The Brain Diseases of Sickly Web-Spinners, University of Warwick

May 17, 2005

after shakespeare

Well, it is nine hours after laying my hands on the infamous 'shakespeare and selected dramatists' paper and I have not the will to weep. Will is no longer a quality I can employ. Exams drain all the sweetness out of life and then regurgitate melancholy. I'm a bitter, bitter person.

And so is Kat. But I'm sorry to say she's not here right now. Had a rough day; she had to sit the exam all on her own LOCKED away in the far reaches of the philosophy aviary within the Castle of Social Stuidies – opposite the Dungeon (aka Economics). Greg Hunt locked her in there for three hours with only the whirring of conputers and jacobean drama for company. Bizarre combination of worlds, that.

Then again, so is the combination of RUDDY EXAMS and the materials they purportedly examine! What a load of dingo's kidneys (did they include that expression in the new Hitchhiker's Guide? I need to see this new adaptation…).

But who knows, perhaps one day a genius professor will wake up and realise the glorious possibilities for a greater emphasis on continuous assessment. Then again, that would entail a degree of actual rationality and a desire to extricate our higher education system from the archaicisms of 'do-or-die' exmaination slavery!!! It's highly unlikely to ever occur.... I should know: I myself have very little to do with rationality – BUT AT LEAST I CAN ADMIT IT!

: 17 May 2005 20:08 | Comments (2) | Close comments | Report a problem

May 13, 2005

Lost The Plot (if it was there to begin with) (bastard)

Rousseau! Where are you?!!

You apparently cannot exist on the internet OH YOU BOTANIST!!!!! WHERE ARE YOU ARROGANT FRENCHIE BASTARD?!! (nb. No offence to Frenchies, we imagine you regret him like we regret Locke. Some things are sad but just can't be avoided.)

Alright. Does this sound bitter? My friend Gianna and I are just trying to do the noble, honourable thing and find a useful website on Rousseau which tells us everything we need to know for our Textual Studies exam on his Confessions. Just one analysis! One website telling us what the damn book is about. We're not bitter. Or twisted. Or slightly annoyed at wasting two (three?) hours trying to find it. No.

So. All we need is Chapter summaries! Nothing more. No analyses ... just the arc of the story. Is there one?!

All the sweeties... so many sweeties ... oh the Haribo ...

Rousseau MUST DIE!!

… DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE MOST DEPRESSING THING ABOUT ROUSSEAU IS?! HE'S SWISS!!! SWISS! NOT FRENCH AT ALL! and it pains me to emphasise this fact…seeling as i ….i….i…..welll (damn i'm swiss too! :( (gis not kat))

this is getting complicated. i am legion. WE are legion. o hell.

over to you…kat….BA-BOOM!...

_Help me – She's reaching for the POST IT NOTES! Bad things are starting! We're counting page numbers and having to resort to READING THE ACTUAL BOOK! IS this why we pay university fees, I ask you?! So for all you interested people, the first book is THIRTY-SIX pages long. This is our knowledge of the one we call Botanist. no … she's going for the highlighter … does this mean I must work? What have we come to?! The humanity! OH THE HUMANITY!!
I think I'm going to get a cup of tea. Back to you… Gia…_

…. sorry for the outburst. rousseau was mad. so am i. so is kat…don' amount to a hill 'o beans in this crazy world. play it again, Kat…

… actually, don't. we were listening to the prelude for Rousseau's 'chloe and daphnis' opera. it was kinda…uninspired (shhhh! don't tell 'em that!) I WILL TELL THEN THAT! HA!

… Can you paint a book blue with yellow?
... Slightly embittered note (2) against Rousseau - how does the 'one incident which will reveal him' turn out to be his regret for not sleeping with a woman with an inverted nipple??? (p.300-303) Am I missing something or is he very very wrong? Also -- "Born for music" (p.175). "Born for botany" (p.192) ... AGH! 'Reamae calls me a plagiarist with no talent - but everyone else thinks I'm swell...' 'They all went really quiet' ... 'they all hate me' ... Grimm's trying to steal my friends... HE's LIKE A TEN YEAR OLD PRE-BITCHY, POST-NASTY SCHOOLGIRL! ... see, it's an educated dislike. I have read the book.

