annundriel: (Could Use a Drink (cplng))
Senior Synthesis: A
Buddhist Philosophy: B+
Modernism in Art & Lit: A-

What I was expecting. Especially proud of the Philosophy one, partly because the professor's teaching method could be unhelpful and partly because I kind of really didn't apply myself that hard. I am such a slacker. Oh well.

Yea!! If we had the kind of alcohol I would willingly drink in the house I would totally toast myself.

Cheers!
annundriel: (Hmm (sga))
Fr. Cobb is twistedly awesome. Apparently in his freshman classes he tells his students that statistically they've probably already had the happiest day of their life and it's all down hill from now on. He can prove it with equations. As he told us this he laughed gleefully. He basically admitted doing it just to see their faces.

I would love to sit in on one of those classes.

In other news, I am finished with Buddhist Philosophy! HA.
annundriel: (Hardly Working (btvs))
It's six o'clock and I have half a page written of the eight page final due tomorrow.

I lose at diligence, but win at procrastination!

Strangely enough, I am in a very good headspace about this. I am not freaking out, although I will admit my chest feels a little tight, so it's possible (and very likely) that I am freaking out neck down and in denial neck up. My body is divided against me.

The school changed it's announcement this morning of class cancellation before 4 PM to full class AND office closure. Meaning no work for me! This gives me an extra four hours to procrastinate work hard on this paper. Plus, I can watch Veronica Mars and Nip/Tuck as they happen instead of later. Obviously it doesn't take much to excite me.

Oh, VM. Logan should not be allowed to make faces like he did at the end of last ep. Just no. I cannot handle it when he looks so very lost and sad. (Like I can't handle it when Rodney looks that way.) I care a lot more for him as a character than I do for Veronica lately. (Well, I've always cared about both of them, just now I care about her less.) And I really want to go back and watch parts of season one again when she was just such a snarky bitch. Not to say she isn't anymore, she's just...sharper? Colder? More jaded? Something. I don't want to say that I want S1 Veronica back, because good characters grow blah blah, but I kind of miss that girl from the pilot that dealt easily with Weevil and his gang without pause. Maybe it was the lack of personal connections. Now that more people care for her, and she cares for more people, maybe she's trying to pull away.

Anyway. The season's going to be interesting. Also, FYI, I don't care for Piz. At the very least this is as shallow as not liking his hair. At the very most it's, well, I just don't care for him that much. I like his hair, I think he's funny and kind of dorky-cute, but I don't really trust him a whole lot. No reason. (ETA: Obviously I didn't mean to say that I like his hair since I just said I didn't. I'm not sure what that was actually supposed to be now. Maybe I meant to repeat the fact that I don't like it and then juxtapose it with his good qualities? Whatever.)

Enough with the laziness. Better More important Required things to do.
annundriel: (Unexpected Hero (sga))
Having nothing to do with anything, zombie babies are hilarious.

Smallville is not as bad as last season, but it is still on some serious crack. Which I guess it always was, so what I mean to say is that it's less crappy crack than recently. But could Lana just die a painful death already? Geez.

Yesterday SG-1 and Philosophy collided. I was sitting in class not really paying attention (I did really well for about a week and a half!) during discussion of Shibayama's The Gateless Barrier: Zen Comments on the Mumonkan when all of the sudden we're discussing Mumon's poem and I hear, "If you know at once candlelight is fire / The meal has long been cooked." Which is almost exactly what is constantly brought up by Daniel or Ancients when they're being all mystical and stuff. "If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked long ago." It was a weird moment of "Bwah?" for me during class. 'Cause I'm a dork.

I also noticed that the girl who sits in front of me uses "like" every third or fourth word. I started counting at one point and got all the way up to 20-something. At that point it was getting really hard not to just grin stupidly or laugh out loud. I know I use "like" occasionally (I hope), but not nearly as much as she does.

And now for the reason I was posting in the first place...

SGA - The Return, Part 2 )
annundriel: (Slipping (fs))
Today is a much better day than yesterday.

To start with, my Philosophy paper, though somewhat if-y, is done and turned in and out of my hands. Thank goodness. One more day with that hanging over my head and I was going to lose it.

The headache that has been hanging around for roughly two weeks is slightly less in my face than yesterday. I'm starting to wonder if maybe it's the bottled water. Is it possible there's something in it that my body is saying, "no no no" to?

