Schoolwork/Miracle Cleansers

Five weeks into the semester, and it feels like its been months. I’m just slogging through it, social excursions at a minimum. I finally snuck out to see Little Miss Sunshine on Sunday and felt like a rebel. This past weekend was particularly tough, as I needed to read and note feedback on 18 student papers for conferences this week in addition to all the reading, translations and writing that were due. Wednesdays are usually a bit of a catch-up day, but tomorrow I am going to an all-day Old English Workshop. There are some dudes from England coming to lecture on such things as problems with translation, and illuminated manuscripts. I’m not really sure what it's all about really. I’m hoping there will be some arts and crafts…like “Make Your Own Illuminated Manuscript—the Graphic Novel of the Anglo Saxons!” But I fear they probably don’t do arts and crafts at Research One universities.

It’s also a big week for my writing, as I had the first part of a fiction piece up for critique in class last night, and we’ll be work-shopping an essay tomorrow afternoon as well. The fiction piece went over well, as the teacher liked it, and allowed it to “pass”…which means that I get to write the next section for our next workshop instead of throwing it away and starting something new, which is standard. There is a certain amount of pressure that goes along with this, because I guess he can revoke his opinion upon seeing the next section if it doesn’t live up to the first one. Stay tuned for further exciting updates on that.

Here is something truly exciting: I’ve found a miracle cleanser! Living in run-down student housing that hasn’t been upgraded since the early seventies means that sinks, tubs etc, essentially look like crap. I’ve tried various cleansers, along with straight bleach and hot water, with only limited success. The other day though, a bottle that was balanced on the soap rack tipped over and dripped into the tub. When I looked, I noticed that the trail left by the substance was a brilliant white! I called Paul upstairs to look, jumping up and down, saying, “That’s what our tub looks like underneath!” To test our hypothesis we poured more of the substance over other parts of the tub and let it sit. The next day we scrubbed it off (it didn’t take much scrubbing either) and Voila! It was beautiful to behold. And smelled nice too.

What’s the magic potion? Alberto V.O.5 Free Me Freesia Shampoo. I’ve started using to clean the toilet and sinks as well. I’m incredibly happy, although a little scared of what it might happening when I actually put in on my scalp. If you try it, let me know what you think.

Refreshing Young Advertisers?

Last year, Paul produced one of the ten finalist films in Coca-Cola’s Refreshing Young Filmmakers Award. (It was called “The Kiss,” and you can see it here.) This year he has dreams of going all the way.

The contest, which began in 1998, is open to college film students only. The winning film garners a cash prize, possible contacts in the industry, and the exposure of being shown during previews on commercial theatre screens across America.

For several years after the Award’s debut, the theme for the films, as set out in the guidelines, was of the “magic of the movies” variety. No product placement was required, but you could not have a competitor’s product in the film. In the 2005 winning film, the youth who camps out in a tent for an upcoming movie, and the box office girl, do just happen to share a magical movie moment at the end, that includes a Coca-Cola. Ka-chink.

The rules for 2006 marked a change. The theme was now “how Coca-cola enhances the movie-going experience.” Ka-chink.

This year’s rules have eliminated movies as required subject matter at all, instead:

“This year’s screenplay should present a story that illustrates how Diet Coke is an ally for survival in a hectic everyday life… picking people up and calming them down… making their busy lives seem effortless.”
Note the following line: - "This is not a Diet Coke commercial but Diet Coke should play a central role in the story." Ka-chink.

My predictions for next year?
“Okay, it is a commercial. Here’s our new product: Make people want to by it.” Ka-chink.

Look—Connect Four—diagonally! Pretty sneaky Coca-Cola. We didn’t even see that one coming.

Procrastination

I don't know if I've mentioned that after attending many classes at the beginning of the term, one that made the cut was Old English...not like "good ol' english" but like the English that was spoken back in the 6th through the 11th century. Beowulf is the famous literary peice that was originally written in Old English. Here's a sample (minus a few markings that I can't reproduce on a normal keyboard):

Heo wolde hire maeg wrecan.
This means "She wanted to avenge her kinsman."

As you can see, it bears only the very slightest resemblence to present day English. There are nineteen forms of the word "the" and some insane number of verb forms, and the nouns are also altered according to gender, number, and use--like if the noun is the subject, it will be spelled and pronounced differently than if it is the direct object, indirect object or object of a preposition.

I have so much memorization to do.

So I'm writing this.

Which brings me to an interesting point. Not since highschool algebra have I had a class which so motivates me to do almost anything else before I can settle into the task, which is not to say that I'm not a procrastinator in general, because I am. The bright side of this whole thing, is that because I take many writing classes, often my procrastination involves NOT WRITING. However, I'm finding that when it comes to Old English, often I will procrastinate by WRITING. Thus in the past week, during the time that I have been trying to plow through three chapters of verb forms, I have written a full first draft of a piece for my Article and Essay class.

Now I just need to find the task that is so daunting that I would choose to translate long chapters of Old English text just to avoid it. I guess it's never to late to take Calculus...

Out like a light

I just woke up from a nap and realized how appropriate is the term “falling” asleep. For me it’s a free fall, and almost as fast (I am generally sleep deprived, yes). I hit sleep like concrete and dark waters at the bottom of a deep well.

And waking up, it feels like I have fallen. My bones ache and both my blood and thoughts have to be forced back into motion. I would attribute this to getting older, but then I think of little kids who wake up from their naps stunned, then are unable to deal for many minutes after, and I realize it's that same feeling.

What’s my unconscious doing all that time?

Yeah, nothing happened today

Five loads of laundry in the morning. We're back living at our old apartment now so this means driving it to the laudromat that is here on the compound. Decided to go wild and use dryer sheets, which I don't normally remember--static cling isn't really at the top of ones clothing woes when the average humidity hovers around 80%. Got a little over zealous as I went down the line of dryers, and accidentally put a dryer sheet in with some one else's clothing. Then had an odd paranoid hallucination where the unknown owner of the laundry was desperately allergic to all things fragranced, and broke out in hives upon donning her clothes.