Archive for January, 2005
Pug’s Place today points to an article on Jean’s favorite “funny site” which frankly makes chills run down my spine. This one falls somewhere between “what’s wrong with American education” and “what’s wrong with America.” Either way, it’s bad.
Despite the fact that these teenagers are teetering on the brink of personal independence, they don’t see how precious our First Amendment freedoms are. I don’t know what kind of high school students they surveyed, but when half - yes, half - of thses kids consider freedom of the press unnecessary at best, I cannot help being shocked.
CNN does make it clear that the fault probably lies with educators. Of all the things that should be taught but aren’t, our rights as American citizens seems like a glaring omission to me (get me started on basic writing skills some other time). Also, Pug is quick to point out that high schools have a tendency towards totalitarianism - I know my dear old alma mater is going that direction under the leadership of a new principal we like to call Queen Cindy I. If high school students are treated like inmates in a high security prison, then what could the First Amendment possibly mean to them?
Most of you have heard me rant about airport security and Big Brother pawing through my luggage - this falls into the same big bag. Sometimes I think that this country deserves to fall into an Orwellian pit. ‘Cause if a lot of people don’t open their eyes, that’s exactly where we’re going to end up. And then you can call me Cassandra.
Categories: in the news
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Fun and games for my Beowulf class this week included having to read for my prof the first eleven lines of the poem…in the Old English. It’s fun to say.  This is the first sentence - three lines.
Whew. I’ve spent most of the weekend working on my Beowulf paper. It has to be 15 - 20 pages eventually, but I figure if I can have ten in my rough draft due Wednesday, that should be fine. I have two weeks after that to revise and keep working. I’m still at the stage where I think the whole thing is a lot of BS, but at least I’ve had a mostly distraction-free weekend - all three of my roommates were gone for most of the weekend.
Last night I got together with a few study abroad buddies for a game of Phase 10, which is an awesome card game - Jen taught me how to play a couple of years ago. Dawson had brought cards to Europe last fall, so last night’s game was full of “yeah, remember that night we were playing this in Dublin?” type reminiscences.
Friday night Jen’s parents came up for her birthday, so there is Cake in the apartment. Yay! I also got to tag along on the birthday dinner at the Olive Garden. Good stuff.
In acting class this week, I found out what the inside of a floppy disc looks like. All week we’d been playing with some pretty intense emotional stuff, which basically came down to yelling at each other or sobbing on each other’s shoulders. So for Friday, the assignment was to bring in something that we could come in and just tear apart in a rage - but then at a given point, we would have to suddenly find a reason to save it and regret our rash actions. Yeah. So I took an empty floppy. It was a really flimsy one, too - snapped right in half. An interesting class session in more ways than one.
Quote for the day:
No, it’s not real, but it is funny.
the church sign generator
Have fun.
Okay. The following bits have been sitting on my computer desktop since last…April probably. I’d planned to post them here because they amused me, but somehow never got around to it (the first bit may explain why…). They still amuse me, so eat your heart out.
Show me more… »
Categories: college
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January 25, 2005 11:24 pm
The fun has begun. For loss of any really brilliant ideas, I’ve settled down to work on my seminar paper with “something about the women in Beowulf” as my working title. I hope to have something more concrete by Friday or so, and I’m going to be writing my little brain out this weekend. Which will NOT interfere with a certain birthday, because I said so.
I think I need this sticker for my still-hypothetical car, don’t you? Credit goes to Pug for finding it. The other way to a girl’s heart is through her funny bone. Or her brain. But chocolate still gets the first spot.
Quote of the day:
“If you move in with him, can I rent your room out?”
“Katie, please don’t turn the apartment into a brothel…”
In other news, the best friend is again bubbling about future houses, children, and engagement rings. All is right with the world.
Categories: college
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Okay, folks. I’ve got an elven cleric of Mystra who needs a name. Suggestions? Still pondering her background…I’ll let you know when I’ve got something.
Life update: I live. I study. Lots going on, but somehow there’s always time to goof off. How does that work? All right, Beowulf, here I come.
Categories: D&D, college
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January 12, 2005 10:24 pm
All hail the mighty Dining Hall, which hath the power to make our lives miserable in the temoral, transitory way of food.
Actually, it wasn’t that bad today; there were just mushrooms in everything. Mushrooms in the meatball sauce. Mushrooms in the terryaki chicken. Mushrooms in the vegetarian option and mushrooms in the pasta sauce. Somebody was trying to use up some mushrooms.
I don’t especially care for mushrooms. But I was amused, nonetheless.
Having a kitchen is nice.
Speaking of food, last night, Jen and I went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s with our new roommates, which was a lot of fun! It brought to mind the first time I was there, which was shortly after one of the more spectacular CCLC floods of last year. Jen and I walked in one Saturday evening in the fall to find an inch or so of water on the floor - later discovered that a copper pipe had been insufficiently capped with a pvc piece by some idiot working on the library construction. We moved all the equipment to drier parts of the library with the help of two coworkers, and got taken out to lunch for our efforts. A bit awkward, but definately worth the free food.
Categories: college
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And thus we return to Furman with all its joys and ills just in time for everybody’s favorite time of year, winter term, that joyful seven weeks in which we take two nice, intense courses and bash our collective heads against the nice new library walls.
Or at least, that’s the stereotype.
This year, I have cunninly enrolled in Theater Arts 45: Acting II - acting I is fortunately not a prereq or I would have been up a creek, as it isn’t offered this term. Granted, I do have written work for the course, but it doesn’t come close to what I would be doing in, say, an English course. I’m enjoying it so far - including the part where I had no class today because my prof (poor man) had his wisdom teeth out yesterday.
My other class is less frivolous (come on, it’s all about balance!) - it’s what most people refer to as a senior seminar, but there’s nothing that says you HAVE to take it as a senior, and as only one topic is offered per term and they don’t tend to repeat, I decided that there’s no time like the present. The subject is Beowulf, and as I understand it, the class will be lots of discussion, lots of reading, and will culminate in a 15-20 page paper (read: slightly longer than the Extended Essays in IB. Only this time, I only have six weeks.). I’m hoping it’ll be interesting, though.
This year I’m living in an on-campus apartment with Jen and two girls who just got back from foreign study in Spain - nice in that it gives us something to talk about while we get to know each other. They’re both really friendly, and I think we’ll all get along just fine.
Going back to working in the CCLC has been fun, if a little surreal. The library rennovations were finished over the summer, so we’re back in the library basement, only now it’s a NICE basement! I feel very out of practice, but starting to get back into the swing of things.
Today has been a real treat. Jen has recently acquired an old Compaq laptop with the intent of putting Linux on it to test it out. We spent the afternoon with a friend we’ve met through work who was willing to help her install Linux. I got to hang around and watch and the afternoon was quite enjoyable. Somewhere in there, he invited us to come watch a movie at his apartment this evening, so we did. Willow had been discussed, but we ended up watching the first Highlander movie and two episodes of a truly bizarre cartoon called Invader Zim. Much giggling ensued. Good times, folks, good times.
Quote of the day:
“I’m just gonna check your closet for terrorists…”
-Jen, after learning that I’ve already gotten her birthday present
Categories: college
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