_… phew … breathe …. _

Rousseau's two loves – love of the self —- and … another love of the self….

_BTW. Has anyone else noticed the similarity between Hamlet and Darth Vader? _

'Thus i concluded my reading and everyone was silent. Such was the advantage i derived from my reading and my declaration.' (p.606)

'May I never have to speak of it again' (p.59, Bk II)

: 13 May 2005 16:53 | Comments (5) | Close comments | Report a problem

May 05, 2005

BLOODSUCKERS

…are on campus! and i'm not talking abouit the finance office. I've been grump all week since I had to go to health centre and they decided to spring a suprise blood test on me. :( Ordinarily I like at least 24 hours notice before (qualified) persons stick needles into me. It went a wee bit wrong though. pretty.

I did learn something new, however; apparently I have VERY MOVABLE VEINS. Almosty as though they have a 'life of their own'...

THE EXCITING BIT TODAY: VOTING! HURRAH! :D although, I will report that exercising my democratic right today was a very lonely experience. Polling Station definitely not where it's at …. But i'm still gfonna watch Bremner Bird and Fortune tonight. and stay up till 2 (i'm such a GRANNY) with beeb in order to feed my election addiction. SHould be cool…how can you go wrong with wine, pringles and a lower Labour majority?!!

: 05 May 2005 19:06 | Comments (2) | Close comments | Report a problem

May 04, 2005

not defensive

Follow-up to IT'S 11.38! from The Brain Diseases of Sickly Web-Spinners

i only blog when i'm stressed, apparently,

so don't y'all mess wi' meh… 'k?

: 04 May 2005 23:29 | Comments (1) | Close comments | Report a problem

May 02, 2005

AND SO IT WAS….

Follow-up to IT'S 11.38! from The Brain Diseases of Sickly Web-Spinners

….the dissertation was ended, and there was much rejoicing.

: 02 May 2005 22:34 | Comments (1) | Close comments | Report a problem

May 01, 2005

IT'S 11.38!

Follow-up to no. 2: (not really trying to make up for lost time….) from The Brain Diseases of Sickly Web-Spinners

…and i went to bed at five. did actaly get some work dome though. hurrah for me. The most exciting thing that's happened in the last week, however, must be that thunderstorm last night. There was a brilliant flash outside the window at four; at first i thought it was the damned paparazzi again, of course ( as you know they hang out in eatlsdon for kicks on a saturday night…) – but then the thunder came, and everything was OK.

If that makes sense. There was one terrible moment of 'power-cut-fear' which lead swiftly to 'immense-fear-that-storm-will-kill-computer-and-thus-screw-essay-and-my-girlish-hopes-of-graduating'.

But evidently Zeus smiled on me that hour.

: 01 May 2005 11:46 | Comments (1) | Close comments | Report a problem

no. 2: (not really trying to make up for lost time….)

….I know I just posted but….cripes. I just realised it's been six months since i started this useless damned blog. oh god.

what the hell does BLOG mean, anyways?

'Big Lumps Of Gravy'

I'm SO sorry you just read that. go somewhere else. It sucks here. :(

: 01 May 2005 01:04 | Comments (2) | Close comments | Report a problem

I'M OFFICIALLY USELESS AT THIS

OK…..i really don't have enough conviction to blog. obviously. this is probably a good thing for you.

I always was crap at keeping a diary.

My dissertation is killing me. by the way. I'll be found tomorrow morning crashed out on a snowstorn of german romanticism. How…poetic. Admittedly, not the demise I envision. Not that I envision a demise often or anything. oh balls.

I really need some inspiration here. Yet As it is i'm simply sliding deeper into that paradox of simultaneous panic and indifference!

well….at least I can always make coffee….

….and at least it's not hegel. or kant. yay.

: 01 May 2005 01:00 | Comments (1) | Close comments | Report a problem