recipe for You:
44-Clove Garlic Chicken Soup
¼ cup olive oil
2 chicken leg quarters
44 cloves of garlic (or like… 3 heads), peeled, whole
1 medium shallot, quartered
2 ribs celery, diced/sliced
¼ tsp cayenne
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4-6 cups Chicken stock
¼ heavy cream
Optional: chopped parsley
Instant pot directions:
1. On saute mode, brown chicken on both sides in olive oil. Remove chicken.
2. Add whole garlic cloves, shallot, celery. Saute until garlic starts to brown.
3. Add spices and herbs. Saute for 30 seconds.
4. Add potatoes and saute for another 30 seconds to coat in oil.
5. Add back chicken quarters and pour in enough stock to cover.
6. High pressure 15 minutes. Allow to natural release for 10 minutes.
7. Pull out chicken and shred in separate bowl. Discard bones, skin, cartilage.
8. Blend soup fully. Stir in heavy cream. Taste for seasoning and salt as necessary.
9. Add back chicken meat and sprinkle on parsley. Serve and enjoy!
Stovetop directions:
1. In dutch oven, brown chicken on both sides in olive oil. Remove chicken.
2. Add whole garlic cloves, shallot, celery. Saute until garlic starts to brown.
3. Add spices and herbs. Saute for 30 seconds.
4. Add potatoes and saute for another 30 seconds to coat in oil.
5. Add back chicken quarters and pour in enough stock to cover.
6. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes covered.
7. Pull out chicken and shred in separate bowl. Discard bones, skin, cartilage.
8. Blend soup fully. Stir in heavy cream. Taste for seasoning and salt as necessary.
9. Add back chicken meat and sprinkle on parsley. Serve and enjoy!
Fun facts!
I’ve recently been grading a lot of student papers about emojis (it was one of their prompts) and we just had a lesson on discourse markers, so I’ve been thinking about the intersections of those two things a lot.
Discourse markers (which are sometimes called various other things), are little words and phrases that serve pragmatic (i.e. useful) functions in conversation, but don’t necessarily contain much meaning. If you think about how you speak with your friends, you probably say this list of words a LOT without even realizing it: anyway, uh, um, like, right, you know, fine, now, and, but, so, I mean, good, oh, well, however, as I said, great, okay, mind you, for a start… etc. There are so many. They fill different roles and they’re not equal or interchangeable with each other, but they serve a similar purpose in moving conversations along, dividing info into digestible segments, or clarifying contexts (amongst even more functions!).
I find them fascinating. Emoji seem to be used in really similar circumstances. There isn’t a TON of research on this, but there’s some on its way. Some emojis are used in their iconic sense (i.e. a car emoji = a car and nothing else), but others are used for intonation (like sarcasm or irony) or clarification (an insult plus a laughing emoji = a playful jab, not a real insult) or segmentation (a reaction face or a hand emoji as comprehension/validation/listening), etc. It’s a super interesting place to explore and, fortunately, doesn’t require a boatload of foundational experience to explore on its own. There’s no way I can attempt something requiring lambda calculus right now!
Anyway,
I think those are all my updates for now. Text me if you need me. I’ll probably be desperately catching up on sleep. <3