To top it all off, tonight I don't work because I'm going to go see Ngugi wa Thiong'o talk about his new book Wizard of the Crow. I'm excited. Author events, especially those that are free and on campus, are generally interesting. Last year I got to see bell hooks and that was pretty amazing.

Besides that I had a really nice talk with Neesha last night and that always cheers me up.

Tomorrow I'm planning on completely slacking off after my advising appointment. YEA WEEKEND.
annundriel: (Jeremy (sn))
For now anyway.

For the past week and change I've had a low level headache every day. It's starting to get annoying. Maybe I need to cut the caffeine out of my diet again?

Natasha and I now have tickets for The Nutcracker December 1! It'll be Natasha's first ballet experience. Woo.

I'm completely at a loss as to what to spend six pages writing about for Philosophy on Wednesday. I know what I'm doing tomorrow! (Nose to the grindstone and all that.)
annundriel: (Running Up That Hill (sga))
One paper down.

One paper to go.

I'm trying really hard not to procrastinate here. I will say it's kind of fun, if tedious, using the symbols in Word for all of the super long bodhisattva names.

I need to stop listening to moody music though.

Also? Jelly Bellies gooood. Unless you stick several random ones in your mouth. Then it's slightly less good. More of an interesting experience for your taste-buds.
annundriel: (Hardly Working (btvs))
This week I have a three page paper due in Modernism on Tuesday (covering Heart of Darkness) and a six page paper due in Philosophy on Wednesday (dealing with The Lotus Sutra). The first one is about a third of the way done and the quality is, hmm, arguable. (But then I usually think the quality is arguable.) The one for Philosophy? I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm considering taking a particular parable and doing a close-reading/analysis of it because I'm fairly decent at those. Or something similar to that but less literary. But we shall see.

At least I can use the two hours of bored sitting in Buddhist Philosophy to work out what I'm going to write about. That should be more constructive than sitting there writing fanfiction.

On a brighter side, Modernism is canceled this Thursday, so my weekend begins Wednesday night when I get off of work. Yea. Maybe I'll use it to marathon Traders. It's just sitting here waiting to be watched. So that can be something to look forward to if I can just get through Wednesday.

I also pre-ordered the pet extension pack for the Sims 2. So there's something else to look forward to.

Because I'm avoiding work, book meme snagged off Julia )
annundriel: (Be Cool My Babies (vm))
From today's Philosophy class:

Why can't Buddhists vacuum?

Because they have no attachments.
annundriel: (Weight of the Universe (sga))
I should go to bed, but I'm really kind of wired. Which means I should work on my homework for Buddhist Philosophy, but I'm afraid if I read one more page from The Lotus Sutra I am going to cry.

We were supposed to read chapters four through twenty for Monday's class. In this case that's roughly 280 pages. That's not awful given the things I've been expected to read in my literature classes and usually I'd just say "meh" and go back to watching Red Dwarf, but this is different. Every class in Buddhist Philosophy we start after the break with a ten minute presentation summarizing the materials read for that class in an attempt to promote class discussion. Tomorrow's my turn.

I told myself I wasn't going to let it freak me out. That was before I learned that the material I'd have to read was 280 pages (most other people - two before me - only had a chapter/20 pages). I talked to the professor and he said to focus on the first few parables, but that doesn't help me too much considering this is most definitely not a topic I feel comfortable talking about in front of Philosophy/Theology majors. (Although, honestly, I have no idea what they're all studying. I'd comfortable bet it's not English, though, since none of them have been in any of my lit classes.) So I'll be stuck talking about stuff I don't entirely understand in front of people I don't know and feeling like I'm wasting their time. What would be helpful would be if I could think of something interesting to say instead of just summarizing what's been read. Some question I could ask to provoke discussion. Some insight. But that's not really going to happen.

It really all comes back to me wanting people to like me and not think I'm an idiot.

And, yeah, ranting here has helped a little. I will be so glad when it's Tuesday. Except then I'll have to really think about and start the paper on Heart of Darkness that's due Thursday in Modernism.

What I need is to read or watch something really sad and have a good cry.
annundriel: (Buy This Place & Watch It Fall (fs))
Senior Synth - Fr. Cobb hasn't taken the Lord's name in vain or sworn yet, but he's a lot funnier than I realized he would be. Especially when it comes to analyzing the advertisements in The New Yorker. Who knew page ads of cars were hilarious?

