Wednesday, March 30, 2011
UDaR on dates and paperwork
The latest Rome news is in, and it's official paperwork, meeting dates, and program dates! Check it out at Una Donna a Roma, where anything and everything Rome-related goes in the six months left until my departure for Europe.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
%&&%!--Thus, Chopin
Spring quarter has gone pretty well so far, at least up until about an hour ago when I had to start printing things off for classes. In a slim attempt to save trees, I decided to double-side the printing the old-school way (odds, put back in to print evens), since my printer does not do that in the hip modern duplex way. I eventually got it down--after many poor pieces of paper wasted messing up in various ways along the path to double-sided glory and many obscenities yelled at my printer for needing two ink cartridge changes (black and then, 20 minutes later, tricolor) and a paper-jam fix along the way.
Thus, although there are stories to tell and a UDaR update to put up at some point this week, for now I will leave the blogging world with something more peaceful and blood-pressure-reducing than wraslin' with my printer: Chopin.
Thus, although there are stories to tell and a UDaR update to put up at some point this week, for now I will leave the blogging world with something more peaceful and blood-pressure-reducing than wraslin' with my printer: Chopin.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Additionally: UDaR update on family + Rome
Earlier this week I updated Una Donna a Roma, my Rome-focused blog, with some of the history of my family and Rome (my mother's side of the family is Irish and Italian). This was mostly to keep the blog from dying with lack of greater program specifics by trying to post once a week or so with things at least partially relevant to the eventually upcoming trans-continental experience. :) If you haven't seen it yet, check it out!
Wonderfully creepy, my lord
Lots more Game of Thrones-related stuff has been announced in the past few days, but the highlight of what's been posted lately is this featurette of Petyr Baelish, also known as "Littlefinger," one of the courtiers in King's Landing. The master of treasury, Littlefinger is about as shrewd as they come, and he also harbors a long-smoldering obsession with Catelyn Tully Stark, the wife of Eddard Stark, who thinks of Littlefinger only as a little brother. In Catelyn's absence he sort of gloms onto her children, especially the older Stark daughter, Sansa, in his shrewd, awkward, and creepy way.
Littlefinger is definitely a love-to-hate type of character with a bizarre and slightly pathetic history, and that screenshot really captures the awkwardness and creepiness he seems to bring to just about every interaction he has with anyone, particularly anyone connected to his infatuation with Catelyn, doomed from the start due to his position as a relatively lowly lord and Catelyn's position as both a Tully (first lords of the Riverlands) and a Stark (the wardens of the north).
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| Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) turning on the creepy factor. Screenshot courtesy of Westeros.org |
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Vacation blahblahblah
Not dead, just on spring break. Which is of course delightfully un-full of things to do but which thus makes blogging about things less necessary. Blogging is often a procrastination tool for me, a way to settle my mind before moving onto something else, but there's nothing really to settle here or procrastinate doing. Except sleeping. Which I'm doing, for some reason.
I have A Game of Thrones back from my housemate, so I've been re-reading that. There are a lot of sneaky little details I missed the first time through--unsurprising, in a way, considering how quickly I usually read things. It just takes such a long time with ASoIaF since every book is at least 800 pages in mass-market paperback form, and at school I only read before going to sleep, which only allows for a chapter or maybe two a night (the chapters get really long as the series goes on, it seems). 20 pages or so a night, 50 if I really chug on through (but then I usually have trouble going to sleep afterward, so yeah). That means it would take 2-3 weeks a book to re-read at that pace.
I also have been reading Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter over the past week or so. It was pretty good. Totally, totally different from what I've been reading the past few months (fairly generic modern realistic fiction as opposed to epic fantasy and then trashy fantasy), but that's probably a good thing. Oh yeah, and all that reading I do for class, which for some reason I never really think about when I get to thinking about books I've read. Next quarter I'll have fiction to read for class; I don't think I've had that since last spring quarter, when I took a class on Shakespeare. Kind of looking forward to being able to write English-y style papers in addition to obnoxious sosc papers next quarter.
Being home is extremely, extremely boring in the sense that, well, there's not much to do. Almost none of my high school friends are also on break, so it's mostly just me and my family rattling around small-town New England, fiercely missing friends from school. It's also so transient--just over a week, just 10 days, three of which are now done--that it's hard to really bother settling into any sort of routine. I'm not sure where my suitcase is (I assume my mother took it and hid it from me), but my clothes are all in a laundry basket. No real point in putting them away, it seems, when a week from right now they'll be packed up and ready to read back to the central time zone.
Some more interesting stuff should be happening starting tomorrow, which I guess is good. Lazing around driving my mother crazy and being driven crazy by her is only entertaining up to a certain point, after all. :)
I have A Game of Thrones back from my housemate, so I've been re-reading that. There are a lot of sneaky little details I missed the first time through--unsurprising, in a way, considering how quickly I usually read things. It just takes such a long time with ASoIaF since every book is at least 800 pages in mass-market paperback form, and at school I only read before going to sleep, which only allows for a chapter or maybe two a night (the chapters get really long as the series goes on, it seems). 20 pages or so a night, 50 if I really chug on through (but then I usually have trouble going to sleep afterward, so yeah). That means it would take 2-3 weeks a book to re-read at that pace.
I also have been reading Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter over the past week or so. It was pretty good. Totally, totally different from what I've been reading the past few months (fairly generic modern realistic fiction as opposed to epic fantasy and then trashy fantasy), but that's probably a good thing. Oh yeah, and all that reading I do for class, which for some reason I never really think about when I get to thinking about books I've read. Next quarter I'll have fiction to read for class; I don't think I've had that since last spring quarter, when I took a class on Shakespeare. Kind of looking forward to being able to write English-y style papers in addition to obnoxious sosc papers next quarter.
Being home is extremely, extremely boring in the sense that, well, there's not much to do. Almost none of my high school friends are also on break, so it's mostly just me and my family rattling around small-town New England, fiercely missing friends from school. It's also so transient--just over a week, just 10 days, three of which are now done--that it's hard to really bother settling into any sort of routine. I'm not sure where my suitcase is (I assume my mother took it and hid it from me), but my clothes are all in a laundry basket. No real point in putting them away, it seems, when a week from right now they'll be packed up and ready to read back to the central time zone.
Some more interesting stuff should be happening starting tomorrow, which I guess is good. Lazing around driving my mother crazy and being driven crazy by her is only entertaining up to a certain point, after all. :)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
UDaR update on program specifics
A new post is up at Una Donna a Roma regarding the conversation I had today with a friend who did the Rome civ program this past fall; I learned quite a lot about the program, some of which I reproduced there.
Total bonanza
First, and foremost: DONE WITH WINTER QUARTER. That's all, really, on that front. Back to New England tomorrow.
On the Game of Thrones front, there are so many videos out as to make your head spin. House features for Houses Baratheon, Lannister, and Targaryen, PLUS character features for many of the Starks and the key Lannisters and Targaryens. The character features are exclusively for Comcast subscribers, but they have already started leaking onto YouTube. Not all videos are yet on YouTube, but many are.
First and foremost, the feature of House Baratheon, the royal house of Westeros since Robert's Rebellion about 15 years previous to the start of the story. This features King Robert, a tiny bit of Cersei (she's featured in the Lannister video, of course), Joffrey/Tommen/Myrcella (the royal children), and Renly, Robert's younger brother. This is not yet on YouTube, but you can find it here courtesy of TV.com.
