I went to London on a day trip yesterday to meet up with six people I knew from Notre Dame's Dublin program: Allison, Marita, Kait, Ashley, Melissa, and Ryan. I had a complete blast with them and now I'ma blog about it all in between all of the reading I need to do for this week's round of papers.
So, like usual, I took the Oxford Tube from Gloucester Road to Victoria, but for some reason the bus yesterday morning was awfully full (every seat, seriously, was full) and awfully slow. It took me about two hours, counting all the stops, to get to where I needed to be. Then once I got in to London, I realized that they were doing Tube maintenance and thus a lot of the lines I needed that day were going to be closed. (Why would they close Jubilee? It's one of the few lines that services South Bank!)
Anyhow, after some creative subway managing and a lovely walk along the south bank of the Thames, I met up with everyone in the lobby of the Globe Theater. It was weird being back this time, because the last time I was there I was also hanging out with ND people. We hit up the gift shop, I found some Valentine's Day gifts for a certain special someone, I got erasers that say 'out, damned spot' on them (I have a soft spot for witty things), and of course needed more postcards to decorate my bulletin board here in my room.
We caught lunch at a Pret a Manger on the South Bank, hanging out and talking and sharing lots of stories, before taking another section of the South Bank Thames walk and hitting the bridges. In between all the bridges, there were also some pretty interesting things, like the ruins of an old castle's dining hall (complete with miniature neon green targets in the stone, and an empty rose window) and a steampunk-ed replica of a tea barge. We crossed London Bridge halfway and got pictures of Tower Bridge from there. For some reason, there was a giant destroyer ship ('I sank your battleship!') blocking the view, and once we got closer it was intimidating. There were a few posed shots of the six of us girls in front of Tower Bridge, and then we actually crossed it.
It was kind of cool to see that yes, they are actually towers, with windows and everything. I will say, though, that bridges are not my favorite things. They shake when there's too much pressure on them, you can see the seam where they release to let large boats pass through, and they're over water with only a waist-high barrier keeping you from Allison pushing you overboard. So yeah. Now you know another of my phobias.
We decided not to go into the Tower of London because some people in our group were running out of pounds; besides, we just wanted pictures of the grounds and of the posed archer leaning off one of the towers. There's a funny posed picture floating around that I will have to snatch because it's just too cute. I think it was around this time, too, that Marita and I started talking pretty extensively about marriage/wedding stuff, which was a nice conversation to have.
Then there was the adventure of trying to find a subway line that would take us close to the British Museum. It was really aggravating trying to figure out what lines were open where, especially since some of the Tube stations we saw were just very confusing. We ended up in the middle of the banking district, which I hadn't been to before. Thank goodness Ashley and I are pretty familiar with London and the Tube, so we didn't get anyone horrendously lost.
We spent about two good hours in the British Museum before they closed it. For it being my third time there in a month and a half, I still managed to see a lot of things that I hadn't seen before and get a lot of pictures that I had missed. This includes the Asia gallery and Americas gallery (they only had two rooms dedicated to the Americas... I guess because they can't steal our stuff). Then we were abruptly kicked out and had to decide something to do for dinner, because we were all pretty hungry.
We managed to find a Chinese place that served enough of a buffet for everyone to get something they liked. Since there were seven of us, the staff seated us in a back room where there was a karaoke station set up... with Chinese lyrics (except for that one strange American song). We also got to watch the music videos and determine exactly what was happening/dub over them ourselves, which was hysterical (though one of the videos was really sad). I mean, seriously, who drives a bus from Piccadilly to the south of France while singing in an American accent?
After dinner, it was pub time, and since we were in a neighborhood I knew relatively well, I said I'd take them to some of the pubs off of Grays Inn Road (where I stayed the last time I was in London). But alas, my favorite pub from last time was closed for the evening. They still had their menu up in the window, but we can't figure out why they would have been closed on a Saturday night. Thankfully, I still had part of my local map memorized, and so we ducked into a mew and managed to make it inside a pub called the Duke of York. Allison introduced me to a beer called Bulmer's which tasted like apples, so that was fun. I realized that Kait is dating someone I already knew (who apparently, oh my God, is a grad student and not the cynical freshman I totally thought he was when I first met him), Ryan is God's mistake (according to Allison), and that I should totally go visit Dublin whenever I get the chance (because I'll have a free place to stay and a few rounds of drinks for free).
Alas, after that we headed to King's Cross to say goodbye and catch the Tube lines we needed. We're vowing to keep tabs on each other with our blogging, and of course Marita and I will probably be exchanging e-mail like fiends as her wedding date gets nearer. I told them to make sure to be safe, but apparently couldn't keep my own advice: as I was ascending out of the underground to street level, I tripped up about three steps and mangled my left knee. Woo boy, was that fun to hobble to the bus on. At least I found the bus and it left for home soon after. The rest of the night was a bus ride while trying to finish a chapter of the story I have plotted out, and talking to Justin/wincing/eating chocolate once I got back into Oxford.
London was much more fun with friends. Much, much more fun. There was more talking, more laughter, more pictures, more drinks, more adventure in general. It just brought a different flavor to the city. Especially since the last time I went wasn't such a high point in my life, it was nice to go back and put a better spin on an excellent city.
This morning I woke up and my knee was still pretty banged up, so I'm resting it on a pillow as I try to get my reading done for Philosophy of Mind. At least I understand what I'm reading and the ibuprofen is working just a little. And I also have fond memories of yesterday buoying me and getting me through the day. I miss everyone already, but I think they'll be having a fun time in Dublin, so I don't envy them that they're leaving to go back there. Anyhow, speaking of back, since I'm here and I took a day off yesterday, I don't really have that much time to procrastinate, so back to work for me!
- Jen -
31 January 2010
29 January 2010
Leaping onto the bandwagon...
...and blogging about the iPad.
First of all, iPad. brb, loling forever.
Second of all, am I the only person who was tired of seeing news updates about it in every site she went to? I'm pretty sure I was. I'm still sick of all the news surrounding it (even if it did soften some of the Conan/Leno and SOTU drama).
As for the actual thing itself... guys. Seriously. It's just a gigantic iTouch. I'm living without an iTouch and plan to for forever. I'm not jumping on some technological bandwagon just because it has a little logo on it. As for the product it claims to be replacing, I have no use for a netbook when I already have a perfectly portable [for my needs] device that will check my e-mail given correct wi-fi. I'm one of those people who actually wants, I don't know, time to herself, and doesn't need to check a social networking site every five minutes [away from my computer] to feel loved.
Also, I'm going to reference a picture that Justin currently has on his Facebook wall to make a few points about why I'm going to be waiting for version 2.0 to see if I still want one or not. Steve Jobs, in a slide during his unveiling of the iPad (loling! loling forever!), made a comparison to netbooks. His three points against them were "Slow", "Low quality displays", and "PC Software".
Um, what? Steve Jobs, you are ridiculous in so many ways.
In my experience, what's slow about a netbook is how they load the Internet, which is what they're made for. (Hence the name 'netbook'.) That's not the computer's fault. That is, in fact, a network fault. As in, whatever network you're receiving your tubes from is clogged. Now, netbooks run on many different types of networks, including various cell phone carriers and personal wi-fi networks. The iPhone is currently officially married to the AT&T network, which has been notoriously disappointing its customers with its poor quality of service aimed at the iPhone users. Not only is the network overloaded during prime times (lunch hour, for example), but I've heard that it can be next to near impossible to actually, you know, use the iPhone as a phone. Because the network is crowded. Because, in effect, the device is 'slow.' Strike one, Steve Jobs. Strike one.