Modernism in Art and Lit - Dr. Tung, in the meantime, has said "shit" several times every day. It's kind of hilarious. Today he bounced around the front of the room in a button-up shirt and sweater-vest. There's just, I dunno, something fantastic about that to me. As I told Fr. Cobb last year, I like Tung because he's engaging.

Buddhist Philosophy - Frustrating. Sort of. Yesterday we were still going Buddhism 101-type things and covering some vocab. Which is good if a little boring. However, the professor only actually spelled out about a third of the words we talked about, making it very difficult to take notes on. How can I know that what I'm reading is what we've talked about when I don't know if the pronunciation is going to match the spelling?

Grr. Yesterday I got fed up with it so the whole second hour was devoted to keeping my head down and writing (original and fanfiction). It makes the time go a lot faster and I really am not missing anything (so far).

Tonight we're going to see Doubt at the Seattle Rep. I'm really looking forward to it.

This last weekend Mom came over and I got to go shopping. Got some seriously nice things (like a snazzy jacket and shoes) and some seriously silly things. How can I not get the only Colonel O'Neill action figure at Suncoast? I mean, come on. He was all alone. He needed buying. Now I need Daniel Jackson to go along with him. This will lead to moments of intense immaturity on my part (and the part of my roommate). But, hey, when you're a senior in college you need moments of intense immaturity.

Back to watching BSG. Only three episodes left and I'll be caught up! Except for the webisodes.
annundriel: (Rest Your Head (office))
Modernism in Art and Literature: The class is going to be interesting and challenging. I'm really looking forward to it though. In the end I may end up understanding what's behind people like Picasso and Jackson Pollock. That'd be nice. And maybe come out with a better understanding of The Waste Land. Whatever I get out of it, Tung is amazing. He does tend to ramble a lot, but at least he's amusing.

This time when we had to introduce ourselves with our favorite TV show, of which I have many, I said Coupling. It was either that or out myself as a big geek again with BSG.

Senior Synthesis: Going to be very interesting. We're going to several plays throughout the quarter and I always enjoy that. Besides the two books for the class, Fr. Cobb is providing us with a subscription to The New Yorker, so that will be where a good deal of the reading comes from. So far I've got four different assignments due for Monday.

I'm a little freaked out by the amount of work for Modernism and Senior Synth. I'm hoping that will pass once I get used to going to class and doing assignments again.

Buddhist Philosophy: Should also be interesting. This is my elective class this quarter and part of the reason I signed up for it was that I thought I would be interested in minoring in Philosophy. After yesterday's class, I'm not so sure. It wasn't bad or anything, but I found myself sitting there and longing for a novel and some critical close readings followed by group discussion. So I think I'd much rather spend my senior year taking classes that involve things that I love.

Also, at one point the professor made a philosopher joke and I was the only one that didn't really laugh. Not that I'm a big laugher in class, but this was more of the "I have no idea why that's funny" kind of silence than the "Yes, you are mildly amusing" kind. Although he did talk about the vicious cycle of stupidity and how stupid people don't know they're stupid and do things that just make them more stupid because they're too stupid to know better. Which I totally agree with, but he could have cut down on the amount of stupid in the sentence. He was very repetative.

*

Today Natasha and I went downtown so I could buy BSG 2.5. I also ended up getting the soundtrack for BSG season one and another Regina Spektor CD. Then we saw The Illusionist and I kind of loved it a lot. Perfect fall movie. Jessica Biel was surprisingly good and I already love Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. Then we came back and I got to watch the season premier of The Office and it was hilarious.
annundriel: (Books)
Book lists are up for SU's fall quarter.

I have to buy five books for Buddhist Philosophy, five four books for Modernism in Art and Literature (already have the right Eliot), and two books for Senior Synthesis. Everything looks interesting. In Modernism we'll be reading Heart of Darkness and The Waste Land (among other things), both of which I've read before so I feel like I've got something of a head start there.

On the information page for Modernism, it's got this written:

Exams: madness
Participation: crazy.

Tung is kind of awesome. Can't wait for the class really. And it turns out that my Monday/Wednesday classes are ten minutes apart in the same room. I didn't notice that when I signed up. That's super handy.

Someone (Kasey? Julia?) mentioned that they'd be interested to see what Cobb had us reading for Senior Synth. The books listed are Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Radical Compassion: Find Christ in the Heart of the Poor by Gary N. Smith, S.J. The name sounded familiar and it turns out that this is something my roommate has read. Interesting.

