Welcome to Gaia! ::

Oh yea labs varied as well. Chem labs I know were 3 hours once a week. Studios in summer were 4 hours 3 days a week, but I don't remember how long they were during normal term, I only had summer studios (it was the only time sign ups weren't impacted). Yea being screwed over sucks, depending on what eventuality you specifically are thinking of it might also have to do with the fact the economy is in chaos and universities are currently on the list of things suffering for it. I pretty much never got screwed over class-wise while I did my undergrad. The only thing that I'd even kind of count as a screw-over was when I was instructed to take a France and the French World class when French as a language was full the term I wanted to sign up (my first term at UCD). First, it was only after the fact that I realized I didn't want a cultural/history/etc type course in any sense, I only wanted a language course and I should have taken something else. If I knew then what I know now I would have taken Latin. Anyhow the thing that annoyed me was the title was very deceptive. The class was not at all about France, and it was only about the French world in terms of featuring French speaking countries in Africa. But it was in no way about the French influence, it was primarily about negritude. Which was interesting I suppose, but not what I wanted to take.

Yea I think Ariel being a weird size was a lot of why I didn't like her. Pocahontas was a standard size. I don't think I ever got any Disney men. My roller-bladder was either named Kristi or I named her Kristi, but I can't recall if she came from any established series or not.

I know I'm a loser. ~_~

Hahaha, ever since I've discovered what these cookies were (and found them in my inventory) I've no longer gotten any notifications. Though I haven't done anything to change my settings. Apparently Gaia can sense whether you are aware or not, and notify you accordingly. Creepy Gaia, very creepy. xd

Yea I don't see how France and the French world counted as a French course either. And not even in a historical or literary sense if not a language sense, because again the class had nothing to do with France, and the fact that the countries we did look at were French speaking/influenced by France was 0% of the focus.

I do like The Little Mermaid, however Ariel has never been one of my favorite princesses. I mean pretty much all the princesses were spoiled brats (lifestyles of the rich and famous n'eh? xd ), Ariel was just also kind of dumb, which got on my nerves. Like Jasmine, total brat, but she was wicked clever. She earned intelligence points. razz Ariel still beats princesses like Cinderella, Aurora and Snow White for me though, because those 3 were just not fleshed out character wise, and were just really boring. I may not like Ariel's personality, but there is no question that she at least has one. Although I do remember the Pocahontas doll looking much more adult like, which is weird in that Pocahontas was around 12-13 years old (I know Disney made her an adult but still).

Technically Mulan is not a princess, and Belle becomes a princess, although she was a bit arrogant and entitled as well (Belle). Mulan was heroic and more than justified in her attitudes and opinions (modernized and westernized as they were), but again, not raised to a life of royal entitlement that the "true" princesses all tend to emulate. Also I've never bothered to look into it, but Ariel has always struck me as much younger than the other princesses, and more defined by qualities of a younger age than the rest. I mean Ariel might not have gone about her interests the same way, but she was similar to Jasmine in that she was being forced to live in a world she didn't want to be part of. You get the same implications of Ariel's expected marriage and life choices same as Jasmine. It's just back to the intelligence thing, in how the two very differently related their feelings and reacted to it. And I did not like Aladdin himself for sure, Eric...well he was also dumb. See these characters were well matched intelligence wise. Ariel is annoying but I have no desire to punch her generally, I just feel the same eye-rolling exasperation I do for most teenagers (she's also the youngest of 7 girls, she was doomed to be irritating). I mean we do get a sequel, she does grow up...and pretty much turns into her father. Honestly had me missing the brat. xd Pocahontas is supposed to be young, but I think Disney bumped her to be a parallel age to John, which is closer to thirties (he mighta been forties actually but clearly wasn't in Disney).

Anyhow this week is probably going to be hardcore dedicated to finishing up my dissertation, so sorry if I poof (it'll honestly depend on how much progress I make throughout the day), I shall return...eventually! xd

Well I did ******** all today... rolleyes ...going to have to crack down tomorrow. Forgot today was a bank holiday, which means EVERYTHING is closed, and I just can't work at home. So I barely did anything.

And yea I refer to them all as princesses, though there is probably a difference to background in truly being (or becoming) a princess and just being a Disney girl. And sure there was self interest in Mulan's motives, but I think that is no bad thing (again this is from a Western ideal). I mean I fully am of the mentality you can't do anything for others if you don't take care of yourself. And I figured Ariel was around 16, but other than that we really know nothing of her background, what the expectations are for her or if she felt any need to rebel beyond conventional teenage feeling. Although at 16, that alone would be something. I mean I actually had a friend who ran away at around 16-17, and sure she had no idea what she was running to, and she regrets it now. But that's just part of being that age and feeling trapped and drawn to anything else. I mean look at Triton, the guy flips out and goes on a rage trip at the drop of a hat. That's seriously suggestive child abuse there. You don't just go explode all your daughters things. And yea Ariel was flighty, but up until he totally flipped out on her and pretty much acted as if she had lost all right to his love, she pretty much just contained her fascination to stuff collecting. She showed no inclination to actually run away or chase after the real Eric, statue Eric made her pretty happy. I mean Jasmine had a very loving father who had no inclination to make her do anything against her will, and Jasmine knew this. She ran away frustrated and wanting to see outside, but she at the end of the day was fully aware she wasn't going to be forced to marry someone she hated. I mean she didn't know Jafar was magical, or that he was going to brainwash her father, and this happened for all of 3 seconds before Aladdin realized what was up and destroyed Jafar's staff anyhow.

