Studied All the Things

I went to college this morning and came back now. That's a whole day of college. I win!

I could start out of the house after it got light because there was no lesson, just appointments. So I finished doing All The Reading (well, I thought all, Teacher has told me some more also relevant reading to do). Then I got the bus in, then went on the computers and typed a first draft of my Life Writing critical commentary. It needs a lot of work but I have until the 17th. Teach read it and no longer thinks I'm going to fail. I have successfully explained Why Zombies. The rest is quotes and squishing the word count down.

After that I went back on the computers and started printing out stuff for my dissertation. I have tiny amounts of stuff. It's sad. But! I waited around doing more reading and highlighting of said tiny amounts of stuff, and there was some time to talk to my tutor. So I explained again about the zombie brain issue, and then showed my box of stuff. It is good start. Now I just need to do, oh, about a whole semesters worth, just to catch up. *big sigh* But I successfully stayed in contact with tutor. Some people have been failing to do the work and then hiding from their tutor, and that doesn't work very well at all. It's not like he'll get annoyed, he's all encouraging and stuff. It's just... it's going to be really uphill to get this done. Really uphill. *bigger sigh*

( Read more... )

Lots of win today. Got things done. Is good.

Now to hope my brain remains functional for long enough to get a bright idea for my dissertation.
It's so nice when it works. I get so much done. *xfingers*

Food :-)

I ordered eggs and noodles. They tasted awesome. Well, until they went cold, then they were more of a WTF did I just put in my mouth experience.

I have just realised why I need an ebook reader: because even after a painkiller there is no way I'm holding this laptop for long this evening. Heavy on my legs is just not going to happen for long.
... I could also use the desktop computer instead, but then I'd have to leave the recliner. which could be a good thing. I suspect not leaving the recliner is causally related to how much ouch is happening now.
:eyeroll:

I watched a Metalworks about smiths. It was all 'and it was decorative!' so it was not what I was hoping to watch. I mean, yes, they made frilly iron leaves all over everything for quite large chunks of history, but that was only relevant to a couple of people in the whole country. I was hoping to see what a working smith would be doing anywhere in the country for centuries. Iron was cool because it was all everywhere and necessary. But they covered that kind of quickly at the start, and tried to make it more interesting by mentioning a bunch of smith-gods and suggesting smiths were mistaken for sorcerers and smithies were the prototype for hell. If I'm watching something with METAL in the title, and it isn't about music, I don't think I need them to jazz it up with hellfire. I liked best watching a smith demonstrate the basic techniques. Twisting has the prettiest results, but it's fun seeing how all the complicated stuff is made from simple steps and simple tools.

There was a beautiful bit watching them pour cast iron. That stuff dances going into the mould. It doesn't move like water or any other thing I've seen, it's hot metal and it does its own thing. And it has patterns in it. I rewound and rewatched a bunch of times.

The thing concluded with modern smiths, and it turns out they can't get the iron no more. It's either old recycled iron or new mild steel with totally different properties. That's just weird, after a couple thousand years, that it can just stop everyone in the 1970s because the supplies went away.

I was thinking about the development of technology and post apocalyptic settings. If civilisation falls, we're not climbing up the same way again. It's not just that we've forgotten how already, we've used up all the stuff we would need.