Now the YouTube videos, embedded below, beginning with House Lannister. Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion are featured here, with new shots and interviews with the actors. There is also a brief shot of Tywin Lannister, the infamous house patriarch, in his glorious lion-themed armor, which is something fans have been clamoring about for a while now.
House Targaryen is the former royal house, overthrown in Robert's Rebellion. The two remaining heirs, Viserys and Daenerys, were rescued and taken to the far east, where they've lived with the wealthy merchant prince Illyrio Mopatis. As the series begins, Viserys and Illyrio are marrying Daenerys off to Khal Drogo, a khal, or warlord, of the nomadic Dothraki people, in exchange for Drogo's help in taking back Westeros for the Targaryens.
Now onto the character featurettes done in collaboration with Comcast, beginning with the Starks. First up is the patriarch Eddard (Ned) Stark, beloved friend of King Robert, father of five legitimate children and one bastard. Serious and probably the most rigidly honorable character in the series, he nonetheless has a great soft spot for his children, including his bastard, Jon, whom he has, unusually for a lord, raised alongside his legitimate children.
Next is Catelyn Stark, Ned's wife, originally from House Tully of the Riverlands region. She is devoted to her family and yearns to see them rise in the eyes of the king and would do anything for her children, but she also can be fiercely stubborn and determined when need be.
First up among the Stark children is Jon Snow, the bastard child of Ned Stark, who decides to escape the shadow of his bastardy and his famous family by joining the Night's Watch, an order that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the wildling invaders from the north.
After Jon is Sansa Stark, the eldest Stark daughter and second-oldest legitimate Stark child (the Stark heir, Robb, does not have a featurette). Naive and drawn to stories of knights and chivalry, she dreams of escaping the wilds of the northlands and joining the royal family after she is promised to the crown prince Joffrey Baratheon.
Next is Arya Stark, the second Stark daughter and third legitimate child overall. Much more tomboyish and wild than her sister, she yearns for adventure and has a deep bond with Jon, as both are rather different from their siblings.
Last is Bran, the second-oldest legitimate Stark boy and second-youngest child overall (there is a younger son, Rickon, who is not featured in these featurettes). Too young to be much of a player in the political arena, he mostly lives a good life running about the castle but worries Catelyn intensively with the hijinks he gets up to.
The Lannisters have three featurettes, beginning with King Robert Baratheon, who is not technically a Lannister but is married into the family. A great warrior in his day, Robert has a soft spot now for wine, food, and women and was a much better throne-winner than he is a throne-sitter.
Cersei Lannister is Robert's queen and the twin to Jaime Lannister (who, strangely, does not have a featurette). Stunningly beautiful, Cersei has great ambition and an unusually strong lust for power for women in the medieval period and is good at playing the game of thrones.
Tyrion Lannister is the younger brother of Cersei and Jaime. Born a dwarf, his mother died birthing him, and his father has never forgiven him for it. Although his relationship with his siblings and father can be very tense, he acts a lot like the other Lannisters: he is extremely clever and witty.
Last are the Targaryens and associates. Viserys is the older Targaryen child and the heir to the ruined Targaryen fortune, and he has never stopped obsessing over his lost kingdoms and plotting to win them back, even to the point of (quite literally) driving himself mad. He is extremely possessive of his sister, Daenerys, whom he likely would have married were the Targaryens still in power (the Targaryen custom is to keep their blood pure by marrying brother to sister).
Daenerys is Viserys's younger sister. She has no memories at all of Westeros, unlike Viserys, and is dependent on him to learn about their family and their right to rule the Seven Kingdoms. As the series begins, she is to be married to Khal Drogo so that Drogo will provide Viserys with an army to take back Westeros. She begins to learn the art of ruling at Drogo's side.
Khal Drogo is the vicious khal, or warlord, of a horde of the nomadic Dothraki people. Huge, strong, and intimidating, he claims to have never lost a battle and accepts Daenerys as his gift-wife from Viserys and Illyrio Mopatis but slowly begins to fall in love with the much younger, and much more fragile, Daenerys and helps to teach her how to rule.
And that's it for now--so many videos, but they're all so good! Great shots in each.
On the Game of Thrones front, there are so many videos out as to make your head spin. House features for Houses Baratheon, Lannister, and Targaryen, PLUS character features for many of the Starks and the key Lannisters and Targaryens. The character features are exclusively for Comcast subscribers, but they have already started leaking onto YouTube. Not all videos are yet on YouTube, but many are.
First and foremost, the feature of House Baratheon, the royal house of Westeros since Robert's Rebellion about 15 years previous to the start of the story. This features King Robert, a tiny bit of Cersei (she's featured in the Lannister video, of course), Joffrey/Tommen/Myrcella (the royal children), and Renly, Robert's younger brother. This is not yet on YouTube, but you can find it here courtesy of TV.com.
Now the YouTube videos, embedded below, beginning with House Lannister. Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion are featured here, with new shots and interviews with the actors. There is also a brief shot of Tywin Lannister, the infamous house patriarch, in his glorious lion-themed armor, which is something fans have been clamoring about for a while now.
House Targaryen is the former royal house, overthrown in Robert's Rebellion. The two remaining heirs, Viserys and Daenerys, were rescued and taken to the far east, where they've lived with the wealthy merchant prince Illyrio Mopatis. As the series begins, Viserys and Illyrio are marrying Daenerys off to Khal Drogo, a khal, or warlord, of the nomadic Dothraki people, in exchange for Drogo's help in taking back Westeros for the Targaryens.
Now onto the character featurettes done in collaboration with Comcast, beginning with the Starks. First up is the patriarch Eddard (Ned) Stark, beloved friend of King Robert, father of five legitimate children and one bastard. Serious and probably the most rigidly honorable character in the series, he nonetheless has a great soft spot for his children, including his bastard, Jon, whom he has, unusually for a lord, raised alongside his legitimate children.
Next is Catelyn Stark, Ned's wife, originally from House Tully of the Riverlands region. She is devoted to her family and yearns to see them rise in the eyes of the king and would do anything for her children, but she also can be fiercely stubborn and determined when need be.
First up among the Stark children is Jon Snow, the bastard child of Ned Stark, who decides to escape the shadow of his bastardy and his famous family by joining the Night's Watch, an order that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the wildling invaders from the north.
After Jon is Sansa Stark, the eldest Stark daughter and second-oldest legitimate Stark child (the Stark heir, Robb, does not have a featurette). Naive and drawn to stories of knights and chivalry, she dreams of escaping the wilds of the northlands and joining the royal family after she is promised to the crown prince Joffrey Baratheon.
Next is Arya Stark, the second Stark daughter and third legitimate child overall. Much more tomboyish and wild than her sister, she yearns for adventure and has a deep bond with Jon, as both are rather different from their siblings.
Last is Bran, the second-oldest legitimate Stark boy and second-youngest child overall (there is a younger son, Rickon, who is not featured in these featurettes). Too young to be much of a player in the political arena, he mostly lives a good life running about the castle but worries Catelyn intensively with the hijinks he gets up to.
The Lannisters have three featurettes, beginning with King Robert Baratheon, who is not technically a Lannister but is married into the family. A great warrior in his day, Robert has a soft spot now for wine, food, and women and was a much better throne-winner than he is a throne-sitter.
