10.27.2005
breathe!
For some reason, this term is much more jam-packed with stuff than any of the previous three. Or, frankly, any two of the previous three put together. And it's not the extra-curriculars, as some people might wish to point out. I'm not rowing this term, since it's for novices only. I go to the odd training session when I can, but usually I'm so tired that it'd be impossible. I make up for it by walking a lot, since my bike is busted. I'm taking a lot lectures than I usually do. And, unlike in other years, the lectures require actual pre-lecture work. So I'm hit hard by having to read for those things as well as do my reading and writing for my supervisor.
I'm also writing my thesis, which is difficult, because it's not like writing a 5,000 word essay each week. Well, it is, in that each chapter is about 5,000 words, but unlike a freestanding essay, each chapter has to coalesce with the others, and the writing itself gets much more complex. It's been fun, but I'm very tired. Working Title: "Conducting Athenian Lawsuits After The Amnesty Of 403 BC". In 404 BC, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans set up a junta of 30 oligarchs who would run Athens as a sympathetic Spartan dependent. These oligarchs came to be known as the Thirty Tyrants (always capitalized). Their chief weapon was surprise. Surprise and fear... Fear and surprise... Their two weapons were, um, nevermind. The Thirty ruled Athens for all of a year, when the democratic survivors banded together and forced a civil war which lasted for a few months. However, such deep-seated animosity between the democrats and oligarchs remained that even after the cessation of open hostilities, they were attempting to use the law courts as a means to imprison and execute their political rivals. Thus, a sweeping amnesty was declared making everyone but the Thirty themselves (and a few others) entirely immune from prosecution for deeds occurring in that period. My thesis attempts to analyze the different types of arguments used by both prosecution and defense in this period, especially the arguments made from historical narrative, which should theoretically have been illegal.
In addition to the thesis, I'm continuing with both private Greek tutorial (on Mondays) and Greek class (on Wednesdays). On Tuesdays, I meet with my supervisor, which means that the chapter is due at 5pm on Mondays, which means that I spend the whole weekend writing. After Tuesday, I do my Greek homework, which is usually about a hundred lines of translation for Wednesday. Wednesday I go to American Politics and Greek History in the morning, then Greek in the afternoon. This is the turning point for my week. Thursday is just an 11 am lecture with John Ma (yay!), and Friday is a library day for me. Overall, it's not a bad schedule, but when the thesis gets particularly frustrating (as it did this week), then all hell breaks loose. Oh, and Saturdays I have that Roman Law seminar.
Monday I woke up at 3am, since I scrapped a section of the chapter and needed to re-write it and re-work the rest of it. Unpleasant. Very stressful. Tuesday, I woke up at 5 to do my Greek translation, and to look over my essay before my meeting. Also, I just couldn't sleep. Unfortunately, I was sent to the library after my supervision to look up some key points for this week's chapter, and it ate up most of the day instead of my doing Greek. So yesterday, I woke up at 4am in order to finish up the translations. Which were fine and they got done. But that meant that I was absolutely shattered last night. Dragged myself home, dove into bed, and woke up this morning (at 5!) feeling awful. Thank goodness I was able to get back to sleep. I woke up an hour ago and I've been answering emails from the previous 4 days. Ew.
And delightfully, the process starts all over much sooner than I want it to.
Honestly, it's not all bad. The evensong service yesterday was fun music, Magdala on Tuesday was amazingly good music. And on Monday, we had a special dinner in Keble Hall: fanned melon with berry compote (starter), seared duck breast with caramelized orange sauce, served with baton carrots and roasted baby potatoes (main), and a tia maria chocolate torte (pudding). First off, I tried making duck two weeks ago. It's hard, and I have a new appreciation for it. Secondly, fanned melon with berry compote is not a starter. Boo hiss! And if they're going to pass it off as "fanned melon", then the mellon should not just have been cut, it should have been fanned out on the plate, which it was not. Again, boo hiss. And, while the chocolate torte was unctuous and rich and fantastic, I tasted no Tia Maria. Not so much a boo hiss as a puzzled "hmmm?".
