My fabulously productive day at work

With abject apologies to my boss. . .

-Arrive at work before 8 a.m.
-Do actual work for 1 hour
-Talk to one of the researchers about pseudo-despotic regime programs~15 minutes. Tells me I should apply to pseudo-despotic regime programs, because they are much easier to get into than despotic regime programs.
-11:00: take a "short" break to fill out a gazillion transcript request forms (one for each of the 5 schools I attended times a gazillion programs I'm applying to).
-12:00-I'm still filling out damn forms; decide that I need to get this done and figure I'll either make up the time later today or take PTO for the time I didn't work.
-at some point, I do some real work for a short time
-2:00-I walk over to the registrar's office to hand deliver my own school's transcript requests.
-2:03-I arrive and find out that the office is closed for Thanksgiving holiday and nearly have a breakdown.
2:03 and 30 seconds-A wonderfully sympathetic staff must've seen how dejected I looked and opens the door; I explain that Princeton's despotic regime program needs transcripts by 1 December and start pleading with them. They agree to process my request.

I am eternally grateful. Beyond words.

2:05 woman behind counter starts processing my request for 12 separate orders. She says she'll do this while I wait, since some of the instructions are a bit involved. Thinking I can watch her and make sure she gets all of this right, I stick around.

3:05 An hour has passed and she has processed just four out of the 12 I need. I tell her that I need to run and ask her to process just the ones that are sent to me.
3:15 I'm still waiting for my 6 transcripts.
Meanwhile, I ask her to fill out one of the forms that is supposed to accompany one of the transcripts. She tells me she can't fill out the form, b/c my school doesn't issue class ranks. I ask her if she can just indicate that on the form and fill out the form anyway.

3:20 Still going back and forth; still waiting for the 6 transcripts; I'm losing patience and cursing myself for not bringing my linear algebra book with me.
3:30 Back at my office. Eat lunch while reading about deficits. Do some real work again for a while.
4:30 Decide to walk to my car and drive it closer, since I expect to be here late.
5:00ish-back at my office.
5:15 or so--am interrupted by an email from my dad who tells me that the institution where I did my junior year abroad 1)will not take transcript requests unless a)I show up in person, or b)I mail them a form. He claims they won't accept faxes. Incredulous, I look up the info, and sure enough, he is right.
5:30 Make a frantic call to the transcripts office in Tokyo and explain to the person that I wasn't aware of this new protocol; that I've ordered transcripts via my parents many times before, and explain that I need one of the transcripts sent by 1 December, so I wouldn't be able to mail the request to them on time.
Gracious person on the other side tells me that if I enclose a photo ID, sign it, etc., I can fax it, and then mail the forms later.
6:15 I finish filling out forms, writing a fax half in Japanese and half in English, typing out detailed instructions. I fax.
7:00 I get a confirmation slip telling me my fax didn't go through. I try again.
7:30 Fax finally gets through. I call to confirm that they received it. Marvel at how I've been here for 11 hours, of which I might've done 1-2 total hour of work. I try to get some work done.
8:00 Decide this is futile and head to car, planning to go to gym.
8:05 Decide I'm too tired/hungry to go to gym and head home.
8:35 Finally home, wondering how the hell it took 12 hours just to process transcript requests. (Granted, it was a lot of transcripts (close to 100 total) and I had to fill out a form for almost every single damn one, but still. . ..)

Meme-free zone

A quick post to say that I hereby preemptively declare this a meme-free zone.

5 more weeks of this madness, I hope. And to this madness I now must return. . . (sigh).

If classical music isn't supposed to be "relaxing". . .

Do I go listen to the SLSQ perform Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time tonight after my midterm? The midterm that I've been studying for days for, and is the cause of sleep deprivation, and will likely drain my brain of the ability to have any sentient thoughts afterwards?

Is this a good state of mind with which to go and absorb Messiaen's magnificence?
I like what I have heard of Messiaen, but this isn't one of these pieces to go listen to when one's brain has gone to mush. (Did I also mention I don't like clarinets all that much? Though I have to admit he does use its timbre quite well in this piece.)