Cersei Lannister is Robert's queen and the twin to Jaime Lannister (who, strangely, does not have a featurette). Stunningly beautiful, Cersei has great ambition and an unusually strong lust for power for women in the medieval period and is good at playing the game of thrones.
Tyrion Lannister is the younger brother of Cersei and Jaime. Born a dwarf, his mother died birthing him, and his father has never forgiven him for it. Although his relationship with his siblings and father can be very tense, he acts a lot like the other Lannisters: he is extremely clever and witty.
Last are the Targaryens and associates. Viserys is the older Targaryen child and the heir to the ruined Targaryen fortune, and he has never stopped obsessing over his lost kingdoms and plotting to win them back, even to the point of (quite literally) driving himself mad. He is extremely possessive of his sister, Daenerys, whom he likely would have married were the Targaryens still in power (the Targaryen custom is to keep their blood pure by marrying brother to sister).
Daenerys is Viserys's younger sister. She has no memories at all of Westeros, unlike Viserys, and is dependent on him to learn about their family and their right to rule the Seven Kingdoms. As the series begins, she is to be married to Khal Drogo so that Drogo will provide Viserys with an army to take back Westeros. She begins to learn the art of ruling at Drogo's side.
Khal Drogo is the vicious khal, or warlord, of a horde of the nomadic Dothraki people. Huge, strong, and intimidating, he claims to have never lost a battle and accepts Daenerys as his gift-wife from Viserys and Illyrio Mopatis but slowly begins to fall in love with the much younger, and much more fragile, Daenerys and helps to teach her how to rule.
And that's it for now--so many videos, but they're all so good! Great shots in each.
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Maester's Path: Link 3
The third link for The Maester's Path is up and rolling; I apologize for not getting info up earlier, but it did not get released until this afternoon when I was actually already in my astro final. C'est la vie. The theme this time is "sight," and in this link you take the black, metaphorically speaking, and try your hand at being a member of the Night's Watch keeping an eye out for wildling invaders. It's got a first-person perspective and is extremely graphics-heavy, as it does a beautiful 3D video-game-esque conception of the Wall and the land beyond, so close out other windows and applications running before trying. Maneuvering is done by mouse only, so if you're on a laptop with just a trackpad it can be a little precarious, but it's doable. For how-tos and general help, check out the comments on this page at fan site Winter Is Coming. It took me a good 15 minutes to get with my trackpad being annoying, but it's very interesting.
The reward this time seemed a little bit shorter than the others, to me, and not quite as intensely interesting, but all clips are good clips so far, at least as far as this series goes. The scene is not particularly momentous but features a character we've already seen, as well as some first glimpses of a few others, and gives us a glimpse at a locale we haven't seen too much of yet. Highlight or copy-paste into a word document to read a summary: Tyrion is at the wall, discussing the growing threat of the coming winter, with what appears to be Maester Aemon and Commander Mormont.
In other news, astro is indeed done, and it went as well as expected. 25% completion of finals! Tomorrow is the take-home art history final, and Wednesday is Italian and turning in my Foucault paper. The worst is basically over, however.
The reward this time seemed a little bit shorter than the others, to me, and not quite as intensely interesting, but all clips are good clips so far, at least as far as this series goes. The scene is not particularly momentous but features a character we've already seen, as well as some first glimpses of a few others, and gives us a glimpse at a locale we haven't seen too much of yet. Highlight or copy-paste into a word document to read a summary: Tyrion is at the wall, discussing the growing threat of the coming winter, with what appears to be Maester Aemon and Commander Mormont.
In other news, astro is indeed done, and it went as well as expected. 25% completion of finals! Tomorrow is the take-home art history final, and Wednesday is Italian and turning in my Foucault paper. The worst is basically over, however.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Finals update & GoT trailer bonanza
Just finished 5 pages of Foucault draft-ness, so I'm feeling pretty good. It's good to have a whole draft down and the next two nights to do rewrites (on top of the 3 other classes I also have stuff for between now and Wednesday morning). I was on a productive kick again last night, spending about 3 hours at Harper (the general 24-hour reading room with gorgeous Gothic architecture) plus four hours at Harper today to plan out the Foucault paper, make my study sheet for astro tomorrow (smallest handwriting ever on that one), and actually draft out Foucault. I've never spent this much time in libraries, and yet it really is not a lot compared to what most people do during finals week. I'm already tired of studying astro, but the exam is tomorrow at 1:30, so I'll probably wake up my usual weekday time at 9:30ish and study until it's time for lunch/class, and then that will be done. Forever.
My just-finished-5-pages good mood has only been enhanced by the wonders the internet has shown me as regards Game of Thrones; apparently two different trailer-esque videos were shown on HBO tonight, and both are now online. The first, called "Fear and Blood," is a generic dramatic 2:20 trailer, focusing on the legend of the Others (which HBO are calling "White Walkers"), some new shots of the far north/Castle Black, and some great Jamie/Cersei Lannister dialogue. It's not yet on YouTube, so I cannot embed it, but it can be found at the official HBO production blog Making Game of Thrones--check it out here.
The second video, embedded below, is a "Meet the Starks" feature, and it is easily my favorite video posted so far about Game of Thrones. It begins with some basic "this is Westeros" explanation by George R.R. Martin, seen before, but then it goes into some brief clips of Ned, Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, Jon Snow, Benjen Stark, and the north in general, including some more Castle Back stuff. Clips from interviews with the actors, glimpses of Winterfell and more, our first times really seeing Rickon and Sansa, and so much more--a really awesome intro to the Starks. I hope they do similar videos in the next weeks for the Lannisters, the Baratheons, and the like; it's really very well done.
Tomorrow's Monday, so it's almost time for the third link for The Maester's Path, which I will also hopefully post about sometime in between waking up tomorrow and taking my astro final at 1:30. I'll also be getting my copy of A Game of Thrones back from the housemate I lent it to sometime this week before we all leave for break, so I can finish a reread of it before the show premieres on 4/17 and start my reread of ASoIaF in general so I'll be done by July, when A Dance with Dragons comes out. Things are going pretty well, all things considered, for finals.
My just-finished-5-pages good mood has only been enhanced by the wonders the internet has shown me as regards Game of Thrones; apparently two different trailer-esque videos were shown on HBO tonight, and both are now online. The first, called "Fear and Blood," is a generic dramatic 2:20 trailer, focusing on the legend of the Others (which HBO are calling "White Walkers"), some new shots of the far north/Castle Black, and some great Jamie/Cersei Lannister dialogue. It's not yet on YouTube, so I cannot embed it, but it can be found at the official HBO production blog Making Game of Thrones--check it out here.
The second video, embedded below, is a "Meet the Starks" feature, and it is easily my favorite video posted so far about Game of Thrones. It begins with some basic "this is Westeros" explanation by George R.R. Martin, seen before, but then it goes into some brief clips of Ned, Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, Jon Snow, Benjen Stark, and the north in general, including some more Castle Back stuff. Clips from interviews with the actors, glimpses of Winterfell and more, our first times really seeing Rickon and Sansa, and so much more--a really awesome intro to the Starks. I hope they do similar videos in the next weeks for the Lannisters, the Baratheons, and the like; it's really very well done.
