Got back my American Lit. essay. In the comments, it said:

'You might look at the American socialist, Throstein Veblen, and "pecuniary emulation"'

Who? What? Why would I know that?!

It is clearly the reason why my life is not perfect. Pecuniary emulation (whatever that may be) is the way forward.

I really hate it that lecturers mark essays the way they themselves would write them (to be fair they are mainly authors themselves), so that you get a lot of 'You could have included this...' or, 'You might like to look at...'

1. If I was interested in mind reading I would clearly not be studying English. I would be doing BA Mind Reading.
2. I am already over your crappy word count by at least 1,000 words, there is no space to add in your ideas unless my own are so brief that you are provoked into saying 'Extend this...', 'What about that...'.

GRRRR.

Still, 68% is 68%. 2% off a first. Not bad, considering I thought he was going to be a harsh marker.

He was also telling us about the strike the lecturers' union is going on next week for more money, so we won't be having the class. On top of this, he told us the union has decided they won't mark work from the 8th March. Our essay, which is at least 30% of our final mark, is due in on the 24th. Umm, wtf?!
He then goes on to say we should support them and get our parents to support them.

Now I'm not a logical person, but I cannot think of any reason why I would want to support my lecturers in not teaching classes or marking my essays. Especially when I and my parents are paying a few thousand £ in tuition fees.

If this were a feminist fascist dictatorship ruled by moi, they'd count themselves lucky they were still alive.

And not wearing hot pink.

Today was a bit...meh. I was up and down all over the place emtionally. I think I'm kinda tired too.
Went to bed pretty late last night after talking to Nika...went to breakfast at 11 past 8 (lol Nika)...went back to bed to finish reading Henry James's 'Portrait of a Lady' (we aren't allowed to go to the class if we haven't read the book for it). Anyway, I fell asleep - of course - and spent the rest of the morning drifting into sleep, waking up, reading, drifting into sleep...
Which in a way was nice but I woke up more tired.

Lunch was just awful...I couldn't face the 'hot' food so I had a baguette and salad which was pretty nice.

Then at 3 I had a drama seminar...the guy annoys me but it's actually quite interesting, particularly now the group's been split and I have fewer pretentious drama geeks in my half.

Then at half 5 I had to go and see my MadEvil Studies tutor with Helen and Sarah to talk about the seminar we're leading tomorrow. I could say more about that but I won't...aside from to say that she gave us cookies (yay!).

We could smell dinner from the bus stop which was not a good sign, particularly as it was a very strong smell of curry powder. The food looked absolutely disgusting, so I got another salad, but it had been pre-made so had some horrible pastry covered things with it...blergh. The only nice thing was the apple sponge for dessert :love:

I don't normally describe my day in such a boring way, but I feel kind of restless. I'm tired but I have seminar questions for tomorrow, some last bits and pieces to organise for the MadEvil seminar and 40 lines of Old English to translate.....grrr.

But I'm trying my best to stay positive, which is hard when I'm so tired. The only positive thing I can think of right now is that my friend Richard who used to look like this:

Now looks like this:

Which cheers me up a lot whenever I think of it :P

Haven't blogged for ages, for various reasons. Mainly because of a huge influx of visitors (Han, Em, Tom and Andy, who stayed for a total of over 2 weeks straight between them), and the resulting lack of work :P

So since I'm off to the library, I thought I'd just do a photoblog and provide some visuals, since I don't really have any news.

Apart from the fact that yesterday, in minus temperatures, I witnessed a man in suit wearing a suit and orange plastic clogs with holes in them. The world just gets stranger...

Anyway.

1. Yesterday's 'snow'

2., 3., 4. Pictures of me from this morning with wet hair from my shower. The vast majority of people say I'm not in the slightest bit photogenic, so I apologise in advance lol.

5. Part of my shelf with geeky English books. The monkey was a Valentine's Day present

6. Exam results; 70%+ = the highest grade, if that makes sense :P

7. MadEvil Studies: extract of Old English from the poem I'm studying at the moment

8. My new phone!

9. A dog made out of molecule things from Nika's Chemistry set. (Well...it's an improvement on doing Chemistry...)

At home for the weekend.

After a long and fruitless search for my uni 'sports facilities' card, I have found:

- A big bar of orange Fair Trade chocolate from Christmas
- About £20 (nearly $40) (not bad!!)
- 3 packets of Polos
- My European/NHS health card (I have no idea that they even exist or what they are for)
- Postcards of Edinburgh
- A map of Manhattan/New York City
- A bit of volcanic rock I picked up from Mount Versuvius (I seem to remember it got stuck to the bottom of Em's or Natalie's shoe)
- A mini photo of Sarah and Chrissy
- Assorted train/tube tickets from around London, Manchester, Nottingham, Chester and Edinburgh
- Various cash/debit cards (I don't know how I ended up with so many for the same account, and only one of them has expired, weirdly enough)
- A bank statement saying that I withdrew cash in Birmingham (?!)
- An original painting of Capri by a random Italian
- Birthday cards
- A Hard Rock Cafe keyring
- 5 videos
- A DVD I started watching in London in August 2004
- Cosmo Summer Hits CD 2005

None of which will help me get into the bloody gym!!!! :grr:

Just got an email from my MadEvil studies lecturer. It begins,

Dear Medievalists,

I hope you're reading hard and happily ..

Dear Lord.

I am reading 'hard and happily' *cringe*....just not the 13 page MadEvil article we had to print off :P Foiled again, Mr MadEvil :P

So I'm minding my own business, scraping my plate after lunch in the dining room, when the chef randomly appears.

Him: Did you enjoy your meal?
Me: *surprised* Um..yes thanks.
Him: Jolly good!!!! *wanders off*

I had a strong temptation to say 'yes thanks...because you didn't make it' (I had a baguette with tuna and salad), but that would be just too mean. I know he can cook when he wants to, he probably just can't be bothered :P

But seriously, who says 'Jolly good'?! This isn't the 1950s.

Unless...maybe it is!! That would explain my shocking Internet connection recently :P

Anyway...chef part 2 came at breakfast (8 am!!) when we were queuing for food

Him: *chirpy* How are you girls this morning? Good good! *rambles on about how much he loves his job and the people he works with*

Maybe they make hash brownies in the kitchen or something. It must be some form of drugs he's on.

On a completely different (yet still food-related) note, why do the double chocolate chip cookies at Subway have fewer calories and less fat than regular chocolate chip?! Not that I'm complaining...the food in halls is getting so bad I'm craving Subway more than ever. Where the hell is Nika? :grr: