beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

I have a bouncy happy feeling of Things Done now, even though the Things, in general, did not get very Done.

I went to Renaissance lesson and contributed intelligently.
This was massively helped by having read the footnotes and handouts.
... I purely do not understand why people do lessons without doing the reading.

There was Working In Groups again. Unfortunately I'm tethered to the wall six feet away from others, so it was a bit more Shouting At Groups. Teach asked them to move to me but nobody actually did. I'm beginning to think I'm secretly a skunk and nobody telled me.

Working In Groups would feel a bit less futile if there was more Working. I mean, even after the becoming groups phase, there wasn't very good working. The task was to work on the opening soliloquy (did I spell that right?) of Dr Faustus, suggesting how we would stage it, with Renaissance clothes and props but a modern sensibility to the acting and directing. I kind of gave up on Groups and worked through the lines up to him dismissing logic. Then I looked up and tuned in to the rest of the group, and they were discussing how to dress up the Good and Evil Angels and how to get them on stage. I pointed out we were stopping several lines before that and only doing the bit with only Faustus talking. Then I went back and did some more up to when he gives up on medicine. I look up again, and they're talking about how Faustus should walk on carrying a laptop.
... I wonder if these people ever listen even a tiny bit and point out that, not only does that not fit the brief, but it does not fit thematically. He's frustrated with the limitations of knowledge, having studied everything available to him at the time. Give him a laptop and an internet connection and... well, we decided he'd sell his soul for such a thing, and I said I know the feeling.
... if he had the internet to study, he would not go to hell?
... this is not the usual idea about the impact of the net on morality...
( Read more... )
Y'all are probably less fascinated with Dr Faustus than I am right now, but as ever with drama I'm finding the more I get in to the details the more interesting it gets.

Lesson done I had an hour before an appointment so I listened to Brief Lives on audio CD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief_Lives
Wiki mentions 'colorful gossipy tone'. What it doesn't mention is that it is, in parts, bloody *hilarious*. ( Read more... )
The meeting I was waiting for went less well. The saga of the laptop battery continues. ( Read more... )
After all that I'm up to 5 different people consulted... no, depends if you count the tech support guy and the people on the desks who say the other people aren't there... Ah, it might be up to nine. Which, hey, lucky!
So tomorrow I start again with a new set of phone numbers.

Yes it would be easier for me to pay for it out of pocket, but it's £92, ninety two pounds that assorted experts thought was already covered by the money already paid, and also having consulted those nine different people just giving up feels silly.

So then I went into town and bought lunch (vegetable pasties still of win) and headed for the UEA library with Huge Heavy Book OF DOOM to give back. The book is Civilization of Renaissance Europe, or something near to that, and it is Very Huge Indeed. I've carried it up and back to Norwich... 3 times? Due to failure to acutally get to the library. Today I got all the way there! Yaay me!
... the returns machine was broken.
There's a returns slot by the reception desk that should, probably, work just as well, but, well.

I spent an hour looking at pictures, specifically Boticelli's illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy. Gorgeous stuff. I borrowed a translation of Dante, though not the one I wanted, because someone was sitting in front of the shelf with their work spread out and since I couldn't see the book I wanted from standing either side of them I decided not to risk the chance that all the fuss of moving them might not result in finding the thing anyway.
I also borrowed a book on Classical and Christian references in Renaissance Poetry, which would have been more use before the poetry exam but still connects to one of the major themes of the semester. Teach can't lend her copy out because it is read to death and falling to bits, as she repeatedly tells us, so I shall see what is so cool about it.

Then I caught the bus home.
I got out a stop early and went through the supermarket and remembered to buy orange juice.

... *reads all that list*
... okay, so, yes, Things were indeed Done.

And now I have donuts.
... and sleepy.
... I think I had 4 hours sleep last night.