Tomorrow's Monday, so it's almost time for the third link for The Maester's Path, which I will also hopefully post about sometime in between waking up tomorrow and taking my astro final at 1:30. I'll also be getting my copy of A Game of Thrones back from the housemate I lent it to sometime this week before we all leave for break, so I can finish a reread of it before the show premieres on 4/17 and start my reread of ASoIaF in general so I'll be done by July, when A Dance with Dragons comes out. Things are going pretty well, all things considered, for finals.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Fulfilling stereotypes + classes, at last
I'm not a big study-in-library person, in part because I'm lazy and, since I have a single on a quiet floor in the house, I usually see no need to study elsewhere. Last night--a Friday night, mind you--I went to Crerar, however, the moderately-creepy science library on campus, since a few friends were going. We nabbed a study room so that we'd be able to talk once in a while, and we left at about 11pm, 5 hours after we arrived. My friends mostly worked on papers due on Monday and Tuesday, and I worked on studying astronomy (four hours to go over notes and check solutions to homework, apparently) and started consolidating information to study later this week for Italian.
Now today, a Saturday, I've spent about three hours studying in one of the general dorm-wide lounges with another friend. Again, "studying" here means finishing writing out all my Italian stuff and consolidating info for my art history final, which really doesn't require much if any actual studying since it's a take-home final that's posted online at noon on Tuesday and due back by noon on Wednesday. It's open notes, it's three short compare and contrast essays for different artworks/monuments, and it really isn't much of anything to worry about, since after my initial B+ on my first writing assignment for this class, I've gotten As and A-s on the other graded assignments we've had, including the midterm. It's better to push papers around and take notes, however, than it is to work on my Foucault paper, the thing I am dreading most about finals week. It's now not due until Wednesday, but I have to spend Tuesday doing my art history final and studying for Italian on Wednesday morning, and I have to spend most of tomorrow making my cheat-sheet for astronomy on Monday (all of the class condensed onto one piece of paper is really fun to make). So really, I need to plot out Foucault pretty rigorously tonight, write it tomorrow/Monday, and do some sort of editing on Tuesday.
I really need to be thinking about Foucault, but I absolutely hate sosc papers (they are so joyless, compared to other types of papers, not that any paper is really that fun), and I know that no matter how much I try, I'm likely going to get a B+ on it (like I've gotten on all my sosc papers) and a B+ in the class for the quarter. I'm completely down with B+s, but I just do not want to write something that likely isn't going to be top-notch work anyway, since sosc papers require such agonizing succinctness and dry accuracy, a far cry from the "brimming-full-of-random-stuff, close-read-to-pieces" English-y papers I prefer to write.
Fortunately, the quarter is indeed almost done. Unfortunately, however, the most important (and most agonizing) part of the quarter is just beginning. As if determined to make it that much harder to care about these classes anymore, classes for spring quarter finally came out yesterday. I'm taking Italian 203, the third quarter of sosc, an English class called Modern Love in Victorian Poetry and Prose, and a psych class called The Social Brain and Empathy, which is taught by world cognitive-neuro-empathy expert Jean Decety. No astro, no art history, just stuff I actually could conceivably care more about (besides sosc) and/or enjoy doing work for (again, besides sosc).
After this quarter, I'm done with physical sciences for the core. After this year, I'll also be done with sosc. After this year, the only core I will have left is civ (civilization studies), which will be happening fall quarter. In Rome. Then, after I get back from Europe, I'll have to take classes that will eventually give me a degree and a future. Chyeah?
Now today, a Saturday, I've spent about three hours studying in one of the general dorm-wide lounges with another friend. Again, "studying" here means finishing writing out all my Italian stuff and consolidating info for my art history final, which really doesn't require much if any actual studying since it's a take-home final that's posted online at noon on Tuesday and due back by noon on Wednesday. It's open notes, it's three short compare and contrast essays for different artworks/monuments, and it really isn't much of anything to worry about, since after my initial B+ on my first writing assignment for this class, I've gotten As and A-s on the other graded assignments we've had, including the midterm. It's better to push papers around and take notes, however, than it is to work on my Foucault paper, the thing I am dreading most about finals week. It's now not due until Wednesday, but I have to spend Tuesday doing my art history final and studying for Italian on Wednesday morning, and I have to spend most of tomorrow making my cheat-sheet for astronomy on Monday (all of the class condensed onto one piece of paper is really fun to make). So really, I need to plot out Foucault pretty rigorously tonight, write it tomorrow/Monday, and do some sort of editing on Tuesday.
I really need to be thinking about Foucault, but I absolutely hate sosc papers (they are so joyless, compared to other types of papers, not that any paper is really that fun), and I know that no matter how much I try, I'm likely going to get a B+ on it (like I've gotten on all my sosc papers) and a B+ in the class for the quarter. I'm completely down with B+s, but I just do not want to write something that likely isn't going to be top-notch work anyway, since sosc papers require such agonizing succinctness and dry accuracy, a far cry from the "brimming-full-of-random-stuff, close-read-to-pieces" English-y papers I prefer to write.
Fortunately, the quarter is indeed almost done. Unfortunately, however, the most important (and most agonizing) part of the quarter is just beginning. As if determined to make it that much harder to care about these classes anymore, classes for spring quarter finally came out yesterday. I'm taking Italian 203, the third quarter of sosc, an English class called Modern Love in Victorian Poetry and Prose, and a psych class called The Social Brain and Empathy, which is taught by world cognitive-neuro-empathy expert Jean Decety. No astro, no art history, just stuff I actually could conceivably care more about (besides sosc) and/or enjoy doing work for (again, besides sosc).
After this quarter, I'm done with physical sciences for the core. After this year, I'll also be done with sosc. After this year, the only core I will have left is civ (civilization studies), which will be happening fall quarter. In Rome. Then, after I get back from Europe, I'll have to take classes that will eventually give me a degree and a future. Chyeah?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
New UDaR post on the deposit + end of classes
(End of classes for real this time. Except for the class I have to teach high schoolers tomorrow afternoon.)
There's a new post about the paying-the-deposit, officially-accepting-my-position process up at Una Donna a Roma.
In North American news, classes are finally done, in that I sat through the travesty of a sosc class this afternoon. It wasn't really a travesty, just kind of boring. But useful when it comes to our papers on Foucault due next week, especially since my professor changed the due date of the paper to Wednesday instead of Monday. I have enough stuff going on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll probably just be doing the paper this weekend anyway as originally planned, but it's nice to have a few extra days to look it over and pretend to edit it.
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me is tonight. In an hour and ten minutes, actually, which means I need to shower (I just got back from the gym), grab some dinner quickly, and get ready to head out; I'm leading this trip, so I'm in charge of 9 other undergrads plus my own fine self and making sure that we get to the Metra station on time to catch the train north. It should be fun, all things considered (NPR pun? I swear it was unintentional).
There's a new post about the paying-the-deposit, officially-accepting-my-position process up at Una Donna a Roma.
In North American news, classes are finally done, in that I sat through the travesty of a sosc class this afternoon. It wasn't really a travesty, just kind of boring. But useful when it comes to our papers on Foucault due next week, especially since my professor changed the due date of the paper to Wednesday instead of Monday. I have enough stuff going on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll probably just be doing the paper this weekend anyway as originally planned, but it's nice to have a few extra days to look it over and pretend to edit it.
