beccaelizabeth (
beccaelizabeth) wrote2010-05-09 09:32 pm
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Today: Better
Today I slept about 12 hours, with a break of unknown length starting at 0830 sharp when someone decided this was a good time for power tools. Then I woke up at the time I usually go shopping, walked as far as the bathroom, and decided to stay home. But after that the day got better, for I have found a way of sitting on the recliner that does not hurt anything anywhere, which eluded me all yesterday.
The exam questions arrived in email last Wednesday as promised. I have looked at them very briefly and color coded them red for impossible through green for sounds good. Most things are a sort of yellowy green for things I could do but aren't enthused about. My main problem right now is that I am supposed to make up a whole exams worth of writing on only one or two of these topics. It all seems a bit simple and like I could dash off a paragraph and have covered all the useful bits. Higher education isn't only about the useful bits though. I must get the guts out of a story and poke them with close reading until it looks like Proof. Which tends to involve typing bollocks a lot. Blah.
This break between last lesson and exam is sort of deflating all my Big Thinking. That and my usual lack of interest in, er, things that don't grab my interest. But the pattern of holidays and just barely starting up before we finish and pausing again for a fortnight really isn't helping.
I'm supposed to go to a tutorial tomorrow but it's a 2 hour round trip for 20 minutes talking to the teacher where I could, at current rates of progress, say 'I don't know' a lot. Sod that. My leg will stay home and possibly stop hurting completely by exam time. There's still about 9 days before exam time, and we were only going to get exam questions a week in advance until the schedule went a bit wrong, so I'm not behind or anything.
I'm currently contemplating the pros and cons of installing some games on this laptop. Pro: It could probably play them, since I think it has the better brains and more memory. Con: In case of computer crashing the only thing they fix it place would do would be to tell me I shouldn't have installed games. They would wipe the computer and only reinstall Word and Inspiration, as first supplied. And judging by previous experience they wouldn't even do that competently. Plus the computer place that I was using is all closed now. And I've been needing to look up a new one all this year. So really, messing with this computer, not so much smart, cause I needs it for notes at college.
But it's a very boring little box if I only do with it what tech support approves of.
Granted it has the whole internet in it, but Internet Explorer keeps on closing&restoring pages at total random and is a grumpy stupid thing.
Sometimes I consider buying new computers of shiny quick working, because it seems to be something I can do at the supermarket near instantly, whereas getting these two up to snuff is not.
I did buy a new trackball in the hopes it's only that one device going wrong on the other computer, rather than some software thing making it get in a fight and stop the USB plugs working. Is a bit expensive, but is worth a try.
So, basically, I has boring. I like boring, compared with many alternatives, so that works out.
I also have a good book to read. Good so far anyway. Kate Griffin, A Madness of Angels. I can't remember why I bought it or what the summary was on the back even, so I just started reading. It's urban fantasy with some very urban magic, chaos mage style, kind of Neverwhere but very much its own thing. It gets down into sense details so you really get a feel for what is going on, but it doesn't do much explaining. It's a murder mystery of a sort, but the one doing the investigating is the one that was maybe probably possibly murdered, and the mystery is more in the way of why and what the context was. And it's first person, but wanders between singular and plural in a way that's fun to track. I could bring to bear a lot of what I've been studying up on for detective fiction, the Marlowe stuff, the city as a character. It's really interesting. But I'm only a couple sections in so far, so I don't know how it will hold up or work out. Is going to be interesting finding out.
It's from a male pov, but there's a lot of interacting with female characters. And they're not the obvious stereotypes of much detective fiction. Still, male central characters aren't quite what I'm looking for no more.
I should write. Something. My summer project starts after the exam. I've got plot and characters and stuff. Maybe this time I'll make up something I'd actually like to watch.
The exam questions arrived in email last Wednesday as promised. I have looked at them very briefly and color coded them red for impossible through green for sounds good. Most things are a sort of yellowy green for things I could do but aren't enthused about. My main problem right now is that I am supposed to make up a whole exams worth of writing on only one or two of these topics. It all seems a bit simple and like I could dash off a paragraph and have covered all the useful bits. Higher education isn't only about the useful bits though. I must get the guts out of a story and poke them with close reading until it looks like Proof. Which tends to involve typing bollocks a lot. Blah.
This break between last lesson and exam is sort of deflating all my Big Thinking. That and my usual lack of interest in, er, things that don't grab my interest. But the pattern of holidays and just barely starting up before we finish and pausing again for a fortnight really isn't helping.
I'm supposed to go to a tutorial tomorrow but it's a 2 hour round trip for 20 minutes talking to the teacher where I could, at current rates of progress, say 'I don't know' a lot. Sod that. My leg will stay home and possibly stop hurting completely by exam time. There's still about 9 days before exam time, and we were only going to get exam questions a week in advance until the schedule went a bit wrong, so I'm not behind or anything.
I'm currently contemplating the pros and cons of installing some games on this laptop. Pro: It could probably play them, since I think it has the better brains and more memory. Con: In case of computer crashing the only thing they fix it place would do would be to tell me I shouldn't have installed games. They would wipe the computer and only reinstall Word and Inspiration, as first supplied. And judging by previous experience they wouldn't even do that competently. Plus the computer place that I was using is all closed now. And I've been needing to look up a new one all this year. So really, messing with this computer, not so much smart, cause I needs it for notes at college.
But it's a very boring little box if I only do with it what tech support approves of.
Granted it has the whole internet in it, but Internet Explorer keeps on closing&restoring pages at total random and is a grumpy stupid thing.
Sometimes I consider buying new computers of shiny quick working, because it seems to be something I can do at the supermarket near instantly, whereas getting these two up to snuff is not.
I did buy a new trackball in the hopes it's only that one device going wrong on the other computer, rather than some software thing making it get in a fight and stop the USB plugs working. Is a bit expensive, but is worth a try.
So, basically, I has boring. I like boring, compared with many alternatives, so that works out.
I also have a good book to read. Good so far anyway. Kate Griffin, A Madness of Angels. I can't remember why I bought it or what the summary was on the back even, so I just started reading. It's urban fantasy with some very urban magic, chaos mage style, kind of Neverwhere but very much its own thing. It gets down into sense details so you really get a feel for what is going on, but it doesn't do much explaining. It's a murder mystery of a sort, but the one doing the investigating is the one that was maybe probably possibly murdered, and the mystery is more in the way of why and what the context was. And it's first person, but wanders between singular and plural in a way that's fun to track. I could bring to bear a lot of what I've been studying up on for detective fiction, the Marlowe stuff, the city as a character. It's really interesting. But I'm only a couple sections in so far, so I don't know how it will hold up or work out. Is going to be interesting finding out.
It's from a male pov, but there's a lot of interacting with female characters. And they're not the obvious stereotypes of much detective fiction. Still, male central characters aren't quite what I'm looking for no more.
I should write. Something. My summer project starts after the exam. I've got plot and characters and stuff. Maybe this time I'll make up something I'd actually like to watch.