Scholastic Adventures

So today I had a Latin test. I didn't KNOW I had a Latin test. So I go there right at 3:40, walked into the (still dark) classroom, and there on the board is a note telling me to go upstairs for the test.

So I go upstairs to the tables by the professors' offices and my class is there, taking their test, and I walk in to my professor's office and she hands me three sheets of paper, and says in her accent, "Okay, this one" she pointed to one "is a poem you haven't seen before, and here" she indicated another "are the notes for it. Now this other one has two poems you've already seen before on it, which you need to translate and compare."

So I sat down and started with the longer first one, the one with the notes, thinking it would be easiest (I don't remember my translations very well and I don't have a Horace-sized vocabulary-- pretty sure you have to be an expert for that). I finished it fairly easily, only had about 15 words I had to look up. Then I checked the clock-- 4:10. I was doing pretty well on time. So I started the first of the two shorter poems.

Unfortunately, they happened to be poems that, in my stressful fall, I managed to not translate, or not finish translating. Regardless, I couldn't remember very much and I was looking up like, three words a line without the aid of notes. I guessed and rushed and by the time I finished the thing it was 4:40. Feeling frantic, I hurried to do the next one, and ten minutes later I had only one stanza done, as I couldn't even remember the plot of it. With ten minutes left and the analysis to do, I dashed off a note about running out of time, wrote down what gist of it I could glean, and finished my paragraph-long comparison of the two right at 5.

Then my professor came out and I explained that I hadn't been able to finish.

"Well, how much did you get done? Did you get the basic idea at least?" she asked.

"Yeah, I got most of the winter poem and the very basic outline of the spring one, and I did the comparison. And I finished the first poem, I did that first."

She glanced down. "You did the first poem?"

"Yeah, that's done, it's just the other two--"

"Oh, [Basiorana]! That was all you had to do! You were suppose to chose, not to translate seventy-five lines of Horace in an hour and twenty minutes!"

I was a little shell shocked, to say the least. I think I managed a "What?"

"Oh, you must have thought I was a monster, trying to make you translate so much! I'm impressed you got this much done, did you finish any of the poems?"

"Yeah, I did the first one, I wasn't as rushed for it so it should be fine..."

"Well, I will count that one and give you bonus points for the rest. Seventy-five lines, my goodness!"

So my panic was for naught, and I admit I left a bit sheepish. But it'll work out, I mean, she's giving me the bonus points and everything so I'll probably do better than I would have done just turning in the normal translation. Still, took a while to come down off the "Oh crap it's ten minutes left and I have twenty lines left, what to do what to do" rush.

-------------------------------------------

So today at recitation my Biostats professor wanted to give back our tests and our homework from last week. Now, the sensible thing would have been to place the tests in the back on separate chairs based on the first letter of the last name, and do the same in the front with the Opportunities, right? That way people wouldn't all be congregating in one place and it could go faster.

Nope. He stood in the back with the tests and had the TA stand in the front with the Opportunities. Then we all kind of swarmed-- all 150+ of us.

So half the names he called were down getting their opps, and the rest of us could barely hear him through the mob and couldn't get over to him anyway, plus we're in this massive hall , standing on stairs or seat, pushing and shoving. It took me 10 minutes to get the test and I nearly fell down the steps thanks to my backpack being loaded down with my laptop (which I need for recitation), my Biostats notebook/binder, and my Latin books (which I didn't need... grr).

Anyway, I got that test back. 64%. So not as miserable as I was expecting but still crappy. If I completely bomb another test and I have to keep this grade, it won't kill me, but I'd really rather not bomb another test. Still, I consider this a comparatively good ending.

-------------------------------------------

And Heroes tonight? AWESOME. Just needs a bit more Peter and more depowered Sylar, but we can't have everything, can we?

I got really PO'd at my RA too, but she may actually deserve it.

Good news. I got an 82% on my Biostats exam. Now to get through the Ecology one Wednesday. But I'm much better at retaining things from that class, at least.

