Entries in the Category "accomplishments"
Exam Time is Over
I handed in two essays at 11:53 this morning. They are not the best essays ever written, but they both reached the minimum length and one of them even had time to get proof-read. If they are passable, I will have completed the longest Master's degree in the history of the universe.
For now, for a few hours at least, the "Currently reading / writing about" sidebar is empty, and I am going to bed! See you real soon, world.
(And see ya in hell, Faerie Queene!)
30 Before 30 (Six Month Progress Update), Part 1
Just over one month late! Tee hee. Back in May, I established a 30 Before 30 list, tasks I aspired to accomplish within two years. I'm sure everyone's been wondering how I have doing on this, and so, over a fourth of a way through my allotted time, here is (the first half of) my update!
Click ahead for completed and half-completed items! Check back soon for not-completed and modified items.
Continue reading "30 Before 30 (Six Month Progress Update), Part 1"
Notes for a Wednesday
Things That Baffle Me
That person who thinks that, on a campus of 8000 students, 3000 faculty members, and God only knows how much non-academic staff, he is the only one who will be going to get a flu shot today. He walks up and down the line, stunned and insulted, seeming to think that if he says dubiously, "The line is all the way out the door?" enough times someone will let him step in. Clearly he is more important than the rest of us.
DUH there's a line. I got here half an hour early, man. How many years have you been on this planet? You wait for these things. You plan for it. You bring a book. I got through an entire chapter of Storytelling in Film and Television.
Also, my arm hurts. But I will probably not get the flu this winter.
Things That Amuse Me
At my writing center hours today, I saw (among others) a young woman from the school of management who wanted some help with an application to a graduate program. She is originally from China, and she wanted to make sure she wasn't missing anything in this essay prompt which asked if she was prepared to be integrated into the "exceptionally diverse" environment of the school. I gave her the secret handshake, which is to say that I told her that "diverse" is a signal word, meaning that the school is committed to having a varied racial profile and that she should expect a lot of minorities. She was like, great, I'm all set!
On Monday, I had a long conversation with a Korean student about the thematic implications of the expression, "Follow your heart." It's always fun to get the shot to kind of explain these things. Suddenly just being born an American makes me a genius.
Things That Improve My Outlook
Life has been exponentially sunnier since I turned in my Toni Morrison paper yesterday. I thought that thing was never getting written.
And so it ends...
It's over! The Summer Movie Watch has been completed!
The celebration was marked by cake. (Yes, it was store-bought.)
Here's the moment of triumph: the end credits on the last movie of the day, and the last movie of the list, which was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Squint really hard and you'll see Jack Nicholson's name in there.
I guess tomorrow I go back to books? Who knows? I'm not yet used to my freedom.
The Champagne is on Ice
Last night, Jeremy and I watched Unforgiven, a Clint Eastwood-directed, Oscar-winning flick about amorality in the Old West. This movie, from 1992, is one of just a handful of films that landed on all three of the top 100 lists that I’ve been working through this summer.
The big news is that it also represented the last of one of those lists for me. As of last night, the Entertainment Weekly list has been completely exhausted!
So, the champagne is on ice, so to speak, but it’s not ready to drink yet. One list is down, but 17 movies remain. Still, with Natural Born Killers and Drugstore Cowboy out of the way, I feel safe in assuming that the worst is behind me.
I have a viewing schedule all set, which, including my two remaining Epic Wednesdays, will finish me on all lists completely by Wednesday, August 5.
Tally of accomplishments, vol. 5
That's right, my Shakespeare paper finally got finished (except for some little editing things, like citations and stuff that I'm going to fix tomorrow) and I went ahead and celebrated that accomplishment thusly:
YES! I went to cult film night to see Ghostbusters, and it was incredible. An entire theater of people chanting along with Bill Murray as he says, "The flowers are STILL STANDING."
Here's that scene.
The theater was showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight, too, so the lobby was full of Ghostbusters people and Rocky Horror people mingling (you could tell who was who because the Ghostbusters people had greasy hair and glasses, and the Rocky Horror people were wearing fishnets).
In addition to seeing the movie and the nine hours I spent finishing the Shakespeare paper (really), we also signed a lease this morning! We are the proud renters of the first floor of a house in Cleveland Heights! Such a full day. Incidentally, the house is right around the corner from my new favorite movie theater.
Tally of accomplishments, vol. 4
I just submitted my final essay for my theory course, essentially closing the book on that insanely difficult chapter of my education. This essay was no big thing, a final reflection where I basically got to muse about how hard and it was, and what, if anything, I learned. The reflection is for my professor, of course, so it's nicer than what I've written here about theory so far, but still accurate.
I don't have time right now for any kind of outlandish reward, so this has had to do:
I'm in my office right now, finishing up the final paper for my Shakespeare course--this one an honest-to-God seminar paper, with critical references and fresh ideas and whatnot and it's been a difficult slog. It's due via e-mail at midnight and it will be done. It will be done.
You'll have to wait until I finish the paper officially to see what my reward is; it's a doo-hoo-hoozy.
For anybody who's been following the narrative of "Erin struggles with theory" and is dying for resolution, here's the text of the reflection I handed in:
Final reflection (Word file)
Tally of accomplishments, vol. 3
Today was my last official teaching day for the year! Something like 65 lesson plans, approximately half of them successful in execution, and not another one to make until the fall!
Today's reward (the DVD of an awesome movie that until today I only had on VHS):
Tally of accomplishments, vol. 2
Last night, I finished all my reading for my theory course--the reading for today, Friday, and next Monday, which is the last day of classes. This involved reading a lengthy passage by Kant sometime after midnight, which I would not recommend to novices.
My reward: two episodes of The Office before bed.
Tally of accomplishments, vol. 1
The responsibilities and demands of my school year are slowly but surely dissipating into the air. Today I turned the last page of Richard III, the culmination of required reading for my Shakespeare seminar.
My final paper for that course is still in progress. Still, I believe in giving small rewards for small accomplishments. My reward:
