My little sister fell asleep studying for her Biology exam and slept right through it. (She hadn't set any alarm, and it's a really dreary, rainy day so there wasn't any light to wake her up either.) I had to pick her up so she could make her next class, and she cried the whole way there. It really destroys my soul when my sisters cry and I can't do anything about it. What do you even do in that situation? It's too late to drop the class, and it's a lecture. No one gives a shit about you in lectures.

College is cruel and unusual punishment.

I have so much school related stuff going on that I haven't had any time for TV this week. That is just not right, my friends.

Anyway. I thought of themis today because I am reading the Itinerarium by Alexander Hamilton about a long trip he took to the North-Eastern colonies one summer when his health was failing because of the heat in Virginia. I actually kind of like him. I mean, he's a total prick by modern standards. Classist, racist, sexist, etcetera. But he is so sarcastic! It's kind of like reading a travel blog by a really big snob with a sense of humor.

Also, HOW DID I LIVE WITHOUT MTV HITS AND VH1 CLASSIC ALL OF THIS TIME? I seriously do not know. I wish they'd play more Indie stuff, like MTV2 used to once upon a time, but I'll live.'

ETA: Justin T's new CD gets a rave review from Pitchfork Media. So there, hatas!

ETA: I don't know if I like the new look of the iTMS. I mean, it's alright I guess. I just really don't understand who is going to pay $9.99 to download a movie, WTF? Hollywood is so off their rocker if they think that's a fair price to legally DL movies. Whatever!

I just don't know about this History of American Masculinity class. It mostly seems like a vehicle for people to air their sexist thoughts. Last week, our class discussion deteriorated into arguing about whether physiological differences between boy and girls merited sex segregation of youth (ages 4-7) soccer teams. And then somehow we got to talking about women in the army, and a former platoon leader who served in Afghanistan just put it out there that he thinks women in the army are "dead weight" who don't want to work out of doors, can't carry a machine gun, don't want to cross rivers, etcetera. And that he wouldn't have wanted women in his platoon because he had "enough to deal with" without worrying about their "emotional stuff." And it's not like anyone can really say anything to counter that experience.

And then today we end up talking about men and sexual objectification, and the boys in the class refused to talk about it because they argued that women objectify men every bit as much as men objectify women, which IMHO is totally false. They brought up everything from Cap'n Jack to Play Girl. And then of course it deteriorated to an argument about men and pornography, with people who had staffed places where Play Girl is carried attesting that the only people who ever buy it are gay men.

And then OF COURSE the guys bring up romance novels, arguing that women aren't biologically configured to be visually aroused. And then we get into this huge hoopla about romance novels. Each class discussion is exhausting for me.

I am pretty sure that Y&R is gearing up to do a Sharon/Jack storyline. At the very least, they're gauging audience interest. That's all kinds of awesome, even though Jack could eat Sharon alive, so I worry a little for her.

ETA: I can't believe nobody told me that I was using "denigrated" when I should have been using "deteriorated."

UGA has implemented a new grading policy of +'s and -'s. Sigh. That means that I will never again in my whole college career pull off a 4.0 for a semester. Woe! And the worst thing of all is that there's no back grading, so all my B+'s, where I just barely missed making an A, still count for 3.0. Double woe. But probably in the long run, all of my B pluses and A minuses will cancel eachother out in a cycle of evil. So I shouldn't obsess over it.

I found a list of television premiere dates here. It looks like they switched Ugly Betty to Thursdays, interestingly enough.

I want to kill Fergie's new song. Kill it dead. All of these overproduced pop songs are so horribly grating after the first few times, and they have absolutely no heart or soul. And people need to stop telling me what a fantastic voice Christina Aguilera has. Having the best guitar money can buy doesn't make you a great guitarist.

Oh, man. I do enjoy the first week of school, if only because the power shifts from the professor to the students for the short period of Shop/Add Drop/Add. And anyone who seems like an asshole can be gone from my life immediately.

For example! From a syllabus I received this morning:

Each and every time you misspell the word “emperor” on an exam, I will subtract one point from your exam grade.