I also took a Latin test today, but I'm not too worried. It was just a translation. I think I may have tripped up in some places but they were minor mistakes-- I got the gist of it, and we had to paraphrase too. Not a terrible worry. Except I forgot to record the homework for that class, so now I have to admit to my professor that I spaced...

------------------------------------

I'm depressed right now, and I don't know why. I've been crying a lot, over anything, and I'm moody. Plus it feels like everything people do bothers me. Not irritable-bothers, but just makes me feel sucky and upset. I noticed it with Ryter tonight, though I was suppressing it because he's in a lot of pain lately and he doesn't need to deal with me being moody and emo. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Honestly, I think it's a yearly thing. As much as I love fall, every year-- perhaps due to the return to academia-- I get depressed for a month or so. I actually think it might be a good sign for my own health that I'm getting upset at other people instead of myself, though. I mean, I'm upset with myself, especially in terms of my weight and academic difficulties, but I'm ALSO getting upset with others, when previously I would just take all that emotion and turn it in on myself.

This annoyance at those around me, while potentially a good thing, is also a bad thing in that I won't be very fun to be around for a while, and in that I have to talk to my parents about the Thanksgiving issue this weekend-- specifically that Ryter really, really wants me to spend Thanksgiving with his family, and my family has been increasing the importance of Thanksgiving since Shrewd and I went away to school. Which means that I will have to have my mom explain that we're a little young to be sharing holidays that both families celebrate (his doesn't celebrate Christmas, so that doesn't count), and more specifically, that this is "all well and good to date him but it's not like you're going to marry the guy" which is the one statement that drives me NUTS lately and I get it ALL THE TIME from family.

Basically, what they are saying is, they want me to treat this like a college fling, a starter boyfriend. Which I would NEVER do and I would discourage others from doing, because it is cruel and manipulative. If we don't wind up together forever, that's okay. If we do, that's okay too. I don't know. But if I did that, I sure as hell would know how it would end, and it wouldn't be fair if he didn't.

I'm still debating whether or not to talk to Ryter about the things that are bothering me. On the one hand, maybe they are legit complaints. On the other, maybe I'm making them up because I'm depressed and moody. On the third, creepily dismembered hand of some dead hobo I found, he's got a lot to deal with right now and probably doesn't need this too...

"What the-- That's not funny! You suck!!!"

Last day of the Ludi Romani, and also, for those Egyptians out there, the Fast of Thoth. Thoth was one of the most important Egyptian deities. He represented the balance between good and evil, was the scribe for the gods (and according to the Egyptians, invented hieroglyphs), the master of natural and moral law, the one who decided how and when the stars, sun, and moon should move and the god of all science and learning. He's probably closest to Athena of the Greek pantheon in that respect. He was the master of the Underworld and would weigh a man's heart against a feather to determine if he was a good or bad person.

------------------------------------

I feel the need to share a little gem from Latin class today. we are reading Horace, who was a Roman poet who was friends with such infamous greats as Virgil and Augustus Caesar, the emperor. Here is an except of the sermones (V) that we just finished translating:

"Hic ego mendacem stultissimus usque puellam
ad mediam moctem exspecto: somnus tamen aufert
intentum Veneri: tum immundo somnia visu
nocturnam vestem maculant ventremque supinum."
l. 82-85

Translation for the uninitiated: "Here [as in, in the city he was staying in] I in my extreme stupidity awaited a deceitful girl until midnight: but sleep stole my readiness for love: then in dreams the unclean sights defiled my night-"clothes and my prone stomach."

See? See? This is why I love the Romans. Only in that culture could a man who writes poetry about getting stood up by a prostitute and then having a wet dream be best buds with the emperor.

------------------------------------

Random tidbit of the day #2: "The average American man will begin to force himself to lose weight as soon as he can't see his own genitalia. The average American woman will start doing so when she can't see anyone else's."