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me is tonight. In an hour and ten minutes, actually, which means I need to shower (I just got back from the gym), grab some dinner quickly, and get ready to head out; I'm leading this trip, so I'm in charge of 9 other undergrads plus my own fine self and making sure that we get to the Metra station on time to catch the train north. It should be fun, all things considered (NPR pun? I swear it was unintentional).
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Done, or so I thought
Tomorrow is the embarkation (yeah, I don't think that's a word either) of the grand social/academic experiment known as reading period. For two blessed days before finals, we are supposed to be free of classes and homework; our eyes are now on that prize known as finals week, known as two-hour-long exams and multiple pages of essay-ing. We have tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to prepare ourselves for the impending doom.
I also have a class tomorrow, during reading period, on Foucault. Thanks, sosc professor. I appreciate that. Granted, it's technically "optional," but he said he would not hold it unless everyone showed up, and for some reason a lot of the people in my class want to talk about Foucault yet again, so there we go. An hour and twenty minutes of Foucault tomorrow to brighten my reading period. Our paper (5 pages) on Foucault is due Monday, and we're supposed to bring in tentative outlines and stuff tomorrow, so I guess this could actually be a productive and helpful class period, but I'm rather attached at times to the idea of a lazy reading period, kind of a proto-weekend before I have to spend the actual weekend studying, reading, and writing for hours on end.
This reading period kind of looks like it will be anything but lazy, what with sosc and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me tomorrow, teaching Friday, finding time to submit my Rome deposit and talk to the study abroad office, and probably other sundry things I'm not aware of yet but which will pop up out of the woodwork. Finals week itself will be moderately insane; my astro final is Monday at 1:30, my Foucault paper is due Monday by 5pm, my take-home final (three comparative essays of different artworks) for art history is posted on noon on Tuesday and due by 11:59 am Wednesday, and my Italian final is at 8am on Wednesday. And then I have to get ready to trek to the airport on Thursday to fly home for ten days for spring break. During which I have to secure employment for the summer if at all possible.
!!
I also have a class tomorrow, during reading period, on Foucault. Thanks, sosc professor. I appreciate that. Granted, it's technically "optional," but he said he would not hold it unless everyone showed up, and for some reason a lot of the people in my class want to talk about Foucault yet again, so there we go. An hour and twenty minutes of Foucault tomorrow to brighten my reading period. Our paper (5 pages) on Foucault is due Monday, and we're supposed to bring in tentative outlines and stuff tomorrow, so I guess this could actually be a productive and helpful class period, but I'm rather attached at times to the idea of a lazy reading period, kind of a proto-weekend before I have to spend the actual weekend studying, reading, and writing for hours on end.
This reading period kind of looks like it will be anything but lazy, what with sosc and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me tomorrow, teaching Friday, finding time to submit my Rome deposit and talk to the study abroad office, and probably other sundry things I'm not aware of yet but which will pop up out of the woodwork. Finals week itself will be moderately insane; my astro final is Monday at 1:30, my Foucault paper is due Monday by 5pm, my take-home final (three comparative essays of different artworks) for art history is posted on noon on Tuesday and due by 11:59 am Wednesday, and my Italian final is at 8am on Wednesday. And then I have to get ready to trek to the airport on Thursday to fly home for ten days for spring break. During which I have to secure employment for the summer if at all possible.
!!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Additionally, new sub-blog
To keep things focused a bit, I've started up a new blog specifically for Rome content; it can be found at Una Donna a Roma. I will continue to blog here throughout the process of getting ready for Rome, and even while I am in Rome, but UDaR will have the nitty-gritty details of the process, and when I am in Rome it will contain descriptions of trips, sights seen, cultural experiences had, and the like. This blog will remain a general depository for thoughts on the internet, college life in general, ASoIaF, and all that it usually is. UDaR will probably be slow for a bit until preparations really start gearing up next quarter, but I'll let you guys know here when a new post regarding the Rome process is up. Until then, enjoy yourselves. :)
Roma
Today I received word that I have officially been admitted to a study abroad program in Rome for fall quarter next year, meaning that I will be living in Rome for 10 weeks this fall with about 20 other current UofC college students. It's not really real until I pay my deposit ($550 woooo), start the visa process (thankfully the college handles that for us), and whatnot, but I'm sure it will hit me eventually that I'm going to one of the cradles of Western civilization for an extended visit. :)
I am really, really happy to go to Rome, even though it will require some changes in my usual living routine (besides the obvious change of being in a foreign country on another continent). I'm not sure that I know anyone who is also going with this particular trip, which isn't particularly frightening for me. It is weird in that we are living in apartments in Monteverdi, however, and I've never 1) lived in an apartment, and 2) shared living spaces with other people. I know, I know--a college student who doesn't share living space? I share bathrooms and common areas, but my room this year (and last year) has always been a single. I'm pretty sure the apartments in Rome are four-person with two double bedrooms, but I'm not entirely sure. Trusty earplugs will get me through just about everything, but it is kind of weird to think about sharing a sleeping room with someone (in a foreign country, on another continent) for ten weeks. It's also weird to think about taking care of my own meals all the time (food is not part of the deal, although housing is) and doing other domestic-ish adult-y things. I guess it's a bit like a crash course for real life.
The greater problem for me remains housing after I get back from Rome. The way UofC housing works, you sign on for a whole academic year at a time, but if you're going abroad for a quarter, things get messed up in that you aren't allowed to reserve a room ahead of time. You're guaranteed a space somewhere in housing if you want it, but since people going abroad fall do not reserve rooms in the spring lotteries, we're basically left up to the whims of chance when it comes to coming back to housing for winter quarter; wherever there's space, we go, and it's pretty hard to get back into your same house again, unless someone else leaves. Lots of people in my house are studying abroad next year, and two of my friends are actually studying abroad in winter and spring quarters, respectively. The tentative plan was basically to get a double, which the three of us would rotate in and out of as necessary, and which I would love, as it would let us all stay in our house next year. However, this never really came to fruition, and then the next thing I knew my two friends had indeed set up this plan--with another housemate who is going to India in the fall.
Obviously it was a little bizarre and kind of upsetting to be locked out of this rotating double plan, for another random housemate also going abroad fall, and obviously the fact that my housemate is also going abroad fall and also wants to stay in our house when she comes back (and actually has a working plan for doing it, something that I don't have) makes it that much less likely that I will be able to get back in next year unless someone from our house drops out of the college or something. I won't be homeless or anything of the sort no matter what happens, but I do love my house and housemates dearly and would be sad to be in a different house. Hopefully I can at least remain in the same dorm, even if in a different house.
There's nothing that can be done about that now, though. Eyes just have to stay on Rome. :)
I am really, really happy to go to Rome, even though it will require some changes in my usual living routine (besides the obvious change of being in a foreign country on another continent). I'm not sure that I know anyone who is also going with this particular trip, which isn't particularly frightening for me. It is weird in that we are living in apartments in Monteverdi, however, and I've never 1) lived in an apartment, and 2) shared living spaces with other people. I know, I know--a college student who doesn't share living space? I share bathrooms and common areas, but my room this year (and last year) has always been a single. I'm pretty sure the apartments in Rome are four-person with two double bedrooms, but I'm not entirely sure. Trusty earplugs will get me through just about everything, but it is kind of weird to think about sharing a sleeping room with someone (in a foreign country, on another continent) for ten weeks. It's also weird to think about taking care of my own meals all the time (food is not part of the deal, although housing is) and doing other domestic-ish adult-y things. I guess it's a bit like a crash course for real life.
