In which Mel returns
OH DEAR GOD *flump*
Past two weeks have been academic hell, but I am finally done--yesterday was my last final, and now I am home.
Lemme give you the run through:
Italian I: Five days a week at 8am. Never again, let me tell you. There were so many times I either slept through or said "fuck it, I'm not going" (part of that time I was sick, so...), that I was actually one more absence away from an F, due to the attendance policy (to be fair, it said you can't miss two weeks' worth of classes, and that's 10 classes I missed. I'll even admit that's a lot, and I shouldn't've missed as much as I did, despite hating that class). But yeah. So when I went home for Thanksgiving, there was an assignment we had to hand in online to make up for not having class Wednesday. I proceeded to completely forget about it, and I didn't realize until I was going somewhere in the car. I managed to e-mail the professor a half hour after the thing was due, and then proceed to hand it in. I made up a very convincing story about car trouble, and I know it's not good to lie, but I really had no excuse to forget. Since missing the assignment meant the equivalent of an absence, I was fucked, basically. So she e-mails everyone saying "I can't accept late assignments, period, yadda," and I freak the fuck out (this is Thanksgiving Day, mind), because that means I get an F in the class. I e-mail her back and I end up talking to her (along with one other girl in the same situation) during her office hours, and the agreement is we cannot be late the remaining week of the semester, and we have to go to this study session thing. Big deal. . . . So Friday, the last day of class before finals rolls around, and I wake up at 8am sharp. I don't brush my teeth, I don't shower, I just take my bag, put on a sweater and deodorant and run (by the way, breathing in all that cold air while running apparently isn't good for me. I was coughing the entirety of class). I get there five minutes late. Entire class goes by and she says nothing, but pulls me aside after and talks about how we had an agreement, and since I couldn't meet it, she couldn't pass me. She looked legitimately sorry, and like...she's a T.A., and has to do what her coordinator and professor say so it's fair to the other Italian I classes with other T.A.'s. And I mean, yeah, I get it. But that didn't keep me from being the most pathetic mess for the space of about five hours afterward. I'm not exactly the -biggest- stickler about my grades, but I have a lot of money riding on my GPA, as well as my ability to finish my major in two years like I have to. If it hadn't been for all that, I honestly would have taken the F. Buuut, I was on the phone with my mother and we were figuring out e-mails to write to different people in the department and then I get an e-mail that was apparently sent at noon from my T.A. saying she's been really lenient the whole semester and despite not meeting the terms of the agreement she's not going to fail me. I should've made cookies for this woman or something.
Ended up getting a 91 on the final and a B- (83%) in the class. Not fucking bad.
Cultural Anthropology: I -thought- this would be my favorite class but it was legitimately the most boring hour-and-fifteen-minutes of my day. She let us bring in a cheat sheet for the final, which was all essays and vocab, and I think I did okay, except I wrote down only half the info for the last question. Thankfully I had actually read that section of the textbook and could wing it.
But this lady. She's so nice, I even went to her office hours just to talk once or twice, but she's just so dull as a teacher. She can talk for hours without saying anything (much like a politician, that), and she's not even technically part of the Anthropology department, but the English department... But hey, I got honors credit for it, and before the final I had a 95 in it, so let's see how that turns out.
Religion and Fantasy Lit: Literally the best class ever. I got to read Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials. For CLASS. And write PAPERS on them! My knowledge of minutiae in Harry Potter actually meant something in this class. How. Awesome. Is that. Taught by a young guy in his twenties with an Intellectual Goatee. He would play classic rock before every lecture, but the song actually had to do with what we were talking about (Ramble On by Led Zeppelin on the first day of Lord of the Rings; Power of Love by Huey Lewis when we talked about...well, the power of love in Harry Potter). I only had to write three papers for this class, and I'm pretty sure I got an A. I know the Narnia paper got an A-, and HP got an A, but my HDM paper wasn't my best (I couldn't do LotR. Bad timing for the due date and it was really complex).
Physical Anthropology: Subject matter's kinda cool, learning all about the different species before Homo sapiens, especially the bones and such. Apes are also really interesting. Also, my professor has been published in lots of famous anthropology journals, and even has a couple of regular books out--like, the stuff you can get in Barnes & Noble. She got to directly study Einstein's brain, too. Kind of awesome. The lab was pretty cool, but it was really far away and a bitch to get to by bike or on foot. Hopfully I got a B or a B- in that class. I had an 81 before the final.
Piano: Kind of boring, actually. I didn't like the sound or feel of the electric pianos we used in class, and of course the pianos in the practice rooms are out of tune and crappy, mostly. He was a huge stickler about metronomes, and to be honest I didn't progress like I hoped I was going to, but it was still useful. He was nice, and he might be getting a job at my old school next semester!