LOLZ, DROPPED!

Also, I am dropping ANY COURSE that mentions group projects in the syllabus, because I don't have the patience or sanity for that shit any more.

Poll #794176
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Have college rankings by U.S. News, Princeton Review, etc. affected how you think about higher education?

Did you consult college rankings when you chose an institution?

Would you support the standardized testing of college students to build a more accurate list of college rankings?

( Why I'm talking about this... )

I have been moving since I got out of class at 1pm. It is now midnight. And I am still not nearly done. And it still feels like a sauna outside. *diez* *iz ded*

Straight from the horse's mouth, Rob Thomas just e-mailed me to confirm that Veronica Mars has been renewed for a third season. The show got a 22-episode order that, depending on ratings, can be reduced to 13. Very reliable sources, meanwhile, are also telling me that One Tree Hill will be back and that Everwood is, in fact, dead. Talk about injustice.

YAY! :D

*moment of silence for Everwood*

Also. I am signed up for the History of Canada. Oh my gosh, that sounds really yawn-inducing. THREE HOURS A DAY. Please to be telling me that Canada's history is more exciting than I think?

I've spent a lot of time at the public library this week, which is unusual for me. I used to go there more last spring, but I've been persona non grata since I ran up a $14 library fine. Meep.

It's mostly just so I can study, because if I do it here I'll just end up messing around on the Internets. And if I do it at school, I have to park a bazillion miles away. So the public library is the next best thing. Generally I don't do libraries because they have this Old smell that I hate, like bunches of rotting books. And they're spooky at night. Nothing says Snuff Film like looking for a book in the mile-long Georgia Room on the fifth floor of the UGA Main Library at 10:00 at night.

However, public libraries tend to be a lot smaller and cozier, and this particular one had the foresight to put the kid's area on the bottom floor so you're not constantly tripping over unsupervised Day Care Dogers. And I really enjoy discreetly checking out what people are reading. And today I got a giggle over two black young men who were sitting at a table several feet behind me. And they kept walking by my sofa and jostling my piles of notes (which was annoying, but admittedly my fault because my things were swallowing all of the space around me) on their way to check this big book on a pedestal at the table in front of me. Before I left for the evening, I checked the book out of curiosity and it was the Complete American Rhyming Dictionary. Lol! I suppose that he and his friend were composing, and it's sort of funny because I know I certainly don't tend to think about all of the work that goes into rap lyrics. Stereotypically, I think most white people think of groups of black men crowding on street corners spontaneously free-styling about drugs and bitches hoes girls and money. Wheras in reality, it's two kids after school in the public library with a rhyming dictionary. Hee.

( johnny-come-lately thoughts on the decline in boys' grades )

( thoughts on the GT hate-speech protection lawsuit )

P.S. I love Sarah Vowell. I need to move to New York and be her best friend, seriously.

I have never, in all my life, been so ashamed to write my name on something.

But whatever. One test down, one to go. I need to do well on this next one because the last tenets of any academic esteem I might have had left are dead like whoa. So as of this moment I have 3 hours and 20 minutes to master the Industrial Revolution and Marxist theory.

Thanks for bearing with me. I know my scholastic breakdowns are not very interesting.

*ACUTE DESPAIR*

Sorry to emo up your f'list, but I think I've just reached the point where I'm like, fuck it. Whatever. I just don't care anymore.

I would do anything to get out of my Colonial History test tomorrow. ANYTHING. I would probably even vote Republican to get out of this test, seriously.

I hate college.

You know what I hate? When teachers decide to give you two essay questions and tell you that one will be on the test, so you have to prepare both of them. Why do they do this? Because invariably, you get attached to one question. You're comfortable with the question. You and the question understand eachother. You OWN the question. And then when you get the other question, you're at a complete loss and you flounder about wishing for the other question.

So basically, if I get the question about Hobbes and Locke, I'm good to go. If I get the question about the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, I'm screwed. I want to believe I will get my Hobbes and Locke question. But because the universe hates me, I will definitely get the Enlightenment question. Gah.

