Thursday, September 30, 2010

Drudgery.

I feel like I should share a little something, even though I have nothing new to share. Life goes on. Latin goes on. Spanish goes on. English goes on. You know, the usual.

My days are spent with school, homework, and napping.

But I love it. Even if it is lonely at times.

Listening to: The Mummy Returns
Reading: The Phantom of the Opera

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Doodlies.

I just can't stop making new blogs, can I? Here I've gone and made another over at Tumblr. Though admittedly, it's for a specific purpose. A lot of artists have blogs where they post works in progress and doodles and such. Well, I wanted one, too. I've sort of been experimenting with doing that a little here, but I don't like that it's all mixed up with my this-is-how-my-day-went posts. Furthermore, I like the sheer simplicity of posting over at Tumblr.

So, if you want to see what would be commonly known as my "sketch blog," mosey on over.

Listening to: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Reading: The Phantom of the Opera
Reading for class: North and South

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Update.

Ugh. Since school started, I've sort of tapered off all internet activity except Facebook and deviantART. I just don't feel like I have time for everything. Even that comparatively little time wasted comes with no lean share of guilt for neglecting homework. It's not just that I've stopped posting, such as here, but I've even stopped my faithful reading of other's posts.

It's sad, but true, that I just don't have the time. Sometimes I'll think that I'll get caught up on the recent activity when the weekend comes around, but I never do.

But there is light in the darkness. One happy side effect is that instead of spending my spare time on the internet, getting lost in chains of links for hours, I've started reading like I once did. While this means that you're not hearing from me as much, it also means that I'm feeling like myself again. It has worried me for quite some time that I haven't been able to focus on books like I used to do. For months, possible a year or more, I've had to reread things, bogging down my reading experience and making it distasteful and drawn out. That seems to have mostly cured itself. It still occurs sporadically, but rarely. I think part of the antidote was my British lit. class. Instead of using an anthology, our teacher chose to focus on longer works. The novels we've been reading and the time constraints I've had on getting through them have refocused me and I now find myself getting through personal reading better. It definitely helps that I am thoroughly enjoying all of our assignments for class.

I have also worked through the anxiety of my Spanish major. I have decided to keep it, but to switch the track from linguistics to literature, a move that I think will be both less stressful and more enjoyable. I am also going to seriously look into doing a study abroad next summer. I'm going to schedule appointments with the appropriate people and fill out the appropriate paperwork. My desired destination is Leon, Spain, where, if all goes well, I will spend four weeks and take a literature class and a culture class. I prefer Spain over anywhere in Latin America because they use verb tenses and such that aren't commonly heard in this hemisphere. And besides, where better to learn Spanish than Spain?

I've also had some sort of nasty sore throat/head cold going on this weekend. It started about Wednesday with a sore throat, which worsened to the point of painful speech on Thursday. By Friday, the sore throat had slackened off, but the ailment had worked its way upward, resulting in a debilitating headache on Saturday and an annoyingly runny nose.

But I got my Kindle, so it's all good. All 14 of Baum's Oz books? 95 cents.

Listening to: Cardinal's game
Reading: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Reading for class: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Colorado.

I've meant to blog about my Labor Day weekend in Colorado, but school overpowered me and now I feel like I've lost the will (not to mention like I can't spare the time) to write a long narrative about it.

You've already heard me enumerate my love of the Rockies, so I suppose I can skip that part. Imagine me reiterating it, though. And add some love for the way those coniferous woods feel in the early morning, when it's light out but the sun isn't quite up.

We (Dad, his girlfriend, and her kids) went up there to see my brother and his family. My nieces are so adorable! They both have the hugest blue eyes. They started out quite shy, but by the end of the weekend and after half an hour of my drawing Sesame Street characters, the oldest had really warmed up to me. I'll admit it was a little surreal to be referred to as Aunt Rebekah.

My brother and sister-in-law really enjoyed seeing all of us, too. They told me covertly that they would especially enjoy it if I came up to visit them by myself sometime. Am I going to take them up on that offer? You bet I am!

Apparently we took the long way there. The GPS said it was the shorter route, but it had to have been referring to how the crow flies. There were so many hills it added four hours to the trip. On the way home we took all interstates. It would've been shorter if we hadn't broken down an hour from home. Good thing my dad's a mechanic. He fixed it with a staple and some radio wire and we were home free. Still, I think I prefer the long scenic route. It's that love of mountains again.

To make this post any more disjointed I would have to bring up the fact that I seem to have stumbled upon a recent dinosaur obsession, which manifests itself in the purchase of dinosaur shaped sprinkles and dinosaur egg oatmeal. Speaking of, I wish I could've gone to the dinosaur museum in my brother's town. Next time, maybe.

On another side note, I've ordered one of the new Amazon Kindles. I've been wary of the whole eReader scene, but I was thinking about it and I came to the conclusion that the power to carry 3,500 books around with me in a space the size of a small notebooks is kind of an exhilarating prospect. A lot of classics (my favorite genre) are completely free on the Kindle, so I would be able to delve into the list of old books I would love to read with relative ease. New books on the Kindle are noticeable cheaper than their tangible counterparts. My logic is I can read books on the Kindle, then if I decide I can't live without them and I have to have a hard copy, I can spend a little extra and get a hard copy. Another thing about the Kindle is it will be easier to travel with. Instead of carefully arranging my volumes in my backpack so as to offer each the maximum protection while still maximizing on space, I can leave my precious paperbacks and home and just slip the Kindle in instead. I can also put the scriptures on it, so I could take it to church instead of lugging my full-size quad around. Man, just talking about it is making it sound better and better.

Listening to: Bones
Reading: Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Primary.

I forgot to mention that on Monday we sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in my 300-level college class. Could this school be any greater?

Listening to: "Objection" by Shakira
Reading: The Truth About Forever