Aaaaaaaaaagh!
*screeches*
After 12 hours of more or less constant reading (probably 9 to 10 hours of actual work interrupted by periodic breaks) I have determined two things.
1) Historians are unnecessarily verbose.
2) Petry was on crack when he wrote up the syllabus.
We have assignments that start in the middle of a section with no visible or logical explanation. Aaaagh! Also, Nikki Keddie is THE most verbose historian I have ever had the misfortune to read. I'm sooo looking forward to the soothing simplicity of reading Heyck's book once I finish up MME. But I got to the point where all I could do was skim, so I'm giving up for the night and will tackle it again tomorrow, but more selectively. The Cleveland book is immensely helpful, and Laqueur somewhat less so (I get so bogged down in the legal language of UN resolutions and constitutions of various organizations). Keddie's book is worthless because she can't organize for shit and she rambles forever when what she wants to say could be far more clearly and eloquently expressed in one-third the words. I haven't yet formed an opinion on Mottahedeh but I suspect I will skim it at best. Assuming I get started more or less as soon as I wake up tomorrow I should finish by, say, 10 tomorrow evening, and can then tackle the problem of the medieval stuff. That should be done by 10 pm Sunday, and I can then take on On Liberty and the Sillitoe novel before crashing out.
Medieval Europe exam is at 9 am on Monday, and as soon as I finish that it's off to the library to do some more quick reading for Modern Middle East (again with the selectivity, I'm primarily interested in the works on oil and its impact on the economy and society). Then I come home and organize my brain around the probable essays. I'm nearly certain there will be one on oil, and one on either the Israeli/Palestine conflict or on Pan-Arabism and Islam and how they both hold together and fragment the region. Then I tackle chapters of Heyck, as many as I can handle.
Modern Middle East exam is at noon on Tuesday, and then I will finish up the Heyck chapters and work out 4 of the 6 essays. Heyck's exam is at 9 am on Wednesday, and even assuming it takes me the full 2 hours to finish I then have a glorious 6 hours in which nothing is required of me but packing for spring break. Believe you me, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of that opportunity to breathe.
I feel compelled to go back to work, but I also want to sleep. I think I'll allow myself a very short bit of gaming in the form of Free Cell to relax, and be in bed by 2:30.
Funny how mono is making me get up earlier than normal. Then again I suppose I am going to sleep earlier, but still. I think I'm sleeping, on average, fewer hours per night.
Okay. A little bit of ice cream, my meds, free cell, and sleep!
After 12 hours of more or less constant reading (probably 9 to 10 hours of actual work interrupted by periodic breaks) I have determined two things.
1) Historians are unnecessarily verbose.
2) Petry was on crack when he wrote up the syllabus.
We have assignments that start in the middle of a section with no visible or logical explanation. Aaaagh! Also, Nikki Keddie is THE most verbose historian I have ever had the misfortune to read. I'm sooo looking forward to the soothing simplicity of reading Heyck's book once I finish up MME. But I got to the point where all I could do was skim, so I'm giving up for the night and will tackle it again tomorrow, but more selectively. The Cleveland book is immensely helpful, and Laqueur somewhat less so (I get so bogged down in the legal language of UN resolutions and constitutions of various organizations). Keddie's book is worthless because she can't organize for shit and she rambles forever when what she wants to say could be far more clearly and eloquently expressed in one-third the words. I haven't yet formed an opinion on Mottahedeh but I suspect I will skim it at best. Assuming I get started more or less as soon as I wake up tomorrow I should finish by, say, 10 tomorrow evening, and can then tackle the problem of the medieval stuff. That should be done by 10 pm Sunday, and I can then take on On Liberty and the Sillitoe novel before crashing out.
Medieval Europe exam is at 9 am on Monday, and as soon as I finish that it's off to the library to do some more quick reading for Modern Middle East (again with the selectivity, I'm primarily interested in the works on oil and its impact on the economy and society). Then I come home and organize my brain around the probable essays. I'm nearly certain there will be one on oil, and one on either the Israeli/Palestine conflict or on Pan-Arabism and Islam and how they both hold together and fragment the region. Then I tackle chapters of Heyck, as many as I can handle.
Modern Middle East exam is at noon on Tuesday, and then I will finish up the Heyck chapters and work out 4 of the 6 essays. Heyck's exam is at 9 am on Wednesday, and even assuming it takes me the full 2 hours to finish I then have a glorious 6 hours in which nothing is required of me but packing for spring break. Believe you me, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of that opportunity to breathe.
I feel compelled to go back to work, but I also want to sleep. I think I'll allow myself a very short bit of gaming in the form of Free Cell to relax, and be in bed by 2:30.
Funny how mono is making me get up earlier than normal. Then again I suppose I am going to sleep earlier, but still. I think I'm sleeping, on average, fewer hours per night.
Okay. A little bit of ice cream, my meds, free cell, and sleep!