Good Lord...The last great book I read was Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter. I'm not a rah-rah feminist kind of person, which is not to say that I'm not a feminist -- I think it's only fair that if women have all of the same responsibilities as men, they should have all of the same rights -- I'm just not much of a flag waver. Anyway, it's kind of unusual for me to read anything that even remotely touches on gender studies because I know a handful of people who are doing gender studies Majors and they're all a little...Militant. I try to avoid that stuff when I can because it irritates me and stuff about sexism and so forth usually turn out to be seriously biased (for real, there are some real bitches out there. Acknowledge it, women aren't perfect), but having said all of that, I picked up this particular text when I was in line at the uni Co-Op while holding a stupidly heavy basket of textbooks. It turns out I can't avoid impulse shoppping even when my hands are full. Living Dolls was actually a real treat; it was well balanced, there was actual academic information in there, not just hearsay and social psych stuff, and simple, but well-documented experimental evidence. All of that coupled with a little bit of sass and decent writing was a lot of fun to read. I blew through that thing in under a week, I think. 

As a B-Side on the book front, I'm currently reading (aside from all the uni stuff) a book called The Importance of Being Trivial: The Search for the Perfect Fact. Yeah, sure, it's an easy read and not at all unlike the myriad other trivia books out there, but the guy who's written it, Mark Mason, is just so funny and awesome, I'm glad I couldn't help myself to this one...Even though I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more books. I still haven't finished all the ones I bought online over my time off. Oops.

So, if you're still with me, you'll have picked up on the fact that my classes for the semester have started. We're in week two, here, people. Tutorials started yesterday and lectures started last week and, much as I love formal education, I'm finding it tiring. I keep forgetting that I'm still saddled with this depression thing too and that takes it out of one physically, too, but I'm trying to just push on, you know? Get back to a routine and stop driving myself crazy. Though I think I'd rather be crazy than tired right now, lol. I was at uni for six hours today and five of them were spent in class -- one hour long lecture, a two hour long tutorial, an hour break and a two hour long lecture after that. I find it hard to sit still and focus for two whole hours...That's stretching the upper limits of my patience and focus. Anyhow, quick list of subjects for the semester, what?

• Modern Irish Literature: So far I figure it requires a lot of reading. I've done some. Yeats is featuring heavily (I don't mind him, so it's all good), Joyce is in there too (Dubliners...Which I found a copy of on my shelves after I brought my new one home). Some assorted plays and criticisms, and some other writers I've never heard of like John Banville and Elizabeth Bowen.
• Language, Brain and Mind: So far my favourite subject. Even though it has a two hour lecture. And it's only the second week in. Yesterday's lecture topics were brain damage and how damage to certain areas of the brain can cause problems with speech production and comprehension (aphasia, basically), and where the linguistic faculties lie in the brain (all over the place, not just on the left side as previously thought). The textbook is easy and fun to read and the lecturer is the delightful Bill Foley, the gem of a man who taught my first year, first semester, Linguistics course. He's kind of a rock star in the department. It's weird.
• Corpus Linguistics: My prediction for this class was that it was going to be simultaneously fascinating and dry. So far, I'm right. Long story short, a corpus is a body is a large collected body of language from one or a number of sources (news discourse, TV shows, books of a particular genre, etc) and which is then analysed to establish certain patterns such as frequency of word usage or variation in usage. This last one is what I'm interested in...This linguistic technique is how lexicographers build dictionaries and that's what I'm into. Well, that and the idea is just cool. The lecturer is a woman who irritates me (she's German but about to become naturalised), but she does have one or two upsides, the principal of which being the fact that her area of study is TV discourse and she's written a paper on Sheldon Cooper's peculiar use of language. 
• Introduction to Literary Theory: Now, I'm going to be up front and say that I know what literary theory is not...It's not literature, drama, poetry or film and it's not analyses of those things. Beyond that, though, I've got nothing. This is precisely the reason I decided to do this subject and every time I leave a lecture I feel like I've been beaten half to death with the massive (massive and expensive) textbook we have to deal with. I'm still not sure what the hell's going on yet, but I figure, as an English Major, I should probably have at least a rudimentary basis of what literary theory is about. Just sayin'. 

