Linguistic Success & Literary Fussiness
Saturday, the 27th of May, 2006 - 18 to 6pm
Current Song ~ "Shine A Light", as covered by Allison Crowe.
Rejoice with me, all ye people, for I hath scored ninety-four percent on my third Linguistics essay!
It was an essay about creativity in which the majority of typos involved the word 'creativity' - or, as my sleep-deprived mind apparently likes to think of it, 'creatitivity'.
As it was also an essay that necessitated two consecutive nights of staying up til past five o'clock in the morning, those typos could be considered fairly inevitable.
I posted the finished work in the spirit of 'well, it probably only makes sense inside my head, but I'm no longer conscious enough to propery process words, so I may as well get the thing done and sent, eighty-four percent average be damned', and tried not to think about it after that.
Then, on the morning of last Thursday, my Linguistics tutor emailed in response to a query of mine regarding the assignment after next, which ended with a casual mention of his having marked my (late) essay '- and it was worth the wait!'.
I think it goes without saying that that email was followed by forty-eight hours of wild speculation as to what my tutor might consider worth a week's extension.
And lo! It turns out that my tutor speaketh truth, and the essay was worth the wait at my end as well as his! Huzzah!
I know it's frightfully gauche to go on about such things, but well, who knows if I'll ever get that high a mark again?
(This was of course also my thinking when I ran out to purchase celebratory white wine - which, predictably, turned out to be poorer quality than our regular �2.99 vintage, but such is life.)
In other news, I seem to have gone from reading and enjoying a Mark Salzman novel (The Soloist) bought on a whim to needing - needing, I tell you! - every book that Mark Salzman has ever published.
As a general rule, an intriguing summary will make me open a book, but if the writing style doesn't appeal to me I'll close it again within a few pages.
This had led me to hunt down a lot of fanfiction (after all, if there are ideas and/or characters with potential, it makes sense to see whether any other writers have had a crack at realising that potential with greater success than the original author), so I'm not often starved of fiction.
However, it does also tend to limit my reading of published fiction to a handful of books a year.
When I find an author - such as the aforementioned Mr. Salzman, and before him, Rob Grant - that I can get along with, I get through all of their books as fast as I can get my mitts on them and have a fabulous time doing so, but feel rather bereft and directionless once the final page has been finished. 'Tis rather trying.
Still! At the time of writing, I still have two novels and a memoir left to read (one of which is winging its way from America as we speak; the other two of which will be ordered very shortly), so I don't have to face that sticky moment yet awhile.
Now I must away to finish the latest in a long line of belated essays; and work out just how the hell I'm going to insert music excerpts into it using the full-on multimedia experience that is AppleWorks.
Should be interesting...
Lily
P.S. If all of the images on the Diary should vanish in the next few hours, do not be alarmed! My gold membership runs out a matter of days before I'll be able to pay for another year's subscription, but normal service should be resumed in the very near future...
P.P.S. Thank you for the birthday greetings, Elgan!
P.P.P.S. Congratulations on getting married, Onlymayday!
P.P.P.P.S. Okay, so now I'm just being silly...
