Happy Happy Joy Joy

Hallelujah! I finished by personal website project for my Writing for the Web class and now I just need to work on the group projects. We haven't finished the Aries website yet, but Dr. C changed the due date so we have one more week until it's due. Yeah!

Now all I have left to finish are the two group projects, my humanities portfolio, a character analysis for Macbeth and anything else that come up between now and the end of the semester. Okay, seeing the list in print makes me depressed.

I was so excited to have that project finished, but now I see that I still have so much more to go.

Summer Blues

My work is never done. Homework on top of homework on top of homework; you’d think that a short week of school (no classes on Thursday or Friday because of Easter break) I wouldn’t have as many things to do. Not so. It seems like I’m constantly working on one project or another.

Luckily, I finished translating the last webpage for the Friends of the Haltom City Public Library website into Spanish. That’s one thing off my list. Hopefully we will have the website finished by the end of class tomorrow. I can’t wait to get that through. Then I can concentrate more on my several other projects.

I really hate the end of the semester because I always discover just how much I still have to do until I get everything completed before school’s out. Even if I do plan everything out throughout the semester, I still find an unlimited amount of things to do.

I can’t believe that I only have a few weeks left to get both non-profit projects due and only a little over a week to get my personal website finished. Even before all of that, I have to get my resume(s) due for 3300 and Writing for the Web. I still have several other smaller assignments as well.

I’ll be so relieved when the semester ends and then I can get a little rest.

Unless I get an internship this summer, but I’m not having any luck finding something in this area and I seriously doubt that I’ll be able to go to New York for the internship I did find. But that won’t stop me from applying for the internship anyway. If nothing else, I can always say that I applied, even if I can’t go.

The main difficulties with the internship lie with 1) the location and 2) the timing. I don’t think I can afford to live in New York and I’m not sure how much the internship pays so I can’t start looking into places or anything. Whitney suggested that they may offer housing as part of the deal, but the ad doesn’t say anything. The other problem is the timing. The ad says the job starts in late April, but the actual date is flexible. I don’t finish school until early May and then my best friend is getting married May 20, so I don’t see how I could leave before that. I doubt they would want to wait almost a month after the original date before letting me start. I just don’t think it’s meant to be.

Oh well. Maybe I can find something more local before too long. I haven’t had any luck yet, but I won’t give up.

Butterflies

University College Day is creeping up on us and the butterflies are starting to flutter in my tummy. Not really, but I know they will tomorrow. It doesn’t help that my group has not gotten together to run through the presentation as a whole yet. We tried to get together this afternoon, but one thing or another kept the meeting from happening: Pam was held late in her class, Meridith was working, and Shawn, well I don’t know what he was up to, but he wasn’t in the library when he should have been J I’m not too mad at them all because I know things can come up at the last minute, but I just hope we can all make it tomorrow morning so we have the chance to run through the presentation at least once.

It seems that the universe is conspiring against me on this project. I thought it would be a simple thing: make the in class presentation a few minutes longer and viola University College Day. But then Dr. Carroll wanted us to concentrate more on the advice we would give to the director in producing the play, so I had to rewrite the presentation, cutting and pasting from the original where I could and adding details to my original production concept: setting Much Ado About Nothing in the Old South during the Civil War. I’m still not sure if the presentation is exactly what she wants or not, but I think it’s the best I’m going to be able to come up with.

Then I look at the schedule: “1:15-1:50 ‘The Art of Analysis: Influences that Shape Dramatic Performances.” Sounds pretty snazzy huh? Well, it’s not the title I have problems with, it’s the time. We all thought we were getting an hour to present and then BAM only 35 minutes. Now what are we supposed to do?

At least we figured it out over the weekend, so we’ve had time to change our individual presentations from about 10 minutes each to around 6 or 7 minutes. I hope I still include all the pertinent information, though I did leave two of the more minor characters out the presentation entirely to simplify.

I just can’t wait for it all to be over with, but then I fear that I will look back and figure out something I could have done differently if I would have thought of it sooner. Hopefully, the audience will enjoy the presentation, but I really don’t know who will be in the audience. The title could attract both English and Theatre majors.

See, nerds can be cool!

Over the weekend, when I should have been working on my Humanities Portfolio, I read a fun book. I’m not about to say the novel should get the Nobel Prize or anything, but it’s a good way to spend the afternoon.

Gone With the Nerd is Vicki Lewis Thompson’s fourth book where the romantic hero of the piece happens to be a nerd, more brains than brawn. The collection also includes: Nerd in Shining Armor, The Nerd Who Loved Me, and Nerd Gone Wild.

In all four books, the classic image of a nerd, the guy with the dorky glasses and no women skills, has a slight twist. The most obvious being that all four of these nerds appear to do some kind of workout because the heroine undoubtedly refers to the muscles hiding behind the stuffy white button-up dress shirts.