I'm reading books again! I haven't had any time to read over the semester, except for here and there. I bought my own copy of Rebecca from Sketchy Bookstore. I'm still working on finishing Rapture for the Geeks by Richard Dooling--it's a really funny nonfiction about the Singularity. Luke leant it to me a while back, and I haven't been able to finish it.
I'm about a third of the way through Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and it is AWESOME. Simple, intelligent, and riveting. I've also been picking at Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, and holy crap. That book is loaded. 1000-ish pages of wit and math. It's fun, it's just a lot of work, and I think I'm gonna put it on hold until I get other things read.
Sharon also leant me two Dr. Who books, and I have The Stone Rose with me now. It should be fun and quick.
Now that I'm at home I also want to re-read The Princess Bride maybe, and I have the second Bronze Horseman I HAVE to read before I get back, because I can't take it with me and I cannot wait to finish it.
I haven't had much time for new movies, unfortunately, and I've missed a lot of good ones I didn't even realize were in theaters. Anything that's come out since August that's really good that you can think of, let me know and I'll look it up. I plan on seeing Sherlock Holmes when it comes out, as well as both the Avatar movies (Last Air bender and James Cameron's randomness).
One thing I did see was New Moon, and I was home while I did. I'm sure you've probably already heard rants about it, so I'll make it short: I've spent so long in college making fun of Twilight that for a while I actually forgot I kinda liked it. I definitely LOLd at some of the awkward dialogue, overuse of slow motion, and the 15 seconds in the elevator...also, anything Robert Pattinson does just makes me shake my head. I really didn't like him this time around. Anyway. I did, over all, enjoy it. It was better than the last one, certainly, and I will never say no to Taylor Lautner taking his shirt off (god DAYUM that boy). The chemistry between Bella and Jacob was almost better in the movie than the book, too. At one point, when he's in her room, he gives her this -hug- that just looked so cuddly and amazing and I was like "....want?" Also, thank God Bella only mentions the hole in her chest -twice- as opposed to the fifteen million in the book. Once to say it was there, second time to say it was going away. They glossed over the boring depression rants pretty well. Also, Aro? FABULOUS. Sparkly vampire FABULOUSNESS.
Also, the soundtrack was amazing. I'm not normally a fan of Death Cab, but it really was just really good. Also, The Killers <3.
Also, for those who care: The Host, Stephenie Meyer's other book, is being made into a movie. I haven't read it yet, but the guy who directed Gattaca is doing it. Gattaca = amazing fucking movie.
Past two weeks have been academic hell, but I am finally done--yesterday was my last final, and now I am home.
Lemme give you the run through:
Italian I: Five days a week at 8am. Never again, let me tell you. There were so many times I either slept through or said "fuck it, I'm not going" (part of that time I was sick, so...), that I was actually one more absence away from an F, due to the attendance policy (to be fair, it said you can't miss two weeks' worth of classes, and that's 10 classes I missed. I'll even admit that's a lot, and I shouldn't've missed as much as I did, despite hating that class). But yeah. So when I went home for Thanksgiving, there was an assignment we had to hand in online to make up for not having class Wednesday. I proceeded to completely forget about it, and I didn't realize until I was going somewhere in the car. I managed to e-mail the professor a half hour after the thing was due, and then proceed to hand it in. I made up a very convincing story about car trouble, and I know it's not good to lie, but I really had no excuse to forget. Since missing the assignment meant the equivalent of an absence, I was fucked, basically. So she e-mails everyone saying "I can't accept late assignments, period, yadda," and I freak the fuck out (this is Thanksgiving Day, mind), because that means I get an F in the class. I e-mail her back and I end up talking to her (along with one other girl in the same situation) during her office hours, and the agreement is we cannot be late the remaining week of the semester, and we have to go to this study session thing. Big deal. . . . So Friday, the last day of class before finals rolls around, and I wake up at 8am sharp. I don't brush my teeth, I don't shower, I just take my bag, put on a sweater and deodorant and run (by the way, breathing in all that cold air while running apparently isn't good for me. I was coughing the entirety of class). I get there five minutes late. Entire class goes by and she says nothing, but pulls me aside after and talks about how we had an agreement, and since I couldn't meet it, she couldn't pass me. She looked legitimately sorry, and like...she's a T.A., and has to do what her coordinator and professor say so it's fair to the other Italian I classes with other T.A.'s. And I mean, yeah, I get it. But that didn't keep me from being the most pathetic mess for the space of about five hours afterward. I'm not exactly the -biggest- stickler about my grades, but I have a lot of money riding on my GPA, as well as my ability to finish my major in two years like I have to. If it hadn't been for all that, I honestly would have taken the F. Buuut, I was on the phone with my mother and we were figuring out e-mails to write to different people in the department and then I get an e-mail that was apparently sent at noon from my T.A. saying she's been really lenient the whole semester and despite not meeting the terms of the agreement she's not going to fail me. I should've made cookies for this woman or something.
