It. Is. DONE! To graduate with a Master’s in experimental composition this year, I had to both compose a piece of music and write a really heavy analytical paper. The composition was done earlier in the semester, written for and performed by the wonderfulsuperamazing Talujon Percussion Quartet, so all I needed to do for that was cut together the documentation for the performance – easy! The paper was a whole different story.

I’ve been a very unpleasant human being to be around for the past several months because of this paper. It’s not that long, only 25 pages, but it’s probably the most thoroughly researched piece of writing I’ve ever done, and I’ve seriously been run through the ringer over it. It pretty much liquefied my brain…but as of last Thursday, it is DONE. It is difficult to explain the feeling of lightness and freedom I feel, despite the 8 million things that need to be done. There were times during this paper ordeal where I honestly wasn’t sure I could make it through, didn’t think I’d be able to graduate at all, much less get out of here with sanity intact. I still have to wait and see if the committee wants me to make any revisions, but I won’t hear about that for several days at least, more likely several weeks. As long as their revisions don’t involve completely rewriting half of the paper, everything’ll be shiny.

So, what’s next? Well, most interesting to those who read this blog is the fact that Ph.Dead is being turned into the branding for my forthcoming craft shop. I’ve decided to start selling some of my art and crafts to fund my next degree (which I’ll post about soon). I don’t want to go into too much detail right away because I’m still working some things out, but there’ll be lots of news about it in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I’m just trying to catch up on everything that was horribly neglected during my paper writing frenzy – swaps, housework, grading assignments, everything! I’m sure I’ll come out the other side soon enough.

Until then! *wave*

Filed under: Grad Schooling, University of Virginia, home life by Megan
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I love it when multiple areas of geekery collide. It’s a beautiful thing. Geekologie is a blog that often features such rare and beautiful occurrences, but this one really caught my attention: Manga Farming. No, really. Like, growing plants. With Manga.

“Tokyo-based artist Koshi Kawachi recently demonstrated his “Manga Farming” technique — which uses old manga as a growing medium for vegetables — by cultivating a crop of radish sprouts in an installation at the Matsuzakaya department store in Nagoya.” – Geekologie

More than just an interesting way of recycling old manga, these pieces really work as a beautiful installation. The patterns of the roots growing onto the pages are intricate and fascinating, and I can see myself referring back to these photos for inspiration for my own work. Though the veggie gardener in me knows that these radish sprouts won’t survive to produce a real root crop without careful transplanting, I’m still fascinated by the ability of nature to thrive under any conditions. Check out the photos below and be amazed:

See, even the kids are fascinated!

See yet more pictures at the original source, a post over at Pink Tentacle.

Filed under: Crafting, Gardening, Geekery, Readables by Megan
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Soon after joining swap-bot, I discovered ATCs. And soon after becoming compulsive about making ATCs, I felt the inescapable tug to make everything I love in life into a tiny piece of art. The only question was which of my obsessions would be the first to become an epic ATC swap!

Science fiction television shows won. I have never in my life tried to deny being an immense nerd.

I’ve just posted the third installment of the SciFi TV ATC Series, this one focusing on the show that got me into my first big online fandom: Farscape. This show had it all – seriously campy special effects, blue people, an entire cast of people in leather, a very disturbing villain, chicks with very large weapons, and MUPPETS. Come on, Jim-freaking-Henson! There is no way to not love this. My favorite character was definitely Pilot, the biggest and most complicated puppet made for the show. Though his screen time got shafted in seasons 3 and 4, I loved learning about his biological and mental/emotional relationship to the living spaceship Moya and the DRDs (which I adore). I recently watched this show from beginning to end, thinking it would be a lot worse than my idealized memory of it…but surprisingly enough, it was better. That really says something.

