the usual miscellaney, and a meme
Mar. 20th, 2010 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbard* In preparation for registration for next semester's classes, I was trawling through both the major requirements for MEMS, Classics, and English, and Degree Audit, which led me to the kind of startling conclusion that a class I took freshman year actually counts for MEMS (Introduction to British Literature I). This should probably not surprise me as much as it does, but for some reason I'd assumed it didn't count. Counting that, and the classes I'm taking this semester, I'll be fifteen credits into a 30 credit program. Not bad.
I'm tentatively considering triple majoring again, the other two majors being Classical Studies and English literature, because I like English; it doesn't make me squee the way Classics or MEMS classes do, but it's nice and comfortable and I enjoy doing it, not to mention I'm good at it. It turns out I also have the exact same number of credits in both, currently -- twelve -- and I like English enough that I'm not going to have much of a problem taking classes in the department the next couple of years. Especially because next semester they're offering Children's Literature, which, omg YES, I don't even care that it conflicts with the seminar I wanted to take. Also, Shakespeare I; I like the professor, and I like Shakespeare well enough, and that'll count for MEMS too, I think. Classics is kind of a given. *shrugs* I think I'm leaning towards concentrating more heavily on Rome next semester; usually I'm more of a Greece person, but this semester I am Very Intrigued by Rome.
I do keep forgetting that I need to take Latin 101, though. Which messes up my presumptive schedule every time.
* Went to Macy's with friends yesterday because Chicago needed to buy a floor-length dress for Dining In with her AFROTC gentleman friend. Because this translates to four girls during prom season, there was a lot of trying on dresses. Which is FUN. Except -- I realize that I have gone down a dress size (at least) from the last time I tried on dresses (senior year of high school), but on the bright side, at least I have the figure to pull off a mermaid style dress? Which apparently impresses people. I would be more impressed if I actually had occasion to wear floor-length dresses.
* Went out this morning for a walk, which turned into a Borders and Whole Foods trip -- usually I just do one at a time. In the process, I: saw three mailmen on about a two miles span of St. Charles on the same side of the street, got stopped by a woman who recognized my NaNoWriMo t-shirt and is a writing teacher at a high school who made her students do NaNo last year, bought a book (this process was lengthened by the fact that of the two registers available, one was in use by a woman signing up for, apparently, everything imaginable, and the other by a guy returning several books in a complicated manner), got stopped by a man who very earnestly told me not to do drugs, made nice conversation with the cashier at Whole Foods (who automatically assumed I was an English major, I suppose because of the shirt), and got "BOO"ed at by some guy in a car on my way back to campus. Not booed, but he literally yelled, "BOO!" at me. (Did I jump? Of course I jumped; I'm jumpy.)
* Things I have not done: started my Art & Myth paper on Amazons, started my creative project for Spenser, started my imperial succession paper for Byzantine Civ, started my warfare paper for Medieval England. Fortunately, only two of these are due this week, and then I am on SPRING BREAK. I plan on baking a lot.
* MEME. Snagged fromlassiterfics. Five questions; if you want to be asked five questions, answer very seriously: pop, soda, or Coke?
1. Who is your favorite Greek deity?
Athena, always and forever. Goddess of wisdom and war, as well as the womanly art of weaving, and apparently other crafts that do not start with the letter W. She's a virgin goddess; she was also born from Zeus's head, after a prophecy in which Zeus learned that if Metis (Athena's mother) gave birth to a son, he would be greater than Zeus and would overthrow him the way Zeus had overthrown his own father, Chronos. Zeus promptly swallowed Metis. Unfortunately, Metis was already pregnant, and Athena grew to adulthood inside Zeus, causing him horrible headaches. When none of the other gods could cure Zeus's headaches, Hephaistos (god of smithing), split Zeus's head open with a hammer, and out popped Athena, fully formed and fully armored. (That probably explains the headaches.) Athena is best known for being a patron goddess of heroes, including (one of my personal favorites) Odysseus, Herakles, and Theseus. She's also the patron goddess of the city of Athens; some legends say that Athens was founded when Hephaistos, overcome by passion for Athena, tried to rape her, but he got a little too overexcited and instead came on her thigh instead. She wiped it off, and where it fell to the ground Athens was founded. Athens is very proud of this. (It also had the adverse side effect of impregnating the earth; this is where Athens' first king came from.) Athena is known as Zeus's favorite child, but she has a proud streak, as do all the gods. You may have heard of her from such events as the Golden Apple Crisis, or, How the Trojan War Began Because Paris Was an Idiot, or the thing with Arachne, or, Never Go Up Against a God When Your Humanity Is On The Line.
