readingredhead: (Cuppa)
I don't think I have words to explain the kind of "busy" that I've been feeling for the last few weeks. I think part of it stems from the fact that school requires so much more structured, scheduled time out of me here than it did in London and I'm readjusting to that fact. I had 8 hours of class per week in London, and only spent maybe 30 mins per week in office hours. Here, I have 14 hours of class per week and spend at least an hour, usually more like an hour and a half, in office hours every week because it's the best way for me to really engage with the material (and because my professors are kickass).

Also, I'm taking three upper division Berkeley English classes at once -- which is apparently lots harder than taking four second-and-third-year Queen Mary English classes at once. And that's not even mentioning the fact that I'm also taking French here, which is just a constant time drain (though by the end of this all I know it'll be worth it).

I think the hardest part is that some people (not pointing fingers!) don't understand what I mean when I say I don't have free time. They expect me to be there to hang out with them, and honestly, I can't always. In addition to 14 hours of class time per week, I spend 8 hours tutoring or attending tutor-related meetings and 6 hours interning at the Office of Letters and Light (which, if you add in transportation time, probably is actually more like 7-8 hours). And this isn't even including my homework or my sleep! Or, god forbid, time for me to do reading independent of my schoolwork!

I always knew that this semester was going to be hard. I just didn't think that the hard part would be explaining to friends and family why I don't have the time to be with them. But although this semester is hard, it's also utterly necessary to my eventual goals -- and that isn't going to change. So I guess ultimately I just have to get better at saying, "Actually, sorry, I really am up to my ears in work between now and December 31, can we reschedule for next year?"

I suppose the last thing to mention is that, despite how hectic this all sounds, I really do enjoy what I'm doing! My classes are amazing and challenging and nonsensical (that's what happens when you study too much literary theory) and brilliant and I love every minute of (some of) them. Likewise, I'm really excited about the work I do as a tutor and as an OLL intern, and I'm looking forward to once again being an East Bay Municipal Liaison. And I'm also looking forward to reinstating/renovating what was once the Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Workshop class and is now a club that will still workshop sci-fi and fantasy stories but can be far more flexible than a class since I don't have to determine a syllabus in advance.

How mean am I being if I tell people that I'm only really going to have time for them if I see them through school/work/interning already? (Probably pretty mean. But I'm an English major. I won't say it in those words...at least, not until mid-November when I'm starting to get really fed up.)

In the meantime, tea will solve all my problems. That is all.
readingredhead: (Default)
I am strangely busy.

I mean, okay, I should expect some degree of insanity. I'm taking 18 units worth of classes, co-teaching another 2 units worth. I work an average of 8 hours a week for pay and intern for another 4-6 unpaid. I am in two literature classes, each of which requires a good deal of reading and writing, and I am in two writing workshops. For one of those, I don't have to write short stories, but I do have to write extended and thoughtful critiques of student stories. I average 6 pages (single-spaced) of written short fiction criticism a week, between these two classes.

But this month is particularly difficult. I'm busy with something every weekend, even if the things don't take up the whole weekend. Also, I'm thinking I might be getting sick again, and the very idea of illness makes me want to cry. I don't have time to be sick. And yet apparently I have time to stay up late so that I don't get enough sleep so that my immune system isn't terribly strong so that my mother tells me it's my fault I'm sick (and really, it probably is).

I am behind on reading for my Milton class. I hear that for other people, this is normal, but not for me. I was ahead so much in that class that I haven't read for perhaps a month, but am only just now getting behind.

I made printer's pie today in printing class (which sounds much more fun than it is). Basically it's a nice way of saying that you screwed up some lines and will have to spend painstaking hours fixing them. I don't know why it's called after something as delicious as pie.

I have a 10-page paper due for one of my classes at the end of the month. I'm writing for Script Frenzy again, and I won't let myself lose...but the paper is due the day after the end of the frenzy.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE. I did finish my short story for tomorrow. I did get an A on a paper that I wrote while terribly ill. And I did watch a pretty good episode of Castle.

Okay. So life could be worse.
readingredhead: (Light)
--read Absalom! Absalom!
--write Mrs. Dalloway response
--edit English notes

--edit short stories
--edit poetry
--pick poetry and short stories to submit for prizes

--plan November's novel

--study abroad course planning
--study abroad statement of purpose
--fill out annoying application-y things

--read Malia's story
--read Michele's story

Not die. Overall, not dying is always a good thing.

I'm still really enjoying life. Rebecca and I had a kick-off party for NaNoWriMo on Saturday and it kicked ass! People, like, actually showed up. And enjoyed themselves. OMG! :) It was nice getting praised today in the office for how well that went. It's good to be appreciated.

Also I'm looking for a hat to complete my Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa in Casablanca) costume that spontaneously appeared in my life in the form of a $16 vintage coat that is totally Casablanca. It makes me think of Mr. Vargish and therefore my life is improved.

Now I'm just trying not to do things. So I'm going to go do things instead. Hopefully I'll have the chance to post one more my-life-is-going-to-hell-and-you-should-join-me-there entry before November begins, but if not...may the insanity ensue!
readingredhead: (Default)
Found this while researching for Monday's decal course...from http://www.sff.net/people/Saswann/text/wb.htm

Aliens aren't human beings
Star Trek to the contrary, a good SF alien is not a neurotic human in makeup. An alien should be different, and different in a way that is consistent with its planetary environment, its evolutionary history, the culture it comes from, and its own personality. Each of those developmental factors feeds into the next in a descending hierarchy that results in the being's behavior, and each should be consistent to the prior. Even subtle differences in the evolutionary history (assuming all things being equal) will lead to wholesale changes in the culture an intelligent species develops. It is probable that we cannot truly write from an alien point of view, but we can develop our alternate people in a logical consistent manner. If you want to write an alien that is different in some specific manner from us, then work to find an evolutionary reason for its difference (why it would aid the species' survival, or the survival of its evolutionary progenitors) and create a homeworld where such developments make sense.
readingredhead: (Default)
Oh my god. I have been working on decal-related things FOR MORE THAN TWELVE HOURS. I went to a decal facilitator workshop at noon and Natalie and Danica are STILL HERE working on putting together a course reader.

And I still have homework tomorrow. Shit.

*dies*

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