So, beyond all of this, everything's OK. Mentally things are settling down and I feel pretty good. I'm not sure what to do with that or how to deal with it (I keep expecting another downturn), but everything is alright. I could do without feeling tired all the time. Medically things are alright, too; I had a blood test on the first of March and got the results back a couple of days ago. My TSH is still very low, but consistent with my previous results, but the doctor has come to the conclusion that this might just be how it is for me. He said that there are plenty of people who fall above or below the normal range and aren't compromised or physically unwell in any way, so he thinks we shouldn't worry about it. The only concern is that the thyroid antibodies are still very high (this is the whole reason I went through all those other tests in the first place), and he's not sure what to do with that either. I'm clearly not sick, so the doc's recommendation is that I have another test in a few months' time and just see what's what...Of all the things that are (or potentially are) wrong with me, this antibodies thing is the one to look at because it's indicating that something, somewhere, is not right. Not necessarily awfully wrong, but still not all the way right. Urgh.

Snappy's still off with his shoulder and will be for a while yet and, just quietly, I'm so glad to be back at uni. I don't know what it is with men, but apparently they can't do pain that well. And he has a license to take pretty much all the painkillers he wants and just complains about it...Maybe that's just my (still) jonesing brain talking, lol. Bust seriously, the whingeing about the shoulder is making my brain ache...Sure, it hurts, I get it, but for real? Sack up! 

Rant and story over :) I hope you're all doing well xox

Mid semester break, boys and girls. A week to hurriedly catch up on my assignments, notes and essays. Or, time to hurriedly procrastinate and endure pointless busywork. 

I hope that the Easter bunny was splendid to you all (or the Easter bilby, here in Oz) and that there's not too much overindulgence going on. I suppose it's fortunate that all the chocolate consumed over Easter has no calories ;) It's also ANZAC day here, so there's some more time off for the good working citizens of my country. Dreadful that time off is the first thing that comes to mind, isn't it? I wish that wasn't such an Australian thing, lol, but we really do enjoy our holidays. 

ANZAC day is important, and should be more carefully thought about, I think. It really marks the first time that Aussies, and Australian diggers (soldiers/military men) specifically, realised and truly recognised that we were no longer an English colony. It was time to fight for ourselves, to build our own identity rather than maintain our identity of being an extension of the motherland (however, some of us remain monarchists). I think that's why the concept of mateship and the idealised image of the Aussie battler is such a big deal here - - that's our national identity...If only we could return to that and stamp out the absolutely rampant racism that's become a serious problem of late. 

So, yes. I wish I could bring myself to be more motivated RE uni work, lol, but it's just not happening and I'm not sure why. Actually, motivation is seriously lacking in other areas...I haven't been journalling here or in my pen-and-paper journal anywhere near as often as I would like. But I'm sitting here, reading Emerson for this damn poetry essay I have to write (the essay I've been calling "Poe Versus the Transcendentalists") and have finally found a site that's helping me along with Emerson's poem The Rhodora. Turns out that a Rhodora is a kind of flower in the azalea family. How my life has been enriched for this slice of knowledge. Bless. But seriously, Emerson's work, as a Transcendentalist, is largely focussed on nature and the inherent beauty and power thereof. Poe's poetry uses nature as an agent that causes pain or discomfort...Think about The Raven or Annabel Lee. 

In the course of my procrastination over the past few days, I've dug up a couple of gems. The first is the exquisite poetry of W.H. Auden (everyone knows his Funeral Blues from Four Weddings and a Funeral. I dare you to read it aloud without crying.). His poetry series "Twelve Songs" is lovely, and Tell Me The Truth About Love is gorgeous and so simple. Outside of poetry, I came across Ivan Coyote on YouTube. She's (or any other pronoun you like) pretty much a storyteller...Butch, incredible broad shoulders and a lovely demeanour...And so good. Reminds me, in some ways, of Taylor Mali (also a YouTube gem. Look him up). Ivan's work is touching, cute in some ways and painful in others. There is a lot of humour and a lot of attention to detail. The link I've posted below is to one of the first of Ivan's clips I'd seen. Hard to watch a butch be that vulnerable, but great to know it's genuine. While you're there, check out "A Butch Roadmap".

youtu.be/2Q7IzwUa_kI

Onward and upward, all. Big love.

P.S. A quick note to storyfan ...I read you posts about the kitties and I hope all settles down with them. I'm sorry for your loss xox