[expansive hand gestures]
I feel like a broken record, reiterating my perpetual lousiness at keeping up with things and how I hate myself for it (and promising to keep up and then... not), but one quick thing that I've been flailing over since I found it a half hour ago: here.
wow, that made me laugh. this guy is unbelievable!
and then think, seriously, who does that? who goes out of their way to do that for someone they've never met?
kinda blows my mind.
in school news (halfway through the semester)!
first off, the last month and a half has possibly been the most esteem demolishingly difficult of my comparatively comfortable life so far. I have never wanted to quit so badly! that said, classes:
linguistic structure of japanese: is hard! and practically inscrutable to me, such that, while sitting in class I try to find ways to apply the things I'm supposed to be learning to everyday conversation ("Man, that configurationality debate for word order variation in Japanese is totally resolved by the x-bar schema, come on.") and fail, miserably. which has lead me to believe that this is a topic that is, ultimately, useless in regard to me and the majority of the world. and I have to write a 12 page paper and give a 15 minute presentation about some aspect of it. fantastic!
intro to fiction: is less about an introduction to fiction than ripping through literature at blazing speed. I like the class discussion, but reading One Hundred Years of Solitude in four days is like. well. it's crazy-making. and everything we've read so far has been heavy, hopeless, or dark. welcome to the canon, y'all, don't let the door hit -- oh well.
introduction to the american south: is frustrating. I fought like a confident, self-entitled fighting thing to get into this class, because I sat in and then had to take it for I was full of love, and it is interesting, in spaces, but. there are just so many feeeeelings in everything, and half of the terminology taught smacks of "this is a simple concept that I made up a needlessly complex name and definition for so I could justify my PhD." which, I don't know, makes me grumpy.
yoga/pilates: is great! and also at 8 am. which is decidedly not great. not even a little bit.
introduction to nabakov: is hmm. took this because I read Lolita once, and liked it. now I experience brief moments of shattering awe at this man's brilliance which are soon followed by obliterating IRRITATION. why you gotta make everything so wondrously excoriating, nabokov? and why you gotta be so smug about it? I know I'm an imperceptive, blunt moron, but you don't have to smear it in my face all the damn time. also, this is possibly my favorite class.
nihongo: even when I hate japanese, I don't. I am miserable at this language, terrified of being dropped off for four months 5000 miles away from everything I've lived in for the last twenty years, bitter about my clumsy attempts to improve, doubtful at my ability to ever become proficient, much less fluent, and unsure that I will continue to enjoy it enough to try. but I'm still taking it, planning to spend the next semester in japan, in spite of my misgivings and the unshakable fear that I am going to be eaten alive. so, er, I guess that's something!
ah, this went on waaaay longer than I intended. but that's all of it!
wow, that made me laugh. this guy is unbelievable!
and then think, seriously, who does that? who goes out of their way to do that for someone they've never met?
kinda blows my mind.
in school news (halfway through the semester)!
first off, the last month and a half has possibly been the most esteem demolishingly difficult of my comparatively comfortable life so far. I have never wanted to quit so badly! that said, classes:
linguistic structure of japanese: is hard! and practically inscrutable to me, such that, while sitting in class I try to find ways to apply the things I'm supposed to be learning to everyday conversation ("Man, that configurationality debate for word order variation in Japanese is totally resolved by the x-bar schema, come on.") and fail, miserably. which has lead me to believe that this is a topic that is, ultimately, useless in regard to me and the majority of the world. and I have to write a 12 page paper and give a 15 minute presentation about some aspect of it. fantastic!
intro to fiction: is less about an introduction to fiction than ripping through literature at blazing speed. I like the class discussion, but reading One Hundred Years of Solitude in four days is like. well. it's crazy-making. and everything we've read so far has been heavy, hopeless, or dark. welcome to the canon, y'all, don't let the door hit -- oh well.
introduction to the american south: is frustrating. I fought like a confident, self-entitled fighting thing to get into this class, because I sat in and then had to take it for I was full of love, and it is interesting, in spaces, but. there are just so many feeeeelings in everything, and half of the terminology taught smacks of "this is a simple concept that I made up a needlessly complex name and definition for so I could justify my PhD." which, I don't know, makes me grumpy.
yoga/pilates: is great! and also at 8 am. which is decidedly not great. not even a little bit.
introduction to nabakov: is hmm. took this because I read Lolita once, and liked it. now I experience brief moments of shattering awe at this man's brilliance which are soon followed by obliterating IRRITATION. why you gotta make everything so wondrously excoriating, nabokov? and why you gotta be so smug about it? I know I'm an imperceptive, blunt moron, but you don't have to smear it in my face all the damn time. also, this is possibly my favorite class.
nihongo: even when I hate japanese, I don't. I am miserable at this language, terrified of being dropped off for four months 5000 miles away from everything I've lived in for the last twenty years, bitter about my clumsy attempts to improve, doubtful at my ability to ever become proficient, much less fluent, and unsure that I will continue to enjoy it enough to try. but I'm still taking it, planning to spend the next semester in japan, in spite of my misgivings and the unshakable fear that I am going to be eaten alive. so, er, I guess that's something!
ah, this went on waaaay longer than I intended. but that's all of it!