Is it possible that this will be the quarter that I'll find myself doing volunteer work?

(Randomly, I can't look at the "S.J." after a Jesuit's name and not think "Space Jesuit" since reading The Sparrow. It makes me giggle damn near every time.)

Anyway, from the books alone it looks like it's going to be an interesting quarter.
annundriel: (Hardly Working (btvs))
I think I'm going to declare a Philosophy minor.

All registered for fall quarter.

- English 487 - Senior Synthesis w/Father Cobb
Mondays & Wednesdays, 1:30 - 3:35

- Philosophy 315 - Buddhist Philosophy w/Prof. Wirth
Mondays & Wednesdays, 3:45 - 5:50

- English 358 - Modernism in Art & Literature w/Dr. Tung
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:00 - 12:05

And, for the third quarter in a row, I succeed in not having classes on Friday. Three day weekends are a good thing.

I was going to take Latin, but I got to thinking about how much more I'd get out of Philosophy and how I only need three classes in the field to have a minor. At first I thought it was two, since I took Gender & Social Reality, but that counted for Interdisciplinary and I don't think it can count as both. So better to get some Philosophy in next quarter. I wasn't going to until recently because I didn't notice the Buddhist class. All of it was Greek and focused on Aristotle and Plato and absolutely not my cup of tea. But after taking Asian religions, this one should be interesting.

(Also, Latin would have screwed up my three day weekends.)

But I'm seriously happy to have made it into Cobb's and Tung's classes. Yea.
annundriel: (Across the Universe (sga))
Why are people being loud? QUIET HOURS. FINALS WEEK. SHEESH.

Finished the first half of BSG's second season. Wasn't planning on it, but decided that things weren't that pressing for tomorrow. Ten episodes left and I'll be caught up with the show.

Creepy, icky Lt. Thorne was Fred on Nero Wolfe. It was bizarre seeing him be so awful when Fred was slightly bumbling. Also, Lorne from SGA is supposed to be in the next ep.

Anyway. I'm going to take the mini home with me so I can force it on my parents. While I'm home for break we're supposed to go see V for Vendetta. I kind of want to talk Tom into going to see The Hills Have Eyes with me. I know, I know. It's not my usual thing, but damn if I'm not curious having now seen the original and talked to Kasey about it.

I'm also going to sit Mom down and make her watch "Grace Under Pressure." Because I can't keep going on and on about that episode and not have her know what I'm talking about. We did talk after she watched SGA's finale. The first thing she said was, "When are they just going to make it the John and Rodney show? I mean, they've already picked up each other's mannerisms!" Heh. Then we briefly talked about the 'To Be Continued.' )

It has recently occurred to me that I don't have to take any more philosophy. HA. Take *that* Jesuit education!
annundriel: (Hardly Working (btvs))
Project Runway - Make It Work )

Natasha went downtown for me yesterday and bought Pride & Prejudice. We watched it after I got off of work. It still makes me go "aww" and flail about more than is entirely dignified. Hee.

Speaking of work, the woman I work with is getting close to strangling the new guy. Seriously. She's ranted to me about him several times and I really can't blame her. It's like he's 30-something going on 12. Which would be okay because I know plenty of people who are 40-/50-something going on 12, but he doesn't even seem to have the courtesy that goes with making it out of high school. And, okay, a lot of people don't get that. But, um, you'd just have to be there.

Which reminds me of the idiot in Ethics. He was the reason for this post. We had a small group discussion going on and I was the recorder (being the youngest). He would say something and I would politely ask him to repeat it because the class was loud and I hadn't quite caught whatever it was he'd said. And he would just stare at me like I was nuts. I also helped him find a book at the library awhile back because he didn't understand how to read call numbers. Or something. Went out of my way to do the work for him and didn't even get a thank you. He just ignored me after I handed the book to him. Frustrating.

Anyway. I should go do something productive.
annundriel: (Oops (sga))
Dear Classes,

To quote my friend Julia, just shoot me in the face. No, really. It'll be better for all of us.

No love,
Me

*

Dear Stupid People,

Please go take a long walk off of a short pier. This shouldn't be hard, even though you lack intelligence, considering the piers are not that far away. A few blocks. Hop to it!

No love EVER,
Me
annundriel: (Hardly Working (btvs))
Today has been almost entirely devoted to staying on top of my classes. (God damn Mythology and it's meaningless assignments.)

