From English 233

Hello there!

I'm incredibly bored. I'm a whole piece behind in this class and I care far less than I should. Oh well. I'll write about something until class is over in 30 minutes.

I finished Downton Abbey this weekend. Both seasons. I officially have no feelings left. Thomas keeps getting shafted and I hate that. I think he needs a hug, a real hug, and then his life will get better. Or he needs a boyfriend (no that's not me fangirling, he's canonly gay). I want something to go nicely for him for once. Then maybe, just maybe, he'll stop being a massive knob.

Also, Mary and Matthew are getting married. Maybe now Mary will stop being a selfish bitch.

Anyway, Chapters had a sale the other day, 4 for 3, and I only went in to get Great Expectations. Honest. I ended up finding the BBC editions of A Study in Scarlet and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I needed one more so I picked up Middlemarch. I'll have to see how that goes.

I'm working on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré right now. I'm prohibiting myself from seeing the movie before I've finished the book. I'm so excited to finish, I want to see it so badly.

Ugh I've only been writing for 10 minutes. I'm gonna grab my notebook and try for a few paragraphs of something.

Take care, party people.
~Alexandra

Dear Lord...

It's almost been a month. I'm ashamed of myself. (2 weeks, but whatever)

Hey guys,

I know that I've sworn off TV but I was doing homework in the dining room the other day and my mom had on some PBS thing where they were raising money so I was like "whatever" and plugged my headphones in and kept working. When I unplugged and got up to go to the bathroom I turn to the TV and suddenly Maggie Smith. Naturally curious I took a seat and started watching. This magical thing that I found is called "Downton Abbey". This is a period drama set around WWI and focuses on the upstairs and downstairs world of British aristocracy at the time. It is very accurate in it's details, which I love more than anything, and the cast is beautiful.

My favourite characters, I have decided, are Thomas and O'Brian. In that order. Why? Because I think that Thomas, although he is a dick now, is really just a defenseless child on the inside. I can justify this, just give me a moment. In season 2 right after Lieutenant Courteney committed suicide there was a cut to Thomas alone crying. I read somewhere that we see a character's true personality when he or she is alone in a scene. I believe that Thomas is really a good person turned bad by whatever flack I can assume he took for being gay in the early 20th century. I really want to see what happens to him. And O'Brian is just the same, minus the gay part. I think she has potential.

So, that's all the reflection I have since reading week. It's inspired me to write again, which I needed after my midterm madness.

I hope you're all doing well!
~Alexandra

You know what really grinds my gears?

Hey guys,

You know those people, we all know one, who says something actually halfway intelligent only to subsequent it with "but such is our society" or some other arbitrary clause that has no business being in the present conversation? That seriously pisses me off. I feel like the only purpose of adding that to the end of your thought is to try to sound more intelligent or, alternately, more like a hipster. Frankly I think the former is more popular. What I hate to tell these people is that you are not achieving the desired effect, you are only making yourself sound like a narrow-minded moron.

I hate to follow this by offering up the anecdote which brought this on. Several weeks ago I was having a conversation with a friend of mine on twitter. His girlfriend, my best friend, cuts in, says something that sort of made sense and then tacked on "but such is our society" and instead of calling her out on it, which I should have done, I sat on it and fumed. Now here we are, I'm ranting and raving about this and she has no idea that she sounds like a self-deprecating hipster.

So please, ladies and gentlemen, I you feel like making a stab at society please, please make sure that the comment is warranted and tactfully placed in conversation. Please.

I hope everyone's week has gone well and to those who have reading week coming up: enjoy!
~Alexandra

P.S. A quick shout out to my friend, Joe, who actually reads this blog. I always appreciate someone listening to my raving, and for some reason it's usually you. You're awesome.

WOOO!!

Hey guys!

My laptop is back and it works!!!! I really had to say something! I'm over the moon right now!!

Also, Supernatural: Witch's Canyon, Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, and The Language of Gaming came in the mail.

It's party time.
~Alexandra

P.S. Archery tonight, wish me luck!

Making Progress

Hey guys,

Since Oct 30th 2011 I've been doing the fan fiction 100 theme challenge except instead of working with a fandom I've been working with Klashiva. As of last week I finished the challenge! I've spent the last few days leafing through my work to organize some episodes for the Klashiva serial. I'm very glad to announce that I've finally started writing the first chapter. I don't have even a working title yet so I can't really share much, but I can say that I have very high hopes for this story. I'm really excited to get something posted for you guys! I am going to attempt to finish writing episode 1 in its entirety before I post it, so it might still be a little while coming.

In other news we sent my computer off last week so I'm hoping that it will come back in working order within the next 2 weeks. So that I can be back to my previous productivity ASAP.

I'm tying to waste a half hour before German starts here. I forgot my notebook at home so I can't write, which I hate, but that's life.

I hope you're all doing well!
~Alexandra

*Insert Decent Title*

Hey guys,

I can't think of a title for this one. In fact, I'm not sure what I'm even going to write about because honestly I have very little to say, I just felt bad for you leaving you all alone for so long.

I've just been doing school as usual and I've been dealing with my lack of computer since mine broke- which we're still trying to get fixed- and it's been pretty monotonous. That being said, I'm having a lot of fun this term because I'm actually taking classes that pertain to my major: English.

I'm taking a Shakespeare course which is being killed for me because the teacher is a horrible person.

I'm also taking a very interesting non-fiction course in which we focus on an anthology of essays which are actually proving to be more interesting than they sound on the surface. The first one that we read was "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift written in the 1700s in which he describes the number of homeless and begging women with their broods of children in Ireland. He suggests that the optimal solution is to nurture the children to 1 year of age- because they are costlessly breast-fed until this age- and then to sell them on the market as what is essentially livestock. Clearly this essay is satirical, but it was actually very insightful into many of the problems in Ireland at the time. I'm really enjoying this class so far. The prof is pretty awesome, to boot.

I'm actually doing a creative writing class! I'm rather proud of myself for finally taking initiative in my chosen area. We're only doing poetry right now, which isn't exactly showing me to the best of my ability. Let's face it, I can't do poetry to save my life. Soon we'll be doing prose and then I can really flaunt it! I'm looking forward to grueling feedback.

Other than that I'm doing Greek Mythology- yes that's a course- and German II. I'm having a lot of fun and I'm actually doing well so far.

I hope you are all well!
~Alexandra

So Sherlock Yesterday...

Hey guys,

So, Sherlock yesterday. ALL OF THE EMOTIONS. I don't think I have ever been that moved by a TV show ever. The acting was phenomenal, the writing was excellent, and frankly the sentiment was beautiful. Some one wisely said on tumblr yesterday "They didn't need to say 'I love you.' They really didn't." I agree wholeheartedly. (In case no one knew, I'm an avid Sherlock/John shipper.) I wait with baited breath for series 3. Bastards are probably going to make us wait the full three years.

Anyway, I know need to try and conduct my life normally today after my extreme emotional bruising from yesterday. Thanks so much Gatiss and Moffat, I love you guys too.

~Alexandra