Also, she is awesome, and while the chryselephantine cult statue of Athena Parthenos no longer remains, Nashville has built a replica. Why? WHY NOT?
2. What is your favorite candy?
Pecan pralines. Which are AMAZING, and if any of y'all come to New Orleans, you must go to Southern Candymakers and get yourself some. I made them once. They weren't quite as good, but I'm going to try a different recipe next week.
For more readily available candy outside of Louisiana, I am a simple girl: Hershey's milk chocolate.
3. What are you learning from your job at the Newcomb center?
Uh, mostly that I can't handle dealing with women's and gender issues six hours a week, because I get angry, depressed, and burned out. Also, I start hating on men, very virulently. I'm actually not working at NCCROW this semester; too many classes, not enough time, and I burned out hard last semester because it's mentally and emotionally exhausting. There's a lot of shit that happens to women, and if you're looking at that regularly, it's really, really hard to deal. I know that I took kind of an easy way out by quitting, but -- one thing that I learned is that emotional health is important. I also learned that there are some very, very awesome women out there; at the same time I learned that most of what gets reported about women is very, very bad.
4. Do you prefer the mountains or the sea?
Oh, hard questions, aren't we? I am curiously not living by either right now; Washington has both, and I spent a lot of time in the Cascades growing up. So mountains: very cool. The sea: also very cool. I can't choose! I love them both equally!
The sea does produce very fresh seafood, though; as a sushi-lover, I can't argue with that.
5. What invention should exist but doesn't yet?
Why do we not have the teleporter yet, man? None of this twenty-four hours in transit nonsense.
I'm tentatively considering triple majoring again, the other two majors being Classical Studies and English literature, because I like English; it doesn't make me squee the way Classics or MEMS classes do, but it's nice and comfortable and I enjoy doing it, not to mention I'm good at it. It turns out I also have the exact same number of credits in both, currently -- twelve -- and I like English enough that I'm not going to have much of a problem taking classes in the department the next couple of years. Especially because next semester they're offering Children's Literature, which, omg YES, I don't even care that it conflicts with the seminar I wanted to take. Also, Shakespeare I; I like the professor, and I like Shakespeare well enough, and that'll count for MEMS too, I think. Classics is kind of a given. *shrugs* I think I'm leaning towards concentrating more heavily on Rome next semester; usually I'm more of a Greece person, but this semester I am Very Intrigued by Rome.
I do keep forgetting that I need to take Latin 101, though. Which messes up my presumptive schedule every time.
* Went to Macy's with friends yesterday because Chicago needed to buy a floor-length dress for Dining In with her AFROTC gentleman friend. Because this translates to four girls during prom season, there was a lot of trying on dresses. Which is FUN. Except -- I realize that I have gone down a dress size (at least) from the last time I tried on dresses (senior year of high school), but on the bright side, at least I have the figure to pull off a mermaid style dress? Which apparently impresses people. I would be more impressed if I actually had occasion to wear floor-length dresses.
* Went out this morning for a walk, which turned into a Borders and Whole Foods trip -- usually I just do one at a time. In the process, I: saw three mailmen on about a two miles span of St. Charles on the same side of the street, got stopped by a woman who recognized my NaNoWriMo t-shirt and is a writing teacher at a high school who made her students do NaNo last year, bought a book (this process was lengthened by the fact that of the two registers available, one was in use by a woman signing up for, apparently, everything imaginable, and the other by a guy returning several books in a complicated manner), got stopped by a man who very earnestly told me not to do drugs, made nice conversation with the cashier at Whole Foods (who automatically assumed I was an English major, I suppose because of the shirt), and got "BOO"ed at by some guy in a car on my way back to campus. Not booed, but he literally yelled, "BOO!" at me. (Did I jump? Of course I jumped; I'm jumpy.)
* Things I have not done: started my Art & Myth paper on Amazons, started my creative project for Spenser, started my imperial succession paper for Byzantine Civ, started my warfare paper for Medieval England. Fortunately, only two of these are due this week, and then I am on SPRING BREAK. I plan on baking a lot.
