Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Rants and Stuff => Topic started by: MsFish on December 15, 2004, 04:28:39 PM
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So, I had this brilliant idea that I could just take my advanced language requirement through independant study. I mean, I understand french pretty well--especially if I'm reading and not speaking, so sitting in 202 drove me nuts. So I'd do independant study and get it done. No problem.
What I forgot was that I have no discipline. Things only get done when I'm excited about them. And I am not excited about this class.
I really need to get it done before my graduate application goes through, because it's replacing a grade that I'd rather not have in my GPA.
But, instead of working on it like I'm supposed to be, since I set aside this whole day to get a chunk of it done, I've spent the last hour here, wasting time.
Independant study is just not a good idea, I've decided.
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yeah, I've been studying for the A+ exam like that for years. I'm finally biting the bullet and taking a class.
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Thing is, I have like 400 dollars sunk into this thing. Ick!
Arg. I give up. Having learned nothing about french romanticism, I'm going home to get some food. I'll try again later.
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I finished my degree through independent study. I loved it. Course, having a job where I have about 6 hours of nothing to do, but sit at a desk, makes it a lot easier.
I'm fairly motivated to teach myself as long as I set deadlines and stuff for myself. I actually like not having to perform in a classroom setting.
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SaintNicholas
yeah, I've been studying for the A+ exam like that for years. I'm finally biting the bullet and taking a class
Is that the A+ Comptia cert? If so, there are plenty of sites that help out. I myself have that cert from a previous life, and if you know anything about computers, it really isn't to bad. I'd be happy to direct you to a place that can help you out.
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Yeah, the Comptia one. I'll also be looking at the Network+ and possibly their *nix one too.
I'm sure i'll do well when I finally actually prepare for the test -- I'm a smart guy and I have loads of experience with computers: building, supporting, etc.
I have a lot of training materials, I just never LOOK at them. That's my ADD coming in. I have to have a schedule that other people depend on to get me to do anything about it. It's not that I think I have to have someone else give it to me, it's that I won't do any studying other wise.
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I'm the same way as far as studing go. Even when I took the A+ exam I tried to study, but I couldn't. The night before I had the exam is when I studied, and I practicly aced the exam. The network+ cert I needed a little more time, to study so I gave myself three days. It sounds like you have about the same ecperiance I have with computers, so you should do fine.
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So, I'm going to die. I now have three days left on my course, three exams to take, a three page paper to write (a bigger deal in French than in English) and no studying done whatsoever. And if I don't pass, I don't graduate. And I have no motivation to work on it. It's amazing the amount of junk I've gotten done avoiding it over the last several days. Why do I do this to myself? Ak!
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Fist, you need to tell yourself you can do it. Second, with such short time left, you need to tell yourself that it doesn't need to be perfect. The goal is to graduate, and believe it or not "Cs" get degrees.
My experience is that Independent study can put some dumb restrictions as to timing, but it is possible to complete everything in a quick amount of time.
Also, you may want to petition to get some extended time. It can be kind of hard with IS courses since they give you a year to complete the course. If the only deadline you are trying to meet is graduation deadline, contact the graduation office. You should be able to work something out.
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Yeah I think you can pay like $10 or $20 and get an extension can't you?
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Write your paper in english and then translate it to French--it is easier than thinking in a language you aren't fluent in.
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42 and Fuzzy--Sadly I paid for my three month extension back in November. In short, there is no excuse for me.
I'm not quite fluent in french, but I can read and write and mostly speak in it no problem at all. It's actually much much easier for me to just think in french and write in french than to translate into english and back into french. The issue is that it's a french literature class, so I have bazillions of little details to know, and I don't know them.
*Fish takes a deep breath and chants
I can deal with this...I can deal with this...I will not panic...
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We need twenty cc's of confidence over here, STAT!
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And a couple cc's of photographic memory, while you're at it.
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/me waves wand
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*Fish closes eyes and waits to see if it worked
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Of course it worked. It was me that administered it. You couldn't make it not work even if you wanted to.
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The wand. I was waiting to see if the wand worked.
Jeffe, I don't think your wand works in foreign languages.
*Fish starts to cry
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Oh thats cause I was using the good music wand...
lets try this one
/me waves foreign language and literature wand
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*Fish sniffles
Antigone is going to kill me.
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You were reading it just fine the other day...