The greater problem for me remains housing after I get back from Rome. The way UofC housing works, you sign on for a whole academic year at a time, but if you're going abroad for a quarter, things get messed up in that you aren't allowed to reserve a room ahead of time. You're guaranteed a space somewhere in housing if you want it, but since people going abroad fall do not reserve rooms in the spring lotteries, we're basically left up to the whims of chance when it comes to coming back to housing for winter quarter; wherever there's space, we go, and it's pretty hard to get back into your same house again, unless someone else leaves. Lots of people in my house are studying abroad next year, and two of my friends are actually studying abroad in winter and spring quarters, respectively. The tentative plan was basically to get a double, which the three of us would rotate in and out of as necessary, and which I would love, as it would let us all stay in our house next year. However, this never really came to fruition, and then the next thing I knew my two friends had indeed set up this plan--with another housemate who is going to India in the fall.
Obviously it was a little bizarre and kind of upsetting to be locked out of this rotating double plan, for another random housemate also going abroad fall, and obviously the fact that my housemate is also going abroad fall and also wants to stay in our house when she comes back (and actually has a working plan for doing it, something that I don't have) makes it that much less likely that I will be able to get back in next year unless someone from our house drops out of the college or something. I won't be homeless or anything of the sort no matter what happens, but I do love my house and housemates dearly and would be sad to be in a different house. Hopefully I can at least remain in the same dorm, even if in a different house.
There's nothing that can be done about that now, though. Eyes just have to stay on Rome. :)
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Maester's Path: Link 2
Link 2 for The Maester's Path, the promo website for Game of Thrones, is active, and it's much more intricate than the first link was. This time the focus is on "sound," specifically conversations at the Inn of the Crossroads that tell something about several of the great houses of Westeros. The conversations are pretty interesting but also sort of hard to hear, and the houses from them are mentioned indirectly. After listening to all 5 or 6 conversations, you go to a board where there are many sigils of bannermen houses; you're supposed to mix and match the sigils in the smaller red circles to create the great house sigils mentioned in the conversations. (One of the great house sigils you can make is a red herring and isn't actually mentioned in the conversations.)
The best source of help I've seen so far has been the comments of this post talking about it at fansite WinterIsComing. There's also a really cool heraldry section over at Westeros.org, but if you don't already know at least something about the great houses, it's hard to figure out where to start looking to find what sigil is what. The reward for this one is another 30-second clip from the series, featuring a character very well loved by the fandom (highlight or copy/paste into a word document to see what scene: Catelyn Stark is at the Inn of the Crossroads, being pestered by the singer Marillion, when Tyrion Lannister and company enter the inn end spoiler). Not quite as cool as the scene from last week but still interesting to get our first real sense of how these characters will work.
Overall The Maester's Path is very involving and intricate, and obviously the work HBO and their subcontractor Campfire Media have put into the site is impressive. Curious as to what will come in the next few weeks and of course very curious to see how the series looks and what the viewership numbers will be for the premiere on April 17th. Fans of the books are amped up, of course, but I'm interested in seeing what people who have never read the books think.
Again, if you'd like to join me as an acolyte, use the following link: http://itsh.bo/edmQfU. If you sign up after following this link to the website, I gain an acolyte; I'm currently 1/5, or 20%.
A programming note: on April 3rd at 9 PM eastern/pacific, HBO will air the first 15 minutes of the first episode of Game of Thrones as a sneak peak of the series, and it will make this 15-minute long clip available on HBO.com afterward.
This week should be relatively chaotic for me, with the end of classes, some events, prepping for finals for this quarter, and probably news on whether or not I was accepted into a study abroad program for next year, which then will prompt housing questions and all sorts of other complicated almost-real-life things. I'll keep posting whenever possible, however.
The best source of help I've seen so far has been the comments of this post talking about it at fansite WinterIsComing. There's also a really cool heraldry section over at Westeros.org, but if you don't already know at least something about the great houses, it's hard to figure out where to start looking to find what sigil is what. The reward for this one is another 30-second clip from the series, featuring a character very well loved by the fandom (highlight or copy/paste into a word document to see what scene: Catelyn Stark is at the Inn of the Crossroads, being pestered by the singer Marillion, when Tyrion Lannister and company enter the inn end spoiler). Not quite as cool as the scene from last week but still interesting to get our first real sense of how these characters will work.
Overall The Maester's Path is very involving and intricate, and obviously the work HBO and their subcontractor Campfire Media have put into the site is impressive. Curious as to what will come in the next few weeks and of course very curious to see how the series looks and what the viewership numbers will be for the premiere on April 17th. Fans of the books are amped up, of course, but I'm interested in seeing what people who have never read the books think.
Again, if you'd like to join me as an acolyte, use the following link: http://itsh.bo/edmQfU. If you sign up after following this link to the website, I gain an acolyte; I'm currently 1/5, or 20%.
A programming note: on April 3rd at 9 PM eastern/pacific, HBO will air the first 15 minutes of the first episode of Game of Thrones as a sneak peak of the series, and it will make this 15-minute long clip available on HBO.com afterward.
This week should be relatively chaotic for me, with the end of classes, some events, prepping for finals for this quarter, and probably news on whether or not I was accepted into a study abroad program for next year, which then will prompt housing questions and all sorts of other complicated almost-real-life things. I'll keep posting whenever possible, however.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sunday procrastination + GoT trailer
First off is the first full trailer for Game of Thrones, released last week and originally EW-exclusive, which is now on YouTube and thus can be embedded. Tomorrow a new "link" in The Maester's Path should be activated, which will bring more ASoIaF fun and hopefully a new awesome clip from the series as a reward for completion.
Besides that, there's no real news for anything going on; it's just another gray winter's day here in Chitown, spent writing a lab report about the cosmic microwave background and getting ready to start reading some Benjamin and Adorno for sosc on Tuesday. About 7 hours of class left this quarter and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on Thursday would make this a pretty good week, and it's certainly going to be better than next week, when finals doom is finally here, but the run-up to finals is almost worse than the papers and exams themselves.
I've been reading one of my Belmont used books now that I finished the first one, A Wizard of Earthsea. This one is called Mage Heart and seems like a bizarre little cheesy romantic fantasy; so far there's been illicit hallucinogen use, mentions of demons, slightly bizarre magic, and hints of good ole female homosexuality, along with lots of talk of breasts. It's interesting enough to make it worth reading, at least for now, but I don't see anything truly original or shocking or otherwise coming out of this one.
Besides that, there's no real news for anything going on; it's just another gray winter's day here in Chitown, spent writing a lab report about the cosmic microwave background and getting ready to start reading some Benjamin and Adorno for sosc on Tuesday. About 7 hours of class left this quarter and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on Thursday would make this a pretty good week, and it's certainly going to be better than next week, when finals doom is finally here, but the run-up to finals is almost worse than the papers and exams themselves.