------------------------------------

Also, Ryter says he's been feeling much better-- he's hungry again and sleeping all the time to catch up. So I'm not worried about him any more. Well, I'm not worried about him needing to be rushed to the hospital. I am slightly concerned that he will get hit on the head by a meteor. That's why every time I see a shooting star I wish that it doesn't land on the head of anyone I know.

Optimism

Second day of the Ludi Romani.

--------------------------------

Today after my morning classes I went over to try and sell back my old textbooks-- at least, the ones I didn't want to keep (I kept Classical Mythology, for example). Alas, the science books are "too old"-- I couldn't resell those. Unfortunate, as those were the expensive ones. I wound up only getting $16.

--------------------------------

I've had my first three classes (they're one right after another). Ecology looks interesting, and the teacher is the very image of a scatterbrained professor-- tie, slacks, button-down T-shirt and bright pink Crocs. Organic doesn't seem like it will be impossible and the professor reminds me a lot of what I figure last year's unfortunate Chem teacher would have been like if he had been able to control the class- very accessible, friendly, likes technology. And Biostatistics is only worrying me because he doesn't allow calculators for a lot of it. And yet again, I wish I could go back in time and learn those damn times tables when that's all I had to think about...

I can't do basic math, by the way. I use calculators. I can handle more advanced stuff, but ask me what 8 time 12 is and I will give you a blank look.

Latin was this afternoon, but I have the same Latin teacher I had last year that I liked, so I'm not too worried about the class itself-- except Ryter's ex, the ex he REALLY doesn't like because he says she used him and tossed him aside and denied they were even dating to her friends, is ALSO in that class. Yeah. Awkward.

--------------------------------

Last night I didn't wind up hanging out with Ryter, as I had dinner with my roommate then went to a rock-painting social for the dorm. It was cool. I have a pretty doorstop now. Ryter was a little irritated about it but he swears he's okay, and I spent tonight with him. He's been really stressed out lately and things are only going to get worse over the next couple weeks. Plus his lizard is sick.

But it will be fine. I know it will.

Life, tube. Aquaint yourself with it, it's where you'll be headed over the next couple of weeks.

I would be crying right now if I didn't think it was a waste of time.

I can't take the classes I wanted. Again. As in, I was flat-out informed that I was required to take three lab sciences a semester. Yes. Three. As in, I am not allowed to take fun classes. I'm allowed one non-major-oriented class a semester, and this upcoming semester it will be Horace. I was also informed that Honors students aren't bad at math, all evidence to the contrary, and I already took a test that I specifically remember not taking, thus proving that I can handle Calculus in the Spring and that I don't need Analysis. Instead, I am to take "Applied Biostatistics I" in addition to my Organic Chemistry, General Ecology, and Advanced-level Latin. Because rather than having about four gen eds left, turns out I have two-- Psychology and Fine Arts. And if I take Fine Arts in the Spring when I'm struggling with Calc and all I can take Psychology my senior year, and Greek next year.

"Take APs," they said. "It will give you more free time in your schedule," they said. Well, whoever "they" are, I'm hating them right now. If I didn't have those APs I would have so many more options for non-science courses. Instead I'm to consider myself lucky that I have the minor to do, and at least one semester will be all science courses.

ARGH!!!

------------------------------------

So, what else is bothering me lately... Bisobrina really, really wants to come up and visit me here at school, and she's on vacation this week. Of my remaining weekends, this is far and away the best for that, despite the English portfolio/final thingy I have due next Thursday and the meeting with my fellow TV announcer (for the Bio Lab presentation) I've already set up for 10 on Saturday morning. Plus the Latin presentations start next Friday and I'm praying I can beg my Latin professor to put mine off until Monday; I also have a Chem test next Friday and I absolutely HAVE to take the make-up test for Bio before the reading (for me, studying for the Bio final) days on the 8th and the 9th; I need to get that done next week, preferably Tuesday, possibly Wednesday if Tuesday is ABSOLUTELY undoable...

Okay, let's look at my due dates over the next couple of weeks.