But anyway, the White Sox won (yawn!), and I expect that Graham and Tacy are over the moon by now. Good for them. Don't get me wrong, I love that the White Sox won. But it's hard to root for A.J. Pierzynski. Really really hard. And I love that on my friend Eric's friendster profile he has stated "Pinstripes through and through. Though right now, baseball is dead to me." Yankees suck.
I'm also writing my thesis, which is difficult, because it's not like writing a 5,000 word essay each week. Well, it is, in that each chapter is about 5,000 words, but unlike a freestanding essay, each chapter has to coalesce with the others, and the writing itself gets much more complex. It's been fun, but I'm very tired. Working Title: "Conducting Athenian Lawsuits After The Amnesty Of 403 BC". In 404 BC, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans set up a junta of 30 oligarchs who would run Athens as a sympathetic Spartan dependent. These oligarchs came to be known as the Thirty Tyrants (always capitalized). Their chief weapon was surprise. Surprise and fear... Fear and surprise... Their two weapons were, um, nevermind. The Thirty ruled Athens for all of a year, when the democratic survivors banded together and forced a civil war which lasted for a few months. However, such deep-seated animosity between the democrats and oligarchs remained that even after the cessation of open hostilities, they were attempting to use the law courts as a means to imprison and execute their political rivals. Thus, a sweeping amnesty was declared making everyone but the Thirty themselves (and a few others) entirely immune from prosecution for deeds occurring in that period. My thesis attempts to analyze the different types of arguments used by both prosecution and defense in this period, especially the arguments made from historical narrative, which should theoretically have been illegal.
In addition to the thesis, I'm continuing with both private Greek tutorial (on Mondays) and Greek class (on Wednesdays). On Tuesdays, I meet with my supervisor, which means that the chapter is due at 5pm on Mondays, which means that I spend the whole weekend writing. After Tuesday, I do my Greek homework, which is usually about a hundred lines of translation for Wednesday. Wednesday I go to American Politics and Greek History in the morning, then Greek in the afternoon. This is the turning point for my week. Thursday is just an 11 am lecture with John Ma (yay!), and Friday is a library day for me. Overall, it's not a bad schedule, but when the thesis gets particularly frustrating (as it did this week), then all hell breaks loose. Oh, and Saturdays I have that Roman Law seminar.
Monday I woke up at 3am, since I scrapped a section of the chapter and needed to re-write it and re-work the rest of it. Unpleasant. Very stressful. Tuesday, I woke up at 5 to do my Greek translation, and to look over my essay before my meeting. Also, I just couldn't sleep. Unfortunately, I was sent to the library after my supervision to look up some key points for this week's chapter, and it ate up most of the day instead of my doing Greek. So yesterday, I woke up at 4am in order to finish up the translations. Which were fine and they got done. But that meant that I was absolutely shattered last night. Dragged myself home, dove into bed, and woke up this morning (at 5!) feeling awful. Thank goodness I was able to get back to sleep. I woke up an hour ago and I've been answering emails from the previous 4 days. Ew.
And delightfully, the process starts all over much sooner than I want it to.
Honestly, it's not all bad. The evensong service yesterday was fun music, Magdala on Tuesday was amazingly good music. And on Monday, we had a special dinner in Keble Hall: fanned melon with berry compote (starter), seared duck breast with caramelized orange sauce, served with baton carrots and roasted baby potatoes (main), and a tia maria chocolate torte (pudding). First off, I tried making duck two weeks ago. It's hard, and I have a new appreciation for it. Secondly, fanned melon with berry compote is not a starter. Boo hiss! And if they're going to pass it off as "fanned melon", then the mellon should not just have been cut, it should have been fanned out on the plate, which it was not. Again, boo hiss. And, while the chocolate torte was unctuous and rich and fantastic, I tasted no Tia Maria. Not so much a boo hiss as a puzzled "hmmm?".
But anyway, the White Sox won (yawn!), and I expect that Graham and Tacy are over the moon by now. Good for them. Don't get me wrong, I love that the White Sox won. But it's hard to root for A.J. Pierzynski. Really really hard. And I love that on my friend Eric's friendster profile he has stated "Pinstripes through and through. Though right now, baseball is dead to me." Yankees suck.