Read it to us.... :)
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Ok, enough with the wands
*Archon cracks whip*
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*Fish looks at Archon with his whip and bursts into tears again
It's not so much reading it. I can read it fine. But I have to write a paper on it...
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I know you can do it.
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It's an entire semester's worth of information plus a three page paper. I'm not supergirl.
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Prewrite it first, plan out exactly how you are going to do it. If you are having trouble starting on it, that might help. Oh yeah, and...
*Archon cracks whip again*
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dude quit with the whip crap...
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Janci,... trust me you can do it.
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*Fish cowers behind Antigone.
Take that whip away from him, would ya?
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Just joking around.
MsFish, start by just relaxing for a second. If you aren't overwhelmed and anxious, it is a lot easier to think and study. Take a couple of deep breaths, figure out how you are going to start, and then start working. Once you start, don't stop. It is amazing how much you can accomplish that way.
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Easy for you to say.
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It is easy for me to say. I never said that it wasn't harder than it sounded. But really, the mental state is the worst part of it. If you can't get into a state where you can work, then it is a lot harder to get your work done. So find out how you can concentrate, relax, realize that what you have to do is possible to do, and then work toward it.
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Um, yeah, well, under normal circumstances I wouldn't have any problem with this. But my concentration isn't so good right now. Go perfect timing...
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Rah rah rah, Sis boom bah
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*Xaio is bored, stops by, grabs whip and starts whipping Archon for stress relief. Cheers folks!*
PS: Thats not meant personally Archon.
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At least someone got it away from him. Bury it.
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Rah rah rah, Sis boom bah
Blood makes the grass grow, rah rah rah!
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Hey, anyone speak french?
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*Xaio sets fire to the whip. Pyromania indulged, tradition fulfilled. Xaio wanders off again. Bye!*
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I wish... I know how to say sit down in Hatian Creole and how to sing Frere Jacques (my mom taught me), I can also introduce myself and ask how someone is.
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Hm... Im learning latin and soon german :S I *used* to speak french...
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No French, sorry. I can say "I am a cow with cheese" and count to about 24, but don't ask me to spell any of that. My 5th grade teacher used to do the lunch count in French. Mid twenties is about as high as she ever got, and since I'm an audio learner, a year of listening to her count.... well, 13 years later and I can still do it. Sad.
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Sadly, none of that would allow any of you to proofread stuff about Antigone. Thanks though.
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I have a few friends/former roommates who speak french, let me see if any of them are on AIM.
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http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/antigone/canalysis.html
Is this the Anouilh version?
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Yup. That's it.
What I really need is a copy translated into English so I don't have to think so hard.
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I take it you read the whole thing right?
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Um, working on it. I read 2/3 of it, decided what I wanted to write my paper on, and started again from the beginning so that I could take notes as I went. I'm about halfway through on my second round. So, haven't read the end yet.
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If you did than there is nothing wrong with using the Spark note links to refresh your memory... (for the stuff you read) .... they have summeries of the acts and more
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Yeah, but I need quotes. Summaries aren't going to give me direct material for my paper. I understand what's going on just fine. I just have two days and an entire semester worth of material to memorize on top of it.
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well keep in mind I havent read it :) But Im trying to give you a hand... :)
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I appreciate the effort. :)
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Haven't read it since high school and I hated it with a passion then.
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It apparently was a big favorite of the French Resistance...
You couldnt have read Cyrano....
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The keyboard on the computer I was using just totally died. Not cool.
Yeah, it was written during the French resistance as a statement about political activism, because Antigone does what her conscience tells her to do and then faces the consequences and dies for it.
So, my topic for my paper is, Does Antigone fail?
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Hmm... /me puts on Devils advocate hat
"Does it matter if she fails or not because she can die with a clear conscience?"
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Um, yeah, well, under normal circumstances I wouldn't have any problem with this. But my concentration isn't so good right now. Go perfect timing...
Exactly my problem right now. 8-pager due yesterday, got an extension to noon tomorrow. Been sitting here for three hours trying to figure out how to start it. It is now 11pm. I have to work at 9am.
Someone tell me how these teenagers are daring to disturb the universe, please?
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Hmm... /me puts on Devils advocate hat
"Does it matter if she fails or not because she can die with a clear conscience?"
Right. That's my argument. She doesn't fail, because she dies with a clear conscience, and that's what's important.
So much for your advocate hat. :P
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What is the papers topic?
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I had a roommate named Antigone once.
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Teenagers? Universe?