Monday the 30th, Latin quiz.
1st or 2nd, need to take that Bio test.
3rd, English portfolio is handed it.
4th, Chem ACS exam (like a final only not one of his tests, so harder); also, Latin presentations begin (I haven't even started mine).
Monday the 7th, Latin presentations continue.
8th, dry-run of the performance for Bio Lab.
9th, we actually DO the performance.
10th, Bio Final.
11th at 5:30 PM, I get kicked out of the dorm and summer begins.

That's what my life will be like. So obviously if Bisobrina's coming up, it has to be this weekend.

I'd really rather she didn't. I want to see her, but honestly, I wish she'd come visit me over the summer, and I could take her down to the Cape for a weekend and we could chill out on the beach and do cool stuff there, because there's always cool stuff to do at the Cape. But she wants to come here, to UNH, and hang out on campus. Next year she'll be off to school in Connecticut and won't be able/want to visit me here. I'm just worried she wants to be doing cool stuff, like going to parties or something. Which I don't do. So if she's expecting me to have anything exciting planned, she's got another think coming. I don't think there's that much to do otherwise, either. I mean, I guess we could go to a dorm social or something... maybe hang out with Mistake, if she's not too busy with her own crazy study-fest (which seems likely)...

Sigh.

------------------------------------

Oh, and I was supposed to go see my therapist today, but I had a Chem test. So I moved the Chem test to yesterday. Then I was going to have to take the Calculus pretest, so I had to cancel anyway. Upset as I was with this turn of events, imagine my emotions when I went to my meeting with the adviser this morning (right after the bus left) and I was informed that I wouldn't be taking that exam, after all, as I didn't need it... So basically, I missed the appointment for nothing.

------------------------------------

So I'm starved for time and deprived of sleep; I'm scheduled up the whazoo with projects, presentations, and exams; I can't stay awake long enough to study/work on said projects, presentations, and exams; I'm going to be entertaining a high school student who has declared that she wants to meet all the "hot UNH boys" this weekend; and oh yeah, I just learned it's going to be even worse next year...

I need pie.

Like, totally, dude

Day of rest for all those poor castrated dudes, today, so no festivities on the Roman front.

-------------------------

I am going crazy; my brain is in Chemistry overload. So instead of an actual entry, I give you snippets of my day:

"Hey, we told [the Latin professor] that we didn't understand conditionals to try to get him off topic, because none of us did the translation, okay?"

"Hey, nice pistons!"

"I wish they wouldn't leave that cherry picker sitting out there after they finished trimming the tree branches. Besides the creepy factor of it being at the perfect height to look through the 4th floor windows it's also making me want so, so much to ride in it."

I Date Like a Man

According to studies on dating, I date like a man. I date casually and frequently, getting serious with select people over time. Physical attraction and chemistry is very important to me. And if there's nothing more than a physical connection, that's okay with me (at least for a while). I am definitely looking for love, but I am in no rush to find it. I figure love will eventually come my way, and I'm not going to live like a monk while I'm waiting!

Do You Date Like a Man or a Woman?

"You Cannot Manage Men In Battle. You Manage Things, You Lead People"

Today is the Kalends Februarius, the first of the month of February. The entire month is sacred to Juno/Hera, and today was specifically the feast of Junoni Sospitae Matri Reginae, the first part of which means "Juno the Savior" and the second part refers to mothers and queens, but I don't feel like actually figuring out the exact wording of a translation. Suffice it to say it's a day honoring Juno.

----------------

Now, kids, it's time for...

THE ADVENTURES OF MARCUS
our grammatical friend

It was shaping up to be a bad week for Marcus, the hero of my weekly grammar exercises, as we're studying the Imperative. He was thus hopelessly bossed about. First he had to stay, not go; then there was the issue with not listening, and he had to be reprimanded; finally he was told a secret, but he couldn't tell the consul. Frustrating!

Then I figured out that I'd been translating the wrong set of sentances, and Marcus wasn't even in the set of incomplete phrases that I had to finish. I was rather frustrated-- I'd finished the whole thing! but Marcus gets the week off, at least.

