Half of the Brain :
the place all those random thoughts that flit through my head each day go to die

AND they wrote like girls...

in case you were wondering, the concept behind gender genie -- that female writing is in essence quantifiably different from male writing-- isn't a new one. I don't have the time or energy "write" now to engage the qualitative questions that such quantitative differences might imply, but alas, those too are questions for the ages.

todays texts all are about epistolarity: here's a snippet from the introduction to Elizabeth Goldsmith's collection of essays Writing the Female Voice

“To publish a woman’s letters, even if the purpose of publication was to praise female epistolary style, was in some way to violate her personal integrity. Published epistolary writing by women was therefore rarely signed, and was often in fact produced by male writers “imitating” the way women wrote. Publishers were quick to recognize the easy marketability of a woman’s private correspondence, and ultimately of a literary genre based on women’s letters. By the eighteenth century the practice of male authors appropriating the female voice in their fictions had become a popular and innovative narrative ploy. "
(Goldsmith vii)

score one for synchronicity!

I write like a boy!

Is it still the case in Junior High that the ultimate insult you can sling at one of your male buddies is "you [insert verb here] like a girl"?

In any case it's official: According to gender genie (thanks unfogged for the link) I write like a boy. Blog posts, e-mails to friends, academic work, snippets of fiction... most of my prose is masculine in its character.

hmmmmmm.... what would be the freudian application of this revelation? Or is this a linguistic betrayal of my feminist roots-- may they not run as deep?.

The Blogroll...

last week I went ahead and blogrolled all the public blogs I read on a regular basis. I'm a lurker by nature (usually don't pipe-up on listserves, rarely leave comments on sites) but set up the blogroll for two reasons: It's an easy way to let those folks whose blogs I enjoy know that, yep, I read them on a regular basis. Also, since none of us-- even the lurkers-- live in a vacuum the blogs I read help to contextualize the half of the brain I blog about.

for what it's worth I read X because Y:

I read unfogged because "unf" and "ogged" was a joint blogging conceit I couldn't resist, it points me to lots of interesting news stories and websites that don't show up on the boilerplate reporting services.

I read the Inn, Crabby, and Mute, because in their own unique ways these blogs show real women living real lives while caring for their families, their careers, and themselves. K and C have shown me that Motherhood is by far the most difficult as well as rewarding thing one can do and I appreciate these women's perspectives on the same.

I read Rabid and Life in the Mystery, well, because on my list of "things I'd like to do one day" is to get an MLS.

I read Rants from Japan and Japan Sucks because live in Japan is on the list of "things I WILL DO one day"

I read Leylop because I learn more about China from her than I could from most other sources and because she makes me wonder if I'll ever be that fluent in a foreign language. I also enjoy the perspectives college twentysomethings have to offer, which is the same reason I read Dang it -- well that and because the Christian voice that's politically and socially moderate is far too easily overwhelmed by the ultra-conservative religious right. (And I must admit it does my heart good to know that not all students coming out of schools like LU buy the party-line).

I read Invisible Adjunct, Frolic, Frogs, Household, and Kitchen, because in their own ways they are all commentaries on academia. For all those who have given up, there are still those that persevere (and then there are those like me who findthemselves somewhere in-between).

and another useless post

the insomnia continues....
yep I know it's not late yet but why should tonight be any different from the rest of the past two weeks. I'm stuck in this odd pattern of up reading 'till 3 or 4. Back up with D at 7:00 napping until 10 but then being so sluggish during the day that I get very little done. You'd think eventually I'd just exhaust myself.

my brain, though, is ceasing to function adequately. I've gotten 0 writing done, most of reading notes are so sparse as to be useless, and of course I've had nothing half way intelligent to blog about. It's a sad sad day when I can't even find some movie to yammer about . Speaking of movies . . .Identity was at the dollar theatre this week, but I didn't get to see it and then it left. So, it's still on my wanna see list.

Been selling quite abit this week on Amazon Marketplace. I'll need to decide how many of the unsold books I want to cart with us when we leave here, and I'm tiring quickly of the frequent trips to the PO, but a little extra cash is a little extra cash regardlesss of how you look it.

I've also been inspired this week to clean out my closet-- I guess since I'm wearing such a limited wardrobe now it makes it easier to ditch all the stuff that I've been hanging onto thinking I might fit into again while it was still stylish. And then I'm just ditching everthing that's out of date-- you know pants with pleats, uber tapered legs, high waisted and all the skirts that don't hit at the right place.