Journal

Results Get

All Smoke, No Fire

So the results are out and the rest of the world gets to do the whole I-told-you-so routine again that seems designed precisely for me. No, didn’t fail my Math or anything (I had that dream about a week ago, just before the Richard Feynman one), but it wasn’t spectacular either. In fact, I think that’s the best that could be said about it, that it wasn’t a spectacular success but also not a spectacular failure. It panned out as a B-, B+, B, B, A-, which adds to 18.5 points, and Math was actually one of the Bs. Also surprising was the A-, which came in what I initially thought was my worst subject, and with the other B I was hoping for an A.

So, you see, results just like to mess with your brain.

Expectations

On the topic of expectations and messing with brains, I did mention, I think, stepping into high gear for Bukit Merah a couple of days ago. (Forgive me if I didn’t. I’m an old man and my memory isn’t what it used to be.) On my Wednesday break day (and the unintentional Thursday semi-break day), I tried to sort it out and a few ideas came through. I’m now kind of stuck on one of the ideas which is oscillating between a proper brain-messing and something a little more orthodox. While I’ve always happily pushed ahead with the brain-messings, this one runs the risk of not fitting at all, and that leaves an itchy feeling in me that I think is basically my common sense telling me no.

So, I’m pretty sure that’ll be adjusted, though in what way doesn’t seem all too clear yet. I’m pretty sure about sticking to challenging expectations with this one idea, so we’ll just have to wait and see, and hopefully something interesting will emerge.

In the meantime, there’s still quite a bit to work on before I actually get to that point, and I mostly have everything before it figured out, so I’m more or less set for the next couple of weeks. (Assuming that I keep up with the fairly tremendous pace.) I’m almost at the halfway point, though, that said, I don’t know how long the thing is, so saying that is kind of pointless.

Coupling

Here are a couple of links. You can click them.

David Tennant to reprise Hamlet for BBC Two. [via BBC] I’m still waiting for the RSC DVD of the stage production. Which reminds me that I was talking to Jolie the other day and I realised I just don’t watch theatre alone. In fact, I can’t do a lot of things alone. The only things I can safely say that I prefer to do alone are work and writing, which tend to become the same thing most of the time. I’m just a companionship person.

UC Berkeley Classics Department’s 2009 commencement address by David Mendelsohn. [via UC Berkeley]

“And so, I would ask you this: when you think of what it means to be a classicist, don’t think only about your deconstructive readings of Homer, or post-structuralist approaches to Plautus, or Freudian readings of the Euripidean romances, or Marxist interpretations of the Peloponnesian War, the iconography of red-figure vases or the prosopography of the late Roman Republic. Think about Mrs. Begley; think about the people in Kraków, who, when they had very good reasons to believe that civilization had ended, felt that the first thing they needed to do was to put on a play by Sophocles.”

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© 2009 a modest odyssey.