Haha, ok I REALLY don't want to work on my paper here huh? I mean yea I totally don't like Ariel, yet here I am subjectively analyzing her defense. Anyhow at the end my biggest pet peeve with Ariel isn't her motivations, which we barely know (and the ones we do know are pretty iffy), it's just that she is gullible and not that smart. She could have all the reasons in the world, we could watch Triton beat her with his trident (that might be an interesting movie...hmm...*evil look*) and she'd still get on my nerves primarily because of her lowered intelligence. Just as Jasmine, because she's clever and witty, could probably be forgiven most anything with me. I mean hey, when she actually ran away she felt fully confident lecturing her father about his treatment of prisoners. With no fear that daddy would destroy her things. She was no passive trapped girl who needed an escape from oppression and lack of voice, she was just cooped up and wanted to go play with the normal kids.

Heh, it's ok, I figured you were really busy with school. I'm almost done with my dissertation so convenient-ish timing. I mean I still spend tons of time procarstinating and whatnot, it's just generally been on Facebook these days. And I don't have a job and I no longer have class so while the paper is stressful, it's not completely time consuming. If it was I'd have finished 3 weeks ago when I meant to. xd

Lol, I totally call them all princesses too, although I suppose if one wants to bring up the entitlement issue there is a difference between the true royal brats, the become royal brats, and the not even in a royal universe so what's with the holier-than-thou act eh? xd I agree, but I do also understand that a lot of teenagers with their hormonal confusion don't cope well. They have brains drenched in chemicals, they are confused. I mean the "teen" life phase never used to exist in medieval times, and speaking in terms of evolution and biology, I'm not entirely sure if or how it fits in. Its a product of society, and whether its actually fitting to physiology is another matter I couldn't begin to get into. I don't think people should run from their problems, but I think just classifying them as weak is oversimplifying it. Though to myself unless its me (which I didn't) or my own children (umm, jury is still out on that), its not my life, and while I may not agree with the choice I wouldn't involve myself in someone else's choice. Especially if they didn't come to me. Not unless I feared for their safety. I guess at this point I understand that some people just don't handle their problems as well. I'm just going to respect that and stay out of it. And to be fair, Ariel was the youngest of her...6 sisters? Pretty sure it was less than 10 million though. ^_~ They don't really give the age gaps, but the other 6 could have been out of their teenage years by that time. And nah, Sultan wasn't persuasive at all. Only time he "acted" persuasive was the 5 seconds Jafar had him under a spell before Aladdin smashed the rod. He'd try to talk to her and be like, what's wrong with this guy. But she'd yell and he'd back off and tell the guys, sorry dude, what can you do? He was a pushover and everyone knew it. Aladdin realized right away he'd have to win over Jasmine not the Sultan, other princes were thrown out on their butts, and Jafar was like oh I'll just use magic because this girl is just going to stay a bachelorette forever! xd

Btw going to have to get to the rp later b/c need to head out for a meeting, and my wireless hub at home is being replaced sometime tonight. So depending on how that goes I may or may not get back online today (*cries*). On the off chance you actually find time to get back online two days in a row, not forgetting the rp, just the internet decided to welcome me home from Germany by going bye bye on me. stressed

It's cool, hopefully you don't have to vanish for a month again but I'll understand. I figured out I can still use the library on a reference base after I finish my program so I'm probably going to try to brush up my Greek and delve into the collection they have here. I also want to read the Divine Comedy. Basically if I'm going to take more time off between now and my doctorate I want to keep my analytical skills sharp and my literary interests stimulated. The hardest part to the MA was having taken 2 years off away from school. Totally feel you on the wanting to graduate though, I do need some semblance of a break.

I understand that. I mean I am in theory understanding, in practice though I know that I wouldn't personally want to deal with difficult people who have no perspective on how they effect people at large. Kinda weird to say considering for the longest time my closest friend I can no longer deny fell into that category. I guess there has to be a balance to what people offer, and if it's only hormonal rebellion I'd get annoyed. And while I sympathize with special needs people, I know I have a hard time dealing with them. I like to do everything at an intellectual level. I have a friend who works with Autistic kids, and I have a lot of respect for her, but I could never do it. I don't know if I'd write it off as weakness, I just know that I am not patient and I'm not tolerant of having to deal with people who frustrate me.

