On the bright side, it's three pages. Three pagers are easy, even with research.
So, last Friday..
God, was it really Friday? As in, five days ago? As in, before the Gamers Event and everything? I swear, Time doesn't fly; it simply disobeys the laws of linear motion.
Anyway. Friday, I was fifteen minutes late for my American Modernism class, which meant that I lost a point on the daily reading quiz, even though (I'd say) having to be at the National Museum of African Art for the preceding class, Civilizations of Africa, ought to qualify as an excused tardy. In fact, no doubt the professor would agree, if he gave excused tardies. Hell, I'd ducked out of that tour fifteen minutes early, and if I'd been thirty seconds faster at the Smithsonian station (which meant I woudn't have been stuck waiting eight minutes for the next one), I probably would have been on time. But it's one freaking point on the exam, so I'm not going to focus on that, except to say this:
By the look of things, I might as well not have gone to the Smithsonian. By the look of things, I'm going to have to go back either today or tomorrow.
I've been having trouble focusing this semester. I blame... well, there are a lot of things I could blame, but I'm going to blame my semester in China: classes in China didn't require hard work, which meant whatever muscles of concentration I possess went all limp from disuse. (Which reminds me: Hit the gym, Alden, you lazy bastard). At the moment, I haven't done most of the reading for Philosophy (a 100 level class that I took as an elective; fortunately, it's an audit for weird scholarship reasons), I only skimmed Origin of the Species and The Descent of Man for Human Thought after Darwin, and I ended up dropping the Independent study I'd put together because I didn't think I"d have time to start watching Westerns on top of everything else. Given how much stuff I'd wanted to do this semester, my apparent inability to do as much as I'd done last fall is more than a bit troubling.
Anyway: the point of going to the Smithsonain was in part to see an exhibit on Portugal's dealings with Africa (and other non-European regions). But while we were there, we were supposed to be keep our eyes open, and afterward "write a trip report focusing on a particular display, a specific region, or an early civilization that you encountered." Due on Friday. And, even though I spent about a half-hour looking around beforehand, I've got nothing at the moment.
... Maybe something on the salt trade? Or just some random kingdom, Benin or whichever? I really don't want to waste an hour in Smithsonian transit.
Also, because I keep wanting to say it: Sundiata? Reads like really bad fantasy. I'm sorry, and I understand why, but the protagonist is boring with no vices and every virtue, the villain might as well eat babies (I'm not sure he doesn't), there is no tension because Sundiata never doubts his own greatness and victory, and a dozen other things besides.
Of course, most myths end up like this. Just putting it out there, is all.