Long entry. Sorry in advance, lol.
So, boys and girls (and everyone in between or outside the bounds of the gender spectrum), I am back. Actually, I tried to be back earlier today but LJ was having a little spasm of awfulness and wouldn't work for me. I felt OK about it, though, because LJ wasn't working for 
roguemyth either...Happy it wasn't just me.
Anyway, there endeth week two of the new semester and I have to tell you that I'm not as excited to be back as I thought I was going to be. It doesn't even feel like I had a holiday, lol. It's not really being back at university that's the problem, it's having to go and do actual work instead of just sitting quietly and listening to lectures that I think sucks butt. I hate having to be assessed, lol. But I guess that's kind of the whole point of the dashed thing. Whatever. I have the world's longest list of things to be done and I really haven't done much work at all...You know, what with all the procrastinating and everything there's not much time for any actual work. Hell, I even cleaned and organised my room (mostly) and finally organised my shelves. I shall post a photo or two anon.
Moving on...For my two linguistics courses (Syntax and Phonology) I have a lecturer who looks a lot like my father's father (God rest his complicated and stubborn soul). I was briefly thinking of dropping Phonology but then I thought about the lecturer (Jason) and couldn't bring myself to do it because he looks so much like my grandfather. Weird. I'm thinking that I'll get over this sentimental business rather quickly, though, because we've already had an assignment for Syntax and I have one assignment for each linguistics subject due next week. Damn learning. Oh well, lol, at least these are courses I can do...Nothing at all like last semester's (dis)Functional Grammar which I still don't get.
My Shakespeare course is going reasonably well...Except for the fact that Hamlet was the first play and it made me want to kill myself. Not that it isn't a good play, because it is (probably better on stage, too, rather than being read), but I've read it more than once and I just can't do it anymore, lol. I'm so going to have to get some cliff notes or something for the exam because I'm fucked if I have to read that damn thing AGAIN! The next play is A Midsummer Night's Dream which I've never read but have always wanted to, so hopefully that'll fill me to the brim with enthusiasm...Or at least make me interested enough to actually read through the bloody thing. I have an assignment for that class, too, which is a stupid 500-700 words long about metaphors and how they work. Ridiculous word limit (not that I'm actually going to complain to anyone lest I have to write an essay on it or something).
18th Century Scandal and Sociability is run by a disappointingly forgetful blonde woman whose name I can never remember...I'm reasonably certain her surname begins with a P and her first name might be Nicola, but who cares. She has an awful reading voice which just pisses me off. I can't stand that, lol. And the tutor I have for this class is so irritating...Last week her idea of a good time was for us to get into groups (after having done one of those annoying "getting to know you" chats) and make dot points about something we literally just heard about in the lecture rather than having us expand our knowledge on the topic (the emergence of coffeehouses in the early 18th century, in case you were wondering) or trying to more effectively help us to engage with the material. Wow, that was complainy. Sorry about that, lol. These annoyances aside, the lecture material itself is rather interesting and kind of amusing, which is nice, and the texts are interesting. The one I'm reading now is Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, which might be a mistake because it's not the first one in the syllabus, rather one of the main texts for the course so this could go either way, lol. It's about some poor woman who's mother was supposed to be put to death because she was a thief and a whore. She then went to a poor house and was taken in by some woman who taught her to sew and stuff. From there she went to the house of some rich people to work for them and the eldest son starts paying her for sex and stuff but keeps it a secret...Naturally all hell kind of breaks loose when the younger son falls in love with her and wonders why she won't consent to marrying him. So far the most interesting twist is that she marries the younger son, he dies and then she goes to marry some other dude who takes her to his plantation in Virginia where she meets his mother...The old lady tells the woman (Moll) about how she came to be in Virginia and all her tales of woe, and it turns out that this old lady is Moll's mother and she's just married, and had children with, her own half-brother. I swear, it reads like and 18th century Jerry Springer show.
That was long. Moving on to family stuff. *groans*
My brother and I went to dad's last weekend for my grandmother's 80th birthday. My grandma never used to celebrate birthdays because she is/was a Jehovah's Witness (say what you like, lol, I don't mind), but over the last small handful of years she's developed dementia and no longer really remembers that she doesn't celebrate birthdays. Anyway, my dad brought over an old family friend named Aunty Roma (formerly from Malta) as a surprise for my grandma and she really enjoyed the company, I think. It was hilarious seeing these two old women gabbing away, but also kind of sad because Roma is still so well put together mentally and my grandmother is just falling apart. She never used to be like that, you know? I really don't like to think much about it, but I have to put it out there. What is interesting about dementia, though, is the way she speaks regarding past and present tense...She still speaks of my grandfather (the one my lecturer looks like) and her parents as if they're still alive, so she speaks about them in a way that's new and fresh, and tells stories I've never heard before. It's clear that sometimes she really doesn't remember that they're no longer here, so it doesn't cause her pain to speak about them the way she does. I think, at least in some way, that must bring her great pleasure. Pleasure and relief, too, I think...Her life sure as hell hasn't been easy, so I guess maybe having this forgetting going on isn't always as terrifying as I imagine it to be. She's spent pretty much her entire adult life actively unremembering her past in regards to the events -- both historical and personal -- surrounding WWII, so to have those things suddenly not in her mind must be a positive thing. At least for a little while, anyway.
Argh. That was difficult. But kind of pleasurable...I like writing about my family, but I don't especially like talking about them (or myself)...It just seems much easier.
Anyways, I must away. I have yet another ridiculous article to read and a big load of work still to do tonight (which probably won't happen) and tomorrow (which very well may not happen either) and some TV to watch (Space Jam is on later!!), all of which is very important, lol.
