subdee

Who the hell was I talking about when I said I came to Michigan with no work ethic, because I certainly wasn't talking about myself. -_-; Sorry to keep harping on this. I found out yesterday dropping History as my primary major messes up my area distribution requirements, so my options are either go back to Michigan and finish the distribution, or go back and finish the History major, or don't graduate at all (which really isn't even an option).

Long story short: I haven't graduated, and I'll be back in Michigan in the fall.

( Read more... )

Enough of this! Meme, via fable:

Use Word's auto-summarize feature to condense a story you've written, then post the results.

( drumroll! )

...Yeah.

Another Saiunkoku thing. Edited from a version I left lazulisong in comments. Probably not any more coherent though. >_>

( Shuurei, Kurou, Shouka )

I'll get to the book reviews. Eventually. ^^;

I finished a paper today!! And then I got an email saying that I was too late ;_;. But at least I'll get credit for the class, which was really all I was after. :D And honestly, it felt so good to finish that even when the email came in, it didn't really dent the sparkle. ^_^ (Well...mostly. -_-)

( Whys and Wherefores )

What this is all leading up to is, I worked fairly hard on this paper and I didn't get any credit on it. THEREFORE (the reasoning goes), I should post it to livejournal. But the paper would be overkill also I never want to look at it ever again, so instead, I'll just post the outline.

Just humor me okay Without further ado:

Lessons of the Davao Mutiny

I reviewed the personal correspondence of Harry Hill Bandholtz from January 1909, when he and his wife returned to their house in Manila after an extended vacation and Bandholtz resumed his post as director of the Philippine Constabulary, through July 1909, when Bandholtz outlined his vision for the Constabulary based on what he saw as its major strengths and weaknesses, informed by the "lessons" he learned from the mutiny of eleven Constabulary recruits in Davao, Mindanao, on June 6, 1909.

( Questionable spelling and grammar ahead )

On the balance...I learned a lot? Ahaha. Ha. This was an easy class, meaning we hardly did any reading for it, meaning the research I did for this paper WAS my course. It felt a bit like being thrown in the river during monsoon season, actually. Without a lifejacket (background in the region/skills honed over multiple semesters as a social science major).

NEVER AGAIN.

Wait wait, I don't have to worry about this anymore! I'm free! (I still can't believe it.) Today an undergrad, tomorrow a BA! (Some part of me feels that this should be automatic: of course you have a college degree. But then tonight, I went out to dinner with my uncle, and he was SO impressed, because of course, on that side of the family, only my father has more than a high school education. That made me feel a bit better. Actually, it made me remember high school: graduation was a huge deal then too (Franklin High has a 65% graduation rate). And then I started feeling like I had double vision, because those facts barely touch me. ^^; The fact is, my parents are educated, intelligent, and they make a ton of money; I have the worst entitlement/privilege complex of anyone I know. Consider this entry: it's nothing but excuses, everything from bad study habits to possible mental disorders. (And now background! *strikes a pose*) The real lesson here probably is, WHINING LESS MEANS DOING MORE. Probably. And on that note...)

Bed! Bed!

Commencement is in four days. I'll smile and accept my diploma and pretend to be a role model for my four adorable cousins who will no doubt be wearing matching dresses and then I will leave this state and settle down to a nice low-key job answering telephones where I will NEVER HAVE TO WRITE ANOTHER PAPER AS LONG AS I LIVE.

In the meantime, here's another book review.

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brian

Read this for History 467 (US Since 1945). ( According to the syllabus, )

I pulled most of that from the fourth chapter; there are other themes as well. Basically, The Things They Carried stands out from tens of thousands of other partially fictional, partially factual accounts of the Vietnam War because the author is a liberal. He doesn't want to romanticize this war or vilify all wars -- he doesn't want to give War any kind of larger meaning at all. According to O'Brian, war is in the details. (In The Things They Carried, haha.) At the same time, he struggles not to let those details overwhelm the Big Picture. In fact, as much as this book is about the details, it is about this struggle, which is also O'Brian's struggle to write a true story without resorting to pat "truths".

The way he goes about this is to continually remind the reader that he or she is reading a work of fiction based on real experience. So a chapter describing a striking, poignant, beautiful, funny scene will be followed by a chapter explaining that all of it is made up. Or maybe the core is right but the details are wrong, or the truth is far more horrible, or far less horrible, or (the author's favorite line) maybe it doesn't matter whether the story is 100% true or not, because it expresses a more fundamental truth -- it's a "true story that never happened" (page 84).

I liked the book. It's written in an easy conversational style, and it analyzes itself so that you (the reader) don't have to. There's no single storyline to connect all the chapters, instead the book is like a series of short stories with author commentary inserted between them. Some chapters were originally written as stand-alone articles...of varying quality. ^^;

Recommended if you like war stories, absurdity, or reading about writing. Disrecommended if you are allergic to liberals.

Episode 1
Episode 2

( Cut for sour grapes )

So, yeah. *grumpy face* To be fair, Romeo-and-Juliet-as-ultimate-platonic-love-story is one of those common myths even English teachers have a hard time dispelling. But, honestly, I wouldn't like this show even if I didn't feel it was an insult to Shakespeare. Because I like things that make sense. -_-; Juliet-as-Odin barely reacts when she's rescued by Romeo, so why is it that the next time they meet, all she can do is blush and stammer? Wearing a dress interferes with higher brain functions? Does she even recognize him? (Attn writers, plz address this point!)

I did like the way shots where R looked soulfully into J's eyes, or vice versa, were framed, with wings and feathers and flowers in the background, and symbolically twinned objects rising up into the sky, and moonlight or the light of the setting sun over everything. Visually, RomeoxJuliet is really good. But yeah. Plenty of prettiness, very little internal logic.