After posting and leaving the computer though I did kinda laugh about the idea that all her sisters did go through the same rebellion. Not growing legs and leaving the ocean maybe, but all running away with some boy at some point. And the cycle always started with the discovery of the hoarding weird things. In which case after 6 other times who could blame Triton for going crazy smash? xd

I've watched Aladdin a fair few times, Iago is one of my favorite anti-heroes (granted that occurs in the second, which is my favorite film) and Jafar is one of my favorite bad guys. What was your dream about?

Yea back to quick library time in the morning and I'm hoping to have internet at home today but won't be home until late so unsure I'll be able to get the pw. Blah! Anyhow shall ramble on the travels a bit after I finisih the paper. In short though, the Dutch speak AMAZING English, and German food is delicious!

Haha, yea it's definitely about interests. And I've wanted to read the Divine Comedy for years. Robert W. Smith has a Divine Comedy Symphony composition I played back in my first year at Davis, and I started reading the Inferno around then because the musical composition was really intriguing and I wanted to know more about the work that inspired it. However things that I had to actually do for school got in the way. By the time I was out of school I kind of forgotten I had wanted to do it/got distracted by jobs and my newfound freedom for a social life. However as I've decided I really want to keep with academics I need to make sure not to let the literary interests go wayside this time. I do also really want to pick up my Greek, I did keep up with it (not as much as I wanted) after graduation, but totally slacked off this last year buried in MA work. I want to be at a much stronger level starting my PhD. Do you know what you want to do career wise? With rare exceptions unelss you want to go into academics (like myself) or a professional career (Medicine, Law, etc) you probably would never need grad school if you don't want to do it.

Yea, in some ways I can recognize that you can't hold all people to one standard, especially if its someone I already love as a friend, etc, before fully realizing excactly what these frustrating traits mean. But certain things, like significantly lowered intelligence are things I probably wouldn't approach from the beginning, I'd just get to frustrated. In coaching the kid who was probably the biggest problem wasn't the biggest problem for me. Because while he was severely depressed (at age 8-10), manic and angry, he was also very very bright (this is probably what pushed the mania and anger, he fully comprehended how life was screwing him over but couldn't do a damn thing about it). So he was frustrating, but his charisma and intelligence made me more willing to work through the problems. Sadly he probably still has several problems and I'm gone now. I mean I was only his coach, but I still worry about that kid.

I TOTALLY agree on that one of the only good sequels thing. Because yea I don't like most, but I love that one, it's probably my favorite.

Lol, seriously agree with that. I mean English is the most spoken language in the world, and knowing it makes it easy to go almost anywhere without having to learn another language. At the same time, it's a lot of why we don't have the same push to other languages, and I think that's sad. If I ever have kids raising them bilingual is definitely going to be a goal. Need to better my French, because that'd be the easiest one for me to definitely work on teaching. Really wish I knew Lithuanian. I mean it was my mothers first language. Her mother refused to speak English so she didn't even start learning that until she was about 5. However my dad stayed home, she worked, and she just didn't have the energy to teach us another language. I lament this.

Well I'm fascinated by ancient languages and I'm focusing on Early Modern lit, so Divine Comedy isn't exactly out of my arena. xd I have a feeling you can probably find DC in modern text though, I mean without learning Italian I'd already be reading it in translation anyhow. And Italian is on the list of languages I'd like to learn if I ever get the chance. But it's after improving Greek and French, as well as acquiring Latin and German...so it's basically 6th (with English being one), at my age I don't exactly have high hopes for getting that far, but perhaps. Also it's nice to have multiple jobs you'd be happy with, only having one is part of what's stressing me out.

I liked Lion King 2 but I don't love it, in part I just don't generally like second generations. They are never the first, and even worse, they generally pervert the first. Like Simba basically turning into his father in the sequel...which ok makes sense, but on the one hand that takes away the character I did love, and on the other it's just stupid watching the character make many of the same mistakes they totally watched their parents pay for. So while I liked characters, songs, and the story wasn't bad, there are just too many things that annoy me about it, in its sequel quality particularly. The one thing about Return of Jafar is its not so much new story on a timeline as it is a continuation of events. So its not as in direct competition with the original as a lot of sequels. However LK2 is one of the better ones.

Yea, its frustrating. I mean my mom could have just only spoken Lithuanian, and we could have gotten English from our father. I mean even a basic knowledge would have been nice. Probably has a lot to do with my mother's own estrangement and issues with her family though, rather than time or effort honestly. I'd love to learn it now, on that language thing, but the languages above are probably more relevant to my academic and career interests. So this will probably remain on the back burner. Met a Russian girl yesterday whose lived in Germany for years, so she's trilingual. And actually I feel I know a lot more British people than American who are multilingual, but still fewer than people whose primary language isn't English.