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I guess thats why I gave you the assistant Devils advocate general horns right...
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Wow. I don't think I could name a child Antigone. I really like the names Calliope and Persephone, but I don't know if I could name kids those either.
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I guess thats why I gave you the assistant Devils advocate general horns right...
*Fish grins
Glad I could live up to my title.
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Antigone is a great name if you can survive puberty...
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What is the papers topic?
In The Chocolate War Jerry Renault is haunted by the line "Do I dare disturb the universe?" (from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"). Every adolescent asks his/her unique version of this question. Discuss the personal implications posed by this question in four or five novels read thus far in the course. What answered are offered? What additional questions posed? What does "daring" mean? What are the possible consequences of "not daring"? Find your own way of framing these books relevant to this question which differs from our general thematic groupings. This original work should be in publishable form. Your paper should be 8-12 pages (2000-3000 words).
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Don't take this the wrong way, but I think that "do I dare disturb the universe" question is really bogus.
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Well what books do you want to use?
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The books I'm using: Tangerine by Edward Bloor (which I'm still finishing), The First Part Last by Angela Johnson, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher, and Hush by Jaqueline Woodson. I might also use A Step from Heaven by An Na, but it's been a while since I've read it. I don't know which is worse: if I haven't read it in forever, or if I haven't read it all the way yet.
At any rate, those are the books I've read most recently. I could also use Weetzie Bat, but I don't know how to fit it in with the others. And I'm not really sure how to fit these books together anyway. Questioning authority? Not really in all of them. Making their own way in the world, in an unconventional way? How am I going to get 8 pages out of that? I just have no idea. Which is why I've been procrastinating it for over a week.
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Don't take this the wrong way, but I think that "do I dare disturb the universe" question is really bogus.
Oh, I agree. And it's used ironically both in Alfred Prufrock and in The Chocolate War. So what does *that* mean for my paper?
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hmmm havent read any of them so... ;)
Id focus on the ways that they shape their world for the good or bad.
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I hate Eliot. Can I say that here? Because I hate him and everything he stands for with a fiery fiery passion. And I hate that he's claimed by both America and Britain so I had to read him in BOTH survey courses. Arg.
I like Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes though. I thought that was a great book.
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"Good" and "bad" are not graduate level terms, sorry. ;)
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I dont speak your crazy graduate moon language...
I speak government Acronymspeak.
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I'm back to the part where I stopped last time, so only 1/3 to go now...course it's the part I haven't read before...
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Et vous l'avez fait tout de meme. Et maintenant, vous allez me faire tuer sans le vouloir. Et c'est cela, etre roi...blah blah blah...
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Doing good though...
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See "dare to disturb the universe" is kind of a presumptious term. It implies that the individual is in the position to alter the divine order of the universe.
Course, for humanities major, it probably means something stupid, like going against social conventions or gaining greater personal understanding.
And Antigone, from what I remember in High School, my teacher loved Antigone because she defied social convention.
So basicly, we learn from literature that to be chaotic is good because no one else really matter other than one's own self.
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Hey my alignment is Chaotic good... I take offense at that.... ;)
Well Antigone did actually prove to be right...
everyone else was just too cowardly to say otherwise.
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Or maybe what we learn from literature is that it's okay to make your voice heard even if it's a different voice than everyone else's. That being different doesn't necessarily mean being self-centered...that sometimes the voice of tradition and convention is wrong?
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Why do you say she was right?
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because she fulfilled her familial duty... Burying her brother. Her action was the forgiving compassionate one.
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Does she actually get her brother buried in the end?
Forgiving and compassionate...oooh, I'm going to use that...
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Yeah she has buried the body... thats why she is condemned...
like a lot of tragedies shes kind of caught between two opposing ideas... loyalty to the state vs/ loyalty to the family...
Remember...its Creons fanatical devotion to the state... that gets him murdered and reveals his own hubris..
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I don't like Eliot, but I do like Prufrock because it's so.... abnormal.
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Or maybe what we learn from literature is that it's okay to make your voice heard even if it's a different voice than everyone else's. That being different doesn't necessarily mean being self-centered...that sometimes the voice of tradition and convention is wrong?