Tune in next Thursday for more ADVENTURES OF MARCUS!

----------------

I ate dinner with Mistake and another girl on her floor, who has the prettiest long, red hair you could imagine. Loquatia was going to eat with us, but she didn't realize that I was planning on walking over like... twenty minutes early... so she missed us. Oh well. Loquatia has actual social skills (they aren't fabulous, but they're there), so she's known for wandering around and asking people from Christian Impact, tennis, or her classes to go eat with her.

----------------

Oh, and I finally got the counselor who leads the communication group to agree to be my reference, so the RA application's done and will be submitted tomorrow, as soon as Mistake shows me where the heck I'm supposed to bring it. Hopefully I get the job.

----------------

Part of my Chemistry grade this semester involves "PLTL," "Peer-Led Team Learning." This is basically an excuse to make us think about chemistry when he's not around. We meet once a week for an hour and a half (like I have room in my schedule at this point-- it was so clear, then I added yoga, group therapy, regular therapy, three to four hours of dance and that health care seminar group...) and review the classwork with a student who did well in the class last year.

I know more than the leader.

And I sleep through the class.

Well, technically the problem is that I think faster than the other girls in the group, and come to the conclusion and want to move on in the review, and don't want to have to wait for them to catch up and come to the conclusion for themselves. I'm not allowed to just tell them the answer, which is what I always want to do, because I want to move on.

I am what they call "not a team player." Of course, it didn't help that I was completely unable to sit still for the session, so I probably looked like I was about ready to spaz out and kill them all. Makes it hard to concentrate, fearing for your life.

----------------

Speaking of spazzing out and killing them all, that's what I believe I will do to the guys next door if I hear them say "lol" one more time, or "brb," "lmao," or "ttyl." I honestly prefer the swearing to the internet jargon. It sounds so stupid!

Though I admit, I'd like to be able to study without hearing, "F--- that, b----, no way that h- wouldn't get blasted by that f------ grenade, it f------ went off right in front of her!"

Heck, I'd like them to say one sentence I don't have to bleep out...

"Be on the Alert For New Oppourtunities"

Today is the second day of the Paganalia. Don't forget to pray to Ceres/Demeter, goddess of harvest, and Tellus/Gaia, goddess of the earth, that the birds don't eat your seeds. Or something.

It's also a Feast of Bacchus, which means you have justification for getting drunk. Have fun.

-------------------

So there are 2,191 people with my first and last name together. My first name is the 36th most popular name, and my last name ranks #25.

There's 1,048 people named James Bond and 113 Harry Potters; 503 George Bushes and 31 Emily Dickinsons. Absolutely no one in the US today is named Hermione.

Mistake's name is really uncommon. She's one of the only people with it, though both her first and last name is common. My sister shares her name with 769 people, and Closer's one of 305. Only 49 KTMacks, though. I totally win for the most boring name.

There are seven Clark Kents and nineteen Charles Xaviers. Yes, I looked it up...

How many people share your name?

-------------------

It seems that my plans to become an RA are already helping me socially. At least, they're offering me a bit of practice. First my RA and the 2nd floor female RA (it took me WAY too long to figure out that they've set it up so there's one girl and one guy per floor) talked to me and Loquatia about it, and then tonight the 2nd floor male RA stopped by on his rounds. I was sort of impressed that he not only remembered that I was at the RA meeting, but that I seemed apprehensive about it and that I used to read poetry at the coffeehouses (he mentioned this because he thought I was an English major).

It's nice that they're so interested (though none of them are continuing as RAs so I guess it's entirely possible that I would wind up as one of their RAs, therefore making it in their best interest to get people who aren't crazy or power-hungry... little do they know), but at the same time, you can only say "I'm going to apply and hopefully things work out" so many times.