I still need to finish my paper on Paradise Lost, do the Theseus/Perseus comparison, write about a family ritual, and study for my Philosophy exam. Mostly I've done nothing but skim/read The King Must Die and work on the paper. It's thrilling, let me tell you. KMD goes from being kind of boring, to rather interesting, back to kind of boring again. I'd love to read it without deadlines.

Did watch an ep of BSG and Dear Frankie today. And the newest ep of Smallville as well as SGA's "Suspicion." Most of that was used for background noise. SV should just do an entire episode where they have no talking, long camera shots, and music playing over. It was a pretty good ep, but they used James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" over the opening scene with Clark and Lana and I am not happy that they've kind of sullied that song for me.

Tonight/Tomorrow I'll be able to get the season finale of SGA. Still have to watch "Michael" and "Inferno." This time I really mean it when I say I'm not going to watch parts of the new one. I don't want to know anything about it until I've seen the last two all the way through and actually sit down to watch it. For once, I want to see the finale without knowing how it's going to turn out.

Last night I had a dream about a little girl who was like Anthony on The Twilight Zone who wished people into the corn field. She could kill you with her brain. Until the parents were pushed a little too far and kind of went insane with fear and killed her. It was creepy and ended in violence. Usually my dreams aren't violent. Natasha, on the other hand, dreamed of Rodney in leather pants.

Ah well, back to work.
annundriel: (McKay (sga))
::gasp:: I just remembered I have Treed Murray still to watch! No time to watch it in. But bonus Hewlett! It's like finding a special toy surprise in your cereal box. Or, rather, remembering that you found one.

Now if only professors would decide that assignments are silly things and go away.

Last night/this morning I had a dream about SGA. Sort of. Only Atlantis looked both like it does on the show and slightly like Seattle University. The expedition seemed to have been running for years. Don't know what my job was, but I was given the task of showing the new people around and sort of giving them an orientation like experience. The newbies looked a lot like freshman. I was showing them around and we made it to the labs, where McKay was lecturing someone or everyone. (Zelenka was there, too, in the background.) The newbies and I just observed from the outside and one of them said that Dr. McKay didn't seem nearly as bad or as intelligent as he was made out to be. I then spent a good deal of time trying to convince them that they really should be scared of him. Yes, McKay really was awful to work with sometimes and yes, he really was a genius and if he heard them doubt it he would prove them all wrong. They still didn't believe me. I told them about all of the nuclear weapons he'd put together (in sixth grade even!), and I'm kind of glad I didn't tell them about blowing up a solar system. But they still wouldn't listen. (I wasn't happy that they weren't respecting him. Or fearing him. Whichever. Pfft, newbies.) At which point McKay might have come over, but I woke up.

This is actually the second time my brain has combined Atlantis and the SU campus.

I have to write a Philosophy paper today. And (try to) catch up on all of my reading.

Speaking of Philosophy, yesterday in Ethics I was chased by a murderer and the professor let Kant kill me. Fun times.

Looking Up

Jan. 13th, 2006 12:12 pm
annundriel: ([ff] Strange & Beautiful)
So there is some good coming out of my crappy week. Mom ordered me a shiny new laptop from Dell. A shiny new laptap! Woo!

Meanwhile, I'm almost caught up on SGA eps. Just finished watching "The Long Goodbye," which I really kind of dug. Especially the conversation about television at the beginning. ("Depends what's on it. There are lots of programs on dozens of channels every day all day." "Most of which are fictional representations of ridiculously attractive people in absurd situations.") Was amused that, even though it wasn't "The John & Rodney Show," there was still a lot of little things between the two of them. Also, Caldwell has grown on me to the extent that I found him kind of adorable at the beginning and at the end around Weir. He just wants to be accepted! Beckett is growing on me once again. There was a little while there were I'd moved to being kind of "meh" about him, but I'm back to rather liking him quite a bit. Giggled at his, "Well, they're headed straight for divorce."

I going to have to save "Coup d'Etat" for after the weekend though. Sad panda.

Lots of reading to get done this weekend. Paradise Lost, The King Must Die, Utilitarianism, bits of Greek mythology. Taking State of Fear with me in case I want to read for pleasure. Also Serenity to watch. 'Cause Joss, even when he breaks you, makes it all better.

Hopefully I long weekend on my own will help me get completely better.

ETA (12/15/07): SGA - The Long Goodbye & Coup d'Etat )

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