Farscape also had one of the most loyal and active fandoms I’ve ever been in. No, it’s not as large as the Harry Potter or Star Wars fandom, but Farscape fans had some serious heart. Female fans mailed in their bras in protest of the show’s cancellation (the “BraScape” campaign), showered the show’s creators with cards and gifts, and were generally some of the most supportive and friendly internet goers I’ve ever encountered – and I’m pretty serious about my online communities. I really miss this fandom and this show, so this particular swap is a bit of nostalgic awesomeness for me. Hopefully my fellow swappers will enjoy it, too! I’m eager to see how many Farscape fans are out there, lurking in the shadows with their knitting needles and qualta blades. >D

The first two shows to kick off this ATC series were, of course, Doctor Who and Firefly/Serenity. Future swaps will feature Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, Babylon 5, Quantum Leap, and more. I’ll also host a make-up swap at the end for anyone who missed out on the fun. Hell, maybe I’ll just run the whole thing a second time! I certainly wouldn’t say no to twice the number of the SciFi ATCs!

But maybe that’s just me and my extreme geekery coming through, as usual. Happy swapping!

Filed under: Crafting, Geekery by Megan
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You know, if they were to make an action figure of me. Because my karate chopping action would be weaksauce.

So, I’ve decided to have a self-imposed lock-in this weekend. Friday-Saturday-Sunday, no leaving the house except to walk the dog. Paper is due on Thursday the 15th, so this is seriously necessary.

But, I have a chart! In fact, I have a lot of awesome charts, graphs, and figures. And citations. And outlines. And notes. Just…lacking in actual writing.

You’d figure that one in my situation would be churning out some serious paragraphs today. And I have! Some. But I’ve also made this great list of everything I’m going to do once I’m finished with this paper. You know, for motivation.

Things to do when Paper From Hell is finished:
- Finish Mass Effect 2
- Wear skirt and tank top, frolic about
- Get haircut, possibly shave head
- Get garden plot ready…finally
- Plant seeds
- Craft like craaaazy
- Catch up on swaps
- Go to the art store on Main St. (buy canvas, watercolor paper, embossing powder, heat gun)
- Return all checked out books/CDs/scores to library (very freeing!)
- Put away winter clothes
- Begin designing website for selling crafts
- Clean up office desk
- Fully unpack (from moving last June!) and clean out closets
- Dance in the middle of the street (possibly with minimal clothing)
- …find a job.

The list is constantly growing; in fact, it seems that every time I get stuck while writing, a new item or two gets added!

Man, I’m so awesome at procrastinating. There should be awards for this shit.

Filed under: Grad Schooling, University of Virginia by Megan
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Here we go, Geeky ATCs, part 1…of 8,000,000 or so, I’m sure. Despite my [ongoing, very bloody, high casualty] war with my final Master’s paper at UVa, I found made the time to throw together a new ATC for a Video Game Lover’s package swap. The catch? My partner plays World of Warcraft…Horde faction. (If this is getting too deep into geekdom for you, feel free to skip to the ATC itself!) Personally, I played WoW for a little over three years…Alliance faction. I was never a huge factionist, but to sit down and devote time and creativity to something Horde-themed took a little bit of geek pride swallowing. I gotta say, I had a lot of fun rubbing that black ink pad all over the card, even if I did leave fingerprints on everything for the next 10 minutes.

The irony of this? When my partner rated me for the swap, she said she loved everything but was terribly amused because just that week she had faction changed her toons to Alliance for better raiding. *…headdesk*

Now, this next ATC really lights my geek fire. The group Geek Swap Central on swap-bot held an 8-bit ATC swap last month, and I joined the second I saw it. I saw that my partner had a lot of the same sci-fi-related interests as me, but no listed interest in 8-bit games! This gave me an interesting challenge. Through extensive googling, I found a little 8-bit sprite of Han Solo, one of her listed ‘favorite characters ever’…and one of mine, too. After a little resizing in Adobe Illustrator, he was ATC sized and ready to be cut out [very, very slowly with an Xacto knife]. I waffled on what to do for the background for a long time and finally decided to cut out some oversized “pixels” from magazines I had laying around. A bit of metallic pen and an obligatory Star Wars quote later, I had the following ATC:

Okay, so I can’t cut a straight line to save my life. I’m working on it!

