Dissertation

I have just had a meeting with my dissertation tutor, and it has been rather possitive. I went in a confessed that I hadn't done as much as I would have liked. I outlined my argument, and discussed the things I need to work on, and told her where I aimed to be over the following weeks. She said that I was actually quite far ahead and all I have to do really is write the thing. I am going to be a major suck up and cite her book. To be fair, she did suggest it'd be helpful. I just have to do some research on thoughts on acts of authorship and and reading during the Medieval period, as Chaucer just seems to end each literary experience on a bad note (with death or adultery).

I went on the jetty the other day, and got absolutely soaked. But, to prove the lack of danger present, there was a 70 year-old man on the jetty with us. There is photographic evidence, as my friend Naomi, who is an excellent photographer, happened to be taking pictures of silly people getting wet, who turned out to be me and Rose. Have a look at the rest of her photos here, they're good.

Book mania

I have a lot of books. It comes with the territory of being an English Student. I have over 110 in my room at this point. I would give a list of ones I've read but that'd be inaccurate. A lot of the books are collections, for instance 'The Three Theban Plays', or 'Northanger Abbey and other works'. So out of those I've read one (or in the case of Northanger Abbey, half of one). However, I do have a lot of books at home that I can read, especially ones that my family own (Graham Greene, here I come).

So, taking the advice of wikiHow, I'm going to limit my reading to buying ration to 3:1. In other words I have to read three books (or texts in a book) before I make another purchase. This will probably mean that I will become an expert on Jane Austen's short stories and Classical tragedies in no time.

And just to inform everyone. My 21st birthday is in less than two weeks.

Me, a poet?

I've just been chatting with a friend on facebook, and exchanging poems. She particularly liked two of mine: Bibliotheca, which was in a previous post here; and Wanderlust. I'm not especially proud of Wanderlust, but I'll put it here anyway.

Wanderlust

I open my window and breathe the wind
which speaks to me and says, “Go!
Do no stay! Do not delay your travel!
Go to places where gold domes glow,
above the marble white as snow,
within tragic tales told on triptychs.
Onwards to silver-topped mountains,
glaciers glistening, wind whistling
an unknown, unheard tune.
Then to halls where the om-pah plays
or the markets with the dancing,
prancing, chanting enchanting your soul.
The turning, churning yearning
will never rest!”
I close the window and sigh as all is
quiet.

I'm hoping to submit a poem/ short story for an anthology, but the deadline is next Sunday. I'm sure I'll manage. It'll be really cool to be a published poet.

The Comment Challenge

Find a post without a comment, and comment on it.

Here are some for starts:

• Contagious
• Broken Hearted
• Moving and Casablanca
• and quite a while back, Interactivodular

Points will be allocated for the nature of the comment, the age of the post (1 point for every month) and evidence of having read the post (negative marking if this isn't shown). Don't worry that your comment may not come up straight away. I have to moderate them. You have until Monday. The winner will know that they have played to my ego, and made me feel popular. It's called altruism, people. Now, go!

Mediterranean Girl

I am meant to be working, but evidently I am not. It was so nice to go to Borth, and it made me appreciate how beautiful where I live is. I'm only going to be here for another 5 or 6 months so I am going to make use of my small timetable and soak in the countryside. On the seven mile trip to Borth we were winding through hills and to our left you could see inlets, beaches and cliffs flash by. We did take of at on point, on a small humpbacked bridge, which was fun. Rachael screamed.

I was a bit disappointed not to have seen a Mediterranean gull as there was one by the lifeboat centre in Borth. When Josh (the husband to Rachel of Dreaming of the Country) told me of its presence I thought he said Mediterranean girl. Today has made me dread leaving Aberystwyth. There are so many people I'll miss, and so many places. However, the Ceredigion coast is not the only beautiful place in the world.

I've finished 'The Merchant's Tale' and 'The Physician's Tale', but have yet to finish the ridiculously long Troilus and Criseyde, for Wednesday. I also have to write an extensive plan and a timetable detailing when I want things done by. I aim to have the first (as in very very rough) draft done before term starts. That gives me 9 days to write around five thousand words. My dissertation is eight thousand words, but like I said, a very rough draft. If I work hard this week and a bit it'll make this semester easier. At least that's what I hope.

Contagious

I would like to state that I do not condone reckless behaviour around the sea. The sea deserves respect, as it is old and therefore grumpy. Just like my parents, whose benefit this is for. My dad decided that my blog was a good medium to chastise me, so I deleted that comment. Serves him right. And he can't do it again as I now moderate comments. I am such a fiend.

My housemate has caught the blogger bug, and written a rather funny post, ici. Read it. Now.

Tomorrow I'm off to Borth, as smaller, sleepier, grungier sea-side town (well, village) a bit up the coast from here. But it's not Aberystwyth so it'll be nice. It has an animalarium, and a submerged fossilised forest, and a nature reserve called Ynyslas. Oh, and apparently Joe Scully lives there. Well, Shane Connor, the actor. It seems bizarre that an Australian soap star finds his way to a small village with more fish and chip shops than street lamps seven miles from Aberystwyth. I expect I have exposed some secret, and nobody is meant to know that he lives there.

