{ as we say our long goodbyes. }

[delga]

Ah, see, I knew it was too good to be true (also: it didn't make much sense). Bryce Dallas Howard joins T4, replacing Gainsbourg.

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So it's probably time to update already. Friday morning was just one long bore. I have never understood why the English exams are always scheduled for the afternoon, but I was in the library until 11.30 and then I went for lunch with T and her friend J; they'd both had a 9am exam. Went back upstairs to my desk after that but then The Flatmate arrived so we hung out in the library cafe instead. She tested me on quotations whilst she had some lunch and then finally it was 2pm and we left for the Union. She's been doing work with the SU, filming various events and the woman she was working with taught her how to edit the clips, so whilst I was in my exam, she was off doing that.

The exam was odd. It was a basic 2-part exam, 1 hour for comprehension, 1 hour for argumentation. The two poems our tutor chose for the compare and contrast were really strange. I thought she might have chosen two religious lyrics then we could explain how the conventions changed across the centuries, but she gave us a religious lyric from C15th and a secular one from C17th. Which. Yeah, that didn't go great (by which I mean, my essay didn't have a lot of close reading; I analysed but I didn't reference a lot) because I couldn't work out how to pull up relevant areas of significance whilst showing that I understood the history of the forms. In the end I picked a few points of comparison and elaborated. So, this poem is like this and if the other poem had been of the same genre, it would have displayed these traits.

The second question was a choice of one from four, and they were generic, theme-based questions. I felt thrown, again, because the themes covered topics we'd never discussed in class, but I picked one about the importance of different voices in the texts/poems, and ran with it. A good question for Paradise Lost (which was my base text - I decided I'd rather choose that then learn 3 different poems). All in all that second question went much, much better. So I don't know how I did overall, because I can't gauge how the marks will even out. I'm worried about my degree classification (because that's what I do) and apparently we get our dissertations back this week (which I don't want because the day after I handed it in, I could see in my mind exactly what needed changing to bring the damn grade up). So. Yeah, I don't know. I do know that results come out 20June, but contrary to my desires, I'll be back in the Fen by then.

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After the exam, I sauntered out to the SU - the exam was held in the Sports Hall so we were right next to the Union - to find a couple of my classmates sitting on one of the benches outside the pub. I sat down to wait for The Flatmate to turn up and we ended up sitting there for a couple of hours whilst people relaxed post-exam, and drank.

Around 6pm we left for the house, but when we got there The Flatmate decided she wanted a sub so we headed straight out again for Pw. to go to Subway. When we got there we ended up in The Mitre for a couple of hours so it was after 8pm when we finally bought food and headed back to the house. Then we cornered T and watched the Lost finale, most of which we spent being traumatised for reasons not entirely connected with the show. Do we have to wait until January for the next season? Après we watched the episode of X-Files with the subliminal messages. "Kill. Kill 'em. Kill 'em all." Hilarity!

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Saturday I spent watching X-Files and then walking in, around and back from town. The Flatmate and I watched Doctor Who and were happily creeped out. I am also 100% in love with River Song/Alex Kingston's character, who I found to be delightful. But oh, Donna! I love Donna a lot, so that was a bit distressing. (Tate was overplaying it at points, though, because she was coming off a bit less like Donna and a bit more like Lauren.) We warned T and J not to go near the shadows when the headed back to the library for their late study session, heh. Then we ate quickly and headed to the cinema to see Indiana Jones which was really enjoyable. I like that kind of silly action caper, and I thought it was pretty well done, all things considered. I loved Blanchett's character so much. I loved that her destruction came about because of her greed for knowledge/power, and not as a result of her stupidity. She remained a smart, compelling character through to the film's finale. Also, the film was weirdly life-referential! The Flatmate and I picked out six or seven ironic references (inadvertent, obviously, although it felt like we were being spoken to) to our lives in the past fortnight - silly things like shadows, or Pan Am which was a big part of The Aviator, of course (another Blanchett flick). It was bizarre. All in all, a great night.

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Yesterday I spoke to The Mother for the first time in a fortnight (re: going home shenanigans, ugh) and then to The Sister who has the last of her AS exams today. The Flatmate and I went out at 3.30pm to discover the other half of the local park and ended up walking a mile or so towards another town before heading back. It was a nice day, actually. I think that I'm going to wash my face again and then go for another walk today. I'm enjoying the activity, which is new. I mean, I've always liked walking, but I like the energy it gives me. Am lacking in that in most other departments currently.

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Isn't this picture fantastic? People have been talking about the second season recently, and I finally caught up (after a year!) with the finale. I'm excited!

After our long walk yesterday, The Flatmate and I watched The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (Doctor Who), and I know it's a couple of decades earlier, but Nancy's coat is gorgeous. 1900s dress pre-70s is sort of smashing.

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Let's finish how we started off: Thandie joins the cast of Roland Emmerich's 2012. Huzzah! Girl is also playing Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone's Bush biopic, W. Thandie gave a great interview with The Guardian last week. You can find it here but I doubt you're as interested as I am, heh.

Comments

[zeitheist.livejournal.com]

I wasn't very fond of River Song. I want to like her, and the timey-wimey stuff surrounding her is really quite fabulous, but she's so smug. On reflection, I like her better when I can't actually see her. The rest of the episode, however, was fabulous. Giant library! Swarm in a suit! The 'ghosting' was genuinely the most frightening moment of the episode, though.

Also re: Indiana Jones, I'm interested as to what you thought of the alien plot? Because I know a lot of people (myself included) found it a little bit too hard to believe, whereas others have pointed out that it's no more unbelieveable than any of the artefacts in previous installments. So: thoughts?

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of Kingston, so I guess that's a bias. But the episode was great either way. Creepy! Oddly existential and metaphysical! Shadows, aaaarrrrghh! Smash. Ing.

Hahaha, I thought that was lolarious! But it's not like I sat there weighing the relative plausibilties of each plot? So. I felt like I'd slipped into a Stargate knockoff for a while there but that's up my street. It didn't throw me.

I would have liked it if Irina had kicked Mutt's ass, though.

[zeitheist.livejournal.com]

It wasn't quite enough to make me stay out of the shadows, although I had a moment of pause last night where I turned the lights out. Unlike, say, Blink, where I was having staring contests with statues for a month.

I think the only moment that really strayed into disbelief territory was when the alien skeletons merged into one living alien. Other than that, I think somebody should have factored in that, whilst most people can suspend their belief for the Holy Grail, aliens are probably a step too far.

Aw. Mutt was one of my favourite parts of the movie! (I feel ashamed to admit that. I'm not a closet teenage girl, I swear). Except when he was being a whiny brat with daddy issues. The switchblade-flipping he did was pretty cool, though.