Yeah, at least in these books, it's not about selfishness. In Tangerine, for example, the younger brother is trying to remember what his older brother did to him years ago. Turns out that the brother is a murderer and a sociopath, and when Paul (younger bro) was five, Erik (older bro) sprayed paint into Paul's eyes, messing up Paul's peripheral vision for life, nearly blinding him. So far the test seems to be (and I'm only on p. 203 of 280-something) whether Paul will stand up for what is right, no matter whether his family is hiding his brother's sociopathy.
Still, that's one paragraph. I need 8 pages.
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I've just never read any Eliot.
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Yeah she has buried the body... thats why she is condemned...
like a lot of tragedies shes kind of caught between two opposing ideas... loyalty to the state vs/ loyalty to the family...
She got caught though, so did they leave the body buried, or do they undo what she did?
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I've just never read any Eliot.
Blessed child.
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she hid it...
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In the Anouilh version? really?
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Antigone is also proved right by The blind prophet Tiresias when he proves that the gods are on Antigone's side this get Creon to changes his mind but not in time to stop Antigone from hanging herself and his son (her fiance) from killing him.
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Actually that I dont know... Ive only read Sophocles
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Oh dear. She hangs herself? Maybe she doesn't succeed then, because I was thinking she was killed at the hands of the law...
Crap. There goes my paper.
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I dont know how he does it in his... It may end completely differently...
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Let us hope so. 30 pages to go.
If it ends that way I'm going to be employing my English major BS skills once again.
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Marie-toi vite, Antigone. Sois-heurese.
So Creon is LDS, apparently.
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It ends with he being led out to die... so yeah you can say the state killed her..
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oh good.
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Er.. I was wrong..
there was a another page of the summery
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The Chorus enters, announcing that it is Creon's turn. The Messenger delivers the news: Antigone had just been immured, when the crowd heard Haemon's moan from within. Creon howled for the slaves to remove the stones. Antigone had hung herself. Haemon then stabbed himself and lay beside Antigone in a pool of blood. Upon being told of Haemon's death, Eurydice finished her row of knitting, climbed to her room, and cut her throat. Creon is alone. The Chorus notes that truly if it had not been for Antigone, all would have been at peace. All who had to die have now died. Only the Guards are left, and the tragedy does not matter to them.
Unless you take immured to mean entombed in a wall.
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"Once I know something, I can't unknow it or pretend it isn't so. I'm responsible for anything I know," Eric tells Sarah Byrnes in Chris Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (144). Knowing or not knowing important information makes a difference in young adult characters' willingness to "disturb the universe" and do what they believe is right.
Oo. I think this might work.
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good...
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This is going to be the worst paper I've ever written. But it'll be done.
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Um, so they're about to kill her and she hangs herself? So, same difference, right?
*Fish crosses fingers
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This is going to be the worst paper I've ever written. But it'll be done.
Oh, I know the feeling.
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Ditto, girls. Did that with a piece of crap I wrote about Robinson Crusoe for a stupid class with a teacher I HATED. Stupid stupid Wickman.
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yeah I think thats it... she's robbing them of their satisfaction... and coopting everyone else too... after all all of Creons family kills themselves too...
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Hmm. Do we think I'll fail if I ignore that part entirely? Lol.
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Okay, so I'm reading along, and Hemon says to Creon, "Lache-moi". Now, I looked up the word "lache" and it means, "release"; Hemon is saying "release me." But the first time I read it I confused the word "lache" with the word "leche" which means to lick...
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yuck
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Well it amused me.
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I'd love to see this preformed. The end is really intense.
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yes... it seemed so..
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Heh this seemed appropriate for Stacers paper especially the Teenage Wasteland line.
The Who
Baba O'Riley
Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven
Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland
Sally, take my hand
Travel south cross land
Put out the fire
And don't look past my shoulder
The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let's get together
Before we get much older
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
Oh, yeah
Teenage wasteland
They're all wasted!
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Finished Antigone. Have five pages of notes. That's something. Not anything I can turn in, but something.
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Its a framework.... YAY!
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Well, it's a scattered mess. But it's something!
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Yay... I love BSing papers...
Remember PHD stands for Piled Higher and Deeper... ;)
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And I don't even have my BA... >:(
;) ;D
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LOL ....
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I have 166 words. I'm going to die.
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3 pages right?
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Yeah.
*Fish starts to hyperventalate
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your doing fine...
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I have a page and a half and I'm almost done saying what I have to say. I need eight.
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fluff time...
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I have a page and a half and I'm almost done saying what I have to say. I need eight.
Erm, for eight pages, you have to think of something else to say. OF course I always end up doing that and then kind of saying it and then forget what I was saying and then the paper turns into total crap.