Ended up getting a 91 on the final and a B- (83%) in the class. Not fucking bad.
Cultural Anthropology: I -thought- this would be my favorite class but it was legitimately the most boring hour-and-fifteen-minutes of my day. She let us bring in a cheat sheet for the final, which was all essays and vocab, and I think I did okay, except I wrote down only half the info for the last question. Thankfully I had actually read that section of the textbook and could wing it.
But this lady. She's so nice, I even went to her office hours just to talk once or twice, but she's just so dull as a teacher. She can talk for hours without saying anything (much like a politician, that), and she's not even technically part of the Anthropology department, but the English department... But hey, I got honors credit for it, and before the final I had a 95 in it, so let's see how that turns out.
Religion and Fantasy Lit: Literally the best class ever. I got to read Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials. For CLASS. And write PAPERS on them! My knowledge of minutiae in Harry Potter actually meant something in this class. How. Awesome. Is that. Taught by a young guy in his twenties with an Intellectual Goatee. He would play classic rock before every lecture, but the song actually had to do with what we were talking about (Ramble On by Led Zeppelin on the first day of Lord of the Rings; Power of Love by Huey Lewis when we talked about...well, the power of love in Harry Potter). I only had to write three papers for this class, and I'm pretty sure I got an A. I know the Narnia paper got an A-, and HP got an A, but my HDM paper wasn't my best (I couldn't do LotR. Bad timing for the due date and it was really complex).
Physical Anthropology: Subject matter's kinda cool, learning all about the different species before Homo sapiens, especially the bones and such. Apes are also really interesting. Also, my professor has been published in lots of famous anthropology journals, and even has a couple of regular books out--like, the stuff you can get in Barnes & Noble. She got to directly study Einstein's brain, too. Kind of awesome. The lab was pretty cool, but it was really far away and a bitch to get to by bike or on foot. Hopfully I got a B or a B- in that class. I had an 81 before the final.
Piano: Kind of boring, actually. I didn't like the sound or feel of the electric pianos we used in class, and of course the pianos in the practice rooms are out of tune and crappy, mostly. He was a huge stickler about metronomes, and to be honest I didn't progress like I hoped I was going to, but it was still useful. He was nice, and he might be getting a job at my old school next semester!
I'm reading books again! I haven't had any time to read over the semester, except for here and there. I bought my own copy of Rebecca from Sketchy Bookstore. I'm still working on finishing Rapture for the Geeks by Richard Dooling--it's a really funny nonfiction about the Singularity. Luke leant it to me a while back, and I haven't been able to finish it.
I'm about a third of the way through Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and it is AWESOME. Simple, intelligent, and riveting. I've also been picking at Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, and holy crap. That book is loaded. 1000-ish pages of wit and math. It's fun, it's just a lot of work, and I think I'm gonna put it on hold until I get other things read.
Sharon also leant me two Dr. Who books, and I have The Stone Rose with me now. It should be fun and quick.
Now that I'm at home I also want to re-read The Princess Bride maybe, and I have the second Bronze Horseman I HAVE to read before I get back, because I can't take it with me and I cannot wait to finish it.
I haven't had much time for new movies, unfortunately, and I've missed a lot of good ones I didn't even realize were in theaters. Anything that's come out since August that's really good that you can think of, let me know and I'll look it up. I plan on seeing Sherlock Holmes when it comes out, as well as both the Avatar movies (Last Air bender and James Cameron's randomness).
One thing I did see was New Moon, and I was home while I did. I'm sure you've probably already heard rants about it, so I'll make it short: I've spent so long in college making fun of Twilight that for a while I actually forgot I kinda liked it. I definitely LOLd at some of the awkward dialogue, overuse of slow motion, and the 15 seconds in the elevator...also, anything Robert Pattinson does just makes me shake my head. I really didn't like him this time around. Anyway. I did, over all, enjoy it. It was better than the last one, certainly, and I will never say no to Taylor Lautner taking his shirt off (god DAYUM that boy). The chemistry between Bella and Jacob was almost better in the movie than the book, too. At one point, when he's in her room, he gives her this -hug- that just looked so cuddly and amazing and I was like "....want?" Also, thank God Bella only mentions the hole in her chest -twice- as opposed to the fifteen million in the book. Once to say it was there, second time to say it was going away. They glossed over the boring depression rants pretty well. Also, Aro? FABULOUS. Sparkly vampire FABULOUSNESS.
Also, the soundtrack was amazing. I'm not normally a fan of Death Cab, but it really was just really good. Also, The Killers <3.
Also, for those who care: The Host, Stephenie Meyer's other book, is being made into a movie. I haven't read it yet, but the guy who directed Gattaca is doing it. Gattaca = amazing fucking movie.