I've been reading one of my Belmont used books now that I finished the first one, A Wizard of Earthsea. This one is called Mage Heart and seems like a bizarre little cheesy romantic fantasy; so far there's been illicit hallucinogen use, mentions of demons, slightly bizarre magic, and hints of good ole female homosexuality, along with lots of talk of breasts. It's interesting enough to make it worth reading, at least for now, but I don't see anything truly original or shocking or otherwise coming out of this one.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Post-apocalyptic Borders
So the Borders here on 53rd Street is closing Monday, and last night a bunch of friends came back from a ransacking trip with plastic bags bulging with every book that had ever caught their eyes and quite a few they never in a million years would normally buy. Apparently every single book, poster, or otherwise in this closing Borders store was on sale for $1, whether it was originally a $7.99 trashy romnov or a newly-released $25 hardcover.
This morning, therefore, a few of us went out to see what remained of the heavily-picked-over spoils. We found surprisingly a lot--not much of it good, of course, since anything of inherent value had long ago been bought up, but it's a lot easier to justify buying crap romnovs and the like when doing so will only set you back a dollar each, instead of eight bucks each. I did find a very few actual legitimate purchases; one was Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, which is supposed to be pretty legitimately good even if it is a historical time-traveling Scottish highlander romance, and another was Madeleine L'Engel's A Wrinkle in Time, which I have never read but which is, of course, supposed to be a classic. Most of the rest was just barely above crap level, including some Jeff Shaara American Revolution dramatizations and the requisite "we suck compared to Europeans"-type book, this one from 2010, so that it's actually fairly recent. The worst was some fantasy I picked up almost solely for its glitzy cover and the promise of griffins, my favorite mythological creatures besides phoenixes, but apparently these griffins tend to eat humans, and in the foreward the author thanks members of an internet messaging board, with their screen names, so you know this is just the epitome of internet-age derivative fantasy. There were lots of copies of Glenn Beck's The Overton Window, but I couldn't justify paying even a dollar for that, and apparently not many other Hyde Parkers could.
It's really strange, and slightly sad, to be in a closing Borders, with all these empty shelves, some of which have already been dismantled. The shelves themselves were for sale in many cases, and it was mildly tempting to buy a Borders bookshelf, but without plans to move into an apartment in the next year, it really was a pointless idea. Also, even though the genre titles still hung above, most of the remaining books and just been thrown onto any old shelf, regardless of classification, meaning that the cooking shelves were full of romnovs and some inspirational pet stories were cheek-to-cheek with the remaining manga selections. I particularly enjoyed noticing that part of the romnovs-in-the-cooking-section situation was the subtitle "crockery" below some of the worst romnovs I can imagine being published; I laughed at that. The people swarming Borders with us were also slightly scary; it really was, in many ways, like we were all the survivors of some terrible apocalyptic event, desperate for the few remaining books in the world, and tons of people had their arms full of random books, clinging to them as if they were the only books left to read. I tried to limit myself only to books that I had some hope of actually reading at some point, but my companions were not all so self-restrained; one of my housemates bought 15 books, and doesn't even really know where some of them came from or why, exactly, she picked them up. Apparently a few other housemates had gone earlier in the day, and one of them bought 30 books and a poster. I haven't seen her stash yet, but I'm curious as to whether she was able to pick up any higher quality stuff than what we, going only about an hour later, found.
I love bookstores, and lately I've been going hog-wild with books; last weekend we went to Belmont/Lakeview to a used bookstore, where I picked up four other books, of marginally better readability levels, but also for more money each. The world truly is a bit bizarre when it's cheaper to buy new books at Borders than it is to buy used books at a jank-tastic used bookstore on the northside. Also, they were still taking gift cards at Borders, so I didn't even have to spend my own cash- or debit-card-money at Borders, so really, it was almost like free, in a way. It does feel kind of silly to use people's gift money to buy crappy books; knowing the people who gave me those gift cards, they probably would have better appreciated me buying two or three actually good books rather than 9 relatively stupid books. I still have $15 left on the card, however, so maybe at some point in a few months I can buy real books with that. (Or, realistically, one real book.)
Really, it's been a pretty good weekend so far--heartening, really, considering that there are only 3 class days (and all the agony of prepping for finals next weekend) left in the quarter.
This morning, therefore, a few of us went out to see what remained of the heavily-picked-over spoils. We found surprisingly a lot--not much of it good, of course, since anything of inherent value had long ago been bought up, but it's a lot easier to justify buying crap romnovs and the like when doing so will only set you back a dollar each, instead of eight bucks each. I did find a very few actual legitimate purchases; one was Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, which is supposed to be pretty legitimately good even if it is a historical time-traveling Scottish highlander romance, and another was Madeleine L'Engel's A Wrinkle in Time, which I have never read but which is, of course, supposed to be a classic. Most of the rest was just barely above crap level, including some Jeff Shaara American Revolution dramatizations and the requisite "we suck compared to Europeans"-type book, this one from 2010, so that it's actually fairly recent. The worst was some fantasy I picked up almost solely for its glitzy cover and the promise of griffins, my favorite mythological creatures besides phoenixes, but apparently these griffins tend to eat humans, and in the foreward the author thanks members of an internet messaging board, with their screen names, so you know this is just the epitome of internet-age derivative fantasy. There were lots of copies of Glenn Beck's The Overton Window, but I couldn't justify paying even a dollar for that, and apparently not many other Hyde Parkers could.
It's really strange, and slightly sad, to be in a closing Borders, with all these empty shelves, some of which have already been dismantled. The shelves themselves were for sale in many cases, and it was mildly tempting to buy a Borders bookshelf, but without plans to move into an apartment in the next year, it really was a pointless idea. Also, even though the genre titles still hung above, most of the remaining books and just been thrown onto any old shelf, regardless of classification, meaning that the cooking shelves were full of romnovs and some inspirational pet stories were cheek-to-cheek with the remaining manga selections. I particularly enjoyed noticing that part of the romnovs-in-the-cooking-section situation was the subtitle "crockery" below some of the worst romnovs I can imagine being published; I laughed at that. The people swarming Borders with us were also slightly scary; it really was, in many ways, like we were all the survivors of some terrible apocalyptic event, desperate for the few remaining books in the world, and tons of people had their arms full of random books, clinging to them as if they were the only books left to read. I tried to limit myself only to books that I had some hope of actually reading at some point, but my companions were not all so self-restrained; one of my housemates bought 15 books, and doesn't even really know where some of them came from or why, exactly, she picked them up. Apparently a few other housemates had gone earlier in the day, and one of them bought 30 books and a poster. I haven't seen her stash yet, but I'm curious as to whether she was able to pick up any higher quality stuff than what we, going only about an hour later, found.
