Rose Whip Lash!

Another round of finals successfully punched in the face, yay! I was hoping for the grade in my music class to be a little higher, but a B+ is pretty okay, and I did play a bit fast and loose with some of the assignment deadlines, so it's probably the grade I deserve. And on the bright side, I got an A in Poetry and Poetics! Let me say that again: I GOT AN A IN POETRY AND POETICS. I cannot even begin to explain what a relief this is for me. I'll finally be able to talk to Professor Boland without feeling like a cringing mass of guilt and failure now. Go me!

Also, my Genre Fiction professor thinks I'm awesome. This is from his (page and a half long, he is VERY THOROUGH) feedback on my final research paper/final grade:

"Your participation in seminar was excellent: yours were regularly the most insightful and original comments in the class session. I especially valued your ability to synthesize big claims, and your skeptical probings underneath the surfaces of our texts. Your occasional TVTropes-style analysis was also quite helpful in contributing a more formalist analysis of the way plots and characters are constructed out of conventions. I hope you will continue your reĔections on the meanings and agendas underneath all these đctions we consume for fun—and I wish you all the best for the new year and beyond."

MY TVTROPES STYLE ANALYSIS GUYS. I guess all the hours of my life that site has sucked up were worth something after all. (And as a side note, I do make a point of reading the tvtropes page for whatever book we're reading in class after I finish it, because it's usually a) a good way to start structuring thematic arguments, b) a good way to pick up plot details I was too dense to notice on my own and c) really fun.)

I guess I must have really overdone it during the last two weeks of school, because I'm just starting to feel like a normal human being again; this is probably the first day since I got back that I haven't been ready to go to bed by 6pm. And even though my family's trying to give me a break, it still feels like there's a lot going on already - visiting my grandpa at the rehab center (he's doing well, and looking better than I expected, but still pretty frail), lunch out with my mom and various relations, visiting with my grandma, an aborted attempt at going to a hockey game with my dad and the girlfriend. Tomorrow my aunt and I are going to get a Christmas tree. And I'm still in the middle of making arrangements for a couple of other meet-ups of greater or lesser importance. So much for relaxing, huh?

I'm still on the Great Adolescent Nostalgia Kick, but I've now moved on temporarily from Naruto to Yu Yu Hakusho. I think I'm regressing. I'd forgotten how utterly ridiculous this show is in every possible way. Junior high thugs with greaser hair? Check. Tournament arcs that go on for episodes at a time without anyone finishing a fight? Check. Characters who shout each other's names dramatically several dozen times in every scene? Check. The Power of Friendship and Love being enough to overcome all odds and physical limitations? SO MUCH CHECK.

And yet I love it, like, really a lot. I guess I'm just a sucker for a good shonen series.