I'm unsure where he's coming from on the 'low quality displays'. As far as I know, things still run on itty bitty pixels. Including the iPad (lol). Yes, the graphics may be prettier, and you may be able to touch them, but there are still itty bitty pixels. And I also have trouble getting the icons on my dad's iTouch to work half the time when I touch them and he's only had the device for a year, so it's not solely an issue of graphics. Besides, this statement in itself is vague. Low in what quality?
Lastly, PC software. Is that supposed to be a recommendation for why I, as an avid PC user, should buy an iPad (lol, guys, lol)? It seems very exclusive of PC users, not trying to reach out to a new customer base, and instead drawing on Apple users who are already on board with "PCs suck". Justin made the point that he was probably reaching out to the people who prefer to have Apple applications on their devices, but I don't see how this is relevant, either. With Google's Droid and Droid Eros out now and the many, many applications for those devices, saying that apps are only applicable to Apple is just as redundant as the syllable 'app' has been in this sentence. Also, I want to point out that viruses are equal opportunity. There are just as many varieties that will eat an Apple OS as will eat a Windows OS. (Also, I don't believe there's been video game releases for Apple since the 1990s, though I may be mistaken.)
At this point, I want to mention a few of the things Steve Jobs should have mentioned in his 'cons' list for the iPad. (Loling forever, guys. Seriously.)
- It can't multitask. Yes, that's right. It can't multitask. Even a 'lowly' netbook can do that. In fact, I would require it out of a device like the iPad should I ever want to purchase one. It should work just like a computer, except as a tablet with a touch keyboard.
- It doesn't have support for Adobe Flash. You know, that browser plug-in that allows you to view embedded video and slideshows. The plug-in that drives shopping sites, news sites, and Hulu. Though Apple devices claim to put the entire Internet at your fingertips, there's a large chunk they're leaving out by not supporting this feature, and to tell you that you can still access everything out there is misleading advertising.
- If it was hoping to compete in the ebook business, it's out of luck there. Its apps for ebooks aren't supported in any country besides the US. As a current UK resident, where you can buy a Kindle and have it work in this silly country, I call massive fail. It is also significantly more expensive than most ereaders that are out there right now, and it's not like I want an ereader either.
- There's no camera. There's no camera on the front side and there's no camera on the back side. There is no way to video chat or take one's own pictures using this device. At least some netbooks have built-in webcams.
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe it currently has the port ability to connect to a television (or much of anything else). And why not? Their smaller devices can do that. Maybe this will be released on version 2.0, but if so, why didn't they just do it now?
- The device is actually a smidge more expensive than netbooks (though this would be par for the course with Apple products - since it costs more, it's better, right? Please hear my sarcasm through the internet). Paired with the network problems it's going to have, it doesn't seem like the data plan is going to be a great deal either.
Steve, Steve, Steve. Where did it all go so wrong? Maybe when you used three flimsy excuses to cover up the fact that your device will not live up to the hype you knew it would get.
I encourage debate over this, as my view is strongly colored by three facts: I am a PC user who considers herself 'too dumb' to use a Mac, I am unimpressed by Apple's brand-loyal fans, and I'm about 18 months behind technologically (seriously, my current saliva-inducing tech dream is a phone with a QWERTY keyboard).
- Jen -
First of all, iPad. brb, loling forever.
Second of all, am I the only person who was tired of seeing news updates about it in every site she went to? I'm pretty sure I was. I'm still sick of all the news surrounding it (even if it did soften some of the Conan/Leno and SOTU drama).
As for the actual thing itself... guys. Seriously. It's just a gigantic iTouch. I'm living without an iTouch and plan to for forever. I'm not jumping on some technological bandwagon just because it has a little logo on it. As for the product it claims to be replacing, I have no use for a netbook when I already have a perfectly portable [for my needs] device that will check my e-mail given correct wi-fi. I'm one of those people who actually wants, I don't know, time to herself, and doesn't need to check a social networking site every five minutes [away from my computer] to feel loved.
Also, I'm going to reference a picture that Justin currently has on his Facebook wall to make a few points about why I'm going to be waiting for version 2.0 to see if I still want one or not. Steve Jobs, in a slide during his unveiling of the iPad (loling! loling forever!), made a comparison to netbooks. His three points against them were "Slow", "Low quality displays", and "PC Software".
Um, what? Steve Jobs, you are ridiculous in so many ways.
In my experience, what's slow about a netbook is how they load the Internet, which is what they're made for. (Hence the name 'netbook'.) That's not the computer's fault. That is, in fact, a network fault. As in, whatever network you're receiving your tubes from is clogged. Now, netbooks run on many different types of networks, including various cell phone carriers and personal wi-fi networks. The iPhone is currently officially married to the AT&T network, which has been notoriously disappointing its customers with its poor quality of service aimed at the iPhone users. Not only is the network overloaded during prime times (lunch hour, for example), but I've heard that it can be next to near impossible to actually, you know, use the iPhone as a phone. Because the network is crowded. Because, in effect, the device is 'slow.' Strike one, Steve Jobs. Strike one.
I'm unsure where he's coming from on the 'low quality displays'. As far as I know, things still run on itty bitty pixels. Including the iPad (lol). Yes, the graphics may be prettier, and you may be able to touch them, but there are still itty bitty pixels. And I also have trouble getting the icons on my dad's iTouch to work half the time when I touch them and he's only had the device for a year, so it's not solely an issue of graphics. Besides, this statement in itself is vague. Low in what quality?
Lastly, PC software. Is that supposed to be a recommendation for why I, as an avid PC user, should buy an iPad (lol, guys, lol)? It seems very exclusive of PC users, not trying to reach out to a new customer base, and instead drawing on Apple users who are already on board with "PCs suck". Justin made the point that he was probably reaching out to the people who prefer to have Apple applications on their devices, but I don't see how this is relevant, either. With Google's Droid and Droid Eros out now and the many, many applications for those devices, saying that apps are only applicable to Apple is just as redundant as the syllable 'app' has been in this sentence. Also, I want to point out that viruses are equal opportunity. There are just as many varieties that will eat an Apple OS as will eat a Windows OS. (Also, I don't believe there's been video game releases for Apple since the 1990s, though I may be mistaken.)
At this point, I want to mention a few of the things Steve Jobs should have mentioned in his 'cons' list for the iPad. (Loling forever, guys. Seriously.)
- It can't multitask. Yes, that's right. It can't multitask. Even a 'lowly' netbook can do that. In fact, I would require it out of a device like the iPad should I ever want to purchase one. It should work just like a computer, except as a tablet with a touch keyboard.
- It doesn't have support for Adobe Flash. You know, that browser plug-in that allows you to view embedded video and slideshows. The plug-in that drives shopping sites, news sites, and Hulu. Though Apple devices claim to put the entire Internet at your fingertips, there's a large chunk they're leaving out by not supporting this feature, and to tell you that you can still access everything out there is misleading advertising.
- If it was hoping to compete in the ebook business, it's out of luck there. Its apps for ebooks aren't supported in any country besides the US. As a current UK resident, where you can buy a Kindle and have it work in this silly country, I call massive fail. It is also significantly more expensive than most ereaders that are out there right now, and it's not like I want an ereader either.
- There's no camera. There's no camera on the front side and there's no camera on the back side. There is no way to video chat or take one's own pictures using this device. At least some netbooks have built-in webcams.
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe it currently has the port ability to connect to a television (or much of anything else). And why not? Their smaller devices can do that. Maybe this will be released on version 2.0, but if so, why didn't they just do it now?
- The device is actually a smidge more expensive than netbooks (though this would be par for the course with Apple products - since it costs more, it's better, right? Please hear my sarcasm through the internet). Paired with the network problems it's going to have, it doesn't seem like the data plan is going to be a great deal either.