I watched Bones today, and I've become interested in anthropology. Unfortuantely, I'm interested in way too many things, such as cadences. If you read the blog like I told you to you'd understand. If not then you won't and you should have done.

Here's a last offering for tonight, to amuse you. And always remember: go to a friend's house.

It didn't snow

I'm sad as it didn't snow, so I'm going to use up all my memory in one go and upload photos of when it snowed in my first year. Sorry about the blur, it was cold and I was shaking and I did something silly to the exposure time.

Art-school and postbox

I don't know whether it has cured my desire for snow, or only fueled it. I still haven't done anything I said I would do in my last post, so I have to go.

Waves

I've finished my exam. It was easy, at least I think so. I got to plan my answers before hand (see previous post), so I literally sat down, wrote, left. I finished twenty minutes early because it took me less time than when I practiced them because I was writing so fast. I'm sort of worried because I found it too easy. Hopefully some of my course-mates don't read this as I may get lynched.

Recently I've been playing a lot by the sea. Last Friday, Christian Union people when for a walk along the sea-front, and played wave dodging. We did it on the turret bit in the centre of the picture and got some people got soaked. Another time, after getting Chicago out of the DVD rental place in the pier (far left) Rose and I played on the jetty, and got wet. I love the sea. I love Aberystwyth, and I don't care what Tennyson says.

I have decide that Blogger is a sentient being, and it may hate me. Despite my efforts to appease it.

Anyway, I have to go shopping, do washing, and make dinner. No rest for the wicked.

It isn't too bad

Tomorrow, I have an exam and I'm actually feeling quite prepared. We had our questions released yesterday, so we get to prepare for them. I'm answering "'New historicism reveals how the literary text exists in a dynamic relationship with a range of other cultural texts.' Discuss" and "Would you agree that the primary aim of feminist criticism is to expose the ideological assumptions which systematically disadvantage women?" They're quite good, as exams questions go. The only problem is getting them to relate to a text (Between the Acts, by Virginia Woolf; and some short poems by Tennyson, respectively). But I have planned each question and practiced writing the first one, and I'm about to do the same for the second.

Everyone else seems to have worse exams than me, by far. So I'm quite grateful. But it doesn't mean I have it easy. I've done a lot of preparation and have a lot of dissertation stuff to do for next Wednesday.

Blogger seems to be spiting me for the comments over linebreaks, as now it doesn't do enough.

I must carry on revising. Soon I will be free (out of the Prison of Revision, as my friends put it).

Love to Hate

Last night I realised the extent of my fallibility. I am not a strong-minded, strong willed individual. I am weak and pathetic. All this because of Twilight. And before you ask, no I’m not being paid to launch some strange marketing scheme for that evil film, seeing as it has been mentioned in four of six 2009’s posts. I went to see it again last night. I know, I know. My housemate was back and wanted to see it, and because of the bizarre schedules in the cinema in Aberystwyth tonight was the last night. So Rachael and I accompanied her to go and see it again. The second time you watch it the film is actually better. I am a weak, fickle (and melodramatic) person. Twilight has made a hypocrite out of me. Twilight, let's put it this way, will not be placed on my top ten films list any time soon, but not the ten worst either.

Today I have to revise some more, prepare a craft for a children's club I am running tomorrow, which will be terrifying, and just generally getting stressed. I think the Twilight thing has come around due to examination stress. I have this habit of getting obsessed by some arbitrary thing during times of stress, such as Twilight, Twitter, and Heroes. So after my exam on Wednesday I should be free from the curse of my rather bizarre aversion and projection strategies. Or perhaps my obsession is due to my love to hate.

I have had enough of revision. Enough of Woolf, and I have to revise Tennyson's poems and I've had enough before I've started. But I'm going to have to do it sometime, so goodbye.

Revision

I am currently in the Hugh Owen library, which is a boring, concrete building, doing boring revision. It is boring. Just so you can see how boring the Hugh Owen is here it is.Okay, it isn't terrible, but it's not exactly beautiful. Nor is the weather that nice. Ever. I should go to the National Library, which is just down the hill, because it is nicer and Rachael (my girlfriend) will probably be there. Is it sad that I know her revision habits? Anyway: here is a site on ineffective revision techniques, and it advises interactive revision. I might make myself a PowerPoint. Hurrah for flashing images!

As you can see I have been attempting to make my blog more snazzy. What annoys me the most is the wasted space on either side. I can understand margins, but not margins that are bigger than the actual page contents.

Anyway, Virginia Woolf calls (I am so bored of her, but not afraid).

