Fridays

I have more papers to grade this weekend. Will it never end? Probably not. The English 15 class here that all Freshmen have to take is ridiculous. 5 papers and one final portfolio. That's a bit much if you ask me. Plus, I've gotta figure out some ways to liven up 8:00 in the morning. Because really, none of us want to be there at 8:00 in the morning. But I want to make it enjoyable while we're there.

I also met with my Mentoring group today. The idea is that we have one full-time faculty member who knows what's up and five to six new grad students like me; we meet together and talk about problems and whatnot. (By the way, "whatnot" should be used more frequently. Discuss.) But our group doesn't really click, and our mentor, though a nice guy, wants these to be fun lunch meetings so he keeps scheduling them at coffeeshops and restraunts, but all of us are somewhat poor grad students, so that doesn't fly. Plus we all just kind of have our own ideas, so we're not very collaborative. Basically it's just a waste of time.

However, this week is 60s Cinema in my American Culture 1945-1975 class, so that's fun. I just finished North by Northwest and earlier this week The Wife and I watched Dr. Strangelove, which is quite entertaining. Now I've got Manchurian Candidate (the original: Go Frank Sinatra!) left, and then I'm done with that class for the week. Which means I might actually have time to do some research on my baseball project this week. Woot!

Also, I've just started Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. So far it's actually quite good, though I've heard there's some strong graphic violence later on. She's a good writer though. I'm impressed. And that reminds me: I need to start taking the time to actually write more. Not blog writing, because I probably still do too much of that for all 3 people that actually read this ever. But fiction writing. I haven't written in a while. Yargh.

Oh, I think I'm going to wait on a laptop for a little longer. I want to wait untill we've saved the money for it, because I feel bad spending that much and then also leaving us with $400-500 on the credit card for something I'll be using alone the majority of the time. Maybe after Christmas, when I get my second extra funds bonus. (Unless anyone can get me an awesome 5-6 lb. laptop for $600. Then contact me on the sly, yo!)