-------------------

I was translating from English to Latin as a part of a grammar exercise, and may I say, grammar exercises always have the weirdest sentences to translate. Honestly, "Incenderunt pontem in quo pugnamus"? "Agricola cui dedi pecuniam factus est socium meum?" "Sagittae delectaverunt Marcum?"* I don't know who Marcus is, but he needs to stop playing with his arrows, and I have never paid a farmer to be my friend. I have nothing against farmers. I have lots of stuff against paying people to be my friends. They charge too much.

And this Marcus, through the course of the assignment, was established to be a foot soldier, got paid, saw a girl, got a gift from the king, and was delighted by his arrows. An excellent day for him. I wish these people would remember that Caius and Cassius and Brutus are also excellent names and Marcus doesn't have to do everything, and they should stop before they have to pay him overtime.

You can tell I'm sick of translating when the grammar exercises get personalities.

-------------------

I finally got the rug vacuumed today. It looked very nice until about five seconds afterwards when I walked on it. Oh well. Nice while it lasted.

Today was better.


*"They have set fire to the bridge on which we are fighting," "The farmer to whom I gave the money became my friend," and "The arrows delighted Marcus," respectively.

"Someone you care about seeks reconciliation"

This is interesting. Apparently there was a Hellenistic Pagan ceremony at the ancient Temple of Zeus in Athens. There's a ban on having organized activities there, because it's so old, but the worshipers didn't actually try to go into the temple, so they weren't stopped. They just dressed in ancient costumes and prayed and poured libations. One of the priestesses told a reporter afterwards that "We are Greeks and we demand from the government the right to use our temples."

Uhm... Hold on. I'm all for the revival of the Greek religion, fine. That's your prerogative. But those temples aren't really yours. They're not really even sacred now. I mean, they kinda lost their sacred nature when they were a) ransacked by invaders, b) knocked over by Roman Christians, c) turned into the spot for vacationing society women who wanted to practice sketching architecture, and then d) turned into tourist attractions where you can buy an "Athens, Greece" snow globe for way too much money.

I'm pretty sure Zeus doesn't really want it anymore. It doesn't even have a cult statue. The ancient Greeks would have considered it sacrilegious to have a ceremony in a temple that was that old and run-down, as it doesn't properly honor the god. So like, go ahead, have your ceremonies, but build your own damn temple, and make it a nice one. Gaudy, like the originals. Lots of gold leaf and garish paint. Might want to use fake ivory though, considering how much of it was used in the original...

---------------------------------

We've now had three Latin classes, and we're still working on Themistocles. Guess how far we got in the translation. Three sentences. And the first one was "Themistocles, son of Neocles, an Athenian." And they're not even like Cicero's sentences that go on for a paragraph, it was one sentence with one clause and it took us almost two classes to go over it. I'm all for learning about sentence structure, but really. Hopefully this class will be like the Classical Mythology class I took with the same professor last semester, and will pick up later on. I'm just frustrated...

I've officially added that class, I took care of that today. I just have to meet with him for an extra half-hour on Fridays.

---------------------------------

Bubbly Senior Girl in my Latin class has decided that Blue Eyes, the guy she sits next to who has very blue eyes, is the Best Dressed Guy on campus. She announced this before class today. This is a common theme, as he actually dresses like he cares how he dresses and Bubbly Girl is definitely a fan of caring. Blue Eyes seemed rather startled by sudden festooning of an award but he accepted graciously. This is what he gets for being one of only two guys in a Latin class, and the only one who was also with us last semester when he was one of only three. He's very patient though.

I still have difficulty looking him in the eyes.

--------------------------------

I had a conference with my English professor today, discussing that paper describing a scene. I didn't use the one I posted, though, I wrote another one, about talking with Loquatia in her sleep. It came out rather well. There were a couple of points I need to work on, but she said overall it was good, funny and kept her attention. I was rather pleased.

--------------------------------

They had GIANT COOKIES for dessert today. This meant I was very bad and had one. But I haven't been eating that much and I mean, come on, GIANT COOKIES.

I may write more later, but I have my INCO class- the Healthcare Seminar- tonight. It's the first class so I have to leave early or I'll get lost on the way there.