28 November 2005

It's Almost December

You get sick of Turkey after a while. It can't be healthy having it every night. This is what you tell yourself before cutting a slice of cherry pie for dinner. Not after dinner. For dinner.

I just wrote a "country report" on Syria for a political science class. I have no idea what I wrote. The instructions for the assignment were less than clear and I did not trouble to ask for clarification. I did not carefully construct an argument around a thesis. To my knowledge, I basically typed up a lot of loosely connected information and stopped when I'd reached the required length.

This is what other students do. I know so because I have seen their work. It's not very good. I remember looking over some work from my classmates over several group projects I've had this fall and thinking, "This passes for college work?!"

But my professors have demonstrated that they do not really know the difference between well-written, carefully researched papers and bullshit. Either that, or a whole lot of work does not appear to substantially raise my work above the level of bullshit.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm too tired at this point in the semester to work very hard. Still, it might be easier if I had an incentive to do so.

21 November 2005

Potter 4

I'm looking into moving this blog (kreliavsrealm.net?) for the simple reason that Tripod, the current host kinda sucks. I hate the popups. I hate all popups. My firearms are useless against them.

I like this one much better than Prisoner of Azkaban. Alfonso Cuaron wanted to make a Harry Potter movie for adults, and adults loved it. Cuaron got so bent out of shape about Harry's emotional development, about showing the similarities between him and his parents, and about showing the surrogate father-son relationship of Harry and Lupin that he neglected a very important aspect of Harry Potter: it's not supposed to be so dull. It should be fun.

Mike Newell fixed all that. He took fewer liberties with the content, and where he did, it turned out better anyway.

It's almost hard to believe we had to wait until now to see Fred and George features so prominently. They've always been two of Rowling's funniest characters.

I liked the dragon scene. Yeah, it wasn't like the book -- the dragon shouldn't have been such a blood-thirsty monster straight out of Jurassic Park (it was supposed to just guard the egg), but that's okay. Watching Harry jump onto his broom and soar away was dramatic enough. It gave the audience something to cheer about (with Hermione). It was well done.

Cedric Diggory was cast well. Cedric was supposed to be the modest, bright, handsome, fair and generous type -- in other words with no real faults. Rowling wanted the audience to start to become attached to the character she was planning to kill off. You couldn't help but like Cedric by the end.

Voldemort was cast well too and we got what we wanted: evil incarnate. Still though, he didn't quite have the presence of a Saruman, a Darth Vader, or even Lucius Malfoy.

I love the casting job they did for Lucius. And when I saw Lucius kneeling before Voldemort, I couldn't help but wish that it was the other way around.

Several of the darker characters in the Potter movies have mastered the art of spitting at you while being polite about it. Severus Snape is one of them. Lucius is another. "Do enjoy yourself. While you can," said Lucius. They manage to radiate an intense, dark hatred without losing the smug expression.

Voldemort didn't quite give us any of that, and of course, he shouldn't have to maintain a smug expression. But Newell stuck to the script. If we haven't seen Voldemort in his purest of evil forms, it is because Rowling hasn't wanted us to see that yet.

15 November 2005

I have work to do; i shouldn't be writing here

If "hurricane" can be properly converted into an adjective, I would say that the area of southern Florida I visited is still a big hurricanic mess.

"[04:11:46] KD5EOB: you can't honestly be telling me to improve my layout when your color scheme looks like a fantasy novel exploded and landed on your webpage"

I'd never thought of it that way, but that was the intent I suppose.

I'm not doing any columns for a while. I'm on unpaid leave. I guess. Not that I get paid anyway. I did two columns in two weeks, so now I don't have to do any for three. But I'll probably write something before long.

I have to read McNamara's work for Lewis' class. By Thursday and have a review written. Success in Lewis' class is primarily dependent on your capacity to figure out what he thinks and then find a way to spit it back at him on paper, even with his choice of words, more or less. Independent thought is distinctly frowned upon. You are too stupid to think anyway, as his philosophy seems to go. Professor Lewis has a particular facial expression that is very much his default in response to any student question or request. It is the one that so visibly communicates something along the lines of, "What?! That can't be as idiotic as it first sounded!"

I'm going to turn in my review and then go see Harry Potter 4 at midnight.

08 November 2005

November should be eliminated as a calendar month

I'm highly tempted to move to Spaces. The main problem is that Spaces is even more fascist about letting you be creative than Xanga.

Number of projects/tests/papers in next three weeks: 7. It is a general rule of schools everywhere at every level: all major projects, term papers, and other shit will be due the two or three days before classes are let out for Thanksgiving.

This is why I hate November.

I don't even know why professors bother to assign readings at this time of year. There's no way anyone with a full load has time to do them. Good grief. What's the big problem with having just a midterm and a final? Why do we need multiple ridiculous tests, papers, or another round of midterms?

I'm thinking of looking into getting a creative writing degree sometime. There's a part of me that sorely regrets not majoring in English. But of course, I'll have to be stationed in the states to do that; and I'd like to live overseas for at least a few years. Iraq. Japan. Places like that. I'm less keen on Europe though. It's become such a boring continent. European culture used to be something special. Today, the only cultures worth mentioning are American and Japanese. No one else makes anything that anyone would really want.

My blogging seems to be reaching a low point in creativity. I really don't have any time to think about writing anything fun. Heck, I don't even have time to read anything fun.

A mission trip to Cuba in late December-early January seems likely.

You scored as Severus Snape. Well you're a tricky one aren't you? Nobody quite has you figured out and you'd probably prefer it stayed that way. That said you are a formidable force by anyone's reckoning, but there is certainly more to you than a frosty exterior and a bitter temper. Severus Snape 95% Harry Potter 90% Sirius Black 80% Ginny Weasley 75% Draco Malfoy 70% Hermione Granger 65% Remus Lupin 65% Ron Weasley 55% Albus Dumbledore 45% Lord Voldemort 45% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

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I submitted this recently:

Syria Shows Failure of Engagement Policy

03 November 2005

i need new highlighters

I hate UNT.

With my latest article, I was really hoping to piss off a lot of atheists. I figured the militant athiest crowd would come out in full force against me. At Iowa State, they probably would have. But UNT is school of music nerds and non-traditional commuters who don't much care what's in the student paper. The community of ideologically active is quite small, consisting of only a handful of political science majors, many of whom are too busy and too smart to care very much about some dumb article in the campus paper. Ah, how I miss Iowa State, where such a piece would have been interpreted by several dozen atheist activists as a threat to their very existence.

Life is hectic these days, as I try to alternately satisfy the demands of school and anime addiction. I didn't give UNT enough credit when I came here. The political science and history programs here have plenty of life, underscored by the fact that I don't. I haven't had to work this hard since my last semester at George Washington.

I've managed to narrow my post-graduation options down considerably, not by conscious decision, but rather by neglecting to apply to any graduate schools. My only thoughts anymore are as to which branch of the military I should go for.

It's 2 am. I have to write four journal article reviews before tomorrow. About Syria. That government is totally going down. Assad's days are numbered. I should write an article about it.

I need some coke.