Steve, Steve, Steve. Where did it all go so wrong? Maybe when you used three flimsy excuses to cover up the fact that your device will not live up to the hype you knew it would get.
I encourage debate over this, as my view is strongly colored by three facts: I am a PC user who considers herself 'too dumb' to use a Mac, I am unimpressed by Apple's brand-loyal fans, and I'm about 18 months behind technologically (seriously, my current saliva-inducing tech dream is a phone with a QWERTY keyboard).
- Jen -
26 January 2010
All out of wit, please send chocolate.
Though I am out of wit, I promised a blog entry to a few friends yesterday. This one will focus on my awesome nails, haggis, and YouTube, and I promise they're all related by their temporal proximity.
---
So. My nails look pretty awesome right now. (Why hello there, little sapphire ring, how are you doing today?)
Yeah, my nails have freaking purple and pink racecar/go-faster stripes on them. And that makes them more awesome than yours.
These were my materials:
That's Sally Hansen Nail Growth Protein as a base coat (I promise it goes on clear, but matte; the bottle is slightly gross-looking), OPI Nail Lacquer in Sapphire in the Snow (though it's not a blue, it's an aubergine), Icing by Claire's Nail Polish in Pouty Pink (with some pearlescent lavender in there, too, it's quite pretty), and Sally Hansen No Chip 10 Day Nail Color in Clear as a top coat.
Instructions: Base coat with the Nail Growth Protein, two coats of the OPI, three coats of a stripe of the Icing in the middle, finish off with TWO (not one, as in the picture) coats of clear to make your nails shine like a freaking racecar. I didn't follow my own advice and also got a little impatient, so not only is my right hand somewhat mauled in comparison to the left hand, but my nails aren't as glossy as they could have been because I didn't use two coats of top coat. Then again, I was doing my nails as I was trying to read a 300-page book published 100 years ago for my Aesthetics paper this week, so forgive me if I was a little distracted.
---
So. Haggis.
Last night was Burns Night, a night where everyone celebrates this Scottish poet called (I think Richard?) Burns. With haggis, because haggis is appropriately Scottish. It was guest night, thus why I did my nails, and so we all got dressed with our little short robes to go to the later sitting. At the beginning of the meal, instead of our regular 'benedictus benedicat', we got about three blessings and odes to the haggis, along with a little ditty played on a bagpipe. Cool.
First course was the most delicious salmon I've ever had in my life with a prawn and creme sauce. It also came free with a discussion of bear moats. (I swear, we talk about the strangest things here.)
Second course was 'haggis, tatties and neeps.' Though those may all look like strange words, I promise you, these things actually exist. Tatties is just potatoes, neeps is just turnips, and haggis... Well. I'm not linking you to what haggis is, I trust you all have the Google-fu to do it for yourselves, but trust me when I say that it is very good. I'd eat it again. Not the vegetarian kind, though, it just tasted like ground nuts. And I don't know what had me laughing so hard at dinner, but we certainly had a fun enough time without any imbibing of alcoholic beverages.
Dessert had raisins in it. I'm not a fan of raisins. Still good, but RAISINS. Blech. Oh well. I ate haggis, and I thought it was good, and I was sufficiently full from a meal for once.
---
So, there are a few things on YouTube that I'd like to share with y'all. I've had this song stuck in my head for days, and good thing that the download is free. Also, I laughed and laughed when I watched this. (I'm aware that it's kind of old, but I just discovered it last night, and I have this thing about strings of profanity... they just make me giggle.)
Oh! I almost forgot. I'm going to London this weekend to meet up with friends of mine at the Dublin program (Marita, Allison, and Kait among them), so expect more pictures and blogging of that later. For now, though, I have lecture to go to in ten minutes, so I'll finish mocking this up and be on my way, then, shall I?
- Jen -
24 January 2010
My weekend
Boring blog post title is boring.
Anyhow, I did a quick tally Friday after I finished my library trips, so get ready for another statistics post. (I rather like statistics posts, as you can probably tell.)
I have fourteen books out of the library right now. Of those, seven are for my Philosophy of Mind tutorial, six are for my Aesthetics tutorial, and one is background reading for Philosophy of Mind in general.
This week, I had roughly 200 pages of reading to do for my Philosophy of Mind tutorial and roughly 375 pages of reading to do for my Aesthetics tutorial.
I read for... let's say seven hours yesterday, and I know I did at least 132 pages of reading yesterday. I finished all of my Philosophy of Mind work by this morning, woohoo go me now I don't have to read any more!
As of right now, I still have 285 pages of reading to do, give or take. One of the books I'm reading has 300 pages. Really spacey font, so I only counted half for standardization issues, but still, major gulp there. Really, though, it only equates to five more things I need to cross off of my list, two of which are digital articles. Speaking of... now that I'm at my computer, I should totally do that.
My goal is to finish my reading by tomorrow night, or by Tuesday noon if I get terribly crunched. That'll give me a little more time to actually, I don't know, plan a decent essay instead of letting them write themselves. The latter tends to get me in a little hot water, especially when I relax my tone in my essays.
Anyhow, off to read 41 pages of Budd on Aristotle's meaning of katharsis. Ciao, all.
- Jen -
Anyhow, I did a quick tally Friday after I finished my library trips, so get ready for another statistics post. (I rather like statistics posts, as you can probably tell.)
I have fourteen books out of the library right now. Of those, seven are for my Philosophy of Mind tutorial, six are for my Aesthetics tutorial, and one is background reading for Philosophy of Mind in general.
This week, I had roughly 200 pages of reading to do for my Philosophy of Mind tutorial and roughly 375 pages of reading to do for my Aesthetics tutorial.
I read for... let's say seven hours yesterday, and I know I did at least 132 pages of reading yesterday. I finished all of my Philosophy of Mind work by this morning, woohoo go me now I don't have to read any more!
As of right now, I still have 285 pages of reading to do, give or take. One of the books I'm reading has 300 pages. Really spacey font, so I only counted half for standardization issues, but still, major gulp there. Really, though, it only equates to five more things I need to cross off of my list, two of which are digital articles. Speaking of... now that I'm at my computer, I should totally do that.
My goal is to finish my reading by tomorrow night, or by Tuesday noon if I get terribly crunched. That'll give me a little more time to actually, I don't know, plan a decent essay instead of letting them write themselves. The latter tends to get me in a little hot water, especially when I relax my tone in my essays.
Anyhow, off to read 41 pages of Budd on Aristotle's meaning of katharsis. Ciao, all.
- Jen -
21 January 2010
Dear Diary,
Today, I used 'effect' as a verb successfully in a paper about how Plato was a jerk. It was a good day.
Disregarding the facts that:
- I had to wake up early to cram in the rest of my Aesthetics reading,
- I was supposed to go to three lectures today,
- I only made it to two of them because I ran out of money and had to finish that stupid reading,
- I had a tutorial that lasted for an hour and forty-five minutes through dinner,
- I didn't eat my first real meal until 7:45 PM, and
- I left off writing a paper until the last minute,
today was still a good day. Because I used 'effect' as a verb.
Yes, that's right. Grammar nerdiness makes even the worst days bearable and even 'good.'
- Jen -
Disregarding the facts that:
- I had to wake up early to cram in the rest of my Aesthetics reading,
- I was supposed to go to three lectures today,
- I only made it to two of them because I ran out of money and had to finish that stupid reading,
- I had a tutorial that lasted for an hour and forty-five minutes through dinner,
- I didn't eat my first real meal until 7:45 PM, and
- I left off writing a paper until the last minute,
today was still a good day. Because I used 'effect' as a verb.
Yes, that's right. Grammar nerdiness makes even the worst days bearable and even 'good.'
