happy new year: burning the furniture for warmth

[faeriemaiden]

I find it faintly disturbing that my very first post of the new year was a frantic cry for academic help. Well, hopefully it is prophetic of the Year to Come -- the academia bit, I mean, not the frantic cry for help. Anyway, it turns out that essays are really fun!, especially when they're simultaneously very fannish and very academic. In fact,

Comments

[burningstarsxe]

Did you submit reading lists? Those are academic-ish and when they come from the likes of you, they look VERY impressive. High schoolers do pretty much no reading whatsoever, and when one is reading college level and up books (fiction counts just as much as non-fiction, especially when it's Classic Literature and such), it's even better. The sheer amount of books makes it look impressive. I submitted my reading list, including poetry (I put down everything I've read over the past four years, pretty much, discounting only the ones which were obviously easy reading

[faeriemaiden]

Well, Hampshire asked for books I had read recently, of which there was a very academic and geeky array (including some v. scholarly non-fiction and Harry Potter ^-^), and I haven't finished my Emerson application yet... How do you format a reading list, and what sort of stuff would you put on it? I haven't kept a particularly comprehensive list of what I've read... :/

Yes, I quite liked a lot of his older episodes, although they've rarely been my favourites. I think I really started to dislike him around 'Love & Monsters', which started out cute and funny and then just turned bizarre and depressing and kind of gross and juvenile. Plus he is far, far too fond of himself. :P

[burningstarsxe]

Well, for mine I put pretty much everything I could think of, including things that I didn't technically read in high school but that were at an appropriate reading level (including Socrates' Apology, as transcribed by Plato -_^). Since we have a bunch of books that I read when we were pseudo-doing Tapestry of Grace and Sonlight, I looked at the book lists for those curriculums and put on every book that I'd read that was high school level and up. The only formatting I did with mine was to list the books and author (I put them in alphabetical order by author, then title), with 'High School Reading List' at the top, then the name of my school (St. Nicholas Academy Home School), and my full name and date of birth for filing/ID purposes.

I think that is part of why Davies has gotten so ridiculous. He is exceedingly self indulgent with his writing. :P

[tobie_rosemary]

Yeeeah, I won't miss RTD either. Although I think Who has always been a sort of "concentrated whiplash," even back in the classic days, because it's always been written by different people, some better than others.

Good luck on Emerson!

[pearlessence]

Anyway, it turns out that essays are really fun!

Aren't they, though? I love essays. :D I am a nerd of the greatest kind, I know, but essays are truly lovely things. There is something delicious about the order and clarity that essays bring, isn't there?

Be glad your cinema is not like mine. Here, they pat you down/check your personal belongings/will throw you out like the worthless street urchin you are if you bring your own snacks. D: (So I have become adept at hiding Starbucks cups within my clothing. It works, for the most part...as long as there are no small children nearby.)

If the deadlines are in January, you should hear back from the universities around March/early spring...it usually takes about a month and a half to receive a response. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you -- best of luck!

[faeriemaiden]

My brain is so ridiculously disorganised (sort of like my bedroom) that forcing all of my spewing thoughts into several well-ordered paragraphs is such a relief at the end: I can look at it and it's all clean and neat and even.

I DID NOT KNOW THERE WERE CINEMAS LIKE THAT IN THE WORLD. I have been smuggling in food for years! My father brought a whole egg carton full of cookies in once! (I have no idea why he put the cookies in an egg carton. None at all.) Of course, he also DROPPED A SANDWICH somewhere in a cinema once, and we never found it...

ARGHLEBLARGHBLARGH. The Common Application people should send you some sort of survival kit when you've submitted your essays, consisting largely of chocolate, Oreos, books and/or television shows with many episodes with which to while away the lonely months, and probably a small furry animal of your choice.

[pearlessence]

Yes! And you know, you really know, that even if everything else in the world is a wretched muddle, at least this sparkling essay is clean and organized. And there is something very comforting in that.