I love bookstores, and lately I've been going hog-wild with books; last weekend we went to Belmont/Lakeview to a used bookstore, where I picked up four other books, of marginally better readability levels, but also for more money each. The world truly is a bit bizarre when it's cheaper to buy new books at Borders than it is to buy used books at a jank-tastic used bookstore on the northside. Also, they were still taking gift cards at Borders, so I didn't even have to spend my own cash- or debit-card-money at Borders, so really, it was almost like free, in a way. It does feel kind of silly to use people's gift money to buy crappy books; knowing the people who gave me those gift cards, they probably would have better appreciated me buying two or three actually good books rather than 9 relatively stupid books. I still have $15 left on the card, however, so maybe at some point in a few months I can buy real books with that. (Or, realistically, one real book.)
 |
| Books bought last weekend at Bookman's Corner (Clark and Wellington, Belmont/Lakeview area) |
 | ||
| Books bought at the closing Borders at 53rd and Lake Park |
 |
| I saved $105.88? Best/saddest book sale ever. |
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
If all of this wasn't enough... (new trailer)
This past week, ASoIaF fans have gotten the following:
1) Perfumery boxes sent out to bloggers
2) A new interactive website (The Maester's Path)
3) An extended Iron Throne trailer
4) House t-shirts from HBO
5) A release date for A Dance With Dragons (!!!!!!!!!!!)
and now, the first full-length (two minutes, twenty seconds) trailer for Game of Thrones, which includes the first glimpses anyone has seen of the Wall (a seven-hundred-foot-high wall of ice, thousands of miles long, that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the world to the north) in the very first seconds, as well as extended glimpses of Littlefinger and Varys and a very brief flash of what an Other (vaguely supernatural undead skeletal creature thing) looks like.
It's Entertainment Weekly-exclusive and thus not yet on YouTube, but it's pretty much awesome, so click here and scroll down to see the first true trailer for GoT.
Pretty much an awesome day.
1) Perfumery boxes sent out to bloggers
2) A new interactive website (The Maester's Path)
3) An extended Iron Throne trailer
4) House t-shirts from HBO
5) A release date for A Dance With Dragons (!!!!!!!!!!!)
and now, the first full-length (two minutes, twenty seconds) trailer for Game of Thrones, which includes the first glimpses anyone has seen of the Wall (a seven-hundred-foot-high wall of ice, thousands of miles long, that protects the Seven Kingdoms from the world to the north) in the very first seconds, as well as extended glimpses of Littlefinger and Varys and a very brief flash of what an Other (vaguely supernatural undead skeletal creature thing) looks like.
It's Entertainment Weekly-exclusive and thus not yet on YouTube, but it's pretty much awesome, so click here and scroll down to see the first true trailer for GoT.
Pretty much an awesome day.
July 12th, 2011
It's almost like I have magic publication-date-bringing powers or something.
According to Entertainment Weekly, there is a firm publication date for A Dance With Dragons, as confirmed by fan site Westeros.org and interviews with GRRM (the author). In both the US and UK, the book will be published on July 12th. Of this year. This is unusual, as his books are often published in the UK before they are in the US, even though Martin is American, since it's easier to do publication turn-arounds more quickly in the UK since the market there is notably smaller than in the US and fewer copies are printed. However, Bantam (American publisher) and Voyager (British publisher) are not messing around.
This is interesting as, per GRRM's latest update on ADwD a few days ago, he still is not finished writing. However, if the publishers are giving ridiculously firm dates like this, they are not messing around. Apparently this is real.
Really, really happy this week. Awesome, awesome, awesome ASoIaF news all around.
Edited to add: Official confirmation from GRRM on his website can be found here. Only about four months to go :D
According to Entertainment Weekly, there is a firm publication date for A Dance With Dragons, as confirmed by fan site Westeros.org and interviews with GRRM (the author). In both the US and UK, the book will be published on July 12th. Of this year. This is unusual, as his books are often published in the UK before they are in the US, even though Martin is American, since it's easier to do publication turn-arounds more quickly in the UK since the market there is notably smaller than in the US and fewer copies are printed. However, Bantam (American publisher) and Voyager (British publisher) are not messing around.
This is interesting as, per GRRM's latest update on ADwD a few days ago, he still is not finished writing. However, if the publishers are giving ridiculously firm dates like this, they are not messing around. Apparently this is real.
Really, really happy this week. Awesome, awesome, awesome ASoIaF news all around.
Edited to add: Official confirmation from GRRM on his website can be found here. Only about four months to go :D
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
marzo
It's March. Wooooo? March used to be my least favorite month, as we had February and April breaks in high school (and before) and thus March was the long, ugly month without a break. Now, of course, March is the month of one whole week of spring break between winter and spring quarters, so it's not so bad. March weather is also much nicer in Chicago than it ever is in New England, chiefly because Chicago actually has a definitive spring and not just a long, hazy mud season for a few months between winter and summer. It's still pretty cold outside now, but it's sunny and there's no snow on the ground, which is the first sign that spring is making its way towards us.
It's also 9th week, which means that the quarter is sort of almost over; a lot of classes are getting ready to go into review mode starting next week. I'm done with astro labs, finally, and additional Italian practice sessions. Four more Italian and astro classes and two more sosc and art history classes and then it's reading period. There will be studying, sure, but I'm also going to go see a taping of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on the 10th, which should be very fun; I had a lot of fun at the taping I went to go see last April.
Everyone is extremely moody, however, which sort of takes a lot of the fun out of March. We've been cooped up together for nine weeks, and the first-years in particular are extremely moody and clique-y, reverting back to semi-high-school ways of not wanting to sit at the dining hall house table 'cause that's uncool and the like. There's also a lot of housecest running wild, between some of the last people you'd ever imagine to have sexual relations, never mind with each other, which amps up the awkwardness quotient quite a bit. One of them is my neighbor, and he and his first-year girlfriend (or whatever they are--they aren't openly in any sort of official relationship yet) have been prone to making quite a bit of obnoxious noise past midnight, whether it's actual sex or just talking loudly. I'm fine with weird relationships of all sorts, but our beds share a wall, and so does my bed and his desk, so when they listen to giggling laughing baby videos on YouTube for 15 minutes at 12:30 in the morning, it sounds like a baby is giggling right on the foot of my bed, even through my ear plugs.
Everyone being moody includes me, I guess. Certain things just start to get on your nerves after nine weeks of cold weather and encountering these same things day after day after day. You just want things to straighten out and open back up again, instead of being cramped together with unpleasant expressions on everyone's face.
It's also 9th week, which means that the quarter is sort of almost over; a lot of classes are getting ready to go into review mode starting next week. I'm done with astro labs, finally, and additional Italian practice sessions. Four more Italian and astro classes and two more sosc and art history classes and then it's reading period. There will be studying, sure, but I'm also going to go see a taping of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on the 10th, which should be very fun; I had a lot of fun at the taping I went to go see last April.
Everyone is extremely moody, however, which sort of takes a lot of the fun out of March. We've been cooped up together for nine weeks, and the first-years in particular are extremely moody and clique-y, reverting back to semi-high-school ways of not wanting to sit at the dining hall house table 'cause that's uncool and the like. There's also a lot of housecest running wild, between some of the last people you'd ever imagine to have sexual relations, never mind with each other, which amps up the awkwardness quotient quite a bit. One of them is my neighbor, and he and his first-year girlfriend (or whatever they are--they aren't openly in any sort of official relationship yet) have been prone to making quite a bit of obnoxious noise past midnight, whether it's actual sex or just talking loudly. I'm fine with weird relationships of all sorts, but our beds share a wall, and so does my bed and his desk, so when they listen to giggling laughing baby videos on YouTube for 15 minutes at 12:30 in the morning, it sounds like a baby is giggling right on the foot of my bed, even through my ear plugs.
Everyone being moody includes me, I guess. Certain things just start to get on your nerves after nine weeks of cold weather and encountering these same things day after day after day. You just want things to straighten out and open back up again, instead of being cramped together with unpleasant expressions on everyone's face.
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