- Jen -
20 January 2010
Because everyone wants to know...
Or, rather, because my sarcasm meter has been turned up to eleven for about a week and a half now.
See, the only time that I've ever wanted a Twitter is in telling people how many words I have written in a given document. This is true for both NaNo and for papers I write here at New College. I just like the satisfaction of taking little breaks to post that I'm such and such percent done, or I only have X number of words woe is me, or this paper is this ratio to that one in terms of length... you get the idea. I really like the way the numbers generally keep going up, too.
I really wish that I could do this all on Facebook, but I am loath to spam everyone's home page with my rambling banalities of X number of words on a paper due tomorrow morning at 10 AM. So, what I've done is posted my little status that says 'first paper of Hilary 2010 woo' and I'm going to comment underneath it with my progress throughout the day. Still kind of makes me look like a tool, but at least all the fail will be contained to one place when I do it that way.
As an alternative to the alternative, however, I could just blog about my progress. So, what I'm going to do is leave this tab open, and whenever I want to say something awesome about my progress or that I'm stuck, I'll write it here with a time addendum. This way, I can feel like I'm making progress. (And hey, I'm such a nerd that I might even go back and make graphs of it later.)
For people who might, I don't know, actually want to know what's going on in my academic life right now, I'm writing a 1500-word paper over behaviorism (or, as my tutor spelled it on everything, 'behaviourism') for my Philosophy of Mind tutorial. The prompt is two questions, one of which has two parts, so the 1500-word requirement can be subdivided into two 750-word requirements. (Sounds nearly manageable when I put it like that, doesn't it? Sort of vague and nonthreatening under-4-digits number.) The tutorial is at 5 PM tomorrow; the paper needs to be turned in beforehand, sometime before noon, but seeing as I have lectures scheduled every Thursday from 10 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon, I figured I'd get it to him either tonight or around 9 tomorrow morning.
So, we all got the rules and constraints here? 1500-word paper by 9 tomorrow morning. All right, here goes nothing.
2:15 - Open Word document. Mess around with fonts. Type questions. Create header. Got 34 words out of it. That's still good, at least.
2:34 -325 words. That means I'm 20% done. And I haven't even gotten to most of the content yet. I have a very, very good feeling about this tutorial and how these papers are going to go. Also, by my current work ethic, I should be able to write roughly 900 words in an hour, meaning I should be able to finish the paper in, holy crap, two hours, personal best evar.
2:47 - Still at 325 words. Distracted by Facebook and writing up this blog entry. Need to go back to paper and concentrate. Also, the soundtrack to Firefly is charming.
3:00 - 453 words. I also learned that my keyboard is made of awesome, though I wish I could set some of the custom colors as regular colors.
3:09 - Finally have all of the presets on my keyboard filled. Haven't written any more words.
3:17 - 529 words, which means I'm over 33% done. I could be going so much faster, but it's easy to get distracted. Whoa, hey there, Polkas y Huapangos!
3:26 - Just hit page two. You can't grep dead trees and you also, apparently, can't grep PDFs being displayed in Internet Explorer (or at least I can't).
3:43 - Halfway to wordcount. I have some rather overinflated footnotes, but I'll compensate for that later; I just want to finish this paper by dinner. Also, listening to video game soundtracks (I'm looking at you, Halo 3 ODST) while writing papers makes me feel like, with each word, I'm beating the final boss. :3
3:49 - I'm such a nerd, I love using ibid. and op. cit. in my footnotes. :3
4:35 - 916 words, which means I'm 60% done! And I've almost rounded out the first question's answer.
5:25 - Friends distracting me and Heidi Montag later, I'm at 1034 words, which is 2/3 of the way done, and am almost done with the last paragraph of my first question.
5:34 - 1156 words, done with the first section, and hell yes I get to use a block quote.
5:50 - 1280 words, only need about 350 more to round out the section I'm writing, giving up in the meantime so I can go to dinner.
6:45 - 350 WORDS. PLEASE.
7:02 - 100 more words. That's all I'm asking. Come on.
7:11 - 1622 words, and I think I'm done. Just minor proofreading and typesetting changes to make now.
7:25 - Another once-over before I send it tomorrow morning should be good, but other than that, I'm finished!
Whew, that took a while. Now I gotta reqard myself with something. And since it appears as if I don't have any chocolate, I might instead watch a few episodes of TV/a DVD and do my nails. Also, write a few response e-mails, read one final thing for my paper due tomorrow night, and actually start outlining for said paper, as it appears I won't have much time to write it tomorrow.
To end on a happy note: I have my flights scheduled, and it looks like I might be home to go to Justin's fraternity's formal! Glee!
- Jen -
See, the only time that I've ever wanted a Twitter is in telling people how many words I have written in a given document. This is true for both NaNo and for papers I write here at New College. I just like the satisfaction of taking little breaks to post that I'm such and such percent done, or I only have X number of words woe is me, or this paper is this ratio to that one in terms of length... you get the idea. I really like the way the numbers generally keep going up, too.
I really wish that I could do this all on Facebook, but I am loath to spam everyone's home page with my rambling banalities of X number of words on a paper due tomorrow morning at 10 AM. So, what I've done is posted my little status that says 'first paper of Hilary 2010 woo' and I'm going to comment underneath it with my progress throughout the day. Still kind of makes me look like a tool, but at least all the fail will be contained to one place when I do it that way.
As an alternative to the alternative, however, I could just blog about my progress. So, what I'm going to do is leave this tab open, and whenever I want to say something awesome about my progress or that I'm stuck, I'll write it here with a time addendum. This way, I can feel like I'm making progress. (And hey, I'm such a nerd that I might even go back and make graphs of it later.)
For people who might, I don't know, actually want to know what's going on in my academic life right now, I'm writing a 1500-word paper over behaviorism (or, as my tutor spelled it on everything, 'behaviourism') for my Philosophy of Mind tutorial. The prompt is two questions, one of which has two parts, so the 1500-word requirement can be subdivided into two 750-word requirements. (Sounds nearly manageable when I put it like that, doesn't it? Sort of vague and nonthreatening under-4-digits number.) The tutorial is at 5 PM tomorrow; the paper needs to be turned in beforehand, sometime before noon, but seeing as I have lectures scheduled every Thursday from 10 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon, I figured I'd get it to him either tonight or around 9 tomorrow morning.
So, we all got the rules and constraints here? 1500-word paper by 9 tomorrow morning. All right, here goes nothing.
2:15 - Open Word document. Mess around with fonts. Type questions. Create header. Got 34 words out of it. That's still good, at least.
2:34 -325 words. That means I'm 20% done. And I haven't even gotten to most of the content yet. I have a very, very good feeling about this tutorial and how these papers are going to go. Also, by my current work ethic, I should be able to write roughly 900 words in an hour, meaning I should be able to finish the paper in, holy crap, two hours, personal best evar.
2:47 - Still at 325 words. Distracted by Facebook and writing up this blog entry. Need to go back to paper and concentrate. Also, the soundtrack to Firefly is charming.
3:00 - 453 words. I also learned that my keyboard is made of awesome, though I wish I could set some of the custom colors as regular colors.
3:09 - Finally have all of the presets on my keyboard filled. Haven't written any more words.
3:17 - 529 words, which means I'm over 33% done. I could be going so much faster, but it's easy to get distracted. Whoa, hey there, Polkas y Huapangos!
3:26 - Just hit page two. You can't grep dead trees and you also, apparently, can't grep PDFs being displayed in Internet Explorer (or at least I can't).