In her latest novel, the unlikely couple of a bombshell movie star and her nerdy lawyer strike out to the wilderness for “nerd training” for her newest movie role. They find themselves in the Bigfoot capital of America quite by accident and later have their own encounters with Sasquatch. Crazy, right. The book follows this strange turn of events and somehow or another, the starlet and the nerd end up falling in love. She even dumps a hunky costar to be with him while he leaves his nerdy girlfriend behind. No hard feelings all around.

The other books have equally unrealistic plotlines.

In Nerd in Shining Armor, the nerd in question saves the day when he must land a plane to save the heroine’s life. By using the knowledge gained in flight simulation video games he easily accomplishes the feat. The two are stranded on a deserted island for the majority of the novel and seem completely unconcerned with finding a way off the island.

The Nerd Who Loved Me stars a Vegas show girl with a brainiac son and the club accountant, the son of a retired show girl. The nerd saves the day with some help from his mother’s alleged mob boss of a boyfriend when the heroine’s ex returns to take his son away.

And Nerd Gone Wild stars a former nerd, current bodyguard, who must protect the girl by pretending to be a nerd once again while her scheming uncle tries to take her inheritance away from her.

The books are fun and corny, which just makes them even more enjoyable. But don’t expect to read her novels and learn the meaning of life or anything equally intense. Her stories are written for a quick, fun read, just the kind of thing to take on a trip for the long drive/flight.

Obviously, she has a soft spot for the intelligent man behind the glasses. In her Notes on the Author, she talks about her husband who “insists he’s not a nerd but who does, in fact, wear glasses and is very good at math.”

Personally, I would like to see the nerd in her next book as a female because, so far, the women have far less intelligence than the men. Seeing the smart woman win over the beautiful one would interest the younger readers. Most women in their early twenties are insecure in their own looks and a heroine that doesn’t look like a supermodel would go a long way towards proving that looks aren’t everything. Sadly, I don’t see that happening with Thompson’s novels. If there is another story, the nerd will undoubtedly be another man, but I will still continue to come back for more because you just never know what she’ll come up with next.

What I did on Spring Break

Sorry, I couldn't resist the title. It reminds me of middle school and early high school English classes when teachers would make us write an essay the Monday we returned to school after a break from classes. I don't know if they gave this assignment because they really were wanting to know about our vacation or if the assignment was used as a tool to remind us how to write, just in case we forgot in the week we were out of school.

We do something similar in my Spanish class every Monday. I've decided that Dr. Bell does this so that she knows we remember the current lessons from the previous week of classes. It will be interesting to see how many of us can remember the new Spanish vocabulary after a week away from school. At least we no longer have the next test on Wednesday; she bumped it back to next week because we are behind in class.

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that we really don't get a break from school even though we do not have to attend classes over Spring Break? I have always received homework that must be completed over the so-called break, which means that I don't really get a break from school work at all.

Okay, okay. I have to be fair to all those teachers out there. I did spend time doing things other than homework. In fact, I kept putting off my homework in favor of more entertaining activities. The only day I didn't have plans was on Monday and even then I spent most of the day reading for fun instead of working on homework like a good little student. Here's how my week went:

Monday: sleep late and read

Tuesday: Denise, my best friend, is getting married in May so we had to go get the bridesmaids dresses altered. We went to lunch afterwards and then I went home and found yet another leisure book to read.

Wednesday: I went to the Fort Worth Zoo with my mother and Charity, my younger sister. F.Y.I. never go to the zoo on half-price day during Spring Break. We had to wait in line for 40 minutes just to buy tickets to get into the park. Other than that, we had fun. The otters were out and playing around. Normally they hide from me. It seems like every time we go to the zoo, they aren't out in the exhibit and otters are my favorite animals. They do it just to upset me.

Thursday: I went to lunch with Denise, just the two of us, so that we could catch up with one another. She goes to A & M (College Station) so we don't get to see each other very often. We spent most of the day together.

Friday: Trey took me on a picnic at the park. He didn't freak out around the ducks or anything. Then we went to the Parks Mall to walk around because my sister told me about a sale at the Disney store. Sadly, I didn't find anything I just had to have.

Later that night, Ashley, Charity, Trey, Angela, and I went to Beef O'Brady's, an Irish Pub, in honor of St. Patrick's Day. We were going to go to to Bennigan's because they were having a huge party, but we would have had to wait an hour for a table. That's okay though, because we all ended up getting Clover balloons from Beef O'Brady's.

We ended to evening by going to see She's the Man at the movies. For those who don't know, the movie is based on Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. Overall, I think the movie was a decent portrayal of the play though there were some small differences. For example, the twins aren't separated by a storm and the parents are divorced, not dead. The movie is cute and I recommend you go to see it, or at least rent it when the movie goes to video.

