It's Almost December Time

Well, in case anyone needed reminding, tomorrow's December. Just so happens to be my favourite month. I mean, there are Christmas carols and trees and candles. 

I think it's about time for me to break out the music books and CDs and find some Christmas lights to put up in my room. I'll post photos when I get to that. 

For now, I'll just leave you with a few clips of Christmas Music. :)

It's Snow Time

This morning, I noticed how lovely the snowy trees looked when I woke up to prepare for school.

Then I remembered dear Saminda telling me that she'd never touched snow. So this is for her.

Isn't it pretty at seven in the morning?

Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the States, and I just thought I say hello to all of you, and wish you a lovely, blessed day.

I'll spend the day quietly at home with Mum, since Dad has to work all afternoon. Here's to breaks from school and lots of Doctor Who.

Of Virgules in the Time of Commas

I'm done with Communications, for all it's worth. I gave my final speech on punctuation. And got an A. From a teacher who practically never gives out As.

But I assumed that all my classmates would fall asleep; after all, not many people actually care about punctuation, much less about the history of how punctuation came to be.

Like this \, called a virgule, is the original mark. It was the only mark for hundreds of years. Then along came Aldus Manutius and the Printing Press. Viola! All the other punctuation marks come along. (Courtesy of Manutius and Sons.)

And he invented italic print to boot. Gosh, I love that man. He also came up with the smaller style of books which are the precursors of the modern format.

After class, everyone said it was very interesting, and no one fell asleep.

I feel so accomplished. And a lot better about not having quite so much stuff to do as far as homework is concerned.

At Last

Well, my Spanish class is finally over. I hope I never have to study another word of it ever again. I may have to take another semester, but I really hope not.

I never told the story behind why I took it, did I?

Originally I was signed up to take Russian. I was so excited, Russian is beautiful and so many lovely books have been written in that language. Other than Don Quixote, Spanish has nothing to appeal to me. In fact, it infuriates me because everyone and their maiden aunt's hamster from elementary school seems to be learning Spanish these days.

Then I find that they cancelled Russian because not enough students signed up for the class. And the defunct option for students who need the credits to be full-time? Put them in a Spanish class!

Yep, I got stuck in a Spanish class, and it was late enough for me to not have any real options that were much better. But it's done now. All over. Huzzah for that, at least, now I can focus on more important subjects like Math or Communications. Yay for long speeches that are due... tonight? Yikes!

The End's in Sight

As I was sitting here doing my Spanish homework, I realized that after tonight, I'll only have three more classes left in that class for the semester. It's possibly the class I'm most excited about finishing. And that it ends before my other classes makes me very happy indeed.

I'm unsure if I'll continue with Spanish for next semester; if they offer Russian, I'm taking that over Spanish. And, in 30 days, this semester will be over. Huzzah!

And I'm holding a high A in algebra and speech. And after 30 days, I won't have to write any more modernist fiction for the rest of my life, as far as I know anyways. I really don't like the style of writing that has been prevalent for the last sixty years or so. But I guess I'm the better for now knowing how to chop any and all descriptions that don't serve symbolic purpose out of my story? At any rate, it is very hard to write more than five page stories when you can't go into descriptions of peripheral things.

One more great thing: I've started a rewrite of the Princess and the Pea. It was inspired by me making minestrone last week for Mum. Oh, if only that sort of inspiration hit more often.