I just watched Notes from Underground.. I expected it to be worse than it was because it had 2.7/5 on netflix.. but it does have 7/10 on imdb. Of course, it's much easier to appreciate when you've read the book. It makes me want to go back and read the book because in my first time through, we had just started the course, and I was much more confused by it than I would be now. Thankfully it's an extremely short story, and I can easily read it again. Unlike Dostoevsky's other work!

Finished two English exams today! That was rough. Glad it's done. I also managed to get Honors English (so far), which is great fun.

I'm reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Yes, I have time to read for fun again. It's very .. odd to say the least, coming back to fiction like this after reading someone like Dostoevsky in particular. It can't be matched. The Eyre Affair is good.. I'm enjoying the literary references that I understand, though some are even beyond /me/. It is nice to read something lighter after this semester.. but at the same time it's disappointing in a way I didn't predict. And now I sound like a snob, but that's ok, haha.

I finally spent my $25 gift card for Borders recently as well! I bought The Idiot by Dostoevsky (we own Crime and Punishment already, so I didn't buy that) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Hardy. I've already read the latter, but I had a horrible, old, falling apart used copy. That way I only added one book to my list of reading.

Two more finals! Art History tomorrow.. which I'm taking pass/fail so meh. I'll cram some titles and artists in my head tonight. Then Friday I have my library science final which is open note and therefore also not a big deal. Then I'm going to see Brian Regan in DC. :) and then, hopefully, Erik will be here when I get back! He's coming a couple days earlier than expected and I am very pleased :)

Whew! So I've realized I'm entirely too busy to get any such regular posting done right now.

I finished the first draft of my seminar paper, which wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, when we peer reviewed these, I only got one significant critique on it, and it was something I already knew. Hopefully my professor will give me more to work with.

Harding's class proceeds to be horrible. Haha. The blog part of it. Hate hate hate it. But what can I do! Tell him so on his class evaluation, that's what, haha.

One thing that annoyed me recently in that class was Harding's criticism of George Eliot as not as effective as the writers we're studying. I believe those are the words he used. I've read Middlemarch, you see, and I rather liked it. So when he said that I was like.. more effective at what? Is there a certain objective for literature that Eliot fails to achieve? It seems to me that Eliot might be less effective in a certain area than other authors but not less effective in general. It depends on what we're talking about.

So anyway, what have I read.. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence.. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche.. Pamela by Samuel Richardson (same guy wrote Clarissa).. School for Scandal by Sheridan, She Stoops to Conquer by Goldsmith, Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne.. I'm betting none of those ring a bell for anyone, haha.

Tristram Shandy was a really interesting one. We only read part of it, and I want to go back and start it over and read it all the way through. It's incredibly postmodern and it was only written in 17-something. Really random stuff. Really dense and often boring stuff, too. Haha. For example, though, one of the things he does is skip like 12 pages number-wise.. you go from page 300 to 312 or something.. and he says that he had written a chapter there that was just too good to keep in the book because it would make all the other chapters look bad. So he tore it out. Really interesting play with what you can do with the genre of novel and writing in general. So I'd like to go back and read it when I have time to do it right. I don't right now!

I read Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and...

It was BORING. That's basically all I have to say.

I've also read Clarissa, though, which I'll say more about someday..

So uh... Been a while! I don't even know who reads this anymore! Though I'm sure tomorrow my mother will be very excited.

When did I last post? I didn't look! But I believe it was before I even got back from England.. quite shameful. I have since spent Christmas with Adam, visited Erik for 2 weeks, got a job at the college library, and got a job at the public library.

Oh and good news today was that I'm accepted at the University of Pittsburgh! That's really encouraging because that's a university that is pretty high up in terms of library science.

I've been enjoying my classes for the most part. One class, Modernism Prophetic Voices, has been ever so slightly frustrating because the class is structured around blog posts. I find it a bit pointless. If we're going to sum up posts we've written for class, I can just read the posts myself at home. But! The reading in that class is particularly interesting to me. It is a time period I don't read much from (early 20th century), and includes some philosophical reading.

( Lady Chatterley's Lover )

Hmmmm ... not seeing the connection between the caption and the title!

I just finished Lord of the Rings! For the second time, whoooo! Second time in a year even. I was reading Lord of the Rings last Christmas for the first time. It feels very nice. Mostly because now I'm officially caught up on my reading for Worlds Beyond Oxford.. 2 days before the final. Yes!

I've ordered my books for most of my classes for next semester.. exciting! A number of them I've wanted to read. And class handily /makes/ me read these books. Oh I haven't mentioned what my classes are!

1) Birth of the Novel - With Professor McAllister, I've had her before, she's soooo wonderfully nice and funny. This is my SEMINAR CLASS, which is a big deal for English majors. We only have to take one and it's major and all that stuff. I'm gonna be reading Gulliver's Travels in that class, among other things.
2) Modernism Prophetic Voices - Professor Harding. He has a good reputation, never taken him before. Are you wondering what on earth that class is about? haha. We read Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and D. H. Lawrence. A little frightening.. and all the literature is like the modernist challenge to Christianity. Sweet!
3) Late 18th Century British Literature - With Professor McAllister again! That's just a spot within English literature I haven't covered... haha, so I went for it. Should have some good stuff.
4) History of Western Art II - Art History, don't know any of those professors. Just an elective.. And I thought the second part of it would interest me more than caveman drawings. Yay!
5) Library Internet Resources - 1 credit class I'm taking for the heck of it.. It's library science!!

Hopefully I won't need to take another class. I have to check with the Dean when I get back.

I've also been working on graduate school applications! I'm applying to four places. Unfortunately I realized I kind of need to get on that a little late.. So I'm taking the GRE on Dec. 24th with very little studying. Whoooo just going for it. Stressful times!! But I'll manage!

I'm super excited for Christmas.. and ready to be home now. Partly because.. it's coming and I just want to get it over with and go home. And partly because it's finals week and I have no fun things left before I go home. :p I'm sure one of the things I'll miss most, though, are my housemates, and my roommate in particular. Such fun people!

Lights on the back of the crane outside my window... The other one says "Seasons Greetings" but it wasn't facing my window.

We went and saw a rugby game today! That was really fun.. Bath wasn't doing well in the first half, and then in the second half they made a comeback but Glasgow fought hard, too. It was close! A few intense moments for the crowd.. It was really fun, a couple scores were right in front of where I was sitting. :D

( I got some good pictures! )

Kerry and I were discussing how excited we are to play video games again! We're going to playing Lord of the Rings online with our brothers when we get back home. And things deteriorated!




anafterthought88 (2:48:00 PM): i'm excited
anafterthought88 (2:48:02 PM): VIDEO GAMES
anafterthought88 (2:48:03 PM): OMG
Wild She Hobbit (2:48:04 PM): ME TOO
anafterthought88 (2:48:05 PM): PLAYPLAYPLAY
Wild She Hobbit (2:48:06 PM): LULZ
anafterthought88 (2:48:08 PM): GAMES
anafterthought88 (2:48:09 PM): AND PALYING
anafterthought88 (2:48:12 PM): LOLZ
Wild She Hobbit (2:48:12 PM): PEW PEW PEW LAZERS
anafterthought88 (2:48:13 PM): PLAYING I MEAN
anafterthought88 (2:48:30 PM): LOL OMG KERRY THERE ARE NO LAZERS IN LORDOFTHERINGS
Wild She Hobbit (2:48:42 PM): LULZ WUPS HACKHACKHACK SWORDS