Episode 434: Little Bits That Add Up

Finished the essay around 2 am! Felt that it was decent, but think it's not quite as good as I'd meant for it to be, which is annoying. Oh well, it's worth 1.875% of my degree. Doesn't sound like a lot to be honest, but it all adds up in the end, so it would be nice to get a First for my first piece of assessed work this year. Given how I'm relying on LL209 to pull up my overall average this year, it's a bit disconcerting how little studying I've done for my test tomorrow, which is admittedly worth only 1.25% of my degree. I have gone through the irregular verb conjugations and the negations, but there doesn't seem to be anything else that I can do. I know we're not supposed to use the dictionary for the grammar section, but given that dictionary entries for verbs tend to provide enough information to extrapolate from, I don't see what not using the dictionary actually means. It's not as if everyone's suddenly going to shut their dictionaries together for one section of the paper! Anyway, have started on the creative writing for this week by doing the pseudo-translation of H. C. Branner for Peter Blegvad's seminar on Friday. There is some sort of story here, slightly disturbing and eerie. Not sure what to make of it really.

Episode 433: Last Essay Of Term!

Gaby's party was great fun! At one point, Reece suggested drinking games, and all of a sudden, a huge number of people were crowded into Charlie's room, going through a range of drinking games. I eventually ended up playing I Have Never with a bunch of people I'd only met for the first time that night, which would have been awkward under other circumstances, but it was fine. Dan stayed over, but I took a taxi back home. The driver was pretty friendly, and we chatted about Singapore most of the way back. Instead of going straight to bed, I spent a couple of minutes rewriting my essay's introduction. Yeah, I'm hardcore. Didn't make it to church, so I spent the rest of the day trying to start on the rest of my essay. Only really got going in the evening, and I've reached the point where I think I might not have enough words to say everything that I want to. Oh well. Once this is done, I can pretty much relax for the last two weeks of term. Still have to study a bit for Tuesday's French test, but that won't take too long. Then an hour or so of scripting some new dialogue for the musical.

Episode 432: Introductions Hate Me

We've been given a two-week extension for the report, but I handed mine in anyway because although it's not as good as it could be, it's as good as I can be bothered to make it right now. Plus once my close reading is done and my French test is over, I've got nearly two weeks of complete freedom from deadlines before I fly home for a short break. Speaking of which, the introduction to the close reading has been killing me all day since I started working on it. I know more or less what the rest of the essay is actually going to be about, but I can't find the right words to niftily summarise it in the introductory paragraph. Had hoped to finish at least that much before Gaby's party tonight, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Upon re-reading 'Ozymandias' for the nth time though, I have realised something amazing. It's a very minor structural thing, the sort of point I'd make right after the introduction just to get it out there. Anyway, it's basically how I think 'Ozymandias' is a sonnet that merges characteristics of the three major sonnet forms in English, i.e. Petrarchan, Spenserian, Shakespearean. Slightly tenuous, but it does have a sort of bearing on my final conclusion, about how 'Ozymandias' is like a matryoshka doll that hasn't been completely assembled.

Episode 431: Two Out Of Two...And 22!

The day began really badly. I overslept and missed my 9 am seminar, despite setting two alarms, but since the EN232 seminar repeats at 11 am and 1 pm, that wasn't really a problem. Forced to turn up late for the EN273 seminar, as once again, I had to wait for a delivery by City Link. I wish Amazon UK would just use Royal Mail more often! Things looked up once I actually turned up in class though. Read out my stuff twice today, once in each seminar, and received positive feedback from Michael Hulse and Peter Blegvad, tutors whose judgements I respect and value highly. Win! Poem here, story here. At this point, have begun thinking about EN232 portfolio, so am still trying to decide what sort of stuff to write for it. This story is a possible direction, but will it fill an entire portfolio? A realise mode is possible as well, see here. Made £22 after classes by repeatedly solving the Tower of Hanoi, although I think the point of this research experiment was really to do with people's self-perception and predictive abilities. It was an Economics department thing, after all. Must keep an eye out for more of this sort of thing! Sophie Mac and Stevey's speakeasy party was fun, my flat cap being fairly well-received. Someone said I looked kind of ghetto, but I know he didn't mean it in a bad way. Had to leave early though because I've still got one last lesson tomorrow for this term's Archaeology module. Didn't even drink that much. Remedy that at Gaby's party tomorrow?

Episode 430: Archaeology Report Done!

The Keats lecture today was even more entertaining than last week's. Impressions are always a hoot. Seminars are another matter altogether. I always feel vaguely dissatisfied when I leave, like we're always just skimming the surface during that one hour. I suppose I can't really complain all that much, since I never say anything, but it's because I don't have anything astounding that I think deserves to be said. I ration my speech in seminars like a starving urchin from a Dickens novel. Anyway, we wrote terza rimas for EN238 today. Wasn't pleased with mine, so I'm going to start from scratch after my French test on Tuesday. Spent this afternoon and evening in the Library, hammering out the archaeology report. It's finally done! I don't even care how good it is anymore. If I did, I'd have been paralysed and probably not have finished. I did find time to bang out a 25-line poem for EN273 tomorrow, which I was moderately pleased with. I think with writing inspired by Biblical texts, the more you subvert the original, the more interesting the result. That's what I need to do more of. It's not that I can't, but that because the stories are so embedded in my belief system I find it hard to look at them in any way other than the orthodox. Now all I have to do is get started on the close reading, either tomorrow or Saturday afternoon, then finish it up over the whole of Sunday.