3:43 - Halfway to wordcount. I have some rather overinflated footnotes, but I'll compensate for that later; I just want to finish this paper by dinner. Also, listening to video game soundtracks (I'm looking at you, Halo 3 ODST) while writing papers makes me feel like, with each word, I'm beating the final boss. :3
3:49 - I'm such a nerd, I love using ibid. and op. cit. in my footnotes. :3
4:35 - 916 words, which means I'm 60% done! And I've almost rounded out the first question's answer.
5:25 - Friends distracting me and Heidi Montag later, I'm at 1034 words, which is 2/3 of the way done, and am almost done with the last paragraph of my first question.
5:34 - 1156 words, done with the first section, and hell yes I get to use a block quote.
5:50 - 1280 words, only need about 350 more to round out the section I'm writing, giving up in the meantime so I can go to dinner.
6:45 - 350 WORDS. PLEASE.
7:02 - 100 more words. That's all I'm asking. Come on.
7:11 - 1622 words, and I think I'm done. Just minor proofreading and typesetting changes to make now.
7:25 - Another once-over before I send it tomorrow morning should be good, but other than that, I'm finished!
Whew, that took a while. Now I gotta reqard myself with something. And since it appears as if I don't have any chocolate, I might instead watch a few episodes of TV/a DVD and do my nails. Also, write a few response e-mails, read one final thing for my paper due tomorrow night, and actually start outlining for said paper, as it appears I won't have much time to write it tomorrow.
To end on a happy note: I have my flights scheduled, and it looks like I might be home to go to Justin's fraternity's formal! Glee!
- Jen -
19 January 2010
Ranty McRantface is back!
Yes, my last post was full of Americarage (thanks for that word, Justin, it completely encapsulated all of my feelings), but this post will be just... little things I notice, some of which coincidentally end in my rageface.
So, today I went to my first lecture for this term. And it was a nice lecture, really. Apart from a little stammering, the lecturer was mostly coherent and I did actually learn things and take notes. What bothered me was not the lecture itself but the gender ratio represented. The lecturer was female. The ratio of females to males in the audience was more like 20:80 (four girls out of about twenty people that I rounded to before I ran back here to blag about it). It just made me start thinking. At ND, I see this problem too, in philosophy moreso than English. I mean, I get it, our main texts are all written by either dead or decrepit white guys, but that doesn't mean that girls can't find philosophy enjoyable or pick it up as a major. So why, in every course that wasn't the mandated Philo 101 intro or a mandated seminar, has there been a distinct gender bias against women? What is it about philosophy and/or women that causes this? Or am I reading more into it than I should?
---
I'm currently procrastinating bigtime on some of my reading, but at least I finished the one book for my Aesthetics tutorial. Hoooooly crap I have not seen a herd of teal deer that large in the entirety of my life leading up to that time. Partly I was frustrated because probably 3/4 of the work didn't directly relate to the paper I need to write for Friday, but it was also partly due to the fact that I could have just grepped and scrolled had it been electronic and not gone through the dull (dull? completely lifeless) writing style of the (probably non-native English speaking) author.
---
Ever have that problem where you can't fall asleep even when you're a) laying down and b) tired? Yeah. If it took you two hours to fall asleep you'd be a little rageface too. On the upside, it has me still laughing at conversations I had a few days ago. (Oh, pants.)
Anyways, if I let this post get much longer, not only will it start breeding teal deer of its own, but I will also doom myself to complete and utter failure on my 1500 word essay due before 10 AM on Thursday. So, ciao y'all.
- Jen -
ETA: Two miniature notes of despair.
1. It looks as if Conan is taking a settlement from NBC in order to allow Leno back to the 11:35 Tonight Show spot. All I have to say on the matter is that I'm Team Conan and I wish NBC hadn't taken the matter quite so far as for viewers to go to 'teams' like this is Twilight's Team Edward/Jacob.
2. It also looks as though Kraft is looking into acquiring Cadbury for quite a sum of money. The general note of protest from people on this side of the pond is to 'keep Cadbury British.' And as much as, some days, it's one of the few things I like about this silly country, I'd have to agree. If I could just walk to the grocery store in America and pick up a Cadbury milk chocolate bar, it would take away the feeling I get that, hey, I can only eat this in Britain. (Also, American chocolate is terrible. Seriously. Have you ever had Alpen chocolate before? My first experience with European chocolate, and whoo boy, it's much better. And Cadbury is better than Alpen. Long story short, American chocolate is much too salty and brittle for my taste.)
... on a slightly less peeved note, I'm having a craving for ice cream.
So, today I went to my first lecture for this term. And it was a nice lecture, really. Apart from a little stammering, the lecturer was mostly coherent and I did actually learn things and take notes. What bothered me was not the lecture itself but the gender ratio represented. The lecturer was female. The ratio of females to males in the audience was more like 20:80 (four girls out of about twenty people that I rounded to before I ran back here to blag about it). It just made me start thinking. At ND, I see this problem too, in philosophy moreso than English. I mean, I get it, our main texts are all written by either dead or decrepit white guys, but that doesn't mean that girls can't find philosophy enjoyable or pick it up as a major. So why, in every course that wasn't the mandated Philo 101 intro or a mandated seminar, has there been a distinct gender bias against women? What is it about philosophy and/or women that causes this? Or am I reading more into it than I should?
---
I'm currently procrastinating bigtime on some of my reading, but at least I finished the one book for my Aesthetics tutorial. Hoooooly crap I have not seen a herd of teal deer that large in the entirety of my life leading up to that time. Partly I was frustrated because probably 3/4 of the work didn't directly relate to the paper I need to write for Friday, but it was also partly due to the fact that I could have just grepped and scrolled had it been electronic and not gone through the dull (dull? completely lifeless) writing style of the (probably non-native English speaking) author.
---
Ever have that problem where you can't fall asleep even when you're a) laying down and b) tired? Yeah. If it took you two hours to fall asleep you'd be a little rageface too. On the upside, it has me still laughing at conversations I had a few days ago. (Oh, pants.)
Anyways, if I let this post get much longer, not only will it start breeding teal deer of its own, but I will also doom myself to complete and utter failure on my 1500 word essay due before 10 AM on Thursday. So, ciao y'all.
- Jen -
ETA: Two miniature notes of despair.
1. It looks as if Conan is taking a settlement from NBC in order to allow Leno back to the 11:35 Tonight Show spot. All I have to say on the matter is that I'm Team Conan and I wish NBC hadn't taken the matter quite so far as for viewers to go to 'teams' like this is Twilight's Team Edward/Jacob.
2. It also looks as though Kraft is looking into acquiring Cadbury for quite a sum of money. The general note of protest from people on this side of the pond is to 'keep Cadbury British.' And as much as, some days, it's one of the few things I like about this silly country, I'd have to agree. If I could just walk to the grocery store in America and pick up a Cadbury milk chocolate bar, it would take away the feeling I get that, hey, I can only eat this in Britain. (Also, American chocolate is terrible. Seriously. Have you ever had Alpen chocolate before? My first experience with European chocolate, and whoo boy, it's much better. And Cadbury is better than Alpen. Long story short, American chocolate is much too salty and brittle for my taste.)
... on a slightly less peeved note, I'm having a craving for ice cream.
17 January 2010
Multiple Post Day! #3: You Americans get off my soil!
[I don't think it's just me, but I'll point out that YMMV anyways.]
Why is it that British people think mocking Americans for not being as 'good' as they are will be okay with said Americans that they do it in front of?
Yes, we understand. Yours is the land of Sheep Everywhere, of Earl Grey and teatime and biscuits and chips, of Eternal Fog and Seldom Sunshine. Yours is the accent we turn to in America to make our advertising sound more intelligent. Yours are the cities that shut down after six PM and aren't even open on Sundays. Yours is the culture that holds a certain amount of charm to everyone in the world.