The first of many severely geeky ATCs. More to come.

EDIT: Okay, so I just saw this fantastic video and it goes with the 8-bit theme, therefore you must see it too! New York Hit by 8-bit Bomb.

Filed under: Crafting, Geekery by Megan
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It’s very rare that a meeting with my advisor results in me feeling less stressed. Yesterday, this miraculous event took place. Unfortunately, it was because the lead up to the meeting had driven me well and truly insane to the point of being non-functional as a human being – so really, nowhere else to go but up.

The short story is that last week I sent my advisor the outline and summary of my research for my “second year paper”, the not-quite-thesis that is required for me to graduate with a Master’s degree this year. He responded exactly when he said he would…to say “let’s talk about it in four days!” I was not thrilled, because that essentially meant I couldn’t do shit on the paper for four days. I finally got some e-mailed comments back (4 days later, as promised), and it was like he had only looked at my data and ignored the outline. He said that several things were missing (that were right there in the outline) – essentially saying that I still had a lot more research to do. I freaked, because I really felt like I had done a thorough job and had pulled everything I could out of the opera excerpt I’m studying. Where was I going to get more material, other than picking another section to go over and having to do all my analysis over again? MAJOR PANIC MODE. I was not a fun person to be around for those few days.

So, I tried to schedule the meeting we had said we would have. He only comes to campus on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so Monday and Tuesday was out (ARRRG!). Finally got the meeting scheduled for Wednesday evening, and by this point I was about to snap. I was raging angry, stressed beyond belief, and ready to blow up and shout from the rooftops every horrible thing about this place. It had been almost a week since I sent off that outline, a week of hanging in limbo, unable to get started on the paper. The deadline ticked ever closer and I was helpless.

Of course, my advisor has a very calming demeanor (unusual for one so highly caffeinated), so I managed not to blow up when the meeting first began. As the meeting went on, it became more and more clear that I was not going to die. My research actually had covered pretty much everything, I just needed to add a few little things from the book that should be arriving any day now seriously come on arg. It was a far cry from what the e-mail expressed, but I think that was a combination of him not really reading the outline and not knowing the piece of music I’m studying.

I’m still angry in the back of my head for having been put through six days of sheer hell and emotional fucked-upness, but when it comes down to it the overwhelming emotion is relief. I can start writing now. I have control over the situation again, I don’t have to wait on anyone else. The responsibility for me getting to graduate or not is back in my hands, and that’s a huge freaking relief.

Of course, now I have to start writing.

Tick, tock.

Filed under: Grad Schooling, University of Virginia by Megan
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Most of the ATCs I make are for themed swaps on swap-bot. This series came out of the Four Seasons ATC Swap hosted by Pronkbeth. The task was exactly what you would expect: make an ATC for each season featuring the aspect of that season that excites you most. Since I grew up in Florida, the land of no seasons, the simplest things about the seasons are magical and fascinating to me. Snow in Winter, changing leaves in Autumn, flowering trees and bulbs in spring – we didn’t really have any of those things in Florida, not even the flowers. Moving to Virginia has allowed me to experience all the seasons to their fullest – even the snow, thanks to this year’s round of blizzards. My amazement at the changing seasons compelled me to sign up for this swap, despite the quick turn around time.

I used some pretty varied materials across these four cards. These cards were my first usage of water colors in ATCs; you’ll see more effective use in future posts, but they worked quite well for the summer ATC. I used a lot of ribbon and dictionary definitions, too. The oddest material I used was the leftover foil wrapping from a chocolate snowman I received this past winter. The foil can be seen on both the Winter and Spring ATCs. I thought it gave a nice visual texture and reflected the light nicely, though I was constantly paranoid about ripping it.

