She resurfaces
Yeah, I had kind of a horrifically stressful term. I passed and can move on, and that's all that matters. I'm gonna sum up with some bullet points:
--School: I just finished the "Methods" sequence for my degree. It's widely considered the hardest, with four hours in class every week and an order of magnitude more outside of class. Next term, I'm going to have to do a fairly heavy load as well, but after that, I'll only have to do half-time at school in order to graduate next spring. So there's that. Also, I don't have to take Japanese anymore, which is great, because I truly hated the Japanese program. Love the language, wish they'd ditch their hasn't-been-updated-since-the-'80s curriculum
--Work: This was the cool part, even though I had to ration my time carefully. Last fall, I got invited to be a TA for a first-year civil engineering course. Why? Because some three quarters of the class was ESL (mostly Arabic speakers, with a heaping scoop of Brazilians and a sprinkle of other ethnicities as well). The prof needed someone who could help them with their writing, and some blessed person in the Applied Linguistics office was impressed enough with my writing that they recommended me. It was actually a lot of fun, even if it meant a heaping load of grading some nights and weekends.
--Movies: I've managed to see a few recently. My impressions, in yet more bullet points:
---Avengers: Age of Ultron: Good fun. Not brilliant, but a lot of good fun, and that's all I ever asked of it.
---Mad Max: Fury Road: I loved this one! I do hope the director's style catches on, because it was a big, gorgeous, fabulously overblown action movie that used CGI wisely. (Sorry, Avengers, but that opening sequence looked like a video game.) I also loved the fact that everyone, even in the midst of all that action, got their own personalities. Nicholas Hoult just about stole the show for me. He somehow managed to play a violently fanatical follower of a complete psychotic who was also, in some ways, an innocent little boy. What with the two leads being stoic, silent types, I guess you had to have someone along for the ride who was on the wild-eyed side.
---Snatch: Reader, I howled. I'm going to have to watch more Guy Ritchie movies, because this one was a scream.
---Big Hero 6: Really very fun and adorable.
--I also read the book The Martian, which was great, and I'm looking forward to the movie this fall. It looks fairly faithful to the book, from the trailer, and I like Matt Damon. I do question the casting of Chewitel Ejiofor as Venkat Kapoor, though. I mean, yes, Chewy should be cast in everything, absolutely. But as an Indian character? Was Naveen Andrews busy or something? I'm sure he'll do great in the role, but seriously, brown people are not interchangeable, Hollywood.
So, anyway, yeah. I'm hoping to get a summer job that brings in a little cash for fall, and I don't intend to even think about school until then.
--School: I just finished the "Methods" sequence for my degree. It's widely considered the hardest, with four hours in class every week and an order of magnitude more outside of class. Next term, I'm going to have to do a fairly heavy load as well, but after that, I'll only have to do half-time at school in order to graduate next spring. So there's that. Also, I don't have to take Japanese anymore, which is great, because I truly hated the Japanese program. Love the language, wish they'd ditch their hasn't-been-updated-since-the-'80s curriculum
--Work: This was the cool part, even though I had to ration my time carefully. Last fall, I got invited to be a TA for a first-year civil engineering course. Why? Because some three quarters of the class was ESL (mostly Arabic speakers, with a heaping scoop of Brazilians and a sprinkle of other ethnicities as well). The prof needed someone who could help them with their writing, and some blessed person in the Applied Linguistics office was impressed enough with my writing that they recommended me. It was actually a lot of fun, even if it meant a heaping load of grading some nights and weekends.
--Movies: I've managed to see a few recently. My impressions, in yet more bullet points:
---Avengers: Age of Ultron: Good fun. Not brilliant, but a lot of good fun, and that's all I ever asked of it.
---Mad Max: Fury Road: I loved this one! I do hope the director's style catches on, because it was a big, gorgeous, fabulously overblown action movie that used CGI wisely. (Sorry, Avengers, but that opening sequence looked like a video game.) I also loved the fact that everyone, even in the midst of all that action, got their own personalities. Nicholas Hoult just about stole the show for me. He somehow managed to play a violently fanatical follower of a complete psychotic who was also, in some ways, an innocent little boy. What with the two leads being stoic, silent types, I guess you had to have someone along for the ride who was on the wild-eyed side.
---Snatch: Reader, I howled. I'm going to have to watch more Guy Ritchie movies, because this one was a scream.
---Big Hero 6: Really very fun and adorable.
--I also read the book The Martian, which was great, and I'm looking forward to the movie this fall. It looks fairly faithful to the book, from the trailer, and I like Matt Damon. I do question the casting of Chewitel Ejiofor as Venkat Kapoor, though. I mean, yes, Chewy should be cast in everything, absolutely. But as an Indian character? Was Naveen Andrews busy or something? I'm sure he'll do great in the role, but seriously, brown people are not interchangeable, Hollywood.
So, anyway, yeah. I'm hoping to get a summer job that brings in a little cash for fall, and I don't intend to even think about school until then.