Be good to your families, people, especially the difficult family members. One day they won't be there to irritate you and you just won't believe how strange it is once they're not there (physically or mentally) anymore. It really is a trip. Just have some patience. xx
roguemyth either...Happy it wasn't just me.Anyway, there endeth week two of the new semester and I have to tell you that I'm not as excited to be back as I thought I was going to be. It doesn't even feel like I had a holiday, lol. It's not really being back at university that's the problem, it's having to go and do actual work instead of just sitting quietly and listening to lectures that I think sucks butt. I hate having to be assessed, lol. But I guess that's kind of the whole point of the dashed thing. Whatever. I have the world's longest list of things to be done and I really haven't done much work at all...You know, what with all the procrastinating and everything there's not much time for any actual work. Hell, I even cleaned and organised my room (mostly) and finally organised my shelves. I shall post a photo or two anon.
Moving on...For my two linguistics courses (Syntax and Phonology) I have a lecturer who looks a lot like my father's father (God rest his complicated and stubborn soul). I was briefly thinking of dropping Phonology but then I thought about the lecturer (Jason) and couldn't bring myself to do it because he looks so much like my grandfather. Weird. I'm thinking that I'll get over this sentimental business rather quickly, though, because we've already had an assignment for Syntax and I have one assignment for each linguistics subject due next week. Damn learning. Oh well, lol, at least these are courses I can do...Nothing at all like last semester's (dis)Functional Grammar which I still don't get.
My Shakespeare course is going reasonably well...Except for the fact that Hamlet was the first play and it made me want to kill myself. Not that it isn't a good play, because it is (probably better on stage, too, rather than being read), but I've read it more than once and I just can't do it anymore, lol. I'm so going to have to get some cliff notes or something for the exam because I'm fucked if I have to read that damn thing AGAIN! The next play is A Midsummer Night's Dream which I've never read but have always wanted to, so hopefully that'll fill me to the brim with enthusiasm...Or at least make me interested enough to actually read through the bloody thing. I have an assignment for that class, too, which is a stupid 500-700 words long about metaphors and how they work. Ridiculous word limit (not that I'm actually going to complain to anyone lest I have to write an essay on it or something).
18th Century Scandal and Sociability is run by a disappointingly forgetful blonde woman whose name I can never remember...I'm reasonably certain her surname begins with a P and her first name might be Nicola, but who cares. She has an awful reading voice which just pisses me off. I can't stand that, lol. And the tutor I have for this class is so irritating...Last week her idea of a good time was for us to get into groups (after having done one of those annoying "getting to know you" chats) and make dot points about something we literally just heard about in the lecture rather than having us expand our knowledge on the topic (the emergence of coffeehouses in the early 18th century, in case you were wondering) or trying to more effectively help us to engage with the material. Wow, that was complainy. Sorry about that, lol. These annoyances aside, the lecture material itself is rather interesting and kind of amusing, which is nice, and the texts are interesting. The one I'm reading now is Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, which might be a mistake because it's not the first one in the syllabus, rather one of the main texts for the course so this could go either way, lol. It's about some poor woman who's mother was supposed to be put to death because she was a thief and a whore. She then went to a poor house and was taken in by some woman who taught her to sew and stuff. From there she went to the house of some rich people to work for them and the eldest son starts paying her for sex and stuff but keeps it a secret...Naturally all hell kind of breaks loose when the younger son falls in love with her and wonders why she won't consent to marrying him. So far the most interesting twist is that she marries the younger son, he dies and then she goes to marry some other dude who takes her to his plantation in Virginia where she meets his mother...The old lady tells the woman (Moll) about how she came to be in Virginia and all her tales of woe, and it turns out that this old lady is Moll's mother and she's just married, and had children with, her own half-brother. I swear, it reads like and 18th century Jerry Springer show.
That was long. Moving on to family stuff. *groans*
My brother and I went to dad's last weekend for my grandmother's 80th birthday. My grandma never used to celebrate birthdays because she is/was a Jehovah's Witness (say what you like, lol, I don't mind), but over the last small handful of years she's developed dementia and no longer really remembers that she doesn't celebrate birthdays. Anyway, my dad brought over an old family friend named Aunty Roma (formerly from Malta) as a surprise for my grandma and she really enjoyed the company, I think. It was hilarious seeing these two old women gabbing away, but also kind of sad because Roma is still so well put together mentally and my grandmother is just falling apart. She never used to be like that, you know? I really don't like to think much about it, but I have to put it out there. What is interesting about dementia, though, is the way she speaks regarding past and present tense...She still speaks of my grandfather (the one my lecturer looks like) and her parents as if they're still alive, so she speaks about them in a way that's new and fresh, and tells stories I've never heard before. It's clear that sometimes she really doesn't remember that they're no longer here, so it doesn't cause her pain to speak about them the way she does. I think, at least in some way, that must bring her great pleasure. Pleasure and relief, too, I think...Her life sure as hell hasn't been easy, so I guess maybe having this forgetting going on isn't always as terrifying as I imagine it to be. She's spent pretty much her entire adult life actively unremembering her past in regards to the events -- both historical and personal -- surrounding WWII, so to have those things suddenly not in her mind must be a positive thing. At least for a little while, anyway.
Argh. That was difficult. But kind of pleasurable...I like writing about my family, but I don't especially like talking about them (or myself)...It just seems much easier.
Anyways, I must away. I have yet another ridiculous article to read and a big load of work still to do tonight (which probably won't happen) and tomorrow (which very well may not happen either) and some TV to watch (Space Jam is on later!!), all of which is very important, lol.
Be good to your families, people, especially the difficult family members. One day they won't be there to irritate you and you just won't believe how strange it is once they're not there (physically or mentally) anymore. It really is a trip. Just have some patience. xx