Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Hooray for college.
I took the AATF test today (that's the American Association of Teachers of French, for you uninitiated folks). Sections were hard and sections were pretty do-able. I actually thought that some of the listening stuff was easy, but maybe I'm just insane. The only two people in the school taking AATF for French V were me and Chulsky. Madame says that very, very few people state-wide take it, so even if I do poorly I may 'officially' do well.
Or maybe not. I definitely bombed parts of it. I know nothing of grammar, and I know even less of French culture. Although I do know that Georges Braque is a cubist painter. Was a cubist painter. He is dead now. So I got at least one right in that section.
this is 'clarinet and bottle of rum on a mantleplace'
I have decided to change the posts settings from 25 to 10. As my archives have been rather balky of late, this may somewhat limit your reading abilities, but since I started with the pictures I think it is only fair to lower the site loading time. I do this, of course, in deference to all of you poor souls out there who haven't got cable.
(ha ha ha ha! suckers!)
We had a math quiz today which I am nearly certain I failed. It was miserable. I forgot simple things, like the cosine of pi/3, and how to differentiate logarithmically. Oh well, I'm into 2 colleges, so now even a C in math cannot pull me down.
That is a lie. It can most definitely pull me down, if pulling me down means making me upset and deranged with worry. But sometimes I like to pretend to myself that I don't care about school. It makes me feel like somewhat less of a dork.
I also feel like less of a dork when I manage to stop myself from swearing in french, which is (Zut! Merde!) not very often.
Today is Chris's birthday. Happy birthday, Chris!
Reading The Silmarillion, by Tolkein. It is significantly more dense than the Lord of the Rings, mostly because of all the insanely bizarre names tossed around like so much lettuce in the narrative. It's also a little bit like reading Dostoyevsky, because everyone seems to have more than one name, as is evidenced in the following little excerpt:
"The Fëanturi, masters of spirits, are brethren, and they are called most often Mandos and Lórien. Yet these are rightly the names of the places of their dwelling, and their true names are Námo and Irmo."
Thereafter in the book, you never know, when you see Mandos or Lórien, if a person or a place is being referred to. Sometimes it's even hard to tell with context. You also never know whether to look for Mandos, or Námo, or Fëanturi, or whowhat.
In despite of all that, I am rather enjoying the book. It takes a little getting into, but, after the fashion of A Clockwork Orange (suprememly glorious book), once you get into a groove it's enjoyable to read. Not a book for the faint of heart, but if you're a real genuine Tolkein fan, you may find it well worth your trouble.
Things are so.... mutable around here.
Smasking is a good word. I think that someone should make a meaning for it so that it can pass into general usage, and then we can all say things like "He was smasking" or "It's not a good idea to smask that potted plant" with pleasure and impunity.
There was a grackle in my backyard today. My mother, the oracle, says that this is a sign of spring. It is uncommonly warm out today. Mayhap the grackle knows.
i am grackle. bow before my wisdom.
Wow. Two pictures in one blog. I really need to stop rejoicing in technology. OK. Must stop.
Do you talk in multiple s's? I think that you do. You need to cut that out, it's pretty annoying.
I can hold the cactus, even if you can't.
5:00 PM
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