Because I could seriously use some "relaxation" or at least decompress for a bit after this exam.

On the other hand, I really need to buckle down and get started on applications to despotic regime programs. (Though the reality is, I won't be in any mood to do this tonight.)
Not to mention, catch up on the econ homework/readings I've blown off to study for this exam that I need to do well on to make up for my lackluster grade on my last exam.
And I could always use a few hours of catch up sleep.
And omg. Read. A book. For pleasure.

But I have also been wanting to go hear this live for a while, and if I miss this performance, I don't know when there will be another live performance of this. (As opposed to Reading. A. Book. For pleasure, which I can theoretically do anytime. If I wasn't up at ungodly hours almost every day, that is.)

If I go, I'd be admitting that I'm going to a classical music concert to decompress.

At the expense of offending those of you who think that one shouldn't listen to classical music to relax/wind down, I have to admit, I do this quite a lot. For exam #1, my calm-my-nerves piece was Brahm's Piano Concerto #2. Right now, I'm listening to Janacek's Glagolitic Mass. To calm my pre-exam jitters. (Actually, the organ part I'm listening to right now kindof echoes my jittery nerves, which is kindof cool.) So nyeh.

So maybe I will just go and catch this performance and "relax" to it, depending on my brain capacity post exam.

And now, I must run off to take that exam.

(I just typed this on the quick while getting ready to go to class, so apologies in advance if this post made no sense (my thoughts seldom do these days) as well as for any spelling and grammatical errors. I'll probably look at this and cringe later.)

The key of anti-semitism. . .

Ok, if you are composing a piece of music and you want to insert an anti-semitic* shriek, what key would you use?

Hint: It's evidently used in all of Mahler's symphonies.

????

*given that it's allegedly in all of Mahler's symphonies, I am confused as to whether an "anti-semitic shriek" is a shriek that is anti-semitic, or whether it is something that shrieks at anti-semitism. On second thought, I am just confused, period.

Places I will not be living next year

On the top of that list is Boston. (actually, Cambridge, to be exact.)

Even though I'm applying to 3 schools in that area, which is more than any other city.

A pity, since of the places that offer despotic regime study, it's one of the places I wouldn't mind living for a few years. I'd need to figure out what to do come February, because February in Cambridge is miserable, but so is February in many other places I might end up living. Aside from February and cold enough weather to warrant real winter clothes, I could see myself living there. Sage broccoli might be there (though she has her heart set elsewhere), which would be a definite plus. Oh, and they are not homophobic over there. Plus it sounds far far more exciting than living in Wisconsin or Minnesota, though I realize beggars can't be choosers, and to be fair, I have never been to Minnesota.

But two of the schools I might apply to in the Boston/Cambridge area are the top two schools in despotic regime study where my chances of getting in are very slim (perhaps nonexistent), and the third school--well, is not one of my top choices for despotic regime study.

If I have no chance of getting in, I don't know why I need to invest time and money on applying, but one of my advisors, when he saw me cross these schools off my list, said, "Well, you probably won't get in, but you should still apply, because your file is competitive enough that it will get read. It's just that given how long you've been out of school, and given how competitive it is, your chances aren't too good.You should apply with the expectation of not getting in." (Note to others considering grad school: don't wait till you're 40.)

I guess appreciate his honesty, though maybe it's better to know for sure that I shouldn't bother applying to x school and just spare myself the time/trouble/anguish. The process would be far more efficient that way, and it would reduce the amount of false hope I might harbor.

On the other hand, I guess you just never know. Pigs might start to fly. (If I sound a little negative, it's b/c I've been a bit frustrated/brain dead/tired, etc. by this whole process.) Oh yeah, and the first time I applied to grad schools, I got into all of my reach schools (except Harvard, which evidently found me so worthless they sent me two rejection letters) , and got rejected from all of my "safety" schools. So I should probably heed that lesson and "just apply", so long as I do it and not expect to get in. But bah. Where's the fun in that?