Bit of Ivory

Well. That was a pain. Not exceedingly difficult, but long and complicated. At least it’s over.

I’m talking about my CHum final. I did alright on the Blasted Key Combinations part. It was cake, and took very little time. Then came the real meat of the final, which was impossible to study for. Our teacher gave us a printout of a journal article and a Word file containing the text of said article. Our job was to take the text and make it look like the printout. Once again, not too difficult. Just tedious. I did finally manage to get every line break and every hyphen in exactly the same place as his were. It only took two hours. Of course, part of the reason it took so long is that the computers are completely stupid. If too many people are using QuarkXPress, it thinks the Hardware Key is missing and freezes. With the whole class trying to do this assignment, it froze often. We’d have to sit there waiting until the TA restarted the network computer. It was a pain.

But it’s over now. I’ve only got my AgHrt (Herbology ) final left. I was going to take it today, but decided I needed more studying time. I have until Friday, after all.

Now I’m at work until 10. There are tons of people here in the library, but none of them need my help, as all research papers have been turned in, etc. The most I’ve been doing is handing out dry erase markers and erasers for the group study rooms. That’s thrilling, let me tell you.

I can’t wait for the break!

The above numbers may surprise you. I was surpised myself, when I walked into the computer lab last night only to find that my CHum final was not last night, but is on Wednesday instead. In some ways, this is good, in others, it is bad. Now I have to get work off. But, I have more time to memorize those blasted Key Combinations.

7 AM finals are a crime against humanity. That being said, I think I did alright on mine this morning. My essays were actually coherent, which is amazing. I even managed to figure out a common theme to the four tragedies we studied this semester (Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and King Lear). I wrote about deception. It works, doesn’t it, Elizabeth?

I was rather worried about the final, though, so I slept badly last night. Shakespeare was ever present in my dreams. This could have been a good thing, as it kept me familiar with the works, except that Hermione Granger and Harry Potter and Ron Weasley would keep showing up. Drat them. However, it gave me an interesting plot bunny.

I now know why they’re called plot bunnies. Because they multiply. Six months ago I couldn’t think of a story idea to save my life, and now I’ve written one and have 3 lined up. Very weird, how these things work out.

Okay, so here’s how it’s going to go: I have a final today at 5:45. It’s my Computers and the Humanities Final, and should be cake, as long as I memorize all those blasted Keyboard Combinations before then. I never use the blasted Keyboard Combinations anyway– why take your hand off the mouse? Anyway, I should be fine.

My next final is tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM. I hate 7 AM finals. They’re so unfair. I can’t think coherently at 7 in the morning! Anyway, it’ll be doubly worse because it’s my Shakespeare final, which means I’m going to have to write not one but 5 coherent essays at 7 in the morning. This is the one I’m most worried about, for obvious reasons. At least I get to outline the main essay beforehand.

My third final is scheduled for tomorrow night at 7. It’s my Literature and the Great War final, and I should be just fine as long as I study my past tests before I go in, as all the questions will be taken from said tests. I’m going to have to re-memorize which poem is which, and which poem goes with which poet, but considering that I’ll have 5 hours to do this, I’m not worried.

My last final can be taken at any time during the week– it’s a Testing Center final, for my Agronomy and Horticulture class. I will probably be taking it on Wednesday. It’s comprehensive, so I’ll have to re-learn everything I’ve forgotten from the beginning of the semester, but I’m sure that most of it is just back of my concious memory, and then it will all come flowing back once I remind myself about it.

So by 6:00 on Wednesday night, I will be DONE!! and can put this wretched semester behind me.

In the meantime, the Fine Arts librarian gave all of us desk assistants a jar of Nutella. Now, I love Nutella, but considering I just bought one last week to bring to the HumRef potluck, and already had one in my cabinet, this last jar is a bit overkill. Maybe I’ll send it to Teri along with her Hazelnut cocoa, which is still sitting in my bedroom waiting for me to have time to mail it. Have you ever tried Nutella, Teri? Of course, if I do send it, it will be hazelnut & chocolate overkill for you, but that’s a tolerable type of overkill.

Of Retrospection are up. They’re really short, don’t worry. Chapters get a bit longer toward the end of the story, but not much. And you all will be pleased to know that Retrospection, at least, is completely written– not revised, but written. Part Two (as yet untitled) of the Shadows on the Autumn Moon trilogy is in the works, as is Part Three.

And you’ll also be pleased to know that Susy, the main character, received a 9 on the Mary Sue Litmus Test. Good for her.

Anyway, here’s Chapter Two: What Dreams May Come and Chapter 3– Out of Nowhere. Like I said, this is when it really gets interesting. Of course, I’m biased.