* MEME. Snagged from
lassiterfics. Five questions; if you want to be asked five questions, answer very seriously: pop, soda, or Coke?1. Who is your favorite Greek deity?
Athena, always and forever. Goddess of wisdom and war, as well as the womanly art of weaving, and apparently other crafts that do not start with the letter W. She's a virgin goddess; she was also born from Zeus's head, after a prophecy in which Zeus learned that if Metis (Athena's mother) gave birth to a son, he would be greater than Zeus and would overthrow him the way Zeus had overthrown his own father, Chronos. Zeus promptly swallowed Metis. Unfortunately, Metis was already pregnant, and Athena grew to adulthood inside Zeus, causing him horrible headaches. When none of the other gods could cure Zeus's headaches, Hephaistos (god of smithing), split Zeus's head open with a hammer, and out popped Athena, fully formed and fully armored. (That probably explains the headaches.) Athena is best known for being a patron goddess of heroes, including (one of my personal favorites) Odysseus, Herakles, and Theseus. She's also the patron goddess of the city of Athens; some legends say that Athens was founded when Hephaistos, overcome by passion for Athena, tried to rape her, but he got a little too overexcited and instead came on her thigh instead. She wiped it off, and where it fell to the ground Athens was founded. Athens is very proud of this. (It also had the adverse side effect of impregnating the earth; this is where Athens' first king came from.) Athena is known as Zeus's favorite child, but she has a proud streak, as do all the gods. You may have heard of her from such events as the Golden Apple Crisis, or, How the Trojan War Began Because Paris Was an Idiot, or the thing with Arachne, or, Never Go Up Against a God When Your Humanity Is On The Line.
Also, she is awesome, and while the chryselephantine cult statue of Athena Parthenos no longer remains, Nashville has built a replica. Why? WHY NOT?
2. What is your favorite candy?
Pecan pralines. Which are AMAZING, and if any of y'all come to New Orleans, you must go to Southern Candymakers and get yourself some. I made them once. They weren't quite as good, but I'm going to try a different recipe next week.
For more readily available candy outside of Louisiana, I am a simple girl: Hershey's milk chocolate.
3. What are you learning from your job at the Newcomb center?
Uh, mostly that I can't handle dealing with women's and gender issues six hours a week, because I get angry, depressed, and burned out. Also, I start hating on men, very virulently. I'm actually not working at NCCROW this semester; too many classes, not enough time, and I burned out hard last semester because it's mentally and emotionally exhausting. There's a lot of shit that happens to women, and if you're looking at that regularly, it's really, really hard to deal. I know that I took kind of an easy way out by quitting, but -- one thing that I learned is that emotional health is important. I also learned that there are some very, very awesome women out there; at the same time I learned that most of what gets reported about women is very, very bad.
4. Do you prefer the mountains or the sea?
Oh, hard questions, aren't we? I am curiously not living by either right now; Washington has both, and I spent a lot of time in the Cascades growing up. So mountains: very cool. The sea: also very cool. I can't choose! I love them both equally!
The sea does produce very fresh seafood, though; as a sushi-lover, I can't argue with that.
5. What invention should exist but doesn't yet?
Why do we not have the teleporter yet, man? None of this twenty-four hours in transit nonsense.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-20 11:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-21 01:04 am (UTC)1. If you could travel to any point in time, where and when would it be?
2. What did you want to be when you grew up?
3. Is cooking/baking a craft? Discuss.
4. What are your feelings about high school? (Yours or in general.)
5. Do you prefer thunderstorms or snowstorms?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-21 01:10 am (UTC)~I wanted to be A) A Doctor B) the President or C) World Dictator
~Baking is a craft, yes. It takes arcane symbols and weird measurements and turns out delicious works of art. Cooking..eh. Not so much.
~High school...was okay. Boring, but okay.
~I prefer thunderstorms because I know them and know what they're going to do. I have no friggin' idea what to do with snow, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-21 12:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-21 01:09 am (UTC)1. What is your favorite fairy tale?
2. Greeks or Romans?
3. What's your favorite country?
4. Do you prefer herbal tea or real tea? (Uh, real tea being the kind that comes from the tea plant camellia sinensis. Yes, I know this off the top of my head.)
5. If you were a superhero, what would your superhero name, costume, power (optional), and background story be?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-21 01:11 am (UTC)I will think about them.