IT IS RATHER TERRIFYING. I am envious of your smuggling skills! You'd probably be juuuust fine in the scary, hardxcore cinemas down here. I am also rather in love with the idea of using an egg carton to bring in cookies -- you know you can bring in at least twelve, so it seems like a good choice! If your dad's sandwich disappeared entirely, I'm going to start harboring suspicions that the cinemas are actually sentient beings who are eternally hungry. >.>

I second this notion! It's the least they can do, really. They've got to realize that all we're going to be doing for the subsequent months is fret, fret, fret. And seeing as we went through the trouble of a) taking all those lovely standardized tests (whee) b) scouring our brains to write the best essays possible c) paid the application fee, this type of appreciation

[claireobscure]

Oh, I really-truly love the exclamation of "THE PLAGUE?" so much. That is giggle-inducing and I think I might have to steal it. :D

(I immediately thought, "DOES THE INTERNET STILL WORK?!" and then remembered that the internet is not powered by water.)
HEE. Also, and why not? Perhaps it ought to be!

Eeek, not having hot water is one of the worst things ever. Not being able to shower, ugh.

Oooooh, if you ended up going to Emerson I could come visit you and take you out for coffee! :D And honestly? I think your essays are wonderful, and that you won't have an issue getting into any college you wish.

[faeriemaiden]

I had to think of an emphatic alternative to "hell" and "heck" ("heck" is so slangy and American! :P), and I may have actually lifted "plague" from a fantasy novel, but I am no longer sure. <.I am not even one of those people who showers every day! *watches in dismay as entire flist backs away* But I have a lot of hair, and very bad skin, so when I do not bathe properly it is very obvious to everyone. (Also, OW.) And my hands are always frozen in the winter; I usually take care of this by running very hot water over them for a few minutes. Siiiigh. Oh well, we have a shiny new water heater now, and I was the first to use it this afternoon

[tempestsarekind]

FUTURE WIKIPEDIA SAYS YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

Is it wrong that I kind of want that on a t-shirt? :)

I agree about RTD, especially this bit: "I miss the show that used to make me excited and creative after an episode, instead of frustrated, drained, and occasionally angry." My whole recent fascination with time travel is due to this show (well, and too many readings of Charlotte Sometimes and The Devil's Arithmetic as a child), but I find myself so frustrated lately by how little of that magic the show is tapping into.

In other news, practically half my flist is really making me want to see Sherlock Holmes, when my previous reaction was vague bemusement and a sense that I really ought to get around to reading some Holmes stories, one of these days...

[faeriemaiden]

Ah yes, I also fell in love with time travel, Time itself, alternate universes, and such magical mind-bendy things thanks to Doctor Who also! (And possibly a little of A Swiftly Tilting Planet. Ooh, The Devil's Arithemtic!; I, too, read that many times as a child, and it pleases me to know that Jane Yolen is even more a force for literary awesome in the world than I had suspected as a child.) And yes -- the show now isn't even something I would tune into if I didn't have the background of previously loving it. It's silly and juvenile -- which makes the nihilistic fatalism even weirder and more jarring -- and doesn't excite me with fascinating ideas. And it isn't even pretty to make up for it! Hmph! I can forgive perhaps too many things in favour of pretty cinematography.

Re. Sherlock Holmes, it is tremendously fun! And pretty and clever and, um, amply supplied with eye-candy (for both the fangirl and the costume geek in me, actually; mmm, Watson's slightly rounded collars...WHAT?), and while I am sure it has got faults somewhere it

[tempestsarekind]

A Swiftly Tilting Planet! I definitely should have included that in the previous comment; I read that book every Christmas holiday for years.

It's silly and juvenile -- which makes the nihilistic fatalism even weirder and more jarring

Yes! Humans are wonderful...except for the part where we apparently all go mad and turn into floating metal balls, and then go back in time and start killing our ancestors. Now that's a future to look forward to--except maybe I wasn't supposed to notice, because of the cameos from famous people and the Master's evil dance party?

Also, there is nothing wrong with fangirling slightly rounded Victorian collars. :)