Episode 429: Pictures Of John Gray

Ended up not being able to do Kidz Klub stuff in church because I had to wait for the speakers to arrive, otherwise I'd have to trudge to the depot to collect them, which is some part of Coventry that I've never been to and have no desire to explore. Did manage to get a bit more work done though, which was good. The report's not finished yet, but I've made it to 660 words, and have yet to cover the finds and implications they have for future development of the site, so I think I should be able to coast comfortably to the word limit, having produced something that is not fantastic, and not even near to my usual standards, but is at the end of the day, adequate. Went to meet Jonny on campus after that, as I wanted to buy a flat cap and he wanted to buy a waistcoat, both for Friday's fancy dress party. I found my flat cap at Topman, but he didn't like the waistcoats they had, and he sent me an SMS later to say that he hadn't bought any from the other shops either. I'd already gone back to campus to spend some time reading in the Library.

This was when I experienced an eerie moment of déjà vu as I read John Clare's 'I Am', as I'm positive Mr Purvis has shown us this poem in class before. I was literally anticipating the lines as I read them. Would totally switch to doing the close reading on this poem, if I hadn't already thought out what I wanted to say about Shelley's 'Ozymandias'. Anyway, Pictures Of John Gray was an interesting experience, although like Dan said after the performance, I felt like it just didn't quite gel as a whole. The best bit, for me anyway, was when one of the actors was addressing God, talking about missing his father and wanting him back. I'd glanced at the programme beforehand, so I knew that was a bit of autobiography going on, which didn't make it any less moving. On a final note, was it just me, or were all five actors the sort that could easily be regarded as conventionally attractive, to a greater or lesser extent? I mean, okay, so it is a devised piece informed by The Picture Of Dorian Gray, and Dorian's supposed to be beautiful, but surely that wasn't a prerequisite for being cast?

Episode 428: Slightly Stressed...

Cell was at my place tonight, and I made dinner! Pasta bake again because that's one of the few things I can confidently dish up. Everyone seemed to like it anyway. Have not done any work at all today, but I'm going to do some reading after this episode of House, so that'll count. Would really like to finish the report on Mill Hill Field, but I'm thinking I'll just bring my laptop out with me tomorrow and get through it after helping Sarah Adamson out in church. 'Ozymandias' will have to wait, I'm afraid, now that I'm not going to ask for an extension on the report. Also have to find some time to study for the French test next week! Having two parties to attend this week is not helping matters, so I'm just going to have to be more disciplined about doing work in the afternoons. Report tomorrow, two stories on Thursday, and the 'Ozymandias' close reading whenever before Monday afternoon. I can do this! On a side note, after disapproving of House's actions last week, this week I'm feeling sorry for him. Maybe the producers still have a trick or two up their sleeves after all...

Episode 427: My Twitter Experiment

Have decided that it's futile to rely on more information being uploaded to the website, and that it's really just another form of procrastination, since I can turn out a perfectly adequate 1500-word report just with the information that I already have. So I wasted some time, reformatting the report without adding anything substantial to it. Then I decided to rewrite the beard story from last Friday's seminar. I thought my original story was dull, and the cut-up we did during the seminar wasn't that much more exciting either, so I shook things up by reorganising the narrative in the form of a Twitter feed. The experiment with the form was more interesting than the actual story the feed told, although the user does display some signs of mild paranoia. I even went so far as to dig up a TwitPic URL that pointed to a picture of a guy with a scarf, as that was part of the story. I'm hoping that on Thursday, which is when I plan to write the other two stories imitating authors in the reading pack Peter Blegvad gave out, I'll turn out more entertaining stuff. Am going to see Pictures Of John Gray with Dan on Wednesday, which means another evening this week when I can't do any work!

Episode 426: Rain, Rain Go Away

The weather when I woke up this morning was so awful, and I basically got soaked on my way to church. Weird hair for the rest of the afternoon! I suspect my French Connection coat needs cleaning, as after drying it against the radiator, a puff of vapour that smelt suspiciously like fried food rose from it. Must have been the Cosmo buffet. Anyway, we adjourned to Varsity after service as usual, to find that they've redesigned their menus, and naturally, to pay for all those nice new menus, I think the prices have gone up as well. I do so love their curly fries though. Came back home with the intention of getting some work done, but was sucked into the evils of American TV again because I still haven't caught up on all my shows from last week. Didn't have time to do work in the evening either, since I was at Claire and Adeline Jen's birthday celebration. Only stayed about two hours though, as I'd agreed to meet Dan at The City Arms for a drink. The pub was literally down the road from Claire's place anyway, so I burnt another two hours there. No alcohol though, as they're really strict about carding us, and I didn't have my passport with me. Had a lime soda instead! Conversation was delightfully rambling as always, covering amongst other things, the distinction between fantasy and science fiction, which was prompted by a desire to determine which genre China Miéville belongs to. Personally, my rule of thumb is that magic is to fantasy what technology is to science fiction. Nonetheless, as Dan and I simultaneously pointed out, Clarke's Third Law states: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Episode 425: Cosmo

Lesson today was quite interesting, and if Christopher Kirby puts all that information he mentioned on our website, finishing the report over a couple of days shouldn't be a problem. Am tempted to ask for an extension, say a week or so, as he seems quite okay with that sort of thing. I'll see how things stand on Wednesday and make a decision then. In the mean time, I suppose it makes more sense to start thinking about writing that close reading of 'Ozymandias'. Anyway, the afternoon was comparatively good compared to what transpired in the evening. I waited 40 minutes for Keegan to show up for a dinner outing that he had arranged and for which he had shifted the meeting time forward by an hour. Understandably, I was bloody annoyed. To top if all off, it wasn't as if the food at Cosmo was fantastic. It's okay, and as a buffet, definitely a step up from Wing Wah, but damn it, I could have been at home, doing work. I only agreed to come because I thought my other housemates were as well. As it turns out, I apparently have a lot of invisible housemates because Samantha was the only one I actually saw last night at dinner...