home stretch

Just when I thought finals couldn't get any more intense, they do.

Monday: If there's one thing I love during finals it's a working class. I spent most of it slaving away on one (rather difficult) photo.

Tuesday: I spent much of the day working on homework, including printing the first set of photos for my project for the WftA show.

That evening, we had a meeting to decide the next direct action. This one will be an outdoor party, celebrating the end of an intense year and letting the bigwigs know that the students are going to come back even stronger next Fall.

Wednesday: I spent much of the day writing for WftA and Obsolescence. I also registered for the last two courses that I'm going to take next Fall. In addition to APC, I need to take nine credits of art history. Two can be any level, but one must be a 3000- or 4000-level course. There weren't many 3000-level courses to choose from that hadn't already been waitlisted (which is nuts, considering that registration only opened a few weeks ago) and I don't have enough history credits to take 4000-level courses. Before registering, I went through the academic calendar and made a list of all the history courses that I was interested in. I then had a look on WebAdvisor (which is where you register for courses) to see what was actually available for next Fall. Only one of my choices was available: Survey of Indigenous Art, which is a 2000-level course. Most of the 3000-level courses that were available required prerequisites that I didn't have. The only courses that met my credit requirements were Craft and Design History 1750 - 1950 and Craft: Decor Arts of Ancient Rome. The first one (which lists 20th Century Art as a prerequisite) is the prerequisite for the second one. Whew! Thankfully, I already have four history courses under my belt, including the two FVA art history survey courses. I had to get permission from the prof in order to take the upper-level course (Decor Arts), so I emailed her. She emailed back within minutes, and off I went to school to print off the email, which I took to OSAS. Turns out I'd already been registered for that course, so all I have to be concerned about now is time-management for next fall. **gulp**

That evening's class was the shortest yet: all we had to do was split into groups, discuss each others' final projects, and then meet with Jeff individually and discuss said projects as well as any re-dos for the last project with him.

Thursday: I went to school early because I wanted to visit the Visual Resources Collection and see if they had any movies that I'd like to check out for the long weekend. I spent several minutes reading titles and nothing sounded interesting--until I spotted a couple of movies on the top shelf. Anna and the King and another, Anna and the King of Siam, which turned out to be the original--Anna and the King being a remake. I checked out both. I've seen Anna and the King before, probably around 2000 or 2001, meaning that I was no older than thirteen. I remember Tom fast-forwarding over some of the nastier parts (PG-13 rating, BTW), and although I understand why he did that--he's a parent after all--it's still frustrated me for over a decade. Now I can finally watch those parts: while I sometimes wish that I could go back to the carefree days known as childhood, being an adult has its perks.

Another working class. I finally finished the photo that I'd been slaving over. I didn't want to look at it for another day or so.

Friday: Hello, sleeping in until ten on a Friday!

I spent the day being as lazy as possible while still getting work done. I also skyped with my parents for the first time in forever and spring-cleaned my room.

Saturday: More homework--while listening to La Traviata. I think it's time I admitted that I love that opera. I can hum along with at least a third of the melodies. Having seen Moulon Rouge!, I wondered if the writers got ideas from the opera. Turns out, I was right. La Bohème and Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach) are also cited.

Anna and the King of Siam, which I watched that evening, is an okay movie, though overly-dramatic and Louis dies at the end when he's thrown from his horse. In real life, he married, his wife had a couple of kids, and he lived to be sixty-two, when he died in the flu pandemic in 1919. Also, in the movie Anna's surname is Owens, rather than Leonowens. Turns out, Leonowens is actually an amalgamation of her husband's middle and last names--and when he combined the two, her mom and stepdad were not happy.

Saturday night was far from dull. The emergency alarm went off at about nine and we all had to evacuate. It went off again at three AM for about ten torturous minutes and then there was yet another alarm at six AM, this time a one-minute test. I should mention that the alarm that the school where I live uses is not your ordinary alarm: in addition to the usual ring, they also throw in a high-pitched tone that tortures your ears. There's also a robotic male voice telling you what to do, which is the system's only redeeming quality.

Sunday: On my way back to my room from brunch at the meal hall, I found out that the three AM alarm had been a fire in one of the other two residences.

I spent most of the afternoon at the Port Campus, working on my Graphics final (a portfolio of my work, which I'm doing in a brochure layout). On my way back, it was so warm out that I took my coat off a few blocks from home. I had my windows open for a couple hours after supper. The evening was devoted to starting my final essay for WftA (1,500 words minimum) and watching Anna and the King, which is much better than Anna and the King of Siam.