All work and all play makes me a cheerful grad student

Two weeks left! This morning has been enlivened by some reading aloud of choice bits of At Swim-Two-Birds (on my list, I will observe, though it's hard to claim that anything so entertaining can be called work, as such), each while the other completes his or her morning routine. It is an excellent book for the purpose, being so lively and deranged. Just now I have been reading some of the conversation between the pooka MacPhellimey and the Good Fairy ("My correct name is Good Fairy, said the Good Fairy. I am a good fairy.") and putting on a misbegotten Irish accent and generally getting the day off to a fine start.

I also cornered S. as he was doing his email and rattled off a paragraph or so about the genre of The Secret Agent and another about an article about the symbiotic relationship between detective fiction and aesthetic modernism, which he sat through very politely. The closer I get to the exam day, the more of a terrible bore I become, I'm afraid. Soon I will be entirely unfit for normal conversation, as everything becomes an opportunity to spout off something to do with my reading. So beware, anyone who might encounter me in real life for the next couple of weeks.

Finally: Look here, it's another exam log. Elizabeth Tsukahara is preparing for her Ph.D. comprehensive exams in English at The University of Iowa. I look forward to reading it. Byt he way, I thoroughly recommend this process to anyone doing this kind of preparation; I've found it very helpful myself, not only as a spur to organize and articulate my thoughts -- which it certainly has been -- but also as a convenient repository for those thoughts for later reference. I think I'll be wanting to refer back to this log well after my exams are over.

Speaking of which, I'm wondering what would be the best approach to organizing the site once the exams are over and I want to continue this log as a prospectus log and dissertation log. Should I keep this site intact and make a new, similarly organized section of stuttercut for dissertating, or change my headings and sidebar to reflect the changes in my focus? Suggestions from the peanut gallery are more than welcome.

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