(no subject)

[catslash]

Damn, I missed posting yesterday. Oh, well.

Today started with me waking up and checking my watch. My watch told me I had over an hour before my alarm was set to go off. So I stayed in bed for a while. My alarm did not go off. I squinted at the display and realized that the power had gone out overnight, which killed my clock. "Wow," I thought, "good thing I woke up so early!" I even got up a few minutes early because I always end up rushing to get out the door on time.

So I did my thing, thinking I was five minutes ahead of schedule. Then I grabbed my cell phone and glanced at the display to see if anyone called (I keep it on silent overnight). The time it showed was almost an hour ahead of my watch. Shiiiiit. I call Time and Temp and sure ehough, I'm not five minutes ahead! I'm almost an hour behind, and thanks to the bus schedule, I'm going to miss most of my math class! Whee!

Luckily, my teacher was understanding, so that worked out okay, but sheesh. A power outage and a totally random watch malfunction? Do these things happen to anyone else on the planet except me? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Then I discovered that my Intro to Lit class is most likely going to be really stupid. I can't wait to get past the lower levels of English where everyone is there because it's required to graduate, and up into the levels where people are there because they enjoy the subject and want to be there. Sigh. Gotta put in the time before you get the promotion.

Then I went to go see Pan's Labyrinth. Oh boy. I don't really know what to say. It was an excellent movie, but it shook me deeply and left me crying a whole lot. Mind you, I am quite tired and I cry easily at movies even when well-rested, so your mileage may vary. I was just very unprepared for how grimly realistic large chunks of this movie would be. It is a fantasy movie, but the parts that take place in our world are - very real. And it pulls no punches. I do recommend it, I think, but be a bit more prepared than I was. Hint: the "graphic violence" it got the R rating for? Is not fantasy violence. At all.

So then I wandered, in a despondent movie haze, to the local comic store.

AND. I feel better now. BECAUSE. They are having a signing next month with none other than PETER FUCKING DAVID. Peter David!! I've been a fan of his work for - oh, yes, a decade now. I about wet myself when I saw the sign. (Mandy, Jo was working. I bet the look on my face was something special.) So, come February ninth, I am not working, and I will probably skip Intro to Lit. The signing starts at three, and I suspect that getting off the bus at quarter of and meandering over ain't gonna cut it.

I am so excited.

PS, if my boys would quit leaving my teams and ending up with teams I hate, I would appreciate that. Thank you.

Comments

[all-ahoo.livejournal.com]

Ugh, what kinds of books are they making you read in your Lit class? Having to read books I didn't like was what really turned me off of English in high school.

[catslash.livejournal.com]

We're reading mostly short stories and poetry (Robert Frost, wtf) and shit. The ONE novel we're reading is Huck frigging Finn, which I studied (telling Freudian slip! I originally typed "stupid") in JUNIOR YEAR, thank you VERY much. I did not like it then, I did not like it when I gave it another try a couple years ago, and I doubt much will have changed, and I swear to god if I have to sit through the N-word debate, I WILL GO APESHIT. And oh yeah, I did one of these short stories my senior year and two of them LAST SEMESTER, thanks. And no, I won't be able to tell you when I first "realized what was going on" when we read "The Lottery," because as a human being with a PULSE, I've KNOWN THE ENDING for YEARS.

Having to read books I didn't like was what really turned me off of English in high school.

See, that's what makes me crazy. How many kids got turned off of reading because they had to slog through shitty novels in school? If I hadn't been an avid reader since I was five (the other kids? Dick and Jane. Me? Frances Hodgson Burnett), I probably would have ended up not liking it much myself. I took honors English in high school for the first three years and AP English my senior year, which was great, since the kids at honors level are more likely to take an interest in what they're reading. The AP class in particular was awesome - a lot of great discussion and some really good reading material. This? This is going to be a semester of slogging through bland and uninspiring crap at a pace designed for the mentally challenged with a class full of kids who just want to pass so they can get the credit they need to graduate. Whoopee.

[all-ahoo.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that sucks. My deepest sympathies.

And yeah, I always wonder how many kids get turned off of reading because of the crap they have to read in high school. I mean, I've been a hardcore book lover since the age of three, so my bad English class experiences didn't turn me off of reading, but I can easily see how some kids could be all "Daaaamn, reading sucks."

[ayrdaomei.livejournal.com]

Peter David! That's awesome! I know him more from his writing for TV ( He wrote B5's There All Honor Lies, which is one of my favorite eps) and his Star Trek books. Very cool!

I forgot PL was finally out!