It got upwards of 68ºF today. In January. I can't wait to graduate and move north to the land of milk, honey, snow and Democrats.

More trivia! Did you know that the reason King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel of Spain were so happy to fund the voyages of explorers like Christopher Columbus had less to do with the spice trade, routes to India and legends of golden cities and more to do with wanting to get rid of their soldiers? Yeah! Apparently after they kicked the Moores' asses out of Espagna, they had way too many rambunctious young assholes loitering about. In fact, these dudes even attacked the northern coast of Africa, without permission. TWICE. Heh heh heh.

Trivia: Napoleon Bonaparte was actually not at all short. He was nearly 5 feet and 7 inches tall, making him above average in height for the time period.

Never say I didn't learn anything in college.

I would just like to say that I am the queen of Drop/Add. I own Drop/Add.

ITAL 2002: (My last required year, hell to the yeah!)
HIST 3060: Colonial and Revolutionary America
HIST 4200: Nation, Race & Culture in Latin America
HIST 6500: The History of Islam in Africa
HIST 2302: Western Society since 1500

I must have added and dropped a dozen histories. This schedule is very nearly seamless, too. I'll be on campus from about 8:45 to 4:30 three days a week. Much with the awesome.

No one can drop/add like I can. It's an art, yo.

I need a European history. But they're all full. Except for History 4700: Christians and Jews in Europe.

But it's at 8:00. OMG, I have an 8:00 class. Life is so unfair.

I'm setting myself up for failure, aren't I? Talk me out of it, PLEASE.

I got an 89 on my big Vietnam test! Big surprise, since my final essay was an incredibly scathing commentary on American foreign policy towards Vietnam and whether or not our FP has changed.

And just to show you guys how much freaking crack I was on when I wrote it, here's my conclusion:

"America's foreign policy often remains dangerously unnuanced and uncompromising. US foreign policy adheres to realist theories of foreign policy and is chiefly concerned with the aquisition and maintaining of power. After World War II, America pitted itself against the Soviet Union in a bipolar battle for power; America established itself as an international "policeman" against communism and socialism, all of which it mistakenly associated with the Soviet Union. Today, America struggles to maintain its hegemonic power and depicts itself as the leader of a "free world." This rhetorical paternalistic [sic] role can be seen in its endeavors in Iraq "to spread democracy" and also in America's realist and mercantilistic goal of establishing a democratic state over which it can wield substantial influence in an oil-rich, volatile region hostile to the U.S. The game is largely the same; only the players have changed."

Yeah, basically I just wrote about what an asshat America is. It was fun. Although I'm not sure how a role can be rhetorical and have an example, but hey. I was short on time.

Also, we're studying Reagan now and OMGWTFBBQ?! The man was on crack. C R A C K. Did you know that in 1983 he made 443 factual errors during public speaking and discourse, but none of it stuck to him? They called him the "Teflon President." (and thanks to q_sama, I knew what teflon was!)

And he believed in "little green men." Colin Powell says he talked about them during NSC meetings. And he got mixed up about carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, so he believed that trees caused pollution! And NO WAY did he win the Cold War; in fact, all the stuff he did probably made it last even longer!

Why is this doofus so beloved? WHY?

What was I thinking when I signed up for Italian? I should have taken Chinese! Or Arabic! Or at the very least Spanish! All of those languages would open doors for me. But NO. I, for some reason, decided that I wanted to take Italian.

And I remember why. I told my advisor that there was no way in hell I was sticking with French, and I was scared to take Spanish because everyone in my classes would know at least a little already and I wouldn't know a thing.

And my advisor said: "Italian is fun! What about Italian?" And I was like, whatever! Okay!

*thunk*

I should just major in Italian and go to Italy and teach English. Seriously. It's not like I know what else to do with my bullshit liberal arts classes. Of course, this would require me to get good at Italian. And the irony is that I actually am getting sort of good at it. I've actually been reading Italian Harry Potter fanfiction, at FF.net. Heh.

But I totally should have taken Chinese. Since China is going to take over the world and stuff.