All in all, I was pretty proud of these ATCs. I think the Autumn one is definitely the weak link, but it’s okay. I’m quite happy with the composition for all but Autumn, so I figure 3 out of 4 isn’t so bad. Anyway, on to the ATCs:

(click to enlarge)

Filed under: Crafting by Megan
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Since joining swap-bot.com in late January, I’ve become obsessed with making and swapping Artist Trading Cards. I had never heard of them before, but the concept fascinated me. Little did I know that it would become an addiction.

Artist Trading Cards are tiny pieces of art. There are only two rules to making them: They must be 2.5 x 3.5 inches (or 64x89mm, the size of a baseball card), and they must only be swapped or given away – never sold (though there are sellable versions called ACEOs, but those are for another post). They can be drawn, painted, collaged, mixed media, altered art, whatever. Sometimes they are created for a specific theme (as is usually the case on swap-bot). They can be made in editions, in which several copies of the same card are made and numbered, or in series, in which the artist makes several unique cards based on a theme. On the back of the card, you’ll find the artist’s name, contact information, the name of the piece, and the date. The card should be of sufficient thickness to survive mailing and should be able to fit inside a standard trading card sleeve.

I prefer to use mixed media or collage techniques in most of my cards. I love using watercolors, cardstock, ribbon or twine, random bits of food or product packaging, rubber stamps, maagazine cutouts, scraps, and much more. I also occasionally hand draw my ATCs, but I’m much too self-conscious about my (lack of) drawing abilities to do it too often.

The hardest part about making ATCs is letting them go once they’re finished. Sending away something you’ve worked very hard on is difficult, especially when it’s very probable that you’ll get something in return that hasn’t had as much effort put in. When I think of the people I’ve tailored the cards to, though, of the cards going all over the world, it’s suddenly a lot easier. I always try to make my cards something that the recipient will enjoy.

Still, I’m obsessive about scanning my ATCs before I send them off, so I’ll be posting them here. The old ones will be up soon. I’m on a semi-break from making them at the moment since my Master’s paper is due in a few weeks, but as soon as I’m back at it I’ll be posting them as I send them.

For more about ATCs, check out this great primer by Joumana Medlej.

Filed under: Crafting by Megan
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Due to Master’s paper woes I don’t have time to write a full entry about this, but I wanted to acknowledge Ada Lovelace Day: “…an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.” As a woman in a technology-based (and thus male-dominated) field, I felt like I should at least mention this little known, recently made day of remembrance. And as a female computer musician, the women who first suggested using computers for musical purposes seems pretty awesome indeed.

From findingada.com:

“…Born Augusta Ada Byron, but now known simply as Ada Lovelace, she wrote the world’s first computer programmes for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine that Charles Babbage had invented.

Understanding that computers could do a lot more than just crunch numbers, Ada suggested that the Analytical Engine “might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.” She never had the chance to fully explore the possibilities of either Babbage’s inventions or her own understanding of computing. She died, aged only 36, on 27th November 1852, of cancer and bloodletting by her physicians.”

You can read more about Ada Lovelace Day and list your own blog entry at findingada.com.

Filed under: Geekery, technology by Megan
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I originally started Ph.Dead as a place for theraputic bitching about graduate school, teaching, and academia in general. Because of my overwhelmingly bad experience at the University of Virginia every post became loaded down with anger and negativity, and the end result was anything but theraputic. Ranting about everything that pissed me off only made me more pissed off. So, it’s time for a change.

Ph.Dead, rather than being about my trials and tribulations at the University of Virginia, will have the broader focus of my life-long (and possibly eternal) quest for a doctorate degree. This means the blog will no longer be just about school and teaching. Rather, it will incorporate everything that makes up my life: art, music, crafting, gaming, general nerding, and yes…stuff about whichever academic program I happen to be in at the time. It looks like I may becoming one of those lifelong Master’s degree collectors…but more on that later.

I’ll be going back and editing or deleting some of the more potent raging entries to purge this blog of its extreme negativity. New entries will be popping up once again, as well as some old ones I wrote a long time ago and never posted.

So, welcome to the new Ph.Dead, I suppose. Here’s hoping it’s a much better experience than the last version.

Filed under: Site News by Megan
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