Saturday: I slept late and then I went to Denise's bridal shower. After the shower, some of my friends and I worked on the plans for Denise's bachelorette party. That evening, my sisters and I went over to Trey's to hang out with the entire gang from high school minus one. Lori couldn't make it, but I did get to see her at the bridal shower so I've had a chance to catch up with all of my friends. I probably won't get to see them all at the same time again until after school is out for the semester.

Today (Sunday): I slept late and lounged around the house for a while and then I had to help pick up the house because we had family over for a combined birthday party for my mom and my sister. My mom's birthday is March 27th and Charity's birthday is March 23rd.

Well, I think I've covered all the fun things I did over the break, but I refuse to go into detail about the homwork due this week. I don't really think anyone wants to read the list of everything I have to have completed for school.

Lord Byron Alive and Well?

Lightening Storm: This picture doesn't actually go with the story, but I thought it fit nicely
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I just finished reading a great book: Divine Fire by Melanie Jackson. I highly recommend that everyone reads the book sometime.

The year is 1816 and George Gordon, Lord Byron suffers from epilepsy, which is getting worse over time. Frightened that his seizures will cause permanent brain damage, the worst thing in the world to a writer, Byron accepts Dr. Johann Dippel’s proposed cure; a cure with an unforeseen side effect: immortality.

Flash forward almost 200 years to the year 2005. Byron now goes by the name Damien Ruthven and currently works as a harsh literary critic. He just received a biography on Lord Byron and becomes intrigued by the female author. As you can probably guess, a romantic relationship develops. But the true tale revolves around a past that won’t stay dead.

I don’t want to give you anymore of the plotline because I don’t want to ruin the surprises. Just trust me when I say the book is worth the read.

I was intrigued by the book the minute I read the Byron’s current name, though I had reason to believe he would be a vampire type creature, which he is not. The name supports my theory well: the name Damien makes one think of a demon (or daemon) and Ruthven is a name that has been attached to Byron in two different tales. I am more familiar with John Polidori’s tale “The Vampyre” where the main character, the vampire, shows an uncanny resemblance to Lord Byron. This character’s name was Lord Ruthven, the name Caroline Lamb also used in a story with a Byron-like character.

A little side note: For those who don’t know who Polidori was, he traveled with Byron as his personal physician. The two parted company something during Byron’s stay at the Villa Diodoti (the place where Frankenstein and “The Vampyre” both were created and the place where Byron’s transformation took place according to Jackson). Some say that his story was stolen from Byron, though both men denied it.

Here is a taste of the tale, just enough to whet your appetite: “The lightning—the power of the gods—would begin soon. He could feel the gathering energy dancing on his skin, calling him again to the purest of matings; the death that led to rebirth. Once there, in the god’s embrace, he would again snatch a bit of that divine fire which kept him alive and his epilepsy at bay.” (page 1)

I love how Jackson writes, especially when she writes Byron’s thoughts. They are poetical as befits the poet she writes them for. Her descriptions of events and characters are just as well written. Even if you do not normally read books such as this one, you should think about picking it up simply because she writes so well.

Movie Night was all the Rage

I went to the Sigma Tau Delta (English Honors Society) movie night tonight at school and we ended up having the most fun. Sadly, the party was comprised of only both Whitneys, Amanda, Teresa, Shawn, Michelle (I think that's the right name, but I'm not sure because I don't know her) and myself and Shawn left early, missing all the fun.

There we were, snuggled up under the blankets watching Gwyneth Paltrow play Emma when Teresa came running into the room to tell us there were fire trucks down the street. We calmly go back to watching the movie as she heads outside to find out what's going on. Moments later, she re-enters to tell us that Martin Hall is being evacuated. We all run outside to find out what's going on.

Outside, we see four fire trucks lined on Wesleyan St. along with a few police cars. No campus security guards in sight. Martin Hall is all ablaze with lights and the fire alarms continue to go off. Looking through the windows, we can see smoke filling the area. Still no one knows what's going on.

By this time, Whitney F. has contacted one of the newspaper photographers to come over so she can put the incident in the paper. Whitney spent much of her time talking with people to find out more information for the article.

Eventually we learned that there wasn't a fire at all. Someone was goofing off upstairs playing with a fire extinguisher. That caused all the smoke in the building.

No fire. I have to say that I am kind of disappointed because of the build up and then the climax of the story falls flat of expectations. Oh well. That's the way the world works.

When we went back inside to finish the movie, we called Shawn to let him know about all the fun he missed. Shawn, aren't you sorry you left?

Oh, in case you were wondering, campus security finally showed up about 15 minutes later. Something should be done about their reaction time. What if Martin Hall really had caught on fire? Hopefully the on duty security officers will be reprimanded, but I seriously doubt anything will be done.

For another view of this story, see the blogs for either Whitney A. or Amanda:
http://whitlallen.blogspot.com
http://anamaeadventures.blogspot.com