Cleolinda everywhere

Just got this email from Clifton, who has taken class(es?) with Crazy Drunk Professor:

No, I would immediately drop the class if I was enrolled. However, I am only taking the children's lit workshop, which saves me a trip to the registrar. :) I can tell you now that if [CDP] teaches the class you will get NOTHING out of it.

All right then. We drop the class. (Update: Woot! No drop charge when you do it online before first day of class! Go me!)

(Update 2: I finally remembered to check my grades--they don't mail them out anymore. Remember Paper-Induced Dementia? Made an A. Fiction workshop? A. Poetry workshop? B. I'm slightly stunned. I'm trying to think of a wankless way to say this, and I can't: I have never made less than an A in a writing class before. I'm going to have to believe that Crunk is the first professor I've had with the balls to grade on more than just "effort." My pride's a little wounded, but at the same time, I know it's a B he really means--it's not an empty A that could really mean anything in terms of the quality of my work. Hmmm. Did I mention that the children's lit class is with him?)

Storm's on its way.

Speaking of Storm, Mom had me bring X2 downstairs to watch. I was being all, "Moooom, I have stuff to do," and then she said, "But I'm making chocolate chip cookies!," and it was just over for me, really. So that's how I've spent the last two hours.

I can't believe I go back to class tomorrow.

Oh, I'm about done with the Cleo Awards. It's really hard to spread things around equitably, particularly when you haven't seen as many movies as you'd've liked, but I use very scientific methods to arrive at them ("Whatever I Damn Feel Like"), so they ought to be all right.

...and all hell breaks loose. Well, sort of. Lights Out Entertainment and Movieweb (my beloved source of giant hi-res publicity stills) went and merged, and while they're merging, the giant hi-res publicity galleries are down. Oh, and all the pictures in the world came out. But it doesn't really matter, does it? Because I suck, and have not updated the Digest in several millennia. And everyone else is merging and improving and upgrading and generally making me wonder why I bother running a movie site, and then I remember that the point of it is to basically create a daily roll call of what's out there, not to break news myself, because it's not like I have that kind of connections or anything. Oh, and I am the only girl running a movie site. Well, probably not the "only," but it feels like it.

I think this is also why I feel sad about the LOTR trilogy coming to an end, because it was one of the first movies I started covering, and going out of my way to put up wallpaper, screen caps, extra features, etc., brought me a lot of readers back in the day. It's just--it's sort of like being a teacher and seeing your kindergarten students graduate college. Hell, I get sort of misty about all kinds of movies coming out ("I remember when they were first casting Master and Commander!"), because I'm sad like that.

And of course I've got two portfolios, an exam, and a paper to turn in and can't even begin to think of doing anything about the not-updating right now. I suck.

We're reading selected Yeats and/or Heaney poems aloud tonight, blah blah blah last night of this class, blee blee blee haven't started my paper due in two days yet. I think I'm getting the end-of-term blues, the kind you get right in the homestretch as it's all about to be over.

Let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Quinlan, who is awesome. He's Irish, and used to be a monk, but now he's married and has kid(s? not sure), and got his degree in Southern literature, and just emailed me back and said he'd give me the handout and let me turn the Heaney two-pager in next Monday, because he is awesome. Just so you know.

Although I still don't understand how we're on "Day 11" on the syllabus and not "Day 10" (see where the lack of dates was confusing me?).

So now, because Dr. Quinlan is awesome--holy shit, why are Sheridan and Luis in a Hansel and Gretel fantasy sequence with Beth as the witch... from the Wizard of Oz? Seriously, how much money did they splash out on that? Sorry, watching Passions--I get to catch up on my sleep, since I lay bolt awake staring at the ceiling until four o'clock last night, and I get to update the Digest, and I get a head start on the Larkin packet for Wednesday (which I just have to turn in--the presentation is for the next week), and I have a week to figure out what the hell some of those Heaney poems were about. They're not all as straightforward as "Digging," it appears. Did I mention Dr. Quinlan is awesome? Because he is.

Crap, I keep almost-forgetting: I have to register for spring classes online at 3pm. It's no big, except that I have to hit the "register" button at the stroke of three to get into some of these--thank God I'm a grad. Of course, if I didn't, I'd just go around and beg professors and get sigs until I did, and fortunately since I know both the workshop professors this time, we won't have a repeat of the unfortunate incident that began the semester ("I'm sorry, if you haven't had the previous class, you're not qualified. Get out." Suffice it to say the professor wasn't aware of the different requirements for grad students, and I ended up getting an email of apology).

(Dude, they're back to the Hansel and Gretel fantasy. This is too trippy, even for Passions.)

Speaking of Hansel and Gretel, here's what I'm taking: Fiction Writing Workshop (again), with the same professor as this time; Children's Literature Workshop, with my poetry professor; and some 600-level seminar to knock out another requirement. You know, I haven't taken much American lit; maybe I'll take that seminar. I could take Beowulf (I hear Vladimir screaming at me from another continent right now, TAKE IT! TAKE IT!!!), but then I'd have two 2-1/2 hour classes in one night, and--no. I'm getting my creative writing MA, in case you can't tell. Not that this is terribly marketable, but I was a Spanish major/French minor in undergrad, which was lovely and gave me a nice linguistics background, and I still do a little Spanish translating for my stepfather's company here and there, but by the time I was done I was determined to get a degree in something I actually wanted to do.

(How can Hansel and Gretel have a baby? Aren't they siblings? And how much did it cost Passions to get rip-off Wizard of Oz music? And why does the Beth actress have Meg Ryan fish lips--heeeee, Beth's mother is a giant chicken. That's awesome.)

So. Ought to get to work, then. Extreeemely anxious about my Black Ribbon workshop tomorrow night, because they're going to hate it. When I workshopped the first chapter, half the class was vocal (they mostly liked it, but had constructive things to point out, things they didn't understand and needed clarified, etc.), but the other half just stared sullenly. Not looking forward to Workshop 2: Electric Boogaloo. And my poor Lucky Dog is getting multiple lime baths today for his fungus. Poor baby. I miss my dog.

Marvelously unproductive day. Have been watching Carnivàle marathon (motto: “Hòoked On Phonìcs Wòrked For Mè!”) since early afternoon; all caught up now. Nick Stahl definitely growing on me.

Did talk to Vladimir. As predicted, he was quite upset with me about the NaNo, and of course he's right, I am stretching myself too thin. But I can't help it... (oh, shit. I just remembered that I have a presentation to turn in... a week from Tuesday? On Philip Larkin. I think. Hell. And I forgot to email Dr. Quinlan to get the article to read for tomorrow night's class. Piss.) Anyway. I can't help it--I couldn't stand the thought of having to wait for next year's NaNoWriMo, and I actually feel really good about what I've written for it so far. (Wrote a little more today, in fact, but I write out of order, so I can't post it on FP yet--not until I get to a part where it will make sense.) And it is BR-related, and maybe it'll help me focus...? I don't know. Vladimir liked it in the end, I think, but he made me promise not to take on anything new until spring ("Well, spring comes early down here, so... sure!").

And I sit here and think, You can do this. You don't make very good use of the time you have. So you have the time. You just have to take it and use it. I dare you. And then I remember that I've got to update the Digest, too, and get in touch with Neo Commentary because I've finally thought of something to write for them, but when Hotmail erased my inbox I lost the editor URL, and I feel a shutdown coming on. I don't know why I let stress shut me down so easily.

(Oh, and I have to talk to the English head about the classes I need to register for next Monday. Did I mention I have a weird shy streak? Gah.)

I need more tea.