Shadows on the Autumn Moon: Retrospection. It’s chapter one of my best friend/roomate’s Lupin fic. She’s submitting it to Sugar Quill tomorrow, and I told her I’d post it on my blog. Please read it and comment on this post– she’s really nervous about it.

Of course, Chapter 1 is really short. I’ll try to convince her to post up to at least chapter 3 tonight. That’s when it really gets interesting.

We lost. So sad. All I can say is, JKR better give us a release date pretty darn quick to make up for it.

Although I hate that we lost, it’s actually a good thing for Book Aid. Now, they’ll get the $38,000 for the card PLUS the $24,000 we raised. That’s a lot of books. Even if we didn’t win, giving someone the chance to love reading as much as I do is worth it. It’s SO worth it, in fact.

I’m actually quite amazed that we were able to raise that much money. I think it shows what a wonderful fandom we truly are, don’t you?

Here’s to Potterheads– we care.

From being DONE with this semester! Well, done with the classes for this semester, anyway. I’ll still have to study for and take my finals. But those will be cake after this week. I never want to have a week like this again. I’ve just been getting more and more tired as the week goes on, and more and more stressed.

Remember the paper that was causing such misery when Ginny went out? The one that was a rush job, furiously working just to get the dang thing completed? I got it back yesterday.

I got an A-.

I don’t know how I do it, but it always ends up working.

is not dead! I went to Murray tonight and had my dad take a look at her. Turns out that when they reconditioned her, they forgot to put the screws back in the hard drive. So it kind of just– fell off. Unfortunately, despite the myriad of screws my dad has in his office, he didn’t have the right size. So I’m going to take her into the Bookstore tomorrow and see if they can screw it back in.

And you’ll notice my tempate has reverted to its original form, albeit with the same color scheme. There were just too many issues with the other one. People couldn’t even scroll. I plan on changing it back, but for now I’ll just stick with this one. I hope this means that Elizabeth will be able to comment again.

that convince me, as Anne Shirley put it, of “the total depravity of inanimate objects.” It’s just been one thing after another.

First, I missed the bus this morning, so I had to walk to school. Then after I got off work, I pulled Ginny (my laptop) out of my backpack and sat down to finish my research paper that was due today at 3:00. I turned her on– and I got a very loud beep, and a message that says my hard drive couldn’t be found. What? Yes, indeed– Ginny now thinks she doesn’t have a hard drive. After about 20 min. of playng around in the BIOS with my dad, trying to figure out what was wrong, my dad determined he couldn’t help me over the phone. So I picked up my backpack (along with the now not-working Ginny) and walked to the nearest computer lab. There, I waited for 20 more minutes for a computer to be available. This, of course, made it so I had to skip my next class.

When I finally got my paper done, I had to go upstairs to get the bibliographical info I needed for the works cited list. So I took my disk and went upstairs, planning on printing out my 13-page paper on the HumRef printer. When I tried that, however, the printer didn’t work. So I had to take it out to the desk. Finally, after printing my document, I went to staple it.

The stapler didn’t work.

Not that it was that big of a deal in the eternal scheme of things, but it was the last straw, you know? After screaming, I went down to General Reference and stapled it there.

So, having turned in my last research paper for the semester (YAY!), I went up to my Computers and the Humanities class, fully intent on working on our big newsletter project that’s due Wednesday and that I’m behind on.

Only to discover I left my Zip Disk at home.

So I’m blogging instead.

I really hope that Dell honors my warranty (they’d better!) and helps me figure out what’s wrong with Ginny, because I really don’t have the money to replace her right now. Heck, I barely had the money to buy her in the first place.

The semester cannot end soon enough.

After reading Albus Dumbledore’s Inbox. My absolute favorite message so far?

From: Madame Hooch [hoochie@hogwarts.edu]
To: Prof. Albus Dumbledore [bumblebee@hogwarts.edu], Professor Snape [slytherinrules@hogwarts.edu], Professor McGonagall [minnybaby@hogwarts.edu], Professor Sprout [greenfingers@hogwarts.edu], Professor Flitwick [filiuscharms@hogwarts.edu], Professor Sinistra [sinnyforministerofmagic@hogwarts.edu], Professor Vector [viktorrulesquidditch@hogwarts.edu], Hagrid [skrewt@hogwarts.edu], Madame Pomfrey [hellonurse@hogwarts.edu], Professor Lupin [potionplease@hogwarts.edu], Professor Moody [mad-eye@hogwarts.edu], Professor Trelawney [clairvoyant@hogwarts.edu], Madame Pince [bookworm@hogwarts.edu], Dobby [multicolouredsocks@hogwarts.edu]
Subject: Top ten things you should never say to Sev-kins

Hoochie.

Oh. Oh. Must. Breathe. Must. Stop. Laughing.

*dies*