(no subject)

[bursar42]

Junior year is a bit odd. Between rehearsals, driver's ed, clubs, and Latin-y doom, I've managed to average over twelve hours a day in school for the past week or two. This is not time spent on school work, which surely approaches 16hrs/day. Oh well.

Other than this, I've been having a fine time. American History is actually interesting and full of stuff I haven't heard of before (unlike a lot of European History). The Soc Curriculum Associate fellow, btw, is looking into offering Comparative Government next year, too, which will hopefully be fun and finally give me at least some formal education to go along with things like this. It's kind of scary that history and government are becoming my favorite subjects in school, but I suppose that's better than Chemistry. After all, who wants to be a hard scientist? (Yes, I know. I say this, and I'm doomed to be a physical chemist in my next life. Stay tuned for Chipmunk in the Caves of Nuclear Fire.) Somehow I've ended up taking three years of Latin simultaneously in one period a day. There's definitely going to be some issues with that by the end of the year. English has gone from one of my perpetual favorite subjects to being one of my least favorite. The teacher seems to advocate a school of "descriptive" writing which is best written with a small checklist in one's hand. If you haven't gotten every rhetorical device on the list into every paragraph, go back and try again. It's really pretty sick, but at least he's not one of those passive voice mavens. Maybe I should have skipped this course and gone on to the next one. I have the prereqs since this is technically just the AP version of the course I took last year. (There was a dumb move! I could have gotten this course out of the way, taken Lit this year, and have lotsa' time left over for the interesting-sounding English electives.) If I end up a senior without a lunch despite moving my math to a Saturday at the community college, I'm gonna' have a fit.

Other than school, life's alright, I suppose. People's lives seem to be falling apart all around me, though. It's really unsettling to hear about some of the things that are going on.

On a happier note, SWIM'N will start getting more of my time as the semester draws to a close. After all, where would we be without an interesting prosecutorial system. Anyone with any details on the French system or the theory of the Soviet system (we all know it was corrupt) would be really nice if they spoke to me. Sadly, SWIM'N is the only organized quasi-CTY organization I still actively participate in. I talk to people still, but I think the group as a whole has finally collapsed under its own weight. The people who I really associated with have pretty much all bailed. Most are in college. Others, I either talk to them regularly or they have disappeared from the ether entirely. The remainder are my age, younger, or people I never really talked to anyway. There seem to be few chats going on, and the Alcoveboard seems to be filled with even more inane chatter than ever. Maybe it's just because the archives are so readily accessible... Who knows? It seems that there's very little of interest going on. The older contingent has finally gone, and I can't say I'm happy about it.

On a completely unrelated note, I am pissed at E.B. White. The fellow goes so far as to revise a guide to style and forgets an interesting, though oft-forgotten rule of English. Proper nouns refer to specific things. So, we have the current Prince Charles, Prince of Wales referred to as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Unless he was interested in making a political statement (such as "All true supporters of the British monarchy should try to have him exiled" or something similar), White really shouldn't be using one person's nickname (to which he is known to history) to refer to another person (who doesn't even have the same name). I grr imperfections in those who make a living telling other people how to behave in their supposed area of expertise.

Edit: Since enough people have asked me, let me clarify. The Alcove collapsed under its own weight, not the Swiss Imperial Navy.

Comments

[roseandsigil.livejournal.com]

KILL WHITE! KILL WHITE DEAD!!
err...yeah. Sorry to have disappeared, CM. Although my doing such appears to have out you in an advantageous position, militarily speaking, in our Glorious Navy.
IM me sometime.