But really. Belittling 'those Americans' who 'can't even speak the Queen's English', who don't run on your National Health System, who in short don't follow your customs? Is an exercise in futility.
You see, America is DIFFERENT from this country for a reason. A rather large reason, in fact, that ran from 1775 to 1783. We didn't like your monarchy, your silly teas, and your reality, and so we substituted our oligarchy, our silly coffee chains, and our own. We've had two hundred odd years to contemplate our differences and to separate ourselves even further.
It's not simply a case of 'our standards will never match up to one another's'. It's comparing a fruit with a vegetable. At this point, some of the few things we have in common is the same language, and sometimes we don't even have that. (Extra 'u's, calling 'zee' 'zed', substituting an 's' for said 'z', the difference between single and double quotes, and 'brackets' instead of 'parentheses' come to mind immediately.)
What makes me angry is when British people think they have the right to bring 'you Americans' 'round to their way of thinking. We're not British. We don't want to be British. (If we did want to be British, we'd move to Canada and still be part of the Commonwealth, but even the US hates Canada.) And frankly, we're insulted when you speak of yourselves as inherently better instead of taking into account that nouns (people, places, and things) from America or of American origin are just as legitimate as your culture.
A few examples of people who do this come immediately to mind. I actually read a passage in a book I'm quite enjoying right now, Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, telling how the American-born, lived-in-England-for-a-while author was being benignly insulted by an elderly couple who just did this without thinking. (He pointed out that the word 'moron' was actually invented by Americans. Good day, sir, indeed!) This isn't something that just I have noticed.
And in fact, it's something that American students are even subjected to. It seems that our tutors tend to assume that we're not so bright until we prove otherwise. And when we do prove that not only are we competent, but we far exceed expectations, they seem flabbergasted. Although I never quite got what a friend of mine got from her tutor. He was talking about having an article published in an 'inferior' American chemistry quarterly publication, when in fact this is not an inferior group by any stretch of the imagination. (I applaud her response, which was somewhere along the line of 'frak you', only at eight in the morning and with significantly less tolerance.)
We're not going to take this laying down. (And I hate your food anyways.) So, you Brits get off MY lawn instead!
- Jen -
Why is it that British people think mocking Americans for not being as 'good' as they are will be okay with said Americans that they do it in front of?
Yes, we understand. Yours is the land of Sheep Everywhere, of Earl Grey and teatime and biscuits and chips, of Eternal Fog and Seldom Sunshine. Yours is the accent we turn to in America to make our advertising sound more intelligent. Yours are the cities that shut down after six PM and aren't even open on Sundays. Yours is the culture that holds a certain amount of charm to everyone in the world.
But really. Belittling 'those Americans' who 'can't even speak the Queen's English', who don't run on your National Health System, who in short don't follow your customs? Is an exercise in futility.
You see, America is DIFFERENT from this country for a reason. A rather large reason, in fact, that ran from 1775 to 1783. We didn't like your monarchy, your silly teas, and your reality, and so we substituted our oligarchy, our silly coffee chains, and our own. We've had two hundred odd years to contemplate our differences and to separate ourselves even further.
It's not simply a case of 'our standards will never match up to one another's'. It's comparing a fruit with a vegetable. At this point, some of the few things we have in common is the same language, and sometimes we don't even have that. (Extra 'u's, calling 'zee' 'zed', substituting an 's' for said 'z', the difference between single and double quotes, and 'brackets' instead of 'parentheses' come to mind immediately.)
What makes me angry is when British people think they have the right to bring 'you Americans' 'round to their way of thinking. We're not British. We don't want to be British. (If we did want to be British, we'd move to Canada and still be part of the Commonwealth, but even the US hates Canada.) And frankly, we're insulted when you speak of yourselves as inherently better instead of taking into account that nouns (people, places, and things) from America or of American origin are just as legitimate as your culture.
A few examples of people who do this come immediately to mind. I actually read a passage in a book I'm quite enjoying right now, Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, telling how the American-born, lived-in-England-for-a-while author was being benignly insulted by an elderly couple who just did this without thinking. (He pointed out that the word 'moron' was actually invented by Americans. Good day, sir, indeed!) This isn't something that just I have noticed.
And in fact, it's something that American students are even subjected to. It seems that our tutors tend to assume that we're not so bright until we prove otherwise. And when we do prove that not only are we competent, but we far exceed expectations, they seem flabbergasted. Although I never quite got what a friend of mine got from her tutor. He was talking about having an article published in an 'inferior' American chemistry quarterly publication, when in fact this is not an inferior group by any stretch of the imagination. (I applaud her response, which was somewhere along the line of 'frak you', only at eight in the morning and with significantly less tolerance.)
We're not going to take this laying down. (And I hate your food anyways.) So, you Brits get off MY lawn instead!
- Jen -
Multiple Post Day! #2: What I'm doing this semester
As many of you may or may not be aware, I'm actually in England to go to school. Novel, I know. Anyhow, that means that I need certain things set up before I can actually learn anything, and once I got in, that was pretty much what I spent my time doing.
First of all, I had only one tutorial set up for certain before I left. That was my Aesthetics tutorial, which I am taking with the same tutor who tutored me in Ethics last term. I'm excited about this, because I feel like we got on well together. He challenges me and makes me defend myself about pretty much every view I put forward, and he expects me to form my own opinions, which is somewhat novel for an undergraduate-level course of study, at least for me. I'm also excited to take the course as-is, because Aesthetics is almost like a meta-commentary on literary criticism, or at least that's what I'm getting out of it. So, it ties in with my English interests. To give everyone an idea of what I'll be doing, my first prompt is something to do with Plato and his inconsistencies in his judgments of poets and artists. I'm geeking out already.
So I arrived in Oxford without another class to take. Thankfully, this was fixed through a few e-mails between myself and the head Philosophy tutor here, who tutored me in Language and Logic last term. As it turns out, my other tutorial is going to be Philosophy of Mind.
I have a meeting with this tutor on Monday, but in the meantime, he asked me to read a textbook. I already knew most everything in the textbook, superficially speaking, but this is no indication about how this tutorial is going to go for me. This tutor also expects me to attend up to five hours of lecture a week for his tutorial, and so far, I don't have a syllabus from him. I assume I'll get it when I meet him for coffee tomorrow morning, but as of yet, I really don't know what to expect.
Any other things I'll be doing this semester will probably revolve around writing or criticism in some degree. I really enjoy going through the indexes on TVTropes, and I feel like they help my writing immensely (when you know the trope you're talking about, you know whether to play it straight, subvert it, or avoid it altogether). I also enjoy the communities I watch on LJ that have to deal with terrible writing. When I know what people hate, it's easier to... well, not do that. They're very critical, extremely snarky, occasionally sarcastic, and ultimately useful. So, that's my 'critical' lens, at least a few popular ones.
As far as my writing goes, I'm struggling with a multi-part epic I want to plot, but I have another few pieces of writing that might actually be coming along well, if I can find the time to dedicate to them instead of getting distracted by various other things. I also missed the meeting of my writing club today, but I don't feel bad as I had nothing to bring. Perhaps by next week I can edit part of a chapter from my NaNo and get some criticism of it. That would also be felicitous, because I believe next week they're doing a first-time-readers-of-the-club style of meeting for people who are shy or just haven't had time to present before will get the time and support to do so. Quite exciting.
Welp, I have another blog entry to write after this one, so I think I'll leave this off here.
