classics is my bluddy life

[written on Thursday 19 November 2009]:

I have neglected my blog for a few days for the only reason that this week has been very revealing for me. My mock interview, my Classics extension class, my interview practice – they've all told me I've a lot of work yet to do, and I need to invest a lot more of myself into it if I want to get rewards for it. More Classics: unseen translation, the Symposium, Classics Magazine contributor-searching. My life has truly been taken over by Classics, that dead subject that nobody in the real world actually cares about. Oh dear. At this rate, I'm truly on my way to becoming one of those snobby academics who have what none of us want: no life. (That's IF I get working.)

Anyway, I turned down a good friend's birthday dinner this week because of that (Classics, that is). Thanks to my mum, actually, whose guilt-tripping is very effective. I never thought I'd come to see the day that I thank my mum for her 'one reward for every drop of sweat' (charming, I know), but because I stayed in on that day (the day of my disastrous interview practice) I now understand what it is that I need to do.

I'm being really boring aren't I. Kids, that's what Classics does to you. Or at least, it's what your Classics HoD does to you when he makes you realise how little work you'd been doing and how much time you'd been spending on my blog, and, hence, how much more Classics-y you need to get. And that is the sad truth of life. I'm going to be really, really, un-funny if I get into Classics any further.

Ach, I'm so funny.

Ok that is not funny, I gotta stop saying that.

Anyway, I have now worked out my future career plan (the one that I'm aspiring to anyway). It's ambitious, it's heavy, but I wanna do it! And I probs won't reveal it just yet.

xxxx

LS' at Babble

[written on Sunday 15 November 2009]

Hi, I think this is the first post that I'm writing as I'm working through the night. Yup, Sunday night and I've just been to a friend's 18^th. Worth it? Definitely. Now I can sit down and focus, without the need for a distraction. Except... I've just found one. You.

I like to write, that's all! One kind of writing I'm slightly anxious about is for my job as my school's Classics Magazine Editor. I don't know what the hell I'm gonna write about (that could be interesting AND suitable). It does not help that the head of the Classics department specially mentioned me and my co-editor in his speech at the Classics Symposium, thanking us "in advance" for the Magazine. No pressure!

I came back from my friend's, only to find my mum looking at me slightly ominously.

"You've got that interview practice tomorrow and you still went out."

[please note, there's no anger ruminating inside of her, she's just talking normally.]

Later, she said to me "I just don't believe you went to a birthday"

"What? Then where did I go?"

"Yeah, tell me where did you go?"

"Euch..."

Funny thing: until she [even later] asked me if we'd "been dancing", I was sure that her idea of birthdays was sitting round a table, having a tea party. Except, not really: my mum's actually quite in touch with the outer universe of teenagers.

On the other hand, my dad had a slightly more serious look about him. "In the future, it would be better if you didn't go out on Sundays because the next day you have school" (though in Chinese it's a lot more assertive in such a way that they don't really mean "it would be better for you" in a nice way. They mean "it would be better for you otherwise i'm gon kick yo ass in")

xxxx

i'm just so funny

Well I've had my embarassment of the day today. I said something that I thought was funny in itself but did not realise at all that there was anunderlying innuendo. Awww, I'm so innocent.

What happened was that I had to give the vote of thanks to an external speaker who gave a talk today, about the 4th Century in ancient Athens. At one point, he talked about men who dressed up as prostitutes because they wanted to get into this place to kill people, so they had swords under their skirts. In my vote of thanks, I said something along the lines of 'I'm sure most of us here are glad we don't have men dressed up as prostitutes with swords under the skirts'. Everyone burst out laughing. I know, I'm just so funny.

But no, they laughed for the wrong reason.

Apparently I looked at my skirt when I said the skirt bit. Which makes it that tad bit worse. And yes, I only realised the innuendo when I sat down and my friend told me. Bah.

xxxx

ps the speaker was Michael Scott. Two people, including the head of Classics Soc and my Latin teacher, have said that he's fit. But...no. He was dashing but not fit. Anyway, I can't believe myself.

classics knows best

Oh dear my blog is a little messed up. I tried to stick in some HTML layout code (neek talk) but it didn't really work and I didn't realise that that erased my old layout...Bah. Ah well, it'll have to do with being average-looking.


What's on my mind today... The fact that I've been advised to put everything second to my priority of the moment – Classics. Oh yeah. So all those English, History, Philosophy essays, those Maths and Chemistry five-page-long sets of questions: they'll just have to be 5/20 quality. Well I've achieved that in History already, and in Maths (well ok, I achieved that a year ago). Chemistry won't be hard to be crap at, I've got two English essay deadlines for next week, and I am horrendously behind on Philosophy homework as it is. Oh and those Philosophy and Maths courseworks – wahey!

On a happier note, the Classics extension class today left me feeling really happy, a feeling that is seldom felt after those classes. And that is nothing to do with the fact that MS groaned and snarled about a gazillion times. Also to do with Classics (it really is taking over my life), the Classics soc secretary has coerced me into doing a thank you speech for the Senior Societies speaker (every week, our school invites outside speakers to speak to us because clearly they think we're not spoken to) tomorrow, because apparently I do very little ('what is there to do for the magazine?!') work for the society. Hell yeah I do, people just don't bloody do anything in return so nobody realises that I'm working! Euch, angst. Yeah, not something I'm looking forward to doing. And, another Classics thing I have to sort out is a) a name for the freakin magazine, b) things to actually go into the magazine? Yeah, b) would be quite nice.
Wow, that post is about 80% Classics-centric.
xxxx