Broken Hearted

Distracting myself from revision I have put multiple widgets etc. onto my blog. Still not content, and longing for the cool that can only be attained via wordpress.com I uploaded my blog to there. Oh, it was sexy, it was cool. I fell in love. So, is this a notice to everyone to say that I've moved? No. I haven't. I was a little disappointed that none of my widgets transferred, but I thought, that's life, at least the posts were still intact. I mean I have Twilight guy staring at me from one of my previous posts, so it's all here. That's what I thought. None of the youtube videos have transferred. Not one. And seeing as they made up a good part of my posts I think hope is lost. Unless I find time in which to edit the posts and paste them. Which is unlikely. So I have copied an image of what could have been for prosperity (can it be prosperity if it never actually was?). Obviously I would have changed the image.

Can I ask why Blogger is insistent on adding line breaks when you add images. I bet wordpress wouldn't do that.

Anyway, I must go, I'm meeting someone who is back in the country for a few days in about ten minutes. Maybe I will get over my loss, but I doubt I will.

Moving and Casablanca

Thomas may be moving. I haven't decided yet, nor do I know why I introduced myself in the third person. When I say moving, I mean I may relocate my blog to wordpress.com. It is just more chic. Also, you can upload content from other blogs as if it had always been there. But I don't know. I would feel like a traitor and blogger is just so cute and friendly, although the templates are a bit pants. I think for the mean time I'll stay put.

Also, Rachael and I watched Casablanca today, which was cool. Better than Twilight at the very least. I'm getting into the old classics. The other day I watched Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, which was also quite good. Although these old classics are always quite slow to start, I mean often you're not even introduced to the main character until twenty minutes in, I still like them. Yes, I know, you're thinking, 'hang on, your problem with Twilight was the slow start. One rule for one, one rule for another, eh?'. Well, yes. Casablanca and The Lady Vanishes were not trying to be something they weren't. They were made in a time where things weren't expected instantly, patience was still a virtue, and that was the way things were done. Twilight was trying to be too arty, and was made in a time when things are demanded quickly and where, worryingly, patience is becoming more obsolete. The lingering scenes in it were unnecessary, whereas there were no superfluous shots in these oldies. Well, the English-cricket-obsessed-gentlemen were very irritating, but I suppose hackneyed stereotypes were acceptable back then (possibly because they weren't as hackneyed).

I also found a fantastic site with the help of my friend Rachel, which helps you make meals from your left over foods, lovefoodhatewaste.com. Seeing as I am short of cash at the moment it will be really helpful, as well as the fact that waste is not good. I was going to link to the actual post where she recommends this website, but I couldn't find it. So I will link to her entire blog here (as well as the link in my sidebar). It is also a cool example of why wordpress has benefits over blogger.

And I shall leave you with good news, I'm now back on track with my posts.

Oops

Last week I failed to update my blog. That means that within the second week I have already failed my aim to write a weekly post. Well, sort of. I aim to write 52 posts in 2009, and that averages out as one a week. Yes, I know, I'm a cheat, but get over it. There are people dying in Gaza, cholera epidemics in Zimbabwe and Big Brother is audition once again. You have bigger things to worry about.

My body is currently trying to sabotage my mental health by not allowing me to sleep. This meant that I am feeling too sucky to do revision for my exam next week, and have had a lazy day. I will panic about it tomorrow, descend further into the abyss of mental illness and have a nervous breakdown. So that's January 2009 sorted then.

In an attempt to procrastinate I have renewed my interest in French and Twitter as well as becoming (momentarily) obsessed with Twilight. I do not know why. I thought the film was bearable and I haven't read the books. The lengths people go to in order to circumnavigate the undesirable. I haven't started tidying my room yet, but it will happen in order to avoid revision.

So a bit more about Twilight. I went to see it yesterday, and most of the girls I know (except the stable-minded Nerys) have fallen in love with Edward Cullen. The beginning half an hour was almost devoid of comprehensible dialogue, making it agonising and things only picked up (a bit) once Edward and Bella started to actually speak to one another. However, on the plus side, watching it made me appreciate LisaNova's parody of the trailer even funnier.

So, now I'm going to get back to my French.

Uninspired

I am currently searching for career, or just short-term job, opportunities, but everything I find is uninspiring. The websites that are aimed for graduates search for jobs are fundamentally flawed, and lack any imagination. Prospects, for one instance, has a form that you fill in expressing what you would like your ideal j0b to contain, and then they construe from this hypothetical exercise careers that may suit you. However, if the job does not contain much of your hypothetical desires they dismiss it. One of the things that I have been thinking of doing is teaching English abroad, but as only five of the things that I wanted in my idea job showed up they told me I shouldn't go for it. The flaw is this: although my perfect job may contain these elements (like using creative arts, etc.) I would quite happily put them aside for a realistic option. That's what hobbies are for, after all.

I need something that will be stimulating, non-office based, and slightly adventurous, but nothing seems to cater for this. Or if it does, I'm the one that will have to pay for it.

Sorry that my first blog of 2009 was on such a bum note, but I would be a hypocrite to write that everything was stress-free and breezy for the contentment of my 1 reader, Stephen.