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Im so out of practice in the paper writing dept,... Im going to be totally lost when I go back to school this summer...
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Still have 2-3 books I need to pull in, but I'll be saying the same thing with them. Not good. I don't know if staying up all night writing this is going to be any better than not turning it in at all... :(
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Aw, you should at least get SOME points. ;)
I'm sure you'll do great, Stacer.
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Six pages of I don't know what. It's 3:30 a.m. and if I don't go to bed, I'm going to lose my job on the second day. I'll set every alarm I have and hope for the best, I guess. Hopefully come morning I'll be a little more fresh, enough to come up with two more pages of something. It is so weak it's not even funny. She's going to give it back to me with some very cutting remarks about how she expects more from someone who is at my level in the program who is contemplating doctoral work (not anymore, but I haven't told her that--I thought she figured she'd discouraged me enough, so it was surprising to hear her tell me that the other day).
Night.
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night Stacy
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*skims*
Fish, remember not to look at your paper with modern eyes. In ancient Greece, and many other classical civs, it was better to die than to live with certain dishonors. In Greece, hanging herself was the right thing to do.
however, Anouilh didn't live in Greece, and his French sensibilities enter the picture. It's been a long time since I've read this version, but I think I remember bits of it. Anouilh was existentialist, right? he lived at the right time for it. That means he was primarily concerned with doing your duty/living up to your responsibility. Did she accomplish what she should have, or at least try? Then her suicide, I would rule, is irrelevant given the morals and ethics in which the story is set.
Stacy, I don't think I even UNDERSTAND the question "Do I dare disturb the universe?" And if it's what I think it is, what the heck is the evidence that all teenagers ask this question? i think your paper should be that most teenagers aren't mature enough to consider this question applicable to themselves
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*Xaio is bored, stops by, grabs whip and starts whipping Archon for stress relief. Cheers folks!*
PS: Thats not meant personally Archon.
*Archon starts to impersonally cut Xaio into tiny pieces and eat him like prime rib, then realizes that Xaio has had a rough couple of weeks, decides against it.*
At least someone got it away from him. Bury it.
Hey, I had already put it away. Ah mass production, how I love thee.... ;) ;D
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Done. 7 1/2 pages. Best I could do. Which is really, really bad.
How about you, Fish?
But the good news is that I think I'm really going to like my job. I work with a lot of people, which will be a nice change from working in solitairy for so long, and everyone there was so welcoming. It's nice to be wanted. They were so excited for me to be in the children's section, because most of them are scared of the children's section themselves. ;D
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They're scared of children's books? Of all the genres to be afraid of . . .
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No no I think they're afraid of the *books*. Maybe it's like in harry potter and all the childrens books are just a little too undiciplined.
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Paper finished. In process of sending. Thanks for the insight SE!
Now just three exams in 24 hours...no problem, right?
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Yay You rock! Fishy and Stacer...
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Really? Because I feel like I'm going to die.
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not die, ... extrude knowledge maybe but not die.
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I'm debating if I should spend an hour studying and go take the first exam just on that--basically cold--before the office closes and pray to pass, or study all night and go take all three tomorrow. Either way I'm afraid I'm going to fail.
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can you cram before the one...?
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I'm trying. It would be nice to only have to hold two thirds of the course in my head for tomorrow rather than the whole thing. I really should have cancelled my office hours today. I could have bought myself another few hours.
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you should stop posting on a forum and get studying.
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I AM studying. But I can't just sit here and read this crap or my head will explode.
Office hours cancelled. I refuse to feel guilty because no one ever comes in anyway.
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Fish, if it makes you feel any better, I have an IS class I haven't finished either and you're lighting a fire under my behind.
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Lol. In a twisted way, that does make me feel better. I thought you were done? What class is it?
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Technical writing. I still have a few months left, but still...
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Ew. That doesn't sound like fun. Just don't get down to the last two days. It's not smart. :-/
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Yeah... that's exactly what I'm afraid of doing.
Because I also am very lazy with little motivation.
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Good to know I'm not alone. ;D
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88!
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thats good! isnt it?
Well its passing which is good...!
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With only an hour and a half of very distracted studying of stuff I hadn't looked at in six months...yeah, I'd say that's very good.
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congratulations!!
Great jorb!
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Thanks! Two to go...
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Well yay you...
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yay! Go you!