- Jen -
First of all, I had only one tutorial set up for certain before I left. That was my Aesthetics tutorial, which I am taking with the same tutor who tutored me in Ethics last term. I'm excited about this, because I feel like we got on well together. He challenges me and makes me defend myself about pretty much every view I put forward, and he expects me to form my own opinions, which is somewhat novel for an undergraduate-level course of study, at least for me. I'm also excited to take the course as-is, because Aesthetics is almost like a meta-commentary on literary criticism, or at least that's what I'm getting out of it. So, it ties in with my English interests. To give everyone an idea of what I'll be doing, my first prompt is something to do with Plato and his inconsistencies in his judgments of poets and artists. I'm geeking out already.
So I arrived in Oxford without another class to take. Thankfully, this was fixed through a few e-mails between myself and the head Philosophy tutor here, who tutored me in Language and Logic last term. As it turns out, my other tutorial is going to be Philosophy of Mind.
I have a meeting with this tutor on Monday, but in the meantime, he asked me to read a textbook. I already knew most everything in the textbook, superficially speaking, but this is no indication about how this tutorial is going to go for me. This tutor also expects me to attend up to five hours of lecture a week for his tutorial, and so far, I don't have a syllabus from him. I assume I'll get it when I meet him for coffee tomorrow morning, but as of yet, I really don't know what to expect.
Any other things I'll be doing this semester will probably revolve around writing or criticism in some degree. I really enjoy going through the indexes on TVTropes, and I feel like they help my writing immensely (when you know the trope you're talking about, you know whether to play it straight, subvert it, or avoid it altogether). I also enjoy the communities I watch on LJ that have to deal with terrible writing. When I know what people hate, it's easier to... well, not do that. They're very critical, extremely snarky, occasionally sarcastic, and ultimately useful. So, that's my 'critical' lens, at least a few popular ones.
As far as my writing goes, I'm struggling with a multi-part epic I want to plot, but I have another few pieces of writing that might actually be coming along well, if I can find the time to dedicate to them instead of getting distracted by various other things. I also missed the meeting of my writing club today, but I don't feel bad as I had nothing to bring. Perhaps by next week I can edit part of a chapter from my NaNo and get some criticism of it. That would also be felicitous, because I believe next week they're doing a first-time-readers-of-the-club style of meeting for people who are shy or just haven't had time to present before will get the time and support to do so. Quite exciting.
Welp, I have another blog entry to write after this one, so I think I'll leave this off here.
- Jen -
Multiple Post Day! #1: Traveling
So this is that thing, you know, where I catch up on all the blog posts I should have been making for, I don't know, the past week or so.
So on Tuesday the 12th I had my flight back to the UK. It either a) went better than I could have ever expected or b) failed on an epic scale. I'm still undecided, and you might be too after you finish this entry.
I departed Columbus on a short regional flight to Chicago around 6 or 7 in the evening. This flight wasn't so bad, and in fact I got a little sleep, which is unusual for me. So I was pretty grateful for that. The plane itself was a little rickety and some of the seats were broken, but I don't expect a lot out of regional jets.
Then I had a three-hour layover in Chicago. I hate layovers. This one in particular consisted of me failing to connect to the terminal's wireless network, doing Sudoku until I thought my eyes would fall out, and following news of the Haiti earthquake as it was presented on Larry King Live. I was approached during this layover by a man who was apparently doing some sort of survey for international travelers to rank their favorite flight service, or something like that...? I wasn't exactly sure why he picked me, of all people, but I went along with it. To spite him, I might not send back the second half of my form.
The first indication I should have had that things were about to go Very Wrong was the way the flight crew decided to board this jet. Usually, when people board a plane, there's a little Group number on their boarding pass that determines when you're supposed to board the plane. I don't know if they do it in reverse order or not, but usually the first group to board the plane (after the usual Platinum, Sapphire, 4chan Gold Account, and Business Class members) goes in the back, and people file in after them to fill in the seats further to the front, and it's all very orderly. On this flight, we all boarded at once. It was stupidity in motion, especially since the flight crew were on the terse end of professional (instead of the kind end). Also, this jet was filled. Filled. Every seat was filled. Every single one.
So of course we had to have a problem, because that's the way Murphy's Law works. I fell asleep practically after take-off and was disappointed to wake up for dinner around 11 PM EST, but once I fell asleep after dinner, apparently the pilot made an announcement nobody heard and we continued going about our business. But then the cabin kept getting louder and louder as people were gossiping about something, and a flight attendant came over the PA to tell us that the de-icing belt on the plane wasn't functioning properly and so the authorities in Heathrow weren't going to let us land in the UK like that.
Now, you have to understand something to see why I found that so absurd: The airport was frozen in Chicago and they let us take off. I understand that London was freaking out because it was snowing there for about a week and a half straight, and that never happens, but really? If O'Hare could let us take off, I think Heathrow should have let us touch down.
As it was, we stopped at JFK in order to see what could be done about it. We did not de-board the plane, but we were grounded for three hours while a maintenance crew did... something to make everything work. At least I got a good amount of sleep; I woke briefly on take-off and I woke up finally around breakfast.
So, by the time we landed in Heathrow, I was already around three hours behind schedule. When we touched down, there seemed to be some kind of problem with attaching the corridor leading to the terminal to the plane... so we were delayed about another hour. Besides this, the plane we were using was also the most run-down trans-Atlantic service I've ever used. Seats were broken, utilities were not well-maintained... but at least they had a touch-to-use television screen that could TURN OFF.
Once I de-boarded, it still took me 45 minutes to get through my passport/visa screening. Oh, joy of joys. I suspect some of the problem was caused by people who were underprepared. At least I know what papers I need for things like that.
The one good thing was that I was able to grab my checked luggage quickly and board a bus to Oxford with all speed, but I was still around 5 hours late for when my best estimate was for getting into Oxford. I got in at 6 o'clock and, as happens in England, everywhere I could have gone for food was already closed. I was not pleased. In addition to this, England has not heard of snow shovels, so all of the sidewalks were still filled with slush. I didn't have far to go to reach my flat, but still, it was annoying.
At least when I got in, I was told that all the other Americans got back safely, and AJ even let me have a can of soup instead of letting me go out and spend money on Hassan's. And at least I felt much, much better than the last time I took a trans-Atlantic flight in this direction. I'm still mildly jet-lagged, but I'm nowhere near as sick or homesick as I was last time. So, all in all... with everything that happened, I'm still more than pleased that things worked out as well as they did.
- Jen -
So on Tuesday the 12th I had my flight back to the UK. It either a) went better than I could have ever expected or b) failed on an epic scale. I'm still undecided, and you might be too after you finish this entry.
I departed Columbus on a short regional flight to Chicago around 6 or 7 in the evening. This flight wasn't so bad, and in fact I got a little sleep, which is unusual for me. So I was pretty grateful for that. The plane itself was a little rickety and some of the seats were broken, but I don't expect a lot out of regional jets.
Then I had a three-hour layover in Chicago. I hate layovers. This one in particular consisted of me failing to connect to the terminal's wireless network, doing Sudoku until I thought my eyes would fall out, and following news of the Haiti earthquake as it was presented on Larry King Live. I was approached during this layover by a man who was apparently doing some sort of survey for international travelers to rank their favorite flight service, or something like that...? I wasn't exactly sure why he picked me, of all people, but I went along with it. To spite him, I might not send back the second half of my form.
The first indication I should have had that things were about to go Very Wrong was the way the flight crew decided to board this jet. Usually, when people board a plane, there's a little Group number on their boarding pass that determines when you're supposed to board the plane. I don't know if they do it in reverse order or not, but usually the first group to board the plane (after the usual Platinum, Sapphire, 4chan Gold Account, and Business Class members) goes in the back, and people file in after them to fill in the seats further to the front, and it's all very orderly. On this flight, we all boarded at once. It was stupidity in motion, especially since the flight crew were on the terse end of professional (instead of the kind end). Also, this jet was filled. Filled. Every seat was filled. Every single one.
So of course we had to have a problem, because that's the way Murphy's Law works. I fell asleep practically after take-off and was disappointed to wake up for dinner around 11 PM EST, but once I fell asleep after dinner, apparently the pilot made an announcement nobody heard and we continued going about our business. But then the cabin kept getting louder and louder as people were gossiping about something, and a flight attendant came over the PA to tell us that the de-icing belt on the plane wasn't functioning properly and so the authorities in Heathrow weren't going to let us land in the UK like that.
Now, you have to understand something to see why I found that so absurd: The airport was frozen in Chicago and they let us take off. I understand that London was freaking out because it was snowing there for about a week and a half straight, and that never happens, but really? If O'Hare could let us take off, I think Heathrow should have let us touch down.
As it was, we stopped at JFK in order to see what could be done about it. We did not de-board the plane, but we were grounded for three hours while a maintenance crew did... something to make everything work. At least I got a good amount of sleep; I woke briefly on take-off and I woke up finally around breakfast.
So, by the time we landed in Heathrow, I was already around three hours behind schedule. When we touched down, there seemed to be some kind of problem with attaching the corridor leading to the terminal to the plane... so we were delayed about another hour. Besides this, the plane we were using was also the most run-down trans-Atlantic service I've ever used. Seats were broken, utilities were not well-maintained... but at least they had a touch-to-use television screen that could TURN OFF.
Once I de-boarded, it still took me 45 minutes to get through my passport/visa screening. Oh, joy of joys. I suspect some of the problem was caused by people who were underprepared. At least I know what papers I need for things like that.
The one good thing was that I was able to grab my checked luggage quickly and board a bus to Oxford with all speed, but I was still around 5 hours late for when my best estimate was for getting into Oxford. I got in at 6 o'clock and, as happens in England, everywhere I could have gone for food was already closed. I was not pleased. In addition to this, England has not heard of snow shovels, so all of the sidewalks were still filled with slush. I didn't have far to go to reach my flat, but still, it was annoying.
At least when I got in, I was told that all the other Americans got back safely, and AJ even let me have a can of soup instead of letting me go out and spend money on Hassan's. And at least I felt much, much better than the last time I took a trans-Atlantic flight in this direction. I'm still mildly jet-lagged, but I'm nowhere near as sick or homesick as I was last time. So, all in all... with everything that happened, I'm still more than pleased that things worked out as well as they did.
- Jen -
05 January 2010
New year, new resolutions.
So, I made a BFS list for the end of NaNo, and I wanted to update everyone on how things are going so far.
1. Edit my main novel for this year with the help of my beta reader/technical editor.
- I'm still waiting on my beta to send me the edited copy. I'm also planning on taking the Easter break from New College to come home and knock out a few edits. The plan is to get the first round (rough cut, like moving chapters etc.) done in time to get the CreateSpace copy.
2. Shop for publishing houses/agents and send out cover letters/summaries/first chapters. [Big.]
- This, also, will be done during my six-week summer break and my four to five-week Easter break.
3. Characterize, plan, and write my massive fanfiction novel at the pace of about a chapter a week. [Big, fun.]
- I've already acquired a beta reader and am working on characterization. I have a title and some scenes planned out but I will start to notecard once I get back to school.
4. Do NaNoWriMo 2010. [Big, fun.]
- Not the right time to think about this yet, but I do have a few 'reserve' novels that I haven't written yet, so no panicking if I don't have a plot by Halloween 2010.
5. Take creative writing classes once I get back to main campus. [Fun, scary.]
- Again, can't think about this yet, but I should start looking once class lists get posted in, what, April?
---
6. Travel alone, including Europe and my college friends' hometowns. [Fun, scary.]
- I traveled London alone, will probably go to Dublin and/or Paris around the Easter break, and over the summer I plan on visiting Lauren and Rachel at least.
7. Get a summer job that I'm happy with, or at least make a little money this summer. [Big.]
- Oops, this one might get a big fat strikethru. I don't know how I'll have time to get a job.
8. Start knitting/sewing again for something to do for a few hours every day. [Fun.]
- I already did this over break.
9. Actually learn how to knit correctly. I've been teaching myself on and off but I keep dropping it. [Fun.]
- Did this too, I now know how to knit on circular needles and how to cable stitch.
10. Actually go out to a club. Can you believe I've been at Oxford for two months and I haven't yet made it out to a club? [Fun.]
- Can't really do this yet.
11. Make it onto the ballroom competitive team once I get back to main campus. [Big, fun, scary.]
- This either.
12. Along that line, start exercising, even if it is just walking the treadmill for a half-hour every day. [Big, fun.]
- BWAHAHAHA. Yup, close.
13. Learn how to cook, for real, and cook something every day. [Scary. If you don't think it's scary then you don't really know how awkward I am as a cook.]
- I made hella good mac and cheese the other night.
14. Learn French.
- I have a DS 'Learn French' game in the mail to me right now.
15. Stop being such a b*tch.
- Yes, the one that's always on my list every year. This one kinda failed a little bit, but being called out on my faults will make me better.
So... watching audio commentary from RvB DVDs makes me happy. Catch ya later...
- Jen -
1. Edit my main novel for this year with the help of my beta reader/technical editor.
- I'm still waiting on my beta to send me the edited copy. I'm also planning on taking the Easter break from New College to come home and knock out a few edits. The plan is to get the first round (rough cut, like moving chapters etc.) done in time to get the CreateSpace copy.
2. Shop for publishing houses/agents and send out cover letters/summaries/first chapters. [Big.]
- This, also, will be done during my six-week summer break and my four to five-week Easter break.
3. Characterize, plan, and write my massive fanfiction novel at the pace of about a chapter a week. [Big, fun.]
- I've already acquired a beta reader and am working on characterization. I have a title and some scenes planned out but I will start to notecard once I get back to school.
4. Do NaNoWriMo 2010. [Big, fun.]
- Not the right time to think about this yet, but I do have a few 'reserve' novels that I haven't written yet, so no panicking if I don't have a plot by Halloween 2010.
5. Take creative writing classes once I get back to main campus. [Fun, scary.]
- Again, can't think about this yet, but I should start looking once class lists get posted in, what, April?
---
6. Travel alone, including Europe and my college friends' hometowns. [Fun, scary.]
- I traveled London alone, will probably go to Dublin and/or Paris around the Easter break, and over the summer I plan on visiting Lauren and Rachel at least.
7. Get a summer job that I'm happy with, or at least make a little money this summer. [Big.]
- Oops, this one might get a big fat strikethru. I don't know how I'll have time to get a job.
8. Start knitting/sewing again for something to do for a few hours every day. [Fun.]
- I already did this over break.
9. Actually learn how to knit correctly. I've been teaching myself on and off but I keep dropping it. [Fun.]
- Did this too, I now know how to knit on circular needles and how to cable stitch.
10. Actually go out to a club. Can you believe I've been at Oxford for two months and I haven't yet made it out to a club? [Fun.]
- Can't really do this yet.
11. Make it onto the ballroom competitive team once I get back to main campus. [Big, fun, scary.]
- This either.
12. Along that line, start exercising, even if it is just walking the treadmill for a half-hour every day. [Big, fun.]
- BWAHAHAHA. Yup, close.
13. Learn how to cook, for real, and cook something every day. [Scary. If you don't think it's scary then you don't really know how awkward I am as a cook.]
- I made hella good mac and cheese the other night.
14. Learn French.
- I have a DS 'Learn French' game in the mail to me right now.
15. Stop being such a b*tch.
- Yes, the one that's always on my list every year. This one kinda failed a little bit, but being called out on my faults will make me better.
So... watching audio commentary from RvB DVDs makes me happy. Catch ya later...
- Jen -
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